Love Of My Life

Chapter Five: A Thread And Needle

Salem sits, half asleep with her head resting on the wooden desk before her.

Professor Slughorn was never on time and for once, she was thankful. She had stayed up practicing spells with Severus for a good portion of the night and dreaded the early morning class.

However, she was unable to go to sleep due to the sound of Lucius struggling next to her.

"What are you doing?" She asks as she raises her head and squints due to the light change. "Loose thread." He irritably says as he fiddles with his robe sleeve. "Oh, that's an easy fix. Accio thread and needle." She says as she waves her wand and a small sewing needle and black thread appear.

"What are you doing?" He asks, confused by the objects. "It's the muggle way of fixing things called sewing." She says as she pokes the needle through the robe, sewing down the missing line of thread.

"Why do you make yourself suffer? Why not do things the magical way?" He asks with a small tone of judgment in his voice. "Because I've found that sometimes it's better to do it by hand." She tells him as she ties the thread off. He looks down and is amazed, not being able to tell that anything was ever wrong with it.

"Urm, thank you." He mutters not being used to thanking anyone. "You're welcome." She says as she giggles at his amazement at her sewing skills.

"Good morning class." They all hear professor Slughorn announce as he walks in. "I took the liberty of reading all your parchments this morning, now we can read out the scores, shall we?" He asks as fear strikes in a few students' eyes.

"Severus Snape and Lily Evans, 98%"

"Andromeda Black and James Potter 87%"

"Narcissa Black and Kira Parkinson, 62%" Salem tries to fight back a laugh as Lucius does the same.

"Lucius Malfoy and Salem Sioux, 100%" The pair's mouths drop.

"I beat out Severus Snape?" Salem asks out of pure shock. "Correct Miss Sioux." He says, giving her a proud smile. "Don't get used to it," Severus calls back to her, looking just as exhausted as her.

He goes back to reading out marks as Salem attempts to process that she finally beat her best friend at something.

"Hey, remind me to partner with you again," Lucius whispers to her. "You might actually graduate if you stick with me," Salem says as they both quietly laugh. "Shut up." He says as he playfully nudges her.

What was up with him? The almighty Lucius Malfoy was thanking and being playful with a half-blood? It was unnatural but she didn't mind. After all, she likes playful Lucius more than the narcissistic asshole that usually roamed these halls.

                                                         ******

Thankfully, Salem finally had a class without Lucius. Andromeda and her were standing around the plants that professor Sprout had been growing, waiting for the class to begin.

She didn't like how much Malfoy had occupied her thoughts, so she was glad to have a class without him.

"No Lucius, no Narcissa, just my favorite class." She continues to tell herself in her head.

Meanwhile across campus, Lucius walked towards DADA with his usual friend group, Narcissa, Kira Parkinson, Dominique Zabini, Francis Crabbe, and Gregory Goyle.

"How does one go from a mark of 32 to 100 in the span of a weekend?" Crabbe asked him. "It's not me, it's the nerdy half-blood." He snarls at his friend.

Lucius was naturally taller than them all. Towering at 6'0 over his 5'7 friends, he had to look down at them.

"Oh don't tell me you're getting all sappy over that filthy-"

"For once in your life, back off. I am not getting 'sappy' over a simple potions partner." He backs Crabbe into a wall. "I'm still the Malfoy you all know, and besides. I'm simply using her to pass this year," he says as he gives the boy a bone-chilling smirk.

"Lucius, relax," Narcissa says as she puts a hand on his back and he pulls back from his friend. He goes to retort at her but just decides to leave it.

They quickly enter the classroom and stand in a group as Professor Alton rolls out a cabinet of some sort. "Alright, ten points to anyone's house that can tell me what this is?" The out-of-breath professor asks.

"It's the filing cabinet that holds your biggest fears, also known as a boggart." A short and stubby boy tells him. "Ten points to Hufflepuff." Professor Alton Exclaims.

"Now all you have to do to get rid of a boggart is speak the spell Riddikulus. You try it." The professor says as he holds out his hands for the class.

"Riddikulus." They all exclaim. "This class is ridiculous," Lucius murmurs. "3 points from Slytherin for that comment Mister Malfoy." The professor tells him as Lucus rolls his eyes once more.

"First up." professor Alton says as they all begin to line up in front of the cabinet.

After a few people went, Lucius finally stepped up with his wand in hand. He looks at the students' previous boggart and it transfigures itself into two wedding bands that fall onto the floor in front of him.

A smaller one that was encrusted with emerald jewels for Narcissa and a larger band made out of obsidian for Lucius. "Riddikulus!" He says as the two bands turn into balloons.

As he steps to the back of the class, he makes eye contact with Narcissa whose face was twisted between frustration, sadness, and anger. She opened her mouth to say something to him but she just shook her head and left.

The truth is that Lucius wasn't scared of marriage, in fact, he loved the idea. But, he was scared of marriage with Narcissa. He wanted happiness and true love but with Narcissa, it would just be the two of them at each other's throats the whole time. He tried explaining that to his father but it was no use. It was his final decision, and there was no going back on Abraxas Malfoy's final decision...