"We should take advantage of the weather," she told him, nodding towards the doorway. She let silence weigh on them as they headed downstairs, and it wasn't until they were outdoors that she spoke again. Silence had always oppressed her son, made him uncomfortable, and Narcissa wasn't above using that to her advantage.
"You've been trying to protect me, Draco," she said, "and it shows an attention to duty and a concern for me that I'm proud of. But did you really think that he could wander about this house and I wouldn't know?" Her eyebrows rose: did he dare say yes and insult her intelligence? She smiled to reassure him, and then her expression turned thoughtful. "I've told him to take a set of rooms for his own. It keeps him out of the way. This ... this situation is very complicated, Draco." More so for her than for her son, because a father could easily become a friend when they didn't know each other. It was much, much harder for Narcissa and Lucius to meet again at such different points in their lives.