FicWad

The voice calling my name shocked me and I jerked my head around to the right to see who my visitor was. I had thought I had the bedroom to myself, but apparently not. I was hoping to see Lucius by my bedside, but unfortunately, I knew before I looked that the person besides me was not Lucius. I could recognize Lucius' voice anywhere. The voice that had said my voice was tentative and scared almost. Lucius never talked in tones like that. So who was my mystery visitor?

Shifting my body so I could see my guest, I laid eye on my sister...Andromeda. For a moment, I thought I was seeing things. What in the wizarding world was Andromeda doing here? I mean, don't get me wrong or anything; it's not that I don't like seeing my sister. Hell, on the contray, it was actually kind of good to see Andromeda's face again.

It's just weird because Andromeda and I never speak at school. Since we had come to Hogwarts, I didn't think I had spoken to her once. So why was she here now? I guessed I was just going to have to wait and see. Trying not to let my confusion and shock show, I said slowly, "Hey Andromeda. Yeah, I'm awake. What are you up to?"

I attempted to sit up in bed, but didn't get very far. It took too much energy to sit up. God, that was kind of pathetic. I was too weak to sit up in bed. Great. I sank back down onto the pillow and stared up at Andromeda questioningly. Andromeda paused and looked straight ahead of her for a long moment before answering my question.

Finally, she spoke in a low, musical tone, "I came to talk to you, Cissy. I don't have much time, so we'll have to talk fast. But to sum up the whole point of this conversation, I'm worried about you." Andromeda's statement kind of shocked me. Andromeda was worried about me? Why would she be? There was nothing wrong with me. Not really.

Before I could ask her what she meant, Andromeda was already hurrying onwards, "Something's not quite right here, Narcissa. I know what you've become. I've seen it. You're one of them now. One of the Death Eaters, I mean." My jaw dropped open and I stared at Andromeda with a what-the-hell expression on my face.

"But...but..." I stuttered, not having any idea how Andromeda could know about me becoming a Death Eater. Because of that reason, I decided to lie. It was stupid to lie to Andromeda, but when you're scared, you automatically do stupid things. I protested, "Of course I'm not a Death Eater. I don't even know what a Death Eater is."

For the first time in a long time, I saw Andromeda crack a little bit of a smile. Rolling her eyes she said, "Don't worry, Narcissa. I'm not disappointed in you or mad at you. I understand. I really do." With that, Andromeda's hand moved down to the sleeve of my robe and she pulled it up before I realized what she was doing. The outline of the skull tattoo shone in the dim light.

Blushing at my obvious lie, I tried to think of something to say. Finally, the words that ended up coming out of my mouth were, "But how did you know? How did you know I was a...you know..." I trailed off because I didn't like referring to myself as a "Death Eater". It just seemed like an evil word and I didn't want to be associated with the evil the Dark Lord was creating.

Waving away my stutters with a hand, Andromeda hushed me and explained quickly, "I'm a seer, Narcissa. Divination has always been my best subject here. But anyways, nevermind that now. Like I said earlier, I'm quite worried about you. You weren't cut out to be a Death Eater. You aren't an evil girl. You're not like Bellatrix."

At the mention of Bellatrix's name, my eyes narrowed and my blood began to boil. Wanting to tell someone about Bella's felony from earlier, I complained, "Speaking of Bella, I don't know what's happening to her. She doesn't seem like my sister anymore. You wouldn't believe what she helped Tom do the other night. She's turning into-"

"Not now, Cissy," Andromeda cut off my question. "I don't want to talk about Bella. I don't have much time. I'm suppose to be in Arithmancy right now. What I came here to discuss was you. Anyways, back onto topic. You don't belong here. You need to leave and go back home. Dark things are going to happen to this group of Death Eaters. Horrible, horrible things will take place. I can't see you as part of the group. Most likely, you'll get yourself killed. Besides, you'll be happier at home."

Home? Andromeda wanted me to go home? I had never even considered that possibility before. My mind spun and I frowned. Did I want to go home? I supposed there would be some major plusses to going home. After all, I could be rid of Walden and Tom forever. Never again would I have to watch an innocent boy being torturing to death. Life would be so easy...

But it wouldn't be complete. No, I couldn't go home. Not now that I had met Lucius anyways. My life would no longer be complete without him. That was something I knew right down to my very soul. Giving Andromeda a serious look, I stated, "No. I can't go home. I won't go home. Hogwarts is my home for now until the summer."

