A Rumor of Peace

CHAPTER 27

SUMMARY : The remainder of the discussion about Rodolphus and Rabastan.

"Hum...my Rodolphus," he murmured, his smile vanishing, the sparkle in his silver eyes dimming.  "How can he be my anything when he doesn't trust me?"

Robin tapped a finger to his nose.  "I think he trusts as much as he is able too, and a hell of a lot more than you think he does.  Think about it," he raised a brow.  "The man is married, and by all accounts it's an absolutely horrid marriage, yet he stays with her.  He was willing to start a relationship with you, to open his heart to you...a heart he had closed off when he was forced to marry a crazy bitch.  He comes to you every night, spends the night with you, makes love to you, and unless I am very much mistaken, he has saved your life more than once on several of our raids."

"What?" he said in surprise.

"I happen to know for a fact that several of those laser shots that took out those men aiming for you on those raids did not come from any of us, though it certainly LOOKED like it did."

"They DIDN'T?!" he looked over at Harry, saw him shrug, then looked around the room, saw several of the Durin's nodding in agreement.  "DAMN him!  He's taking way too many risks!  If anyone else happens to be paying as close of attention as you all do, they're going to begin to notice...to wonder and put two and two together.  It'll get back to Riddle..." he shook his head.  "I'm going to have to talk to that idiot about that." 

He gave a deep sigh then.  "It wasn't always like this.  Not at first.  It was supposed to be just that one night, but as Lex, Ty and Jordan said, that kind of passion, of desire that was between us was just too hard to resist...or to deny for very long.  We just couldn't seem to stay away from each other, and the more we tried, the stronger the feelings between us became.  And those few times we saw each other in the City Square...Dear sweet Kobol, how we burned."

"Agreed.  It was supposed to just be sex," Harry said then.  "It was never supposed to go beyond that one night between Rabastan and I either, but then it happened again...and again.  The harder we tried to stay away from each other, the more we couldn't.  Then everything began to change.  The more time we spent with them, the more we talked with them, the deeper we became involved...realized that we had fallen in love."

"So tell us about it," Kaden said as he took a seat on the carpeted floor, his back to Greyson's legs.  "Tell us about them."

"Alright, but what we tell you can go no further than this room," he told them, looking around at each of them in turn.  "Their lives are going to depend on it."

They all nodded their agreement, so, slowly they began to tell them, starting with the night that had started it all...the night they Lestrange brother's had first appeared in their apartments to issue their warnings, and their threats.  No one spoke, they just let Harry and Roark talk until they finally stopped, falling silent to allow the Durin's to digest everything they had shared with them.

Roark felt fingers combing threw his hair, and tilted his head back to look up at Dylan who was now standing behind the couch, understanding in his deep forest green eyes.  "He loves you, you know," he said, then looked over at Harry.  "Just as Rabastan loves you."

"He says he does," Roark said softly.

"Oh, oh.  I hear some doubt there.  What exactly has made you doubt him, Rory?"

"It's not that I doubt him, Cole," he answered immediately.  "It's just..." a pause, then, "I found out something.  Something that I had, for a few brief centons suspected, but then discounted as not possible given all the inconsistances and contradictions."

"What did you find out, Rory?"  Kili asked, looking puzzled.  "It's not very often that something shocks you as badly as you were when we arrived."