Adult Content Warning
This work could have adult content. If you continue, you have agreed that you are willing to see such content.
-
spite’s as good a reason to take his power by takenbytheview
Fandoms: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
03 Jun 2024
Tags
Summary
What most overlooked when they saw only her beauty and elegance, Narcissa knew, was that she was not simply the loveliest daughter of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black.
She was also the cleverest daughter. After all, she’d learned from her sisters’ diametrically oppositional moves and countermoves, her parents’ praises and punishments and brutal silences.
She watched her mother perform in public and in private and perfected her mannerisms, her practised marriage of elegance and contempt. She heard her peers whisper nervously about Bellatrix and learned that competence, at least when displayed by a witch, must be tempered by tactfulness. And when Andromeda was scorched from their tapestry and from her life, Narcissa understood that love had a cost, one that must always be paid.