Combined challenge response
Response for the following challenges: "The first time I saw..." and "What is the one thing about yourself you don't want anyone else to know?"
"Malfoy!"
Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Pugh's piggy face pressed against the small barred window in my cell door. I did not turn my head, but continued to watch the cobwebs above my bunk ripple in slow waves. A small act of defiance perhaps, but a safe one, more or less; so many prisoners went mad in here, even without the dementors, that most of the guards had become accustomed to repeating themselves.
"Don't ye dare ignore me," Pugh growled, and the happy idea that I might have got away with something vanished in a puff of smoke.
I sat up on the edge of my bunk. Pugh's face was beet-red. "I wasn't ignoring you," I said quickly. "I --" my mind raced "-- I was thinking about something and I didn't hear you."
Pugh sniggered. "Thinking about something, eh? Well. Ye've got a visitor out here, but seein' as how yer so lost in your thoughts and all, I reckon you're too busy to see her, that right?"
"A visitor?" My voice sounded overly eager even to my own ears, and Pugh bared his teeth in a malevolent smile that made my chest tighten with hopeless fury. It took a special brand of sadism to dangle such an irresistible carrot in a prisoner's face.
But then Pugh said, "Yeah. Yer wife."
"Narcissa?" I was on my feet and hurrying toward the door before the name was fully formed.
"Back off," Pugh snarled, brandishing his wand, and at the same moment I heard my wife's trembling voice call, "Lucius?" I froze in my tracks. Pugh jabbed his wand through the window, and I moved away slowly, hands raised to chest level, step by careful step until I could feel the mattress against the back of my knees.
After a moment Pugh lowered his wand, and I took a deep, silent breath. "Yeah," he said again, turning his head toward the direction from which Narcissa's voice had come. "And she's right pretty, too." His eyes rolled as they trailed up and down her figure, and I gritted my teeth against the idea of him looking at my wife the way men looked at the whores on Knockturn Alley. "Pity you had to get uppity with me, Malfoy," he said, turning to look at me again. "It's a right shame I'm going to have to send her away, innit."
"Please," Narcissa's voice filtered in through the bars again. She sounded close to tears. "Let me see my husband. I've come such a long way."
"Well..." Pugh dragged the single syllable out, scratching at his stubbly chin as he pretended to think about it. "I s'pose I can find some other way to deal with this little infraction." A wave of nausea made my stomach writhe. I knew exactly what that meant. "All right then, missus, ye can go on in." The key scraped in the lock, and a moment later the door swung open. Pugh took up more than half the doorway as he raised his wand at me again; Narcissa had no choice but to slide along his belly as she eased her way past. "Fifteen minutes," he grunted, slamming the door shut behind her with a clang that made her jump. "And this ain't no conjugal visit. I'll be right outside."
We stared at each other across the cell for a few heartbeats that seemed to last an age. She looked so small. It struck me later what an odd first impression that was after not seeing her for so long, but all I could think was how small and delicate she looked in comparison to the huge, lumbering guards. Her white traveling cloak glowed in the torchlight, the only garment in the entire prison that wasn't stained with sweat and streaked with grime.
And then she was in my arms, and my cheeks were wet and hot from her tears. I could taste their salt on her lips as she kissed me. The stench of the prison had not yet permeated her clothes, and I was certain I could detect the fragrance of the manor's rose garden in her hair. I hadn't realized how much I'd missed the texture of her skin until I felt it beneath my fingers again, and for an instant I was sorry she had come; being reminded would only serve to make it that much more difficult to forget once again.
"Lucius," she murmured, pulling back until I could see the tears trembling on her eyelashes. "My darling. Are you all right?"
I said nothing. Surely the evidence before her own eyes was testimony enough. "Why have you come?" I whispered instead, pulling her down alongside me as I sat on the edge of my bunk. "Narcissa, it's unspeakably dangerous for you to be here."
A single tear meandered its way along her cheekbone as she carded her fingers through the limp hair hanging over my shoulder. They snagged almost immediately in the tangles. "I've come about Draco," she said quietly, trying in vain to work the knots loose. "He's got himself into some terrible trouble."
"What's happened?" I demanded, and she gave up on my hair and clutched at my hand instead. "Narcissa. What's happened? What has Draco done?"
