✧ACTIONS HAVE CONSEQUENCES✧

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Rabastan Lestrange hadn't felt so damn terrible in his life, he didn't think anything of it—Asking Aria to dance, it was innocent enough. But his father thought it beneath him, to ask a half-blood to dance. An unknown witch that had no political gain, and while Rabastan tried to explain that he was simply friends with her and no longer dating...His father just didn't believe him.

His throat was dry from the torment he felt, it felt like it was only minutes ago but it had been hours. He was just thankful that his father had finally left to go and be with Mrs.Selwyn that he could finally make his way to the floo, he attempted to way his options—He hadn't even owled her like she asked.

Partly because it had only been four days since the party but his father decided that mother was going to France to visit relatives. He should've known what was going to happen, especially when his father asked for him to stay.

So with no one else around, it was a string of curses that flowed in punishment. For making his father look like a fool.

For bringing shame to the Lestrange family.

For stooping so low for dirty blood.

Rabastan could still feel the ghost of the first spark of his father's curses in his nerves, it was riveting and he felt like he was going to be ill.

More than ill, he needed Aria.

His hand wouldn't manage a legible parcel, and even if it did it was too late for her to look for an owl. No, he needed to go to her house.

It took a decent while in trying to get his mother's floo system. Crouching into the chamber did he drop the powder and whisper the address, and without a second delay he was there.

Only he tumbled into what he believed to be the living room. Of course her living room would look like his. It smelled like her, herbal and sweet.

Whatever they had for dinner lofted into his nose and he smiled in content into the carpet that he made it. Even being out of that house made him feel safe.

Aria on the other hand heard the commotion downstairs and didn't dare waste a moment for a theft to make do with her work. Her father and dad promised this was the safest place for her, but Hogwarts was meant to be as well...So she hurried downstairs in cation, her robe firmly over her nightwear as she frowned.

"Rabastan...?" He groaned, his eye popping open for a moment only to close again. Sighing she bent down beside him, his head bending up to sit in her lap as she ran a diagnostic.

"Raba...Darling what the hell happened?" She whispered, the small jolts here and there that caused her to identify what it was instantly.

Her and the team had gone over the properties to what could potentially numb the effects of this and another unforgivable curse.

"When I offered my home Raba, I was hoping it wouldn't be a used ticket until after Hogwarts." "W-wasn't...Wasn't the Dark Lord." Aria swallowed in fear of asking who it was who hurt him, but she needed to.

Otherwise she was going to have a firm word with Orion.

"My father...It was father."
"Why?"
"I danced with you...I didn't think a-about the consequen—consequences." He breathed, and so Aria summoned the very potion she brewed prior in the week.

Suppose this was going to be trial and error.

Taking a spoon and measuring out three into a small mug, she aided for him to sip it—And while he was confused on where her cool hand masked his mouth. The fowl taste hit him abruptly that he recoiled.

"I know...I know...Shh—It smelled awful when brewing, I promise it'll help just a little." When he managed to get the fowl thing down his throat, his body went numb and he did feel better. A lot better infact, but still week in terms of thinking straight and moving.

He was limp in her arms, but Merlin he couldn't feel anymore safer.

"Raba...Why did you risk that?" "Because I love you...And I've realized that I won't be able to stop."
"Rabastan your father could've done some internal damage, it's illegal to—"
"Huh, illegal? To a lawyer, that's impossible...Nothing I'm not used to." Aria realized his father was an arse, she knew it from the start. And from Sirius' telling Orion wasn't the nicest of souls when provoked by Walburga's guidance.

But that has past, Rabastan was a hypnotized pureblood and it was no wonder he was so brainwashed.

"Raba it's nearly one."
"I'm sorry, I had to wait until he left." Moving aside his unruling bangs she nodded and looked off to the couch, managing to summon the books away she levitated him up and onto it as well.

He soon felt the warmth of a blanket and it being sunken in as Omen came over to investigate as well. Earning his a greeting meow as well.

"You should eat something, there's plenty of left over dinner. I'll make you a plate." She hurried, getting the fixings for a plate and putting it into the microwave. Gods tonight was a wreck, not only did Aidan head off to spend the night at the Academy and she spent part of the night in tears and telling Wyatt she was fine...Rabastan had to stumble in half dead through her fireplace.

