AU! Rodolphus and Rabastan Lestrange turn traitor to the Dark Lord.

Warnings: Bellatrix burns to death. Emotional Abuse. Cross-gen/Major age difference fic.

Written for the Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

House: Thunderbird

Class/Task Number: Potions. 1 [Leeches] toxic relationship

Bonus Prompts: [dialogue] "That's disgusting"

[word] spiral

Word Count: 1794/4500

Searching For Acceptance

Rodolphus had never been accepted by his parents. He wished his wife would accept him. He was wrong.

Despite being the heir to the Lestrange family, Rodolphus had never felt appreciated for anything he'd ever done in his life. He knew that as a pureblood, he had a duty to his family, to his lineage, to his clan. But couldn't he be accepted for who he was?

All his life, his parents had moulded him into the perfect pureblood son. He'd been poked and prodded, scolded for getting his hands dirty with paint, criticized for talking too much, and so on.

He'd hoped that one day, his wife — his other half — would be one who accepted his love for painting and horse-riding.

But Rodolphus wasn't so lucky.

He had married Bellatrix Black after she'd graduated from Hogwarts in a grand ceremony that his heart wasn't into at all. He'd stood with a cool expression, a wine glass held between his fingers expertly, as he silently listened to his wife converse with the high and mighty members of the bureaucracy.

After the wedding reception had finished, Bellatrix showed her true colours to Rodolphus.

It had started with small scathing comments thrown around carelessly.

"I don't like that shirt. It looks hideous."

"Your hands are as dirty as a mudblood."

"Cut your hair, I don't like it like that."

"Your Dark spells are so pathetic."

"You're not very good at that, are you?"

Rodolphus had hesitantly replaced his shirts, cut off his hair, even attempted to strengthen his spells — just to please her.

At every function and event they went to, it was clear to everyone who looked at the couple that Bellatrix was the one in power.

She would send him to get the drinks, or not even bother to introduce him as her husband. She mocked him in front of their acquaintances and pretended to soothe him later.

She soon started insisting he remain close to her at all times; she claimed she didn't want to remain apart from him for more than necessary.

At the same time, she would be really cold and uninterested in him for days on end.

She would leave the house and spend the evenings away from him, but if he tried to go out with his friends from Hogwarts, she'd bar him from leaving.

She insisted she loved him and didn't want him spending time with others — she was very jealous and possessive of him.

The time Rodolphus spent with his wife always left him drained, instead of rejuvenated. He tried to sneak away from her to work on his paintings, but she always kept an eye on him.

Every time he grew weary of her nagging, he would try to rationalize her actions by thinking, "She's probably just tired or stressed. She didn't really mean to say it."

Rabastan once asked, "Did she really just say 'who else would have married you?' to your face in front of me? How can you let her say something like that?!"

Rodolphus replied, "She's just joking."

But Rabastan hadn't been convinced at all.

Bellatrix would often demand he take her to the newest restaurants and buy her the very best luxury items, while she never lifted a finger herself. She even demanded to wear his family jewels.

Rodolphus, still stuck in the honeymoon phase, did everything he could to make her happy; his parents had instilled the thought 'happy wife, happy life' in him.

But keeping Bellatrix happy was a full-time job.

Rodolphus would get extremely stressed every time he tried to gently remind her to do something she'd said she would do.

They'd started arguing about everything from the house-elves treatment (Rodolphus was a firm believer in caring for the house-elves — they were in charge of their food, after all) to the kind of Dark spells the other used regularly.

Rabastan often asked, "Why do you let her speak to you like that?"

Rodolphus always attempted to filter out his younger brother's questions.

"She's my wife. Don't tell me what to do!" He would bark at Rabastan, irritated beyond belief at his brother's response.

When his parents would ask them for a grandchild, Bellatrix would distract them with other topics.

His parents were absolutely smitten with her — in their eyes, she could do no wrong. She was the perfect pureblood daughter-in-law.

But then, one day, she finally took it too far.

Bellatrix found him in their attic, wet paint smudged on his hands and on his cheekbone. A large magical painting of a beautiful sunset leaned against the frame it was mounted upon.

Bellatrix lost her temper. She shrieked, "What in Merlin's name is that monstrosity?! That's disgusting!"

Before he could reply, she yanked out her long wand and cast a harsh Incendio at the painting. It burst into flames and disappeared in a matter of seconds.

Rodolphus stared at the ashes of the painting that fluttered to the ground with a heavy heart. He'd been painting that for Bellatrix's birthday — he'd naively assumed she would accept his love for painting.

And as he watched the flames erupt higher around the frame and burn it to the ground, his heart broke and hardened against his wife's callous attitude.

