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Narcissa found herself getting increasingly more annoyed as her mother continued to speak. She had been invited to afternoon tea along with her sister, but if it weren't for the unspoken obligation, she wouldn’t have come. She loathed any time she had to set foot in the Black ancestral home. It had never been a very welcoming place and having made a proper home for herself in Malfoy Manor, she never felt the need to return to this loveless environment ever again.
“Bellatrix,” Druella questioned, looking at her eldest daughter over her tea cup, “When are you planning to give Rodolphus an heir?”
Narcissa bit back a smirk as she sipped her tea. Anyone who had ever met Bellatrix instantly knew she wasn’t the mothering type. She had always expressed bigger ambitions than raising a family, finding that caregiving was too much of a trivial thing and that she needed more adventure from life. Sure, Bellatrix and Rodolphus got along well enough, but Narcissa could never imagine them having a family. They just weren’t the type.
“I’ve told you a thousand times, mother, Rodolphus and I are far too busy helping the Dark Lord to have a child.” Bellatrix answered, trying her hardest to sound civil, but the tension clearly visible by the vice-like grip she had on her tea cup.
The minor detail was clearly lost on Druella, “Ah yes, the good fight to eliminate filth from our world. A noble cause, I’ll give you that, but not nearly as noble as doing your duty as a wife to further our pure lines.”
“Yes, mother,” Bella hissed through gritted teeth, clearly sensing that the older woman wouldn’t yield and that things would get ugly if she fought the issue further.
Druella, feeling sated by her eldest's submission, turned her attention to her youngest, “And what about you? Are you still trying to give your husband an heir?”
“Yes, mother.” Narcissa answered, keeping her eyes down to avoid continuing the conversation.
“Have there been anymore…disappointments?”
Under the table, Narcissa felt her sister’s hand on her knee. It was a small but comforting gesture from Bellatrix and unfortunately, the only thing she could do while in the presence of their mother.
“No, mother.”
“Good! Merlin knows what would happen to us if you gave the Malfoy’s any more grounds for divorce. ”
Narcissa found herself even more irritated at the comment and raised her voice slightly to convey that, “One miscarriage does not erase centuries of our family’s noble history.”
“No, but one weak link can break the chain of a mighty house.” Druella snapped back quickly, not leaving any room for explanation.
“Weak?!” Narcissa finally snapped, standing so quickly and with such volition that her chair was thrown back, “You’re calling me weak?!”
Not to be intimidated, Druella stood as well, “What else am I to call you? You’ve always been so different, I should have realized when you were born that you wouldn’t be able to measure up. Bellatrix, although childless, is still going to great lengths to preserve our way of life. Even your blood-traitor sister has been able to birth a child, from what I hear. What are you doing?”
Narcissa was seeing red. Not only had she been called weak, something Lucius had spent the better half of a month trying to convince her she wasn’t, but now she was being compared to Andromeda.
“You’re right, mother. Maybe I should have taken your lessons as a child more seriously. Perhaps instead of struggling with having a child, I could simply be in my sitting room, heavily drinking to try to forget the fact that my husband has another woman in our bedchamber.”
A loud crack echoed around the room as Druella’s open palm collided with Narcissa’s face. She wasn’t sure if it was the pain or the shock from the slap that kept her head from turning, but she could clearly hear her mother’s heavy breathing either from her biting comment or from the force she put behind the blow.
Narcissa took another second to collect her thoughts before she turned back to Druella. She had taken a lot of abuse from her mother as a scared child, but she was an adult now and she was no longer afraid. Standing as tall and as straight as she could and dawning a frighteningly haughty look, she calmly but menacingly addressed the woman in front of her.
“I am the lady of a great house. Far greater than yours, Mrs Black. The next time you raise your hand to me, it will be the last thing you ever do.” she seethed, an intense fire in her eyes.
Not bothering to wait for a response, Narcissa walked past the matriarch, bumping into her shoulder hard to get her point across, before walking outside and apparating home.
Lucius walked through the front door of the manor after a long day at work, throwing his cloak over the nearest elf.
“Narcis— oh,” he stopped mid call when he noticed his wife sitting on the staircase, her knees drawn to her chest, hiding her head in the tight ball she had created, “How was tea?”
“I think I got disowned,” she murmured, not bothering to lift her head.
With a small sigh, he walked over and sat beside her. He reached out to rub her back, an amused grin on his face, “Good for you.”
“I’m being serious, Luc. I think I really messed up.” She said, finally emerging from her knees, her eyes swimming with unshed tears.
As she looked up, Lucius immediately noticed the left side of her face was very red and beginning to bruise. He grabbed her chin and turned her head to get a better look at her injury, being careful not to hurt her any further.
“What happened?”
Not wanting to get into the whole conversation, Narcissa decided just to recap the part that started the fight, “Mother called me weak and then went on to say that I’ll never be my sisters. I’m not a fighter like Bellatrix, risking my life for the cause and I can’t even give my husband a child, which apparently Andromeda can do! She left, disgraced the family and still mother favors her more than me!”
