Blue or Green?
“What do you think? Blue or green?”
“I don’t understand why this is so important.”
“What do you mean? Of course this is important. So, blue, or green?”
“I mean, are there any other choices?”
“But… you don’t like the blue and the green?”
“It’s not that I don’t like them, just asking if there are any more options.”
“Well, there aren’t, so, blue or green?”
Narcissa hid her smile behind her cup of tea as she watched Andromeda not so subtly indicate towards the blue. Her sister could be rather forthright when she wanted to be.
“Are the color of the napkins really that important?”
“Yes, they are. They tie everything together.” Andromeda said it like this was something that Narcissa should have known already.
“Okay, but why blue or green? Isn’t the theme purple?”
“Its not purple. Its Tyrian Purple. Come on Cissy, you were there when we picked it.”
“Like there is even a difference between Tyrian and Byzantium Purple.”
“There is a difference! Tyrian Purple is the superior color, the original one. Byzantium Purple is just a poor copy.”
“Andy, no one can even tell the difference between the two.” Narcissa said. She really couldn’t tell the difference between Tyrian and Byzantium Purple. It just looked like slightly different shades of purple, a very slight difference at that.
“Well, Corvus could.”
“Corvus can be rather obsessive at times. But that doesn’t mean that anyone else will tell the difference.”
Narcissa wasn’t really sure why Corvus even went along with them to pick the color. Though, maybe it was just an excuse to avoid his French cousins.
“He was just able to appreciate the color like I was able.”
“You mean the two of you spent three hours in that shop obsessing over different colors. You know, Aunt Cass and I had gone to finish our shopping and came back to you two still huddled in there.”
“Well, it was really important. You don’t understand how many different colors there are.”
“I was with you guys for the first thirty minutes of the color selection!”
“And then you got bored and left. We didn’t even make it past the yellows.”
“Andy, nobody will tell the difference between the two purples. Just like they won’t tell or even notice the difference between blue or green napkins.”
“What do you mean they won’t? Wait, no don’t answer that. Just pick a color.”
Andromeda pushed the blue and green napkins in front of Narcissa, though the blue one a little closer.
Narcissa didn’t want to hurt her sister’s feelings, but both colors just didn’t go with the purple theme. In her opinion, gold would have been the better color. If they were going to emulate the Imperial Romans, you might as well go all the way.
“How about we wait for Corvus to get back. I’m sure he would know what to pick.” Narcissa hoped that would placate Andromeda.
“You’re probably right, he did help with Clarissa’s wedding.”
Narcissa had to suppress a grimace.
It wasn’t that she didn’t like Clarissa. She in fact enjoyed the girl’s company. It was just that Clarissa could be a right bitch when she wanted to be. The girl acted like she was the center of the world. Like she was better than everyone else, which she was most definitely not. Clarissa was the fourth daughter, and she knew it. But she acted like she was the heiress!
Her wedding had been the definition of ostentatious.
You would think that the girl was the Queen of France by how much money was spent on that wedding. Poor Lord Dugommier must have spent a sizable amount of his fortune on it, though to hear Corvus tell it the Dugommiers are nearly as rich as the Blacks.
Narcissa wasn’t even sure how Corvus helped in planning Clarissa’s wedding. Maybe the girl had dragged him there just to enlarge her ego. Though it didn’t need any enlarging, it was already the size of France.
“Where is Corvus by the way?”
“He’s at a meeting.”
“But lunch has already started.”
“Well, the meeting’s run a little long.”
“But Corvus never misses lunch.”
“What are you talking about Andy? Corvus is many things, but punctual isn’t one of them.”
“Well…”
“You just want him here so he could choose between blue and green.”
“Yes.”
Andromeda had a sheepish grin on, and she flushed slightly. Narcissa took another sip of her tea as the Gryffindors made their loud entrance into the Great Hall. She spared the Gryffindor table a glance and saw Jonathan Wood palm his face as he listened to one of the prefects give their report on something.
How Wood didn’t have any grey hairs was a miracle, seeing as he had to oversee the organized chaos that was Gryffindor House.
Just as she was turning away, she caught at a glance her other cousin.
Sirius.
He looked more focused than he usually did. Her cousin was either plotting his next prank or actually contemplating something. He didn’t even seem to notice his friends talking around him.
A part of Narcissa was glad that Sirius wasn’t in Slytherin House. The boy wouldn’t have survived a month with all the other pureblood kids and even less with the other heirs. For all that she loved him Sirius would never be a Slytherin.
Corvus had said as much the moment he laid his eyes on Sirius as a baby. Though he said it to Narcissa privately, after leaving Aunt Walburga’s presence. She didn’t believe him at first, but as the years went along it was clear that Sirius was a Gryffindor at heart. No matter what anyone else did the boy would be joining the lions, even if just to spite his mother.
