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From the look in Tom's eyes, I could tell that he meant exactly what he said about severe consequences. Tom never wasted words. If Tom said something, it would no doubt be true. I suddenly had a need to get away from Tom and the situation at hand. I had accomplished absolutely nothing in talking to Tom. On the contrary, if anything, I had made the situation worse. Tom would probably be watching Lucius and me even closer now that he knew just how I strongly I felt towards Lucius.

Doing my best not to break down in front of Tom, I swallowed back tears and tried to look somewhat composed. Smiling as politely as I could at Tom (which was hard to do as I would much rather cuss at him), I replied, "Thanks for agreeing to talk to me alone. I guess that's all. I'll just be going upstairs now. See you around later."

Without waiting for Tom's response, I took a deep breath and scurried out of the room. As soon as I was out of the room, tears of frustration threatened to spill out of my eyes. I did my best to force them back. After all, it seemed like I was always crying these days. Unfortunately, sometimes you just can't hold back tears of frustration.

So fed up with just about everything in my life, I let the tears spill as I ran upstairs to my bedroom. As I came barreling up the stairs, I had to fling out my hands and grab the railing hard to keep from running into something or someone coming towards me. Still gripping the railing to keep from flying forward and smashing into the figure, I looked up to see my mother frowning at me in disapproval.

There was always disapproval or disdain in the way she looked at me. She would never look at me with the pride and joy that flooded her face when she looked at Bella. Looking down her nose at me, my mother said, "Where are you going in such a hurry, Narcissa? And why are you crying? Please don't tell me you've been crying in front of our guest."

The "guest" was obviously Tom. My god, it seemed like my mother cared more about Tom than about me now! Frowning and resisting crying even more at the comment that had cut a little hole in my heart, I replied, "No, I wasn't crying in front of Tom. And I'm just going upstairs to my bedroom so I won't embarrass anyone."

"Hm," my mother mused aloud. I could tell she was looking me up and down. Feeling so small and insignificant under her gaze, I tried to stand up a little taller and I nervously tucked a strand of loose blonde hair behind my ear. Finally, mother continued onwards, "My dear friend Mandy Parkinson has invited our family to a Christmas gathering at The Three Broomsticks in Diagon Alley tonight. I have accepted her offer. I am expecting you to come along as well. Is that going to be a problem?"

"No, of course not," I replied, feeling a little bit happier. This was the Christmas party that Lucius and I had talked about! Most likely, Mrs. Malfoy would be at the party and Lucius and I would be free to hang out. Well, I hoped so anyways. It all depended on whether or not Tom was invited to this gathering. He wasn't coming along...was he?

"Good," mother replied in a relieved voice. I guess she had been worrying that I would put up a fuss against going to the party tonight. She turned and started walking around me down the stairs, but I called after her before she could disappear, "Um, mother? I was just wondering something. Will Tom be coming along to the party as well?"

I crossed my fingers behind my back and bit my lip as I waited for her answer. There was a long silence and then she finally replied, "Well of course Tom will be coming along to the gathering. What else would you expect him to do? Stay here along? That simply would not do. We would seem very inhospitable to do something like that."

I sighed loudly as my mom turned and walked back down the stairs. Tom had completely ruined my plans. How exactly was I suppose to spend some time with Lucius if Tom was standing over my shoulder the whole time? Ugh, fuck Tom. He seemed to be ruining everything in my life lately. Sometimes I wondered if he did that on purpose.

~ ~ ~ ~

The rest of the day went by very slowly and miserably. I was so upset that I was going to have to see Lucius but not get to talk to him at all. That was so unfair and way too tempting. It was like having someone dangle a piece of chocolate under your nose but not let you eat it. The chocolate drives you insane, but you know you can't eat it. That's what Lucius was like for me; a piece of chocolate.

I had planned to stay upstairs and mind my own business all day, but unfortunately, my mother wasn't going to let me do that. Oh no, of course not. Instead, she forced me to come down for lunch. I had to sit in between Andromeda and Bellatrix and across from Tom. I could feel their eyes glued onto me as I was forced to eat every bite of food on my plate. It hurt very badly and by the end of the meal, I felt like I was either going to explode or roll over dead from being stuffed with too much shit. Too be honest, rolling over dead didn't sound like that bad of an option right now. It would be quite easy and very painless.

But of course, I didn't roll over dead. Instead, once the meal was done, I had to trudge up the flight of stairs and flop on my bed where I stayed quite alive. Lots of thoughts spilled through my mind as I lay on my stomach in an attempt to get it to flatten back down. I mostly thought of Lucius, of how life was so unfair, about how much I hated Tom, and about how I was fat.

