Rabastan Lestrange, The Life And Times Of A Dark Wizard

Chapter 20, Of Monsters And Men

Regulus decided to grace them with his fucking presence on the second evening that they were back home with Corvus. The family was enjoying after dinner glasses of wine in the library when a knock came at the door. Jacky hurried away to answer it and was back just as quickly. "It's your cousin," he told Bellatrix. The elf's face was white with shock. "He looks...so young."

Without a word, Bellatrix leapt from her chair and rushed out of the library. Jacky moved ahead of her, presumably to do the honors of ushering their guests into the library, but Bellatrix tore up the hall and flung herself into Regulus's arms. "Regi! You stupid little prat." Though the words were angry and disparaging, Bellatrix was crying as she clung to Black. Rabastan approached more slowly, walking along with his father and Rod. They all simply watched part two of their...strange family reunion. No one spoke as Bellatrix and Regulus clung to one another. Regulus patted Bella's back as she pressed her face into his shoulder. When Regulus's gaze traveled past her to lock onto the three Lestrange men, Rod gave him a grin.

"Thanks for the gig working Shadow Ops. At least we assumed that was you."

Regulus nodded. 'It's the least I could do." Rabastan took a moment to wonder what the fuck that meant, but the conversation was already moving the fuck on.

"Why did you leave," Bellatrix demanded, at last drawing back from her younger cousin to give him a dark glare.

Regulus frowned, eyes suddenly growing haunted and sad as the joy of a family reunion faded from his face. "That is a story best told sitting down."

"Of course," Corvus finally spoke. "We were just having a drink in the library."

Of course Kreach was with Regulus, and the two followed the rest into the library. When Corvus poured Regulus a drink, Black passed it wordlessly to Kreach. "You'll need it," he murmured, and the elf hesitated before nodding grimly. Well Rabastan expected this was going to be fucking good. Otherwise Black wouldn't have just vanished even leaving Kreach, who Rabastan recalled with an inner shudder of disgust, Black had been shagging at the time. The family listened without a word as Black began to calmly, grimly recount a horrifying story in which The Dark Lord left Kreacher to die after forcing the elf to help him hide, of all things, a fucking Horcrux! Kreacher shared in the telling of the story, then, describing a dreadful black lake of Inferi in which he'd nearly met his end after drinking a foul green potion that made him feel the worst emotions anyone ever could. Seemed completely fucking unnecessary, and the fucking Horcrux! Rabastan knew he should've found that more difficult to believe, but it went a long way to explain The Dark Lord's ever growing state of shitty and crazy during the past few years. Glancing over at Bella and Rod, Rabastan saw the former looking ill and the later looking grim. Black was still talking, though, so Rabastan couldn't dwell on the Horcrux fuckery for too long lest he miss something. It was alright. He'd just come back to it later. Like in the middle of the fucking night when he was trying to sleep...That shit would provide great nightmare fodder for fucking sure. "I kept away in order not to endanger the family. I was rather off the wizarding grid as it were, so hadn't even heard that Voldemort had died, much less that he'd returned. When I was made aware of...both, I had to return myself...to do my part to help get rid of him as well as to help the three of you," Black said, seemingly concluding his story.

"But..." Bellatrix protested. She blinked at Regulus in open consternation. "But why would you leave Kreacher? He was as broken up as anyone else when we all believed you dead." She regarded her cousin as if he'd lost his mind, which for all Rabastan knew, he perhaps had.

Regulus sighed. "I believed Kreacher wanted nothing to do with me. Who could blame him, after all?"

The elf at his side made a murmur of protest, ravaged face crumpling. Damn but grief and self neglect had made Kreach old, Rabastan noticed. That was jarring. Nearly as jarring as the fact he'd not truly noticed before. He supposed he'd had bigger shit to worry himself over than Kreacher's shitty physical state, but still. The elf looked bad. An even more stark contrast to how young Black still looked. Oddly grief and misery hadn't ravaged his youth, though both shadowed his studious blue eyes as if they'd lived there for a long time. "I'm so sorry," Regulus told Kreacher, shaking his head in a gesture of defeated misery as he drew the sniffling elf against him. Glancing back to Bella with suddenly tired eyes, he continued with a visible effort. "I wrote Kreacher so that he could join me, but he never received my letters. I still have no idea why, but this caused me to believe he wanted nothing to do with me. I'd done so much, after all. Made so many unforgivable mistakes and errors in judgement."

