The Pureblood Coup

Continuation of….


Chapter Fourteen: Wish You Were Here


Minutes later an icy silence precipitated between Lucius and Narcissa as they stepped out of the unenclosed shower, next to their jacuzzi.

They stood in the bathroom in front of the several green marble sinks, in which there was no mirrors, bur rather vintage demonic masks hauntingly staring. There was a concealed mirror in the bathroom, which could only be revealed by a charm. But it was a rare occasion, that neither Lucius nor Narcissa wanted to look in a mirror.

Lucius grabbed a white linen towel from the rack nearby, and was kind enough to hand one to his wife, who rapidly began tusseling it with great force over her skin.

Once Narcissa was wrapped tightly in one of the towels, and Lucius had another one around his waist, he said, “We'll go to the balcony to talk. I want to be sure the gardens weren’t destroyed, unlike everything else!”

Narcissa nodded stiffly. She agreed with him on this point. They went out a tapestry concealing the bathroom, and through the bedroom. Recrossing the master bedroom, they could smell the awful stench from the fire, it was like burnt toast, and they saw a pile of snake excrement still on the floor, as big as several bucketfuls. As Lucius past, he jabbed his wand saying, “Evanesco. Evanesco. Evanesco,” and his father's wand finally obeyed his command and the last remnants of what had once been Scrimgeour’s body disappeared.

Around the other side, Lucius opened the impressive glass doors, leading to an even more impressive private balcony with a view of the placid lake. The lake was situated next to the several acres of his forrestry plot.

Lucius peered down, and surmised that at least the gardens looked unharmed by the massive crowds.

Narcissa came over to his side, and surmised it was okay as well. It was a miracle that you couldn't tell by looking how over seven hundred muggles were slaughtered on that very area of Malfoy manor.
And then Narcissa, looked up at the estern sky, towards her left, away from the forrest. She saw the orange glow disk shoot up, and the dawn was created, a red fireball of light, which caused the lake opposite it to glitter in the newfound dazzle. It was just after five thirty in the morning on a Sunday.

But then, as if intentionally, clouds were swirling in from the north and the west. The day became gloomy at once, and the smell of a forthcoming rainstorm hit the air with a pungent rancid smell. And simultaneously at the same moment, like roosters clucking at the crack of dawn, the five Veelas, whether in bird or human form, could be heard screaming in the tower, located near the lake. Yet the tower could not be seen from the balcony. The veela woke up screaming today just as they did every day, reminded of the horrible reality of their life.

And Lucius after surmising the rest of the property with one more relieved glance, confirming that he still had an enormous accumulation of land, suddenly was covering his face with his elbow.

“What is the matter, Lucius?,” said Narcissa coldly, in response this strange behavior.

Lucius swayed a little on the spot and muttered, “It must be that weird drink on your dresser!”

“I saw a spilled potion on my dresser. That didn't make you drunk and I did not put it there!,” screamed Narcissa. She was now very offended that Lucius would accuse her of this, as she presumed it was an accusation.

“Did I say it was your fault? No!,” said Lucius coming on to Narcissa, sneering down and into her face.

“I’m glad to hear you can believe your own wife’s testimony. And considering what happened to you, Lucius, I believe it was a dreamless sleep potion…,” Narcissa paused and Lucius seemed to be struggling to figure out who put the potion there and for whom it was originally intended for. He did not have a chance to speak what was on his mind, for Narcissa sputtered, “Now, the Dark Lord, I am certain it was not he who did that to you, if only because he was so surprised to find you past out on our bed….”

“Evidently, he wasn’t too shocked by it, Narcissa. Look at how he left us after, after he had you for himself. Could he have possibly thought of a better reason to degrade us privately? No....I thought, I thought things would be improving, we did manage him a grand celebration. Perhaps he appreciated it?”

Lucius still wrapped in his towel, resembling a shirt-less house-elf, came closer to Narcissa. And in response to the query, Narcissa laughed one cold gutteral note, a strange sound to come from her. She said cynically, “I cannot believe my eyes! Listen to you! You are so blind. How could you not foresee this? Draco remains in danger, even if he is bestowed the privilege of his education.... And I am forever ridiculed and you, you aren’t getting anything from this either, Lucius! He is the Dark Lord. I never thought I’d hear myself say it, but you are a fool. My husband - a brazen fool, the greatest fool in the Death Eaters! He is using you for nothing more than his own ends. NOT to espouse Pureblood ideology, no…I have learned that he only pretends to care for it.”

Lucius still wrapped in a towel, resembling very much a shirt-less male house-elf, came even closer to Narcissa, “Narcissa, I refuse to believe it that way. There is still hope to be found from his praise.”

“You sound like my sister. You know it's not true, Lucius. Forget his favour! Don't lie to yourself anymore. Aren’t you embarrassed at the awful events last night? Everybody knows what I was asked to do with him,” she whined.

Narcissa took a step backwards, as Lucius came closer. He was finally irate. She took another step back instinctively, hitting the rail of the balcony, which her hands clung to convulsively from behind.