"Oh, Lucius. So much has happened since you've been gone. The Dark -- " I cut her off with a frantic shake of my head, then nodded toward the door and Pugh standing in the corridor just beyond. Her throat worked for a moment before she nodded in return. "Our... friend," she said, her voice barely audible, "is so angry with you, Lucius, for... for your error." This reminder of my shame stung, coming as it did less than five minutes into our reunion, and I jerked my hand from her grasp. Oblivious to my anger, or perhaps uninterested in it, Narcissa went on as though she hadn't noticed. "He has given Draco a task. An impossible task." Her fingers trembled as she pressed them against her lips. "I am not supposed to speak of it," she whispered, the color draining from her face. "He has forbidden it. But you should know. You must know."
"What is it, Narcissa?" I asked crossly. Her histrionics were becoming tiresome. We had only moments together, and I was desperate for all the news of the world outside the fortress.
She lowered her hand slowly and squared her shoulders. Small spots of red appeared high on her cheeks in response to my tone. "He is to kill Albus Dumbledore."
I blinked. "Draco?" Kill Dumbledore? "What --" I certainly hadn't expected anything like this. "When did he take the Mark?" I whispered fiercely, unable to think of anything more intelligent to say in the face of this extraordinary revelation.
"Just after you were captured. Bellatrix took him."
"Oh, she did, did she," I said quietly, a note of bitterness creeping into my tone. I had planned to take him to the Dark Lord myself, would have done in a year's time when he turned 17, had I not been robbed of the opportunity.
"He insisted." Narcissa's eyes were bright with tears again. "He so desperately wanted to, Lucius. To avenge you. And, I think, to prove to... to him that the Malfoy name is still worthy of respect."
She spoke this last with more than a hint of contempt, as though it were a trivial matter and hardly worth the risk, but a desperate spark of hope and pride made my breath catch in my throat. If the Dark Lord trusted Draco -- my son -- to carry out such an important task, surely it was meant as a message to me. Regardless of what Narcissa had said earlier, I knew by this the Dark Lord was as good as telling me he accepted my sacrifice and would arrange for my release as he had the others, as soon as Draco redeemed the family name. I sat up a bit straighter, ignoring Narcissa's renewed sobs, and watched the shadows from the torchlight ebb and flow across the stone wall, allowing myself to imagine the welcome I would receive upon my return to the fold. Once Draco succeeded --
The thought pricked the bubble of relief and anticipation expanding in my chest with the ruthless efficiency of a pin bursting a balloon. "He won't succeed," I said dully, my shoulders sagging as reality reared its ugly head. He hadn't a chance. Not a prayer. Oh yes, this was a message from the Dark Lord, but it was not the one I'd been hoping for.
"Of course he won't!" Narcissa swiped angrily at her cheek, brushing away the tears. "The Dark L -- he realizes this as well. And when he fails, Lucius, when he fails, he will be killed. You know it as well as I!"
And I would be left here forever. No chance even to sire another heir. The Malfoy line would end with me.
A thousand-pound weight settled on my shoulders. "Why have you told me this, Narcissa?" I asked, my voice weary. "What can I do about it?"
She smiled then, a thin, almost cruel smile that made my blood run cold. "Nothing. There's no need, Lucius. I took care of it all on my own. I went to Severus."
I stiffened. Severus? My heart began to race as a shiver of fear crawled its way up my spine. "What?"
"I asked Severus to take the Unbreakable Vow." Her smile grew wider, almost mad, and for a moment I could have sworn I was looking into the face of her sister. "He has pledged to watch over Draco for me, to help him, and to carry out Draco's task for him if he cannot manage it on his own."
I grabbed her by the forearms and shook her once, hard. "My God, Narcissa, what have you done?"
"What have I done?" She pushed me away and jumped to her feet, her pale face glowing suddenly red. "I've done what I had to do, to protect my son. Our son!"
"Are you mad?" I was on my feet beside her before I'd even realized I'd moved, glaring down into her flashing eyes. "Severus -- he doesn't have any more chance against Dumbledore than Draco does," I hissed. "If our friend hasn't even been able to manage it, how do you suppose Severus can? The old man will cut him down in the blink of an eye, and -- "
And I will lose Severus and Draco, both.
