Unexpected News
Lucy's relationship with Voldemort improved with each passing day, so much that even their bond seemed to strengthen, she could actually feel his feelings now, the ones that weren't anger, true that it was more accurate when they were close together, but eventually she'd catch herself knowing that Voldemort is tired, or pleased, even from Hogwarts.
On his part the change was even more accentuated, because if he could always feel her stronger emotions, now he could even notice the small variations on her humor, and would constantly startle her by commenting on then.
But the changes on their bond was far from being the more significant change, it was their conversations more than anything that made Lucy more aware of her growing feelings for her husband. Because if before they'd exchange only the more essential words, now they've taken to have longer conversations, sometimes about Lucy's day in class and sometimes about politics, about Voldemort's work.
Lucy found herself delighted to hear about the comings and goings of the Council and the Ministry, and found herself comfortable enough to give her feedback on the matters that Voldemort brought up, the same as he felt very comfortable to share some of his worries with her.
The morning of Halloween's day for an instance found husband and wife discussing the new project about business relations between Goblins and Wizzards, during breakfast, that Lucy would now take at home most of the days.
"The ministry is being particularly difficult to convince on this matter, Fudge seems to agree whole heartedly with the Daily's Prophet opinion that I'm trying to prevent Goblins from dealing with Wizzards." – Voldemort commented with a sigh.
"But… It does seem a lot biased, I mean this new law would create rules for contracts made with Goblins, it would demand things differently for them." – Lucy commented trying not to sound accusatory.
"But it's in order to protect both Wizards and Goblins and avoid future conflicts." – He said exasperated, and Lucy raised her eyebrows, causing him to sigh and continue. – "The culture of Goblins is very different from ours, demand that a contract celebrated between both species are necessarily public and magically bound is a measure to avoid that any of the parts make demands that hadn't been previously accorded. For an instance, the concept of ownership is completely different for them, to the goblins the one who makes something is their legit owner forever, if he sells that object he simply gives it away for a period of time, usually as long as the life of the buyer, which means that by their rules when the buyer dies the object should be returned to the maker, with wizards this doesn't exist, and by our laws everything passes to one's descendent including those objects made by goblins, which is why they often believe that we steal from them. With the new regulation any sale made by goblins would need to be specifically detailed, even to include a clause stating to whom the object would go in the case of the buyer's death, and none of them would be able to say they've been deceived. It would avoid any unnecessary tension." – Voldemort explained calmly.
"Hum… It seems reasonable, I think, but I doubt the minister will see it that way, especially with everything the papers are saying about it. You should try and deal with the Daily Prophet first." – Lucy commented while taking a sip from her herbal tea.
"I think I might." – Voldemort commented with a scowl, pausing though when he noticed the startled face of Lucy who found herself wondering what kind of ideas she had just given him. – "Do not worry, my beloved, I only mean I might send an official note to the papers explaining the law project, no violence intended." – He said calmly and she flushed feeling slightly embarrassed by her previous thoughts.
"I'm sorry." – She mumbled, before getting up. – "I must really go now though, I have class in a few minutes."
"You haven't eaten anything, though." – He commented apparently noncommittally, but Lucy could feel some concern through the bond.
"I'm not really feeling hungry, besides I think I'm still a bit queasy." – She said scrunching her nose a little as she remembered the day before when she threw up her entire breakfast.
"Very well them, have fun tonight on the Halloween feast." – He said as he allowed her to bend down and give him a light peck, before activating the portkey.
Lucy rushed to DADA classroom, she was running late already, what would often occur when she ate breakfast at home, thankfully Sirius hadn't arrived yet, and she managed to find a place between Hermione and Ron.
"You're late." – Hermione commented giving her a hard look.
"Had to take breakfast at the castle again." – She answered shrugging, Lucy was always very careful not to let them know she actually chose to eat at home, the first time she said it Ron's reaction had been awful.
"Hum… Will you at least be able to stay for the feast?" – Ron asked.
"Yeah, no problem."
"Great! It wouldn't be fair for you to lose it huh? I bet the food on the snake's castle can't compare to Hogwart's." – He said with a smirk, and Lucy smiled nodding, she didn't think it was a good idea to point out that the food on Serpent's lair was actually better.
Just then Sirius walked in, putting an end to the vexing conversation, it was getting really difficult for Lucy to hide the fact that she liked Voldemort now, or at least like whom he was to her now, but she dreaded the day she'd have to tell them, Ron's reaction wasn't going to be pretty…
After class, Sirius called her back.
"Yes, Professor?" – She asked politely, seeing that there were still some students on the classroom.
"Lucy… I'd like to talk to you about…" - He started before getting up and start pacing behind the table, looking flushed.
"Is there something wrong Sirius? Something bad happened?" – Lucy asked alarmed, imagining if it had something to do with Voldemort or the order.
