She Can Do Whatever She Wants (Tom/Walburga)
Title: She Can do Whatever She Wants
Prompt: 019. Family
Rating: PG
Word Count: 1,029
Characters: Orion Black, Walburga Black, Tom Marvolo, Cygnus Black
Summary: Orion is hosting a ball when an unexpected - and supposedly uninvited - guest makes an appearance.
Notes/Warnings: This was requested by aspenwing and her incessant Tom/Walburga obsession. Would you really expect the man who married Walburga to be in his right mind? too bad, Orion's not.
Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters, they belong to J.K. Rowling. But quite modified in most cases by their individual writers at Founders or my perception of them.
It was a ball such as they threw from time to time because it was expected of them. Orion Black was a man more than aware of how important it was to keep up appearances... even if these little events at Grimmauld Place did only serve to give rise to the rumors that his wife had become more of a recluse. One who no longer allowed anyone - not even him, her husband - to touch her. And that was not even touching on what it was like when it came to the children... it was exceedingly difficult to explain to a three-year-old why touching their mother was utterly not allowed. Walburga may have scrubbed her skin right off if a sticky hand touched it.
Well... Orion supposed that he could not even think of them as rumors when they were completely true. He just did not like hearing other people say them, especially while in his house. It was a private matter, just for the family... but then, nothing was truly private when one was a Black with a reputation and family name to uphold. His father would have disapproved, rolled right over in his grave, if Orion had withdrawn from the center of the Wizarding world's polite society because his wife was... eccentric as they termed it. He did not care to think on what they may have called it when they were not in his home.
Yet as Orion stood near the door, greeting each guest, he was relieved that no one had yet asked after Walburga. She was upstairs in her room, no doubt ranting about the germs that were being spread about her house by those who had come in. The fact that they were all as Pure as she mattered not a bit - not when they had been outside where the air could have carried a sneeze a Muggle gave on the other side of the world, really Orion had been spending too much time in her presence when his thoughts went there. Yet then the next guest was someone who made Orion's eyes go completely flat, his face smoothing out, the polite smile gone.
Tom Marvolo - or Lord Voldemort as they were calling him these days - was standing there, pale and handsome with eyes that gleamed scarlet in the light. Those eyes sent a shiver down Orion's spine for their unnatural hue. He was the last Pureblood on the planet that Orion would have ever sent an invitation to. Yet he held one in his hand, the lettering delicate and flowing... Walburga's handwriting, nothing like that which was scrawled on everyone else's.
Before Orion could even attempt to extend a greeting a high female voice came from just behind him, "It is good to see that you could come to our ball this evening, Tom." She called him Tom! That was a name Orion had not heard spoken for a very long time, people were not close enough to this red-eyed demon to use it.. yet his wife was doing so without being rebuked. His wife was in relative public, people everywhere who could brush against her at any moment with their contaminants, and... no, he was not seeing that. She was holding her hand up for him.
"Of course, Walburga, you know that I come when you invite me," Tom said in his quiet, polite voice that was still somehow heard by everyone around. He accepted the hand that was offered to him and listed it, lips just brushing against the back. Walburga let him! Orion was crushing the invitations that he had been handed in an attempt to keep from saying anything.
As the two stepped away - neither of them having once acknowledge that he was standing right there - the crowd melted out of their way, no one daring to come too close to either one. He completely forget to play host when they began to dance, two hands twined together with one of hers on his shoulder, one of his on her waist... for any other women that could have been completely innocent, something that they did with any of their male acquaintances. But the woman who did not so much as allow her husband to lay a finger on her precious, clean skin? No, she may as well have kissed him on the floor and been done with it! Give the whisperers what they wanted.
"Looks like my lovely sister is in a better mood than expected," Cygnus drawled as he stepped next to Orion, a half-empty glass of wine in his hand.
"Indeed," Orion replied coldly, not looking over. He knew better than most that Cygnus and Walburga did not get along and it would not go well if he spoke to him. Though in truth, Walburga would not notice. Her eyes were fixed on Tom's face, her face only twitching occasionally while her eyes very rarely went frantic or half-lidded, not darting about the room as though searching for the diseases she knew must be lurking... Cygnus watched him for a moment longer before shrugging and moving away, back towards where he had left his own wife. The wife who allowed him to take her arm and smiled at him. Orion could not remember the last time... no, the last time Walburga smiled had been just a second ago, and before that he could not recall if it had even happened.
He wondered if perhaps he could get away with cursing the man over half the people in the room followed... not that he would have to worry about any of them. He was sure that Walburga would reach him first. Or keep them from doing so just so that she could poison his food. That would probably be exactly what happened; the diseases in her mind come to life in his body. It would be a fitting sort of end.
Orion pressed a finger to the bridge of his nose before turning to greet the next guest, a smile pasted on as though he could not hear his wife laughing - laughing! - in the arms of a red-eyed man.
