His Own Worst Nightmare

[Ninian MacFusty]

April 4, 1886

Ian thought, as he passed through the hidden entrance behind the Leaky Cauldron, that times like this made him wish he was a child who could hide until things sorted themselves out. Granted, a child wouldn't have been able to get himself into this mess in the first place. Still. The point was that he didn't want to be there, and Ian had seriously considered just staying home. It wasn't as though Holly knew where he lived after all.

Well, there could be some comfort in the reassurance that he wasn't a coward, at least, as Ian was, despite his better judgment, in Diagon Alley at the appointed time, as he'd said he'd be. He regretted not securing a more specific meeting spot, but for lack of anything better to do, he pretended to be interested in the shop windows near the alley's entrance. A MacFusty was surely easier to spot in the crowd, anyway.

@'Souri Avninder'
@'Holly-Anne Shard'

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   Souri Avninder

[Holly-Anne Shard]

Holly was a woman who planned things. She did this not because she was particularly careful (her past actions were indicative of this), but because she hated surprises. In her experience, the surprises she experienced were never the pleasant ones and she went out of her way to avoid them. Apparently, though, she hadn't gotten far enough out of the way. That much was made obvious when she'd woken up next to a man she'd never met, wearing a wedding ring. God, that had been an awful shock. When they parted ways, Holly was sure that she'd seen the last of him until the annulment papers were drawn up. Unfortunately, that wasn't to be the end of this.

She'd started to suspect something was amiss when her menses turned out to be completely absent rather than late. She hoped that what she suspected wasn't true, but when she started to feel familiar aches and fatigues, she realized there could be no doubting what had happened. That was when she'd reluctantly sent him a letter requesting that they meet. Luckily he hadn't tried to weasel his way out of it.

With nothing else to do on the prescribed day, Holly arrived early to splurge her hard earned (seriously) money on some pity ice cream. Once that was done, she went off searching for Ninian. Holly found him lurking near some shop windows and approached him looking distinctly unimpressed. "Hello," she said flatly. "Glad to see you showed up." Holly hadn't been completely convinced that he would. "Well, we best get to it then, yes?" She eyed him up apprehensively. "What are we going to do about this?"

  

[Ninian MacFusty]

Ian turned to face her, crossing his arms over his chest. He wasn't sure if he was trying to look imposing or not, but he did have what must have been close to a foot over her. "First of all," he said, secretly pleased that he did not sound as disturbed by this whole thing as he felt, "you are absolutely sure?"

  

[Holly-Anne Shard]

A vaguely irritated expression crossed her face as she looked up at him. "Unless God has miraculously blocked my menses for the past month and blessed me with sore breasts for some unknowable reason," Holly said with a roll of her eyes. "I am absolutely sure."

It was more than just those symptoms which had been a factor in determining her certainty. There was also the fact that she'd been through this before, something she didn't ever plan on disclosing to the man in front of her. Those memories were still too painful to wrangle with and they weren't here to hash out her traumas. "And before you ask - I'm sure you're the father as well." She pitched her voice lower then. They were still in public after all.

  

[Ninian MacFusty]

Ian tried very hard to keep his face impassive, but he wasn't sure it was working very well. "Right then," he said after a moment. "What do you suggest we do about it, then."

  

[Holly-Anne Shard]

"Well our options are fairly limited. Either I keep it or I don't," she said matter-of-factly. Any woman worth her salt knew that there were ways to get rid of an unwanted child that had taken root. It was an unsavory - but necessary - business that Holly had no cause to think about until now. "I can't say that I'm particularly attached to either option at this point."

It would be easy to bring the baby to term and milk Ninian for all he was worth if her checkered past wasn't an issue. If he was from a family of any renown, wouldn't he have to distance himself from her for the sake of their reputation? Holly, having been born into a family of crooks, knew little of such things. Ninian would probably be able to address her question, but that would require her being more honest with him than was comfortable. "Taking care of it is a nasty business, but so is actually having the thing." She heaved out a sigh and toyed with a stray bit of hair. "What do you think?"

