Chapter 99: From a good place to hell

The happy gargle of his youngest daughter made Rick smile. Thanks to the time-turner, Rick was maximizing his free time during the week-end and he had decided to spend it with Ursa. With the war on the horizon, he knew he wouldn’t have much time for her soon.

“What a happy baby.” Rick looked up from his daughter’s big grey eyes to see his father’s portrait sporting a smile.

“She is. I hope I can maintain that happiness.”

“Voldemort?”

“No, her mother.”

“... I’m a bit lost here, Corvus. What does her mother have to do with her happiness?”

Inhaling deeply, Rick pondered for a bit how to convey his thoughts. Deciding that bluntness was the way he didn’t mince his words.

“She doesn’t love me and I worry how it will affect Ursa and her sister. They’ll see their siblings’ parents being deeply in love but not theirs. What if they think it’s because of them? Rigella is almost six, she’s going to notice soon if she hasn’t already.”

“... Make her fall for you then. As simple as that.”

“ ‘As simple as that’. He says.” Rick snorted at the absurdity he just heard. “Narcissa has more pride in her pinky than the whole family combined.”

“Corvus, you woo-ed her sisters, I’m sure you can woo her. Did you even try in the first place?”

Rick opened his mouth to answer but stopped mid-way.

‘I woo-ed Bella with power because… she’s deranged. I wasn’t set on seducing her, she’s the one who woo-ed me in the end. Same for Andi. She was the one who came on to me. But Narcissa… Narcissa didn’t. She came to me for a child, a daughter particularly because I fathered a buttload already. She wasn’t interested in anything else. Well… Maybe the sex and a good father to raise the girls but it was almost like a transaction. Or rather more like a partnership. There wasn’t any love involved and I never went out of my way to make the relationship work either. Bella, Andromeda, Marlene, Amelia… Even Lily. They all went for me and I just… accepted and reciprocated. Not once did I ever go after someone. Perhaps she’s waiting for it? Has she given up like Amelia did all those years ago?’Taking a deep breath, he thanked his dad and left the portrait room for the living room. He knew she would be there at this time on the day. Lounging on the couch, a leg crossed over the over. A book in one hand and a glass of wine with the other. Dressed in proper noble clothes. Always proper. Never simplistic like Andromeda, muggle like Lily or daring like Bella. While the eldest Black sister had an aura of wild regality, Narcissa’s was tamer, more graceful. What you would expect from a daughter of a noble lineage.

He walked leisurely to the couch and sat right next to her. No acknowledgement from her part, and none from him either. Instead he focused on cooing at his daughter in his arms. She was such a joy.

“Who’s going to be prettier than mummy? Hum? Who?”

*Gah*

The happy garble made him chuckle. “Yes, you. You’re going to break lots of boys’ hearts, hm? And it’s fine, as long as you don’t break daddy’s.” He leaned now and rubbed his nose lovingly against her tiny one.

He then proceeded to blow on her tummy which made her laugh. He didn’t know how long he played with his daughter like that but it was long enough for her to tire herself out and become sleepy. Rick called Tipsy and handed her Ursa so she could put her back in her crib for her nap.

With his hands now free, Rick snaked an arm around Narcissa’s waist and pulled her gently to him. His lips made contact with the side of her head for a few seconds, then rested his chin on her shoulder.

“Thank you. For giving me two beautiful daughters.” he said softly.

“I got them for me.” was her nonchalant reply.

“You could have taken them away. Not let me see them at all.”

“You’re my head of house, what you say goes. One word from you and I would have-

He didn’t even bother to register what she said here and there. It was inconsequential to him. “Are you happy?” he interjected.

“What?” This time, she looked up from her book to look at him in a confused manner.

“Narcissa, are you happy with your life?”

“... I am.” her answer was delayed. Rick believed (rightfully) that she was trying to discern what laid beyond his question.

“So you’re entirely satisfied with your life right now? Nothing that you'd like to change? To make it better?”

“... Why the sudden interest in my happiness?” She sounded suspicious.

“Well… ever since Andromeda confessed I… began to realize some things. My own feelings mainly.” He made a pause there to watch her reaction but she had none, beyond using a finger to turn a page and raising her glass of wine to her lips.

‘Well… let’s try the Gryffindor way, then.’ “Cissy, I love you and I want to make you happy.”

