Loreli Avery had plenty of her own personal issues to deal with. She most certainly did not need to add on a sociopathic recluse with pent up anger issues to that list. Rabastan Lestrange x OC
Finger tips drummed against the smooth wood surface, the tips of nails making a soothing and echoing sound throughout the chamber. It was empty save for the long solid wooden table and the twelve seats surrounding it. Loreli Avery was by herself in the room, the last out of the eleven people to have remained seated. Lucius Malfoy had tried waiting for her at the doors, but after moments of the silent treatment she had given everyone the past two hours, he had given up and left her by her lonesome. Her mind was not even filled with any thoughts, a blank stare fixed on the stone wall on the opposite side of the room. Loreli finally moved, her joints feeling stiff and pins and needles pricking at her calves from how long she had been sat motionless. All she did was uncross her ankles, her hand sweeping gently over the table and an admiring look passing her eyes when she tore her stare from the wall to the table. She had been barely five years old when her grandfather had completed the table.
Loreli glanced around the room, to double check that she was on her own before she slid rather ungracefully off her chair and crawled on her knees under the table until she reached the middle of it. Once upon a time she had been able to stand up straight underneath it, and then a few years after that she had been able to sit up straight. But now at a delicate twenty-five years old, Loreli couldn't even comfortably sit even with craning her neck. She resolved instead to lay on the dusty floor, turning onto her back and reaching up to the bottom of the table with her finger tips. The auburn haired woman giggled to herself, a ridiculous feeling sweeping over her. The thought of her laying underneath this table was incredibly absurd. Her giggle was cut short abruptly when she heard the doors creak open and Loreli fell still, listening to the footsteps that entered the room. Oh Merlin, what did she get herself into? She silently prayed the person was Lucius, or perhaps even Jack. She could get away with this silly antic if it was either of them two. They may lord it over her for the next several weeks, taking the mick and telling everyone their discovery. But that was the worst they could do. Her heart hammered in her chest as she begged it not to be her brother. The last thing Loreli could bare was another one of those looks from him.
A yelp left her lips, quickly muffled by her own hand slapping over her rosy lips. For a moment, Loreli strongly believed her heart was going to explode. Her blue eyes locked with a dark pair that stared back at her, confusion written over his expression with a hint of snarky amusement glittering in them. Rabastan Lestrange didn't hesitate in joining her underneath the table, crawling over to her and imitating her position on his back. They were pressed shoulder to shoulder, she could feel the heat radiating from him. His years spent with dragons had seemed to rub away any kind of normal human temperature. At least he came in handy when they were sent to colder climates. Loreli felt colour rushing into her cheeks, something that of course didn't go unnoticed by the younger Lestrange son. A smirk twisted along his lips, one that she would kill to slap off his face.
"What are you doing?" Rabastan asked, looking at the woman as she stubbornly refused to look anywhere but at the table above them. "If you've finally lost your mind, please tell me now. I don't particularly want to have to deal with your craziness right now."
A snort left her nose and Loreli wrapped her arms around herself. "Because you have more than enough crazy yourself to deal with, right?" She shot back, admittedly regret after the words left her lips. But he just grinned, baring a mouthful of teeth that she knew was sharper than his bark. Loreli pursed her lips, her bottom lip jutting out and then she raised her arm again. "My grandfather made this table. I helped as much as a small child could help."
Rabastan followed the line of her arm, his eyes finally spotting the barely visible marks in the wood that looked more like defects than man made scratches. It was her name scrawled in terrible handwriting. He watched as Loreli traced the marks in the wood with her fingers. Chipped black polish on her nails, her thumbnail broken and her knuckles dusted with healing scabs. Rabastan turned his head to look at her, blinking his long lashes that framed his dark eyes so well as he studied her for a moment. "You look like shit, what happened?" There was a hidden curiosity in his voice, he knew that she had been sent out on a solo mission. The entire idea of it had made him laugh scathingly, but Rabastan wasn't the type to care about others so he hadn't voiced his concerns about it at the time.
"You would have known if you had shown up for the meeting." Loreli dropped her arm to her side again, her hand brushing against his before she snatched it away as if his touch burned. If Rabastan had noticed, his face didn't give away anything. Loreli used her hand to brush hair away from her face, exhaling a deep breath. "Why are you here? You would have known that the meeting finished a while ago."
"Hours, actually." Rabastan shrugged his shoulders the best he could laying down on the floor. "You've been missing for three hours. Malfoy sent me to find you."
