AN: So I spent a little time reading and reviewing all the AU challenge entries last night and now I've decided to try my hand at one myself. It's pretty self-explanatory, I think, though if you have any questions, you are of course free to PM me or ask in a Review. Enjoy!

Message From The Stars

"That will be all. You may go." The high cold voice of the Dark Lord rang the rafters of the Riddle mansion and, at his dismissal, the twenty or so people arranged around the oak dining table rose and bowed, reaching for cloaks, drawing on masks and hoods.

Lucius held his wife's cloak for her and then offered her his arm. Forcing a slight smile for the benefit of others watching, Narcissa laid her hand lightly on his sleeve.

The two Malfoys walked out of the drawing room with their heads high, knowing every eye was upon them. Lucius had already made a mess of the diary incident three years earlier – he could not afford to bungle this opportunity to prove himself as well.

As soon as they were out of earshot of the room, Lucius bent his head to Narcissa, brushing his lips to her temple. "Forgive me, my sweet, but I cannot accompany you home. An urgent message from the Minister came only moments before this meeting. I must go to attend him."

Trying not to show how her heart was leaping at the news, and how much Lucius's touch now disgusted her, Narcissa nodded demurely. "It doesn't matter, Lucius. I am perfectly capable of Apparating home alone. Go to Fudge. I shall see you later."

"Until later then, my love."

Without another word, Lucius turned on the spot and Apparated away. The Dark Mark gave him that power.

Not actually bearing the Mark, Narcissa had to continue her lonely walk to the gates of the Riddle mansion, to the place where the shields on the mansion ceased to exist before she too could turn on the spot and vanish into thin air with a "pop!"

The hillside was deserted and windswept. Not even a single tree managed to eke out an existence from its barren soil. It wasn't at all the kind of place you would expect to meet a Pureblood witch, least of all one as beautiful and proud as Narcissa Malfoy nee Black.

And yet it was precisely here that Narcissa Malfoy appeared not moments after Disapparating from outside the Riddle Mansion.

Glancing around furtively, as though afraid of something, she drew her wand and murmured "Expecto Patronum Nontium."

A delicate antelope blossomed from her wand, frolicking around her until she murmured "Take this message to Andromeda Tonks." Then it froze and stood still, one ear pricked eagerly for what she was about to say. Pausing for breath, Narcissa steeled herself and then began.

"Meda. It's me. Cissy. I've just come from a meeting. The –The Dark Lord intends to lure Potter to the Department of Mysteries tomorrow night and have him lead us to the Prophecy. It's important. He's putting everyone on to this. Everyone. Lucius. Rabastan. Rodolphus. Dolohov. Crabbe, Macnair, Rookwood, Mulciber, Jugson, Avery."

Narcissa hesitated a moment before thinking "If she's hearing it, she's going to hear it all." Through trembling lips, she forced the last word into existence. "Bella."

That was the hardest bit. The next words almost fell from her lips, so easy were they to say in comparison.

"You need to tell the Order. They're going to need their best men on this. Their best. But don't lie in wait for them. Please. That would make it too easy. Too easy for the Dark Lord to know. Please, Meda. I'm begging you. If -"

Narcissa broke off. She had been about to say "If you were ever a Black, ever my sister, do this for me." but she wouldn't let herself. She was not quite that desperate. Not yet.

Her Patronus pawed the ground impatiently. With one last furtive look over her shoulder, Narcissa breathed "Take this message to Andromeda Tonks."

A second later, the silver antelope was gone, bounding into the rapidly deepening shadows.

Narcissa watched it go, heart pounding. If she'd been followed; if the Dark Lord got to know that she had betrayed him, then she and her family were finished.

"But that's why I'm doing this. For my family." she thought fiercely, desperately trying to stop the shivers that were running down her spine.

A second later, she had turned on the spot and Disapparated.