homecoming × and time is burning burning burning it burns away

[pristineismyhat]

When Narcissa gets back to Malfoy manor - finally, thank Salazar - Draco is mercifully asleep. She wants to wake him and make him smile and laugh and see how well she's done with him, but she's been gone a day or two and she doesn't know how Lucius explained it to him, and it's better that he's asleep if she sees him first. She does, of course; she

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[byrightsinhell]

Even thought the war's been over for years, hearing strange noises in his house is never something that sits well with Lucius. Especially not knowing what he knows about what's coming in a few years.

And not with Narcissa still missing.

He walks very quietly down the hall, wand drawn, but calm enough not to worry about hexing anyone he shouldn't.

When he saw Narcissa sitting in Draco's room, he could have laughed (or cried) with relief, but he did neither, not wanting to wake their little boy.

[pristineismyhat]

At first, she doesn't register his presence - so focused on quietly assuring herself that everything has a place and everything is in its right place, that it's all just as it should be - but when she does, Narcissa looks up and something in her eases and unknots.

"Lucius," she whispers, rising.

[byrightsinhell]

He comes, takes her hand, and draws her out into the hall and in to his arms. He just holds her, for a long moment, quietly anchoring her back to him and this.

[pristineismyhat]

It would be difficult for Narcissa to explain why it is that she finds herself crying, quietly, against his shoulder; it takes her a moment to realize that she's doing it, and then her breath is coming in shuddering gasps and her mind can't catch up with where her heart went ahead of her.