Black Widow (The Blaise's Mum Has Got It Going On Tango)
Remix Author: Marks
Original Story: Blaise's Fathers by Redcandle17
Summary: "From what Harry could make out, she had been married seven times, each of her husbands dying mysteriously and leaving her mounds of gold."
Rating: PG-13
Fandom: Harry Potter
She is eighteen when her father sends her to Rome. He wants to keep her out of what he calls "You-Know-Who's mess," while still looking like a loyal pureblood. It's fine by her; she spends her days sunning herself on the beach, turning her brown skin several shades darker and her nights in little clubs where men nearly kill themselves so they can buy her drinks.
Giuseppe Zabini is more persistent than most. He woos her with flowers, candy, jewelry, and declarations of love and devotion spoken in carefully-pronounced English. Giuseppe is a handsome man, well-loved by the local girls with long, slanting eyes and graceful hands. The first time he brings her to his house, she can only look around with wide eyes and ask, "Goodness, Giuseppe, how much money does your family have?"
He tells her, and she accepts his proposal on the spot.
They are married in spring and have a son by winter. Blaise looks like them both.
"Look, Giuseppe. He has ten fingers and ten toes. Isn't he perfect?"
"Most children have that," Giuseppe replies, but he is smiling.
Their happiness is short-lived. The men in town look at her still, even though she is a mama with a bambino. They whistle and sometimes slap her behind when they think they can get away with it. She is flattered; Giuseppe is not, and she finds out that the things she's heard about Italian tempers are true.
"I do not like the way they look at you! You should stay at home, be a mother!" shouts Giuseppe. He lapses into Italian, too fast for her to understand, but at the end he shoves her and catches her by the wrist before she falls.
"I am not your property," she tells him, wrenching her wrist away.
She storms up the stairs and sits down at her writing desk to plan the next day's meals. Blaise stands and coos from his crib, chubby fists reaching out for his mama.
She'll never let anything hurt either of them.
*
ar•se•nic (n) - 1 : a trivalent and pentavalent solid poisonous element that is commonly metallic steel-gray, crystalline, and brittle; 2 : a poisonous trioxide As2O3 or As4O6 of arsenic used especially as an insecticide or weed killer -- called also arsenic trioxide.
*
The photograph they choose for the funeral is beautiful. Giuseppe is throwing Blaise high in the air, over and over, as Blaise laughs and drools over his daddy. The townspeople call her The Widow Zabini, like she's never had any other name.
Her mother arrives to bring them back to England to start over. She wears black for a year, and whenever asked why, she pulls out a handkerchief and says, "Because I am in mourning."
"Black is slimming," her mother tells her.
She agrees.
*
Merton Wadcock is balding, overweight, and has a laugh that sounds like nails on a chalkboard. He smokes cigars and the stink gets into his clothes and into his hair, but he's from a good, old family and doesn't mind that she's a widow and has a young son. Merton doesn't even mind when she opts to keep her first husband's name "out of respect."
And Blaise likes him,. Blaise likes everyone. He laughs and burbles whenever Merton pats his head. His third word is daddy, after owl and 'neazle.
She is happy, until she catches Blaise with one of Merton's cigars in his mouth, puffing and puffing away like some sort of baby chimney while her husband laughs. The Widow Zabini slaps her husband and runs away with Blaise in her arms. Her son squirms and tries to escape, but she will not let go.
*
as•phyx•i•ate (v) - to kill or make unconscious by inadequate oxygen, presence of noxious agents, or other obstruction to normal breathing
*
The fire did very little damage.
"A miracle," the Ministry told her. "The only room destroyed was your husband's study."
She is the sole beneficiary in Merton's will.
"At least you and Blaise will be well-cared for," says her father.
She nods. Of course.
*
When Blaise is four, her mother says to her, "You deserve a vacation. Find some men, have some fun."
She goes to France and leaves Blaise with her parents. Blaise cries are so loud they echo in her head even as she Apparates away.
Jean-Luc is kind and older and frail. He's never been married, never had a child, and he writes to Blaise in small, easy-to-understand words.
"Marry me," he says.
"Yes," she says.
*
life ex•pec•tan•cy (n) - the average life span of an individual
*
They never made it to their honeymoon.
"He was old," her mother assures her.
"He was rich," her father reminds her.
"Mama," Blaise says, throwing his arms around her waist.
*
She lets Blaise watch as she sits at her changing table and dabs on rouge and eye makeup. Blaise carefully sprays her neck with her best perfume. He is only seven, but he already has respect for things. Respect for her.
"Mama has to go out tonight," she tells him, kissing the top of his head. He looks so much like his father, she thinks, but the two of them couldn't be more different. Blaise is so polite and well-behaved. "Be good for Dancy and the other elves, all right?"
"Yes, mama," Blaise replies dutifully.
