Skip to main content

harry potter - What Happened to Rodolphus Lestrange (Bellatrix's Husband)?


In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix there is the mass breakout from Azkaban, Rodolphus and Bellatrix being two of the escapers. Rodolphus is very briefly mentioned (once) in the Battle of the Department of Mysteries.



We’ll split into pairs and search, and don’t forget, be gentle with Potter until we’ve got the prophecy, you can kill the others if necessary — Bellatrix, Rodolphus, you take the left, Crabbe, Rabastan, go right. . .



The last time Rodolphus is mentioned is in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, after everyone has made it back to the Burrow:



“Bellatrix,” said Tonks. “She wants me quite as much as she wants Harry, Remus, she tried very hard to kill me. I just wish I’d got her, I owe Bellatrix. But we definitely injured Rodolphus. . .



After this instance, he is never mentioned again. Whether or not he and Bellatrix had a "loving" marriage, shouldn't he have appeared again? Did Tonks kill him? Did he abandon his wife and escape Voldemort like Karkaroff? Why wasn't he in the Battle of Hogwarts? Did J.K. Rowling forget about him?




Answer




Did Tonks kill him?



Tonks is a trained Auror, and her estimate (that she only injured Rodolphus) should be relatively good: in any case, it indicates she was not using a fatal curse. Unless Rodolphus was knocked unconscious or lost his wand, even a fall should not have been fatal to him. And the Death Eaters seem to have been trying to keep their injured from falling to their deaths, as well.



Did he abandon his wife and escape Voldemort like Karkaroff?



What Rodolphus thinks of his wife is anyone's guess--certainly she was in love with Voldemort, not Rodolphus. But it was their mutual loyalty to Voldemort that brought them together in the first place. Rodolphus was an old school friend of Voldemort's, as Slughorn's memory in Half-Blood Prince indicates, so his loyalty was probably personal as well as political. Rodolphus's actions after the end of the First Wizarding War are the best indication of his feelings in that regard. Voldemort had disappeared, but instead of breathing a sigh of relief and going on with his life (as Karkaroff did), Rodolphus joined his wife in attacking the Longbottoms. Yes, Bellatrix was probably the instigator, but other people seem to have perceived them as a team, and they went to prison together. Most people in the wizarding world consider Rodolphus a particularly hardcore Voldemort supporter. For him to attempt an escape at a time when Voldemort's power was greater than ever before would not make sense, and it would be inconsistent with his previous behavior.




Why wasn't he in the Battle of Hogwarts? Did J.K. Rowling forget about him?



Out-of-universe answer: Yes, I think there's a good probability that J.K. Rowling simply forgot about him. Many of the Death Eaters are essentially interchangeable (e.g., who cares what happens to Avery?). Rowling never gave Rodolphus much of a personality (unlike his wife and in-laws), so it is at least understandable that he disappears.


In-universe answer: There are a few possibilities.



  1. He was at the Battle of Hogwarts, but he wasn't put into the same parts of the battle as Bellatrix was. Maybe his fighting skills aren't quite as good. Maybe he was needed to direct some other part of the battle. Maybe he was injured or killed early in the battle (Neville's Mandrakes come to mind), and so he isn't around for the fighting inside Hogwarts, which is when most of the other important Death Eaters are mentioned by name.

  2. At the time of the battle, he is in some other part of Britain--or even in another part of the world--completing an assignment for Voldemort. When Voldemort calls the Death Eaters to Hogwarts, he can't come quickly enough to join in.

  3. Rodolphus's injury was of a long-term or even permanent nature, rendering him unable to fight.


Hopefully, JKR will develop an in-universe explanation in the future.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

harry potter - Do the Kwikspell courses work?

In Harry Potter we are introduced to Kwikspell course in The Chamber of Secrets (and never hear about it again). We see Filch taking courses, presumably by mail. The descriptions of Kwikspell make me think it is for people who are weak in magic (kind of like how Neville was supposed to be when he was younger), but had magic in them nonetheless. However, Ron's comments later in the chapter make it sound like it is mainly for Squibs to learn magic. However, it is strongly implied through out all the books that Squibs are essentially Muggles, and will never be able to do magic. How then is a Kwikspell course supposed to work? Do we have any information to know if it works at all? Is it a scam? An answer from any level of canon is welcome. Answer Kwikspell courses are (probably) useful to some wizards, but not to squibs. The Kwikspell course literature comes with two testimonials. Madam Z. Nettles of Topsham writes: ‘I had no memory for incantations and my potions were a family joke...
Post a Comment
Read more

futurama - How much time is lost in 'Time Keeps on Slippin''

In time Keeps on Slippin' , Farnsworth creates a basketball team which he matures by abusing Chronitons. This leads to time skipping forward by random, but ever increasing amounts. How much time was skipped in this way? Answer Unfortunately, I don't think a good estimate can be made for this, for two reasons: Many of the time skips move forward by an indeterminate amount of time. At one point, the Professor mentions localized regions of space skipping forward much more than others. We then see two young boys on the street below complaining about having to pay social security, only to suddenly become senior citizens and start complaining about wanting their money. Thus, each individual could have experienced a different amount of time skippage.
Post a Comment
Read more

star wars - What "exactly" happens when someone turns to the Dark Side?

When I saw the original Star Wars saga as a kid, the concept of the Dark Side imprinted in me was quite simple. You did a bad thing, so you're a bad person so you go to the Dark Side and keep doing bad things. Now, obviously this doesn't hold true in reality. In my mind it is perfectly reasonable for Luke to kill the Emperor and Vader and then just flee the Death Star and rejoin the Alliance. After all they are at war, those are enemy officers that have captured him and are taunting him by threatening with death of all loved ones and the whole operation was intended to kill the Emperor anyway. The same would hold true for Anakin. He could have killed Mace Windu to save the Chancellor and Padme but that doesn't mean he's going to then go mad and kill all Jedis including children. It doesn't add up from a merely psychological point of view. He had a set of objectives and that made him want to keep the Chancellor alive (quite valid by the way, Mace Windu is quite clums...
Post a Comment
Read more

star trek - Warning regarding forward saucer section in Nemesis?

In Star Trek: Nemesis , just before the Enterprise rams into the Scimitar, Picard sends a text message from his captain's chair arm pad to Troi — who is manning the helm in lieu of the crewman who was just blown out through what was once the view screen — indicating that she should put full impulse on standby. (Literally, if you watch the scene closely, Troi's console prefaces the order with "TXT MSG" !) My question is: Did Picard also somehow warn crew members in the forward saucer section about what was about to happen? The ramming of the Scimitar was a heat of the moment decision. Considering that he also resorted to calling the auto-destruct sequence shortly after (which ended up being offline), he probably was of the mindset that any losses would be acceptable in order to hault Shinzon's march to Earth. Still, I'm curious. Answer The original script indicates that he called for the crew to " brace for impact ". Whether that call (or the comma...
Post a Comment
Read more