"And where is Lucius?" Narcissa's mother, Druella Rosier-Black asked her eldest daughter in a waspish tone.
"He's working," Bellatrix answered sharply. "You don't simply ask the Dark Lord for time off..."
Missus Black pursed her lips in a thin line and and looked over her shoulder at the double-doors leading to Narcissa and Lucius' private chamber. A muffled cry came from within and Bellatrix rolled her eyes.
"Is this really so necessary?" She scowled. "Can't take a draught for the pain?"
Druella narrowed her eyes at her daughter.
"Clearly, Bellatrix, you either don't care, or didn't study up on the effects of imbibing potions during pregnancy-"
"And that is exactly why Cissy gets to bear heirs," Bellatrix cut her off.
"Watch your tongue, Bella!" the lady Black gripped her wand in the pocket of her robes.
Bellatrix looked as if she'd argue back but her mother wasn't going to give her the opportunity.
"Go wait for Lucius in the atrium."
"Why?" Bellatrix asked in surprised irritation. "He can look after himself!"
"You're no use here, and while you're waiting, you can greet your father as well." Druella announced. "Now get on."
"Yes Mother," Bellatrix grated and tromped down the stairs, sticking her tongue out at the matriarch as soon as her back was turned.
No sooner had Bellatrix reached the bottom of the stairs than she espied her father at the Manor gates, making his way quickly to the house.
"Bella," Cygnus Black eyed his daughter as she let him into the house.
"Before you ask, Lucius is at work," Bellatrix interrupted. "Merlin, it's as if he's having the baby!"
Cygnus did nothing to indulge her ire and instead, paid his eldest no further heed as he too, started toward the staircase to meet with Druella.
"Everything is perfectly fine!" Bellatrix shouted after him, infuriated at being left downstairs while all of the commotion was elsewhere. "Merlin, you'd better be a boy, young Malfoy!"
"When did the mediwizard arrive?" Cygnus Black addressed his wife with the same chill he had used with Bellatrix, though the glint of concern did not pass Druella's notice.
"A couple of hours before Bellatrix gave me notice."
"So it hasn't been long."
"No; perhaps Lucius will make it yet." Druella answered, raising a severe-looking brow. Her husband merely shrugged in response.
"Work is work, regardless."
"Indeed-"
"Suppose we should have tea while we wait, so long as that runty elf hasn't run off somewhere." Cygnus continued. "Nothing to be done until it's born."
"There you are, Missus Malfoy; it shouldn't be too long now," the mediwizard, a young man not much older than Narcissa's husband, encouraged while Narcissa leaned back between pushing, her hair sticking to her face and neck.
"Where is he? Where is Lucius?" She gritted her teeth before letting out a long breath.
"Ease back for a minute," the young man avoided her question; he neither knew exactly where Lucius was or when he would return home.
"I need water," Narcissa murmured, turning her head away from him.
"Of course; I'll be only a moment..."
"Well?" Cygnus asked gruffly as soon as the mediwizard stepped out of the master chambers.
"Nothing yet," The doctor replied calmly. "Has Mister Malfoy not returned?"
"He has not."
The mediwizard let out a sigh and Cygnus snapped, "What's the use anyway, if the baby hasn't come?!"
"Sir, she's exhausted, and it would do more than a little good to have him here."
"Well he can't."
"I am well aware of that-"
"Then where do you think you're going?"
"I am getting her some water!" The mediwizard fired back
Cygnus Black fell to silence, astonished at the brazen reaction from the younger man.
"Classless, dirty-blood," he murmured, staring at the man through the end of his nose; the latter feigned deafness to the insult and continued down the stairs to fetch a glass of clean, cool water, reaching the bottom of the stairs just as the heavy front doors to the manor groaned open, ushering in a figure clad completely in black.
"Oh good, you're home!" Bellatrix, who had been waiting near the door bounded toward the figure, "Just in time!"
"Mister Malfoy!" The mediwizard all but forgot the water and and turned toward the Bellatrix and the figure, who had shoved her roughly aside and was taking the stairs thrice-a-step, and wasn't going to stop to hear him.
"Merlin," The wizard uttered to himself before turning to Bellatrix. "Please, fetch me a glass of water as the lady is requesting it."
"Do I look like an elf?" Bellatrix snarled, still sore over Lucius' dismissal of her.
"I must go. Please, get the glass." He repeated, waiving her off before he returned to the stairs while Dobby finally appeared, startling the elder Black sister with the commotion of his appearance.
