FicWad

I was still floating in my little bubble of happiness when Lucius decided to bring me crashing back down to reality. Sighing loudly he said, "Everything we've been talking about is for the future. Unfortunately, we're stuck in the present right now. The present means we're going to have to stay away from each other and make each other hate the other."

Now that my bubble was popped, I frowned slightly and thought over his words. I understood that everything we had discussed was for the future, but I wasn't quite getting his point. Why in the world would we want to hate each other? Deciding to voice this question allowed, I asked, "Why do we need to hate each other? I mean, I get that we need to stay away from each other and all, but that seems totally stupid. I would never hate you no matter what you did or said to me."

Lucius raised an eyebrow and looked at me curiously, "Oh really? I think you'd change your mind about that if you knew the things I could do and say to you." Lucius' tone made me remember how he had told Walden he didn't give a fuck about me when we first met. I also remembered when he had blamed the fight with Arthur in Potions all on me. I suppose I had hated him then to some extent even though deep love for him was rock solid in the pit of my heart.

Still not really seeing his point of why we needed to hate each other, I went on, "Maybe I would, but I don't want to think about that now. A good part of me would always love you no matter what happened. Anyways, what do we need to hate each other though? You never answered that question. Why can't we just ignore each other like Tom wants?"

Sighing, Lucius' face contorted and he looked like he was in pain. Regardless, he answered my question and said, "Because that's plainly not going to work, Cissy! You know that we've tried to stay away from each other before so Tom wouldn't find us. Tell me something. Has it worked? You know, us just trying to stay away from each other?"

I contemplated Lucius' words for a few minutes. Unfortunately, he was completely right; it had not worked. I had tried to stay away from Lucius, but it never worked. Even today I had told myself I wasn't going to talk with him anymore because I didn't want to risk his life. And guess what? Here I was sitting in an empty classroom talking to him right now!

Keeping my eyes on the ground, I muttered, "Well...not exactly. But we could try harder! I don't want you to get hurt. I can do better. I swear I can!" I knew my argument was futile as soon as the first few words were out of my mouth. Lucius was already shaking his head sympathetically in a gesture that meant he wouldn't fall for my lie.

"You know that's not going to work," Lucius said, shaking his head. "We're like magnets; it's impossible to keep us apart if we just 'ignore' each other. Making each other hate one another is the only way. That way we will for sure stay away from one another. You'll be safe. That's what matters most to me right now. I need to safe and kept in one piece."

I guess I kind of saw Lucius' point now. Nevertheless, I wasn't so sure I wanted to see it. Frowning, I suddenly realized that I had no choice but to comply to Lucius' plan and that Lucius was waiting for my answer. Exhaling quite loudly, I finally agreed, "Alright, fine. It's only because I don't want you to get hurt though. I'll always love you with every bone in my body."

"I know. I'll always love you too, Narcissa. Never forget it," Lucius' voice was solemn and sad as he spoke those last words to me. For some strange reason, I wanted to cry. I forced the tears back though. There was no need to cry right now. I happened to have Lucius right now. I had no idea just how long it would be until I saw him again. I didn't want to waste our last few moments crying.

Trying to lighten up the atmosphere, Lucius said randomly, "So does your family have any plans for Christmas? Like do you go to Diagon Alley or anything?" I blinked at surprise at his question. Once the question registered through my brain, I replied, "Yeah, my mum usually brings us all to Diagon Alley for Christmas Eve. She has a big party with some of her friends there."

Lucius' eyes immediately lit up and he exclaimed, "Oh really? That's great!" I gave him a funny look out of the corner of my eye. I didn't see what was all that great about it. On the contrary, I usually dreaded the event and found it quite boring. My mom usually just chit chatted for hours and got drunk with her friends. There was never anything much for Bella and me to do.

"I don't see what's all that great about it," I told Lucius glumly. "It sucks really. It just causes my mom an awful hangover the next day and guess who she decides to take her anger out on? Me. It's always me. I mean, Bella is just too pretty and perfect and when it comes down to the other two members in the family, Andromeda has always been ranked above me."

"Your mom is a bitch," Lucius replied, looking like he would like to slap her. Going on, he replied, "You'll always be first in my book. But anyways, my mom always goes to a party at the Three Broomsticks. She's offered to bring me along, but I've always stayed home in the past. I'm assuming this is the same party your mom goes to. Perhaps we could end up meeting up there?"

Light shone down and parted the darkness clouding up my brain. Immediately in a way better mood than only two seconds earlier, I exclaimed, "That's an awesome idea! I definitely think we should do that. So we're not starting the hating each other thing until after Christmas break then, right? It would suck to meet up at the Three Broomsticks and have you stand me up or something."

Lucius rolled his eyes at me, and replied, "I want to meet up with you at the Three Broomsticks just so we can ignore each other. Yeah, that would make a lot of sense." Despite the fact that I was feeling pretty down, I couldn't help but giggle at his remark. My Christmas break didn't seem nearly as bad now. Lucius and I would meet up for one day! It would be awesome.

I didn't really like Lucius' next few words though. Looking at me cautiously, he suggested, "Um, you may want to go meet your mom and sisters in the Great Hall pretty soon. I don't want you getting into trouble with them. We all know how nasty Bella's temper is." Lucius was right; Bella's temper was even worse than mine. I didn't want to go to the Great Hall, but I knew I should.

