Rabastan Lestrange

“Exactly,” Josette nodded. “And I can take enough photos and angle them so that people think nothing of it until we announce that the baby is here.”

“We’ll manage it,” he agreed with her with a nod. Despite sounding confident he felt anything but. He felt more like a little kid playing dress up than someone preparing to have his own child.

“No one said an elopement needed to be done in the dark of the night,” her mother agreed with a nod, and her father agreed, also looking minutely impressed with Rabastan’s assertiveness, especially following the joking. 

“We’ll go on a long honeymoon once I start to show,” Josette added, “and then I can hide this. No one needs to know when the baby comes. We can announce it well after the fact, it’ll look presentable.”

“We’re both fairly private with our personal lives as it is, it wouldn’t be a jump for us to not announce anything straight away.”

“You won’t need a dress,” he father said, “It’ll be private.” 

“We should still do something, though,” Jo suggested. 

Thinking that he would actually quite like Jo’s parents to still like him, he stayed quiet, resisting the urge to interject and say she should still have a dress. Realising joking wouldn’t work he grew more serious, straightening up. He really did want her parents to like him but he wanted the wedding to be a happy one more. “We’ll invite a few close friends and family,” he said smoothly, not asking permission. He thought he saw his father look slightly impressed but he wasn’t sure he didn’t just imagine it.

Squeezing his hand, she held onto him tightly as the door opened and their parents stepped inside. “We’ve set a date for the end of the month,” he father announced gruffly. 

“That soon?” Jo asked.

He watched his parents as they walked out, trying to gauge their expressions and only looking away when Jo’s father spoke. “Perfect,” he said at the same time as Jo spoke, glancing towards her briefly. 

“No, it’s probably best we take turns on that front,” she chuckled.

“Definitely,” he smiled, standing up as he heard the handle on the door rattle. He held a hand out to Jo to help her up. “If they’re pricks ignore them,” he muttered quietly so only she would hear as the door opened.

“Good,” she let out a small sigh of relief. “That’s good.”

“It is, I don’t think there’s room for the two of us to freak out,” he teased.

“I suppose three babies of her own helps,” Jo nodded. “What about right now?”

“Pretty okay.”

“Are you freaking out?”

“Sometimes, sometimes not,” he replied. “Lucinda helps.”

“I can’t believe this is real life,” she chuckled.

“No, neither can I.”

“Look at us,” she chuckled, “who would’ve thought.”

“Merlin knows,” he laughed softly.

“And our mother’s always talk about grandchildren,” she added, letting out a breath. “You’re right. It’s done, they’ll be fine. It’s fine.”

“It’s fine,” he repeated after her with a nod.

Ceasing her pacing, she nodded and sighed, then went to sit down next to him. “They’ll be happy once we’re married, and then they’ll pretend as if they’d planned all this from the beginning.”

“Exactly,” he agreed, lightly running his fingers up and down her back as she sat down to calm her. “They’ll take all the credit and be incredibly smug about it. What’s done is done, they can’t change it.”

“At least it’s over with now,” she sighed.

“Just looking at you is making me anxious, can you come sit down?” he asked, gesturing at the couch. “Hard part is done, we listen to them shout or give out for a few weeks and then they’ll be over it.” He hoped anyway.