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Antithesis
By: Oceanbreeze7
Revenge is the misguided attempt to transform shame and pain into
pride. Being forsaken and neglected, ignored and forgotten, revenge
seems a fairly competent obligation. Good thing he's going to make his
brother pay. Dark!Harry! Slytherin!Harry! WrongBoyWhoLived.
Rated: Fiction T - English - Hurt/Comfort/Angst - Harry P., Voldemort -
Chapters: 81 - Words: 483,433 - Reviews: 2,467 - Favs: 4,877 - Follows:
4,141 - Updated: 31.10.2018, 17:59:35 - Published: 28.06.2016, 02:11:18
- Status: Complete - id: 12021325
41. Dragons
This chapter was beta'd by our amazing Beta Collective
-Arctic Fox From Afar
-Mahina
-Cyndaquil05
-4everfictional
- and countless anonymous helpers!
Thanks to everyone who checked out the fanart! Feel free to look at
any time!
Happy New Year Everyone!
The Chamber of Secrets was vast. It never ceased to amaze Adrian every
time just how far his echoing footsteps rang. Interspersed with the
occasional hollow drip, humidity seeping through his cloak until it
chilled his skin.
Despite the eerie atmosphere, Adrian walked over the expanse with no
worry. He halted his steps, peering at a few of the stone statues of
various serpents curiously. He hadn't ever investigated the statues; the
craftsmanship was impressive.
"Adalonda!" Adrian called out cheerfully, his hisses reverberating like
hundreds of whispers. "I've returned!"
"Great serpent!" Lutain crowed in turn, flicking his tongue wildly in the
musty air. Despite the location and the cold, Lutain always looked
happiest in the chamber.
The tunnels and clearing remained empty, dark and thrumming silently
with pulses of something ancient. Adalonda was clearly not there, which
was somewhat a disappointment.
Adrian frowned, allowing his disappointment to bubble obviously as his
lip twitched into something of a pout. He wanted to talk to the serpent,
especially since it had been so long since he had seen her last.
Realistically it was foolish to assume she stayed in the Chamber of
Secrets all the time, especially with how the tunnels opened to the
Forbidden Forest or even further. It was childish of him to assume and be
annoyed when she didn't come at his single beckon.
"Ah well," Adrian sighed, trying to dispel his frustration as he looked at
the box in his hands, rattling slightly in his grip. The box was a recycled
one which had held a pack of Pumpkin Pastries, although the squeaking
inside signified there was certainly no sweets in it anymore.
The box Adrian was holding squeaked incessantly.
Lutain scoffed sourly when the giant basilisk failed to appear, although
he seemed to be in calmer spirits.
"Set down rat and practice." Lutain sulked, although the two of them had
agreed on the plan prior to venturing down.
Adrian did so, setting the spare box on the cold ground and lifting the lid
to remove the sticking charm.
Immediately a large rat sprang out and darted across the floor, pausing a
few feet away with one leg in a puddle and his nose twitching
incessantly.
"Shift back," Adrian ordered with a small frown, twisting and incantating
a light charm, allowing the peals of sunlight to permeate the vaporous
mist in the shadowed corners.
The rat squealed, scrabbling across the ground as it could see so much
better. Its scaly tail, completely unlike Lutain's, thrashed across the
ground.
Adrian felt the prickle of annoyance as he pointed his wand at the rat; it
froze.
"Change back or I will force you, Wormtail." Adrian seethed between
clenched teeth.
"Should have just bit him," Lutain sighed wistfully.
The rat's flesh bubbled, morphing and twisting before it exploded
outwards and began to reform. It was by no means attractive, and quite
horrendous. Adrian had seen Sirius Black shift into his dog form once or
twice, the movement for that was smooth and almost mystifying to
watch. Even James Potter seemed to leap into his transformation, not
having any unsettling midway.
Wormtail was a hunkered mass of distorted skin and gory details,
something Adrian wrinkled his nose at. The man whimpered, it was
testament to the hideous visage that Adrian could not tell if the whimper
was from pain or fear.
Wormtail curled down on himself, anxiously lifting his gnarled fingers
towards his mouth. His fingernails were brittle and shattered.
"Wormtail," Adrian smiled thinly, "This is the Chamber of Secrets."
The man's eyes widened in horror as he began to choke out stuttered
sounds. Adrian ignored them.
"You'll be staying here, as part of my orders. You won't be detected by
the school wards here, not to mention there is plenty of room."
"Tell him about Adalonda!" Lutain hissed excitedly, lounging about
contently.
"Of course, do not bother the basilisk and you'll get along swimmingly."
"Basilisk?" The cowering man shrieked, eyes bulging obscenely, "You-
you're leaving me here with a basilisk?"
"Oh, I'm sorry my father's accommodations for you aren't gilded in gold
and ivory." Adrian snapped out, feeling a primal sense of satisfaction
when Wormtail paled and flinched at the idea, "Obviously, if you teach
me the transformation faster, the sooner you'll be out of here."
Wormtail pawed his fingers, folding them over and over as if to soothe
himself.
"I still need to have the leaf in my mouth for another week," Adrian
added informatively," The piping system is elaborate here- the wards will
not detect you until you leave the pipes. There's plenty of water, and I'm
sure you'll find food somehow. Try not to look at the Basilisk in the eye,
will you?"
"I will wait for Adalonda!" Lutain added, excited and pleased to speak to
the mighty serpent once more. Adrian nodded slightly, turning to walk
away with a hop in his step.
"W-wait!" Wormtail shrieked behind him, making movements to follow,
"Where- how. My wand?"
"You think I'm a moron?" Adrian looked at him incredulously, "Your
wand is back at the manor, I'm not letting you get out of here and blow
my cover. If you even try running, I'll have the basilisk hunt you down.
Am I understood?"
Wormtail paused, jaw dropping in surprise and indignation at the
threatening response. Something must have crossed his face, or some sort
of epiphany struck the rat like a club over his head. Wormtail snapped
his jaw shut; his nostrils flared and his eyes stared wide in something like
anger.
"You're just a-" Wormtail's words were vicious, stewing and angry.
Lutain hissed threatening, sliding to the ground carefully and sending
Wormtail reeling as if shocked.
Adrian watched the man carefully, feeling inexplicably unsettled,
"...Lutain, keep watch."
Wormtail scowled and shifted into his rat with the noise of joints and
bones snapping and wet skin squelching. With nary a sound, the man
skittered off to the darkest corner he could find.
Draco Malfoy was a self-centered prick that neither understood his place,
and knew his place in the wizarding world all too well.
Draco knew that in a standard fight, he would almost certainly lose.
Despite that, the act of attacking or targeting Draco would result in
swarms of masses then attacking the attacker for days if not weeks
afterwards. You could win a fight against Draco, but you would never win
in combat.
With that in mind, Draco was overconfident for his own wellbeing, too
sure that his fans and other ambitious classmates would take a curse for
him without a second thought. This made him both interesting, and
aggravating at the same time. A princely child ready to throw a tantrum
the moment a warm body disagreed with his ideas.
The fact that Adrian himself had withheld not only information, but
relevant information was both impossible to comprehend and a grievous
error in Draco's mind. Why would anyone fail to inform him that they
were (distantly) related to him?
And in the unique self-centered way the Malfoy's possessed, Draco took it
as a personal slight which only further caused tension both in and out of
the common room.
Adrian slipped into the common room, carefully. He had full intentions of
heading straight to his room to start on the first assignment of the year
assigned to him by Hagrid for Care; he was exhausted, especially after
dealing with Wormtail.
He made it only halfway to his room when he heard the first snide
comment from Draco, aimed directly at him from the couches he always
shared. Adrian should have ignored it- he should have. Lutain would have
told him to keep walking, except Lutain was keeping watch in the
Chamber to inform Adalonda of the situation.
There was nobody to tell him to not respond to Draco, and plenty of eyes
watching, silently begging him to respond.
"Looking a bit peckish, Selwyn? Then again, you always looking a bit
foul."
Against his better judgement he turned on his heel and looked directly at
Draco, observing his tight jaw and flinty eyes.
"Not as foul as your temper, Malfoy." He found himself saying, already
striding over to the couches where his other Slytherin yearmates were
accommodating room, "What's wrong, Granger already show you up?"
Draco's jaw shifted, and his hand curled into a fist. Dozens of eyes were
watching, too curious for their own good.
"You're the one hanging around Mudbloods," Draco's eyes narrowed
pointedly, "What would mummy think with such filth?"
And there it was.
Daphne straightened slightly, drawing an ear to the conversation. Theo
shifted unsure with how tense the atmosphere was.
"Draco…" Theo trailed off unsure, not liking where the conversation was
escalating; he likely wasn't liking how chances were, he'd have to break
up a fight very soon.
"I wouldn't care," Adrian hummed calmly, smiling something bordering
on feral as something harshly raged how dare he. With one hand, Adrian
tapped along his jaw right where he could feel a raised border of
mutilated skin, "Mummy isn't very fond of me."
Draco's nostrils flared- ah, Adrian could see where the boy misinterpreted
Adrian's careless retort as a slight against both Bellatrix and thus, Draco's
family.
"I wouldn't be either, especially now that you associate with Blood
Traitors and Potters, or were you simply living with them because nobody
else wanted you?"
Adrian's yearmates inhaled sharply and shifted away from him. Draco
looked victorious in the way his knuckles relaxed and his shoulders rolled
slowly.
Control yourself. Control yourself.
Adrian exhaled slowly through his nose, "Careful, Draco. You're looking
jealous."
The blonde flushed angrily but Adrian didn't stick around long enough to
hear the rebuttal. He had a Care essay to work on, not to mention he had
to find some sort of way to gather the shreds of his background story to
try and twist this in his way.
(He chose to ignore the way how three students and Theo all had wands
hidden under their books, pointed at his back.)
"Be quick," Adrian whispered, gently smoothing his thumb over a stray
feather which stuck out near Hedwig's eye. She affectionately clicked her
beak, her glaring eyes somehow calm. She spread her wings, flapping
twice with an audible clap. She ascended, white wings flapping away into
the afternoon sky and out of sight.
Adrian admittedly didn't understand the Triwizard Tournament. It wasn't
something he had heard of before, through whispers in the walls or
Nagini's hisses. It seemed unplanned, random and a variable he didn't
know anything about.
It was possible the entire scenario was a twisted form of chance, an ironic
twist that somehow was not related whatsoever.
Yet, that still didn't address how Skylar got his name in the cup; the ward
was cast by the Headmaster himself so evidently a very powerful curse
breaker or wizard would be needed to befuddle the cup.
Perhaps father is involved, and he thought you too useless to be of help.
Adrian left the tower, shuffling through his bag to make sure he had his
finished essay for Care. Lutain peered up sleepily from his bag, mumbling
nonsense before he drifted back off to sleep.
Adrian shook his head and smiled affectionately at his friend, making
sure not to jostle him too badly as he traveled across the stone pathways.
The sky was overcast but still bright, a few birds flew overhead and
tittered happily despite the quickly approaching chill in the air. Not too
many students were outside, especially since the tournament had quickly
offered new classes for this year with a mixture of new subject topics.
Adrian descended stairs towards Hagrid's hut, pausing in his steps when
he saw Skylar Potter walking alone down towards the same building.
What was more unusual, was the mediocre job he was doing at hiding
behind the stone obelisks, staying low to the ground.
Skylar on his own was abnormal, generally his two lackeys followed him
closely and stuck to his every movement. Given with this new behavior,
Adrian instantly was curious and suspicious as to what he was doing.
Adrian followed a fair distance away, tilting his head as he spotted Draco
emerging from the forest at some point and heading up towards the
castle.
Skylar was following Draco? What was Draco doing in the forest in the
first place?
The two spotted each other, and with the grace of two wolves preparing
for battle they drew their wands and shouted words Adrian couldn't hear
over the distance.
Adrian drew closer, pulling out his own wand when he saw the first flash
of a red stunner.
He shouldn't interfere, mostly because he didn't entirely know the
situation. Why was Malfoy on his own, unprotected near the Forbidden
Forest? Why was Skylar following him to begin with? Where was Skylar's
own crowd of people, and why had they began attacking almost
instantaneously.
Then again...Draco was alone, and spells were already flying.
Nobody would be around to stop you, or witness.
Adrian worried his bottom lip, already feeling himself become persuaded
to the concept of flinging a few curses. After all, nobody except Skylar
was around to see it.
Malfoy needs to know that he won't always be protected.
Adrian gently removed Lutain and his shoulder bag, resting it carefully
near the base of a stone obelisk. He advanced, pressing his back to the
rock as a misguided spell singed the grass with a blue smoke.
Just one curse. Maybe two.
Adrian exhaled through his nose calmly, and stepped to the side and into
visible range.
Draco saw him first, jolting in surprise with Adrian's appearance.
Evidently, he hadn't expected anyone to intrude on the mock duel, both
participants were looking worse for wear.
Skylar looked behind him in confusion, nearly stumbling with Adrian's
sudden appearance, "Adrian!"
Draco glared, lip curling back angrily, as if Skylar's acknowledgement
suddenly confirmed that Adrian was in fact real. "Stay out of this
Selwyn!"
"Oi! Don't talk to him like that!"
"What, all chummy with Potter, Selwyn?"
Adrian's cheek twitched as he brandished his wand, "I'll be honest; I am
sick of both of you."
Draco snarled, "Time to teach you some manners, titillando!"
Adrian twisted to avoid the clear hex, eyes widening at the action. He
didn't think Draco would lash out so quickly, he had anticipated a
monologue.
Adrian's jaw tightened and he brandished his wand sourly. If that was
what he wanted.
Skylar shouted in protest, shooting off a stunner at Malfoy who took
cover behind a rock.
Hagrid or a teacher would notice all the spells being fired, they weren't
exactly being subtle.
"Langlock!" Skylar snapped out, nearly hitting Draco when he peered out
from the stone.
"Flipendo!" Malfoy snarled, shooting off the jinx twice at both Adrian and
Skylar.
It caught Adrian off guard, hitting his leg and knocking him back onto a
decently sized rock protrusion on the side of the hill. The breath was
knocked out of him soundly, leaving him wheezing and blinking spots
from his vision. He had idiotically thought that Draco would go for one
of them, not both.
Merlin, Adrian was performing mediocre in a fight against Draco. No
wonder his father had...had left him in the dark.
His temper snapped and he dragged himself to his knees and glared at
Draco, if possible his eyesight would have been tinted red.
Draco paused, and his breath hitched as he realized what was about to
unfold.
Adrian snarled out a minor curse, something that his father had struck
him with when he had been particularly snarky over lunch. The curse
spread like a wave, smacking both Draco and Skylar. It rang like two
boulders crashing, knocking them to the ground and where they clutched
their legs in pain. Adrian twitched, feeling the spasms of dark magic
tingle over his arms like pins and needles.
Adrian dragged himself upright, limping over the distance with heavy
infuriated pants of breath.
"You two are being ridiculous," he hissed out furiously. Glaring at the
paling Draco who just now seemed to be understanding the ramifications
of his attack.
"He started it…" Skylar protested, growing quiet when Adrian pointed his
wand between Skylar's eyes.
You should send a blasting curse. Blow his skull to shrapnel.
Kill him.
"I should bloody stun both of you, and leave you here." Adrian spat
angrily, his entire body trembling "now smarten up or for Merlin's sake I
will curse you two until you can't even think."
Draco's jaw clicked, "Bite me, filth."
Adrian yanked his arm back and smashed it forward, clipping Draco's
neck with his fist. He recoiled and struck again, twice, three times, over
and over until the repetitive and fast frequency of his blows made up for
the sloppy form.
He didn't know a spell that he could cast- a curse that was allowed on the
Hogwarts grounds that was fitting for the boy. So, he punched, until
Draco had keeled over and then he was kicking with his dragon scale
boots that always clicked a bit more than other shoes.
There was something horrifyingly satisfying about kicking and hitting
something pliant and giving. Something obscenely muggle and crude
about it all, but so positively wonderful.
Until Skylar Potter managed to get to his feet, legs stinging and trembling
under his weight, and he tackled Adrian to the ground.
"-at's enough!" Skylar panted, in obvious pain although not from tackling
the taller boy the ground. Adrian grunted, feeling the weight of the other
boy as they sprawled onto the grass.
Draco was whimpering quietly, curling fetal and twitching slightly from
the pathetic pile he resembled.
"Merlin," Skylar winced, looking thinly at Adrian although trying
admirably to smile and seem calm, "Bloody nasty jinx that was. Come on,
I think Hagrid can get you something for that."
Skylar pointed at Adrian's face. He swiped against his cheek, looking at
surprise at the tiny flecks of smeared blood.
He wasn't bleeding, it was Draco's; Skylar didn't realize that.
"I'm on my way to see him already." Adrian seethed out between
clenched teeth, his jaw was already burning from the pressure.
"Ah, okay." Skylar nodded, not looking upset at the blatant dismissal, "I
ah, I think I need to take Draco to the hospital wing."
"Leave him here," Adrian grumbled, and Skylar shook his head with a low
breath.
"I can't do that. He's an arse but I'm not leaving him out in this weather."
Skylar got up before Adrian did, and left towards something. Adrian
stayed sprawled on the grass, staring at the sky as Draco's blood began to
flake across his skin.
I have his blood on my hands now.
Something about the thought made him want to laugh.
"Here," Skylar returned, gently lowering Adrian's bag to the ground.
Thankfully, the ruckus hadn't woken Lutain. Adrian tugged on his bag,
uncomfortable for how the strap pulled on his chest.
Adrian stumbled past Skylar, ignoring both the boy and the whimpering
Draco on the ground as he hobbled towards Hagrid's hut, hoping to turn
in his essay and head up to the hospital wing or find someone with a
bruise salve.
He knocked twice on the wooden door, smiling widely at the large man
when he opened the door.
Obviously, he didn't look alright with how Hagrid's expression fell.
"Adrian?" Hagrid asked in alarm, holding the door open and inviting the
student inside, "What'r you doing down 'ere? Wha' 'appened ter ya?"
"I finished my essay early and I have arrangements for Friday so I
wouldn't be able to visit." Adrian robotically responded, sliding past
Hagrid's large hound to take a seat on the oversized chairs.
Hagrid nodded in understanding although was moving slowly and timid.
Hagrid fumbled with the thin roll of parchment Adrian provided, pausing
before setting it in a basket and stumbling towards the kitchen.
Adrian blinked in alarm when Hagrid handled over a grey tea towel,
dampened with water.
"For yer…" Hagrid motioned to his face, and Adrian numbly swiped
across his face. The towel came back with specs of red.
Hagrid had a frown on his face, something deep set and almost sad
looking. He sighed, looking out the window as Adrian continued to scrub
at his face, then his fists and arms.
"Who're fightin' out ther'?" Hagrid rumbled, reaching for a large mug to
hold in his palms.
Adrian stilled and fumbled with his words, "N-nobody."
Hagrid gave a huff of a laugh, "Yer alway' pickin' fights now'er days?"
Adrian shook his head and didn't respond.
"How yer feel 'bout Moke?" Hagrid asked spontaneously, looking
painfully eager to change the topic.
Adrian blinked, thinking about where he knew the magical creature. It
was a shapeshifting reptile as far as he knew, able to alter its size at will.
He didn't know about the color,
"Fascinating creatures," Adrian mumbled, clearing his throat and sniffing
loudly. "They're difficult to house due to the size."
Hagrid deflated slightly, "Yer right, beautiful creatures though. I'd love
ter 'ave one, one day."
Adrian nodded slightly, feeling oddly detached.
"Yer seem like one ter 'ave one." Hagrid added, a commendable effort to
try and lift his spirits, "'Ave lots 'er space at home?"
"Father would kill me if I brought home another magical creature."
Adrian muttered, flinching in alarm as he realized what he just said.
Hagrid didn't look like he took his words with any weight, and instead
was looking at Adrian's bag where a sleepy black snake was beginning to
poke his head out.
"Master?" Lutain asked sleepily, peering out and nosing his way out of the
bag.
"Oh!" Hagrid enthused excitedly, "yer familiar! Heard 'bout him, beauty."
Hagrid gushed, watching Lutain as he slid out halfway and looked around
the table.
"Oh, the giant." Lutain flicked his tongue curiously, "Why are we here."
"Beautiful," Hagrid echoed, reaching out one thick sausage finger to
gently trace along Lutain's back.
Lutain jolted but only watched curiously as Hagrid continued to rain
praise on the vain serpent.
"How ye get 'em?" Hagrid asked curiously, "Exotic this one."
Adrian's head snapped up curiously, "You know what type he is? I've
never found a name."
Hagrid looked excited, gentle as though Adrian was still something to be
careful near, "Yes! Australian this one- Taipan, I think."
Adrian peered down at Lutain deep in thought, "Hear that? You're a
Taipan, Lutain."
Lutain preened under the attention, coiling gracefully. Adrian smiled,
something soft and wistful as he gently traced one finger across the
snake's shiny scales.
"You smell like blood," Lutain informed Adrian cautiously.
Adrian's fingers stilled slightly.
"Yer know what else," Hagrid spoke, voice low and conspiring, "Yer know
the first task?"
Adrian nodded shortly, tilting his head curiously.
"There be dragons," Hagrid spoke, eyes wide with wonder.
"Dragons?" Adrian's eyes widened in surprise as well, his entire body
tensing up curiously. Instantly the dread vanished, replaced by curiosity
and wonder. "In the forest? For the first task? Dragons?"
"Aye," Hagrid grinned, "Ron Weasley's brother brought 'em over, Charlie,
from Romania! Heard from Lupin tha' yer might wanna see 'em!"
Hagrid's smile fell slightly, replacing that was an honestly sincere
expression, "I wasn' suppos' ter. But yer seem like yer havin' a rough day.
Wanna see?"
Adrian smiled breathlessly, and honestly happy, "That would be
brilliant."
Hagrid stumbled through the woods, talking on and off to Lutain who
was cozily snuggled around the large man's shoulders. Hagrid seemed
completely smitten, happily offering the exotic and 'rare' snake anything
he could think of, despite the fact he couldn't even understand what
Lutain was saying.
"I like this," Lutain enthused from the man's shoulder, "This is nice."
Adrian smiled and wordlessly continued through the woods to the
clearing where the dragons were being stored.
He heard them long before he saw them, great chaotic masses that roared
and broke through silencing wards. Bright flashes of fire illuminated the
dusk, nearly setting trees on ablaze and charring the earth and moss with
glowing coals.
"Beautiful, aint they?" Hagrid let out a low whistle, patting Adrian firmly
on his shoulder, "Jus' got 'ere yesterday! Come on!" He corralled, pushing
the smaller boy closer to the cages.
"Hagrid!" A large scarred man shouted, giving a wave, "Sent by
Dumbledore again, aye?"
"Not this time, Kakor!" Hagrid laughed, jerking one thumb over towards
Adrian, "Showin' 'round my best student 'ere!"
The man's smile faltered, looking skeptical at Adrian. His eyes quickly
glanced through an expression of pity, no doubt Adrian's scars looked
horrifying with the dragon's fire.
"You sure, Hagrid? This no place for a uh, student."
Hagrid didn't look deterred, "No worry! Look 'ere at 'is famil'er!"
On cue, Lutain lifted his head up and peered at the dragon keeper, who
inhaled sharply in awe. The snake was nearly invisible in the dark, his
bright yellow stomach plates caught the light and shimmered as the fiery
orange casted flickering designs over his back and length.
"My!" The man gasped in surprise and adoration, "What a beauty!
Absolutely gorgeous boy, an elapid, aye?"
"Taipan!" Hagrid corrected eagerly, "Docile as a Kneezle!"
Adrian almost commented on how most students couldn't even control a
Kneezle kitten.
The dragon keeper, Kakor looked approving, "Come along, mate! You'll
fit right in, what's your name?"
"Adrian," he explained, reaching up with one arm for Lutain to uncoil and
travel down, looping over his throat and neck happily, "Adrian Selwyn."
"Well, nice to meet you Adrian, and your familiar. Beautiful boy- Geomi
back at the preserve has got a, uh," The man stumbled in thought for a
second, "A uh, a occamy. Great big feather snake, golden eggs. Sucker for
skrewts."
"I know them, I've never met one but I know them." Adrian explained,
following the man as he took him on a round path around the furthest
edge of the huge cages.
"We were going to bring in a few for the task, but they're already under
threat," Kakor explained sympathetically, "Dragons were easier, ah, look
here! Isn't she beauty? Smallest short snout we had."
The dragon inside grumbled low in its chest, sliding one membraned eye
to peer at them from behind the enchanted cage bars. It had a very short
maw, rounded and angry like a hound's muzzle. It had an impressive
horn breaching from above its nostrils and curving up over its skull like a
rhinoceros.
"Such strange creatures," Lutain commented, peering at the wings with
veiled confusion.
"And here!" Kakor enthused, pointing to the next cage, "Now this girl was
a hassle to pack up."
It was a disturbingly warped dragon, face scrunched and oddly shaped
like a drawing of a child. Its snout was long and flared at the end,
scrunched like a seahorse. Its scales suggested something more aquatic,
although its antennae were completely out of place.
"Catalonian Fireball," He grinned, patting Adrian's back twice, "The wild
ball of dragons. They don't breathe fire, they spit it."
It made a strange gurgling purr, turning to peer at them with strangely
luminescent eyes.
"And here!" The man continued, moving to the smallest cage of them all,
"We were thinking about bringing in a Horntail, but she was a bit ill after
a bad cow. Here we got a Peruvian Vipertooth, only dragon with venom."
The man grinned, gesturing to a strange dragon that appeared like its
scales had feathers.
It made an odd chuffing noise, dragging its legs out and to the side as it
awkwardly shifted between slithering and walking with long clawed legs.
"Venom, like all noble creatures." Lutain sniffed happily.
The dragon quizzically tilted its head peering at Adrian directly, it made
a strange noise once and nuzzled the bars.
"She's a real sweetheart," Kakor grinned, "likes her trees and perches
though, more like a snake this one than a bird."
"Hello!" Lutain hissed happily towards the Vipertooth.
It chuffed and tilted its head, "k-kello"
Adrian jolted slightly, trying not to make a scene. The dragon chortled
happily and repeated the noise over like a parrot, jumping at the bars
happily.
"And here," Kakor continued, gesturing to the last dragon, "Is a Ukrainian
Ironbelly! Just a baby of course, since they're the largest species ever
found. But wicked thick hide, can't be cursed either."
The dragon rumbled lowly, looking more like a large black and grey
boulder in the setting sun.
"Amazing, all of them," Adrian smiled, looking back at the Vipertooth
which was still mimicking Lutain's words earlier, "How will the
champions select them?"
"At random," Kakor shrugged, "Nothing assigned, they just need to
protect an egg or something like that. Unlucky bunch they are, wouldn't
want to annoy princess over here," He jerked his hand at the Vipertooth.
Adrian smiled at the beautiful dragons, dazzling in their own ways, "Am I
permitted to return?"
Kakor smirked lopsidedly, "You got yourself a Taipan, dontcha? Reckon'
these beasts are more afraid of you then you of them."
S058: You know, I must admit... I was not expecting Adrian to get along
so well with Luna. I mean, they're both... not all that there, mentally (I
swear I saw a comment Rowling made, Luna's not a prophet, she's
Schizophrenic), but they seem to get along fine.
If nothing else, maybe he can get a nice safe, non DE friend. Which of
course, ties into Luna's little bullying problem, which might cease to be a
problem if Adrian hears about it. And not wanting to risk Dark Magic just
means he needs to be a bit creative with his methods.
I like the concept of Luna being mentally ill, although for this story I don't
think that trope will fit perfectly. I think I'll make her a bit unique, not quite a
prophet but something unique. You'll like it, don't worry.
The bullying problem is going to be intense, trust me on that madness. Adrian
and Luna together a chaos incarnate.
Impstar: ... ... ... So, judging by how your last book ended... if this
foreshadowing for Adrain to become a Thestral, or a Dementor? We
currently have more data points for Dementor, but this was very
interesting.
Although this is a remake of the original, I've redone a lot of this story. I plan
to change a lot with this, but I like throwing out different variables. I figured
you all would appreciate the thestral bit, I have a lot more for it in the future.
Adara Starborn: Didn't Adrian meet Luna, just last year? Or did Luna
make him forget? And the thestral...is that Ginny Weasley?
Adrian did meet Luna. That's why It's stated that Luna is 'vaguely familiar'
when he sees her.
The thestrals have a better role to play.
tecachan:As for how he would get Ginny out [Of the Chamber regarding
how Ginny would have lived]... I thought it up and came to the
conclusion that he tell her that if he were to let her live, she probably
wouldn't be able to see her family and she would be nothing more than a
pet. She of course would agree with anything just to stay alive, I think
that would run the lines of a stocolm syndrome. To get her out he says
she would have to stay down there and without food for about two days,
as it would take that long to get home (I think that happened the day
before the feast right?). He would instruct the basilisk to take her to the
forest at night in two days time and would send an elf to get her (she
would be outside the wards).
His excuse to his father would be that they could benefit from her in the
future, maybe use her. I would go along the lines that Ginny's magic was
"tainted" by the diary, so her core adapted to darker magic (don't know if
I would let her retain some skill from the diary, like understand parsel)
Voldemort would indulge the boy and see what he would make of the
girl, in the worst case he could use her as practicing target for them or a
play thing for Bella.
Ginny would live in Adrian's quarters and have access to a few places like
the library. She would be clothed and well fed, would be trained as a
powerful witch, when Adrian got his supplies he would get the necessary
ones for her too. She would have to study by herself during that year. For
the summer escape, they would both be left out under the guise of being
left in the depths of knockturn to see if they could survive there for a
week. Only they "would have been subjected to a session with Bella" right
before that.
Ginny's excuse at home would be that she didn't know where she was,
only that she woke up in a strange place (not a lie) and forced to learn
and cast dark spells. I believe they would be to happy to dig into it and
only some order members would be suspicious.
Adrian would have "only known about that when he arrived home for
summer".
They would act close, people would think they bonded over a common
bad situation. In this scenario they wouldn't go for the quidditch cup, but
Adrian would receive correspondence from his father telling him to stay
wherever he was that he was sure it would be safer, since the story was
Bella kidnapping him...
. Maybe this got a bit big...
Alright there's a few points I'll address and elaborate on still if you're wanting
more information.
- This story is made for realism. In a realistic world, if Adrian did bring Ginny
home either Bellatrix or Voldemort would just kill her because it is a bother
and a distraction. The death given to her has more ramifications to it and
thus, was used that way.
- This story is made to have no sexual content, consensual or not. I cannot
recall a single instance in the real world regarding captivity, especially that of
a 12 year old girl, who is a 'pet' and does not receive sexual abuse or underage
pregnancy. I didn't want that sort of factor to detract from the story.
- The diary was used for a dark ritual to revive Voldemort into a physical
body. The aftershock of the diary or 'taint' would not exist because it was
used. The only after shock of it would be a lingering brain damage or PTSD. If
I went this route, I'd have a problem because essentially it was only a
possession- if all possessions had this aftershock then it would ruin any future
possessions I use.
- Adrian already was a large gamble for raising to be a dark wizard, and was
treated and abused emotionally. Having Ginny, a well known witch from a
famous family go missing would be too large of a risk and too little of a
reward in the end. Realistically given the psychological state of both Bella and
Voldemort, Ginny would die.
- Stockholm Syndrome is a psychological alliance with captors as a survival
strategy during captivity. Generally this only forms through close contact with
their captor, and is a strong emotional bond based on incredible abuse. The
variables and situations required to actually develop this is not present in the
story- Adrian would not be around enough and nobody else would put in the
time or effort. An incredibly incredibly low percentage of captives actually
develop this, and I personally view it as overrated and never accurately
portrayed.
-Ginny could not have lived. If not in this instance, swap her with a random
12 year old girl and Voldemort with any felon level convict. It would never
work, or at least not in a way I'm willing to write.
LalaSpade: That is a theory I have never heard of for [Thestrals]
creation.
That's because I came up with it myself.
Niji-neko: must admit I don't particularly like Adriantoo brash, and
unstablebut i guess that's the point of the fic xDI don't get the need of the
scar ? you told , almost no one remembers how Tom Riddle looked save a
fewbut wouldn't they be suspicious from the start?. If it is to garner
simpaty and be a spy, wouldn't he try to get along with the golden trio ?
The scar was used not only for appearances, but also as a tool for Voldemort.
Voldemort brands his followers with the Dark Mark, he horribly disfigured his
son for a few similar reasons.
- He will forever always be marked, and even if he runs away, nobody will
take him in because he cant hide his skin.
- The physical disfigurement is disgusting, which further isolates Adrian
because children are cruel and will gladly ridicule abnormalities than befriend
them. By scarring him, Voldemort effectively ostracizes him.
- By displaying such a level of disfigurement, it suggests that Adrian is fragile
and due to this, will be treated more carefully and can infiltrate more
successfully because nobody views something broken as a threat.
-Voldemort made it and has influenced Adrian to feel happy about the fact he
was horribly harmed and damaged and will never feel. Adrian is happy about
his face. Think about that.
-Adrian almost positively is depressed because of this.
Midnight:I thought Harry told Remus that his Aunt Bella cursed him
earlier in the story; I wasn't aware he told anyone that she was his
mother. Though, I think that I have the benefit of having just read
through your story in one sitting so everything is still fresh in my mind.
You do have a very nice grasp on realism in regards to characters but you
seem to have an issue with having the story make sense outside of Harry
related things. Sorry, It's one in the morning and I know I'm going to
have trouble making sense. Let me put out an example instead,
something I believe someone else already brought up.
At the end of third year you have Moony going apeshit and the Golden
Trio out playing with Dementors without any known reason. They were
just out there to act as a conflict for Adrian. I know there were a few
other inconsistencies that I noticed as I was reading, but they weren't
anything huge or else I'd still remember what they were. I think they
were mostly small things that changed from an earlier chapter into
something else later on. Altogether, small things, honestly.
The reasoning for mutilating Harry left a bit to be desired as well.
Though, I don't think you'd be able to realistically come up with any
good reason to have Voldemort scar Harry. When Voldemort revealed
himself to his Death Eaters he did so in his Snake-like guise, and I assume
that's how he'll appear in public from now on, but to Harry he looks like
Tom Riddle. Voldemort obviously knows a much better way to disguise
someone if he can transform into that visage at will. Now, that isn't to say
I know how the man is doing that, perhaps you're saving up an
explanation on his ability to turn into that form but a man that has
delved so deeply into the dark arts that he can create Horcrux, transform
himself into a snake-like creature, and create a Golem body, could
certainly come up with a spell to change Harry's looks without resorting
to something so barbaric.
In essence, I'm saying that scarring Harry wasn't driven by the story but
by your desire to do so as the writer. Not that it bothers me, I like the
look, and I did hunt down the picture and your Tumblr to see what it
would look like. (Your drawing ability matches that of your writing.
Good on you.)
I'm being overly critical, I suppose. It really is a good story, I've been
reading it for the last two days so it has to be pretty damn good to have
kept my attention. I do have a few questions, though.
1. What's with Voldemort's creepy form? Is it a transformation or is it a
disguise?
2. You answered this question before, or a simplified version of the
question, so I know Harry won't be as powerful as Voldemort of
Dumbledoor by the end of this story but that doesn't mean he won't be as
powerful as them in the future. Both of those characters are much older
than Harry, even at the end of the canon series. Is it possible that Harry
has the potential to equal them, or surpass them, in the far future?
3. Would it have been possible to take the Skylar and Harry's memory of
the Voldemort's first defeat when they were babies rather than assume
Skylar was the Boy-Who-Lived? Why did they believe he was the Boy
who lived if both children had scars, and why wouldn't Dumbledoor have
realized that the scar on Harry's head was a curse scar? It seems everyone
else is able to recognize the new scar as caused by a curse.
4. You've stated a few times that no character is Good or Evil, and this
time around you've made it clear that anyone, and everyone, can be
excused for their actions given a proper explanation. You've continuously
stated that you're striving for realism but is that at all realistic? "To create
a Horcrux, a wizard first had to deliberately commit murder. This act,
said to be one of supreme evil, would result in the murderer
metaphysically damaging their own soul." Just the act of having a
Horcrux would describe Voldemort as evil. So, what type of explanation
would excuse Tom Riddle for the countless innocents he's murdered, or
had murdered, what type of excuse could be used to forgive the man for
his sins? I'm not sure whether Bellatrix tortured Frank and Alice into
insanity in this one, but if she has, what excuse would she have? (I
suppose, insanity on her own part is a pretty good excuse.) So, would you
say Voldemort isn't an evil man in this story? Realistically speaking, he's
a Wizard Nazi. Just saying.
I want to start this by saying I do not condone the actions of nazi's or those
seen in the modern world today that support extremist groups or policies that
target the explicit harm of individuals.
1. I understand what you say about my struggles with timelines and events
outside of Adrian based plot. I completely agree and It is something I'm
consciously working on fixing in the future chapters.
2. My reasons for mutilating Adrian are mentioned above in the previous
review response. The scar is used as a appearance disguise, but it is mostly
used for psychological impact.
3. Thank you for your comment about my drawing ability, honestly that's high
praise from someone who has no fear to speak their mind. Thank you.
4. Voldemort's creepy form is a disguise essentially, a physical transfiguration
instead of an illusion.
5. I'd say that in the far distant future, Adrian has the ability to not
necessarily equal Voldemort or Dumbledore, but I would say come close. He
has less talents in regards to all informational or knowledgeable topics (as is
Voldemort's specialty), but he would easily be a master of Magical Creatures
or obscure ways of combat. Because of this, he would likely be incredibly
dangerous to fight because although he isn't using powerful spells, he uses the
rare or strange ones that are lethal without a countercurse (that conveniently
nobody knows).
Of course, there is a significant event in the future that will cause Adrian to be
theoretically levels equal to Voldemort or Dumbledore, but at a cost. So either
way you prefer to look at it.
6. I don't recall the exact time, but new born infants have a memory of
something around 20 minutes I believe. I think it is incredibly strange in canon
Harry remembers the scream or the flash of light. I think also for memories to
be used, the individual has to focus on a memory and a baby would have no
ability to comprehend what is asked of it. Both James and Lily were not in the
house, so when they came back they instantly were on the run and were not
able to have a full medical evaluation for the children at the time.
7. Alright, this one is a delicate topic so I apologize if I give offense.
As mentioned, I have stated that I do not believe that any character is good or
evil, and that everyone can be excused for their actions given the proper
explanation or understanding of their circumstance. The anon has asked I
explain the possible motivation or explanation for the characters, and how I
find this excusable.
I personally view that it is incredibly realistic for the concept of a horcrux to
exist. The idea of murder in itself is morally horrifying, although given in the
realm of reality how prevalent murder is, I think that anyone is capable of
murder. Based on information I received by the USA government, there is an
estimated 15,000 homocides, which is intentional murder. Consider that these
numbers are only relating to solved and convicted murders, which means there
are likely thousands of murders not caught. I believe that given this, we can all
see that murder is very common as unfortunate as it is.
Granted, I can say that these murderers have psychological disorders which
leave them mentally unfit or a risk to society. With this, we can say that they
are excused of their action and a victim of circumstance and never received
the help they needed. Along with that, I personally believe wholeheartedly that
you can take any normal healthy human being and given enough influence or
manipulation, can persuade them to murder or other horrible crimes. If
someone who is persuaded or manipulated to act that way does in fact murder
someone- are they excused of their actions because they were manipulated to
do it originally? At this point, this is all philosophical reasoning. Do you turn a
lever and consciously murder one man, or stand idle and witness the murder
of five.
For Voldemort, I'll try my best to humanize him although granted if such a
being existed in real life, I would have no sympathy for such a monster.
Voldemort was born as Tom Riddle, a bastard son in a orphanage during
World War Two. Because of this, Tom Riddle grew up in a society where
people were living in high stress situations and highly speculated as German
spies. Those who were different were to be feared, something which only
further emphasized Tom Riddle's status as unique or strange.
I personally enjoy the trope that since Tom was conceived with a love potion,
he likely had developmental disorders or some sort of genetic abnormality that
inhibits his ability for social or emotional relationships. There is a large
trending online presence for blaming victims of mental disorders for their own
symptoms, and as such you could provide the same. I also want to mention the
culture Voldemort grew up in, where in times of war those of the general
public tend to become used to the concept of death or fatalities. If you live and
grow up all your life being told stories of soldiers being praised for killing the
enemy, and at the same time being isolated by others due to your own
differences with an additional mental disorder/developmental disorder, do you
honestly think that you would turn out alright? I'm not saying that Voldemort
in this story is nice, but I view him as the victim of cruel circumstance and
knew no better than to survive the only way he knew how to.
I don't think Voldemort is evil, as I personally do not believe in the concept of
good and evil merely in a philosophical viewpoint. There are countless AU's on
this site that depict Voldemort as a good character, and because there are
people out there who can imagine an alternate version of a single character in
a positive light, I cannot view them as evil. Similarly, if there is a character
that anyone can imagine in a dark version, I cannot view them as good. I
think Good and Evil are social constructs, as those who murder the most in
ancient times were the ones considered 'good' and those who killed the least
were considered the weakest in society.
I would be happy to discuss this further with you if you would grant me the
offer of a PM. I have plenty of psychological reports and a few thesis papers of
psychosis I would love to disclose. I also find the reports and quotes from
famous serial killers fascinating for the aspect of this story. If you log in, send
me a quick PM and I'd love to chat more.
42. Imposter
This chapter was beta'd by our amazing Beta Collective
-Arctic Fox From Afar
-Mahina
-Cyndaquil05
-4everfictional
-Scion of House Lucifer
- and countless anonymous helpers!
Thanks to everyone who checked out the fanart! Feel free to look at
any time!
Hope you all Enjoy!
"Could you take me to see them?" Luna asked lightly, swinging her feet as
she sat on the ledge near the covered bridge.
Adrian cocked one eyebrow, not looking at her as he pondered the lake
far below.
"I think they're beautiful," Luna continued as if he had responded, "Just a
bit misunderstood. Like Wakkamost."
"What's a Wakkamost?" Adrian asked, bemused, conjuring a small rock to
throw from the bridge.
"Small orange creatures, they live in the cabbages and eat the mold."
Luna informed him sagely, "People think they cause blights, but really
they're trying to help."
Adrian had learned not to question the strange things Luna said, nor the
strange seer like abilities she had displayed more than once.
"They aren't friendly, not like thestrals." Adrian warned quietly, "I don't
think Hagrid broke the rules just for me to escort you to them later."
Luna huffed quietly, a disgruntled noise that was eerily similar to the
scoffs Hedwig gave when he stopped her after her fourth treat. Luna
paused, eying one strand of her hair which drifted between her eyes. She
stuck out her bottom lip, exhaling quickly to puff the strand away gently.
"What's your Animagus form?" She asked abruptly, both hands raising to
cup her chin and take the weight of her head. She turned, tilting her head
slightly and glancing with her hazel eyes onto Adrian's scarred face.
"I-I beg your pardon?" Adrian blinked in surprise at the suddenly direct
question. His tone of voice nearly squeaked, raising in pitch so quickly it
was obvious he was taken aback.
"Animagus form, I thought you were trying to do that with the mandrake
leaf under your tongue. Tricklibellies were all around you since the year
started," She tilted her head sideways, "They like the smell of rosemary."
Adrian's mouth opened and closed wordlessly for a few seconds. After a
pause, his entire expression slipped and fell flat, leaving her with
something painfully blank, "So what if I was?"
Luna smiled, a large bemused expression overtaking her face, "I
wondered what your form would be. I think you'd be a dashing otter."
Adrian gave a bark of laughter against his better judgement, cracking his
facade, "An otter? Wherever would you get such an idea?"
Luna smiled knowingly, "No, perhaps you're right. Have you considered a
badger?"
"I'm not a Hufflepuff."
"But you're so excellent with finding things out."
Adrian blinked quickly in lapse of anything else, "I don't see how that's
relevant."
Luna giggled as if he had been the butt end of an inside joke.
"Hufflepuff's are good at finding things."
"You should find a Hufflepuff then, hunt down your missing shoes."
Adrian noted, pointing at her bare feet. Her toes wiggled on the cold
stone for emphasis.
"Oh, it's not that cold anymore." She smiled softly, once more looking at
him as if she knew all the answers to questions he hadn't asked yet.
"they'll turn up eventually. My roommates think it's funny how my things
go missing."
Adrian's teasing smile fell slightly. Luna didn't notice and instead
hummed tunelessly and looked out over the lake.
"This is a pretty place," she mentioned casually, "I should make a
necklace up here. Do you have any twine?"
"Your roommates treat you badly?" Adrian asked, his voice slightly
pinched. Luna glanced at him from behind her hair, shaking her head
slightly.
"You can't fix my problems, Adrian." She quietly murmured.
Adrian swallowed thickly, hands curling into tight fists, "What are their
names?"
Luna giggled slightly, "I wonder how you're a Slytherin. You're so
hotheaded you should be a Gryffindor,"
Adrian opened his mouth to argue, his words failed when he saw the look
in Luna's eye, "Besides, I don't take help from those who can't fix their
own problems.
Adrian scowled, "I don't have any-"
"I heard from a girl in Slytherin that you beat Draco Malfoy until he was
coughing blood."
Adrian shook his head speechless. Luna twirled a strand of hair between
her fingers, "I heard you also attacked her."
Adrian's head snapped up, "Why were you talking to Suz-"
"Anger makes you look ugly," Luna stiffened for a small second, twiddling
a strand of her hair between her fingers. A draft of wind blew in through
the hollow windows, tugging on Adrian's hair and sending a shiver
through his spine. He twisted his wand, nearly shaking as he quietly cast
a warming charm over his shoulders.
Without a thought, he cast another, encompassing Luna in a comfortable
warmth.
"Thank you," she smiled softly, "Do you think that the Grindylows in the
lake sleep when it freezes?"
Adrian appreciated it, the sudden random changes in topics to things he
possibly knew.
"No, the lake doesn't freeze at the bottom where they live during the
summer."
Luna nodded as if it made perfect sense, and then turned to look at him
with a questioning look. She tilted her head and squinted, leaning
forward to an unsettlingly close degree.
"What is it, do I have Horndrakers in my ears?" Adrian asked dryly, trying
not to smile at the made-up creature.
She huffed, understanding his light jab but instead of that, she reached
out with one finger to move aside a stray piece of his fringe.
"You have a scar," she mentioned quietly, "it's unusual. And it's cold."
Adrian rolled his eyes, "Merlin would be amazed at your observation. I
am covered in scars."
"No," he argued sadly, "Those are warm and sting. This one is cold,
empty. It makes me sad."
Adrian shrugged his shoulder and looked at her with a frown, "You say
you're sad a lot around me."
"Maybe you make me sad."
"Why do you follow me around then?"
"You're the only one who would ever feed the Thestrals with me," she
shrugged quietly, "You need a friend."
Adrian scoffed, "I already have a friend."
"No, you don't, not really." Luna sagely added, "but now you do."
Adrian pushed away from the stone wall, heading towards the
extravagant front doors to the castle. Luna didn't make way to follow
him, instead she started humming her single tune all over again,
watching the sparkling water far below.
Adrian had made his way nearly through to the outer courtyards when he
heard the commotion. Draco was standing there, panting and disheveled
while for some reason pawing at his clothing. Draco gasped something
strangled, flushing red in frustration or anger. He huffed, righting himself
and visibly glaring at one tall adult in question- Professor Mad Eye
Moody.
What had Adrian stumbled in on.
Draco spat something, inaudible over the distance. He turned as if to
storm off, catching sight of Adrian.
Instantly his countenance changed, his hunched stance shifted to
something stretched and arched as if prepared to leap. His hand was near
his wand but now it grasped the wood tightly, as if facing Nagini on a
hunt.
His skin had paled also, a slight tremor that must have been noticeable
for even over the distance Adrian could see it.
Draco didn't comment, he didn't start his usual banter or curses thrown
carefree around. Instead, he shoved past, not even acknowledging Adrian
with his haste to get away.
Adrian didn't know how to feel, or how to acknowledge the twist in his
gut.
The crowd turned to see what had made Draco storm off, and almost
instantly dispelled with a few murmurs.
Skylar was there (when wasn't he?) and brightened on sight when he saw
the Slytherin.
"Mate!" Skylar gasped, excitedly. He lurched towards Adrian, one hand
landing on Adrian's shoulder and tugging him in an opposite direction
eagerly, "Can I... Look, I need your help."
Adrian hunkered down and shouldered past, "No, I'm not in the-"
"Mr. Selwyn!" Professor Moody barked, shoving through the crowd with
his lumbering walk and his sharp ended cane, "Come along!"
Moody was somehow in along with Skylar, shite that meant he had no
hope of getting out of whatever mess Skylar made.
Adrian flinched and looked at Skylar who seemed apologetic. Skylar
made haste to run after, Adrian following more resigned.
Moody led them through the hallways, clearing a wide berth with his
ratty cloak and gnarled walking stick. Far too many times had students
the misfortune of a single good whack from the wood, even this early in
the year everyone knew to stay out of the path.
They eventually meandered their way to his office; Moody sighed in
relief and dropped heavily on his chair with a grunt. Skylar walked in
and took the opposite chair with the ease of having visited before.
That was peculiar, Skylar visiting Moody often. Obviously, it could be
something to do with Dumbledore, Moody would be an excellent tutor
for Skylar assuming they were somehow training him.
That only gave more questions, especially as to why Adrian was suddenly
invited to these meetings.
"So!" Moody grunted, hoisting his prosthetic leg onto the nearest stool as
if bearing weight pained him. Adrian wouldn't be surprised if it was all
an act. "Potter here tells me you know a thing or two."
He...did. That didn't explain why he was here- was Moody wanting to
know any information he had? His deals used to have a confidentiality
exchange, there wasn't a way for Moody to ask about past transactions
without possible harm to Adrian. Surely a teacher wouldn't endanger a
student so carelessly.
Adrian shifted to stand solidly and coldly by the entryway to the office,
not at all comfortable with the man. "I do." He stated coldly, trying to
subtly ease his way to the exit passageway.
Moody grunted foully and waved his wand, locking the door in place. So
much for subtly.
"Settle down there, Selwyn." Moody grunted with a scowl, "Stop glaring-
makes your ugly mug look even worse."
Skylar winced and Adrian's face twitched.
"I've been making sure Potter here stays alive," Moody grimaced, pointing
at Adrian straight off, "I've been told you have ways to get information."
So that's what this was. Moody was acting independent of Dumbledore-
that was odd. Adrian thought that Dumbledore would have confided in
Moody, or the two would work closely together.
This was...Why was Skylar confiding in Moody for information and not
asking his father or Sirius for advice?
"I don't do it for free." Adrian slowly spoke, wetting his lips quickly.
Moody slammed his fist on his desk office with a bang, Skylar jumped
quickly.
Skylar wouldn't have jumped- he shouldn't have jumped; didn't Moody
constantly reinforce to be vigilant?
"You think I'm going to pay you for this? This isn't my first show, Selwyn,
I know a curse scar when I see one!" Moody practically spat.
"Professor…" Skylar lamely started to try and calm the man.
"No! You're lucky I don't try and get you out of this school, Albus owes
me a few favors anyways. Word around here already gives him enough
reason to kick you out, in my opinion straight to Azkaban!"
What? What?
He...He couldn't do that. There was- there was no-
"Professor!" Skylar shouted, jumping to his feet and standing between the
two with a sharp frown, "I just need some help."
Adrian exhaled shakily, managing to scrounge up the effort for a
monumental glare at the teacher. "What's wrong Potter," Adrian bit out
sourly, rattled from such accusations, "Your bookworm gone rogue?"
Skylar looked sad, and not his usual pout. It was a genuine expression of
sadness, like something terrible had happened.
How...out of character. The entire situation.
"Hermione and Ron aren't talking to me." Skylar confessed quietly,
looking at his hands as they wrung together, "Look, I know the first task
is Dragons but I don't know anything about the bloody lizards."
Ah, so if Ron Weasley wasn't talking to Skylar, then Skylar would assume
he wouldn't be allowed to reach out to the relative who trained dragons.
Which left Skylar going to the only magical creature expert he knew.
"And I do." Adrian summarized quietly.
Adrian crossed his arms smoothly, sending a single glare at Moody before
he looked back at Skylar considering, "I do know a lot of things."
"Oh, for Merlin's sake…" Moody grumbled, grasping for his wand to no
doubt charm or hex him with something petty.
"Look mate," Skylar jumped in between once again, "I just need some
help. You're the best bloke I know, even if the Professor doesn't think that
you're that useful."
Now that was insulting his reputation.
Adrian looked past Skylar and right at Moody, focusing on his natural
eye. Adrian's lip curled as he stared at the auror, wishing he had Lutain
on him.
Despite that, he didn't need a snake just to piss someone off.
Adrian's mouth twisted into a smirk, "Bite me, Professor."
Moody's grim expression shifted into something pleasantly pissed off, and
without any stumble on his prosthetic he snatched up his wand and
pressed the tip under Adrian's jaw, flush to his jugular.
"Listen here, brat." Moody growled lowly, "I have dealt with enough of
your shite. I have heard everything from the rest of the staff about your
performance. If you don't think you're not hanging by a thread to even
stay here, then you're in for a rough year." Moody grinned viciously, fake
eye lolling in his socket.
Adrian swallowed thickly, and without saying anything else leant
forward, pressing his throat even further against the wand. Moody's real
eye widened a micro fraction- surprise.
Adrian was used to bluffs; this in comparison was pitiful.
"Professor," Skylar choked out, sounding winding and borderline
panicking, "I ah, I appreciate the effort but you really don't need to
threaten Adrian."
Moody chuffed, his breath was foul. "Never hurts to be prepared, Mr.
Potter."
Moody slowly dragged his wand back, yet never lowered it all the way.
Adrian could breathe again, and found himself whirling from how chaotic
everything was. He just got threatened, by a teacher.
A teacher that he knew was a high-level wizard, capable of hundreds of
spells Adrian had never even heard of.
A teacher…
A teacher that hadn't even flinched when displaying the unforgivable.
How?
"Adrian?" Skylar asked inquiring, still sounding pinched and worried.
Right, the dragons.
"There are four dragons. They're randomly assigned to a champion.
There's a Swedish Short Snout, a Peruvian Vipertooth, a Catalonian
Fireball, a Ukrainian Ironbelly."
Skylar blinked obliviously. Of course, it was too much to hope for that
Skylar knew the species.
"The youngest is the Ironbelly, but is unaffected by spells. The Fireball
spits fire, which is considerably more dangerous than breathing fire. The
Short Snout can break stone by ramming, and the longest reach with its
fire. The Vipertooth has venom and a speed advantage." Adrian
grudgingly added.
Moody blinked in slight surprise before grinning crookedly in
satisfaction. What a complete flip from before.
"Well, I'll be damned, you were right, Potter." Moody gave a nod of
appreciation, "Which one is slowest?"
"The Ironbelly," Adrian instantly responded, "Short Snout would try to
follow you, the Fireball and Vipertooth won't even try."
Moody let out a wave of laughter, forcefully patting Skylar and nearly
sending the boy sprawling, "There you go Potter!"
Skylar grimaced but had a thankful look in his eye, "Thanks mate, a real
lifesaver you are."
Moody was...something was wrong.
Adrian sniffed, pausing and staring at Moody with a pause, "Of course.
You know where I am."
Something buzzed in the back of Adrian's mind, the niggling thoughts of
a terrible idea.
He hadn't ever tried something of this caliber, yet he did have blind faith
in the formidable barriers and construction his father had built so long
ago.
After all, how different was legilimency than Occlumency? He already
knew his father had implanted the formidable defenses, logically
shouldn't the same theory be applied for legilimency? Moody didn't have
Occlumency barriers; Legilimency was rare.
He gathered the barriers, twisting the intangible strands and sharpening
it like a mental spear. Adrian heard a sound like water filling his ears. He
gathered it and pushed…
There was an unsettling pressure between Adrian's eyes. It was different
than headaches or migraines he had experienced before, and instead felt
almost tangible. A cold slimy texture, like he was pressing his hand
through a bowl of gelatin. [2] He pressed, almost feeling a non-existential
limb reach out as he pressed and pressed…
Moody flinched and grumbled suddenly, breaking eye contact and
slapping Skylar on the back.
"Hurry on, Potter. I want a few words with Selwyn here."
Shite.
Skylar gave him another thankful smile before rushing off and through
Moody's office doors, closing it softly behind him.
The door magically locked; it sounded very loud in the sudden silence.
Shite. Think.
Moody was an experienced dueler, but he didn't know about Adrian's
affinity for controlled accidental magic. He could try and distract the
man long enough to set the office ablaze. Unless...unless when he was
antagonizing Draco earlier that day, he somehow knew Draco had been
injured.
He had his wand, he could fight- but his dueling ability was severely
limited while under Hogwart's wards. Even Lutain wasn't nearby, his
Animagus form wasn't even physical yet.
Adrian waited two seconds, nearly trembling where he stood, before
looking at Moody once more.
Moody frowned, narrowing his one real eye and focusing his magical one
directly on him.
"You're not wearing a glamour," Moody grumbled, crossing his arm with
a scowl, "No student should know legilimency, spy."
Adrian's throat closed. He knew what Legilimency was- and he had
combated Adrian's attempt.
"Huh?" Moody asked, rising to stand and peer down at Adrian with a curl
of his mouth, "Who are you working for? Didn't know scum started at
your age."
Adrian swallowed and knew making a movement for his wand wouldn't
end well.
Damn, where was Lutain?
"You've got Occlumency as well," Moody sneered, his attempt must have
been so small that Adrian didn't even feel it on his borders- Moody was a
legilimens? No- he...he only had his magical eye. He only had a magical
eye.
"Who are you?" Moody growled lowly, drawing and pointing his wand
instantly towards Adrian's neck, "Eh?"
Something in Adrian's mind assured him that this time, Moody wouldn't
miss.
This- Moody was a Legilimens, shouldn't his attempt have been slightly
more... more powerful? Why wasn't the man taking him to Dumbledore,
why didn't he try and interrogate him when Skylar was in the room?
Why was Moody working only with Skylar, and not using other family
members? Why was Moody working independent of Dumbledore?
(Moody wasn't supposed to be a legilimens.)
"I don't know what you're talking about," Adrian fumbled to explain,
raising his arms slowly to show he wasn't armed.
Moody sneered, "I don't believe that, Death Eater spawn. I've locked up
enough of your kind to know them when I see them."
Something was strange about this situation, something was wrong.
Moody had displayed all three unforgivable curses in class and never
flinched, never even grimaced. He had broken rules of Hogwarts in
punishing students.
Moody didn't have legilimency. Adrian knew that- it was why he tortured
captured dark wizards.
He couldn't have learnt it, he couldn't have that quickly.
Moody didn't flinch at Dark Magic.
"No," Adrian spoke, his voice low like a whisper, "No, you're the
imposter."
Moody froze, that lapse in his demeanor was evidence that Adrian was
right.
Adrian felt a breathless grin spread across his face, eyes wide in delight
of finding out what he knew, "You are the one. You know who- you
helped put Skylar's name in the Goblet, you did it."
Moody shoved him against the wall with one hand near his throat,
pushing him forcefully against the stone.
"Listen here, boy." Moody sneered, nose wrinkling into a snarl, "You have
no idea…"
"Do I know you?" Adrian laughed, a wheezing noise considering that an
arm was pressing so forcefully against his trachea, "Did Bella ever talk
about you?"
"Bella?" Moody's expression was masked, something shifting unnoticed
behind his fake eye.
"Who do..."
Adrian gathered the whispering tendrils of his father, gathered the smoke
as if a spear and with his mind he pushed…
And oh, oh what beautiful tangible power thrummed beneath his fingers
and his eyes. Flashes and tunnels of light like Apparition through his skull
and pushing-
Moody howled, stumbling backwards with both hands rising to dig into
his head, just shy of his real eye.
Adrian breathed heavily, hands shaking and blinking incessantly, "You…"
"How," Moody groaned out, wincing and shaking his head like a dog,
"Not, not even Albus…"
Because he would have been paranoid around Dumbledore, but not
around a student. Not paranoid or cautious around a child.
"You're a follower," Adrian breathed brokenly, head still pulsing and
beginning the pangs of a migraine, "You serve him."
Moody drew his wand with a snarl and Adrian shook his head and
struggled to think of something to say, "I'm Bellatrix's child."
Moody paused with an unreadable expression on his face, "Nonsense,
Lestrange doesn't have a child."
And that confirmed it. Dumbledore would have confided in his friend,
only someone outside of the Order itself would not know.
"I..." If only he had Wormtail with him, then he could have an alibi or
someone to back him up, "I serve him too. The Lord, I'm his spy."
Moody snarled and twisted his wrist to press the tip of his wand to the
underside of Adrian's jaw. "I don't serve anyone, boy."
Adrian almost laughed, he grinned, a breathless look, and stared at
Moody in the eye, "Nagini would love you."
Moody froze, stiffening before yanking his wand away in a single fluid
movement. He stepped back, observing Adrian with an unreadable
expression.
"Go," He grunted, pointing to the door with a silent snarl, "Get out of
here, brat."
He knew Nagini. He knew Nagini.
Adrian nodded, leaving in a somewhat dazed state.
Until he resolved whatever had just happened, Lutain was to stay by his
side no matter what.
He needed protection.
Impstar:I feel like the story is holding its breath, waiting for something
major to happen. The calm before the storm if you will. I'm both nervous
and eager to see what goes down once things really start.
I'm glad you picked up on it.
This entire year is like, slowly growing pressure. Eventually it snaps, and it's
going to get messy with long time ramifications.
Roostertheking: thought Remus will find Harry's truth in this chapter
but ha! He didn't ...
Its 41 chapter still Harry and Daphne's connection didn't start I wonder
how that pairing is going start?
Remus won't find out until maybe 8 more chapters. You'll know when it's time.
This story is going to have a lot of chapters, like...we're only on year 4 and
we're going through the equivalent of all 7.
Midnari: I need to remember my login information and pray my second
account is still accessible unlike my first. Otherwise, for your story, I
wouldn't be Anon. Thank you for taking my words as something other
than flame and let me say, if I haven't previously, that I do enjoy your
story. It is one of the better written, and more updated, Harry Potter
stories on the site.
Thank you so much! In all honesty, I love and respect every fan as a unique
individual who is entitled to their own belief or feelings towards my story. I'm
not offended and generally never will be especially if it's opinionated. I look
forward to messaging at some point of time, as well as someone as interesting
as yourself!
Some Guy In An Ambulance: Somehow, the AN was the most
interesting part of this chapter for me. OceanBreeze just comes off as so
damn reasonable and sophisticated. Eh, I'll just chalk it up to self-
identification. I don't know whether I should be fearful or impressed that
they have plenty of psychological reports on hand.
Story wise, I thought the DracoxSkylarxAdrien interaction was a little
silly. I'm not entirely familiar with the books, and it's been years since I
watched the movies, so seeing Potter and Malfoy in the forest at the same
time had question marks floating above my head. The fight itself was an
interesting choice. I guess I get Skylar was there to act as a catalyst and
give proper character motivation/justification for Adrien to jump in the
fray, but it felt so spontaneous. Hm. It's difficult to describe. Regardless,
what I found interesting was Adreins choice to use his fists, and what we
learned about both Adrien and Skylar's personalities. It seems as though
Adrien is very much on the edge. His inner thoughts were a palpatine
whisper in his ear telling him to do it. While Skylar showed himself to be
the perfect stereotype gryffindor. I half way expected this chapter to go
something like how a stereotypical group of men will "fight it out." Glad
it didn't go that way.
My two favorite scenes of the chapter were with Wormtail, and Hagrid. I
liked Wormtails physical description, and found his reaction to his
enslavement realistic. I bet that man's regretting ever getting that brand.
In fact, if he hadn't made himself such a memorable figure, he could've
just been random death eater #11. Oh well. Having a dark mark wouldn't
stop him from revenge if he was serious, Snape's a good example for
being a good traitor. Interesting remark about Lutain being what the
dragons should fear. I like that Harry isn't worrying about Hagrid spilling
the beans as well.
Final thoughts. Lutain, the being that acts on its instincts, is the most
reasonable character in this story. I don't care if Adrien dies, just so long
as Lutain has a happy ending. Here's hoping he doesn't get death flag
avada'd body blocking a shot for Adrien. (It's practically a given that a
mc will either lose a hand, a love interest, a mentor figure, a parent or a
beloved pet at some point in any story.)
I'm going to break this into bullet points due to the length.
- Thank you for enjoying my Author Notes! I like to take this time to address
any questions and make sure you all don't feel that I'm ignoring advice or
treating you all indifferently. It honestly does mean a lot to me to see your
words, and to write responses to individuals.
-Yes, I see what you mean about the Adrian Skylar and Draco interaction.
With this story, I haven't bothered to follow Skylar and Draco simply because
this story is basically following Adrian only. Simply assume that Skylar is
canon-based Harry, and the interactions with Draco are similar to that.
Adrian just has a lot of built up rage, and a very hair line trigger. I'd love to
just dismiss these anger problems as a symptom of his child abuse, but
realistically I'm portraying him that specific way because he has a hugeeee
inferiority complex and is slowly cracking from the pressure.
- I actually rewrote a lot of Wormtail! In my first writing, Wormtail was very
submissive and I didn't like how Adrian seemed all knowing and malicious. I
changed a lot of that so Adrian was a little bit more naive, and Wormtail was
a little bit more pissed and frustrated. I'm so happy you liked it!
- Lutain is a fascinating topic, because simply put Lutain is a horrible friend.
Not because he doesn't care, but because the intrinsic morals and motivations
of a snake are so garish in comparison to humanity, he's a terrible influence.
Lutain is a good friend if Adrian had a human companion, but since Adrian
doesn't Lutain is likely the single thing that is causing the most ambiguity
between 'right and wrong'. It's actually fascinating, because Lutain doesn't
realize anything is wrong and nobody else realizes the problem because they
don't realize Adrian can actually communicate with Lutain. Notice how more
'human' Adrian was without Lutain and with Remus, but how happy and
unstable he is now that he has Lutain back.
- Lutain will only die over my DEAD BODY.
- Let's hope I can somehow twist that given into something fascinating, but
unfortunately yes Adrian is going to lose some things. I hope you trust me
enough to not make it cliche or overused!
43. Nullify
This chapter was beta'd by our amazing Beta Collective
-Arctic Fox From Afar
-Mahina
-Cyndaquil05
-4everfictional
-Scion of House Lucifer
- and countless anonymous helpers!
Thanks to everyone who checked out the fanart! Feel free to look at
any time!
If any of you have fanart or artwork, let me know and I'll gladly
take a look and post a link to it on my AO3 version of this!
Hope you all Enjoy!
"Amato Animo Animato Animagus." Wormtail enunciated with his wand
pressed over his heart, directly at himself.
Adrian pulled his own wand, pressing it to his heart, "Amato Animo
Animato Animagus." he repeated, watching Wormtail's expression to
make sure he pronounced it correctly.
Wormtail nodded twitchily, folding his fingers together anxiously, "Yes
yes, and then the potion- the leaf?"
Adrian pointed his wand at his mouth, ending the long lasting sticking
charm that adhered the mandrake leaf to his pallet. He pulled the leaf
out, wincing as the hypersensitive skin touched air for the first time in a
month. He handed the leaf carefully to Wormtail who pinched it and slid
it into the pre-brewed Animagus potion. Once the leaf was added, the
dark potion bubbled and shifted to a light red hue.
"Repeat the incantation every sunrise and sundown until a lightning
storm starts. Then cast the spell and drink the potion." Wormtail
informed him, sounding hesitant but out of not knowing what else to say,
not fear.
Adrian peered at the man skeptic. "That's it?"
Wormtail nodded.
"That's disappointingly simple." Lutain sighed, casting a glance to the very
amused Adalonda.
"Oh Cerastes, if such a transformation was wanted even I could have assisted."
She teased, the milky yellow of her eyes nearly glowing in the dim
lighting, "You are welcome to use my chambers for your transformation."
"Do you know when a lightning storm will start?" Adrian asked hopefully,
causing the great Basilisk to unfortunately say no.
"I am curious why you desire a transformation of blood and bone," Adalonda
continued, shifting her body so half remained in water and half out; she
claimed it helped with shedding.
"What else is there?" Adrian asked quizzically. Adalonda blinked her large
eyes slowly.
"Transformation of soul," Her tongue flickered through the air, long and
swift in its movements, "Of the skeletal beasts that reside in my forest."
