Chapter 6: Narcissa Black

"Now, apparently I have just over two months before I enter Hogwarts and be pressured into joining the ranks of the Mortifagi, thus taking the Dark Mark which would put an end to any chance I have of escaping being a follower of Voldemort, let's think Severus, let's think, what can I do to avoid this?" asked Severus to himself as he ate his breakfast.

"Mmmm I could take my family heritage from my mother's side, the Prince are one of the most important pureblood houses in Britain"

"if I did that the Mortifagi would have a harder time pressuring me to join them as the magical world itself is going to know about me, making my face public knowledge and thus preventing them from being able to pressure me to join so easily"

"But the biggest problem with this is that my mother was disowned by her family, to the point where she was erased from the Prince house family tree, to make matters worse, all my maternal relatives died so it is impossible to turn to any of them now, the only thing I could do is to go through the Prince house family inheritance test."

The inheritance test is usually done when a pureblood family is left for some reason without direct heirs, then one who is a minor can take the test as long as they have the blood of a direct descendant of the family along with the ancestral ring of the house in question.

At Gringotts, the inheritance test left by the great pureblood houses is usually a mental test and a blood ritual. If the young man succeeds in enduring/passing the test and ritual, he may go on to be considered the new unquestioned heir to the lordship of the house.

"I am currently the leading pretender to inherit the lordship and the entire family inheritance, as I not only meet the blood clause, but I am half Prince with direct descent from the daughter of the previous lord of the Prince family and despite my mother being disowned and removed from the family tree, I am a direct blood descendant am more than acceptable to take the Prince surname, so I am more than qualified to take the inheritance test.

"there may be other distant relatives who are Prince, but before they can even think about being the heirs I would have priority at Gringotts as the only living direct descendant"

"The problem is that I never knew anything about the Prince family ancestral ring, so I have no idea where it might be, I had asked at Gringotts if they knew anything, but apparently they had no idea where it might be either and without an ancestral ring, there is no proof of inheritance."

"For Merlin, looking for a damn ring all over the magical world is not a possibility, so inheriting the Prince's surname along with the lordship is not an option at the moment, the inheritance will have to be left for later, although I don't have that much time to claim it either since in two years I will be considered of age and therefore, not eligible to be the new heir. My God, why can't things be simpler, can't you give me some good news?" complained Severus.

After getting tired of thinking of unfeasible options to get away from the influence of Voldemort's followers, Severus proceeded to pick up Britain's magical newspaper, the Daily Prophet, which was the only newspaper young Severus used to read along with some potions magazines.

Severus proceeded to read the news of the magical world and looked angrily at the front page of the Daily Prophet.

Normally, he just used to scoff at the crazy headlines and false gossip stories that this yellow press newspaper produced.

But despite the lies and bad journalism, he read it every day to keep up with the happenings in the magical world.

But unlike before when he scoffed at what they wrote in the paper, Severus was now concerned and angered by what he read, as the maniacal Lord Voldemort and his Death Eaters were terrorizing the magical world with their attacks on Muggleborns, raids on Muggle villages and destruction of stores in Diagon Alley, the Daily Prophet downplayed these attacks and wanted to reassure its readers of the strength of the Ministry of Magic and its enforcement of the law. Instead of reporting every life lost and every newly developed dark spell, potion, and poison so that magical citizens could raise their vigilance and protect themselves with counter-currents and antidotes against Death Eaters, the paper wrote stories about the magical upper class and the Ministry's new bureaucratic laws.

Severus shook his head.

No wonder the Order of the Phoenix currently in this era didn't have enough supporters and members to stand up to Voldemort when most wizards and witches closed their eyes to the start of the war in their world, while the Dark Lord continued to add followers to his ranks day by day.

As he grumbled, Severus decided to put down the diary so as not to get angrier than he already was.

"Severus!" as Severus was about to proceed to read one of the letters that had come to him to clear his mind for a while, a young, feminine voice greeted him.

Severus recognized the voice immediately and was a little surprised, "Narcissa!?"

"Oh Severus," Narcissa said in a thin, pained voice, she was standing in front of Severus looking at him with a hint of pity in her big blue eyes.

Severus wondered if her voice had always sounded so thin and pained.

"Narcissa." Severus stood up and greeted her properly "What are you doing in the Leaky Cauldron, it's not the place I would expect to find you."

Narcissa pressed her lips together. "I heard about what happened, Severus. I know about the Muggle-born Lily Evans."

"I see, I prefer not to talk about it, I already left it in the past" now Severus understood why she sounded so strange, she was always very good to him, she helped and advised him many times, he also used to help her with many subjects or other doubts she had, but he and Narcissa never became friends, Despite their good relationship, she was always in a very different world from his, she was loved and admired by everyone, she was also the most beautiful and coveted woman in Slytherin, while he was the opposite, he was only known for his skills in the dark arts and potions.

That's why they never got to anything more than good acquaintances, Severus wouldn't allow himself to think that he could be friends with someone like her, he was the one who never associated her as a friend, but she certainly did consider him her friend.

"You'd think she was a princess by the way everyone behaved with her," Lily had told him a bit disgusted in her 4th year when Narcissa used to be the center of attention at Hogwarts, it was understandable, men always behaved like animals in the heat with Narcissa and became very unpleasant, but they had both admitted that she was very dazzling.

