The sharp crack of a resounding slap, a crisp palm striking flesh, echoed through the dead silence of Lestrange Manor.
Rodolphus stood frozen, stunned, his right hand instinctively rising to his cheek where the sting still burned.
His mother, Penalia Lestrange, stood before him, fury etched deep into every line of her face.
He had just returned from the successful raid on Hogsmeade or so he had thought. He had been elated, flushed with triumph, and he had proudly recounted every detail with a fervent excitement. He had recounted about the chaos they had caused and the terror and fear they had unleashed. He had expected words of praise and an excited demeanor from his mother for what he had accomplished.
But instead, he had received this. A slap.
For the first time in his life, Rodolphus had seen his mother like this. Never before, he had seen her lose her composure.
Even when angry or disappointed, she had always carried herself with poise and control. Only when they had received the news of the death of his father and her husband, he had seen her shed some tears. But this time, she was furious. Truly furious.
Rabastan standing too not far away from them was also standing with a confused expression on his face. He too felt that his brother had done great and he could not see the reason why their mother would get suddenly angry.
Rodolphus, still feeling the sting in his cheeks and confused at his mother's response, finally found his voice.
"Why?" he demanded, his tone of disbelief. "What wrong did I do?"
Penalia's fury flared again. For a brief moment, it looked as though she might strike him once more. Her fingers twitched but she held herself back and clenched her fist.
She took a few deep breaths and seated herself on the sofa in the centre of the hall.
"Sit," she commanded, and Rodolphus immediately took his seat directly across from her.
Penalia's eyes narrowed and moved towards Rabastan. He understood his mother's command and followed suit, taking a seat on the sofa adjacent to his brother.
"What wrong did you do?" Penalia drawled. Her composure had returned, and she looked calm like her usual self.
"If only you had failed, I would not have been angry," she continued. "For failing and winning are part and parcel of life. It is your foolishness, your arrogance, your blindness, that you cannot even see your failure, that makes me angry."
"How did I fail?" Rodolphus questioned in sheer disbelief. "I did as you asked. I attacked Hogsmeade. I terrorized hundreds of people. More than a few dozen have been injured. And not a single Death Eater has died. I brought every last one of them back."
"It would probably be counted among the most successful raids of the Death Eaters," he added. "An attack under the nose of supposedly the most powerful man in Wizarding Britain. Albus Dumbledore."
"Yes," Penalia nodded her head. "You did all of this. And truly, what you achieved is a great, great thing."
"Tell me, my son," she continued. "What do you think is a very difficult and complex potion to brew?"
Rodolphus frowned at the question, not understanding its purpose, but still answered, "Wolfsbane could be one…"
"A great example," Penalia said. "Wolfsbane is one of the most difficult and complex potions to brew, and only highly skilled potioneers can make it."
"Yet despite all its greatness and complexity," she questioned, "do you think it can cure, say, a simple fever?"
Rodolphus again frowned as he shook his head. "No. It cannot. Wolfsbane has a different purpose."
"Yes," Penalia drawled. "Purpose."
"And what was the purpose of your attack on Hogsmeade?" she questioned. "To get many of the wizards to be part of the raid, the Lestrange family not only expended almost all the favours it had owed but also called in favours. What was your goal?"
"To attack Hogsmeade," Rodolphus replied.
"To terrorize people. To regain the honour and prestige of the Lestrange family and to kill Lily Evans…" Rodolphus finished the words barely leaving his mouth. To kill Lily. That had been his goal, and he had failed. Realisation finally struck him. Why was Penalia angry?
"But," he argued, "she has been gravely wounded. She will die, and even if she lives, what I have done should be enough to raise our prestige."
"In fact, so many of the participants were so elated after we returned from the raid. Almost everyone was congratulating me and praising me for planning and doing something exemplary."
Penalia shook her head. Disappointment was visible on her face.
"I do not deny any such thing," she said. "But you do not understand…"
"You had the chance," she continued, her voice slightly frosty. "She was there, right in front of you. You fired a spell at her. One of your subordinates hit her with a Cutting Curse."
"Why was it not a Killing Curse?" she almost snapped. "Why was the Cutting Curse not powerful enough to sever her in two?"
"What had I asked you to do?" she questioned. "I had asked you to kill her the moment you spotted her. I had asked you not to drag your actions. Yet you missed such a golden opportunity."
"She might die. She might live," she said with a shake of her head. "But you missed the opportunity."
Rodolphus remained silent. Even though he accepted that he should have killed Lily in that one strike, he did not accept that this raid had been a failure. What he had done was a great achievement. He could not agree with his mother on this line.
"I know what you are thinking, my son," Penalia sighed. "Again, I do not take away anything from what you were able to achieve. But you failed in your main goal."
"These little failures, ignoring our primary purpose that we had set before we began something," she said. "These things sometimes hurt us a lot in the long term."
"In fact, if you had killed Lily, this greatness would have shone brighter," she said. "But now that this has happened, fret not. This is how you will learn."
"No one apart from you and your loyal subordinates knew that hidden behind the attack was a larger agenda," she continued. "Now you will use the success of the attack to boost your status in the eyes of the Dark Lord and the organization as a whole."
"This is a chance for you to gather as much power as you can within the organization," she added.
Rodolphus' ears perked up, and he could not wait to hear the next phase of their plan from his mother. Suddenly, the sting on his cheeks began to fade.
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