Well, it is only fitting that we are debating Narcissa's allegiance this month, as we dealt with Lucius's allegiance last month.

This topic was suggested by mmesnape, and I think this is a really, really good one, as this is something I have long thought about since the book DH came out.

Debate away, but please remember to keep things SS appropriate. This should be interesting!

The points:

She saved Harry Potter as she tried to salvage her family and find Draco during the final battle, lying to the Dark Lord to achieve it. Had she ever been a true follower? Was she only following what her husband believed and promoted? Being a good slytherin wife? Did she actually care what happened to Harry or anyone else during the battle?

I think Narcissa was only loyal to her family. She wasn't good or evil. She was a mother and a wife and allied only to the people she truly loved. That was always the vibe I got from her. She always seemed to do what was best for her family on both sides. She helped Harry to save Draco in the last book but she scoffed him before when her family was in Voldemorts good graces.

Narcissa's allegiance is never really addressed per say in any of the books, but since she is married to Lucius.... and being part of the Black family, like her sister Bellatrix, she would probably be for the values that the Dark Lord peddled. But that being said, after she duped Voldemort about Harry's death, you have to see that she didn't truly believed in it, enough to sacrifice her only son to the cause. She might be for Pureblood superiority, but unlike psychopath sister, she wouldn't kill for the greater 'good'.

To add to that, she didn't really participate in the Battle of Hogwarts... she entered the school to find her son before he could get harmed.

The Malfoys were never 'true' followers of the Dark Lord, they did deny allegiance with him when they thought him gone.

Also, the humiliation their family suffered in the last few months of his reign did not endear them to him any more. Maybe they were looking for a way out, after all. And they found it when Narcissa was given the task of checking Harry.

Narcissa loved her family, she really did. To a mother, that is the most overpowering feeling there is. Her son was inside Hogwarts, she was not going to sacrifice him for any cause. I feel that even if it was Lucius instead in Voldemort's place, she wouldn't have done otherwise.

Like Regulus, most Death Eaters joined for their hatred for mudbloods and blood traitors. Maybe the Malfoys did, too. Voldemort soon proved that he was about more than that, though. After seeing his true intentions, the Malfoys could have changed their mind.

GOOOD topic!

To begin with, I have to say that I don’t consider Narcissa a “bad” person – she was a very shades of grey person, and I think she believed in pureblood-elitism only because she was brought up in an environment where it was considered right. I don’t think she hated muggles, the way a death eater would do. She was a lady in the “rich” sense of the word and, though she liked her life of luxury, she was never someone who would like to see innocent people being killed or injured.

Her allegiance was, not to Voldemort, but to herself and her family. She was sure of herself, not to mention a little vain, but that certainly doesn’t make a person “evil.” She was a good wife, stuck to Lucius through thick and thin, even when – in my opinion – she did not exactly agree with his line of thought. She was, similarly, a good mother; she loved Draco in her own way, and did what she could to care for and protect her son.

Like I have said before, she was very independent, as a person – shades of grey, definitely. Yes, she "helped" the death eaters, but that was only because she saw no other way out - to me, it seems she feared for the life of her husband and son - especially her son - more than her own. So yes, I don’t think her opinions matched the death eaters’ – she only believed in the “less bloody” of their evils, such as pureblood-supremacy. Her allegiance lay, in the end, with what she believed was right.

Which was a vaiirrr "grey" world!