\u201cWhat made you change your mind?\u201d, Lyra asked her mother.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt didn\u2019t happen all at once\u201d, Narcissa admitted. \u201cThe pureblood ideology was in my family for centuries before the Dark Lord. It was something that was just \u2026 true. But I think, when I saw the Dark Lord murder that poor, innocent woman that taught muggle studies at Hogwarts, Charity Burbage, and he did it in our home, in our drawing room, with all those gleeful monsters watching him feed her body to that accursed snake of his, something in me changed.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was a terrible sight\u201d, a shiver passed through Harry\u2019s body. Narcissa looked at him, surprised. \u201cYou watched?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTo my great misfortune, yes. I had visions through my scar. Terrible nightmares. This was one of them. I woke up in cold sweat with a terrible headache\u201d, he reminisced.<\/p>\n
\u201cI woke up in cold sweat with terrible headache many following mornings, thanks to that memory\u201d, she shivered. \u201cThis was such a terrible crime, that nothing could justify it. And it was done in such a terribly inhuman way, and the reactions of the monsters present were so vile and cruel, that a full realisation dawned upon me: we invited this horror into our home, and the only way for us to have any chance for a future of any kind is for the other side to win decisively\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut that\u2019s merely the obvious part, the part about the Dark Lord\u201d, Lucius interjected. \u201cIf only for that, we would be likely still espousing the same pureblood beliefs, because it was obvious that the Dark Lord espoused those beliefs only to deceive us and recruit us for his cause. But no \u2013 we saw again and again how the supposed purebloods acted as the vilest beasts without honour, grace, manners, dignity, purity or love in their hearts. I know you must have thought of us as cold, arrogant aristocrats, Harry, but beneath that public mask we loved our family dearly, and it terrified us that neither Voldemort nor his followers seemed to care about love in any way. They were only about murder, fear and service to the Dark Lord, and I am not sure they would ever have stopped killing and torturing people had you not ended it, for which we shall forever be in your debt\u201d, Lucius looked at Harry with complete sincerity in his silver eyes, that were so much like Lyra\u2019s.<\/p>\n
Narcissa nodded. \u201cWe would look at each other, and try to imagine the end goal of all that, and all we could think of was a frightening, cold, evil nightmare with no end. And those supposed purebloods all felt like scum, villains, murderers and were barely human, if at all. When we compared them with that kind, good woman they murdered in our home, we understood that we would rather have her in our home than them, any time. We watched the people from the Order of Phoenix here and there, and it would break our hearts to see their love and kindness towards each other, something we haven\u2019t properly felt since the Dark Lord took residence in our home and made it into a den of most the despicable villainy. We saw Harry and Lady Hermione, and they felt like proper people, not empty husks filled with dark evil, such as we kept seeing in our home. And somewhere, I don\u2019t even know when exactly, it dawned upon us that purity of blood isn\u2019t something you inherit; it must be something you manifest and live\u201d, the lady sighed.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd it helped when our daughter denounced us as blood traitors for having only one child, and then exposing her to those horrors and putting her life in danger. I never felt such shame in my life as when I watched her speak, and it was good for me because it woke me from my stupor and I couldn\u2019t find anything untrue in it. I betrayed my blood and my heritage, as well as blood and heritage of my wife\u2019s family, by preaching pureblood supremacy while not having more pureblood children to actually put my actions in alignment with my words, and I sided with a monster who considered gifting my daughter to some vile scum who served him the best in his evil. I was horrified at myself, and as I listened to my daughter\u2019s words, I saw that everything she is saying is true\u201d, Lucius looked at Lyra, who blushed.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd when we saw how you and Harry honoured our family name and heritage, how wonderfully and respectfully your treated my childhood home, we decided to put our entire weight behind you without reservations. Not only have Harry and Hermione saved us all, but they also embraced our daughter as an equal and jointly formulated post-war policy with her, in such a balanced and reasonable way, that we would never have dared to hope for it. Where we feared you would tear down tradition, you preserved it, and only removed things that seem to have caused all this mischief in the first place\u201d, Narcissa smiled at them.<\/p>\n
