Lucius had always planned to marry one of the Black girls. Their social standing was more than acceptable and they possessed a purity of blood to match his own. They were all beautiful in their own way, though there was one in particular whom Lucius had his eye on.

Not Bellatrix – even at a young age, there was an unpredictability and a certain strength about her which, though he would never admit it, scared Lucius. He wanted someone over whom he could have a significant amount of control, but it wasn’t Narcissa whom he had singled out. Her features were continuously showing distaste and she was the whiny sort who, he was certain, would ceaselessly be demanding money from him to buy whatever was the next fad; and he didn’t like the way she was always batting her eyelids at everyone. His wife had to be his, not someone else’s.

No, it was Andromeda to whom he had taken a fancy. Beautiful like her older sister, but far meeker in attitude. A high achiever at school. The sort of woman who would be submissive and comply with his needs without begrudging it and yet also a woman in whom he confide, at least in part. He knew she would be the perfect wife, and he didn’t think there was too much competition for her. There were the Lestranges to consider, but Rodolphus was obsessed with Bellatrix and Rabastan didn’t have Lucius’ reputation. Carlus Crabbe was far too much of an idiot to attract someone so beautiful, and as for Lovico Goyle, Lucius had never seen someone who resembled a troll so much. And why wouldn’t she want him? He might be a year younger, but he came from a good family and he knew from how other girls looked at him that he was good-looking.

Lucius couldn’t remember when he first met Andromeda, but he must have been very young, for the there was always plenty of socialising amongst the pure wizarding society. He couldn’t remember when it was that he started to consider her as wife material. Of course, his parents had brought him up to think towards a socially acceptable marriage and he recalled hearing them discuss his prospects when he was just eleven, about to head off to Hogwarts. Suffice it to say that Andromeda featured strongly.

He was fortunate that his parents’ thoughts were so in line with his own; there had been many difficult situations with people less fortunate. And there could be no objection on her family’s side.

Thus Lucius began at Hogwarts. He was sorted into Slytherin in the blink of an eye and immediately went to sit with Rodolphus Lestrange, who was a year older, just to show off to his new classmates. The Sorting concluded, and he looked at the other four boys who would join him as Slytherin first years: Augustus Rookwood (a small, scrawny boy who looked intelligent), Rabastan Lestrange (obviously Rodolphus’ younger brother, though smaller and less regal-looking and his brother, with a glint in his eye that suggested a desire for trouble-making), Eugene Jugson (a tall boy whose shoulders were slightly rounded; his eyes showed nerves) and Carlus Crabbe (a rather large boy who looked rather dull). Lucius immediately gravitated towards Rabastan (he had good connections) and Carlus (he looked easy to manipulate).

His first years at Hogwarts passed in somewhat of a blur; he excelled at his subjects easily, though he didn’t avoid detention altogether as he rarely paid attention in some classes which he considered beneath him (Defence against the Dark Arts was a prime example). When he began his second year, Narcissa Black began at school and proceeded to follow him incessantly, but he was used to it from social gatherings and brushed her off.

Things began to change in his fifth year. He arrived at Platform 9 ¾, armed with his shiny Prefect badge, finally ready to pursue Andromeda. He had spent the last four years observing her at school, and now with the reputation he had built up, he took his chance.

“Malfoy, excuse me, could you help me put my bags on the train? Mother and Father are busy talking and it’s really heavy...� a voice puffed behind him. He spun around to see Evan Rosier, a new first year, and picked up his bags. He turned his head and caught Andromeda’s eye – she had just arrived – and made sure that she could see him carrying Rosier’s bags. Though he had never set much store by kindness, he had noticed that she did.

He settled Evan into a compartment with a few other respectable first years (certainly not that Potter boy who had been running amok on the station) and returned to the platform.

“Good morning, Andromeda. How are you? Would you like me to carry your bags?�

“Hi, Lucius, I’m fine, and no thanks, I’m capable of carrying my own trunk.�

“Of course, I didn’t mean any offence.� He smiled sweetly. “See you at the Prefect meeting, though I don’t suppose they’ll have anything that interesting to say.�

Andromeda shrugged nonchalantly, her eyes clearly somewhere else. Lucius tried to follow their path, but there were too many students hustling on the platform and he was unable to see the lucky person upon whom she bestowed her gaze. It would be him soon, though.

The Prefect meeting passed uneventfully. Lucius pretended not to listen much and plastered his face with a bored expression, but in reality he listened attentively; he didn’t want to mess up being a Prefect in front of Andromeda. He didn’t get an opportunity to talk to her, though, until the Feast.

He was watching the first years enter Hogwarts Castle disinterestedly, that was, until he caught sight of Sirius Black cavorting with the ultimate blood traitor, James Potter. He looked meaningfully across the table at the Black sisters – who looked strangely lonely without the presence of Bellatrix – after all, Sirius was their cousin. He was the second to be sorted (after “Adams, Katherine� was sorted into Hufflepuff).

