Remus frowned to himself. He definitely wasn’t surprised to hear Druella and Cygnus didn’t love each other, but the way Narcissa sounded when she admitted the fact made him sad. It was quickly becoming clear to him that she wanted love, even if she didn’t know what it was. More than he had originally first thought. “I’m sorry. I know a lot of Pureblood families honour tradition, even when people outside of the community can see how… detrimental it is.” Sirius had told him everything he really needed to know, and in his opinion the wealth and the opulence simply wasn’t worth what you were expected to give up. A sense of self, your agency. You needed to be exactly what your parents wanted you to be, and your parents needed to be exactly what their parents wanted them to be. It was a seemingly never ending cycle of toxicity. “People can find love in strange places.” He tried to assure her, not believing it was impossible for her to love Lucius and for Lucius to love her in return. “My parents met because a Boggart was chasing my mum, she thought it was a man trying to attack her, when Dad banished it I guess she saw him as some kind of hero. She’s a Muggle so the chances of her even running into a Boggart are…” He shook his head, still unable to shake the feeling that somehow they had been destined to meet. Smiling when she told him he didn’t seem broken, he didn’t need to say anything before she was adding to her statement, acknowledging the fact that people were more than capable of hiding their damage. “I think it is too.” He admitted. “He’s the only person I don’t need to pretend for, you know?” He watched her carefully when she smiled, it looked different to every other smile he had seen her wear in his company. Genuine, he realised. This was a genuine smile. “I believe it.” He murmured, hoping to assure her. “I don’t know Lucius, but I believe it.” His own smile faded when she mentioned her Boggart, shocked by her honesty. Boggarts showed you your darkest fear, the idea of her sharing that with him was so strange he couldn’t fully process it. “My fear never changes.” He said quietly, glancing up at the moon above them both, He longed to be honest with Narcissa, longed to repay her trust by trusting her too. But he couldn’t, it would compromise his entire mission. And for all he knew, as kind as she secretly was, she harboured the same prejudice as the rest of their world. “I’m sorry you’re forced to see something so traumatic. If there’s ever another Boggart in your house, you can ask me to banish it. I won’t tell anyone.” He bit down on his bottom lip, realising just how much time they had spent outside. It was refreshing, finding comfort and good company in somebody he had never expected to know. But he was seeing Narcissa in an entirely new way. She was beyond intriguing. Regardless of that fact, he knew Dee would worry if he disappeared for too long, so he carefully brushed off the front of his suit, attempting to quiet his nausea as he did up his top button again, his collar pressing against his throat. “Don’t be sorry. I’ve enjoyed your company tonight. Thank you for listening… but I really do need to find Dee before he notices my absence.” Standing carefully, he offered her another smile as he began to walk back towards the building. “Are you going to be okay?”
When he apologized, she only shook her head, offering him a big smile. “No, no, don’t worry,” she insisted. “We all make sacrifices for the things that matter most. Tradition is the reason that I am safe. The reason I walk into a room and conversations quiet and the whole world thinks about me... If only for a moment. Some things are worth anything.” She insisted. Things like never having to wake up wondering what her day was going to consist of. Or worrying about whether she would get married soon. She already knew all of the answers. There were no variables. She lifted her head, looking at him with a big smile on her face. “That sounds sweet,” she said. “Like it was just... meant to be.” She hummed. The idea made her smile. “I’m glad they found each other. Like you found your... other half,” Narcissa said, that smile still on her face, turning just a bit more wistful. “And thank you... For saying that. People don’t seem to have much hope for us. But it’s not the worst thing in the world to wish for more, is it?,” she wondered aloud, looking up at the sky. She laughed again, softly, at how well he rolled with the information of her Boggart. He’d certainly been trained in dealing with pests. Her pesky, inconvenient fear. She envied him for a moment. What a wonder it might have been to have a fear that never changed. How lucky he was to face a Boggart and know what to prepare for. Hers had shifted so vastly over the years that she never knew what to brace herself to see. But then she thought that the dark, or... whatever it has he was so afraid of, must really be terrible if he’d never been able to shake it. “I appreciate it. A lot. Probably more than I can really express,” she said with a smile. “You’ll be my guy for Boggart removal. Next time just take that bonus, won’t you?,” she teased, looking at him with something like a genuine smile. He stood up, mentioned the boyfriend he had to return to. She knew the feeling. She had a reputation to return to. A crowd full of dirty, greedy hands that wanted to know what it was like to shake hers. But she ignored all of that. “I’m great, I’ll be just fine,” she insisted. “Go squeeze your boy a little tighter when you find him, yeah? I’ll see you around.” And just like that, she took one last breath before rolling her shoulders back into their painfully perfect position, practicing her smile under the bright moon. It was much better company than the people behind those doors.
