1
Rabastan had only met her twice, Esmae Rookwood, first cousin to Augustus who he had gone to Hogwarts with.
Esmae wasn’t bad to look at, she just didn’t do anything for him. But both his sister in law Bellatrix and their family in all but blood Lucius insisted that she’d be a great match for him. Lucius was the same age as his older brother Rodholphus and Rabastan thought of him as just as much of a brother as Dolph. It was based on this trust that he had agreed to this absurd arrangement in the first place. He was known for bed hopping, he had no preference on gender but he loved having sex. Unfortunately as he grew older and he saw his friends settling down he felt the pull to also find a person he could share a life with. A few of his friends had even found a deep love in their partnership and to be honest that was what he was most interested in. He mostly kept bed hopping to distract himself from the fact that he hadn’t been on a good first date EVER in his life.
Rabastan knew he was a catch. He had dark brown hair he kept cut short which showed off his angular face perfectly. He had bright blue eyes and dark lashes. He was tall and broad shouldered, well built without being too bulky. He was pretty intelligent, he was a ward master and made a killing considering how good he was at what he did. Not that he needed the money really, his family was incredibly wealthy and despite not being his father’s heir, his vault was just as well stocked as his brother’s. Possibly more since they owned most of their family businesses together and his contract work in warding left him just stacking galleons.
“Maybe you just need to make a trip out of your next warding project” his brother remarked as he handed him a glass of whiskey
“What do you mean?”
“Well you’ve been out of it all weekend, barely been able to keep up with conversation with father, Bellatrix and myself…you’re clearly distracted” his brother took a sip “so maybe you just need a minute to clear your mind before your engagement party”
“Yeah…” his voice sounded so unsure. He hated it. He was never unsure, he had every reason in the world to just feel happy. The dark lord had been vanquished and despite their earlier support of him he was quite unstable near the end and Rabastan desperately wanted a way out. He was only happy that he was able to avoid getting a dark mark due to the fact that he sometimes held contracts with Gringotts. Gringotts would never contract anyone who was marked to be a follower of any sort of lord dark or light.
“Are you unhappy with the match we’ve found for you, Basti?” His sister in law sounded annoyed and Rabastan knew he had to answer carefully.
“It’s not that I’m unhappy, she’s a fine match. I’m just too in my head, she’s not the problem right now Bella…I am”
“Ah the old it’s not you it's me” his father laughed his booming laugh and Rabastan couldn’t help but smile.
“Except it is me, father” he smirked at his father as a way of thanking him for stopping the conversation from taking a different turn.
“Have lunch with me tomorrow before you leave for France Basti, let’s talk about marriage.”
“If you’re going to talk to me about the birds and the bees father I think it’s a bit late” he sassed back.
“Oh I know it’s too late for you on that front, part of why we all want to see you settle down. We could see how unsatisfied it all left you, also I’ve known you my whole life i know you’re a secret romantic just like your mother was”
Rabastan finished his drink at the thought of his mother. They all miss her dearly, they know things would have been quite different for them had she lived longer but they lost her during Rabastan’s last year at Hogwarts.
His father smiled gently at him “just want to give you some of my thoughts and hear some of yours, father to son. Man to man”
Rabastan nodded at his father, “I’ll meet you after the Wizengamot lets out for lunch”
“Well good then, it’s all settled. Father will take Basti out to lunch and settle his little life crisis and I’ll skip tomorrow’s Wizengamot session in favor of scoping out the new building we just purchased in Northern Ireland.” I hear the muggle beer near there is delightful. Rodholphus wiggled his eyebrows and rubbed his hands together in excitement and even Bella couldn’t contain her laugh.
“Just don’t splinch yourself getting home dearest” was her only response