Disclaimer: I'm too young to be Rowling so there is sadly no way Harry Potter is mine…
Placing: Throughout the story and at the time of the Marauders.
Challenge: 'Prompt of the day'. Prompt: (song) 'I Won't Give Up' by Jason Mraz. 2500 words. Gryffindor, Hogwarts.
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sSsSsSsSs
A DEATH EATER'S SON
sSs
Green light is coming at him.
Green light that will bring his end.
"Avada Kedavra," a voice echoed in his thoughts – and yet, the only thing he can see is brown.
Brown eyes.
Her eyes – in the face of his son.
And he smiles because if he has to go, there's no better way…
sSsSs
She stood there, her eyes cold and hard.
He returned her gaze with open eyes.
"I won't give up on us," he said. "It doesn't matter if you do. It doesn't matter if you will forever be the wife of someone else. I won't give up on us – I never will!"
She closed her eyes and shook her head.
"You've had your chance," she said. "You broke my trust. You destroyed everything we had. There's nothing that will ever make me come back to you."
He raised his hand and touched her cheek.
"So be it," he said, his eyes tired and broken. "Yet, that doesn't mean that I will ever have to give up hope."
She just shook her head, freeing herself from his soft grip.
"It's over," she said. "I trusted you – and you went and joined a monster. I will never forgive you for that!"
And he couldn't object, because she was right.
She had trusted him – and he had gone and thrown her trust into the wind.
sSs
"No, father, please! Please don't!"
A slap forcing his face to the side.
"Stop behaving like a child, Rabastan! You're a son of the Ancient and Noble House of Lestrange! You know better than to behave unbecoming of your station!"
He inclined his head, his cheek burning from the slap.
"Of course, father," he said. "I' sorry, father."
The father just gripped his shoulder in a death grip.
"Now go and follow your brother," he said. "Make me proud and bring honour to our name!"
And he submitted like his father wanted him to.
sSs
"Alice!"
"Stop talking to me, Rabastan!" She said, her eyes looking at him alight with eternal fire. "Stop coming near me! Stop acting as if you and I are in any way or form acquaintances!"
And he stepped back to give her her freedom.
"I'm sorry, Alice," he said and her eyes narrowed further.
"You might be," she countered. "But it doesn't matter anymore. You're too late. A whole tattoo too late!"
Her warm fingers tipping against the hidden and marked skin of his forearm.
He closed his eyes at that, looking away from her so that he didn't have to see the accusation in her face.
"You're right," he said. "And I'm sorry about that, too."
But she just shook her head in desperation.
"You don't understand," she said, her voice bitter from past hurts. "It's over! You're too late! Far too late – and you will never be able to make it up to me ever again!"
"It doesn't matter," he replied, his eyes showing the stubbornness he refused to show in his face. "It doesn't matter. I will never give up!"
She just sighed and shook her head.
"It doesn't matter," she said. "Whatever you do – it will never change a thing."
With that, she stepped away from him to walk down the path to the man who held her heart – not caring that his heart broke just by watching her hand joining the other man's.
"I will never give up, Alice!" He called out to her. "Never! Do you understand me? Never!"
But she just walked away, hand in hand with another man.
sSs
"Father is planning to find you a bride."
He closed his eyes at that, unwilling to show his desperation, his hatred for the rules of a son of an ancient and noble house.
"Who did he find for me?" He asked instead.
"He's talking with the Carrows about their daughter, Alec-something," his brother replied coldly. "She will be a fitting bride."
"I'm sure she will be," he replied, trying to act as if his heart wasn't breaking further by the thought of having to break his promise to Alice.
"I won't give up – I will never give up!" – but did it count as giving up if he gave in and married the woman his father wanted him to? He had once given in to his father and it had cost him everything. What would happen if he continued to follow his father's path?
sSs
"What are you doing here?"
"Alice…"
"No, Rabastan! Answer me! If you're here as –"
"I came alone, Alice," he replied. "You won't have to fear that your wedding will be swamped with Death Eaters. It's just me – and I won't do anything."
Her eyes just narrowed at him.
"What makes you think I can trust you?" She replied, distrust evident in her face.
He smiled at her with a broken smile before reaching out to her, taking her chin in his hand and pulling her close to kiss her forehead.
"Because I would never hurt you," he said. "And you know that, Alice."
She freed herself from him and took a step back.
"That's what you say," she said, anger in her face. "And yet, all you have ever done was to hurt me."
"Alice –"
"Don't Alice me! It's Mrs. Longbottom to you!" She snarled and he touched her cheek and stroked it with regret in his eyes.
"Mrs. Longbottom," he agreed, before smiling his broken smile at her. "Mrs. Longbottom, the beautiful Gryffindor who once loved a Slytherin."
