InsaneJournal

general. Despite his size, Rodolphus is not an unduly aggressive man. He does not seek out conflict among his peers and relatives when it can be avoided, though his compulsive emotions make his anger burn hot when he does indulge in them, and with a hot temper and a predilection for physicality comes a tendency to violent outbursts. This violence would not (in his youth) have been considered defining of his personality so much as a symptom of it, but with such a sordid past behind him, Rodolphus cannot escape the infamous path his rage sends him down. He will forever be known as one of the Dark Lord's most brutal servants, a description that does him no justice, even if perfectly apt.

When one bothers to explore further, refinement can be separated from the brutality, and Rodolphus's interests become far more varied than "death, torture, and bloodshed." He was raised with gentlemanly tastes, and favours hunting (for its pseudo-social and masculine appeals), wine-collecting, and reading above all else. The latter interest is the one in which he is most avid, and Rodolphus has collected thousands of books into his personal library (penned only by wizarding authors) that run the gamut of topics and languages. He is extraordinarily ambitious (one might say voracious) when it comes to fulfilling his tastes for the exquisite, and taught himself to read a handful of languages at a young age. He can hardly be called 'fluent' in most of these, but his ability to tear apart written language for literary sake is exceptional.

Because of his affinity for the written word (and more so because of his purist upbringing), Rodolphus has a surprisingly philosophical take on his political affiliations. Despite his taste for violence, he would not consider himself a sadistic man, but a nationalist who has done and will do what it takes to procure a better future for those who deserve it. He believes that purebloods are attempting to retain a culture that muggles are soiling, and that the dilution of the wizarding bloodlines will result in a downfall of the culture. With the increase of muggle rights in his youth, Rodolphus and his peers, in the interest of preserving a culture, were forced to take up arms against those who would destroy it: mudbloods, blood traitors, and muggle supporters who actively allowed an inferior race to infiltrate and degrade the centuries' old wizarding community. Though shaped by this idealism, he has been jaded by time and suffering; while torture and murder were acts of necessity in his youth, Rodolphus has forfeited all conscience and shame that such acts might inflict in these latter years. He and his kind are at war, and lives are lost on both sides. The inhumanity enacted by the one side is perfectly balanced with equal inhumanity by the other. He sees those who vilify death eaters as foolish and lacking perspective, guilty of the very bigotry they claim to rail against. This set of morals, however, and the profound belief that there is one set of rights for the worthy and one set for the unworthy only serve to highlight his dispassion and inability to empathise with others - one of the defining tenets of his personality with regard to others.

If one person can evoke a more powerful range of emotion from Rodolphus, it is most certainly his wife. Bellatrix has an inexorable ability to spark in him all manner of passion - from lust and love to fury. It is only the intangible nature of their love that keeps this explosive pair together, for both are prone to violence in their relationship and both can be impossibly stubborn. The number of times each has actually said "I love you" or "I'm sorry" can probably be counted on one hand, but there is no doubt as to his affection and loyalty to her above nearly all else.

It would be unfair to call Rodolphus particularly anti-social, though his best companions are often books (a quality that can be as infuriating to some as amusing to others). When fettered with company, he is as charming as honesty will allow, and if he exudes any particular sort of affability, it is of the intellectual sort. He is entirely tolerant of gossip and brainless chatter only so far as women are concerned - though his tolerance toward women is equal in nearly all things. He has not the same sort of patience with men (whom he instinctively believes to be the more sensible sex).

Though Rodolphus is reticent to admit any weakness, fifteen years of Azkaban have aggravated his worst traits and diminished his more positive facets. A sense of humour that has never been exceptional is now fickle and erratic, and his temper more so. He is sharp and severe, and his already inflexible narrow-mindedness has only worsened. What minimal interest he had in socialising has been all but eroded, leaving him a surly, humourless hulk of a man who prefers the company of a book and his dogs to human beings. As always, however, he retains his soft spots for family and women.

strengths. Physical power, intelligence, honesty, nobility. At the peak of physical fitness, Rodolphus is an imposing presence with a knack for physical spells - those that do damage. Thus, the dark arts interest him greatly, and his affinity for dark magic and charms, as well as for physical violence, makes him a dangerous opponent in battle, though he is mentally unequipped for Occlumency or Legilimency. Though far more comfortable using brute force over magic (ironic in a supporter of purism), Rodolphus has shown an exceptional talent in the unforgivables, particularly the cruciatus curse. Over his many years of service, he has also proven a mainstay in the purist agenda, and his loyalty and honesty have gone far in earning him the respect (if not trust) of many of his colleagues.

