"The Best Exotic Muggle Hotel" (Narcissa Black, Fiona Zabini)

[friendshipmods]

Author: Anonymous
Prompt/Prompt Author: : Narcissa Malfoy and Mrs Zabini: After the wizarding war, much has changed and these two find themselves in the position to have to earn a living. They decide to open a bed-and-breakfast together. / Therealsnape
Title: The Best Exotic Muggle Hotel
Characters: Narcissa Malfoy / Fiona Zabini
Rating: PG-13.
Warnings:

Comments

[drarryisgreen]

Chests of drawers were urgent. Lucius could wait.

Great read! ♥

[therealsnape]

Thanks for commenting; glad you enjoyed it.

[mountainmoira]

This was WONDERFUL !! I love this Narcissa - she's so human - full of her weakness and her strength - and every day, the one growing less and the other so much greater.

"Your son" - that was the turning point, wasn't it? A brilliant assessment of what must have prompted her great courage.

[therealsnape]

Thanks for commenting to "The Best Exotic Muggle Hotel". I'm glad you enjoyed it. And I'm even more grateful for the way you started this story in your comments to this entry. Such an inspiration - I just had to write it.

So endless thanks, dear muse.

[squibstress]

What a fabulous story, and a fabulous new life for Narcissa!

I love post-war stories about the minor characters, and Narcissa is one of the most fascinating to think about. I always feel for her--her position during the war was one of the most horrendous (even if she may have brought it on herself) and she's perfectly captured here, I think.

The working of Narcissa's mind was wonderful--she just can help making things lovely, can she? The humor juxtaposed with the glimpses of life under the Dark Lord is really stunning; just when the reader is getting settled comfortably into the fun and humor of it all, the nightmare comes back and reminds you, as it does Narcissa, that this is actually very serious business.

Some things I really loved:

One had to remember the other inmates. Guests, she meant. Lodgers. I'm sure that's exactly how it felt.

The other explanation contained the words ‘sell-by date’ and ‘middle-aged’, and nice gels didn’t use those words to describe other nice gels, even if said gels had stolen a perfectly good

[therealsnape]

Thank you so much for your wonderful, detailed comment. Such fun to see which lines work, and to see that Narcissa has found a sister-in-spirit where Ikea is concerned. I tend to be rather on the Fiona side myself, but it was great fun to get under Narcissa's skin.

[magnetic_pole]

Fun! I'm not familiar with the movie, so I hope I'm not missing too much. The voice here is great--you've reproduced the haughtiness without making it over the top or letting it overpower her fears and disappointments. And like Moira above, I loved the bit about Draco being "your" son--a plausible and persuasive reason for N's actions in the last book. Enjoyed! M.

[therealsnape]

All I nicked from the movie of the Best Exotic Marigold hotel is the title, and one line. So you didn't miss a thing. Glad you liked both Narcissa's voice and the reasoning for her actions.

[lash_larue]

Absolutely stunning.

Perfectly plausible, wickedly witty, surgically sarcastic.

"That day the world had changed for Narcissa. From that moment on, Draco had been her son, and she had stood between him and the rest of the world." That just about sums it up. Whatever else she might have been, she was a mother who loved her child.

"Your son. No-one would ever know it, except herself. She doubted whether Lucius remembered it, even, blaming Narcissa was so much second nature." Again, absolutely spot-on.

"Chests of drawers were urgent. Lucius could wait." Curtain. I have always thought of Lucius as a useless, privileged, pretty-boy.

An altogether marvelous story,

I bow,
L

[therealsnape]

Thank you so much for the lovely comment, dear fellow-mod. I'm glad you enjoyed it so much.