Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.

A/N: So I've been juggling with this idea for a while now, before I decided to write it. Each chapter will probably be only about this length, but there will be twenty-five of them in total, one for each person's wish. And first up we have... Narcissa Malfoy!

1 September, 1996

Narcissa had not been in a truly empty house for a long time.

She shivered as she re-entered Malfoy Manor alone, feeling the weight of loneliness suddenly press down on her. Lucius was in prison and Draco was on the train to school, and even the house-elf had abandoned them three years ago. Narcissa had liked that elf. It was a good one, as the species went. She wondered what had happened to it.

She ate alone in the great dining room and then rose to go to bed. She was used to saying something, to someone, before she fell asleep: a kiss for her husband or a smile for her son, or even, in days whose memories still flickered in the back of her mind, giggles and gossip for her sisters.

But now Andromeda was a blood-traitor and Bella was insane, and Narcissa had absolutely no-one to turn to.

She had not wanted this. She was aware of the dangers of having a Death Eater for a husband; she had not cared because she loved him. But Draco was supposed to be safe. They had fought for a world in which Draco would be safe.

"If I had sons I would gladly give them up to the service of the Dark Lord!" Bella had cried. But she wouldn't. Bella did not have children. She did not understand the fierce joy of motherhood, or the fact that Narcissa would give her life a thousand times over before anyone harmed a hair on Draco's head.

Narcissa had always wanted younger siblings. As a child, she had always respected Bella and adored Drommie, and she had wanted someone to feel the same way about her. When her younger cousins were born she had thought she had a chance with them, but Sirius was always fiercely independent and Regulus liked Drommie and Bella best.

Well, no matter now. Both her cousins were dead.

So when Draco had been born, she had argued with her husband until he agreed to having no more children; Draco was precious and unique and one of a kind, and she would not give him someone to compete with. Draco loved her unconditionally, and to him she could give all the love and protection that no younger siblings had been granted.

But she couldn't protect Draco now.

Severus had made an Unbreakable Vow to protect him, though, hadn't he? Severus would protect him. Draco wasn't alone. He had help. Draco would be alright. He had to be alright.

"They can't take him from me," she said out loud. "They can't separate me from my child. Not from Draco."

As often happened when she was alone, Narcissa's thoughts turned to Andromeda, and more specifically to her daughter. Nymphadora, her name was. She must be nearly twenty-five by now. Had it really been that long since her Drommie, all full of sparkling eyes and forevers, had left her?

Bella had said that Nymphadora had been at the Department of Mysteries in June. She had fought against them. She had been there when Lucius was captured. Narcissa wanted to be angry, but it was hard to do so when she remembered the tiny baby with hair every colour of the rainbow, clinging to Drommie's hip as if she belonged there.

No, she could not hate her sister's child. But she could love Draco.

She had moved almost involuntarily to the window; she could see her reflection in the glossy glass. Fair hair, colourless nightgown, blue eyes and a white face. She had always hated her pale appearance, especially beside Bella and Andromeda's vibrant good looks. But a mother's heart beat under that lifeless façade, after all.

Draco wasn't even of age. And Nymphadora had made her own choice, hadn't she?

"I wish," Narcissa said slowly, staring at the one star that twinkled in the night sky, "that if a child has to die it will be Drommie's and not mine."

A/N: Poor Narcissa. She really was desperate to save her son. I hope I did her justice; she is definitely an incredibly complex character, and I think Rowling put a lot of thought into her.

Anyway, please keep an eye on this story! Next chapter will be Arthur Weasley!

Last, but DEFINITELY not least... review?

~Butterfly