"Did you just burn my painting?" He asked, his voice deadly calm.

"It was your painting? Merlin, can't you do something better with your time?! You should be glad I destroyed that piece of filth for you!" Bellatrix sneered, her arms crossed over her chest.

"Do you really expect me to be grateful for that little act?" Rodolphus asked, still shocked at her attitude.

"Of course! And you are a pureblood — not a filthy mudblood! You don't need to dirty yourself with such ridiculous endeavours," Bellatrix drawled, as she stepped closer to him.

Her heartless and unsympathetic remarks knocked her off of the pedestal Rodolphus kept her on. She was knocked so far down that Rodolphus knew if she combusted into flames on the spot, he would actively try to kindle the fire until it incinerated her.

Her cold-hearted actions lit such a fire in his heart that he was blinded with rage by everything she did or said after that. But he remained impassive.

But as the years passed, the fire in his heart smouldered; it licked, crackled, quivered, flared, and leapt, it showered sparks brighter than a firecracker. It wound its way around his heart like a great hungry serpent and devoured every happy memory he'd ever had. It sent him into a deep spiral of hatred and contempt.

Years later, when he was thrown into Azkaban with his wife and younger brother for a crime the brothers had watched, yet not taken part in, the Dementors had no effect on his soul — his wife was no less than a Dementor herself.

After escaping from Azkaban in 1995, he was sucked back into the Death Eaters' midst, despite being reluctant to participate.

The good thing that came out of that was that Bellatrix didn't even bother to pay attention to her husband. As far as they were concerned, they were only married in name — they were mere acquaintances from that moment on.

Bellatrix spent most of her time kissing up to the Dark Lord, while Rodolphus planned his revenge with Rabastan.

Neither of them wanted to join the Order of the Phoenix — until Rodolphus was deemed lucky enough by the Gods above to meet Hermione Granger after a battle at the Department of Mysteries.

He had almost hexed her when he'd seen her crouched beside his brother — but then he'd realized what she was up to.

Hermione had stayed back to heal Rabastan — his head had sunk into a bell jar like it was nothing but a soap bubble, and had shrunk into a baby's head instead.

Baby Rabastan had wailed, as tears had streaked down his face, and his arms had flailed around and knocked off other jars to the ground.

Rodolphus had stayed in the shadows as he'd watched her soothe his — literally — baby brother and calm him down. He'd watched her as she'd cast several charms and spells to unravel the time loop his brother was stuck in.

Rodolphus had been befuddled as to what the little chit wanted — did she want to send his brother back to Azkaban?

But instead of apprehending Rabastan once he was back to normal, she had lowered her wand and murmured, "Truce?"

Rabastan had stared at her with disbelief. "Why did you —"

"I still believe in humanity, Mr Lestrange. I'm not sure about you, but I wasn't able to leave without helping you," she'd admitted as she'd stood up.

"You know we're enemies, right? I could kill you right now," Rabastan had called out as she'd turned her back on him and walked away.

"We're also humans — and humans don't need to constantly fight," she had replied over her shoulder before she'd disappeared from view.

Rodolphus had seen that she'd made as big of an impression on his brother as she'd made on him.

Possibly even bigger.

Rabastan had turned traitor to the Dark Lord right afterwards. He'd asked Rodolphus to come with him. And Rodolphus had agreed.

It came as a thunderclap to the Death Eaters — and especially Bellatrix — when the next time they battled the Order, they found the Lestrange brothers alongside the enemy.

Neither brother had given up the Dark Arts, but this time they used it to defend the Order, to Hermione's consternation.

At the Battle of Hogwarts, Rodolphus found an opportunity to duel his wife. As their wands cast spell after spell, Bellatrix shrieked at him, "How dare you sully our name by deserting us?! You who could have ruled beside us when the Dark Lord finally reigned supreme!"

"Oh, shut up, bitch," Rodolphus muttered before he cast a Dark spell he'd learned from the library in Grimmauld Place.

Bellatrix screamed, as flames roared from under her feet and rose around her body, eager to whet their enormous appetite. She attempted to extinguish the fire, but only managed to make the flames erupt around her even higher, to her absolute horror.

Rodolphus watched with morbid delight as the inferno blazed and, like a great famished beast, devoured Bellatrix whole.

"See you in Hell, darling," he purred as he leaned against the wall.

He was finally free.

Years after the Final Battle had ended and the Lestrange brothers were exonerated for the crimes they'd committed during their time with Voldemort, Rodolphus stood beside Harry Potter and watched his younger brother get married to the witch who'd saved not just his brother's life, but also his own.

After all, unexpected kindness is the most powerful, least costly, and most underrated agent of human change.

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