✧FALLING BRIDGES✧

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Aria did not want to leave the following morning, but she found the will somehow as she dragged herself to Rabastan's shower. Thankful that he hadn't suddenly joined her like she was half expecting, but after the countless times they made love throughout the night...

Her promised Slytherin was vengefully tired.

Still wearing Rabastan's dress shirt from the night before, she paired it well with a high-waisted and long skirt and belt. Making it as though she wasn't wearing her promised's clothes. In addition to this, the cardigan managed to disguise the better part of her neck without the need for a specky spell to hide it.

She sat down beside him for a moment on the edge and gave him a small kiss to the temple and earned a slight moan. "Go back to sleep, owl me later?" It translated well to the bloke as he nodded in his sleep, and thus Aria found herself walking downstairs and was going to just go out the front door to apparent—But goddess, was that a mistake.

"Aria! I was just going to have breakfast myself, could we possibly tempt you with a hearty meal?" Her stomach betrayed her before she could even digest Radolphous' words. She followed after the bloke to see Clarissa smiling up a storm at the table, lucky neither of them outright said anything about why she was still here the morning after.

And part of her was only here for Rose's breakfast rolls smeared in jelly and a bit of tea. Clarissa always had a beautiful array of teas to pick from, and every time she came over it was a surprise.

"I'm sure you've heard that Rabastan decided to sponsor last night's earning to your facility." His father boasted, causing Aria to smirk into her napkin. "Yes, he mentioned that at the party, I had no part in that. And good thing he told me near the end. Otherwise I would've put a stop to it."

"Nonsense," Clarissa laughed, "He would hardly take another option for a party. But we're glad you came last night, he was very disappointed when you said you weren't sure if you could attend or not." Aria perked her lips and nodded, taking a new sip of the fresh tea that Rose had brought—Earning the elf a smile.

"And Avery? The lad is working with you now?" The question had been lost to Aria as the taste of the tea had felt...Strange, as though her body was attempting to tell her something. It screamed out an inaudible response that managed to grow on the tip of her tongue.

"Yes—I believe he's showing an interest in it as well, which I'm all for. He seemed rather bored, and I know Elsa was rather sweet with the whole conversation when I spoke to him last."
"Perhaps this gets you excited for your own betrothal one day soon?" Clarissa said hopefully and Aria smiled regardless.

Though she saved herself with a long sip of the tea and shrugged her shoulders. "Perhaps, but that's a few steps away." It did shoot down the mother's reaction, however, Aria's had stopped downright.

Her body attempted to act normal not to alert those she dinned with. But instead, she rose up to her feet and grabbed her satchel.
"Aria...? Is everything alright?" While Radolphous had been the one to speak, her eyes looked off to Clarissa.
"Thought I wouldn't notice, did you?" She shot off to the woman, and that sure as hell caught Radolphous with a firm glare.

"Now what on earth—" Aria had dumped the contents of the tea onto the ground followed by the cup itself. "Ruin my career, Clarissa, and I can promise you that you'll regret it." She deemed and thus, strutted out of the room.

It was likely that Clarissa had boasted on what had happened, as Radolphous' yelling voice had caused her to flinch. Now that certainly sent flashbacks, but Radolphous knew much more on Aria's stance—This was the Slytherin edge her father warned her about, and while it wasn't Rabastan's fault that his mother had given her a fertility potion and tried to hide it in the tea.

This would stick with her as not being able to trust the family, she felt more than betrayed as Clarissa had been her only neutral ground and now she vanished.

Thankfully Aria had managed to allow her slam of the door to sequence her hatred for them and off she went to the facility. Granted when she got to her office and tried to distract herself she could hardly focus on the workload that required her attention for the next few days.

"Ah! I was wondering if you were going to come in this morning, what's on the agenda for—" She held up a finger and threw up the contents of this morning's breakfast and hopefully that damnable tea.

Avery so easily closed the door of her office and came closer to aid her as she violently puked up her guts. "Can get you a hangover tonic if—"
"I'm not hungover, Avery." She bit back and sighed with her hand over her eyes.

