I looked at the flowers in my grasp, watched as they trembled as my hands shook. The petals were gray and wilted, the stems dried out and brittle. Dead.

Lucius loved Narcissa more than anything in the world. She was his light in the dark, his beacon of hope in a time of war and despair. She was Winter, Spring, Summer, and Autumn, and all the things that came with the four seasons. She was everything.

Ginny still loved him. But she had to let him go, and he likewise, if she wanted to live out the life she'd wanted as a little girl.

The night visits had continued, each restoring a tiny shard of life to Hermione’s broken spirit. Slowly, she found herself being healed. As she had done before, she laughed to herself. A Death Eater, she knew, was undoing the others’ work.

Petunia Evans wanted to be a witch more than anything. She would trade everything she had-- her dresses, her scarves-- for a single letter from Hogwarts. But it never came.

Hermione had always liked a life of adventure. Now married, she's bored and seeks out the spark of danger that she so desperately wants. And with Ron gone for Quidditch, it looks like everything will work out.

Everything was fine, she reassured herself. She would be attending Hogwarts and she was back in her beloved England after eleven years of living in France. Everything was fine, apart from the fact that she should have been dead.

The anger directed at my friends had awakened new emotions in me. The lies between us had spawned spite, the spite had given birth to envy, and the envy had inspired greatness to rise within me. I wanted power. I wanted a taste of greatness.

So I, being really intelligent agreed to help Wren flirt with Scorpius. We’re going to send him cute little notes by owl from a secret identity which happens to be me, pretending to be Wren . Brilliant, eh? Now why did I agree to this?

Love, as Dumbledore always said, was a powerful magic. But it was terrible, too. He could see that now, reflected in her eyes. Empty eyes. Written for the May 2009 Staff Challenge @ HPFF.

I had been right. Marrying Lucius had changed me already. I wasn’t a carefree girl any more. I’d become Narcissa Malfoy.