Rabastan rose his brow at the size of the plate she returned with. "American portion for you, that potion is going to make your stomach feel like it's endless." She said, and he had to admit that it tasted brilliant.

"What the bloody hell is that?"
"A television—It's like a projector and screen without the projector. Watch." She nicked her head and put it on, and the wizard flinched as the box in front of them started to speak.

He was in a daze.

"Whoa..."
"Unfortunealy all the good things aren't on since it's too late. But I kinda wanted to see your reaction." She grinned, however the steps upstairs soon started to creek and she sighed.

"Ari...?"
"Yeah hun?"
"It's late."
"I couldn't sleep, why don't I tuck you back in?" Rabastan had taken a peek at the half asleep lad, he was in matching pajamas and Aria hurried to tuck the fellow back in.

"Is Aidan back?"
"No, I think I made him really mad...And that's not something for you to worry about."
"Yeah it is, if he's being an arse—"
"Language Badger."
"Sorry mum." A smile grew on her face, it always did when he started to say it openly.

"Please go to sleep for me? Someone in this house needs to use their beds." The loyalty in him is what brought the young lad to check what the voices were, it didn't mean he wasn't tired.

He was out like a light within seconds, and it earned him a kiss on the forehead.

And so when Aria returned back downstairs, Rabastan was sitting up on the couch staring directly to the screen. Shaking her head did she plop down on the couch beside him and nudge him. "Finish eating." He did just that, though somehow he miraculously still had manners no matter how he sat.

She sat in his company with Omen, but her eyes flickered towards the clock every now and then. "Where did your father go at this time of night?" 

"Selwyn's manor I assume, mum's in France." Rabastan knew she was trying to sort out the options he had, and there was hardly any.

"Could you stay with your brother?" 

"My internship is starting up, mum should be home soon anyway—Not like she can stop his nonsense. Not when he's drunk." As Rabastan quietly ate beside her, she was still caught up in a thought until her hand reached out to his.

And while he wanted some contact to touch her again, her attention was towards his ring. "Your ring isn't activated...Did you turn it off?" 

"Er, come again?" She moved onto her knees and held his hand above her own before twisting the one in question.

The one she gifted him.

"What'd you do to it?" 

"Well I thought how your family ring is meant to protect you—But it doesn't protect from a family member if they curse you...It must've worn off." Rabastan was in awe, especially when he watched her lean over the couch to the side table to grab her wand.

Allowing him to get a full view of her arse in those shorts, and to defuse the situation and his slowly hardening cock he cleared his throat.

"You have a lovely manor...It smells like the classroom." 

"Yeah it took a few weeks to get everything in order, my study's in the loft upstairs and Ghost is in the basement...It looks brilliant." She said, taking off his ring and running it through some spells she whispered.

At the end she placed it back onto the table, and while he went to go and grab it to put on. She stopped him. "It has to sit for a bit...Do you want some ice cream?" He was utterly thankful he caught her in a good mood, not stressing—Or not that he could see anyway.

She went to get up and back into the fridge, grabbing two spoons and returning back to the television, handing him a utenslize as she relaxed back into the pillow.

"I would've for sure thought you were going to leave me drooling on the carpet." 

"Rabastan, I help people. That's why I chose the field I'm going into, so if you're going to be a monster death eater at least I can say I did something to help you not them." He wanted to hear that the 'them' she referred to was Sirius and his gang, but he knew it meant the Dark Lord.

"Punishments are usually like that, from the Dark Lord I mean. Not father." 

"Even if you're high rank? You didn't get a mark yet did you?" 

"No. He wants us to be graduated first, if we had it and Dumbledore caught us...We wouldn't be all that useful without a diploma." She hummed, but leaned further into the couch as she tried to think of another solution.

"I could brew you a few more potions, just incase I'm not here." 

"Where're you going?" 

"America, just for a week or two."
"Suppose Randal will watch the badger?"
"No, Aidan said he would."
"Oh? He's not going with?" She shook her head and took another bite of ice cream as she sighed once again.

