July 31st, 1977
NARCISSA
The long white dress was too tight under her breasts and made it hard to breathe. Narcissa anxiously wanted to get out of it and into the light linen sundress she had been wearing all morning. She loved silk dresses. But now the cold touch of this fabric was giving her goosebumps.
The pre-wedding excitement seemed to have soaked every napkin and pillow in the house. There was a faint smell of flowers and new tablecloths. A wedding arch, chairs, and a crystal tent were set up in the yard. Downstairs in the kitchen, dishes clattered. The ringing voices of the guests could be heard on the third floor.
Everybody was waiting for the wedding. Everyone was excited.
Everyone except her.
'Are you scared, sis?' Bella asked playfully. She was lying in a festive dress on Narcissa's bed, which had not been cleaned after her sleep. The black dress with a puffy skirt on a net was slightly crumpled, and the pile of resinous curls scattered across the snow-white sheet resembled a tangle of small, thin vipers. A tight black corset cinched her wide waist and supported her high breasts, which were accentuated by the cleavage. Her full white arms were tightly covered in black mesh, and her fingers, with curved black nails, were adorned with large rings.
Bella turned her pale face, with black drops of boiling resin instead of eyes, toward her sister and pouted her black lips in sympathy.
'You look like a drowned person,' she said softly, nodding in agreement.
Narcissa picked up a stunning white moonstone necklace from the dressing table and draped it around her neck. The tiny, cold stones rested comfortably in the soft hollows of her collarbone. She sighed intermittently and touched the jewelry with her hand.
"I'm getting married today"
These simple and clear words, which sound like a lucky charm to many girls, circled around Narcissa like wasps. And they stung her unexpectedly every time she was distracted or calmed down.
During her school years at Hogwarts, she had nothing against Lucius Malfoy. They greeted each other politely when they left the living room every morning, ate breakfast and lunch at the same table, sat at the same desks in the same classrooms, took exams, went to Hogsmeade, Slug Club parties and Quidditch matches. But what connected them now that school was far behind them? They had been engaged since childhood, but the number of words they had spoken to each other in the past seven years could be counted on one hand.
Even though her parents hadn't given up trying to make her and Lucius fall in love during those seven years.
Every summer. Every summer since she was a little girl, her parents had sent Narcissa to San Sebastián, to the Malfoy summer residence, where they had put her and Lucius in a room together like dogs at a mating, and forced them to spend all their free time together, hoping and expecting that some spark would suddenly fly between them. Those were terrible, awkward hours when she and Lucius sat in awkward silence, glancing at each other now and then. Narcissa was dying of sadness and homesickness. She was terrified that one day her whole life would turn into this room of embarrassment. The only thing that kept her going was the hope that one day her parents would come to their senses and change their minds.
She hoped until the end.
Until one morning her mother woke her with the words, 'Today you are getting married, girl.
'Today I'm getting married.'
'Merlin... what am I doing here?' Narcissa spoke softly, her eyes wide as she looked at her dazzling reflection.