"Thestrals?" Adrian echoed in surprise, "Thestrals are transformations of
soul?"
"And other beasts you don't dare seek out." Adalonda hissed, revealing her
rows and rows of long dangerous teeth, "Those of the darker edges of
magics where mortals dare not go. A pity."
Adrian worried his lower lip, glancing at Wormtail who was nestled in
the strange nest he had fashioned himself from scraps of discarded
furniture throughout the chamber.
"Did my father ever try these?" Adrian asked, interested, causing Adalonda
to hiss something of laughter.
"Your father ventured into soul magics beyond the breadth of Salazar. He
ventured into the abyss beyond the scope of the deepest den."
"How do you know this?" Lutain asked, genuinely curious. Adalonda
flicked her tongue out and twisted her head to rest on the stone of the
floor.
"I assisted with his first tear. Magics beyond you."
Adrian flinched and Adalonda rumbled apologetically.
"No worries Master," Lutain hissed encouragingly, "You can do magics too!"
"But not like him, Lutian. Not even close." Adrian's nose wrinkled sourly, "I
can't do anything special."
"You can speak the noble tongue," Adalonda offered, contributing to the
list.
"Only through my father, if not for him I wouldn't be able to, or at least he
told me that. Is there anything that only I can do? Do I have any skill that is
actually useful to my father, besides parseltongue?"
Adalonda's eyes seemed to glow in the dark, "You want magics that give
you power?"
Adrian nodded slowly, he did. He needed to be useful.
"Perhaps this man you spoke of will help, you should speak to him," Adalonda
offered, revealing long teeth with her hisses, "And if not, I shall feast on his
blood."
"You're so sweet," Adrian smiled softly, "You're going to venture around the
castle?"
"I already hunt for this pathetic rat," Adalonda gestured to the quivering
Wormtail in the corner, "I can follow and scent the path of this man you
speak. Or persuade him to my forest where I will feed on his bones."
"Have you seen the dragons?" Lutain chimed in, "Have you scented them?"
"One offers conversation, the rest are brainless beasts." Adalonda scoffed,
"Wings make them arrogant. Haughty mongrels. "
Adrian smiled at the giant serpent, having grown used to her company
and wisdom. "If I lure this man to the forest, how will you find us?"
"You reek of magic," Adalonda simply hissed, flicking her tongue
pointedly,
"Even if blinded I could smell your soul apart from a hundred humans."
The first task was a dramatic affair, set up outside the castle walls in a
large arena warded against all sorts of injury. Large trumpets and other
musical instruments were set up as the bleachers began to fill with
Hogwarts, Durmstrang, and Beauxbatons students.
A clear divide existed between Hogwarts students, those in favor of
Cedric Diggory or those in favor of Skylar Potter. Some people wore
gaudy badges and outfits to sponsor one or the other. Some people didn't
care.
The bleachers weren't created like Quidditch stands, where houses were
cleanly divided. Instead, all of Hogwarts mingled and united as one,
leading to the unusual display of Hufflepuff students sitting with
Gryffindor students. Ravenclaw students leaking into Slytherin and a few
others mixed throughout.
"It is a wonderful day," Luna smiled, sliding into the seat next to Adrian
with a small smile.
"Wha…" Theo choked, peering out from around Adrian to stare at the
Ravenclaw in surprise, "Adrian, mate. You know her?"
"Hello! I'm Luna," the Ravenclaw waved, leaning even further to peer
down the stands and row, "Oh, hello Pansy. Your hair looks nice today."
Pansy scowled, "Shut up, Looney."
"Alright," Luna smiled as if it didn't bother her, "Do you think anyone will
be bit? That would be unfortunate."
Theo looked at Luna with a mixture of confusion and humor, "Yeah, I
reckon that would be a shame."
What an understatement.
Adrian shook his head, purposefully not looking over at the guest
students as he was certain more than one was staring at his face.
"Attention!" The moderator for the event shouted, standing on a slightly
raised platform near the center of the arena, "I welcome you all to the
first Triwizard Tournament!"
Cheers and applause echoed through the arena, students calling and
screaming out respective champion names.
"The order has been preselected, as have the species each champion will
challenge! Each challenger will be forced to get past their respective
dragon and retrieve the golden egg! Points will be removed for injuries or
damage taken! Points will be awarded for the fastest champion, and
excellent use of wand work!"
"How wonderful," Luna smiled, playing with her butterbeer cork
necklace.
"The first champion will be Viktor Krum! Against the Ukrainian
Ironbelly!"
Blaise shook his head in pity, "The poor bastard."
A group of eight wizards moved into the arena, each working to levitate
a large metal thrashing crate. Once passed through the wards, multiple
chains were connected from a safe distance to assure the dragon would
stay in the arena. They opened the box, releasing the roaring black and
grey dragon. It plummeted a few feet, smacking into the rock
outcropping and shattering a few of the smaller granite boulders.
It tilted its head back and roared orange fire.
The crowd cheered, and then Viktor Krum entered the arena, brandishing
his wand with the determination and the thick stance of the dragon he
was facing.
The dragon pulled back its lip in a snarl, its stocky build moving slowly
like a gigantic alligator.
Viktor cast a spell, something strong and fast. It impacted the side of the
dragon's hide, reflecting off. The dragon snarled angrily, flaring its wings
as it prepared for fire. Had Viktor really not researched anything? It was
practically basic information that Ironbellies had magic repellent scales.
"Oh..." Luna exhaled dreamily, "It has a sore tooth, that's unfortunate."
Theo spluttered, but caught on that addressing Luna's comments would
likely make them stranger.
Viktor shouted something in another language, jumping and nearly
falling off the rock outcropping.
The fight continued, Viktor using the surrounding areas as alarms and as
traps for the dragon since spells were deflected from its pelt. Eventually
he snatched the golden egg, stained with soot and rock dust.
Fleur was next, fighting the Catalonian Fireball. She performed slightly
better than Viktor, utilizing her various spellwork on the dragon itself
rather than any sort of physical ability or endurance. At one point, her
robe caught flame from a glob of spat fire, smoldering tall flames from
where it dripped over the rocks like lava.
Cedric was next, the least successful of all the champions so far as he
challenged the Swedish Short Snout. Although his spellwork wasn't as
advanced as Fleur, or his physical ability as impressive as Viktor, he still
managed to obtain the egg without any serious harm.
Which left the Vipertooth for Potter.
"This one!" Lutain cheered happily, "Adalonda speaks to this one!"
Adrian liked this one, it was unpredictable and unique for a dragon.
The Vipertooth was unpacked, letting it flutter oddly to the rocks,
grasping the stones to push itself forward on its belly over the ground,
coiling over rocks and the shattered outcroppings. It reminded Adrian of
a merfolk, using its front legs to drag itself around.
Skylar joined the fray, looking suitably nervous although his eyes
instantly went low to the ground for the Vipertooth. He had done
research on this dragon, good to see he took his words to heart.
"See!" The Vipertooth chirruped in barking hisses, twisting its head until
it was nearly upside down as it lunged forward savagely, "See! See, see,
see!"
Skylar leapt, avoiding the snapping maw and tumbling into the pit of the
ravine.
"Where where where?" The dragon chattered, curling up and lifting like a
cobra to search the area, nostrils flaring. One claw was wrapped
protectively around the golden egg.
"It's very talkative," Luna commented with a smile.
"Can she speak the noble tongue?" Lutain asked curiously peering at Luna
who seemed oblivious of the question.
Of course she couldn't, it was chirping and clicking its maw like an
excited crow.
"See!" The Vipertooth cheered excitedly, lunging forward in hot pursuit of
Skylar who shrieked and took off at a run, using a series of repulsing
charms to boost him through the air as if propelled.
It was rather ingenious, and something he clearly had practice doing.
Perks of his mother being well versed with charms. The Vipertooth
looked alarmed and surprised by the unanticipated movements, although
it scrambled over the rock in chase with glee.
"Mine! Mine mine!"
Skylar snatched the golden egg, scrambling to outlast the angry dragon as
he bolted towards the safe zone. The moment he passed the line, wizards
descended and subdued the creature. The Vipertooth shrieked in fury,
clicking its maw scratching with long dagger like claws.
"Well that was a shame," Draco sniffed sourly, "Potter didn't even get
burned."
"But that spellwork was shoddy," Blaise added with a curt laugh,
"Pathetic."
"Pathetic like Potter!" Pansy cackled, clinging to Draco's arm with more
force than necessary.
It was almost a shame that the task was now over, it meant that the
dragons would be leaving soon.
"They were pretty when we saw them," Luna thoughtfully stated,
"although I'm sure the thestrals will be happy that they don't have to
share the forest anymore."
"Thestrals? What nonsense is she on about, Selwyn?" Draco bit out,
scowling and looking at Luna with a sneer, "What's wrong? Have too
many imaginary creatures of yours melted your brain?"
Luna didn't seem insulted, she just tilted her head slightly and looked at
Draco as if he wasn't there, "You seem worried, it's okay, I'm sure the
Nargles will leave you alone soon."
Draco balked and spluttered, unable to form a reply to whatever the
statement Luna gave truly was.
Adrian resisted laughing, instead lifting his hood to join the flow of
students filing out of the stands.
If he managed to catch Professor Moody's eye, he didn't say anything
about it.
The Slytherin common room door burst open with an intimidating bang
that rang throughout the room. That in itself was impressive, since the
door was made to actually melt into the wall. Slamming it open was
almost impossible.
Students looked up and instantly drew silent as Professor Snape swept
through the room slowly and pointedly.
He stood in the center of the room, eyes narrowing on all the gathered
students before he located a select group of students on the far side of the
room.
"Mr. Selwyn," He articulated in a low drawl, "come with me."
Oh. This wasn't good.
Adrian slowly closed his book, well aware of the silence of the room and
how all eyes tracked his movements.
Theo shot him wide eyes and a questioning glance that assumed Adrian
had done something wrong. In hindsight, Adrian didn't think he had done
anything wrong, or what this was about.
"Any day now," Professor Snape snapped, apparently in a foul mood.
Adrian stood slowly, knowing he wouldn't have the time to fetch Lutain
under such scrutiny. Hopefully Theo would return his book to the room.
Adrian walked behind Professor Snape without saying anything, knowing
that in the tense atmosphere it would only make things worse.
They walked up and out of the dungeons, along staircases and past the
outer courtyard before Adrian recognized where they were going.
Professor Snape flung the doors to the Hospital Wing open with a
flourish, not sparing a glance behind him to look at Adrian.
"Ah, thank you Severus." An old gentle voice advised, instantly setting the
nerves beneath Adrian's skin on fire with anxiety.
Adrian hadn't ever one on one met with the Headmaster before, which
seemed silly considering he was the head of Hogwarts. Adrian had always
escaped attention, never quite falling into his interest.
Until now.
The man wore dark blue robes, thinking faintly in the shapes of the many
constellations of the night sky. It was one of his less outrageous robes,
especially considering the horrid selection he wore during Lockhart's
employment.
A shifting step across from Adrian drew his attention to the rest of the
ensemble. Professor McGonagall and Professor Sprout both stood with
carefully blank expressions, Professor Flitwick alternated between
wringing his hands excitedly and disappointingly.
All of the House Heads were staring at Adrian, trapping him near the bed
of a twitching unconscious student with prominent and painful rashes
across her body.
"Hello, Mr. Selwyn," Professor Dumbledore smiled gently, gazing towards
the injured student sadly, "it seems that we have a minor problem."
Adrian's mind jumped rapidly, struggling to determine why he was here
of all people. He didn't know this girl, obviously an upper year.
"You're right Albus," Professor Flitwick chirped, trying his best to look
sternly at Adrian despite his excitement, "it's an old peddler's charm."
"As I thought," Albus nodded gravely.
The only peddler's charm Adrian knew was his own bargains, the way he
essentially kept his ranking in Slytherin.
"Mr. Selwyn," The Deputy Headmistress started sternly with a pinched
expression, "Although not expressly stated, such spell work is not
permitted within these castle walls. Especially a borderline binding spell
such as this! You're lucky that whatever you peddled was not of greater
value, or your classmate here may have been sent to St. Mungos!"
"What? I-" Adrian choked off, blinking rapidly as he surveyed the girl
who was twitching still in obvious discomfort. Adrian didn't even know
the girl, why was he the one brought up?
No, no he did know her. She had approached him near the start of the
year asking for brandy or some sort of other alcohol. He had gotten it for
her obviously, utilizing the hidden tunnels that spread from the Chamber
to sneak out to Hogsmeade into one of the seedier sides of town to secure
a bottle.
Bartering for alcohol, something which caught on Hogwarts property
could result in expulsion was a rather serious barter. For her to break the
barter would mean that she had attempted to rat him out, she had tried
to break the deal between them.
"Mr. Selwyn has established a rather...ambiguous reputation." Professor
Snape spoke slowly, eyes cold as his words drawled sourly, "I wonder
how many students would start to...slip up."
Adrian felt his anxiety rise and a chilling sensation twist in his stomach
and nausea rise.
"Now now, Albus." The Deputy Headmistress hushed under her voice,
"You cannot expel a boy for not knowing!"
"But Minerva," Professor Spout hushed as well, looking almost ill in the
lighting, "Mr. Selwyn likely has beguiled your own students!"
"Albus, the boy may not be exceptional," Professor Flitwick stumbled to
explain, not noticing Adrian's sharp flinch at his words, "But this
spellwork is clean! You simply cannot send him off after such work!
Especially with how it wasn't a specific rule!"
"Perhaps you may not be aware, Fillius," Snape drawled sourly, wrinkling
his nose slightly, "but Mr. Selwyn has posed himself a risk to my students
and as such, I cannot permit him to…"
"Severus," Professor McGonagall snapped angrily, "Have you forgotten
that Mr. Selwyn is of your own house!"
"Now, I'm sure Severus did not mean that," Albus calmly intruded,
wrapping his aged hands around the bedpost of the injured girl, "and
don't worry, Mr. Selwyn, I'm sure that this will be cleared up."
"Albus!" Professor McGonagall gasped shocked, pinching her expression
angrily, "You cannot let this behaviour continue-"
"You misunderstand me, Minerva," the Headmaster soothed gently, "Mr.
Selwyn, while your execution of the peddler charm was rather
exceptional, I am afraid I must break the charm and those who have been
affected."
Adrian's heart stilled and for a small second everything froze.
Then everything was in hyper-quality and the realization of how bad this
situation was hit him.
"Of course," the Headmaster continued calmly, "We will require your
wand, no no, we are not going to snap it, my boy." he chuckled fondly,
trying to relax the quickly panicking student, "we need it only to void the
charm and its effects."
Professor Flitwick nodded eagerly and held out his palm, staring at
Adrian apologetically yet with an expression which left no room for
Adrian to refuse.
His hand shook against his will as he withdrew his wand slowly, pausing
and rotating it to hand it over.
Flitwick grasped it and passed it to Albus who smiled gently and
withdrew his own wand, grasping the strange ridges on his own between
three fingers.
He tapped it, speaking an incantation under his breath. There was an
uncomfortable tug, like a single hair yanked sharply from Adrian's scalp.
He flinched, pausing before grasping the bedframe as again and again the
sharp pricks erupted.
"I assume that you are experiencing the breaking of each of your bonds,
Mr. Selwyn." the Headmaster apologized, handing over Adrian's wand
carefully, "I suggest you refrain from any sort of future deals, I wouldn't
like to repeat such an event."
Adrian bit his tongue as an especially harsh snap brought tears to his
eyes.
""I will inform my house in the case that my students have made such
bargains." The Hufflepuff Head of House admitted, looking concernedly
at the others who mentioned that they would do the same.
Adrian flinched again as a particularly harsh snap tore through with the
ferocity of Bellatrix tearing out a large patch of his hair.
"Mr. Selwyn, if it isn't so much to ask, I would like to speak with you
privately." The Headmaster concluded, turning and offering his one arm
in a sort of homely gesture.
Adrian didn't take it, instead he swallowed and silently followed after,
hyper aware of how his shoes clicked overly loudly in the hallways. A
few students saw them in the corridors, already whispering and gossiping
although none of them looked surprised.
Adrian didn't have a good reputation, as well as his looks he was rather
infamous in the school. Without his deals and all of the connections he
had worked years to secure…
Oh god, he was exposed. He felt like he had been stripped of his wand
and set before the Peruvian Vipertooth.
They stopped before a stone gargoyle which animated and leapt aside
into the hallway when the headmaster said something inaudible to the
rushing of Adrian's ears.
He was unprotected- and considering his relations with the other
Slytherins this would end only poorly.
"Now, Mr. Selwyn," The Headmaster started, ascending the stairs slowly
in the way an elder man could, "I must inquire if you have perhaps made
arrangements with any of the students from the visiting schools."
Adrian opened his mouth to respond, jolting at how his voice didn't come
when he tried to speak. He stumbled, choking uncomfortably as he
stuttered out, "yes, a few."
Dumbledore hummed calmly, "Then I will inform the other headmaster
and headmistress tomorrow, undoubtedly students will be alarmed."
They reached the top of the stairs, a large oak door creaked open and
Adrian entered a large room somewhat resembling the private quarters
Remus had shown him before.
The room was decorated on all sides by books, some made from wood
and leather while others on a locked cabinet looked unnerving. A velvet
couch rested near a fireplace, a pot of floo powder nearby.
Ascending a small half staircase the walls transformed into dozens of
slumbering portraits, now awake and peering down in curiosity and grim
horror at Adrian's complexion.
"Now then, Mr. Selwyn," Dumbledore smiled, rising up the steps to settle
in a large comfy looking chair behind his desk. Various magical trinkets
moved and rattled on the wooden surface, dancing across the table top.
Adrian hesitantly took a seat in the other chair, finding the seat
impossibly comfortable. Dumbledore tilted his head down, peering over
his glasses to meet his eyes gently.
Adrian tilted his head away, breaking eye contact and glancing upwards
simply to look elsewhere.
He jolted in surprise, eyes widening as he spotted a large, beautiful bird
peering down curiously; roosting on a perch protruding high above the
office floor, near the glass ceiling with a hatch to the outside.
"Ah yes, that is Fawkes." Dumbledore informed Adrian with a chuckle in
his voice, "I am surprised he returned tonight."
"Phoenix's tend to stay out and match the sunsets," Adrian found himself
speaking without realizing he was actually talking, "They fly through the
sky and match the colours of the clouds."
"I see Remus was right with your affinity with magical creatures,"
Dumbledore chuckled slightly, peering up at Fawkes who tilted his head
interested, "He speaks highly of you, you know."
Adrian did know that.
"You know, you remind me a lot of a student I once had," Dumbledore
started wistfully, "He knew more about any magical creature, and treated
them with respect and kindness as you do your familiar. Clumsy fellow
he was, but had a warm heart."
The phoenix tilted its head curiously, eyes piercing and staring deep into
Adrian's eyes. He felt like it could see right through him.
"I've heard some fascinating information from Remus about you."
Dumbledore spoke, his voice decidedly softer and more careful.
"What did he say." Adrian asked, voice sharper and more accusatory than
anything. He refused to look away from the phoenix.
Dumbledore leaned forward, resting his elbows on the wooden table
between them, "Adrian, if you are in an abusive household I will do my
best and take guardianship as my ability to do so as Headmaster of
Hogwarts."
Adrian's temper flared and burned under his skin. "I'm sorry, sir. I didn't
think that you were interested."
He could almost feel the disappointment rise from the elder man at how
seething his response was.
"Adrian-"
Adrian shook his head surely, "No thank you, sir. I'm sure it would reflect
badly on you to take guardianship of a delinquent."
Adrian tried not to smile at how sad the old man looked.
"Mr. Selwyn, I am sure you understand why your actions were unsafe for
other students," Dumbledore spoke gently and hollowly, "And as such I
apologize for the necessity. I understand that it was your way of coping-"
"What?" Adrian blurted, spinning in surprise to look at the Headmaster in
shock, "Excuse me?"
Dumbledore blinked, rather taken aback. "I apologize, I thought Remus
had spoken to you. It is our belief that your bargaining and deals were
your attempts to protect yourself from others,"
Adrian seethed again, he didn't need protecting-
"It also," Dumbledore continued as if he didn't notice Adrian's expression,
"perhaps, is your way to guarantee that you remain useful to others, or
perhaps a way to remain important."
"I am important!" Adrian hissed, leaping to his feet and feeling to draw
his wand before he could think. Dumbledore smiled sadly, as if his
thoughts were confirmed with the very outburst.
"I know," Dumbledore soothed, glancing briefly at Adrian's fist where his
wand was shaking slightly in his grip, "You are, and Remus has begged
me to remove you from your household to be placed in his care."
Adrian swallowed against the lump in his throat and struggled to think.
The world was swirling, all of his plans were shaking and his father
would be so ashamed…
"I don't need help." Adrian croaked, almost stunned when he felt water in
his eyes, "I'm fine."
"You aren't," Dumbledore urged, "Let me help you, my boy."
"No, you've done enough!"
The headmaster's face faltered slightly as he thought rapidly, before his
eyes saddened and settled on something below Adrian's eye, "Oh, oh
Adrian."
Adrian couldn't deal with this ridiculous pity. The silence was broken by
the ticking of the large clock behind the man's desk, rhythmically
breaking the uncomfortable silence.
"I am so sorry, if your injuries were caused due to us." Dumbledore
quietly apologized, "If your scars were-"
"Bellatrix got a lucky shot, that's all." Adrian duly responded, glancing
back towards Fawkes who at this point turned to peer out of the window
high above.
"Marvelous creatures, Phoenix-"
"Phoenix tears won't fix it, Professor." Adrian swallowed, trying to stop
the shaking of his hands.
"If…" Dumbledore aged, suddenly gaining many years and looking so
tired before his very eyes, "You have friends in us, Mr. Selwyn. We will
always help those in need,"
Adrian paused before he nodded slowly, "Yes sir. Goodnight."
They weren't done, but Adrian couldn't stay in the room any longer.
He was very, very exposed.
S058: Skylar though... It seems odd that they grabbed him for literally
one fact. I mean, just pull open a book on Dragons or something. Yes, it
means dealing with Pince, but hey, i won't argue with results. The fact
that, as a added bonus, it means Moody and Adrian finally are now a bit
more aware of one another, well, it does makeup for it somewhat. And as
a added bonus, you might get Moody on your side. In theory. Assumes
that Barty Jr, if that is actually him, is rational about things, always a bit
of a gamble.
I think that in this context, Skylar knew pretty well that Adrian likely snuck
out so he had more information about the dragons to begin with, or possibly
had a way to access more information.
TheStoryWever: [Prior comments given regarding story contents] None
of these things make any sense. It is chaos wrapped up in color, given to
Picasso, and looks like the Mona Lisa...
No? Bad analogy?
Okay, its freakin' awesome. There, I said it.
May we soon see BirdHunter!Adrien, preferably some Ravens?
Pretty please?
I actually am into art- or I draw often if you haven't checked out the tumblr
images. I take that as a compliment, although I'm more of a Dali person
myself, or a Monet person (because I find the idea he had bad vision hilarious
since he paints so great).
BirdHunter!Adrian? Ah, I'll give him a couple more mental breakdowns and
call that even.
Lunzium: But, I have to ask why you chose to name Skylar such a white
trash stripper-esque name? It's just so very un-Potter. Why not name him
something a bit more normal, or maybe Victorian (to keep it a bit more
in line with the established Potter universe)? Cos every time I read that
name now my first thought is that it's a stripper or pornstar from the US.
The name "Skylar" is a simplified spelling of Schuyler (same pronunciation),
which dates back to the 17th century European area, or in more particular,
the Netherlands. The name in its more common era, meant 'student'. The name
was altered slightly into its more prevalent spelling in Scotland possibly due to
the Isle of Skye, an island off the west coast of Scotland, although this is still
somewhat debated by historians. I apologize that apparently a name from the
1600's is associated now with 'American Porn Stars'
Para-DX: I wonder though, how would Skylar react to the revelation that
Adrian is not only his lost brother but an agent of Voldemort? Keep up
the good work!
Badly.
KrixLight: is Suzi Forestar going to die? I hate her...
Oh man, I hate her too. Unfortunately, she is important to the story!
44. Incapable
This chapter was beta'd by our amazing Beta Collective
-Arctic Fox From Afar
-Mahina
-Cyndaquil05
-4everfictional
-Scion of House Lucifer
- and countless anonymous helpers!
Thanks to everyone who checked out the fanart! Feel free to look at
any time!
If any of you have fanart or artwork, let me know and I'll gladly
take a look and post a link to it on my AO3 version of this!
Hope you all Enjoy!
Albus Dumbledore sat at his desk, head in his hands. For the first time in
years he felt completely at a loss.
He had been so sure, he had his faith in Skylar Potter and with all his
careful work with the Order as well as Skylar's own education, he felt
that they had a chance.
But the child...revealed something to him he hadn't ever considered
before. Something horrifying that left him feeling as if wraiths were
squeezing his heart from its place in his chest.
The child Adrian Selwyn was something which brought him much pain.
He had heard things about the boy, of course, although his numerous
duties kept him from meeting him over the summer or when Remus had
told him he took the boy on himself. He had heard and seen the child in
passing, discussing with a few medi wizards and curse breakers the
probability of healing the poor child of such disfigurements.
He hadn't ever met with Adrian Selwyn before, even when numerous
teachers came forward with concerns for the child. Of course, rumors of
illegal activity had circulated widely around the child but Albus had
dismissed them simply as rumors. Now with the knowledge that
somehow this child was able to obtain illegal goods for other students left
him deeply concerned.
How was he getting the goods? Of course, a case of firewhiskey wouldn't
be too difficult for a seventh year to smuggle into the castle, or the
Weasley Twins knowing their knack at somehow managing outrageous
feats. But a fourth year?
Albus immediately wondered if the child had an external supplier
sending him parcels in the mail, although the wards would search and
reject illegal objects even if sent to the Owlery. Adrian Selwyn must have
discovered some way to sneak in and out of the castle grounds, or
perhaps found a loophole in the wards themselves. That meant he had
connections outside the castle with less reputable sources, perhaps even
with Bellatrix who was rumored to be the child's mother.
He hadn't believed the stories, but after the encounter he had no doubt
that the child had interacted with the witch. He couldn't possibly fathom
Bellatrix being permitted to rear or even give birth to a child given her
position- he couldn't imagine Tom permitting it.
He had never known Tom to let something important to him slip out
from between his fingers; he would have kept a closer eye on the child if
he truly was what he than that, if Tom had accepted the child to be
raised, he would have found some form of use for the child. He wouldn't
have permitted such harm to occur to the boy if he was as vital as he
seemed to even live.
Unless... unless the horrific damage to the boy was on purpose.
"Oh Tom," Dumbledore sighed, rubbing his temple as once again he was
overwhelmed by the horrors of his old student.
Adrian Selwyn had to be removed and relocated to a safer place
immediately, before he could be disposed of like a pawn in Voldemort's
savage path of damnation. The boy had to be rescued, or at the least,
guarded. He couldn't allow this sort of… this atrocity to continue.
Yet he had never considered his old student to actively seek the tactic of
using children, especially with the time and investment required to raise
a child from birth.
Yet Adrian showed significant trauma and abuse both mentally and
magically. No child should have such tight, restrained, control over
accidental magic, even as impulsive and explosive as it was. Adrian
Selwyn had experienced nothing of a normal childhood, which left Albus
with an unsettling train of thought.
What if there were more? What if Tom had simply reared a large supply
of children to pick and select the strongest or most charming for
whatever his plans?
A disguised spy could slip into the castle and open the Chamber of
Secrets, especially if his rival had long since raised it for such purpose. Of
course, to open the Chamber of Secrets it had been rumored that only the
heir of Slytherin could access it- was it a blood ward? Parseltongue? A
different skill that Dumbledore didn't know of?
Albus stood and made his way towards his fireplace, grasping a small
pinch of Floo Powder before he tossed it into the low flame. It burned
green, flickering wildly as Dumbledore tucked his head into the embers
and peered out at the Order Headquarters.
He knew his call would alert someone, and just as he expected, one of the
youngest Order members skipped into the room curiously.
"Dumbledore!" she enthused excitedly, face lighting up and hair flashing
an electric shade of blue in excitement, "Fancy seeing you here!"
"Hello, Nymphadora." He smiled politely, charmed by her constant
enthusiasm, "Perhaps you could contact James or Sirius for me?"
"It's Tonks," she pouted, eyes alighting at the prospect of having a
mission, "And hang tight Headmaster sir! I'll getcha them!" She skipped
off excitedly, already shifting her eccentric hair to a startling shade of
bubblegum pink.
Sure enough momentarily later Sirius Black skidded into the room, hair
askew and worry in his face. "What is it, Albus? Something wrong?"
"No no, none of that." Albus assured with a grandfatherly smile, "I was
wondering perhaps, if you could once more tell me the story of the
stranger you encountered in the Forbidden Forest last year."
"The bloke who got Moony on the ice?" Sirius scowled, features
darkening sharply at the memory, "Yeah, what you want to know?"
Adrian returned to the common room after his head of house had
informed everyone of his broken spell.
He slipped inside quietly, trying to not draw attention to himself despite
the glaring eyes.
"Looky here!" One student crowed out happily, "Little Selwyn isn't so
protected anymore!"
Millicent watched him with amused eyes, her lip twitching upwards as
others joined in the cheers.
One upper year grinned rudely. "What's wrong, mudblood? Not going to
get us anymore potions?"
Adrian didn't respond, although felt his neck prickle as tensions
continued to lift.
"You know," a different Slytherin mentioned, "You had me go snatch
some leaves from Sprout last year. Got caught and Filch made me clean
the whole fourth floor."
'Don't say anything…'
The Slytherin glared and pulled her wand quickly, throwing a jinx at him
before he could cast a shield, "There, that's what you get mudblood for
getting me in trouble!"
A few Slytherins whooped as Adrian stumbled to the ground, his left leg
locked up in an uncomfortable jinx. He exhaled slowly through his nose,
stumbling upwards undignified as he limped horridly towards the
staircase.
"You're going to get in trouble," Daphne singsonged towards the other
students with a dignified sniff, "Professor Snape won't like that."
"Oh please, that kid's been a pain in our arse since he's been here." A
quidditch player Adrian didn't know the name of protested with an
amused glint in his eye, "I bet he's made deals with the Gryff's about
hexing us."
'I haven't…' Adrian mentally protested, but knew better than to talk.
"I bet those Weasley Twins hired him to get in here," Pansy sniffed,
glaring at him with teeth showing.
"Bollocks! He brought a Gryff here two years ago!"
"You're right! I bet he was in line with that mudblood!"
Adrian knew that it was going to hurt, and hurt it did.
Draco watched impassively as Adrian was hit with another curse,
belching large spotted slugs across the floor.
"Why is he not fighting back?" Millicent asked Draco, watching fascinated
but not joining in on any of the casting.
"With the trouble he's likely in?" Theo sadly chimed in, watching with a
small wince, "I bet if he threw a single charm Snape would have him
kicked out."
Adrian stumbled downwards as his legs locked and he nearly collapsed
on top of a particularly slimy slug, trying to skitter out of the way to the
corner of the room.
Draco's jaw twitched as he watched the pitiful sight. He didn't
particularly like Adrian, but the other boy hadn't ever gone out of his way
to bother Draco.
Crabbe and Goyle chuckled as a bat bogey hex was thrown into the
mixture, leaving Adrian in a small heap of embarrassment and hiccuping
slugs.
"Go let his snake out," Draco muttered, trying not to flush embarrassed
when Pansy gaped at him in shock. Theo skittered upwards without
question, running towards the joined room.
Blaise shook his head quietly, knowing the fun would soon be over.
Sure enough, the moment the large black snake slithered into the room
the older students started mumbling and staring at the creature with
annoyed eyes. The snake hadn't ever actually bit anyone before, but never
knowing if his familiar had a dangerous bite was incentive enough to stay
away.
Draco always felt that the black snake always knew a bit too much, or
seemed a bit too understanding of spoken words. Just another thing that
didn't sit right with him, like how Blaise's mother seemed to always
remarry every winter. With that, Draco knew that Selwyn had always felt
strange, knowing a bit too much or having too many secret looks. Even
on the floor, belching slugs, Draco never felt the sense of danger leave
him. Selwyn could at any point, send all of them to the infirmery-
Millicent on fire was testament to that. He wasn't now, because he had
been dealt a poor hand and responding would only make it worse.
So Draco ignored him, and went back to his book.
Theo watched as Adrian seemed to pet his snake quietly, still hiccuping
slimy invertebrates as he struggled into a more dignified position. With
the slugs in his throat and the leg locking curse still in effect, he wouldn't
be able to speak the incantation to remove it.
"Poor bloke," Theo muttered under his breath, fiddling with an empty
inkwell simply for something to do. Pansy snorted in disdain but didn't
say anything further. They all pretended to ignore as Selwyn dragged
himself by his elbows across the floor towards the stairs where he
struggled upwards one step at a time. Theo spotted a few of the students
who had actually cast the spells sniggering at how pitiful the sight was.
Thankfully the snake in question reared and hissed in the perfect
portrayal of aggression and fury.
It took a few painfully slow minutes for Adrian to drag himself out of
sight. Draco knew without a doubt, that his godfather wouldn't do
anything about the attack anyways.
"What a shame," Daphne shook her head primly, "He should have known
better than to play with fire."
Millicent snorted, delighted, "Oh he got burned alright."
Adrian's official punishment came from Hedwig who delivered the letter
in her tight grip.
Written by the Headmaster himself, the note instructed that he would be
serving his time with Professor Moody helping him with whatever tasks
he needed.
Knowing how volatile and how impulsive the older man was, Adrian
dreaded that nearly as much as he dreaded attending his classes.
When classes ended the next day and Lutain's black body was the only
thing preventing Adrian from being attacked by more than just two angry
students; Adrian made his way slowly toward Professor Moody's private
office. The last time he had been there was before the First Task, when he
had pressed and pushed too hard into Moody's mind (not Moody- if only
he knew his real name) and been kicked out.
The teacher hadn't made any movement to tell anyone else of Adrian's
claims, which meant that he was right in the fact the imposter served his
father.
The office door swung open when Adrian knocked, and he let himself in.
Lutain tightened slightly, flickering his tongue wildly in the new
surroundings.
"And so," A deep gravelly voice grunted, rising from a chair where he had
been grading scrolls of parchment, "the spy comes back."
Adrian's nose wrinkled ugly as he crossed his arms with a glare, "Careful
what you say, imposter. I hear the portraits are charmed."
Moody gave a bark of laughter, his false eye rolling wildly in its socket.
"Hah! You think Albus would listen to you? Oh you bloody moron, this
entire school already wants you gone after your last stunt."
Adrian's jaw tightened and Lutain hunkered down slightly, remaining
silent.
"Anyways, I thought about having you clean out the classroom where
fifth years were learning blasting curses," Moody grinned, something
manic and dark in his expression, "But then I decided we should go for a
stroll in the forest. I heard since the Dragons left something's been a bit,
ah," Moody's eyes practically glittered, "not right."
"The forest?" Lutain hissed, repeating it to make sure he had heard
correctly.
"The forest?" Adrian asked, licking his lips nervously, "It's forbidden to
students."
"Not with a teacher," Moody grinned, standing and taking a limping step
forward with his prosthetic leg, "I'll make sure the werewolves don't
getcha, Selwyn."
There wouldn't be any werewolves in the forest on a normal night.
They turned and walked out, Adrian lingering after as he cast a
meaningful glance as Lutain. The smaller snake flickered his tongue
unsure, "You wish me to tell the noble one, Master?"
Adrian nodded his head, not trusting the Professor to not hear his verbal
words.
Lutain hesitated slightly longer before he started to uncoil, dropping
down heavily onto the carpeted flooring and making his way towards a
nearby ventilation pipe. Adrian assumed all pipes led to the Chamber, if
you were a serpent that is.
The walked across the covered bridge, no students approaching since it
was beginning to linger fairly late into the day.
They passed Hagrid's hut, ignoring the large man who briefly waved as
they descended stone steps into the main path of the forest.
It felt to Adrian that he was swallowed up by the trees and plants only
steps past the boundary. Sounds felt muffled and echoed, a birdsong
ringing from every direction without revealing where it originated.
"Stay close," Moody grunted as he firmly stepped over a thick root, "The
acromantulas don't like trespassers on their territory."
"I'm not afraid of acromantulas." Adrian retorted, watching the forest
carefully.
Moody laughed, looking at him in amusement, "You should be! The
centaurs at least let you know before they kill you!"
Despite the assurance that nothing in the forest would touch him, and
Adalonda would be on her way, Adrian couldn't help but shiver against
the sensation of fear.
An owl hooted loudly in the murky woods, mist swirling around their
feet surreal. Adrian could have sworn he saw something like a thestral
leap through the forest far away, dancing between ancient oaks.
"I think you better start talking, Mr. Selwyn," Moody gruffly spoke,
turning on the spot with his prosthetic like a pivot. He drew his wand,
holding it in a strange stance that undoubtedly must have come from
years of practice.
Adrian stopped walking instantly, pausing and holding his arms up
slightly to show he was unarmed. His exhale was visible in the light,
clouding in front of him in a foggy puff.
"You wouldn't curse a student," Adrian swallowed nervously, eyes
meeting Moody's narrowed real one. He'd been cursed enough as it
already was.
"We're outside the wards," Moody gestured to the woods around him,
"nothing an Imperio wouldn't fix."
So that was his game, a quick Unforgivable to assure that Adrian didn't
slip up the entire year.
"That's hard spellwork to keep up," Adrian found himself talking, his
mouth growing drier by the second, "You must have experience with that
spell."
"I'm an Auror, Selwyn."
"No you aren't," Adrian blinked, not noticing his blurt until too late.
Moody barked a laugh, before his features twisted sourly once more,
"Listen here, boy. I don't know who you work for, or how you know
legilimency, but you better start talking real fast…"
Adrian spotted faint movement in the distance, and he dearly hoped it
was who he thought it was.
"I learned that from a book, like everyone does." Adrian rapidly spoke,
hands shaking where they were held up above his waistline, "Are you
using Polyjuice? Where's the real Moody then?"
The imposter's left hand curled into a fist as he pointed his wand sharply
at Adrian, "You're talking nonsense-"
"Master! Hello!" Lutain cheerfully alerted from where Adrian couldn't see
him, although he certainly heard him from where Moody was standing.
Moody looked puzzled, glancing down and paling dramatically.
Lutain was curled up affectionately twice around the prosthetic leg, head
nuzzling the real leg with adoring small boops, "You smell horrible!"
Lutain cheerfully informed the imposter.
"You!" Moody snarled, looking at Adrian in fury, "Your blasted familiar! I
ought to banish this ruddy worm before…"
"He'll bite you the second you try and curse me," Adrian informed him,
feeling much calmer over the situation now that Lutain had Moody in a
metaphorical headlock, "and Lutain's bite is deadly."
Moody scowled, pausing and slowly sheathing his wand on a holster on
his forearm. Although put away, Adrian knew all too well how easy it
was to draw again.
"Fine, I see you've got me pinned." Moody confessed calmly, looking
strangely content with a dangerous creature wrapped around his leg,
"What do you want, boy?"
"I…" Adrian floundered, suddenly unsure of the situation. He hadn't
really planned out what to do this far.
"Oh Cerastes, what a mess you've made." Adalonda rumbled, voice low and
deep as it vibrated over the ground like a dragon's grumble.
Moody tensed, peering into the fog with his magical eye to try and see
what beast had made such a noise, "Selwyn, call this worm off.
Something isn't right-"
"I know," Adrian cut him off, looking around as well, "It's a basilisk."
Moody froze and a split second later drew his wand and pointed it at
Adrian. Lutain hissed loudly again, causing the man to freeze.
Moody's eyes rolled around, his complexion paling sickly.
"Selwyn, I don't know what you're playing-"
"Her name is Adalonda," Adrian continued quietly, rolling his shoulders
from the tight state they had been in all day, "she's here as assurance and
because you may be able to help."
Moody spluttered, gazed behind Adrian and screamed. His eye slid closed;
his magical eye spun around randomly as if seizing.
Adrian turned and saw Adalonda slowly slide into the clearing, cracking
twigs and uprooting small trees as she moved.
"He looks terrified," Adalonda tisked as if disappointed, "You spoke that
perhaps this man could help you?"
"He knows dark magics." Lutain contributed to the conversation, "If he
doesn't, you could just eat him."
Adalonda hummed contently, the high pitched whistling noise uprooted a
nearby crow.
"You can open your eyes, she won't hurt you." Adrian offered, reaching
out to rub his finger gently under her eye, feeling an uncomfortable ridge
of flaking clear scales.
Moody slowly cranked his eye open, before it bulged and he gasped
wordlessly like a fish.
"Oh yes," Adalonda crooned, "That's been bothering me so. Could you tear it
just…" she sighed happily as Adrian tugged and gently removed the stuck
eyecap from her last shed away from her clouded eyes.
"Merlin's beard." Moody swore quietly, trying to stop the rapid shaking of
his hand.
"Who are you?" Adrian asked sharply, dropping the thin eyecap to the
ground so he could address the man in front of him fully, "Don't lie, or
she'll eat you. Alive if you're not cooperating."
Adalonda opened her mouth with a loud hiss, revealing the rows of sharp
teeth like a python.
"I-" Moody licked his lips impulsively in a stressed habit, "My name's
Barty Crouch."
Adrian stumbled and looked at him in confusion and amusement,
"Adalonda, dinner."
"No!" Moody snapped, licking his lips twice in succession, "Barty Crouch
Jr. I was in Azkaban, I got out."
Adrian's eyebrows rose in surprise, "Did you escape with the raid for
Bella?"
Crouch sniffed angrily, "No, before that. I was the first one to escape, first
one who got out."
"Azkaban, that's the prison." Lutain informed Adalonda, who blinked
slowly and exhaled from her wide nostrils.
"Why are you here?" Adrian asked, tilting his head curiously, "Why enter
Potter in the tournament?"
Moody's nostrils flared in anger, showing just how much he resented the
current situation, "The last task, it's a maze. The cup is a portkey, and I
was going to spell it to take Potter far away, and finally finish my Lord's
work."
"Your father doesn't know about this man, if he got out before the mad lady."
Lutain offered helpfully, "He doesn't know that he's back."
Adrian's expression softened slightly, "Alright, Barty, ah, the Dark Lord
has already risen again. He's already back, you don't need to kill Skylar."
Barty shifted Moody's expression into one of absolute perplexity,
confused beyond words.
"But…" Barty trailed off confused, "But, he hasn't...he hasn't called…"
Adrian didn't know the workings of the dark mark, but he certainly could
inform his father that someone called Barty Crouch Jr was alive and well
and established quite a good place at Hogwarts.
"I don't know, I just thought you could help me with spells." Adrian
offered simply, looking at his feet unsure.
Barty laughed, an edge of insanity- trademark of Bella- slipped into his
tone, "Good work with that. You've already nestled yourself a nice spot of
shite."
Adrian scowled, "I'm trying."
"Yeah, well your try is shite, kid."
Adalonda snuffed and scented the air with a tongue as long as a grown
man's leg.
"How did you get a basilisk?" Barty asked, having thrown his guise
entirely to the wind now that his name was known, "They're near
impossible to hatch. And it's huge."
"Isn't she?" Lutain thrilled, looking positively overjoyed with another's
recognition of Adalonda's size.
"Her name is Adalonda, and that's not important." Adrian clipped out,
peering at Barty with a frown, "I need you to teach me spells."
Barty snorted, shifting the noise into an unsettling snicker as well as
another lip lick and a head roll, "Sorry brat, you're not going to learn
anything."
Adrian faltered slightly, blinking in alarm, "Is that a threat? Do you not-"
"No no," Barty rolled his eye, the magical one still rolling around crazily,
"You're in my class. You don't have any apt, or skill. I bet you're still stuck
under dark magic addiction."
Adrian didn't say anything but somehow his expression must have given
him away because Barty looked positively gleeful (something which was
disturbing on Moody's face).
"Oh kid, you're so disposable." Barty cackled, "what do you have going for
you? So what you're good with animals. Like the Dark Lord can use that."
Adrian felt like he had been struck, like something punctured hard and
was pressing further by the second.
"He speaks truth," Adalonda hissed, blinking slowly and looking
considerate, "Your father had higher skills when he woke me before."
"Not true! Master has many skills!"
"The only thing that he can do that others cannot," Adalonda retorted, "Is
speak the noble tongue. And truly, is that a talent between the strong and the
legend?"
"But…" Adrian trailed off, his voice high pitch and sounding on the edge
of something hoarse. Moisture welled and he hated it.
Adalonda lifted his head, leaving Barty to stumble back and hold his
wand in shaking hands.
"See this?" Adalonda hummed contently, something wicked in her eyes,
"See how he trembles? Because I am not simply strong, I am a legend which
will be told over and over."
She turned, opening her mouth and displaying saliva and venom soaked
teeth, as long as dinner plates, "And do you, Cerastes, have anything to your
name that make others cower? Or are you a hatchling child who dreams of
prey far too large for his teeth."
"That's not true," Adrian shook his head in denial, knowing his face was
flushing ugly with his anger. His scars itched and his eyes were burning
and his nose was filled with disgusting snot.
"Are you crying?" Barty asked, sounding like he was going to burst out
laughing, "as if the Dark Lord would find you useful!"
"Master," Lutain unhooked from Barty's leg, slithering across the distance,
"Master that is not true,"
"It is," Adrian swallowed, a lump the size of a walnut was lodged in his
throat.
Barty heard it, and ignoring the grammar inaccuracies he assumed the
denial (or confirmation in Lutain's case) was directed to his sentence.
"Kid," Barty grinned, unhinged madness suiting Moody's face, "you are
the most nondescript, replaceable person in this whole castle. Everyone
thinks you should be gone already, bollocks, even Dumbledore thinks you
should be dropped!"
'I won't be left behind again,' Adrian thought, a whispering voice struck by
tears and screaming, 'Don't ignore me. I'm useful.'
"I'm useful." He repeated out loud, not aware of anything past how
violently he was shaking.
"You really aren't." Adalonda commented blandly, "You said a
transformation of blood and bone, but even then you cannot."
"There hasn't been a lightning storm." Adrian shook his head trying to
think of something, "I- Father said that I was useful."
"Sorry kid, but really, you're just another stupid brat who thinks that
someone loves them." Barty snickered, grabbing a flask he always had
hooked up to him and taking a swig.
Something pulsed and buzzed like a riptide in the air. The flask exploded
and a dark brown foul smelling sludge splattered on the ground.
Adalonda recoiled, tilting her head in interest as Adrian visibly shook.
"Master, Master Nagini says you are!" Lutain tried to assure the boy, but he
was far past the point of listening.
Adalonda and Barty had a point. He was useless.
He wasn't a good dueler, he had seen Skylar's duels and his impressive
spell list and he wasn't anywhere near that level. He had no natural
affinity for any class besides Care and as Adalonda said, that wasn't
actually an important skill. He could speak to snakes, but truly was
speaking parseltongue an ability that would save him?
He couldn't even do a physical transformation into an Animagus form.
His father had expressed disdain for it before, he had thought the ability
was useless.
Oh Merlin, they were right.
Adrian slumped to the ground, his knees sinking into the muddy soil of
the forest. Lutain peered at him concerned, looking around desperately
for a threat in lapse of anything else to do.
What had Adalonda said before, when he had first taken Wormtail down
to the Chamber. She said that the Animagus transformation was one of
blood and bone, and that his father had undergone a transformation of
soul-
Adrian shook his head and started up at Barty who was still floundering
in surprise over his famous flask exploding before his eyes.
Adrian was useful, he was useful.
He inhaled quickly, and exhaled it slowly and let it flow.
The ground in a half circle arching around Barty back towards Adrian,
smoked.
Adrian felt himself sweating, he hadn't actively tried to push and control
it beyond his desire to just make a single target light.
The smoke intensified and Adrian struggled to breathe, his eyes burned
and why couldn't he just do this right?
The smoke lessened to a tiny puff.
Adrian felt the tears come and his anger rose and it wasn't fair.
Everything seemed to sharpen and Adrian felt like screaming and it
wasn't fair.
I'm useful. I'm useful.
The ground lit and flared, not a roaring high flame but a decent sear that
was not there a second before.
Barty glanced around in curiosity before rolling his eyes and peering
down at Adrian with an insult on his tongue. Until he noticed Adrian
wasn't holding his tongue, and the boy was gazing forward with clouded
eyes and the barest threads of blood trailing out of his nostrils.
"What the...a partial Obscurus?" Barty frowned, tilting his head and
looking perplexed, "No, no you're not."
Adrian sharply jerked his head, the fire dwindling down and leaving
pungent grey smoke to waft through the mist, "I'm useful." He croaked
sharply, looking every bit as traumatized and haunted as Barty's
cellmates.
The sear lightened once more, flickering flames like a small campfire
licking at leaves and twigs hungrily. The small thread of blood from
Adrian's nostrils thickened, bleeding freely before the fire smoldered
itself out.
Barty Crouch Jr smiled something sick, and nodded slowly, "You aren't,
but I have an idea how to make you."
Adalonda's eyes seemed to glow in the dark. If she could, she would have
smiled.
S058: Well, that was anticlimatic. Potter didn't even get a slight burn! I
was all hoping he'd at least be some scorch marks, but not even that. A
shame. Would've proven once and for all there's a lot more to fighting a
dragon then just knowing a weakspot.
As for the bargin scene... Yeah, no dice Dumbles. Maybe if you'd done
this a few years ago, but now? Adrian has no reason to trust you, nor
betray the few people who have offered him love. Also, if you don't tell
people rules explicitly, then you don't get to be surprised when they wind
up being broken. And well, a 4th Year running a small time bargaining
ring seems pretty low key compared to say, a pair of twins who keep
playing "pranks" on anyone not in their house...
Oh I know, but the worst part is that Dumbledore is honestly trying. He just
has a lot on his plate right now. I'd like to point out that maybe Hogwarts has
a different policy with pulling pranks that don't necessarily hurt anyone,
compared to illegally smuggling alcohol or the equivalent of drugs into the
castle.
As I'm sure you all know, I write this story ahead of time and tend to
review each chapter for publication. Due to this, I've drawn fanart for
chapter 60 which without a doubt, is the most eventful chaotic chapter
written.
As such, I want to post it as the picture doesn't specifically give away
any spoilers but certainly doesn't explain any context. If you'd like to
view the artwork (kinda a sneak peak of where the story is going), click
on my profile link and towards the end there will be a hyper link to all
of my artworks for this story as well as any other fanart. The first
picture will be the sneak peak exclusive.
If you'd like to give me any sort of crazy theories, I'd love to hear them!
If you get it right or are on the right path, I'll PM you to let you know or
confirm all of your conspiracy theories.
Have fun!
45. Anise
This chapter was beta'd by our amazing Beta Collective
-Arctic Fox From Afar
-Mahina
-Cyndaquil05
-4everfictional
-Scion of House Lucifer
-Parsi
- and countless anonymous helpers!
Thanks to everyone who checked out the fanart! Feel free to look at
any time!
If any of you have fanart or artwork, let me know and I'll gladly
take a look and post a link to it on my AO3 version of this!
Hope you all Enjoy!
Snow began to fall, blanketing the open courtyards and leaving frosted
designs on all of the window panes.
Moody didn't act any different, nor did he approach Adrian since the
eventful night.
Adrian didn't talk to anyone, nor did he have reason to. Since his deals
were off and monitored carefully by the ever looming Snape, he didn't
bother to talk to any other students. Already he had been attacked by one
stubborn Hufflepuff, who had racked up over a dozen detentions from
public hexes against Adrian.
Lutain came with him constantly, watching out but also sleeping around
Adrian's throat for warmth. On occasion, the cold winter air hurt his
familiar's lungs, and he was forced to remain in his magic cage where the
humidity was just how he preferred.
Magical creatures were his comfort, at least they didn't mind that his
scars made him look hideous or that he had become the lowest of the
low. They remained ignorant of his position on the asinine Slytherin and
Hogwarts hierarchy.
The Thestrals watched him, the black skeletal creatures stood out in the
snow like something from a child book story. They walked loudly,
crunching frost under their hooves as they rattled curiously towards him.
Hagrid appreciated the help, offering some of his old clothing and thick
leather coats just for Adrian to hike around the cold snow in if it would
help him bite back the chill.
Luna accompanied him often, well, she tended to show up in the
strangest of places; waiting for him expectantly when he didn't notice.
One day when he was dragging a rather impressive wooden sled loaded
with carcasses towards the Thestral's nesting grounds; Adrian could have
sworn he saw the fae looking girl sitting on one of the creatures' back.
He dragged the sled over the one root that always stuck out a bit too far,
waving to the first curious creature which clicked its beak in excitement.
The other few padded over, crunching over frozen grass and other twigs.
Adrian dragged the carcass off the sled, dumping it in the middle of the
clearing. They could strip it bare and crack the bones.
"I wondered if you were going to come by." Luna smiled, appearing
almost out of thin air by the largest thestral. Her hand was on its flank,
stroking smooth patterns into its scarred hide.
"I wondered if you'd be following me again," Adrian snarked back, glaring
slightly as one of the smaller thestrals got slightly nippy.
Luna smiled the dazed look she always had, patting the nearest beast
affectionately, "Walk with me?"
Adrian wasn't going to say no.
They walked side by side, Luna wearing a thick cloak that looked to have
random feathers stuck on with bits of gumpaste. Adrian looked odd with
the thick coat he had borrowed from Hagrid, at least the two of them
made a pair.
Luna stopped by Hagrid's hut, greeting the half giant as Adrian returned
the blood stained coat and assured him that he would be by the day after
the next. Luna skipped past and up the stone steps, making sure that
Adrian was following somewhat close by.
"I tried to see the pegasus that came with the Beauxbatons," Luna started
the conversation, "They wouldn't let me into the stables."
"I wonder why," Adrian dryly added, "Were you wearing that cloak? They
may have thought you'd pluck them like a goose."
Luna playfully smacked his upper arm, peering up into the sky and
spinning dizzily. She gave a small yelp as she lost balance, tumbling into
a snowbank in surprise.
"Careful there," Adrian noted with a small sniff against the cold, "I hear
gravity is a fickle thing."
Luna blinked wonderingly, not bothering to clamber out of the snow yet,
"Do you think there are Hobskeins on the moon?"
"I doubt it," Adrian responded instantly, not even questioning her
anymore.
Luna huffed a sigh, as if disappointed Adrian hadn't even entertained the
thought. She reached out, grasping the offered arm as Adrian hoisted her
out of the snow in a single movement.
They ascended the steps and under the stone archway, careful to not
dislodge any of the large ice chunks. Luna paused and gave off a tone
deaf bird song, waving to the Whomping Willow excitedly. The tree
waved back.
"Are you going to go to the Yule Ball?" Luna asked curiously, tilting her
head and jiggling her silver earrings.
"I doubt it," Adrian snorted with one hand tapping his scars for emphasis,
"I look like I was ravaged by a werewolf."
Luna smiled faintly, "A ravishing werewolf?"
Adrian blinked and quietly sighed at how Luna had altered that. They
crossed the covered bridge, pausing just before they entered the castle to
stare down the fjord that split the castle from the forest. They tended to
stay there, it was almost a common haunt of theirs.
"It's beautiful," Luna noted quietly, eyes appearing sad as she stared
straight down, "do you think there is green grass at the bottom?"
Adrian looked at her puzzled, "It's winter, Luna."
She smiled, "I know. You should ask me to the Yule Ball."
Adrian stumbled, nearly tripping as he jammed the ends of his fingertips
against the stone of the window arches, "Luna, I am not going to the ball."
Luna hummed, sounding much more in tune than she did when she sang
to the tree, "I know, you should be going. I think someone is looking for
you."
Adrian ran one hand through his hair but said nothing more. Slipping
through the warming ward was an instant relief, the icy chill vanished
from his bones the further into the castle he walked.
His first destination was the dungeons where he was going to obtain
Lutain from his box. After that, it was unlikely that he would be
bothered, especially with the frenzy around the castle of students asking
students to the ball.
Adrian was mostly safe unless he approached any girl, in which case the
nearest boys would tease and dramatically call him out. The joys of being
surrounded by children.
He descended the stairs, slipping through the corridors to where the door
set.
Adrian slid inside and without glancing at the couches he started
instantly towards the staircase where his room and Lutain waited.
"Selwyn," A composed smooth voice interrupted, causing Adrian to pause
and grab his wand.
"Greengrass," Adrian nodded, turning and addressing the pureblood heir
who closed her book calmly and stood to address him.
She had a silvery green scarf around her neck, her corn silk hair pinned
back, although she didn't look any more stunning than normal.
She stepped forward and smiled thinly, holding one hand out showing
him her nails. They were painted silver and artificial with small points.
"You're taking me to Yule." She spoke calmly, her eyes flickering to her
hand where the pureblood custom was to kiss her knuckles.
Adrian felt anger, as was normal, "I must decline."
Daphne smiled, something sharp and predatory in her look, "You
misunderstand, I've decided that you will take me to the Yule Ball. I'd like
to show you off."
So that's what she wanted. She wanted to walk him around like an
ensnared dog, publicly speaking how she had coerced him into some sort
of deal when he himself had all of his yanked away.
If that was how she was going to play, he was going to avoid it all
together.
"I'm sorry, Ms. Greengrass, but I've already asked another to the Yule
Ball."
Her jaw fell ever so slightly, opening her mouth instead of keeping her
jaw shut. "Excuse me?" She nearly laughed, eyebrows raising as she
surveyed his face, "Don't be petty and resort to lying now, Selwyn."
That hurt slightly.
"I'm not," He bit back icily, "if you excuse me, my familiar is waiting."
She flushed and her calm expression faltered, "You do not walk away
from me!" she hissed angrily. "You can not say no to me!"
Adrian wondered if it would be appropriate to punch her.
"Oh I'm sorry, ma'am," He growled back with a terribly mocking tone,
"Would you prefer I write it down and send an owl?"
Her nostrils flared and she looked ready to curse him. She paused,
exhaled slowly, and then gave a pinched smile, "Then I look forward to
you and your date."
He watched her return to the couch and open her book again. Her fingers
around the cover were pale white.
Sometimes Luna knew too much for her own good.
One benefit to the school wide treatment of Adrian, was Theo's desire to
not be in the same room with him. This left Adrian with plenty of time
alone, sometimes the other boy never returned at night although Adrian
didn't know where on earth the other slept.
The privacy allowed Adrian the time and opportunity to converse with
his father through the horrid technique that was his tattoo. The sensation
of the Nagini mockery sliding through his flesh never felt better, it
always made him feel nauseous in the end.
He learned that his father genuinely was surprised to hear the name
Barty Crouch Jr. The man having been sentenced to Azkaban during the
first rising of the his father. According to his father (and a few sources),
Barty Crouch Jr. had died in Azkaban, his body left behind in the cells
and visibly removed for burial.
His father was fascinated in regards to how the man escaped and left
behind a body, also how he managed to subdue and keep the real Alastor
Moody enslaved and captured all the while not alerting Dumbledore.
His father assured him that the man was able to be trusted, especially if
he had accomplished so much.
(Adrian noticed instantly that despite knowing a fair bit about Barty
Crouch Jr., his father didn't actually tell him anything about future plans.)
Barty Crouch Jr. apparently, was an expert in use of disguise and
manipulation of others. A skilled Occlumens (which spoke volumes of
Adrian's unexplained Legilimency) but also a master of more unspoken
magics. Although he wasn't a phenomenal dueler, his array of spells and
curses were almost entirely exotic to the degree that reversing the effects
were immensely difficult.
Adrian could use spells like that - it wasn't as if he could simply grab
books and do with them what he wanted. Hogwarts tended to alert the
headmaster of any dark magic or suspicious artifacts and books.
Daphne had become even more scathing, sending him even more vicious
threats and comments. If he thought she had been ruthless before, well
now she was absolutely savage. A glass flower edged with a strong cutting
curse.
Luna was wonderful and in that unexplained way, she had already
informed him that she had secured a dress for the ball. Part of Adrian
wondered if it would be something crafted entirely out of Spell-O tape;
part of him was imagining how fabulous it would be if Daphne saw him
reject her for a Spell-O tape dress.
Adrian secured a set of dress robes, or rather he had his set of dress robes
shipped from his room to the castle. He mentally thanked the entire
wardrobe hemmed carefully and fashioned from the finest materials just
for his status. That, and his father liked indulging with expensive
trinkets.
Large horses were rented from Hogsmeade to pull the normally horseless
carriages from the various courtyards to the main hall for a more
romantic path. The snow fell softly from the sky; no lightning although
Adrian had been watching closely for the next lightning storm.
Adrian knew better than to invite Luna down to the depths of the
dungeons to meet him, it would be much easier to meet her outside the
Ravenclaw tower.
Adrian wondered slightly if he should cast a rudimentary glamour or try
muggle makeup to try and disguise the scarring. In the end he decided
against it, mostly because the reason the scars were there were to hide
his true appearance.
Various pairs and small groups noticed him and gave him a wide berth.
On his trek from up the stairs towards the higher towers, the only group
who actively chatted with him ended up being the Weasley Twins; the
two girls accompanying the twins didn't refrain from staring outright.
Girls that he never had noticed before swept past him with students on
their arms. Other boys looked pleased, some nervous and awkward with
the highly decorated girls on their arm. One pair of two girls in matching
dresses practically skipped down the hallway, laughing excitedly and
flaunting their dates happily.
Adrian walked past and suddenly felt painfully self-conscious with how
horrid his own appearance likely was. He knew his dress robes were of
higher quality than the majority of students, yet that didn't dispel all of
his unease.
"Hello!" Luna chimed happily, appearing from the stone staircase that led
to the Ravenclaw tower. She didn't even glance once towards where he
knew the darkest of the purple disfigured his cheekbone, "You look nice."
Adrian interpreted it as permission to survey her own work. He saw the
dress and couldn't stop the amused laugh that emerged as an ugly guffaw.
Luna seemed to smile even further, tucking one loose ringlet of her
blonde hair behind her ear.
"Is that…" Adrian trailed off breathlessly, eyes almost sparkling at the
horrid fashion statement Luna proudly flaunted, "Is that a tiara?"
"Do you like it?" Luna asked curiously, tilting her head where the large
horned monstrosity stuck magically to her pinned hair, "I didn't like using
them in Potions."
"So you stuck unicorn horns on your head?" Adrian couldn't help the
smile, finding the hairpiece uncannily similar to a crown.
"I made it myself." she explained proudly, almost beaming under the
lanterns decorating the hallway.
Adrian let himself observe her outfit even further, noticing the sheer
fabric arranged in ornate frills that were overwhelming and garish in
contrast to the glittering shawl and what looked like an antique necklace.
"Oh!" she gasped in horror, fumbling around in her pockets frantically.
Adrian didn't know that dresses even had pockets.
"Ah hah!" She chirped happily, pulling out what looked like small twigs
tied together with tiny ribbons.
"What is that?" Adrian blinked, watching in utter bafflement as Luna tied
the small bundles to her nondescript silver earrings. Well, they had been
nondescript.
"They're herb bundles." Luna blinked as if it was rather self explanatory,
"Anise, catnip, some lavender. They're magical you know."
Adrian paused and laughed loudly, "Luna, you're a witch, not a muggle
fraud."
She pouted and rolled her eyes, "Oh Adrian, just because you can't see it
doesn't mean they don't work."
Adrian shook his head but offered his arm politely, "All right then,
ma'am. Perhaps you could explain to me these so called magical
properties of Professor Sprout's bedroom flowerpots."
Luna took his arm dainty, walking with a smile as other couples gaped at
them either due to Luna's outrageous outfit or Adrian's own skin.
They descended out of the main traffic staircase, peering out into the
overhang to join the waiting students who were in line for the carriages.
The snow began to falter, raining down from the sky in small tufts
illuminated by the various lanterns placed around the path outside.
"Catnip helps nervousness, anise helps ease the pain of curses and
lavender helps depression and sadness." Luna repeated out loud as if an
ancient apothecary.
Adrian hummed absentmindedly as if the information actually was true,
"You should move to the country. Grow flowers and sell them to muggle
post workers."
Luna giggled, muffling the sound with her hand. The herb bundles
swayed and swung under her ears, brushing her jawline slightly.
"Luna?" A student gasped, hurrying over uncomfortably in clicking shoes,
"Luna you look amazing." The girl gushed, observing Luna's outfit with
genuine amusement.
"Thank you," Luna smiled, head lolling slightly as she didn't glance at the
other girl's dress at all, "You look nice."
"Oh! Here," The girl peered into the line, waving to some student further
up who dutifully slipped out of line and walked back confidently towards
them, "This is my date! I don't think you two have met…" she trailed off
unsure, gnawing on her bottom lip.
"Cedric." The man smiled, looking recognizable to the entire school as the
selected Hogwarts Champion, "It's nice to meet you, Cho has told me all
about you."
Luna nodded and shook his hand carefully, "It's nice to meet you - the
Shortsnout you faced had a headache but you did okay."
Cedric blinked and looked at Cho, "Er…"
"This is Adrian." Luna tugged on Adrian's arm, pulling him a little more
central to the group.
"Selwyn?" Cedric blinked rapidly in surprise, brows furrowing as he
blurted out, "I thought they expelled you?"
Ouch. That hurt.
Cho's eyes widened and she whacked her date's arm, casting him a
meaningful look, "I'm sorry, I uh, there's been rumors and…"
Her apology trailed off although she did seem sympathetic. Adrian
noticed the way her eyes kept slipping, glancing at his face noticeably.
Luna's arm tightened the smallest degree around his arm.
"Oh, pity the Thestrals aren't pulling the carriages this time," Luna sighed,
looking out of the open doorway as a large ethereal white horse pulled
around and students clambered into its carriage.
"Er, I thought the carriages are spelled?" Cedric murmured lowly to Cho
who tried to keep her smile on her face, although it looked a bit more
pained.
"Thestrals are big creatures," Luna offered, lifting her arms to try and
explain how large a thestral really was, "They're black and have white
eyes and wings, and they look scary but really they're just
misunderstood."
Cedric gave an unsure smile and nodded along, tugging on his date's arm
slightly.
They slipped back into the line and for the first time ever, Adrian realized
that Luna was treated like he was.
"That's why you wore this dress." he realized, speaking out loud as the
epiphany struck him. "So people would stare at you. Instead of staring at
me."
"People always stare at me," Luna offered dismissively, "I'm different and
people don't like that. I think it scares them, like thestrals do."
"I think you're more of a unicorn," Adrian added with a small teasing turn
of his mouth. It didn't change his sad expression entirely.
He lifted his hand, over her head to trace the sparkling points of her
crown, "Or maybe something with five horns. A Quincorn?"
"You're making that up," She smiled, looking horribly amused as she
swatted his hand away from her crown, "I'm an Ogopogo obviously."
Adrian's metaphorical ears twitched, he certainly knew that creature. "I'm
sorry, an Ogopogo has decidedly more flippers than you. You only have
three that I can see."
Luna laughed, eyes sparkling as he played along with her bantering, "You
forgot my gills. You can't see them because they're on the bottom of my
feet."
"That's preposterous. I see the bottom of your feet all the time since you
protest the use of shoes."
Luna flung her head back and laughed, the sound was carefree and gentle
and for the first time in a very long time, Adrian realized he was smiling.
OmnipotentOminousmagician: It was really interesting to see just how
messed up emotionally Harry is, as he cannot accept he is being played,
and will most likely not pick up on Barry trying to use him. I think the
partial obscured thing really shows how badly damaged as a person he is
and makes me so sympathetic. However, I I really want him to one up
those other slytherins now and build up his empire better than ever and
prove himself to be really talented: we're Barty and Adalonda
manipulating Harry or is he truly not a very talented or skilled wizard? I
am rather surprised Adrian is a Slytheron to be honest, he isn't very
cunning or manipulative(everybody easily plays him, even Daphne, a
fellow student) and he has no ambition or hopes for himself beyond
pleasing Voldemort. Is this only going to get worse as he descends into
madness, and considering his situation now I find it hard to believe he
won't crack or run out of use before the next three years before seventh
year(if that's when the story ends of course).
Adrian is just, very very messed up.
The Partial Obscurus was quickly dismissed by Barty actually, although I
threw that in to try and help you all understand the area of where Adrian is
distorted.
Adrian is a Slytherin because he's juggling an incredible amount of stories and
paths and if you look at what his ambition was when he was 12 and how
devoted he was to it, he is actually incredibly ambitious. He has no limits as to
what he will do when devoted to it. He's more ambitious for achieving his
goals than most.