"We're not in a good place at the moment, me and him. We both want different things and our schedule is all off...I don't want to sound like I'm complaining but—"
"But you're graduated, it's why we can't be friends as much as we could've...Don't tell me he's being an arse?" Her silence confirmed it instantly and he rose to sit up further. "Aria?" 

"It's just a rut...I'm fine."
"No you're not love, is that why he isn't here?" Biting her lip did she cast him a sideways glance before nodding once again.

"I haven't seen him since before the party, it was a big fight. We both want it to work out but it's not going the way we hoped. I guess I was right in predicting that a break up will happen before the summer's over...He's acting like an immature child not getting a toy." She said with an eye roll, and Rabastan chuckled.

"Suppose that's how you see me then?"
"Yes but you have much more of a reason in being conditioned to think like that. Aidan's doing it to piss me off, or that's what I think at least. He knows how to push my buttons and I'm still pissed." But the Slytherin turned to look at her properly, hoping to be of some help.

"How so?"
"He doesn't understand what's normal here, and it's awful for me to say but all I wanted to do was help—But he's been telling me what to do or how to do it and I...Well I certainly didn't say very nice things either, but damnit you'd think I know enough about the magical world here to know what I'm talking about." Rabastan saw what the issue was, and he wasn't wrong in assuming that Aria was feeling a struck of independence while Aidan was stuck still being enrolled in Ilvermorny.

"Can always rough him up for you darling?"
"He offered the same in regards to you 'Bas, and it'd be bloody in the end if I left you two in a room together."
"Yeah? But who are you betting to come out on top?" Aria blamed it on the fact that she hadn't had a proper nights' rest or fell asleep at her desk in pure exhaustion.

But the answer escaped her before she could retract it.

"You." It wasn't meant to compliment him, it was simply just the truth.

"Well that sounds promising."
"Rabastan you're both very different wizards with different upbringings and different ways you showed love to me or just the world around you both. You're both passionate and never think you're wrong even when the world is screaming at you that you are..."
"That is about the rudest thing I've heard you say about your lover boy."
"I'll top it off with saying he's an arse then, my track record in the male species is dwindling. Perhaps I'll play for the other side." Rabastan hadn't gotten the joke, so Aria hid behind her hand as she tried to calm herself.

"Did I miss a muggle joke again?"
"It's technically not just a muggle joke..."
"Why would you play for the other—oh. Oh! Merlin Ari, I'm about to lose the last of my morals and restraint." She shrugged her shoulders and the two remained in silence, or until the clock chimed and Aria picked up the ring and replaced it on his hand.

"Should be all set, it won't block it all but it should lesson the effects and a little bit of the pain...But it needs to be recharged." He nodded, allowing it to fiddle back onto his finger as he began spinning it around—A tick he has on the occasion.

"Did you want to say hi to Ghost before you leave?" He would agree to just about anything if it meant being able to stay longer. It was a quick walk down the hall before making their way to the basement, and for once it was his turn to be taken back by the exstent of magic.

"Newt did a brilliant job, and I've been managing a garden down here too since I don't have much of a yard. Course Wyatt likes it too—Such a hufflepuff." She said, hurrying over to the large exhibit only to see that Ghost was flying.

"GHOST YOU SHOULD BE SLEEPING!" She shouted, causing the creature to turn to her as if he was caught in headlights as he rounded to the side and came in further.

"Wow..." Rabastan whispered off behind her, but the Ravenclaw simply opened her arms and greeted Ghost just as she always did. A small tilt to her head before hugging him.

"Look who's here for a visit love." She said in a small voice, but of course the bloke behind her heard. Turning around did she give room for him to join in the snuggling and Rabastan had to be honest with himself and her.

"I did miss him."
"He missed you just as much...But he loves it here." She said, turning to show the exstent of his exhibit. And Newt wasn't stingy in making it fit for a Hippogriff, enough to go miles in the air and return back.

It was like another world in just his exhibit.

The two didn't talk more than academics and Rabastan didn't dare push passed that. And when it was time to return back to his manor, he smirked.

"Wouldn't have the curiosity to know where I live, would you?" It was her weak spot, for sure. She loved houses with history, and Lestrange had one of the oldest.

