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Narcissa Militant	By : Lomonaaeren Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Draco Views: 17885 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 3
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. I am not making any money from this story.

Chapter List
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Thank you again for all the reviews!
Part Six
“I want to know who that person really was.”
Narcissa smiled a little. She had wondered if the demonstration would manage to pierce Dawlish’s thick skull, and she still thought it might, given world enough and time. But it was clear that he had decided the simpler explanation was that she was playing a trick on him. She sighed. “It was Voldemort.”
“No, it wasn’t.”
“Why not?”
Dawlish spluttered and waved his arms around as if he hadn’t expected a direct attack like that. Narcissa was glad that she had raised a Silencing Charm around them before this conversation started. Dawlish would probably have woken up Harry otherwise. “You-Know-Who wouldn’t look like that!”
“He would if he took some of my blood and accidentally made it the cornerstone of the ritual that gave him his body back, instead of Harry’s blood. Didn’t he look like me?”
Dawlish stood there as if he didn’t know how to answer. Narcissa concealed a smile. On the one hand, she knew that Voldemort did look like her, and Dawlish wasn’t a fool; he would be able to see the resemblance.
On the other hand, Voldemort was ugly, and Dawlish’s training had to be barking at him about being rude to a woman of high position.
“He did, a little,” Dawlish conceded, and then added quickly, “But I’m sure that’s someone you just persuaded to dress up and act the part.”
“Why?” Narcissa was genuinely curious what Dawlish thought she would have to gain from that.
“Because—because it’s impossible for You-Know-Who to be back! He’s dead! Your son killed him all those years ago!”
Narcissa sighed. She was sorry, for the first time, that she had killed Dumbledore. He could have provided confirmation that Voldemort had been around during Harry’s first year in wraith form. But it was possible that Minerva had some of the same memories, at least of Dumbledore telling her the truth about the wraith. “That did not happen. I can show you Pensieve memories that would—”
“No, it’s a trick! That’s exactly what the Ministry warned us to beware of. I just didn’t think that you would lie about something like this, Professor Malfoy.” Dawlish shook his head, his face red with stubbornness, and drew away from her. “I thought you wouldn’t go to such lengths to make your son look good.”
“It’s not about making him look good, and all about making sure that people survive when Voldemort returns,” Narcissa said, quiet, intense, willing Dawlish to listen. He wasn’t important in and of himself, but for the people he represented, the ones who she would have to persuade to their side. Right now, this was a resounding failure. “My son first of all, but you saw those students with the Dark Mark on their arms. My son did this partially so that Marked students in the school couldn’t pose a danger to him or other students.”
“The real Dark Mark can’t be removed by any means known.” Dawlish gave her a smug, smarmy smile. “You ought to know that, Professor Malfoy. After all, your husband was under the Imperius but he still hasn’t managed to take the Mark off his arm, has he?”
“Because Voldemort was there, we were able to force the magic back into him, something obviously impossible when he’d been reduced to a wraith and wasn’t physically present at—”
“This is all a trick,” said Dawlish, and stuck his nose up in the air. “I’m going to tell the Ministry that you pulled a trick and did it to convince me, and you injured innocent students are this school.”
“Innocent, when they had the Mark?”
“The real Mark can’t be removed,” Dawlish repeated obstinately. “That means they must have been tattoos. Or a spell that you cast. I’m going to report that you did this, and you also had something to do with Madam Umbridge’s disappearance.”
“Based on what evidence?”
“That you’re powerful, and uncontrolled.” For an instant, Dawlish’s gaze went past her towards the door of the hospital wing. “And you’re running around sheltering someone who’s also powerful and uncontrolled.”
Narcissa sighed. “I didn’t want to do this, you know,” she told Dawlish, shaking her head. “I wouldn’t have if you’d stuck to threatening me. I can remain calm in the face of those threats, I really can.”
She flicked her wand out, blocked the defensive spell that Dawlish tried to cast in his shock, and pinned his sleeve to the wall with a thrown dagger. “But you can’t threaten my son,” she finished, and Dawlish had a moment to stare at her in horror before she added, “Imperio.”
The spell swept over Dawlish and made his jaw fall slightly open and his eyes glaze. Narcissa watched him as she cast the spell that would tell her if anyone else was around and observing her. She got a clear, shimmering sparkle as a result, which meant no one was.
Narcissa nodded. She had perfected her use of the Imperius Curse until it was hard to tell that someone was under her control at all, but she needed some extra moments to work on it.
Carefully, she cast binding spells on Dawlish until his buried fear at the fact that he knew something was happening subsided and she could glance into his eyes and use Legilimency easily. Then she began to speak, pausing after each sentence so that it would have a chance to sink deep into Dawlish’s mind and tie him to her desires.
