Chapter Text
Draco had always loved being able to compare his own parent’s timers, tracing their slim oval outlines with the tips of his fingers, spending god knows how long ogling the line of zero’s smartly marching across their joined wrists.
He probably also left an abundance of sticky fingerprints on the glassine faces in the process, not that they ever voiced any real opposition. His constant daydreaming about his own promised finality was always a great private joy for both Narcissa and Lucius who hadn’t been allowed to dream.
(He never did tell them about the periodic shot of uncertainty that sluggishly made its way down his spine; ice-cold; like the raw egg Hermione shoveled down his shirt when he and Harry had annoyed her one too many times while cooking)
How their pairing came to be was a more complicated story than what they had told him initially, of beeping timers and googly eyes and all the bubbly jazz that had made a five-year-old Draco giggle with delight.
If one was to boil it down, it was a coincidental meeting at university among a sea of students, having been made partners for an assessment for one of their lecture classes.
Sparks flying, an instant connection formed, blah, blah, blah.
A cliche story you’d be able to find in those syrupy 5 dollar romance novels, or in hallmark movies that spend entirely too much money for their worth on production costs.
Behind the rose-tinted glasses, though, both were shackled to unhappiness; Lucius’s soulmate timer was completely blank from the moment it was implanted, and an engagement ring already glittered menacingly on Narcissa’s finger, sans timer, as was the grand tradition of these things.
But every time they would be in each other’s presence, they grew hope of being each other’s key until it bloomed into certainty.
The deadline for her exams, her graduation, and her engagement looming over Narcissa, and she snapped.
Dropped everything and dragged Lucius with her to get her timer implanted.
And they synced. Matched. Whatever you want to call it.
But it still wasn’t enough for her parents to approve of her choice.
Perhaps if the illustrious Malfoy fortune was still intact they could be swayed, but the Malfoys were an average suburban family by this point in time, and even considered bad luck to be associated with.
Not that it really mattered, or else Draco himself wouldn’t exist right now.
And Narcissa had Andromeda to learn from and heal with.