Chapter Twenty One

A/N: Thank you to my awesome Guests for reviewing the last chapter. Now, on to the finale!

When Narcissa first returned to Malfoy Manor, she thought that things would never be the same way again. After all she had been through, all the agony that she had endured, she could not imagine ever feeling safe again, even in the place that had been her home since she was scarcely grown. Looking at her life now, it seemed almost like a dream.

Three months had gone by since her horrific trial by Dementor, and slowly but surely the constant terror had begun to ebb away. Each gentle kiss on the cheek, squeeze of the hand, made her feel a little safer, a little more like the woman she had used to be.

But the experience had by no means left her entirely, and in those three months Narcissa had not strayed beyond the gates of the manor, losing herself in empty rooms and endless gardens. She had seen her family, of course- Andromeda visited with baby Teddy every other day- but she could not face the rest of the world. Somehow, she could not shake the memory that they had been the ones who had deemed her guilty, they the ones that had almost consigned her to a fate worse than death.

Her hiding stopped on that one day, when a call for entry sounded at the gates. Narcissa, being the only one home at the time, was forced to answer, her brow furrowed in confusion. None of the people she had seen these last months would need to request entry from the enchanted gates, which meant this visitor was someone else entirely.

When she reached the heavy wooden doors, Narcissa leant against them, taking a deep breath to steady her nerves. 'They have no evidence against you.' she reminded herself, hoping it would calm her racing heart. 'They found you innocent, you proved your innocence, they cannot go against that now.'

But when she pulled the final barrier aside, stepping out into the chill of the early morning, her terror subsided somewhat, as she caught sight of a mop of messy dark hair and a faded scar beneath it.

"Mr. Potter." she greeted, her throat suddenly dry. "I wasn't expecting you."

"I didn't tell anyone I was coming." Harry reasoned, with a gentle shrug that reminded her of Draco. "I just… I wanted to see you, really. I never had the chance to after you were released from Azkaban, and I didn't want to intrude on your time with your family."

"It's not an intrusion." Narcissa assured him. "Far from it, actually. If it weren't for you, I would have no time with my family at all."

"You look well." Harry stated after a moment, quickly detracting the attention from his own role in that truth. For a boy who had been in the spotlight since childhood, he seemed to have no taste for attention.

"I've finally gotten used to being home again." Narcissa spoke, by way of an explanation. It was the simplest form of the truth, that she had found herself once more surrounded by the people who had shaped her identity. And although Potter seemed determined to allow his role in that to go unacknowledged, Narcissa was equally determined that credit ought to be given where it was due. "Mr. Potter, I know that you did not have to help me. You did so out of the goodness of your heart, and out of sympathy for my family, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart. For everything."

"Mrs. Malfoy, honestly, it was an eye for an eye." Narcissa' brows furrowed together in confusion, and Harry mentally smacked his own forehead. Sometimes he forgot that expressions so ingrained in his vocabulary would be unknown to witches and wizards who did not associate with Muggles. "You saved my life in the Forbidden Forest, I saved yours from the Dementors. I guess that makes us even now."

Narcissa chuckled gently. "So you did all this to avoid being indebted to me? Surely there was a less time-consuming way to achieve that."

Harry smiled, but he did not laugh. He did not want Narcissa to think him insincere. "It started out like that, but then I realised you were innocent. Well, I didn't have to realise, really, I knew the whole time. But the way people were so quick to condemn you, just because they had an idea of who they thought you were… My whole life has been shaped by something I did when I was too young to remember- it probably always will be- but it doesn't have to be the same for you. I am the Boy Who Lived, I can't change that. But you can change their minds about you, if you try hard enough."

The blonde woman was silent for a moment, taking the poetic words swirling through her head and trying to tie them down. In the end, she nodded, her gaze filled with sincerity and promise. "Thank you, Mr. Potter. You've given me a thousand chances now that I would never have had without you. I won't waste them."

Harry left soon after, no more words exchanged between them- after all, there were no more that needed to be spoken- but in the silence that lingered after the door was closed, Narcissa still contemplated his words. She sat on the window seat in the library, looking out at the gardens below, the mists rolling across the distance, concealing what lay ahead.

"You look very deep in thought." came a voice from the doorway, and Narcissa forced herself not to be frightened.

"I didn't hear you come in." she explained, turning to face her husband with a gentle smile. "I was thinking about a conversation I just had. With Harry Potter."

Lucius' eyebrows raised a little, his smile growing bemused. "Potter? What did he want?"

"Oh, nothing much." she answered. It was one of the greatest lies she had ever told her husband. "He just reminded me of something important, something I'd forgotten."

"What's that?" Lucius asked, approaching the window and wrapping his arms around his wife's waist, so that they were both looking out into the garden together.

Narcissa sighed a little, a smile creeping onto her face. Her hands and Lucius' were entwined on her waist, her head leant back against his shoulder. "Life is worth the trials, as long as you get the chance to carry on."

A/N: Sappy ending, I know, but there's been so much sadness, I couldn't help myself! Hope you enjoyed this final chapter, and that you enjoyed Trial and Error, and So Close before it! Please review!