Adrian is most certainly going to become worse.
Impstar: I find myself perplexed as to the source of all the other
Slytherin's hatred towards him. Their behavior is so irrational that even
Draco, who's not exactly a fan of Adrian, thought it was extreme.
Well Adalonda was not very reassuring now, was she? Of course, she's a
Basilisk, not a friendly dog. And what she said wasn't precisely wrong,
just rather rude and unflattering.
Barty is a creep.
An Obscurus? Well that can't be good. And it honestly fits with what I
know of Obscurus. But Barty himself dismissed the possibility, so maybe
not. Either way, this isn't going to do good thing to his already tenuous
mental health.
Everyone loves a scapegoat, and given that Snape wasn't going to do anything
about it, it was a perfect opportunity for anyone who wanted to take a jab.
Children can be cruel.
Adalonda isn't very reassuring at all, and Barty is such a pain for everyone.
Quento: I have a question, though. Is there any difference between the
story here and on ao3? I know that doesn't tolerate more hardcore stuff
that ao3 does. But are you going to write that hardcore stuff do begin
with?
I love how quickly Dumbledore deducted Adrian affiliations with Tom.
There is simply too many stories which make him an idiot.
The story on AO3 is almost exactly word for word the same. The only
difference is on AO3 I don't dedicate the end of chapters for responding to
fans, because that website permits me to answer people individually in the
reviews. I am also able to make a hyperlink within the chapter, so I can
directly link readers to fanart. Besides that, there is no alternate content or
adult themes over there. It's made entirely for preference (I personally like
reading the AO3 format better).
This story isn't made to bash Dumbledore, he honestly is trying his best.
KlsBledsoe:Omg dude I just read these 44 chapters in 1 day and oh boy.
Oh boy oh boy oh boy. I think I read the original like years ago and I'm
so happy with your rewrite but GODDAMN do I like happy endings and I
know this is going to get one and holy shit I'm in to deep I can't stop
reading now it would kill me like my chest feels tight just thinking of all
the ways this story is going to *hurt* but fuck if I'm not along for the ride
now. Guess I'll stock up on blankets and feel good fics now...
Also dude your writing is brilliant. Just the difference from your older
works to this one is amazing and breath taking.
You've mentioned over and over that's there's no shipping and I'm
assuming Harry won't be living long enough to be useful to his Father as
a marriage/alliance pawn? Uniting Houses was a key was to maintain
power through the ages in feudalism and I equate the House system of
Magical Britan with that so. Thoughts?
Wow! That's a lot to read in one day!
I suggest you get a couple dozen feel good fics, because we're right at the top of
a hill right now and it's all downhill from here.
I'm so thankful that you recognize and notice the difference in my writing
style! I actually like to look at my old work because I can see the very start of
my development of my own style. For example, I can see thoughts or ideas
that I used back then that I commonly use in my stories now. It's interesting to
see my old work and where I've gone since then.
To be honest, I hadn't even considered Adrian being used as a house alliance. I
think that he hadn't considered it either, considering it's never come up. I don't
think of Magical Britain as a Feudalism, so possibly there would be an
alternate form of government put into place that doesn't require house unions.
I'm not sure!
46. Siren
This chapter was beta'd by our amazing Beta Collective
-Arctic Fox From Afar
-Mahina
-Cyndaquil05
-4everfictional
-Scion of House Lucifer
-Parsi
- and countless anonymous helpers!
Thanks to everyone who checked out the fanart! Feel free to look at
any time!
This Chapter is DOUBLE LENGTH, and combined with the originals so you
can read through faster!
The Yule Ball was an extravagant event set to go down in the history
books. Professional photographers from various newspapers and gossip
magazines arrived to take photos of the multiple Triwizard Contenders
and the outfits they wore.
Luna almost teasingly led him masterfully around the outer rim of the
occasion, sitting at decadent tables with finger foods and pastries. Almost
clockwork, every third or fourth song Luna led him away to another
empty table a fair distance away and plopped down amidst the discarded
outer robes and plucked sugared plums and too-sweet juice.
"Oh, look," Luna laughed, pointing into the swirling madness with one
hand. Adrian squinted and through the mess of black robes and glittering
dresses, he spotted one greatly uncomfortable Draco Malfoy twirling
around an absolutely beaming Pansy Parkinson.
"She looks happy," Adrian noted, trying not to audibly laugh at how
disgusted and annoyed Draco looked with Pansy stepping on his feet,
literally.
Luna smiled and pointed out a few other girls she knew and random facts
about them. Adrian followed suit, pointing out other students he had
known through his now void dealings.
"Luna!" Another voice cheered, familiar and sounding absolutely thrilled.
Adrian peered over as someone broke from the swirl of dancing students
to drag another towards them.
"Oh, hello Hermione." Luna smiled, observing the delicate pink of her
satin dress, "That's a beautiful dress. It's like a radish, would you like me
to make you some radish earrings?"
Hermione blinked but instead of looking baffled, she only laughed
excitedly. Her cheeks were flushed and her chest heaved in the exertion
of dancing, "Oh! No but thank you! I'm having a wonderful time, would
you all like to get drinks?" She offered hopefully.
"Of course," Luna smiled, beckoning the two to sit down at the table with
them.
Adrian spotted Hermione's date, eyes widening in surprise as he
recognized the rivaling champion.
Krum looked uncomfortable as he looked at Luna, not quite sure what to
make of the fair haired lady. He met Adrian's eyes, rolling his shoulders
and offering his hand politely.
"Viktor Krum," He introduced gruffly, holding himself rigidly.
"Adrian Selwyn," Adrian introduced, shaking the offered hand and
noticing the pure strength behind the grip of the bulkier man.
Krum's eyes widened in recognition, "Selwyn? The, ah…" The other man
trailed off, trying to think of another word, "tϋrgovets?"
Adrian blinked at the foreign sounding word, watching as Krum seemed
slightly annoyed as he fumbled to think of the word. In the end, he
withdrew his wand from the careful holster in his arm sleeve of his
decorative cloak. He scribbled something in a Cyrillic alphabet, twisting
and flicking his wand and letting the letters burn and rearrange
themselves. Adrian peered at the magical translation, feeling his body
chill at the word 'trader' written in magical scripture.
"I am, or…" Adrian's nose wrinkled and his tongue felt thick, "I was."
Krum looked accepting and tapped one hand on his face, face stilling as
he thought of the next phrase of words, "You try ah," his face twisted up
in an expression of utmost concentration.
Adrian blinked and watched as the Bulgarian man scowled and pulled
out his wand, arching Cyrillic symbols in the air which transformed into
the English alphabet before their very eyes.
"It ah, it heals." Krum tried to explain, looking sincere behind the
sharpness of his eyes and jawline, "Not all, but some."
Adrian was eternally thankful the two girls were entirely oblivious to the
semi awkward exchange Adrian was enduring.
"Not this," Adrian shook his head politely, "It's a uh, a curse scar."
Krum's eyes flashed in understanding and the man's expression was that
of sympathy. Without any further words, the seeker glanced around
quickly and then boldly lifted his leg, nearly knocking the chair he placed
it on off balance. He drew up the leg of his trousers, showing off a highly
disfigured scar that stretched from his ankle around the back of his calf.
It wasn't as noticeable as Adrian's own face and skin, mostly because the
Bulgarian man had dark hair breaking up the outline of the silvery
marks, but Adrian could see it for what it was.
"That's a melting curse," Adrian blinked, peering at it for a second longer
before meeting Krum's face again, "The incantation...tabificis?"
Krum's face twisted in dry amusement, "Tabificus," He corrected, swiping
the two glasses filled with punch Luna had provided. He tapped them
with his wand, murmuring in thickly accented English before repeating it
on Adrian's glass.
"To wounds and worse times," He toasted, holding his glass aloft as
Adrian nimbly picked up his own glass. He smiled slightly in dry
amusement, finding a kindred soul with the morbid humor. The glasses
clinked together and they both swigged. Adrian wasn't the slightest bit
surprised when the punch had a noticeable bite to it.
Krum snapped his fingers loudly, drawing Adrian's eye to him curiously.
He set down his drink, much less in it now than before. He leant forward,
bracing his forearms on the table as he lifted one wrist to point towards
the younger boy.
"You ah, you can get me something?" Krum asked firmly, speaking in
regards to Adrian's deals. Adrian felt his smile falter slightly as he shook
his head, "No, no more deals."
Krum scoffed loudly and rolled his eyes in good nature, "No deals, I ah, I
trade with you for a book."
A simple trade? That wouldn't need a spell or would be on Dumbledore's
radar at all.
"What book?" Adrian asked, interested although he tried not to show it.
Krum smiled, knowing he practically was already agreeing to the deal.
"Durmstrang, we ah have different courses." The bulgarian man spoke, his
accent fluid over the name of his own school. The other words were
slightly blocky, stiff and lazy in his mouth as if his tongue was numb.
Durmstrang also had a rather elaborate course in regards to dark magic
theory and curses, whereas Beauxbatons had an extensive course track
for healing magic and charm construction. Hogwarts tended to stick to
the middle, giving each of the far paths only a brief overview but neither
delving far into it or dismissing it completely.
"You'll give me your textbooks for something else?" Adrian asked
curiously, tilting his eyes and scrutinizing the older man across from him,
"what do you want?"
"Potion, ah, Bolopo," Krum shrugged.
Adrian blinked in surprise, and confusion over the request. A Bolopo
potion? That potion was used as a gift or a toy for young children. The
user would 'pop', so to speak, and emerge from bright pink smoke in the
shape of an animal for a temporary while. Utterly useless since whoever
drank it had no ability to control what animal it would be.
"A bolopo potion," Adrian deadpanned in immense confusion, "perfect if
you want to become a shrew."
Krum gave him a shark like grin, "Da, perfect." He grinned, eyes
glimmering with restrained knowledge.
Adrian wouldn't question it, especially since the potion was purchasable
in nearly every common store. There was no way he could get in trouble
for ordering something first years giggled about in broom closets.
"Why can't you order it?" Adrian asked skeptically, "It's not illegal."
Krum looked annoyed or as if he had been miffed, "Rules," He sniffed
sourly, "No ah, no use of outside store."
That made sense, that way those in the Triwizard cup would only use
spellwork that they had learned and not win based on money or
resources others couldn't obtain either.
"Alright," Adrian agreed calmly, "for one of your textbooks."
Krum didn't seem concerned or outraged by Adrian's request. It was likely
he would never use the book again after he had passed the year, "Da, I
ah, I contact you from Her-mo-ninny." He looked adoringly at the girl
who was still giggling and looking at something Luna was showing her
from one of her silly dress pockets.
Krum did a second glance, peering at Luna in disbelief or shock. He
blinked quickly, glancing back at Adrian before giving a loud guffaw,
clapping the boy on his shoulder heavily.
"Blagodarya," He thanked, rising and giving a swift cuff to his own chest
in a Bulgarian formal thanks. He then softened his face, walking over to
his date and twirling a strand of her hair between his fingers adoringly.
"Adrian!" Hermione started, seeing that the two males were done talking,
"You look wonderful!"
"Thank you," He smiled politely, although he distantly wondered what
about him looked different since he hadn't put any effort into his outfit at
all.
"Adrian, isn't it getting a bit stuffy?" Luna asked with a small sigh, trailing
one fingernail across the table top sadly.
"I could use some fresh air," Hermione admitted, still looking flushed
from the excitement of the day.
Luna leapt to her feet, pulling Adrian along gently as they headed
towards the main doors. Adrian obliged, discussing small talk with
Hermione and Krum as they mingled politely.
Adrian spotted Daphne Greengrass, looking even more stunning than
usual. She stared stone faced as she was twirled around by Blaise, looking
equally polished.
Daphne wasn't going to be happy, especially considering Luna was
wearing an outfit on par with Lockhart levels of disturbing.
Although, in hindsight that may also have been intentional.
The snow was still falling outside so the four grabbed their outer cloaks
which the House Elves hurried to store for them earlier. Hermione
flushed as she wrapped herself in a thick fur lined cloak, looking very
new and very expensive. Krum looked rather satisfied with himself.
A horse drawn carriage emerged, trailing upwards as the large white
creature snorted steam into the air. Krum pulled on Hermione, helping
her into the carriage as he glanced backwards at the two.
"You go ahead," Luna smiled into the snow, "We'll catch the next one."
Krum nodded and piled in, the contraption rocking under his weight. The
horse skittered forward, large hooves trudging through the snow.
"You're upset." Luna observed, not even glancing in Adrian's direction.
"I'm not," Adrian defended calmly, actually feeling rather content for the
first time without Lutain and in the strange isolation the night provided.
"You are," Luna confirmed, turning sideways to squint at him and then
stare down at his feet, "I don't see any, but if you have some pumpkin I
can check."
Adrian waved down another horse, absentmindedly keeping the
conversation going, "Whatever do you need pumpkin for?"
Luna blinked her large silvery eyes, "To get rid of the Lysalanders. They
like pumpkin, and let go of you to eat it."
The carriage rolled up and Adrian opened the door to help the girl in.
She clambered inside, smiling faintly at him as he secured the door and
the wheels began to roll.
"Alright, so what's a Lysalander?" Adrian asked teasingly, ready to hear
the long story of this new invisible creature.
"Nasty little things," Luna tutted, frowning and crossing her arms sourly,
"They bite onto your ankles and their venom makes you think bad
thoughts."
Adrian's eyebrows rose, "Is that why you think i'm upset?"
"Oh no, you've always had Lysalanders." Luna admitted sadly, "That's why
I have these herb bundles. They don't bite so hard with sage."
She reached up and unhooked the small herb bundles from her earrings.
She untied the one ribbon, looping it around the other bundle to create a
miniature bouquet. The carriage continued on, bouncing slightly as they
approached the castle.
Adrian didn't quite know how to answer that.
"You're upset because there's Dinglopers too, they whistle in your ears
when important things are happening."
"Right," Adrian blinked, feeling the low whistle and buzz rising in his
head, pounding as a small chill ran down his spine, "So apparently my
ankles are being attacked and there's things in my ears?"
"Oh no, you're always infested." Luna corrected, "Rather badly I'd say.
You should find a pumpkin. The Dinglopers come and go, maybe you're
an important person?"
The carriage jolted to a stop. Luna ignored Adrian's dumbfounded
expression and leap to her feet, placing a quick friendly kiss on his cheek
as she slipped down the steps out towards her tower. She paused part
way, snow sprinkling from above to brush against her neck and
shoulders. She must have been cold.
She turned back, looking at the carriage and Adrian who was still seated
inside. She must have seen something, or puzzled through a thought that
captivated her attention for a few seconds.
"Come with me," She invited politely, offering one arm as if she were the
gentleman and he was the swooning maiden. How very Luna.
He almost declined her offer, he almost stayed inside the little carriage
pulled by the elegant rented horse. Almost.
The snow was silent under their shoes, muffling the whispers of where
they were going. Luna didn't seem worried or alarmed, especially with
the connotations with her actions. Nobody was around to see them,
Adrian found he didn't care much anyways.
Luna took his hand, her own was much smaller and fragile in his grip.
She tugged him along, deceptively strong. She had a smile, even as they
deviated away from the main pathways and soon were treading along the
long carpets that lined the single classrooms.
She picked one at random, looking impishly delighted that nobody was
inside. It would be strange to find students inside it considering the ball
was still ongoing- unless they were unfortunate enough to stumble on a
pair of snogging students.
"Perfect," Luna beamed, walking past the forest of empty desks before she
spun, throwing her arms out. She twirled, her dress lifting a few inches as
air buffeted under the clothing.
"I think I had a class in here before," Adrian commented, leaning against
one of the wooden desks, "It seems familiar."
Luna nodded, pointing towards the alcoves carved into the stone of the
walls, "I think it was Professor Lockhart. He kept pixies over there."
Adrian grimace instinctively at the memory of the man, Luna laughed at
him.
"Not too fond of him?" She inquired playfully, "I thought he had
wondrous hair."
Luna had left it as bait, she laughed even harder at the disgusted
expression Adrian unconsciously adopted.
"I like empty classrooms." Luna noted pleasantly, "They're so different
when nobody is in them, but they aren't lonely."
Adrian gave a one shouldered shrug, pulling his wand out to conjure a
light to see better, "I don't think much of them. They're strange when
nothing's in them."
Luna ran her hand across the wooden desk, sanded flat and just as
regular as every other classroom, "I used to do homework in empty
classrooms. I like the top of the Astronomy tower much more."
Adrian looked at her in surprise, "I gathered you'd work in the library."
Luna teasingly rolled her eyes, "You'd know if you actually did your
assignments."
Adrian scoffed and twisted his wand, the spelled ball of light rolled
across the far wall, following his directions.
"That's impressive." Luna piped up, kicking her feet back and forth as she
plopped herself next to him, "I don't know very many people who can
make it corporeal."
Adrian blinked in surprise, "It's...really not that hard."
Luna fiddled around, pulling out her wand. Adrian resisted the urge to
cringe at the poor posture she held it with, fingers loose and wrist
entirely slack.
"Don't hold yours like that." He blurted, feeling terribly uncomfortable
right after saying it.
Luna peered at him owlishly, glancing at the firm grip on his wand and
then back at her delicate grasp.
She sloppily tried to mimic him, tensing her wrist and clutching her
wand more like a dagger. She had her tongue peeking out from between
her teeth, eyebrows scrunched in concentration.
"No," Adrian sighed, reaching out to adjust her hand, "Tense your wrist,
don't hold it like a broom."
Luna followed his directions, shifting and trying over and over until it
was something Adrian approved of. Bellatrix would have had a fit.
With a gentle movement, Luna whispered a single spell and from her
wand two birds fluttered out. They flew quickly, quietly singing as they
landed on the overhead rafters.
Adrian watched the two with a slightly amused expression, casting the
same spell. A dozen birds erupted, each larger and much more lively than
Luna's.
She looked at him with a pout, crossing her arms, "Not fair."
"Not my fault you just learned that spell." Adrian retorted. Her expression
faltered, looking genuine and open as she informed him that it was one
of the first spells she learned.
"Oh." He stated, blinking rapidly in confusion.
They watched the birds, fluttering above freely in the rafters. Luna's birds
faded, vanishing in such a short amount of time that they existed and
suddenly, they didn't.
"Do you know half of the school is afraid of you?" Luna asked him, her
voice adopting the slightly melancholic tone that signaled to Adrian that
she was being serious.
His mouth felt dry, "It wouldn't surprise me."
Luna leant slightly, leaning over the gap until her shoulder's bumped his
upper arm. She didn't remove herself, instead she tilted her head back to
watch the birds above. Her hair tickled Adrian's neck.
"It's not because of how you look." Luna explained, as if it needed further
explanation, "It's because of what you've done."
"I'm not sure how to tell you this, but that literally didn't help at all."
Adrian shot back, bantering with dry amusement.
She gave a low hum, pointing her wand upwards and spelling something
new; bright bubbles drifted upwards, each as large as a grapefruit.
"It's because of the rumors, and your classes. Most of the rumors are true,
though."
Adrian huffed a sour breath, "If this is about Millicent-"
"You know, everyone in the school went to you if they needed something,
even if it did cost them." Luna sighed wistfully, "Everyone knew that you
could find out things they couldn't. Maybe you didn't know it then, but
that's what it was. Adrian Selwyn, he knows how to curse you in four
different ways, and how to heal you in five."
Her tone adopted a different sound, she lowered the pitch as if mimicking
someone. It was rather comedic, if not for the content.
Adrian's chest felt tight, "Yeah well, you know how that business went up
in flames."
Luna gave a small giggle, knocking her shoulder against his in good
humor, "But you did that. I don't think anyone in Hogwarts' history made
a bartering system for students. That's impressive."
Adrian shrugged, it didn't feel impressive.
"There's other things too," Luna continued pleasantly, "Nobody wants to
cross you, or at least they didn't want to."
Adrian gave a snort, laughter bubbling up from deep inside, "Luna all of
Slytherin wants me-"
"Everyone waited until you were in trouble. Until the teachers were
looking at you, because they think that you couldn't fight back." Luna
looked at her wand, twisting it in the air to leave a shimmering silver
trail in the air: pointless magic for the sake of magic.
Adrian shifted, a deep frown marred his face, "They're too spineless to
just-"
"That's not it." Luna interrupted sharply, "Everyone knows that if you
attacked them, they'd lose. So they waited until you couldn't and they
tried to scare you enough that you wouldn't bother them again."
That was...a strange way to think about it.
"Daphne Greengrass wanted you to take her to the Ball, because it's a
symbol really. That you're one of them, or that you found a place. You're
nobody again."
Adrian flinched, and Luna looked at him with an apology in her eyes, "I
don't mean that. They just want you to go away."
Adrian shook his head and hopped off the desk, walking away to peer out
of the glass paned window across the room, "Luna you couldn't possibly
understand what those-"
"The Quibbler used to be a political magazine. We still run articles." She
cut him off sharply, "Nobody bothers to read them, but we're really quite
observant."
Adrian reached out and brushed his fingertips against the glass, the snow
hadn't let up.
"You're like a wolf, and right now you're all chained up." Luna's voice was
gentle, "and everyone wants to walk you around like a dog. Maybe they
think, that you'll think you're a dog too."
Adrian sighed through his nose, "When did you get all wise? Here I was
expecting you to go off about merfolk or humdingers and you pick
wolves?"
Luna smiled bashfully, looking down at her dress, "I wanted a good
analogy?"
Adrian laughed, and shook his head fondly. "Alright, O' wise seer. In your
analogy I assume I just brushed off Greengrass in the most brutal way
possible?"
Luna smiled, "You were very rude. I think that you won't have problems
anymore."
Adrian's eyebrows shot up, he tilted his head in surprise, 'I won't? Why is
that?"
Luna swung her feet back and forth again, "Well, you're scary, and you
just shoved everyone off."
"I still don't see how I'm scary."
Luna hopped down, the conjured lumos slowly faded. The room was
bathed in grey light, filtered from the snow outside and moonlight.
"Lumos," Luna whispered, the tip of her wand aglow. Her face was bathed
with pale blue light.
Adrian pointed his wand and cast the same, sending the spell to float
above their heads.
"People aren't afraid of you because of Bellatrix Lestrange, they were
afraid of you long before that." Luna conceded, although it didn't seem
like she resisted telling him for long, "I heard that you don't struggle with
spells."
Adrian blinked quickly twice before he slowly replied, "No, but that's
because I practice."
Luna smiled enchantingly, "Adrian you're good at spells."
"I'm really not," he automatically blurted.
Luna's eyes searched his, flickering from one back to the other, "Why are
you arguing? Why do you think you're so...mediocre?"
"Because I am!" Adrian blurted, face feeling warm as he flushed against
his will.
Luna's spell faded out. She whispered it once more, squinting into his
face as if looking for something in particular.
"I don't think you are," She confided, "I think you're brilliant."
Adrian turned away, breaking away from her and moved back towards
the window. He could see her in the reflection, a ghostly glow bathed in
blue.
"I wondered for a while why you were in Slytherin," she raised her voice
slightly over the distance. She lifted herself onto the tips of her shoes,
swaying as if trying to see above or around an obstacle in her way,
"You're very impulsive and blunt, like a Hippogriff."
Adrian pointedly didn't turn around. He couldn't see anything outside in
the dark, but he couldn't look at her.
"Slytherin students are supposed to be ambitious and cunning. I
wondered why you didn't seem that way at all. It took me a while, but I
think you're one of the most ambitious people I know."
Adrian didn't look at her.
"Whenever anyone gave you a deal, you accepted no matter how difficult
it was." Luna almost praised, "I heard rumors that a few of them were
rather tricky. I don't think you ever turned anyone away; and I don't
think you ever failed doing one."
Adrian's jaw locked and his hands tensed and rolled into a fist. He
wouldn't attack Luna- he couldn't, but he felt aggressive enough to punch
a wall.
Luna was close, he nearly startled when her hand brushed the back of his
arm. If not for the reflection in the window, he wouldn't have known she
had moved.
"You don't really try on your classwork, or your spellwork. But you're so
good at it, like you'd been practicing all your life. Like you've always had
a single plan."
Luna stepped around, squeezing herself between the chilly glass and
Adrian's front. Her dress crumpled awkwardly, pinched and lying askewn
in the tiny gap. Her hands lifted to gently trace along his jawline,
reverently tracing the scars across his cheekbones.
"What are you trying to succeed at? Who are you trying to satisfy?"
Her eyes were wide, glowing like Forget-Me-Nots.
"It doesn't matter." Adrian muttered lowly, barely more than a whisper.
She frowned, the expression looked wrong with how beautiful her hair
and makeup was.
"It does," Luna looked so unsure but so concerned, "You're already so good-
why are you throwing what you have aside to...to impress someone? What
are you trying to do?"
Adrian's throat moved three times as he nervously swallowed, "I...I'm not
good enough n-"
"I'm afraid you're going to do something stupid for the approval of
someone that doesn't matter." She snapped back, her nostrils twitching
slightly as her expression hardened like ice, "If you just tried you could be
best in your year!"
"Do you think that I could beat Krum in a duel." Adrian snapped, his eyes
acidic as his voice dropped like venom, "Do you think I could beat
Skylar?"
Luna lowered her hands, removing them from where they had cupped
Adrian's face. The lumos spell dwindled, fading and leaving them in the
dark.
"Do you think you have to?" Luna asked quietly.
"Yes." Adrian answered simply.
She inhaled raggedly, a whispering noise that sounded painful. Her nose
whistled slightly as she exhaled quickly.
"I..I think," Luna began, "that you're chasing a dream. I'm afraid that
you're risking everything and throwing your own safety away to...to
reach some goal," she breathed heavily, almost trembling, "and I don't
think you'll realize what you've done until it's too late."
Adrian took a step back, quiet.
Luna lit her wand, her expression was blank yet still captivating, "You're
being stupid."
What.
"What." Adrian dumbly echoed.
Luna looked like a queen, her demeanor had shifted to something calm
yet privately seething. She looked like everything Daphne Greengrass
tried to exude every day.
"You're being an idiot, Adrian Selwyn." she was practically seething,
although her voice never achieved the level that inspired terror.
Adrian scowled back, fully aware that his face would be much more
frightning than hers, "Rude thing to say, Luna."
She huffed, crossing her arms as she looked pointedly not happy, "This
was supposed to be a fun night."
"Well it's not my fault you brought this up."
"Because you don't realize you're a good wizard!"
"I'm not!" Adrian snapped back, feeling the back of his neck prickle. Why
didn't she get it?
Luna looked firm, "Adrian Selwyn. You're judging power on spellwork
and thats shite!"
Luna never swore, she scowled when she noted his gobsmacked
expression.
"I heard that Professor Moody talked to you wanting help for Skylar
Potter. Do you realize he asked nobody else?"
That's different, Adrian wanted to protest. He isn't Moody.
But...at that time, Moody didn't know. He legitimately actually wanted
Adrian for something.
"Do you know that Hagrid thinks you're the best Care student he's ever
had at Hogwarts?" Luna looked furious as she continued with her rant,
"Do you know that 'I'm not Selwyn' is an expression now when people don't
know answers!"
He...he hadn't known that.
"I don't know if you could beat Skylar in a duel," Luna sniffled, still
seeming incredibly upset, "but I know you're a better wizard than he is."
I'm not good enough. I need to beat him. I need to beat him.
Luna lifted one arm and pointed upwards. Adrian followed where she
aimed, and in the shadows of the room he could barely see the flickering
shapes of birds. They had remained the entire time, whereas Luna had
been forced to conjure them time after time.
Actually, Luna had to redo her lumos spell as well many times.
"Could you teach me?" Luna asked, her voice was muffled by the stone
but still easily heard, "How to cast spells?"
Adrian shook his head slightly, "I'm not a teacher."
Luna shrugged, the herb bags attached to her earrings swung slightly in
the air below her ears, "I think you could be a good one. I think you'd be
good at writing books."
Adrian gave a rough bark of laughter, "I don't think anyone would care to
listen to me."
Luna pouted, looking much more relaxed as the conversation moved from
dangerous topics, "I'd listen. I think what you have to say would be very
fascinating."
Adrian huffed and Luna smiled, tentitive as if asking an unspoken
apology for her previous actions.
"I'd even run what you write in the Quibbler." She piped up hopefully,
"My name is Adrian, I'm a very powerful wizard and very intelligent although
I don't think I am." She mimicked him, pitching her voice low and
incredibly off key.
Adrian mimed her back, "My name is Luna and I like to feed omens of death
barefoot in winter."
Luna scoffed, jerking her head to the side as if to give him a cold
shoulder. "I still think you should write. People would like it."
Adrian frowned, "People don't want to hear anything, I'd be labeled as a
Death Eater sympathizer."
Luna looked out of the window once more, her face was illuminated by
both the spells and the faint moonlight shimmering through the panes.
She looked as beautiful as a goddess, and as sad as one.
"I think people like to hear that sometimes others are as sad as they are."
"I'm not sad," Adrian spoke.
She sighed, wilting as if he had failed some great test of hers. Adrian
didn't know that there even was a test.
"I should get going, it's become quite late." She looked wistful, a sardonic
smile that looked strange on her face.
"We've been chatting a while," he confessed, looking upwards towards the
rafters as one of the birds chirped loudly.
"You should end them." Luna added, traversing the distance to lean
against his side heavily, "I think they'd stay here all night if you don't."
They probably would; Adrian ended the spell.
"Goodnight Adrian," Luna spoke in a soft tone of voice, "remember that
the sad thoughts pass."
Adrian grinned a contemptuous smile; not at her but at the notion that he
was sad. "I'm not sad."
She searched him with a keen eye, "You aren't useless either.
I'm useful! I'm useful!
Adrian flinched away, taking a full step back. Luna stood there, pausing
for the slightest of moments before she vacated the room.
A snowflake drifted slowly to the window. It melted with a sharp stab of
ice, leaving a wet trail down towards the cobblestone. Adrian smiled
something incongruous to the harrowing twang in his chest.
Maybe he should head back to his room, his bones did ache so terribly so.
He must have moved wrong and pulled something, it would explain the
throbbing in his knees.
He knew he should go back to the dungeons, he mentally traced his path
and the idea wasn't in any way unappealing. He would be happy to tell
Lutain about how angry Daphne had been. He could tell his friend about
Krum, and how surprisingly accepting the man was.
He knew, that he should descend the quiet hallways and nestle in the
comfort of his room.
Instead, Adrian closed his eyes and tilted his head backwards until his
skull touched the uncomfortable stone wall behind him.
Despite Luna's company, the night was very isolating, and for some
incomprehensible reason, Adrian felt that he deserved it.
Adrian didn't get up for his classes the next day.
Theo genuinely hadn't expected it. Sure, he had lived with the other boy
for years, often Adrian had expressed a state of lethargy that was
impressive. Theo had thought that was increasing slightly, even in minor
things. Adrian seemed to pause or hesitate when prompted to leave or
stop sitting, Adrian procrastinated activities until the last moment. He
even retired early often, sleeping for tremendous amounts of time
although he always seemed as if he hadn't slept well. Theo thought that
the other boy was just ignoring them, like how he didn't often go with
them to get dinner or likely snuck down to the kitchens.
But Adrian hadn't ever just...not gotten up.
Professor Moody seemed to notice too, he had an even deeper scowl
when he spotted the empty desk.
Theo twitched and his fingers itched for something to play with, he
settled for vigorously shaking his leg. He saw Crabbe grunt and scowl at
how the adjacent desk vibrated wildly with Theo's shaking.
Theo's quill wobbled and fell off of his desk, fluttering to the ground as
Moody continued on with his very vocal, and very terrifying tirade about
reversing bone-based curses.
Theo sighed quietly, if Adrian were there, he would have at least brought
his bloody snake. Knowing their luck, if they had to cast anything he
would have gotten it right first try. Instead, Theo was stuck partnering
with Crabbe and hoping they managed to scrape by with the least
amount of personal injury.
Professor Moody continued on with his tirade, and Theo occupied himself
with doodling nonsensical shapes on the corner of his notes. Anything
would be a better distraction than this.
Theo got back to the dorm and practically sprinted through the hall
towards the door. Draco followed, a bit slower but twice as smug.
"I still can't believe he skipped," Draco nearly hummed, very pleased with
just how angry Moody had been.
That caused Theo to pause, "What do you mean? Haven't you noticed he's
sleeping a lot?"
Draco rolled his eyes, "Why in Merlin's name would I pay attention to
how he sleeps?"
Theo blushed, he felt his cheeks warm and he stumbled over an excuse, "I
mean, I just...he's been sleeping a lot, ya know? And he doesn't really
interact with us much anymore and-"
"Well obviously," Draco sneered, "He's gone off his bloody rocker ever
since he's been taken in by that mutt. No, ever since he went and got his
arse cursed all the way to the astronomy tower."
Theo's heart thumped heavily, "You shouldn't say that, Draco."
Draco looked incredulous, "It's true. You know he deserved it, acting like
the emperor for years. What, you've gone soft on him?"
Theo flinched and tried to ignore Draco, but he couldn't when the other
boy grabbed his shoulder and spun him around. Draco's stockier build
and sharper features were much more overpowering than Theo's own
thin and nervous body.
"Nott, you can't honestly be protecting him." Draco's tone went higher in
pitch even as he lowered his voice to a hush, "You know that he's not
special, right? He's just...wild. "
"I…" Theo gulped, blinking wildly.
It was no use.
Draco had entered a rant.
Merlin save him.
"Have you even listened to anything Greengrass has mentioned? All of the
strange things she's gathered about that Mudblood?"
But...Adrian was a Pureblood, wasn't he?
"And you remember when he lunged at that younger student, that first
year-"
"He wouldn't have hurt her." Theo defended. It sounded lame in his ears.
"He sent that snake at her," Draco's voice had lowered into an accusatory
hiss, "He's raised by Bellatrix Lestrange. That's why that mangy dog of a
teacher stole him, kept him away. He probably knows all these secrets, or
they want to keep an eye on him. And now that those bloody deals of
him went up in flame, he's trying to plot out a new plan."
Theo's jaw trembled and he tried to find it in him to defend Adrian, but
truly Draco hadn't said anything wrong yet. "What has Daphne been
saying?"
Draco glanced up and down the hallway, seeing nobody he leant in
closer, his voice practically a whisper. "Greengrass has been with that
girl, the one he attacked. Secretly, didn't want him seeing them together.
Greengrass says that Selwyn isn't a Pureblood, that he's likely a
Mudblood who got adopted, killed his brother or had Lestrange do it for
him. Remember that boggart, from last year? The man? Greengrass
thinks it was some sort of a... a blood oath, why else would Selwyn be so
scared of 'em?"
Everything Draco was saying was making sense. Was making painful
sense.
"But the worse bit, was way back, Greengrass told me that she saw him,
the boggart." Draco's voice was barely audible, "At the Station, he picked
up Adrian back as a First Year. That means he's still in contact with- with
whoever that was. But he said he was raised by Bellatrix, so what's with
this suspicious new man? So many things don't make sense."
Oh Merlin.
"What should we do?" Theo whined out, twisting his fingers together
anxiously.
Draco scoffed, "I don't bloody know, get out of that room with him.
Maybe one day you'll wake up, more scarred than he is, or maybe that
snake of his will want you as a snack."
Adrian had always been so nice to Theo, he hadn't gone out of his way to
antagonize him at all.
But Theo had tried to forget it, he had remembered all of the incidents.
He remembered Adrian attacking that first year, he remembered him
setting Millicent on fire…
Draco was right. Adrian was dangerous.
"If...If he's so dangerous why did everyone go attacking him?" Theo's
voice shook slightly.
Draco's expression faltered slightly, a slightly haunted look flashed across
his face and then vanished as quickly as it appeared. "An example."
"A- an example?"
Draco looked slightly unsure, grudging as if he was reluctant to say
anything. "In...certain groups, it...I heard, that dangerous wizards are made
examples of. They learn their place."
"I- Draco what-"
"Listen," Draco hissed under his breath, "Do you really think he's going to
try anything again? Merlin, he practically ran this house. Now he's as
tame as a house elf."
Theo's lip trembled slightly, he didn't agree with what Draco was saying.
"Draco, he...he sent Millicent-"
Draco huffed out an irritated breath, "He isn't less threatening, he just
isn't likely to lash out anymore!"
Something cold and heavy pressed itself over Theo's shoulders,
"Then...then if you think he's dangerous, why are you and Daphne
pushing him so hard?"
"Secrets have power," Draco grimaced, "Selwyn is unpredictable, but he
isn't desperate yet. She wants to figure him out and have some sort of
leverage, keep him from ever holding things over us again."
"You want to chain him," Theo realized with a nauseous sense of
amazement, "You want assurance."
"I'm not saying he isn't going to throw punches," Draco warned, "I'd take a
few small fights over a brooding despot anyday."
If Theo stayed in Adrian's room with him, it was likely he'd see one of
those small fights. It was more likely that he'd be the target of that fight.
If Adrian found out that Theo knew what Draco and Daphne were
doing...Merlin he'd be chopped meat in front of a werewolf.
"Okay," Theo nodded frantically, "Okay, I'm moving out. Think Goyle has
room?"
Draco grimaced sympathetically, "If you're deaf, he snores like a
manticore."
Yikes.
Unknown to both boys, a long black snake moved silently near the
corner. Moving slowly and smoothly back towards Selwyn's room,
already prepared to recite everything that it had heard.
Adrian had heard everything Lutain said.
Adrian didn't get up, nor did he roll over to greet Theo as the thin weed
of a boy scampered in and grabbed his things before hurrying out.
Adrian didn't need friends.
He didn't.
He sighed quietly, bones aching and head throbbing slightly. He pulled
the blankets of his bed higher to his face, sinking into the soft covers far
from content.
He didn't need friends.
(He wanted them, but Luna had already tried to talk him out of what he
needed to do. He couldn't afford any other distractions.)
Adrian sent Krum what he wanted through Hedwig. It may not have been
the most inconspicuous way to deliver a package, although Adrian was
almost positive none of the seeker's classmates would recognize the bird.
Adrian knew that Hermione wanted to talk with him, either for simple
pleasantries or to make a deal (how ironic). She saw him once, locking
eyes with him over the Great Hall. She shrank back, curling in on herself
with an obviously hurt expression.
Lutain had told him that he looked terrible. Adrian didn't care.
She didn't approach him afterwards, and for a blissful while Adrian was
left alone. (Excepting Luna, who always appeared at the strangest of
times.)
Adrian slept through the second task, he couldn't have cared less if Skylar
Potter died.
(Or drowned, as he was later informed).
Viktor had followed through with his side of the bargain. The book he
received was hidden well, a spelled front cover to appear as basic
charms.
The content was different, much more dark magic in theory and in
practice than anything at Hogwarts.
Disappointingly, it was barely more than a book Bellatrix had given him
years back. He already knew most of the spells inside of it- the ones he
didn't looked more useful as petty hexes.
What a disappointment.
Adrian's room was a mess.
It hadn't been a problem, until he lost his essay.
For Moody.
Which seemed rather indicative of everything so far.
He was forced to go to Moody's office, as soon as possible. To apparently
discuss not only his poor assignment, but his recent streak of missing
classes in favor of sleeping.
Adrian had a bad feeling about the meeting, especially since the fateful
night Moody had taken him into the Forbidden Forest and confessed that
he wasn't actually Mad-Eye Moody.
Didn't mean that he wouldn't attack Adrian, especially since the
confirmed rumor was that Moody had a knack for using spells as
punishment. Adrian was sure to bring Lutain with him.
Moody's room was dark, broken by the ticking noise of a spelled clock. A
stack of papers on his desk, likely the assignment Adrian never turned in.
The man wasn't in the open areas of the room, which only made Adrian's
paranoia spike.
The far door swung open with a clatter, the large man stumbled forward
on his prosthetic leg while magical eye swung around wildly. He spotted
Adrian, and an unsettling mad grin spread across his scarred mouth.
"Selwyn!" The Professor shouted joyously, stomping across the room and
drawing his wand. Adrian tensed, gasping quietly and taking a sharp step
backwards. Moody ignored it, and instead cast something wildly over his
shoulder towards the walls of stone. The spell hit and the stone flashed
blue- a silencing ward.
So it was time to talk to Crouch, not Moody.
"Not a social call?" Adrian inquired weakly, pointedly stroking Lutain's
small scales. Crouch spotted the movements and only grinned further.
"You're scared," He noticed almost pleased, "Good, grab that fear and
hang onto it. I've heard a bit about you, you're slacking."
Adrian bristled, and opened his mouth to argue but snapped his jaw shut
when Crouch tapped his wand pointedly.
"You're falling behind in all your classes, turning in shite or not showing
up at all." Crouch scoffed, wiggling his eyebrows in a way that somehow
came across condescending, "Careful there, starting to think something's
getting to you."
Adrian swallowed, and shook his head quietly.
Crouch grinned, stumbling over to his desk and sitting down heavily,
rubbing his stump with a wince, "Lucky for you, I've got something to fix
that."
"What?" Adrian spoke, voice a lot quieter than it should have been.
"I have a way to make you less bloody useless," Crouch clarified.
Adrian flinched.
He, he knew. He had...He didn't know.
Luna had insisted that he was a strong wizard, but she was biased on
what strange relationship they shared. Of course she would lie to make
him happier, of course he couldn't trust her.
Crouch was neutral party, he had no reason to lie.
There was some sort of dawning realization that had sunk into him, like a
sickness. A confirmation that all of his doubts and stewing thoughts were
right- were valid. Crouch had been right before, calling him disposable.
Perhaps that was why his father was ignoring him, not letting him in on
the big plan.
Even Adalonda had told him as much, right to his face with no sense of
apology.
He was useless.
"I'm not…" Adrian tried to protest, but it was pathetically weak even to
his own ears.
"Master…" Lutain trailed off quietly, having been almost silent the entire
meeting.
Lutain was more useful than Adrian was, he had the power of life or
death in his very maw.
Maybe that's why Adrian's father had looked at Lutain so fondly, had
stroked him so gently and praised his scales. Lutain could be sneaky, he
could be a spy or a weapon, he could be utilized and unquestionably a
threat.
Adrian just...Adrian just hurt.
"Oh you are, you're about as useful as that Longbottom boy, except he
hasn't gotten into any trouble. You're already as good as muggle dirt, the
filth under the boots of others. Half the school thinks you're a one potion
sale away from Azkaban, and the other half thinks you're taking them
yourself."
That…
Adrian's jaw was trembling wildly.
Is that what his father saw?
"I don't see what the Dark Lord could see in you, except maybe a meat
sack to take the blame, maybe a scapegoat to pin the blame on. You're
not good enough to really even feed the Dark Lord's snake, bloody useless
I say."
Adrian felt a low whine bubble from his throat, something wounded and
pathetic. Luna said he was powerful, Luna said he was useful.
You're not. The self-depreciation sang, like a swarm of locusts.
Crouch grinned wider, something savage in his eyes as he spoke nothing
but the truth.
"Looking at that face, I think Bellatrix had the right idea using you for
target practice. That's all you are, and you know that too, don't you?"
You're disposable.
Adrian was crying, because it was true. Verbally admitting this, having
someone confirm the darkest suspicions in his head...
"I found something, that would make you useful." Crouch added, kicking
both feet up onto his desk, "Make you something better."
Better. Stronger.
"A spell?" Adrian asked, his voice something so obviously distressed it
made Adrian feel all that worse.
"Potion," Crouch's eyes were unreadable, something akin to a starving
dog, staring at a feast before it. "Complicated one, tricky to find. Abilities
similar to those undead you fancy so much. Well, not really. Not at all
actually."
"What?" Adrian whispered, not comprehending around the chaotic swirl
in his head.
Crouch leant forward, bracing his arms on his desk as he stared at Adrian
sternly, "I'm going to make you useful, something the Dark Lord'll be
pleased to have. You want to please him, don't you? He'll be very pleased,
so pleased."
Crouch could help him please his father. He knew something, or he knew
what his father wanted.
"Master, I don't think…"
Adrian shook his head, sharply. He had forgotten his familiar was so
close, but Lutain couldn't understand. Lutain didn't have the ability to
understand human concepts, he didn't understand the need to make his
father proud.
Lutain couldn't help him.
But...but Crouch could.
'Why are you throwing what you have aside to...to impress someone? What
are you trying to do?'
Luna was right. He was a Slytherin, and he most certainly was ambitious.
He stared at Crouch like something small and quiet.[3] Something wide
eyed and innocent and verging on the edge of tears.
How inquisitive, how pitifully naive. If only he could look at himself from
another's perspective.
"You can do that?" Adrian asked quietly, blinking owlishly and trying to
fight off the moisture welling in the corners of his eyes, "You can make
him like me? You can teach me to be better?"
Crouch nodded slowly, disguised face shifting into something gentle and
crooning like a siren's song. Loud and dominating, overbearing on the
faint echoes of Luna's assurances.
Trust me, I can help you.
I can make you something better.
I can make him love you.
You've always wanted that, haven't you?
"Yes," Adrian whispered, "Yes I want that."
Sirens always did prey on the weakness of men.
"Good," Crouch grinned, his expression far too gone in the depths of
insanity even for Moody's face, "Good, good."
The man repeated it a few times, a mantra. Crouch twisted, sending
clutter and objects clattering to the floor as he scrambled for something
out of sight. He grasped something, a thin flimsy leather book that he
flopped onto the desk between them.
Adrian peered at it curiously, although any secrets it hid were well
disguised between ink splashes, water warps, and a deep impression
something heavy had left on it.
"Take this," Crouch flurried out, his tone revving on something highly
energetic, as if he had taken an unnecessary pepper-up potion, "and you
are going to write in it."
Adrian paused, trying to comprehend how a book was relevant.
"After the potion," Crouch sniffed, his fingers clenching and releasing
quickly in his eagerness, "you want it, don't you?"
Adrian startled, "Yes, but..."
"Then take it, and use it." Crouch's face twisted into something sour,
angry no...furious, at Adrian's hesitation, "and for Merlin's sake, keep it
hidden."
Oh, it was to keep track of Adrian's work. To keep track of his progress,
Adrian knew how much his father adored the black rebound books he
stored on his shelves. He had flipped through one once, a book filled with
fine spidery script that was detailed much further than a textbook; a log
of information many wizards would die for. His father would certainly
like the idea of Adrian following suit, especially since his bartering had
gone to the owls.
"Okay," Adrian agreed, picking up the thin scrap of parchment and cheap
leather. He wished it was one of the higher quality books he hoarded
himself. No, the cover of the book didn't matter.
Adrian could do this.
"Good," Crouch agreed, looking far more relaxed and suddenly much,
much happier than before, "very good."
Adrian found himself agreeing.
King of the Souls: this was a really good chapter and I've noticed more
and more that I have to emotionally brace myself before reading one,
your writing is really good. Just wondering, I know you have said that
Adrian will only be getting worse but will he ever get a power up? or will
he at least be able to overcome the bullying?
A power-up you ask.
Sneak Peak for you all: In a few chapters Adrian accidentally sets an entire
Train Compartment on fire when he was trying to do the equivalent of a
candle flame.
Yes. He gets a very big power-up.
Guest: How will this end for Harry? Is he going to end up insane, dead, a
threstal (like this one the best), a dementor(cool as well), etc...? Or will
he do the clichè and become good again? (Hope not that'd be a waste)
when will Harry start standing up for himself? I get he's on thin ice but
why can't he have another incident happen where a student
"accidentally" falls down the stairs again? I don't get Greengrass in this
story.
I tried to elaborate and explain further about Greengrass in this chapter after
reading all of your comments. I hope this chapter helped to clarify.
I'm almost upset! I would have thought that you know better than to ask if I'm
going to make this cliche! ;) Don't worry, Adrian does what he wants and is
just hanging on until an opportunity presents itself. There will certaintly be
instances where Adrian lashes out and attacks students- I think at one point he
fractures Draco's skull from smashing him against rock repeatedly. Oops,
spoilers.
KnowPein: It seems Harry's goals revolve around Voldemort and
pleasing him only. Don't know if it will change
Or if he would have is own goals rather than pleasing others. Like before
he met Bella and Voldemort at orphanage I kinda liked that Harry
visicios and independent of others.
After that he has slowly spiraled down to pleasing his new father to
unexpected levels
His love hate with potters
Etc etc
Will Harry be ever independent again?
Seems a bit impossible now everyone is hard forking him to their tunes
from Dumbledores Dore to Voldemort. Even students seem to be too free
now.
Kinda seriously weak now. His whole aim and world seems to revolve
around Voldemort
I tried to stress in this chapter that he is ambitious actually and is more...self-
injurous to obtain goals regardless of consequences. I don't mean for his sole
ambition to be 'make someone proud', but I assure you it is morphing into
'make sure everyone regrets everything' and becomes more vindictive. He'll lose
his concern, and grow more apathetic and very manipulative as things sort
themselves out. I know that this story is a tough one to chew one, and I
completely understand if you decide to quit while you're ahead; I hope you do
stick with and see how things gradually unfold.
Roostertheking: I think Adrian should have a happy ending.. Why must
1 person suffer from start to the end and not have any happiness...
There is nothing for him except suffering I know its a aghast fic but is it
necessary that all the suffering should fall on one person who wants to
make a name for himself...Harry suffered in hands of his parents then
Orphanage then Voldermort removed his identity by destroying his face
and now his classmates r cursing him for helping them by fulfilling their
odd wishes/orders...and know even the stupid snake too is discouraging
him...
I don't understand y his classmates r hexing him..its they who came to
him to get illegal things from outside and willingly sealed with him then
y only he us getting punished... All the students who dealt with him
should be too punished... Like that girl in hospital wing she drank alcohol
in school and tried to get Adrian get caught but only he got punished for
dealing with her but not anyone else why?
What's the problem with Snape.. Y is he so angry at Adrian that he didn't
support him for being Slytheri
I tried to explain further on why everyone started hexing him in this bit! The
other students were not punished because there was no evidence, whereas there
was active evidence of Adrian's activities. It's based off of law enforcement
policies for punishment and arrest.
I tried to make this chapter happier and rewrote quite a bit for you.
Some Guy In An Ambulance: Hmm, somehow Luna's appearance and
demeanor remind me of a watered down version of Star from Star vs the
Forces of Evil. I wonder if this is intentional.
I honestly have never heard of that...fandom? I don't know if that's a game or
a series or anything about it.
YKLA SEHUGH: I really appreciate your writing, it seems almost
melancholic yet still somehow sarcastic. I was just wondering what
KlsBledsoe meant by 'I'm assuming Harry won't be living long enough to
be useful to his father as a marriage/alliance pawn'. Is it going to end
similar to Shadowed Malice?
There are no Shades in this story.
Jennybeth98: I really like this story, and the original, but I'm getting less
excited to read new chapters. It's just going down hill a bit for me, too
many things don't seem right or make sense. The biggest one for me
being if the prophecy is about Adrian, why is he so mediocre, even below
average at magic?(or anything besides animals really) It said he would be
Voldemort's equal, but to me he doesn't seem like his equal in any way
whatsoever. Plus he seems to be almost growing down rather than
growing up and getting stronger, more intelligent and more independent.
I mean he killed a boy at the orphanage didn't he? If he did that at such a
young age I can't see how he is getting softer instead of harder as he ages.
Also other characters motives don't seem to make sense, like Daphne and
Snape, who was always known for being biased to all slytherins. Plus the
rule system of the school which I think someone else pointed out that
only Adrian gets punished for things, I know the story revolves around
him but it almost seems the world around him is nonexistent.
Someone else also pointed out which I agree with, why shouldn't he have
some good things happen? I don't think he should do a cleché and
become all good like skylar and forgive the people on the light side
because, frankly I don't think they deserve it. But I do think the fact he
still yearns for approval from people (like voldy, Bella, and to a degree
Lupin) at the very least must mean he is still capable of feeling love for
others. So it's possible for him to have a somewhat decent life if the right
person showed an interest.
And I find it difficult to believe that in a world full of people who have
been through hardships like him and war, (and undoubtedly they must
know how death eaters become the way they are, from treatment like
this, e.g. Snape) barely anyone has noticed enough to step in and try to
stop another Snape from happening. Especially now that dumbledore has
made the connection between him and Voldy.
Also (I know it's a lot sorry) I know you say a lot "kids are cruel" I dunno
how old you are or where you are from but I don't think you're depiction
of teenagers is accurate at all. I've seen American high school movies
with similar behaviour to this and I don't know if they are accurate but
I've never known of British teenagers to act like this, especially in such
large groups over a pretty small piece of gossip. They are just much more
individual and frankly indifferent than this. The only time in the canon
books something similar to your story happened was 2nd Year when they
were all terrified for their lives.
This story is Third Person Objective Dramatic focused around Adrian. what
you read in this story is how he interprets things. Due to this, he seems
incredibly weak and useless. I hope this chapter with Luna clarified that he
isn't actually useless, but instead suffers from incredibly poor self-recognition.
Lutain killed David at the orphanage when he was incredibly young. Adrian
didn't understand or comprehend the actions at the time. If you're so
concerned over if he's going to murder someone, he's going to in a half dozen
chapters. Read above, a different review I answered about the power-up
dilemma.
I tried to make this chapter seem like good things do happen, I'm trying to
balance out the good and the bad. What I want to explain again, is that this
story is through Adrian's eyes. I'm not sure if it's as obvious, but Adrian is
incredibly incredibly depressed and as such, exists in a state of perpetual
sorrow. It is completely possible for him to have a good life, nothing is stopping
him besides his own mental illness. He isn't going to turn 'good' or be 'evil',
Adrian simply exists how he is and lives fending for himself.
I don't want to excuse the actions of others, but in my personal experience
when people are struck with incredible misfortune or mental illness, it
absolutely amazes me how callous the world is in treatment or in helping
them. I don't mean this story to be a case study for society in general, but this
is how I write it and I believe its realistic enough.
Never apologize for explaining your thoughts, or writing something long.
Seriously, don't let anyone ever tell you to 'shut up' about your opinions or
what you feel isn't right. Your ideas and criticism is valid, and although I am
the author and have power in this situation, take your ideas and your input as
something very important.
Regarding the "Kids are cruel", you're right I probably do say that in lack of
explaining in depth. I'm 20 years old, and am in the American Education
System. Perhaps it's simply a series of coincidences, but I'll give you a run
down of things I've seen just through my education spanning from Grade 6 (11
years old) up to now. In my Middle School (Grade 6-8), I knew of two
students who were removed from the education system due to self-injurious
behavior. I knew one girl who (I never heard the full story) was removed after
having sexual relations with a 24 year old. In my High School (Grade 9 - 12),
I witnessed one classmate get struck by an oncoming car and sent twenty feet
while crossing the street in winter. He suffered incredibly brain damage and
was handicapped from then on; the entire grade instantly forgot and dismissed
him and treated him unspeakably, even when he was right there. A friend of
mine had a seizure in the library, two days after she was the laughing joke of
the school due to her uncontrollable vomiting while seizing. One girl was raped
and removed from the school; three suicide attempts (one of which was my
locker partner), and one suicide-school shooting. Only the shooter died. My
best friends brother committed suicide, the McDonald's where our High school
students frequently visited was found with 3 dead teenagers shooting heroine,
and other lesser events. I'm not trying to say that "kids are cruel" is my only
defense, but I feel rather "humans are cruel" is too large and ambiguous of a
statement to truly use. I don't know British education systems, but I do know
American.
The best advice I've ever gotten was "Write what you know." I'm sorry if this
isn't accurate in the way you know it, but I'm writing it as something I have
experience with.
47. Disease
This chapter was beta'd by our amazing Beta Collective
-Arctic Fox From Afar
-Mahina
-Cyndaquil05
-4everfictional
-Scion of House Lucifer
-Parsi
- and countless anonymous helpers!
Thanks to everyone who checked out the fanart! Feel free to look at
any time!
This chapter is triple length for reasons mentioned at the end.
Adrian woke up one fateful Thursday to a loud rumble of activity down
the hall.
Normally, he wouldn't be bothered to get out of his bed, especially since
he had equipped the locking charms on his door in place.
"Master?" Lutain inquired, poking his head out from his box.
Adrian ignored him, and curled tighter into his sheets.
Adrian heard the silky noise of Lutain's small scales sliding over the
woven blanket around his shoulders.
"Master, they are closer."
"I don't have classes until this afternoon," Adrian mumbled back, voice
thick with sleep as he didn't even bother to open his eyes.
"It is after noon," Lutain hissed back pointedly, voice deadpanned with the
noticeable trace of concern.
Was it? He had slept through Charms.
The loud grumble of voices and many feet paused, standing quietly
outside his room.
The door burst open with a rattling bang which impacted against the
stone of the wall behind it, bouncing free and nearly closing it once
more. Adrian startled, lifting himself onto one forearm as the other
rapidly rubbed his eyes.
His lights were forced on and two imposing figures stormed across his
room, grabbing his arms and hoisting him from his bed. Adrian protested
with a squawk, sounding like Blaise's strange bird he had smuggled in.
"Let me go!" Adrian struggled, legs flailing behind him as he was dragged
out of his room into the hallway, "What the bloody hell do you-"
Adrian's protests faltered weakly when he saw what the ruckus was
about. Adrian's Head of House, Professor Snape, was standing with both
arms crossed wielding an expression of downright umbrage.
Adrian struggled upwards once the two students released him (prefects,
he recognized). He sniffed, trying to form some sort of decency with his
disorderly hair and sleep glazed expression.
Snape's lip curled, his eyes almost narrowing as he observed Adrian's ill-
composed self.
Adrian's scars itched from the scrutiny. Especially towards his left side,
just along his chest.
"What do we have here," Snape spoke, each word soft and gentle. In
Adrian's sleep suffocated brain, he almost giggled at the comparison to
lacewing fly wings.
"Something funny, Mr. Selwyn?" Snape asked softly, "because I am not
seeing any humor in this situation."
Adrian's smallest smile slipped off his face, "No sir."
"Then what, exactly, were you doing in your bed? Certainly not fulfilling
those eight assignments you've failed to turn in."
Adrian's stomach twisted, pressing against his sternum painfully. He
swallowed convulsively, trying his best not to show just how
uncomfortable he was.
Snape was a teacher, he knew exactly how to see it anyways.
"No…" Adrian cleared his throat quietly, noticing how his first attempts
to speak came out a whisper, "No sir."
"And what, were you doing then, Mr. Selwyn?"
Snape was much worse than Bellatrix ever was.
Adrian's heartbeat raced in his ears, almost drowning out his shakily
replied, "Sleeping, sir."
"Sleeping." Snape repeated, as if he hadn't heard him. Everyone knew he
heard just fine.
"Isn't that peculiar, as you've been skipping classes all throughout the
morning for the past...how long?"
Adrian swallowed, his skin itched. "... couple weeks, sir."
"Past month," Snape corrected, finally showing his first snap of anger, "but
that's not why I'm here."
"It isn't?" Adrian asked impulsively. The second after he spoke, he froze,
mentally berating why did he say that.
Snape stilled, chewing his cheek in justified anger at being interrupted.
Adrian froze, nearly trembling. Snape paused to compose himself.
Lutain slithered out from the room quietly, sticking to the edges of the
wall and not venturing into the commotion. Adrian only saw him from
his peripheral, although he relaxed considerably with his familiar at his
side.
"I am here, because I have been informed of some rather...disappointing
rumors." Snape's tone sent shivers down Adrian's spine.
Stay calm, he'll only shout for a while and then he'll go away.
"The Headmaster has asked me why, Mr. Karkaroff is accusing you of
being an illegal artifact and potion dealer, Mr. Selwyn, especially one
who sold illegal goods to a Triwizard Competitor."
Oh. Krum.
Adrian bit his tongue so he wouldn't bite out how the potion wasn't
illegal.
"Do you have any idea, how I must feel, Mr. Selwyn." Snape drawled, just
shy of ice cold.
Adrian blinked twice and weakly offered, "Disappointed?"
There was a low hush of voices, people who had been watching the
altercation without actually being close enough for Adrian to notice.
Oh Merlin, was the entire common room here?
Snape's nostrils flared and Adrian instantly knew he had said the wrong
thing.
"Disappointed," he echoed with a click of his tongue, "How...unfortunate. I
would have expected you to defend yourself with something more,
especially as you see yourself above classes, Mr. Selwyn. Perhaps you feel
that you are above your fellow peers?"
Adrian's heart plummeted and he shook his head, too afraid to verbally
speak up.
"Or," Snape paused, eying Adrian with a coolly dismissive expression.
Adrian braced himself, he knew it was going to hurt.
"Or," Snape continued, almost oozing satisfaction, "perhaps your
temporary dwelling over the summer has gifted you a sense of superiority
instilled by James Potter, and the great Skylar Potter himself?"
Oh, oh no.
"Perhaps," Snape's lip twitched slightly, "you would prefer I escort you to
the headmaster to have you resorted immediately. Something
more...fitting, for your outlandish behaviour and idiotic mindset."
A knut dropping could have been heard across the entire room.
"You are lucky, that the Headmaster finds it in himself to repay the late
Professor Lupin for his service here at Hogwarts. Otherwise, I along with
many others would gladly offer our position in regards to your continued
education at Hogwarts. You remain here not because you are unique, or
through a sense of compassion for your personal difficulties."
Snape pulled his arms behind his back, leaning forward to tower over the
still shorter boy, his lips curled back like an angry dog. "You stay here,
due to luck. Best you know that, Mr. Selwyn."
Adrian breathed shakily, ignoring the weight on his chest to the best of
his ability. His hands felt cold, his shoulders shook ever so slightly.
Adrian hung his head, staring down at his bare feet as his voice
whispered over and over through his skull in an uncontrolled mantra 'You
messed up, you messed up, you messed up…'
Snape seemed satisfied, Adrian couldn't quite tell but he could hear the
gentle swishing of his robes as he walked towards the exit to the castle.
"Mr. Selwyn," he called over his shoulder intentionally, "you are required
to meet Madam Pomfrey for a potions test, as well as report to Professor
Moody who has graciously taken control of your detentions. You will
report to him every day, after dinner. If you fail to show, the Headmaster
will have no choice but to intervene. You are fortunate the Triwizard
Tournament has him occupied. Do I make myself clear?"
Adrian's hands were shaking; terribly so.
"Yes sir," He repeated, still not lifting his head. It couldn't have been loud
enough for Snape to have heard, yet the man made a small noise of
satisfaction.
Adrian felt and saw the drops land, just shy of his big toe. They reflected
the light in a way similar to Lutain's scales.
"...Selwyn, mate," Adrian heard Theo say quietly. His words were
pinched, as if they pained him to even speak up in the quiet.
Adrian didn't say anything, he just turned and quietly padded down the
hallway, back to his room. The quiet click was almost a joke after the
deafening bang.
Theo visibly wilted, his entire body sinking as he curled in on himself.
"I've never seen him that angry," Draco muttered as the slow buzz of the
room started up again, "He was furious."
"You think he did it? Sold potions to Victor Krum?"
Draco paused, "I hope not, it would be bloody awful if Krum was
disqualified. Worse if Potter won."
The two boys waited, both seeming to come to a similar statement that
drew their attention.
"You think Selwyn actually lived with the Potters?" Theo questioned,
peering down the hallway as if Adrian would emerge once again, "Lived
with the Golden Boy?"
Draco snorted, "No wonder he's been acting like a broom's up his arse.
Bet he's jealous of all the attention, I've heard of dozens of wizards going
bonkers with potions after something like that."
Theo looked uncertain, "But...But Adrian's always been so nice."
Draco rolled his eyes, "Priorities, Nott. Selwyn might get expelled, if
Professor Snape wants him gone, we should too."
Theo worried his bottom lip between two teeth, "I dunno mate,
something doesn't seem right."
Draco rolled his eyes and looked somewhere between disgusted and
annoyed, "Merlin knows I wouldn't want Greengrass to dig that closely
either then. Lestrange did him a favor, marking him up like that."
Theo's brow furrowed but he didn't say anything else.
"Here you go, dear." Madam Pomfrey tittered, passing over a clear potion
held in a crystal goblet, "just spit, like you boys always are."
Adrian didn't say anything. He waited, gathering enough saliva to satisfy
the woman before hacking it into the goblet. On contact, the potion
fizzled slightly and shifted to a light turquoise.
Madam Pomfrey hummed slightly, taking back the cup and setting it on
the cart. She poured the slightest bit into a smaller vial before she sealed
it, setting it into a small storage box that looked brand new.
Adrian didn't miss the way on the lid it had in bold print, Selwyn, H.
"Sorry for such a messy test," Pomfrey apologized sincerely, "potions sink
into the gums, saliva is far better than hair, harder to fool too!" She
continued friendly.
Adrian didn't say anything, he didn't look at her.
"Are you alright, dear?" Madam Pomfrey frowned, peering at him
concerned. She paused, worrying her bottom lip gently before she
grabbed the nearest stool. It made a loud racket as she tugged it across
the stone floor, close enough to take a seat on.
"Mr. Selwyn, I'm sure there's nothing to be worried about." she assured
gently, tilting her head to try and meet his eyes with her own, "I've heard
you've been oversleeping. Nightmares?"
Adrian sighed quietly, meeting her eyes and looking away slowly, "No,
Ma'am."
Pomfrey's face softened. "Has your scar been bothering you? Mr. Lupin
was quite concerned that it would pain you."
Adrian swallowed thickly, "No, Ma'am."
Pomfrey frowned, looking at Adrian a bit closer, "Mr. Selwyn, you look a
bit thin, are you eating alright?"
Her heart lurched when she spotted the smallest tensing of the younger
boy, already thin as he was.
"Everything we talk about will be just between us, you know that?" She
assured softly, "It's alright, you can tell me, Mr. Selwyn. I won't tell your
Head of House."
"Or Dumbledore?" Adrian asked back, voice almost listless as he fumbled
his fingers together.
"Or the Headmaster, unless you're in danger." She assured, eyebrows
knitted together as worry began to gnaw at her.
Adrian exhaled heavily, his entire body moving to hunker forward.
"...I haven't been hungry."
Pomfrey nodded slightly, "That's alright, Mr. Selwyn. It's important to
have three meals a day, how many do you think you've been managing?"
Adrian shrugged, "...one?"
That was concerning, especially with his peculiar sleep schedule. If he
had been eating more, she would have suspecting an oncoming growth
spurt.
"How many hours do you think you've been sleeping? Or do you have
problems falling asleep?"
Adrian shrugged one shoulder, disinterested with the conversation, "I
don't know, maybe twelve."
"Are you tired now? After waking up?" Pomfrey inquired, already
thinking of various dreamless sleep potions she could offer the boy.
Adrian finally looked at her, although it was one of confusion as if her
question was rhetorical, "...yes? I'm always tired."
Pomfrey nodded slowly, "Boys your age often grow, it's possible you're
anticipating a growth spurt."
Adrian scoffed and swung his leg sourly, "I wish It would just happen
then. My bones hurt."
Alarm bells rung in Pomfrey's mind.
"...I remember Hagrid telling us about you helping him, have you talking
to him about this?"
Adrian rolled his eyes as if the question was stupid. Then he paused, and
looked as if he considered it seriously, "No, I haven't seen Hagrid in a
while."
"I thought you helped him with various creatures he housed near the
forest? He has a new Hippogriff, after the unfortunate accident last year."
Adrian's face twitched, "I didn't know that…"
Pomfrey's breathing paused, "He's had it since the start of this year, Mr.
Selwyn."
Adrian gave a small uninterested shrug.
Pomfrey stood up with a false smile painted on her face. Adrian spotted it
and scowled, almost instantly she removed it.
"I have a few questions more, Mr. Selwyn, then you can be on your way."
Adrian sighed heavily, then he pulled his legs up and turned to occupy
the entire space of the cot instead of sitting on it halfway. He folded his
arms, closing his eyes as he waited for her.
She fumbled for the book in question, trying not to think too much on it.
She slid through the table of contents, trying to find the pages describing
Youth Magical Diseases of the Mind.
She cleared her throat uncomfortably, trailing one finger over the
parchment as she reached symptoms.
'Well, he certainly described fatigue and exhaustion,' she thought solemnly.
"Please answer my questions honestly, Mr. Selwyn, and feel free to
elaborate or ask me to if you don't understand."
Adrian's face twitched again and she received the impression he was
annoyed with her.
"Do you always feel tired, Mr. Selwyn?"
He scoffed, adjusting himself on the bed, "I always feel tired, no matter
how much I sleep. I thought we already went over that?"
"Just checking," she soothed, "is your room messy? Is that why you have
missing assignments?"
