The problem now was his stubborn, idiot son and his overprotective older grandson, both of whom opposed the match. His son was easily cowed, having abandoned his own sons to go and live in India for a decade and a half and leaving him to raise his two grandsons, one of whom had been just an infant, so Xerxes readily pointed out that they were more his sons and that Rhadamanthus had no right to claim them as his own.
Rodolphus, however, was harder to convince. He felt that Rabastan wasn't ready for the complicated bonding process of a betrothal contract and that the meetings would be a disaster because it was too soon after their release. Xerxes was ready to agree with his older grandson when he thought to the way that Rabastan had to take the lead from Rodolphus before he could do anything, but Lucius was looking for an immediate betrothal for his newly adopted son before anyone tried to do so on the boy's behalf. Dumbledore, for example. Lucius and Harry couldn't afford to wait and neither could he. He needed Rabastan married and he needed him to have children, and soon, and as an escapee of Azkaban it was going to be very difficult for him to even question another pureblood family about a possible marriage between them and his grandson…this way, with Lucius' contract, he could have the marriage between Rabastan and a fertile pureblood to get the heirs his family needed and keep his grandson safe at the same time. It was the only way and he couldn't afford to wait until Rabastan was more himself before accepting this contract because Lucius was not going to wait around. Who knew when another offer this good would come up for Rabastan.
Azkaban had ruined both of his grandsons and Xerxes was never more distraught or furious as the day that they had been arrested and sentenced to life in Azkaban. He'd had his manor house searched several times after that incident by Law Enforcers looking for 'evidence' that it had been a planned attack, but they'd never found anything at his home because it hadn't been planned at his home. His grandsons were both reasonably intelligent men and had known that if he'd gotten so much as a sniff of what they were doing then he'd have put an immediate stop to it, not because he wasn't loyal to his Lord, and his very old school friend at that, but because he would have known that it was a suicide mission and he would have stopped them and encouraged them to wisely bide their time instead of going after the Aurors, Frank and Alice Longbottom.
In hindsight, it was obvious that they hadn't known anything, what with their Lord telling them what had really happened with the baby Harry Potter, but emotions had been running high and, for them, the truly loyal, it had been a time of great despair and a good few of them had almost outed themselves in the emotional lack of sanity that had followed the demise of their Lord. Or, at least, they had believed it was his demise until the rumours had started spreading of him still being alive.
Xerxes had followed these rumours carefully; he had subtly searched and gathered together some compelling evidence. He had never been happier than when he'd seen his Lord again for the first time. He hadn't been in the graveyard for his Lord's rebirth, though. He'd been in Albania searching out information, which had become more than just mere rumours to him at that time. He'd been welcomed back as an old friend once he'd gotten himself back to Britain after he had felt his mark heat up for the first time in thirteen long years, and after his Lord had seen from his mind that he had been searching for him and planning for his return, he had been named as one of his Lord's most loyal followers, as he always had been.
He had mourned for the lost men that his boys were, though, and what they could have been, what they could have done had they stayed out of Azkaban, but Frank and Alice Longbottom had been famous, popular Aurors, the reason why his two grandsons, Bellatrix, and the young Barty Crouch had believed they'd had information on their Lord, but inevitably the Council of Magical Law and the Wizengamot, which was devoid of most pureblood lords that day thanks to Barty Crouch senior, had punished them harshly with a life sentence in Azkaban.
He had tried over and over again, as many times as he could within a singular calendar year, to appeal the sentence for Rabastan and Rodolphus, but if he wasn't ignored completely, then he was denied without anyone hearing his full appeal, which angered him immensely as he was due respect as Lord Lestrange.
His home had been raided twice so far this year by the Aurors, with warrants to search his property as he wouldn't let them onto his grounds without one, to search for his two grandsons as he was continuously accused of harbouring them. Something that he was actually guilty of, but this house was old…old, crooked, and misshapen. It was incredibly easy to hide small alcoves behind tapestries, in the back of cupboards, and even in the walls themselves, the very reason for the unsymmetrical exterior that the Lestranges were ridiculed for, but not a single raid on this manor house had ever yielded results, something that the other pureblood families, with their perfect, pretty, immaculately measured manors, couldn't boast.
His wards would alert him to the presence of Aurors on his grounds, as they had to walk up his driveway as he refused to lift the anti-trespassing wards on his estate, at which point he sent his house-elf to Rodolphus and Rabastan and they hid themselves in the very walls of the manor house until the danger had passed. Xerxes got the feeling that the Aurors knew that his boys were here, it was obvious that they were here, but without the proof, every failed raid was a stain on the Auror records and built proof for him to file against them for selective harassment, which would look terrible in the newspapers for them as he was now of an 'advanced' age. Regardless of who he was or what his grandsons had done, the harassment and continuous hounding of an elderly wizard who had proved his 'innocence' repeatedly was not going to go down well for the Aurors with the wizarding public. Thus, he and his beloved grandsons were mostly left alone for them to heal and when they did have any visitors he could hide them safely without any fear that they'd be found.
He thanked his early ancestors for being paranoid bastards and being intelligent and cunning enough to be able to build this house themselves with so many hidden rooms, alcoves and hollow walls that everything the Ministry would class as 'unsavoury', even his grandsons, could be hidden safely and the Aurors who came to search his house didn't find anything that they were looking for, even though they found the more obvious hidden rooms, even the steps to the underground basement which were located in the back of the pantry, they'd only found them because he had let the Aurors see these rooms and he happily allowed them to think that they'd uncovered his 'secret' hiding places, all of which were clean and free of all subjects that were considered 'dark' by the Ministry, which left the Aurors frustrated and angry at their continuous failed raids.
All of his books on dark or questionable magic were kept in a second library that was completely sealed off on all sides and could only be accessed by a painting on the second floor that had to be tapped with a wand in the correct sequence before it turned into a doorway. All of his dark artefacts were in several rooms that were all sealed in a similar way, but never exactly in the same way, for safety reasons.
He went to find his grandsons now, not surprised to find Rabastan sat nearly on his brother's lap, clutching at him as Rodolphus tried his best to accommodate his more than bulky brother while attempting to read a book.
"Rabastan, stop trying to climb your brother like a tree. Sit properly." He encouraged as he took the seat opposite them.
Rabastan did so reluctantly, but his hand slipped down to entwine with his older brother's. Xerxes sighed, it was likely the best that he was going to get, which was an improvement from when the two had first been broken out of the prison several months ago when Rabastan wouldn't even go to the bathroom on his own and they'd slept together in the same bed, entwined tightly around one another's bodies like lovers.