In any case, Jane, having recovered from the shock, quickly fell back into sleep.
But what she didn't know as she slept soundly at Grimmauld Place was—
Far away at Malfoy Manor, the lady of the house was tossing and turning, unable to sleep through the night.
Narcissa sat blankly on her bed, her pale face streaked with dried tears.
She had been worrying about her family members' lives and safety for a very long time.
Ever since the Dark Lord's resurrection, thick, heavy clouds had settled over her heart.
Sure enough, her husband's wand—his companion for many years—was the first to be confiscated. It no longer belonged to him.
But that was only the first step, even the lightest price they would pay.
Soon, the Malfoy family's Galleons began flowing away like water.
Whether it was magical artifacts and potion ingredients needed by the Dark Lord, or operating funds required by the Death Eaters...
Everything came straight from their vault, causing the mountain of wealth accumulated by generations to shrink rapidly, with expenses far exceeding income.
The couple could only see a pitch-black future ahead.
But the cost in Galleons wasn't even the heaviest burden—the defilement of their manor was what truly made their skin crawl.
The once-magnificent Malfoy Manor had become a garbage dump.
Whether pleasant or foul, any homeless Death Eater could be stuffed into the manor.
So far, the manor had hosted the Dark Lord himself, nearly every grotesque Death Eater, and various prisoners.
At least those visitors were still wizards. Worse yet, all manner of filthy humanoid creatures had appeared in the manor as well.
Werewolves, Dementors, Inferi... there was nothing the couple couldn't imagine that the Dark Lord couldn't find.
This left the family unable to sleep peacefully, terrified they might wake up face-to-face with a Dementor or be strangled by an Inferius.
Narcissa understood that everyone eating their food, using their things, living in their home was the Dark Lord's way of gradually occupying the manor, step by step becoming its true master...
She knew her home was no longer a home, but the Dark Lord's treasury and the Death Eaters' playground.
And the scales of victory weren't tipping in their favor either—Dumbledore remained vigorous as ever, and Jane Yu had surpassed her predecessors!
The couple finally realized, at the cost of nearly their entire fortune, that their gamble had likely failed.
—And they would very likely continue gambling with their lives.
But they could no longer get off this pirate ship. The price for betraying the Dark Lord was simple: death.
Therefore, when carrying out missions, Lucius chose to slack off... doing as little as possible without leaving traces.
Since quitting wasn't an option, surely he could get away with doing the bare minimum!
So when taking over from the failed Mr. Nott to execute the plan to capture Umbridge at St. Mungo's—
This "capable lieutenant" fully demonstrated his water-treading skills:
He disguised himself as a patient bitten by a venomous snake to enter Umbridge's ward. Working with his teammates—who went upstairs under the pretense of visiting friends—when various spells flew toward the attending healer and Umbridge, he pretended to have been given therapeutic Draught of Living Death by the healer, lying flat on the bed without moving an inch, playing the part of someone in deep sleep.
His acting was indeed successful, the angle he chose to lie at was perfectly subtle—anyone would say it was just coincidence.
His scheme was indeed clever: if the mission succeeded, he'd share the credit; if it failed, he could blame his teammates.
Unfortunately, despite all his calculations, he hadn't accounted for his teammate's schemes—
His good British teammate, old Goyle, an ambitious man who had long been waiting for a chance to pull him down and take his place...
Had been eagerly awaiting this failure!
Not only did he exaggerate and embellish this failure before the Dark Lord, but he also firmly pinned the blame on Lucius.
Twelve volumes of accusations, each one charging him with aiding the enemy.
Old Goyle teamed up with old Crabbe, listing over ten charges: doing business with Jane Yu to aid the enemy, allowing his son to be corrupted by Muggle ideas...
They even blamed the Dark Lord's poor spellcasting on Lucius's disloyalty affecting his wand's performance!
Such skillful fanning of flames immediately sent the Dark Lord into a rage!
Soon, Draco received the plan to assassinate Dumbledore.
Almost the moment she learned of this plan, Narcissa felt as if struck by lightning!
She knew better than anyone what kind of weakling her precious son really was—at most trading insults and throwing punches with classmates, casting a few hexes, strutting around with Jane Yu and acting tough for a bit...
He was still just a sixteen-year-old child who didn't even dare kill a Hippogriff!
If even the Dark Lord couldn't kill Dumbledore, how could he expect her son to do it?
If her son could manage it, what would they need the Dark Lord for?
The Death Eaters might as well be renamed the Malfoy Empire!
Narcissa was both furious and anxious, her body trembling.
The couple's worst fear had finally materialized—
The Dark Lord was angry, punishing and retaliating for Lucius's failure, deeply suspecting the couple's loyalty.
This mission was full of malice:
Either execute the mission and be half-killed by Dumbledore before being sent to Azkaban, or refuse to execute it and be rewarded with death by the Dark Lord.
This almost sealed Draco's fate—one word: death!
Perhaps the only consolation was that their son, their only son, Draco Malfoy, was no longer that reckless, ignorant little boy who only knew how to act spoiled with them.
Perhaps it was due to the company he kept, but he had begun shouldering family responsibilities. The couple finally didn't have to discuss the family's future behind his back—
[This mini-chapter is not yet complete. Please click next page to continue reading the exciting content ahead!]
He had recognized the Dark Lord's true intentions and seen through Goyle and Crabbe's true faces, cleverly disguising himself, relying on playing dumb to avoid surveillance as much as possible, keeping himself in an unnoticed position.
Playing stupid had indeed helped him avoid the Dark Lord'sDark Mark, but still couldn't spare him from dangerous missions.
The couple had considered seeking help from Severus—
Visiting a fellow Death Eater friend wouldn't arouse anyone's suspicion, and Bellatrix wouldn't stop them either.
But unfortunately, when Narcissa and her husband arrived there, this SlytherinHead of House, the couple's old friend, wasn't home.
More precisely, that house had become half-ruins. Though it had undergone simple repairs, it was obvious that it was now empty.
When Narcissa saw the Dark Mark that hadn't completely dissipated beside the house, she knew—
This old friend was probably completing some secret mission for the Dark Lord and had no time to deal with her.
But fortunately, she still had a chance—
A connection established through past investments with Jane Yu had become the couple's lifeline!
But their manor was under surveillance, and owls could no longer deliver messages.
Clever Narcissa immediately thought of excuses: they still needed to go to Knockturn Alley to buy dark magical items required for missions, and to adjacent Diagon Alley for shopping.
She knew Diagon Alley had Dumbledore's people—Percy Weasley!
Therefore, Narcissa brought her son there every day, deliberately walking back and forth in conspicuous places each time, just to let Weasley know their whereabouts and report to Dumbledore!
But after repeating this several times, neither Jane Yu nor Dumbledore appeared...
Desperate Narcissa felt like a drowning traveler who could never wait for that life-saving piece of driftwood.
Before arousing Bella's suspicion, she decided to use buying wizard robes as an excuse for one final trip to Diagon Alley.
Perhaps this time she would finally be found?
She told herself.
Her efforts were rewarded.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
📚 BOOK COMPLETED ON PATREON!📚
This story has reached its conclusion on my Patreon!
🔥 Full story available now
💎 Exclusive bonus content & early access to new books
👉 Join my Patreon community today!
[✨patreon.com/DarkGolds]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━