Once she finished Hogwarts, she maintained a relationship with Lucius Malfoy, and Severus being friends with Lucius, used to talk to her quite a lot, the two had a very good relationship, now Severus could admit that in fact, she was a friend to him, even though he didn't see her as such before or wouldn't allow himself to see her as a friend, now he could understand that they were always friends, he was just too stubborn to see it or accept it.

"You honestly can't expect me to believe that!" she replied with a look that told him it was impossible to fool her.

"But it's the truth. I have other things to think about now."

"Do you really mean it?" Narcissa asked weakly. "Please, you know you can talk to me, Severus."

"I know, Narcissa, I know, thank you for that. But what I said is the truth."

Narcissa looked very surprised by Severus' response.

"Severus," she said sounding doubtful and a little scared "Are you really okay, because you're behaving very strangely today, not that I'm complaining, but it's not normal to hear you say thank you or talk so ... well ... so ungracious and distant"

"It's really nothing, I just rethought some things and I'm looking to turn over a new leaf."

Narcissa stared into his eyes looking for any trace of a lie in what he said.

A few seconds later, she relaxed and sat down next to Severus, asked the bartender for a bottle of brandy, and looked back at Severus.

Narcissa was wearing a long, flimsy white dress, Severus had to admit she was very beautiful.

"A drink?" Narcissa asked offering him her brandy.

"Tea is fine for me, besides, isn't it a little early for a drink?"

"When you have a boyfriend who is so involved with who you know, you end up getting used to it," she replied as she poured herself a drink.

Severus grimaced at that answer, he could understand a little, it wasn't easy at all to be involved with a dark wizard when war was brewing, and to make matters worse Lucius was already a Mortifagus loyal to Lord Voldemort, so it was safe to say that Narcissa wasn't having a good time.

She had the same ideals as the Malfoy and most pureblood supremacists, but she wasn't comfortable with violence let alone war.

"So," Narcissa asked, setting her to drink down on the table carefully. "How have you been? I haven't seen you in, what has it been, 1 year? How are things with your mates in Slytherin, are they still looking to be part of who you know?"

"Well, you must know most of the things that happened by now, but I'm better now," he said to Narcissa. "As for Rosier, Mulciber and Avery, yes, they are still looking to get involved in the cause."

"Oh, you didn't include yourself! Severus weren't you until recently dreaming of being part of the cause, now you have doubts, it's because of the muggleborn Lily Evans." It was clear that Narcissa was very surprised by Severus' attitude, but she seemed to be relating all these changes to the recent events with Lily Evans.

"Narcissa, we both know that it is preferable not to talk about such things in public," Severus said making mention of the unsuitable environment of the Pub to talk about such things.

"Lily Evans, all this sudden change in you is because of her, Severus listen to me carefully, don't do anything you'll regret, I know from Lucius that things are going to start to change and I wouldn't want to see you on the wrong side," Narcissa said to Severus, turning to stare into his eyes once more. Her eyes were very large and clear and the blue irises stood out clearly against her pale face.

"Easy, I know what I'm doing, you know me."

"Precisely because I know you I know what you are capable of for that-"

"Narcissa!" Severus cut her off.

"I, sorry Severus, I'm just worried about you."

"I know, but you can rest assured that I'm not going to do anything that will put me in danger, between us, Lily is not the reason for anything this time, she's not even talking to me and I don't plan to insist her anymore either, I now seek to do things for myself and I just want to think things through a bit better, I'm not choosing sides, I just want to think about me, understand?" Severus took a sip of tea. He found he was nervous and sweating, but he couldn't tell.

Narcissa gave a prolonged sigh, looking off into the distance.

"I understand Severus if you say so," she said. "I'm glad you can start thinking about yourself and let go once and for all of that Muggleborn who never brought you anything good."

"Yes," agreed Severus "It's a pity she didn't forgive me, but it's good to start finding my way."

Narcissa sighed again, sadly, clearly indicating to Severus that she didn't find his separation from Lily a pity. She could care less about that muggleborn, she just hoped to see Severus detach himself from her and her unhealthy obsession, someone as intelligent and talented as he was, did not deserve for her to be with a muggleborn.

"But tell me about yourself, Narcissa," Severus continued. "You've barely said a word about yourself. No need to talk about who you know, what are you doing these days? With Lucius is everything going well? Where are you working, anyway?"

Narcissa was working at the Ministry and told him a little about her work. Severus listened attentively, nodding and asking questions, his black eyes full of interest, real or feigned, but Narcissa continued to talk about many things, occasionally laughing at the odd thing she told. The gold rings glittered and sparkled every time she reached up with her slender pale fingers to cover her mouth from laughter.

"Sounds like a very fascinating job, Narcissa," Severus said as the conversation was drawing to a close. "It sounds like you really enjoy working at the Ministry and from what I hear you have great ambitions."

"Well, I certainly enjoy it, but things are tense these days at the Ministry, Lucius isn't too happy about me still working there."

"But I'm curious, you didn't talk to me about how things are going with Lucius Is this why you're telling me about the job?".