Darkness Within||Draco Malfoy Fanfiction

Chapter 25

Chapter 25: Secrets, Unbreakable Vows and the Task

A cloaked figure Apparated in a dreary, barren landscape. She glanced around her, then hurried forwards. Moments later, another cloaked figure Apparated, following the first.

"Cissy!" the second woman hissed, "Stop!"

"Go home, Bella," Narcissa replied.

"Narcissa, think this through!"

"I have." Bellatrix grabbed her sister's wrist, causing her to stop and turn around.

"Let me go!" Narcissa demanded.

"You can't trust him."

"The Dark Lord trusts Severus."

"The Dark Lord is, I believe, mistaken."

"Let me go, Bella," warned Narcissa, drawing her wand. Bellatrix laughed.

"Your own sister? You wouldn't, Cissy." Narcissa sent a shock through Bellatrix's hand, enough for her to let go. Bellatrix stared at her in surprise.

"There's nothing I wouldn't do anymore," retorted Narcissa, her expression resolved. She turned around and hurried past the dinghy houses of Spinner's End.

"He lives here?" said Bellatrix, her face twisted in disgust, "We must be the first of our kind to step foot in this dump." Narcissa rang the doorbell. The curtain shifted, then there was the sound of the door being unlocked and squeaked open. Wormtail's face peered out.

"Miss Bellatrix, Miss Narcissa," he said, bowing low.

"We're here to see Severus," Narcissa said in a lowered voice.

"Yes, yes, of course. Do come in." The two sisters went in and Wormtail locked the door behind them. As they went into the living room, Snape folded the newspaper he was reading and set it down, looking at the two women with his black eyes.

"Bellatrix, Narcissa, what brings you here?" he drawled in his nasally voice.

"Important business. And private," sniffed Bellatrix, shooting a glance at Wormtail. As much as she distrusted Snape, she distrusted and disliked Wormtail even more.

"Wormtail, leave us," said Snape, and Wormtail scurried out of the room.

"Do have a seat," Snape said. Narcissa sat down on the opposite armchair.

"Severus-" He held up a hand for her to stop, then flicked his wand. There was a bang from the door, a squeak, then the sound of retreating footsteps.

"Apologies. Wormrtail does like to eavesdrop. You were saying?"

"I -I feel like you are the only who can help me, Severus. I have nowhere else to turn. Lucius is in jail and..." She shut her eyes briefly, composing herself.

"The Dark Lord has forbidden me to speak of it. He wishes none to know of the plan. It is...very secret. But-"

"If the Dark Lord has forbidden it, you ought not to speak. The Dark Lord's word is law," said Snape. Narcissa gasped as though he had doused her with cold water. For the first time since she had entered the house, Bellatrix seemed satisfied.

"There!" she said triumphantly to her sister, "Even Snape says so! You were told not to talk, so hold your silence!" But Snape strode to the window, peered outside between the gap in the curtains, then strode back again.

"As it happens, I am aware of your situation, Narcissa."

"You? The Dark Lord told you?" said Bellatrix incredulously.