He was quiet, eyes fluttering open although staring upwards at the roof
of the hospital wing, "...yes. It's messy, but...that's not why I haven't done
the assignments, I mean, I lost one but I just…" he struggled to think of
words, "...I can't concentrate, and It's not worth it."
"We can work on that, you're a very intelligent young man."
Adrian dismissed it with an eye roll, "Right, is that why I'm always getting
into trouble then?"
"Are you?"
Adrian's jaw twitched, locking as Pomfrey hurried to change the
questions, "What about your friends? Do you go out often with them?"
Adrian looked at her dryly with one eyebrow raised, "What friends?"
"I'm sure you have friends, Mr. Selwyn. I'm sure they miss doing things
with you."
"Oh, you mean getting interrogated and annoyed by them again? They
just...ugh." He groaned, entire body tense at the concept.
Pomfrey turned the page of her book quietly, "Do they frustrate you? Is is
because of your appearance?"
Adrian huffed something that could have been a laugh, "I don't feel like
taking care of my appearance. Not that it would do anything with…" he
waved one hand over his face, close enough to brush one of the largest
veins of painful looking scar tissue, "I'm ugly. I don't care, people are
irritating and classes are irritating and…" Adrian grunted sourly, already
looking agitated.
"That's alright, Mr. Selwyn." Pomfrey was struggling to remain calm, "Just
a few more questions I'm afraid. Do you ever feel like you have a racing
heart?"
Adrian glanced at his fingers, playing with them intently as if to avoid
the questions.
"...sometimes, it's…" he struggled, fingers twitching noticeably, "...it's
loud, and it's hard to breathe. It's dizzy, like when you fall off a broom."
Pomfrey nodded slightly, closing her book and sliding it further away
from both of them, "I can offer a few Pepper-up potions, only for sparse
use, and Draught of Peace, Merlin knows you students need them with
your O.W.L.s," Pomfrey smiled, reaching for her quill to scribble
something on an official looking piece of parchment, "And One of the
Euphoria Elixirs, but only when needed."
Adrian looked baffled, almost as if Pomfrey had suggested he take a
draught of the Living Dead, "Euphoria Elixir? Why do I need that?"
'Oh you poor child,' Madam Pomfrey thought solemnly, "I have more in
stock than Invigoration Draught, I really do need to contact St. Mungos,
Merlin knows they haven't been returning my owls."
Adrian nodded, although still looked puzzled by her description, as if he
hadn't realized something was wrong.
Pomfrey jumped slightly when she realized that the poor boy likely didn't
think anything was wrong, that he was there simply for a potions test.
"Off you tot, I'll have these sent to your bed later tonight." Madam
Pomfrey clicked her tongue, knowing full well his later engagement with
Professor Moody just after dinner, "Go! Go on! Go have dinner! I don't
want to see you back here unless you're coughing slugs!"
Adrian smiled slightly, a much lesser reaction than she was hoping for.
"Thank you, ma'am."
Such a sweet child. It almost pained her to see him turn and walk away
so stiffly, verging on the border of too slow although she doubted he was
aware of it.
He walked on, closing the door behind him.
She sighed heavily, looking at the locked cabinet where she stored the
school's supply of potions for medical purposes.
Well, it wouldn't hurt to give him one Invigoration Draught.
"You said the Quibbler used to run political articles?" Adrian asked
blandly.
Luna hummed, swinging her feet back and forth as they sat in an
abandoned classroom. Luna somehow found him only minutes after he
secured the door.
"We did," Luna confirmed, trailing a bubble the size of her head on the
tip of her wand, "nobody wanted to read it, they were much more
fascinated by all of the magical creatures."
Your paper lost legitimacy Adrian realized with a sour taste in his mouth,
knowing you, you must have been too accurate.
"So you know about politics?" Adrian asked carefully, "or just the idea?"
Luna peered over her shoulder at him, "I know a bit, more than most I
think."
"I've been thinking about the war," Adrian confessed quietly, "There's a
lot that I don't understand."
Luna nodded sympathetically, pushing the sparkling bubble through the
air before it popped with a dazzling array of sparkles. She smiled,
delighted at the colors, "What a strange thing, war."
Adrian nodded absentmindedly, "It's confusing."
"It isn't. Not really." Luna sighed quietly, looking far too insightful for
someone wearing bottle cork's in her hair, "It's all about power. The
world is chaos, don't you know?"
Adrian paused, "I...that's rather pessimistic to say. I thought you'd be
more happy."
Luna shrugged a small roll of her shoulder, "I'm right. Everyone in this
world is scared. People, groups, governments, countries…" She trailed
off, conjuring another bubble to float above her, "Everyone demands
power, because they think that'll protect them most."
Adrian's mouth twitched slightly, "But not you."
Luna's mouth quirked into something sardonic, it looked strange on her
features.
"I think, that in the effort to help those we love, we stumble onto things
far worse than what we would have done originally."
"That's insightful."
She shrugged, twirling a bubble on the tip of her wand.
"If not through power, how else?" Adrian prodded curiously, "I mean like,
you said that power isn't the way to rule."
"I didn't say that." She bit out sharply, pausing as if considering her words
carefully, "I...believe, that it's better to be loved than feared by your
people."
"Are you saying you love the minister?"
Luna gave him an expression so annoyed, Adrian cracked a small smile at
the expression. It was strangely endearing.
"I think that people are the way to ruling," She clarified quietly, "I mean-
I don't think we should be discussing this. People may get the wrong
idea."
"People already have the wrong idea."
"But…"
"Oh honestly, you think anyone else hasn't thought about how they'd rule
the world? Find their way to global conquest?"
Her bubble popped, and she paused a frightening amount of time. Adrian
felt something cold press on his lungs- had he pressed too far? Had he
said something abhorrent to her?
"I suppose you're right." Luna tentatively added, "I mean, I hear from my
housemates all about the minister."
Adrian nodded and with his own wand, cast one of the large bubbles
Luna had been entertaining herself with. She looked touched at the
offering.
"Well, first we need to get rid of Fudge." Luna huffed, crossing her arms
as she craned her neck back to watch the bubbles drift around, "He's
so...so…"
Adrian tilted his head in thought, "I thought he was terrified of
Dumbledore?"
Luna looked in thought for a second, "You're right. Maybe you keep
Fudge."
"Oh, that'd be an idea." Adrian teased with a small smile, "You looking for
a puppet in office?"
Luna rolled her eyes playfully, "Well, you don't need power to take over I
don't think. I wouldn't want to hurt anyone. A peaceful revolution."
Adrian snorted at the thought, "I don't think that will ever happen."
"It's a nice thought," Luna defended, "Keep Fudge, maybe spread
propaganda."
"Through the papers?"
"No no, they'd be obvious to track. Through the peddlers, and the street
stalls in Diagon." Luna listed on her fingers, "Through the bar keepers and
the potion suppliers, through students on holiday until everywhere is
buzzing with what you want to say."
Adrian's mouth twitched slightly, "And what would your propaganda say,
free the vampires?"
Luna scoffed at the idea, "Of course, I'd run a campaign and my promise
would be equal loo rights for mermish."
Adrian laughed, a startled noise that made Luna smile slightly. She shook
her head, thinking seriously for a second, "I think i'd make people panic."
"That seems counterproductive." Adrian paused, blinking in surprise, "I
mean- don't you want to praise yourself-"
"No," Luna chewed on her lip in thought, "If...If I really was trying to do
something...I'd spread panic. I'd make everyone worry and afraid until
they look to a single figure, and then I'd have them discredited."
Adrian tilted his head, encouraging her to continue as she gained
momentum, "They'd...they'd be discredited, and nobody would know
what was real or fake. And you could step forward with the truth, and
when people tried to see if you're lying well...you're not." She blinked in
thought, "They'd only find out you were right all along."
Adrian felt almost chilled by the viciousness of the girl, "How would you
discredit them?"
"I'd find a secret, or a mistake they made." Luna chewed on her lip in
thought, "I'd find something that they'd consider their greatest mistake,
and I'd show everyone like my sheets on my clothesline."
Oh.
The third task was a maze, at least that was public knowledge.
It wasn't like Adrian would be watching it.
Karkaroff, the Headmaster of Durmstrang, was furious over Dumbledore's
refusal to expel Adrian. The only condition that Dumbledore seemed to
soothe the man over with was Adrian's monitoring during the third task.
So he couldn't 'intervene'.
(Adrian didn't care.)
Of course, Moody had taken interest in the boy, something Dumbledore
was quite amused by, given Adrian's track record of stealing the hearts of
Defence Teachers.
(Professor Lockhart was a train wreck, and Professor Potter's interactions
was the personified visage of a blasting hex.)
It wasn't as if Adrian could correct him, especially with how sad the
phoenix looked, perched on its roost above.
Adrian didn't say anything during the meeting, only a quiet 'yes Sir,' and
after that, his detention with Moody.
Who was actually Crouch. What a strange concept, that Adrian knew
something that the Headmaster didn't.
The Third Task was to begin at dusk, which left Adrian knocking on
Professor Moody's office just before the students began to file out to the
quidditch pitch. The door swung open instantly, Moody looked more
suspicious than usual.
"You alone?" He grunted out, voice gruff as his fake eye lolled around.
"Yes?" Adrian asked, voice rising in confusion, "Not Lutain, he's shedding
and doesn't want to move much."
Crouch paused and frowned, "Who the bloody hell is that?"
Adrian shifted his weight uncertain, "My...my familiar?" the snake?
Moody gave a grunt and grabbed Adrian's shoulder, yanking him inside.
Adrian stumbled through, barely catching his balance as the office door
behind him clicked and rattled with an obscene number of locks.
"Alright, that basilisk beast of yours, from the forest-"
"Adalonda?" Adrian interrupted, already feeling off balance with the
situation, "What about her? She's not in the task-"
"Forget about the task!" Moody blustered, stumbling past Adrian towards
a heavily locked chest. Already he was struggling to open the many locks
into a secret compartment, "I'm not waiting here to babysit a brat, take
this and go to the chamber or wherever that thing lives."
"What?" Adrian struggled to keep up, it felt as if his brain was only
working at half the speed it usually would.
"Go!" Moody hissed, stumbling once more, nearly into a cabinet as he
blinked rapidly and off guard. One hand flew to his head, pressing
against his temple with a grimace, "go, take this and get out of here."
Adrian fumbled and held the black bottle, something larger than a
standard potions vial and completely black. It had a cork stopper, and felt
cold like stone.
"What is this?" Adrian stumbled over his own tongue, "Where are you
going? Crouch? Crouch!"
"Bollocks!" Crouch cursed as he teetered, knocking into a cabinet as if he
was struck with vertigo, "get out of here, brat! I've got Potter to deal
with! Go!"
Adrian flinched but nodded, grasping the stone cold bottle with clammy
hands. The scene was similar to Bella, often when she was in a similar
state Adrian hid himself away until the worst had passed. He didn't think
Crouch had episodes, he seemed impressively composed the entire year.
Maybe Adalonda would have an idea, she would have to have an idea.
He stumbled out of the room after Crouch, hesitating once with a low
sound as he glanced at the dungeons.
Lutain was shedding, he wouldn't need to be disturbed over Crouch
helping him, besides, Lutain had always been a bit skeptic of Crouch's
help. Adalonda would have a better idea.
Adrian ran, his boots slapping on the floor as he hurried up the staircases
and twisted through groups of students already descending to the
quidditch pitch.
"Watch it!" One group shouted, nearly pressing themselves to the wall as
Adrian barreled past, breaths coming heavy in his chest. His lungs burned
with the exertion- he was terribly out of shape.
Adrian's bag swung and hit the back of his thighs with every stride,
rattling the objects within. He was lucky Lutain wasn't with him.
Adrian skittered past a suit of armor, trying to steady his breathing and
make sure that no students were nearby. The portraits were watching
him in confusion, already murmuring to one another over his strange
actions. His skin prickled and something made his blood cold and yet
burn him with pulses of discomfort.
It was probably nothing, he just needed to follow what Crouch said. If
Crouch was running or off to do something, it meant that they'd know
Adrian wasn't with him. For all intensive purposes, Adrian was being
hunted.
Adrian hurried inside the girl's loo, closing the bathroom door behind
him. He nearly keeled over, trying to inhale through the harsh gasps he
made as his heart thundered in his chest.
The ghost didn't appear, she tended to avoid him like the plague.
"Open," He gurgled out, shucking off his outer robe as the humid hot air
of the tunnel buffeted the cold washroom like a sauna. The mirrors
fogged up instantly, obscuring his features and hiding his pale clammy
face.
The Chamber was more tolerable, a comfortable warmth that was
different than the biting cold it once was. Adalonda must have activated
some ancient wards, or found a way to change the climate itself.
"Adalonda!" Adrian shouted, running across the stone and shallow
puddles as fast as he could, "Adalonda!"
There was a skitter of something running, a small squeaking. A second
later a thin beady eyed man peered back, squinting at him anxiously.
"Oh!" Wormtail jumped, looking almost savagely around and then at
Adrian, "Did you bring food?"
Adrian froze, staring at Wormtail in disbelief, "You've been here all this
time?"
Wormtail nodded so fast his head was a blur, he paused, blinking rapidly
as his nose twitched, "food?"
"Leave him be, Cerestes, I fear I've driven him mad from fright." Adalonda
spoke, her voice a reassuring deep grumble as she emerged from the
darkness with glowing eyes. "You smell different, and you come alone."
"I didn't bring Lutain, he's shedding. And...and I was told to come here."
"By whom?" Adalonda hissed interested, already trailing her large bulk
around the perimeter of the chamber, trapping the terrified Wormtail in a
ring of scales, "your father?"
"No, the uh, the man who was in the forest. The one who said could help me
become stronger, and make me useful for my father." Adrian spoke, a
breathless smile twitching at his lips, "a potion, I think it's some sort of
potion that makes my magic stronger."
Adalonda stopped moving, her body shifting with her deep inhales and
exhales.
"A potion?" Adalonda hummed, her voice impossible to read, "Interesting,
high hopes to make yourself useful, Cerastes."
Wormtail made a small wounded noise and skittered away. Rat feet
sprinted back to the shade and protection of a tunnel. It was a marvel he
hadn't run off.
"Do you hunt for him?" Adrian asked curiously, he had forgotten about the
man.
Adalonda's slightly clouded eyes stared at Adrian as if able to peer
through his mind, maybe Basilisks did have legilimency.
"The filth feeds on vermin's prey." Adalonda explained, her voice distorting
slightly as her jaws split in a massive yawn, "let me scent the potion,
Cerestes."
"Of course," Adrian agreed happily, fumbling with the cold black bottle.
He held it up to her, staying perfectly still as her long forked tongue
kissed the flesh of his fingers and the black stone.
She tasted twice more, staring forward pensively.
"So?" Adrian grinned, already he was feeling anticipation flow through
his body.
"Open it," Adalonda commanded, her voice controlled and calm.
Adrian scrambled, his short nails dug into the cork as he struggled to pull
it free. It opened with a pop, as well as a strong smell of something
rotting.
Adrian gagged and nearly dropped the bottle. Adalonda reared back as if
something had bludgeoned her snout. Her body twisted, skittering in a
reflexive coil which nearly knocked Adrian to the floor.
"What is this thing?" Adrian gagged, holding the bottle as far away as
possible, "It smells like a dead blast ended skrewt."
Adalonda's eyes were locked on the bottle, her tongue moving almost
frantically as it tasted the air.
"Do you know what it is?" Adrian gagged, hopeful that maybe it tasted
better than it smelled. He sincerely doubted it.
"Yes. I thought it gone, dead to the lands." Adalonda bent her head, her
slight crest catching the light as she stared at the bottle intently, "He
spoke no lie. It will strengthen your magicks."
Adrian shook the bottle, the sloshing inside indicated it was something
very very viscous.
"Drink it." Adalonda spoke abruptly, eying Adrian with a look that sent
small nagging doubt in the back of his mind.
"Drink it, Cerestes." She hissed, jaw opening and saliva dripping from her
teeth in something accidentally terrifying.
Adalonda wouldn't try to scare him.
"Alright, Merlin it smells horrid," he grimaced, setting his bag down on the
ground before he settled himself on the slightly warmed stone. "Here
goes."
He tilted the bottle, waiting and waiting for the liquid to reach his lips.
He kept tilting until the bottle was nearly vertical, before something
slimy and absolutely disgusting slowly slid into his mouth. It looked like
something molded, pitted with globules like rancid milk.
He had to chew it.
Which promptly forced him to jerk his head away and vomit onto the
floor. The potion looked dark reddish, almost black yet resembled a
moldy peach.
Adalonda made a low rumbling noise of disapproval, watching as Adrian
gasped and retched once more. There went the small traces of dinner he
managed to force down.
"Drink it," Adalonda ordered.
Adrian nodded, exhaling slowly through his nose trying to stop his gag
reflex for the next try for the potion.
He fumbled for the bottle, grimacing and lifting the rim to his mouth
with a shaking hand.
Adalonda cooed something lowly as Adrian struggled to hold the potion
in his mouth, the texture of meat so far rotten it had begun to melt. It
tasted worse.
Adrian flailed slightly, making a pained noise as tears welled from the
corners of his eyes, cascading over his cheeks and towards his clenched
jaw.
Merlin, it was so bad.
"You will be so useful," Adalonda crooned, lowering her head to lay flush
to the floor as she encouraged further, "Your kin will be so pleased. You will
be so strong, so fast."
Adrian whined, and struggled to keep the bile down and swallow the
disgusting assault on his palate.
Adalonda drew her head close, flicking her tongue to kiss across his tear
tracks, "Swallow, Cerastes. Swallow and you will be loved."
Adrian swallowed.
Adrian curled on his side moaning pitifully as one hand traced around his
stomach and the other was clutched in his hair.
"Adalonda, I'm dying." Adrian gravely informed her.
Adalonda hummed, having heard the same thing multiple times in the
past hour.
"No, for real. You'll have to find Lutain and tell him I died from eating a
moldy peach."
"It wasn't a peach," Adalonda informed him amusedly, "It was blood."
Adrian froze from his prone position on the ground, "Blood? Adalonda I
had to chew it, it wasn't blood."
"It was congealed, Cerestes," Adalonda sighed, watching as Adrian paled
and gagged although thankfully, kept it down.
Adrian thumped his head back onto the floor, staring up at the ceiling
blankly, "Do you think Crouch checked to see if whoever it was had a
disease? I really wouldn't want to catch something."
Adalonda snorted something which almost sounded like a laugh.
Then Adrian yelped, hands flashing to his shoulder as something tore
away, sliding over his neck towards his chest.
"I...father?" Adrian asked confused, tearing his shirt open to look at the
tattoo, slithering almost frantically over his exposed skin and distended
stomach.
"A message?" Adalonda inquired, not bothering to slither over further,
"What message do you bring, Nagini?"
The moronic tattoo struggled to comprehend and respond, "Master ask
why Potter at manor."
Adrian paused, baffled and not understanding, "I...pardon? Potter? They
found the manor? Is there a raid? Is my father okay?"
"Settle yourself, Cerastes." Adalonda scolded, peering at the tattoo calmly,
"What word, little one?"
The tattoo slithered uncertain, "Small. Hatchling at manor. Portkey."
Adrian surged upwards, wincing as his stomach gurgled loudly, upset at
him. What was Skylar Potter doing at the manor? And with a Portkey?
How did Skylar Potter even get there?
Unless.
"Oh no. Crouch. Crouch made the cup into the Portkey, before he knew that
my Father was around, I thought...I thought that he didn't do that. But Crouch
ran off, I- I don't know where he is."
The Nagini tattoo paused, absorbing the words before it dug through his
skin and out of sight. Adrian would never get used to how disturbing it
felt.
Adrian waited, one hand wrapping around his unhappily gurgling
stomach as he waited for the tattoo to come back.
It didn't, and it left Adrian reeling with the sudden sense of
abandonment.
Thank Merlin he took the potion, maybe if he had taken it sooner and
proved himself, his father would be in contact more. He hadn't felt so
worthless in a long time.
He sighed and drew his legs to his chest, resting his chin on his bony
knees. If he had a practice dummy, he could have at least practiced
spells. Maybe he could try and find Wormtail again.
"I must have something," Adrian sighed, dragging his bag towards him to
rifle through. He had a sealed inkwell, a textbook, a half finished essay
due a week ago, a half dozen quills, and a ratty leather book.
No, it was the journal Crouch had thrown at him, ordered him to write in
after taking the potion. He pulled it out, glancing at the stained cover
consideringly.
It wasn't like the chamber's dirt would make it look worse.
He flipped it open, snatching his wand to cast a small light charm to peer
at the paper a bit better. It wasn't even the high quality paper he
preferred, he could tell he'd have to write carefully and large, else the ink
smear.
Short paragraphs and updates then. He could do that.
He fished for a quill, drawing it out and peering at his inkwell. There was
enough left in there for his essay and then some, he could easily jot down
a few notes.
"What should I write, Adalonda?"
Adalonda grumbled wordlessly, somewhere in a doze and unwilling to
answer.
Adrian smiled and shook his head fondly, at times Adalonda seemed
larger than life, then other times she was as docile as a kneezle.
He opened the inkwell and dipped his favorite quill inside, pausing as he
considered what to write.
He didn't want to make it a diary, so to speak. It wasn't, it was something
to document like Crouch had said.
'It was one of the most disgusting things I've ever experienced.' Adrian wrote
carefully, watching as the paper took longer than usual to absorb the ink
due to its low quality. 'Adalonda says it was blood. Whatever it was, good
thing it came in a black bottle. I'd have lost my nerve if I had to see it.'
Adrian hummed content with his writing. He didn't really have anything
else to say.
"I should probably return back to Lutain, I didn't tell him I'd be down here."
Adrian explained to Adalonda, gathering his things and testing to see if
the ink had dried.
"Leave the potion." Adalonda grumbled, opening one eye as she watched
his movements carefully, "The tunnel to the belly of the castle."
"I know the one. I'll put it over by the entrance then, I'll be back soon." Adrian
promised, smiling at Adalonda and stroking her scales lovingly.
Adalonda watched him a second longer than he expected, "Yes, do return,
Cerestes. I do worry for you so, little one."
Adrian grinned, "I'll miss you. Take care!"
Adalonda grumbled and watched as he gathered his bag and made his
way across the chamber, finding the tunnel in question before hiking his
way up and out.
He returned to the cold hallways of the dungeons behind a metal grate,
far enough away from the common paths to know he had time to return
to his room. If anyone asked, Professor Moody sent him back and left to
watch the task himself.
His stomach gurgled loudly and a flash of stabbing pain resonated deep
in his gut, leaving him wincing slightly and hurrying back to the common
room.
He slipped inside, the entire room vacant for the first time Adrian could
remember.
He walked across the room, his footsteps echoing and slipped inside his
room. Lutain didn't stir, likely far into the depths of sleep.
Which sounded absolutely fantastic.
Adrian shucked off his shirt, changing quickly and wincing as his
stomach gave another angry pang. His mattress felt sinfully good
compared to the stone floor of the chamber, already the ever prominent
exhaustion swept through him.
Adrian dazed, drifted in and out of sleep until once again he stirred due
to the chaotic rumble of voices outside his door, growing louder although
hushed.
Adrian propped himself upright as the door opened, not fueled by anger
but this time with hesitation, as if they were unsure what they would
find.
Theo blinked skittishly, his pupils growing in the dark of the room,
"Mate? Oh, thank Merlin."
Adrian tensed his jaw to withhold a yawn, "Theo? What do you-"
"The Headmaster wants you!" Theo blurted, shifting his weight anxiously,
"He...Mate, something went bad."
Adrian's chest twitched as he stumbled to his feet, rapping his knuckles
against Lutain's box to get the serpent alert and moving. He hurried and
grabbed a robe, throwing it over his sleep clothes, "What happened?"
"I...I don't know...something with Professor Moody and...Adrian," Theo's
body sagged, shaking in the light of the hallway, "Adrian, Cedric Diggory
is dead."
Adrian stilled a second, hands freezing at the buttons of his cloak before
they resumed fastening it closed.
Lutain slithered free, cold and slow as he glanced around, pausing and
trying to come to an idea of his own.
"Why am I needed?" Adrian asked quietly, dread increasing rapidly, "I
didn't do anything."
"No! No, nothing like that," Theo assured, easily seeing where Adrian's
anxiety was stemming from.
"They need you for something, Headmaster's office. I…" Theo began
rubbing his upper arm as his voice quieted, "I was worried that
something happened to you, Dumbledore looked right angry. I'm...I'm
glad you're okay."
Adrian gave a small nod, looking away from Theo as he gathered Lutain
in the front pocket of his robe.
Adrian didn't know what Crouch had done, but he had a feeling it was
only bad news.
He hurried out the steps, through the hallways. Nobody talked to him,
the castle felt quiet and solemn like it had back in his second year.
Mourning.
He remembered the Headmaster's office, already open to the staircase.
Adrian dread pooling in his stomach, walked up the steps, Lutain twisted
restless.
Adrian didn't even knock, he walked through the open door cautiously,
glancing at the strangely decorated office tentatively.
"Mr. Selwyn," Dumbledore greeted, his voice deeper and without the
welcoming warmth. It was cold, not intentionally but rather through
exhaustion.
What had Crouch done.
"Sir," Adrian acknowledged walking towards the high backed chairs. He
assumed the discussion was going to take a while, he'd rather do it
sitting.
"Potter?" Adrian mumbled, spotting the Triwizard Champion curled up on
the velvet seat with one arm cradled carefully to his chest, "What...what
happened, sir?"
"We need your recollection of this evening, Mr. Selwyn. It was our
understanding you would be monitored by Professor Moody for the
duration of the task."
Adrian nodded, sliding one hand into his pocket to stroke Lutain as a
nervous tick, "I...I did, Sir. Go to him, at his office. He was...he was busy?
He ah, he told me to go to my room, in the dungeons."
Dumbledore folded his hands together and peered at him through half
moon spectacles, "And he left?"
Adrian nodded, "Yes, Sir."
Dumbledore looked at him, even as Adrian glanced around the office
instead. The Phoenix was there, sitting on its roost above as it stared at
Adrian.
It recoiled, looking as if it had smelled something foul.
Adrian carefully stroked Lutain, keeping him out of sight.
"Mr. Selwyn, Professor Moody was an imposter." Dumbledore informed
him carefully, "It would ease our troubled minds, for you to visit the
Hospital Wing for any malicious curses."
"Yes, Sir." Adrian nodded. Skylar didn't budge, still comatose on his chair.
"Then that will be all, Mr. Selwyn." Dumbledore smiled thinly, waving
towards the door.
Adrian nodded, standing up to walk out.
"Your snake," Skylar muttered, voice hoarse as if he had been screaming,
or crying, "It speaks English."
Adrian paused, "I...Lutain understands it, I think."
Skylar didn't say anything else. Neither did Dumbledore.
Adrian left.
Earlier.
Skylar felt his feet slam into the ground, his hand let go of the Triwizard
Cup at last.
He groaned, lying prone for a few seconds before stirring, looking
immediately for Cedric.
"Where are we?" Skylar asked.
Cedric shook his head. He got up, pulled Skylar to his feet and looked
around, absentmindedly brushing turf off his legs.
They had left Hogwarts grounds, no doubt. Skylar thought the Portkey
had lasted a bit longer than usual. They had traveled far, perhaps
hundreds of miles, for even the mountains surrounding the castle had
vanished. They were standing instead in a dark and overgrown
graveyard, desolate and empty except for the overgrown bushes and a
large yew tree.
"Up there, a house." Cedric pointed, beginning to take the first steps
towards the hill while mindful of the many graves. Skylar had heard
horror stories of softened ground over caskets in the ground; of people
falling through the turf like the corpses were trying to suck down anyone
who walked across.
"Think this is still part of the tournament?" Skylar asked, side stepping to
avoid an old rotten log on the ground, "I thought the cup was supposed to
take us back to the start?"
Cedric looked at Skylar in surprise, "Someone told you that the Cup was a
Portkey?"
Skylar shrugged, looking around nervous, "Wands out?"
"Yeah," Cedric agreed, he sounded just as nervous as Skylar was.
They walked through the darkness, nearing the hill and beginning to
traverse its slow incline. Cedric shivered violently, shaking his head as he
passed through something invisible.
"A ward! Who would put a ward up out here?" Cedric asked out loud,
eyebrows high to his hairline. "I mean- that ward looks advanced."
"I don't like it," Skylar muttered, passing through it with no resistance.
"Maybe a muggle repelling charm?"
Cedric snorted, "I think the graveyard and the house does that enough,"
Skylar managed a small laugh, one that was still filled with nervous
energy. They walked, drawing closer and closer to the house.
The closer they got, the stranger it appeared to look. From the distance, it
looked like a ruin, supported by broken beams and mossy rock. Up close,
it seemed intact, pristine and in perfect condition. Even the lawn
mysteriously became pruned and watered.
"Bit wonky, isn't it?" Cedric laughed, glancing at Skylar and trying not to
look as scared as he felt, "Pureblood house out with muggles?"
Something struck Skylar, a niggling feeling that something wasn't right.
"Maybe...Maybe we should head back to the Cup," Skylar licked his lips,
"Go back, send sparks that we got it."
Cedric looked like he considered the idea, before he looked back at the
house.
"Think about it, maybe something's in there, something we're supposed to
get." Cedric urged.
Skylar shifted on his feet, looking around in the fog, yet he couldn't see
anything approaching. "Wands at ready?"
Cedric grinned, "Ready, mate. I got your back."
They pressed forward, pushing open a well oiled iron gate that separated
the path to the front of the house.
The lawn was immaculate, yet entirely quiet. Not a single bird around.
There was a rattling bang, and the two boys jumped, pointing their wands
at the source.
"What is that?" Cedric blurted, peering at the odd bird like creature. It
hopped around, jerking its head like a rooster as it observed them with
dim yellow eyes. A reptilian tail dragged along, parting strands of grass
as it pecked at the soil.
"I have no idea," Skylar admitted, tilting his head as he observed the
weird beast, "Maybe it's friendly?"
The chicken-lizard clicked its tongue and awkwardly scrambled away,
between two artfully positioned boulders. Something translucent hung
from the boulder's ridge.
"Cedric, take a look at this," Skylar called over, squatting as he gently
pulled off what he thought was tissue paper, only to feel the slight
patterning.
Cedric felt it, running his calloused fingertips over the thin paper, "That's
skin, like from a lizard."
Skylar dropped it and looked around quickly, "It looks big."
"They wouldn't repeat dragons," Cedric assured him, although it sounded
more like to sooth his own nerves.
"Wish I knew bloody magical creatures," Skylar anxiously laughed to
himself, drawing a snort from Cedric.
"Yeah well, we aren't Selwyn." Cedric muttered under his breath, a
fluidity to the expression.
The two held the wands slightly tighter.
A bird shrieked, a falcon cry that pierced the night. Skylar swallowed
thickly, he cast lumos to have a little area to see.
"That window, looks like it might open." Cedric pointed, shifting into a
slow jog as he neared it, "Might have a way inside-"
Skylar spotted the slightest hint of movement and screamed, "Cedric no-"
Something lunged, jumping through the air and tackling Cedric to the
ground. Cedric screamed, thrashing as whatever monster it was, moved
tighter and tighter.
Skylar thought at first it was a tentacle from the Giant Squid, as long as a
house and looping over and over again. As he drew nearer and instantly
fired off stunners, he realized that it was a snake.
A very, very large snake.
"Skylar! Help!" Cedric screamed, his voice piercing with horrifying fear as
the large boy struggled against the beast.
It moved, uncoiling and undulating just enough for Skylar to understand
that he had found its head. Large bulbous eyes on a triangular head,
already its jaws were opening to unreal proportions with gigantic hooked
teeth.
Skylar screamed a blasting curse at its face, unable to even hear himself
over the pounding of his ears.
It recoiled and hit the ground with an angry hissing noise, already
shifting and recovering as Cedric screamed out a spell that must have
turned him slippery- that was the only way he could have practically
leapt from the beast's coils.
It realized that they were free instantly, thrashing out with unnerving
intelligence to try and knock out their legs. It didn't looked damaged
from the blasting curse, it was magic repellent.
"Skylar!" Cedric shouted, warning him of the thick stocky tail trying to
get him from behind.
The snake nightmare hissed, lifting itself upwards until it was equal to
their eyes, and still had many, many feet to go before it ran out.
"Do we run?" Cedric whispered, looking more pale than a snowy owl.
The snake watched them carefully, looking far far too smart.
Skylar's breathing hilted as he remembered, Adrian Selwyn had a snake, a
familiar. The long black one that was much less horrifying than the
behemoth in front of him.
Adrian said that the snake knew English, that it was some sort of bond or
other.
"Cedric," Skylar's voice wavered as absolute terror made his limbs numb,
"Cedric, we have to get back to the Cup."
"But- Sky, the snake, what do we-"
The snake's mouth opened, a long broken hiss parted from its maw,
pausing before beginning once more as if speaking.
As if speaking.
"Oh Merlin," Skylar whimpered, holding his wand with both hands as a
surge of terror burst forward, "Cedric, we have to go now."
Cedric hesitated one second, then sent a shot of red light at the snake,
turning and sprinting across the grass.
Skylar followed, his muscles screaming in protest as he forced himself to
go faster.
He could hear the snake chasing them, the rough scales sliding over the
pathway and the loud hisses it gave as it opened its jaws once more.
Through the mist in front of them, the air warped, then exploded
upwards in bright red fire.
"Get back!" Skylar shouted, grabbing Cedric's arm and yanking backwards
as the Fiendfyre morphed into the hungry maw of a wyvern, its searing
teeth snapping shut just before them.
Cedric gasped, spinning his arms and collapsing as he tripped. Skylar fell
as well, nearly landing on him.
The snake was getting closer, closing the distance with a hungry intent.
"Stay back!" Skylar shouted, pointing his wand at the snake before
alternating it to the Fiendfyre, trying to protect Cedric.
"That's enough, my dear." said a high, cold voice from beyond the fog.
A thin man emerged from the fog, staring at Skylar and Skylar stared
back. Whiter than a skull, with wide, scarlet eyes, and a nose as flat as
the snake's, with slits for nostrils…
"Oh Merlin," Cedric choked out, finally catching his breath back and he
struggled over to see the approaching figure.
"Stay back!" Skylar screamed, entire body rattling like a leaf in the wind.
He could feel terrified tears twist the corners of his mouth, cascading
down his jawline as he held eye contact.
"Who are you?" Cedric shouted, tensing his jaw as he pointed his wand at
the fire, still glaring at the new man.
The man slipped one unnaturally long-fingered hands into a deep pocket,
withdrawing a wand. He handled it carefully, reverently yet with a
confidence that suggested years of use.
The snake hissed something. The man hissed back to it.
Cedric's face paled until it was almost as white as the man's.
"Skylar Potter." Lord Voldemort spoke softly, his voice cutting through
the air like a razor blade, "...we meet, at last."
"Sky, Sky who-" Cedric choked out, his entire body was taught as a rope.
Skylar shook his head, swallowing rapidly, "You're dead," He protested, as
if stating it would cause the man to vanish, "You're dead- I killed you!"
Voldemort tilted his head, his red eyes, whose pupils were slits, like a
cat's, gleamed still more brightly through the darkness.
"You'll find," Voldemort began, words smooth and quiet yet saturated
with power, "That I am very much alive."
Voldemort raised his wand, thin lips twisting into what could have once
been a smile, "How kind, to bring me an offering."
Cedric's breath hitched.
A swishing noise, and the man screeched the words to the night: "Avada
Kedavra!"
A blast of green light blazed through the air and illuminated the light. It
hit, and Cedric rolled, stumbling down the hill through the fog. Skylar
screamed, a single wordless sound of horror and fear.
Then, Skylar too rolled and sprinted down the hill.
He could hear the Fiendfyre snapping, slowly burning and imploding
until it was nothing more than an ember. Skylar's breaths came laboured,
his mouth dry and every sense on high alert as the mist obscured
everything in the fog.
The Dark Lord looked surprised, as if he hadn't expected Skylar and
Cedric to be there. There was a chance that he didn't know about the cup.
Skylar sprinted, his legs moving beyond his control as his momentum
carried him further than he wanted. He tumbled, flipping head over
heels, catching his weight on his left wrist which snapped under his
weight like a twig.
Bright hot pain burned through him, yet he couldn't feel it through the
adrenaline running through his system.
There was a loud crack in the air. Skylar's heart hammered as he peered
around in the mist, squinting and breathing heavily.
Had Cedric gotten to the cup? Had he left with it already?
Was Skylar….trapped?
'The Boy Who Lived…' A voice trailed, something whispered gently as if
right behind Skylar. It echoed, muted yet still jarring down to his bones.
Skylar couldn't help the helpless sound that slipped past his lips, his chest
felt far too tight.
'Do you think you can hide from me?' It asked, bitingly cold.
Skylar ran, pushing his legs as he stepped in mud and nearly tripped over
one nasty clump of heather.
'You cannot escape me, child.' The voice taunted, and Skylar clamped one
hand over his ear, it didn't help.
'In the end, you will always die.'
Skylar ran, barely able to see through the tears.
He saw a figure emerge, tall and hunched and looking around calmly
although on guard. Skylar recognized him instantly, and relief flooded
through his body, "Professor Moody!"
The man spun, magical eye able to pierce the mist.
"Potter!" Moody grunted, leaning on his walking stick as he wielding his
one wand into the mist carefully.
"Cup was a Portkey," Skylar said, swaying as everything slammed into
him, "Took me and Cedric here….and….Him, Voldemort-" Skylar choked
on the word, tears cascading as well from the fear and the pain, "...Lord
Voldemort…"
Moody stared at him with a lopsided grimace, "The Dark Lord is here?
Where?"
Skylar shook his head, swaying. He grabbed Moody's arm, tugging him
pathetically through the mist in the direction of the graveyard, "We...We
have to go, he's here."
They emerged, and Moody yanked his arm away, peering around once
more with a grimace.
"Cedric," Skylar gasped, raising his hands to his mouth as he screamed,
"Cedric!"
Moody frowned, "That boy is long dead, Potter."
"No," Skylar shook his head, his throat filled with cotton, "No, He..I just
saw him-"
"The Dark Lord is here and you think that boy stands a chance?" Moody
huffed what could have been a laugh, "He's dead."
"No! We...we have to save him!"
Moody sighed, as if the information was boring him, "You aren't getting
out of here, Potter."
Skylar heard him, but didn't believe.
"No, no the Portkey..."
"Was one way," Moody said slowly, his magical eye swung into the fog,
"It won't be taking you back."
Skylar felt numb. It had to be a bad joke.
'Do you truly believe, that you are special?'
Skylar gasped, shaking his head and pressing his hands hard into his ears,
twisting until it ached and ground his broken wrist together.
"Do you hear him?" Moody demanded, rushing forward to grab Skylar's
shoulders, "What does he say? Answer me!"
'How I have longed for your death, Skylar Potter.'
Skylar stumbled backwards, tumbling over the grass and tripping once
his ankles kicked something laying on the ground.
For a second that contained an eternity, Skylar stared into Cedric's face,
at his open grey eyes, blank and expressionless as the windows of a
deserted house, at his half-open mouth, which looked slightly surprised.
Before Skylar's mind had accepted what he was seeing, before he could
feel anything but numb disbelief, he felt himself being pulled to his feet.
There was another crack, something loud and singular just out of sight.
"Unhand him,"
Skylar could have sobbed in relief.
Moody's lopsided grimace turned to a snarl, he pointed his wand at
Dumbledore. The older man's eyes were not kind, even as they looked
over Skylar.
"Skylar, are you alright?" He asked quietly.
Skylar nodded, stumbling away as Moody shoved him and drew his
wand.
"Moody-" Skylar stumbled, still in a state of complete disbelief.
"This is not Alastor Moody," said Dumbledore quietly in the night, "You
have never known Alastor Moody. The real Moody would not have
argued my direct orders, and apparated beyond the wards. The moment
he abandoned his position, I knew. I followed."
Moody snarled, "You're too late, if you think that this will stop anything."
"Sir," Skylar whimpered, "Voldemort, he's here-"
Dumbledore stilled, "Are you certain?"
Skylar swallowed, exhaling as he tried to compose himself, "as certain as
I've ever been."
Dumbledore gave a small nod.
'How touching,'
Skylar whimpered and once more ground his wrist into his ear.
"Skylar?" Dumbledore asked, voice urgent, "Skylar, you must ignore him."
'If only you had found that boy in time, before I watched the life leave his
eyes.'
"Cedric," Skylar choked out, before tears cascaded down his face.
Moody watched, holding a standoff between the two wizards.
Then, something strange happened.
Moody faltered, a full body flinch and a shift as if struck with a dizzying
spell. He stumbled, just one step before Dumbledore's stunner sent him
crashing to the floor.
Dumbledore paused a moment, before he lowered himself to the ground
near Skylar.
"Skylar, I need you to be brave. You said you saw him?"
Skylar nodded, running one arm under his nose to stop the snot and wipe
his tears, "He- he was walking. And- and the snake…"
Dumbledore looked deep in thought, "Nagini," he murmured under his
breath.
He lifted his wand, spinning it in a circle. The mist swirled, and melted
through the ground.
The house on the hill had vanished.
"The end, of another year."
Dumbledore paused, his eyes falling onto the Hufflepuff table. Theirs
were the saddest and palest faces in the Hall.
"There is much that I would like to say to you all tonight," said
Dumbledore, "but I must first acknowledge the loss of a very fine person,
who should by all means be sitting here," he gestured towards the
Hufflepuffs, "enjoying our Feast with us. I would like you all, please, to
stand and raise your glasses to Cedric Diggory."
They did it, all of them; the benches and plates clattered as everyone in
the Hall stood. Even the Slytherins stood, silent as statues.
"Cedric was a person who exemplified many of the qualities which
distinguish Hufflepuff house. He was a good and loyal friend, a hard
worker, he valued fair play. His death has affected you all. I think you
have the right to know exactly how it came about."
Skylar raised his head, and stared at Dumbledore.
"Cedric Diggory was murdered by Lord Voldemort."
A panicked whisper swept through the Great Hall. People stared at
Dumbledore in horror, and disbelief. Dumbledore remained calm, even as
the whispers drew to a silence.
"The Ministry of Magic does not wish me to tell you this. It is possible
that some of your parents will be horrified that I have done so - either
because they will not believe that Lord Voldemort has returned, or
because they think I should not tell you so, young as you are. It is my
belief that the truth is generally preferable to lies. Any attempt to pretend
that Cedric died as the result of an accident is an insult to his memory."
Lutain shifted, resting his head over Adrian's hand. All eyes were on
Dumbledore, captivated.
"There is somebody else who must be mentioned in connection to Cedric's
death. I am talking, about Skylar Potter."
A ripple crossed the Great Hall. Heads turning quickly to spot the student
before locking on Dumbledore.
"Skylar Potter managed to escape Lord Voldemort, he risked his own life
in attempts to save Cedric. He has shown in every respect the bravery
that few wizards have ever shown in facing Lord Voldemort and for this,
I honour him."
Dumbledore turned gravely to Skylar and raised his goblet once more.
Nearly everyone in the Great Hall followed suit. Adrian did not.
When everyone returned sitting, Dumbledore continued.
"It is my belief, and never have I so hoped that I am mistaken, that we
are all facing dark and difficult times. Some worse than others. Some of
you, in this very Hall, have already suffered directly at the hands of Lord
Voldemort. Some of you bear the memories of struggles, some of you
bear the wounds and scars for everyone to see."
Greengrass turned, staring at Adrian with a somber expression.
"A week ago, a student was taken from our midst. Remember Cedric.
Remember, if the time should come when you have to make a choice
between what is right, and what is easy, remember what happened to a
boy who was good, and kind, and brave, because he strayed across the
path of Lord Voldemort. Remember Cedric Diggory."
"Things will not be easy, will they?" Lutain asked quietly.
Adrian stroked his back, over the ridge of his spine and down his flank.
Something in Adrian's stomach gurgled angrily, twisting and jabbing him
like a knife.
He glanced to his left; across the distance of the Great Hall his eyes
caught and latched onto Skylar Potter.
Skylar picked up his goblet, holding it aloft in a silent toast.
Adrian lifted his with a nod.
They exchanged toast built on no words; and for the first time, the two
boys needed none.
End of Part 1
Zoebel: I think that you portray someone suffering from depression
amazingly accurately, and the bullying really adds to it and is also very
accurate.
Thank you. It means a lot to hear that.
ultron emperor: I hope that later he will become a respected antagonist
as happened to [Kylo Ren], once he had understood his path. Will Adrian
also face a similar evolution?
There will certainly be a large part addressing self discovery.
God of 0blivion:ill Harry ever grow a pair and confront the potters. I
still can't figure out what the end game is
Adrian doesn't know either, that's why he wants to be useful. He thinks he's
purposefully being ignored so he can't help, and he hates that.
Jennybeth98: Also thank you for replying last review, I'm sorry most of
my last comments were rather negative...[story about an unfortunate
death of a classmate in high school].
Never apologize for expressing your own opinions. It's wonderful to hear a
story so touching, I only with my own experiences were as kind and thoughtful
as what your school did for Dylan.
Kidchaos9: I could see him [Adrian] experiment with his soul with them
in mind. Sorta like Kabuto from Naruto if your familiar with him. Taking
the best abilities from them adapting them to his body. Just a thought.
I've never watched Naruto, although the same concept definitely applies here.
King of the Souls: the ANs they explained alot and Im glad that Adrian
will become stronger? I guess. Anyway I'm really loving your portrayal of
Luna and her ability to almost switch personalities
I'm happy you and other fans are gaining information in the AN. Luna is a
tricky person to portray, I'm glad that you enjoy her.
Marshmallowmann: i was like 60% sure they were gonna bang in that
classrom or luna at least sneaking in a kiss.
I don't write romance, although I know quite a few people have been begging
for something romantic. I'll throw in a few things that let you all ship on the
side.
Person: why didn't Voldemort inform Adrian about his master plan?
Adrian is 14, Voldemort didn't want to tell Adrian anything with the chance of
Adrian blowing his cover, or having Dumbledore investigate.
In the Darkest of Nights: I've seen enough stories where a person has
fleshed out a character as being depressed, but somehow always comes
bouncing back to acting creepily happy and joyful in-between moments
of despair. They rinse and repeat the process over and over again to the
point of it being unrealistic. I'm looking forward to future , concerning
that other reviewer, CazPeak- well, they need to learn that it's a matter of
opinion. No else cares that you reply to reviews on posted chapters.
Truly, it's not something that needs to be paid mind to.
I'm working to make the portrayal of Adrian's mental state to be as realistic as
possible, so no spontaneous bouncing back and forth will occur. I've concluded
that CazPeak must have been a flamer, because ironically, they've failed to
respond to my immediate PM. I'll be addressing the entire note at the bottom
of this.
Megacharizat: If Voldemord knows that Harry is the boy who lived, then
why put skylars name in the goblet?
He didn't. Crouch did.
CazPeak: Oh My God. Is it at all possible that SOMEDAY you will learn
how to use the PM function? The site has conveniently given you a tool
to make that communication happen! Responding to reviews IN your
story is both annoying and pointless. There's a reason that most authors
don't do it... and if your excuse is that you want the opportunity to
engage your readers - then you should stop deluding yourself that its for
them (its not - its for your ego) and set up some forums like Darth Marrs
has done. Forums are also another tool that the site has given to make
that communication happen. Look at that - all these tools, to help you
stop being a tool. TRY USING THEM.
Ironically, I have sent you a PM. You didn't respond, so I thought perhaps
you'd see my response here, as well as others. I'll rephrase my explanation I
sent you privately.
I purposefully place these notes at the bottom so if they bother readers, you
can skip them without interrupting the story. This isn't for my ego, it would
actually be much more convenient for me if I didn't answer. I searched for the
'Darth Marrs' that you mentioned, and unfortunately I have found no trace of
such a forum, author, or story named as such. I'd be absolutely delighted to
see this 'Darth Marrs', if you so kindly as respond to my PM (sent roughly 9
days ago), I'd be incredibly grateful. As for why, I'll briefly state my main
reasons for why I use replies in my stories.
- a few readers ask pointed questions but are on anonymous accounts which
do not permit me to respond in PM
- a few readers ask the same questions repeatedly, using the section at the
bottom saves time as well as prevents people from having the same question
later on.
- I have the story posted on AO3, a sister website. I'm not trying or implying
that you should 'get off the site', however if the messages bother you that much
you could read the story there. There are no messages or sections at the
bottom due to AO3's feature to build replies into the comments themselves.
I'll be taking an undetermined amount of time off from this story,
which is why I gave you a triple chapter. Hopefully I won't get off
schedule, but I require some personal time after the sudden death of
my pet and best friend. Don't worry, I'll be back.
48. Order
This chapter was beta'd by our amazing Beta Collective
-Arctic Fox From Afar
-Mahina
-Cyndaquil05
-4everfictional
-Scion of House Lucifer
-Parsi
-Acelenny
-S4m
- and countless anonymous helpers!
Thanks to everyone who checked out the fanart! Feel free to look at
any time!
'It's strange. It's like there is a small gap, a pause between my brain and body.
A second where I don't move, although I'm stepping forward. I'm treading
through water that nobody can see.'
Albus Dumbledore was a very tired man.
It felt to him, that no matter how many times he sat down and resolved
problems, smaller peskier ones simply leapt upwards to take their places.
He had soothed squabbles between papers, a few Wizengamot meetings,
conferences with the Minister of Magic, discussions with the Britain
Committee of Magical Education, and even visited a few homes of
struggling muggleborns. No matter how much he did, there would always
be more to take its place.
With the spectacular disaster of the Triwizard Tournament, his workload
had only since increased. A mixture of pleas and threats arrived by post
daily, each sorted with a nifty charm to determine if information was
useful.
And yet, despite his precautions over the years, here he was, forced to
call together once more the Order of the Phoenix.
Fawkes trilled sadly, his long tail feathers softly brushing against the
floor as his familiar perched on the back of his chair.
"I know," Albus sighed, wistfully stroking the crown above Fawkes' brow
with one weathered finger, "Dark times are coming, my friend."
Fawkes ducked his head, as if mourning.
The door on the other side of the room opened jerkily, Molly scrambled
inside with the chaotic frenzy that she wielded like a sword. "Oh! Albus!
Would you like some tea? The others are just arriving! And I'll send little
Sky on up with his friends, they can work on cleaning the third floor!"
She tittered, scrubbing her fingers into her apron.
Albus found himself smiling at the energetic youth she still displayed,
"That would be wonderful, Molly. Perhaps one of those honey cakes as
well?"
"Oh! Of course!" She assured, her face tightening into a firm expression,
"I'll leave you a plate, and they best be gone before the meeting starts!"
Albus chuckled lightly, humoring her with a small nod. She scampered
off, already calling after the Weasley Twins, likely hiding in the stairwell.
Albus folded his hands, running his thumbs over his knucklebones while
deep in thought. He barely noticed as Molly returned, delivering him a
heaping pile of honey cakes, and a saucer of tea that had spilled slightly
on the one side.
Fawkes chirped, and Dumbledore affectionately gave the crisp crust to
the large bird.
The door opened once again, and the stilted strides of one of his closest
friends staggered through.
"Alastor," Albus greeted fondly, "You look as if something has troubled
you?"
Alastor scoffed, heavily settling into the nearest chair, "You can say that
again, Albus. That last lead? With the Kimborns? Dead, as dried out as
Potter's liquor cabinet."
Albus smiled knowingly, "Skylar is a young boy, it was my advice he
empty out that cabinet. Merlin knows I'd have done that at his age."
Moody snorted, "You're spoiling that brat. Give him Dragon Barrel
Brandy, see if he ever goes near a cabinet again!"
Albus chuckled fondly as Moody gave a hoarse laugh, grimacing as his
magical eye noticeably stuck in its harness. Without asking, he unhooked
the magical eye, and plopped it into Albus' tea.
Moody had a slight self satisfied grin, as if he knew all along that he
would do that.
"I saw the others stumbling in, any news from Severus?"
Albus nodded slightly, "As much as he could disclose. He will be
attending of course, before leaving once more."
Moody grimaced, "Merlin knows what he's doing. Never been that fond of
spies, myself."
Albus obeyed Molly's orders and finished the honey cakes, although he
was mindful of the tea. The others arrived, a low murmuring buzz
through the wall which quickly distorted as they shuffled in, exchanging
grins or grimaces.
"Albus," Remus nods, sliding in last and taking the seat closest to the
door.
Remus' eyes were dark, the bags under them looked more sickly than
before. It almost looked as if the moon was nearing its peak, yet Albus
knew it was still a week away.
Moody subtly nudged him, drawing his attention to the other man.
"It's that boy," Moody grumbled low under his breath, only heard by
Tonks who was sitting right next. She had enough politeness to not
comment, or at least pretend to ignore.
Albus sighed quietly through his nose. He felt horrible for that poor child,
the one Remus had taken a liking to so fondly, and yet… the boy seemed
sickly. He wondered if their help was unable to truly combat whatever
damage Bellatrix Lestrange had inflicted.
Perhaps it should be better to convince Remus to leave him in more
qualified hands, yet he knew the other man would protest vehemently.
"We're all here, Albus." Arthur Weasley nervously started, sitting at the
table quietly.
"We are," Albus agreed, waving his wand to gently close the door and
activate the silencing wards. With those Weasley twins, he knew they'd
be trying all they could to listen in.
"Shall we start with stating our basic information?" He offered, looking at
Moody who seemed ready to take the wheel.
"Alright," Moody grumbled rising and slamming one hand on the table
loudly, "So we know You-Know-Who is back and we've got no bloody
idea where he's holed up. We've checked every graveyard and nearby
castles or manors from here to Cardiff, and nothing."
"Also checked some of the names Skylar pulled off the stones!" Tonks
excitedly threw in, "Still nothing, but we checked."
"Which means, that bastard probably wiped the entire area out, a few
miles worth of spellwork."
"Couldn't we detect that large of a ward?" Bill Weasley asked gently,
working as a Curse Breaker and now more than ever, ready to join the
Order.
"If it was any other wizard, you sure could. The Dark Lord? He'd have
you strung up by your thumbs spitting out your entrails before you got
close."
James Potter huffed something that could be a laugh, tiredly rubbing his
eyes, "What about...the ah, the old Death Eaters we brought in that got
off? Anyone tailing them?"
"Already tried that," Moody grimaced, "They haven't been seen coming or
going."
"What about Bellatrix the Bitch?" Sirius asked, his voice dark and sing
song as he stared at a wall, "You all check out the Lestrange and Black
houses?"
Albus smiled sadly, "Everything has been untouched."
Remus flinched slightly and glared with something dark in his eyes.
"At this point," Moody grumbled loudly, "I'd say we're looking for a
galleon in Merlin's Arse."
"Alastor!" Lily Potter protested at the words.
"What! It's true! We have nothing to run on but shite!"
Sirius worried his lip, rubbing his face tiredly, "Alright, so, what...what if
we just follow all of the older Death Eaters. Old Luci has got to be doing
something-"
"Best cease your rambling, mutt." Snape drawled out, voice sharp as he
watched Sirius freeze and glare.
"Oi, off his back Sniv-" James started, only for Lily to pull on his arm and
shake her head.
"What about you? You go crawling back to your master?" Sirius sneered,
hands clenching into fists.
Oh dear.
Albus stood, demanding attention by nature. He smiled and shook his
head gently, "Sirius, Severus is a close friend and he has not betrayed the
Order. He plays a very important role in all of this…"
"He's a spy!" Sirius complained pointedly.
"Sometimes I am too!" Tonks protested, pouting and crossing her arms,
"That mean you don't like me?"
"No no, I love you Tonks," Sirius confessed, looking rather annoyed with
the situation, "I'm just...I'm just a bit tired is all."
Remus huffed a small laugh, but didn't say anything.
"Speaking of tired, you look rather rubbish, Lupin." Moody grunted,
craning his one human eye to peer at the werewolf, "Moon's not until a
week now."
"Er, no." Remus blinked, looking surprised but not at all defensive, "No, I
haven't been sleeping well is all. It's nothing."
Sirius frowned, looking at the table as he muttered out, "It's because of
that rabid kid, Moony."
Remus shot him a look.
"He's right, Remus." Lily quietly spoke. Her own admittance seemed to
make everyone in the room freeze.
Except Remus.
"No, no Adrian is just struggling." Remus defended, shifting his jaw the
slightest amount, "He's doing alright."
"Moony, I've practically sworn the kids to staying out of your rooms, I
even got the Twins to agree to it." James sighed, removing his glasses and
cleaning them on his robe, "Mate, I think he needs different help."
Remus' nostrils flared, "Adrian is doing fine."
"He's not, I saw him attack the portrait of my mother the other day with a
butter knife. Not that I'm complaining, but that's not normal, Moony."
Sirius pointed out.
"He…" Tonks looked unsure, her eyes glazing over as if she was about to
cry, "I heard him talking to nobody, Mr. Lupin. Just walking around
talking to nobody."
"He was talking to his familiar!" Remus snapped out, hands curling into
fists, "I'm not abandoning him, and that's final."
"Remus," Albus spoke softly, smiling gently at the werewolf. "I do not
mean for you to feel threatened. I've had Madam Pomfrey check him at
Hogwarts before the year ended, perhaps it would be possible to arrange
something again? He is rather secretive."
Snape's lip twitched and he huffed quietly, "The brat gets in more fights
and is almost as attention seeking as Potter's."
"Say that to my face, Snivellus," James growled, drawing his wand, "And
I'll make you puke slugs."
"Remus," Albus asked, his voice silencing the argument that was starting
to brew.
Remus twitched unsure, "He...he's told me that he doesn't want to see any
sort of Mediwitch, or Madam Pomfrey unless he has to. He says that
he...he knows healing spells, Albus. He's rather good at them too, from
what I've seen at Hogwarts."
Lily's hand drifted to her mouth in horror,
"I can make the boy squeal." Moody offered, causing Remus to shake his
head quickly.
"No, no I...he's unlike anything you've ever seen, Alastor. He laughs at it,
I think perhaps the cursed scar has damaged him beyond help, Albus."
Albus inhaled, and exhaled slowly, "It's alright, Remus. May I talk with
the boy?"
Remus worried his lip, "He...he doesn't want to talk with you. He smells
sick, Albus. He smells like something's rotting but he doesn't have any
wounds."
Snape shifted, "I can provide a healing remedy for you to dose him with,
if you believe he is idiotically hiding an injury."
Remus looked exhausted, "He already has a supply of potions from
Madam Pomfrey, although if you're willing to spare one or two, I'm sure
he'll see reason."
James stepped forward sharply, "The kid was raised by Bellatrix, right?
Why doesn't he just tell us where he was living?"
Sirius rubbed his face, "because we've already checked all of the places,
Mate."
James' brow furrowed, "Well, yeah, but we haven't found the right one."
"Oh cease your idiocy, or I may catch it," Snape mumbled under his
breath.
Alastor stood sharply, tilting his head in thought, "You're right. Albus,
those houses for the Lestrange's, none of them had anything for a kid,
right?"
Albus thought quickly, he wasn't sure although he hadn't visited all of the
houses himself, "I am not sure, although I will gather my thoughts on it."
"I'll go search again!" Tonks volunteered enthusiastically, "I can sneak in
and out easy!"
"Be safe, dear," Molly fretted, "I know how clumsy you can be when
you're distracted."
Tonks flushed bright red, traveling all the way up to the roots of her hair
before traveling along the root and staining her hair cardamon.
"Remus, perhaps I can still speak to the boy? He may confess something
to me which will help us greatly." Albus offered gently.
Snape scoffed, "As if. His mind is clouded and any sort of occlumency
barrier is pathetically dismal, he likely has tried to forget everything of
use."
Remus looked thoughtful, "Back...back when I first met him, when I was
teaching. He told me that he could help, or that he had information we
could use."
The room grew silent.
"Like what?" Arthur Weasley breathed dreadfully.
Alastor's lip twitched into a lopsided grin, "For starters, he may know
where Bellatrix likes to hide."
Adrian lay on his bed, his eyes closed and hands loosely interlocked over
his stomach.
Lutain was sleeping, over near the window where Hedwig preened her
feathers near the window frame.
It was calm, relaxing, and Adrian hadn't ever felt so tense.
'Why so tense?' He thought to himself, rhythmically flexing his fingers into
a fist before relaxing them once more.
There was a clock in his room, the steady ticking was grounding.
He heard a low grumbling, the shift of furniture across hardwood
flooring. So what Remus had said earlier was true. He wondered if the
Potters were going to show, or stay in one of the many well hidden
houses they had.
Adrian righted himself, wincing as his knees throbbed faintly. He slid to
the floor, socks scuffing over the polished wood as he walked towards his
bedroom door.
The hallway was silent, isolated from the other rooms mostly for Adrian's
sake. Remus too, liked isolation on occasion. Being around so many
people likely made him nervous.
Adrian made his way to the main stairwell, peering over the banister
curiously.
"What are you doing?" Adrian asked dryly, arching his eyebrows at the
large group of people leaning over the railing with flesh coloured strings
attached to their ears.
They jumped, both twins perking up and grinning at Adrian. "He
awakens!"
Adrian huffed, and observed the newest addition to the group.
Skylar looked surprised, "You're here too?"
Adrian's lip curled in annoyance, "I didn't have a choice."
Skylar paused, then flushed in embarrassment when he realized that
Adrian truly didn't.
"Hi Adrian!" Hermione beamed, waving friendly as Ron just shifted
uncomfortably, "I haven't seen you today!"
Adrian stared. Hermione visibly wilted.
"Uh-oh," Fred mumbled, yanking upwards on the string and apparating
instantly alongside George with a loud crack. They appeared only
halfway up the stairs, directly between the group and Adrian.
Mrs. Weasley appeared at the very bottom of the stairs. "The meeting's
over, you can come down and have dinner now. Everyone is dying to see
you, Skylar! Oh! Adrian! You're welcome to join us!"
Adrian leant on the banister and sighed heavily.
"Now, don't forget to keep your voices down in the hall…"
'I should set Lutain on the portrait, maybe he'll get the horrid thing to stop
screaming.'
The meeting filed out, filling the hallway below. Almost on cue, the twins
lowered another one of the flesh colored strings, trying to hear a word. A
moment later however, the mass below began to move toward the front
door and out of sight.
The golden trio hurried down the stairs, keeping quiet. The twins paused
on the stairwell near Adrian, offering their arms politely.
"Any chance I can just sneak back to my room?" Adrian asked
rhetorically.
"None!" George chirped, "Mum would bloody kill us for letting you
starve."
"And Kreacher would poison the leftovers before he gave you any!" Fred
cheerfully added.
Adrian looped his arms through the provided elbows, and descended the
steps with the older boys.
They were nearly to the bottom of the stairs when there was a loud crash.
Then, the most horrid earsplitting screech.
Fred and George groaned, Adrian mentally cursed Tonks.
"Filth! Scum! By-products of dirt and vileness! Half-breeds, mutants,
freaks begone from this place! How dare you befoul the house of my
fathers-"
Adrian tensed, his jaw clenching and his molars ground together. He
hated that portrait.
He stomped down the steps, past the scandalized Skylar and directly
towards the hideous portrait. Remus and Mrs. Weasley were battling with
the velvet moth eaten curtains, trying to drag them shut.
"Shut up!" Adrian hissed, drawing back his leg and kicking with
dragonhide boots into the spelled canvas. He knew it wouldn't hurt her,
although the rattling bang of his foot smacking into her painted stomach
was enough to have her gasp and recoil. With stupendous effort, Remus
and Mrs. Weasley yanked the curtains closed again. The screeches died
and an echoing silence fell.
Sirius Black ran out from a nearby room, looking guiltily at the painting
while also having the smallest smear of chocolate icing on one cheek,
"Shite, Moony you got her-"
"Yeah, all good." Remus smiled, looking as if the shrieking had busted
one of his eardrums.
"What…" Skylar trailed off, still looking dazed.
"My mum," Sirius offered with a wince, "We've been trying to get her
down for a month but we think she put a Permanent Sticking Charm on
the back. Nothing hurts her, spells or curses or Adrian here going at her
with a butter knife a week ago. Scared her right but didn't do anything."
Sirius huffed, pausing and looking at Adrian with gratitude, "thanks
anyways."
Adrian gave a small nod back.
"What's a portrait of your mother doing here?" Skylar asked, bewildered
as they went through the door from the hall that led the way down a
flight of narrow stone steps, the others just behind them.
"Hasn't anyone told you? This was my parents' house, but I'm the last
Black left, so it's mine now. I offered it to Dumbledore."
Remus shuffled behind Adrian, keeping a protective lookout on his back.
They reached the bottom of the stairs, heading through a door leading
into the basement kitchen.
It was scarcely less gloomy than the hall above; a cavernous room with
rough stone walls. Most of the light was coming from a large fire at the
far end of the room. A haze of pipe smoke hung in the air like battle
fumes. A long table had been littered with rolls of parchment, goblets,
empty wine bottles, and heaps of rags. A large amount of the chairs had
been removed to be placed in the meeting room upstairs, although a
large collection did remain scattered around the table.
"Skylar!" Mr. Weasley shouted in surprise, hurrying over when he finally
saw Skylar.
"Have you met Mundungus?" Sirius asked Skylar, pointing to one short
man passed out and drooling over the kitchen table.
Adrian snorted sourly, the sound was harsh enough to jolt the man awake
"Eh?" Mundungus asked, peering around and brightening up when he
spotted Skylar, "Skylar Potter! A pleasure!"
"Don't shake his hand, it's coated in grime." Adrian advised lowly, skirting
past Skylar towards the kitchen area.
"Oi! You have a bone to pick with me, brat?" Mundungus growled,
standing up and revealing his very unimpressive height.
Adrian curled his lip, "As many as in my body."
Mundungus cursed, fumbling in his oversized pockets to grab his wand.
Adrian snorted loudly, and rudely before turning away.
"Uh…" Skylar smartly added.
"Ignore them," Sirius muttered, thinking that Adrian likely couldn't hear,
"We think it's a rivalry thing. Mundungus is a ah...a merchant, business
with a few people we want to know about."
Skylar blinked in surprise, "But…"
Adrian pointedly grabbed a potato from a basket, and began scrubbing it
vigorously under a running tap.
Lupin leaned inwards, pitching his voice low enough Adrian actually
couldn't hear, "Adrian's been having some trouble. We think that with
You-Know-Who returning, the increase of dark magic has been irritating
his scar more. He's been...a bit more aggressive. Be patient with him."
Skylar nodded silently, although looked still confused.
"Can I help?" Tonks asked energetically, hurrying over towards a dresser
from where she collected cutlery.
Soon, a series of heavy knives were chopping meat and vegetables on
their own, while Adrian quickly washed them by hand (magic never
quite cleaned them, according to Mrs. Weasley).
Then Fred and George appeared, brandishing wands and magically
levitating a pot of stew, a flagon of butterbeer, and a heavy wooden
breadboard and a knife through the air.
The occupants of the table leapt away as Mrs. Weasley began shrieking.
Adrian felt his mouth twitch upwards as the knife pinwheeled three times
before stabbing into the table.
Skylar and Sirius were both laughing. Mundungus was swearing as he
stumbled to his feet- Adrian casually tripped the man once more and sent
him to the ground.
"Boys," Mr. Weasley said, lifting the stew towards its proper place in the
middle of the table, "You're supposed to show a sense of responsibility
now that you've come of age-"
Someone entered the room, giving a loud laugh at the statement.
"Nonsense boys! Enjoy it, just be a bit safer, eh?"
James Potter patted each of the twins on their shoulders, skirting around
to take a seat nearest Sirius while Lily sat on his other side. Mr. Weasley
gave a small huff of annoyance, yet seemed alright with the intrusion.
Merlin knew that after years of scolding the boys, James tended to break
through a little better, likely due to to the infamous prank stories. The
twins beamed, giving quick nods as they accepted James' words without
second thought. Ah, the age of teenage rebellion.
"Hello, Adrian," Lily Potter smiled gently, shifting the conversation
around, "Would you like a Butterbeer?"
Adrian shook his head, ignoring her in favor of pouring himself a large
bowl of stew with a ladle.
For a few minutes there was silence but for the chink of plates and
cutlery and the scraping of chairs as everyone settled down to their food.
Then Mrs. Weasley turned to Sirius and said, "I've been meaning to tell
you, there's something trapped in the writing desk in the drawing room,
it keeps rattling and shaking. Of course, it could just be a boggart, but I
thought we ought to ask Alastor to have a look at it."
