The problem of Bella When: Evening, 27th June Where: Malfoy Manor Who: Narcissa Malfoy, Lucius Malfoy What: Discussing Bellatrix
"I've always liked this view," Narcissa said, leaning on the balustrade. The sun was beginning to get low in the sky, hanging there like a pendulant peach, the glow it cast over the neat lawns slowly turning golden, grass shading into wheat.
She scrutinised her wine glass for a moment, and finished what was left in it, before drawing her wand to tap it and refill it with white wine.
Behind them, the music room stood still and silent in the warm evening air, long curtains of fine white muslin drifting gently in the breeze that stole in through the open french windows. It might have been any day from the past thirty ...
But it wasn't. Narcissa slipped her wand away again, and said quietly, "Thank you for doing this with Bellatrix. It's a far better idea than any I could come up with." It did what needed to be done, it worked, it caused no pain for anyone. Everything a good plan should be.
The awful truth, though, was that Narcissa was going to miss Lucius when he was gone. She'd got used to his presence, even enjoyed it: a woman who was used to seeing only what she wanted to see didn't find it too hard to let her mind dwell on the good memories that he provoked, rather than the loss. And now he was disappearing off with Bella, and Narcissa hated the idea that her sister might have more in common with him than she did. She'd always been possessive of Lucius, particularly when it came to her sisters. Bellatrix always did so much out of spite.
And it hadn't just been that way when they were boyfriend and girlfriend, husband and wife. Narcissa had spent a lot of time as Lucius' friend and erstwhile enemy - always difficult, when you fancied someone else and he wasn't convinced that you weren't secretly seeing Malfoy - and it was that sort of closeness that they seemed to be approaching now, friends with a common past, and Bellatrix had always liked to stir that up too.
Narcissa glanced back over her shoulder, to make sure that they were still alone in the room, and said, "I really want to keep Draco apart from her. If you remembered, you'd agree too." She sighed quietly, leaning forwards again and tucking her hair behind one ear with a hand. On the other side, closest to Lucius, it had slipped forwards again, obscuring her face a little.