I thought Andromeda might be angry at my refusal to go home, but she wasn't. Instead, she just gave me a sympathetic look instead and continued on, "Narcissa, dear, I don't think you quite understand. You're not strong enough to go through the things I have seen that will take place in the future. You must go home. You really don't have a choice."

By now, I was starting to get a little pissed off at Andromeda as well. I mean, that's great that she was trying to take care of me and all, but when it came down to it, I was the one who got to decide whether or not I stayed at Hogwarts. Trying not to let my irritation show, I retorted, "But I'm not weak. I'm just fine. I fainted earlier by...um...accident."

"Sure you did," Andromeda replied back smoothly, her voice dripping with sarcasm. It was pretty clear that she didn't believe a word I said. Looking me straight into the eyes, she continued on, "Cissy, there's obvious something wrong with you. You're very weak and way too thin. You're like anorexic or something. You haven'et been eating and it's all for the Malfoy boy, isn't it?"

Once again, I was totally caught off guard that Andromeda knew all this stuff. She was definitely a seer. There was no doubt in my mind now that she could indeed tell the future. I used to think that it would be awesome to know someone who was a seer. Now, I wasn't so sure. It was kind of creepy how Andromeda could read my thoughts and stuff.

Trying not to directly lie, I chose my words carefully, "Well...it's not all for Lucius. I just want to have a better body and look better I guess." Andromeda clenched her jaw at my words and said, "There's no point in trying to lie to me, Cissy. I see right through every single one of those. This is part of the reason you need to go home; I don't want you around Lucius Malfoy anymore."

Okay, I had done a pretty good job with keeping my temper in check up to this point. However, this conversation was getting completely out of hand now. Andromeda had no business interfering with my relationship with Lucius. She had no idea how much he meant to me or how much I loved him. Eyes flashing, I replied, "I will be around Lucius as much as I want, thank you very much!"

Again, I expected Andromeda to get mad. But once again, she didn't. Instead, her eyes filled with pity and she started begging, "Please come home, Narcissa. You're my sister and I care about you. This trying-to-starve-yourself thing is not going to work the way you want it to. People die from this. I don't want you to be one of those people."

I had heard this lecture before and I was certainly not in a mood to hear it again now. Why did everyone have to be so paranoid all the time? I almost kind of wished my sister would go back to ignoring me once again. Taking a deep breath, I said in what I tried to make sound like a confident voice, "I'm fine, Andromeda. I'm not trying to kill myself."

"Narcissa, anorexics don't 'try' to kill themselves. It just happens because they can't help it. And Narcissa?" Andromeda's voice stumbled for the first time. Her eyes went wide, dark, and haunted. After that slight hesitation, she continued on, "Lucius is going to go down with the Death Eaters. If you chose him, you'll go down as well. It's either that or you're going to end up starving yourself. Please, Cissy, please just go home. I would feel responsible if you died."

Died? Dead? Why were we talking about things like this? My mind whirled and I bit my lip as I peered upwards at Andromeda. I didn't believe I was going to die. People only died if they had a disease, if they were killed or tortured to death (like the little boy Bellatrix and Tom had kidnapped), or if they were just plain old. People didn't die from eating one meal every few days.

And what was all this about Lucius? There was absolutely nothing wrong with him. I could never see Lucius "going down". He was much too powerful and smart to let someone else take him down. I wanted to believe that with all my heart, but Andromeda's words had kind of scared me. After all, she was a seer. Was it written in the stars that someone would take Lucius down?

I tried to store these fears away in the back of my mind and tried to make my voice confident as I turned back to Andromeda. Looking up at her, I replied, "Andromeda, this is kind of crazy talk. First of all, I have no intention of starving myself to death. I only want to be skinny - not dead. Is that really so much of a crime? And about Lucius...I won't go home. I need him."

Shaking her head at me sadly, Andromeda clasped my hand and replied, "No, you don't need him! Remember what life was like before you met him? You were just fine then. Just go home and pretend that he never existed. You'll be so much better off. Besides, I thought Lucius ignored you most of the time anyways."

That was interesting. Even though Andromeda was a seer, she apparently didn't know everything. Still feeling kind of helpless since I was stuck lying on my back, I replied as indignantly as I could, "Lucius isn't ignoring me. We're dating. I really don't get you right now. Haven't you ever been in love? Don't you know what it's like to love someone so much you'd do anything for them?"