"Perhaps a bit...But I can't leave Wyatt—"
"Ten minutes. I promise." Perking her lips did she look back off towards the stairs before darting her attention to Omen.

"Watch Wyatt for me?" It was hardly a moment before the cat hopped off the couch and took the steps two at a time. "I forgot Omen was part human."

"Oh she knows English for sure, it just always her choice if she wants to listen to us." She said in a shrug before grabbing her cloak and wand.

"Nobody's home?"
"Uh, do you count elves or—" He earned his first pout of the night. "They're alseep, come on." Was all he said, taking ahold of her hand and dropping the powder to the floor below them.

They hardly stepped outside the fireplace before the room lightly illuminated at the presence of guests. "Whoa..."
"This is mum's room, she usually hosts her group of friends over in here." He states and it was clear that it was indeed a feminine social room with the amount of lace embroidery here and there.

"It smells lovely."
"Yeah, mum's into those incense you like too." Rabastan didn't really know what he was doing, inviting her here. He wasn't allowed to invite anyone without permission and yet he hadn't a care in the world. Instead he lead the way to another location, slowly as Aria's eyes could take in everything all at once.

"Where are we headed?"
"My favorite place on the grounds, this is my parents summer home. There's a willow tree." A quiet squeal sounded off behind him as the two managed through the garden and off.

"Merlin, it's beautiful out here."
"My mum is usually the one out here gardening. She takes lots of pride in it." It earned him a smile, as she let out a breathless sigh. Meaning that she was at ease, something he wasn't familiar with.

"Have you ever tried to climb it?"
"Not for a long time...Merlin Ari it's two in the morning and you want to climb a tree?" She bit her lip, but then decided to let her hands rest on her hips in defense.

"I can't be childish for five minutes?"
"Weren't you just preaching that Proctor was being childish?"
"Are you Proctor?"
"No."
"Then you have no right to call me a child, and I'm a lot more legal than you are from where I stand." She said, taking hold of one of the branches and pulling herself up.

Rabastan looked off to the house, this was one of the dumbest things he's ever done. And he's snuck off to his mate's manors—Hell he's snuck Barns in once or time.

But this? This was so innocent that it simply looked worse, or that Aria was the same witch that his father punished him for.

"You and heights Ari, I'll never understand it." She looked rather comfortable sitting on a stirdy branch that it was safe for him to sit beside her as she leaned against the trunk and looked towards him with a roll of her eyes.

"No bird joke? Goddess I'm going to miss them, but I guess they were meant to die down some day."
"It's not the same you know, you not coming back in the fall with us." She shrugged her shoulders and looked up to the moon above them both.

"Maybe you'll have a normal year, I was bit of a crazy ex wasn't I?"
"Not at all, again you acted mature and told me to properly fuck off. I was the one who couldn't let go..." Rabastan sighed, running a hand through his sloppy locks as he turned back to her again.

"I hate that I was able to apologies but it was to Harper, not you."
"You've already apologized Rabastan, it's—"
"It's in the past and it wouldn't matter now, but it matters to me—Of what you think of me. And after being an arse the entirety of our Hogwarts career to one solid year of being together to not I just...I feel like I owe you more than just a sorry."
"Was that why you got me all those gifts? Raba you know I don't like material items."
"Even the potion's set?" She made a face, and in the moonlight it was very easy to catch.

Which he smirked at.

"Alright well those were beautiful and I couldn't let those go to waste, and screw you for knowing my weakness."
"Oh screw me huh? And you're the one who felt the need to wear jeans half the time at Hogwarts. That was my weakness." Did it feel wrong being at his house, no, the issue was that it felt like she was at home.

And she hated feeling that way.

Especially when she was in a rough patch with Aidan.

Rabastan tapped into an old conversation the two, one of the first actually after she had saved him from falling off his broom. And she realized very quickly what he was doing.

"Do you remember what I said...About you breaking your promise to me about being the wizard I wish you were?...You still kept up with it, and I'm proud of you Rabastan." He felt his soul flicker at the compliment his other half had given him, and he felt his ears turning red at it as well.

"Truly?" She nodded, and flashed her teeth in a beautiful smile. "Besides the shake down you would give McNair after our study sessions or sticking your nose where it didn't belong, but I suppose that's just you being overprotective."

