Reversed Role

Narcissa was generally pleased with the way things turned out, everything ended extremely well for her, Dumbledore and his minions were definitely less fortunate. 

The four of them, with the input of Bellatrix, the Selwyn and the Rosier, had managed to create a believable story that would explain the deaths of four well-known figures of the Light Side without ruining their reputations any further. It had been decided that Voldemort was dead, but they didn't want Dumbledore to take the credit, but it would be too suspicious if the unknown Marvolo Gaunt claimed the deed, so it was decided that it was Abraxas who killed Voldemort. 

Her version of the event was as follows; Voldemort was becoming extremely unstable, so in a desperate attempt to save their lives and the lives of their husbands who were under the Imperius, Narcissa and Bellatrix decided to get rid of him, and Abraxas, who knew Voldemort well, decided to help them, but just as they were about to carry out their plan, Dumbledore and his Order attacked the manor with the same aim, but also to kill anyone they considered Voldemort's allies. A battle ensued and Voldemort killed four of the Order before he managed to capture them, and just when he wasn't expecting it, Abraxes killed him, saving everyone from the evil Dark Lord.  

Dumbledore and his minions had taken an unbreakable vow to confirm their version of events.

Marvolo Gaunt was a new friend Lucius had made during one of his business trips to Albania; he was the one who warned Narcissa that almost all of her family were under a powerful Imperius, as he was an expert in the Dark Arts, and they freed Bellatrix first, allowing the woman to plot their revenge. 

Marvolo had no idea that his surname came from an ancient pureblood house in England, and that he himself was a descendant of Salazar Slytheirn, which explained why he could speak Parseltongue. He also had no idea who his mother was, as she had died in childbirth and he was raised in an orphanage in Tirana, the Albanian capital, and he had no idea who his father was. 

It was Lucius and Marvolo who went to the Auror with the Order member and Dumbledore and explained the whole situation, as each member of Dumbledore's Order confirmed their explanation, the use of Veritaserum quickly became useless in the eyes of Head Auror Corban Yaxley and the Malfoy and Lestrange family were hailed as saviours, the public too happy to forget their past deeds. They were under Imperius, after all...

After that, Dumbledore's reputation plummeted even further because he was unable to see how Voldemort was torturing these people, and the information that he had kept young Remus Lupin in prison to extract information from him was scandalous, Dumbledore was too old now and had lost his touch. 

Very sad indeed. 

But there was something else that bothered her. Lily had gone off to live in the forest with her gang of elves without even saying goodbye, and Volde-Marvolo was brooding and sulking around the manor. 

"Cissy? Narcissa, dear? You seem a bit tense lately, is everything all right?" Her husband asked her cautiously. 

"'All is well, Lillian has asked me to be her daughter's godmother, Bellatrix has found a woman willing to be her surrogate and the procedure is going smoothly, Mcnair has been arrested for torturing Muggles and our family is the most famous in England at the moment. Everything is fine," she said angrily. 

Lucius held back a smile, "Yes, I can see that. Now tell me what is wrong?" 

She dropped the butter from her knife, "She didn't even say goodbye! Not a word, not even a letter!"

He leaned back in his seat and sighed, "I think she needed to get away for a while, think about what had happened in her life. She also discovered that she was part of a race that we thought was dead".

There was a silence between them before she spoke again, "Those two are just idiots," she said suddenly, "I need to talk to Marvolo"

She left the veranda quickly, but not before her husband could be heard wondering, "What is she talking about?" 

Marvolo was in the library, reading a book about... torture curses? Some things apparently never change. He was near a window and was the picture of despair, his eyes reading without reading, and the pounding August rain added to his depressed aura. 

She pulled out a chair and sat down in front of him, "What did you tell her?" 

Marvolo raised an eyebrow, "What do you mean?" 

"Lily left without a word, she hadn't even made up her mind if she wanted to go, the last person to speak to her was you. So I ask you, what did you tell her?" She repeated in a serious tone. 

He huffed, "Nothing, she asked me about the prophecy and I told her what I knew, but I'm sure her new family will be more useful than me". 

Narcissa decided she would have to be very patient. "Can you tell me exactly what she asked you?" 

Marvolo sighed, "She told me that she was going to train with the elves because that was what I had planned for her, which is true."

"Ah, so you told her that her presence here was only due to her being part elf?" she refrained from banging her head on the table. 

The man looked at her incredulously, "...I did not say that..." 

"...But she took it that way. Lily thinks you care about her magical abilities and her political influence," Narcissa finished for him, hoping he would realise how hurtful he had been. 

