Hi!
We are slowly getting more of Rabastan and Caroline and I really hope you're going to enjoy this chapter! :) My biggest thanks to everyone who reviewed - there were some really good tips among the reviews! Please, let me know, what you think! :)
The two of them stared at each other for a long time until Rabastan made a careful step forward. At that, Caroline lifted the wand and pointed it at him. She didn't say anything. Her mind was focusing on the man standing in front of her, the one who could always mess up with her head but also the one whose skills in occlumency couldn't match hers in legilimancy.
But she got a bit disturbed when she heard him start laughing. Carolina narrowed her eyes at him and tightened the grip around her wand.
"Come on, love. We both know you can't hurt me," he said with a smirk on his face.
But Caroline didn't move a bit and she didn't lower her wand. The motivation was too strong. Forget the last few weeks, right now, her mental shields were stronger than ever and her senses could feel every bit of Rabastan's emotions.
"I've got better," she said with icy voice and emotionless expression. "I've had a lot of time to practice." Rabastan didn't move a bit and his confidence didn't drop, at least not on the outside, but Caroline could feel and see his thoughts. And for a moment, it actually crossed his mind that his wife wasn't as useless with her wand as she used to be.
"Are you messing with my mind again, Caroline?" he asked, and this time, his voice was completely different. He spoke with the voice that had always disarmed her before, slow and calm that made Caroline actually withdraw herself from his mind and actually look at him.
She felt her breathing was faster as they looked at each other for a time that felt like an eternity. Rabastan then made another step towards her.
"Stay where you are." Caroline surprised herself with the coldness of her own voice. But she meant what she said.
At that Rabastan raised both of his hands in the air and looked at her. "Carol, come on. I didn't come to hurt you." He was telling the truth that much she could sense. But she didn't lower her wand nor did she ease her mind.
"Then why did you come?" she kept her voice steady as she asked and focused on his emotions. And at moment, no matter how well he was able to hide it, Rabastan was an emotional wreck. She could feel it all. Anger. Relieve. Expectations. Confidence. But also fear. And also, a slight emotion beneath it, an emotion Caroline desperately longed to feel. Beneath it all, there was love.
With Rabastan, she could count on one hand the moments when this emotion wasn't buried deep beneath all others. He was extremely careful with this, always guarding. But Caroline was able to feel it anyway and when she did now, it was the first time during their encounter that she felt her shields slip a bit.
But Rabastan wasn't Severus and he didn't notice, so she was able to build it back in no time. Her husband didn't answer her question and instead, he asked one of his own. "Where were you, Carol?"
She didn't answer either. Right now, she was trying to find out his plans with her. He put their house on a surveillance spell for a reason, and he came when she came for a reason.
"Honey, could you please stop reading through my mind like it was Daily Prophet? It's not very comfortable." He sounded bored when he said that but the witch knew boredom was the last thing he felt. But she actually withdrew again and eyed him suspiciously.
"Where were you?" he asked again, still using the voice he knew worked on her. "I've missed you." He made another few steps towards her.
She tried to stay focused. To remain calm. But her mental barriers faced a greater challenge with each step he came closer.
"Stop."
This time he did. Caroline was able to reach to his mind and actually made him stop. It required her full focus but she could see the conflict in him. He was an unusually skilled wizard and he had been in this situation before. She couldn't hold him off forever. She sensed his desperation to close his eyes, to break the eye contact, but he couldn't.
She still aimed her wand at him as she started talking to him, while still holding part of his mind in hers. "Why did you come, Rabastan? What do you want from me? Or you want to apologize for the last time?"
But for now, she didn't allow him to talk, to answer. As if the control she held over him made her stronger than she was during the previous days. Caroline wanted answers, but she wanted to find them herself. She searched his thoughts and memories with a hope of finding something important. The first thing she found that made her stop for a bit and watch, was a memory of him, Rudolphus and Bellatrix in a dark familiar room. The Lestrange manor. So that was where they stayed. It seemed that the old manor still had its magic and could deceive even the Aurors.
The other memories were flying around and another one made Caroline gasp with shock. She was looking at Rabastan, his wand aiming at Miriam Strout, the one healer of St. Mungo's who was now suspended, and terrified Miriam was standing against the wall with her hands in the air, already disarmed.
"Where is she?"
Miriam had tears in her eyes as she answered. "I don't know. Please…"
Caroline watched as Rabastan sent some hex towards the healer that made her hiss in pain. "Where is my wife?"
With that, Caroline left this memory. She preferred not to know which other hexes her husband used on her co-workers. How pathetic was that? But she didn't want to see more of the monster Rabastan was, she saw enough. She felt his will to escape her grasp and she pushed more. Different memories were offering themselves but Caroline didn't look for them. She didn't even know what she was looking for until she found another memory that caught her interest.
It was almost dark but she could still recognise there were three people. It didn't take her long before she realised they were standing in front of their house and she soon recognised the two that were accompanying Rabastan. Dolohov and Rookwood. Of course. So, she was right when she first guessed the two of them were helping him to get into the house.
She saw Antonin waving his wand in the air, while his companions were alternately looking at him and alternately were watching their surroundings for any potential danger.
"He had to put every-fucking-course he knew around here," said Tony with clenched teeth as he continued waving his wand with so difficult moves that Caroline could only envy.
"Can we get past them?" she heard Rabastan ask as he scanned the surroundings for any threat. At his question, Tony only snorted with contempt.
"Of course, we can. But it will take at least a few weeks, maybe a month."