"Damn right it is, and the second I didn't look what happens." She shrugged with her arms extended before her.

As the clock rolled around to two, he said that it was getting too cold to stay outside. Even though she put a warm charm either of them, but he managed down the branches first before her and held out his arms to catch her.

While it was a sweet gesture, Aria was good at keeping a comfortable distance. Though her eyes glanced back at the tree and her spot in it, and that sunken feeling returned.

"Could I see your room?" Rabastan's heart stopped, and he felt himself almost slip in the dew lingering in the grass below them, however he managed well to keep a steady paste.

"And what would your purpose be in seeing my room?"
"I had a picture of in my mind and I wanted to know if I was right." Course it was, again, the most innocent of reasons. But he looked down to the beautiful Ravenclaw and found himself unable to deny her.

So the two's quickened pace hurried back upstairs, and it was then that Aria decided that the staircase was perhaps her favorite.

"Well love, this is me." He said, opening the door and pushing it open for her to head inside. Her eyes were quick to take everything in, it was for sure similar to Regulus and Sirius' bedrooms. Very house and sport oriented.

"Yep, very close to what I was picturing."
"Yeah? Let me guess, yours is just a library?" She gawked, jumped to sit on his bed as she locked her arms around his chest. "Rude. And the library is in my loft."
"Only offended because it's true, Kitten." Snorting into her cloak did she turn to see the rest of the room and what lingered on the walls.

"Is that...is that the cologne I made you?"
"Yeah, there's a trick to make it an incense and I burn it every now and then." No wonder he was so hooked on her, there were signed everywhere. And to make matters worse, right on the nightstand was one of the many pictures of them together.

"That's my favorite one too." Rabastan hadn't a clue what she was talking about, but when his eyes locked onto it as well he scrambled onto the bed and slammed it into a draw. His ears burning in embarrassment once more.

"Alright, well when I get the chance I'll brew some potions and I'll warn you before I head to America..."
"I wish you could stay." He blurted out, and wether it was the potion he had or the time of day it was, his honesty was fresh and it caused her shoulders to fall.

"That'll bring more trouble for you."
"I can handle it."
"No, and I don't want you getting into more trouble because of me. I didn't think—I didn't think a simple dance would get you—"
"I didn't either, but I would've asked you regardless." She rolled her eyes but found herself jumping back down to the floor.

"You play a dangerous game, but I should really get—" The loud slam of a door silenced either of them as they shot towards the hallway.

Rabastan hurried to close the door as he shrugged off his clothes down to his boxers.

"What the bloody hell are you doing?!"
"I can't be up, if I'm sleeping then it'll be alright—Get in the closet." She gawked, but then when she realized the wards wouldn't allow her to apparent she darted her attention to the closet.

"Surely there's a better—"
"There isn't, please Aria." She nodded and hurried along in, he shut the door quickly behind her jumped into the bed to appear asleep.

Aria on the other hand was given a rather harsh reminder of what Rabastan brother looks like. That gave her an idea, as she too started to undress.

Her heart stopped a second time as Rabastan's bedroom door let out an awful creek. So Aria took one long look towards the picture one last time before sucked in a breath and allowed her body to relax.

Rabastan on the other hand had never felt his father's antagonizing eyes on him worse than he did now. It made him shiver under the covers, and it made him wonder if he the bloke was here to finish the job.

"Father...?" He questioned, managing to use to the husk of voice to appear to sound tired—Or just like he woke up.

"You're a real disappointment boy, never thinking—Never—" Aria had to hold her hand over her mouth only to stop herself from speaking out of turn. She never wanted to think of how Rabastan was treated at home, that his actions at school was because he thought that's normal life operated as.

But Aria couldn't take it anymore, and to make matters worse she stumbled over her cloak as she wasn't very versed in being this tall nor having these type of genitals—Which answered a question she didn't want the answer to...Ever.

"What was that?" Aria prayed that Rabastan play along, that he not blow her cover at all. But she could hear the dumbarse starting to get out of bed, which was instantly her cue.

"Oi, really had to blow my cover father?" Aria said, trying to make the same bloke she met from either party.

