||Now It's Just Us||

Chapter 30

Morning dawned dull and gloomy, as always. As the sun cast its meager rays across the estate, the occupants began their day, slow and mundane like all others. Narcissa picked out her robes for the day, looked at herself in the mirror, held her head high as though everything was alright, and walked out of her quarters to the sitting room for breakfast. 

"Tibby!"

A pop resounded through the room as a house elf appeared. She was a little thing, smaller than usual, with very large blue eyes, and floppy, bat-like ears. She was dressed in a little white dress that looked as though it had been specially made for her. 

"Good morning, Tibby," Narcissa smiled down at her.

"Tibby wishes Mistress Narcissa a good morning too," the elf said happily, "shall Tibby serve breakfast?"

"I think we'll wait for Lucius," Narcissa said. 

Tibby nodded and disappeared with another pop. Narcissa pursed her lips and sat down on one of the chairs at the small table. It was general custom that breakfast be had in the sitting room at the end of the week, and lunch out in the gardens. Narcissa had stopped doing this after Draco had left, for she saw no point to it. It felt silly to sit in the gardens, eating by yourself, with not even a leaf for company. Soon she had begun skipping meals. With Draco not there to be with her at the time of her panic attacks, she succumbed to them completely, and stayed locked in her room for days on end. She had grown unhealthy.

She was much better now. 

Hermione had said she would meet her the next day, and Narcissa was quite looking forward to it. She enjoyed her time with the girl. 

Narcissa twiddled her fingers in her lap and she waited for Lucius to show up. 

If Narcissa's mother knew that she was twiddling her fingers while waiting for someone, she would get a good earful for being so impatient and unmannered. Narcissa had been raised very proper, to cross her legs while sitting, to daintily dab at her eyes with handkerchiefs when she cried and not to bawl. She could almost imagine her mother looking sternly down at her while giving her an icy cold stare.

It had been teen minutes. Lucius had still not come down from his chambers.

On weekdays, Lucius would have left by this time to the Ministry for his social services requirement. So they rarely ever got to have breakfast in each other's company. On Sundays, he would either ignore her invitations, or say he wasn't feeling well and stay in his quarters until dinner time. The night before, Narcissa had made him vow to come to breakfast. He had merely nodded. 

It was hopeless, really. The chances that he would keep his word and turn up on time were very near nil. Still, Narcissa hoped he would come. 

She felt like a teenage girl again. Waiting for her date to show up on time. She laughed aloud at the bizarre idea. Her teenage self would never have dreamed of waiting for Lucius. She would have dug right in. 

"My apologies for being late."

Narcissa nearly sighed in relief on hearing his voice. But she held back. 

"Good morning," she said with a small smile. He had kept his word.

He inclined his head her way and sat down opposite her on the table. 

Tibby appeared with two plates of food, and a third plate piled with crepes which she placed in the centre. 

"I didn't know you liked those things," Lucius said when he saw Narcissa serve herself two of the freshly made crepes.