Epilogue

She had paced the entire manor twice. Whispering prayers as she walked, she stopped by Draco's room and glanced in as she had every five minutes, reassuring herself that he was safe. He was only a year old, too young to understand why so many people had been invited to dinner, or why he got so many extra sweets afterwards. Halloween was her favorite holiday aside from Christmas, and there had been great confidence in the handful of knights as they put on their death eater masks. As tense as the party had grown, there'd been an air of optimism and hope.

A hand of glory burned on the nightstand by Draco's bed. She bent and blew out the flames on the fingertips, taking the hand with her as she left.

All of their dark artifacts lay in the hidden chamber beneath their dining room. She added the hand to the pile and closed the trap door, rolling the carpet back over and setting the table on it again. If aurors came to raid the house, they would not find it easily.

But why would aurors come this night? Lucius and Severus would return. She had to believe that.

Tonight should have been a simple raid, a quick attack on a Wizengamot judge. It shouldn't have lasted five minutes.

Lucius had gone first, summoned by his dark mark as the time for the assault grew near. When fifteen minutes had passed, Severus had begun to pace the main hall. When twenty minutes passed, his own mark had burned black. With a muttered curse, he had put on his mask and apparated away.

Twenty minutes had passed since then.

She hugged herself and looked again at the fire place. The elves should have kept the fire going, but she had sent them away to do the task herself. The flames burned steadily in case her husbands would floo home. Otherwise they apparate home, but apparation during a fight was far different than when there was time to pause and concentrate. Breaking into a shop or home to floo was sometimes the only escape, and a floo could be followed.

Why was it taking so long? Kill one judge and his family. It should take longer to send the dark mark in the sky than to do the deed.

If she had to, she would gather Draco and run to their Paris apartments. If the aurors broke down the door and stormed the house, she would gather Draco and apparate to the forest outside the manor, and then to the London apartment only she and and Bella knew of. If the aurors came tonight, all she had left was her son and her sister.

If aurors came tonight, that meant that Severus and Lucius were dead, their masks torn away and their dark marks revealed.

She couldn't sit down. She couldn't stand. She couldn't walk. She couldn't look in on Draco. She couldn't not look in on Draco. She couldn't stare out the windows. She couldn't stare at the walls.

The portraits watched her float by and whispered cold comforts.

Finally the book in her pocket scratched to life.

She pulled it out and opened it, not noticing that the portraits had gone silent and were watching attentively. The book was a match to one that every wife and sister of a Knight of Walpurgis kept. Each family had women that did not wear the mark in an attempt to preserve their name and property if Voldemort failed. There were dark families scattered everywhere. Someone had to be watching the battle from an attic window or from the air as an animagus. Handwritten letters burned into the page, scribbled hastily but appearing painfully slowly to her.

Ambush.

Aurors were waiting.

Reinforcements called on both sides.

Narcissa waited, but nothing more came. She couldn't close the book, desperate that it could come back to life at any moment. For long minutes she stood and waited.

Had it been Severus? She cursed her traitorous thoughts. No, Severus was dark. He belonged to them now. He may have been called to serve as a double agent, but he was loyal to the Malfoy family if nothing else. He would never--

Both sides using Unforgivables.

Many dead.

She read the line again. The silence of the manor pressed on her. If she heard the slightest step at the door, she would go. Any moment now, she expected the next line in her book to be the signal for all of them to escape. Run. Scatter. Paris. Berlin. Prague. Your knights are dead and the aurors are hunting.

Fire in Hogsmeade.

Eddleton's house destroyed.

Narcissa took heart in that. The fight was still raging. There were still Death Eaters alive and trying to finish off the Wizengamot judge.

Dark Mark in the sky.

Fog's summoned.

Narcissa's heart leapt into her throat. Summoning fog was a dark spell. They were trying to escape. The knights were trying to get far enough from the aurors and the judge's house to apparate.

No more messages came. Perhaps the writer's knight had made it home to her. After a moment, Narcissa set the book back in her pocket and sat down by the fireplace to wait. She stared at the flames, closed her eyes in prayer, then stared at the flames again.

The fire suddenly roared and hot ashes spilled across the stones onto the carpet as a masked death eater rolled out, coming up on one knee and pointing his wand back at the fire. Narcissa stood and backed away, afraid that someone might follow. His mask showed a streak along its side where a spell had come close to burning his face off.

A minute passed. The death eater caught his breath, slowly relaxing. He whipped off the mask and let the hood fall back, and the sweat-drenched blonde hair revealed how hot the fighting had been. Black grime touched his temples and his forehead, probably from the fog.

"Lucius?" Narcissa whispered.

"They suspected," Lucius growled, standing and heading to his library. "They knew. Somehow they knew we were coming."

She followed him, watching him take a book from the shelf and slam it down on his desk. It looked like one of his many dry lists of proposed legislation from decades back, but the pages inside went blank and instead names began to appear.

"Parkinson, Crabbe, Lestrange..." Lucius whispered to himself. "Avery, Rowle..."