"But Master Regulus should know that Kreacher would forgive him anything...always," Kreacher protested. From Regulus's silence, Rabastan got the distinct impression that this wasn't the first time the two had had such a conversation.

Bellatrix's lip curled as she tossed back her hair. "What mistakes did you make that the rest of us didn't, Kreacher included? We all revered The Dark Lord back then. I don't understand." Rabastan nodded, glancing over to Rod to see him doing the same.

Kreacher gave Bellatrix a tired smile. "Kreacher has said the same, but he thanks Miss Bella for her support."

Regulus shook his head. "It was my service in particular of Voldemort that nearly got my Kreacher killed in the worst of ways," he told Bella. "And...It did kill father. If I hadn't come to him for help when I put two and two together about he Horcrux, he'd be alive today." As Regulus spoke, his face wore a hard conviction born of many years of belief along with certain self deprecation. None of the family had known how Orion Black died, though they all had suspicions due to Regulus's own disappearance. Corvus, Bellatrix, Rodolphus and Rabastan all took a moment to exchange meaningful glances.

"How can you be sure," Bellatrix asked, and Regulus's mouth tightened.

"Because I was there."

"Well?" Bellatrix left the question hanging in the air, obviously seeking a more detailed explanation, but Regulus didn't take the bate.

"I can't...I don't want to talk about it, Bella." Rather than looking outright upset, Black looked worried as his gaze slid to Kreacher, who suddenly wore a similar expression. Rabastan opened his mouth to press the matter, then found himself closing it again. Black had saved them, so if he didn't want to talk about his fucking father's death, fuck it. Rabastan got that. It still hurt like hell to think about his and Rod's mum, not to mention serving to piss him off at the fucking Aurors all over again. And now here they were serving the same fuckers who, if they hadn't killed her, certainly hadn't given a damn to learn who had. Sadly it beat Azkaban, though, and it wasn't as if they were fucking Aurors themselves. They were Shadow Ops, allowed to torture and kill, and that most definitely beat Azkaban.

"So how do you look so young," Bellatrix demanded. Regulus and Kreacher exchanged another worried glance, then Black heaved a sigh, clasping his hands nervously before slowly unclasping them.

"I am a vampire," he said. "I had to do something to prevent him from killing me, or at least make it more difficult," he added defensively before the others could speak. "I also knew I'd not be able to apparate out so the lake of Inferi would've certainly killed me. Voldemort had charms laid on that cave which made it difficult to escape, but vampires have their own tricks."

"Wait, why were you in the lake," Bellatrix demanded.

"I wouldn't let Kreacher risk himself again after what happened to him the first time, and I wanted to personally take something from Voldemort for what he did to my family," Regulus said grimly.

At those words, Kreacher's face crumpled again, and once more tears began streaming down his face. At that shit, Rabastan exchanged an uncomfortable glance with Rod. Neither of them got into the crying. In fact they always hated it when people were doing that! "Kreacher begged Master Regulus to let him do it again," the elf sobbed. "Kreacher told him he could survive the lake, and if Master Regulus had only listened, he and Kreacher would've never been separated!"

"I know," Regulus said heavily. "I was wrong not to listen to you and I have promised to listen to you from now on no matter what."

Kreacher nodded, wiping his eyes as he gave Bellatrix a small smile. "This is true. He has promised Kreacher."

"Well good," Bellatrix said. "Because under pressure he apparently requires guidance." Regulus lowered his head in shame, but Bellatrix's next question caused him to raise it again. "So how did you just *become* a vampire? Is there now a potion in Knockturn Alley for that or something," she wondered sarcastically.

"Of course not," Regulus said, frowning at his cousin. "I met a vampire several months before making the decision to become one myself. We became friends and when I needed help, I asked for it."

"Master Regulus was able to escape the cave, but the lake water made him too ill to move for weeks," Kreacher added resentfully. "His maker found him, but Master Regulus was so ill that he was unaware for two weeks and by the time he was able to write Kreacher, everyone believed him dead and his letters were going into a seeming void because not one of them ever reached Kreacher."

"That is fucking weird," Rabastan said, lifting one hand to rub at his head as it was beginning to hurt. There were too many weird things around the entire situation. He didn't believe Black or Kreach were lying or anything, because the story felt true, but...it was weird. Oddly not thinking about it made his headache better, so he kept doing that...not thinking about it. Their family was back together, and he supposed that needed to be enough.