Narcissa Malfoy adjusted in her seat as she leaned back, taking a soft sip of wine from the crystal glass in her hand. The glass itself was a vintage Black family heirloom, etched with serpentine designs and cold to the touch.
She was seated in what used to be a dull, dusty library in what used to be a Black spare home, now transformed into a sanctuary of silver and deep emerald, reflective of her own refined aesthetic.
'Oh, what a life, ' she thought with a private smirk. As she tipped the glass back to take another sip of the wine.
One would assume that after everything that happened these past few years, the fall of the Dark Lord, the King's rampage, the total inversion of the wizarding world's power structure, that she'd be suffering like most of the other pure-bloods she had run with in their circle.
But no. No, Narcissa Malfoy does not suffer.
She thrived.
She even snorted to herself, a very unladylike action, but who could blame her? Her life right now was wonderful, amazing, more wonderful than back when she was just Lady Malfoy.
Sure, she lost her husband, but he should have thought of better things to do than dress up in masks and go around killing people like a common bandit. In the end, Lucius had died exactly as he lived, making a dramatic, foolish mistake that cost him everything.
When he died, she got control over House Malfoy because her son had been too young. Though she was not able to actually access the main vault, since Lucius had set it so that only Draco, the male heir, could access it, that bastard. He had not wanted a woman leading House Malfoy, even when it was only temporary before Draco could come of age.
Though she still used the influence she had. The lack of immediate mass cash was a temporary annoyance, but it forced her to rely on her political acumen, a currency far more valuable than gold.
Gathering people to help her was an easy thing at the time, with a lot of the more political heads gone when the 'Dark Lord' killed them. Before long, she had most of the Dark Faction working for her, a coalition of terrified, leaderless sycophants desperate for a strong, cool head to guide them through the new regime.
Though there had been some fools who had challenged her, she took another sip, well, since they 'mysteriously' disappeared, they may never know if they had a chance against her in the end.
'Fools'.
She had brought those looking for a leader to herd them, and lead she did.
And then came the best thing she had ever done, going to Harry Potter to talk.
After his battle with the heretic god, Harry and she had come together and talked again. He was the Lord of House Black, but he wasn't going to waste his time playing politics and games with the others.
He said he didn't have the patience to listen to fools, so he gave her the role of leading the house back from ruin to its former glory. She had presented him with a simple, undeniable truth, the Black name was power, even as ruined as it was, and having more power was always good, something the young man had seemed to understand.
But since he didn't want to deal with people, he needed a voice for that power if he wished to remain above the fray. She was that voice, she was smart, had connections, and most of all, she was competent, something most lords nowadays weren't.
And so she became the lord of house black in everything but name. She had gotten to work fast and was fixing things up.
Of course, not how it used to be, Harry wasn't a fan of the whole pure-blood ideology, but she could work with that. The goal wasn't blood purity, it was the acquisition and retention of influence over key institutions, the banks, the magical law courts, and the various Guilds around the country. That was a game, having a hand in everything, so that you can influence everything.
Draco had been furious. He had complained multiple times that she was "working with the enemy" and all that. She scoffed. Please, her late husband would have taken the deal if he could.
Draco never seemed to realize that only power truly mattered, and that even the so-called pure-blood movement was not something all of them were going to jump into.
After all, having wealth and power, or just moving for an ideology, which did he think his father would choose? The Malfoy name, historically, was not about ideology; it was about backing the winning side, and Draco, blinded by adolescent spite and a childish adherence to archaic beliefs that he had gotten from his father not teaching him properly, completely missed the pivot.
The boy's rudeness and disrespect had just kept growing over the years, and then it came, that fateful day that everything changed.
She had received a letter from one of her contacts in the Ministry about a meeting that, surprisingly, she had not been called for. That was when she started suspecting something was wrong. She had felt a bad premonition and decided to find out what was going on, and she thanked all the gods above that she did.
It seemed that the Ministry had finally gotten tired of trying to challenge Harry subtly and decided to just move directly against him. She knew they didn't like that he was basically in charge, after all, they had had countless meetings just because of him, and she had tried to always make sure that they didn't do anything stupid.
The Ministry officials, consumed by bureaucratic arrogance and years of thinking they were in charge, couldn't tolerate an unpredictable, untouchable figure like Harry.
They viewed his presence as an existential threat to their perceived authority, a challenge they felt compelled to meet, no matter how suicidal the plan. But it seemed they had decided that she was on his side and that she was not to be trusted.
To be fair, they were right, she was on his side. But it wasn't like Harry really cared about ruling them all that much, as long as they did what he wanted once in a while, he seemed content to ignore them.
But then they didn't. They decided to try to control him using those close to him and something from the unspeakables. They had not been able to get Tonks, who was the original target, as she worked in the Ministry, she would have been easy to grab, but she had not been around, and then they had gotten Daphne and her little sister.