Marvolo scowled, "Well, it is true," she refrained from banging his head on the table. 

Her voice took on an angry tone, "But that is not the most important thing! If Lucius suddenly found out that he was part elf and could use a unique form of magic, would you care about him as much as you do about Lily?" 

If his horrified face was any indication, she had struck a nerve, 

"Merlin's beard, of course not!" 

"Then what? Do you feel paternal towards her?" Marvolo grimaced, but seemed to be considering the question seriously. 

"I could be... her father," but his face was frozen in disgust. 

Narcissa gave him a sideways glance before exploding, "YOU ARE IN LOVE!" She shouted, completely frustrated by his blindness. 

And to her utter fascination, a faint blush of pink appeared on his cheeks "...No..." She sighed in a very unladylike manner. "I don't even know what love is, Narcissa, so I think it's a bit of a stretch to say that..." 

She took a deep breath and smiled gently at him, "Do you want her here now?" A nod "Do you want her to stay with you forever?" He blinked before nodding very slowly "Well, if she came back now and told you she wasn't part elf and the whole thing had been a mistake, would you make her leave this place because she was no longer useful to you?" He shook his head quickly and negatively. "And finally, what would you do if someone hurt her?" 

A shadow of his former self appeared in his eyes and he replied in a serious tone, "I think I would kill them. 

"And if she decided to marry someone?" She asked finally. 

This time he looked almost like Voldemort. "She can't." His voice was firm and had an edge to it. 

Narcissa leaned back in her seat and let him process his feelings and his realisation. 

"But I can't feel love," he said suddenly, a frown on his face.

She scoffed, "Who told you that?" 

He made a face "Dumbledore" 

"Ah, of course, the great Albus Dumbledore! Could you please remind me what Dumbledore has been doing these past few years? Covering up a murder, sequestrating a teenager, trying to kidnap another teenager..." He rolled his eyes, "You see, Dumbledore is not a paragon, a virtue, and everything he has said is not the truth," she finished in a friendly voice. 

For a few minutes they remained in a comfortable silence. 

"What do I do now, Narcissa?" He spoke quietly, "She's seventeen, I'm fifty." 

The blonde smiled softly, "You made your first Horcrux when you were sixteen, and have torn your soul apart over the years. You are intelligent, brilliant, and your life has made you more mature than most, but do you really feel as old as Abraxas? You look like you just turned thirty, and I think we can mentally consider you to be about the same age.

"Fine. But does she..." He swallowed, "could feel the same? And... I hurt her extremely badly, I remember, it's a bit blurry, but I remember being so angry at myself for being so attached to her that I latched onto her more than once, especially when I was training her, and that day on the veranda..." He pinched the bridge of his nose. 

Narcissa was truly moved by this man's metamorphosis, "Lily has already forgiven you," she smiled gently, "I think a grand gesture might show how much you regret the way things turned out.

Then her smile faltered slightly, "There is something you need to know. According to Eadha, Lily's relative, the time of his passing is different out there... As far as we know, she is already thirty years old." That was the main reason why she had felt devastated by Lily's abrupt departure, not knowing who would return, a young adult or a middle-aged woman?

Apparently, Marvolo also found this possibility heartbreaking, judging by the way his face crumpled. 

But he didn't seem ready to do anything about it. "What are you waiting for?" She asked. 

He looked at her, his eyes blank. "What?" 

She got to her feet and pointed at the exit, "Go after her!" He blinked before jumping to his feet and leaving the room in a flurry of robes. 

She sat back in her seat, called for a glass of red wine and sipped it as she watched the sun break through the dark clouds. 

✧ ✦ ✧

Lily stared at the log more intently than she had ever looked at anything before. Her task for the day was to set it on fire without moving an inch, and not allow the fire to consume half of the log. 

If she passed this test, she would be considered at the fourth level of mastery of her elemental power. 

The elder, an elf called Cillian, told her that he feared it would be her last stage as she was only part elf, but she was determined to try for the six stages. 

Time was a strange thing here, the hidden realm of the elves was actually a ley line running under a thousand year old oak tree. The elves had managed to enter the ley line and create a home here, a replica of the Broceliande Forest, but it was only supposed to be temporary because of how time affected them, if they hadn't created a clock connected to the outside, they would have lost themselves in the timeline.

She had trained here for six months, but her body had aged by three years when she was gone for a month. This phenomenon didn't affect the elves as much as it did her, because they had a slow metabolism and this place was created for them. But she knew she couldn't stay here for long, and besides, the elves were beginning to pack up their essentials to return to the real world. 