She stopped for a moment to take a deep breath, “So I lost it…for just a moment, I wanted my mother to feel what it was like to have all her flaws exposed. I wanted her perfect little dollhouse to burn. So I brought up my father’s affairs…and she hit me.”
Before Lucius could react, there was a loud pop of an apparition just inside the door.
“So, do I have to address you as Lady Malfoy now?” Bellatrix teased, approaching her sister and brother-in-law on the stairs.
“Bella,” Narcissa rushed into her sister's arms, “What are you doing here?”
Bellatrix gave a small laugh as she returned the embrace, “I came to check on you. I didn’t expect that little performance, but it was nice to see someone put mother in her place for once.”
Before the sisters could continue, there was a loud bang on the door. Lucius immediately got up from his position on the stairs and moved carefully to the door before turning to his wife and sister-in-law.
“Go upstairs.”
Narcissa pulled away from her sister, “Luc—”
“Everything’s alright, Ciss. I’ll take care of it.”
The loud banging continued, but Lucius made no move to open the door, not with his wife in the room. He gave Narcissa a reassuring look, trying to coax her upstairs.
“Open the door, Malfoy!”
Both women gasped causing Lucius to close his eyes with a sigh. Judging by what Narcissa had told him, he knew that Cygnus would show up at some point.
Lucius opened his eyes and looked at Bellatrix. She was staring intently back at him, keeping Narcissa tightly in her arms, but he could clearly see the fear in his sister-in-law’s eyes.
“Take her upstairs.”
Narcissa continued to protest, but Bellatrix had managed to drag her up the stairs and into one of the rooms. When he heard a door upstairs latch shut, he turned once more the front door, steeling himself for what was about to happen.
“Cygnus,” Lucius began, as he opened the door, “To what do I owe the pleasure?”
“Where is she? Have you already dealt with her?” Cygnus Black inquired, pushing past Lucius to stand inside the manor.
“Are you talking about Narcissa?”
“Who else would I be talking about?! Surely, she ran back here after she threatened and assaulted her mother! Druella is absolutely distraught and I demand that something be done about it.”
Lucius felt intense anger begin to boil inside of him as he listened to Cygnus’ lies, “Let’s talk about assault, shall we? My wife came home with a handprint on her face and I have half a mind to report your wife to the aurors because of it!”
“So she is here!” Cygnus exclaimed, completely ignoring what Lucius had said and tried to shove past him to move further into the manor.
Lucius grabbed him by the shoulder and shoved him back towards the door, “It’s none of your business if she’s here or not! You’re leaving!”
“Unhand me! Narcissa is my daughter and I have every right to see her!” The Black patriarch struggled as Lucius continued to push him until he was back outside.
“No, you don’t! I have put up with far more than I should have when it came to you and Druella! If it were up to me, the moment Narcissa signed her name on that marriage contract would have been the last time she ever had anything to do with you or your wife! You have no rights to her and if you ever come onto my property again, I will have you arrested!”
With that, Lucius slammed the door, hearing a muffled “This isn’t the end, Malfoy” from his father-in-law. He called for the house elf, quickly commanding the creature to see Mr Black off the estate and to change the wards not to allow the disgruntled man back onto the property. The elf gave a low bow and Lucius was free to go and find his wife and sister-in-law.
Upstairs, Bellatrix and Narcissa were sitting on a chaise lounge in Lucius' study. Bellatrix had picked this room to hold up in because it had a floo connection in case they had to make a quick escape. She wouldn’t put it past her father to find some way to get to them and she didn’t want to subject her baby sister to any of her father’s vicious curses.
Narcissa was still clinging to her sister, scared for both their safety and the safety of her husband. She knew Lucius could handle himself in a fight, but she would never forgive herself if something happened to him because of her. This whole day was a complete nightmare, one she was almost begging to wake up from.
When the door opened and Lucius walked into the room, Narcissa immediately jumped to her feet and ran into his arms, holding onto him for dear life.
“I’m alright, love,” he assured, wrapping his arms around her and kissing the top of her head as she hid her worried face in his chest. He looked after Narcissa’s head to meet Bellatrix’s dark brown eyes, “He’s gone now and I have a feeling he won’t be bothering us for a little while, at least.”
Bellatrix nodded, the concern beginning to leave her face. She and Lucius didn’t always get along, but they had a mutual agreement that Narcissa’s safety always came first and today, they had both managed to assure that.
“I was so worried–” Narcissa muttered into his chest, not wanting to think about what would have happened if things had gone horribly wrong.
“Everything is okay, Ciss. Nothing was going to happen while I’m here. You’re completely safe,” he whispered in a soothing voice.
Here, in his arms, she did feel safe. Possibly the safest she’s ever felt in her whole life. She couldn’t stop herself from recalling the deep need to feel protected she had had from childhood. She had always wished for some handsome knight to come and rescue her from all the horrible things that her family did to her and being here, right now, made her feel like all those wishes came true. Lucius was so much better than any knight she could ever hoped for and in his arms, she found all the protection she could ever possibly need.