They got the idea that they could use them to force him into a trap of their and make him complie with whatever plan they had for him, it was a stupid thing honestly And worst of all, it was her foolish son that had led the charge to kidnap them, since he was in Hogwarts with them at the time, leading his friends to go and get the girls.
Narcissa had seen war. She had fought in the first war with the Dark Lord, even if not out in the open, but she had seen people die. But what Harry had done... she still shivered remembering the sight.
The air in that section of the Ministry still felt charged with residual malice, even three years later, it was still a horrifying memory to remember. Bodies everywhere, blood flowing like rivers, it was a horrifying sight. The stench of ozone and burned flesh had clung to her robes for days just after visiting the area.
He killed everyone that got in his way. He tortured those who had thought they could challenge him. Some had even tried calling the ICW, but they had been told to keep out of their own mess. The International Confederation of Wizards, after a few failed, timid attempts at intervention, had been warned off. Harry had made it clear that should they step in, they would be dealing with him, that alone made them rethink the situation. After all, they, unlike the wizards of Britain, were not so foolish to challenge a campione..
She, at the time, had feared for her son and had even gone as far as to lower her head to Harry and beg him to spare her child. Luckily, he had been merciful. She remembered the feel of the cold stone beneath her silk robes, the ultimate humiliation, and the ultimate act of maternal devotion. She who had never begged had that day for her son.
Honestly, she had thought to herself that it was only luck that saved Draco. He had hid like a coward at the first sign of a battle, and by the time Harry was done with the others, Daphne and Astoria were with him, and he had already taken out most of his anger on others, so he spared Draco for her. The truth was that Draco was beneath Harry's notice, an insignificant insect whose death wouldn't even register as a satisfying closure.
The audacity of the boy to now later insult her of being a whore and taking Harry's side. She had slapped him so hard her own hands had nearly bled. She had done something she had never done before, she had bowed her head to someone to spare him, and he insulted her.
They had already been fighting, and their relationship as mother and son had been falling apart since his father died, but that had been the last straw for both of them.
Draco had taken his place as the head of the house at the time and kicked her out of House Malfoy, and she had kicked him out of the Black line and had given up on him entirely. Stripping him of his Black lineage was a simple spiteful moment for Narcissa, ensuring the Black name, wealth, and connections would forever remain beyond his reach, as it was known that he still wanted it and thought harry didnt desrve it, by removing him she made it so that even if harry, her and every black died he still wont be lord black.
Nowadays, House Malfoy was a laughingstock. It was bleeding money everywhere. Draco's attempts to "invest" the remaining liquid assets had consisted primarily of funding other failed pure-blood ventures and sinking millions into a non-existent alchemical discovery.
Last she heard, Draco had to sell off some of the other homes the House had to pay off some of the debt he had gained with his idiocy. Now, House Malfoy was down to a single home, a few shops, and land. To others, that would seem like it was still something, but knowing that they had nearly seven houses and up to fifty shops and businesses, and about two dozen lands before just three years ago, that should tell you the future of the house. He had squandered generations of accumulated wealth in less time than it took to complete his final year at Hogwarts. At this rate, by the end of this year, her son would be a beggar on the streets.
She should have felt a sting of pity. Maybe she did, but that was all. She had already cut ties with him, and not even hell freezing over would make her help that useless child of hers again. Her survival and the legacy of House Black were now all she cared about. She had decided that she had done her wifely and motherly duties and everything, now it was time to live for herself and enjoy herself, and that mattered more than the fate of a foolish, disgraced boy who happened to share her blood.
Suddenly, she heard steps heading her way. She didn't even need to turn to know who it was.
"Evening, Lady Black," came the smooth, confident voice.
Narcissa turned and found the young girl who greeted her, Daphne Greengrass. The next Lady of House Black and her prized student. Apparently, after they started dating, Harry and his lovers had decided who would take which house. Daphne had wanted House Black, and Tonks had decided to be Lady Potter.
Harry had asked her to teach Daphne everything she knew when the young girl had asked him to ask her. And what a wonderful student the girl had been, she was driven, smart, and ruthless when she wanted to be. A true Black in the making. Narcissa focused Daphne's lessons not on simple etiquette, all that she already knew, but on the delicate art of leveraging favors, manipulating Wizengamot procedures, and the secrets of house black and everything she needed to know about the house.
Oh, if only her child had been like that, she sighed. She was somewhat jealous of the girl's mother for having a capable child, a girl that she could mold to her liking, too. Truly, life sometimes is unfair.
Narcissa raised her glass.
"Good evening, my dear," she said smoothly. "Come, sit. I suspect you're here to discuss council matters."
Daphne smiled, her eyes glinting with a sharp, familiar ambition, the look Narcissa remembered seeing in the mirror during her youth.
"And perhaps," she added lightly, "to hear about my fiancé's latest destruction?"
Narcissa chuckled behind her wine glass, the cold crystal pressed to her lips. He had gotten invested in hearing the chaos Harry spreads wherever he goes.
"Ah. Then we have much to discuss."
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