That made her stop for a second. Right before she tilted the glass low enough for the wine to enter her mouth. Luck was all which separated her from a very embarrassing display of spitting wine on her very expensive clothes or the dark red liquid going through the wrong pipe and choking herself. As naturally as she could, she used occlumency on the spot to compose herself and drink normally after her moment of pause. It was as if nothing had happened in the first place.

Inwardly, however, Narcissa Black, despite the whole strength of her occlumency, was in total panic. Her heart had skipped a bit and was now beating faster and faster and she felt something in her stomach flying around. The worst of it? She didn’t know why. She didn’t love the man. She was grateful for what she did for Draco and for her. Especially for her. She liked him for that and because he was a good man but love? No.

There was no place in her heart for love but for her children, her sisters and their children. She had known love once and that had been more than enough in her opinion and while she knew Rick wasn’t anywhere near like her late husband, he was married four times, had two concubines and was on his way to have two more. It didn’t matter if he knew about the latter or not. That was enough to disqualify him. He wouldn’t focus just on her and there was no way she would accept it. She had known that ever since Andromeda confessed to him.

Yet. Her heart rate kept increasing.

She tried to focus on her occlumency but any effort was blown out the window when he pulled her into his lap and laid back onto the couch, taking her with him. His arms circled her and his hands rested mid-section. Hot wet lips landed on her neck, making her skin feel like it was burning. They went higher and higher until right behind her ear. He turned her head gently and kissed her right on her own lips. Not too long but also not too short was the kiss. It lasted the perfect time to convey his feelings to her.

“I love you, Narcissa and I will make you fall in love with me. “ His declaration was done while looking her straight in the eyes. “Not only for our daughters’ happiness but for yours.”

She searched from deception, for lies, for plots into his eyes but found nothing. Without saying a single word, she turned her head to get back to her book and shifted her body a bit to make herself more comfortable, leaning back on his chiseled chest.

“Good luck.”

Narcissa didn't know why she said that. She didn’t intend to but the words were out before she realized it. That created even more turmoil and no matter how much she tried she could read more than two words. Behind her, Rick grinned. He considered it a win. Narcissa had indirectly issued a challenge and he accepted it. He closed his eyes to rest while letting one of his thumb softly caress her. It wasn’t the first time Narcissa was treated that way, as a lover but it was the first time she felt different about it.

When before she felt only physical contentment from his ministrations now she felt it emotionally. She wanted to sigh not out of pleasure but of the heart. She felt warm on the inside and that wasn’t a bodily reaction. Her occlumency defense may have mostly failed her during the exchange, they did not in this instance. The stray thought that perhaps she could give in crossed her mind in a flash. It quickly went away when the voice of a panicked Lily was heard.

“Rick?! You need to get to the castle now! Rick?! Are you there?”

The comfortable yet awkward moment the two blondes shared ended right there. Rick straightened up on the spot and pulled out his communication mirror from his pocket.

“Lily? What happened?” The urgency in his voice was barely contained.

“Lyra has been attacked.”

Narcissa was up a fraction of a second before Rick would toss her ass out of the way. Both hurried to the floo and arrived at Lions’ Pride. Quickly, he took one of the available brooms and she mounted in front of him. In less than a minute they landed in front of Hogwarts’ entrance. As if hell was on their heels, they ran to the infirmary wings, Narcissa having transfigured her short heels into shoes allowing her to run. The door of the infirmary disintegrated with a wave of his wand and they got inside.A lot of people were there. Albus, Minerva and Severus, Rose, Camelia, Sage, Draco and Lily. He briefly wondered where Bella was but his mind stopped when he saw his second oldest under the white sheet of a bed. Her face was badly bruised, lips busted, a blackened eye while the other was heavily swollen and lastly a bloody broken nose. He noticed that her neck and shoulders were bare, something that she never did. Contrary to her very provocative dressed mother, his little girl was more conservative in the way she dressed. He didn’t know if it was because she didn’t like the fashion or because she wasn’t yet at that stage of puberty.

“What happened? Where is Bella?” he asked, as he reached his daughter’s side and gently stroked her hair.

“Bella is over there. We had to stun her.” Lily replied pointing at the woman on another bed on the other side of the room.

No one was willing to talk. The adults were all very content to let her be the one to speak and for good reason. They were very afraid of how Rick would react to the news.

“So she wouldn’t go on a rampage and murder someone.” That he could understand and Bella would have died because she would have gone against the unbreakable vow she made to him all those years ago. “As for Lyra…” Lily was fidgeting with her hands. Hard. Her already white skin paled even more. “She was raped.”

