Prologue:
Slytherins didn’t marry for love. Everyone knew that. For a Slytherin, marriage was a way to increase one’s power and wealth, not unite two people in love. Not that Slytherins didn’t love. Oh, most would doubt it, but it happened. Slytherins loved. Not many and not often, but some of them did love.
She had loved. She had loved him, loved him so much. She’d wanted to marry him. And why not? It was a good match, both of them from good families, rich, well-connected, pure-blooded families. She’d never doubted that it would happen, that they would be allowed to wed. She’d been secure in the knowledge that they were a good match in all the ways her parents cared about.
She’d never considered the fact that there was someone her parents thought was an even better match for her, someone with a better lineage, with more money and more land. But there was, and in her seventh year at Hogwarts it was announced that she would marry him upon her graduation. The other Slytherins were envious but unsurprised by the news that Narcissa Black would wed Lucius Malfoy.
She shouldn’t have been surprised that her parents had seized the opportunity to attach their daughter to someone of even greater account than the man she was with, but the cold feeling in her chest had been unexpected. She was a Slytherin after all. She was supposed to be beyond such weak frivolity as love. But she wasn’t. She loved him, and in true Slytherin style, she was determined to have him, whatever it took.
Any plans coalescing in her mind came to a grinding halt before they were even done forming however, as a second announcement made its way into the Daily Prophet’s society pages. Caralyna Devington to wed Jasonan Parkinson. Her best friend and the man she loved. She’d thought it couldn’t get worse. Then she’d found out.
She was pregnant.
The world had started to fall out from under her. The contracts had been signed, nothing could be changed, for any of them, and if her secret was discovered, it would spell humiliation for her family and swift retribution by the Malfoys for such a grave insult. In short, she’d been in very big trouble. So she’d gone to the only people she could trust beyond anything, and after Jasonan had held her and Caralyna had patted her on the back as she cried, and Severus had offered to poison their parents, she’d brushed off the tears and they’d done what Slytherins did best. They’d plotted.
It was a complex scheme, and a dangerous one. It had taken months of tense manipulation, a horde of charms and incantations to darken her hair, shorten her legs, and turn blue to green, but in the end everyone had seen the black-haired, green-eyed Caralyna Parkinson grow fat with Jasonan’s child and give birth to an early, but healthy little girl seven months after their wedding. And thanks to her best friend’s excellent acting ability and a whole hell of a lot of expertly brewed Polyjucie potion, the wizarding world had seen nothing out of the ordinary with the new Mrs. Malfoy during that time.
Lucius, self-involved as he was, noticed only that their classmates produced an heir before he did. That was soon remedied just over nine months after the ceremony when, blue-eyed, blonde-haired once more, Narcissa, dark circles and tears concealed with the set of her jaw and flick of her wand, was able to announce the impending birth of their first child.
No notice was taken of the fact that the old school friends proclaimed each other godmothers to their children, nor was anything thought odd when Mrs. Malfoy spent so many of her days at her friend’s estate, young Draco and Pansy, ten months apart in age, playing together at their mothers’ sides.
No one saw through the guile of three artful Slytherins. Lies and half-truths held true for years, fifteen to be exact, until Azkaban claimed the lives of two men.
She mourned the loss of one, a loss so much worse than it had been all those years before. The loss of the other, however, she rejoiced. He was gone. After nearly sixteen years of marriage, he was gone and she was free, free to speak the words she’d longed to say for so long.
She didn’t waste a moment.
Her best friend at her side, Narcissa Malfoy arrived at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry early on the morning after it happened, before even the Daily Prophet could announce the full occurrences of the previous night’s battle at the Ministry. And there, in a quiet room in a back corner of the dungeons, while the other students still slept, Narcissa spoke, and Draco and Pansy finally learned the truth.
The so-called Prince and Princess of Slytherin shared more than just a House. They shared a mother as well. Draco and Pansy were brother and sister.