Though she shouldn’t be, Narcissa was glad that Corvus had lost the heirship to Sirius. It was as if a weight upon his shoulders had been lifted when Aunt Walburga said she was pregnant. Corvus wouldn’t say it out loud, but Narcissa knew that her cousin was happy to not be the heir anymore.
At first it meant they had more time to play together.
Now it meant that he enjoyed the freedoms of life without the constraints of societal expectations, mostly.
Was that a little selfish of her?
Maybe, but she always wanted a brother and Corvus was the closest she would ever get to having one. Even more so after he lost the heirship.
Narcissa was dragged out of her thoughts by a shrill voice.
She didn’t even have to look to know who it was.
Everyone knew when the Pink Toad was speaking.
Andromeda grimaced from her spot across from Narcissa. Several of the other seventh years also grimaced, though some of them hid it behind their cups of tea. Others didn’t even try, breaking protocol and openly disdaining a member of their own house.
Slytherins were supposed to stick together, show a unified front against the rest of Hogwarts. It was house tradition and Corvus made sure that every new batch of firsties knew it. There were exceptions to the rule, however.
Dolores Umbridge being one of them.
It was made worse by the fact that the girl was also in Narcissa’s year, thus they had to dorm together. Corvus had found it hilarious at first, everyone had in fact. Even as a first year Umbridge acted like she was better than everyone else. Constantly boasting about her father’s position in the Ministry, and how she would also join the ministry once she graduated.
It was funny coming out of a first year. Though not so much as the years went on.
Umbridge was annoying to be around and a “by the books” kind of person as Corvus put it. She didn’t break any rules, not one. Even the rules that were more suggestions than rules. She abided by each and every one of them. Which was ridiculous.
Narcissa envied her sisters and cousins that they didn’t have to deal with Umbridge every day. She dreaded the day when she wouldn’t have Corvus and Andromeda with her to deal with Umbridge. She was half tempted to just transfer to Beauxbatons, if only to have a peaceful seventh year.
“I don’t know how you deal with her Cissy. I would have probably killed her by now.” Andromeda said as she frowned and looked away from the Pink Toad.
“I’ve learned to mostly ignore her prattling by now.” Narcissa said and took another sip of her tea.
With the Gryffindors finally here lunch could be served and with a snap of Professor McGonagall’s fingers it was.
Wasn’t that curious? Dumbledore seemed to be more and more absent from the school. Narcissa tried to follow all the comings and goings of the Wizengamot, but that was a futile task. You had to be mad to truly understand what was going on there.
Maybe she should ask Octavia about it.
Although she wasn’t here either.
She turned her attention back to lunch. She avoided all the greasier foods and chose a salad instead. Seeing that Corvus was going to be late she made him a plate as well. Chicken breast and broccoli, with steamed potatoes and carrots on the side.
Corvus was predictable at times. He would always have the same thing for lunch and never wavered from it.
Meal planning, he called it. Narcissa just saw it as a rather regimented way of choosing your food. Which meant choosing it once and sticking with that choice with no variation. It sounded boring and she couldn’t understand how Corvus ate the same thing every day.
But he liked it, so Narcissa prepared his plate and then set it aside.
“Oh Lucius! What do you think, blue or green?”
Andromeda thrust the napkins into Lucius’ face as he took a seat down next to Narcissa. He had a contemplative expression as he took the napkins into his hands and appraised them.
“Well, I’m more partial to green, though I have to say that these materials are rather coarse for a napkin.”
“Green? But doesn’t the blue look nicer?”
“It is our house color. Though I’m assuming this doesn’t have anything to do with Slytherin pride.”
“There’s no need to worry Lucius, its not like she’ll choose any other color than blue anyway.” Narcissa said and patted Lucius on the arm.
“Hey! I value your opinion, both of you. I’m just saying that… blue is the better color.” Andromeda said into her cup of tea.
“I should also point out that its going to be paired with purple.” Narcissa said and she watch as Lucius’ face scrunched up.
“Blue and purple? Those colors don’t go together at all. You should probably stick with the universals. Black and purple. White and purple. There are some others I’m missing, but not blue though.”
Andromeda looked shocked at that and Narcissa could almost see the wheels turning behind her eyes as she went over Lucius’ words.
It was a little surprising that Lucius had fully accepted that Andromeda was in a relationship with a muggleborn. When Narcissa had first met Lucius, he was like all the other pureblood heirs. Muggleborn weren’t seen as acceptable to the magical world. They were a disgrace. Abomination to hear some of them say it.