Narcissa gasped on the spot. But no one noticed. They couldn’t when their entire focus was on Rick and the surroundings shaking violently. The rage he felt was so great that he was doing accidental magic.

“I hope the MLE is already here picking up the one who did that.” The subtle threat in his voice was so thick it was palpable.

Albus chose to be the spokesperson then. “Unfortunately…”

“YOU DON’T KNOW?!” Rick guessed rightly.

“Draco was the one who found her. They were supposed to meet after dinner but she never showed up so the talk was postponed to this morning.” Severus intervened before Rick could blow up more.

“That’s our usual routine, we have so much to do, when one of us can't make it for the talk in the evening we always do it the next morning.” the blonde young man explained. “I knew something was wrong when she was late this morning because Lyra is never late for our talk at this particular time. I asked around if anyone had seen her but mostly got no for an answer. Dorothy Abernathy, a slytherin in her year, was the last one to see her. She told me she saw Lyra going to the bathroom in the dungeons right before curfew. I found her there.”

Rick, still wand in hand, waved it in the circle, pointing up. A surveillance snitch appeared out of nowhere above Lyra and he summoned it to his hand. It wasn't the only one who appeared. Everyone whose name was Potter, Black or Malfoy had one above their heads.

“You… watch us?” Narcissa asked. She didn’t know what to think of that.

His anger being locked down thanks to his occlumency, Rick answered in the coldest tone anyone present ever heard him use. “No. I don’t get any images unless I pull them from the snitch. It only records 24 hours at a time. I made them in cases like this one ever happening. I never peaked at anyone’s private life.”

He summoned Karkass and asked him to bring him the projo-pensieve. After creating the giant screen for the second task of the Triwizard tournament last year, Rick upgraded the projo-pensieve to be able to display a recording. He did the same for the Black Prison, and Moody couldn’t wait to have some locked up Death Eaters he could spy on with those without their knowledge.

“Children, out.” he ordered as he put the snitch on the specific space allocated to it on the magical machine.

““But-””

The protest on the twins’ lips died on the spot when their father gave them a look. Rose dragged them away but Draco stayed behind and he had a good reason for doing so.

“The location points to a Slytherin doing it.” he explained quickly then continued, “Lyra is well liked by the other houses with a few exceptions. It’s in our own house she’s disliked the most and I know everyone in the house in a way that Professor Snape does not since he’s both a professor and our head of house while I’m a student.”

Rick nodded and he sat down on one of the chairs that Dumbledore had conjured for everyone. With his wand, Rick quickly sped up the recording until it was dinner time. They saw Lyra eat with her usual friends that Rick knew she had. After dinner, she went to the astronomy tower to have a look at the stars before a class could start, then went back down to the Slytherin common room. Peeves was creating some chaos in front of the entrance so she went to the bathroom with a bit of a haste. The image blurred heavily thanks to a wave of Rick’s hand when she entered a stall to do her business and unblurred when the sound of the stall’s door opening was heard. As Lyra was washing her hands at the lavatory, she was stunned from behind. The snitch captured from the mirror reflection three slytherin boys in the girls’ bathroom, one of them wand pointed at Lyra while another magically locked the door.

“It’s time to teach this little whore her place.” the third boy said.

“I wish I could see her blood traitors of a parents’ faces when they learned their precious daughter had been used and discarded.” the glee in the boy that stunned her sickened everyone.

“I wished they could watch us doing her. Maybe when the Dark Lord is in power?”  the one who locked the door chuckled at his own words, while he vanished Lyra’s clothes to leave her in her underwear. “Should we wake her up?”

“Of course, duh. It’s not fun if she’s not awake.”

The stunner boy’s words made Rick rage and he began to have another bout of accidental magic. Thanks to Lily and Narcissa sitting by his sides, he controlled himself when they took his hands in hers.

“I think that’s enough.” Dumledore stood up and went in front of the projection making it distorted when the boys removed Lyra’s garments. “No father should watch this.” The compassion and sadness in his eyes made Rick stop the recording.

“Those are Laxley Urquart, Asher Blishwick and Graham Montague.” Named Draco.

“All families supporting the Dark Lord. Not high in the hierarchy, none of them are from the inner circle.” his mother revealed further.

“I will call the DMLE. Severus-” Albus began giving orders.

“I’ll keep an eye on them.” Just as he said it, Snape left the infirmary.