"Oh, we can take a look at it, Molly." Sirius assured, "Trained Aurors here,
I'll take Moony if it could be anything else."
"Take Adrian! He's a magical creature expert!" Skylar added.
Mundungus sniggered into a speared carrot. Adrian kicked him under the
table.
"Take Sky, it'll give him a chance to practice his Patronus." Lily included
thoughtfully, glaring at Sirius sharply, "Under supervision."
"Of course," Sirius blinked rapidly, "they'll be safe in my hands."
The dinner time discussion evolved. James, Sirius, and Remus were all
chatting with the Twins, regaling the two with various stories. Lily and
Hermione were energetically watching Tonks as she transformed her face
between mouthfuls into strange shapes, alternating between a pig snout
or a button nose. Ron and Skylar were practically rolling in their seats as
they listened to Mundungus explain one lucrative story, tears cascading
down his cheeks. Adrian only interjected snidely when he could, leaving
Mundungus verbalizing just how lucky he was that he wasn't allowed to
hex him. Mrs. Weasley glared at Mundungus often, before she rose to her
feet to fetch a large rhubarb crumble for pudding. Skylar looked at Sirius
curiously.
"Molly doesn't approve of Mundungus," said Sirius in an undertone.
"Nobody does," Adrian sniped.
"How come he's in the Order?" Skylar asked, very quietly.
"He's useful," James muttered. "Knows all the crooks- well, he would,
seeing as he's one himself. But he's also very loyal to Dumbledore, who
helped him out in a tight spot once. It pays to have someone like Dung
around, he hears things others don't. But Molly thinks inviting him to
stay for dinner is going too far."
"He's also gotten into a few spats with Adrian there, as far as we know
Adrian doesn't like Mundungus' ways of business but you know how
those shady deals of his turned out."
Three helpings of rhubarb crumble and custard later, as well as the three
bowls of stew just before, Adrian was by far demolishing everything set
in front of him. Skylar slid him small tarts, watching out of fascination as
the boy didn't slow down in the slightest.
"You alright, dear?" Lily asked concerned, bracing her chin with one
hand. Adrian paused, glancing around the table with his usual level of
paranoia.
"Hah! Keep going, maybe we'll be lucky and you'll pop," Mundungus
sniggered, sliding over his half eaten bowl of stew, "You sure you didn't
bite him, Lupin?"
The atmosphere chilled instantly.
Adrian set down his spoon before snatching up one of the small silver
knives set beside his platter. It was speckled with grease from the large
bits of meat in the stew, yet that didn't stop Adrian from flipping it and
slamming it downwards into Mundungus' outstretched hand.
Dungus yowled, rocking upwards and tripping over Crookshanks in one
fell swoop.
James jumped up, grabbing the man as Tonks herself scrambled upwards
to grab Adrian's chair and drag him away. Adrian sat still, watching
bemused from his seating position as Mundungus rolled on the floor
yowling, clutching his right hand to his chest.
"Adrian!" Tonks yelped, spinning herself to stand between the table and
Adrian, "That was, er...don't-"
"Adrian Selwyn!" Mrs. Weasley shrieked, relieving Tonks of her duty. She
flushed angrily, hands landing on his shoulders as she roughly
manhandled him up and towards the exit, "That is not proper behaviour-
you are not allowed to act in such a way!"
Skylar and Ron looked dumbfounded, glancing at Adrian. The boy in
question looked bemused.
Remus sighed through his nose, rubbing the bridge of it tiredly.
"Don't worry, mate," James assured, guiding the sniveling Mundungus out
of the room as well, "Lily, if you will…?"
"Oh! Yes!" She leapt upwards, kindly relieving Mrs. Weasley of the
younger troublemaker, "How about I take you back up to your room to
get you freshened up for bed?"
Adrian looked unhappy, "I'm not a child."
Nonetheless, she gently steered him out, leaving behind an
uncomfortable atmosphere.
"Well, nearly time for bed, I think," Mrs. Weasley awkwardly added,
forcing a yawn.
"Not just yet, Molly," said Sirius, "I didn't want to say this infront of
James, but I guess now is better than later. I'm surprised at you. I thought
the first thing you'd do when you got here would be to start asking
questions about Voldemort."
The atmosphere in the room changed with the rapidity Skylar associated
with dementors. Where seconds before it had been tensed, even forced
relaxed, it was now uncomfortable. A frisson of fear had gone around the
table at the mention of Voldemort. Lupin, who had been drinking a
generous portion of his wine in light of recent events, lowered his goblet
with an exhaustedly wary expression.
"I did!" said Skylar indignantly, "I asked Ron and Hermione but they said
we're not allowed in the Order, so-"
"And they're quite right. You're all too young." said Mrs. Weasley.
Remus snorted sourly, as if that was horribly ironic.
"Since when did someone have to be in the Order of the Phoenix to ask
questions?" Sirius asked bitterly, "Skylar's been trapped with James and
Lily for months now. As much as I love them, Skylar's got the right to
know what's been happen-"
"Hang on!" George interrupted loudly.
"How come Skylar gets his questions answered?" said Fred angrily.
"We've been trying to get stuff out of you for a month and you haven't
told us a single stinking thing!"
"You're too young, you're not in the Order." Fred in a high-pitched voice,
"You aren't even telling us about Selwyn and we're the ones who see him
the most!"
"It's not my fault you haven't been told what the Order's been doing,
that's Molly's decision. Information about Adrian is up to Remus. Skylar
on the other hand-"
"It's not down to you to decide what's good for Skylar!" Mrs. Weasley
sharply stated. Her normally kindly face looked dangerous. "You haven't
forgotten what Dumbledore said!"
Sirius shifted, as if in preparation for a fight, "Which bit?"
"The bit about not telling Skylar more than he needs to know."
Ron, Hermione, Fred, and George's head turned from Sirius to Mrs.
Weasley as though following an intense tennis rally. Skylar was watching
the conversation with his mouth slightly open. Lupin's eyes were fixed on
Sirius.
"I don't intend to tell him more than he needs to know, Molly," said
Sirius. "But he was the one who saw Voldemort come back, and he has
more right than most to-"
"He's not a member of the Order of the Phoenix! He's only fifteen and-"
"-and he's dealt with as much as most in the Order! And more than
some-"
"No one's denying what he's done! But he's still-"
"He's not a child!"
"He's not an adult either!"
"Molly, he's the one who has fought Death Eater's face to face!"
"By that logic, you're saying Adrian should be in the Order too!"
Remus' body shifted, just enough to draw attention from all of those
watching. "Remus?" Tonks asked quietly, worrying her bottom lip as her
hair shifted to a sollum blue.
Remus rubbed his eye socket with one hand. Skylar noticed for the first
time just how tired the other man looked. "Personally, I think it's better
that Skylar gets the facts- not all the facts, Molly, but the general picture
from us, rather than a garbled version from...others."
His expression was mild, but Skylar felt sure that Lupin, at least, knew
that some Extendable Ears had survived the Weasley purge.
"Have you been telling Adrian then?" She snapped out quickly.
"I have," Remus said calmly, "as I feel he is justified in knowing
information pertinent to himself."
"Well," said Mrs. Weasley, breathing deeply and looking around the table
for support that did not come, "well...I can see I'm going to be overruled.
I'll just say this: Dumbledore must have had his reasons for not wanting
Skylar to know much, and speaking as someone who has got Skylar and
Adrian's best interests at heart-"
"Adrian isn't under your care." said Sirius quietly.
"He's as good as," said Mrs. Weasley fiercely, "Who else has he got?"
"He's got me." Remus protested with a frown.
"Yes," said Mrs. Weasley, her lip curling in displaced aggression, "the
thing is, it's rather difficult for you to look after him while you're ill four
days every month, isn't it?"
Remus started to rise from his chair with a blank expression.
"Molly, you're not the only person at this table who cares about Adrian,"
said Sirius sharply, "Remus, sit down."
Mrs. Weasley's lower lip was trembling. Remus sank slowly back into his
chair, face white.
"Very well," said Mrs. Weasley, her voice cracking, "Ron, Hermione, Fred,
George- I want you out of this kitchen, now."
There was uproar, and Skylar shook his head with a small sigh, "I'll just
tell them anyways."
"Fine!" shouted Mrs. Weasley, "But I want no part in this!"
She then stormed out, slamming the door behind her.
There was a pause, "James is going to kill me. Bollocks, alright Sky...what
do you want to know?"
grit: I love how you portray the Wizarding World and Adrian. Sometimes
I get the feeling that readers forget that Adrian's view of himself is
warped. He is 14 years old and has been through a lot. You keep him
human, realistic and as vulnerable as general, your approach to writing
characters with evident flaws and struggles truly gets to shine in this
story.
Thank you so much. It reassures me that at least in some way, I'm achieving
what I intended.
Roostertheking: o sorry for your pet...what it was and named?
Wonderful chapter again and u left us in cliff..what do the potion do? If
bringing potter to grave yard was Moody's plan then what was voldy's
plan?
Pandy. Short for Pandemonium. She was my 12 year old Siamese Cat, and
the other half of my heart.
The potion is the big 'mystery' of the fic. It's revealed later on, but it isn't good.
Voldemort was just as confused at Skylar appearing as Skylar was.
LalaSpade: I don't always understand what's happening but I love the
characters, the things you put them through that force them to change
and the plot...P.s. I actually really like Skylar. He, Lutain & Harry are my
favorite characters.
If you're ever lost, I can try my best to explain the plot line over PM. I like to
make characters react accordingly. Skylar is someone I try really hard to
portray well, in the end I like to think that you can't really pick a side because
you'll still end up liking him.
Marshmallowmann:how are you getting out such long chapters each
week
I have a lot of chapters written ahead of time, I go back and view the edits
from the beta's every week for posting.
Quento: ...I appreciate your effort to disclose to us motivation of
Pomfrey with all that questioning, but... don't you think it's a little
cheating on your chosen POV?... [Regarding Voldemorts Reaction] I
mean, [Voldemort] is confirmed psychopath, so would he even care? Or
would he be pleased that Adrian makes himself useful (if eating that
really will make him useful)? Or will he get downright angry and in flash
of utter viciousness kill him?...Luna turned out a very fine, unique
character with unique take on life in your story, but whenever she
decides to conquer Wizarding World she will be downright scary...You
scored a point not forgetting about Pettigrew down in that Chamber. I
did forget, Adrian forgot, but you didn't!...You scored a point not
forgetting about Pettigrew down in that Chamber. I did forget, Adrian
forgot, but you didn't!
Oh I loved this review. So much. I felt like I had to disclose Pomfrey because
although I've stated before that Adrian is a very unreliable narrator, some
people struggle to realize that. By introducing and using Pomfrey as a neutral
party, it was more to explain to the audience that Adrian has some massive
problems he's in denial over. Voldemort is...he has plans of his own. I can't
speak for him because Adrian can't speak for him. Eating the thing will make
him more powerful. Luna is downright scary, and so so important. That little
conversation is MASSIVE later on, especially when Adrian gets his 'screw
everything' mindset. Pettigrew oh yes, I had to throw that in because at some
point I didn't remember where I wrote him. I honestly lost track and had to
reread and find him again.
Savienne: I love how you answer people's questions very expertly and
rationally, and it's an inspiration to see you react so calm despite the
occasional hate. Plus, it's fun to read those glimpses of the future plot,
and your analysis/explanation of Adrian's personality and behaviour.
I've learned with a few people with strong opinions that its easier to simply be
polite and try to explain your perspective. I tried to PM them but they didn't
respond so I decided to answer in a way I was more sure they'd see. I enjoy
explaining my ideas, and answering questions at the end as well.
paulsii: But what I don't understand is the basilisk's character. Does she
like Adrian? Because sometimes she seems to not care about him and it
looks like she just likes his snake. And them she seems fond of him again.
Does she see him just as her master's child or does she really care about
him as her own child? And what about the part in the forest when you
wrote that her eyes were glowing after Crouch said that he will make
Adrian important. Was she just as cruel about Adrian's importance to his
father to make Crouch help him?
Spoilers~~
Impstar:It's just... this is becoming a very depressing story. To be honest,
under ordinary circumstances I'd just stop reading, seeing as while I can
read dark stories, there needs to be hope and good things to balance it
out; this is a spiraling trainwreck of epic proportions, and the small
number of heartwarming moments actually make it worse, because you're
just reminding your readers of what Adrien's going to in summary, this
story's mood and plot is heading downhill and there are no brakes on that
train.
I don't recall if I sent you a PM, although I feel like this is a good chance to
address a few things with readers.
If at any point during this story it's exhausting or tiring or you feel its a bit too
much to read after a long day- then by no means are you pressured or entitled
to read it. I do not wish for anyone to ever suffer or struggle to read this story
due to some sense of commitment to it. Don't worry about it- I've had to call it
quits on a few stories also.
That being said, I wont lie, you're one of the few reviewers I look forward to
the most. I think it's because I remember you reviewing my other works dating
years back, so you personally are one of my favourite reviewers. That being
said, don't worry about it. Truly, you're more important than a couple reviews.
OmnipotentOminousmagician: t was so sad, but I like how Adrian and
Skylar raise their glasses to each other in solidarity in the end, it
reinforces that Adrian isn't a bad person, he doesn't want anybody to die,
he's just so messed up from constantly being manipulated for so long. Is
Adrian going to die in the end of this or just end up some St Mungo's
psyche ward or Azkaban?
Adrian is just a very unfortunate child. As for the ending, well, I'm trying to
figure that out right now actually.
LordSinnoh: I love and hate this story at the same time... I love how you
managed to actually write a geniune and realistic !DarkHarry without all
the usual cliches and extra-bashing...I HATE how it makes me feel. I can't
help but feel sorry for Adrian and all the fucked up shit he has to go
through...with the lack of cliches and bashing is that there isn't a clear
cut way for him to get at least some closure...The fact that the endgame
is so unclear also makes me feel extremely anxious for the future... it
positively tore me apart to see Adrian get manipulated into taking the
potion by Crouch, but at the same time I can understand why he would
mistakenly believe he is weak and worthless... It just hurts to see him be
so aimless and lost outside of the vague idea of pleasing his
father...Congratulations on writing the most amazingly torturous fic I
have ever read.
Yes. Yes. Yes. Everything about this is exactly why I wanted to write this story
to begin with. Yes. I didn't mean for it to end up this painful and vicious,
honestly. It was supposed to be actually pretty funny, but ah, you see what
happened to it. I'll likely release post-story chapters on AO3 which are
individual isolated chapters which are more humor than angst.
Thank you everyone for the kind messages and reassurances, both in
regards to the unfriendly review and my personal events.
49. Locket
This chapter was beta'd by our amazing Beta Collective
-Arctic Fox From Afar
-Mahina
-Cyndaquil05
-4everfictional
-Scion of House Lucifer
-Parsi
-Acelenny
-S4m
- and countless anonymous helpers!
Thanks to everyone who checked out the fanart! Feel free to look at
any time!
I have potions. I'm not sure why. They go down cold, and I can feel them sit
heavy. Remus says that he can smell something wrong with me. Nobody else
seems to be sure, or they can't tell. I'm starting to think that he's right.
"Where's Voldemort? What's he doing? I've been trying to read the
Prophet but I think Mum and Dad monitor it. There haven't been
anything that looks like him yet, no funny deaths or anything-"
"That's because there haven't been any suspicious deaths yet," said Sirius,
"not as far as we know anyway...and we know quite a lot."
"More than he thinks we do anyway," said Lupin.
"How come he's stopped killing people?" Skylar asked quietly.
"Because he doesn't want to draw attention to himself at the moment. It
would be dangerous for him. His comeback didn't come off quite the way
he wanted it to, he messed it up." Sirius sounded slightly smug.
"Or rather, you messed it up for him," said Lupin with a satisfied smile.
"How?" Skylar asked, perplexed.
"You weren't supposed to survive!" Sirius almost shouted, "Nobody apart
from his Death Eaters were supposed to know, but the Triwizard fiasco
and Moody's imposter made it so you're a witness. And the very last
person he wanted to know about his return was Dumbledore, and you
made sure Dumbledore knew the moment he returned."
"Has it helped?" Skylar asked quietly, shrinking in on himself.
"Thanks to you, Dumbledore was able to recall the Order of the Phoenix
about an hour after you saw Voldemort. It's been tricky to get a few of us
rounded up, especially with no solid proof, but we've been getting there."
"What have you been doing?"
"Trying to find that graveyard of yours," Tonks chimed in, "We've figured
that you really shot his plan to hell since nobody can find the place. He
hid the entire area because he's on the run now. Dumbledore's got an
idea where it is, and Dumbledore's ideas generally turn out to be right."
"He hid the entire place?" Skylar gaped, "Okay, so what does Dumbledore
reckon he's doing then?"
"Well," Sirius started, leaning onto the table heavily, "Firstly, he wants to
build up his army again. In the old days, he had huge numbers at his
command; witches and wizards he'd bullied or bewitched into following
him, his faithful Death Eaters, a great bunch of Dark creatures. You didn't
see any other Death Eaters, and that Barty Crouch didn't know about his
return which means he's only got a handful right now. He's certainly not
going to try and take on the Ministry of Magic with only a dozen or so
followers."
"So you're trying to stop him getting more followers?"
"We're doing our best, right now most people don't think he's actually
back. We're also checking out some of the old haunts, Lestrange, Yaxley,
Carrow, seeing any of the known houses or estates to try and find out
where he's hiding. Selwyn actually mentioned a few houses we didn't
know about, so I guess he's helped."
"Have you been checking the Ministry records?" Skylar asked, amazed
and slightly impressed by the speed of everything.
"Well," Sirius trailed off, "I tried, got down into the records before some
bloody toad of a woman caught me. Couldn't very well say I was with
Dumbledore, though she knew who I was already. Doesn't matter, now
I'm a full time Order member!"
Skylar's gaped in horror, "You were fired?"
Sirius gave a wink, "Between us, Sky, the Ministry sucked arse. I'm proud
to help out Dumbledore any day, much better than that moron Fudge."
Skylar swallowed guiltily, "I'm sor-"
"None of that," Sirius firmly interjected, "Don't worry about it, mate.
Tonks and Arthur are still in the Ministry, so we have a few spies in
there."
"We've got a few spies spread out," Remus added helpfully, "Mundungus
is keeping his eyes out in Knockturn, he's already spotted a few known
Death Eaters and recorded their locations. Snape is helping- and I know
how you feel about Snape but he is helping."
"It's a shame, I'd happily curse him." Sirius sighed wistfully.
"But we have Kingsley Shacklebolt's support, he's been a real asset too.
He's in charge of the hunt for a few Dark Wizards from the last war, or
those still running. Not all of them went to Azkaban, some just dropped
off the map but are poking their heads back out. Kingsley's been chasing
Greyback for the ministry for years."
"Is that why Adrian's helping? He's a spy in Slytherin?" Skylar interrupted
hopefully.
Remus shifted uncomfortably, "He...his position is a bit difficult."
"From what we've gathered from Snivellus, Selwyn isn't the sweetest
Pumpkin tart. He's said that Selwyn isn't the brightest, and gets into a
dozen brawls or spats with his roommates weekly. Spends more time
sleeping than going to classes and-"
"And is sick." Remus sharply bit out, his voice edging the slightest tone of
a snarl, "with the increase of Dark Magic."
Sylar blinked in confusion, "He's sick? When did he become sick?"
Remus sighed and rubbed his temples, "I don't know. Around the time of
your third task, although it may have been dormant."
"This is what we like to call, Mama Wolf," Sirius cheerfully interjected,
"Poppy's cleared him before and no scans are picking anything up. He
seems fine, if only a bit moody. Likely since my bitch of a cousin is on
the run and we both want her dead, but we're thinking Selwyn could be
our very own Bellatrix hunter."
"No, we aren't thinking that." Remus sniped out coldly.
"What's Voldemort after apart from followers?" Skylar asked, diverting
the conversation from something that could be tense.
Sirius and Lupin exchanged the most fleeting of looks before Sirius slowly
added, "Stuff he can only get by stealth."
Skylar blinked, confused.
"Like a weapon. Something he didn't have last time."
"When he was powerful before? The last war?"
"Yes."
"What kind of weapon? Something worse than the Avada Kedav-"
"That's enough," Mrs. Weasley spoke from the shadows beside the door.
Skylar hadn't noticed her return, her arms were crossed and she looked
furious.
"I want all of you in bed, now. All of you," She added, looking at all of
the younger students in the room.
"You've given Skylar plenty of information, any more and you might as
well induct him into the Order."
"Why not?" Skylar asked quickly, "I'll join, I want to join. I want to fight-"
"No."
It wasn't Mrs. Weasley, it was Lupin.
"The Order is comprised only of over-age wizards. Wizards who have left
school. There are dangers involved, of which you can have no idea."
Skylar's hand clenched and in a sudden fit of anger he blurted, "I think I
have some idea, Moony."
Remus looked at Skylar, and then wilted, glancing away slightly guilty.
"He's right, Sky." Sirius quietly mentioned, "Just...just look at Adrian. The
poor kid is more scarred than you can believe, halfway to St. Mungo's
already with how he talks to walls. You don't want that, not now."
"Bed." Mrs. Weasley clipped out, holding the door open. Skylar hunkered
down, sighing as he could recognize defeat already.
Fred and George apparated into Ron and Skylar's room only an hour after
Mrs. Weasley locked the door behind her.
Skylar saw the blurred outlines of Fred and George through the darkness
of the room, clambering onto Ron and Skylar's mattress as they settled.
"So? The weapon?" Ron asked eagerly, leaning forward in the dark as if
he could see them better.
"We didn't hear that bit on the old Extendables," Fred admitted,
"Interesting though, wasn't it?"
"What d'you reckon it is?" Skylar asked.
"Could be anything." Fred admitted.
"But there can't be anything worse than the Avada Kedavra curse, can
there? What's worse than death?" Ron asked, bafflement thick.
"Maybe it's something that can kill loads of people at once," suggested
George.
"Maybe it's some particularly painful way of killing people," Fred added
along.
"He's got the Cruciatus Curse for pain," Skylar pointed out knowingly, "He
doesn't need anything more efficient than that."
They paused in the dark, thinking and wondering what horrors the
weapon could be.
"So who d'you thinks got it now?" George asked.
"I hope it's on our side," Said Ron, sounding nervous.
"If it is, Dumbledore's probably keeping it," said Fred.
"Where? Hogwarts?" Ron hissed out, obviously alarmed.
"Bet it is! That's where he hid the Sorcerer's Stone!"
"A weapon's going to be a lot bigger than the Stone, though!"
"Not necessarily," said Fred, rolling his eyes, "I mean, look at ickle
Adrian."
"What do you mean?" said Skylar, blinking in the dark.
"Well, you saw him go at Mundungus. Back when he had all those deals, I
reckon he was the most powerful student at Hogwarts. Merlin, I heard he
had Snape owe him."
"A shame that they shut him down," George sighed wistfully, "I reckon he
could have found a way to sneak a centaur in the castle if you paid him
enough."
"Probably why they snapped down fast," Fred concluded with a frown,
"Isn't a problem when it's just butterbeer. Merlin, remember Callum? He
was years above us, able to find dirt on anyone, but he had nothing on
ickle Adrian."
The statement trailed and tickled something back of Skylar's brain. A
weapon that could be hidden, something powerful but disguised…
"What...what if it isn't a thing. What if it's a person?"
They dropped into silence.
"You mean a dark wizard?" Fred asked confused.
"Yeah mate, they're already looking for those."
"No, no." Skylar shook his head unsure, "Back...back in my third year-
you remember the Dementors?"
"Yeah, when you did that Patrony thingy?" Fred tilted his head curiously.
Skylar flushed in the dark, "Er, yeah. But...but right after that, before
Moony came in, there was this...thing, standing there. I thought it was a
Dementor, but it was really small, short I mean. And just standing there.
Watching us."
The room got significantly colder.
"Whatcha mean?" George asked, leaning forward to nearly pin Skylar to
his bed.
"There's a dark creature out there?" Fred asked excitedly, "We should ask
Adrian, he knows all that shite."
"It fought dad," Skylar said quietly, "He said that something bit him, that
he almost died. It was right by Hogwarts, outside the wards."
The room turned somber.
The quiet made the approaching footsteps seem very loud.
"Mum," George whispered, and without further ado, both twins vanished
with a crack.
Skylar was positive he would not be able to fall asleep; the evening had
been so packed with things to think about that he fully expected to lie
awake for hours. The next thing he knew, he woke from a curled ball,
warm under his bedsheets. Half an hour later, Skylar and Ron were
dressed and darting through the dusty drawing room with buckets of
soapy water. Fred and George joined them, looking peculiar with tied
cloths over their noses and mouths. Each were carrying a large bottle of
black sludge like liquid, looking distinctly homemade in the recycled
butterbeer bottles.
"Cover your faces and take a spray," Mrs. Weasley said to the group, "It's
Doxycide, Adrian made it a few nights ago with some ingredients we
found in an abandoned potions room and some he had Tonks fetch from
the shops. I've never seen an infestation this bad- go on!"
Hermione gave a shiver, holding her bottle with a hesitant look. "Mrs.
Weasley are you sure this is safe?"
"Of course it is, dear." Mrs. Weasley assured her with a small smile,
"Adrian has already helped with a rather prickly gnome in the walls,
rather fascinating to see the boy at work actually. Doxies require more
work- go on!"
"I think they brighten this place up!" Sirius cheerfully added, skipping
into the room with a basket full of onions, some of them filled with small
bite marks, "Anyways, the writing desk is a boggart. I'll head with it
towards the storage room we cleared out on the third floor, I'll steal
Skylar from you."
Skylar exhaled a quiet thanks, grinning behind his tea cloth as Sirius gave
a thumbs up. Nobody asked why Sirius was holding a basket of onions.
"Right you are, Sirius." Mrs. Weasley agreed. They were both speaking in
carefully light, polite voices that told Skylar that neither had forgotten
their argument before.
Mrs. Weasley peered over a book Skylar recognized. The page on doxies
in Gilderoy Lockhart's Guide to Household Pests was lying open on the
sofa, large passages crossed out in red ink and scribbled over in a certain
Slytherin's aristocratic handwriting. For some reason, the idea that
Adrian had absolutely demolished the passages left him gleeful.
"Come on, Sky." Sirius chimed happily, steering the younger boy out of
the room and towards the stairwells, "Remember those Hippogriffs? Or
that dragon you faced?"
They found the landing and took a left, down a hallway Skylar hadn't
ever traveled before. "Yeah?"
Sirius had a mischievous expression on his face, "This is the exact same
thing."
Skylar blinked in confusion, feeling dread as they neared an unmarked
door, "What- Sirius what do you mean-"
"Go get him!" Sirius cheered, opening the door and scooting Skylar inside
with one large hand.
Skylar stumbled, nearly tripping over a tiny rug in the doorway. The
floorboards were polished, and the room was empty except for a couple
trunks and a large bed filled with a mound of clothing. It wasn't anything
like Skylar's room, the one he quickly decorated with posters and spare
knicknacks. The room was cold, and isolating.
Then, a low sound of something scraping softly was all Skylar could hear.
He was reminded instantly of the dragon's tail over rock- and then he saw
black scales emerge from a spelled corner of one of the trunks.
The snake was horrifying, angry, and coming right at him. Doxies his
arse, he'd take them any day over this.
"No-no!" Skylar blurted, raising his arms defensively as he skittered back
towards the bedroom door Sirius was keeping shut, "I'm supposed to
wake him, Sirius threw me in here because he's a sadist!"
Sirius laughed with a hoarse bark on the other side of the door, muffled
slightly by the wood.
The snake paused, lifting itself upwards as its head rose to Skylar's naval,
its tongue flickering incessantly.
"I'm just supposed to wake him because there's a boggart, I'm sorry, I'm
sorry, please don't eat me."
Skylar's voice was totally not a whine at the end.
The snake paused, then opened its mouth in a large yawn and lowered
itself to the ground. It shifted, and slithered back into the crate.
The lump on the bed didn't move at all despite the noise.
With the immediate danger gone, well, Skylar felt that he had already
tempted fate, why not continue?
Skylar leapt onto the bed, his stomach landing unfortunately on a bony
elbow. His breath left him with an oof.
Then Adrian moved, which drove the elbow further into his stomach and
sent him to the floor in crippling pain.
"What, the hell!" Adrian roared, his voice croaky and hoarse as the boy
jolted out of bed, scrambling to try and orient himself, "Lutain!" He
roared, although it came out mostly as a whine. Adrian's arms swung
pointedly, hands coiled into fists which thankfully never collided with a
target.
The black snake head poked out of the box, now dangerously close to
Skylar's face. The snake hissed something low, although it didn't seem
threatening.
Adrian pouted, seemingly due to how docile his snake looked.
"Sorry," Skylar wheezed, trying not to laugh at how ridiculous Adrian's
bedhead was, "supposed to help with a boggart."
Adrian huffed sourly, blinking owlishly as he fumbled on a side table to
find his wand. He held it firmly, sliding it up his sleeve before collapsing
back into his bed.
"No," Skylar tried not to laugh, "No, you're supposed to get up."
Adrian mumbled something into his pillow, that sounded suspiciously
like 'bite me,'
The door opened slowly, Sirius peeking through with a hopeful look. "All
fingers still attached?"
Skylar wiggled his fingers at him wordlessly.
"Somebody's in a good mood," Sirius sang, peering at the lump on the bed
amused.
Adrian reached for his side table, grabbing an unnecessarily extravagant
silver goblet filled with water, and chucked it at Sirius' head.
Sirius ducked, although he spluttered when the water matted down his
shaggy hair. He pulled out his wand, levitating the blankets off Adrian's
body. Adrian moaned into his pillow, slowly increasing in volume until it
was a muffled screech. It almost sounded like the terrifying falcon of his.
"We're uh, supposed to be dealing with the one boggart." Skylar provided
helpfully.
"Good. Have fun. See you later." Adrian mumbled back, his eyes
forcefully closed.
"You're coming with incase it's a manticore!" Sirius chimed in helpfully.
Adrian scoffed into his pillow, "A Manticore wouldn't fit."
"See, you're perfect." Sirius grinned, "Grab a robe and come on. It's almost
noon. Wakey wakey."
Adrian flipped off Sirius with one hand, the one without his wand in his
sleeve. "I already gave you my notes on boggarts."
"Yeah, but see, if you don't do this then you'll be cleaning up doxies."
Sirius pointed out, Adrian groaned into his pillow again.
"Light them on fire," Adrian moaned tiredly, trying to roll away from the
bright light, "Throw 'Dungus at em."
Skylar found himself smiling, something about Adrian's actions were
rather plesant to watch. Ron was always messy in the morning, more
grouchy and disoriented than anything. Hermione was far too chipper
and an early bird. Adrian was...well, Adrian was incredibly relatable.
"C'mon mate," Skylar teased, laughter just shy of breaking free, "I don't
think the Doxies would touch Mundungus, maybe they'd catch
something."
Adrian paused before he submitted himself to sleepy giggles, vibrating
his entire chest.
Sirius looked rather amused with the situation, "Merlin, you are in a good
mood. I thought you were going to try and strangle me with the blankets
again?"
Adrian only laughed a bit more into the pillow, snuggling further into it
even without the blankets.
"No, nope none of that," Sirius rolled his eyes, "I'll curse you with
hiccups-"
Adrian's body tensed and instantly (almost as if he wasn't aware of it) he
was sitting upright and already sliding to a very unstable standing
position. His eyes were sleep glazed, bed head messy and silly to look at.
His sleep shirt was oversized, hanging low over one shoulder revealing a
thick purple scar, puckered over his collarbone. Adrian blinked once,
then he scowled at Sirius in a vaguely irritated way, "oh ha ha. Nice one,
play the curse threat Black, why don't you." Adrian huffed sourly, he
grabbed one robe that seemed to be of fairly high quality, although his
sleep clothes were secondhand at best. He didn't seem happy, but then
again he never did. "Stupid mutt."
Skylar felt a sharp pang of guilt, and Sirius grimaced silently at it also.
Skylar would have to pass along the word subtly that even teasingly
mentioning that they'd curse Adrian was something to avoid. It didn't
seem like Adrian truly cared, but it was unsettling to see the instinctual
reaction.
"Potions!" Sirius reminded, recovering quickly. Without stopping to see if
Adrian was going to follow through, the man took off vanishing down the
hallway to grab the writing desk from the doxy infested room.
Adrian mumbled something under his breath that most likely was rude.
Skylar tried not to pay attention, although he found himself gasping in
surprise at the sheer amount of potions in the one trunk. At least three
dozen, attached to an expandable rack that slid out from the trunk lid
like one of Madam Pomfrey's private storages. Adrian casually selected
three potions, one a soft blue, one pale yellow, and another one that
swirled between red and blue. There were empty vials on the racks, next
to the ones he selected. Daily doses of potions.
Adrian downed them without grimacing once, obviously with experience.
Skylar tried not to think about how Remus was so sure that he was sick
in some way.
"Alright, Golden Boy, where's the boggart?" Adrian sighed, seeming
somewhere between annoyed and still exhausted.
Skylar flushed, although he bit his tongue. "Some storage room on this
floor, Sirius said they wanted it out of the way."
Adrian nodded slightly, "Yeah, down the hall. Remus uses it for his
changes. Come on, saviour."
"Don't call me that." Skylar bit out. Adrian's lips twitched amused.
Adrian grabbed shoes, expensive dragon skin that didn't line up with
Remus' shopping list. They made their way down the hall, Adrian leading
as he opened one door a fair distance away.
The room had been cleared out, except for one large metal cage that took
care of half of the room. Adrian didn't look at it once, although Skylar
felt slightly sick at the sight.
"The dragon awakens!" Sirius cackled, doing a small spin as the writing
desk shook ominously.
"Place the one ward, the magic blocker." Adrian yawned, rubbing his eyes
tiredly, "you know, abscondam vestigium."
Sirius looked baffled, "What?"
Sirius paused and tilted his head sideways, blinking at Adrian in surprise.
Adrian looked annoyed, "The ward. It blocks the trace, Merlin's beard,
how do you get anything done around here?"
Sirius looked intrigued, "It blocks the trace? On a wand?"
"Yes, like I just said." Adrian groaned, looking agitated, "Cast it so I can
be useful, you skrewt."
Sirius looked amazed, "I've never heard of that. It's illegal, but I'm fired
so, why not. Imagine if that spell was known, good Merlin, Don't tell the
twins."
Sirius followed Adrian's words, casting the spell with stiff movements.
Finally a dark red line trailed out of his wand, flickering through the air
with the pattern of a dragonfly's wing.
"Where did you learn this thing?" Sirius looked on the verge of cackling,
"Merlin knows what chaos Prongs, Moony, and I could've done."
Adrian yawned, his jaw clicking quietly but audibly, "I don't know, Bella
knew it. I think someone made the spell, but not her."
Skylar twitched at the thought, but it didn't seem to deter Sirius.
"Well I bloody love this." Sirius smiled up at the faint shimmering in the
air.
"Great," Adrian deadpanned, pulling out his wand tiredly, "Open that
bloody desk. Potter near it, right?"
Sirius looked surprised but nodded, "Er, yeah. Your boggart is still a
Dementor, right?"
Skylar nodded, "Yes- stay close to me and I'll cast a patronus for you
Adrian-"
"I can cast my own bloody patronus." Adrian snapped out, swishing his
wand through the air from shoulder to hip in warm up that seemed like
he was well used to combating foes. He repeated it twice, rolling his right
shoulder before rising and falling on his toes for a few seconds. He
shifted backwards slightly, into a small exhausted stance. Adrian hadn't
ever positioned himself in such a way before, Skylar didn't know the
other boy seemed like such a capable dueler. He likely could have fought
them at Hogwarts a dozen times.
With a cold feeling, Skylar realized he probably had dueled many times.
Skylar wondered morbidly what the incantation was for the spell that
had wounded Adrian so terribly.
"Right," Sirius nodded, not looking that shocked with Adrian's absent
minded movements. Sirius took a few steps to stand behind Skylar as he
swished his wand through the air, "Alohamora."
The writing desk's lock clicked open, and the door swung open. From
inside, a large black ghostly figure billowed out, rising towards the
ceiling.
The room chilled, Sirius shivered slightly and Skylar took a half step
back. Adrian didn't move.
"Well, that's a boggart." Sirius grimaced, looking at Skylar encouragingly,
"You've got this, pup."
Skylar nodded with a smile, he lifted and pointed his wand. He spoke the
incantation, and an antelope burst outwards, skittering forward on feeble
legs. It tossed its head, dancing on limbs much more delicate than his
father and mother's deer pair.
The boggart recoiled, swinging out and around from the patronus. It
made its way in a large arc, directly towards Adrian.
Adrian pointed his wand lazily upwards, pausing and freezing suddenly
as his eyes glazed. Then they snapped forward, and he strode forward,
past Skylar and near the Dementor.
It bubbled, its body struggling as it seemed to blur, almost disoriented as
Adrian approached it. It looked almost blurred, out of focus or smeared
ink. For a split second the dementor seemed twisted between it, and an
unidentified humanoid face. Something with pale skin, tall, looming,
distinctly masculine.
Adrian scoffed quietly, "None of that," he muttered, loud enough for
Skylar to hear. The boggart seemed stuck, flickering too quickly between
two frames of a picture.. Then it solidified as a dementor, and Adrian
smiled. "Hello there," he nearly cooed, taking a step forward and
outstretching his left hand, the right at his waist with his wand still in his
grasp.
"Selwyn!" Sirius barked sharply in alarm, stumbling forward, before
staying behind Skylar. Skylar didn't know what Adrian had done, but
somehow the boggart wasn't shifting form anymore. The dementor rattle
something ominous, and it flinched back.
Adrian paused, tilting his head wonderingly at the Dementor as he
walked ever so close. It was trapped between the antelope and the back
wall.
Then Adrian reached out, one hand outstretched towards one long tail of
the Dementor's cloak.
Skylar's breathing stopped.
The Dementor backed away with a low rattling noise of pain.
Adrian's expression flickered, from one of glee to one of righteous fury.
His face twitched into a snarl and he drew his wand- from the tip a large
silvery creature exploded out angrily.
'He does know how to cast a Patronus.' Skylar thought in a daze, watching
in curiosity as the silver shape solidified. Something that looked like a
crocodile, maw as long as Skylar's leg. It snapped its jaws once, forcing
the Dementor even further back into the corner.
"Selwyn!"
Adrian stomped back, looking still annoyed although the crocodile or
alligator kept the boggart back in a corner, "It's trapped. You know a
Boggart-Banishing Charm? Or are we trapping it?"
Sirius looked angry, his knuckles were pale around his wand, "Yeah.
Fine."
Adrian's face shifted once again, and he looked ticked, "Okay what. You
were the one to yank me out of bed, I did what you wanted."
Sirius' jaw clenched, "You were here in case it wasn't a boggart."
"I already told you it would be!" Adrian hissed back furiously, spinning
on his heel to point his wand and snap out a spell Skylar had never
heard. It shot out rather quickly, and the boggart shrieked, sounding very
un-dementor as it curled in on itself.
Sirius' nostrils flared ,he banished the boggart, which vanished in a
scream that sounded suspiciously like a cat yowl. The moment the
boggart left, both the reptilian patronus and the antelope faded away.
"What," Sirius fumed, "was that? Trying to touch it?"
Adrian crossed his arm with a frown, "What? I knew it would stay like
that. It was trapped. I wanted to touch it."
"That could have- have killed you!" Sirius gaped.
Adrian rolled his eyes, "It didn't."
Skylar looked uncomfortable, "How- how did it stay mine? Like, as a
Dementor?"
Adrian looked at Skylar as if he was a moron, "Occlumency. You do know
what that is, right?"
Skylar flushed and looked at his feet.
Sirius' jaw tensed, "Why was it afraid of you?"
Adrian shrugged.
Sirius looked unsure but nodded slightly, still annoyed, "I'm sure Molly
could use your expertise with the doxies. Of course, without magic."
Adrian groaned lowly, although he did shuffle out of the room.
Skylar swallowed looking at the corner where the Dementor had been
trapped, "Sirius, Dementors don't act like that, do they?"
Sirius' jaw tensed, "I think Moony's right. Something's wrong with that
kid."
Skylar tried his best not to think about the strange Boggart-incident
earlier that morning while he and Hermione emptied all of the glass
cabinets around the house. They were filled with an assortment of odd
objects, most of which required a lot of concentration as many of the
objects seemed reluctant to leave their dusty shelves.
Adrian joined them, looking just as bored as he normally did. He
apparently had arranged something with Remus, where he had his own
pile of unique objects he wanted to keep. The twins had called it his
dragon hoard, and he was fiercely protective of his pile especially when
Mundungus spotted something shiny. Most of the trinkets were useless or
random broken bits, but it was an incentive for the boy to actually help
out. Otherwise, Adrian would have stayed in his room all day or linger in
the kitchen. From what Skylar could see, there was a half dozen claws of
various sizes and shapes, one coiled up snake-skin, a jar of eyes, and an
old pelt.
Sirius sustained a bad bite from a silver snuffbox; within seconds, his
bitten hand had developed an unpleasant crusty covering like a tough
brown glove.
He threw the box into the disposal pile, although Skylar spotted George
carefully sneak the back with a cloth wrapped hand.
They found an unpleasant-looking silver instrument, something like a
many-legged pair of tweezers. It scuttled up Skylar's arm and tried to
puncture his skin with its little fangs; Sirius seized it and smashed it with
a heavy book. Hermione pulled out a pair of twisting horns, still attached
to a yellowing skull. Adrian was quick to snatch the horns, handling them
reverently as he added them to his own pile.
"What the blazes is this?" Fred muttered, pulling out something in a glass
bottle, plugged with a rabbit's foot on a silver chain.
"Toss it," Sirius advised, opening another drawer without care. Adrian
scowled as he traced the path of the rabbit's foot, looking at it almost
somberly.
"Where's Tonks?" Fred asked, poking his head out to draw Sirius'
attention. George snuck across the carpet on his belly, obscenely wiggling
before he could pluck the rabbits' foot out of the pile. He winked at
Adrian with a small grin.
"Off with Moony, getting groceries I think." Sirius shrugged, brows
furrowing at something inside Fred's cabinet, "He tends to stay away
when we're going through the collections. Merlin knows something in
here might spell him into a frenzy."
Skylar nodded in understanding, wincing as an enchanted ratty quil
flapped around before sinking its broken nib into his thumb.
Adrian gasped suddenly, a high pitched noise that was relatively quiet,
yet very loud in the room. Seconds after, the crystal cup he was holding
fell to the ground and shattered into a million pieces. The shards
scattered across the room, dangerous to Ron's sock clad feet.
"Stay still!" Sirius shouted, drawing his wand and banishing the broken
glass with a cautious look, Adrian was thankfully wearing the dragonhide
boots he loved so dearly.
"You alright there?" Sirius checked cautiously, weaving his way around
his frozen helpers.
Adrian nodded, turning around and blinking wildly, "Er- yes. Fine. I
just…" He stumbled towards a couch, thankfully free of objects. He
collapsed on it heavily, pulling his legs up around him in a small curled
up ball. He had a highly dazed expression, he reminded Skylar of Luna
Lovegood.
Fred immediately ventured over to Adrian's cabinet, poking around
inside cautiously. He shook his head at Sirius, who still looked rather
concerned.
"You alright? Need me to run and get Moony?"
"Fine." Adrian clipped out, blinking slowly although he still seemed
rather disoriented.
"Are you sure?" Hermione asked concerned, setting her new treasure
down on the discard pile; a golden locket.
Adrian's eyes fixed on the locket before flickering to her face. He smiled
unconvincingly. "Positive. I must have touched something unfriendly.
Give me a few moments."
George looked unsure, although he joined Fred at Adrian's abandoned
cabinet where they diligently searched through the contents carefully.
They were considerate enough to add a silver scale into Adrian's box.
Adrian's eyes slipped close as he felt it- he felt it. Small whispers, tickling
the back of his mind, reaching out like bean sprouts.
They tickled and poked and it was so...so…
'Little one…' It hissed, tingling and numbing as it caressed his thoughts,
twisting through his barriers without pause, 'Where are you little one?'
Adrian stood, unaware of his movement until he heard Hermione say his
name.
"Fine," he smiled, polite as he skittered wide around the pile, the tingling
and tugging drew his hand out to almost brush the gold…
He pulled his arm back, swallowing as he continued to her cabinet,
pulling out dusty wax seals to add to the discard pile.
Kreacher sidled into the room, once more bemoaning and crying as it
attempted to smuggle things away under its loincloth.
'Take me, cherish me,' the locket whispered, a hissing croon that made
Adrian's fingers twitch, 'Hide me, Hadrianus.'
Adrian's head snapped around, just in time to watch the house elf slip the
locket under his cloth and out of sight. The whispers didn't stop until the
elf vanished from sight.
They moved from the drawing room to a dining room on the ground floor
where they found spiders as large as saucers lurking in the dresser. Ron
left the room hurriedly to make a cup of tea, and did not return for a
hour and a half. Adrian gave one look at Sirius before he huffed and
started stomping. The clicking heels of his boots were high quality spider
squashers.
The china, which bore the Black crest and motto, was all thrown
unceremoniously into a sack by Sirius, and the same fate met a set of old
photographs in tarnished silver frames; the occupants squealed shrilly as
the glass covering them smashed.
The doorbell rang several times a day, which was the cue for Sirius's
mother to start shrieking again. Twice, Adrian had slipped away before
Sirius had noticed to rage war on the portrait with whatever object he
had nearby. He was obscenely proud of the hair thin scratch he had
inflicted with one cursed dagger, before Sirius wrestled it away from him.
Snape flitted in and out of the house several more times, though to
Skylar's relief, they didn't meet face to face. The one occasion Adrian
came stomping in with a wild fury around him was only after he had
briefly encountered Snape. Skylar didn't think the two wouldn't get
along.
Sometimes, the visitors stayed to help; Tonks joined them for a
memorable afternoon in which they found a murderous old ghoul lurking
in an upstairs toilet, and Lupin, who was staying in the room next to
Adrian, helped them repair a grandfather clock that had developed an
unpleasant habit of shooting bolts at passersby.
Mundungus redeemed himself slightly in Mrs. Weasley's eyes by rescuing
Ron from an ancient set of purple robes that tried to strangle him.
Somehow, the robes mysteriously caught on fire, which burnt off
Mundungus' left eyebrow. Adrian was sent to the floor laughing
whenever he saw the shorter man.
Remus swiftly went through the pile Adrian had produced, looking
everything over with a critical eye. Almost everything was accepted,
except for the charmed bird head which seemed to chirp and move with
a level of animation that obviously disturbed the other man. Adrian
pridefully ascended the stairs to his room, carrying his box of prizes to
decorate his room.
Despite the distractions, Adrian couldn't help but feel intrigued by the
locket that had called to him so strongly. It was eerily similar to his
father's diary, the way it demolished his occlumency barriers should have
been horrifying.
For dinner, everyone descended to the kitchens once more while Remus
promised to bring him a bowl after. Adrian thanked him, staying
reclusively inside his room until he was certain that everyone was far
below.
Then he slipped outside, grabbing Lutain and venturing around the
smaller corners of the giant house.
He followed the barest traces, the slight whispers that seemed to
permeate the air and sink into his skin.
"What are we looking for?" Lutain asked curiously, hanging leisurely
around his shoulders like a scarf.
"The house-elf." Adrian explained, tilting his head as he ducked through
an archway into an unexplored room in the building, "It took something I
want."
"You want? Was it a skull? Bones?"
Adrian smiled fondly, "No, it was a locket. Very pretty."
"I did not know you liked a necklace." Lutain hissed amused, "Am I not good
enough?"
"You're perfect," Adrian crooned happily, stroking the small scales
affectionately, "the best scarf."
Lutain flicked his tongue in good nature, glancing around curiously as
they opened one cabinet, seeing nothing but books inside.
"You were here before, with the crazy lady." Lutain noted.
Adrian hummed a positive, "For a birthday. She gave me books."
"Are they still here?"
Adrian scoffed, "Unlikely. They probably already cleared them all out. I
could check, but they're probably gone."
"I do not smell anything in here." Lutain added, "I can help? Say if smell
anything?"
"That would be perfect," Adrian smiled, leaving the room and entering a
new one.
The system worked rather well, Lutain would refer him to cupboards or
areas where he smelled something. Only once did it turn out to be
something vicious- Lutain took quick work of sending it howling and
moaning back into its cranny. They left quickly.
They were on the fourth floor, where old abandoned bedrooms were
located. Lutain directed him into one room, and the small attached
cupboard on the side.
The whispers started, and Adrian smiled.
"Found it," Adrian assured his friend, and they opened the cupboard.
Inside was a mess of old mildewed cloth and various trinkets. The locket
was hidden under one blanket, piled up on the left side.
He grabbed the locket- bitingly cold in his hand. He tugged it out, closing
the closet quickly and hurrying out of the room before the house elf
could return.
"Is that it?" Lutain asked curiously, "It smells sour."
"Do I?" Adrian asked curiously.
Lutain hesitated, before he flickered his tongue three times and tilted his
head, "A bit. Not too much."
Adrian hummed, finally reaching the landing for the third floor and
taking the bend back towards his room.
He arrived before dinner was over. He shut the door behind him, locking
it with the old deadbolt. He uncovered the locket, gazing at the
beautifully crafted serpent on the golden cover.
It whispered to him, promises and praise.
Adrian traced the ornate shape, the curl of the serpent and the glittering
emerald eyes. He pressed the clasp to open it, yet it wouldn't budge.
"Hello," He spoke softly to it, tracing the shapes gently, "My name is
Adrian. How are you able to get through my barriers?"
It hissed, repeating his name lowly over and over in a crooning mantra,
Adriannnnnn
"Is it speaking?" Lutain asked curiously, butting it with his snout, "I don't
hear anything."
The soft crooning whispers of the locket stilled, into silence.
Adrian rolled the locket in his grasp, feeling it gently and huffing quietly
in annoyance
"What is it?" Lutain asked curiously, peering at it from multiple angles.
"I don't know," Adrian confessed, picking it up by its golden chain to
dangle between both of them, "but I think it's important."
Despite living in the same building as Adrian, Skylar rarely actually
encountered him.
He saw him in the mornings and at dinner, eating an obscene amount of
food. Even Ron was gobsmacked by the amount of buttered rolls Adrian
could scarf down like some sort of ravenous beast. Hermione was
disgusted by the display, although Adrian's dry sarcasm was a welcome
relief from the usual crude humor.
Fred and George absolutely adored Adrian, and would teasingly bring
him up whenever Mundungus got a bit too rowdy. Skylar had asked the
twins if they knew why Adrian and Mundungus were so aggressive to one
another- they hadn't a clue. Sirius helpfully mentioned that the first time
Adrian looked at Mundungus, he snapped and tried to smack 'Dungus to
the floor.
Remus tended to go off on runs with Tonks, looking for supplies that the
two could sniff out and snag while on the run. That, and Tonks was
absolutely bewitched by the cute market stalls in Muggle London.
Whenever the two left, Adrian retreated to his room likely to sleep or
brood once more.
Sometimes though...Skylar didn't know. There were small moments
where Sirius seemed a little...too understanding. Sirius didn't talk much
about his childhood, but Skylar assumed that he saw a lot of parallels
between himself and Adrian. Skylar thought that it bothered his
Godfather quite a bit, seeing such similarities. Sirius prided himself on
being on the 'right side', it must pain him to see what his cousin had done.
Despite that, Sirius was a wonderful addition to Skylar's life, and a great
way to stave off boredom.
"Padfoot!" Skylar shouted, poking his head in and out of various rooms.
His godfather sometimes tended to nap on furniture in his animagus
form, leaving behind large clumps of black fur.
He wasn't there, nor was he in the cleaned parlor or the kitchen stealing
bits of pastries before Mrs. Weasley could chase him out.
Skylar ran up the stairway, his legs burning by the time he got to the
highest floor. They hadn't managed to clean up here yet, the dust itself
was nearly as thick as a galleon. The ghoul that had hidden itself away
was only one of the numerous threats that lurked in the house. Even the
air itself seemed darker, clouded by some sort of...stagnation.
"Padfoot?"
A second later Skylar heard a muffled noise, resembling a vulgar swear.
Skylar's lips twitched into a smile, and a second later Sirius stuck his
head out of a doorway.
"Sky!" Sirius barked out in surprise, blinking in a silent question.
"I didn't know where you were," Skylar admitted with a small smile, "Ron
and Hermione were kidnapped by Mrs. Weasley. I barely escaped with
my life."
Sirius barked a laugh before beckoning the younger boy to come over, a
second later Skylar was peering around the doorway into the room he
had clearly never seen before.
Adrian was sitting on the floorboards, clawing grooves into the panels.
Adrian peered upward, removing bits of wood from under his nails. He
spotted Skylar then groaned loudly and slumped backwards to lay in a
sprawl.
"Stop that you dramatic pegasus." Sirius huffed, passing through
something which rippled only a few steps into the room. It took Skylar a
second to recognize it as the ward Adrian had shown him before, the one
which blocked the wands' trace.
"Why did you have to invite him." Adrian seethed, "did you really not
think this through?"
Sirius blinked before he wilted slightly, "Actually...shite."
Adrian snorted, struggling to withhold a laugh as Sirius chewed his lower
lip as if sheepish.
"What are you guys doing?" Skylar asked hesitantly, skimming the
contents of the room absentmindedly, before he paused and backtracked
to actually look at the room.
Paintings were stacked up on the far left wall, all in various states of
destruction. The occupants of the portraits had long since fled, especially
with the massive gouges and lacerations across the canvas. Scattered
across the floor were the remnants of marble busts, blown apart and
sending fine powder across the floorboards. One bust gazed out
sightlessly, missing the lower half of its face. Couches and chairs had the
upholstery nearly falling out, large wads of what looked like horse hair
spilling out like fine silken entrails. The wooden writing desk which once
contained a Boggart was scattered across the floor, doors looking singed
and burned while the cabinet itself had a chunk missing as if a dragon
took a bite from it.
"Yeah Black, what are we doing?" Adrian snickered, still laying sprawled
on his back without looking at all like he would be lifting himself up
soon. In fact, he looked more relaxed and boneless than Skylar could
remember.
"Well, uh," Sirius fidgeted, using his wand to scratch the back of his head,
"Well...Sky…"
"Well, Sky." Adrian mimicked from the floor, pausing before laughing
quietly to himself.
"Does dad know you're up here?" Skylar frowned, the room itself seemed
almost...smokey.
"Er, well…" Sirius shifted where he stood uncomfortably, "Well Sky, ah…"
Adrian laughed quietly again, as if he took personal pleasure from Sirius'
discomfort.
"We're cursing the stuffings out of sofa," Adrian helpfully added from the
floor, "It's delightful."
"Shut it you mangy bag of arse." Sirius muttered, scowling at Adrian who
only grinned breathlessly.
"I don't…" Skylar swallowed unsure, "I don't understand? Sirius what
are...uh."
Adrian giggled, Sirius looked ready to kick the boy.
"Okay, okay Sky." Sirius sighed through his nose, lifting his head
skywards in a lungful expression, "Bloody hell of all days Moony isn't
here. Okay, so, er...sometimes when witches or wizards are raised in dark
households they er...they get used to it."
Skylar shifted his weight uncomfortably, "Okay?"
"Like, the dark magic. It er, it kinda...stays in the air?" Sirius waved his
hand as if trying to explain it through body cues also, "and sometimes
when you're removed from it, it kinda...it can shock your system and get
painful, or get you too twitchy and snappy."
Adrian smacked the floorboards twice with his palm, the loud noise
snapped Skylar's attention to the boneless other, "It's called dark magic
addiction you twit."
Sirius scowled darkly and Adrian grinned, the smile was large and
slightly unstable. Sirius flinched when he spotted it.
"I don't understand," Skylar admitted quietly, "I- dad doesn't talk about
dark magic that much. Mum doesn't either, she gets this...sad look on her
face."
Sirius grimaced, "That's Snivellus. Some sort of drama back in the day,
she doesn't really like to think about that."
"Snape should suck a screwt." Adrian muttered from the ground, lazily
tracing his hand along the knots of the floorboard.
"Ignore him, he's wasted." Sirius dismissed Adrian. Adrian gaped, before
glaring and complaining sourly.
Skylar smiled slightly, finding this...version of Adrian rather amusing to
interact with.
"Anyways, so since this poor bloke here has er...has an overindulgence of
that sort of magic, he was getting more and more high strung without
letting some of it out." Sirius shrugged with a small twitch, "It's
therapeutic I swear."
"He's not saying that he's also stir crazy, can't deny a dark family, Black."
Adrian snarked back, looking very self satisfied when Sirius flushed.
"Shove it you twit."
"Tell that to that stinging hex four minutes ago." Adrian shot back, looking
satisfied when Sirius looked distinctly uncomfortable.
"Wait," Skylar floundered before trying to find the proper words.
"So...it's...sometimes if you're exposed to dark magic, you need to indulge
slightly to not have it hurt you? Like a...a potions problem?"
Adrian snorted so hard he choked, "Merlin, did you just compare this to
rehab?"
Sirius sighed, "Look mate, I ah, we can't really help it-"
"I'm not upset." Skylar chewed his lip quietly, "I mean, I don't really know
that much about this, but I don't think it's fair to just...judge without
knowing both sides, you know?"
Sirius looked very relieved, "James isn't very happy about it but he gets
why Moony and I do this here and there. Can't help families, you know?"
Adrian groaned from the floor, "Can you leave already so I can destroy a
couch?"
Sirius looked ready to scold the black haired boy but Skylar beat him to
it, "Go ahead."
Adrian sat upright and stared at Skylar blankly. Skylar didn't know what
the other was trying to find in his expression, but when Adrian frowned
slightly Skylar guessed he didn't find whatever it was.
"Alright…" Adrian trailed off lowly, looking over at a couch in one of the
better states, "Abrumpo!"
Sirius jolted forward in alarm, face an expression of panic. Skylar's mouth
opened but he only inhaled sharply when the resounding curse blasted
through the air as fast as a snitch. It sizzled on contact, slicing cleanly
through the couch with the vicious power of a claymore through butter.
The couch squealed and then collapsed inwards, crumpling to the ground
split evenly in half. The wall behind the couch had a slash in it, the curse
slicing nearly half a foot into the plaster and wood. The air sizzled and
sparked like ozone, contributing to the strange fogginess in the air which
made Skylar's fingers tingle.
Sirius looked upset yet at the same time he looked like he had expected
it. "We didn't agree to that curse, bollocks-" Sirius hissed under his breath
before taking three steps forward to catch the slowly slumping figure of
Adrian. It looked powerful, and it seemed very dark.
"Sorry, Sky. He's out for the count," Sirius sighed, grunting under Adrian's
weight.
"No I'm not," Adrian protested dazed, "One more, two more, I can destroy
that couch."
"I'm sure you can," Sirius soothed, not even blinking as he started to drag
the boy towards the door. Adrian lolled with the movement, looking
boneless as if barely conscious.
Skylar found himself almost laughing, either due to Adrian's drugged
state or due to the horrific devastation of the single curse. He had heard
the rumors of course, that Adrian had set people on fire. Hermione didn't
talk about it often, but a girl in Slytherin had burned. This wasn't one step
in the other direction, it was a quidditch post away from fire.
"No!" Adrian snapped, jolting free and into a standing position, swaying
slightly yet eerily focused. His eyes were too bright, "No- I'm not done
yet."
Sirius raised his arms in annoyance, but Skylar noticed that he had his
eyes tracking Adrian's wand's movements quite carefully.
Adrian didn't seem to care that Skylar was in the room anymore, he
turned and started attacking the couch with fervor. Hissing out curse
after curse, the air was almost suffocating and very quickly the couch was
bubbling and torn with stuffing pooling out. Then the desk exploded,
lacerations spreading outwards like a clawed beast had used it as a
scratching post.
Sirius moved, quickly placing one hand on Skylar's shoulder to shove him
backwards gently, shielding him if necessary. Shrapnel rained down
around them, glowing red resembling ash more than pieces of furniture;
embers falling on ancient Pompeii.
Adrian didn't stop, a grin spreading across his face which unnerved
Skylar beyond words. Seconds later the wall groaned and collapsed. Only
then did Adrian stop, keeling over and bracing himself on his knees. His
breaths were heavy pants, sweat trailing over his jaw as if he had run a
great distance. His entire body shook as if freezing, he was listing slightly
to the one side.
"Adrian, you're don-" Sirius started, only for Adrian to whirl around
looking far too disoriented but aware.
"Bugger off Bella!" He hissed back, swaying and at that moment, Skylar
realized quite clearly he didn't know where he was.
"You should go," Sirius muttered very quietly, nudging Skylar behind him
with his shoulder. Skylar ducked out, closing the door quietly behind
him. They must have set up a silencing ward, or at least a sound muffling
one. Before Skylar could get the door closed all the way, he heard a
single outraged shriek and the beginning clatter of something breaking.
Adrian's face looked like the silent screaming expression of Bellatrix
Lestrange in all of her Azkaban posters.
fall equinox1: The way Adrian is getting madder and much more
paranoid does it have anything to do with a certain locket.
It has more to do with a certain potion but the locket will contribute slightly to
it now.
LalaSpade: I feel like [Remus] is just trying his best and everyone keeps
doubting his ability to help. I think he's doing pretty well for someone
without even half of the information of the situation...If Lily didn't die,
why is Snape still so bitter after all these years? He doesn't seem to have
changed much, why?
Remus just wants to do his best. Out of everyone, he's the one who actually
doesn't have a credible position in regards to children. (He isn't a Godfather
anymore, and doesn't have actual children.) Snape was referenced slightly
here- there was a small falling out due to Dark Magic addiction and practice
which Lily doesn't like at all, and she doesn't like how Snape is spying for
someone who is blatantly going to try and kill her child. He'll be addressed
later on more in depth.
Roostertheking: Did you make a grave stone for [my cat]?
I purchased a custom ceramic urn from western United States. It's fire glazed
and was over fifty dollars. I personally prefer cremation, because if I ever
move Pandy can still come with me.
God of 0blivion: Is Adrian going to get any training from the order, even
in something like occumency.
Adrian already knows Occlumency. There will be a scene next chapter of
Skylar learning better spells however.
TheStoryWever: Freakin'. Mundungus. Fletcher.
YES.
OmnipotentOminousmagician: Gosh I love this story, It is amomg the
best fanfiction stories I have ever read, the emotion is so powerful and it
makes me so emotional to read. I am so happy one moment when Luna is
trying to convince Adrian he is not worthless-and yet it was gut
wrenching when he doesn't believe her, and when he drinks that potion,
and seeing Voldemort, Nagini and Adalonda manipulate him. I think
even Lutain may be manipulating him(I hope not, I think I would cry if it
turned out that Lutain, his oldest friend, was playing him). I can't wait,
you are so evil for writing such a calm chapter with not much happening
after the end of the previous!
Aww, thank you so much. People like you are why I write this story, it means
the world to me for someone to say such amazing things. I feel that sometimes
calm interludes are necessary to reinforce what is about to come.
: Wow. There are those moments when I want to strangle everyone and
just burn this world and then there are moments when I find stories like
this(There are only few good ones!) and I realize there aren't only petty,
naive children, but also people with which I can agree. For example you,
even though I only read your answers on comments...Although I don't
understand how harry/adrian is not going to be as "strong" as voldemort
or dumbledor ( or stronger). Because seriously I doubt those two where
that advanced in the age adrian is in. Either he only gets 20 years old and
doesn't have the opportunity to collect so much experience or he hasn't
enough magic(does this work like this?). If I imagine making my own
characters I wouldn't want them overpowered and unrealistic but I would
want them to slowly work their way to the top. Is this just a thing for me
or do others think that too?... I also wanted to ask is it your first
language?
I was terrified at first as to where you were going with your review at first.
Glad to see that you love my story so much! Whenever I search stories, I tend
to filter them in according to favorites. AO3 tends to also have more mature
fics, so you can filter those by Kudos or Bookmarks. I'm glad to see I don't
come across petty or naive (I'm over the age of maturity in my country so I'm
legally an adult anyways). If you'd like to chat more, send me a PM.
Adrian isn't going to be as "Powerful" as Dumbledore or Voldemort. I wouldn't
necessarily say strong, because in terms of magical strength he'll get up there.
Power in my mind, is the ability to make someone act in a way they otherwise
wouldn't in a given situation. Voldemort has an army, his intelligence, his
magical strength, and more. Likewise with Dumbledore. Adrian...doesn't have
that. He'll be good at casting spells, but he won't ever have the similar
persuasive ability or intelligence or sheer initiative to learn new things like both
Dumbledore or Voldemort. Adrian will slowly work his way upwards- it's
called creating a Round Character. English is my first language, although I
took Spanish for years and never managed to get a decent grasp on it.
wolfzmasterz: I'm going to guess the "potion" was the last of the
remaining blood of a dementor. You stated earlier that they were an in
between , like the thristiles, a soul transformation (which we also know
Adalonda is most fond of). This is going to be a step on the road to his
immortality in becoming at least part dementor. On a side note I love
what you have done with his Snake, though is there a reason you haven't
put him through any of the ritual magic that Nagini went through to
enhance his physical and magical (from bleed over with the familier
bond) and make him stronger
Ooh, that's inventive. Unfortunately I haven't gone that route, although you
have some great ideas! I haven't given Lutain the same ritual magic that
Nagini went through, because that ritual was Horcruxes. If you look back a
long ways, at some point far back Voldemort offered to create a horcrux and
place it in Lutain, although not quite in those words. Adrian denied because he
wanted Lutain to stay as HIS. That, and Adrian has no idea what a horcrux
actually is or that is what Nagini is.
BreathingStar: Perhaps Antithesis is a tiny little bit similar to Fate's
Favourite by The Fictionist in that it is not the breathtaking language that
draws readers in, but instead the grasp of characters and a believable
emotional and mental struggle...I especially like Adrian's ongoing
emotional struggle - the 'breathers' in the form of Luna and Lutain are
essential to that as well - and also the wide range of well-written
characters, and lack of bashing.
I think that there is already a great deal of inner coherence in Antithesis,
but perhaps you could tie the plot points together even more strongly. I'm
thinking about the different species of dragon and their individual
characteristics, which were quite interesting but didn't seem to matter
much as they weren't brought up again and you didn't describe the races
to the golden eggs in a very detailed way.
So what I mean is that there are still pieces of information that don't
seem immediately relevant to the story which are mentioned...Some plot
development also seemed a bit forced, for example when Crouch went on
and on about Adrian's alleged uselessness (although he may have just
been particularly intelligent and manipulative in that instance) and also
when the teachers destroyed Adrian's system of making deals seemingly
out of nowhere. Now that I mention it, it also seems to me that it was
surprisingly easy for Adrian to start up that system, although Luna
mentioned it with regards to Adrian's ambition, and that is a very
interesting link. Perhaps the link could have been foreshadowed in a
slightly more obvious way for greater inner coherence.
Sorry about all these criticisms, it also has to be said that I'm not entirely
sure what I like so much about the story, and when I criticise one point,
it might just be that that is the point which makes reading Antithesis so
interesting, because I wonder why you wrote it the way you did, and
what it says about Adrian's mental state.
For now I really want to find out what happens with Adrian and Remus,
and I can't wait to read people's reactions to Adrian's relationship with
Voldemort. And I look forward to a moral struggle within Adrian!
I'm going to break this review into several points due to the length (which I
love!)
- I genuinely don't quite know how to phrase this in a way which properly
conveys my meaning. Your comparison to Fate's Favourite was...Ironically,
that story was the first truly amazing piece of fanfiction I ever read, dating to
around twelve years ago. It actually inspired Shadowed Malice, because I read
it and thought to myself 'I want to be a writer who one day is at this level'. I
exchanged messages with The Fictionist a little bit, mostly awe-struck on my
side. I highly suggest Fate's Favourite to anyone looking for a story- I feel as if
you've sung the highest praise for me and I'm emotionally overwhelmed with
how to thank you.
-I'm aware for sure that my writing struggles with linking points together. I've
been told this by a few people, but you're the first to give me specific points.
Thank you so much for that, it's incredibly helpful and something I personally
work to try and remedy in my writing.
-I'm not trying to defend my points or plot instances, although I'd like to say
that the teacher's reactions for suddenly shutting down the deals actually are
based off of real life experiences. In my education system, we had a student
who was...impressive in their deal network. Perhaps reactions to this caliber
are a regional/cultural difference?
