The Luckiest Man on Earth

The Luckiest Man on Earth 34



DISCLAIMER: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended



Chapter 35: The Eye of the Storm



Marcus could only stare into her pale face. He willed her to open her eyes even though he knew that she was heavily sedated. He could hear noise around him but he focused all his attention onto her face. He could not believe how beloved her face had become to him. He looked at her mouth, her closed eyes and her chin. She had such a stubborn little chin. A year ago, he had lusted after her. Gods, he used to pretend he was making love to her when he fucking other girls. But that obsession paled to what he felt for her now. He loved her and her stubborn chin. He loved her impulsiveness and even her trusting nature. Marcus touched her pale, cool face gently. He smoothed the sweaty hair from her brow. He clenched his hand when he saw how much it was shaking. He jerked in surprise when he felt a hand on his shoulder.



“Mr. Flint,” said Madame Pomfrey gently.



“Do you swear that she’s going to be all right?” asked Marcus hoarsely as he looked at the nurse with desperation.



“The next twelve hours will be key,” said Pomfrey. “But she is not in mortal peril. You have to thank Professor Snape for that. The antidote he brewed did the trick.”



“The baby?” said Marcus lowly and intently. Katie loved the baby. It would kill her if she lost their child. Marcus’s throat closed up as he realized suddenly that it would kill him too. He hadn’t realized until this minute how much he deeply loved their baby. He blinked away the sudden tears in his eyes.



“The next twelve hours are important,” said Pomfrey seriously. “She must be kept sedated. Her blood pressure has been quite high all year. The bleg hag has stopped and the child is still alive but the potion has to make its way through her system. She is extremely lucky that the potion was concentrated in the bottom of the jug of orange juice.”



“I am going to stay with her,” said Marcus as his eyes flashed at the school nurse.



Pomfrey looked at him and his serious set face and nodded her agreement. She looked around at the adults that were surrounding Katie’s bedside. The Flint and the Bells all nodded their silent agreement. Their s wes were set and pale. A few hours ago, panic and anger had reined but Marcus had read his parents and Katie’s parents the riot act. He told them quite forcefully if they couldn’t let Pomfrey and Snape work in peace to save Katie then they had to leave. Marcus had stayed quite calm and very focused on Katie Bell and her well-being. Poppy Pomfrey had seen the man that Marcus Flint was becoming. Dumbledore was right. After the teaching staff had learned about the unlikely relationship between the two students, he had said that Miss Bell and the baby would be the making of this young man. As per usual, Albus was right.



“I need to speak with you,” said Aurelius Flint grimly to Rowan Bell. The two men made their way to talk quietly outside the infirmary.



“Do you know who has done this thing to my girl?” asked Rowan. His face was pale and his hands were clenched.



Aurelius nodded with a grim expression. His eyes were icy and cold. “I have hired some people to look for her,” said Aurelius. He tensed when he felt a hand on his arm. He looked over to his pale, composed wife. Isolde Bell was right behind her. She was wringing her hands and looked shell shocked.



“It’s the girl who pushed Katie down those stairs – Billy Bletchley,” said Natalya.



“Wasn’t she supposed to be in Durmstrang?” asked Rowan sharply. “And didn’t she have a previous relationship with your son?”



Aurelius nodded as he handed Bell a copy of the paper that Katie was reading just before she passed out. Rowan read quickly and then looked up at Aurelius with an unreadable expression on his face.



“That story will not see the light of day,” said Aurelius firmly. “Marcus was not engaged to the Stebbins girl and there is no impediment to Marcus and Katie’s marriage. I managed to make the paper see reason. They will not be publishing that story.” He sighed heavily and ran a weary hand over his eyes. “I was mistaken with the intent of the story. It was not meant to upset Katie. It was meant to distract her. She was not paying attention to what she was drinking. Someone went through a lot of trouble to hurt Katie and my grandchild.”