A sharp intake of breath was the response Loreli gave him. She pressed her lips together to surpress the laugh that she felt in her chest. She hadn't realised that she had been sat on that chair for three hours straight. There was instantly no need to surpress her laugh anymore when the truth dawned on her. Her brother hadn't cared enough to send someone himself. Instead Lucius had once again took it upon himself to notice her missing. Her jaw tightened for a moment before she peered at the man next to her out of the corner of her eye. "I doubt you came looking for me out of the goodness of your heart, Bas. What gives?"
That eery grin of his. Rabastan stared up at the table, his eyes closing as he pressed his hand against his face. "Turns out Lucy knows someone selling some dragon eggs. Told me he'd get me in contact if I found you. It wasn't hard." His fingers parted so he once again could look at her. "I heard what happened from Rod and figured you would be hiding in here. Rough one, eh?" The sentence implied that he cared. But Rabastan's tone was expressionless, as if he was merely stating a fact.
Loreli bit her tongue, creases on her forehead as she frowned at him. "Yeah." A moment of silence passed between the two. Despite the term "friends" not quite matching the relationship the pair had, there was something deeper that they shared. "Wanna swap brothers?"
That made Rabastan let out a loud and sharp laugh, one much louder than intended and caused Loreli to smack her hand over his mouth when they heard the doors creak open once again. Rabastan tried to pry it off, leading to the woman rolling halfway over him and pressed her hand harder to his lips. Her other hand held a finger to her own lips for him to shush, using her bodyweight to pin him down and stop his struggles. One footstep into the room was enough to resound an echo bouncing off walls. But then the person retreated, the doors closing once again. Loreli still dared not move, her heart thumping inside her chest. It was not until Rabastan gripped her wrist with his hand and pried her hand away from his mouth that Loreli dared move. Her breath hitched for a moment when she looked down at him, her hair framing his face and a scowl upon his expression. Then she sucked in her cheeks and pushed away from him.
"I'm perfectly fine with my own brother, thanks." Rabastan grinned another one of his shit eating grins. "He may not be my blood, but at least he doesn't hate me."
His words stung and Loreli ground her teeth together. It wasn't well known, but it also was no secret that Rabastan had been adopted into the Lestrange family when he was young. But despite that and how different the brothers looked, Rodolphus had always claimed him as family. Unlike how Loreli's half brother had shunned her from the moment she had been brought home by their father. Loreli looked at Rabastan briefly, unable to keep her gaze on him for long. She forgot sometimes how horrible he was. He had never minced his words for anyone. The kind of person with a fearless aptitude to listen to absolutely no one but himself. Save for perhaps Rodolphus. Sometimes she wondered how Rabastan was still alive.
Loreli didn't have any witty comment to snark back at him, instead rolling over onto her front and crawling out from under the table with a scowl on her features. She sought out her cloak that was hung over her chair at the table and shrugged it on. She could see Rabastan straightening up from the corner of her eye and watched him brush dirt and dust off his shirt. Loreli shoved her hands in her pockets, the scowl ever present on her face as she stalked towards the doors that would take her far away from the sociopath that she called a friend.
"Rory."
The name he called her made her stop dead in her tracks, goosebumps raising the hairs on her arms. It had been a long time since Rabastan had called her that. Loreli wanted to turn and look at him, but her body wouldn't comply so she remained stood with her back to him.
Rabastan crossed his arms over his chest, his dark gaze on the long locks of her hair. He had always liked how in the sunshine it seemed to glow red. Red was his favourite colour. "For what it's worth, none of us would have been able to hold our own against Longbottom. Avery was cruel to send you out on your own against him."
Her fingers trembled unseen within her pockets and Loreli squeezed her eyes shut at his words. As if worried that if she opened them, the truth would come spilling out. And if that happened, she doubted that he would ever look at her the same. "Haven't you heard, Bastille? Cruelty is a trait that runs in the Avery family." Loreli opened her eyes again and glanced over her shoulder, a faint grin ghosting over her lips that was quickly mirrored by the man still stood by the table. "And I am an Avery." She spoke as parting words, sweeping out of the room as quick as she could.
Her hands clenched into fists to stop the trembling and Loreli fought back a bitter sickness that threatened to rear its ugly head. She hadn't been beaten by the Auror at all. Loreli had let Frank go and she could never tell anyone. It would be a death sentence to a Death Eater like her.
A/N
I am going to be totally up front with you all and tell you that I am unsure if there is going to be a second chapter. I haven't written by myself in years!
This is just a little experiment to see if I can stick with it!