Rabastan wasn't happy to hear that. "Can we at least find out whether she's inside?"
"Not with such protection around it," gave Tony a short answer and continued focusing on finding out, which spells were it that were set around their house.
"I wouldn't bet on it." This was the first-time Caroline actually heard Augustus speak. She's almost forgotten he was there as well.
But she didn't get to see the rest of the memory as she suddenly felt she was flying through the air and bumped to the ground hard, her wand not in her hand anymore. After she was able to open her eyes, she saw Rabastan standing over her with his own wand aimed at her and her wand in his other hand.
"I meant what I said, Carol. I didn't come to hurt you. But I will if you don't stop browsing through my mind. I told you it's uncomfortable."
Caroline didn't move but she listened to him. She withdrew herself from his mind, but still remained focused on his emotions and her senses sharpened so that she would notice if anyone else came.
He didn't lower his wand and Caroline would lie if she said she wasn't afraid of him. He was still looking at her when he coldly called for Wixie.
The tiny elf appeared almost immediately and looked terrified to see the scene in front of her.
"Master Rabastan called Wixie?" she asked with her high voice, desperately looking between her master and her mistress.
"I did. Pack Caroline's things and move them to our room in Lestrange manor. Then stay there and wait for us. We'll follow you shortly," his voice didn't allow any objections and soon, Wixie was gone with a snap of her fingers.
Caroline was still eyeing him suspiciously, but she was able to hold her mental shields up and all her emotions under control. They looked at each other for quite a sometime, until Rabastan crouched down so that he would be on the same level as his wife, who was still on the ground.
That was the closest Caroline's seen him so far and only now did she really notice the big changes in his face. She could see his cheekbones very clearly, as he lost a lot of weight in Azkaban and not to forget the wrinkles. Of course, the time didn't spare any of them. She herself looked very different from the girl she was sixteen years ago, but in Rabastan's face, it looked like more than sixteen years passed since she's seen him the last time.
He was still aiming his wand at her when he looked directly in her eyes and asked coldly. "Did he send you?"
"No," Caroline answered confidently and didn't break the eye contact. He believed her. She could sense it. He even lowered his wand a bit, although he still held it prepared in case she would move just a bit.
"Why did you decide to come back now?" he asked then again suspiciously with his eyes set into hers. He was sure he knew her well enough, that she couldn't lie to him like she couldn't before. But sixteen years passed for Caroline and Dumbledore was right. She became one of the best liars there was.
"I was tired of hiding." Not that she needed to lie for this answer.
He leaned closer to her, his wand now lowered completely as he asked in his quiet voice. "Why did you think you had to hide?"
At that, Caroline actually had to stop herself from snorting aloud. Instead, she looked him in the eyes and whispered with a hurt voice. "I've almost died the last time, Rabastan."
She could see the guilt in his face. She could feel it. And if nothing, at least it felt comforting that he actually felt anything.
"I'm sorry, Carol… I didn't… It wasn't…," for the first time, she could see his confidence slip before he broke the eye contact and looked to the ground.
When he looked up again, his confidence was back and his voice cold again. "You're coming with me. We are going to stay with Rudolphus and Bella." With that, he stood up and offered her a hand to help her up. She took it and when she was standing she sent him a look.
He didn't give her a chance to speak. "I'm not asking you to come, Carol. You are. Don't even try to argue about that." His voice was cold and confident, not allowing any place for objections.
Caroline stared at her hand, still in Rabastan's. Her wedding ring was now sparkling with light, something she hasn't seen in a long time, as it used to do every time they held hands before. He followed her gaze and smirked. His own ring was doing the same.
"It was the only thing they've left me. They couldn't take it off." Caroline tried to identify the emotion that sparkled from him now, but she couldn't. But she did recognise fear. That didn't come as surprise though. During her time in St. Mungo's, she often had to work with former prisoners from Azkaban, who often needed years, to overcome their memories and fears that came even with a single thought of Azkaban.
"And what about Bella and Rudolphus?" she asked carefully and watched his expression as she asked.
She felt his hesitation before he gave an answer. "Rudolphus is eager to see you again. Bella as well," he started and he frowned, "you may find her changed though. Azkaban affected her."
Worry. The worry she sensed now from him was genuine and big. She nodded at that answer. She could cope with them.
But once again, Rabastan looked at her, and this time she found it too easy to get lost in his dark eyes. He spoke with his calm voice, still holding her hand but with a threat behind his voice. "I kept your secret, Carol. Even in the Azkaban, I kept it. For better for worse, right? So, I expect you won't do anything stupid. It wouldn't end up well for you." Caroline noticed he took her wand and hidden it somewhere in his robes.
She just nodded again. She already accepted the fact that she wouldn't be able to contact Rufus or anyone else for some time. Rabastan led her out just outside the door before he looked at her and she knew he was going to apparate them.
In the next moment, both of them were standing in front of a huge house that Caroline was already familiar with and some older memories came back to her.
They were walking towards the main door in silence and as they were coming close to it, she could sense a presence of two other people which minds felt familiar. And just when they reached the main door, it opened and she stood face to face with her brother and sister-in-law.
"Hello, dear sister." Caroline was surprised by Bella's voice. She almost whispered it, but her voice was higher than she was used to and her eyes wide open. And her mind felt different. She was different.
Shivers ran through her back. Until now, it was easy. Caroline strengthened her mental shields to their maximum. So far, everything went according to the plan.
"Bella. Rudolphus," she gave them a nod as a greeting.
Now the real fun has begun.