“Persephone’s parents owled sho short while ago,” said Natalya as she chewed her lower lip reminiscent of her son. “They have not heard from her in nearly a month. She went on a hiking tour of Tibet with the young man she was seeing. They are expected back shortly but for the moment, they are unreachable. She could not have given that interview. She was already in China on that day.”



“Polyjuice?” asked Rowan with his lips pursed.



“I think so,” said Aurelius grimly. “There was something off to the pictures in the paper. She doesn’t hold herself like that.”



“Is the story true?” asked Rowan directly.



“Does it matter?” asked Aurelius with a raised eyebrow. He could see Katie’s mother flush and look away. He knew that he intimidated Isolde Bell. He wondered idly what it would be like to be married to such an unsophisticawomawoman. He gave her pretty face and long legs a surreptitious look and decided shy wasn’t such a bad thing sometimes.



“I should go sit with Marcus,” said Isolde as she gave Natalya a quiet smile. She wondered how Natalya, who was such a lovely woman, could stand to be married to a man like Aurelius. He may be quite attractive but he was also shockingly lax in morality. Isolde did not doubt that the article was true.



Rowan patted his wife’s hand comfortingly. She was a woman who was comfortable in her own circles and interests. Aurelius and Natalie Flint were from a different world altogether than what his wife was used to. He knew that world from his own younger, wilder days playing professional Quidditch. He liked going home to his shy, retiring wife and her warmth but he sometimes missed his playing days. His son, Rhys, was like him in a lot of respects. He gave Natalya Flint a bland smile and wondered to himself what she was like in bed. If he wanted to really find out, he would ask his son, Rhys. He wondered if she knew that he was aware that she was once his son’s lover. He would wager a thousand galleons that Aurelius was completely in the dark as was Isolde, thank Merlin. Isolde would not understand. He was going to have to talk to that son of his about discretion.



“I think we need to talk with the Headmaster,” said Aurelius. Rowan nodded in agreement. Natalya hung back as the men turned to look at her. Isolde had gone into the infirmary to sit with Marcus.



“I am going to talk with Marcus’s friends,” said Natalya with a serious look in her eyes. “That lovely MacIntyre boy is quite clever. I will go ask Severus to help me.”



“I am sure it will be his pleasure,” said Aurelius with a sardonic grin.



“Don’t be ridiculous,” said Natalya as she adjusted her well cut robes and tossed her hair over her shoulder with a flirtatious look at her husband. “Severus is quite charming.”



The Infirmary:



Isolde went back to her daughter’s bedside and sat beside Katie’s fiancée. She watched him watch Katie’s face curiously. This young man was an enigma to her. She looked into his rugged face and wondered what exactly it was about this young man that made her daughter lose her head so completely.





Isolde had cried for days when she found out that her little girl was pregnant. As far as she knew, she had thought that Katie was a virgin. Then she had started to feel guilty. If she had just been a better parent and discussed birth control with Katie then Katie wouldn’t be having a baby at the age of sixteen. She spent the past months planning her daughter’s wedding and not thinking about the coming child. But now that the child’s life hung in the balance, Isolde did not know what to think. Granted, if Katie had miscarried naturally a few months ago, she would have been relieved deep down inside. She knew what it was like to have a child very young. She had been seventeen when she married Rowan. Her older brother played Quidditch and had invited a teammate over for dinner. She took one look at Rowan and had fallen head over heels in love. She looked at Katie’s pale face with sadness. Maybe it was true that children were fated to pay for the mistakes of their parents.



Isolde had known nothing about birth control either. One weekend, her brother invited Rowan to stay. She had been so naïve. All she had really wanted to do was kiss Rowan. So, she slipped into his room late one night. He had taken the invitation Isolde had not known she had issued and invited her into bed with him. She had climbed in still just expecting a few kisses. Isolde’s face flushed as she remembered the events of that night, years in the past.