"Dobby!" Bellatrix shrieked, jumping back a foot; the elf ducked, fully prepared to be struck but instead, the woman straightened herself and ordered, "Go fetch a glass of water for Narcissa. Now!"
"Miss-"
"Now, before I regret not kicking you to the cellar!"
"Yes yes!" Debby disappeared before any more harm could be done and Bellatrix tromped up the stairs.
"No 'thank you' for making sure your dear wife was safe?" She asked Lucius snidely as she reached the top of of the stairs and smoothed out her long black skirts.
"Indeed, it must have been such tenuous work..." He drawled patronizingly. "Thank you, Bella."
Bellatrix opened her mouth to fire back but the doors to the master chamber opened and a weary looking mediwizard peeked outside.
"Mister Malfoy..." He jerked his head back toward the room.
Lucius returned his address with a raised brow; he hardly expected to be called into the bedchamber until the baby was delivered, as such an action was considered improper for his class and station.
"If I may," the wizard continued, seeing the potential complication, "at the lady's behest-"
"Well is something wrong?" Lucius snarled in warning, grappling suddenly with his composure.
"We didn't pay you for slaughter!" Narcissa's father, Cygnus, raised his voice, overhearing the conversation.
"She's not dead or dying, and neither is the child!" The mediwizard replied thinly. "But she wanted me to ask that you be with her."
"That is a breech-" Cygnus began but the wizard stopped him with a raised hand.
"I am well aware, Mister Black. I am merely conveying her direct request."
Mr. Black drew back with a sneer but Lucius stepped forward to follow the mediwizard, who ushered him quickly inside before Cygnus could cause a bigger stir.
"Cissa-" Lucius called softly; Narcissa was lying in their bed whimpering softly with her head turned away from him. "Narcissa," Lucius tried again, rousing her attention.
"Lucius!" She answered breathlessly, turning to face him.
"My dear-" Lucius swept over to her bedside, just as Dobby returned to their chamber with a glass of cool water.
"For Mistress!" He squeaked, handing the glass to the mediwizard, who took it with a distracted nod.
"Contractions should come again soon," he informed Lucius. "They're more closely spaced, so it shouldn't be too much longer; milady, how are you doing?"
"It shouldn't be much longer?" Narcissa repeated, sitting up a little straighter to better see her husband. Lucius helped her adjust her position, kissing her cheek briefly while he pulled a couple blonde strands of hair from her face.
"You've been laboring steadily and there have been no complications thus far." The mediwizard assured before adding in an undertone, "But too much longer will exhaust you, regardless."
"Merlin," Bellatrix paced outside the door to her sister and brother-in-law's private chamber; Lucius had disappeared inside and had not returned for more than an hour.
"Daylight will be here before the baby even arrives," Her father, Cygnus, huffed. "If anything goes wrong..." He stared dangerously at the doors, as if he could simply burn the mediwizard through doors with his bubbling anger.
"Once the heir is here, it won't matter." Druella Black hissed sharply, also staring at the closed doors.
"Unless it's a girl," Bellatrix added in a snide undertone.
"Bella!" Druella snapped.
"It's a possibility, Mother!" Bellatrix shrieked back.
"All right, two more! There we go...keep pushing, Missus Malfoy!" The mediwizard encouraged. "The baby is almost here..."
Narcissa clenched her teeth and let out a strained cry while Lucius clamped his bracing grip on her shoulders even more tightly.
"Very good! Just a little more. Keep up..."
Narcissa's body tensed as beads of sweat ran down her forehead and neck.
"Cissa, easy now, you're almost there," Lucius whispered in her ear.
"That's it, that's it!..."
A final cry was met with another and the mediwizard grinned with relief and excitement.
"He's here!" He sighed, quickly wrapping the crying newborn in blankets.
"He?" Lucius looked up from Narcissa's side, grey eyes flashing with excitement.
"Yes, Mister Malfoy. You have a son."
Narcissa collapsed back on the pillows, closing her eyes and exhaling with tired satisfaction.
"Cissa, we have a boy!" Lucius whispered giddily in her ear.
"I know," she murmured back with a small, teasing grin.
"Would you like to see him?" The mediwizard offered.
"Let his father see him first." Narcissa murmured, looking up at her husband, who carefully accepted the bundle into his arms.
"Narcissa," Lucius spoke quietly, staring in amazement. "He's already blond," he held the baby closer for her to see, noting a light dusting of fine blond hair on his son's head.
"He is," Narcissa agreed with a smile. "And he's ours."
