lucius malfoy (loucius) wrote in disorderic, @ 2017-11-02 19:05:00 |
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It was difficult to avoid someone when you shared a home. Although, Rabastan would argue, he wasn’t avoiding Lucius. He wasn’t childishly clinging to anger like the Malfoys. In fact, he was in a very good mood when he entered the study, buoyed by his earlier meeting with Eddie. He didn’t notice the other man at first, as he was distracted by the grey rain streaking down the windows. A heartbeat later, however, his gaze snagged on the blond man seated in one of the room’s plush chairs. It would be rude to interrupt him — it would certainly be rude to sit in the chair opposite Lucius. Naturally, Rabastan did just that, insinuating himself in the chair with a raised eyebrow. “Are you still upset with me?” He should've warded the study from anyone but Narcissa, but there was always the presence of the Dark Lord to think about, and Lucius shuddered to think of what would happen if he had been barred from entering the room. But because no one had entered within the past hour, the thought disappeared from his mind. He focused entirely on the book on poisonous plants — apparently, preparation in this area was necessary — and was only startled out of his concentration by Rabastan's voice. To his credit, Lucius merely flipped another page, although he'd stopped reading by now, and said blithely, "Was I upset with you?" Rabastan resisted the urge to roll his eyes. “If I recall correctly, it had something to do with the Carmichael boy.” "Oh, right," Lucius said, flipping another page, despite skipping its contents entirely, "Your halfblood bastard." This time, Rabastan did roll his eyes. He didn’t want to have to coax Lucius into cooperating with his attempt to make conversation, but he didn’t see a way out of this situation that didn’t involve an apology of some sort. So, after a heavy sigh, he said, “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about him. But my father—” And Rodolphus, he mentally tacked on, “—thought it should be a family secret. It’s rather embarrassing, obviously.” Given the direction of this conversation, Lucius was at a risk of running out of pages to flip through, so after a prolonged internal debate, he finally decided to set the book aside. He took a second to scrutinize the sincerity of his apology. "I'm glad you're aware of that," he muttered, but in a louder voice, added, "So we weren't supposed to question it when you suddenly decided you needed to reconnect with your family secret?" “It was absurd to send him a cursed quill over a nonexistent slight against Draco,” came Rabastan’s even response, though there was a touch of exasperation in his voice. He lied easily: “Do you see me taking the boy out to Quidditch matches? I’m not reconnecting with him.” "We can send cursed quills to people like him for any reason," Lucius said, slightly defensively. "It just so happened that he gave us a reason." He scoffed, louder than usual to reinforce his disbelief. "I wouldn't be surprised if you invited him to a game next week. I'm not giving you the Wasps tickets." “I don’t want the Wasps tickets,” Rabastan replied, rejecting the suggestion with a dismissive wave of his hand. He met Lucius’ eyes in a level stare. “I want you to stop being so dramatic about this. I can’t go back in time and erase him from existence, and I certainly can’t go back and retroactively fill you in on the deep, dark Lestrange family secret. Why can’t we move on?” Lucius' eyes narrowed at Rabastan's comment. "I think Narcissa and I are the only ones who are being sensible about this, but forgive us for not having the same luxury of time to process this. I hope you're not suggesting that we should just forget that this has happened." There was a slight pause as Rabastan leaned back in his chair, his head tilting as he said, “Yes?” "How do you figure that would work? You can't acknowledge your son and have us ignore it." “I’m not acknowledging him,” Rabastan insisted, but the truth now seemed like the most viable option he had. “But I do want to recruit him.” Lucius could only blink at him as his words settled in. Was he being serious? "You're not serious." Rabastan shrugged. “It’s not a bad idea. He’s very talented.” "At what? Being your long-lost son?" Lucius wondered if this was part of an elaborate plot — for a fleeting moment, he wondered if this was a test set by the Dark Lord. It was supposed to test his loyalty, maybe. Or it was intended as a message for Draco. Both ideas were farfetched, but Rabastan's was even moreso. A frown pulled Rabastan’s brows tight together. He would have been slightly more amenable to Lucius’ skepticism if his idea — his very good idea, he thought — hadn’t also been met with skepticism from both Rodolphus and Bellatrix. “Why do you find the idea so objectionable, Lucius?” he asked, the edge in his voice obvious. “You can’t really be that upset you didn’t know about him.” "It's not as if it's a pleasing discovery, Rabastan," Lucius pointed out, although he resented the fact that he had to do so. "Especially because you kept it hidden for so long. But you're jumping into this ridiculous recruitment idea too quickly — and you know nothing about the boy! We know nothing about him. How can we trust him to be on our side just because you've decided to claim him now?" He shook his head. "At least Draco's beliefs are unassailable." “Beliefs are easily molded,” Rabastan replied breezily, shrugging once again. He wasn’t particularly worried about Eddie’s beliefs, though. Perhaps he wouldn’t be a devout purist, but he seemed as if he could be swayed to accept at least the majority of the cause. After all, he had expressed an interest in being a Snatcher. He looked at Lucius for a moment before an expression of incredulous amusement passed over his face. “Are you worried Draco will have competition?” "Trust isn't," he argued, just for a brief moment before he rolled his eyes. "There wouldn't be any competition. You can't compare your son to mine." “I’m not. You’re the one that brought up Draco.” "To prove that there would be no suitable comparison," he insisted. Besides, Draco was at Hogwarts. Rabastan would be unable to pit the two against each other, even if Draco would win handily. "There are easier ways to talk to that boy than through recruitment." There were less useless options to pursue too. Rabastan shook his head. “I”m not trying to be fatherly.” The word was uttered with distaste — the same distaste was evident in the way his lip curled. “I’ll leave that to you and Ignatius.” Dryly, Lucius said, "So it's merely a coincidence that you want to be the mentor to your son. Right. What does Rodolphus think about this? I'm sure you've already told him." There was a slight moment of hesitation on Rabastan’s part. He decided to sidestep the mention of his brother as he casually reclined back in his chair. “So are you still angry with me?” Rabastan's avoidance of his question said all there needed to be said about it. He made a note to talk to Rodolphus about this plan, but for now, he just mirrored his friend, leaning back in his chair as well. "Of course I am. And so is Narcissa." Rabastan almost winced at the mention of Narcissa. “How can I fix this?” There was only the slightest hint of satisfaction — the part that he hadn't been able to hide — when Lucius picked up his book again and answered him. "That's more of a problem you have to solve on your own." “I see.” Rabastan was very good at masking his emotions, but, for one brief moment, he was visibly stung. But he was stony-faced by the team he rose to his feet, anger quickly rushing in to replace the hurt he felt. “I’ll leave you to your book.” With that, he turned on his heel, his good mood thoroughly obliterated. |