A/N: I'll start this chapter with an apology.
I'm very sorry I haven't been able to write in a while but life came between my writing and me.
Such a party-pooper life is.
No seriously, school has started again at the beginning of October and the teachers have kept me quite busy since then.
I'm also a swimming coach and a lot of my free time is spend at the pool.
I hope this chapter compensates a bit for the time I needed to complete it. KEEP REVIEWING.

(((((((((((((((((((((((((((((()))))))))))))))))))))))))))))) = perspective change (P.O.V. change)

Previously:
"Ciao Drago. Long-time no see mate! Who is that pretty lady you're watching over?"
As soon as the new healer had finished his greeting he was thrown against a wall and he was being kept there in mid-air,
his feet hanging a couple inches above the ground, by Draco's hands around his neck.

Chapter 4: Narcissa's story.

"I warned you! I told you never to come near me or her again!" Draco shouted at the healer who was starting to look a little bluish.
"Draco dear." His mother said, interrupting what was going to be a long monologue of her son. "Perhaps you should let the healer go.
We won't have any usage of him if he's past out, now would we." Draco, ignoring his mother's logic, didn't ease up on the young healer's throat.
The healer in question was starting to drift out of consciousness.

"You should not have come here today." Draco hissed into the face of the healer.
"I didn't know." The healer sputtered out with some of the last air in his lunges.
This confused Draco and he loosened his grip a little. Releasing it just enough, so that the healer could breathe shallowly.
He had in fact heard his mother and was going to use that logic for his own goals.
"What do you mean; you didn't know! Didn't know what!" He had gone back to shouting at this point.
"I … I … I …" was the only sound that came from between his lips which were gasping for air.
"If you do not spit it out, you will come to regret ever setting foot in this house." Draco said, threatening the healer.
"Well, … even more than you do already of course." He said while looking at the visibly distressed man in front of him.

Knowing Draco always made good on his promises, the slightly paler man tried again. "I didn't know …" He panted.
"I didn't know she was here! I thought I was going to help you!" When he had finally uttered those words, he felt Draco's hands fall away.
No longer supported by said hands, he fell in a heap at Draco's feet. Draco, who was a bit dazed by the information he had gotten, whispered:
"They didn't tell you?"
-"Nope. They only told me that there was an adolescent in Malfoy Manor who needed a replacement healer that could stay awhile at the Manor to observe the patient.
They also said that the patient had a lot of influence and was keen on privacy.

Hell!

They even made me sign a vow not to tell anyone what I was about to see."
The healer said all this while standing up and straightening his clothes out.

"You've got to admit, that does sound like you son." Lucius said.
Being assured his son wouldn't do anything to rash
(and if he did 'accidently' kill the Italian, Lucius would just help him hide the body afterwards.) he continued speaking.
"Your mother and I will take our leave now. Do try to behave son."
"Yes father, I will do my best." Draco answered solemnly, still eyeing the healer with obvious mistrust.
After those words, Lucius and Narcissa left the room swiftly.

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"Are you going to tell me anytime soon Cissy?" I said while closing the drawing room behind me.
"I do not know what you are talking about, dear." Narcissa said with a sweet voice while pouring two drinks.
"Surely you do not make me out to be a fool. Legilimency might not be effective on you but our bond still lets me in on your emotions.
No matter how hard you try to block me out, I'll always feel a tiny sliver of your emotions.
Right now, I feel that you are nervous, slightly worried and quite a bit afraid." I said doubting that I still wanted to know what she was hiding.
I sat myself in one of the armchairs in front of the fire.

I could see realisation surface on Cissy's face. She knows that she'll have to tell me eventually.
Narcissa sighed, took the two drinks she'd poured and gave the largest one to me. "You'll need it." She said when I pulled up my eyebrow.
-Why would I need it? It can't be that bad can it? Better not to take chances. With that thought in mind, I drank the glass empty.

"All right then, I should start at the beginning I suppose. Let me see … six months after we switched sides,
I started to notice things around the house and … well … everywhere I went." Narcissa started her story with those sentences.
"It felt like I was being watched. Only when I was in your company, I didn't feel those invisible eyes on me."
She paused, looking at me to be sure I wouldn't interfere while she told the rest of the story.
I gave her a nod and she continued. "A month after the first time I felt watched, they came for me.
I was tending to the rose garden when they crossed the protective border of the lands.
Not knowing who it was, I went to greet my visitors."

