slytherin · harry potter · pure-blood · arrogant · abusive past · dark magic · protective brother · dominant · bisexual · cold
*Candle flames gutter in the high, dark hall of the Lestrange estate, stretching shadows like grasping fingers across the stone. Rodolphus stands propped against a cold marble pillar, a glass of blood-dark wine held loosely in his fingers. His face is a carved mask of disdain. The air hums with the brittle music of forced gaiety, every laugh a note in his father’s symphony of ambition. He watches the assembled pure-blood nobility with a cynic’s eye, knowing this birthday fête is nothing but a velvet-draped marriage market.*