As soon as the question was out of my lips, I immediately regretted asking it. Andromeda's face had gone blank and her eyes were glazed with tears. Andromeda wasn't one to cry her heart out in front of other people though. She turned away from me for a moment, blinked back the tears, and then turned back to me. Recomposed, she nodded slightly, "Yes, I've been in love before."

Her sentence was short and simple and I figured that she would start breaking down if she said anything more. Glad to hear Andromeda's admittance, I nodded and went onwards, "Then you'll understand. You'll understand completely that if Lucius goes down, I'm going down with him. I won't leave his side. I'll fight with him to the death."

I was really hoping Andromeda would drop it at this point, but she still wasn't done yet. There were no signs of tears on her face anymore, but she looked incredibly saddened. Eyes searching mine urgently, she replied, "Narcissa, you don't mean that. And besides, what has Mr. Malfoy done for you? He's treated you like shit pretty much."

"He is not treating me like shit!" I retorted and tried to sit up once more. Unfortunately, I was still too weak to sit up and ended up crashing back to the pillow with an embarrassing thud. Blushing, I continued onwards, "He loves me. At least, I think he does. He saved me from Walden and he even kissed me a few times. Plus, he comforted me during Tom's meeting..."

Andromeda looked a bit confused for a moment. She obviously didn't know who Walden was or about his sexual assault on me. She also seemed pretty clueless about Tom's meetings as well. I wondered how much seers knew. As I contemplated this, Andromeda gave one last, final attempt at making me go home, "But what if he's just messing with you?"

"Of course he's not..." I started out, but then paused. There really was no way to know whether or not a guy was messing with you or not. You never knew until it was too late and by that point, too bad for you. I finished my sentence weakly, "Lucius isn't messing with me. I...I just know he's not." Okay, totally lame reasoning on my part.

Andromeda merely stared at me for a few moments. Her eyes bore into mine in kind of the same way Tom's eyes did. Feeling kind of creeped out, I looked away from her and instead focused on my hands that were rested in my lap. Suddenly, low footsteps sounded from a distance away. Was it Madam Pomfrey returning or perhaps Professor McGonagall?

At the sound of the footsteps, Andromeda was immediately on her feet. Leaning down, she gave me one last warning, "I've gotta go now, sister. I shouldn't be here and getting caught isn't really in my plans. But Narcissa, please do think about what I said. You'll be safer and happier at home. Just think about it for my sake."

With that said, Andromeda turned and hurried silently as a deer out of the little hospital wing. Supposing that I should probably fake sleep in case it was Madam Pomfrey, I pulled the sheets up to my chin and tried to arrange myself in bed. Once I was laying in a comfortable position, I rolled onto my side and closed my eyes to fake sleep.

The footsteps from the door came nearer and nearer. I really couldn't help but wonder who it was. It was tempting to open my eyes, but the last thing I wanted to do was have Madam Pomfrey say that I looked okay and that I could go back to class now. I didn't think I could handle another encounter with Walden today.

The footsteps finally stopped a few feet from my bed. More than anything, I wanted to look up and see who they belonged to. Nonetheless, I somehow managed to keep my eyes shut and feign sleep. Since it looked like I was sleeping, I appeared the footsteps to resume and the figure by my bedside to go away.

No more footsteps sounded though. Instead, I heard the creaking of a chair being pulled up next to my bedside. Hm, this was odd. Was someone going to sit by me while I slept? Strange. I didn't know anyone who would bother doing that. A few long moments passed. There was no sound in the room except for that of my frantic heart beating and my rhythmic breathing.

Suddenly, I felt a hand brush against the side of my throat and over my shoulder. I tensed, but didn't move. The hand moved and my body relaxed once more. By this point, I was pretty sure it wasn't Madam Pomfrey sitting next to me. Two seconds later, I felt someone's hand stroke my breast and then felt warm, soft lips at my throat.

Okay, definitely not Madam Pomfrey. But who was it? could it be Walden? Had he come to rape me here? If it was him, I had no chance of escape. Nobody was here to protect me this time and I was too weak to do anything about it. So what to do? Should I scream? Should I lie still and just bear it? My thoughts became clouded in a tumultual whirlwind.