  

[Ninian MacFusty]

"I would really rather not be a father," Ian said. This was true. Children were fine enough--he loved his nieces and nephews--and his baby sister, for that matter--and despite the looks he gave his siblings and parents when they managed to procreate again, he was glad for their existence. But that didn't mean he was enthused about the idea of having one of his own.

  

[Holly-Anne Shard]

Holly had already figured that Ninian wouldn't be thrilled about the prospect of fatherhood. She felt similarly about motherhood. The difference was that her role in this whole ordeal wasn't so easily remedied. "This is a mess," she murmured. "But should the child be punished because of our mistake?" Very rarely did Holly come across a decision that shook the dust off her dormant moral compass. This, it seemed, was one of them.

  

[Ninian MacFusty]

Ian was an ass. This was a fact he wholly acknowledged. But there were, you know, limits to this. Shifting uncomfortably, he said, "I'm not sure they won't be punished one way or the other."

  

[Holly-Anne Shard]

"Well, then I would like to inflict as little punishment on myself as possible." Trying to abort the child carried the risk of her bleeding out on some hack doctor's floor and she wasn't willing to die like that. But, pregnancy was no walk in the park and carried its own risks. Carrying the child to term was easier on the conscience, at least. She huffed out a sigh. "Well, we are married, aren't we?" Lord only knew how that'd happened. "It's not like it would ruin either of us." Not that Holly could be ruined any more than she already was.

  

[Ninian MacFusty]

"I suppose," Ian said, reluctantly. He hated essentially every part of this. Whatever stupidity had caused them had damned well better have been worthwhile. Even if he couldn't remember it now.

For Merlin's sake. "There's nothing for it, is there?" he asked, finally, sounding defeated even to his own ears now.

  

[Holly-Anne Shard]

Usually, hearing that defeated tone from a man perked Holly right up, but now that the misfortune was one she shared, she found it difficult to extract her usual glee. "No, there isn't," she responded stiffly. The 'unfortunately' was implied. "The only thing we can do is take measures to dampen the consequences." Damage control wasn't ideal, but it was better than nothing. "I don't suppose you have any suggestions?" Holly didn't have high hopes. Ninian had been quite useless to her thus far.

@'Henry Berkwood'

  

[Ninian MacFusty]

Ian would have liked to have thought of himself as a capable man before this. He really would have. Whether that was all a complete and utter lie or this was his--in hind sight very obvious now--blind spot, he couldn't say. "Not particularly." He pinched the bridge of his nose. "I suppose at least it's not technically a bastard."

  

[Holly-Anne Shard]

"Thank God for small miracles," Holly said dryly. Both her and her brother had been born out of wedlock, though she believed it wouldn't have mattered much if her parents had married prior to her birth. Marriage wouldn't have changed the reality of their circumstances or suddenly turned them into law abiding folk. Hell, she'd been married before and that hadn't changed anything at all. Truly, she didn't understand all the fuss surrounding it. "I've no family who would be concerned about any of this. Do you?" Holly was once again reminded that she knew nothing about this man, her husband in law and the father of her child.

@'Henry Berkwood'

  

[Ninian MacFusty]

"You could say I have a few," Ian said dryly. He wondered if knowing he had a dozen siblings currently living would send her screaming. Or the dragons, for that matter. "I doubt any of them will be especially happy with this. Clearly." Not that his was the only reputation well deserved, but such arguments were probably never very useful. "I should probably warn you that there are a great number of them." Never say he couldn't be kind.

  

[Holly-Anne Shard]

The idea of 'a great number' of relatives was decidedly unappealing to Holly. She'd never gotten on that well with her own family, never mind anyone else's. In small doses, she did have a certain kind of charm, but that didn't last through a long term engagement. Family made all of this infinitely more complicated. Holly pinched the bridge of her nose in a effort to ward off the headache she felt coming on. "When are you planning on telling them?" Was he planning on telling them at all?