End Prologue
Slytherins didn’t marry for love. Everyone knew that. For a Slytherin, marriage was a way to increase one’s power and wealth, not unite two people in love. Not that Slytherins didn’t love. Oh, most would doubt it, but it happened. Slytherins loved. Not many and not often, but some of them did love.
She had loved. She had loved him, loved him so much. She’d wanted to marry him. And why not? It was a good match, both of them from good families, rich, well-connected, pure-blooded families. She’d never doubted that it would happen, that they would be allowed to wed. She’d been secure in the knowledge that they were a good match in all the ways her parents cared about.
She’d never considered the fact that there was someone her parents thought was an even better match for her, someone with a better lineage, with more money and more land. But there was, and in her seventh year at Hogwarts it was announced that she would marry him upon her graduation. The other Slytherins were envious but unsurprised by the news that Narcissa Black would wed Lucius Malfoy.
She shouldn’t have been surprised that her parents had seized the opportunity to attach their daughter to someone of even greater account than the man she was with, but the cold feeling in her chest had been unexpected. She was a Slytherin after all. She was supposed to be beyond such weak frivolity as love. But she wasn’t. She loved him, and in true Slytherin style, she was determined to have him, whatever it took.
Any plans coalescing in her mind came to a grinding halt before they were even done forming however, as a second announcement made its way into the Daily Prophet’s society pages. Caralyna Devington to wed Jasonan Parkinson. Her best friend and the man she loved. She’d thought it couldn’t get worse. Then she’d found out.
She was pregnant.
The world had started to fall out from under her. The contracts had been signed, nothing could be changed, for any of them, and if her secret was discovered, it would spell humiliation for her family and swift retribution by the Malfoys for such a grave insult. In short, she’d been in very big trouble. So she’d gone to the only people she could trust beyond anything, and after Jasonan had held her and Caralyna had patted her on the back as she cried, and Severus had offered to poison their parents, she’d brushed off the tears and they’d done what Slytherins did best. They’d plotted.
It was a complex scheme, and a dangerous one. It had taken months of tense manipulation, a horde of charms and incantations to darken her hair, shorten her legs, and turn blue to green, but in the end everyone had seen the black-haired, green-eyed Caralyna Parkinson grow fat with Jasonan’s child and give birth to an early, but healthy little girl seven months after their wedding. And thanks to her best friend’s excellent acting ability and a whole hell of a lot of expertly brewed Polyjucie potion, the wizarding world had seen nothing out of the ordinary with the new Mrs. Malfoy during that time.
Lucius, self-involved as he was, noticed only that their classmates produced an heir before he did. That was soon remedied just over nine months after the ceremony when, blue-eyed, blonde-haired once more, Narcissa, dark circles and tears concealed with the set of her jaw and flick of her wand, was able to announce the impending birth of their first child.
No notice was taken of the fact that the old school friends proclaimed each other godmothers to their children, nor was anything thought odd when Mrs. Malfoy spent so many of her days at her friend’s estate, young Draco and Pansy, ten months apart in age, playing together at their mothers’ sides.
No one saw through the guile of three artful Slytherins. Lies and half-truths held true for years, fifteen to be exact, until Azkaban claimed the lives of two men.
She mourned the loss of one, a loss so much worse than it had been all those years before. The loss of the other, however, she rejoiced. He was gone. After nearly sixteen years of marriage, he was gone and she was free, free to speak the words she’d longed to say for so long.
She didn’t waste a moment.
Her best friend at her side, Narcissa Malfoy arrived at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry early on the morning after it happened, before even the Daily Prophet could announce the full occurrences of the previous night’s battle at the Ministry. And there, in a quiet room in a back corner of the dungeons, while the other students still slept, Narcissa spoke, and Draco and Pansy finally learned the truth.
The so-called Prince and Princess of Slytherin shared more than just a House. They shared a mother as well. Draco and Pansy were brother and sister.
End Prologue
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