She paused a bit to take a sip from her drink before continuing. I was starting to feel nervous.
I could count the things that brought my wife to drinking on one hand. I knew right then that I wasn't going to like this story at all.
"They deliberately crossed the border all at once, so I didn't know how many of them there were. I did not stand a chance."
She smiled sadly at me.
"There were ten of them. All in their Death-Eater-robes." She snorted at this. "They were trying to intimidate me I guess.
Anyhow … they started duelling me one-on-one but as they lost four men quite quickly, they joined forces."

...

"I lost."

...

"They took me to my own dungeons." I shuddered at this. I knew what Death Eaters did to their prisoners. Having been one myself not too long ago.
My body was already trembling with the knowledge as to what may have happened to her.
-"Do not fret my love. They wanted information from me. Yes, they tortured me and gave me next to nothing to eat or drink but they didn't harm me too badly.
You see, if their hunches about me being a traitor were wrong, they needed to have a backup plan.
They wanted to be able to bring me back to you 'intact' so do speak."

"They never brought you home." I stated sadly. "What gave you away?" "Nothing did. She said. "They couldn't find anything against my person.
Well … except my mysterious disappearance once in a while, after we had switched sides.
I never said a word, literally, not even in their group(-torture) sessions."
-"Why didn't you come home then? I didn't know where you were for a month or so! Surely they didn't 'interrogate' you that long?"
I couldn't help raising my voice a bit. Why didn't she come back to me? Did she know that I looked for her, every spare moment I had?

"I told you why I didn't come back. I have never lied to you! Why would I start at a moment like that?"
She had started to raise her voice as well because she had seen and heard the accusation in my eyes and voice.
"I only knew where you were because of the girl who is currently residing in Draco's room." I said from between my teeth.
"If I waited for you to let me know where you were, I still wouldn't know."

-"Ugh, did something happen to those brain cells of yours!
Do you really think that the smartest witch in centuries 'accidently' let it slip that The Order was keeping me prisoner, just when you were passing by?"
She was really frustrated and I felt really stupid all of a sudden. "Well… actually I did think that." I answered her question sheepishly.

"Wait, you really did believe that I didn't want you to know where I was? Oh Merlin! I…, I…, I didn't know. I swear I didn't know."
She started to cry silently.
What was I thinking, yelling at her. She didn't mean to upset me. Should I apologise to her?
No! I didn't do anything wrong, but neither did she.
"Please stop crying Cissy." I whispered to her.
I couldn't stand her being sad, so I pulled her slender frame to me.

"Do tell more about the event that brought you to Miss Granger's house. No need to cry love." I told her while holding her close until she stopped crying.
When there were no more tears to shed, she continued. "Okay, now I told you that there wasn't anything they could find to link me to The Order, right?"
I gave her a nod to indicate that indeed, she had told me that.

"Well, that fact didn't change a thing for them.

Each and every day of my imprisonment they increased their torture in level as well as duration.
After six days of this, I had enough. I had seen these men and women, who took pleasure in torturing me, as friends for many years.
But I could not see them as such anymore.
I felt that I could no longer stay with people who would betray each and every one they knew if only it benefited them.

So… I left the seventh day."

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Narcissa was to continue her story when they were loudly interrupted by their son.
Draco stormed into the room, breathless of his run to the room and with a large smile on his face.
Lucius sighed heavily. "Pray tell son, why must you interrupt us when the locked door you just bashed in is a clear sign that we didn't wish for anyone to interrupt us."
Draco looked at the door startled.
"The door was locked? Really? I didn't even notice."

""You seem too occupied by your news to notice anything, dear." Narcissa said with a small smile upon her face.
It had been too many years since she had seen her son smile like he did now. Her heart swelled with hope and love.
Hope for the future and love for what or more probably who brought the smile to her son's face.

"Go on dear, tell us then!"

Draco's face brightened even more while he straightened up to tell them his news.

.

.

She's awake. Hermione is awake!

.

.

A/N: I finally, finally finished. It was a real struggle for me to complete this chapter.
It is a bit longer than normal and I hope it compensates a bit for the wait.

I hope nobody is angry with me or has given up on the story because of the wait. PLEASE REVIEW.