"We're sorry for the intrusion." The head of the raid was forced to say. He avoided Lucius' gaze and shuffled out, after his team of Aurors.
"I apologise deeply for this humiliating interruption to the festivities." Lucius called out loudly, while the Aurors could still hear him, just to rub the salt in of course. "I and my family would be appreciative if you all forgot that this Ministry blunder has happened and you carried on enjoying yourselves as you were before they arrived."
Chatter broke out and the music, which had been silenced by an Auror upon arrival, was set to play again.
"You did really well." Lucius told him proudly. "I'm proud of how you held your nerve and didn't panic."
"I did panic." Harry admitted. "Marcus was the one who stopped me from ruining everything. I was so worried about Basti!"
"They're gone now, you don't need to censor yourself." Lucius assured him. "Thank you, Marcus, for calming him down."
Marcus bowed to Lucius. "Not at all, Lord Malfoy."
Marcus took hold of Harry's pendant and he waved his wand in an incredibly complicated manner and suddenly Marcus was holding the Lestrange crest again. Marcus dropped it and Harry picked it up to play with it.
"I need to see Rabastan." He said quietly.
"Not yet. The Aurors will be waiting for anyone to Apparate or floo out of the house and they'll lock onto them and follow them. You'll lead them right to Rabastan and Rodolphus."
Harry swallowed and nodded, fingering his pendant harder. "I just need to know that he's okay."
"He's fine." Xerxes strode over to inform him, pulling him into a tight hug. "He and Rodolphus were gone as soon as we heard the warning from a Ministry insider we use to warn us of these numerous Ministry raids. They're safe, they'll be fine. Now stop fretting."
"I can't help it. My heart is only just calming down."
"You handled those Aurors spectacularly." Xerxes grinned at him. "You really are coming into your own."
"You never did get me that wine."
Harry turned and pulled a face as he realised that he'd forgotten about Narcissa's wine when he'd bumped into Marcus.
"Sorry." He replied a little shamefacedly. "I got to talking with Marcus about him tutoring me, I couldn't pass that up, it's too good an opportunity."
"I thank you for offering to tutor Harry." Lucius again said to Marcus.
"It's a pleasure. Sharing my love of Runes with anyone is a pleasure, especially if that person can stand to remain in the same room as me while I tutor them."
"I'm sure I can handle you." Harry sniffed. "I was handling you on the Quidditch pitch when I was eleven."
Xerxes snorted and Narcissa laughed lightly. Marcus growled playfully at him.
"I was going to try to be lenient with you at first, now you'd better watch out."
Harry laughed and nodded. "I understand and I will always try my best. I want to learn."
"Good boy." Lucius praised him. "You make sure that you learn all that you can from Marcus."
"I will! Now, can I please go and see Rabastan? I wanted to see in the New Year with him."
"You're so sweet." Narcissa told him with a smile.
"I'll take you to the boys. If we Apparate around then those dullard Aurors won't catch us." "I don't want to put either of them at risk, but I do want to see him."
Xerxes shared a look with Lucius and then laughed. "Come on, say goodbye to your parents and I'll take you to Lestrange Manor."
"Bye." Harry said quickly. "Bye, Marcus, I'll send you an owl soon." He promised before he looked expectantly at Xerxes, who shook his head and laughed again.
Harry was pulled into a hug and he felt the awful, squeezing sensation of Apparation. Several more Apparation journeys and he felt queasy, but Xerxes stopped and he took the time to steady him, letting him have a moment to reorientate himself.
"Here we are, welcome to Lestrange Manor. Remember that that idiot of a son of mine is here too."
"He had better not have started Rabastan!" Harry growled protectively.
in
on "Rodolphus wouldn't have let him." Xerxes told him surely.
Harry looked curiously at everything, this being his first time in Lestrange Manor, and apart from the darker woods used it was pretty much a normal house, though he did notice that sometimes the walls didn't meet up flush with one another and sometimes there were dips or odd crevices which piqued his interest and curiosity immensely.
There were slumbering portraits on the walls and Harry automatically quietened his steps, his head filled with vivid memories of Walburga Black, Sirius' mother, screaming the house down if anyone so much as sneezed in that main hallway that housed her horrid portrait.
Harry was led into a family sitting room and there was Rabastan and Rodolphus, perfectly safe and well, sitting on a settee talking to one another. Harry all but leapt onto Rabastan. "I'm so glad that you're okay!" He said, hugging the life out of his poor betrothed.
He blinked as he found himself twirled around and he looked up to see Rabastan's face. He'd been pulled around to sit in Rabastan's lap again. They kissed, long and passionate until Xerxes pointedly cleared his throat and they were forced to break apart, though they were both grinning like loons.
"Raids like that are pathetic." Rodolphus insisted as he petted Harry's hair, as his head was very close to Rodolphus.
"You should have heard this brilliant boy tear those Aurors a new one!" Xerxes laughed. "You'll be sorry you missed it! You really are coming on so well, Harry."
"After what he did to Rowle, what were you expecting?" Rodolphus demanded. There was a hint of pride in his voice that made Harry feel even more nauseated than the Apparating around had made him. "I killed him then."
"He would have died eventually. He was bleeding out rapidly and none of us cared enough to prevent it." Rodolphus said unconcernedly. "He begged for us to help him. How beneath his status as a lord."
"What will happen to his lordship now?" Harry asked curiously, trying to think of something other than Rowle's death or how he'd died.
"That's the best part. It's going to go to his least-liked aunt, Fiona's, younger son. His father's sister's son whom he has never liked and never acknowledged. Fiona's married into the Bellini family of Italy. Her children are all Bellinis and now one of them, the younger boy, Giovanni, is going to become the new Lord Rowle. It's hysterical."
"I don't think salt in the wound is a harsh enough description of how Rowle felt dying, knowing his lordship was going to the branch of the family that he hated." Xerxes said. "I think the biggest dose of salt came knowing that Greyback started eating him alive and while he was conscious." Rodolphus grinned.
"What?!" Harry demanded, his face paling dramatically.
"It was nothing less than he deserved for attacking and trying to defile you." Rabastan said quietly.
"He wanted to kill you off too." Rodolphus added to his brother with a growl. "If Harry hadn't done such a good job, I'd have taken great pleasure in hurting him before handing him over to Greyback to finish off. After all, Greyback is only happy when his peculiar cravings are sated."
"Peculiar cravings?!" Harry demanded weakly. "He ate him alive!"
"He would have bled out before Fenrir got to the good parts."
Harry heaved and at once Rabastan had him sat up and pressed against him tightly, petting his back and hair.
"Enough, Dolphus. He doesn't need to hear any of this." He said sternly.
"If you insist."
"I do." Rabastan said forcefully.
Harry kept his face buried in Rabastan's neck, trying to keep his mind clear so he didn't picture Rowle with a broken arm and a severed leg trying fruitlessly to get himself away from that fearsome man, Greyback, who was intent on eating him alive.
He squeezed his eyes closed and buried in deeper, snuggling in as far as he could, trying to blot out the images in his mind with Rabastan. The smell and the feel of him, those arms around him, the knowledge that he was here with him.
"Are you okay?" Rabastan asked him, petting his back and pulling gently on his hair. He was getting much better at being able to control that too.
Harry nodded. "I don't want to think about it. Rowle was a bastard, he attacked me, tried to rape me and he threatened to kill you if you still accepted me after he'd finished and kept my baby as your own, but…but the thought of him being eaten alive by that…that, whatever the hell Greyback was!"
"He's a werewolf."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Ready to lose yourself in an epic tale? Download the full PDF now and start reading from page one!"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
https://fictiontopia.tiendup.com/