My heart seized at the thought. I would never see Severus again. Never feel his hands on me, or taste his skin, or hear his voice grow rough with want. For weeks, I had been forbidding myself even to contemplate the possibility. But there was no turning away from it now. I bent my head and closed my eyes. The sense of loss was already overwhelming.
"I don't understand you, Lucius," Narcissa snapped. "Given the choice between Severus and your own son --"
"It is obvious you do not understand, Narcissa," I said, my eyes snapping open again, a sudden swell of anger forcing my mind from the emotional to the practical. I took a step closer to her and lowered my voice to a choked whisper. "If Severus tries to kill Dumbledore and does not succeed, he will be dead. If he tries to kill Dumbledore and does succeed, the Dark Lord will lose Severus as a spy. Who else in that wretched Order can possibly trust him enough to allow him to remain?" Her mouth dropped open slightly in surprise, and my hands curled into tight fists. "Either way, Severus will become useless to the Dark Lord, will he not? You have as good as signed his death warrant."
There was no need to unburden myself as to my personal feelings about Severus. There never had been.
Narcissa studied my face for a moment, and then her lips clamped shut into a hard, cold line. "If I didn't know any better, Lucius," she spat, "I'd say you cared more about Severus than you ever did about Draco."
"Time's up." Pugh's voice broke in before I had a chance to respond. Narcissa backed away a few steps, her narrowed eyes still trained on my face, then turned in a whirl of her cloak as the door creaked open. "Had a nice visit, then, did we, missus?"
"Charming," Narcissa said shortly, pulling a pair of gloves out of her pocket and thrusting her hands into them.
Pugh smiled, obviously enjoying the tension in the air even if he didn't understand its source. "Right. Well, I'll just take ye back upstairs, then." He turned to look at me, and the greedy expression on his face made my stomach churn. "I'll be back to deal with you, Malfoy," he said, reaching down to adjust himself. Another wave of nausea made me dizzy with dread. "Don't go anywhere."
Chuckling at his own joke, he made Narcissa a mocking half-bow and held the door open for her. She marched through without looking back, her head held high, and Pugh slammed it shut again behind her.
"Malfoy!"
Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Pugh's piggy face pressed against the small barred window in my cell door. I did not turn my head, but continued to watch the cobwebs above my bunk ripple in slow waves. A small act of defiance perhaps, but a safe one, more or less; so many prisoners went mad in here, even without the dementors, that most of the guards had become accustomed to repeating themselves.
"Don't ye dare ignore me," Pugh growled, and the happy idea that I might have got away with something vanished in a puff of smoke.
I sat up on the edge of my bunk. Pugh's face was beet-red. "I wasn't ignoring you," I said quickly. "I --" my mind raced "-- I was thinking about something and I didn't hear you."
Pugh sniggered. "Thinking about something, eh? Well. Ye've got a visitor out here, but seein' as how yer so lost in your thoughts and all, I reckon you're too busy to see her, that right?"
"A visitor?" My voice sounded overly eager even to my own ears, and Pugh bared his teeth in a malevolent smile that made my chest tighten with hopeless fury. It took a special brand of sadism to dangle such an irresistible carrot in a prisoner's face.
But then Pugh said, "Yeah. Yer wife."
"Narcissa?" I was on my feet and hurrying toward the door before the name was fully formed.
"Back off," Pugh snarled, brandishing his wand, and at the same moment I heard my wife's trembling voice call, "Lucius?" I froze in my tracks. Pugh jabbed his wand through the window, and I moved away slowly, hands raised to chest level, step by careful step until I could feel the mattress against the back of my knees.
After a moment Pugh lowered his wand, and I took a deep, silent breath. "Yeah," he said again, turning his head toward the direction from which Narcissa's voice had come. "And she's right pretty, too." His eyes rolled as they trailed up and down her figure, and I gritted my teeth against the idea of him looking at my wife the way men looked at the whores on Knockturn Alley. "Pity you had to get uppity with me, Malfoy," he said, turning to look at me again. "It's a right shame I'm going to have to send her away, innit."
"Please," Narcissa's voice filtered in through the bars again. She sounded close to tears. "Let me see my husband. I've come such a long way."