“You will not seek to arrest or threaten Harry Potter. You will not seek to arrest or threaten Draco Malfoy. You will not seek to arrest or threaten Lucius Malfoy. You will not seek to arrest or threaten Narcissa Malfoy. If involved in an expedition to arrest them or ordered to arrest them, you will come up with an excuse to delay it or sabotage the mission that sounds as little like an excuse as possible. If you hear a credible threat against them from the Minister or anyone else, you will inform Narcissa Malfoy of the threat at once by owl. You will forget about the owl that moment you have sent it. You will also take her suggestions as serious ones that you should give due consideration to.
“You will return to the Ministry and state that you have evidence to your satisfaction that Dolores Umbridge was killed by a Death Eater who gained entrance to the school due to the Ministry’s lax policy of setting protections. You will argue that Aurors should be sent to Hogwarts to offer some spells of their own that would defend entrances and exits and tell the Aurors when anyone who bears the Dark Mark enters. You will also argue that they should use the Dark Mark of a convicted Death Eater to set up that warning spell. You will belittle and cut down anyone who suggests using Lucius Malfoy’s Dark Mark.
“You will also tell people that, in your opinion, Harry Potter is right about You-Know-Who’s return. You will tell this only to people who have indicated they might be sympathetic to such a view. You will use the Memory Charm on anyone who, when you tell this to them, threatens to go and tell the Minister or anyone else.
“In other matters, use your discretion. If it seems to your unbiased judgment that another threat has arisen that Narcissa Malfoy should know about, send her an anonymous owl, which you will immediately forget about.”
Narcissa waited until she could feel the slight twitch of his thoughts that indicated he had indeed been affected by the words sinking into his mind and changing him. Then she Summoned back the dagger and released him from the spell. Dawlish staggered and stared at her. One of his hands rose as though he was going to touch his temple and smooth out a lump there.
“Wh—what happened?”
Narcissa assumed an expression of concern and frowned at him. “You came in looking rather pale and as though you were about to fall over, Auror Dawlish. Did witnessing the events this afternoon tire you?”
“They frightened me,” said Dawlish, in a much more normal, raw tone than Narcissa had heard from him since he arrived. She hadn’t actually told him that he should always tell the truth to her, but with the bindings on his mind now, it would be hard to lie. She watched him shake his head a little and his face grow whiter. “I suppose we can’t really deny that You-Know-Who is back if we actually saw him, can we?”
“No. Though I suppose the Daily Prophet will still try.”
“Then they can talk to me. The word of an experienced Auror ought to be worth more than the word of an inexperienced boy.”
Narcissa smiled. “I appreciate your willingness to spread the word, Auror Dawlish. Let me know if I can do anything to help.”
“Not right now, Narcissa.” Dawlish gave her the slightest of patronizing smiles. “I think this effort should be left up to professionals.” And he strode away, his boots stomping harder than ever on the floor, as if he wanted to make the whole school feel the force of his conviction.
Narcissa cast a Silencing Charm around herself, then leaned against the wall and laughed until her throat was dry.
*
“Those were our students that you put at risk.”
“I believe we’ve discussed before that you put Harry at risk on a regular basis.” Narcissa folded up her robes and turned around, one eyebrow rising as she considered the Headmistress in her doorway. “He only did something that, in the end, spared those students from serving the monster they dedicated their lives to.”
“He can’t have done it all by himself.”
Narcissa sighed. “You know very little about my foster son.”
“I know that it was you who brewed that potion.”
“And if you can identify illegal ingredients or something else I did wrong while brewing it, then perhaps you can condemn me.” Narcissa locked the trunk. They were going home to spend Christmas at Malfoy Manor, and she was determined that no curious fingers would find the gifts she had purchased for Draco and Harry in Hogsmeade before she was ready. “Really, Minerva. What do you expect me to say? That I’m going to go and surrender myself to Aurors right this instant?”
Minerva folded her arms. She looked old and small and hunched-in. Narcissa wondered, not for the first time, if she should have more closely manipulated the succession after Dumbledore died. She had allowed his chosen successor to take his place, but she could have done something else.
Perhaps I shall have to soon.
“It’s dangerous,” Minerva whispered. “I don’t think the professor most dangerous for our students here was Umbridge.”
Narcissa held herself rigid, so that the insult could pass through her and into the distance like one of the many poisons she had an immunity to. Then she shook her head. She would not depose Minerva simply because of a threat. “You understand nothing about what Umbridge and the Ministry wanted, or you wouldn’t say that.”
“Then suppose you tell me!”
“They wanted an entire generation of children to grow up in ignorance. Given the problems before this with Hogwarts losing a Defense teacher every year, they’ve largely got their wish, but now Voldemort’s return is threatening that. Even having a few people believe Harry is too much. I am protective of my sons, Minerva. I am also trying to be the best Astronomy professor I can, and neutralize a threat that would affect all our students’ lives. And for these efforts, I receive stares and words so bitter that I think you would prefer to have Dolores back.”