"No… Nothing bad! I… It's just some news…" - He trailed off, looking at her with an unreadable expression. –" Do you have time later to come by? Perhaps before the feast?" – He asked hesitantly.
"Yes… I can come. Are you sure everything is alright?" – She answered still feeling worried.
"Yes. Everything is fine, it's just some private stuff that I'd like to tell you personally so… Just come by okay? And, you can bring Ron and Hermione as well." – He said with a frail smile as some students entered the class for the next lesson.
Nodding Lucy left, and went to find Ron and Hermione and head to Transfiguration class, still very concerned, she couldn't imagine what could be vexing Sirius so much, the man seemed almost afraid to talk to her…
"What did Sirius want?" – Ron whispered to her, as Professor Mcgonagal scribbled something on the black board.
"He said he has some news… We should drop by his office before the feast."- She answered in an equally hushed tone.
Hermione shushed them somewhat exasperated, when Prfessor Mcgonagal turned around to address the class again.
By the time all their classes were done, and they finally managed to go up to Sirius' office, Lucy was almost busting with curiosity, many dark possibilities passing through her mind, "would the Order be planning something? Did Sirius want restart the war?", the mere thought get her a cold sweat.
Ron, on the other end, seemed to have lost interest on the news, by now his stomach was growling loudly and he was all for going straight to the Great Hall, even though he had stuffed himself with roasted beef and mashed potatoes at lunch.
"Come on mate, Sirius can wait till tomorrow! I mean, you must be starving too, right? You barely ate at lunch!" – He complained.
"I'm fine Ron… I'm hungry but I can wait until after I talk to Sirius." – She lied smoothly, she wasn't hungry at all, actually just the thought of going to the Great Hall filled with heavy sauced food and hungry teenagers made her stomach churn, the only thing preventing her from going straight home, to eat some light dinner with Voldemort, was the awful reaction she'd get from Ron.
"You haven't been eating much lately Lucy, are you sure you're not sick? I think we should go and talk to Madam Pomfrey…" - Hermione commented shooting her a worried look.
"Hum… I might have a stomach flu or something… But, I'll ask Voldemort for a potion, or maybe he could call Dr. Crabb if it doesn't go away on the weekend." – She answered shrugging, as they reached Sirius's office.
They went in to find Sirius and Rabastan inside the office, the later was sitting on the desk, while the former paced back and forth with a worried face.
"What the fuck is Lestrange doing here?" – Ron asked with a scowl.
"Language! Mr. Weasley! – Sirius snapped at him, causing Lucy to arch an eyebrow at him, as Rabastan stood up to put a calming hand on his shoulder. – "I'm sorry. Please, sit. I… We have something to tell you guys and… I hope you'll not take this too badly." – He added sounding somewhat apologetic.
"What could you have to say to us, that also involve him." – Ron asked pointing rudely to Professor Lestrange.
"Ron! Let the professors speak!" – Hermione chided, as both she and Lucy dragged the red head to sit on the three chairs that had magically appeared in front of the professor desk, as both Sirius and Rabastan proceeded to sit on it.
"Well… Look, during the summer, when I came here to Hogwarts to prepare for the first term, so did Rabastan, since he too was starting as a teacher, and…" - Sirius paused, passing a hand through his hair. – "We had to spend a lot of time together and… Look, I want you to understand that this doesn't change who I am or where I stand, I just started seeing things a bit differently and…" - He paused again as Rabastan put a hand on his shoulder raising an eyebrow.
"Sirius, you're not making any sense". – He commented indicating the three teens that looked befuddled.
"Just go straight to the point Paddfoot, we can take anything." – Lucy said with a reassuring smile.
"Okay… Well then… I'd like to tell you, that me and Rabastan are together, romantically so for about a month now. We're not yet sure where this is going." – He made a vague gesture between the two. – "But I wanted to tell you, Lucy, before it got any deeper, you mean a lot to me cub, and I know this can be confusing, specially so soon after the war and…"
He was interrupted as Ron stood up rashly, balling his hands into fists.
"Ron! What…" - Hermione started but got cut off as well.
"You're shagging a Death Eater?" – Ron spat angrily, - "you're not only a fag, but you're also with a bloody Death Eater?" – He almost shouted.
"Ron, you can't be serious…" - Lucy started, frowning at her friend, what only caused him to scowl, before turning and storming out of the room.
Sirius looked devastated, looking at Lucy as if she would run too. Hermione, though, was the first to speak.
"Sirius… Professor Lestrange… I want you to know I think it's brilliant, the war is over, and things are working out, so I don't think there is any reason to not like your relationship. And Ron… He's a twat, but he'll come around." – She said offering them a smile. – "I Guess I should go talk to him…" - She added with a sigh, before standing up and leaving as well.
