Prompt - Walburga being nervous during pregnancy.
"Was it absolutely necessary to call Healer Farrows so quickly?"
Walburga flashed her husband a look of mild annoyance from the chaise lounge where she lay stretched out, her arm draped protectively over her middle.
"Orion Black, are you suggesting that when I have cause for concern regarding the health of our child, that I should simply wait and see if anything comes of it?" she asked, raising an eyebrow up at him.
"I never suggested such a thing" replied Orion, calmly. It never did to aggravate his wife with argumentative tones in any normal circumstance and now with her condition, it was all the more vital to prevent one of her famous fits of temper from flaring up.
"I merely meant to point out that Healer Farrows is not the most… economical of Healers. It would do well to ensure that the need for his services is entirely justified before summoning him. After all - this is the third time he has visited in two weeks"
Walburga turned her head away, her nose in the air stubbornly.
"I would have thought that there wouldn't be a price too high for the guarantee of your firstborn son and heir's well-being" she sniffed haughtily.
That may be so, Orion thought to himself, but if we summon the most expensive Healer in St. Mungo's every time you feel a twinge, there'll be nothing left for the boy to inherit by the time he's born.
"Of course" was the reply Orion elected to offer instead, with a stiff but agreeing smile.
He stepped forward to stand beside his wife at the head of her seat. He paused for a moment, observing her with interest.
Walburga seemed to sense his eyes on her, for she shifted her position slightly, sitting herself up into a tad more dignified angle and stroking her hand over her slightly-swollen middle.
At twelve weeks pregnant, the merest hint of a bump was beginning to make itself known under the gowns which she no longer wore as cinched in as she had done for so many years previously. The same triumphant smile that found its way onto her lips every time she stroked her middle appeared as expected and her whole face seemed to glow.
Pregnancy suited her, Orion thought to himself, fondly.
His hand reached out to rest on his wife's shoulder.
"Was the visit a positive one, at least?"
"Well, I can assure you that if it hadn't have been, I wouldn't be lying here right now so calmly" Walburga retorted with a huff of irritation that her husband knew far too well not to accept as true.
"It was just a turn" she continued, more humbly. "I felt a little faint and I- I thought for a moment I could feel something… abnormal"
"Oh?" Orion tilted his head curiously.
"It was nothing, really" said Walburga, quickly. "I just- I overreacted a little, I suppose"
Orion squeezed his wife's shoulder reassuringly.
"It is quite normal, I'm sure, for you to worry" he said, gently.
"I was not worried, Orion" Walburga hastened to correct her husband, tensing slightly at the accusation, though she did not shrug off Orion's hand which still lingered on her shoulder. "Not worried, per say. But I was a little- that is, concerned"
Orion's hand left Walburga's shoulder, lifting higher up to stroke the back of his fingers along her cheek. Her soft skin as flushed with warmth - the result of the stress of her minor moment of panic not long ago.
"I know" he murmured.
He did indeed know. He, too, worried. They had tried for so long to conceive a child. And now that their longed-for offspring was finally on the way, both husband and wife were plagued with worries that something may yet go amiss, not that they would see fit to speak their worries aloud to one another, lest the utterance of what could happen may curse it to come true.
Orion's hand found its way back to rest on his wife's shoulder. She was quiet. Quietness was not a state of being that often found a home within Walburga Black. She was a formidable witch, with an aura of bold fearlessness.
But that did not mean she was without her own inner fears. Fears which were known to no one else. No one else - besides her husband.
"In future" said Orion, quietly. "I would ask you to ensure that you are quite certain a visit is entirely justified before summoning Farrows to the house. Surely by now he has visited enough times to put your mind at ease for the majority of your concerns. I'm quite sure he would not object to answering an owl with some advice for you should you require any more"
"Don't worry, your chequebook can rest easy" Walburga retorted, wryly, glancing up at her husband with a bemused look. "I've all the advice I need, for now"
"Do enlighten me"
"He says I'm to rest more, in future" Walburga sighed. "And take care not to over-stress myself"
It was evident to her husband that this advice had been met with a certain degree of reluctance - his energetic wife was not one to whittle away her days on a chaise lounge when there was business of organising the house to be done or calls to pay.
But if rest was what the Healer had declared she should have, then rest was what Orion would ensure she was given, whether she liked it or not.
"Very well, then" he said, releasing Walburga's shoulder from his grip and striding across the room to the writing desk in the corner. "That settles it"
"Settles what?" Walburga asked, eyeing her husband suspiciously as he took out a fresh sheet of parchment and unscrewed a bottle of ink before taking up his elegant, eagle-feather quill.
"Orion Black, tell me what you are up to this instant" she demanded, irritably when her husband refused her a reply.
"I am cancelling the dinner plans with the Rosiers this evening"
"Whatever for?!"
Walburga sat herself up, bolt upright, on the sofa, leaning forward, one arm still clasped protectively over her middle.
"You require rest, madam" said Orion, his eyes darting up at his wife for a moment before he returned to his writing. "And if Farrows says that's what you must have then I highly doubt a dinner party falls into the category for appropriate evening activities for you today"
"But- you were supposed to finalise the contract with Atticus this evening" said Walburga, somewhat hesitantly. "All that investment-"
"It hardly matters" Orion cut her off, smoothly. "After all, as you say, there is hardly a price too high to guarantee the well-being of our firstborn son and heir"
For once in her life, Walburga Black was left without a retort.
She lay back, silently, against the cushions of the chaise lounge and, once sure the angle of her head provided an adequate shield for her face from her husband, allowed a relieved smile to wash over her as she breathed a small, contented smile, her hand stroking over her middle tenderly.