2
His father luckily went easy on him at lunch and they mostly just spoke about when his father and mother were getting to know each other prior to marriage. It left Rabastan wondering if he should give dating another try before he gets himself in over his head with Esmae. Hell he was already in over his head, Bella and Narcissa were planning a huge engagement party for them next month. They were set to announce the engagement as soon as he returned from his project in France. Maybe he’d extend it a few days to buy him some time to think. He wondered if Philip Parkinson would be in France at the same time. He had married for love and had been a good friend to Rabastan in school. Maybe he could give him some insight into why Rabastan was feeling absolutely nothing one way or another about his pending nuptials.
Rabastan had walked his father back to the Wizengamot and rather than use any of the multiple floo there he decided to take a long walk through the winding hallways of the ministry. They’d be silent and mostly empty right now he figured as everyone went back after lunch and then he’d take the elevators down to the floo in the main atrium.
Just as he walked into the elevator and looked up he saw who he would be sharing it with. Sirius Black, actually he’d have to call him Heir Black considering they were NOT on a friendly first name basis. They had been on opposite sides of the war although thanks to Sirius being an auror he probably knew that Rabastan had taken more than a step back in his support for Voldemort near the end making excuses about focusing on building his reputation in the world of warding to stay away. He always wondered if people knew that even though he supported the early beliefs of the Dark Lord he didn’t care for the blood bath he had turned it into in the end. Rabastan didn’t want to see any magical blood spilled, for any reason.
“Heir Black”
“Scion Lestrange” Sirius pressed the ground floor button again as if to make the elevator move faster
Suddenly the lights in the elevator flickered and it came to a screeching halt. They both had to grab the sides to stop from falling over
“I think you broke it”
“Ha. ha. We’ve been having some trouble with the elevators since they installed a new security feature this weekend. They’ve been acting up all day. Luckily they get moving again quickly”
Sirius shifted a little and leaned back, finally looking him in the eye
“So I haven’t seen you in awhile, not since we finished prosecuting guilty death eaters and you narrowly avoided any charges, even minor ones”
Rabastan winced
“What brings you here today?”
“I had lunch with my father and then took a quick walk through the ministry to try to clear my thoughts before I start on a new project in France. I actually leave for France tomorrow but my new project starts next week”
“You’re still doing all that warding stuff? I thought that was just an excuse to keep yourself out of trouble” Sirius’ handsome face twisted into a look of confusion
Rabastan scoffed “you would've been a terrible Slytherin Black, you can’t keep your mouth from spewing off before you think and your face can hide exactly zero of your emotions.”
Sirius tried to smooth his face over into a pureblood mask and mostly succeeded.
“Too little too late Black. But yes, I’m still doing the warding thing. It wasn’t an excuse. I love my job, I’m lucky I’m good at it. It's taken me all over Europe and it provided me with great cover near the end of the war when things got too violent. I said it during the interview with your superior under the effects of veritaserum and I’ll say it again. Things got too violent for me, I do not believe in spilling magical blood NOR do I want to have anything to do with murdering muggles in cold blood for no reason. None of what he stood for near the end appealed to me. I just wanted to see more of a return to the old ways of magic, stopping the ban on blood magic and I want to see the ministry do more to keep us separated from muggles. Strengthening the statute of secrecy, doing a better job of integrating mudbl, uh muggleborns, so they don’t water down our culture. You know, regular normal wixen things. ”
Sirius narrowed his eyes “okay then.”
“Okay?”
“Yeah” Sirius nodded “okay,” he took a deep breath “I mean if you stated that under the effects of veritaserum then I have to believe you. Plus I’m working on my personal prejudices so it’s nice to hear from someone who at one point believed in those ideals and then moved away. I wish more of my own family felt the same. I’ve been so caught up in hating them I sometimes forget to remember that people are nuanced. It’s something I’ve been working on with Moony.”
“Moony? What kind of name is Moony”
It was Sirius’ turn to wince
“Oh, Remus Lupin, we all call him Moony…it’s just a nickname that’s stuck since Hogwarts”
Rabastan nodded and had no idea how to respond, what the fuck kind of nickname was Moony?
They settled into a not completely comfortable but not quite awkward silence as they waited for the elevators to start moving again. Sirius had said it wouldn’t take very long and he believed him.
Around the 30 minute mark Rabastan couldn’t stand the silence anymore and if Sirius’ fidgeting was anything to go by he was probably going out of his mind as well.
“So where were you headed to when we got stuck in here?”
Sirius looked over at him from where he was sprawled out on the floor, “well I lost track of time and worked through lunch today so I was heading out to a little muggle coffee shop I like, to grab some coffee and an egg salad sandwich.” Rabastan raised his eyebrows and Sirius shrugged “I know, I know It’s a very muggle lunch but seriously this little old muggle lady makes the best sandwiches”
He looked at Sirius spread out on the floor like he wasn’t raised in a perfect pureblood house and smiled a little, “why am i not surprised that you love heading to muggle London for food.”
Sirius sat up a little “muggle restaurants are great! Now that James and Lily are trying for another kid we’ve been going out to the pubs less so instead we’ve been trying out new muggle restaurants”
Rabastan cocked his head to the side “whose we?”
“Well we’re obviously not friends with Peter anymore, not after he tried to frame me for the murder of those muggles. But James, Lily, Remus and I do hang out a lot. We’ve been best friends since Hogwarts.”
“So are you and Lupin a couple? I never herald anything at Hogwarts about you guys dating”
Sirius smirked at him “how sweet, you were keeping tabs on me at Hogwarts” he winked at Rabastan’s look of surprise “just kidding with you, no no we’re not together. Remus and James are basically my family in all but blood. It’s not like that at all”
Rabastan nodded, so they kind of have a friendship like Lucius and I. He didn’t know why but suddenly he felt like continuing this conversation…also he was craving some coffee. Perhaps he’d try this muggle place if Sirius would be kind enough to show him where it is.
Two and a half hours later after talking about food, restaurants, pubs, muggle movies and Rabastan’s excitement over sharing the locations of some truly fabulous muggle breweries he and his brother had discovered during their property buying spree the lights flickered in the elevator again and it slowly started moving.
A harried looking ministry worker greeted them as the doors opened
“Sorry about that, it took us a while to figure out exactly what happened. Hopefully you guys are okay?” he looked downright frightened to hear their responses
“We are okay, thank you for your concern” Rabastan said lightly as he began to walk out
“No problem Clark, we’re okay” he smiled his big toothy smile and patted him on the shoulder.
Rabastan turned to Sirius, “I could definitely use some coffee before I start packing to leave. Mind if I join you I want to judge this coffee shop for myself?”
Sirius took a moment as if to assess how serious Rabastan was being in his request, Rabastan tried to look as innocent as possible
“Sure thing, let’s go to an apparition point. I’ll then take us to an alleyway nearby”
They ended up spending the rest of the afternoon at the coffee shop sharing sandwiches and pastries. Sirius had started it all by pretending to write a review about his sandwich, and then the pastry he and Rabastan had shared. Rabastan had no idea how Sirius had convinced him to play along but here he was.
He had a slight spring to his step when he got home. It had been ages since he made a new friend, and even longer since he’d let himself be so comfortable around anyone but a select few of his friends. Maybe a trip to France and some time with another friend would be exactly what he needed to figure himself out.