- Day 77 of 366 Days of Writing Challenge: Family

- The Emotion Challenge: Excited

- Weekly Pairings Drabble Competition/Week 10: Rodolphus/Bellatrix

- September Back To School Event: (emotion) Excited, (word) Breakfast

Pairings/Characters: Rodolphus/Bellatrix

Word Count: 438


For Want of a Child

You should never come between a woman and her dream, and a man who never knew his place.

Bellatrix flushed the toilet, staring down at the bowl as the swirling mess of her breakfast spiralled into the drainage. It was the third time this week that she had thrown up whatever she had eaten within the last three hours, and it was becoming extremely annoying.

She looked at the sink, where a small, plastic stick sat, taunting her. It had been embarrassing enough having to walk into the Muggle drugstore to purchase such an item, especially when she had no clue what she was looking for. Of course, there were spells that could determine whether or not she was pregnant, but Bellatrix was only sixteen. They didn't teach spells like that at Hogwarts just yet, and there was no way she was going to ask her mother for help.

Druella would be overcome with excitement at the idea of another ratty little child joining the family. Bellatrix had no desire to have or keep a child. If she was with child, she would deal with it later—but there was no way she would spend her life rearing children, like her mother had.

She had bigger plans than that.

"Bella, where did you put my—" before Bellatrix could stop him, Rodolphus burst through the bathroom door. His eyes landed immediately on the pregnancy test, and Bellatrix snatched it out of his view, glaring at him. "What's that?"

"What do you think you are doing, barging into a bathroom when it's engaged?" she yelled, standing up to face him. That turned out to be a mistake, as the sudden movement sent a surge of nausea straight to her stomach. The colour drained from her face, and she turned to bend over the toilet, puking up bile into the bowl. Rodolphus jumped towards her, pulling her hair out of her face. He patted her on the back sympathetically. When she was done, she threw him away from her, and sat down on the closed lid of the toilet. There was a sickening look of excitement on Rodolphus's face.

"Bellatrix…are we going to have a family?" he whispered. "Are you excited? This is brilliant!"

"This is not brilliant!" roared Bellatrix, throwing the pregnancy test at him. "And I haven't even done the damned thing yet! So calm yourself down and get out of my face!"

Obediently, Rodolphus nodded, murmuring something about coming to see her later on. Once he had shut the door on her, Bellatrix leaned back against the wall.

What was she going to do?