41 – Awaken aold anew
Narcissa awoke frightened. There was a warm body besides her, and she didn't recognise her bed. Her spare wand, which should always hidden in her forearm, wasn't there. Her forearm was smooth.
It was this last fact that convinced her she hadn't simply been abducted. That fold in her arm could not simply be removed or healed. So she resolved to keep her calm and pretend she didn't know what was amiss.
Her first thought was that she was in a dreamscape, created by someone who didn't know her quite as well as he thought he did. Drawing inspiration from that thread, she recognised the room. The Malfoy master bedroom. And the man beside her, though she couldn't be certain in the early morning light, could be Lucius. Light filtered through his gently tussled delicate hair just as she remembered it. She smiled sadly. He was a beautiful man.
She slipped out of bed without waking him.
Narcissa wasn't marked. The black mark on her arm was gone. Her house was pretty, well-kept, free from obvious curse damage. The very mist in her garden was light and airy. Dobby answered her call.
Even if this was a dreamscape, Narcissa thought she might thank the person who put her here. She felt as if walking on air.
"Darling?" her husband called to her. There was care in his voice. None of the arrogance and bitterness and pleading that had crept in since Draco took the Mark. He should always have had this tone.
"Darling? You're up early?" He appeared in the doorway then, still tussled and tired, unkept. "Are you worried about Draco?"
Narcissa nodded and hummed non-committally. She didn't trust it, but to see him like this again was nice.
"He'll be alright," he reassured her with a smile. "He's probably under Severus protection already. If he'd been sorted anywhere else we'd probably know already." He grinned.
"Come" he invited her with open arms. And just for a moment Narcissa allowed herself to walk into them, to pretend to be his trusting darling. It felt good.
After Lucius went back up Narcissa took stock. She couldn't discount the possibility that she'd been send back in time. She wouldn't blindly trust anything either.
She'd do some experiments, she decided, to test whether she could change history, and to test whether everything was as it had been in her memory. In the mean time she intended to play the role of the young Lady Malfoy as well as she was able. She'd have to take love potions keep up the act. Without them she doubted she could act of the loving wife, not constantly, especially if they were going to be intimate. Narcissa shivered with anticipation. Love potions could be thrillingly addictive, as she well knew.
She also started to collate her memories, sifting for the most relevant information. She wouldn't write any of it down of course, but thinking about it often could help. Let's see…
* The Dark Lord came back at the end of Draco's 4th year, helped by Peter Pettigrew and (maybe?) someone else. And Potter, somehow. Narcissa mentally cursed Potter and Dumbledore and all the bloody 'good guys' for not proclaiming more publicly what happened.
* The Dark Lord got most of his followers out of Azkaban pretty easily. Which could be foiled easily enough.
* The dark faction hadn't managed to get anything useful through the Wizengamot before the murders started. Lucius had been quite happy about his success thwarting Dumbledore on occasion, but really…
* Andromeda was still alive. Narcissa smiled.
* The Dark Lord and Dumbledore were both halfbloods. Together with Potter, that meant that the three most powerful magicians of the age were all halfblood men. Something to think about.
* Sirius Black escaped Azkaban in Draco's third year. It was an open secret that he was innocent (at least in the knowledgeable circles), but the post-war Dark Pact prevented him from getting a trial. But if he could escape, encouraging him to do so could be interesting.
* Potter was genuinely powerful. And a parslemouth. And… probably raised by abusive muggles. With no grounding in his family's tradition or politics. She'd learned this too late last time, putting bits and pieces together from Draco's letters, newspapers and rumors, some private confessions from Severus, and a single conversation she'd only understood afterwards. But this time round… things would be different. Narcissa smirked.
A/N:
I think this chapter can stand on its own. I've seen enough redo stories that I can imagine what comes next, hopefully you can too. If you think it unfair to mark this as Complete, feel free to complain, I might even do something to correct it.
I might come back to this in the future, I make no promises either way. Subscribe if you want to be made aware if I pick this up. And if you have any specific suggestions it might motivate me to pick this up again :) I do have some ideas already