A Rose By Any Other Name

Chapter 11

"No, not yet. I was waiting for you to arrive. I have only be here" she looked at her watch "10 minutes maximum". Narcissa want to put her wand away but Jemima stopped her mid way "You don't have to do that here. Everyone here is like us, this is the only place that isn't full of muggles really. Most of the old town is off limits to muggles now, what with more and more witches and wizards moving out here. I'm surprised you didn't feel yourself pass through the barrier"

"Phew." sighed Narcissa relaxing in relief into her chair "My magic has been a bit temperamental lately but anyway, what shall we order, I'm starving"

*

"Narcissa, Narcissa" Jemima yelled, shaking Narcissa slightly on the shoulder.

"Huh, what. What's going on ?"

"You were in a world of you own just them. Your pasta salad has just arrived" Jemima said, pointing at the multicoloured assortment of lettuce and other vegetables in front of her friend.

"Sorry" Narcissa said, quieter than usual, with tears now rolling down her cheeks like happy children riding bicycles through the valleys.

"Narcissa, is something wrong. If there is, you know I'm here. If you need to talk, you know." Jemima softens her grip on Narcissa's shoulder but refused to let go. She could she her friend slipping slowly away from her.

"It's nothing. It's the anniversary of my father's death tomorrow. It will be 19 years tomorrow" she replied, wiping the innocent tears away.

"Oh Cissy, I'm so sorry. I didn't know"

"No" Narcissa replied, turning to finally face the truth as she placed her soft cold hand onto Jemima's "I never told you. I have been lying to myself, to you. To everyone"

"I don't get it" Jemima said, staring back puzzled in an attempt to find some sense behind those blue iris' that were so often clouded by society's harsh judgement

"I say he died and he did but that's not the whole story. He was murdered !"

Jemima relaxed in a sense of relief "Be as that may, it isn't a crime Narcissa."

"Isn't it ?" Narcissa snapped, snatching her hands back from underneath Jemima's grasp before putting them back into her pockets

"You misunderstood me. I simply meant that it's ok that you lied. You wanted to forget what this despicable person has done to your father, to your family."

A sneer gleamed across Narcissa's face "I could never forget what she did. I mean you see death and murder in films but nothing truly prepares you for the real thing. I will never forget my mother crying over my father's dead body and I could never forget the look on my sisters face when she realised that she had done the deed, her hands covered in tainted blood. My fathers blood"

Jemima's jaw dropped "I can't believe it. How could she do that to someone you all loved so dearly ?". This stunning conversation made Jemima drop her butter and crab covered knife onto the cobbled pavement outside as she clapped her hand to her mouth.

"You didn't know him like I did Jem. No, I stopped loving him the day he stopped loving me like he used to. And that started after we got back from Cyprus in 1969."

Narcissa went quiet once again, deep in thought, going back to memories she kept secret and sealed.

"Yeah, I remember the day well. It was late September, just after my 14th birthday. He began to treat me differently compared to my 2 other sisters. I mean I didn't notice it at first, he always called me his special little girl but everyone said I was the golden girl out of the three of us. But his words were no longer sweet and innocent, they were sour and cruel. Jem, you have to understand that there was nothing left of the man I used to know, the father you knew. He just suddenly changed."