"'Bas make you nauseous?"
"No. His fucking mother put a potion in my tea."
"WHAT?!" Aria spat once more into her trash and breathed out of her teeth, partially upset by the empty stomach and the betrayal all at once.

"Last night was perfect, utterly perfect and this—I can't go back there."
"What sort of potion?"
"Fertility."
"Bastards. Bet Rabastan can—"
"He wasn't at breakfest, who do you think he'll believe?"
"Aria, he'd believe you in a heartbeat, though that doesn't sound like his mother. Are you sure?" "She doesn't know I can't handle a pregnancy—I've told Rabastan's father much more of the treatment I've been in. Shite, now I have to go to Germany and make sure it hasn't done anything." It was truly telling how one simple incident could cause Aria to crumble and fall due to her health.

And better yet she had begun puking more—Much more than what was in her body to begin with. "Fuck—I need to go to saint mungos." She ushered, attempting to get her lab coat off. Avery hurried along beside her and didn't hesitate to escort her, there was hardly any need to be beside her while they were running tests and whatnot, but just to be sure he remained nearby in case he'd need to run and inform anyone.

The said breakfast attendant had been one of the many and Avery eyed him carefully. "How is she?"
"Much better, now that her stomach is pumped and isn't a rush to go off to Germany to see if the potion your wife gave her did anything to disrupt her treatment." Radolphous hadn't taken that into account this morning either, Clarissa's sly attempts had been nothing damning to Aria.

"Fuck." He hissed, running a stressful hand through his hair.
"Look sir, I'm probably in the wrong by saying this. But Aria doesn't think she can even have children to begin with..."
"So what you're saying is that my wife and I are never going to be forgiven. Are we?" Avery shook his head, while he wanted to sigh he truly wasn't on the Lestrange's side with this one.

"Right when I thought they were on the verge of an engagement...My wife pulls this."
"I'm sorry sir, but that was a really shitty thing to do. Not selling the family either, are you?" It was true, he wasn't but Aria's anger wasn't with Rabastan.

She didn't want him to know, neither did his parents. It was wrong on either account but Aria couldn't handle the look of panic or regret for him to apologize again over.

Against Avery's better judgment, Radolphous had entered her room and caught laying on her side towards the window. He was at least thankful that she'd been given a private room, but due to her status in the medical world, he doubted that there were any cut corners.

"Aria...I'm—"
"Why is it that every time I believe it's going alright, someone in your family has to ruin my good fortune or mood? Please go, Mister Lestrange. I'm not in the need of a lawyer and even if I was, wouldn't be much of a case suing your wife." She spoke, but the instance of being called such a formal name and not speaking Clarissa's words had instantly caused him to come forward.

"I cannot express how deeply deeply sorry I am for this."
"And like I'm sure Avery told you, I'm below the bar at what else your family could do to possibly kill me...Please go, I'm going to owl Rabastan when I get transferred to Germany."
"You're telling him?"
"It's better than the sudden disappearance again, and no, I'll just tell him I'm ill. No point in getting him angry."

The two remained silent for a moment but Aria sighed. "I can't take much more of your family, Lestrange. I love your son but I cannot deal with having a guarded heart, and you know why I'm not getting married—But take a look at his left hand the time you see him, yeah?" She said, offering up her own.

"The progress is there, but it won't be the same after this. So I ask you again, please go."
"I'll be checking up on you before you head off to Germany, send word once you're there." Aria hummed and smirked to herself.

"Tell your wife that her little stunt put me in the hospital, perhaps guilt will kill her quicker than I will." Realistically, Aria couldn't do anything let alone stay awake much longer, but Avery promised Lestrange that he'd travel with her to Germany to keep her company.

And what he'd discovered was much more than he could've handled, Aria placed him on her list of emergency contacts so that he could remain in the hospital and damnit.

No wonder he always thought that she had a stick up her arse, the poor witch never had a break. But thankfully this hospital was very accommodating and he didn't have to spend the day in a chair, instead the suite had given him the chance at an actual twin bed.

Aria had made him promise to check the letter from Rabastan when it arrived, but she was far too tired to write it out. So she said to simply say that she hadn't been feeling the best to really read or write it on her own.

