*Does the I have a brilliant Beta dance*
'Dio boia 'colloquially, 'bloody god'
St Mungos
Carolina Zabini
I had seen a lot of expressions on Lucius Malfoy's face, but never this one. Something terrible had happened. I picked Bambino up off the floor and clutched him to my chest.
"Lucius, what's wrong?"
My voice trembled.
Was it Mama? Papa? My sisters?
"What's happened?"
He struggled to form words. For an eternity he couldn't speak. Then eventually he managed to whisper
"It's Blaise,"
I breathed a sigh of relief.
Blaise? Blaise could handle himself. Nothing bad could happen to my Blaise. Everything was fine. Then why did Lucius seem so...
Cold terror seeped back into my bones. Or did it ever really leave?
Dio boia.
"Where is he?"
"They have him at St Mungos. Carolina, I'm so sor- Carolina!"
I barged past him roughly and screamed my destination to the fire. Bambino started to cry.
"It's fine Bambino, it's fine. Daddy is fine. I promise sweetheart. He's fine. We're fine."
We were fine. Nothing could have happened to my Blaise. My King.
And whatever had happened to him, we could get through it. He could get through it. It couldn't be that bad. I would nurse him back to health myself if I had to. And he would complain about having the worst Medi-Witch ever and I would snap that he was the worst patient in the world and he could just lie in bed all day with our Bambino on his chest and we'd be the perfect little family we'd always been and-
"I'm here to see Mr Pascal."
My voice was brittle and tense. The Welcomewitch stared at me dumbfounded as I shifted my Bambino to my hip.
"My husband please."
"Mrs Zabini... I can't-"
"Where is my husband?" I screamed.
"The sixth floor."
At her whimper I ran for the stairs, ignoring the protests of people I shoved. From my hip Bambino was sniffling. Healers and visitors alike jumped out of our way. No one stopped us. I took the stairs two steps at a time, passing five identical floor guides on my journey.
Floor guides that only went up to the fifth floor.
What could possibly be on the sixth floor?
One possibility, beginning with an M, snaked its way into my mind, making me stumble in horror.
But it couldn't be!
I banished the thought from my mind and ran faster than before. Bambino's crying had become one continuous wail. I murmured hysterically to him in an attempt to calm him down.
"It's okay Bambino, it's okay. He'll be fine, I promise. I promise. He's not- I promise!"
A heavy wooden door reared in front of us. The only door on that story. A word had been etched into it. A word beginning with M.
Frantically I pulled at the handle.
They've made a mistake. They've made a mistake. They've made a mistake!
"Alohamora," I all but sobbed.
Another corridor. More doors. The one at the end had a light shining under it.
In that room I found a grave looking Healer. He started when he saw me.
"Mrs Zabini! You can't be here-!"
I ignored him and slowly walked to the bed in the middle of the room. There was my Blaise. Sleeping.
Except it wasn't a bed. It was a table.
He always looked so peaceful when he slept. There was even the faintest of smiles on his lips. His hand was clutched around his old watch.
The one his Father gave him.
The one that would one day be Bambino's.
"Mrs Zabini..." the Healer tried again faintly. But I was beyond hearing him.
I love you my Blaise, you know that don't you?
I stroked some hair off his forehead.
I needed him to open his eyes.
I needed him to sit up and smirk at me.
I needed him to call me Regina.
He didn't.
"...he lost so much blood... the muggle healers couldn't cope... there was nothing they could do..."
He lay there, still and silent as I pressed a final kiss to his lips.
"I love you my Blaise."
With that I allowed myself to look at the dark stain on the front of his robes.
My knees hit the ground with a dull thud.
Blaise was gone.
Our Bambino wailed in my ear. Wailed for the Daddy he didn't know was dead. I clutched the last living proof I had, that once upon a time Blaise Pascal had loved me.
My cries joined his.
They echoed through the Morgue.
Awk God love her!