𝕯𝖆𝖗𝖑𝖎𝖓𝖌, 𝔇𝔢𝔞𝔯𝔢𝔰𝔱, 𝘥𝘦𝘢𝘥

One

Narcissa Malfoy was by far one of the people that was often talked about when the topic of arranged marriages and pureblood families arrised in a conversation, coming from one of the purest wizarding families and marrying into another one, but it wasn't always like that. She had once been a young woman with an impressionable heart and mind that wanted nothing more than to understand the muggle world, as many pureblood children before and after had been.

Untainted by the world of adults and power, unknowledgeable of the power chess game that all of the Sacred 28 families played, the same game in which she was a pawn from the moment she drew her first breaths, oblivious to the many proposals she was involved.

But that was a once upon a time that seemed so far away that it was nothing but a memory that resided only with her, a memory that as time passed would come forward with each passing day, blurring the lines between reality and memories.

Whilst many in the wizarding world would say that time barely touched Narcissa Malfoy from the moment she married Lucius Malfoy, her estranged sister Andromeda Tonks, née Black, and cousin Sirius Black would disagree, time did indeed barely touch Narcissa's natural beauty but she was not the same woman that they had known while growing up, she was not the same hopeless and impressionable young Lady of House Black.

She was merely a shell of the young woman she once was, her eyes no longer shun with love and happiness, there was no permanent smile on her lips and her hand was nearly constantly clasped around the locket that was around her neck and rested of her chest. Her blue eyes were permanently tainted by unshed tears and pain, her uncharacteristic blonde hair was constantly in updo's, never falling past her shoulders, and her clothes were constantly dark, contrasting the lighter shades that she wore before her youth.

While time had been kind with Narcissa Malfoy's looks it had not been in any way or form kind on her mind and health, with each passing year she found herself growing weaker and forgetting things until it had reached a point that more times than not was reliving her own memories. She would still recognize her own her son, but no longer her daughter in law, calling her more times than not Fran, her only grandson, Scorpius, no longer complained when his grandmother called him Draco, having come to terms with his grandmother's predicament.

It seemed that only when she had reached that stage that her only son wrote to his last living aunt informing her of his mother's mental and physical health, as he knew his mother would no longer hold it against him. Andromeda Tonk visited the same day she got the letter, a suitcase in hand for her short stay that Draco had invited her for, albeit the air was strange around the two, Draco never once having met his aunt and Andromeda only hearing the terrible things he had done as a child.

All of the strangeness in the air quickly dissipated the second Andromeda walked into her sister's quarters, Narcissa's light blue eyes lighting up almost instantly when she saw her sister, another woman who had been kindly treated by time as she grew up, but then again most who were related to the Noble House of Black were kindly treated by time as they were according to many the epitome of Wizarding beauty.

"Andy!" Narcissa had greeted her, enthusiastically despite being bedridden, showcasing that she had indeed forgotten that her darling sister had been shunned from the family for marrying a muggleborn. "Cissy." Andromeda Tonks replied with a kind smile, stepping closer and sitting on the chair that had been set for her, "How was school? Did that Hufflepuff boy take you on a date before you came home?" Narcissa questioned slyly, albeit lowly.

Unfortunately, due to her deteriorating state, the matriarch of the Malfoy family missed the pained look on her sister's face, for more than one reason, none of which Narcissa would remember, Andromeda of course did, she knew precisely what her blonde sister was referring to but the mere thought of her late husband brought a deep empty and hollow feeling to her heart. 

It was clear to the inhabitants of the house that Narcissa was in one of those days in which she was not in the present, but rather in the past, more precisely the time in which she, aged15, had been sent home a week before the end of the term and bedridden with the flu while her older sister, Andromeda, aged 17, attended her last year of Hogwarts.

Contrary to popular belief, Narcissa Malfoy was not a pureblood supremacist, quite on the contrary, up until her marriage to her late husband Lucius Malfoy, Narcissa had no qualms with muggles, muggleborns and half-bloods, and even after her marriage to Lucius she was merely pretending and only three of her family members knew, Andromeda Tonks, and the siblings Sirius and Regulus Black, they could in her eyes that it pained her to say mean things about those who were lesser than her.

This was proved by the fact that also unlike popular belief, after Andromeda's marriage to the Muggleborn Ted Tonks she did not sever the ties with her sister.

"He did," Andromeda started, blinking back heartbroken tears and reaching forward for her sister's cheek, the sister that that day believed she was no older than 15, "He took me to the bookstore first, bought the book that I loved the most," a happy smile etched on Narcissa's tired chapped lips, "He then took me to Hogsmead where we had lunch and obviously shared a butterbeer or two before he took me to Honeydukes and proposed with a licorice wand made ring."

A strained squeal left the blonde woman who lay in bed, her blue eyes begging for more information, reminding Andromeda exactly of how Narcissa had acted when she had first told her, when they were both young, naive and careless, deeply in love and engaged, in Andromeda's case, and innocent and about to fall in love, in Narcissa's case, not broken-hearted and without the loves of their lives.