“I understood how to counter Dolores. I don’t understand how to counter you.”
“Why do you think you have to?” Narcissa tried to make her voice gentle. Minerva sounded so bitter and lost and hopeless. “What is the harm you think I’ll do your students while I’m here?”
“You’ve already shown it.”
“And those Marked students wouldn’t have made others’ lives miserable? Perhaps even tortured or killed someone on Voldemort’s command?”
“They’re still young—”
“But not innocent.” Narcissa burned, for the first time in years, to tell a stranger of the discipline, and what she had already mastered and learned how to do by such an age. Or what Harry knew now.
But as with Minerva’s earlier insult, sharp words weren’t worth putting all of her plans at risk. She only shook her head. “It’s done. The Marks are gone.”

“And you remain here, to endanger them still.”
Narcissa looked carefully into Minerva’s eyes. “Are you telling me that I’m no longer welcome here after the holidays?”
“I’m saying that you should only plan on holding the post for a year. I’ll begin looking for someone in the next term, and I expect to have them hired by the time that summer arrives.”
“If you wish,” Narcissa said neutrally. While being at Hogwarts as a professor to watch over her boys was useful, she did sometimes find that the duties of teaching and marking interfered with her protection of them. She could find other ways to visit and guard them if Minerva insisted on sacking her.
“I wish I knew how to neutralize you,” Minerva muttered again, and wandered away looking every inch Dumbledore’s age. Narcissa shook her head, and went to the Floo to open it and tell the house-elves they would be home soon.
Not replaceable yet. But she is becoming tiresome.
*
“Dearest.”
Lucius was flushing and shifting from foot to foot. Narcissa simply watched him for a moment. He knew better than to show in front of Draco and Harry how openly he desired her.
Which meant that what he was showing now was not simple desire. It was something else. She crooked her fingers at Harry, and Harry gave her one questioning glance and then led Draco upstairs, chattering lightly all the while of whether they should stop supporting the Falmouth Falcons since they’d lost their last game. Draco gave Harry a look that said he knew very well what was going on, but let himself be led.
Then Narcissa and Lucius were alone in the midst of their great drawing room, with mirrors on the wall that were testaments to Lucius’s vanity. Narcissa pushed a strand of her hair out of the way and eyed her husband. “Out with it.”
“What do you mean?”
“You’ve done something that you’re ashamed of, or at least something that you think might cause unacceptable consequences if I discover it,” Narcissa told him crisply. “And that is in itself unacceptable, Lucius, that you would try to lie to me. Tell me the truth, and it might be that I’ll go easy on you.”
Lucius flinched. Then he slowly drew up his left sleeve. Narcissa expected to see the Dark Mark weeping and distended like a sore, or possibly inflamed, or cursed, or eating half his arm.
She did not expect to see a great band of shimmering gold encircling the Mark. Narcissa grasped his arm and turned it. When she dared to brush a finger over the band of gold, it felt like skin. The only thing that marked it as different was the color.
She met Lucius’s eyes. He was shivering all over, and kept his eyes averted from her.
“Explain to me,” Narcissa whispered, “what is going on.”
While she was at Hogwarts, speaking to him mostly through the fire and occasional visits at home, it might have been easy to persuade himself that he was more frightened of Voldemort. Now Lucius shivered again and began to babble. “I think the blood that the Dark Lord took from you must have influenced it somehow. That’s the only thing I can think of. It—I would never feel any temptation to surrender to him no matter how he called me through the Mark, never. But I think that the blood—”
“You think that the blood what?”
“That the blood he took from you means that he also has control over the marriage vows that bind me to you,” Lucius whispered.
Narcissa stood still for a moment. Yes, it was true that the band of gold resembled a wedding ring. But there was one problem with Lucius’s idea. “Then he would have gained equal control over me, and been able to make me feel loyalty to him. And drawn to him.” She knew Lucius hadn’t been with the Death Eaters who had followed Voldemort into defeat at Hogwarts. She would have sensed that at once. But he might have done other things. “What have you done?”
“A few raids.” Lucius bowed his head. “And I know that he hasn’t been able to compel your loyalty, Narcissa, but you have your discipline to help you resist him. And…”
“Yes?”
“You’ve always been stronger than me.” Lucius’s head bowed further. “He controlled me enough that I couldn’t inform you when I knew I would only see you for a few minutes. I think the way he was hurt when you and Harry drew him to Hogwarts and the fact that you’re staying longer this time have weakened his control.”
Narcissa gently drew Lucius into her arms and kissed his forehead, and then the gold skin around his Mark. It shimmered and sparked to her lips, but she ignored that. Lucius had admitted he needed her. That was all that was required to make her protect him.
“Poor darling. Of course I will take care of it.”
*
Staar: Well, Dawlish doesn't need to go if Narcissa can find a way to use him. :)
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Narcissa Militant