- No! Never apologize for criticism! I view it as incredibly helpful, and truly I
value reviews like these more than the few words of praise. Showing that you
put such time and thought into your response says more than any compliment
ever would. If you'd like, I'd be glad to exchange messages and give my best
reasoning behind my mindset. My main goal for this entire story is in a simple
sentence: "The realistic portrayal of mental abuse and manipulation on a child
and the reasoning why people with such trauma lash out in the way they do."
This review has brought me immense joy, I hope to hear from you more!
GusRed123: You put time thought research and effort into your story
which far more than most do. One thing that I love about this story is the
fact that it kinda always feels on the verge of a climax but instead laying
down all your cards for this story you just put a little bit out at a time
and it just gives this story an addictive feel to it
I actually have an information document with over forty pages of facts and
information, and read for false information all the time. The technique you're
describing is actually commonly used by Alfred Hitchcock, a famous
cinematography director!
LittleBlackLamb: Gosh this story is starting to stress me out.
Take a break! Please don't get stressed out! Chapters will still be posted-
unwind and ignore a couple and then catch up later! Your health comes first!
Bruce Wayne: Is it bad that my favorite part is where he impales
Mundungus' hand?
I was so tempted to try and draw that scene as a comic. I was snickering like a
fool when writing it.
Majestic Apple: I actually loved the scene with Madame Pomfrey in Ch
47 and it was mentioned in this one too. Are we going to see anything
similar soon?
Not so elaborately. The scene was there to give a neutral perspective on what
is going on, and to apply clinical textbook terms to what was occurring.
Adrian is an unreliable narrator, Pomfrey was there to set clean lines.
PinenutSalad: omgomgomgomg! Is Newt in this fic? There's a tag for
him on Ao3. If so when will he come into the story?
He will! Later on- around the end of Fifth year. It seems that they need a
magical creature expert because well, a basilisk is a bit of a magical creature
problem.
50. Train
This chapter was beta'd by our amazing Beta Collective
-Arctic Fox From Afar
-Mahina
-Cyndaquil05
-4everfictional
-Scion of House Lucifer
-Parsi
-Acelenny
-S4m
- and countless anonymous helpers!
Thanks to everyone who checked out the fanart! Feel free to look at
any time!
'Sometimes I feel like there's nothing. Inside my body, where my lungs and
stomach are. Just an empty cavern where potions go and slosh around. And
I'm always so hungry.'
Dumbledore returned one afternoon, accompanied by Moody. Once
entering the building, they were quickly shushed into the meeting room.
Dumbledore couldn't help but feel amused as he spotted several curious
faces look at him from the stairwell.
He took his seat, Alastor settling into another rickety chair heavily.
"Albus," Sirius nodded, closing the door behind as Mrs. Weasley hurried
into the room.
"Albus, Alastor," She gushed, looking relieved at their appearance. At
once, Dumbledore felt alarmed.
"Molly, what is it?" Alastor asked bluntly, recognizing that something was
very much wrong.
"It's that boy," She spoke, voice hushed yet sharp, "Adrian!"
Dumbledore felt himself silently sigh.
"I hate to say it, but she's right, Albus." Sirius grimaced, pulling out a
chair for himself, "There's something not right with him. Besides what we
thought before."
Moody leant forward, scowling but listening intently.
"He eats too much!" Mrs. Weasley blurted, "Not that he shouldn't- he's a
growing boy, but he ate five bowls Albus! Five bowls of stew, and half of
the crumble I made! He still looked hungry!"
Sirius looked away guiltily, which confirmed it.
"Have you talked to Remus about it?" Albus asked quietly.
"I tried, but the little demon went savage on Mundungus again, stabbed
him with a fork and looked right happy with it." Sirius grimaced.
"It was horrible, Albus!" Mrs. Weasley whispered sharply.
"That's expected, Molly. We've talked about this, that curse scar likely is
making him more aggressive, twisting his thoughts in a way he doesn't
even know. We're lucky he only went after Mundungus, and not after one
of us in our sleep." Moody grunted.
"His hunger is suspicious," Albus confirmed with a small hum, "Has he
been taking the potions Madam Pomfrey gave him?"
"Yes, I don't think they're doing anything. But look, there's more, Albus."
Mrs. Weasley looked at Sirius sharply, and in surprise.
"Out with it," Moody grunted.
"We were cleaning out the cabinets, just getting rid of some of the shite
in here. He seemed affected by something, dazed and out of it as if he
had been cursed, but he didn't touch anything. Ron was watching, said he
wasn't anywhere near anything when he stalled out like that."
Albus brought one hand to his mouth, running his weathered knuckles
against his lips.
"I grabbed him to help Sky and me with a boggart, just in case it wasn't a
boggart. It was, we had Sky closest so we could deal with the Dementor.
But ah…" Sirius trailed off, sounding unsure even as he remembered,
"He...Adrian walked up to it, and it didn't shift. Said something about
Occlumency, but, but when he was near the Dementor, he tried to touch
it."
Moody straightened sharply, "How bad is he hurt?"
Sirius shook his head, "No...he, he...the Dementor looked bloody terrified
of him. It was flinching away before Adrian got close. I've never heard of
that before."
The room was silent.
"Neither have I." Albus murmered, removing his glasses to clean the
lenses automatically, "This is...concerning."
Moody let out a sigh, reclining back in his chair as his magical eye lolled
around crazily, "I'll look around. A Dementor shouldn't be scared of
anything."
"I know, that's why I wanted to tell you." Sirius agreed with some sort of
dreadful expression.
It was an alarming thing to think about, especially with all of the strange
ideas and concepts that floated around in his head. Albus didn't have the
time or resources to concern himself about Adrian Selwyn, but he was
slowly being convinced that the child was something of interest.
"Molly, if you will?" Albus asked politely, nodding towards the door. She
floundered for one second before wordlessly stomping out. It was rather
rude on his part, and he would apologize to her dearly afterwards.
Sirius grimaced and leant back, crossing his arms, "I reckon Remus told
you about the little incidents?"
Moody gave a gruff laughter, something curt and snappish. "Is that what
we're calling it these days?"
Sirius' eyes flickered downwards, his expression blank but far past
embarrassment or shame. "We have a good room setup, wards and all. I
reckon if we ever get my bitch of a mum off the wall he'd send her
screaming."
Dumbledore's fingers folded, curling under his chin as he contemplated
his next words carefully. "You've been monitoring his emotional state?"
"Yeah, the potions and stabilizers are working well." Sirius gave a slow
nod, "I think he shouldn't need them by the time the school year starts up
again."
"He let anything slip?" Moody grunted, eye lolling as the scowl on his lips
distorted his face even further.
Sirius felt a small shiver run down his spine, "no. He's...he's just a kid. A
really really creepy kid, but still just a pup."
"What sort of unsettling things, Sirius?" Dumbledore asked cautiously.
Sirius looked uncomfortable. He was twitching slightly, looking as if he
was caught between a lie and a betrayal. "He...he knows a lot of dark
magic. I don't mean that he could go off and take down a herd of
unicorns but...the spells he knows are...specific."
"Specific." Moody dryly echoed, arching one eyebrow as if skeptic of the
word choice.
"Pureblood families tend to introduce children through more...neutral
spells. Hexes and Curses but small things, you know, make someone sick
or give them nightmares."
"Doesn't seem the brat's style." Moody grudgingly agreed. Sirius' face
twitched ever so slightly, as if pained.
"I know Bellatrix," Sirius started, voice on the verge of being winded, "she
teaches through example, and honestly Albus, most of the magic that
child knows is all borderline torture spells. I don't think he knows
anything about her anymore, but he knows how to throw slashing curses
far too easily for my own comfort."
"How is everyone?" Adrian asked calmly, hissing lowly in such a way that
could easily be mistaken as Lutain.
The Nagini Tattoo moved, tugging uncomfortably over his arm and
shoulder, "Well. Master says plans progressing. Want names."
"Of the Order?" Adrian asked affectionately, heart swelling with happiness
as his father talked with him, even through the tattoo.
Nagini paused, then hissed out a single unintelligent "Yes."
Adrian almost chuckled, there was something adorable about the tattoo's
limited comprehension skills.
"Do you want all of them, or would you like me to break them up?" Adrian
inquired, grabbing one of the recent additions to his room- this time, a
claw.
He traced the ridges and the unique hook on the underside, likely
belonging to some sort of crustacean. Completely mindless, a distraction
from the unsettling tugging on his skin and muscles.
Nagini returned, "Break up, but all now."
Adrian hummed contently, "Moody. The real one. Nymphadora Tonks. The
Weasleys, or at least all of the ones out of school. Mundungus, feel free to get
rid of that one."
Nagini slithered away, returning ten seconds after her dismissal.
"Did...have you hunted Mundun-gadus?" Nagini faltered, struggling with the
name and the question.
Adrian grinned, a large breathless smile that was infectious, "Only a few
times. He's easy to scare, I stabbed him with a fork."
Nagini left, then returned.
"Master says, 'good'."
Adrian laughed, a bright sound that caused Lutain to peer out curiously,
then excitedly as he saw the faintest shift of tattoo'd scales.
"Hello!" Lutain enthused, sliding over happily, "Hello!"
"Tell him Lutain says hello," Adrian instructed, stroking his familiar fondly.
"...Master says…'Hello.'"
"Alright, so we have the Potters, Sirius Black, and Remus here also." Adrian
helpfully added. He was getting slightly used to Nagini slithering through
his skin.
"Ministry?"
"Oh! Uh, let me think." Adrian paused, trying to remember, "There's some
man here who I think is ministry. His name is something Kingston? Kingburn?"
Nagini dutifully slid out of sight, returning relatively quickly, "Kingsley?"
"Yes! That one!" Adrian enthused, "The house is under the Fidelius charm, it's
the one Bella took me to- the-" Adrian's mouth clogged, leaving him
floundering frustrated.
Nagini left, then returned, "He knows the one. Changed den, hidden."
Adrian set aside the claw he had been fiddling with, "Where? Where are
you, father?"
Nagini vanished, and she was gone a long while.
"Where do you think they are?" Lutain hissed interestedly.
"Not sure, I don't know if father has any more houses. They're checking all of
Bellatrix's houses, so nothing in her name."
Nagini returned, sliding out from his thigh over his hip towards his
throat, "Rowle, near Kirkwall."
Adrian let out a hum, smiling and committing the location to memory.
He was almost positive none of the Order would search in that area, or in
that family. "I'll let you know if they begin searching around there."
Nagini left, and returned.
"Good. Bella misses you." The snake hissed, staring out with slit shaped
pupils.
Adrian felt the warmth spread through his chest, and bitter pangs of
nostalgia. He missed Bella, he truly did. But Bella had changed, she was
different.
He missed his father more than anything. He was thankful beyond words
that he had the tattoo to communicate.
"I miss you." Adrian spoke back quietly, "Skylar Potter is really bad at spell
work."
"Is he?"
"The best spell he knows is a Patronus. I'm loads better, thanks to you."
The system of communication was poor, rather disjointed and he wasn't
sure what exactly was making it through the low intelligence messenger
snake.
"Pathetic. Know apparate, ani-magicus?" Nagini stumbled, unsure of the
word.
Adrian felt guilt rise up slightly, "I remember how to apparate. Animagus I
haven't- I need a thunderstorm for the potion to work. I'm just waiting."
"Christmas, animal apparate to den."
Adrian brightened happily, grinning and jolting upright into a sitting
position, "Yes! Yes I can do that!"
He was going to see his father again, he was going home.
Skylar found himself daydreaming about Hogwarts more and more as the
end of the holidays approached; he could not wait to see the castle again,
to play Quidditch, even to stroll across the vegetable patches to the
Herbology greenhouses. It would be a treat to leave the dusty, musty
house, where half of the cupboards were bolted shut and Kreacher
wheeled insults out of the shadows as you passed. His dad and mum felt
bad about leaving him there, although Skylar knew that they had better
things to do.
The fact was that living at the headquarters of the anti-Voldemort
movement was not nearly as interesting or exciting as Skylar would have
expected before he experienced it. Though members of the Order of the
Phoenix came and went regularly, sometimes staying for meals (which
were always a spectacle if Adrian chose to join them). Mrs. Weasley
made sure that Skylar and the others were kept well out of earshot, and
nobody, not even Sirius, seemed to feel that Skylar needed to know
anything more than he had already. If it hadn't been for Skylar stumbling
on the strange therapy Sirius and Adrian experienced, Skylar was near
certain he would never have heard about it to begin with.
On the very last day of the holidays, Skylar was dodging Adrian's
terrifying Gyrfalcon who was dive bombing Mundungus with shrieks and
sharp talons. The white bird was beautiful in a strange way, Skylar was
fond of her name, Hedwig.
"Oi!" Fred shouted, popping into existence on the second floor landing,
carrying a wad of envelopes. George popped into existence only a second
later, "Book Lists have arrived! About time, I thought they'd forgotten,
they usually come out much earlier than this…"
Adrian whistled, pointing with one hand at George who held one
envelope outstretched. Hedwig banked upwards again, leaving
Mundungus alone with his many hair-thin scratches. Hedwig twisted,
snatching one envelope with her talons to deliver it to Adrian's
outstretched hand. Her razor claws were only a hair's breadth away from
slicing soft skin.
"Bloody hell, that monster almost took my hand off!" George cursed,
waving his fist dramatically upwards at Adrian, who grinned openly and
carefree.
"Is he smiling?" Fred whispered loudly, almost in awe.
"You caught me in a good mood!" Adrian shouted down the stairwell,
giving a two finger salute as he tore into the letter.
It contained two pieces of parchment, the usual reminder that term
started on the first of September, the other telling him which books he
would need for the coming year.
"Only two new ones," Adrian shouted down the stairwell, the first one to
open the letter. "The Standard Book of Spells Grade 5, and Defensive
Magical Theory."
Adrian didn't like the sound of the magical theory book. In his
experience, all magical theory books were rather rubbish, written by
authors who didn't know how to cast a stunner.
Hedwig chirped, shifting her weight and drawing blood with one sharp
talon. She had grown restless; Adrian pointed downwards and whistled
lowly, instantly the falcon leapt free in eager pursuit of raking talons
across the screaming Mundungus.
Adrian returned to his room, a small prance in his step. He would be
returning to Hogwarts, where at least he would be relatively free. Of
course, he wouldn't be able to practice dark magic, although what Remus
didn't know would never hurt him. Adalonda likely knew dozens of old
spells, lost to history books just like their counterspells.
Packing all of his belongings back into his trunk was a harder endeavor
than he had anticipated. It took a bit of thinking, mostly just to fit all of
the claws and strange oddities he had obtained from the house inside. It
took him hours, multiple times he had to tear out the stacked contents
like he was removing the viscera of a slain deer. Once his belongings
were scattered, he restarted with a more focused approach. He was
occupied most of the day, only venturing out from his chaotic hoard
when the promise of food wafted to his room.
Adrian descended down to the basement, Lutain wrapped snugly around
his neck and shoulder. He paused in the doorway, eying the large scarlet
banner which hung over the heavily laden dinner table. He didn't know
that some sort of festivities were going on as well.
'Congratulations Ron and Hermione- New Prefects'
"What the hell." Adrian scrambled, blinking in amazement as he read the
banner twice, just to assure himself he wasn't going mad.
"I know," Fred sighed, collapsing heavily on a nearby chair.
Sirius, Tonks, Mad-Eye Moody already were seated around the table.
Adrian was rather smug to see Mundungus vacant. Remus had set a chair
aside for Adrian, between him and Tonks.
"Prefect, eh?" growled Moody, his normal eye on Ron and his magical eye
swiveling around to gaze into the side of his head. "Well, congratulations.
Authority figures always attract trouble, but I suppose Dumbledore thinks
you can withstand most major jinxes or he wouldn't have appointed
you…"
Ron looked rather shaken, but was saved the trouble of responding by the
arrival of his father and eldest brother. Mrs. Weasley was in such a good
mood, she did not even complain when Mundungus walked in, wearing a
long overcoat that seemed oddly lumpy in unlikely places. Mundungus
had a few dozen scratches over his scalp, one particularly nasty gouge
over his right eyebrow was sporting a dark red scab.
"You!" Mundungus growled, looking ready to chuck the nearest goblet at
Adrian's head.
"He has dragon scales in his pocket," Lutain informed Adrian, shifting out
from under Adrian's collar like a very curious rope like scarf, "And smells
of blood. The bird got him." Lutain seemed especially thrilled by that.
Hedwig must have actually gotten a few major hits if even Lutain could
smell it, likely under the lumpy coat he had something which required
bandages.
"Me!" Adrian continued, voice a happy chirp which seemed just joyous
enough that everyone startled in surprise. Mundungus looked alarmed, so
much so that he scrambled to have a proper response.
Tonks whooped, "Adrian! Want some Firebrandy?"
"No! He does not want Firebrandy!" Mrs. Weasley quickly interjected,
shifting the bottle away from a pouting Tonks. Remus was chuckling
softly to himself. What a strange atmosphere, lighthearted and suddenly,
Adrian couldn't care about being angry.
"I think a toast is in order," Mr. Weasley said, when everyone had a drink.
He raised his goblet, "To Ron and Hermione! The new Gryffindor
prefects!"
Ron and Hermione beamed as everyone drank to them, then applauded.
Tonks drifted over, very subtly exchanging Adrian's goblet with her own.
She winked at him in good nature, taking a swig of his juice from her
goblet. In turn, he grappled for the goblet, chugging a gulp of the searing
liquid down his throat. His eyes watered, she beamed.
"I was never a prefect myself," she said brightly, her hair was tomato red
and very long. "My Head of House said I lacked certain necessary
qualities."
"Like what?" said Skylar, who drifted over curiously.
"Like the ability to behave myself," said Tonks.
Adrian laughed; a loud exploding sound that was both infectious and
surprising. Perhaps the firebrandy was loosening him up. Hermione didn't
know whether to smile or not, and compromised by choking on a gulp of
butterbeer.
"What about you, Sirius?" Skylar asked, grinning boyishly at his
godfather.
Sirius gave a loud bark like laugh.
"No one would have made me a prefect, I spent too much time in
detention with James. Lupin was the good boy, he got the badge."
Adrian arched his eyebrows at Remus, who blushed furiously as Tonks
leapt into a full round of teasing.
"Did someone say my name?" James asked, jumping into the room
chaotically with Lily following with a grin.
"Dad! Mum!" Skylar grinned, rushing over with two goblets of Butterbeer.
Adrian's smile faltered slightly, he ignored the two recent additions and
took his seat next to Remus.
He served himself a couple baked potatoes, as well as a large portion of
chicken. He paused, looking at his plate and the gravy dish not that far
away.
He had been raised to eat dignified, if he didn't, well, it annoyed his
father.
But his father wasn't here.
He grabbed the gravy boat and dumped it over his food so much, the
potatoes began to float.
"Making a mess there?" Tonks asked with a grin, poking his floating
potato with a spare fork, "Want to see who can eat it faster?"
Adrian watched her slyly, "If you don't shift your mouth, you're on."
Adrian didn't pay that much attention to others around him, he only
noticed Tonks' queasy face as she struggled to down one potato in the
time it took him to eat two. The chicken didn't last that much longer, nor
did the third or fourth large piece.
He slowed eating only when Moody watched him with both eyes,
narrowed and scrutinizing.
Skylar flopped over nearby, peering at a folded picture in his hands,
tracing the people inside.
"Whatcha got there, Sky?" Tonks asked curiously, looking back at the
picture.
"The original Order, or the members of it." Skylar explained, showing the
photos.
Adrian peered over lazily, already reaching for this goblet of butterbeer
as he observed the photo, "Who are they?"
Skylar grinned and shoved his way between the two, "Dedalus Diggle
here, and Emmeline Vance, Edgar Bones...brother of Amelia Bones,
Sturgis Podmore, Elphias Doge, Aberforth who is Dumbledore's
brother…"
Adrian looked at Lutain who was intently listening, most likely
remembering the names for later.
Adrian poked one small watery-eyed man, snorting loudly as the man
silently squeaked.
"Yeah, that's ah, Pettigrew." Skylar's tone was clipped, "Betrayed my
parents, how Voldemort found me when I was a baby."
Adrian rolled his eyes, a thin cruel smile distorting his features. He didn't
look at Skylar, instead his eyes were locked on the ink figure in the
picture. "Don't give him credit, he's a rat."
Skylar jumped in surprise, "What? How...What?"
Adrian tensed, noticeably stilling before jerkily shrugging, forcing himself
to try and relax as if the information wasn't important. "Target practice."
Skylar took a step back, paling and yet looking fascinating, "Wha-
Padfoot! Dad!"
The two jolted over at Skylar's sudden yelp. "What is it, pup? You okay?"
Adrian noticed how the two adults quickly stood between the two. As if
Adrian was the aggressor, the instigator in any sort of altercation.
"Whoa whoa!" Tonks assured, quickly, lifting both arms in a placating
manner. "Nothing going on here! We're good!"
Sirius relaxed at once, James still looked wary, "what is it, Sky?"
Skylar pointed at Adrian in shock, "He says that he saw Pettigrew!"
The room chilled. It was as if a fog had descended, invisible yet a heavy
discernible weight resting on everyone's skin. The hair on Adrian's arms
rose, he resisted a shiver.
"What?" Sirius asked coldly, voice sharp and deadpan although obviously
a question. Sirius' face twitched slightly, expression impossible to
comprehend. He was distrusting, already shifting his stance ever so
slightly into something cautious, as if ready to fend off an explosive
attack. Adrian's heart throbbed against his will, at least Remus hadn't
reacted sharply.
Adrian swallowed, feeling his skin chill as if he was about to sweat. "He-
Wormtail?"
His voice was higher in pitch than he wanted, coming across tense and
uncomfortable. Sirius nodded slowly, Adrian noticed how even James'
body was tense as if a mere second away from hurling himself into his
larger stag form.
"Target practice!" Lutain hissed quickly, "Made the rat dance!"
Lutain's quick thinking relieved some of the sudden stress, a cover story
that was feasible and unheard to everyone else. Adrian felt nauseous,
stumbling out words around his thick lazy tongue.
"I- I used him as target practice? I- I mean Bella and I did." Adrian
stumbled over his words, stuttering like a panicking idiot. "He- he's shite
at blocking."
Sirius relaxed slightly before giving a partially wistful smile. James
snorted a loud ugly noise, which seemed to trigger Sirius' hard chuckles.
They sounded genuinely amused, in a nostalgic sense that was
throbbingly sore."Thank Merlin, he deserves that all right."
James gave a small smile, although he did tug Skylar away from Adrian
as the festivities started up once again.
Remus was quite throughout the exchange. After a few moments when
tensions simmer low, he leant over towards Adrian carefully. Not
intruding on Adrian's personal space, but close enough to create a sense
of privacy. "Why Peter?"
Adrian startled, and shrugged limply, reaching out for another buttered
roll.
Remus stared at him for a few seconds longer, before he grabbed the
entire basket of rolls, much to Adrian's delight, and sat it right in front of
him. Nobody commented when Adrian nearly consumed the entire
basket.
Adrian had a troubled sleep. His dreams were smattered with strange
hissing noises, wheezed groans and something rattling incessantly. He
awoke once to see Hedwig sound asleep on a perch above an empty
wardrobe, he awoke the second time to smack the locket from where it
was vibrating on the nightstand.
The third time Adrian woke up, sunlight was fighting its way through his
curtains. He could hear the muffled noises of chaos and commotion;
Adrian burrowed his head into his pillow in a futile denial that it was
indeed morning. Eventually he couldn't ignore the morning any further,
especially as the noises below picked up in volume. Adrian could hear
shouting from the landings below, although he ignored them in favor of
getting dressed quickly. He always found getting dressed the most
difficult action of any morning, something about adorning clothing
seemed so...fundamentally pointless, and exhausting to him.
Adrian hesitated once before grabbing the locket and slipping it over his
head, it rested warmly over his heart.
"Time to go?" Lutain asked quizzically, sliding free from his enchanted box
as Adrian stacked it on top of his chest.
"I think so," Adrian hummed to himself, tidying up his bed and snatching
the one soft blanket he was attached to more so than the others.
He opened the door, scooting his heavy trunk out his door frame and in
front of Remus'. The man was likely busy figuring out the final security
detail that would follow Skylar, although the man was adamant that he
would be accompanying Adrian.
Hedwig gave a small cry, clicking her sharp beak as she looked at her
cage in disdain. She would much rather fly ahead, or pester Mundungus.
"Adrian!" Tonks whooped, peering upwards from the very very bottom of
the stairs, "I'll get that trunk for you!"
"I like her," Lutain noted happily, "She shifted hair to look like my scales."
"Did she really?" Adrian asked his familiar, stroking his back. It wasn't a
strange sight for Adrian to talk to his snake after all.
"Yes," Lutain hummed happily, "It looked horrible."
Tonks stumbled up the stairs, nearly tripping over the disgruntled
Crookshanks. She pointed her wand with her tongue sticking out in
concentration, carefully levitating the trunk over the railing and down
the stairwell with calm movements.
With all the chaos, Mrs. Black's portrait was howling with rage.
"Adrian!" Remus smiled from below, dressed in a thick brown outer robe
to fend off the September chill, "Come along! We're leaving first!"
Likely to avoid arriving with the Potter's and everyone else, and to save
whatever reputation he had left. Adrian thanked Remus mentally a dozen
times over.
Hedwig cried out sharply, rattling her wings on the small cage as she was
stuffed inside. Lutain laughed over her dismay, before protesting himself
about going into his crate.
"No! Not fair!" He whined, tail thrashing as Adrian stuffed him elbow
deep into the enchanted box, "Treachery!"
"Shut up," Adrian muttered in good nature, locking the box shut from the
outside. It wouldn't do for Lutain to get lost accidently in the chaos of
King's Cross.
They approached the front door, Remus levitating the trunks behind
them. The moment they stepped outside, the loud sounds vanished
behind them, leaving them in the dreary September sunlight and the
empty muggle road.
"We'll apparate to the station, it'll take less time." Remus explained,
holding out his one arm politely.
An old lady with grey curled hair watched them shrewdly across the
street. Then she winked once, grey hair shifting to neon blue before back
to grey. She gave a subtle wave, before carrying on in a hunched walk.
With a disorienting squeezing sensation, they appeared in an entirely
new sort of chaos. Adrian was thankful Lutain was hidden well in his
box, he could easily imagine his lengthy familiar getting splinched.
Hedwig shrieked angrily, rattling her cage once again as she spotted a
grey cat on a leash, walking next to one young witch.
"Well, look after yourself." Remus spoke, carefully impersonal as he
offered his hand for a handshake.
Adrian smiled slightly, knowing that the relief in his eyes was visible.
"You too."
"Keep your head down and your eyes peeled," Remus noted, giving a tiny
wave to the irritated Hedwig, "Careful what you put in writing, but I'll be
glad to owl you back and forth."
Adrian gave a small nod, grabbing his trunk with one hand and Hedwig
with the other, "I'll see you around, Remus."
Remus nodded back, "Until then, cub."
Adrian blinked quickly and started walking, slipping onto the train and
tugging his trunk after him. Once the trunk (and Lutain) made it up the
several steep steps, he hoisted Hedwig onto the top of the mess and
dragged all three containers behind him.
The frosted glass of the compartments were open, showing the collection
of students inside. Adrian knew better than to even try to sit with anyone
not in Slytherin, and even those inside Slytherin were tentative at best.
He found an empty compartment, mostly due to how early he arrived. He
slid Hedwig into a special owl carrier on the top of the compartment, as
well as his trunks. He dutifully unlocked the small latch and let Lutain
free.
The black snake dropped from the ceiling with a dull thwack! Instantly,
he sprawled out on the opposite seat, soaking up the dull sunshine and
expressing in grumbles how annoyed he was. Hedwig cooed alongside, as
if able to understand him.
Of course, his compartment wasn't empty forever.
"Hello, Adrian." Luna smiled, lugging her own trunk into the
compartment. She struggled to hoist it, shifting and pushing the trunk
until it slid into place next to Adrian's. "Oh, hello Lutain. You've grown, it
suits you."
"Hello crazy lady," Lutain dutifully responded, not bothering to move.
Lutain would never admit it, but he found it amusing how Luna talked to
him as if she understood his language.
Luna hummed quietly to herself as she closed the compartment door, and
then picked up Lutain's lower body to slide underneath him onto a seat.
Once seated, she let the scaly lower half plop back onto her lap.
Lutain looked at her in surprise, and amusement over her generally
uncaring attitude.
Adrian smiled, and glanced out of the window once more.
"How was your summer?" Luna asked curiously. "You look terrible."
"You know, most times you're supposed to compliment me first." Adrian
dryly commented, "It's wonderful to know you're so sweet."
Luna shrugged, "You look like something's eating you."
Adrian rolled his eyes with a small affectionate quirk to his lips, "Is it the
Blibbering Humdingers or the Snorkacks this time?"
Luna just smiled sadly, and pulled out a version of the Quibbler to read.
It was upside down, although Adrian had no doubt she could read it
fluently.
The train whistled and began to move. Adrian was hopeful that it would
be just them inside the compartment.
The door opened just as the train was pulling out of the station, Skylar
Potter and Neville Longbottom looking equally hopeful and rejected.
Adrian groaned and banged his head back on the wall behind him,
"Merlin, I just got rid of you."
"Don't be mean," Luna tutted, smiling dazed at the newcomers, "Hello."
"Er, hi?" Skylar stated, staring at Luna a bit longer than necessary. Her
hair was just as long as before, if only a bit more straggly. Luna did have
an aura of distinct dottiness, either from her butterbeer cap necklace, or
how her wand was jammed behind her left ear for safekeeping.
"You're Skylar Potter," She noted, tilting her head curiously. Skylar
blinked, taken aback by the statement as if his identity was something to
be debated. "Er, yes. I know I am."
Neville chuckled and tried to take a seat next to Luna, only to jump to his
feet in alarm when Lutain reared angrily with a hiss. He hadn't noticed
how Lutain had sprawled lazily across the entire bench seat and Luna's
lap, staking a claim.
"Shhh," She soothed Lutain with a small bop to his snout, "Don't be rude.
I don't know who you are."
"I'm nobody," Neville hurriedly explained.
"No you're not," Skylar frowned, "He's Neville Longbottom, he's in my
year."
"Oh, hello." Luna smiled slightly, although her expression wasn't entirely
welcoming, "I'm Luna Lovegood."
She raised her copy of the Quibbler high enough to hide her face, and fell
silent. Adrian had his eyes closed and head resting on the headrest, all in
all Neville and Skylar were very uncomfortable. It was very clear that
although the two new passengers were free to stay, they weren't being
exactly encouraged.
The train rattled onward, speeding into open country. It was an odd,
unsettled sort of day; one moment the carriage was full of sunlight and
the next they were passing beneath ominously gray clouds.
"Guess what I got for my birthday?" said Neville.
"Don't care." Adrian promptly replied, causing Neville to flush and lower
his backpack. Skylar swallowed uncomfortably, ready to reprimand
Adrian for how rude that had been. Adrian didn't look as if he had even
realized it was rude. Once again, Skylar felt sad at the differences
between Adrian and other people - the gaps where social norms and
actions hadn't quite sunk into him. It was...Skylar didn't know how to
explain it.
The compartment opened nearly an hour later, by then the trolley had
already gone by. Lutain was energetically hunting a chocolate frog,
lunging back and forth to direct the thing into his coils. He was careful
not to bite the chocolate creation.
The door slid open just as the frog leapt out into the hall. Lutain leapt
after it, grabbing it in his coils and wrapping tightly around it until he
was a well formed knot at the end of a black rope. Adrian grabbed his tail
and dragged him back inside the compartment as if a dog toy.
"Sorry uh, bad time?" Ron blinked, already stowing his small energetic
owl Pigwidgeon next to the angry Hedwig. He threw himself into the seat
next to Skylar, sandwiching him between the ginger and Adrian.
Hermione stomped inside and settled herself next to Neville, looking
more dignified although more uncertain of Lutain rolling around near
their feet.
"Well, there are two fifth-year prefects from each House," said Hermione,
looking thoroughly disgruntled, "Boy and girl from each."
"Who is Slytherin?" Adrian asked curiously, not bothering to open his
eyes.
"Malfoy," Skylar responded instantly, sounding as if he accepted the fate
already.
"And that complete cow Pansy Parkinson." Hermione seethed, "Er, I mean,
if you're friends with her-"
"She's thicker than a concussed troll." Adrian snorted sourly, "Greengrass
would have been better, though thank Merlin she isn't."
"Uh," Neville smartly responded, not knowing the Slytherins that well.
"Who's Hufflepuff?" Skylar asked.
"Ernie Macmillan and Hannah Abbott." said Ron sourly. Adrian groaned
quietly at Ernie.
"Anthony Goldstein and Padma Patil for Ravenclaw," Hermione added in.
"You went to Yule Ball with Padma Patil," Luna bluntly and tactlessly
stated, looking at Skylar as if he was going to refute the fact.
"I did," Skylar blinked surprised, not at all denying it, "who did you go
with?"
Luna beamed, "Adrian."
There was a small pause, a hesitation in breath from almost everyone in
the compartment. Adrian didn't open his eyes, and breathing resumed
slowly, cautiously.
"Oh!" Hermione looked happy with the conversation, "Yes! I remember
that!"
Ron blinked, "Well I don't."
There was another heavy pause. Although Adrian's eyes were closed he
could almost feel how eyes were flickering from his form to Luna and
back.
Skylar sounded uncomfortable, "Oh, er...are you two…"
Adrian opened his eyes and looked at Skylar with a deadpan expression,
Luna simply looked inquisitive. Skylar trailed off weakly, not finishing
his sentence and struggling to rephrase.
"Are we what?" Luna's tone was gentle and neutral, yet somehow sharper
and daring. Metaphorically poking a inquirious wyvern with a pointy
stick.
Skylar's mouth opened and he floundered, unable to ask anything besides
an awkward wheezing noise.
"We're supposed to patrol the corridors every so often!" Ron blurted,
stopping the escalating unease with his sudden outburst. At once, the
atmosphere cracked and everyone relaxed into their seats.
"Obviously, since you know, you're a prefect," Adrian sighed, looking very
fed up with the conversation and chatter already.
Then the compartment door opened for the third time.
Skylar had been expecting it, but it did not make the sight of Draco
Malfoy smirking at him from between Crabbe and Goyle any more
pleasant. It was small mercies that Malfoy hadn't appeared only minutes
prior.
"What?" Skylar asked aggressively, before Malfoy could open his mouth.
Malfoy seemed stunned for a split second, as if he had anticipated
someone else being inside the compartment.
Adrian's lip twitched, he hadn't seen many of Potter's fights with Malfoy
in person, although they were known school wide.
"Manners, Potter, or I'll have to give you a detention," drawled Malfoy,
who was barely restraining his glee, "You see, I, unlike you, have been
made a prefect which means that I, unlike you, have the power to hand
out punishments."
"Yeah, but you, unlike me, are a git."
Adrian almost snorted. Lutain sniggered silently.
"Tell me, how does it feel being second-best to Weasley, Potter?" Malfoy
asked, lip curling in amusement. His tone was bitingly sharp, none of the
fancy dainty duels of wits Adrian had experienced in the common room.
This was mean and blunt.
"Shut up, Malfoy." Hermione spoke sharply.
"I seem to have touched a nerve," Malfoy huffed happily, smirking
sharply, "Well, watch yourself- Selwyn?"
Adrian groaned, and banged his head back on the wall behind him. So
much for small mercies.
Malfoy blinked in surprise once, then was overwhelmed by laughter so
strong, tears slipped down his face.
"It's true!" He cackled in mirth, "You really were with that filthy
werewolf!"
Adrian felt the locket against his heart vibrate, pulsing sharply and
fueling his rising anger. Why couldn't Malfoy just leave him alone.
He recognized realistically that there was no need to get so...so furious.
Malfoy was just being his usual jerk self, and he would leave and most
likely tease him for it later.
But Adrian was angry, he really was. More furious than he had been with
Mundungus in the past. He wanted to make Malfoy hurt.
"Hi Malfoy!" He spoke, voice chipper in a way that signified an
approaching hurricane. He had his wand in his sleeve, and in the
practiced movement Bellatrix had drilled into him, it slipped into his
hand with one go.
Skylar inhaled sharply at his words. Skylar could remember almost
instantly the same sort of chipper- nearly giggly tone of voice, as well as
the leaking visceral stuffings of an old couch.
Skylar hurried forward, barely able to lean across before Adrian was
pointing his wand with something delighted in his eyes. Lutain took some
sort of invisible cue and lunged at the Slytherin trio. Crabbe and Goyle
flinched back with an ugly expression of dismay.
"Incendio!" Adrian hissed, flicking his wand to target Draco's robes.
He intended only for a decently small segment to burn. Lutain had to
recoil and retreat backwards as not only Draco caught on fire, but also
Crabbe and Goyle. Draco's entire outer robe went up in orange flames,
tongues lapping happily and spreading to the boy's hair as the patches on
his cronies' robes spread over their back. A contained flame was quickly
turning wild, sending off acrid black smoke as it burned through
expensive silk and other materials.
Adrian startled in surprise, he certainly hadn't intended for an effect that
strong.
'The potion…' He remembered in awe, Crouch had said that his magic
would be stronger.
Adrian felt a grin split his face as Malfoy and his goons screamed in
surprise and fear, skin turning pink then a vicious angry red. There was a
strange disturbing cooked smell, mixing with the harsh smoke.
A bubbling laugh tumble from Adrian's mouth. The potion worked.
What more did the potion do?
Adrian's peripheral vision blurred as his blood pulsed quickly through his
neck, the locket burning warm enough to almost be uncomfortable. He
could feel his pulse all the way down to his finger tips, vibrating
rhythmically. He pushed- as if trying to break through a permeable
membrane, like a firm soap bubble.
He pushed, and pushed until his focus point stretched and warped- his
hearing drowning out behind the pulsating thud-dud, thud-dud thud-dud
Then it snapped.
Boom
The flames roared, leaping upwards with the fury of an entire bucket of
floo powder in a fireplace. The flames glowed red, licking and burning
the top of the hallway and dancing off of the frosted glass and along the
corridor down at least two carpet smoldered, peeling away from the
wooden flooring like a leaf drying out. The wallpaper of the carriages
curled like flower petals and waxy glue dripped as if the train was
bleeding.
A sharp pain slammed into Adrian's face; his focus was broken as he
stumbled back and raised both hands instinctively to clutch his nose.
Adrian stumbled back, blinking wildly as he noticed suddenly how hot
everything was. And the screaming.
Hermione was casting something desperately, chest heaving as Malfoy,
Crabbe, and Goyle were lying pitifully and moaning quietly in the middle
of the hallway, still on fire.
"Hermione?" Skylar breathed in horror, unsure of what to think.
"I- Flame-freezing charm," she gasped out, shaking in horror, "I- Flitwick
made me do an essay last year."
Luna hurried to her feet, approaching the fire tentatively before reaching
into it and feeling the pitifully mewling trio. She withdrew her hand
slowly, skin untouched and unharmed although she did have a rather
large frown on her face. "Ron, Hermione, could you fetch the Head Boy
and Head Girl?"
"I- yes!" Hermione blubbered, flinching as the flames snapped angrily,
crackling out as if snapping its jaws.
They could hear people shouting and taking cover in the compartments
directly nearby, people were racing down the hallways and struggling to
dispel the large fire. There was a shrill alarm, ringing painfully in
Adrian's ears.
Adrian trembled, blinking wildly as the locket thrummed wildly against
his chest. Hissing wordless praise like a proud mother.
"Adrian!" Hermione shouted, causing Adrian to flinch and look at her
suddenly.
"I- yeah?" He croaked, blinking still as he seemed dazed. Luna slipped
between Hermione and Skylar, folding her legs under her to trail her
fingers gently along Adrian's jawline.
Ron looked particularly shaken, all the blood having drained from his
face. The redhead was staring at something lower than Adrian's eyes;
Adrian lifted a hand to his face, pulling away when his fingers were
stained in blood and his face throbbed sore.
"Ron punched you," Skylar informed him, looking visibly shaken as well,
"You okay? You with us?"
"Master?" Lutain asked quietly, curled up tightly and protectively over
where Luna had been sitting.
"Adrian?" Luna asked, although her voice was sharper and clearer in the
ringing haze.
"I- yeah." Adrian stumbled, feeling like he was talking underwater, "I- did
I hurt you?"
Lutain lowered his head, resting it on his coils as he dutifully unraveled,
showing tarnished scales that seemed a bit more black than usual.
Adrian's heart dropped.
"We're fine, I think." Luna assured him calmly, "I think that Draco Malfoy
is hurt. As well as Crabbe and Goyle."
"Good." Adrian rasped out, blinking and flinching back in alarm when
Ron's face shadowed in anger. His fist had pulled back, twitching into
another punch. Luna hunkered forward slightly, shielding Adrian's
trembling body with her own petite one.
"Yeah well," Skylar soothed, shaking from adrenaline as the fire
continued to burn, thankfully impossible to feel, "they'll take care of this.
The fire."
Adrian nodded rapidly, feeling whiplash. Adrian rasped something,
unable to hear his own voice although he felt his mouth move in the
shape of words. Luna tilted her head, nodding slightly before standing
and reaching above everyone's heads. She had to balance on the tips of
her toes, yanking at Adrian's classier trunk. It fell with a clatter, startling
Hedwig and Pigwidgeon who were shivering from the scare.
"I- healing potions." Adrian swallowed, voice foreign in his own ears. He
opened the compartment, snatching a half dozen hastily. Luna gently
slipped them from between his unresponsive fingers, passing them along
to Hermione. She kept one, likely for the sluggishly bleeding from
Adrian's nose.
The fire outside was finally extinguished, thanks to several students
rushing forward with water charms. The corridor and compartment felt
musty, incredibly humid and damp from the water. Draco and his goons
were escorted away by the Head boy and Head girl, already being treated
with charms and potions to prevent the snitch sized blisters from
forming. The train scooted along, resuming its original path. Of course,
both the Head boy and girl had investigated thoroughly- they sighed in
frustration the moment they spotted Selwyn, shaking slightly in the
furthest corner of the compartment. Fire incidents went almost hand and
hand with Adrian Selwyn. Skylar felt a small pang of anger- it wasn't fair
that they had leapt to assumptions without even asking questions!
(He felt bad instantly after, given that the situation was due to the
common assumption. Selwyn was a very unlucky bloke.)
The weather remained poor as they traveled farther and farther north.
Rain spattered the windows, almost ironically with how muggy the train
cars now felt. When darkness fell and lamps came back on inside the
carriages, Luna rolled up her magazine and took to looking at Lutain who
was still curled up protectively.
"Episkey," she cast carefully, gently attempting to repair the damaged
scales. Trevor the toad croaked quietly.
"We'd better change," said Hermione at last, still glancing at Adrian with
worry. Adrian was curled in on himself, staring out of the grimy window
as if he couldn't see anything at all. He was painfully small, pressed in
the gap between Luna and the window.
At last the train began to slow down, and they heard the usual racket up
and down as everyone scrambled to get their luggage and pets assembled.
Ron and Hermione prepared to leave, Hermione pausing as she quietly
gave Adrian permission to skip the opening feast in favor of seeing
Madam Pomfrey. He shrugged and ignored her, Luna pressed closer to
him as if her weight and pressure would help reassure him.
The group shuffled out of the compartment, smelling the unusually
sulfuric air as they avoided larger patches of still smoldering carpet.
Adrian ducked his head low, trying to avoid the judgmental whispers
when a few students spotted him leaving the smoking corridor. Slowly
they moved toward the door, trying not to pay that much attention to
how other students began murmuring to one another over the burnt
smell.
They made their way towards the hundred or so horseless stagecoaches.
The ground was wet and soggy, mud and wet trees making a familiar
sappy smell; petrichor. The square shape of the carriages slowly emerged
from the dark, familiar in shape except the new addition. Skylar gasped
loudly, pausing and dragging the group to a halt.
One monster peered over curiously, huffing through large nostrils and
sightless eyes. Their hairless skin reflected light waxily, something dark
yet the strange shininess of a scar.
Adrian relaxed when he spotted the familiarity of the skeletal creature,
and vast, black leathery wings. Skylar nearly gaped, noticing instantly
how the other boy was much more lively and content in the presence of
such...monsters. The others didn't seem to notice at all, as if they were
invisible.
"What are those things?" Skylar nodded towards the horse creatures,
trying not to stare too much with how reverently Adrian was sending
glances towards them.
Adrian paused, wilting in on himself slightly. Adrian was holding Lutain
tightly as he clipped out, "what things?"
The fact that Adrian was the one to respond drew more attention to the
question that Skylar asked than originally intended. Skylar shrunk in on
himself, lamely pointing with one hand.
"Those horse-..."
Luna appeared once more in the dark, eyes wide and almost as grey as
the beasts. They had somewhat split away from the main group, lagging
behind. "There you are, shall we get in now?"
"What were you saying, Sky?" Ron grumbled, opening the carriage door
and shoving Pigwidgeon's cage inside.
"I was saying, what are those horse things?"
"What horse things?" Hermione piped up, emerging from Skylar's
otherside behind a group of excited second years.
"The horse things pulling the carriages!" Skylar snapped impatiently; they
were, after all, about three feet from the nearest one it was watching
them with empty white eyes.
Ron just looked at Skylar perplexed.
"Thestrals," Adrian spoke quietly, walking past the trio directly towards
the horse creature. He reached out, running one hand over the reptilian
face and the bony snout. Skylar felt like flinching away, something
seemed so...grotesque with touching the strangely reptilian monster. The
thestral leaned into the touch without care, peering out with the eyes of a
corpse.
"What?" Hermione huffed, too tense and high strung from Adrian's earlier
outburst.
Adrian let his hand fall, dangling by the thestral's cheek before he
lowered it to his waist.
"It's all right," Luna spoke quietly, vanishing into the coach's interior,
"You're not going mad. I can see them too."
That wasn't very reassuring, if anything it made Skylar more
uncomfortable. These...these strange demonic horses that were invisible
to everyone except them.
Adrian huffed quietly, coming out of his shell. He almost smiled at how
unsettled Skylar felt, "You're just as unfortunate as we are."
LordSinnoh: Did Adrian and Hermione have a falling out?
Back in second year, when she abused a deal they had for sneaking into the
Slytherin dungeons. Adrian holds grudges.
Roostertheking: Glad to know u care about your pet...but aren't u
keeping its soul from passing to its next adventure...
My religious beliefs do not require a body to be buried to achieve peace.
Hope1616: Why does Snape dislike harry? Why do the Slytherins dislike
him, shouldn't they like him since he is the son of two famous death
eaters? Do the potters acknowledge the fact that they showed favoritism
to Skylar, do they feel guilt over it or just think it was for the greater
good?
Snape dislikes Adrian because he's a problem child and causes chaos to his
students. He views Adrian as someone he'd happily get removed to keep his
students from being attacks. Slytherins don't like having debts to people, or
being burned both of which Adrian commonly does. The Potters have a lot of
regret over the treatment of Harry and Skylar.
Thanatos147: (Broken down due to length). If both Sirius and James
were initially so concerned about curse scars being exposed to each other
for risk of a reaction (Skylar and Adrian) why would they force him to
move into a house saturated with Dark magic and actively help search for
Cursed objects to throw out?
Adalonda seems to be showing some rather intriguing depth, I think this
is the first story I've come across where the basilisk seems to behave as
you would expect a millennia old king of serpents, hatched by Slytherin
to.
Luna is a likewise interesting take, she certainly seems very clear sighted
with regards to what's going on around her, as well as serving as a useful
tool along with Lutain for cutting the tension before it becomes
overdone. Given that it seems unlikely that she doesn't realize how she's
being treated and she seems to have a good idea of exactly how dark
Adrian actually is given her pointed comments about the Thestral foal.
Both of those things point to a very detached and largely amoral
character who simply wants what's best for her friend as she sees it,
which is somewhat terrifying considering she would make a wonderful
enabler for Adrian if she ever becomes convinced that the best outcome
for him is to get what he wants.
My take on this is that if a curse scar did not react to a similar curse scar
saturated with Dark Magic from the Dark Lord himself, from the darkest most
unforgivable spell out there, well, it's unlikely other things would react to it
otherwise.
I wanted the Basilisk to have more meaning, and I felt terrible about leaving
her as a nameless character. I wanted her role to be bigger.
Luna is...fascinating. I understand your views and also your desire and ideas
on how a relationship would further Adrian's struggle for right and wrong. If it
helps fuel your desire for a Luna and Adrian romance, I chose very specific
herbs and flowers for Luna's herb bundle earrings at the Yule ball. These herbs
and flowers generally suggest happiness, restfulness, or to ward off depression
or sadness. She specifically chose these and wore them to try and help Adrian
enjoy his night.
colubrum: 1. Why did the Dursleys lock Harry in the cupboard when he
lived with them? It's not very logical, especially since Harry's parents
were still alive and if they found out about it, Petunia and her husband
would have a hard time. They couldn't explain it to Harry's trauma and
lie that the boy wanted to live there himself. It would be more logical if
the Dursleys behaved started when they realized that nobody cared for
Harry.
2. Why did the Potters not visit Harry? Lily was raised in a Muggle world,
she could Apparate to London and take a train / bus to Surrey and visit
her son. The Potters could send a house elf to check their son without
telling anyone if they were so afraid of being followed.
3. The Harry's character rubs me in the wrong places. After all that he
has gone through, he should be a psychopath. In one of the comments
you stated that Harry doesn't want to hurt / kill, because he is too young.
Deny yourself, creating the character of David, who not only tried to kill
Harry, but he killed the serpent with full premeditation. And even if you
look at the canon, Harry killed for the first time at eleven years old. Fact,
he may not have realized what had happened to Quirrell because of pain
and exhaustion. However, at the age of twelve he killed the basilisk and
Riddle's revival with full premeditation. In the third year, Harry wanted a
fate worse than death for Pettigrew. That's why he stopped Sirius and
Remus from killing a rat.
4. Why does Adrian go to Hogwarts at all when he reminded his father so
much from a small age? Why not another school or home teaching?
Voldemort always kept Nagini close to being safe, so why did not he do
the same with Adrian?
5. As for the scar, I have mixed feelings. I understand why you did it,
although the director already saw the similarity. He was the one who
gave the young Tom a letter to Hogwarts, and later he taught Riddle for
seven years. If the scar must be there, why would not Adrian get her after
the Hippogriff attack? On the one hand, a blow to Dumbledore, on the
other, a permanent reminder of Draco to whom he owes.
6. Snape. Why doesn't he like Adrian? Theoretically, he takes care of all
Slytherins. Why didn't he notice the disease of one of them? You messed
up a bit with his character and not in a good way.
I know that the comments seem to be a lot, but they refer to all 49
chapters. Apart from these things, the story is consistent and events make
sense. It is also interestingly written and engaging.
In order.
1. They were scared, and they were told that people were hunting them down.
They wanted to hide Harry away, and as such they hid him under the stairs
instead of a bed room where it would be obvious that he lives there. That, and
well...I believe that they are bad people, I wanted them to abuse him.
2. That will be mentioned later. Essentially, Harry was given to Dursleys and
Potters went into instant hiding. The hiding was around two years in length,
and they were unable to go anywhere without an escort due to personal safety.
There were indeed attacks on them, and they would assume that Harry would
be safer if no attention was drawn to him.
3. There is a difference in my personal opinion, between purposefully allowing
a death to occur or having it done by your own hand. Would you purposefully
cause the death of two people or stand aside and witness the death of four.
The same idea or concept applies to my thoughts here- Adrian did not realize
that Lutain would kill David. He wanted to injure the boy but not murder him-
the same way any frustrated kid would want to punch another, not murder
them. I don't want Adrian to be a psychopath, antisocial personality disorder
is only one mental disorder in a plethora of others that are underutilized and
shoved aside in favor of something romanticized by the internet and media. I
understand what you mean about canon, but I don't think Harry in the books
could without regret murder Ron or Hermione, likewise Adrian could not
murder Luna or Lutain. I'm attempting (although this response suggests I'm
failing) at making Adrian appear more psychotic as time goes on. I'll take your
suggestions to my beta's and work through the other chapters to try and make
this more fluid.
4. Voldemort wants a spy and doesn't care much for Adrian. That, and it
would be a rather boring story if it was all these chapters just for home
schooling.
5. I'm sorry, I'm not quite understanding what you're saying here. I made the
scar for several reasons, 1. To disguise Adrian's appearance, 2. Adrian would
always look in a mirror and recognize who his life belongs to, and who he
belongs to, 3. Adrian would never be able to run away and hide due to the
distinction of the scar, 4. Adrian learned that severe scarification and torture
of a child was a duty for him to uphold (part of the 'manipulation'), 5. To
garner more pity and have the Order feel more badly for him, 6. For Adrian to
be isolated and bullied and more self destructive and thus, more manipulable.
6. Adrian is a chaotic child and in American terms, the 'Unibomber', of
Hogwarts. Everyone is afraid of him because a few misplaced words the child
may one day kill another student. Snape doesn't want that type of risk around
his students, he doesn't want Adrian around his godson or to be responsible for
the time bomb. I'll admit I'm not the best on writing Snape's character, but I
am actively working on fixing this.
Guest: How often do you post chapters
Generally once a week although my schedule has gotten a bit crazy with
classes and generally I'm still struggling after the sudden death of my cat. My
birthday was also on the 20th this month, so I'm still reeling from all of the
chaos.
PsychedelicCow: Hiya, just wondering what your upload schedule is, I
really like this story and am quite new to this whole fanfic 'world.' I know
that you aren't actually required to keep to a schedule but I was curious if
you had one (not a problem if not). I just really love this story and I hope
you keep doing what you're doing :)
Welcome to the fanfic world! Generally I try my best to upload once a week,
although I've noticed a trend that most chapters are posted 10 days or so after
the most recent update. I have the entire story planned out so don't expect any
sudden Hiatus or me leaving this abandoned. This story should be finished
before the end of summer at the latest. Since you're new, I'll add in a few
pointers to the fanfic world. Reviews mean the world to most authors, don't
worry about how old the story is. You can put a story on reminders if you
have an account so you get notifications on updates. Also, I personally
respond to questions at the end of each chapter so feel free to leave questions
although this only applies to the most recent chapter.
51. Hysteria
This chapter was beta'd by our amazing Beta Collective
-Arctic Fox From Afar
-Mahina
-Cyndaquil05
-4everfictional
-Scion of House Lucifer
-Parsi
-Acelenny
-S4m
- and countless anonymous helpers!
Thanks to everyone who checked out the fanart! Feel free to look at
any time!
Double Chapter!
'I didn't mean to. I think that's the worst bit. I honestly didn't mean for that to
happen, It's like trying to keep sand from falling between your fingers. It's too
much, it's always too much. The worst bit, the worst bit is that I know nobody
believes that either.'
"Well, now that we are all digesting another magnificent feast, I beg a
few moments of your attention for the usual start-of-term notices. Before,
I would like to apologize for the unimaginable fire, which broke out on
the Hogwarts Express while arriving. Be assured, that we are
investigating it as we speak. First years ought to know that the forest in
the grounds is out of bounds to students."
"Mr. Filch, our caretaker, has asked me once more to remind you all that
magic is not permitted in the corridors. We have two changes in staff this
year. We are pleased to welcome back Professor Grubbly-Plank, who will
be taking care of Care of Magical Creatures. We are also pleased to
introduce Professor Umbridge, our new Defense Against the Dark Art
teacher."
"Tryouts for the House Quidditch teams will take place on the-"
Dumbledore broke off, looking inquiringly at Professor Umbridge. As she
was not much taller standing than sitting, there was a moment when
nobody understood why she had remained standing.
Dumbledore only looked taken aback for a moment, then he sat back
down smartly and looked alertly at Professor Umbridge as if she was to
declare an important announcement.
"Thank you, Headmaster," Professor Umbridge smiled much too sweet,
"for those kind words of welcome. Well, It is lovely to be back at
Hogwarts, I must say! And to see such happy little faces looking back at
me! The Ministry of Magic has always considered the education of young
witches and wizards to be of vital importance…"
"Would you like to explain to me what happened, Mr. Selwyn?" Madam
Pomfrey asked gently.
Adrian shifted, his jaw visibly tense. "I tried to spell Malfoy. It was a
bigger reaction than I thought it would be."
Madam Pomfrey sighed through her nose, "I'll say," She smiled, trying to
keep the conversation light and easy.
Adrian's face twitched.
"What spell did you use?" She asked politely, taking out a sheaf of
parchment and a quill, already documenting the occasion. Adrian
recognized his box, already filled with his extensive medical records.
Adrian suspected that Remus was sending letters ahead of time, keeping
her updated on his medical information.
"Incendio," Adrian muttered quietly, running his fingers over his wand.
Madam Pomfrey paused, looking at him considerately.
"That was a big reaction for a basic spell, Mr. Selwyn."
Adrian shrugged, "It just happened."
Unfortunately, the few eye witnesses had confirmed that it was the spell
Adrian had used. There were records of Adrian's special usage of fire
charms or spells, it was possible that he simply performed pyrotechnic
magic a hair better than others. Affinities were usually for a branch of
magic, like healing spells or charms or transfiguration. The idea that fire
magic was an affinity was...unusual, but not uncommon.
"Well, I have a few new questions to ask you," She smiled, taking out the
new sheaf of parchment where she had written down questions earlier,
"Can you give me a number? One for never, five for all the time?"
Adrian rolled his eyes, looking as if he had better things to do.
"Now, are you very anxious about a lot of things in your life?"
Adrian glared with a withering look, "No."
"The numbers, Mr. Selwyn."
Adrian paused, tensing and curling his feet on top of the bed, "two,"
She wrote it down dutifully.
"Do you feel that your worry is out of your control?"
Adrian snorted, looking bored already, "One."
"Are you restless, agitated, or tense?"
Adrian paused, looking considerate while chewing on his bottom lip. His
cheek twitched, Poppy held her breath.
"...five."
"Do you have trouble sleeping? Or oversleeping?"
"...four."
They continued, Madam Pomfrey alternated between asking other
questions about if his heart rate would speed up, or if he ever tremble
excessively. It went on for a painfully long time, enough for Madam
Pomfrey to feel very unsure and uncomfortable with some of the
responses of the child.
"Are we done?" he growled out, looking irritable and unsettled.
"Yes, we are." Madam Pomfrey smiled; unsure, setting aside the
parchment and his responses. Adrian leapt to his feet, stretching his back
and looking ready to leave.
"Mr. Selwyn?" Madam Pomfrey asked politely, "If you'd like, I can write a
note to your Head of House about your condition?"
Adrian tensed, "What condition?"
Pomfrey struggled, "You...You've experienced a traumatic event, and
sometimes events leave us with sc-"
Adrian looked at her with the greatest deadpan expression.
Madam Pomfrey flushed and bit her tongue. Of course he knew about
scars, physical or emotional.
"Thank you, but it's not necessary." He smiled sharply, "have a good
evening, Ma'am."
Poppy sighed, locking up Adrian's record once more.
Adrian left hurriedly towards the Great Hall, his stomach twisting into
something pained. They were to receive their scheduled classes, although
they likely would only walk around to find the specific rooms today.
Classes begin tomorrow, as per tradition.
Adrian shuffled into the Great Hall, sliding towards the Slytherin table
and taking a seat. Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle were nowhere to be seen.
The 'fire incident' had spread like, well, wildfire through the house.
Everyone speculated it was Adrian who set it.
With a whoosh and a clatter, hundreds of owls came soaring in through
the upper windows. They descended all over the Hall, bringing letters
and packages to their owners and showering the breakfast eaters with
droplets of water; it was clearly raining very hard outside. Hedwig
swooped down low, her long white wings curved sharply as she landed
right in front of Adrian, shaking water off of her back. She had a letter
tied to her leg, low quality parchment he knew Remus liked to use.
Adrian grimaced and untied it, storing it in his pocket to read later.
A loud flash of lightning filled the room, seconds later it rattled the table
with thunder.
It was a thunderstorm.
A thunderstorm.
Adrian scrambled upwards from his table, snatching his schedule from a
highly annoyed Snape as he hurried down to the dungeons. He briefly
glanced at his schedule, wincing as he noticed just how horrid it was. He
was so busy with Crouch last year, he hadn't constructed that convenient
of a schedule. His classes were poorly spaced, and overwhelming on
certain days.
It didn't matter, he had better things to do anyways.
He hurried down to his room, closing the door behind him to search
through all of his potions for the one bottle in particular that was
unmarked. He grabbed it, peering inside at the one mandrake leaf he had
adhered to the underside of his tongue for a month. He could run down
to the chamber to undergo the transformation in ultimate privacy, but
something about the seclusion wasn't appealing. It was incredibly
unlikely that anyone would intrude on him inside his room- the door was
locked, Lutain was on guard, and everyone dedicated the day to
exploring the castle or relaxing. It was the best time now.
It was very anticlimactic. Adrian twisted the topper off and chugged the
entire blood red vial, pausing only to shift the leaf around in his mouth
so he wouldn't choke. After a moment of hesitation, he chewed the leaf
and swallowed it along with the potion. The edges of the leaf were still
sharp, and burned his throat as if it were broken glass.
Nothing happened, not for ten minutes. Not for fifteen. Adrian pouted,
sitting on his bed quietly as he set his wand on his nightstand and stared
at the wall.
A fiery pain erupted through his body, leaving him gasping and keeling
over. His heart raced, beating faster and faster until- until it split, an
intense double heartbeat that was much slower than his own one.
He opened his mouth, trying to speak or at least warn Lutain. Before he
could do so- the room vanished, his eyes rolling up into his head as
something scaled with yellow-green eyes stared at him milky, jaw
unhinging and…
Adrian jolted his eyes open, everything stunningly surreal with a double
vision. He twitched, struggling to move as his arms were broken…
He moved, oh- oh, he didn't have arms. He lifted his head like he was
looking up, his neck extending and flexing as he just rose and rose and
rose-
He groaned, the noise sounded warped and audible as something ringing,
a thrum from a plucked string.
'How do I move?' He thought dazed to himself, struggling and wiggling in
place like Lutain stuck in a mouse trap.
Thank Merlin his familiar wasn't out to see it.
He struggled, finally propelling forward shakily by tensing and pushing
each side as if he was swimming. It was scarily easy to adapt, especially
when he could lift or lower his upper body so easily.
Within moments he was thoroughly investigating his room, flicking out
his tongue curiously only to flinch at the 'second' afterimage that burned
through his mind. As if someone had flashed lumos brightly in his skull.
"Oh Merlin," He moaned, his voice hoarse but clearly audible to his own
ears (or ear holes?)
He spotted movement, turning and lifting as something else rose also- he
struggled to match it length for length.
'Attack! Attack!' something primitive hissed, compelling him to flex and
sway his exposed underbelly in a dizzying pattern. His teeth clicked with
a silent but noticeable snap, each lowering like a fist unfurling.
He blinked (he didn't think snakes could blink) and tilted his head in
confusion at the long black enemy, "Lutain?"
His opponent pulled back, towering a solid foot above him although its
body was much more slender. It tasted the air, a long whiplike tongue
which moved much faster than Adrian could, "Master?"
Adrian stumbled, trying to lower himself slowly to the ground, only
accomplishing a very human trip backwards, knocking his head on the
corner of his bed. His body hit the floor with a dull thwap!
Lutain stared, then snickered wildly in amusement, "Master! You are noble
kind! You have such large scales!"
Adrian stumbled to right himself, "How in the blazes do you use your
tongue?"
Lutain wisely flicked his tongue twice, and didn't answer.
Adrian looked around curiously once more, his tail instinctively twitching
and curling like a prehensile thumb around the very edge of his bed.
"You have pretty scales," Lutain noted wisely, "Like Nagini."
Adrian could tell that was true, his sense of size was thoroughly shot to
hell but Lutain's own scales were much much smaller. Although his
familiar was longer in comparison.
"Oh Merlin, it's filthy in here. I need to clean under my bed more often,"
Adrian commented, investigating under his bed and hearing the scrape of
scales on wood.
Something tugged on his head, providing resistance. He yanked his head
back, freeing himself from a dangling tail of one of his sheets. Lutain
watched bemused as Adrian investigated, trying to understand how on
earth the sheet got stuck to his face.
"This is confusing," Adrian admitted, thankful that his familiar could at
least understand him.
"Can you go back?" Lutain asked curiously, hoisting himself onto the bed.
Adrian attempted to follow, it was much much harder than he thought it
would be.
He struggled upwards, learning quickly that he did not have as fine
muscular control as Nagini did when climbing. Once thoroughly
exhausted, he collapsed on his covers on top of his clothing and the
locket he had abandoned.
In theory, he should be able to change at will back to his human form
just by envisioning it. He didn't think it would be that easy.
It was.
He blinked, swaying dizzily as his senses oriented himself as well as his
depth perception once more. He felt nauseous, obviously he'd need to
practice.
"That was exciting." Lutain pointed out happily, overjoyed beyond words.
Adrian blinked, fisting the clothing he had abandoned.
"I need to figure out how to shift without losing my robes," he thought
smartly, feeling cripplingly exhausted. He slipped on his outer robe,
abandoning his underclothing simply for convenience.
Lutain was positively thrilled for the next few days, refusing to leave
Adrian alone. He prattled on and on about all of the finer things he
would teach Adrian, from the fastest way to strike to how to pick out the
best rat from a pile. Adrian tried to follow, although the physical
transformation truly had taken everything out of him. He felt like
something had grabbed his bones and stretched him, even his eyes hurt.
He knew that a proper Animagus transformation took attributes and
applied them both ways. James Potter had a habit of tossing his head, or
leaping across areas without thought. Sirius tilted his head when puzzled,
and had his trademark bark-like laugh.
Adrian could only guess his scars had traveled over to his animagus form.
He was very curious what had traveled back.
He was in contact with his father every other night, speaking through
disjointed phrases through his tattoo. Once Adrian had fallen asleep,
Lutain carried on the conversation except this time with Nagini.
Things were looking up, except for the horrid experience that was
Defense class. Adrian was struggling to stay focused enough to read
textbook, let alone read lines. The only thing which made the class
tolerable was in his boredom, he tended to smolder the Professor's books
or parchment when she wasn't looking. His classmates caught on quickly,
and although Draco, Crabbe and Goyle had not forgiven him for the train
incident, they at least found it slightly humorous as well.
It was good practice, not to mention very tricky to only singe a book
instead of full out burning it. Adrian had his wand in his bag even, so as
much as Professor Umbridge would love to blame him, she didn't have a
target.
(With how often Adrian zoned out and refused to read the assigned
passages, Umbridge had tauntingly stated that he must be illiterate.
Adrian barely blinked, which infuriated her even further.)
Double transfiguration for some reason seemed much, much easier. They
started with vanishing spells, each given snails. On the fifth attempt, the
snail simply winked out of existence. Greengrass of course accomplished
it one try before him, but the class ended with no other student
successful.
Normally Adrian would be excited for Care, but for some reason it just
didn't seem important to him. He didn't mind it, although he was curious
whatever happened to Hagrid.
"Everyone here?" barked Professor Grubbly-Plank, "Let's crack on then-
who can tell me what these things are called?"
She indicated to the heap of twigs in front of her. Hermione's hand shot
into the air only a second after Adrian realized what they were. Small
wood creatures with knobbly brown arms and legs, two twig-like fingers,
and a funny flat barklike face. Professor Grubbly-Plank blinked as she
saw Hermione, then peered around at the rest of the class. It was
common knowledge that Hermione could answer nearly every question,
regardless of class.
"So, anyone know the names of these creatures?"
The Slytherins collectively looked at Adrian, and took a double take at
how he was barely even paying attention. They exchanged alarmed
glances, realizing that Granger was going to get the answer.
"Miss Granger?"
"Bowtruckles," said Hermione, "They're tree-guardians that usually live in
wand trees!"
"Five points for Gryffindor," said Professor Grubbly-Plank, "Yes, these are
bowtruckles and, as Miss Granger rightly says, they generally live in
trees. Anybody know what they eat?"
Once again, the Slytherins looked at Adrian, who wasn't paying attention.
Lutain was hissing something, and Adrian was amusing himself with
playing with his familiar.
"Woodlice! But fairy eggs if they can get them."
"Good girl, take another five points. So whenever you need leaves or
wood from-..."
"What the hell, Selwyn?" Blaise hissed angrily, nostrils flaring in
annoyance, "Get us some points."
Adrian rolled his eyes and scoffed, "Oh yes, like I want to waste my time
on bowtruckles and five lousy points."
Blaise looked like he had been slapped. Pansy made a small sound of
confusion.
