Hermione didn't know whether she was feeling better or worse after she had seen a healer. Maybe both? Was that even possible? Waking up, her stomach felt uneasy. She wondered whether she should rush to the bathroom or remain lying on the futon hoping it would get better.
Before she could make up her mind, Lucius jumped up next to her. Taking her time, she stood up and followed him to the bathroom.
He was on his knees in front of the toilet. Hermione was holding his long hair and opened the windows as wide as possible to let fresh air in. She handed him a glass of water and he looked at her weakly.
"Should our roles not be reversed?"
"It is not uncommon for men to experience the same symptoms during pregnancy that women experience. Your hormone level change as well to prepare you for the arrival and taking care of a little baby, although not quite as much as mine, I suspect."
"Then why are you not hanging over the toilet?"
She looked at him for a moment. "I think it's because I got pregnant so quickly after the war. My body didn't have enough time to establish a normal cycle before the pregnancy hormones took over. And because I didn't have enough rest to establish a stable baseline the relative change in hormones isn't that big, a lot of hormones are produced in the fat tissue. I do feel sick, just not quite enough to actually throw up," Hermione explained.
He stood up and brushed his teeth without a comment. Lucius proceeded to comb his hair thoroughly and then he tied it together. Next, he covered his tired face with make-up.
Watching him Hermione raised her brow.
"I cannot let my colleagues and business partners know that I suffer from pregnancy by proximity, the next thing they know, I schedule my meeting around my breastfeeding hours."
"You could," she argued, "Your body has everything you need for it, or why else do you have nipples? I would have to do some research into it but isn't there an old potion governesses used to feed their wardens before proper formula was invented?"
Lucius glared at her.
"What? I thought you should know about your options."
"I pick you up at university. We have a wedding to attend." He left without giving her a kiss.
Hermione wouldn't have minded. He did brush his teeth thoroughly after all. She collected her bento boxes and went to university. Hermione didn't know why he was picking her up. Wasn't it easier if they met up at home?
After lunch, Yuta and she went to their last lecture of the day. She wondered how Lucius was going to find her, but stepping out of the main gate, she spotted him easily due to his tall frame and his platinum blond hair.
She didn't know what to do. Should she shout and run to him? But she was still with Yuta and couldn't just abandon him. Luckily, Lucius had already spotted them and approached them.
"Here you are." Lucius was staring at Yuta.
For some reason, Hermione found the situation embarrassing. Her cheeks were glowing and her hands were sweaty as she introduced Lucius as her husband. She was too young to be married and he too old to have such a young wife.
Yuta didn't seem irritated by it. If he was surprised then it was a positive, open kind of surprise.
Lucius looked at his chained watch that was hanging on the buttonhole of the west of his three-piece-suit. "We ought to leave."
They said bye and Lucius dragged her to a deserted area from where he apparated them home.
Standing in the entrance hall of Tora-jou, she scrutinized him. "Why did you pick me up?"
He gave her his best innocent look.
"I can't believe it, you were just looking for an excuse to intimidate the one friend I've made at university."
"You should get dressed."
Hermione let out a groan.
She returned in her linin summer dress, but he sent her back. "How am I supposed to know what to wear when I don't even know where we're going and whose wedding is it?"
"Dortha Yaxley is going to marry Andrew Nixon at the Nixon estate in Georgia."
"Yaxley?"
"Yes, Yaxley. Reginald Yaxley is a crucial business partner of mine. He took care of a few things for me while it was indisposed and it is about time to check up on the progress he has made. The wedding is the ideal time for that."
She rolled her eyes. What happened to attending a wedding to share the luck and joy of the couple that knitted the tie.
"They're not related to the Yaxley, the Death Eater, are they?"
"Reginald, Dortha, and Mavis are Corban Yaxley's children. They were raised by their mothers although. Corban couldn't keep a wife for longer than five years."
Hermione grumbled. "Do I really have to go? I have a lot to study and…"
"Well, I can go alone if you are fine with hoards of witches and wizards clotting around me, hoping to improve their standing and financial situation overnight."
"Fine. What do I wear?"
He looked at her for a moment. "Wear something sexy, it might be better if I forgo introducing you by your name."
