You, Lucius Malfoy, have a reason to fight.

You are, in fact, among the few who can list a reason other than greed as their reason for service. And that makes you amongst elite, for I know that a majority of the Dark Lord’s followers, including my sister, only desire power.

You know that you have a reason to fight, even though I know that you occasionally forget. I can see it in your eyes. You do a good job of disguising it when in the company of the Dark Lord, but he knows. You can’t hide anything from him.

And you can’t hide anything from me.

I am your wife, Lucius. And it is my duty to see that reason in your eye. You promised me that reason all those years ago. Years before the Dark Lord mattered.

Think of your son, Lucius – our son. He is scared. He doesn’t know what is right and what is wrong. He can no longer discern the strong from the weak. He looks to you in guidance, and I hope with all my heart that he can see that reason in your eyes the way that I can.

Our son needs to know that there really is love in the world. He needs to understand that there are things more important that power, more important than violent acts.

If I were the one given the task of telling him such things, I would be brushed off immediately and dismissed as weak, with female fears.

The only role model he can follow is the Dark Lord, because you present no alternative for him. I have seen him participating in things with revulsion painted across his young face. He doesn’t want to follow the Dark Lord, Lucius, just like you don’t want to either. But he doesn’t know that you don’t want to.

He needs you, Lucius.

He needs you to tell him why you have opened the doors of our ancestral home to the Dark Lord’s minions. He needs you to tell him that you have remained submissive and loyal so that he might have a chance to live freely. He needs to know, or we will lose him forever.

Though he hates it doing the Dark Lord’s bidding, he is an intelligent young man and a true Slytherin at heart. If he sees only one path, he will take it in order to stay alive. Soon he will be able to steel himself in order to do the Dark Lord’s will without emotion. And then he will be able to do his work and enjoy it.

And when that day comes, our son will be gone. And all your effort will have been in vain. Your son, your family, is why you fight. For, if you do not, we would vanish, taken and killed by the Dark Lord, no doubt.

But Draco doesn’t know that. As much as it pains me to say this, when he looks at you he sees a weak man who is afraid of his master. He is ashamed, Lucius. But if he knew why you continue to fight, he would be proud.

Our son is standing at the metaphorical fork in the path. He could choose to follow the Dark Lord. Or he could choose to follow you. Unless you act now, he will only see one path. The path that you would lead him towards would be forever obscured by something that is rare within these people who claim to share our home.

I am afraid, Lucius. I am afraid that one day, I will no longer recognize our son. That he will walk through the entrance one day and no longer be our son, but only the greedy servant of the Dark Lord.

And I know that is what the Dark Lord wants.

For he can see the doubt in your eyes when he assigns a difficult task to Draco. He can see the fear on your face, even if it is only momentary, when your family is put in harm’s way. And he can see the love in your gaze when you want to protect your home, your family.

I know that you have forfeited your wand, and I am sorry for its loss. But that does not make you any less important or any less powerful in the eyes of your family. I know that you will keep fighting to protect us – you haven’t stopped yet, though it has been scaled back since the prisoners held within these walls escaped.

Lucius, you need to speak with Draco. I hear the rumors flying about that there may be an invasion of Hogwarts soon. And I don’t want anything to happen to any of us before you share your reasons for fighting.

For Draco is your reason.

I am your reason.

The two of us are your family, your reason.

We are why you fight, Lucius. You have a reason to continue to fight and I know that you always will.

I am, as I ever was, yours.

Narcissa.