Rodolphus looked a lot like his grandfather, tall at six foot five, broad-shouldered with a bulky rib cage and narrow hips, but that thick, dark hair had thinned out and looked a little listless, there were lines on his face that had nothing to do with age and his left hand twitched randomly, sometimes the twitch would carry on through his arm and up to his neck which would bulge with the effort it took the man to suppress the tick from finishing its movement. Rodolphus was the ruin of a man. A man who had once been young, strong, and handsome. A man who was now plagued with nerve damage, thinning hair, and a body that would have been stunning if not for a serious amount of prolonged weight loss. He was too thin to carry off the broad shoulders and the robe he was wearing was oddly misshapen because his body was supposed to be carrying at least double the amount of weight that it currently had.
"A pleasure to meet you, Lord Potter." The man said darkly, those dark eyes that he shared with his grandfather glittered in almost the exact same way that his father's had. Harry wondered if this man was going to lick his hand too or just full out bite one of his fingers off.
He hadn't realised he'd been holding his breath until Rodolphus merely brushed his hand with his thin, too pale lips and then backed away. He was most definitely going to be sick, he swallowed hard. "And this is my youngest grandson, Rabastan, your betrothed."
Harry didn't want to look, but the lessons that Narcissa had beat into him wouldn't let him avoid looking. Rabastan seemed completely lost. There was no other way that Harry could describe the way that Rabastan was staring at his older brother, almost longingly, like he wanted his brother to come back and get him and lead him to where he needed to be and he couldn't understand why his brother wasn't doing so.
"Rabastan, go and greet Lord Potter-Black." Rodolphus told him in a quiet hiss as if he were trying to keep the rest of the room from hearing him.
Rabastan was tall. Taller than his father, but shorter than his brother; it was hard to tell exactly how tall he was because he was hunched in on himself, as if for protection. His long, thin, rake-like arms were crossed over his belly as if to keep himself standing, his dark hair was just as thin and lifeless as his brother's.
His face was wrinkled, like a raisin that had once been a grape but had had all of the moisture slowly sucked out of it. It didn't look natural, it looked like it needed feeding and then all of that wrinkled skin would be full, perfect, and unlined once again. Harry wondered if that was what Rabastan, and his brother, needed…feeding. Surely it couldn't hurt to feed them both, they were rail-thin, where he suspected before they'd been imprisoned they'd been strong, healthy, and reasonably big men.
They'd been out of Azkaban for several months now, he knew. Harry wondered how long it usually took to counter that amount of starvation. He knew from experience that he had to take things slowly once he got to Hogwarts after a summer with the Dursleys or he'd be sick, that was usually only two months' worth of a couple of missed meals too. He couldn't imagine fifteen years in that prison, being fed the slop that Sirius had told him the prisoners were kept alive on.
Rabastan still didn't move though, staring beseechingly at his older brother, Harry could almost see him wondering why Rodolphus wasn't coming to his aid and he could sense the mounting embarrassment of the remaining Lestrange family members as Lucius, Narcissa, Draco, and him just sat and watched Rabastan expectantly. He understood that this must have been highly humiliating for the Lestranges and particularly entertaining for the Malfoys. Harry wasn't having any of that though, he wouldn't let anyone sneer or poke fun at this poor, lost man regardless of anything else.
With the whole room looking on at him expectantly, and with an air of amusement too, it heaped a great deal of pressure onto Rabastan and he was clearly ill-equipped to deal with it, so, as no one moved to help Rabastan at all, and another hissed command, from his father this time, didn't garner any reaction either except to spurn Rabastan to stare harder at his brother, Harry stood suddenly, yet elegantly and he made his way to Rabastan, who cringed away from him, but thankfully, he didn't take a step back. Harry had no wish to chase his betrothed around the front room of Malfoy Manor.
He smiled reassuringly at Rabastan and slipped his hand into one of the huge, but almost skeletally thin, hands of Rabastan and he tugged him to the settee he'd been sat on. He sat down and thankfully, Rabastan followed suit. He didn't think it would be taken too kindly if he shoved the man to get him to sit down.
Now that Harry could see his face properly, he saw that Rabastan's eyes were a very dark blue, though they were dull with nightmarish memories, not the dark brown of his grandfather and brother and not the pale brown of his father. Harry wondered where the blue had come into the Lestrange line.
Harry only realised that he was still holding Rabastan's hand when that thin, claw-like hand clenched tight around his with an uncontrollable spasm. Harry gasped and tried not to yank his hand away and do more damage to it, but once the spasm had passed, he couldn't help but pull it away, cradling his injured hand to his chest protectively. There was still some serious strength in that ruined body, enough so that he'd thought that Rabastan could have easily crushed his hand with a bit more pressure.
"This is not going at all as I'd hoped." Xerxes sighed sadly as he watched Harry inspect his hand critically.
"I told you that it was too soon, Grandfather." Rodolphus said as he came to sit beside Rabastan and he clenched those shoulders tight in a hug, comforting his confused, lost looking brother, who turned to him and smiled for the first time since he'd arrived upon recognising who was touching him.
"Dolphus." Rabastan said happily.
Rodolphus sighed and he looked at Harry with a little less venom than he had before.
"I apologise for my brother's actions, he can't control them. Neither of us can." He said sourly.
"I understand and I don't hold it against either of you." Harry replied clearly after a short pause. "If Rabastan isn't ready for this, then maybe it was a mistake."
That venomous, glittery eyed look came back quicker than a flash and Rodolphus actually bared his teeth at him like an enraged, feral dog.
"Is that your attempt at subtlety? Your roundabout way of rejecting my brother? He is still a Lestrange and deserves the respect of at least one full meeting before you just up and reject him!"
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