"Go on! Grab one!" the Professor beckoned. They each methodologically
approached, Adrian taking the flank of the line.
The moment he approached the pile though, the bowtruckles screamed,
running away and burrowing as far as they could get from Adrian.
"Mr. Selwyn!" Professor Grubbly-Plank abruptly stated, "Remove that,
that reptile from the area immediately!"
Adrian paused and looked at her as if they had insulted his family, but
obligingly picked up the snake and set it loose. The snake paused, but
obediently slithered away towards the castle.
The bowtruckles were still terrified. Adrian ignored them and reached
out, the creatures scrambled away from his open hand as if he was a
dementor. One stood tall and growled, jumping at him and biting his
finger.
Adrian hissed, the sound would have made Slytherin proud. Even Draco
would say that noise was perfect.
Adrian glared at the bowtruckle angrily, the bowtruckle froze.
"Well," The professor awkwardly stated, "I, ah, I heard you were good
with the creatures. That's unfortunate, partner up and use someone
else's."
Adrian scowled and simply went to sit on the grass on his own. They
were to draw a bowtruckle, but Adrian seemed to be doing fine on his
own.
When the bell echoed distantly over the grounds, Adrian rolled up his
accurate bowtruckle picture and marched off. Skylar Potter stared at him
unsure, heading towards the greenhouses. Hermione and Ron followed
quickly, sneaking glares at Malfoy. It didn't even resonate with Adrian
that it was rather odd that he wasn't fascinated by the bowtruckles in the
slightest.
"You're right," Adrian agreed contently, "These pipes are amazing."
Lutain continued on in the lead, having traveled through the pipe system
much more than he had.
"Yes! They go to every room!" Lutain enthused, "I watch whenever."
Adrian tilted his head curiously, chasing the white ghostly figure that he
could see in the pitch black darkness. "Are you saying you've snuck around
to watch me?"
"Yes, but not the potions. They smell bad." Lutain grimaced, sounding
disgusted as he banked left at a fork, his long body traversing the pipe.
Adrian was skeptic of the pipes at first, assuming that they would be
much too large to sufficiently sneak around. Slytherin must have been an
animagus himself, since the pipes magically altered sizes to allow Adrian
to slip through without too much difficulty,
"I can imagine. Where are we going?"
"Where do you want?" Lutain responded challengingly, allowing Adrian to
take the lead and go exploring.
Adrian reasoned that he was somewhere in between Nagini and Lutain.
Longer than Nagini, although considerably less stocky. He wasn't nearly
as flexible as her, or with her level of muscle control. Lutain was
disproportionately long, thin and fast. Adrian wasn't anything like that,
although he could blink which was already weird. From what he had seen
of his body, he had relatively large scales (or Lutain just had unusually
small ones), and was a dark black color, almost iridescent blue and green
in specific lighting. He didn't know what his head looked like, he hadn't
the opportunity to find a mirror.
They moved down another pipe, the walls expanding to accommodate
turning around. Adrian was getting the hang of slithering, although it
frequently left him with incredibly sore sides the next day.
Adrian explored, happily moving down and up and left and right through
the pipes, eyes able to pierce the darkness well. In the reflections of the
pipe, he had spotted the vaguest shape of a strange fringed crest, starting
between his eyes and back over the flat of his skull like the dorsal spine
on a fish. It was red on the membranes between, striking to look at when
extended but a hazard to bedsheets. Perhaps he was aquatic?
Adrian truly didn't care much for Quidditch. The only relief was that with
the new season, Adrian had enough time on his own to explore around
the pipes with Lutain.
It was a welcome stress relief, something he genuinely enjoyed doing.
Lutain enjoyed it also, especially since they hadn't ever the opportunity
to do something similar before. Lutain often challenged him to races- he
always won.
"We should go to the forest!" Lutain enthused excitedly, "Hunt!"
"Lutain, I'm not eating a rat." Adrian almost chuckled back, the sound
coming back in hitched hisses.
"No, you would get a squirrel." Lutain soothed, as if the rat was the
offending part, "a nice big squirrel."
Adrian laughed, banking left and descending down a slope rapidly to
avoid one open vent. He could hear voices inside, detention with Filch.
They continued at it, only retreating back to the dungeons when it was
nearing a proper time to retire. Not that Adrian had been staying up too
late anyways, he tended to oversleep.
(And skip classes. Madam Pomfrey must have talked to Snape because he
hadn't made a ruckus of it. He still had to do the assignments, after all.)
He was smart enough to not skip Umbridge, who was quickly becoming a
royal pain.
There was a decree where she would watch every class, evaluate it or
some sort of rubbish.
He hadn't thought much of it, so what if some woman was being critical
of how other teachers taught?
Well, it was worse than he had expected.
When he walked down the lawns towards the forest for Care class, he
found her and a hideously pink clipboard waiting for them beside
Professor Grubbly-Plank.
"You do not usually teach this class, is that correct?" Umbridge asked
Grubbly-Plank, her voice too sweet to be anything besides suspicious.
"Quite correct, I'm a substitute teacher standing in for Professor Hagrid."
Adrian spotted Malfoy grinning wildly and whispering to Crabbe and
Goyle, each decorated with the faintest pink marks of their burning
incident. Adrian had a bad feeling that they'd take advantage of the
Ministry worker here.
"Hmm," Professor Umbridge spoke, her voice dropping lowly although
she was still clearly able to be heard, "I wonder- the headmaster seems
strangely reluctant to give me any information on the matter- can you tell
me what is causing Professor Hagrid's very extended leave of absence?"
Malfoy's head snapped up in excitement. Adrian subtly walked forward,
closer to Malfoy and his group.
"'Fraid I can't," said Professor Grubbly-Plank breezily. "Don't know
anything more about it than you do. I got an owl from Dumbledore, that's
as much as I know. Well...shall I get started then?"
Umbridge started wandering among the students, questioning them on
magical creatures. Many of the Gryffindors were able to answer, at least
they had learned information in the prior years.
"Well, you seem to know what you're doing, at any rate," said Professor
Umbridge, making an obviously large check on her clipboard. Adrian
tensed as she neared Goyle, "Now, I hear there have been injuries in this
class?"
Goyle gave a stupid grin, Malfoy fastened to answer the question.
"A hippogriff!" Malfoy blurted excitedly. "It attacked me!"
Adrian smoothly interjected, "It actually injured me, and it only injured
me because we hadn't followed the directions. Like anyone would, in any
class." Adrian continued, looking at Umbridge.
Umbridge paused in her hasty scribbling. She slowly turned her head to
look at Adrian, her eyes widening and face shifting into one of disgust as
she took in his scars and disfigurement.
"Mr...Selwyn, is it?" She spoke, her voice lacking its usual charm. "I
believe that from what I see, you must attract injuries. Due to that,
obviously I must ignore your claim and focus on the fact that there was
an injury, not who was injured."
Pansy shrunk back, and Daphne mumbled something under her breath.
Adrian inhaled through his nose, and released it quietly, "Actually,
Professor, I tend to excel in this class."
Umbridge whirled around, not expecting the conversation to continue,
"Why- I'm sorry, I must have misheard you. Obviously your track record
suggests otherwise-"
Lutain dropped from Adrian's shoulders, his thick coils had been hidden
by Adrian's black robe. Now that he was moving, it was evident that the
humongous snake had been around him from the very start. Lutain was
long, likely nearing 6 feet now.
Umbridge's eyes bulged in surprise, she hadn't seen Lutain coiled around
him until just before.
"Ugh," She huffed, raising her robe as if Lutain touching them would ruin
it, "disgusting worm. Go on, banish it." She sniffed, looking at the
Professor who was very much surprised and reluctant.
"I am not a worm!" Lutain shrieked outraged, "How dare you!"
"Come back," Adrian spoke calmly, outstretching one arm. Lutain
hesitated, before obliging and returning.
Umbridge huffed, "Was that supposed to, to somehow display your innate
talent?"
Adrian blinked in surprise and slight shock- he had a familiar, of course
that meant he had above average skills with magical creatures.
"Uh, actually ma'am," the Professor interjected, sounding almost shy, "Mr.
Selwyn is our best student."
Umbridge smiled sweetly, something very very sharp.
"Well obviously," she spoke, as if the idea was obvious, "Since he has
creature blood, filthy half-breed, look at him!"
Adrian blinked in sheer bafflement.
Even Draco's breath hitched in confusion.
How the hell had she come to such an incorrect conclusion? Was she
bonkers? Whispers began to spread, low murmuring voices that were just
as confused as Adrian was. Nobody believed the rubbish.
On the Gryffindor side, Skylar bristled sharply. "Oi! Adrian's just good
with creatures! Just like how you're a shite teacher!"
"He's stupid," Lutain fondly stated, tightening ever so slightly.
"Another night's detention, I think." She smiled at Skylar as if she was a
shark, "Thank you very much, Professor Grubbly-Plank, I think that's all I
need here."
"Jolly good," said Professor Grubbly-Plank.
Professor Umbridge turned and set off back across the lawn towards the
castle. Without her noticing, the parchment she had written her
evaluation on singed and furled in on itself, entirely useless.
Adrian only knew that Hermione was looking for him, because he had
seen her peering around his usual haunts in the library.
Of course, he hadn't been there in forever, but she wouldn't have known
that.
Adrian watched through the smallest gap in the piping, a vent that
opened and looked down over the library. Lutain really had been right,
Adrian had been missing out for years.
He moved, preparing himself for the disorienting after-image that always
slammed into him after tasting the air. Unfortunately, it was much more
accurate than his sight, which seemed more superior than Lutain's.
Hermione was retracing her steps, exiting the library although she had
taken a direct path to where he had generally completed his essays. The
likely conclusion was that she was searching for him, outside of class.
Something personal then.
Slithering had become a lot easier, although when he was surprised or
startled he had a nasty habit of accidentally raising the frill by his neck.
Lutain made a game of it, trying to startle him as often as possible.
Apparently the red of the membrane was 'striking'. Adrian still hadn't
gotten around to seeing his reflection yet.
Hermione was easy to track by smell, her scent was obvious and pungent
once he truly focused on it. She had left the library, ascending upwards
towards the covered bridge.
She was looking for him, then. He did visit that bridge quite often.
Thankfully, the closer she got to the out of the way bridge, the less
people were around to talk. Adrian moved swiftly, using his tail to push
his upper body through the widened pipes.
Once he was positive that nobody was around, he anticlimactically nosed
his entire bulk through one hinged ventilation shaft and out into the
plain hallway. He hadn't a clue why the ventilation and the plumbing
were connected, but he wasn't going to question it.
One short moment later, he stumbled upwards from his kneeling position,
stretching his stiff shoulders and legs quickly. His sides ached, but they
always had since he took up his late night slithering.
He slipped past the warming charm, wincing as the first bits of snow
brushed by and chilled him. Hermione was staring off the edge of the
bridge with a noticeable frown tugging on her face.
"Looking for me?" Adrian asked smoothly, shivering viciously as he tried
to take a step out into the snow. Hermione spun, looking surprised and
caught off guard before she smiled eagerly.
"Yes! Adrian! Yes, I- I, I was wondering, well, Umbridge is quite foul."
Adrian blinked slowly. It hadn't been a question.
"We- I mean myself and Ron and Skylar, were thinking of teaching others
some proper Defense Against the Dark Arts. We, well, I was hoping you'd
make it?"
Adrian balked in surprise, "Excuse me?"
Hermione shifted anxiously, peering around for any eavesdroppers, "I, I
think you could help. I mean, I know you have plenty of spells and, and
you may have more experience than we do-"
"My experience," Adrian growled curtly, "got me this,"
He gestured abruptly at his face. Hermione's eyes drifted slightly, over to
his cheekbone where one mark was still painfully purple. Her eyes
snapped back, she still looked determined.
"I want you to come," She huffed, "You, you could be really helpful."
"I'm in Slytherin."
She scowled and looked downright murderous, "House relations can
bother someone else. Please? Please?"
Adrian really didn't want to. He had too much on his plate already, he
really did.
Adrian squinted at her suspicious, "Is this because of the couch?"
Hermione paused and for the briefest second, she looked just as confused
as he felt, "I...couch?"
So Skylar hadn't told his friends about Adrian and Sirius destroying
furniture. She didn't know about his...spell arsenal. He already knew that
his spell work was likely better than Skylars, given on Sirius' balking
expression the first time he truly let loose.
But if there was anyone learning Defense, let alone Skylar, his father
would want to know. He'd want to know what was going on in the Order,
even if it was just Skylar.
Adrian swallowed his pride and very painfully wheezed out, "Alright."
Hermione leapt upwards excitedly, grinning ear to ear, "Thank you! We're
meeting in Hogsmeade! The next one- in three days! At the Hog's Head!"
Hogsmeade, wonderful.
It was impossible to miss the group of people, trying very obviously to
remain inconspicuous.
Adrian rolled his eyes and tugged his wool cloak tighter around him, it
really was so terribly cold.
Adrian followed behind, lingering under one lamppost and a sad looking
wilted flower basket while the crowd shuffled past. He lingered a while
longer, until he saw the Weasley Twins and a boy named Lee Jordan
sneak through the streets carrying a large paper bag crammed with
Zonko's merchandise.
Adrian slunk up next to them, following into step. Lee Jordan looked
hesitant, but from encouraging nods from the twins Adrian walked
alongside. They continued with their mindless chatter, incorporating
Adrian into the group with a sloppy arm around his shoulders, and
tucking the shorter boy into their sides.
They entered the Hogs Head after the swarm, occupying space nearest
the door. Adrian peered around, recognizing a few faces here and there.
Angelina Johnson, Ernie Macmillan, Justin Finch-Fletchley, Hannah
Abbot, Cho Chang, and countless Gryffindor students.
Fred pushed through, grinning at the barman who froze in the act of
wiping out a glass with a filthy rag. "Hi, could we have...twenty-five
butterbeers, please?"
The barman glared at him for a moment, then, throwing down his rag
irritably as though he had been in the middle of something very
important, he started passing up dusty butterbeers.
"Cheers," Fred said with a smirk, passing out all of the bottles, "Cough up,
everyone, I haven't got enough gold for all of these…"
Skylar looked as if someone had told him Sirius was actually a
sensational pop singer. He looked baffled, disoriented and in awe of all of
the chattering people. He turned on Hermione, speaking something under
his breath rapidly.
"Cheers, mate." George offered, clicking a bottle against Adrian's with a
small smile. Lee Jordan awkwardly smiled at Adrian as well, they hadn't
met before.
Adrian kept near the back as everyone slowly began pulling of chairs,
settling in a half circle around the still baffled and uncomfortable Skylar.
"Er," said Hermione, her voice higher than usual, "Well, er, hi."
The group focused its attention on her instead, although people did
glance back at Skylar often.
"Well...erm, well, you know why you're here. Erm...well, Skylar here had
the idea- i mean- I had the idea- that it might be good if people who
wanted to study Defense Against the Dark Arts- and I mean, really study
it, you know, not the rubbish that Umbridge is doing with us, because
nobody could call that Defense Against the Dark Arts."
"Hear, hear," said one student, causing Hermione to brighten with
confidence.
"Well, I thought it would be good if we, well, took matters into our own
hands."
She paused, looking sideways at Skylar and went on, "And by that I mean
learning how to defend ourselves properly, not just theory but with real
spells."
"Why?" One student asked, a Ravenclaw who seemed skeptic.
"Well, I want to be properly trained in Defense because...because...well,
because Lord Voldemort's back."
The reaction was immediate and predictable. Cho Chang's friend shrieked
and spilled butterbeer. Terry Boot twitched, Padma Patil shuddered and
Neville gave a hoarse yelp that he managed to turn into a cough.
Everyone looked fixedly, even eagerly, at Skylar.
Skylar shuffled uncomfortably.
"If you want to join us, we need to decide how we're going to-"
"Where's the proof?" said one Hufflepuff aggressively. Adrian was
surprised at the malice.
"Well, Dumbledore believes it-" Hermione began.
"You mean, Dumbledore believes him." the boy snidely interjected.
"Who are you?" Ron asked rudely.
"Zacharias Smith," Adrian hummed as he recognized the boy now, he had
made a deal with the boy once, or gotten in a fight with him ages ago.
"And I think we've got the right to know exactly what makes him say
You-Know-Who's back."
"Look," Hermione intervened swiftly, "that's really not what this meeting
was supposed to be about-"
"It's okay, Hermione." Skylar quietly spoke, looking pale and somewhat
sad, "I saw him. But Dumbledore told the whole school what happened
last year, and if you didn't believe him, you don't believe me, and I'm not
wasting an afternoon trying to convince anyone."
"All Dumbledore told us last year was that Cedric Diggory got killed by
You-Know-Who. He didn't give us details, he didn't tell us exactly how
Diggory got murdered, and I think we'd all like to know-"
"If you've come to hear exactly what it looks like when Voldemort
murders someone, I can't help you."
Skylar's eyes were locked on the boy, flashing with restrained anger, "I
don't want to talk about Cedric Diggory, all right? So if that's what you're
here for, you might as well clear out."
Adrian almost felt like applauding. Just to break the tense atmosphere;
even the barman was listening.
"So," Hermione began, her voice record high pitch, "so, like I was
saying...if you want to learn some Defense, then we need to work out
how we're going to do it. How we're going to meet, and where we're
going to-"
"Is it true, that you can produce a Patronus?" A girl asked, interrupting
and looking at Skylar mystified.
There was a murmur of interest around the group at this.
"Yeah," Skylar spoke, his voice cautious and his body language defensive.
"A corporeal Patronus?" She asked, tilting her head interested.
"Yes, an antelope."
"Blimey, Sky!" Lee blurted, looking deeply impressed, "I never knew that!"
"Mum told Ron not to spread it around," Fred grinned at Skylar, "Said you
got enough attention as it is."
"And in our first year," Neville spoke, addressing the group at large, "he
saved that Sorcerer's stone, from You-Know-Who!"
Hannah Abbott's eyes were as round as galleons.
"And that's not to mention, all the tasks he had to get through in the
Triwizard Tournament last year- getting past dragons and merpeople and
acromantulas and things…" Cho Chang spoke softly, she was smiling.
There was a murmur of impressed agreement through the group.
Skylar looked like he wasn't happy with himself.
"Look," he sighed, "I...I don't want to sound like I'm trying to be modest
or anything, but...I've had a lot of help with that stuff."
"Not with the dragon, that was wicked."
"No no, look. The thing is, is that it wasn't just me." Skylar swallowed and
looked unsure, "I- I've always had help. The Sorcerer's stone, Ron and
Hermione helped me. The Patronus, Professor Lupin helped me for
months. The dragon, bloody hell, the thing would have roasted me if
Adrian hadn't-"
"Adrian?" Zacharias asked suddenly, looking defensive and angry,
"Selwyn? The Potion's dealer?"
Adrian smiled a grin that was more vicious than friendly, "Hi."
Zacharias spun around, as well as a few other students. One Hufflepuff
clutched her heart as if it would leap out from her chest. Zacharias' eyes
widened in surprise before they narrowed in anger. "You! You bloody
snake!"
Adrian lifted his hand and gave a little wave, wiggling his fingers just
because he knew it annoyed others. Zacharias and he had gotten in a fight
years ago. Adrian hadn't forgotten.
"Stop!" Hermione snapped angrily, "Look, Adrian has been a friend and
helpful since I met him! He helped stop You-Know-Who going for the
stone, he helped search for Slytherin's Monster, he helped Skylar with all
of the tasks!"
"He can cast a Patronus too," Luna spoke quietly, a whisper that everyone
heard, "He's fought Death Eaters."
Ernie MacMillan snorted, as if the idea was preposterous. Adrian blinked
slowly and smiled once more, still as sharp as before, "I can cast a
Patronus, apparate, and have a familiar. Still don't want my help?"
There was a pause before Fred whined angrily, "Why didn't you tell us
you could apparate!"
"You could have helped us!" George pouted.
Adrian's cheek twitched, "Bellatrix taught me. I splinched my arm off,
and she thought it was funny."
There was an uncomfortable pause as students who hadn't known about
Adrian's relation slowly paled in horror. A few took a stumbling step
back.
"I-I think everyone should write their name down, just so we know who
was here. But, but I also think that we all ought to agree not to shout
about what we're doing. So if you sign, you're agreeing not to tell
Umbridge- or anyone else- what we're up to." Hermione shakily recovered
the group, directing attention back to the matter at hand.
Adrian frowned slightly, that wasn't secure, "Give it to me. I'll bind it."
"Like hell you will." Macmillan growled angrily.
Adrian's face twitched again, he felt an overwhelming desire to curse the
prefect.
"It's a good idea, and Adrian knows more binding spells than I do!"
Hermione blurted, swallowing quickly, "I- what were you thinking?"
Adrian blinked, his temper fading quickly, "Ah, inability to speak about
the list or who is on it. It would just...fade off."
Hermione paused, worrying her tongue, "A notice-me-not in language?"
Adrian gave a small nod, he had dealt enough of those back in his
dealing days.
Nobody raised objections as Adrian spelled the paper quietly, pointedly
signing his name and passing it on. There were a few hesitant, but
ultimately everyone there did sign.
In groups of two and threes, the rest of the group took their leave too.
Luna smiled, and once more Adrian was left wondering how she knew
about his Patronus. Had he mentioned it to her in passing? Had Skylar
interacted with her outside of the train and mentioned it to her?
"See you around, Adrian?" Hermione asked hopefully. Adrian only gave a
brisk nod, tugging the hood of his cloak up and slipping out.
On the far side of Hogsmeade, Daphne Greengrass' eyebrows furrowed in
confusion as she entered the completely abandoned creature shop. A fine
layer of dust coated all surfaces, cages were left empty and barren.
"Hello?" She asked quietly, peering into the empty back room and into
the storage room, bare except a pile of feathers.
"Dear?" Someone asked, looking in from the front window, "Oh hello! I'm
so terribly sorry, I forgot to lock up! I was just in the other day, taking
out the last of the documents."
Daphne blinked, "I- there was a man? Who ran the store?"
The woman paused, then looked at her sadly, "Yes, so terrible what
happened. Did you know him well?
Daphne froze, then forced on a wide eyed innocent expression,
"Something happened?"
"Oh you poor dear," the woman fretted, "Yes, got attacked by some pesky
robber. Tried some sort of memory charm, did some real damage. Poor
man doesn't even remember how to eat on his own, such a horrid thing."
Daphne nodded along, feeling frazzled and confused. When had that
happened? Wouldn't it have hit the papers? It hadn't been that long,
Astoria really did love her pet. She was hoping to get another.
It felt like just last year she had been inside with Adrian-
Her breath hitched and then she frowned.
Adrian...Adrian didn't know any memory charms, did he?
No, no it was one thing to presume that Adrian would attack a
defenseless man, especially one that had interacted so positively with
Adrian. There wasn't any reason, or rationale behind assuming Adrian
somehow was involved.
Although….
"Do you know what happened?" Daphne asked, pitching her voice slightly
higher, as if anxious, "did they ever catch the thief?"
The woman frowned, scuttling worriedly to try and reassure Daphne,
"Oh! Oh I wouldn't worry about that! The thief ran off after what
happened! Probably scared himself something terrible! Nothing was
stolen!"
Something in Daphne's stomach sunk even deeper.
"Ah, thank you anyways." Daphne smiled weakly, and for once, it wasn't
fake.
There was no reason to think Adrian was involved. There was no reason
to think Adrian was involved.
(Being a brat was one thing, but actively attacking someone was
something entirely different.)
Daphne was going to keep her distance. Adrian Selwyn suddenly seemed
a lot more dangerous than she had ever assumed. She knew if she kept
pressing, someone would end up terribly injured.
'I'm confused. I don't know what's going on, I feel antsy and on edge. Like I
need to shed my skin, like It doesn't fit me right anymore. But instead of
growing larger, I feel like I'm shriveling inwards.'
Adrian hadn't seen Luna in a while, not that he had been avoiding her
outright.
He had been busy, distracted by adventuring through the castle and
practicing his animagus transformation. It was rocky, stilted and
uncomfortable in a way he knew was horrifying to watch. The way his
eyes remained too large before they audibly popped and shrunk to size.
The way his skin melted off before growing the thick scales. It was
disgusting, and in a strange way intriguing. He'd been distracted with it.
He had seen Luna at the Hog's Head, in the crowd of people who listened
to Skylar Potter's sermon. Besides that, he hadn't interacted with her
much.
He still wondered how she knew he could cast the patronus, not to
mention her unique way of knowing things she shouldn't. He assumed
she had been out in the forest, tending to her thestrals and unicorns or
other strange beasts she could find, not ignoring him but never running
into him.
She would have liked that Grifdor he gave Nagini.
Winter started coming, and with that the cold was even more unbearable.
Adrian invested in enhancing his clothing with warming charms, much to
Lutain's delight. Once properly obtaining an Animagus transformation,
traits of the animal form often leaked through to the human form. It
seemed logical that Adrian would be more sensitive to the cold.
With that, Adrian shuffled down the path outside, heavily wrapped in
warm clothing to fend off the chill. It was Tuesday, and Care for Magical
Creatures had been moved with the swift return of Hagrid.
Adrian hadn't seen the man since he returned. He was startled outright
when he saw the professor, wrapped in thick blankets and his face
mottled sickeningly with bruises. Cuts along his cheek looked aggravated,
weeping slowly and adding to his ominous picture.
Hagrid didn't notice Adrian, who stuck to the back. Hagrid hoisted what
appeared to be half a dead cow over his shoulder, its back legs flopped
limply.
"We're workin' in here today!" Hagrid called to the approaching students,
jerking his head towards the dark trees behind him, "Bit more sheltered!
Anyway, they prefer the dark…"
Adrian cocked his head curiously, were they seeing Acromantulas?
Adalonda had said they had cleared out.
"What prefers the dark?" Malfoy asked sharply to Crabbe and Goyle, a
trace of panic in his voice. "What did he say prefers the dark- did you
hear?"
Adrian smiled slightly, and brushed past Malfoy solidly enough to jolt the
other boy.
"Ready?" Hagrid asked happily, looking excited, "Right, well, I've bin
savin' a trip inter the forest fer yer fifth year. Thought we'd go an' see
these creatures in their natural habitat. Now, what we're studyin' today is
pretty rare, I reckon I'm the on'y person in Britain who's managed ter
train 'em, not ter mention they're one 'er the oldes' 'erds…"
"And you're sure they're trained, are you?" said Malfoy, the panic in his
voice even more pronounced now.
Adrian's mouth twitched, "Don't worry, Draco. I'm sure it won't bite."
Hagrid visibly lightened upon seeing Adrian, "Adrian! Nice ter see ya!
They missed yer, tha' one female kep' lookin' fer ya!"
Adrian blinked before he realized what they were seeing. Draco and a few
other Slytherin's looked collectively horrified that Adrian apparently was
friendly with the monsters. Right as they should, Daphne in particular
looked rather uneasy.
"Are you sure they're trained?" Malfoy hissed, sliding up to Adrian.
"Sure, they only attack if we tell them to." Adrian calmly added, trying
his hardest not to smile as Draco instantly dropped back and out of his
sight. He obviously remembered the train.
They walked for about ten minutes until they reached a place where the
trees stood so closely together that it was as dark as twilight and there
was no snow on the ground at all. Adrian walked over from the group,
depositing his bag on one stump he commonly used as a chair. Luna had
smoothed off the bark, making it a nice bench.
Hagrid dropped the cow, it bounced off the ground sickly.
"Gather roun', gather roun'," Hagrid encouraged, "Now, they'll be
attracted by the smell o' the meat but I'm goin' ter give 'em a call
anyway…"
Hagrid shook his shaggy hair out of his face and gave an odd, shrieking
cry that echoed through the dark trees like the call of some monstrous
bird. Nobody laughed; most of them looked too scared to make a sound.
Hagrid gave the cry again. A minute passed in which the class continued
to peer nervously over their shoulders and around trees for a first glimpse
of whatever it was that was coming.
Skylar gasped loudly, nudging Ron and looking between two trees. A pair
of blank, white, shining eyes were growing larger through the gloom and
a moment later the dragonish face, neck, and then skeletal body of a
great, black, winged horse emerged from the darkness. It looked around
at the class for a few seconds, swishing its long black tail, then bowed its
head and began to tear flesh from the dead cow with its pointed fangs.
Ron was still staring around the trees and after a few seconds he
whispered, "Why doesn't Hagrid call again?"
Most of the class were wearing expressions as confused and nervously
expectant as Ron's and were still gazing everywhere but at the horse
standing feet from then.
Theo stared at the horse with an expression of great distaste, and Neville
was watching the swishing progress of the long black tail.
"Oh, an' here comes another one!" said Hagrid proudly, as a second black
horse appeared from the trees, folded its leathery wings closer to its body
and dipped its head to gorge on the meat.
"Excuse me," said Malfoy in a sneering voice, "but what exactly are we
supposed to be seeing?"
Adrian smiled amused as Hagrid rolled his eyes and pointed to the cow
carcass. The whole class stared, several people gasped as bits of flesh
stripped themselves away from the bones and vanished into the air.
"What's doing it?" Parvarti, a Gryffindor, demanded in a terrified voice.
"Adrian?" Hagrid asked, beaming at his pride student. Adrian hopped up
from his bench, looking very uninterested as the two thestrals paid him
no mind.
"Thestrals." He sighed, "Superstitiously thought of as bad luck, but they're
not. Only those who have seen someone die can see them."
"Here's another couple, look-" Hagrid hushed, pointing between two trees.
One thestral emerged, enormous and larger than the two already there by
almost double. It's thin ears brushed against a low hanging branch,
causing it to sway. Near its flank a new one, a foal if that was the term,
stumbled along. All knobbly knees and disproportionate head to its body.
Adrian heard something whisper, and instinctively his hand flashed to his
neck. He wasn't wearing the locket that day- so what was whispering…
"Hem, hem,"
Professor Umbridge had arrived. She was standing a few feet away from
Skylar, wearing a green hat and cloak, her clipboard at the ready.
Hagrid, who had never heard Umbridge's fake cough before, was gazing
in some concern at the foal, evidently under the impression it had made
the sound.
"Hem, hem,"
"Oh hello!" Hagrid smiled, having located the noise.
Adrian ignored it, and instead tilted his head curiously at the largest
thestral, and clearly the oldest. He hadn't ever seen it before, which was
surprising since he and Luna fed them quite regularly.
He stepped towards it, ignoring Pansy's shriek of fear as he neared
something that was bending the tree's branches away.
The thestral exhaled, its reptilian nostrils flaring at the rush of air.
"Yeah, I was gonna tell yeh how come we got a herd. Yeah, so, we started
off with a male an' five females. This one," Hagrid patted the first thestral
to emerge, "name o' Tenebrus, he's my special favorite, firs' one born here
in the forest-"
"Are you aware," Umbridge said loudly, interrupting him, "that the
Ministry of Magic has classified thestrals as 'dangerous'?"
The largest thestral, the newcomer, tilted its head at Umbridge, as if it
understood. It didn't seem impressed.
"Thestrals aren' dangerous! All righ, they might take a bite outta you if
yeh really annoy them-"
"Shows...signs...of...pleasure...at...idea...of...violence…" muttered
Umbridge, scribbling on her clipboard again.
The newest thestral snorted as if her words were just as outrageous. The
younger one, a foal, chirped loudly like a vulture chick.
Ron blinked, peering around confused.
'...Hagrid protects…' Adrian heard, something hoarse and quiet, drifting on
the wind through the trees.
"No- come on!" said Hagrid, looking a little anxious, "Thestrals jus' got a
bad reputation because o' the death thing- people used ter think they
were bad omens, didn' they? Jus' didn' understand, did they?"
Umbridge did not answer, only kept scribbling with the condescending
smile on her face.
"Do you find," said Professor Umbridge in a ringing voice to Pansy
Parkinson, "that you are able to understand Professor Hagrid when he
talks?"
Adrian slowly turned, searching for her. It was almost as if Pansy knew
better than to say anything bad, since Adrian simply adored the class.
Her mouth opened, and she struggled to say anything. Umbridge frowned
and looked disappointed.
'...vile witch…'
"Good stuff abou' thestrals. Well, once they're tamed, like this lot, yeh'll
never be lost again. Mazin' sense o' direction, jus' tell 'em where yeh want
ter go an' they'll take yeh. Some peopl' say yer can 'ear 'em speak, but onl'
if yer related."
Hermione startled in alarm, "Excuse me, Professor. How can you be
related to a Thestral?"
'Silly witch…' The largest thestral near Adrian spoke, it's breaths deep and
calm, 'My children…'
Hagrid looked excited, "Well, tha' rumors say if a thestral think' yer died
too young, they'll take yer breath and raise it."
Umbridge frowned, "Excuse me, but any animal or mindless beast that
has the capability of killing a child is instantly deemed a category five-"
"No no! Yer misunderstan'-"
Adrian peered at the thestral behind him, even looking up it towered
above, ancient and weathered. It arched its head, looking down at him
curiously, "Hello, child."
Adrian flinched in surprise, looking at the thestral in awe.
Ron looked sick, and shaken as he peered around the clearing. The
smallest thestral chirped again, pawing at the cow corpse curiously and
struggling to pull off a tough tendon from the leg.
Umbridge finalized something and left, bounding across the clearing
startlingly close to one thestral. It nipped at her head with its fanged
mouth, stealing her hat and walking between the trees out of sight. A few
Gryffindors giggled, even though they couldn't see them.
"I'm surprised so many people could see them," Ron spoke quietly, his
voice heard simply with how quiet everyone was, "Four in one class-:
"Yeah, Weasley, we were just wondering," said a malicious Draco, "D'you
reckon if you saw someone snuff it you'd be able to see the Quaffle
better?"
The large thestral huffed, as if displeased. Ron flushed and the golden
trio instantly started hissing insults.
"I see yer made a friend." Hagrid beamed, looking at the large thestral
with obvious awe in his eye, "She' a real 'beaut. Rare, 'ard to find 'er.
Rear's the 'oungings."
The thestral stretched its wings, the leathery folds were marked with scar
tissue, silvery in the faint light.
"What's her name?" Adrian asked, swallowing and reaching out to gently
stroke the thin emaciated side.
"Oh! Well I jus' call 'er Trymon, yer know, tha fairy princess?"
"Mylcades." It hissed, the word only and ancient yet very distinctly
audible.
"Nice to meet you," Adrian swallowed, feeling the ridges in its side, "I'm
Adrian."
The thestral tossed its tail, swishing over the ground and disrupting fallen
leaves, "No. I came for you. You did not die."
Adrian flinched back, stepping back and away from the thestral.
Ron was still peering around, pale and confused. He was still bickering
with Malfoy, but something was bothering him.
The thestral stepped forward, the giant hoof crunching leaves as it butted
its reptilian snout into Adrian's chest firmly, "You brought me breath. I
came for her, and she lives."
"I...I don't…" Adrian shook his head, gently pushing the thestral away,
"Hagrid, what...how are thestrals born?"
Hagrid looked surprised, although still excited to talk, "Oh! Well, jus' like
any normal an'mal, yer get two togeth'r an' yer get a foal-"
"Wrong," Mylcades whispered. Adrian wanted it as far away from him as
he could get.
"- but they're rumors tha' thestrals take th' las' breath o' dyin children',
and teach 'em t' fly. Bad reputation in ma' 'pinion, but only tha' bad
deaths, the wrong deaths they take."
Mylcades blinked slowly disconcertingly as pale white eyes stared at him
hauntedly.
"Yer know, the ah," Hagrid shuffled, looking somberly at the youngest
thestral, playing with the cattle's hoof, "the one's who die too young, die
badly or ah, suff'r t' much."
The youngest thestral flapped its wings, smacking uncoordinatedly into
the male Hagrid liked. It snuffed, knocking its muzzle into the foal
affectionately.
Ron flinched, and rubbed at his ears as if they were plugged.
Adrian froze.
"She's mine," the thestral hummed quietly, voice ominous in the gloom
"You will be too."
Adrian shook his head, he felt stinging bile burn his tongue, "No, no- I-
I'm not-"
"Adrian?" Hagrid asked concerned, his eyebrows pinching together
worriedly.
"You smell like rot."
Adrian shook his head viciously.
"You're dying."
Adrian snatched his bag and ignored Hagrid's worried shouts, he bolted.
He had to get away from that monster.
December arrived, bringing with it more snow and a positive avalanche
of homework for the fifth years. Adrian leapt on it, struggling to
complete the lengthy essays and homework assignments to remain under
the radar the best he could.
He had received an Owl from Remus just days before, a formal invitation
to spend the holidays with him. Adrian sent Hedwig back, explaining
how he was intending to stay at the castle over the Holidays. He wasn't
sure if Remus would accept that, but it was a try.
In reality, he was already finalizing things and arranging his room,
storing away the more illegal or questionable possessions in harder to
find places. It was almost guaranteed that he would have his room
searched by the worried staff. He was already working on shrinking his
possessions, as well as constructing a rough harness to strap onto Lutain
so the two of them could escape the castle through Adalonda's
passageways. Once free of the wards, a simple apparation over to Rowle's
manor and he was home for the holidays.
Until then, all Adrian had left to do was to attend the first meeting for
Skylar's little tutoring session. Well, not the first, but he hadn't bothered
showing up if it was over basic spells. A waste of his time. Hermione had
very subtly slipped to him the date, as well as a spelled galleon that was
so ironically similar to the Dark Mark Adrian was in stitches laughing.
He arrived after the main swarm of people had arrived. The large room
was decorated by an assortment of christmas decorations, lanterns and
tinsel and even wreaths decorated the walls, a large window had
appeared showing a relaxing heavy snowfall.
Lutain had come along as well, and was investigating a bronze spiral
french horn in fascination. Adrian couldn't tell if it was due to the shape,
or how he could see a reflection.
"Okay!" Skylar shouted on the far side of the room, "I thought this
evening we should just go over the things we've done so far, because it's
the last meeting before the holidays and there's no point in starting
anything new right before a three-week break-"
"We're not doing anything new?" said Zacharias Smith, in a disgruntled
whisper loud enough to carry through the room, "If I'd known that, I
wouldn't have come…"
"We're all really sorry Sky didn't tell you then," said Fred loudly.
Several people sniggered. Even Lutain looked amused from where he was
methodically climbing up a Christmas tree.
"We can practice in pairs," said Skylar, "We'll start with the Impediment
Jinx, just for ten minutes, then we can get out the cushions and try
Stunning again."
It all felt so boringly simple for Adrian, he didn't bother pairing up with
anyone. He saw Hermione frown, and make way as if to comment, but
she stopped when Ron said something to halt her.
After the class had moved on to stunning (which was almost as cringe
worthy as before), Adrian started to get bored.
If this was how normal teaching sessions went, it was no wonder
everyone was so ruddy bad at spells.
"Are you going to join?" Lutain asked curiously, watching as Adrian pulled
out his wand instead of lounging near Lutain and the Christmas tree.
"May as well," Adrian sighed, confident nobody would hear him over the
shouting.
He pointed his wand upwards, aiming towards the strings of tinsel that
hung from the ceiling, "avis."
Songbirds burst from his wand, chirping happily and excitedly as they
flitted around the room. Already Adrian felt his blood thrumming,
pushing excitedly through his body at the sound of cardinals.
The last time he had trained using birds- well, Bellatrix found him
shaking in a training room covered in gore and feathers.
He was half tempted to just...cast the spell. Rumpervis, he remembered
the incantation easily. He also remembered how blessedly wonderful he
felt when he just...let go.
His hand clenched around his wand, looking at a single unsuspecting
cardinal.
He could cast it once. Just once.
"Rum-"
"Master?" Lutain asked warily, "They are watching you."
Adrian bit his tongue, holding his wand shakily at the bird.
He couldn't. Not now.
"Stupefy." He muttered grouchily, sending out the stunner sharply. The
spell was fast, much faster than it had been last year. It knocked into the
bird, not only stunning it but throwing it across the room towards the
other side. If the spell hadn't rendered it unconscious, hitting the far wall
certainly did.
The other birds chirped and sang in alarm, starting to fly around frazzled
in the room. Lutain watched energetically, climbing up to the top of his
tree, coiling around a pixie tree topper as he struck out at the birds,
biting dry and for his own amusement.
Adrian felt a small smile twitched on his mouth as he aimed and struck
down two cardinals in quick succession, tracking a goldfinch with careful
movements. It looked a bit like a snitch really.
"Bloody hell, mate!" Fred laughed, breaking away from George to watch
Adrian entertained, "Sure you aren't a seeker?"
Adrian balked, "I hate flying."
Adrian noticed then, that Skylar had been watching him quite
attentively.
The birds were all flapping, hiding out on the rafters out of sight and out
of aim. Even with a different spell, Adrian couldn't hit them.
At the end of the hour, Skylar called everyone to a halt.
"You're all getting really good, when we get back from the holidays, we
can start doing some of the big stuff- maybe even Patronuses."
There was a murmur of excitement through the room. Adrian rolled his
eyes and stretched, watching the birds above in case one swept down.
The room began to clear in the usual twos and threes; most people
wished Skylar a polite Happy Christmas as they went. Ron and Hermione
began stacking cushions away neatly, practicing levitation charms as they
went.
Luna looked at Adrian, staring at him with an expression that was so
incredibly sad.
"What did you do to her?" Hermione asked sourly, obviously seeing how
heartbroken and upset Luna was.
Adrian shrugged. He hadn't done anything.
"You head out, I'll wait behind." Skylar smiled at Hermione and Ron.
They left, soon only Adrian and Skylar remained.
"So," Skylar awkwardly started, clambering onto some cushions to sit
down, evidently Adrian was in for a conversation, "I saw you with those
birds."
Adrian shrugged, reaching to Lutain and helping him climb off of his
Christmas perch.
"That was really impressive... like," Skylar struggled, "even my dad isn't
that good at some spells. I was worried you'd start slashing them, I mean
I don't know what you have arranged, er, if you need something to be
arranged. I mean, I could try to find a...a desk or-"
Adrian snapped his head around, eyes narrowed and face carefully flat,
"What would your precious father say, knowing you're encouraging dark
magic."
Skylar gaped, gasping like a fish before he weakly laughed and rubbed
the back of his neck, "Yeah, I guess that does sound bad. I er- I just
want...er…"
Adrian paused, and sighed, "What is it, Potter?"
Skylar chewed on his lip, "I just...I'm sorry."
Adrian blinked in surprise.
"I mean, I just…" Skylar gave a long exhale, "I've just been thinking a lot.
Since...since last year. And I just...I'm sorry. I know, that you've had a
tough time growing up and…" Skylar's voice became quiet, almost
fragile, "I couldn't imagine it."
Adrian stilled, his heart sounded heavy in his ears. The snowfall outside
was heavier, now swirling and looking so bitterly cold, "What's brought
this on?"
Skylar looked out the window as well, into the swirling white, "I think it
was the thestrals. Well, bloody hell it's been a lot of things. Like, when
you...when you came back from Mungos and attacked me- and...and
when you were with Sirius and you were laughing and…" Skylar licked
his lips, as if his mouth were dry.
"The thestrals were it though. Like, I saw them and i'll be honest they
freak me out. It's just, you knew them and I remember Hagrid saying that
you helped feed them for years and I just..." Skylar's jaw flexed, twitching
as he refused to look away from the window, "Cedric really...I saw Cedric
die. I saw him die, and you saw someone die, right in front of you, years
ago."
Adrian flinched.
He wasn't going to think about it.
He wasn't.
David kept bleeding and bleeding. The bloodstain bloomed and spread larger
and wider until it touched grass, and then it kept spreading. He was gasping,
short shallow breaths
How was he bleeding so much? How could someone bleed so much?
David stopped moving.
Then he stopped breathing.
"I was young," Adrian swallowed, his throat felt dry, "I barely remember
it."
Skylar gave a single bark of laughter, bitter and sharp, "You don't- you
don't just...just forget about it."
"Yes you do." Adrian blurted, not even hearing the slightly pained whine
in his voice.
Skylar looked haunted, "I...I remember his eyes. They...Merlin, his eyes."
Adrian didn't think, he moved. He slashed his wand through the air, speaking
the curse but he couldn't hear it.
Blood splashed over his face, soaking through his cloak and touching his neck,
hot and wet.
The man was gurgling, one hand attempting feebly to hold his chest together,
to stop his entrails and viscera from spilling out on the grass.
His eyes were bulging, gasping something wetly that sounded faintly like a
plea.
Nagini moved, her teeth biting and tearing his throat to shreds as if it was wet
newspaper.
His eyes were bulging and bleeding, broken vessels from the fear, the panic.
He didn't plea anymore.
"I don't think I'll ever forget it," Skylar admitted quietly, "What Cedric
looked like. Laying there, on the grass. He, he was just...alive, and then…
and then he wasn't."
"It wasn't your fault." Adrian spoke, his voice a hoarse whisper.
Adrian's hands were twitching, his breaths through his mouth felt cold,
foreign. He felt like he was watching his body from the outside, he was a
spectator.
He couldn't stop shaking.
Skylar laughed, something pitiful and angry and something Adrian heard
coming from his own mouth a hundred times, "I was useless. I should
have just done something!"
"You didn't kill him." Adrian repeated monotone.
"I let him die!"
"No- you...you didn't-" Adrian struggled, voice cracking and warbling.
He, Cedric's bright red ha- no, no brown hair-
'Let her starve to death.'
Adrian crumbled, he didn't even feel the impact of his knees on the floor.
"Adrian?" Skylar asked in alarm, stumbling upwards as he saw the other
boy collapse.
Adrian wasn't seeing, he was shaking and his breathing was too hoarse
and too quick. His hands were spasming, clenching in his hair and
tugging backwards painfully.
"Adrian- you…" Skylar stumbled, nearly tripping and he hurried off the
cushions, "Hey are you oka-"
Skylar stopped talking abruptly the moment he saw the tears, rapidly
welling and falling out of Adrian's eyes as the other boy curled up even
smaller and tighter, hiding his face in his legs.
She was a person. She was a person with a life. Not an abstract idea, or a
thing. A person, he had- she was a person.
The thestral- the thestral.
"Hey," Skylar whispered, lowering to the ground guiltily. He shuffled
slowly over the ground, cautious as he reached out, "Hey, are you okay?"
Adrian wasn't responding, too lost in whatever sort of fit this was.
The snake was nearby, watching him carefully although it didn't make
any moves to get closer. Skylar took that as permission.
"Adrian," Skylar tried again, reaching out with a shaking hand to gently
try and remove the other boy's fists from his hair, "That- that doesn't look
comfortable. Come on, l- lets go."
He stumbled, and flinched when Adrian jerked away at the touch, curling
in even further.
The snake was hissing something, a constant series of hissing that was
disconcerting. Skylar watched it warily, as he very slowly wrapped his
arms around the other boy.
Adrian froze, tensing in his arms as if he was under attack.
"Relax," Skylar spoke, his voice cracking halfway through, "Breathe with
me, is that okay? I, ah, I could, uh…" Skylar floundered struggling to
figure out what to do.
Adrian twisted and with almost vicious force he slammed his face into
Skylar's chest, out of sight. His entire body was shaking, trembling as if
he was terrified.
Skylar awkwardly used one hand to gently pry the slightly blueish hair
out from the pale fingers, tucking his hands down somewhere less
precarious. He took over, smoothing the ruffled messy strands with one
hand.
"My mum used to do this when I was younger," Skylar spoke, his chest
vibrating with his words, "When I was upset. I- I had a brother, I thought
Moony told you. He ah, well…" Skylar tapered off slowly clearing his
throat harshly, "she used to do this. Do you mind being hugged? Is this
okay?"
Adrian mumbled something, barely understandable through the slur,
"Havn't 'ver b'n hugg'd."
Skylar blinked in alarm, "O-Oh, well, ah, well, good thing I'm not going
anywhere."
Adrian shook more, as if just reassuring him was something horrifying to
hear.
Sweet Merlin, what the hell had Lestrange done to this kid.
"I'm not going anywhere," Skylar stated, trying to ignore how his throat
felt so clogged, "actually, I got a letter from Remus about how excited he
is to see you. He makes really good hot chocolate, it's amazing. And don't
tell him I said this, but he does this thing where he'll snuggle you and fall
asleep on top of you. And you can't get up because he just wants to make
sure nobody can get to his cub."
Skylar gave a little laugh, only slightly sniffly. Adrian was vibrating like a
twig in a harsh gale, "He really loves you, he talks about you all the time.
Half of the letters I get from him are questions about how to make you
comfortable, hell I think we talk about you more than anything else!"
"He d'snt." Adrian mumbled again, it sounded wet and horrible.
"He does." Skylar scrambled to assure, feeling more and more horrified by
the second, "Remus loves you-"
And Adrian seemed to fall apart. If Skylar thought before was a mess, oh
no. Adrian lost the ability to even sit upright, nearly collapsing into the
other stockier boy. His harsh breathing shifted into something shrieking,
bawling and hoarse cries that sounded more infantile than anything his
age. Skylar's robe was being twisted through clenched spasming hands,
white knuckles that pounded hard enough to bruise. Skylar grunted
wordlessly, accepting the blows without question.
'What did Lestrange do to you?' Skylar thought in horror, holding onto
Adrian who tried to shrink away and burrow further at the same time.
Adrian was repeating something over and over, a mantra that was
sounding more and more unhinged the louder it got, until he was
screaming muffled into Skylar's robe.
He was apologizing. He was apologizing over and over and-
Skylar felt like something was tearing inside him.
"It's okay, it's not your fault." Skylar swallowed down the lump, "Adrian
it's not your fault! It's not your fault!"
"I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry," Adrian repeated, not even hearing
Skylar.
"Adrian!" Skylar shouted, and without really knowing what else to do, he
slapped him.
Fire.
The room caught on fire, burning hot and bright and so much worse than
the train. The cushions Skylar had been sitting on just moments before
bubbled, hissing and melting into greenish puddles. The Christmas trees
had crumbled, crackling loudly in seconds as the fire had somehow
turned blue.
The glass to outside was cracking, hair thin fractures spreading faster
than broken ice. In seconds, Skylar was sweating.
He was going to- he was going to burn alive.
"Adrian!" Skylar shouted, shaking the boy who was still repeating a
mantra as if entirely out of it, "Adrian! Adrian it's not your fault, it's not
your fault!"
The fire died down instantly, although the room was still suffocatingly
hot. Adrian was shaking, quiet and fragile as a leaf although thankfully
out of whatever trance that was.
"It's not your fault." Skylar repeated, throat sore from the hot air and his
shouting, "I don't know what happened, but it wasn't your fault."
Adrian shook his head, "I-" He whispered, voice distorted from distress, "I
left her there to die. I left her, and she died."
"It- I'm sure it wasn't your fault." Skylar argued. Adrian laughed,
something fringing on insane and hysteria, "She was begging me and I left
her there to starve!"
'I killed her, I killed her,' Adrian thought to himself, bordering on broken
sobs, 'I killed a person, I killed a little girl.'
Adrian knew, that he could never go back.
The snake was silent. The room was silent.
Skylar didn't know what to say.
And Adrian collapsed, more sane and more lucid than before, but crying
as if the entire world had fallen apart around him.
Tomorrow morning, when the sun rose, Adrian had vanished from the
Hogwarts grounds.
Hedwig carried a letter, explaining vaguely to Remus how he had, simply
put, snuck out to have Christmas on his own.
Adrian wasn't feeling any better as he traveled down to the Chamber,
cramming his illegal or more questionable objects in a corner. Wormtail
was nowhere to be seen, neither was Adalonda.
"Ready to go?" Lutain asked excitedly, although slightly timid. Adrian
snappishly pulled out the shrunken bag, sliding his wand into a crude
harness and strapped it onto Lutain's body. It only had to hold until they
were beyond the wards.
He shifted, moving more fluidly than before as his scales roughly scraped
over the floor. He was mindful to keep his mitre down, lest it get stuck in
the piping.
They escaped the warding, traveling through a pipe that extended nearly
all the way to Hogsmeade. It opened into an underground cavern, slowly
sloping up towards the surface in the disguise of a cleverly hidden cave.
Adrian shifted back, adjusting to arms and legs as he grabbed his wand
and shrunken bag, reversing the charm and sliding it over his shoulders.
"Hop in the bag, you won't get splinched," Adrian instructed coldly.
Lutain knew better than to argue, especially with Adrian's splinching
record.
He tensed, held it, then twisted.
There was a sharp crack, and they vanished.
PsychedelicCow: Thank you for the tips!
Of course! Also- on unfinished/abandoned works, sometimes if you leave
massive (I'm talking like, book report level massive) reviews, you can actually
inspire authors to finish it. True fact, and it's happened to me even.
Gurgaraneth: Wonder how harry will get on with unbridge at the school
Not well. He likes to burn her books but can never get caught in the act.
RheaSalvator: First of all, I love this story. You are a fantastic author.
Second of all, I'm sorry for the loss of your cat, that's terrible. Third I
have question. Do you have an exact chapter when the Potters find out
the truth about Adrian actually being Harry.
1. :) 2. Thank you so much for your kind words. 3. I have it currently on
chapter 66 however, I've been doing some super heavy rearranging, so it likely
will be a lot sooner than that. Currently it's in a super super dramatic reveal,
as in, on par with Star Wars "Luke I am your father" reveal.
Modern Demigod Hero: I don't know what I did to deserve this chapter
but it was amazing
By being a wonderful fan!
Guest: I love your story and love that Luna appeared again as I love hers
and Adrian's interactions as they're a nice break in the story. I really hope
that Adrian is eventually happy but from the looks of things it seems
unlikely.
I'm planning a collection of mini-fills, or a spin off series of small oneshots
that don't quite belong in the story but relate to the plot. I'm planning a lot of
Luna and Adrian chapters, maybe even romantic ones because it's in such a
demand.
TheStoryWever: ver since you revealed that Adrian would be setting a
train car on fire, I've been waiting so patiently.
And now it's here.
Too bad it was just some trash that was burnt and not an actual train car.
~Sigh~... I'll take what I can get. :)
Well now you have Adrian as an animagus! And an emotional breakdown!
Yay!
Mrsiri: I confused his a werewolf now?
...No?
Kilare T'suna: This is getting good but real sad on how Harry is going
down this path. This story is certainly unique as most wrong boy who
lived stories I read has a harry where he is very strong. This harry is not.
I'm certainly interested whether if he turns into a threstral or a dementor.
I like to be original! Don't worry, I'll make sure he gets stronger, but through a
natural more organic way!
Aspiringauthor04: I have questions
(1)Does Adrian know about hocruxes?
(2)Will Voldemort care about him at all? Except for him being a hocrux?
Even a little?
(3)Will the locket keep influencing him the entire year?
(4)Will [Adrian] ever realise how easily he's being manipulated by
Voldemort?
(5)Is Adalonda going to die? I think she died in the original, but I may
remember it wrong.
(6)Is he going to have any (close) friends except Luna?
(7)Will Daphne figure it out?
(8)When will Suzie become more imp. to the story?
(9)Will he become more powerful eventually?
(10)Does he still hate the golden trio? Or can he tolerate them now?
I'm really sorry for so many questions, but I have to know, I hope you'll
answer them? And if you've already answered some of them, sorry to
disturb. Just tell me and I'll go check it out.
Don't apologize for asking questions! I enjoy it, even if I do repeat myself here
and there. I like interacting with you all.
1. Adrian doesn't exactly know what a horcrux is, he hasn't learned about the
term. His father did mention a long time ago that Adrian 'has part of his soul',
although he doesn't know what that exactly means.
2. That's difficult to answer. He cares for Adrian like how toxic abusive family
members care for family members.
3. The locket will influence him for however long he has it.
4. Oh yes. It's explosive.
5. She did die in the original! :)
6. He has Lutain! And he considered Remus a friend as well!
7. Daphne helps with 'figuring it out', but isn't the single character that does
have the epiphany moment. Without her, little would be possible.
8. Ohhh yes. She's important, more in the impact full aftermath way.
9. Yes. He'll be powerful, but you wish he wasn't.
10. He tolerates Golden Trio because he has to associate with them a lot. He'll
get closer to them over time, but right now he'd happily set them on fire if it
wasn't for the fact you know, he'd get in trouble.
Hope1616: 1) In your previous story Harry was so strong from the start
but in this he is struggling so much, did you have a purpose for this?
2) Why did Dumbledore never notice Harry's resemblance to Tom during
the first few years? Why did he ignore him and just now suddenly take an
interest in him.
3) How much does Harry care for Luna? Does he regard her as his friend
and would he be able to kill her if his father asked him to? And how
much does she care for him? Will she join the dark side for him?
4) What is the relationship between Daphne and Harry?
5) What does Harry mean when he says Bella changed?
6) When is the story completely going to diverge from canon?
7) When will the story end, at which chapter and which Hogwarts year
will it be?
8) Is Harry's identity as Voldemort's son ever going to be revealed to the
world?
9) Will this story end with Harry dying or rejoining the light side or
winning with Voldemort?
10) Did Sirius care about Harry (Harry Potter not Adrian) in this story?
11) Is Lily still Harry's biological mother since he only replaced James
DNA with Voldemort's?
12) Are you a doctor (This is a bit personal).
1. I wrote this so Adrian has more emotional trauma and mental disorder
problems. I didn't think the original story had him in a realistic way, so I'm
having his growth in this story to be more organic and natural. Don't worry,
he'll get powerful.
2. Have you ever seen the 'Before and After' puberty pictures? In my opinion,
children before puberty all look pretty much the same, Adrian was horrifically
damaged before puberty so it wasn't as noticeable. In a school that large, the
Headmaster doesn't know every student individually. It wasn't necessarily that
he was ignoring Adrian he just...didn't have the time to inspect someone who
seemed average.
3. I like this question because Adrian doesn't know. Adrian has a large grey
area in terms of what is acceptable and what isn't. After this chapter, it's sunk
in that he's murdered someone. If necessary, he'd kill again now. Before this
chapter, he wouldn't have. He loves Luna, she's the first to truly care.
4. Adrian dislikes Daphne and tries to ignore her. Daphne want's to know
everything about everyone, and information about Adrian doesn't line up. She
wants to know information about him because he's an enigma and she wants
blackmail and assurance he won't be a problem. The more she pries for
information to make sure she has leverage on him, the more she realizes she's
at risk.
5. Trauma and Mental Health Problems due to Azkaban.
6. This is the last school year. Adrian goes rogue.
7. Story will end roughly on chapter 80, although give or take a few due to the
fact I change the chapter spacing (compressing, and expanding). It would be
roughly the end of sixth year. The fifth year (current) is the last school year,
then Adrian goes rogue throughout the sixth year.
8. Yes.
9. That's a tough question. Adrian won't rejoin the light side, I can promise
you that. I can't really say who wins.
10. Yes, he had his own problems and priorities at the time, but he did love
Harry.
11. Technically both James and Lily are still biologically related to Adrian.
Together they comprise only around 25% of Adrian's genes (The blood
adoption made Voldemort's genes very very prominent), so it's roughly 12.5%
Lily, 12.5% James, 75% Tom Riddle
12. I'm not! I am although currently in University for a Medical Field
Azza1608: Great character development across the board I don't think
I've read a fic where the basalisk behaved in such a way and the way you
handled Harry's character as Voldemorts heir was perfect.
I felt so bad when his deals got undone it actually killed me inside the
way everyone turned on him at the drop of a hat probably ignoring the
fact that they knew full well how his deals worked and used them for
their own gain.
Thank you! I worked hard on the Basilisk! The deals were an interesting bit, I
liked the format but they were making everything so complicated!
52. Suzie
This chapter was beta'd by our amazing Beta Collective
-Arctic Fox From Afar
-Mahina
-Cyndaquil05
-4everfictional
-Scion of House Lucifer
-Parsi
-Acelenny
-S4m
- and countless anonymous helpers!
Thanks to everyone who checked out the fanart! Feel free to look at
any time!
Double Chapter Once again!
'I can figure this out on my own. I know I can. I wanted to be useful. Well,
now I am. Now I'm useful and, and now I'm second guessing it? This is what I
wanted.'
The tattoo had told him that his father was in hiding on a property that
belonged to Rowle, somewhere near Kirkwall.
Adrian snapped into existence, surprised and shivering against the
absolutely horrid chill.
Lutain hissed in alarm, flailing on the snow until Adrian snatched him up
with numb fingers, clutching him close to his chest.
"Why is it colder?" Lutain bemoaned, thrashing still although Adrian
suspected it was only theatrics, "Why must I suffer?"
"You're the drama queen here, I think I'm the one suffering." Adrian
deadpanned, his body vibrating through fine shivers.
The snow was dirty and tarnished, tousled and scooped away in large
swathes. Most likely cattle, searching for a hint of green in the northern
flatlands.
Adrian felt around Lutain's body, struggling to unlatch the ramshod
harness and pull his wand off of his familiar. Once he double checked
that nobody was in the area, he cast two warming charms and stuttered
his way through a half dozen locator charms. None of them worked.
"Why didn't you think of this sooner?" Lutain bemoaned, acting as if he was
still cold although he was firmly coiled in his heating ward, "How did you
not think of this?"
"Well sorry, I was a bit preoccupied." Adrian snapped out sourly, rotating in
place only to see a pasture of white snow and dead grass.
Lutain sniffed haughtily, although quieted as Adrian began to walk. His
shoes crunched through snow, although he stuck to the cattle tracks for
as long as he could.
They found a road, barely trodden and clearly muggle. It would do, at
least it was better than a pasture in the middle of nowhere.
"I don't think there are any buses out here," Adrian explained unnecessary to
Lutain. He opened his robe, wincing as the cold winter air kissed his
exposed collarbone and shoulder.
"Nagini?" Adrian addressed his shoulder, not wanting to have to remove
any more than necessary. His skin stubbornly remained blank.
"Hah," Lutain cheered, watching in amusement as Adrian cursed and
began to shuck his clothing. Soon he was shirtless, shivering and ready to
collapse in a snowbank.
"Nagini?" Adrian tried again, already exhausted and sniffling, "Nagini,
we're here."
Nothing.
Lutain tilted his head, "Is that a cow?"
Adrian gave a groan of frustration, "Probably! We just came out of a
pasture! For cows!"
Lutain's face didn't change, yet Adrian knew he was smirking at him.
"Why not try thinking?" Lutain offered helpfully.
Adrian inhaled, and exhaled.
"Lutain, I don't think you're capable of that level of sarcasm. Otherwise I'd
have left you out here all alone."
"Master, the thinking, with the…" Lutain struggled with words, pausing
brokenly "Nagini speaks of it. The, the thinking and whispering to your
father."
Adrian blinked in surprise and amazement, "Lutain, Legilimency only works
if I can see them."
"No, no Nagini does it far away."
Adrian paused and his brow furrowed, considering. "I can try? Maybe
Father made some sort of connection when he made my Occlumency barriers."
Adrian shrugged and in a lack of better idea, settled down on the snow,
sitting on his black outer robe. He exhaled slowly, closing his eyes and
digging back into the swirl of his mind.
The barriers were holding strong, just as chaotic and confusing as ever.
Whenever his father entered his mind, he emerged from the same spot;
the closed eye, the flower blossom ready to open.
He found it, hidden and shifting like he was viewing it under a fast
moving stream.
How hard would it be to open it, to press and slip inside? It had always
opened the other way, but doorways enabled passage from both sides.
Adrian exhaled, his entire body slackening from his hunched position.
Lutain watched in alarm as even the shivering ceased in one fluid
motion, as if Adrian had fallen asleep.
Deep within, he pressed downwards with a mixture of curiosity and
determination. It felt unique, or his mind interpreted it at unique.
Everything in his walls was smoke, barely tangible to the degree of
driving one insane. The tingling burn as if his entire limb had fallen
asleep, an icy caress of burning metal.
The shell, for that's what it felt like, was cold and smooth. Soft yet not
pliant, roughened in spots like a walnut husk and then slick like abalone.
Adrian pressed and pushed, tugging at the seal without any grace in his
actions. He had seen it open before, he knew the seam could split apart.
It was frozen like marble….and then it cracked.
The very area felt different, foreign and intrusive as the hinge opened and
oil slipped through. Toxic and poisoned, yet sweet like honey. Velvet like
the petals of hydrangeas.
Adrian pressed inside, disoriented as the very atmosphere changed to
something acidic. Different- foreign and not his
mind. He had gotten through.
Something cold attacked, biting so quickly over and over that Adrian
couldn't even scream-
Then he was out, kicked out not only of the open eye but of his mind as
well… The air was sharp and burned his lungs, his bones felt hollow and
bruised and then he teetered over backwards into the snow.
Adrian yelped, scrambling to try and rightside himself, only to grab
handfuls of slush that melted on contact. He wheezed, and his chest
thrummed painfully as if he had been kicked by a hippogriff. His head
ached.
Lutain watched with a degree of amusement, yet came across very
unimpressed.
Adrian hadn't even managed to rightside himself before he felt
something, a small touch of something changing. Then he was laying
slack on the ground.
His father could enter at any time, he hadn't known that. He thought they
had to be nearby.
And yet-
He choked, back arching and forcing his shoulders further into the slush
as his brain burned.
"Master!" Lutain hissed in alarm, rearing and looking for threats
anxiously. The prior episode was relaxed, thus one had Adrian contorting
into the unmistakable body language of agony.
Adrian whimpered, something pitiful and animalistic yet he couldn't hear
it. His heart was a drum, pounding an inch from his brain and rattling his
skull so hard his teeth throbbed.
Something moved, digging and tearing and destroying his walls and
twisting the pillars of his pride until he faltered and he was falling oh
Merlin he was falling…
Adrian gasped, jolting upwards as in a single blink, it was gone.
He coughed, rolling onto his side as he vomited, thick bile and pumpkin
juice that painted the snow a crude brown.
He wretched twice more, pausing and gasping obscenely for the winter's
sharp air, nearly crying as it seared his throat.
He couldn't breathe through his nose, simply due to the lingering smell of
bile and vomit. It trickled down the back of his throat. His mouth wasn't
fairing much better.
In the distance, a cow mooed lowly.
There was a low crack in the air, like a twig breaking.
"Why are you on the ground?" Adrian's father asked, voice dry and
without concern; It was layered thinly with amusement.
"Bite me," Adrian groaned out, head still swirling and aching.
His father huffed, a single sound of surprised glee that nearly bordered
on laughter, "My, my. Are you already in that teenage rebellion phase?"
Adrian struggled with one arm braced in the snow to rightside himself.
He squinted, only opening one eye through the bright glare of sunlight
reflecting off snow, "I think that hit when you used me as a lightning
rod."
His father froze, likely dumbfounded with Adrian's snark. A second of
silence before a low chuckle of glee emanated from the man.
"Hello," Lutain chirped, voice meek and slightly shy.
"Hello, Lutain." His father responded, "Shall we apparate to the estate?"
"Are we keyed into the wards?" Adrian asked, finally rightsizing himself. He
spat once, a glob of mucus and phlegm tinted brown with stomach sick.
It joined the puddle, already smelling acrid.
"You are. I've taken liberties already, everything is prepared."
"Joy," Adrian grimaced, stumbling to his feet and grabbing his cloak and
shirt from the snow, looping Lutain around his neck for safekeeping. He
reached out, looping his arm through his father's outstretched arm, and
braced.
They apparated away from the northern highlands, leaving cow pastures
and vomit behind.
They appeared inside a building that was strikingly different than
anything Adrian had ever seen before. It contrasted sharply with the
antique and well polished look of his father's old home, and didn't come
close to the eerie or unsettling atmosphere of Bellatrix's home.
It was open, spacious and well lit. The floor looked polished, or perhaps
cleaned regularly. The walls looked pristine, yet vacant without any
picture frames or decorative tables along the hallways.
It was clinical, cold yet somehow welcoming with the polished cherry
and walnut moldings along the floor and windows.
"This is Rowle's estate?" Adrian asked dryly, more out of shock than
confusion.
His father made a humming noise of confirmation before he started
walking, not glancing to see if Adrian was following.
Lutain contently plopped down, exploring the area with his flickering
tongue. The estate didn't have the hidden passages he and Nagini
frequented before, although he seemed happy with the new area and
sudden freedom.
"I assume you've mastered your Animagus form?"
"Er, yes." Adrian blinked, hurrying to catch up. His shoes echoed an
obscene amount, he was lucky to not have brought his boots that clicked
twice as loud as normal, "A while back. I'm a snake of some sort."
His father didn't sound surprised, or if he had even heard.
"We hide in the tunnels throughout the school," Lutain added cheerfully,
"Nowhere we cannot go."
His father paused contemplatively, "I was not aware the plumbing system
was so expansive."
