"Are you pregnant?"
Her eyebrows shot to the top of her head. "What did you just ask me?"
He snorted, suddenly annoyed. "You heard me, Bell."
"What if I am?" she sneered. "What would you do about it? Would you leave your perfect little Alice?"
He drew himself up straight and reached out his hand toward her cheek. She slapped it away.
"I would never turn my back on my child, Bell." he told her softly, gently. "You know me better than that."
"No, you'd only turn your back on me, wouldn't you?" she asked, turning her back to him.
"Bell..." he broke off. There was nothing else to say. Everything had been said four weeks ago, the morning he told her he was going to marry Alice, the morning after the last night he had spent with her.
"You're off the hook, Frank." she said, her voice emotionless. "No little souveniers of our last night together. Go back to her and get married tomorrow and don't ever give me another thought."
He grabbed her shoulder and turned her to face him. He pulled her arms away from where they were folded across her middle, pointing his wand at her flat belly and muttering the incantation. He didn't trust her. Not that either of them had really ever trusted the other.
The wand tip stayed dark.
His shoulders slumped and he sighed. Her expression didn't change. He recognized it. The Black Family control. The perfectly impassive and imperturbable facade that hid her inner turmoil. The supremely calm face that contrasted with the storm in her eyes.
"I told you." her whisper sounded almost pained.
"I had to be sure, Bell." he looked at the floor. The wall behind her. Anywhere but into her eyes.
"It's time for you to leave." he could almost see the way she drew herself up, drawing in the electricity around her. "And don't ever come back." The last part was spat out with considerable venom.
He looked at her one last time before walking away forever. Away to marry his safe, predictable, sweet, sane Alice. Away from the woman who colored his life with bold strokes, ignoring the lines. Away from a passion that had them cursing and screaming and loving like there was no tomorrow.
She folded her arms and raised one eyebrow at him. "What are you waiting for? You're going to do exactly what your sainted Mummy wants and marry the little Gryffindor princess she hand picked and throw us away. We could have changed the world together, Frank. Now I'll have to change it without you. Leave. Just leave. I will not waste any more of my life on you."
Her facial expression hadn't changed. Her voice hadn't raised. But her eyes had gone from angry to heartbroken to resigned.
He put his hands in his pocket, forcing down the urge to touch her one last time. She'd probably hex his arms off if he did.
"Goodbye Bell." he said softly and walked out the door.
Part of him was unbelievably relieved. There would be no impediment to his long and happy marriage to Alice, no unplanned pregnancy to tie him to his Bell forever.
Part of him was bitterly disppointed.