weaknesses. Rodolphus has never been the typical silver-tongued Slytherin. He is intelligent, yes, and ruthless, but rather disinterested in the political refinement of his peers. He has no patience for the contrivances of double-speak, and though he has no compunction about lying to those he doesn't respect, manipulation is a game in which he is poorly trained. His eloquence comes from passion and ideals, and he is easily twisted to the whims of those for whom he cares (especially women and especially Bellatrix). He is also stubborn, surprisingly narrow-minded for an educated man, and prone to act upon impulse. Tradition, family, and his zealotry for his idealism easily blind his normally strict moral and ethical values, and he has an amazing capacity for dispassionate cruelty if he feels it justified.
 

Alcander Lestrange [father; 1927]: Alcander Lestrange is personally responsible for impressing upon Rodolphus the sorts of messages that proved the foundation of his personality and belief system. If he taught his son anything, it was first that nationalism and cultural fidelity were values to be held above all others, and second that men should never cry. As far as his father was concerned, Rodolphus became a man at the age of three, and whatever discipline appealed to his iron-fisted nature grew only more severe as Rodolphus aged. Alcander remains, to this day, the only person of whom Rodolphus is truly frightened, though he would never admit to finding his father's corporal punishment anything but apropos.

Thubana Lestrange [mother; 1930]: Rodolphus's relationship with his mother is a strained one at best; though he loves her (in his way), she bores and perpetually tires him with her fickleness. Caught between severity and smothering, he spends most of his time ignoring or placating her.

Rabastan Lestrange [brother; 1961]: Over a decade of difference between these two proved more beneficial than Rodolphus could have realised; he was not forced to compete for his parents' attention in the tender years when such attention was important, nor was he forced to interact with Rabastan in a school environment. It is safe to say that he's always felt a level of attachment to Rabastan that supercedes a mere familial affection. Affectionately nicknamed 'the Rabbit', Rabastan is more than a brother - he is a protégé, a disciple of sorts, and deserving of the deepest loyalties. Rodolphus has always considered it his duty to lead Rabastan down the correct moral path, and so he has done.

Bellatrix Lestrange [wife; 1951]: Bellatrix and Rodolphus were married from a sense of duty on Bellatrix's part and a sense of the chase on Rodolphus's, and it grew into something that resembled affection and, eventually, some variety of love born of acclimation. While Rodolphus's greatest loyalties are to the Dark Lord, the rest of him is at Bellatrix's disposal. That is not to say that he humours her every whim - quite the opposite. He is as stubborn and surly (and frequently oblivious) as any male, and the fights resulting are of epic proportion. One of Bellatrix's favourite pasttimes is pushing Rodolphus's buttons, just to see how far she can push him, and he responds, rather predictably, in kind. As he has no compunction about getting physical with her, blood and bruises have become an unsurprising, if not typical, byproduct of foreplay.

Narcissa Malfoy [sister-in-law; 1955]: TBD

Lucius Malfoy [brother-in-law; 1954]: TBD

Draco Malfoy [nephew; 1980]: TBD

Friends TBD, though I'd assume the rest of the inner circle
 

6'7, 20 stone; brown-grey hair, green eyes

With the sole exception of his dress, Rodolphus's attention to his appearance is lacking beyond the necessities; his hair is only cut when he can be bothered about it, and (to his mother's eternal dismay), his '5'clock shadow' is more of a perpetual five day old scruff. He inherited the maternal line's browner-than-it-is-black hair, and that is the extent to which it can be said he resembles his mother, for he is the heaviest-set in his immediate family, broad in frame and thick in features, and exuding many of the other gaelic traits his father's blood brought - pale skin, grey-green eyes, and a lazy jawline. Despite his naturally imposing size, he does not give off any particular air of arrogance or self-importance; his shoulders slope vaguely and there is a slouch at the hips that brings down his height an inch or two in friendly company. Should company turn unfriendly, however, his presence becomes quickly intimidating.