"Alright well, it starts off really endearing and sweet and then turns into a replay of what happened last night--which I might flush my eyes out later about...He's asking if you'd come over or vise versa."
"Lovely, let's pull a bullshite response of needing to make up the time at the office and then make it up later."
"You think he'd recognize if your handwriting is different?" She shook her head, she's defiantly had her assistant write a quick parcel here and there, though she reminded him to make it different than his own so they wouldn't get caught.

The next three days, Avery had remained with Aria in Germany. The medication regimen had horrified him, and thus...They had continued off back to her manor where he was meant to act as though he hadn't been traumatized by all that's happened.

The newfound respect for Aria had seemingly come in record time and so he sent out the owl and thus...it was simply a countdown.

Rabastan hadn't been all that taken back by Aria being stuck at work, not with the addition of Avery suddenly being thrown into the mix.

He truly didn't come with the indication of wanting to fall straight into bed with Aria—But if the idea came to pass he wouldn't miss the opportunity, especially not when the days following his birthday had been left to only owl letters. However, when he arrived at the manor he had been left rather...Alone.

"Aria?" He called out, it had been merely ten minutes since he's owled her, perhaps she missed it. "Master Rabastan, Mistress Aria is asleep. She says come and wake her when you—"
With that, he had the pure will of taking a nap with her. The way to the bedroom wasn't as easy from the last few times, however, he still managed to slip in and undress.

"Hey there love, couldn't stay up any longer for me?" He whispered and she hummed, though a cough followed. "No, I'm sorry. I'm not feeling my best."
"Course not, you're working yourself silly. Did you eat today?" She shook her head and said she couldn't eat for another few hours on account of her healer's directions.

"Your healer?"
"Hm."
"When did you go to the healers?"
"A bit ago."
"And why didn't you owl me then? Or when you were feeling ill?" She peeked one eye open for as long as she could and hummed again.

"You worry too much."
"That's not a reason, that's an excuse and you know it, Aria." He listened to her long inhale and she snaked her arms to pull his hand to the small bandage on her stomach. "I needed to get my stomach pumped, it's alright."

"Alright?! Goddess and the rest of them, are you in pain? What can I do?"
"Take a nap with me?" She said, with tears in her eyes and fear completely enrapturing his worry tenfold.

"You'd tell me if you were ill, wouldn't you?" She shook her head, she was indeed ill—Iller than he could ever handle. And he scoffed. "If I can't take care of you properly, then what am I good?" She didn't want him to see her tears, she'd been able to hide this for the better part of a year and now she'll be outted all because of his mother.

"If I tell you...then it's real." She sniffled, and that instantly caught him to lock his chin on her shoulder—Attempting to see her fully. So she found herself now laying fully on her back instead of cradling in the fetal position.

"If I know then it's—"
"I'm scared." She said, her tears not being able to handle it any further and thus he simply did what he could. He shushed her the best he could, tried to promise her things she very well knew he couldn't.

But at the end of her panic, she kissed him and fell asleep a second after. He realized after the room had fell silent from her tears and sobs that this was difficult for her to tell him—How long has she been feeling this way?

He looked to the ring, interlocking their hands together, and attempted to soothe her aching muscles—earning him a rather pleased moan. Though she was still deep in sleep, he'd wake her up in a bit.

Knowing well enough that she needed to eat.

At the end of the night, Rabastan treated her to a relaxing soak in the bath. Simply holding her to his chest in the most platonic way—Even if they were completely bare and kissed once in a while.

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Date Posted: 05-08-2021

Time: 10:29

Words: 2699

Author's Note:
✨Hello✨
I'm not sure how many of you actually read the author's notes, but I just wanted to apologize very quickly--I thought my schedule would turn less hectic to be able to post twice a week, and unfortunately, my summer classes will start right after my finals.

Thankfully it's only half-semester and I should be able to keep up with the schedule of posting a chapter every week--HOWEVER, I understand that it's frustrating not being able to read a story all the way through.

But that is no reason to send me hateful messages or comments, it leaves me with no motivation to write/post. And honestly, it's hurtful when I put a lot of time and effort into each chapter. I'm in my last year of university and writing fanfiction is suppose to be a calming outlet🥺

✨Please don't ruin it for everyone✨