\u201cDid it not offend you that people like myself are now considered purebloods?\u201d, Hermione asked shyly.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot at all\u201d, Lucius was adamant. \u201cSeeing you in our home, when you were brought in as prisoners, in contrast with the vile creatures that imprisoned us in our own home, made us revise everything we thought we knew about purity. I don\u2019t know whether our daughter told you what we taught her?\u201d, he looked at Harry and Hermione.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have a pretty good idea; we talked a lot, at school. She told me that to her, purity is a state of character \u2013 truthfulness, dignity, knowledge of tradition and history, respect for your ancestry, love for your parents, love for other pureblood wizards, strength of the community, and so on. I was very much surprised, because her beliefs seemed unique. Other Slytherins seemed to think it\u2019s only about your parentage\u201d, Harry nodded.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes\u201d, Lucius nodded. \u201cThat\u2019s what we taught her and that\u2019s how we acted within the confines of our home. So, when we saw you and Lady Hermione, you both looked like the embodiments of the principles of pureblood wizardry that we believed in, while the Dark Lord and his followers looked, to be honest, exactly like we imagined the mudbloods would look \u2013 no class, no honour, no love, no dignity, no respect, no love for their fellow wizards. So, accepting Lady Hermione as a pureblood witch was not just easy; it was the most natural conclusion of everything we saw. And seeing how wonderfully you arranged your household: preserving the tradition while removing the darkness, loving and respecting each other, bringing magic to hitherto unseen heights, increasing family wealth, supporting the community while dealing with threats decisively, we feel that our family heritage is in the right hands\u201d, he bowed to all three of them. \u201cAlso, Arthur and Molly Weasley visited us this morning, and I honestly never believed I would witness anything of the sort. They sincerely apologised to us for judging us harshly and not taking our advice when it would have benefited them greatly. We were wordless, I admit. Truly, I believe you are ushering in a new era, and you are doing it both decisively and with tact and wisdom\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cMay I see Kreacher?\u201d, Narcissa looked at Lyra, pleading, and her daughter smiled and nodded. Crack.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes, Young Mistress? Mistress Cissa?\u201d, he was surprised. \u201cKreacher is very happy to see you\u201d, he bowed.<\/p>\n
\u201cHello Kreacher\u201d, Narcissa smiled softly. \u201cAre you doing well?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cKreacher is very happy, happier than he had ever been in his long life\u201d, he croaked. \u201cKreacher is family\u201d.<\/p>\n
Narcissa wiped a tear from her cheek. \u201cI am sorry we didn\u2019t treat you better before\u201d, she sobbed. \u201cI didn\u2019t know better\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cMistress Cissa was always kind to old Kreacher. She has nothing to apologise for\u201d, he touched her hand respectfully and disapparated, as Narcissa was struggling with tears.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou took our family tradition, poured love and respect into it, and transformed it into something that makes me so proud of you\u201d, she whispered.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe buried the heads of the deceased house elves in the Black family crypt with full honours due to the members of the family\u201d, Harry spoke. \u201cAnd the portrait of the old Mistress as well, so she can now yell insults at her fellow dead\u201d, he smiled.<\/p>\n
\u201cTruly, the place is improved by it immensely\u201d, Narcissa smiled at him through her tears. \u201cAnd I\u2019m sorry I thought of you as an insolent boy before. You are wise, reasonable, balanced and respectful. Our previous discord was fully my own fault\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI understand\u201d, he nodded. \u201cAnd most, if not all, of any wisdom that I may possess, is due to your daughter\u2019s beneficial influence\u201d, he smiled at both her and Lyra, who squirmed with embarrassment.<\/p>\n
\u201cLiar\u201d, she whispered.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cWhat made you change your mind?\u201d, Lyra asked her mother. \u201cIt didn\u2019t happen all at once\u201d, Narcissa admitted. \u201cThe pureblood ideology was in my family for centuries before the Dark Lord. It was something that was just \u2026 true. But … Continue reading