Harry Potter and the Daughter of Azkaban's Embrace

The Price of Pride

I was rudely awakened by Aunt Narcissa and Uncle fighting again, which was really annoying.

"Lucius, I can't believe you slept with Amaryllis Parkinson! How dare you cheat on me in our bed when I wasn't home? I can't go to Hogwarts alone without you acting like a bloody manchild!"

I groaned and stared at the ceiling. I hated being woken up to this again. They had these fights all the time now, almost every day since the last term. The past month had been particularly frustrating with their constant arguing. Aunt Narcissa still wasn't over Dobby leaving, and now that Uncle had cheated on her, she was angrier than ever. He slept with Pansy's mother, and Aunt Narcissa found out, leading to her full-on rage.

"You slept with her in our BLOODY BED! At Hogwarts and her manor—what were you thinking? Did you really expect me not to find out? And you gave Dobby a bloody sock, so now he's bloody free!"

Uncle replied, "It wasn't me; Potter put a sock on the diary."

Aunt Narcissa slapped him. The sound was sharp, echoing down the hallway. "Rubbish! Blaming a 13-year-old boy for your actions? You should know better, you scoundrel! You're a bloody manchild!"

"But everything is fine now; the kids are—"

I heard something shatter, followed by a deafening crash. Aunt Narcissa was on a warpath.

"Yes, because our twelve-year-old niece stepped up to stop it. At least someone in this family honored the Malfoy and Black family!" She continued to scream, hitting him again. "How dare you cheat on me! I loved you so much! You betrayed me and put our son and niece in danger!"

Uncle tried to defend himself, but it was clear that nothing was going to calm Aunt Narcissa down. "But they are fine now."

"Rubbish!" she spat, her voice dripping with venom. "Nothing is fine! You made them all suffer. You don't care about anyone but yourself. You selfish bastard!"

Uncle flinched as another object crashed against the wall. "I didn't think you'd find out about me and—"

Aunt Narcissa interrupted him, her voice reaching a breaking point as she struck him again. "You are an embarrassment to this family! I hate you, I hate this marriage, and I hate you!" The sound of glass breaking was so loud it almost drowned out the sound of her rage.

There were more bangs, more crashing. I heard Aunt Narcissa shout again, "You almost ruined everything! You nearly destroyed my chance to become headmistress!"

Uncle's voice cracked, desperate and trembling. "It was fine; it would have eventually worked..."

Aunt Narcissa screamed, her fury building again. "Like hell! Druella and Harry were the ones who put a stop to it, endangering their lives! They stopped your idiocy, and you have the nerve to act like everything is fine?!"

Uncle begged, his voice shaky. "Look, I didn't mean for the affair to get that bad..."

Aunt Narcissa cut him off with another fierce blow. "I WANT A DIVORCE! THIS IS NOT NORMAL! I CAN'T TAKE THIS LIFE ANYMORE, LUCIUS!" Her voice rose to an ear-splitting crescendo. I covered my head with the blanket, groaning, trying to block out the noise. The fighting, the screaming, the crashing—it was too much.

"PLEASE, NARCISSA, I LOVE YOU!" Uncle pleaded, but Aunt Narcissa didn't even seem to hear him anymore. She was consumed by her rage, hitting him once again. The sounds of things being broken echoed in the distance, and the manor felt like it was shaking from the intensity of it all.

"I CAN'T DO THIS ANYMORE! I WANT A DIVORCE!" Aunt Narcissa's voice cracked with the force of her anger. It felt like everything inside the house was falling apart, and I couldn't escape it.