home is where the heart is (and you hold mine)

unravel the secret (but don't tell a soul)

Author's Note: It's Feburary 😶 this took me a lot longer than I had initially anticipated 🥲

Also, happy belated valentine's day! i hope everybody had chocolate or whatever treat you wanted and showed some love to yourself <333

In case you didn't read the previous Chapter 16 which was a message from the Author, I'll give you a quick run down.

I do not have cancer! Yay! I'm in a writing competition and my submissions will be posted on here eventually. Just have to find the motivation. Story is updated to 45 chapter instead of 40 and the chapters are going to be longer! My muse just does not want this story to end XD

On a slightly down note, I'm in college so my time for writing is going to be even more cramped than it usually is.

And here I am, briefly, to give you 15K to read until I come back with the next chapter. I'm going to update my other stories first before chapter 17 is out.

TW: Discussed Child Abuse; Mentions of Stillbirth; Mentions of Self-Inflicted Amputation;

Chapter 16

unravel the secret (but don't tell a soul)

Narcissa takes leisure sips of her wine as she peruses the contract she witnessed for two people she had never expected to come to a truce.

She agreed to be the neutral party for the two because of the natural conflict of her declining it—Lord Potter happened to also be Heir Black, her maiden house, and the Dark Lord has the sworn allegiance of her husband and son. She had been put into an impossible choice that she had no choice but to accept.

And yet...

The meeting was far more peaceful and diplomatic than she had been anticipating.

The Dark Lord was accommodating; Lord Potter kept his infamous temper at bay, and Narcissa was pleased with how it had gone—it proved fruitful and shifted the overall outcome of the war to their favor.

However, the way Lord Potter had acted, despite all his show, made her mind itch.

Narcissa was a Black. Her parents raised her to see what others never did and how to hide all the venom beneath a smile. Lord Potter may not have any negative intentions toward the Dark Lord but he was not in the meeting for himself, for all that he may profess. There was something else pushing him to do that.

Make nothing seem like everything.

Lord Potter made deflections, answered absolutely nothing while giving small crumbs, and Narcissa had zero doubts that her cousin had instructed him into this.

"I suppose even lions are cunning sometimes," Narcissa muses softly.

She drinks the rest of her wine and presses her lips together. Her mind was still itching and she could not stand it.

"Tippy," she calls, flicking her wrist out to allow her wand to slide between her index and middle fingers.

She banishes the contract as a young, nervously excited elf pops in the room, curtsying clumsily as she bounces on her toes.

"Mistress?" Tippy squeaks, ears wriggling.

Narcissa slides her wand back into its wrist holster, standing to her feet. "Lucius is still in his study?" She queries.

Tippy nods. "Yes Mistress."

"Very good. Take this from here and inform Draco that he is expected in his Father's study," she instructs curtly as she begins walking to Lucius' study.