Her eyes were hard at that.
"I doubt that I ever truly loved you, Rabastan," she replied. "Because if I had – shouldn't I have been able to safe your soul before you sold it to the devil?"
He just shook his head at her.
"Some things," he told her with regret in his voice. "Have been lost long before you can even think about rescuing them. I guess I was one of those."
With that he turned around and walked away from her.
"Rabastan!" She cried, calling for him. "Rabastan!"
But he just kept on walking, not turning back to her.
sSs
"Tonight we will conduct a raid," the Dark Lord said. "Tonight we will show those animals who's their better!"
"Are you exited, little brother?" Rodolphus asked him.
For a moment he thought of blond hair and the accusing brown eyes of a young Gryffindor girl. Then he looked up at his brother, smirking at him.
"What do you think, Rodolphus?" He asked amused.
And his brother returned his broken smile with a bloodthirsty one of his own.
sSs
"Rabastan! Rabastan, please!"
He closed his eyes and looked away from the woman crying and screaming in between his brother's and sister-in-law's wands.
"Rabastan!" She was long since too far gone in her agony to even speak one word coherently, and yet, he could hear his name clear as day in her pain-filled screams.
So he looked away, unwilling to lift his wand, yet unable to step in between the others and her.
"Rabastan, please!" He eyes seemed to beg and then to wander to the room next to them.
He followed her gaze.
"I go and look for the brat," he told his brother and when the other man nodded, he stepped up to the door Alice was looking at and opened it.
It was a nursery – and in the crib, a toddler was lying, staring at him with tear-filled eyes.
For a moment he could only stare at the little boy, feeling the horror settle in his soul.
If his brother and sister-in-law found the child, they wouldn't spare it – they would do worst to it than they were currently doing to the parents just to punish its parents for their resistance.
For a moment, Rabastan wanted to look away from the child; for a moment, he wanted to return to where he came from and tell his family what he had found – then his own voice, nothing but memory stopped him.
"I won't give up on us," his memory whispered. "I will never give up on us. No matter if you do – I will never give up."
His eyes met the brown ones of the child.
He closed his own, stepped up to the boy and picked him up.
With the child in his hands, he stepped out of the room, shielding him with his body.
Not one of the other three saw him, they all were fixated on their victims in between them.
"Well," Bellatrix said, not looking up. "Did you find the brat?"
"I didn't," Rabastan said and walked slowly to the other door of the room. "I'll check the rest of the house."
"Do so," his brother said.
Rabastan reached for the doorknob, his other hand securely entwined around the little boy in his arms.
And through all her pain, Alice looked at him and smiled.
He returned her broken smile with one of his own broken ones.
"I will never give up on us," he mouthed. "Never."
With that he walked out of the room, not caring that he was arrested just a mere ten minutes later.
The last thing he did before being taken to Azkaban was handing the child to the child's grandmother, his eyes fixated on her hate-filled ones.
"I will never regret," he told the woman. "As long as I live – I will never regret."
Because the child in her hands was Alice's child – and the closest he would ever be of having children of his own…
sSs
"The Longbottoms and the Potters have spawned, my Lord," Rodolphus said with distaste in his eyes.
He looked up from his reading at that.
"Spawned?" He asked and his brother nodded while the Dark Lord frowned.
"At the end of July," the Dark Lord murmured to himself, and Rabastan looked away from the man to hide his thoughts.
A day later, Rabastan stepped out of Gringotts, bumping into his brother on his way out.
"What were you doing in Gringotts, Rabastan?" His brother asked confused and he shrugged.
"I thought that updating my will would be prudent considering that I don't have children but are the current heir to the Lestrange family," he replied truthfully.
"Ah!" His brother said, understanding in his eyes. "I guess you ensured that Narcissa's boy will inherit if we all die?"
And he inclined his head, neither in agreement nor in disagreement, in his thoughts the memory of blond hair and brown eyes and Alice… Alice… Alice…
"Something like that," he said. "Something like that."
sSs
Azkaban was one of the worst things that ever happened in his life – and yet knowing that Alice was gone was worse still.
Alice was gone.
Alice was gone, and Rodolphus had been the one to take her away.
He couldn't forget that, he couldn't forgive that – and yet, when he was finally freed, he stayed at his brother's side like he had always been. His brother was family, his brother was the only thing he had left – what other choice did he have but to continue the path he had chosen all those years ago?
The answer to that question came on a day in May.
"Neville!"
And he couldn't stop himself from shielding the boy even if it meant that he was stunned by Potter and would have to return to Azkaban.
"I won't give up," a voice whispered in his broken mind. "I will never give up on us!"
And the dark haired, brown eyed boy was Alice's.