Rodolphous Lestrange was the stereotype pureblood bloke, and acting drunk seemed like a steady trait to go with. Besides, she thought it was the best bet in being in Rabastan's closet in the middle of the night.

"Son, what are you—"
"Owled this one and he decided not get back to me, thanks for that. I need this." Finally the paleness had subsided and Rabastan let a small grin go, that blood Ravenclaw was a brilliant gal for sure.

"Yeah well, you didn't really mention where to send the owl." Aria's eyes looked directly to Rabastan's glossy blue orbs and she felt his thoughts seep through.

He's on a mission, he should be going back.

"And? How'd it go?"
"You know I can't dive into it all that much father, but I should be getting back soon...'Bas, how'd it go with your bird?"
"M-My bird?"
"Yeah, t-that Roswell gal? Did you find out anything?" Rabastan couldn't understand what Aria was getting at, and a sickly smirk that was so much like Aria's faired well on his brother's face.

"What are you two talking about?" Senior Lestrange welled, and 'Rodolphous' simply flickered his eyes off towards the elder before letting out a teasing smile.

"This one informed me that his bird might've been up to be an Order member." Understanding washed over Rabastan, that his dancing with Aria was in the soul purpose of gaining information and not in the realm of doing it out of spite—Like his father thought.

"The bird...An order member? I thought you said she's in your class Rabastan?" Aria took into account how the eldest Lestrange son was treated to how Rabastan was treated.

Gods it was filling in all the blanks she needed.

"She is, she graduated early...That's why I though that perhaps she'd be granted membership. It was only a theory." He said, making sure to give his father the needed eyecontact.

The last thing he needed was to have Aria witness another session of verbal abuse.

"Right then, I need a word with this one." Rabastan could've laughed, but the tells that Aria assumed that were what all wizard's did was accurate.

Very accurate.

And it was enough to push Senior Lestrange off and away with a quick goodnight. Which Aria almost fell back in having to hold this face for much longer.

"You're fucking insane Aria." Instantly the shirt had started to fill out with her breasts and the pants began to sag as they were not longer fitted.

"It worked didn't it?"
"Yeah, but you outed yourself. Father is—"
"He's not going to remember a thing, he hardly recalled what he did to you or being with his lover and daughter." He huffed in damnation, it was a brilliant yet very faulty plan that could've gone in a hundred different ways.

All of them worse than the last.

"I know I said I like you in my clothes love, but this is taking that far too literally in my taste."

"Oh? And you think I liked having a cock and balls between my legs?" She shrugged off the jacket and threw it at him before hurrying back into the closet and back into her own lounge clothes of leggings and the sweater.

When she emerged from the closet again, it was clear that keeping that much of a clone copy drained her. And so he tugged her closer to the bed. "Stay Ari, you're exhausted."

"I can't leave Wyatt by himself, he gets really anxious...Stay safe Raba." She said, leaving a parting kiss on his cheek before hurrying out the door—Clearly remembering where Mrs.Lestrange's study is and used the fireplace.

In returning back to her manor she felt relief, what she was not expecting however, was Aidan sitting on her bed.

"Aria...Where were you?" She closed her eyes and sighed. "Look Aidan, I'm exhausted. Can we just talk tomorrow?" She said, shrugging off the cloak to drop it on the floor before dropping onto the bed and cuddling under the blanket.

"You left Wyatt alone?"
"He's twelve Aidan, he can survive for an hour by himself. G'night." She mumbled into the pillow and he frowned.

However he threw off his shirt and attempted to get into the bed beside her, cautious of waking her up—But she simply snagged the spare pillow and hugged it so he wouldn't be able to use it.

"You're bedroom."
"Ari—"
"Aidan. I'm not doing this now. You're room or you can go back to the fucking academy and sleep on a friend's couch again." He attempted to make a loud noise in swiping his sweater from the floor but all it did was humor her.

"Next time, maybe we can come to a compromise rather than you calling me names." She said before turning her back to face him.

"I'm sorry Ari..."

"As am I." She whispered back, wondering if he had really heard her. However all she could see when she closed her eyes, was the etching that she caught in the willow tree.

One she hid away from Rabastan's eyes.

AB + RL

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Date Posted: 09-07-2020

Time: 9:38

Words: 5431