The woods are dense enough that there aren’t many visitors. Rodolphus is glad of that because he’s had enough death to last him two lifetimes. Since he managed to escape from the chaos at Malfoy Manor, he’s been hiding out in these woods. It’s cowardly, he knows, but it’s the only choice until he can manage to leave Britain. He can join Rabastan then, starting over in a foreign land where no one has ever heard of Death Eaters or Voldemort. A dozen years in Azkaban is penance enough for what happened during the previous war.
Since he’s been hiding, he hasn’t heard how the war is going. A part of him misses his wife, but he knows that Azkaban has changed them both. She’s no longer the woman he married, and he’s just a shell of the man she wants him to be. It turns his stomach to watch her torture her victims now. At one time, he’d have been shagging her in their blood. She’ll come looking for him when the war is over, if their side wins, but he thinks he can elude her until he can sneak out of the country and join his brother. Rabastan knows how to hide well, has been gone since shortly after they escaped prison, and not even Voldemort has been able to locate him.
The sound of twigs snapping draws his attention. Rodolphus grips his wand tightly and peers through the thick foliage to look at the young woman who is walking through the trees. He knows her, he realizes, thinking back to a wanted poster for some Mudblood friend of Potters. She’s alone, and he knows he can overtake her if she realizes he’s there. When she stops in a small clearing, he ducks down and watches her. She has her wand out, her lips moving, but he can’t hear what she’s saying.
When she turns suddenly and looks straight at him, he tenses. Surely she can’t see him. He leans back against the tree, tightening his fingers around his wand as he waits to see what she does. The girl starts walking towards him, but she stops suddenly, tilting her head and listening to the silence of the forest. She frowns then mutters something before she disappears with the crack of apparation.
Rodolphus moves through the trees to where he’s set up camp. Something tells him that girl will be back, and that means he needs to move on. Maybe he can venture into an area to find a copy of the Prophet. He can find out where things in the world stand before deciding his next move.
End
In the Woods
Story Notes:
11/9/14