Chapter 4
Chapter 4
Narcissa Malfoy was beautiful.
She always new that.
But for all her beauty, for all her pure blood, she didn’t have happiness. And she knew she never would. Because she was hollow. A beautiful picture on the outside with nothing meaningful on the inside. Her upbringing made sure of that.
But that was the fate of most pureblood ladies. They had no choice as to whom they will be sold off to. They could only hope that their parents’ choice would be bearable.
When her oldest sister Bellatrix tried to argue her upcoming match to the Lestrange heir, the younger Black sisters had no choice but see the consequences. And if their elder sister shook from Crucio aftershock for weeks leading up to her wedding? It didn’t matter. What happened to her body no longer mattered. Because their beloved sister? The sweet but temperamental Bellatrix who would tell them bedtime stories and secretly taught them how to ride their father’s Hippogriffs? She was gone. Dead. Her mind was no longer there. What walked down to that altar was not their sister. Not anymore.
And they were next.
Unlike Narcissa, Andromeda was strong. She was alike Bella in that sense. But unlike the eldest Black she had the sense to bide her time. She didn’t act immediately. She hoped for the best. That maybe, just maybe her match will be bearable.
It wasn’t.
The Selwyn Lord was despicable.
It wasn’t just that he was three times older than the fifteen year old Andromeda. She could have lived with that. But the fate of his two previous wives? The ones who conveniently went ‘missing’? And while she never met the first one, the one that was scared to lift her eyes off the floor during each and every public function without his permission was more than enough to form an opinion. To know that she didn’t want that. She wanted better.
So when a sweet Hufflepuff Ted Tonks started blushing every time he saw her, she saw her chance.
After all, you can’t marry off a married woman.
And she was right.
The resulting scandal was just a little shy of the latest ‘Weasley marriage’.
What Andromeda didn’t take into account was that her actions will be detrimental to her little sister. But she was always a bit selfish. She only wanted to be safe, but other consequences? She didn’t think about those at all.
But while Narcissa had to bear with continuous supervision and more ‘proper pureblooded wife’ training, her parents at least had the sense not to offer her as a replacement to an enraged Selwyn. If that was only because she was already promised to a Malfoy, no one has to know.
Had it been anyone else, had the bride price offered by Selwyn been higher, her fate would have been bleak.
But there was no one in wizarding Britain that could out-pay the Malfoys.
She was lucky.
They both were.