I laid there all afternoon with the door locked until someone came pounding on my doorway at four in the evening. The knocking scared the crap out of me and I just about had a heart attack. Taking a few quick, calming breaths, I struggled into a sitting position and called through the door, "What is it? Do you need something?"

"Yeah," an irritable voice replied to me. "Mother wants you down her in five minutes to go to that party. You better be on time. Mom gets pissed off when people are late. So if you're going to change or put makeup on or do any sort of shit like that, I recommend you do it now so you really are ready in five minutes or less."

With that said, Bellatrix (who the voice had obviously belonged to) turned and tromped away from my door. I muttered a few curse words under my breath as I took a look in the mirror. I didn't look so good, but I wasn't sure what to do with only five minutes to get ready. I was still wearing the black camisole, cardigan, and pants. They didn't look all that bad. They weren't exactly drop dead gorgeous, but they looked fancy enough to be worn to a Christmas party. That was kind of a relief. I didn't want to have to change and look at my bloated stomach. I hated having a bloated stomach. It was so disgusting even if it was temporary.

Now that I had decided that my clothes were just going to have to work, I peered at my hair. It didn't look great, but it wasn't horrible. It was a little fuzzy in the back, but I wasn't all that concerned about it. After all, the wind was probably going to mess it up soon enough anyways. Glancing at the clock hanging on my wall, I tried to figure out what I was going to spend my last five minutes doing.

Hurrying over to my mirror, I opened an ornately carved jewelry box that had been a Christmas present from Andromeda one year. Inside it, I sorted until I found a silver chain with a silver heart dangling from it. It was one of my favorite necklaces. I carefully fastened it around my neck and then selected a pair of silver hoop earrings to match it.

It only took me two minutes to put my jewelery on, so I still had three minutes left. The obvious answer of what to do with those three minutes was makeup. I didn't have much makeup of my own unfortunately. Usually whenever I needed makeup for something or a certain occasion, I borrowed it from Bella. Bella was typically sharing.

Today, I had a feeling she would definitely refuse to share though. She hadn't been too happy when she had come pounding on my door. I couldn't help but wonder why. The only answer I came up with was that she was jealous that Tom had agreed to talk with me alone earlier. Bella got very paranoid about things like that and of course it would be my fault that Tom had agreed to my request.

So since I couldn't go into Bella's room and borrow her makeup, mine would have to do. From my little collection, I smeared on some black eyeliner, sparkly white eyeshadow (okay, maybe it was from a little kid makeup kit, but the effect it had was actually quite nice), some mascara, and then some pink lipstick. Too bad I didn't have any red.

With my makeup complete, I decided I had no choice but to go downstairs now. To be honest, I didn't really feel like going anywhere. My stomach was still hurting quite badly and the pain didn't seem to be subsiding at all. On the contrary, it seemed more painful if anything. It was like the food had gotten stuck in my stomach and had formed a solid mass.

But regardless of how I felt, I was going to the Christmas party whether I liked it or not. There was really no use or point in complaining. Taking a deep breath and trying to steady my nerves, I stepped through my door and then plodded downstairs. My mother, sisters, and Tom were already waiting for me by the doorway.

Mother gave me a look of disapproval, but didn't say anything. I figured she was upset at me for being late. She wasn't very hard to read. Stretching out her hands towards us, mother said, "Everyone grab hold of my arms. We're going to apparate to Diagon Alley. Apparition is much easier than any other means of travel."

Everyone stepped close and took hold of my mother's hands. I reluctantly clasped her forearm. I didn't like traveling by apparition much. For some reason, it always made my stomach flip flop and my head spin. Today was definitely not a good day for having my stomach jolted around. It would take all my strength not to puke it all up.

Oh, and if you don't know what apparition is, it's when you close your eyes, focus on the place you want to go to, and then let the magic whisk you away. Amazingly enough, you should appear wherever it was that you had hoped to go to. Of course, this takes lots of practice. Bella had told me that you didn't learn how to apparate at Hogwarts until your sixth year.

Almost as soon as I grabbed mother's arm, we were spinning through the air. I could feel pressure all around me. It was squishing me and suffocating me. I couldn't breathe! Just as I started majorly panicking, the twisting, turning, and spinning stopped. Opening my eyes, I found the world was still fuzzy. It suddenly fuzzed up a hell of a lot more, and before I knew it, I was consumed by black.