Chapter 13: The End

Lucius Malfoy had never been at Grimmauld Place 12 and he instantly decided that this had been no loss. The room the house elf had left him in to inform "Miss Cissy" about his visit, was chilly. The wallpaper was a deep dusty gold, and far below a chandelier hung from the oval cluster of plaster leaves on the hallway ceiling; something frothy and Venetian that he could recall having seen before in some book of his mother. Gilt fauteuils gleamed in the shadows, graceful straight-backed chairs, but it wasn't the unmistakable elegance of the room that took him by surprise - he had expected no less for the famous Black clan - but the atmosphere ruling the place. A veil of stillness laid over all, as if the world beyond had gone up in smoke, some dreadful silence like the silence before the storm. He shuddered. So this was the most ancient and noble House of Black.

"Lucius."

He looked up and saw her standing in the doorframe. She looked tired but she held herself up as straight as always. There seemed to be nothing that could break that girl ultimately.

"Narcissa", he said simply.

She still looked at him, thoughtful, meditating. "How can I help you?"

"I came to tell you how sorry I am about … " about all of this, about the way I've treated you after school, about the look in your eyes. "About Rosier."

"Are you?" she asked sardonically. "I did not think that anything ever matters to you."

"Well, it does." The defeated look in her face gave him the force to continue. "I know that you cared a lot about him and I am sorry that your friend had to die so young. It matters to me. And I cared about the things you told me at your sister's wedding. I've never apologized for stopping to write you, have I?"

"No, you haven't."

He smiled a little uncomfortably. "Would you accept an apology if I offered you one?"

The blonde did not smile back. "Slytherin to the core, aren't we?" she asked tiredly. "Always scheming, always planning, always arranging for the consequences that we want to take place. Why don't you simply apologize and wait if I forgive you or not?"

Their eyes linked in a gaze so intense it almost pained him. She was drawing him in slowly, defying him with those sad eyes. "I apologize", he said after an eternity. "It was unforgivable. I thought more about my reputation than about you although I should have known that Bellatrix would provide a poor comforter. I am deeply sorry."

Narcissa lowered her eyes. "I accept your apology."

He nodded. "Thank you."

For a long time neither of them said anything. When she looked up again, he was shocked to see tears in her eyes. "This is all my fault," she whispered. "He was so full of life and how he's dead and it's all my fault."

"No, it's not."

She laughed bitterly. "Oh yes, it is. I told him that I did not love him and that was why he joined the Dark Lord and that's why he's dead. That's quite clearly my fault, isn't it?"

"You did not love him?" It came out sharper than intended.

"No, I did not", she smiled ruefully. "He was the best man I've ever known and I could not bring myself to love him. I guess that is the ultimate prove that Sirius was right. I am the Ice Queen. I have no heart."

"You know that this is not right."

"Is it not?" Narcissa suddenly sighed heavily. "Why did you come, Lucius? Why this all?" She swept a hand out in an all-encompassing gesture, indicating the world, them, heaven, hell. Life and death.

He paused, caught off guard, and for a moment he was not so sure about himself anymore. Then he looked at her and suddenly he knew. "I missed you, Cissy. I missed you more than I would imagine and I still miss you. Sometimes I think you are the only person that ever truly understood me."

He reached out, and this time Narcissa caught his hand. Her fingers were cool, delicate. It felt as though he could crush them with just a flex of his hand.

Very carefully he kissed that fragile hand. "Everything will be fine", he promised her firmly. And when she smiled at him – openly and warmly and not at all an Ice Queen – he knew that it would be.

The End

AN: It took me an unbelievable long time to finish this story. Thank you all for being there for me such a long time!