“Do you think I like this? Do you bloody think I like this?,” Lucius yelled, in an insane boom of shouts.

Narcissa did not answer for a moment, and Lucius asked the same thing again. Lucius's head was aching from the hang-over, making it hard to think, anymore than a continuous rant of questions like, "Do you think I wanted it this way?" and such.

“No. But you act like a fool,” said Narcissa defiantly.

She felt Lucius shove his fist into one of her azure-blue eyes. She crumpled onto the floor, against the railing, now covering her own eyes from the sunlight.

She did not have the strength to stand but remained on the floor.

But somehow she managed to offer placating speech, “We can’t stop the Dark Lord....He creates pain. More and more pain is all he knows. There is no way for us to contain his power, Lucius. I urge you! Listen to my reasoning. My words have wisdom,” she finished, arguing with a gentle desperation.

“Of course we can’t stop him. Contain him? We want to expand him to greater and more terrible heights. What wisdom is that I hear? I have known that truth, his appeal for his own powers all along. And so, I always risked lowering myself, but only before he's the Dark Lord, so of course. For I understand things I do....I understand what he wants from us…,” groaned Lucius, and he sounded bitter, but much calmer than his wild outburst a moment ago.

“Though I cannot deny he has taken much from me lately. It feels like I am to be a prisoner in my own home. I will not be a prisoner in my home!" He roared the last sentence. "Sometimes, I want to leave, but I know...you will be killed in his anger and so will our son. Draco means nothing to the Dark Lord. But a pawn is all my son is to him….”

Narcissa wailed, tears coming out of her eyes, staggering upright, standing again in nothing but the towel, feeling like a house-elf as she wailed, “We’re not free. Look how he left me chained to the bedposts. That is because we are his slaves. I don’t - don’t deserve this vile treatment! We don’t deserve any of this!”

“Slaves? Don’t call us that, Narcissa. For Merlin’s fucking sake, I said there is still the chance we’ll return to his favour. And everything, everything in this world is meaningless, until I get his respect back. That’s part of the reason I auctioned last night. Our stuff is meaningless now, and so, to be safe, I am exchanging things for gold. We must keep our assets safe. I am afraid the economy is not going to flourish thorough another Wizarding war. I’m looking at this from the long-term investment.”

Narcissa now had her turn to rage and be over dramatic, “Our stuff! What did you sell? Oh, Lucius!”

And Narcissa ran pattering barefoot, with one black-eye, tightly wrapped in the towel, hair swinging behind her. She made a bee-line for the dresser, with all her jeweled boxes. She started ransacking them open, finding them all nearly empty. Lucius turned away from the increasingly gloomy view of the balcony,

Narcissa threw open all the boxes, until they were all lieing strewn on the floor, empty of the jewelry she used to wear.

“Hundreds of years of my mother’s and my grandmother’s and maternal ancestor’s things, practically stolen from me! I hate you Lucius!” She screamed in selfish fury.

And then she saw beside her dresser, something else she had not noticed. “Oh, and look at my fwooper he – he’s gone,” Narcissa said, more softly. Beside the dresser was a bird’s cage with a perch inside, but there was no bird. Just a pile of ashes where a body should have been. It was like a phoenix that would never rise. The magical creature was obviously killed in the fire. Lucius looked around the room, and noticed that at least the bed he had taken her virginity in, along with the mural behind the bed remained untarnished from the flames.

Narcissa screamed, feeling like she was a little girl in the throes of a temper tantrum. Lucius swaggered over to the dresser and surveyed his face in the mirror, scrutinizing it. He had once again, remembered how funny his nose was feeling.

“My nose. The bridge has a bent. How is that? How did that happen, Narcissa?,” he demanded sharply, as if sure she would know.

“Your nose.... Nobody will notice the tiniest bent of your nose, you arrogant vain bastard!,” said Narcissa cruelly sarcastic.

And she went ransacking through her drawers, frantically searching for something she would want to wear today.

But Lucius was furious himself again, he grabbed Narcissa’s neck, standing behind her, and stuck the tip of his wand at her throat. “Don’t talk to me like that, disobedient wife. Remember, I have ownership over you, you are one of the last few things I’ve got left, and you're mine to either comfort, hurt, or I can kill you…”

“Lucius! You wouldn’t dare...," said Narcissa. And she got up the courage to add, "Besides the Dark Lord can take me to bed whenever he pleases. I’m not all yours. Get used to it. You were never all mine either, for you remain attached to him forever!"

They had not heard it, in all there shouting until now. Someone had been knocking on the door. And now they were banging on it.

About to tell the person to enter, they couldn't, for the person already entered. Bellatrix stood on the threshold, looking as glamorous and as mean as ever. A conniving curiousity was etched in her expression as she eyed them shrewdly.

“Not fighting are we? Yes, the Dark Lord told me to expect it." And Lucius and Narcissa trembled with fear at the high-pitched sweetness, the pleasure exuding from Bellatrix's mouth.


Note: I will update again sooner. Sorry, but I needed a break from this story. and I'm afraid I don't have the dynamics cut out right. This is all just too much for my mind to wrap around.