She was used to be alone... especially on that day. She got used to Hermione Granger as her personal guard... she sighed at her own thought and looked smilingly out in her dark garden at some of her rare plants whose glowing in the dark. She knew Hermione was not her guard. She was actually grateful for her help. She had been in Azkaban for a year, got an Assistent for another year during her house arrest and almost killed the woman. At least in her mind… and when Hermione took the Job, she didn't feel like a stupid little child.
No... Hermione had explained her how to use a washing machine. Hermione taught her cooking, what she actually enjoyed more than she had thought before... and thanks to that young witch, she had started to talk to her sister again.
She took another deep breath and looked down at the letter from Andromeda, she'd been holding in her hand for a while now, and read it for the third time. Or was it the fifth?!
'Cissy, you asked me, what I am thinking... and I think you are in love with her.'
The thought alone was utter ridiculous, but on the other hand... she could not stop thinking about the young woman... she saw her beautiful brown eyes when she closed her eyes, and she...
She looked up when something ripped her out of her thoughts, asking herself: "Is that... cake?" she closed her eyes and inhaled more of the smell, smirking when warm chocolate reached her nose. Curious she went downstairs, heard the clock in her hallway hitting midnight and wanted to open the door of her living room, when she realised it was locked. She cocked her eyebrow, leaned forward and could definitely heard whispers behind the door.
"What's going on here?" she whispered to herself, and before she could try to open her door again, it opened by itself, and she gasped...
Candles were floating around in a steady pace... candles were standing on a table, where a cake was lying on a plate. Chocolate cake. And only two people knew, that this cake had always been her favourite one, even though she hadn't had one during the last years. Hermione, Andromeda, Draco and Harry were looking at her with wide smirks on their faces, while she got tears in her eyes.
"I-Is that... cake?" she whispered, she did not trust her voice, but felt her heart pondering against her chest, when Hermione approached her.
"I asked Andromeda for help, because I wanted for you to have a better birthday than the last years." Hermione said and in that moment, she wanted to kiss her. She cupped Hermione's face gently in her hands and looked directly into her warm eyes. Eyes that never looked at Narcissa as a prisoner in her own house. Eyes who belong to a woman, who never laughed at her, because she still was not allowed to use magic. Who still hadn't her wand back.
And yes... yes Andromeda was right. She fell for Hermione during the last year, while they were cooking together. While they were baking together. When they were went shopping together in the muggle world. She fell for Hermione Granger... who had forgiven her.
It was the other woman's parting lips and the sound of the others clearing their throats, bring her back to the present. A present where she... stood in the middle of her living room of Black Manor, kissing Hermione Granger.
She pulled back and whispered: "I'm sorry, I..." Hermione smirked, took her hand and pulled her gently towards her first birthday cake in years.
"Happy Birthday…" the younger witch said, stepped back and Narcissa looked down at the candles, closed her eyes and…