Birth Right

Chapter 1

Narcissa Black learned how to glide from her mother. With a sleeping potted mandrake perched on her head, she moved through the rooms of Black Manor at six years old with a ferocious appetite for elegance. Druella would tell the elves to step in front of her or surprise her around corners, but by seven years old, Narcissa had learned to glide. "No, after you," she'd whisper to the elves, inclining her neck to a small bow. The potted plant would wobble and right itself, never disturbing the mandrake inside.

Her sister Andromeda taught her how to feel. When their eldest sister came home from Hogwarts after her first year, Andromeda and Narcissa watched in fascination as she practiced her spells, showing off all she'd learned. When Bellatrix turned her wand on the elf delivering their biscuits, Andromeda ordered her to leave the elf alone. After Bella stomped from the room pouting and calling them spoilsports, Andromeda pushed the golden hair over Narcissa's shoulder and said, "Who else would protect them if we don't?"

Bella taught her how to lie. On a rainy Sunday afternoon, Narcissa ran after her sister through the stalls of Knockturn Alley and into Borgin and Burkes, straight to the counter. Bellatrix pressed her face to the glass and showed her an onyx bracelet that was supposed to repel Mudbloods. She turned to Borgin and demanded that the bracelet be boxed. "My father, Cygnus Black, wants it. Said to put it on his account." After, as Narcissa eyed the bag swinging merrily from her sister's fingertips, she asked if father truly gave permission. Bella looked at her with her black eyes and sharp brows and said, "Who will he blame? His ten-year-old firstborn? Or the man who charged him two thousand Galleons without his signature?"

She learned strategy from her father. Cygnus Black III taught her chess at five, poker at five and a half, and haggling at the market at six. He told her, "Of course we can afford this necklace, Cissa. But what is it worth?" Once Andromeda's first year at Hogwarts came and Narcissa was left alone on the estate, her father would take her on every errand, every house call, and every back-room discussion. She watched her father work, how he would take control of every situation and bend the other person to his will. The summer before the Hogwarts Express chugged her toward her sisters, her father stopped bringing her with him. Narcissa cried to her mother, asking if she'd done something wrong. Druella took a deep breath, and replied, "You are a beautiful girl, Narcissa. Your body is developing faster than either of your sisters. Unfortunately, your father's friends take note of that sort of thing." Druella looked out the window as Narcissa stared at her feet, mind trying to grasp the concept. She looked up at her mother and said, "Then wouldn't it be strategic? To bring me along?" Druella remained silent, staring out the window, and didn't address it until a week later.

And from her husband...

Well. She was still trying to discern what lesson Lucius Malfoy was teaching her.

~*~

Narcissa Malfoy glided down the stone hall, following the guard as his boots clunked against the floor. He'd tried to talk to her already, tried to ask her about her day, about the weather. She'd responded politely, and smiled as he stumbled for words when she fluttered her lashes.

Lucius liked her hair up while in public, liked to see her long neck. He told her she looked delicious in anything, but she knew the waistline of her robes suited her, knew the color accentuated her eyes, and knew the perfume he had delivered to her last month hung off her skin like mist.

The guard wrenched a door open, and she stepped inside, thanking him with a smile. She found her husband, sitting on the edge of the metal table, body tilted away, reading the morning Prophet. As if he couldn't care less about her presence.

When she knew very well he had planned this moment – had situated himself just so.

The door closed.