Stars in the Darkness | A Draco Malfoy Fanfiction

Chapter Two - Narcissa

The night is dark and chilly as I Apparate to the edge of a riverbank. I set off with light, quick strides, the long cloak I'm wearing to keep out the night's chill rustling over the grass. There's a loud pop and I know Bellatrix has Apparated to the same spot behind me. "Wait!" she calls, but I don't heed her.

A green light illuminates the night, a yelp sounds out in the silence and then a thump as a body hits the ground. I pause looking back for a moment. "Just a fox," Bella says dismissively. "I thought perhaps an Auror - Cissy, wait!"

I don't listen to her, already scrambling up the bank the fox has just fallen down. "Cissy - Narcissa - listen to me!" My sister seizes my arm, but I wrench it away. "Go back, Bella!" I order her.

"You must listen to me!" Bellatrix yells, sounding as close to pleading as she's capable of. "I've listened already. I've made my decision. Leave me alone!"

I gain the top of the bank, where a line of old railings separate the river from a narrow, cobbled street. Bella has now reached my side, and we stand there, looking across the road at the rows and rows of dilapidated brick houses, their windows dull and blind in the darkness. "He lives here?" my sister asks in a voice of contempt. "Here? In this Muggle dunghill? We must be the first of our kind ever to set foot -"

I tune her out, finding a large enough gap in the rusty railings to slip through. By the time she notices I'm gone, I'm already hurrying across the road. "Cissy, wait!"

I dart through an alley between the houses into a second, almost identical street. I notice some of the street lamps are broken as I run through patches of light and deep darkness, Bellatrix's heels clacking on the cobbled street behind me. Just as I run another corner, she catches up with me, grabbing hold of my arm and swinging me around so that we face each other. "Cissy, you must not do this, you can't trust him-"

"The Dark Lord trusts him, doesn't he?"

"The Dark Lord is...I believe...mistaken," Bella pants, her eyes darting around to make sure we're alone and that no one heard her doubt her master. "In any case, we were told not to speak of the plan to anyone. This is a betrayal of the Dark Lord's -"

"Let go, Bella!" I snarl, and draw my wand from beneath my cloak, holding it threateningly in her face. She merely laughs. "Cissy, your own sister? You wouldn't -"

"There is nothing I wouldn't do anymore!" I breathe, a note of hysteria in my voice, knowing Bellatrix is capable of killing our cousin, and would kill me if the Dark Lord ordered her to. Knowing this, I bring down my wand like a knife on her arm, and with a flash of light, she lets go of my arm. "Narcissa!" Bella calls, but I've already rushed ahead, moving deeper into the deserted labyrinth of brick houses.

At last, I hurry up a street named Spinner's End, my footsteps echoing on the cobbles as I pass boarded and broken windows. I finally reach the very last house, where a dim light glimmers through the curtains in a downstairs room. I knock on the door and Bellatrix, cursing under her breath, catches up with me once more. Together we stand waiting, panting slightly, breathing in the smell of the dirty water and that's being carried on the night breeze.

After a few seconds, I hear movement behind the door and it opens a crack. A sliver of a man can be seen looking out at us. A man with sallow skin and a large, hooked nose. He has shoulder-length, pitch black hair framing his face in curtains. His curling lips surround yellow, uneven teeth and his eyes are dark and penetrating as they meet mine.

I throw back my hood, my long blonde hair streaming out behind me. "Narcissa!" the man says, opening the door a little wider, so that the light from the doorway falls upon my face and Bella's too. "What a pleasant surprise!"