Lestrange family Headcanon - Rodolphus the forgotten
As the eldest Lestrange son, Rodolphus was indoctrinated with the importance of pure blood supremacy from a young age and shouldered with the responsibilities of carrying on the family legacy.
His father was among the first generation Knights of Walpurgis, so he was raised strictly in Voldemort’s ideology and expected to follow in his father’s footsteps.
Voldemort at that time still needed the support of the old pure blood families so he treated his followers and their families with a degree of respect.
Rodolphus’ father was a stern and uncompromising man who also happened to be Tom Riddle’s closest ally at Hogwarts.
He knew from a young age that he was meant to serve Voldemort, so his fate was sealed from birth.
As the golden child, he had little reason to doubt his father’s beliefs, and was sorted into Slytherin house.
At school he bounded with other children of first generation of Death Eaters including Avery, Mulciber, Wilkes, and together they terrorized the school.
He also happened to be in the same year as Bellatrix Black, and was captivated by her striking beauty, her magical abilities and her pride in her lineage.
He and Bellatrix gradually became good friends, though they never developed romantic feelings for each other.
Unlike his athletic younger brother, Rodolphus never took much interest in Quidditch, preferring to delve into dark magic and forbidden areas.
He was part of the Slug’s Club and did well in Potions, and he wasn’t as much of a troublemaker as other aspiring Death Eaters so most teachers didn’t dislike him.
Like his future wife he harbored a strong disdain for Muggle borns and half bloods but was instructed by his father to hide it to avoid any trouble.
In his later Hogwarts years, he acted as a kind of recruiter for Voldemort and one of his prime successes was Bellatrix.
Unknown to many, Rodolphus was the one who introduced Bellatrix to dark magic and Death Eaters, though he didn’t expect her to grow so devoted and fanatical.
Their marriage was a political and strategic alliance: Rodolphus saw in Bellatrix a good ally to advance his own standing with Voldemort, and Bellatrix saw marrying into the Lestrange family as a way of getting close to Voldemort.
As he grew older he often felt overshadowed by both his father and wife, both of whom commanded more influence than him.
To his great frustration, his wife started developing feelings for their leader, and refused any intimacy with him.
He secretly wanted a child to continue the Lestrange bloodline, but knew it was futile with a wife who was obsessed with another man, and that made him bitter and resentful and he channelled his anger into violence.
Despite his jealousy and insecurity, his loyalty to Voldemort never wavered, as he saw Voldemort as the ultimate authority and savior.
He also inducted his younger brother Rabastan into the Death Eaters, and encouraged him to become desensitized to violence.
He was a stoic man of few words, and rarely showed any emotions to anyone, his brother being one of the only people he cared about.
Unlike his wife who grew more fanatical in Azkaban, Rodolphus got emotionally numb and disillusioned after years of exposure to Dementors, and this caused a rift in their marriage.
Their marriage pretty much fell apart by the time he escaped Azkaban the second time, with Bellatrix preferring the company of her sister and Voldemort.
By the time of Voldemort’s defeat he had resigned himself to the fact he would be imprisoned for life, and went with Aurors without even struggling, and he was indifferent to his wife’s death.
In a way he was an unfortunate man, being destined to be a Death Eater due to his father, and later married to the most dangerous woman in the whole world, however he possessed neither the strength of will nor the moral conscience to break away from his fate.