With friends, the elder Lestrange has been known to smile, but it is somewhat rarer than common, for he is best described as a stoic by those who love him best. His emotions run hot, but deep, and it is rare that one can elicit such buried sensibilities - at least upon a physical level. If one was to attempt to ascribe a single pervading emotion to Rodolphus, it might be hunger. There is something of the wolf hidden behind his eyes, though it is often lost behind books and scrolls. Little has softened in his middle age, though grey has begun to overtake his hairline and there are bags beneath his eyes that did not weigh upon him at a younger age.

He is a distinctive force, from his startling height and bulk to the mark of loyalty burned into his left arm to the myriad scars inflicted upon him from years of his father's discipline.

PB: Gerard Butler
 

OWLs
Ancient Runes- O
Astronomy - D
Care of Magical Creatures - P
Charms - E
Defence Against the Dark Arts - O
Herbology - D
History of Magic - O
Potions - E
Transfiguration - O

NEWTs
Ancient Runes - O
Arithmancy - O
Charms - O
Defence Against the Dark Arts - O
History of Magic - O
Potions - A
Transfiguration - E

Rodolphus was appointed prefect in his fifth year - much to his irritation - and proved a fickle student leader. While easily intimidating those of the other houses into behaving in his presence, Rodolphus never cared enough about the petty school rules to enforce them among his housemates, and typically found himself more interested in perusing a book while hell broke out around him than putting a stop to it. He preferred exerting whatever powers he was given in the pursuit of inflicting his conservative mores upon the more vulnerable members of the student body, punishing those who defied authority, violated the dress code, or blasphemed against the tenets of their great wizarding culture.
 

If not for the fact that such an activity would have been labelled as unforgivably womanly, the scope of Rodolphus's hobbies at Hogwarts would not have gone beyond 'junior librarian'. As he had some vague semblance of a reputation to uphold, he was also a reluctant member of the Slug Club (after his father), and a frighteningly competent dueller. He hadn't the patience for games, and thus barely tolerated being dragged along to quidditch matches, much less participating in any other intramural activities.

As an adult, Rodolphus's hobbies are equally limited in scope: sex, reading, wine-collecting (and drinking), book-collecting, dark-object collecting, hunting, and dogs (particularly wolfhounds) - in no particular order. He is not a very complicated sort of person.
 

timeline.

1950: born
1961: begin hogwarts
1965: begins bothering bellatrix
1966: recruited, sits OWLs
1968: sit newts, leave hogwarts
1972: marries bellatrix
1981: imprisoned for the torture of frank and alice longbottom
1996: january - escape; may - re-imprisoned; july - escape
1997: may - dumbledore killed, august - the new era
2002: current day

family. motto: "Blōdcræft" (Strength in Blood)

The Lestrange family originated in south-western France - Basque territory - where they were well established in Lapurdi well into the 9th and 10th centuries. Their ancestry comprised a mostly Celtic background, rather than Iberian, and they, along with their fellow wizarding tribes, remained small-numbered and isolated into the 12th century. However, the inquisition of 1140 brought with it discord and panic to the mostly ungoverned familial tribes, and "l'estrangier" (the outsiders) migrated from the continent to England. Over the past eight centuries, the Basque wizards kept the epithet "Lestrange" and settled into a prominent, very pure, and now very English line. Along with the Blacks, Peverells, and Gaunts, the Lestranges have the distinction of being one of the oldest wizarding families in England.

childhood. Rodolphus Lestrange was born eldest son to a long line of eldest sons - and he quickly learned what it meant to be the eldest Lestrange son. Learned and adapted.

Though his parents were loving in their stifled, repressed way, Rodolphus was raised mostly by nannies and governesses as a child. He spent minimal time with his mother - mostly because he preferred it that way - and only slightly more time with his father - who took every opportunity to instill both his Draconian sensibilities and his inflexible world views into his only son. It was Alcander's adamant opinions on politics and muggles and his ominous predictions about the turn governmental affairs would take that shaped Rodolphus into the man he would later become. Alcander's explosive temper would also shape him, for his father's will was resolute, and his word law. Even the smallest of infractions was to be paid in full, and Rodolphus still bears scars enough to attest to his father's iron fist. He is neither resentful for the childhood nor appreciative of it - he sees Alcander as a bulwark, whose painful lessons taught him power and strength in his journey into the world.