Both Rabastan and Sirius looked at Lucy expectantly, the girl sighed and stood up to hug her godfather, she was surprised, of course, and she couldn't say she liked Rabastan… But who was she to judge anyone, she was actually enjoying being married to the Dark Lord himself…
"Sirius… Never scare me this way again okay? I thought someone was dying! Not that you had gotten yourself a boyfriend!" – She chided, letting go of him to glare at his face. – "And, of course I'm okay with it! It's your life, you don't owe me an explanation or anything! Besides… I can't really begrudge you for dating a Death Eater, while I am married to the Dark Lord, and actually enjoying it." – She said and watched as both men shared a surprised look.
"Seriously? You're liking Voldemort?" – Sirius asked astonished, she shrugged.
"Yeah… things changed. I can't really admit it publicly yet, because people would think I've gone dark, or mad, or both… But things are nice." – She said simply. – "And besides… Now I can invite you to dinner, as Rabastan's date!" – She exclaimed, and the three of them laughed.
"Well… I think you should go down to the feast…" - Sirius said with a suspiciously watery smile. – "We'll go down in a minute."
"Sure… I'll go ahead and find Ron and Hermione." – She said moving towards the door, but paused just before opening it and turned to look at Rabastan. – "You know, before I go, I think I should mention that I love my godfather very much, and if for some reason he ends up hurt by all this, I'll ask Voldemort to torture and kill you in the most gruesome way he can think of." – She said seriously, before smiling and exiting the room, leaving a positively terrified Rabastan.
Lucy went to the great hall to find a still sulking Ron, who was already stuffing his face with roasted beef and mashed pumpkins, as soon as she saw him shoveling the food on his mouth she felt her hunger fly away, and a sick feeling settled on her stomach.
"What took you so long?" – Ron asked as she sat down, not bothering to swallow his food before speaking. – "Don't tell me you approve of Sirius being a fag?"
"Ron! Stop being so close minded! Homosexuality is perfectly normal remember? Even the muggles accept it nowadays, and the wizarding community has always been very accommodating… I really don't understand why you're being so biased!" – Hermione said sighing exasperated, and Lucy was thankful she at least had her mouth clean.
"It wouldn't be a problem if he was shagging some nice guy Mione! But he decided to bend over for a bloody Death Eater!" – Ron said angrily, spilling a bit of juice down his chin. Lucy felt her stomach churn.
"The war is over Ron…" - Lucy offered dejectedly, and he turned to glare at her.
"So what? He is still a death eater scum! Don't tell me you think it's okay Lucy." – He said giving her a disbelieving and somewhat disgusted look, before whipping his mouth with his sleeve.
Lucy felt like gagging, she stood up.
"Look… I'm not feeling okay. I'm going home." – She said before striding away quickly and not bothered to look behind to see Ron's glare and Hermione's worried frown. She activated the portkey, and soon she hit the ground on the Serpent's Lair foyer.
Not able to hold it in anymore she keeled over and emptied her very distressed stomach right there on the floor. She felt like shit… The customary pop told her an elf had just appeared besides her, and soon all the mess she made was gone.
"The Lady, is feeling sick! Tipsy will help the Lady go to her room so she can rest! Straining herself like this is no good for the Lady, and for the baby!" – She heard Tipsy say as she felt a push of magic helping her to stand up. Lucy frowned at the elf's words.
"Baby? What baby Tipsy?" – She asked, as she steadied herself on her feet, she must have misunderstood…
"The baby the Lady is carrying! Lady is carrying Master's heir! Tipsy is so happy! Tipsy loves babies!" – The elf answered, the huge ears flapping around happily, Lucy felt like she was going to be sick again.
This couldn't be happening… She couldn't be pregnant! She was much too young, much too stupid! And it was Voldemort's child… Oh Merlin…
"Tipsy… Are you sure?" – She asked, dreading the answer, her period should have come this month already shouldn't it? She asked herself feeling somewhat stupid.
"Yes! Tipsy is very sure the Lady is carrying a baby! Tipsy knows a pregnant witch very well, the magic changes!" – The elf said happily, as it climbed the stairs besides Lucy. – "The master will be so pleased…"
"No!" – Lucy screamed, startling Tipsy, who looked fearfully at her. – "Sorry, Tipsy, but please don't tell Voldemort okay? You can't!"
"But… Tipsy must not lie to Master…" - The elf answered, it's huge blue eyes tearing up.
"I know… I just… You don't have to lie to him, if he asks you'll answer the truth, but, don't go telling him okay? I… I should do it myself." – She said weakly, and Tipsy nodded slowly, before the two of them started climbing up the stairs together again.
How am supposed to tell him those unexpected news? Will he even want the child?