Isolde lost her virginity that night and it still made her blush to remember how wanton she had been. Her mother had led her to believe that sex would be painful and messy the first time. Rowan had made her feel incredible. It hadn’t hurt at all, in fact, it had been wonderful. She and Rowan had sex over and over again that first night. She left his bed when dawn was breaking over the horizon. They hadn’t slept a wink. His passionate kiss on her mouth made her skin tingle when he kissed her good night that first morning. She had been shy and embarrassed the next afternoon. But the first chance Rowan got, he dragged her behind a bush and kissed her and told her how beautiful she was. For the rest of the summer, they made love every night. She snuck out and met him whenever he owled her.



Isolde’s face grew rosy as she thought about that wonderful summer. Rowan taught her how to enjoy what he did to her. And he did those naughty things to her in many places – the dressing room of the Appleby Arrows, under many stands in many Quidditch arenas, and once, under a table in a sleepy pub.



When she had discovered she was pregnant in September, she had been stunned and upset, to say the least. When she told him, Rowan had looked at her with his face serious and promptly asked her to marry him. Isolde had cried again, this time with relief. They went to the Ministry and got married that afternoon. She had worn her favorite white dress and held a small bouquet of bluebells and freesias that Rowan had bought her just outside the Ministry. It had been her seventeenth birthday, September 29th.



Against all odds, their marriage had worked out. Her family had been stunned by her elopement but had eventually come around. She gave birth to Owen in March. She realized that she must have gotten pregnant that first night.



Isolde was a naturally quiet person and Rowan was her opposite. He liked the bright lights and his career in Quidditch. She had made no protest as they moved around as he went from the British league to the Irish and eventually to the French Quidditch league. She was grateful when Rowan decided to settle down and get a law degree. He made the serious decisions in their lives but she made the important ones. She found them a house in every place that they moved to and made it into a home. Rowan liked his fast paced career but he loved coming home to her.



Isolde had been so upset when Marcus told her that Katie was pregnant because she wanted more for her child. She wanted Katie to have a career before she had a husband and family to take care of. Souldould just see Katie making the same mistakes she did. She loved Rowan. She loved him just as much as she did when she first set eyes on him. She loved her children and her home. But sometimes, she wanted more. When she was younger, she wanted to be artist. She still drew and painted but only when she wasn’t busy with the life she had built. She wished that she had taken art classes like she planned but they moved around too much.



Isolde looked at Marcus and asked, “Do you love my daughter?”



“Yes,” said Marcus seriously as he turned to look at Katie’s shy mother.



“I can see that,” said Isolde quietly. “I see how you look at her. But I ask only one thing of you, Marcus.”



“What is that?” asked Marcus seriously.



“You allow Katie to be more than your wife and the mother of your children,” said Isolde firmly. “Even if she says that is exactly what she wantsbe. be. My Katie is strong and independent like her father. She has his temperament. I am content with my life and I daresay that your mother is content with her life as well. But don’t make the mistake of thinking Katie is like me our our mother. She’s different.”



“I know,” said Marcus. “I know her better than I do myself. I know she wouldn’t be happy with what makes my mother happy. But being married to me will not limit her options. I don’t know what life has in store for us but we will weather it together.”



“Good,” said Isolde seriously as she reached out and held Marcus’s cold hand firmly. “Everything is going to be all right. Katie and the baby are going to be fine.”



“How do you know?” asked Marcus a touch desperately.



“Because,” said Isolde firmly. “Katie is a fighter and so is my grandchild.”



Both Isolde and Marcus turned to look into Katie’s still face. They sat together in the silence with their hands still joined.



Author’s Note:



I am sorry this chapter took longer than I anticipated. The next chapter is called ‘Storm’. I wanted to show that Katie is the middle of the storm. The plot is going to unravel and it has many layers. If you want a taste of the next chapter, go to my live journal at:



http://www.livejournal.com/users/aureliaflint/