Hermione bit her lip. She understood that he couldn't announce her marriage without announcing whom he is married to, but she would have still preferred it if people knew that he was his. She did understand the reasoning but that didn't mean that she was happy about it.
How does someone's mistress dress? Did she even have something that was both sexy and classy in her wardrobe? Thanks to Lucius she had to get used to so many new things she could barely keep track of her own life.
She fished net-tights out of her wardrobe and put them on. With a sticking charm, she kept everything in place. Hermione had a knee-long black dress that highlighted her curves. It was low cut, so that the lacing of her red bra lurked out and matched her only pair of high-heels.
Rushing to the bathroom, she pinned her hair up and applied a bit of make-up. Then she took her har and wore it any way that her face was obscured by the rim. An anonymous Femme Fatale. She couldn't help but giggle at that image.
She felt oddly confident. Hermione might not know how to act as someone's wife yet, but she would figure it out eventually.
They placed their hands on the little figurine and the tug of the Portkey pulled them away.
Barely on the ground, she tore herself free from his arms and stumbled a couple of steps away. Too dizzy, she didn't dare to open her eyes. The hat fell off her head. Her stomach was twisting and turning. She just couldn't keep anything inside.
Opening her teary eyes, Lucius came slowly into vision. Hermione had smooth white marble under her knees. She let herself fall to the side, careful not to fall into her own vomit. Traveling by magical means was never easy, but this time felt so much worse. She felt so sick.
Lucius vanished the mess she had made.
"Just leave my I'm dying."
"You are not dying." He helped her up, but Hermione would have preferred to remain lying on the ground.
"I can't attend a wedding feeling like crap."
He looked at his watch. "We have time."
They took a couple of slow steps outside and sat down on a bench. He left her there and organized a bottle of water.
"Once you are feeling better we can go to a diner for breakfast."
"Breakfast?"
He chuckled. "Timezones. It is early in the morning here in Georgia. I thought we could stroll through the Aquarium in Atlanta before the wedding at the Nixon estate, my birthday present to you."
Hermione started laughing loudly. "You know that there are a couple of big aquariums in Japan yet we only manage to actually go to one on the other side of the planet."
He looked at her. "Well, timezones work to our advantage."
"By adding 13 more hours without sleep?"
"That might be a downside to the plan."
Hermione was starving. Dragging him into the diner, she sat down on the red leather couch. She didn't pay much attention to her husband as she sat down opposite him. Grabbing the menu, she started ordering.
"A smoked salmon beagle, buttermilk pancakes, eggs, beans and, beacon, waffles with ice cream, iced tea and a small coke in a glass bottle, we're in Atlanta after all."
The older lady looked at Lucius.
"That would be all."
Hermione hadn't noticed that she had ordered that much, but she was close to starving to death.
The lady started by filling their glasses with water and the iced tea and coke followed shortly. Hermione to a big gulp of coke and handed the rest to Lucius who looked at it skeptically.
"My parents didn't allow me cola because it's all sugar and acid. It's bad for the teeth and not exactly healthy anyway, so it's a very special treat."
He sniffed on it before taking a sip. "It is very sweet." Lucius licked over his teeth-
As the older lady brought the food over, Hermione took it greedily out of her hand, digging into it. She was halfway done by the time she realized that she should leave the rest to Lucius.
There was no particular order to her eating. As the table was filled, she just dug into everything mixing sweet and savor foods. She felt like she wasn't supposed to do that, but she was pregnant and that was all the excuse she needed.
If Lucius found it too weird he didn't show it. He was probably busy getting something to eat, but Hermione didn't slow down. Her stomach was completely empty and she enjoyed the variety the American food offered. It wasn't particularly original, but it was an interesting difference to Susu's Japanese cooking. It was sweeter and saltier and for some reason, that was exactly what she wanted right now.
Finished with eating she felt like she was going to explode. Leaning back, she watched Lucius. He was taking his time, finishing his meal. How did he manage to keep eating at a moderated speed when she shoved everything down her throat like a starving woman? Wasn't he scared that there wouldn't be enough for him once she was finished?
Hermione was just hanging in there, hoping that the feeling of being filled to the brim would subside. He wiped his hands with a paper tissue and took his time finishing his coke.
