Chapter 1, We Are Family

One of Rabastan Lestrange's earliest memories was also one of his fondest. He was around five years old at the time. He and Rod had just escaped outside to their treehouse to avoid another social gathering. The Lestrange manor was full of Lestranges, Blacks, Malfoys, Rosiers and Goyles.

The atmosphere was stifling and dull with too many people around. The treehouse only belonged to him and Rod, and it was quiet and peaceful. It was their escape. They were just getting out Rabastan's favorite building blocks to play with when a voice called out to them from below.

"Rodolphus! Can I come up? Please?"

Rod's face lit up with a grin. "It's Bella," he whispered. "We can share with her, okay?"

Rabastan nodded. Bella wasn't annoying and she was nice to him. She could come into their private sanction.

"Sure, hold on and I'll help you up," Rodolphus called. Leaning out the door he reached to grasp Bella's waste with both hands and gently swung her up.

Rod and Bella were ten, but never made Rabastan feel like a baby or that he was in the way. "Hi, Bella," he called, waving happily from where he sat on the floor with the box of building blocks. "Want to build a fortress with us?"

"Sure! It beats listening to Cissy and her friends talking about dresses and bows." Bella made a face. "I had to leave when I was certain that I'd throw up or perish of boredom if I did not," she added to Rodolphus, who rolled his eyes in sympathy.

"Bows...like with arrows," Rabastan asked. "I think they're neat."

Bella laughed. "Yes, those are neat, but I mean bows as in the sort you tie with ribbon."

Rabastan scowled. "Who the hell cares about that sort of bows," he asked scathingly.

"Exactly," Bellatrix said, giving a sage nod.

"Well," Rodolphus began, leaning forward thoughtfully. "One could make a bow interesting if they used it to strangle someone."

Bellatrix grinned. "You are brilliant."

Rod smiled back. Rod never smiled at anyone but Rabastan. His smiles were different for Bella, though. Proud and excited somehow.

"Why don't you like to talk about dresses, Bella," Rabastan asked. "You wear dresses."

Bella chuckled. "I wear them so there is nothing to say about them."

Rabastan nodded. That made sense. He didn't see a point in talking about his clothes either.

Bella settled down on the floor with him and Rodolphus and they began building the fortress together. It would've felt intrusive if anyone else were here with them, but somehow Bella fit and even though she was a girl, Rabastan always felt comfortable around her. She never ignored him or made him feel stupid for asking questions.

They worked on the fortress in companionable silence for some time. Eventually Bella and Rod began talking about the books they were reading. Rabastan wasn't reading so he had nothing to say but that was alright. It wasn't alright when the fortress was done, though. He didn't want Bella to leave or Rod to get hungry and decide that they should go back inside. So when they weren't looking he knocked it down. "It fell! We have to build it again! Please!?"

He could swear Bella and Rod exchanged a quick grin before Rod nodded. "Sure, sure. Of course we'll build it again."

Later when Jackdaw, the Lestrange family elf, called them down to eat, Rabastan was hungry so he didn't mind. When they joined the rest of the family, though, his mum said they weren't eating for ten more minutes. "We just wanted the three of you to be washed and ready, so I had Jacky call you in."

Rabastan scowled, his lip poking out. "But I'm hungry," he whined. "And Roddy is starved!"

Their mum said often that Rod was a growing boy and needed a lot of food for fuel. He was far bigger than Rabastan, and any time Rabastan was hungry, Rod was always bloody starved!

"You'll just have to wait," his Mum said, quite as though this were the most reasonable statement in the world to make.

"Can't I have just one cookie," Rabastan begged and his mum shook her head.

"Shush," Bellatrix said, leaning to whisper into his ear. "Let it go for now. We'll sneak into the kitchen soon and get an entire bloody plate of cookies. Wait a bit and you'll get far more than you asked for."

Rabastan pulled his lower lip back in and nodded. Without knowing it, he'd just received his first lesson in being a Slytherin.