Foundations

vii

It's almost dark outside when Harry slips out to collect Clive, some three hours later. He persuades Cecile to distract Tremellen with a Healing enquiry while he returns to the Manor.

"The things I do for you," she mutters, her long-suffering expression melting into one of false sweetness as she approaches the Department Head. "Do you have a minute, Healer Tremellen? There's something I'd like your opinion on..."

As he enters the house and hurriedly follows the sound of voices along a portrait-lined ground floor corridor, he muses on the importance of good friends, and just what favour Cecile plans to extract from him in return. He stops and pushes open the door of Narcissa's sun-room an inch or two.

The sight that greets him is nothing short of astonishing. The elegant blonde is leaning slightly forward in her chair next to the window, talking softly to Clive as he sits at her feet like some kind of royal subject, looking up at her with wide eyes and plucking experimentally at Zeus' tails. Zeus, for his part, doesn't appear to mind this treatment one bit, and is chewing on one of Clive's shoelaces.

"Zoos," he calls softly, glancing at the Crup before looking back up at Narcissa. "I'm not allowed a dog," he adds darkly.

"He's a Crup," she corrects gently. "A special kind of dog."

That's not what she said to me, Harry thinks petulantly, wondering where the hell Ginny is.

"He said she was coming back," he says to the empty hallway, not expecting a response.

"She did."

Harry jumps slightly and whips around to find himself looking into amused dark eyes. "Where is she, then?"

"Upstairs with Drake," Fyz replies, smirking. "She tried, they both did, but the kid wanted to stay with the Ice Queen and her mutt." He shrugs.

"Do you call her that to her face?"

"I haven't a death wish." Fyz turns his eyes back to the crack in the door and Harry does the same.

There's something captivating about the peaceful scene, and even though he knows that the longer he spends here, the more creative and painful a death Cecile will be plotting for him, he can't look away.

"Do you know why my mummy can't play with me?" Clive asks suddenly.

Narcissa's pale brow wrinkles and she sighs softly. "No, sweetheart. But I'm certain it's not because she doesn't want to."

Clive seems to consider this, wriggling on the large silk cushion he's sitting on. "Are you too old to play with me?"

Harry raises his eyebrows and waits with interest for the response. After a moment, Narcissa smiles, and the expression of genuine amusement transforms her haughty features. He doesn't catch her reply because he's so taken aback by the cautious warmth on her face; startled, he shoots out a hand and wraps his fingers around Fyzal's warm wrist.

Clive is laughing and trying to resist Zeus' sudden attempt to drag him across the room by his shoelace when Narcissa glances up and Harry steps back from the door, caught by the surprising feeling that he's intruding somehow.

Fyz smirks as Harry releases him. "Out of interest, who the hell did you think I was just then?"

Harry shoots him a look. "The hell person who was standing next to me when something fucking weird happened."

"Fair point. Draco says he hasn't seen her smile like that in years," Fyz concedes.

"I can believe that." Harry glances back at the door and listens to the excitable yapping now issuing from within. "Can you tell him thanks, and that I can't stay but I'll see him later?"