When the Hat called out “GRYFFINDOR!� there was complete silence. The Gryffindors looked at each other with shock, some with hate. Lucius looked on with disgust, Narcissa with pure loathing as Sirius strode to the Gryffindor table, his head high and an arrogant gait in his walk. Then Lucius noticed something. Andromeda’s face showed neither shock nor disgust, in fact, it was blank. As he looked carefully, he thought he detected a smile. In hindsight, he should have known then that she was trouble, but at the time, he thought he must have been mistaken and he continued to desire her.

As the year continued, Lucius saw her less and less in the common room. He began to wonder if she had a secret, if perhaps she was talking to Sirius (the rest of the Purebloods had chosen to either hex or ignore him) and didn’t want them to see, or if there was something more sinister going on. But there was no-one he could talk to – in the past, he might have made a comment to Bellatrix, but she had finished school and, he suspected, joined the ranks of the Dark Lord. She had been looking extremely smug all summer. Talking to Narcissa was out of the question – firstly, she was younger than he, and secondly, she still had some sort of obsession with him and he certainly didn’t want to encourage her. And he would never think of confiding in one of his friends; if there was one thing Lucius hated, it was being teased.

One winter night in January when coldness pervaded the castle and Lucius was patrolling alone, he caught her. He was walking along, wondering how long it would take her to look at him, when he heard a giggle from behind a suit of armour. Probably Gryffindors, he thought, a malicious smile forming on his lips as he thought of the right his Prefect badge gave him.

But there weren’t any Gryffindors. Pressed up against the wall behind that suit of armour stood Andromeda Black, her lips pressing onto another boy’s as if her life depended on it. His Andromeda. He had never really considered the possibility that she would reject him. He looked at the boy again. Definitely not a Pureblood or a Slytherin – Hufflepuff, he thought.

Mudblood.

For a few moments, he stood there, frozen. For a ludicrous second, he wished he was that boy. Then she caught his eye. She pulled away from the boy and looked at Lucius.

“Lucius. Please. Please don’t tell anyone, please. Don’t tell Mother, or Bella. I’m begging you.�

He wanted to say something disdainful, to insult her, to hold up his perfect composure. Her eyes pleaded with him. Did she know? Did she know that just with those eyes, he would do anything she asked? Did she know that he couldn’t possibly say no to her?

Silently he nodded.

Then he drew close to her ear, grabbing her roughly by the arms. “But don’t let me catch you with that Mudblood again,� he spat. Andromeda looked frightened. The Mudblood looked ready to punch him.

“No, Ted, don’t! If you do, he’ll tell everyone.� He stopped grudgingly. Andromeda looked at Lucius.

“Promise?�

“Promise.�

He grabbed Andromeda’s hand and pulled her away from the Mudblood.

“10 points from Hufflepuff,� he hissed. “For being out of bed after curfew.� He looked ready to protest, but a look from Andromeda silenced him. He turned in the other direction and left.

Silently the two of them walked back to the Slytherin common room. Something inside Lucius wanted to hold her, to push her against a wall and press his mouth against hers the way the Mudblood had. He could make her do it. He had power over her now, he realised, power over her the same way she had power over him. If she said no, he could threaten to tell.

But she had kissed a Mudblood. She would be forever associated with filth, the kind of filth that he would never allow to tarnish himself. She was no longer worthy to be pure, to be a Slytherin.

~

Lucius never did break his word, and Andromeda kept her secret for over another year. Eventually, about three weeks before her NEWTs, the whole family found out. Rabastan overheard two Hufflepuffs talking about it, then told his brother who told Bella and then there wasn’t a chance of Andromeda keeping her secret. Andromeda never told on Lucius, either, it remained a secret between her, Tonks and him that he had caught them. He wondered if she was grateful to him for that, if perhaps sometimes she thought of him kindly. Then he remembered that he didn’t care; she was a disgrace, and she didn’t deserve the kindness he had shown her.

By May of that year, Andromeda had packed her bags and been blasted off the Black family tree. She remained at Hogwarts for her exams, but only returned to Slytherin House late at night and left early in the mornings. Sometimes she would plead with Narcissa, begging her to leave the family as well. She talked of the Dark Lord, asked Narcissa if she wanted to become a murderess, if she wanted to condone murder. But even if she had wanted to, Narcissa never would have left. For it turned out that Lucius had been wrong about the Black girls all along: he had always believed Andromeda to be the submissive one, but she was the one who in the end had broken free.

So when he finally married Narcissa, the girl he had never had to fight for, the girl who had adored him from the start, he wondered why he had ever even considered Andromeda. Narcissa was the perfect wife: submissive, pretty, supportive and perhaps a little whiny, but she never dared to challenge Lucius’ ideals in the way Andromeda had. Because he knew that, for a moment, he had considered forgetting his family, his values, his beliefs and running after her. Why? He didn’t know. It seemed ludicrous. With Narcissa he was comfortable, he had his reputation, and she had borne him a son to maintain the Malfoy name. He was happy.

But certainly not in love.