She meets her fourth husband that night. Gregory Ellerby manufactures brooms for professional Quidditch teams and wants at least two more children. She is unsure about that, but he provides a good home, and it's nice to have someone dote on her. He likes the way she smells and the way she styles her hair and calls her Mrs Ellerby with an infectious grin, but he completely ignores her son until his morning tea is spiked with salt for six days in a row.
"That boy is out of control," he says.
She sticks her nose into the air. "I don't know what you're referring to."
"He is putting salt in my tea."
"The elves admitted to that."
"You put them up to it."
She sniffs. "Don't get your knickers in a twist over something so innocuous. It might have been arsenic."
"Have you ever considered boarding school?"
"Blaise will be going to Hogwarts in three years, Gregory."
"Yeah, but how about now? Plenty of good primary schools for wizards outside of Great Britain, you know. Switzerland, maybe? He likes to ski."
"Switzerland might be nice this time of year."
*
av•a•lanche (n) - a large mass of snow, ice, earth, rock, or other material in swift motion down a mountainside or over a precipice
*
"There were magical signatures at the top of the embankment," a Swiss Auror tells her. "His own wand. He must have really, really wanted to kill hims-- sorry. I shouldn't have said that."
*
"The profits from the factory sale should be handsome," her father says.
"I think," she says slowly, "I'm going to change my name back to Zabini."
"Like me?" asks Blaise, looking happy for the first time in nearly a year.
"Because of you," she tells him.
*
Her fifth husband loves Blaise. He doesn't love her, but that hardly matters anymore. She has never worked a day in her life, but she has more than enough wealth to keep her son cared for. And it's only her son she worries about.
Edward takes Blaise to Quidditch matches and indoctrinates him into proper wizard society. Her father and Edward arrange the first play-date between Blaise and Draco Malfoy, and the two boys get along well, even if the Malfoy boy does seem to lack proper respect for authority figures.
When Blaise goes to Hogwarts, Edward buys him a broom for use next year. She is happy to have a family at last.
Until Edward tells her he is leaving her for a man, and no, he can't stay for Blaise's sake. He can't keep living a lie.
"I'll visit him whenever I can."
*
ex•san•gui•na•tion (n) - the action or process of draining or losing blood
*
"I didn't know wizards even owned rifles." The Auror closes the door to the bedroom, still shuddering over the blood that is all over the bed.
"He collected them. It was one of Edward's many eccentricities."
"Mrs..."
"Zabini."
"Zabini. Do you mind if we ask you a few questions about your husband's death?"
*
No charges are ever pressed, and she has the bedroom redecorated before Blaise comes home for the summer.
"How did your exams go?" she asks.
"Fine, Mama. I did well in Charms and Potions."
She is delighted. "Those were my two best subjects, too," she tells him. "I excelled at memory charms and love potions."
Blaise raises his eyebrows, but says nothing else. "Where's Father?" he asks.
"Oh, Blaise." She shakes her head sadly. "There's something I need to tell you about him. I didn't want to interrupt your exams."
*
When Blaise burns his broom, she is happy he had the presence of mind to do it outside. She hadn't been looking forward to redecorating the study again.
*
Blaise goes back to school, and she gets married again. She isn't even sure why anymore; it just seems like a thing to do.
*
di•vorce (n) - the action or an instance of legally dissolving a marriage
*
"How was school?"
"Fine, Mother." He no longer calls her Mama. "What did you do with your fall?"
"Oh, this and that. It's been an uneventful season." She seals the bundle of contracts and mails them to her lawyer.
*
She goes to India just as Blaise starts his third year, and meets Rajani within a week. There have been rumours about his bloodline being tainted by Muggles and squibs, but he assures her those are only rumours. She doesn't care either way.
When he proposes, she is unsurprised. She stays in India for two years, travelling home often enough to see her son, though he is aloof and distant now.
"I don't ever want to move to India," Blaise announces right before his fifth year begins.
*
a•va•da ke•da•vra (n) - causes instant death in a flash of green light, usually leaving no sign of physical damage or of the cause of death that would be detectable to a Muggle autopsy. (Aramaic: "let the thing be destroyed")
*
The Indian police are baffled. "There doesn't seem to be any cause of his death at all!"
India has no Ministry.
*
"Why?" her mother asks.
"Marriage is really boring, isn't it?"
*
The society papers call her the Black Widow Zabini after Raj's death. Took them long enough, she thinks to herself, rolling her eyes and donning her mask. She arrives at the meeting, thinking about how the Dark Mark will barely be visible if she sunbathes for a few days.
"Bellatrix," she murmurs to the cloaked figure next to her, "how attached are you to the Dark Lord?"
"Why?" replies Bellatrix, instantly suspicious.
Blaise will leave Hogwarts this year, and she doesn't want to send him to Italy to avoid "You-Know-Who's mess." That's what started all of her trouble, after all.
"Oh, no reason," the Black Widow says airily. "I was just wondering if he was available."
end
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