Voice of Love

12 | Horrible Weddings With Horrible Drinks

"Hello, Miss Black, glad you could make it to our wedding," Rookwood stated. There was no hint of warmth in his eyes when he stared at Narcissa, and Janice Bulstrode sneered at her.

Narcissa ignored her, who seemed to have forgotten that the Blacks could ruin the Bulstrode's name at any given moment, and instead continued to stare Augustus down.

"The pleasure is mine," Narcissa finally replied, but her tone seemed to suggest the opposite.

She turned on her heel and linked arms with Lucius Malfoy, who flinched in surprise as Narcissa had made sure to not touch him for the past couple months. He brushed it off, knowing Narcissa was only doing this to make Rookwood jealous. She even went so far as to plant a kiss on his cheek before leading him to the food table. Now she was wearing a grumpy scowl on her face.

"Scowling doesn't look good on you," Lucius remarked.

Narcissa glared at him. "Shut it," she snapped.

"Bad idea to tell a Malfoy what to do," he merely smirked.

"Is your life goal to be annoying?" she retorted, but couldn't help but crack a smile.

"That's the smile I want to see," he said, "now if you'll excuse me I must converse with the other Purebloods. You should do the same."

Lucius walked away and struck up a conversation with Ryan Avery. Narcissa looked around the courtyard, trying to find someone to talk to, and almost cried out in relief when she saw Giselle, who was staring off into the distance as Rodolphus rambled about something. Swiftly walking over, Narcissa greeted the two.

"Hello Rodolphus, Giselle," she said.

"Hey there Narcissa, I was just telling your friend Giselle here about the best Quidditch strategies. Want to hear them? I'm sure Giselle is fine with me repeating them," Rodolphus said with a rather enthusiastic smile.

Judging from the look on Giselle's face, she was not fine with hearing them again.

"That sounds interesting, but I need to tell Giselle something important," Narcissa replied with as much of an apologetic look as she could muster.

"Oh, that's alright, I'll catch you girls later then."

Giselle practically ran to the other side of the courtyard, Narcissa barely catching up.

"Oh my gosh, thank you so much for saving me Cissa," Giselle gasped. The way she was acting, one would think she just escaped a pack of dementors.

"I'm sure Rodolphus isn't that bad," Narcissa replied.

"He is, are you forgetting Rodolphus is the boyfriend of your crazy sister? Only someone out of his mind would date her."

Narcissa laughed at that. There was some truth there.

"Ugh, this wedding is TERRIBLE," Giselle added on.

"I agree. Janice and Augustus are sending me death glares. Being within walking distance of Janice makes me grumpy."

"Alcohol?" Narcissa turned around to see a lanky girl with badly dyed yellow hair and cheeks dusted with way too many freckles impatiently holding a tray of drinks. Augustus had hired a few people that were supposed to be pretty to serve the guests and impress them, but she looked the opposite of impressive.

Narcissa reached for the martini cocktail, and Giselle reached for the strange dark red drink. The waitress walked away to serve the other guests, leaving Narcissa and Giselle to continue talking – uninterrupted.

"The quality of this drink is horrible," Narcissa commented after taking a sip, but continued to drink the rest of the glass.

"Agreed. Have you seen Alecto anywhere?" Giselle asked.

"No, I don't think she's coming," Narcissa said while waving her hand at the yellow-haired waitress. She subconsciously grabbed another drink as she talked to Giselle.

"Uh Narcissa- are you sure you want to drink another glass?" Giselle cut in a few moments later when she saw Narcissa reach for her third glass.

"I'm going to allow myself to get semi-drunk just this night; being at this wedding is really getting to me," Narcissa responded in her clearest voice possible.

Giselle frowned but decided not to say anything. And so Narcissa ended up drinking her third glass before she finally decided to stop. She managed to still be in the state of mind where she could (sort of) calculate her moves, excusing herself from Giselle before stiffly walking over to Lucius, almost tripping on her heels.

"L-Lucius," Narcissa called, stuttering a bit. She hung onto a startled Lucius' arm.

"You're drunk, aren't you?" he questioned.

Narcissa nodded, trying to keep herself upright.

"How many glasses did you have?"

"Three."

"Seriously? Three glasses," he responded with a look of disbelief.

Narcissa could only shrug, and continued to lean on Lucius' arm for support. At that moment Augustus decided to show up.

"Seriously Malfoy, getting your girlfriend drunk? When Narcissa was with me she never had a drop of alcohol. That says a lot," he sneered.

"I suggest you take back what you said or I will make sure the Ministry disapproves of your marriage and that you find yourself begging for money on the Muggle streets of London," Lucius responded, voice as cool and composed as ever.

Augustus scowled, and knowing he couldn't best that, stomped away to find his bride.

"Narcissa, do you want me to take you ho-" Narcissa had somehow managed to fall asleep while still leaning on his arm.

Deciding to take mercy on her reputation which was sure to get damaged if anyone saw her in this state, Lucius Apparated the two of them back to Malfoy Manor. He knew Druella and Cygnus wouldn't be the happiest people on Earth if they opened the door to find their youngest daughter drunk. Malfoy used a charm to quickly change Narcissa into a set of pajamas before setting her on the guest bed. Heaving a sigh, he headed to his own room, meeting Abraxas Malfoy on the way.

"Why is Miss Black here?" he asked.

The younger Malfoy answered, "She got drunk at the wedding and I didn't want to bring her home to Lord and Lady Black; she would be severely punished."

"Very well, I will write her parents an owl to inform them she decided to stay the night with us. I really don't get why the girl doesn't like you," Abraxas continued, "this is the kindest you've ever been to anyone."

"It's not that she doesn't like me, she doesn't want to like me. Narcissa tends to be a woman that sticks to the past more," he replied.

"Well I hope she learns to like you soon. After all you two will be marrying in a little less than a year."

With that father and son headed to their designated chambers, Lucius thinking over what he told his father. He wasn't even sure about what he said, but it felt so right when the words came out of his mouth.

Narcissa will eventually give in to her feelings. After all, I already did.