Childhood was to be a time of independence for Rodolphus as well, for though he made friends easily enough, he did not enjoy the company of men so much as books and his father's great wolfhounds. When not being tutored in the archaic languages of Latin and Greek, Rodolphus schooled himself in German, French, Italian, and Spanish - if only so he could read the prized texts within the family library. His ambition evolved thusly: he strove to devour language so far as it would serve him in his intellectual pursuits - for knowledge was Rodolphus's great ambition. Knowledge and power.

hogwarts. Upon entrance to Hogwarts, the sorting hat considered placing Rodolphus in Ravenclaw for his sheer obsessive fervour for knowledge. It was hard-pressed, however, to ignore his inflexibility, narrow-mindedness, and utter devotion to purism, and so to Slytherin he went, where he was to make less of an impression than his father before him. Though Rodolphus was distinctly successful in his studies, his social impact was negligible. The highest honour he achieved was prefect, though he was noticeably disinterested in his classmates, quidditch, clubs, or any other extracurricular activities. Rodolphus spent the majority of his time reading - and ignoring all but the most blatant of trespasses by his fellow man. In studies, he excelled at defence, duelling, charms, and history. He also exhibited a talent for the less than kosher hexes, jinxes, and curses that boys taught each other in the hallways. Herbology and astronomy were two dismal failures, and he abandoned them both at first chance.

Rodolphus did not see Hogwarts as his bridge to some greater career, nor did he see it as a place to make connections - for the only connections he considered important were those that existed between his family and others'. Hogwarts was a place to grow closer to those he'd known since childhood and to those his parents thought he ought to have known, and in so doing he found the woman he would eventually marry and the colleagues he would eventually kill beside.

It is a testament to Rodolphus's ambition and single-mindedness that he decided fifth year that he was going marry Bellatrix Black, one year his junior and every ounce his equal. To call him 'disinterested' in the female race wouldn't be accurate (he had his share of well-bred, exceptionally boring girlfriends) but there was no woman who'd crossed his path that interested Rodolphus in the way that Bellatrix did. She was hot tempered, sensual and (as his mother hissed when he first brought the subject up) possibly not a virgin - but he didn't care. He knew what he wanted and was determined to have it. Unfortunately, there were twenty other young men with the same ideas and Rodolphus was not particularly exceptional in any way that might have interested Bellatrix Black. He was, however, persistent.

Though for most of his peers the greatest priority of fifth year was passing OWLs (something he managed for those subjects he gave a damn about), Rodolphus had other responsibilities upon his plate. During the winter holiday of his fifth year, Rodolphus's father - a first generation death eater and longtime friend of Tom Riddle (now the Lord Voldemort), took his son to be examined by Dark Lord. Always a poor student of occlumency and otherwise ungifted in the art of dissembling, he was incapable of shielding his mind from exploration - something that neither bothered nor shamed him. The Dark Lord was well aware of the potential this young boy had, and if Rodolphus respected his father to the point of blind ignorance of his faults, he worshiped the Dark Lord, easily seduced by the sway he held over Alcander and the sheer power that he grasped. The summer of 1966 brought further contact, and it took seemingly little effort for the Dark Lord to become less a man and more an ideal, a god - a figure of truth and righteousness. Rodolphus was beguiled, and took to that seduction like a fish to water. He had found his purpose in life. In three short months he had proved his fervour, and Lord Voldemort's hold over him was sealed with a dark mark. Rodolphus has never looked back with regret.

the first war. Though the next two years were spent either in school or in service to the Dark Lord (to such extent that a 16 year old boy is capable of being of worth), upon graduation, Rodolphus threw himself into the study of dark arts. He devoted the next four years of his life to this study, the renovation and detailing of his future home, and the pursuit of a rather resistant future wife.

Bellatrix could not hold out against societal pressure and the utterly aggravating persistence of an equally stubborn suitor forever, and, having decided she might as well marry the one she hated the least, married Rodolphus in 1972. They were an explosive sort of couple - and though Rodolphus never sought to stifle his wife's unseemly fits of emotion (what did he care for the eyerollings of witless society women?), violence erupted within the home upon a weekly basis. They delighted in instigating each other, and Bellatrix seemed to secretly enjoy the physical power he held over her. It was a very bizarre sort of marriage, but one he was quite suited for. With a wife captured, Rodolphus's thoughts went next toward building a library; it was to be a pillar of purist society, containing literature penned only by wizarding quills so that the entire nation could see what it truly meant to be a wizard. Rodolphus's plans were put into action soon after his marriage, and continued on throughout the decade as he devoted his time to the Cause.