“I’m taking Lyra and Bella home.” Rick said and picked up his daughter in his arms, adjusting the white sheet covering her so it doesn’t fall. “Cissy, please take Bella. Don’t wake her up yet. Lily…”

“The children, I know.”

“I’ll get Vega and Atria, I’m sure Rose can get Lea and Veronica.”

Rick thanked Draco and took the floo in Poppy’s office, followed closely by Narcissa and a still stunned Bella. He put Lyra in her own bed in her room and went back to the living room where Narcissa had laid her older sister on the couch.

“Contact my mother and everyone else whose name is Black. They have an hour to show up, including Aunt Cassie. This is a family emergency and they need to be here. If they don’t… I’ll not only disown them but murder them myself.”

Narcissa nodded and ran to the floo. With her mirror she called for Andromeda and Sirius who would warn Nymphadora. With the floo she called Dorea who was staying with Arcturus, Cassie who was with them for a visit for a week or two as Christmas was not far away.

Rick reanimated Bella. She was confused and disoriented at first, wondering where she was, then something snapped and she straightened up, pulling out her wand.

“I’M GOING TO KILL-”

“YOU WILL NOT!”

That brought a stop to anything she was about to say; frozen in shock by Rick’s outburst. Never before in their fifteen years of marriage had he yelled at her like this. He had raised his voice, he had shouted but never yelled at her.

“If you do, you’ll die. You made me an unbreakable vow, remember?”

“MY DAU-”

This time she stopped because Rick used Petrificus Totalus on her.

“I have plans, Bella. All of them end with our enemies dead. None of them have you dead because you broke your vow. I don’t want to pile on our daughter’s situation your death. No yelling, no shouting. I expect of you to behave as the Lady of the Ancient and Noble House of Black. The kind that gets information, plans, flawlessly executes it and comes on top victorious as white as snow. I need- our daughter needs- you to be the ruthless cunning and controlled slytherin that we know you are.” The ice cold tone of his voice and the familiar void in his eyes soothed her down.

He released her from his binding spell and caught her when she fell forward. He hugged her fiercely, her head resting on his shoulder.

“They’re going to pay, Bella.” he whispered. “They’re all going to pay. We’re going to take everything from them, from their last knut to their youngest’ life. I promise you but you need to stay your hand for now. I can’t lose you.”

“You could always put an end to the vow.” she whispered back.

“... You’re right but not now.”

“Why?!” She tried to pull back, to look him in the eye, but she couldn’t, he held her too tight for her to move.

“Because our daughter needs us.”

He stood up, picking her up as he did so. He moved his hands to reach her bum so he could carry her more easily and Bella circle his waist with her legs.

“Cissy, we’ll be with Lyra. Tell everyone everything once they’re all here.”

They went up the second floor and entered their little girl’s room. He conjured a loveseat at her bedside and sat down, putting Bella in his lap. She wrapped herself around him, trying to find comfort and peace. More than anything she wanted to lash out, to destroy something or hurt someone but knew she shouldn’t so she melted in his embrace, nurturing her negative feelings for the right moment when she would be able to unleash everything.

Rick held her close, very close as if he was afraid he would lose her should he loosen his tight grip. That was only the first of two reasons for it. The second was to hold himself back. Just like Bella he wanted to hurt badly the ones responsible for their daughter’s state. She was his anchor right now and she didn’t even know it.

They stayed in silence like this for who knows as long. Definitely less than an hour as Dorea walked into their field of view and began to examine Lyra, a murderous scowl on her face. Both he and Bella kept watching in silence.

“I want her sedated until she’s fully healed, mom.”

Dorea looked up at her son with a quizzical expression.

“I don’t want her to see herself like that. I also don’t want her to wake up until justice has been met. The less she has to deal with the better.” His mother nodded in acknowledgement.

“Rick, everyone is here.” he heard Narcissa’s voice from behind him.

He nodded and gently pushed Bella out of his lap. He held her hand and they walked back down the first floor, ending up in the living room. Everyone was there. All Blacks. One by one he looked at them. The void in his eyes got a different reaction from each. Cassiopeia had a predatory smile, she knew that soon, people wish they were dead. Arcturus had a murderous glare, ready to curse to hell the enemies of their House. Andy did her very best not to flinch, she wasn’t used to being looked at like this. Nymphadora began to sweat and her hair turned from  a worrying blue to a fear black, Sirius had a nasty glare but he was unnerved. Rick said one thing and one thing only that set the mood for the next week.

“We’re going to hunt.”