Reluctantly, I got to my feet and sighed, "Alright, I suppose you're right." Lucius and I got to our feet and started towards the door. I had stretched my hand out for the doorknob when I suddenly felt Lucius' hand on my shoulder. Wondering what he still needed, my hand hesitated in midair and I looked around to see what it was that he needed.

Lucius met my eyes then pulled me against him and kissed my mouth fiercely before nuzzling my neck gently and slipping out the door to the classroom and out into the corridors. As he turned to leave, he winked at me and said, "See you over Christmas break." All I could do was nod. His kisses always caught me off guard and left me breathless and exhilarated.

I straightened my shirt and tried not to look too guilty as I started down the corridors. The walk to the Great Hall seemed much too short and unfortunately, I had arrived there way before I was ready to actually be there. Scanning the room, it didn't take me long to find three familiar figures huddled by the door. Two of them were laughing almost a bit too loudly. No doubt that would be Bella and my mom. Andromeda stood a little bit apart from them like she didn't quite belong to the family circle.

Sighing, I braced myself from the reprimanding that would surely come for making them wait. I weaved around all the people crowded together in the Great Hall and finally came to stand between Bella and Andromeda. That was when I realized that it wasn't just three figures standing in the little group. Oh no, there was four. Guess who the fourth figure was?

Before I could get over the shock of the additional member to our party, my mom spoke up, "Ah, there you are, Narcissa. I thought you had gotten lost in your own bed or something. Yet again, you've always had a bad memory. I suppose you've inherited that from your father. So do you have all your stuff? If you do, we might as well all get going. We've certainly been waiting here long enough."

I hesitated before answering. I was still wondering what the fourth figure was doing in our group. His slitted eyes, thin mouth, and dark hair caused fear to rush through my blood and made my heart jump into my throat. It was Tom. What the hell was Tom Riddle doing with my family? I had no idea, but I was certainly determined to find out.

Raising an eyebrow at Bella, I asked her, "So are you introducing Tom to mum or what?" My voice came out in almost an accusatory manner and it sounded snobbish and stuck up even to my own ears. My mom clicked her tongue in disapproval at me and replied, "There's no need to be so rude, Narcissa! Bella was telling me about how poor Tom has nowhere to go for Christmas break. I decided to invite the poor fellow to our house over Christmas. There's certainly enough room for him. He can just stay in the guest bedroom. Now if you've got everything you need, then let's get going..."

I nodded, not really paying any more attention to what my mom was saying. Only one thing mattered; Tom was going to spend the two long weeks of Christmas break at our house! An anxiety attack crashed over me. My cheeks flushed bright red, I was trapped in cloud of fire, and my breath seemed to be sucked away from my lips.

How dare Bella do this to me? Of course this was all part of her master plan. Of course she would want Tom staying at our house over Christmas break. Would she care that Andromeda and I didn't want Tom around? Of course not! My breath started coming in wheezes as I walked slowly behind the four figures ahead of me. Christmas was turning into a living hell.

~ ~ ~ ~

The first day with Tom didn't go well at all. All Tom and Bella did was sweet talk my mom. They told her about Salzar Slytherin's great plans and about how they considered mudbloods beneath then and that they considered it their duty to wipe all the muggles off the planet. In their words, the planet would be a much nicer place without them.

Normally, I would've thought my mom would've been against all this. After all, this was murder! Mothers weren't suppose to support murder. Well, at least I thought they weren't suppose to. Unfortunately, my mother happened to be one of those rare mothers who didn't seem to be bothered by it. Oh no, on the contrary, she actually supported Tom's plan!

I didn't get my mother. I totally hated her at the moment. To think that she actually supported Tom's idea of murdering mudbloods was outrageous really. I wanted to protest and tell her that she was being crazy, but somehow I resisted. It's a good thing I did. Who knows what Tom would've done if I had spoken my true thoughts? No doubt he would murder me in my bed or something like that.

I hated having Tom in our home so much. I couldn't go anywhere without a constant anxiety pounding throughout my veins. It was awful not being able to feel safe in your own home. I jumped at every little sound and even let out a little cry of alarm when I thought I saw something move at the end of the hallway. It was only Kreacher, mother's house elf.

Right now, I was sitting on my bed procrastinating going to dinner. My mother had cooked a very late dinner for reasons I would never know and so we were to eat at eleven. It was eleven right now and it took all my effort to get me to lug myself off my bed and across the room. I wished I could just stay in bed for the rest of the night. I was exhausted and felt like I could keel over at any moment.

I didn't really have a choice about dinner though, unfortunately. If I didn't show up, my mom would definitely have a fit. So against my will, I marched down the stairs and joined the four already seated figures at the table. I sat between Bella and Andromeda and across from Tom in the only space that was left. Of course I didn't want to sit across from Tom, but what choice did I have?

Sitting up straight and rigidly, I gave everyone at the table a stiff smile. My mother frowned at me slightly and then said, "Narcissa, we've all been waiting for you! Next time see if you can get down here on time, alright?" Knowing it was best just to let my mother's shit bounce off of me, I nodded slightly and apologized, "Sorry mum. I won't do it again."

"Of course you won't," my mother agreed. Then turning to the rest of the table, she said, "Go ahead and dig in everyone!" There were several plates of food on the table in front of us. Most of them were hot and steaming and to be honest, they all looked disgusting to me. Food had become an enemy for me in the last few months. How exactly was I going to get out of eating dinner without looking suspicious? And how was I even suppose to eat with Tom's eagle eye on me constantly?