Though that started to change after he had several “conversations” with Corvus. Narcissa didn’t know exactly what was said during those conversations, but she could guess that not too few threats were given. Lucius started to change his outlook on the world after that and, in Narcissa’s opinion, became a better person for it.
When they had started to have a more intimate relationship, Corvus and Lucius had another “conversation” and this time Narcissa was present for it as well.
“You do anything to hurt Cissy and I’ll kill you.” Narcissa had never seen Corvus so serious.
“That would be the last thing on my mind.” Lucius tried to keep his voice level.
“It should never be on your mind Malfoy. I will say it once more, hurt her and I’ll end you by my own hand.”
After that conversation, Lucius had readily agreed to venturing into muggle London with her. He still tried to seem unimpressed with it all, but Narcissa could tell that he was interested by some of the things he saw.
He had also finally accepted that it was more than likely that Andromeda would be marrying Ted Tonks, and that he would most likely be going to their wedding. Corvus had also made that point clear, if Lucius wasn’t willing to sacrifice everything for Narcissa and his future family, he didn’t deserve it.
Other than that, Corvus and Lucius were cordial with each other. They would never be friends, and Lucius might always be just a tad bit scared of her cousin, but at least they could be courteous with each other. That’s all that really matter in her view.
Corvus only just sat down when he was presented with a plate of food by Narcissa and two different colored napkins by Andromeda.
“Uh, thanks.”
He took the napkins first and looked the plate of food to make sure that his lunch was how he liked it. Corvus had early on established a routine at Hogwarts, less he fall by the wayside and do something stupid like get fat. A part of him also realized that he had to be physically fit for the future.
The thoughts of the war scared him, and he wouldn’t be going into it unprepared.
Thus, the regimented diet that focused on physical fitness. It wasn’t dissimilar to how he ate in his first life, though the food quality was better.
After he shook himself out of his thoughts, he reexamined his plate and nodded to himself when everything checked out. He was three forkfuls of chicken breast and broccoli in before he heard what Andromeda was saying.
“Corvus, you didn’t even look at the napkins.” Andromeda whined, not that she would admit to ever doing so.
“What? Oh, uh… they're both nice.” He said and took another bite of chicken.
“But what about the colors?”
“It doesn’t really matter to me. A napkin is a napkin.”
Narcissa snickered into her tea and Malfoy, who Corvus just realized was also present, smirked.
“Corvus, the color is important.” Andromeda said and gave him a look.
It took him a second to realize what look. It was the look.
“Oh, well in that context.” Corvus said and held both napkins in either hand. “I would say neither, these colors don’t match Tyrian Purple at all.”
“What’s Tyrian Purple?”
Corvus looked to see Octavia taking a seat next to him. She grabbed a carrot off his plate and popped it into her mouth before he could even say anything.
“It’s a beautiful color that we’ve chosen for Andromeda.”
“Remember that trip to Paris last summer? That’s the reason they were late to lunch.” Narcissa said and took another bite of her salad.
“I don’t know what to say about that.” Octavia said and took another carrot from his plate.
“Oi, get your own plate.” Corvus said and moved his plate out of her reach.
“Can we get back on topic? What color should the napkins be if not blue?” Andromeda looked at the blue napkin forlornly.
“Gold, it fits better with the purple.” Narcissa said.
“Tyrian pur-”
“Maybe not full gold napkins. That would be rather garish. What about purple napkins with gold embroidery?” Corvus said and took out his wand. With some flicks of the wrist the green napkin turned purple, and some rudimentary gold embroidery was added.
He watched Andromeda’s eyes widen as she took the new napkin in hand.
While Corvus didn’t notice, everyone else around him saw that he did it all without uttering a single word.
“This does look better than blue or green.” Narcissa said and nudged Malfoy.
“Oh yes. It does certainly look better.”
Corvus saw Narcissa’s nudge and sent her a smile and a wink.
“Okay, it does look better than blue.” Andromeda sighed as she held both napkins next to each other.
“Don’t worry Andy, nothing is final yet.” Corvus said.
They fell into a companionable silence, and they all focused on themselves. Andromeda was engrossed with the two napkins. Narcissa was eating her salad as well as directing Malfoy away from the greasier foods and towards the salads. Octavia was reaching for his plate again and he batted her hand away before he took bite of potato.
Whether it was through his magic or a general sense of paranoia that he had developed ever since he came into this second life matter not. Corvus felt a pair of eyes on him, and he turned to look in that direction with a frown.
His eyes met those of Sirius from across the Great Hall and his cousin looked shocked for a second before he ducked his head focused on his food. Corvus was confused at that.
What was Sirius on about?