He didn't add his own name to the list. His book was the only master copy. Not even Voldemort knew how they communicated so quickly. Not that the dark lord needed a list when he could summon anyone through the mark, but the knights took care of each other when the dark lord wouldn't. Only a handful more names appeared, and then nothing.

"Damn." He banged his fist on his desk. "Dammit! Three of them! And Vaisey was so damn young..."

Narcissa folded her hands. "And Severus?"

His head snapped up. "He isn't back?"

She shook her head.

"He hasn't sent word?"

"No."

Immediately Lucius' hand went to his ring, but he couldn't risk sending a message. If Severus had been caught, they couldn't let aurors know he was part of their family. If he was with Voldemort, he didn't dare distract him. If he was with the damn Order of the Phoenix, he couldn't risk his cover.

"Is Eddleton dead?" she asked.

"Yes, quite dead," he answered. He sank in his chair and leaned back, staring blankly at the ceiling. "As is his wife. I think his son got away, but in all the confusion I couldn't tell. We didn't even get on the lawn before the fight started."

"How could the aurors have known you were coming?" she whispered.

"It wasn't aurors," Lucius said. "It was Dumbledore's little private army. Although that may ultimately help us. They can't come after us like aurors could."

Narcissa closed her eyes. If it was aurors, then perhaps someone had been arrested and interrogated and told the Ministry about this attack. But if it was the Order, then Severus was the most obvious leak. She didn't want to believe he would betray them, but how else could their plans have been made known?

A clatter from the parlor made her turn and run, ignoring Lucius' shout that it might be an auror. The muttered cursing reassured her that it wasn't before she made it to the room, stopping in time to see one death eater dragging two more along after him. He dropped them onto the floor, then threw aside his own mask.

"Idiots!" Severus snapped. "Running so close that one spell could hit you both! Were you trying to help them win?"

He slapped one's head, stepping over him as he dropped his cloak on the floor. Its edge was torn ragged and its corner was still on fire, but Narcissa didn't care. She ran and threw her arms around him, holding him tight.

"It's all right," he said, holding her in return. "I'm fine. Wait--Lucius, is he--?"

"I'm here," Lucius said from the doorway. He gave Severus a once-over, making sure he was all right. "Any idea how they knew?"

"Yes," Severus said. "Our master let them in on it."

"What?" Lucius hissed.

About to answer him, Severus thought better of it and turned and grabbed the two death eaters he'd brought through. Tossing floo powder into the fire place, he called out "Carrow estate" and sent them tumbling headfirst home. Only when they were alone did he explain.

"We were a distraction, nothing else," Severus said. "Something about the prophecy, he didn't tell me much. Just that while we were killing Eddleton, he had business in London. It was only when I heard the aurors talking amongst themselves that I realized--"

"Order," Lucius corrected. "They were Order of the Phoenix."

"What?" Severus blinked. "No, that can't be right. I only saw aurors, Dawlish, Orthin--"

"I know for a fact I saw the Longbottoms out there," Lucius argued. "Bella almost had her head blasted off by them."

Staring past Lucius, Severus leaned back on his heels in deep thought. The clock ticked in the background, counting off seconds.

"Damn," Severus whispered. "He might suspect me."

"What do you mean?" Lucius asked.

"Dumbledore. He didn't tell me. If the Order was there--you arrived first. There must have been only aurors by the time I arrived."

"Possible," Lucius said, then sighed explosively. "You might be right. The Longbottoms are aurors. We'll have to assume they'll try to retaliate against us. Did anyone hear you come here? I was afraid someone was on my heels."

"No, I confunded the aurors chasing us. I also went to Spinner's End before here, just in case." He sat on the arm of the nearest sofa, pressing his hand to his head. "I don't suppose you might know what our lord was doing while we were distracting every damn auror in England."

"Certainly felt that way, didn't it? No, not the foggiest. Were those the Carrows, by the by?"

"Yes," Severus nodded, "little fools never learned not to bunch up. And before I forget, Vaisey will be late reporting in. I happened to see him as I went past. He's currently pretending to be a stuffed raven in some shop window."

"A stuffed raven?" Narcissa asked, laughing from ridiculousness and the tense mood. "Is that his animagus?"

"Then we lost no one," Lucius said. He reeled from relief. "Thank God."

Narcissa's laughter faded. "Yes, God. Not our master. He isn't a dark lord. He isn't a Morgan or even a Mordred."

"No, he isn't," Lucius said softly. "But could you honestly ally yourself to the Ministry against him?"

None of them answered. The Ministry would lock them all in Azkaban and leave them to rot, Draco included. Better to serve a despot who would give them the world once he was immortal rather than help the Ministry at all.

There was nothing else to say. The death eater masks and cloaks went into their hiding places and they went upstairs, and Lucius and Severus cleansed away the dark magic of the battle before either felt like they could breath freely.

Narcissa sat on the edge of the bed. They joined her there, but they didn't lie down. They sat together, watching the moon and stars turn in the sky and wondering if aurors would come banging on their door.

A white sun rose on gray drizzling skies.

end