She shook her head and rearranged the brown dress she was wearing. It was a traditional elf dress, simple but very comfortable. The temperature in the artificial forest was never cold, so her dress had off-the-shoulder sleeves that fell into wide, flowing shapes reminiscent of medieval dresses. The skirt was floor-length and airy, with a delicate floral pattern in pale green and warm orange. A wide brown leather belt cinched her waist and completed the look.

She concentrated on her log again and it began to burn slowly, after a few minutes she felt beads of sweat running down her forehead but she didn't move to wipe them off. 

Fifteen minutes later her log was halfway burnt and she released the fire and almost fainted, but a pair of arms prevented her from falling. 

"Thank you, did I pass?"

Eadha nodded, Siorus grinned and Fintan hummed his approval before speaking in his soft and gentle voice, "Well done, Lily, but given your level of exhaustion, I think it would be wiser to wait at least a few weeks before the fifth task," she pouted, "Don't look at me like that, the fact that you are receiving your Saphire today is not something we expected. You are clearly powerful, but do not let your ego control you".

Lily nodded "Very well, I am not sure I will try then, time is catching up with me faster than you here". 

"You can always wait until we find a new home in the real world," Eadha interjected. 

The two of them had talked a little more, her great-grandmother had softened a little, but a distance remained and would always remain. Lily did not blame her for that, her presence was a constant reminder of painful memories, but Eadha was still a great counsellor and taught her a lot of interesting information. 

Lily's mother's maiden name was Virden, Eadha had explained to her that it was probably a variant of Viridian, her family name, Viridian being a shade of green because every member of her family had green eyes. Each elf had a surname that corresponded to the colour of their eyes and horns, it distinguished families and when a baby was born, they would take either their mother's or father's surname depending on the colour of their eyes. 

"I think I will do that. I'll go see the Elder then," the three elves nodded and she walked up the cobbled path that would lead them to the square where the Elder's house stood. The forest was bathed in light and the moss on the trunks and rocks was a vibrant green, the air she breathed was pure and the smell of earth and water, it was an ethereal place to live. 

The Elder, who at 842 years of age looked like he was only a century old, was happily gardening around his tree house. 

"Ah, Lily, I have been waiting for you, here, your sapphire," he tossed her the precious stone as if it were a marble. 

She took it, took off her circlet of white gold, took off the onyx of the central vessel to place the sapphire in its place. 

Each stage was marked by the acquisition of a stone, so she now had an amber, a citrine and an onyx, which she attached to her bracelet. 

"Thanks, Fintan told me no one thought I could do it, but you didn't say that," she smiled and sat down on a bench next to him. 

He looked at her, glee in his royal blue eyes, "If I had told you that you would probably fail, you would have failed, so I told you what I did not think".

Lily chuckled, "So you don't think I can try for the emerald?"

"I fear it would be dangerous for you, but with eyes like yours, I wonder if it is not a sign that you should try. But I am sure the last stage is impossible for you"

She shrugged, "I can live with that, after all only a handful of elves succeed, it would make no sense for me to succeed". 

Cillian stopped pruning his red carnation and turned to her, "I would like to remind you that some elves never acquire the necessary patience to go through the fourth stage, if you were an elf you would have already succeeded in the last stage, you have an immense source of magical energy and you have demonstrated an ability of precision and concentration, but you are mostly human, so you are not as attuned to nature as we are, which makes it impossible for you to truly enter into symbiosis with your elemental magic".

She already knew that, "I know, and I've accepted it, Eadha helped, surprisingly, I think she doesn't hate me anymore". 

The Elder shook his head and sat next to her, "Hate is such a strong emotion, no, Eadha was jealous, Arden was her older brother, she admired him and wanted to do everything like him. When he left she was ready to go with him but her parents stopped her, her mother had fallen ill with a rare disease and ever since she resented him for not coming back to help her mother and especially for living a life she couldn't" He paused "But you see, Arden was in love and the things love can make us do... Eadha has never love above her duties, she cannot understand his point of view" 

Lily sighed, "I can understand her, but I don't know love either, and yet I understand Arden.

Cillian chuckled "But you do, that is why you are here and why you are leaving".

She blinked, "What?" She was used to his way of speaking, but this time it was too cryptic for her. 

He rose to his feet, "Someone is looking for you on the surface, it seems important."

Lily looked at the Elder as he went home, whistling happily.