Shades of Silver and Black

Chapter 60

Neither of them mentioned how Andromeda had had to be given away by Grandfather Pollux and Grandmother Irma rather than her parents, who hadn't even shown up for the wedding.

"That's because Uncle Cygnus knew that Bella had no real, romantic interest in Rudolphus," Lyra replied pointedly. "You, on the other hand, have snogged Leonard so much that poor Regulus once actually thought that you had switched to a cannibalistic diet and were trying to eat his face off!"

Narcissa laughed again. "Oh my! I must apologise to Regulus for transmitting that mental image then."

"And for scaring him for life," Lyra added. "He's going to be very cautious in kissing a girl or boy in the future, thanks to you."

"It was my pleasure," Narcissa grinned, bringing Lyra to laugh.

"I'm sure it was. How is Leonard, though? Are you happy?"

"Very much," Narcissa answered the second question first, a smile painted on her face. "And Leonard... Leonard is refreshing; I think that's the best way to describe him. He's the most wonderfully complicated human being I've met. He keeps surprising me in the best ways possible. Plus, he's really good looking, isn't he?"

"He is," Lyra dimpled. "You both compliment each other extremely well."

"I think so too," Narcissa confessed in a soft whisper before clearing her throat. "Despite what my father says, of course."

"Yes, fathers do tend to behave weirdly, don't they?" Lyra hummed thoughtfully. "It is like they are a separate species of their own."

"A very strange species, that is," Narcissa chimed, "but we love them anyway."

"Yes," Lyra nodded in agreement. "Yes, we do."

Silence embraced them for the next half an hour or so as Lyra wrote back and sent replies for every letter that she received and Narcissa lazily hummed a song under her breath as she finished the due essays for that week.

Finally, when Lyra was done with her work, she set her quill down and took a seat on her bed, patiently waiting for Narcissa to complete her own work. Only after she did, did Lyra talk.

"How were the Slytherins this week?" She questioned as she always did on Friday evenings.

"Good," Narcissa answered before elaborating, "There were no honour duels and nobody did anything unmentionable with somebody else's intended."

Lyra's lips curled upwards. "That's always nice to hear."

"I know right? Those matters in question tend to be so messy and take up so much of time and effort." Narcissa said. "The younger years are doing well also. Most are getting along perfectly with each other and the ones that aren't are still following the 'sticking together in public' rule with careful caution. In general, we've gained one hundred and fifteen points -without subtracting our losses, of course- and speaking of which, we've lost approximately sixty points this week as a whole. Nothing big, just small incidents taken into account like not paying attention in class and running in the hallways, so no reason to actually look into it further."

Lyra let out a hum, indicating that she was paying attention.

So, Narcissa continued her weekly debriefing. "Slytherin is playing a match soon against Gryffindor, I presume everybody is quite excited about that. Lastly, none of the scandals in Hogwarts features a Slytherin."

"That's wonderful to hear," Lyra commented with a smile. "Let's just hope it stays that way."

Narcissa nodded her head in agreement. There was no such thing as a quiet weak when you were a member of the Slytherin court, but luckily, they had managed to stop all the scandals from erupting in the early stages itself, so they would happily count this as a rare, successful weak.

Narcissa could hear hissing and out of sheer experience, didn't appear startled when her cousin's three-headed snake slid across the floor and up the legs of the bed before climbing up Lyra's legs and coiling itself around her neck and hissing loudly.

"What are they saying?" Narcissa couldn't help but ask.

Lyra rolled her eyes in a fond manner, standing up and moving towards a trunk in her room where she kept treats for owls and snakes. "Nothing much, Clotho and Atropos are arguing once again and Lachesis wants me to get them to stop because it is affecting her appetite,"

Narcissa watched as Lyra opened the trunk and picked up a dead mouse with her hand, immediately causing the hissings to halt as the snakes looked at the rat predatorily. Lyra placed it in a bowl towards a corner of her room, bringing the snakes to quickly untangle themselves from her neck in favour of gliding to the bowl.

"But as if anything could cause Lachesis' hunger to dampen." Lyra chuckled as if it was an inside joke while Narcissa smiled at the sight of her cousins' genuine laugh which had become scarce as of late.

"Anyway, I have to go now," Narcissa said, removing herself from the bed while hugging her homework close to her chest.

"Aah," Lyra hummed. "Both of you made plans tomorrow but are afraid that Uncle Cygnus is going to show up at your date claiming to need to supervise it in case Leonard harms your virtue?" She asked knowingly, prompting Narcissa to scowl at her words.

"Yes. Mother's already warned me about that and I honestly don't know why. If anything, it would be me posing a threat to Leonard's virtue -if he had any, that is- not the other way around."

"I wholeheartedly agree."

"Did Uncle Orion do the same to you and Lucius?"

Lyra shook her head. "No, while father did create a highly elaborate plan to acquaint a knife with Lucius' vital organs, thankfully, their combined love of history came into light so father accepted our relationship." She paused. "Does Uncle Cygnus and Leonard have anything in common with each other? Perhaps they can bond over it as father and Lucius did?"

"Other than the fact that they are both of the male gender, pureblood and love me- in very different ways, mind you- no."

"I'm sure they do," Lyra said optimistically. "Uncle Cygnus has a tea collection that he prizes, doesn't he? Why don't you make Leonard bring him some rare herbs?"

Narcissa blinked. "You mean I need to ask Leonard to fake having similar interests with my father so he would leave my love life in peace?" She paused. "Why didn't I think of that earlier?"

Lyra shrugged. "If you are sure that Uncle Cygnus is going to make an appearance tomorrow during Hogsmeade, spend today prepping Leonard with all of his likes and dislikes. If it helps, Lucius just received some apple-flavoured tea that his mother sent him from her recent travels, you can ask him to give you that."

"He won't mind?"

"On the contrary, he would be delighted," Lyra informed her. "Lucius has a huge sweet tooth and the only type of tea he drinks is one stirred with tons of sugar, so much so that the original flavour of the tea is lost. Besides," her lips curled upwards into a smile as her dimples became visible, "you know that saying, 'an apple a day keeps the healer away'?"

At Narcissa's nod, Lyra continued. "With respect to that, ever since my second year when I announced that I wanted to be a healer, Lucius has been on a strict apple diet. So, honestly, he won't mind giving away the tea packets, believe me."

Narcissa cooed. "That's adorable!"

"I know," Lyra smiled. "Speaking of Hogsmead, I hope he hasn't forgotten that he needs to give me a grand proposal regarding it."

Narcissa chuckled, her fingers holding the knob of the door as she opened it, about to exit. "Still badgering him to propose perfectly for every occasion and threatening to end the relationship if he doesn't, my dear cousin?"

"Of course," Lyra grinned. "I am a Black after all and the term 'high maintenance' was coined specifically to describe us, I believe."

"Indeed."