"Well..." Pugh dragged the single syllable out, scratching at his stubbly chin as he pretended to think about it. "I s'pose I can find some other way to deal with this little infraction." A wave of nausea made my stomach writhe. I knew exactly what that meant. "All right then, missus, ye can go on in." The key scraped in the lock, and a moment later the door swung open. Pugh took up more than half the doorway as he raised his wand at me again; Narcissa had no choice but to slide along his belly as she eased her way past. "Fifteen minutes," he grunted, slamming the door shut behind her with a clang that made her jump. "And this ain't no conjugal visit. I'll be right outside."
We stared at each other across the cell for a few heartbeats that seemed to last an age. She looked so small. It struck me later what an odd first impression that was after not seeing her for so long, but all I could think was how small and delicate she looked in comparison to the huge, lumbering guards. Her white traveling cloak glowed in the torchlight, the only garment in the entire prison that wasn't stained with sweat and streaked with grime.
And then she was in my arms, and my cheeks were wet and hot from her tears. I could taste their salt on her lips as she kissed me. The stench of the prison had not yet permeated her clothes, and I was certain I could detect the fragrance of the manor's rose garden in her hair. I hadn't realized how much I'd missed the texture of her skin until I felt it beneath my fingers again, and for an instant I was sorry she had come; being reminded would only serve to make it that much more difficult to forget once again.
"Lucius," she murmured, pulling back until I could see the tears trembling on her eyelashes. "My darling. Are you all right?"
I said nothing. Surely the evidence before her own eyes was testimony enough. "Why have you come?" I whispered instead, pulling her down alongside me as I sat on the edge of my bunk. "Narcissa, it's unspeakably dangerous for you to be here."
A single tear meandered its way along her cheekbone as she carded her fingers through the limp hair hanging over my shoulder. They snagged almost immediately in the tangles. "I've come about Draco," she said quietly, trying in vain to work the knots loose. "He's got himself into some terrible trouble."
"What's happened?" I demanded, and she gave up on my hair and clutched at my hand instead. "Narcissa. What's happened? What has Draco done?"
"Oh, Lucius. So much has happened since you've been gone. The Dark -- " I cut her off with a frantic shake of my head, then nodded toward the door and Pugh standing in the corridor just beyond. Her throat worked for a moment before she nodded in return. "Our... friend," she said, her voice barely audible, "is so angry with you, Lucius, for... for your error." This reminder of my shame stung, coming as it did less than five minutes into our reunion, and I jerked my hand from her grasp. Oblivious to my anger, or perhaps uninterested in it, Narcissa went on as though she hadn't noticed. "He has given Draco a task. An impossible task." Her fingers trembled as she pressed them against her lips. "I am not supposed to speak of it," she whispered, the color draining from her face. "He has forbidden it. But you should know. You must know."
"What is it, Narcissa?" I asked crossly. Her histrionics were becoming tiresome. We had only moments together, and I was desperate for all the news of the world outside the fortress.
She lowered her hand slowly and squared her shoulders. Small spots of red appeared high on her cheeks in response to my tone. "He is to kill Albus Dumbledore."
I blinked. "Draco?" Kill Dumbledore? "What --" I certainly hadn't expected anything like this. "When did he take the Mark?" I whispered fiercely, unable to think of anything more intelligent to say in the face of this extraordinary revelation.
"Just after you were captured. Bellatrix took him."
"Oh, she did, did she," I said quietly, a note of bitterness creeping into my tone. I had planned to take him to the Dark Lord myself, would have done in a year's time when he turned 17, had I not been robbed of the opportunity.
"He insisted." Narcissa's eyes were bright with tears again. "He so desperately wanted to, Lucius. To avenge you. And, I think, to prove to... to him that the Malfoy name is still worthy of respect."