He would never give up on her – and he would never give up on the child that was his in everything but blood.
If that decision meant Azkaban, so be it.
He had survived it once, he would do so again…
sSs
"How do you plead?"
He looked at the members of the Wizengamot with dull and dead eyes.
He knew what he should say, he knew what would be best for him – but try as he might, he wasn't Lucius Malfoy… wasn't his brother nor his sister-in-law…
"How do you plead, Rabastan Neville Lestrange?"
He looked at them, one after another.
Old men and women, their eyes hard and icy and unyielding.
"Guilty," he whispered finally, his voice as broken and brittle as his heart. "Guilty of all charges."
If he had to go to Azkaban for life, then he would do it with his head held high.
"For you, Alice," he whispered. "Because 'sorry' isn't enough. Because 'sorry' will never be enough."
And yet, he would never give up on his love for her…
sSs
"There's still resistance within Hogwarts," Snape said, sounding unhappy and unwilling.
"Have you identified the leaders?" the Dark Lord asked displeased.
"I presume it's Longbottom, but I have no true evidence and the boy for all his rebellious ways is a pureblood," Snape replied coolly and Rabastan's heart started to thunder in his chest.
"Where is the boy currently?"
"The Carrows keep him in the dungeons," Snape answered. "He isn't talking."
The Dark Lord's eyes narrowed and Rabastan forced himself to step forward.
"I will go with Snape and try my luck," he said. "He might react a bit better to me, considering that he definitely wants to kill me for my deeds against his parents."
And the Dark Lord smiled cruelly.
"An interesting idea, Rabastan," he said. "Very well, so be it. Go with Severus and see what you can do."
Three days later, Rabastan would be found in the dungeons, severely hurt and from Longbottom not a trace to be found.
The Dark Lord's wrath would nearly do what Longbottom hadn't managed to: bring Rabastan into an early grave.
And Rabastan would swear until he died, that Longbottom had freed himself from his shackles and attacked him before he could react – never telling that it was his spell that opened the shackles in the first place…
sSs
"Why did you actually plead guilty, brother?" Rodolphus asked annoyed while they were shipped off to Azkaban.
"Why not?" He replied with a shrug. "It's not, as if I'm a good person or try to portray one to the world around us."
"You could have still –"
"Lied?" He asked. "Of course. But why bother if the truth or the lie won't change a thing on the fact that I will end up in Azkaban for life?"
And his brother couldn't find an argument against that, so he closed his mouth and just shook his head in disbelief.
"And here I thought I was the more faithful to our Lord," he said.
"Oh," Rabastan replied. "You are. You and Bellatrix – there's nobody more faithful than you."
Because he hadn't gone to Azkaban for his 'lord' but to atone for something that could never be forgiven…
sSs
The battle was in full swing.
Rabastan couldn't actually say how he ended up where he ended up – no, that wasn't the truth. He knew exactly how he ended up where he was right now.
He had actively searched out his place.
And while Potter and the Dark Lord battled it out, while Bellatrix and Molly Weasley crossed wands, Rabastan had only one goal in mind.
And he didn't hesitate to fulfil it.
He was a shadow, a shield, a father on warpath.
Goyle, Rowle, or other, nameless Death Eaters, it didn't matter. They all fell to his wand before they could bring down the one Rabastan had his eyes set on.
The boy in question was fighting Avery.
He was good.
He was winning – at least until Rodolphus stepped up from behind the boy.
His wand trained on the boy's unprotected back.
Meanwhile, Rabastan was still fighting off Rowle.
It was a hard fight - but he was slowly but surely winning.
Just a second more.
A second...
But Rodolphus raised his wand, malevolence in his eyes.
"Avada…"
Rabastan send a wordless cutting curse at Rowle and beheaded him.
"Kedavra!"
There was no second thought.
No time to think, no time to choose.
His whole life he had followed his brother.
His whole life he had obeyed his family.
His whole life he had looked away and given in, lost his freedom, his peace, his everything.
Alice.
There was no thought, no second guessing.
He saw Neville turn.
He saw the shock and fear in the boy's eyes.
He saw his own cutting curse killing his brother.
The last thing he would ever see were Alice's eyes, widened with fear in his son's face.
"Neville," his lips formed.
Then the green light took him with it to beyond the veil, leaving his son-in-all-but-blood without a parent again.
But then, Rabastan had been a horrible father – what loss was there, when he left this world for his son?
No loss.
No loss at all.
"I won't give up on us, Alice. Even if you left me forever, even if you will never love me ever again – I will never give up on our love. Even if it means dying for your son."
And in the hospital a traumatized woman started to cry.
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How did I end up writing romance?!
Er… well…Hope you liked it… xD
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