If anyone had bothered to ask Alaric if he thought he’d be having a civil conversation with Walden MacNair about babies, well… he would have believed you, but he wouldn’t have expected that situation to be set up the way it was. Alaric was perfectly capable of being civil, after all, and everyone expected a pureblood male to procreate and prolong their bloodline at some point, of course, so that part made sense. But discussing the baby he was having with his muggleborn wife with a man that Alaric would be willing to be was a death eater? Well, that was the unexpected part.
“Ah, I’ve met her, she seems like a lovely woman.” Or she’d certainly been kind when Alaric talked with her one afternoon in Hogsmeade about her classes and Alaric knew that she’d used to work at the Quibbler with Pandora, which meant she had to be quite a unique person since it wasn’t just anyone that chose to be part of that staff. “She’s due right after Pandora.”
Obligingly, Alaric held out the bag and held it open to better let Walden see, not particularly seeing any reason to be shy about baby toys. “I think we have most of the essentials, more clothes will likely come after we find out the gender. I keep buying diapers in a panic, I think I’ve nearly filled a closet with them at this point.” He admitted, usually buying them in different sizes since he wasn’t sure how big the baby would actually be. “I don’t know, either. Soft seems like a good idea, but what if they suffocate in it?”
Pandora, right. That’s who Alaric married. Walden remembered her. All smiles and sunshine and good feelings all around. Yeah, he could imagine why the sad sap left his family and his legacy for that. The Avery’s always had been goddamn downers. He’d leave him them all for a bit of sunshine, too.
“Oh yeah, Daise mentioned that. Must’ve been nice, having someone to talk to during all the weirdass pregnancy things.” Walden knew that he’d probably only heard the half of it from his wife. Granted he’d certainly talked Zahi’s ear off in the past few months. His friend had just stopped responding but Walden hadn’t stopped sending the updates.
“I’ve worried about that, too. And then I thought maybe wood but that splinters, y’know? I think my mum’s making me up a list because pacing around the living room fretting over it.” He admitted. Abuela kept telling him to let Daisy take care of it, but Walden didn’t want to have to give his wife more things to stress over. Besides he liked baby shopping, to his great surprise. It was nice to feel involved in it all. “We were thinking of using cloth nappies, and just getting a good pattern of washing them, but everyone says we’re gonna be so tired. But Malcolm doesn’t seem too tired?”