She spoke this last with more than a hint of contempt, as though it were a trivial matter and hardly worth the risk, but a desperate spark of hope and pride made my breath catch in my throat. If the Dark Lord trusted Draco -- my son -- to carry out such an important task, surely it was meant as a message to me. Regardless of what Narcissa had said earlier, I knew by this the Dark Lord was as good as telling me he accepted my sacrifice and would arrange for my release as he had the others, as soon as Draco redeemed the family name. I sat up a bit straighter, ignoring Narcissa's renewed sobs, and watched the shadows from the torchlight ebb and flow across the stone wall, allowing myself to imagine the welcome I would receive upon my return to the fold. Once Draco succeeded --
The thought pricked the bubble of relief and anticipation expanding in my chest with the ruthless efficiency of a pin bursting a balloon. "He won't succeed," I said dully, my shoulders sagging as reality reared its ugly head. He hadn't a chance. Not a prayer. Oh yes, this was a message from the Dark Lord, but it was not the one I'd been hoping for.
"Of course he won't!" Narcissa swiped angrily at her cheek, brushing away the tears. "The Dark L -- he realizes this as well. And when he fails, Lucius, when he fails, he will be killed. You know it as well as I!"
And I would be left here forever. No chance even to sire another heir. The Malfoy line would end with me.
A thousand-pound weight settled on my shoulders. "Why have you told me this, Narcissa?" I asked, my voice weary. "What can I do about it?"
She smiled then, a thin, almost cruel smile that made my blood run cold. "Nothing. There's no need, Lucius. I took care of it all on my own. I went to Severus."
I stiffened. Severus? My heart began to race as a shiver of fear crawled its way up my spine. "What?"
"I asked Severus to take the Unbreakable Vow." Her smile grew wider, almost mad, and for a moment I could have sworn I was looking into the face of her sister. "He has pledged to watch over Draco for me, to help him, and to carry out Draco's task for him if he cannot manage it on his own."
I grabbed her by the forearms and shook her once, hard. "My God, Narcissa, what have you done?"
"What have I done?" She pushed me away and jumped to her feet, her pale face glowing suddenly red. "I've done what I had to do, to protect my son. Our son!"
"Are you mad?" I was on my feet beside her before I'd even realized I'd moved, glaring down into her flashing eyes. "Severus -- he doesn't have any more chance against Dumbledore than Draco does," I hissed. "If our friend hasn't even been able to manage it, how do you suppose Severus can? The old man will cut him down in the blink of an eye, and -- "
And I will lose Severus and Draco, both.
My heart seized at the thought. I would never see Severus again. Never feel his hands on me, or taste his skin, or hear his voice grow rough with want. For weeks, I had been forbidding myself even to contemplate the possibility. But there was no turning away from it now. I bent my head and closed my eyes. The sense of loss was already overwhelming.
"I don't understand you, Lucius," Narcissa snapped. "Given the choice between Severus and your own son --"
"It is obvious you do not understand, Narcissa," I said, my eyes snapping open again, a sudden swell of anger forcing my mind from the emotional to the practical. I took a step closer to her and lowered my voice to a choked whisper. "If Severus tries to kill Dumbledore and does not succeed, he will be dead. If he tries to kill Dumbledore and does succeed, the Dark Lord will lose Severus as a spy. Who else in that wretched Order can possibly trust him enough to allow him to remain?" Her mouth dropped open slightly in surprise, and my hands curled into tight fists. "Either way, Severus will become useless to the Dark Lord, will he not? You have as good as signed his death warrant."
There was no need to unburden myself as to my personal feelings about Severus. There never had been.
Narcissa studied my face for a moment, and then her lips clamped shut into a hard, cold line. "If I didn't know any better, Lucius," she spat, "I'd say you cared more about Severus than you ever did about Draco."
"Time's up." Pugh's voice broke in before I had a chance to respond. Narcissa backed away a few steps, her narrowed eyes still trained on my face, then turned in a whirl of her cloak as the door creaked open. "Had a nice visit, then, did we, missus?"
"Charming," Narcissa said shortly, pulling a pair of gloves out of her pocket and thrusting her hands into them.
Pugh smiled, obviously enjoying the tension in the air even if he didn't understand its source. "Right. Well, I'll just take ye back upstairs, then." He turned to look at me, and the greedy expression on his face made my stomach churn. "I'll be back to deal with you, Malfoy," he said, reaching down to adjust himself. Another wave of nausea made me dizzy with dread. "Don't go anywhere."
Chuckling at his own joke, he made Narcissa a mocking half-bow and held the door open for her. She marched through without looking back, her head held high, and Pugh slammed it shut again behind her.