Prompt: 019. Family
Rating: PG
Word Count: 1,029
Characters: Orion Black, Walburga Black, Tom Marvolo, Cygnus Black
Summary: Orion is hosting a ball when an unexpected - and supposedly uninvited - guest makes an appearance.
Notes/Warnings: This was requested by aspenwing and her incessant Tom/Walburga obsession. Would you really expect the man who married Walburga to be in his right mind? too bad, Orion's not.
Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters, they belong to J.K. Rowling. But quite modified in most cases by their individual writers at Founders or my perception of them.
It was a ball such as they threw from time to time because it was expected of them. Orion Black was a man more than aware of how important it was to keep up appearances... even if these little events at Grimmauld Place did only serve to give rise to the rumors that his wife had become more of a recluse. One who no longer allowed anyone - not even him, her husband - to touch her. And that was not even touching on what it was like when it came to the children... it was exceedingly difficult to explain to a three-year-old why touching their mother was utterly not allowed. Walburga may have scrubbed her skin right off if a sticky hand touched it.
Well... Orion supposed that he could not even think of them as rumors when they were completely true. He just did not like hearing other people say them, especially while in his house. It was a private matter, just for the family... but then, nothing was truly private when one was a Black with a reputation and family name to uphold. His father would have disapproved, rolled right over in his grave, if Orion had withdrawn from the center of the Wizarding world's polite society because his wife was... eccentric as they termed it. He did not care to think on what they may have called it when they were not in his home.
Yet as Orion stood near the door, greeting each guest, he was relieved that no one had yet asked after Walburga. She was upstairs in her room, no doubt ranting about the germs that were being spread about her house by those who had come in. The fact that they were all as Pure as she mattered not a bit - not when they had been outside where the air could have carried a sneeze a Muggle gave on the other side of the world, really Orion had been spending too much time in her presence when his thoughts went there. Yet then the next guest was someone who made Orion's eyes go completely flat, his face smoothing out, the polite smile gone.
Tom Marvolo - or Lord Voldemort as they were calling him these days - was standing there, pale and handsome with eyes that gleamed scarlet in the light. Those eyes sent a shiver down Orion's spine for their unnatural hue. He was the last Pureblood on the planet that Orion would have ever sent an invitation to. Yet he held one in his hand, the lettering delicate and flowing... Walburga's handwriting, nothing like that which was scrawled on everyone else's.
Before Orion could even attempt to extend a greeting a high female voice came from just behind him, "It is good to see that you could come to our ball this evening, Tom." She called him Tom! That was a name Orion had not heard spoken for a very long time, people were not close enough to this red-eyed demon to use it.. yet his wife was doing so without being rebuked. His wife was in relative public, people everywhere who could brush against her at any moment with their contaminants, and... no, he was not seeing that. She was holding her hand up for him.
"Of course, Walburga, you know that I come when you invite me," Tom said in his quiet, polite voice that was still somehow heard by everyone around. He accepted the hand that was offered to him and listed it, lips just brushing against the back. Walburga let him! Orion was crushing the invitations that he had been handed in an attempt to keep from saying anything.
As the two stepped away - neither of them having once acknowledge that he was standing right there - the crowd melted out of their way, no one daring to come too close to either one. He completely forget to play host when they began to dance, two hands twined together with one of hers on his shoulder, one of his on her waist... for any other women that could have been completely innocent, something that they did with any of their male acquaintances. But the woman who did not so much as allow her husband to lay a finger on her precious, clean skin? No, she may as well have kissed him on the floor and been done with it! Give the whisperers what they wanted.
"Looks like my lovely sister is in a better mood than expected," Cygnus drawled as he stepped next to Orion, a half-empty glass of wine in his hand.
"Indeed," Orion replied coldly, not looking over. He knew better than most that Cygnus and Walburga did not get along and it would not go well if he spoke to him. Though in truth, Walburga would not notice. Her eyes were fixed on Tom's face, her face only twitching occasionally while her eyes very rarely went frantic or half-lidded, not darting about the room as though searching for the diseases she knew must be lurking... Cygnus watched him for a moment longer before shrugging and moving away, back towards where he had left his own wife. The wife who allowed him to take her arm and smiled at him. Orion could not remember the last time... no, the last time Walburga smiled had been just a second ago, and before that he could not recall if it had even happened.
He wondered if perhaps he could get away with cursing the man over half the people in the room followed... not that he would have to worry about any of them. He was sure that Walburga would reach him first. Or keep them from doing so just so that she could poison his food. That would probably be exactly what happened; the diseases in her mind come to life in his body. It would be a fitting sort of end.
Orion pressed a finger to the bridge of his nose before turning to greet the next guest, a smile pasted on as though he could not hear his wife laughing - laughing! - in the arms of a red-eyed man.