Time in a bottle

Narcissa

Narcissa POV

It had been a while since she had left the most intriguing brunette she had ever met with her aunt. How curious, it seemed that an Mcgonagall would be sorted into Slytherin...not that she was complaining...something about this girl was calling Narcissa to her. She felt that being around Hermione was like finding and wearing a pair of old broken in comfortable shoes on her feet. She didn't know she missed them but felt calmed by this girl's presence, like this was where she was always meant to be.

More than one raised eyebrow had been sent towards her at seeing Narcissa's interactions with the brunette. She had a long standing reputation as a cold, unfeeling, proper pureblood, whom only showed affection towards her sisters. Yes, she was living as fully as she could at Hogwarts, but never outwardly showed any affection, lest her sisters or worse her parents find out. So then, why could she not help but touch this girl, comfort her, flirt shamelessly with her? If she believed in soulmates she might just think she had found hers. That single thought scared her more than she would admit to herself.

Less than a year from now she was promised to that despicable Malfoy male, ugh! That pig of a man!

Instead of dwelling on that unfortunate truth, she decided to daydream. A dare to dream about a life she knew she could never have. A life where she married the sexy enigmatic brunette, lived a simple loving life, with one child, a son perhaps, theirs to raise to be a good man one day, a proper Black heir...a life of intellectual conversation, passionate love making, and loving caresses...she hadn't been aware she had been gently smiling until a clearing throat beside her also jabbed her in the ribs softly.

'Your new love bunny is going to get herself into trouble it seems.' The seventh year Slytherin girl gently told Narcissa, pointing towards the obviously distracted young witch.

-what the devil is she doing over there?

Nodding in gratitude to her Slytherin acquaintance, she took notice of the body language of the Gryffindors almost surrounding the girl, she quickly and confidently strode towards the object of her thoughts and affections.

She had caught the tail end of the taunts and was about to raise her wand in defense of the girl, when she felt the air and energy around the shift. Only her sister and Bella's new friend Tom could draw that much wordless energy, she knew from her sister that if this type of energy were to be released, it would be only one of three spells...she did not want this girl to go to Azkaban because of some ignorant lions causing the troubled witch to release, what was sure to be a powerful unforgivable curse.

Throwing caution to the wind, knowing that this would only further the gossip mill and possible deeper repercussions for her, she just couldn't bring herself to care when she thought of the girl being hurt in any way...she entangled herself around the beautiful girl. She had hoped that the physical touch would wake Hermione up, stop the oncoming storm as it were.

Narcissa was pleased when her actions did just that, and through a short conversation and soft touches she dragged the almost comatose girl behind her towards the kitchens.

She knew her comment about the girl's relation would shock her tormentors, saying it mainly to diffuse the tension, allowing for a quick escape. However, she didn't realize the fact that the usually cold detached Narcissa, showing any loving emotion given so freely in conjunction would effectively draw everyone's attention to them. However for this girl, she didn't know why, but for her she would do anything. Such a loving, troubled girl. She was obviously hiding a past, and she surmised a big secret from everyone, but it didn't seem to Narcissa that the girl's intent would ever be to harm.

So lost in thought as she held tight onto the girl's hand, she didn't hear the near growl come from the Slytherin table as they were retreating. Lucius was beside himself in anger at the affection shown by HIS fiancé...the fact that another woman was in his lap at the moment, straddling his waist, kissing his neck was besides the point! It was not proper! Sure they had an agreement, but she had never been outwardly affectionate towards anyone before....

Narcissa led them into the kitchens, glad she was met with her favorite Black family house elf. After a pleasant exchange, where she noticed a look of almost awe and respect coming from Hermione over such an exchange.

-curious, Narcissa thought

She knew that the other witch would need time to process the world of emotions and thoughts going around in that seemingly endless keen mind in front of her.

What horrors had the girl gone through before arriving at Hogwarts, literally crashing into Narcissa's life. She had a hunted look, like the muggles she had studied in muggle history, during, the Worlds of War 1, or something like that... what was it...shell shocked...the girl looked shell shocked, like she had in a recent history fought for not only her life but the life of those she deeply cared about, that she had felt such deep and painful loss...and not as such that one would encounter on a traveling dueling team.

The story of the internship was flimsy at best, however she had no doubt that the girl had indeed traveled over the big pond to the Americas at some time. She could tell that the girl looked almost pained to lie to Narcissa and it seemed like she had included as much truth as she dare in their discussions, for which Narcissa was grateful. She was not one to pry into people's business, if someone like Hermione wasn't 100% truthful there was usually a good reason for it. She would hope that she would find out what troubled the girl so...

It seemed as if currently, the girl was further descending into a dark spiraling tunnel, until Hermione suddenly seemed to come upon a happy epiphany. It was at this time that Narcissa decided to gently break the girl from her thoughts and let her know dinner had arrived some time ago, with a gentle comment and squeeze of her hand.

The resulting deep smile melted her heart at the look of adoration and openness she had never witnessed. There was no denying it anymore, Narcissa had it bad for the young girl, consequences be damned. For once in her life she could care less about the life her parents picked out for her. She had been coy before, teasing even, but with a look like that, the daydream seemed like it could be more than that, maybe just maybe...

She was broken out of her own reverie by a small smile, and Hermione released an almost relieved sigh as she said

'shall we?'