The following years were dark times for the ministry, the order, and the death eaters alike. There was a grim sort of satisfaction in a job well done, but Rodolphus did not glean the same sort of sadistic pleasure from his work as did many of his peers. He saw it as necessary, vital even, to the cause, and spared no one their just dues. He was educated enough to know that the populace would not follow if the government simply fell; it had to be turned from the inside out, and set himself to that goal. It was only the Order of the Phoenix that seemed to stand in the death eaters' way again and again and again, and as they became a target, Rodolphus gladly carried out the cruel ministrations of justice. The Boneses were only one of countless families ruined at his hands, but every death was justified by the future they would have, that he was convinced they must have.

Even as the order and ministry fought them, the death eaters were winning. They lost some death eaters to the ministry, some to informants, but their numbers were strong and their information kept them a step ahead. Everything seemed perfect until one cool October night in 1981. Rodolphus and Bellatrix were on some mission or another when the word reached them - word they simply could not believe. The Dark Lord had fallen. Near blind with rage and disbelief, they, along with Rabastan and Bartemius Crouch, scoured the countryside, turning over informants and rocks alike in search of their master. Their mistake was made when they turned to Alice and Frank Longbottom for the information they demanded, and for their cruel methods of extraction they each earned a life's sentence in Azkaban.

azkaban. The effect of Azkaban upon Rodolphus was a profound one; though his wife's spirit seemed impossible to break - something that got him through several years of that dark, insufferable place - Rodolphus's strength seemed to wane as the years ground on. Bellatrix was convinced that the Dark Lord would rise again, convinced that he would set them free, and in truth her passion was the one thing that kept him alive. In that place without light and joy and hope (and, more importantly, intellectual stimulation of any kind), Rodolphus was left with only his vicious loyalty and desperate belief that the Dark Lord would return and set them free - and it very nearly wasn't enough to save him from starving to death.

freedom. In January of 1996, a Rodolphus very unlike the one who had entered Azkaban, escaped during a mass breakout of prisoners. He was countless stone lighter, a great deal older, and nearly dead from misery and neglect. He returned to find his home in disrepair, upkept only by loyal house-elves driven near insane from isolation, and his library sealed from public use - neither of which he could enter without risk of capture by the ministry. Four months in the demanding care of his wife at Malfoy Manor would set him upon the path of recovery, but Rodolphus was never 'right' again. Though any seeds of doubt were excised from him upon his escape, there was something unrecoverable about his spirit. He was passionate for his freedom and for the siren-call of violence - the only thing that seemed to sate his insatiable hunger - but he was tired, humourless, and brutal in his dispassion. However, he did not yet relinquish his desire for 'the better future,' and with an unmistakable thirst for revenge, he set upon the department of mysteries to enact that revenge upon the creature which had so damaged his master; unfortunately, vengeance was not to come.

reimprisonment & escape. The death eaters' reimprisonment was to last only a couple month, and their spirits were far higher than they had been those fifteen years prior. Rodolphus lived on the knowledge that Dark Lord had and would provide, and his beliefs were rewarded with an immediacy that only strengthened his worship.

the second war & the new era. The next year was spent mostly in recovery, for Rodolphus had suffered greatly from his imprisonment and had a severe amount of weight to regain, as well as strength to rebuild. Still unable to reinstate his claim over his own property, he was forced to rejoin Bellatrix at the Malfoys' - something that severely rankled his territorial sensibilities.

In 1997, Rodolphus was called upon for duty once more. Dumbledore had been killed and Harry Potter was all that stood between his master and the power he so rightly deserved. Upon a broom he fought the Order, only to be injured by Nymphadora Tonks, the filthy daughter of the disowned blood traitor and her mudblood. It was obvious he required more time to gather strength, to build himself for his master's purpose, and as the ministry was overthrown, as the wizarding world was thrown into a new, a better, era, Rodolphus Lestrange returned to his home to begin reparations and to his master's side to perform whatever duties were needed of him. He was best served in foreign relations, and over the following five years, Rodolphus's time was spent between his wife, the continent, and his library - a relatively quiet existence that served him well. The last several months have been spent in Russia, where he has been working to gain the loyalties of purist groups in order to strengthen the bond between England and other great powers. Now returned, his attentions turn to the younger generation of Death Eaters, whom he feel need discipline, zeal, and a greater prowess.
 

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