Finding Out
Lucius tapped his long slender fingers in annoyance on the sturdy oak table he was sitting at. “Where is that woman?” he asked no one in particular, with an exaggerated sigh. “Honestly, if she says she is going to be here at five o’clock, she should be here!” Lucius said, before downing a glass of vodka in one gulp. His cold grey eyes looked up at the clock on the wall that read twenty minutes past five. “And at this Muggle establishment to boot. What could Narcissa be thinking?” the Death Eater huffed as he ordered another drink.
The clock ticked by. “What news could be so important that she could not tell me at the manor?” Lucius ordered yet another drink and downed it in one gulp. Finally he saw the unmistakable figure with blond hair walk into the restaurant. “It is about bloody time,” he murmured to himself as his wife approached. “Narcissa, darling there you are.” Lucius sneered.
“Pleasant as always, Lucius,” Narcissa replied in the same tone . The man in front of her now was a far cry from the man she had married over sixteen years ago. They looked the same, though the man in front of her was older. They sounded the same, but — this man was colder. He had no emotions.
Lucius scowled at his wife, “I am not the one who is twenty minutes late.” Lucius had not even bothered to rise when Narcissa showed up. She was not worth it anymore.
“I had an appointment.” Narcissa replied simply as she slung her bag over the back of the chair. Lucius had no idea what her appointment was for. It was a secret she had been keeping from him for some months now. Sometimes Narcissa wondered how daft Lucius was at times not to realize what she was hiding. They shared a bed every night; if you could call it sharing. Narcissa would be asleep long before Lucius even came to bed, and he would be awake long before Narcissa even stirred in the morning. So perhaps Lucius was not that daft after all.
Lucius let out a long sigh, knowing that his wife wanted him to question her about her appointment. “What kind of appointment, my darling?” he asked, playing along.
Narcissa smirked . She thought it was time to let Lucius in on her little secret. “A doctor’s appointment.” Narcissa watched her husband’s lips begin to curl into a sneer. “I am not dying, if that is what you are thinking,” she said flatly as she began to take off her coat.
Narcissa gently hung the coat over the back of her chair and it became obvious to Lucius why his wife was under the care of a doctor. His jaw dropped slightly in an undignified manner. For the first time in his life Lucius Malfoy was speechless. “Speechless? Now that is a first.” Narcissa let a coy smile creep onto her lips.
Lucius had to gulp down his fourth vodka on the rocks before he was able to regain the use of his voice. “So who is the unfortunate soul responsible for impregnating you?” the man said, eyeing his wife’s expanded belly very closely.
Narcissa slid into a seat as gracefully as any woman who was six months pregnant could. “Very subtle, dear,” she said bitterly. “Despite whatever thoughts you have in that lovely twisted mind of yours, I have never once strayed from our marriage vows… and I know for a fact you have never strayed either,” Narcissa said smugly.
Lucius looked as if he was about to make another of his snide remarks, but something stopped him. “If that were true, then how are you with child?”
“You were drunk,” she said flatly. “Those horrible drinks,” her lip curled at the empty glass in front of her husband. “How many does that make tonight, Lucius?”
Lucius shot Narcissa an evil glare, “My drinking habits are none of your concern.” The words dripped off his tongue with disdain. He wondered briefly how they had grown to loathe each other so much. Lucius had loved Narcissa once, but now they were like separate entities that co-existed in the same dwelling only acknowledging one another long enough to bicker. It had become a routine that both had grown so used to, that bickering was as easy as breathing.
Narcissa frowned somewhat worriedly at Lucius, “No doubt one too many, naturally.” She was unexpectedly worried about him. The pregnant woman caught a hint of sadness deep within her husband’s eyes. It had been there for quite a while, but she by no means thought it sensible to bring it up. It was much simpler to quarrel with Lucius than to have any other sort of conversation with him.
“One too many according to whom?” Lucius asked with a roll of his eyes as he swirled the ice around the empty glass. Perhaps somewhere deep inside the crevices of his mind Lucius did remember that night, as he had a vague recollection of waking up the next morning holding his wife’s exposed body in his arms. Lucius was also naked, but he had just pushed it out of his mind as being part of a drunken memory. A memory of the past where every morning the married couple would wake in each other’s arms. A memory of a much simpler, a much happier time. “I concede that it is possible that something happened that night,” Lucius fought to say, but then quickly covered. “Though I would need proof that something did indeed happen that night to take this ludicrous claim of yours seriously.”
Narcissa shook her head,” You know the sad thing is I should be shocked that you would say something like that, but I am not shocked You are just too much of a fool to believe what is right in front of you,” she huffed as she stood up and grabbed her coat.
“Where do you think you are going?” Lucius asked, pushing back the chair he was seated in and stood up. “We are not done talking!”
“I am not doing to deal with you when you are being an insufferable prat.” Narcissa turned on her heel and began to leave but she was wrenched back by Lucius’ hand on her arm. “Get your hands off me now, Lucius,” she said, her temper flaring to new degrees as she shoved Lucius away.
“I would never sleep with you willingly,” Lucius said, coming up with a new angle to blame Narcissa for the situation. “So tell me, what did you do to me?” he was still in denial that Lucius Malfoy could have had a weak moment while drunk.
Narcissa refused to listen to his insults. She had gotten used to tuning him out once the insults got to be too much. This was one of those moments.
The couple walked out of the restaurant, Lucius still ranting, making all sorts of accusations as to how Narcissa really got pregnant. After ten minutes of this, Narcissa finally had enough and slapped Lucius hard across the face. Lucius stood stock still, unsure whether he should be angry or stunned that his wife had just slapped him.
“Stop being a prat for five minutes and really think about that night. We made this child together. Maybe it would have been better if I had never told you. I was a bloody idiot to think you would actually be happy about this,” Narcissa fumed as she backed away from her husband . She had not even realised that in her tirade, she had ended up in the street.
By the time Narcissa saw the lorry speeding down the street, it was too late. She felt nothing as her body was thrown into the air and landed on the cold ground with a thud. Lucius ran over to check on Narcissa. It was more of an impulse he had no idea where it came from. The husband checked to see if his wife was alive, She was alive, but barely.
Lucius took out his wand and tried the few healing spells he knew, but none of them worked. He was about to curse the driver of the lorry for taking off when he heard a voice echo in his head. “Mark my words, Lucius, you keep this up and one day you will have her blood on your hands.” The voice belonged to Narcissa’s father. It was his little warning to Lucius on his wedding day. Sure enough, when Lucius looked down, his hands were covered in his wife’s blood. That warning from his father-in-law repeated itself over and over, and Lucius stared at his hands as he sank to the ground on his knees. He remained frozen staring at Narcissa for what seemed like an eternity. Lucius barely heard the sound of the approaching ambulances when they began to arrive almost ten minutes later.
“Her blood on my hands,” Lucius muttered to himself in disbelief.
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