Adrian's body flushed with joy over learning something his father hadn't
know, "Yes! They- I think they somehow link the plumbing to the
ventilation network. Lutain and I haven't run into any water, but we're
positive we're in the pipes."
His father hummed, blinking deep in thought. "That's excellent to know."
Adrian flushed once more, feeling the heat rise in his cheeks. He ducked
his head, trying to hide the infectious grin which split across his face.
They ascended stairs, wide and extravagant with a thick wooden
banister. On the second floor, the hallway branched into wings, separated
by a single large ballroom.
"The North Wing connects to the far side of the ballroom," His father
explained, not stopping his steps as he passed the large empty threshold
towards the far door, just under the small balcony, "I intend for a meeting
to be conducted here, your animagus form would be adequate disguise if
you wish to join anonymously."
Adrian's heart beat in his chest painfully loud, pulsing almost strong
enough to rattle his teeth, "I could join?"
His father didn't clarify, instead he passed through the door and into
another hallway which assuredly was the far side of the North Wing.
"I have important matters to address." his father spoke sharply, already
moving towards what likely was an office, "I assume you can find your
quarters?"
"Yes, father." Adrian nodded happily, peering around and already taking
note of their location.
His father left, closing the door behind him which rattled in its frame,
silencing the hallway.
"It smells of wood here." Lutain sighed, huffing loudly as he flicked his
tongue at a walnut baseboard.
"That's because you're licking wood." Adrian retorted, feeling as light as a
feather with his abundant and free use of parseltongue.
Adrian explored the estate, which was barren of life. Even Nagini was
nowhere to be found, although she may have been sleeping inside his
father's office. Lutain followed him through his investigation, even as he
ventured outside into the snow to search out the nearest owlery.
Adrian's room was in a unique location, although it was highly
impractical for most. It was small, something he was sure Draco would
flat out grimace at. On the far side of the room, there was a spiral
staircase which looked unnervingly precarious, although it did hold a sort
of artistic aesthetic with its wooden twisting design.
All of Adrian's strange collectibles he had gathered and stored at his
father's manner were here as well, placed carefully in an expansive curio
cabinet on the far wall. The second level had a bed, larger than any he
had owned before. His trunk was near the wall, the one that stored his
various cloaks and robes as well as the older version of his cerastes outfit
before he had outgrown it. A wardrobe stood tall, its deep shades of red
matched the cherry splashed intermittently around the entire estate. His
collection of teeth and claws and skulls and other odd bits would have fit
in well, he missed them.
Adrian discovered quite quickly, that the extravagant set of doors across
from his bed actually led out to the balcony he had spotted in the
ballroom.
"This is so inconvenient," Adrian laughed in surprise, running his fingers
over the wooden railing, "What architect created a super small hidden
bedroom, that leads out into a ballroom?"
"Someone who is stupid," Lutain confirmed, although his tone of voice
implied heavily he didn't really understand the situation.
Adrian snorted flatteringly, rolling his shoulders and positively skipping
back inside his room. The doors to the balcony closed with a shutter,
rattling on the frame. Adrian launched himself onto his bed, collapsing
onto the bouncing mattress before he started tearing the sheets with
excited fingers.
They were nice sheets too, they flexed and barely stretched no matter
how hard he tugged.
"I missed this," Adrian sighed contently, throwing one arm over his eyes
as he collapsed back into the blankets, "Being here, I mean."
Lutain made a non-confirmation sound, halfway between a hiss and a
hum.
"It's nice being here. I don't have to be careful, especially with Draco and
Greengrass." Adrian enthused contently, sighing out in bliss as his spine
cracked loudly. "I can just learn spells, do what I want, train, and just…"
Lutain slithered across the bed. He didn't say anything, he didn't need to.
Christmas passed and with it, Adrian began to fret and fumble around the
house in search of wrapping paper.
Of course, there was none, yet that didn't stop Adrian's frantic search.
Nagini and Lutain watched amused, leaving dry commentary as Adrian
nearly ransacked one room, only to magically repair it and move onto the
next. They became a steady mantra, a calm background to his rising
anxiety.
"Is that a bird?" Lutain asked curiously.
"A dead bird, humans stuff them with feathers and put them on tables."
Nagini wisely interjected, both snakes watching as Adrian hurled an
antique victorian stuffed finch over his left shoulder.
"Humans are so strange," Lutain added with a strange sense of fondness.
"They keep such strange things," Nagini agreed, tilting her head to taste the
air, "Master keeps a bag of my skin."
Lutain looked alarmed, "What? Why does he keep your skin? Is he supposed
to keep your skin? Master! Master, why do you not keep my skin-"
Adrian grunted as a wicker chair nearly fell on him from where it was
stacked in the closet, "Lutain this is really not the time."
"Yes this is the time. Now is a good time. A perfect time. Answer the question."
"Answer the question," Nagini cooed on, her own lilting voice added in.
"Answer the question," Lutain continued, the two snakes alternating
demands, gradually rising in volume until they were near singing it at
him in tone deaf hisses.
"You don't even care about the question," Adrian bemoaned, flicking his
wand to return the chaotic mess to its original place, "You just want to
annoy me."
"You took the rat man. You brought this upon yourself." Nagini wisely
imputed, before pointedly swinging her tail to knock a broom down to
the floor.
Adrian started, watching it clatter and bounce. He blinked, lifting one
hand to rub at the bridge of his nose, "Why? Why would you do that."
Nagini opened her mouth in a strange pulled expression, something
uncomfortably similar to a human grin.
"Stop that." Adrian barked, shivering slightly as even Lutain seemed
horrified by her expression. Nagini of course, continued her weird
gummy smile.
Adrian quickly found that there was no wrapping paper in the entire
building. He settled for parchment, folded carefully many times to
disguise the shape of the locket.
It was strange, ever since arriving the locket appeared almost calm. It
hadn't acted out in days. Adrian almost found himself missing the
indiscernible whispers, the vibrating touch and the lulling sense of
sedation it gave him.
All of the hassle of keeping it hidden was well worth it when he saw his
father hesitantly unwrap the paper; moving disjointedly slow almost as if
he knew what it was before the parchment fell away.
The gold on the outer casing almost shimmered, reflecting lamplight and
scarlet eyes which hungrily took it in.
"Where did you find this?" his father asked him calmly, holding it
reverently as if a precious gemstone. He held it as if the heart of
something precious, beating gently like a newborn child.
Adrian smiled, and told him what he knew.
Adrian received his own present, a few books half hazardous set on his
bed with no note or letter. He had expected something similar, his father
wasn't one to invest in making an extravagant gift for a child he hadn't
seen in a long time.
'Remus would have given you a better gift' Adrian thought to himself,
hurriedly pushing such blasphemous ideas out before he could linger on
them further.
Lutain wasn't interested as much in the books, instead for Christmas the
snake invited him in races all throughout the manner.
Nagini joined in. Adrian spent hours chasing the two through the
hallways and staircases, relaxed and finally free to do what he pleased.
Skylar Potter quietly opened Remus' door, sliding inside and shuffling
over the worn rug.
Remus didn't look, instead he remained curled on an armchair, staring
into a fire which burned lowly in its fireplace.
Skylar cleared his throat quietly, setting a brown paper bag on the
nearest table, "Remus?"
The werewolf didn't look up, but his chest heaved with a heavy sigh.
Skylar gently lowered himself into a chair, pulling his legs up tight as if
to fight off the winter chill.
"I keep thinking if I wait long enough, he'll Floo me, even though it's
impossible." Remus spoke, his voice was quiet, but hoarse.
Skylar didn't need to ask as to who he was talking about.
"You know," Sylar coughed quietly, "He's...He's like a Vipertooth." Skylar
spoke quietly.
Remus looked over curiously, dark circles under his eyes.
Skylar swallowed and continued, feeling more confident the longer he
spoke, "Like the Vipertooth I fought. Quick, cunning, and unlike any
other dragon I've ever seen."
Remus' lip twitched, encouraging Skylar to continue.
"It was tricky, and it fought unlike normal dragons, and- and in the end
it's still a wild creature." Skylar licked his dry lips, "He- you could coddle
it every day of its life, but in the end it's a wild creature and it bites when
threatened."
Remus' hairline smile faltered as he looked back at the fire, "I keep
wondering if It was something I did. Is that why he ran off?"
Skylar shifted uncomfortably, "No, I… I don't know. I was, ah, I was with
him the day he ran off-"
"Apparated." Remus broke the quiet, "Albus and I decided that he
apparated off the school grounds through a passageway."
Skylar froze in surprise, why hadn't he thought of that? He knew that
Adrian could apparate, he had told everyone in Hogsmede that he could.
Skylar hadn't thought of it as a security risk.
"He- he was upset." Skylar quietly added, "He- I saw him before. We were
in the, we were in a room and something upset him. I...He can see
thestrals. But he…" Skylar's voice cracked badly in the room, "Remus, I
think he killed someone."
Remus stiffened very suddenly, and sighed quietly through his nose.
"Albus and I decided it was best to not tell you about our suspicions, but I
feel it's hypocritical to not involve you when…" Remus sighed and
rubbed at his eyes with the pals of his hands, "We know. Or Albus
suspects something similar."
Skylar's blood ran cold, "What?"
"Adrian Selwyn shouldn't exist, and he doesn't in all of the registry. Sirius
investigated the Ministry records before he was fired for trespassing and
looking at confidential information, Adrian Selwyn doesn't exist." Remus
confessed quietly, "Given what he's mentioned in passing about living
with a father, and then claiming to live with Bellatrix Lestrange...there
are many facts which don't line up." Remus continued as if his words
weren't changing Skylar's perception of everything, "Albus checked for
curse scars and...Adrian Selwyn has multiple."
Skylar felt dizzy, he didn't know what to think.
"We've speculated that there is a high possibility that Adrian Selwyn in a
fit of accidental magic murdered his birth parents at a young age." Remus
sighed exhaustedly, "Likely then Bellatrix or another party found him and
placed him with this mysterious father of him."
"So she would continue to come back and check on him. But...but when
she was in Azkaban..." Skylar trailed off, feeling as if he had been
punched in the chest.
"We believe that Adrian is currently placed in a surrogate household,
selected by Bellatrix herself. With that in mind, we've been investigating
every household we can but we aren't that hopeful to find where Adrian
is."
Skylar floundered, a wordless squeak breaking out of his throat, "I-"
"Don't worry yourself, Skylar," Remus smiled tiredly, "I have an idea of
Adrian's surrogate father at this time, I had a glimpse of him during the
Boggart I brought in for the class lesson."
"Adrian's boggart is his dad?"
"In hindsight I had anticipated it being Bellatrix Lestrange. This only
helps our assumption that Adrian's surrogate family is equally abusive,
and violent. We also believe that Adrian has, in some form, been
groomed to be equally volatile."
Remus gave a small nod, staring into the fireplace quietly, "Based on this,
Albus and I have already discussed the possibility that Adrian Selwyn will
attempt to kill me."
"What, Moony no- you can't-"
"Skylar," Remus snapped quickly, running a hand exhaustedly over his
face, "He...Albus has been keeping me notified. Do you remember your
fourth year, when you, Adrian, and Draco Malfoy got in a fight on the
grounds."
Skylar felt as if he was falling through the couch, "The...the one where
Adrian punched Draco?"
Remus' hands clenched around the armrests of the chair, "Skylar, Adrian
fractured Draco's skull with his bare hands. There were reports, hospital
files, of Adrian setting other students on fire in his first year."
Skylar looked horrible, "He set the room we were in on fire also, he...he
wasn't thinking. It just...I thought it was an accident."
"He's also inhibited a far greater affinity and ease with dark magic than
we're comfortable with. Albus and I discussed removing Adrian from the
school, for the safety of the other students."
"No, I- He's my friend." Skylar choked out in alarm, "You can't-"
"We're afraid that Bellatrix Lestrange or someone else is watching him,
and removing him from the school would result in the curse scar
activating. That, or whatever reason he's attending Hogwarts won't be
applicable."
"Activating?" Skylar echoed weakly, "applicable?"
"Skylar…" Remus looked very obviously pained, "We're thinking Adrian
may be cursed as a weapon to be used against you. He likely was allowed
to come to Hogwarts to spy on you, or to get close to you for nefarious
means. If we remove him, we are afraid that Bellatrix will no longer
value him and dispose of him. If Adrian realizes that we're considering
his removal, he may try to kill you."
"...dispose of him?"
"Murder. Bellatrix may murder Adrian if he does not comply to her
wishes."
Skylar jumped to his feet, shaking his head viciously, "No, no. If you
know anything about Adrian, he doesn't take sides. He figures out what
keeps him safe, and he that stays way."
"If you're referring to the bartering system Adrian had in place-" Lupin
started, cutting off his own words with a small twitch of his cheek.
"Not that! If you ever think he'd just- he'd just roll over for someone
then...then you don't know him at all!"
Lupin flinched and his nostrils flared, "I like to presume that I do
understand Adrian, believe it or not."
Skylar formed a glare directed at Remus. He knew that he had gone too
far, that his words were uncalled for. He wouldn't feel guilty for them
now; he grabbed the package he had originally brought into the room,
"He's a Vipertooth, Moony. Stop treating him like something fragile."
Without any hesitation, Skylar tossed the package carefully over to the
older man. Remus snatched it, cradling it questioningly as Skylar stormed
out, slamming the door behind him.
The fire popped and crackled, sending small embers flying as Remus
gently opened the brown paper, reaching inside with gentle fingers.
A model dragon- the model dragons from Skylar's first task.
A little Vipertooth hissed on his palm, snapping and looking as uniquely
dangerous as Adrian ever was.
'I know I'm stronger. I can see it, I can feel it. There's proof, there's so much
proof and somehow...I don't know. I don't feel stronger. I feel terrible.'
"I know you told me to stay away, but the more I find out the more
fascinating he is." Astoria mused, holding a roll of parchment in her
hands as she leant against the doorway.
"If you're talking about Selwyn, I'm going to jinx you." Daphne warned
with a low huff, fastening her hair in place. Astoria turned her wide eyes
on her sister, blinking in mock confusion.
"I was talking with Suzie…" Astoria trailed off before shrugging, "Actually
no. I wasn't talking to her but looking around-"
Daphne gave a wordless noise of frustration, "Astoria! Stop digging
around!"
Astoria rolled her eyes, "You're envious since you never had the talent-"
Daphne stood and held her quill at her sister accusatory, "Astoria, do you
know what Selwyn did?"
Astoria blinked in confusion, "Uh, when?"
"He beat Draco Malfoy until his skull was broken."
Astoria nodded slowly as if still unsure, "I...I know? I heard?"
"And you aren't concerned at all about all of this? You aren't worried that
he isn't going to find out and dig around for you? He attacked Draco
Malfoy."
Astoria scoffed, "It's not like he know legilimency, how would he know
I've been looking around? I'm curious."
"Curiosity kills the Kneazle." Daphne snapped, crossing her arms as
Astoria stuck out her tongue and hopped into the room, climbing onto
Daphne's bed and throwing the parchment onto the floor.
"So I was thinking," Astoria started while swinging her overhanging feet,
"Selwyn is really strange, you know?"
Daphne gave a small grunt, nearly kicking the smaller girl out of the
room.
"...What does his snake look like?" Astoria asked out of curiosity, "I've
never seen it before."
"Big, black with yellow stomach." Daphne shrugged, "Scary fast. Always
wraps around him like a noose."
Astoria stiffened, her voice was slightly strained, "That's...interesting."
Daphne paused and turned to look at her sister directly, "Astoria? Astoria
what's wrong?"
She wasn't looking at Daphne, instead she was gazing off as if she had
realized something horrifying. "Adrian Selwyn may...be adopted,
correct?"
"...Yes? We already established this, Astoria what is going on?"
The younger girl gave a small pinched smile, "Nothing, I ah, I need to
send an owl. Thank you Daphne."
And she left, nearly shaking in her steps as she left the room.
Suzie Forestar,
I am messaging you with a rather peculiar request, one that I believe will
confuse you initially. I have resources that have informed me of the
unfortunate end to your late brother, David.
I understand that based on the circumstances of his unfortunate death, his
murderer may have been part of the Wizarding World. Due to this, and the
opportunities available to the Greengrass name and house, I hope to assist you
in uncovering the murderer of your late brother.
If at all possible, I ask you to tell me the name of the child who you remember
from your orphanage.
Best wishes,
Astoria Greengrass.
Suzie unrolled the letter from the prim and proper owl, watching her
well behaved from the windowsill of her bedroom.
Her foster parents were confused but thankfully understanding of the
situation, it was incredibly easy to orchestrate her current foster family to
be a registered muggleborn and squib. Although they were not as familiar
with the wizarding world, they certainly were not shocked by the owl.
What was shocking, was how well behaved and obviously pureblood the
owl was.
The letter itself, was something Suzie had only imagined in nightmares.
She sat on her bed, cross legged as the owl watched her movements
patiently. The parchment was sprawled in front of her, crinkled already
from how often she had opened and closed it.
She knew who Astoria Greengrass was, another girl in her year who
bordered a line of malicious and too sly to talk with. She
was...intimidating, far too innocent looking and far too dangerous.
She was nice enough, but the fact that she sent the letter to begin with
meant something terrible.
She was an orphan in the eye of the Wizarding world, and since she
wasn't formally adopted during the school year she was the custody of
Hogwarts school. Given that she was sorted into Slytherin, technically
her guardian was Professor Snape.
"Okay, okay," She exhaled, scrambling over the bland desk in the
makeshift room for a decent ballpoint pen and paper, "I just...I just need
to tell Professor Snape about this…"
She scribbled, pausing and crumpling the paper once to throw it behind
her and to restart.
"Professor Snape.
I was given a letter recently asking about what happened to my brother,
David, who died years ago in my old orphanage.
I don't know how, but somehow someone has been asking after the name of
the person who killed my brother. My brother was killed by a snake, or rather,
my brother was killed by a boy who told the snake to kill him. From what I've
heard Parseltongue is rare, but it isn't anything like what Skylar Potter was
sounding like. This sounded like actual hisses, like there was a snake in his
mouth.
I know the boy's name was Harry. He was mean, cruel, he threw me down
stairs and he told his snake to bite and murder my brother.
I think I remember a woman who looked like the escaped convict Bellatrix
Lestrange, but I could be wrong. They set the orphanage on fire and a lot of
people died.
I'm afraid that someone may be looking for me, but I don't know if this is
important enough to ask the Headmaster about. I'm scared with all the
questions that somehow someone is going to get me.
Thank you so much,
Suzie Forestar.
Severus Snape sighed through his nose as he looked at the paper-
clumsily written with a muggle ballpoint pen.
Even more confusing, the owl that had delivered it undoubtedly belonged
to a pureblood family. It was far too well trained, and looked positively
expensive for any student to own, let alone a orphaned muggleborn.
The contents of the note were even worse; written in haste and in a
young child's fear.
Unfortunately, the contents were incredibly concerning.
Albus was gone- off chasing a lead that was too important to inform
Severus of. It was understandable, considering that if pressed for specific
information, his Occlumency barriers would never last. It was better to
be uninformed than to know pivotal details.
Since Albus was gone and was impossible to contact, the contents of the
letter were left to Severus to report.
The information...the fact the letter in itself mentioned Bellatrix, one of
the Dark Lord's loyal followers, Severus was instantly at an obligation to
share the letter to his supporters. Not only that, but the pressing matter
of another parselmouth on the loose suggested that there could possibly
be a young wizard with complicated abilities.
But to suggest that there was a child that was abducted by Bellatrix...no,
that was impossible.
Unless...unless the false story given to the Order by that one obnoxious
child was actually true. If that was the case, then Adrian was actually
Harry or some other ridiculous name.
But that's preposterous, it was likely that if Bellatrix was abducting
children nearly a decade ago, then she likely stole many. So far, the idea
that Bellatrix captured many children and 'trained' each hoping for a
single survivor was much more her style.
Albus was going to have a field day when Severus gave his suspicions,
and no doubt he would search the missing child reports to try and find
some sort of linkage.
But if Bellatrix had abducted children from orphanages, the search would
be much much more difficult.
It was best to simply leave the letter with someone after making a copy
for Albus. It was incredibly unlikely that the Dark Lord would order
anything in haste, especially given that these events took place in his
absence. Likely anything actually targeting the girl would be long
planned out, or dismissed as a worried child.
But...if a pureblood house was drawn into the mess, then Severus would
have to act fast and move quickly to deliver the letter to make sure he
didn't look suspicious. He already was on shaky grounds, and was well
aware that he was being kept in the dark in some fashion.
Perhaps sending this letter to the dark lord would in some way assure his
position?
Severus Snape sighed, pressing one hand against his eyes as he drew his
wand, already murmuring the spell to duplicate the parchment.
Almost instantly afterwards, he pressed his wand to the seared black
mark against his flesh, feeling the burn as if a viper had sunk its fangs
deep.
He hissed in pain, stumbling upwards and while focusing through the
searing burn, apparated away.
The training room was impressive. Much better and more elaborate than
the one Adrian had grown up using.
There were dummies, able to walk around and dodge with a level of
animation that was quite startling. Targets and contraptions that moved
at varying speeds, even devices that would shoot curses that were
positively painful. Adrian had been already knicked by one dark cutting
curse, falling to the ground in crippling agony. There had been an
unsettlingly large puddle of blood, spewing out from his leg in pulsing
waves.
There was something impossible to explain, about seeing blood leaking
from his body. A comfort in knowing that what he was made of on the
inside was the same as everyone else.
He had shifted into his Animagus form, blood slowing but thankfully, the
wound transferred only to the lower part of his tail. He was able to
slither over to the shelf abundant with healing potions. His skin had knit
back together as he screamed, clutching his legs and wound bubbling
with the hiss of of sulfur. Healing potions were not kind, they were
aggressive and cruel on flesh.
His leg pulled strangely, like how the tattoo felt over his skin. Bits where
the muscles had healed in a way different to normal.
Adrian had learned his lesson, injuries could be repaired instantly but he
would always feel it.
This time, he knew better than to get hit.
He was very out of practice, it had been a long time since he had a
honest dueling session with Bellatrix or Rowle and admittedly, he was hit
quite often. The first day he let his confidence overshadow him, it
resulted in his screaming pile. He hadn't known how to clean the blood
stain, already sunken into the wooden floors and staining the cherry
crimson.
It was a stain he looked at every day he entered the room, shucking off
his outer cloak and stretching himself carefully.
It was a large stain. Like the stain the man bled out as Nagini tore his
throat.
(He remembered it with an air of detachment. He had realized it, he had
broken over the knowledge. He had killed a girl. He had killed a man. He
would have to kill again.)
"Alright Lutain," Adrian breathed quietly, quelling the nausea as he
pulled out his wand again- the Holly and Phoenix feather that had been
hidden in his room. He had missed the feel of the warm wood, sparks
leaping under his skin. "You know what to do?"
Lutain peered over lazily from the heated platform he had found for
Nagini near the doorway. "If you're an idiot fetch your father."
Adrian's face twitched, but he couldn't really complain with the
simplified information.
Adrian exhaled slowly and shifted into position, watching at the far end
of the room the magical device which he knew would spit out curses the
moment he activated it with a word.
He knew that he would likely leave the room injured, there was no way
that he was going to not come out of it bleeding.
(Some part of him wanted to bleed.)
Adrian wasn't sure when, at some point a filter had lifted from his eyes. A
level of childish naivety that he never knew existed had slowly slid away.
Washed away in rain over his face.
"I killed Ginny Weasley." Adrian spoke out loud, the room was silent, but
something heavy pressed on his chest. Lutain didn't respond, used to
Adrian's talking to himself.
"I killed Ginny Weasley." Adrian repeated, breathing out and closing his
eyes. He could imagine her hair, he could see her.
'I killed her,' Adrian thought, feeling sick and knowing, knowing that she
too had been made of blood and bone. 'I killed her.'
He killed the man. He begged for mercy and he killed him.
(Had he really though? Had he actually killed him?)
It was Nagini who struck him down. It was the Chamber which caused
the girl to starve to death.
(His father would look at him with so much disappointment.)
Adrian was an Animagus, some adults never accomplished that in their
entire lives. Adrian had Occlumency barriers, he was a Legilimens. He
was the Boy-Who-Lived.
"I can do this." Adrian breathed to himself, eyes still closed. The world
pulsed too vibrant, too bright for him to look at.
His father always had a plan. His father had a plan and he had taken in
Adrian and raised him and he had a duty to his father.
Of course, there was the fact that his father could have just taken him in
to hide the fact that Adrian was indeed, the only one who had survived
his father's hand. Adrian was a threat, now neutralized. With that logic, it
didn't explain why Adrian had been tutored or treated well, he could
have lived in a dungeon and the same would be accomplished.
But no, his father had adopted him and made Adrian his heir.
Adrian had a duty to do, and he couldn't even kill someone.
(A part of him was screaming that killing someone was unspeakable, that
if he truly believed that he hadn't killed anyone, then there was time to
stop.)
He had broken down, in a moment of guilt and hysteria he had broken
down to Skylar Potter. Skylar Potter, who all his life he wanted to kill. He
hadn't come to terms with it, he hadn't allowed himself to realize and
accept the fact he ended the existence of a human being.
"They are prey, and they are no different than rats." Adrian murmured to
himself, clutching his wand as he remembered what Nagini had said
numerous times before. "They are rats and must be killed for us to live."
Truly, if Adrian didn't kill a rat for his own life to continue, than he
himself would starve.
Was it truly wrong to kill something weaker than him to guarantee his
own survival? Was murder really something so...a concept so horrid that
one could never return from it?
James Potter had killed before, in the line of duty as an Auror. So had
Sirius Black, and Remus even. Dumbledore had killed without a doubt,
and yet they were considered good.
"I can do this," Adrian breathed, hanging his head and fighting the sick
that burned his throat, "I need to do this."
Dark magic was a tool. It could be used one way or another, you could
kill with light magic just as easy as dark magic.
Dark magic was more humane, less suffering if applied properly.
"Master?'
"Actuate." Adrian clipped out, opening his eyes and twisting to the left as
something fast and purple shot towards him.
Another, this time Adrian hastily shielded, grunting with a whine as it
numbed his arm. Rowle had these devices set intimidatingly high.
Adrian wasn't going to lower the difficulty. Wounds would teach him to
move faster, blood would reinforce his own defects.
One curse slid past his shield, slicing through his ankle and sending him
to the ground with a cry.
Lutain reared in alarm, watching silently as Adrian grunted a wordless
sound of pain. The device paused a second, calibrating Adrian's location
before redirecting its curses.
"Master-"
"No!" Adrian hissed out, sweat plastering along his hairline as he spat out
shielding charms. Ankle limp on the ground and adding to the blood of
the room, "I can do this."
Lutain lowered, watching carefully as Adrian writhed on the defense,
tears slipping from the corner of his eyes.
Another slashing curse, the smallest fraction his shield didn't cover. His
calf split open like finely roasted beef. He never thought his own meat
would resemble raw beef.
"Master this is-"
"No!" Adrian hissed out, spine arcing although he propped himself
upwards with his forearms, clenching his jaw. The spells kept coming,
and Adrian was tired.
He was done with being hurt.
He hissed out something wordless, pushing invisibly and coaxing fire to
burn between him and the device, halting it barrage of spells. Taking
three seconds to simply breathe, he dragged himself into an almost sitting
position.
Fire burned, searing the room and creating an opaque barrier. Adrian
didn't need to see to know where the device was.
"Ruptura!" Adrian hissed out, snapping his wrist as the long fire whip
sprouted from his wand tip, burning purple. He slashed it through the air
once, twice, until he heard the device break with a whine. Adrian
banished the spell, breathing heavily but with perfect clarity.
It had taken him too long to stop himself against the barrage, he
shouldn't have been injured to begin with.
"I'm fine Lutain," Adrian clipped out, frustrated mostly with himself, "I'll
take a healing potion and try again."
Lutain watched skeptic and with fascination as once again, the raw
bloody meat of Adrian's leg knitted together until a thin lumpy seam
remained. A permanent reminder of his own inabilities.
"Let's go again." Adrian hissed out sourly, swiping his wand through the
air to loosen his shoulders.
"Use birds." Lutain offered, tail tip swaying slowly, "Practice on birds."
"You can't use that hex on humans," Adrian countered, not looking over
as he rolled his head to stretch his neck.
"Cut them in half."
Adrian paused, a small hitch in his movements before he quietly
summoned the birds. Bright canaries larger than a fist. Lutain watched,
spotting a few which flapped into the rafters. One unsuspecting bird
remained on the floor, chirping and glancing around curiously.
"Off with your head," Adrian muttered sourly, pointing his wand at the
bird and pausing.
It was no different than bursting the birds. There was no difference.
Adrian inhaled.
(The man's throat was-)
"Abrumpo."
The bird stiffened and dropped, it's head dropping as from the blunt end
of its severed neck, blood spurted like a macabre fountain.
Adrian thought there would have been a moment after that. A clean snap
of rationality that would strike when he killed something. A bludger to
the skull, a ringing in his ears.
The remaining birds chattered in the rafters, unsuspecting.
"That was fun."
Adrian ducked his head, staring at the floor.
It was no different than bursting birds. It was no different than slicing
their heads off. The spells were no different, curses were no different.
"Lutain," Adrian's voice came out with a small, unidentifiable lilt to it, "I
want to try the Imperious curse."
Rowle paused from his chair the moment he felt the wards bend- a
presence following the subconscious directions given by the mark.
They had been keyed into the main ballroom where all future Death
Eater meetings would take place.
He sighed, standing slowly if only to not alarm the gigantic python that
was curled up in the corner. Its name was Nagini, but everyone knew
that it was the Dark Lord's eyes and ears.
It's head lifted almost instantly in response, jaw dropping with a rattling
hiss that make the hair on Rowle's arms stand on end.
"I- someone's apparated here." He explained lowly, making only slow
movements to return the book he was reading to the side table. He made
no movements for his wand. He had been told that the snake understood
English, it was probably smart to let it know what he was doing. It
looked far too intelligent for an animal, and watched him calmly.
Rowle hurried out from the library, the snake following him distantly
before splitting and heading in an alternate direction. The idea of that
giant man-eater following him all the way to the ballroom was terrifying.
Rowle opened the doors, walking through and immediately brightened
with a grin, "Well well, look what the kneazle dragged in."
Severus Snape's lip curled but his expression stayed trademark bland,
"Thorfinn Rowle. How...unexpected."
Rowle gave a rolling shrug of his shoulders, if Snape didn't know where
he was then Rowle wasn't going to correct him. Snape had been one
Death Eater that was always under suspicion, especially since his spy
status with the others.
"Why are you here, Snape?" Rowle asked cautiously, crossing both arms
with one eyebrow raised.
Snape's face stayed blank, "I have a message for our Lord, one that may
be of concern."
"Oh really." Rowle sarcastically responded, "One of your students mixing
poisons in a loo?"
Snape blinked slowly and in the patronizing way he seemed to have
mastered. "Unfortunately, no."
Something heavy plopped to the ground- drawing both eyes along the
floor until they saw whatever it was that had drawn attention.
The gigantic snake, Nagini, had emerged again, this time another serpent
in tow. Her entire bulk slid out of a hinged vent, propped open around
her girth.
The newer snake that accompanied her was smaller, although was still
terrifyingly large. It likely was the right size to eat a small owl.
It was dark in color, some shade of dark green or grey that Rowle didn't
care enough to know. It was fast, with a strange frill tucked firm against
its neck, starting just between its eyes.
Snape's breathing stilled the moment he saw it, as if he recognized the
species. He instantly averted his eyes, staring fixed at Rowle.
'That's new.' Rowle blinked leisurely, 'must not like being spied on for once.'
"The Lord isn't here right now, although I could pass along the message if
it's actually important." Rowle tilted his head slightly, eyes half lidded as
if mocking. The snake, Nagini, would report it for him.
"It is important, unlike your contributions." Snape responded with a dull
drawl, "Information given to me which details the possibility of another
parselmouth in our midst."
Rowle's eyebrows shot up, "Bloody hell, another one?"
Snape paused, halfway withdrawing a piece of parchment, "It appears so."
The smaller snake hissed, neither man looked towards it.
Rowle took the parchment, wrinkling his nose as he squinted at the
chicken scratch, "Merlin, what sort of quill made this mess?"
"A pen, I believe. A muggle writing utensil." Snape sighed at Rowle's brief
look of confusion, "Written to me by a student. I doubt it is of concern
but as it does contain sensitive information I believe it best if brought to
attention."
Rowle frowned and looked at the name at the bottom, "What sort of
name is 'Forestar' anyways?"
There was a loud agitated hiss, Snape paled slightly as he forced his eyes
downward.
Something was snapping and crackling, like a brute stomping through
broken twigs. Rowle and Snape looked more out of fascination than
concern as the smaller snake twisted and distorted before their eyes,
shifting into something shapeless with a long black cloak.
Well, Merlin be damned, the kid managed it.
He hadn't seen the outfit often, but he had been drilled as to how to act.
Rowle lowered his eyes, trying to quell the sense of grudging respect at a
damn Animagus transformation, "cerastes." He murmured, bowing his
head.
He hadn't seen the kid in a long while. He had wondered where he had
run off to.
There was a pause as Snape clearly did not follow suit, only peering at
the newcomer with wide eyes.
Nagini let out a large noise, something agitated by the sight of her
twitching tail.
Cerastes was walking, managing the distance from where he stood next
to Nagini. Only a few strides, accentuated by the obnoxiously clicking
heels of his boots. Although Rowle knew the kid was essentially harmless,
something about the slow walk and clicking shot an instinctual pang of
anxiety through him.
"The note." cerastes murmured, voice sliding out of Rowle's head like a
notice-me-not charm on his voice, as slick as oil running off a surface.
Impressive charm work, likely made by the Dark Lord himself.
Rowle held out the letter obediently, nearly biting his tongue as Cerastes
(the boy!) took it from his hands with black gloved fingers. (Of course,
the scars on his skin.)
cerastes read the note. He trailed one gloved black finger along the
paper, under the hastily written letters. Near the end, his one hand was
shaking, the other twitching as if wanting to curl into a fist.
Then with a sharp smell, the paper started to curl inwards on itself,
turning black and then red as it smoldered, burning without a spell being
cast.
Snape shifted his weight ever so slightly, the raising and lowering of his
chest halted entirely. Rowle bit his cheek to contain the grin from
spreading across his face. He knew enough of Severus' tells to know the
other man was horrified at the wandless magic.
"Suzie Forestar," Cerastes murmured, turning to look at Nagini.
The massive snake looked content, flicking its tongue with low hissing
noises interspersed here or there.
"Get rid of her." cerastes spoke, voice bland and cold.
Snape's eyes widened slightly, "I...Excuse my confusion, I am not certain
that this should be decided without our Lord's-"
Cerastes' voice was sharp and angry, "Did you mishear me? I said get rid
of her."
Rowle glanced between the two, a low light of amusement burning in his
eyes, "I'm surprised Severus, you haven't met cerastes?"
Rowle knew damned well the other man hadn't.
"Charmed." Severus offered in place of a greeting, still looking at Cerastes
with a level of skepticism.
"Wonderful we have that out of the way." Cerastes deadpanned, nearly
making Rowle bark out loud, although he did try to muffle it into his fist,
"This girl knows too much and has proven to be a loose end. I want her
gone, get rid of her in some way or another."
Snape blinked in alarm before stilling, "I believe a decision of such
calibre should only be made by our Lord-"
cerastes spun, the cloak flared but didn't open or reveal anything, "I'll
inform my father of this when he returns but for now get rid of her."
The cloaked figure didn't hiss, but sounded very close to it. Severus
stilled once more, this time it took him longer to resume breathing.
"As you wish," Rowle grumbled calmly and almost smugly, "Come on
Snape, I assume you know where this girl lives then?"
Snape looked pale, uncomfortable or horrified with the turn of events, "I-
cerastes I must insist-"
cerastes angled the pitch black bottomless cavern of his hood to look
directly at Snape. It was impossible to look inside the darkness. It was
unsettling in Rowle's opinion.
Snape choked, a quiet noise that Rowle wouldn't have heard if not for the
close proximity.
Snape jerked his head down, "As you wish."
So it seemed he finally understood.
"Wonderful." cerastes breathed slowly, as if to reassure himself. He
looked at the twice damned giant snake and started hissing. Unmistakable
foreign sounding noises, bordering on something able to comprehend but
too animalistic in truth. Real Parseltongue spoken from a source.
Snape twitched, but thankfully didn't speak.
Cerastes left the room in a flurry. Snape didn't look back once.
"You did the right idea." Nagini enthused, following Adrian closely as he
left the ballroom, heading through the hallways.
"I know." Adrian bit out, tone difficult to discern with the charmed hood.
"They are rats." Nagini comforted, as if Adrian needed it.
The worst part was that he did. A small part of him was crying out,
saying that it was wrong to send Rowle after her.
She had ruined everything, but knowing Snape, if she was truly important
she would live. The way Adrian viewed it was rather twisted, he'd admit.
Snape worked for the light, if the concept of life and not killing children
was truly a concept that could never be broken, then Suzie wouldn't die.
If she did, then the idea of murder wasn't truly that unspeakable of an
action.
Either he received Suzie from Rowle, and he would have the opportunity
to kill her himself, or Rowle would kill her with assistance from Snape
which implied that all of Adrian's concerns were entirely pointless
afterall.
"I'm sure you could stri-"
"Do you know how to activate the training rooms."
Nagini stilled in her movements, lagging a few strides before she caught
up smoothly. "I know how to activate for my Master."
"My father's training level." Adrian breathed out in slight resignation,
"alright, help me with it."
"Are you sure? It is very advanced."
"How advanced?"
"Destruction of all. Very difficult."
Adrian nodded in thought. He would end up very injured. The training
room had extensive healing potions, of course they pulled painfully when
the cold outdoors caught him off guard. It wouldn't hurt to train more, to
get used to that level of activity.
He only had so much time before he had to go back. (He didn't want to.)
"Alright, I need you to activate them. Only deactivate them when I need
healing potions, or I'm missing a limb."
"Do you miss limbs often?"
"Bellatrix was a bitch."
Rowle knew that when cerastes said to get rid of the girl, he meant
capture her.
Rowle also knew, that keeping a girl hostage especially with the
information she had written in a letter, that she knew too much to be left
alive. cerastes- no, Adrian was too naive to understand the complication
of the phrase, or actually what it would entitle.
'Get rid of her.'
"Sorry girl," Rowle grinned, pointing his wand at the shaking and sobbing
girl in front of him- likely not even fourteen yet, "but you were digging
around and asking the wrong questions."
She screamed, until a flash of green and she didn't scream any longer.
Severus stood guard outside the house, lips pinched and face once more a
blank mask.
"Do you have a death wish?"
Adrian didn't bother lifting his head, keeping his forehead pressed against
the wooden floor. It wasn't that much colder, but it felt like pure relief
against his feverish skin.
When it was obvious Adrian wasn't going to answer, his father sighed
quietly and strode over the distance calmly. His shoes didn't click, it was
the shadow cast from his body that alerted Adrian to the close proximity.
"If I didn't know any better, I'd assume you were trying
something….reckless."
Adrian nearly smiled, pausing and grunting with the exertion required to
move himself into a kneeling position. "I'm still in one piece."
Is father's eyes were crimson red, like the fresh blood that had leaked
from Adrian's lesions like spilled butterbeer.
The room was quiet. It smelled like smoke and burned wood, a distinctly
pungent campfire smell. Undertones of something metallic, like rust.
From the potions rack built into the wall, a large number of healing
potions, blood replenishing potions, and energizing tinctures were
missing.
"When do I get to kill Skylar?"
His father shifted his weight, crossing his arms in a way that impossibly
still looked fluid. "Kill Skylar Potter? My, aren't you ambitious."
Adrian's face twitched into the beginnings of a snarl. He ducked his head,
neck stiff, to mask his expression in his sweat matted hair.
"My plans never counted on your involvement in Skylar Potter's death."
Adrian flinched, "I- but father I-"
"Truthfully I doubt you possess the capabilities at this time."
Adrian's jaw clenched and he kept his head ducked, "I know for certain
that my magic capabilities surpass his."
Voldemort's mouth twitched, only one corner into what Adrian could
only describe as a leer. "That is true. Yet the large picture is too complex
for you to comprehend, child."
Adrian flushed and hid his face once again. Shame burned sourly.
"Skylar Potter functions at this time as the symbol for the light."
Voldemort sighed, as if the very concept of it was unsightly. "The
removal of him at this time would only cause future uprisings or
complications."
"We can deal with those-"
"We?" Voldemort echoed back, a tone of disbelief sharply prominent,
almost breathlessly amused, "hold your tongue, child. There is no we."
Adrian breathed slowly, closing his eyes and swallowing down the lump
in his throat. "Would it not be better if I killed Dumbledore-"
"Don't make me laugh. Ridding us of that old fool is far beyond your
meager abilities."
Adrian bit his cheek hard enough he tasted blood.
"I- I could surprise him…"
"No, you couldn't. Any actions against him will reveal your loyalties and
cost me."
"I'm smarter than that." Adrian mumbled sourly, swallowing down mucus
and iron.
"Considering I found you curled in your own blood and sweat, I truly am
doubting your mental capabilities."
Adrian flinched again, knowing better than to speak.
Voldemort glanced around the training room, taking in the relative
disarray of the floor and training dummies. "You've been focusing on
pyrotechnical magic."
Adrian gave a small curt laugh, something dry and loathing before he
lifted his head. He didn't bother looking at his father, instead he looked
at one of the remaining dummies. A second passed, a thin rivulet of
blood dripped down from Adrian's left nostril.
The dummy burst into fire, a contained burning fire that within
moments, ate through the thick leather. The stuffing followed, crumbling
to ash until the wooden support post slowly was revealed. Abruptly, the
fire cut off, leaving the central post singed but intact; the dummy had
burned away.
Adrian's father said nothing, yet in the strange way Adrian always knew
what his father was feeling, he could tell he was impressed and surprised.
"You've improved since your lessons with Rowle," his father stated, not a
question yet not a compliment either.
Adrian gave a small nod, looking down at where his nails dug into the
wooden floorboards, "I've been practicing."
"Curious, why you selected wandless magic of all things. I was certain
you'd follow dear Bella's...enthusiasm, for cutting curses."
Adrian gave a small roll of his shoulder, "I'm decent at those as well."
His father laughed, a low rolling noise that twisted something in Adrian's
stomach. Adrian wanted to leave, he wanted to walk away very quietly.
He didn't of course, because in as long as he could remember, his father
had never outright hurt him. Of course, he had cursed him and wounded
him but he hadn't...hurt him.
Before, Adrian would have thought it was...no, before Adrian had longed
for something as sweet as affection. He knew rationally that his father
was not the sort to irrevocably adore Adrian, which meant (as much as it
pained him) his father had a use for him.
"What's my purpose?" Adrian asked quietly, shifting into a seated
position, staring at the burned post. The aftermath of his anger.
His father smiled ever so slightly, how had Adrian ever interpreted it as
something kind?
"That's a rather...complex question. With a more intricate answer."
Adrian had thought as much. A lot of parts of his life were difficult to
explain, twisted and veiled by childhood bias.
"Is it because I'm the actual Boy-Who-Lived?"
The room seemed to chill, something in Adrian's head thrummed
painfully.
"You best keep that information to yourself, child. You never know
if….unpleasant people may take offence."
Adrian knew a threat when he heard one. Adrian almost smiled, so that
was part of it.
"You are in a unique position, child." His father spoke calmly, "a unique
weapon that will shift our tide in the war positively."
Adrian once thought that meant he would be trained for fighting, an
unstoppable force to be reckoned with. Serving as his father's right hand,
raining punishment on opposition.
He hadn't even close to enough formal training to be a decent threat. Why
would he be sent to Hogwarts if he was to be a weapon?
"I'm information, aren't I?" Adrian asked, voice bland in the quiet. "The
fact I exist is the weapon in itself. I'm not meant to fight, I'm a political
weapon."
"You must have been speaking with Adalonda, I had believed such insight
beyond you."
Adrian twitched against the jibe, but knew it was true.
Adrian was never meant to kill Skylar, he was meant to...to...to look
pretty. To exist, that's why his father instilled the Occlumency barriers,
taught him shielding and dodging. Why he sent him to Hogwarts.
What use was Adrian if Dumbledore had no idea who he was? It would
only make the...the great reveal that much sweeter to his father.
Adrian was a pawn.
"My animagus form?" Adrian asked, already knowing how dismissive his
father would act.
"Useful I will admit, granted that it is a serpent as you have said.
Convenient for spying, and staying with Nagini."
Ah, that was it. His father viewed him like he viewed Nagini.
His father did not cherish Adrian like family, he cherished him like a
trophy.
(That didn't mean that Adrian couldn't make sure he was prized above all
others.)
Albus Dumbledore sighed through his nose, exhausted and tired as he
removed his half moon spectacles to rub a weathered knuckle against his
sore eyes.
"And you're certain of this?" Albus asked tiredly.
Snape stood in half shadow of a bookcase, more pale and tired than he
had appeared in a long while, "I'm positive."
Albus sighed quietly, "Then we are in a worse position then I feared."
He folded his hands, resting them gently on the worn prophet page, the
fifth page without a photo to accompany the article header, Fourteen-
Year-Old-Witchl-Murdered-In-Home!
"He spoke Parseltongue, Albus. I didn't mishear it."
Dumbledore nodded carefully, "Then our suspicions were correct,
although I'm not positive how many threats we may be facing. I am now
certain, that this...cerastes you encountered was the same threat James
and Sirius encountered numerous years ago in the Forbidden Forest.
Merlin knows his age, or how many...trials, came before that individual."
Snape inhaled slowly, "Your suspicions over Selwyn's eventual-"
"Nothing has changed, although I believe he may be in more danger than
we originally assumed. I believe Bellatrix Lestrange's project on raising
multiple...living weapons is successful. For now, we have only found two
but perhaps Tom has ordered dozens to be raised."
"You still assume that we should not take custody over the boy."
"I believe acting hastily will only prompt the child into more violence. I
do not believe in the morality of stealing away a child, Severus. No
matter the risk."
Snape gave a sigh through his nose, "The accidental magic-"
"Oh Severus," Dumbledore shook his head quietly and sadly, "You do not
believe that fate was kind to that child. It is no accidental magic, my
friend."
Snape wisely said nothing.
"I believe," Dumbledore sighed quietly, "That we have made a grave
error."
Impstar: it looks like some animals are beginning to see something is
wrong with Adrian. Is it from that black blood he was forced to drink?
Yep!
mistykasumi: who did Adrian let starve again?
He let Ginny starve in the Chamber. She died from starvation, and it's heavily
referenced she resorted to trying to eat shed snake-skin even.
Nobody: [Condensed due to length] I feel Adrian would have
realistically "dealt" with any remaining issues by now he has seen death
torture and neglect from a young age such regret would not be a concept
that Adrian would be feeling as he has learned to survive and thrive
through any means necessary... let him process such an emotion when
you consider how emotionally stunted Adrian is he would/should have
no problems doing whatever he deems necessary...he would not regret
his choices unless it hindered him in some way
I like your points and I do agree. Honestly, It's incredibly difficult to write this
story since I don't have accurate data as to cognitive developments in the
precise factors of Adrian's childhood. It's mostly just guesswork, but this
chapter hopefully serves with your points in regards to Adrian's mindset and
mortality. The guilt is over. PM me for more info!
greenking13: ...
...
Ginny.
Ginny! :)
Marshmallowmann: your authors notes are too long.
If I have a lot to respond to, you all get a double chapter. It compensates for it,
but if it really is distracting, head over to AO3 where responses are in a
different format and don't interfere.
OmnipotentOminousmagician: I am also hoping that Adrian kills or
mutilatws Umbridge like in Shadowed Malice, but in a morbidly funny
way...Is Adrian's animagus form a basilisk?...Is Adrian going to help teach
the DA at all?...Does everybody think Bellatrix is Adrian's biological
mother?Is Adrian particularly intelligent or skilled a wizard, will he not
flop his OWLS with all the classs he ditches?Why does Umbridge think
his curse scar is a mark of creature heritage? Since Adrian hardly seems
to care about getting in trouble...why does he not just restart his deals?
When he eventually discovers Voldemort is manipulating him will Adrian
create a third faction with Luna? Why will Pomfrey not tell Adrian he has
some kind of terminal ilness? Is his ilness something magical that will kill
him, or a real psychological disorder?
Umbridge is going down. His animagus form is influenced by external factors,
but yes it is. He helps the DA, if only to keep an eye on them and let out
steam. Everyone thinks he's adopted by Bellatrix. He's intelligent in magical
creature studies, as well as some spellwork and defense. Adrian doesn't care
about OWLS, his life is already planned for him (working for his father.)
Umbridge is stupid, and incredibly ableist and views his scars as something
lesser/tainted blood (werewolf perhaps). The deals would result in his
expulsion, which he isn't allowed to do. Adrian's third faction is 'Screw-You-
Guys' and goes rogue. Pomfrey doesn't know Adrian has a terminal illness,
only that he is depressed. He is both afflicted with a mental health concern,
and a legitimate magical disease.
TheStoryWever: Nah. No way Dumbledore will ever have everyone
compile any suspicious or 'possible clues' about Adrian...That would be
ridiculous. And require a serious catalyst to get Dumbledore's attention.
Perhaps Adrian acting completely out of character?Hunting down
thieving ravenc- ahem... Nargles, perhaps?
It's curious how you think that Adrian would be the one acting out. Perhaps
someone is worried for him, and inquires on his behalf.
jeannie kaulitz: i think the thing that he drank did really boost his
power but at the same time, his life forces is being taken away. like,
everytime he uses it, he takes off years in his life and that's where he's
going to die.
Oooh, you're on a right path.
Batman: [Condensed due to length]...I also don't like but understand
why Adrian wants Voldemort's acceptance and all but the sociopath
doesn't particularly care. It's just unfair that Adrian has the disadvantage
of emotional turmoil etc but perfectly understandable giving his
circumstances and all.
This chapter can also be called 'Adrian grows a backbone, and realizes screw-
emotional-turmoil
Just a reminder to everyone, that although I genuinely respect your
opinions and criticism on this story, please do not send me antagonistic
messages and threats. I understand you may not agree with my
portrayal in this story, however I feel that such actions are unnecessary.
53. Caiman
This chapter was beta'd by our amazing Beta Collective
-Arctic Fox From Afar
-Mahina
-Cyndaquil05
-4everfictional
-Scion of House Lucifer
-Parsi
-Acelenny
-S4m
- and countless anonymous helpers!
Thanks to everyone who checked out the fanart! Feel free to look at
any time!
Double Chapter Once again!
'I can cast anything, I know I can. I mean, I mean I can. I'm not struggling in
classes, I mean I can do the spellwork. I can do it. I can cast anything. I can
do it.'
Adrian slipped back into Hogwarts like rain on a sunny day.
Unsuspecting, invisible in the daylight, and unfathomably sad.
The welcome back feast was a somber affair, candles lit with a dim glow
as Albus Dumbledore stood at his pedestal with a grave expression.
Dolores Umbridge looked content and gleeful, wand resting on the table
in front of her, as if the concerns of those beneath her were pleasantries.
"It is a pleasure to welcome you all back from your holiday break,
although all news cannot be joyful in such a trying time." Dumbledore
started, his voice resonating throughout the hall.
"It has come to my attention, that once more in our halls, a student has
failed to join us, and forever will be unable to. Suzie Forestar, a fourth
year Slytherin student, was found murdered in her home by dark forces."
Dolores Umbridge leaned forward obviously, as if moving for her wand.
Dumbledore ignored it with grace.
"I find it my duty, as a headmaster and as a human being, to consider the
danger we live in, and remember those who have passed far too soon
beyond our help and wishes."
'Get rid of her!'
Adrian flinched, head held low.
"And I want to remind you all, to stay vigilant. And to remember those,
who have left us."
'Let her starve to death.'
Adrian slowly lifted his head, breathed in and then out.
He felt peace, the small slow acceptance of something much greater than
him. A sense of humbleness in wake of something much larger than him;
a sense of comprehension and enlightenment a blind man receives seeing
the sun the first time.
Through the Great Hall Adrian's eyes met silver.
Adrian inhaled.
'They are only rats.'
Adrian exhaled.
Luna Lovegood was crying quietly.
Educational Decree Number Twenty-Six.
All students are hereby banned from conversing with teachers outside of
academic assignment.
"Luna, what do you think about destiny?"
"The concept? Well, I think it's a bit silly. Isn't destiny made by people?"
"What about prophecies?"
"I don't believe in them."
"Really? Even when the Ministry keeps record of prophecies? Doesn't that
mean they're real?"
"What fun are prophecies if not to throw the unknown word of gods to simple
swine and see what conclusions they misinterpret."
Educational Decree Number Twenty-Seven
The paper titled 'The Quibbler' is hereby banned from Hogwarts grounds and
property. Any person seen reading such paper is to be immediately reported.
"Why were you never upset with me, when I hurt Draco?"
"I was, but I thought better of it. I don't like it when you hurt people."
"Do you like me?"
"Of course I do."
"So why are you so bothered by it? Why won't you let me scare the students
who bully you, Luna?"
"It's not the right thing to do."
"But being bullied is the right thing?"
Educational Decree Number Twenty-Eight
All students are hereby banned from exchanging goods or merchandise in
systematic order of a bartering network. Any student seen or heard of fencing
such products will be immediately expelled from the grounds.
"Do you think the world is good, Luna?"
"Do you?"
"No. No I think it's actually a horrible place."
"..."
"Is it wrong to think like that?"
Daphne was a woman on a mission.
She found Adrian, curled around a book but not actually studying the
content. Likely something for Defense Class- he managed to always rack
up an immeasurable amount of extra assignments.
"Selwyn," She spoke in lieu of a greeting. Her tone cold and bland. Adrian
jolted, looking at her with a somewhat blank expression.
No- a somewhat dead expression in his eyes.
"Greengrass," he quietly answered back, closing his eyes and keeping
them shut. He had long eyelashes, she hadn't ever noticed that before.
"Did you read the paper?" Daphne asked dully, the words sour and
stagnant in the air. "Or did you find out about Suzie Forestar when the
Headmaster told us?"
Adrian sighed quietly, he sounded tired. Daphne noticed instantly that he
didn't open his eyes, instead he looked more tired.
"I don't want to do this now, Greengrass."
"Too bad," She snapped sourly, feeling frustration and annoyance bubble
in her blood. With how much she had warned Astoria, Daphne knew she
shouldn't be acting so aggressive towards Adrian, especially given how
dangerous he was.
She couldn't help it- Adrian always had been a bit of a jerk, an untactful
arse that always left her prickling in annoyance, but that never
justified….justified…
Daphne felt like screaming, so she settled for a sharp bite to her hissed
accusation. "I know you always hated her, and now she's murdered?"
"What!" Adrian snapped suddenly, a complete turn from his passive
expression before. His eyes widened suddenly, the whites prominent
against the ghostly pallor of his skin. The red marks across his flesh, the
scars, matched the small blood vessels across his eyes. His nostrils flared
slightly, rhythmic to the clenching of his hands. Daphne could already
imagine the flames licking at her clothing.
"Do you think I did it?" Adrian spit out, pupils dilated and entire body
looking ready to spring. It was a violent reaction, and although Daphne
knew how volatile Adrian was, even this seemed unexpected.
Daphne could hardly breathe, her lungs refusing to fill properly. 'Yes' she
thought dazed, swallowing any words she could have uttered.
Something in Adrian's expression looked tortured, like a feral dog tied to
a post knowing the sun was setting. Something afraid, something
animalistic, something being hunted.
'What could possibly terrify you, Adrian Selwyn?' Daphne thought to herself.
Images of blood and bone flashed through her head, of something
screaming and fire- terrible fire. Surely Adrian himself knew, that one
day when he finally fractured, he would be something horrible to face.
(And yet, somehow underneath the terror, there was a sense of calm
acceptance. A knowledge, or an epiphany that was still a mystery to
Daphne herself.)
It was a terrifying expression.
"Suzie was a brat and I'm glad she's dead!" Adrian hissed, tilting his head
sideways a noticeable angle. A strange tilt that looked like it would hurt
Daphne's neck muscles. Adrian didn't even blink, maintaining a nearly
bulging eye expression teetering closely to something manic. "Is that what
you want to hear?"
Daphne's heart beat loudly, she could scarcely inhale enough to breathe.
Adrian's expression wilted inwards in a single second. He curled in on
himself, clutching the book tightly in his hands yet he didn't appear
devastated. He seemed calm, serenity in chaos, "Leave me alone,
Greengrass."
Daphne turned and walked away, all the way to the dorms where she
found Astoria settled on a chair inconspicuously waiting. Astoria leapt to
her feet, nearly skipping down the hall to her room, dragging Daphne
behind her with a look.
The door closed and flashed blue, privacy wards locking in place. It was
silly to think about, but behind the doors and the privacy wards, Daphne
finally felt that she could breathe again.
"What's wrong Daphne?" Astoria asked, blinking owlishly as she peered in
Daphne's eyes, "Can you show me?"
How strange, Astoria's eyes were wide like Adrian's but they didn't even
begin to mirror the silent words in them.
A second passed, than two, and Astoria flinched back as if shaken.
"What is it?" Daphne asked quietly, still alarmed by the sudden twist.
"I think…" Astoria blinked wide eyed and starstruck, as if the world was
about to fall apart, "I think you shouldn't talk to that boy anymore,
Daphne."
'I know.'
Daphne made a noise of frustration, something anxious and tired. "I've
been telling you that! I told you to stay away from him!"
Astoria shook her head slowly, "Daphne, I…"
"What is it, Astoria?" Daphne asked quietly. "Do we need to go to
Professor Snape?"
"No." Astoria assured quickly, "That's why she's dead. She...she must have
messaged someone, which means I was right."
"What are you talking about?" Daphne asked, now on the verge of tears.
She was just...so tired of all of this.
Astoria looked dazed and she sat down heavily, "He was blood adopted,
by the man you saw. But it must have been him- he's...he's a
parselmouth, but…"
"What?" Daphne hissed quietly.
Astoria turned her wide gaze on Daphne, and never had Daphne felt a
chill so cold. Such a foreboding expression didn't fit on her smaller frail
sister's face. Astoria was too small for this, too frail and at times Daphne
thought she had a weight on her shoulders far too much for her to bare.
Her eyes sometimes gazed off, and her hair was a thin whisper so
shushed it left Daphne afraid that one day her sister would vanish in a
strong breeze.
Her sister knew things, it made Daphne question Astoria's fervent denial
over being a seer.
(Not that she needed it, she was a terror with Legilimency)
"Daphne," Astoria started, pausing and looking very very scared, "I think
Adrian Selwyn... murdered Suzie Forestar's brother, and had a hand in
her death as well."
"Do you remember it, when your mother died?"
"Of course I do."
"You saw it, didn't you."
"I did. It was terrible, I don't think I'll ever forget it...But I don't think about it
much anymore."
"Is it wrong to forget about it? To just...stop caring about what it looks like?"
"What, death?"
"All of it, Luna."
Educational Decree Twenty-Nine gave the formal permission to replace
Albus Dumbledore with Dolores Umbridge.
Never had Adrian felt so on edge.
It felt like every painting in the corridors watched him, eyes trailing on
his form no matter where he went.
Something about it was bugging Lutain, even before break Lutain had
mentioned something felt off. His familiar found more time to spend in
the Chamber or on his own than around Adrian's shoulders. The serpent
wasn't comfortable under such surveillance.
Skylar seemed...more difficult than usual. The boy was going out of his
way to be friendly, overly nice and positive whenever the moment struck.
Gentler, yet more firm on hanging out or interacting. He was...Adrian
couldn't explain it. It was almost as if the boy was carefully testing him,
treating him like expensive china yet at the same time- not.
It was….strange.
The next secret meeting of the DA was an endeavor to plan- delayed by
multiple days due to Umbridge's oppressive eye.
When they could finally meet, it was more out of built up anxiety and
stress than satisfaction.
Skylar was nearly bouncing on his feet, looking a sick shade of pale
despite it all. He looked exhausted, just as everyone else.
"Hello! I'm so happy to see you all here," Skylar started, looking very
relieved that so many people showed for the meeting, "Especially with
Umbridge around."
Fred and George snorted, "Like we're going to listen to that-"
"-toad of a woman."
Skylar smiled, looking at every individual face until his eyes rested on
Adrian. Something tightened, something in his eyes changed until his
expression seemed unmistakably different.
"Anyways," Hermione cleared her throat loudly, hoisting herself to sit on
the top of a wooden crate, sitting next to the large blackboard that had
been dragged into the room, "We were thinking of defensive spells now
instead of OWL level spells because we-"
"We need to protect ourselves," Skylar bluntly added, licking his lips as
he peered around anxiously, "I- look. I...Suzie Forestar was one of us, she
may have been Slytherin but she was just a kid."
"You think you can make us good duelers?" One student asked
skeptically, crossing her arms as if to protect her, an unmistakably
defensive body position.
"No, not that at all." Skylar shook his head, his expression more stony, "I
think that we all need to know how to stall for time, because who knows
when it's going to be your family? Your friends?"
"You think time is going to save us?"
"Time could have saved a lot of us," Skylar retorted, eyes sharp and flinty
in the room, "It could have- just a few small seconds could make the
difference. It could save you, or…"
"Your sister," Ron added quietly, looking at his feet.
The topic, the sudden real connection twisted something in the room. It
sombered suddenly, the skepticism melted away to leave the rough raw
undeniable truth of Skylar's words.
"I think we should learn the Patronus Charm," Skylar explained loudly,
"It- it isn't only a shield against dark creatures, but it can also be sent
distances as a messenger."
Fred and George Weasley nodded as one and stepped forward looking
trademark giddy, "We're in!"
The spell was hard, but the realization that the world was harder
motivated them to do their best.
They began working, although Skylar did announce that producing a
Patronus in the middle of a brightly lit classroom when they were not
under threat was very different to producing it when confronted by
something like a dementor.
"But they're so pretty!" A girl sighed happily, trailing her hands through
the swirling silver mist. Her patronus took on a bold swan-like shape,
soaring around the Room of Requirements.
"They aren't supposed to be pretty, they're supposed to protect you,"
Skylar scolded, although it was only half hearted considering the
beaming smile across his face, "We really need to grab a boggart or
something."
Hermione's Patronus, a shining silver otter, was gamboling around the
room.
"They are sort of nice, aren't they?" Hermione said rhetorically, looking at
the otter.
Neville Longbottom was having the worst luck, his face was screwed up
in concentration, but only feeble wisps of silver smoke drifted from the
tip of his wand.
"You've got to think of something happy," Skylar gently reminded him.
"I'm trying," said Neville miserably, nearly shaking from the exertion.
The two jumped as someone new had drifted nearby, looking with a
critical eye.
"Ah- h-hello." Neville mumbled, looking alarmed and incredibly
uncomfortable with the close proximity to the Slytherin.
"Hey," Skylar chirped, looking at Adrian with a slightly curious look,
"Neville is still having a bit of trouble."
Adrian blinked slowly and the movement made the facial scars (although
they were turning silvery, they were no less disturbing) twist
unsettlingly.
"Fake it," Adrian sighed, as if merely coming over was beneath him, "The
memory doesn't have to be real."
Skylar floundered, "It...it doesn't?"
Adrian snorted softly through his nose, "No, it doesn't."
"I-Is yours? Real?" Neville gulped out, causing Adrian to pause and stare
at the other boy as if he had asked something outrageous.
Skylar was holding his breath, as well as Fred and George Weasley, ready
to intercept with twin Coyotes weaving through the legs of nearby
students.
Adrian blinked slowly once again, "It's fake. I don't have any happy
memories, so I made them up."
Somehow, the concept of that was horrifying.
Adrian pointed his wand in front of him, to the side of the two. He cast
the spell quietly, his whole body shuttering as he very quietly gasped as
if it pained him.
His patronus solidified in something large and lumbering, close to the
ground with a thick hefty tail.
It was big, and it kept getting bigger.
Hermione gave a squeal climbing onto the crate to lift her legs off the
ground where the scaled patronus rumbled lowly, its snout rather blunt
but filled with many many teeth.
"Is that- is than an alligator?"
Zacharias Smith whooped from across the room, squinting at the reptile
fascinated.
"It's...it's big." Neville breathed in alarm, looking highly alarmed.
"It's a black caiman." Adrian looked slightly proud, "They're the apex
predator where they live."
"Sure it's not a crocodile?" Someone asked unsure, although interested by
the way the eight foot reptile was waddling its streamline body around
the room.
"No, it's bigger than one." Adrian shrugged, staring at the patronus.
"Aren't Caiman really aggressive?" Hermione blanched, "They've attacked
people!"
Adrian grinned, showing teeth as he beckoned Skylar with his wand,
"Yours, eh?"
Skylar grinned in queu, the strangely gleeful expression that always
appeared when Adrian challenged him to something. Skylar nodded,
bellowing the spell and sending something long with spindly legs leaping
through the air, bounding above heads as it chuffed and tossed its horns
proud.
It was slightly smaller than a dear, and its horns branched from its skull
outwards before stabbing straight upwards with small ridges around the
base.
"It's an antelope," Skylar unnecessarily added, "Empala?"
"Impala." Adrian murmured quietly, the antelope's nostrils flared, silvery
fur practically glowing in the light.
The Caiman hissed, thrashing in alarm as something leapt onto its back.
A rabbit- no, a hare the size of a small dog.
"Sorry about that," Luna apologized, not looking sad at all, "I'm amazed
you can cast a patronus, Adrian."
Adrian scowled looking slightly annoyed, "I told you I could."
Luna shook her head in disbelief, or to make her earrings jingle, "Yes, but
I didn't know if you'd still be able to."
Adrian repressed a shudder, and Skylar found himself pausing as he
considered the words.
Why would Adrian not be able to produce a patronus anymore? Skylar
had heard cases of course, where the memories used to create the
patronus were too painful to remember, even in danger. His dad had told
him a few examples of other aurors, unable to manage the spell after the
death of a loved one.
Why would Adrian be stressed or struggle with the spell? The only one
that had died recently was Suzie Forestar, and the rumor mill had
suggested that the two had never gotten along well.
Skylar felt himself repress a twitch with how callously he thought 'that
had died recently.'
How could he think like that? How could he just...just accept someone
dying as normality? As an event likely to be repeated?
"I thought you knew I'm good with most spells, Luna." Adrian bantered
back, tone sharp yet his body language suggested he was more calm in
her presence.
Luna smiled dreamily, "Except for hair charms. Yours are terrible."
Adrian's lip twitched slightly as he looked away, observing the massive
caiman as it opened its terrifying maw and stayed stationary.
"I think it's funny," Luna offered with a shrug, "That your patronus is a
caiman. They're related to crocodiles aren't they? But they only live in
South America, and they're very mean."
"Maybe I'm mean." Adrian shot back, causing Luna to reach out and
gently bop his nose as if he was a misbehaving cat.
"I like yours, Skylar. It's very cute. They're very fast, and live in Africa I
think." Luna tapped her lip consideringly, watching the Impala leap
through the air above.
"Yeah, it's faster than most patronus." Skylar admitted with a small grin,
"Nothing impressive to look at but I think it's accurate."
Luna nodded knowingly and turned to glance over her shoulder. Adrian
sighed loudly as he spotted another student approaching his caiman with
no regard for self safety. He snuck off, walking through the crowd likely
to deter the student from aggravating the giant lizard.
Luna watched him walk before she paused, stiff and suddenly incredibly
serious, Skylar almost stumbled at the sudden change of her personality.
"Okay," she confirmed calmly, looking back at Skylar.
'She was looking to see if someone was listening.'
"Do you want a privacy w-" Skylar started before Luna shook her head-
radish earrings and hair whirling around.
"He'll notice," Luna shrugged as if noticing a ward was common, "Do you
think it's strange how your patronus and Adrian's are foes?"
Skylar reeled, what?
"I mean, they aren't really." Luna shrugged, gazing off sightless, "Yours
lives in Africa and Adrian's lives in South America. But your patronus is
an antelope, and his is similar to a crocodile."
Her eyes sharpened suddenly, looking serious and searching, "Don't you
think it's strange? How you're so similar to enemies but so far apart?"
"I-" Skylar bumbled, entirely off guard with the topic, "I- Luna, what are
you talking about?"
Luna looked unsure with the questioning, and looked even more paranoid
in the close quarters they were standing in, "He's sick."
Skylar's head was whirling from the sudden topic change. With
how...oppressively serious Luna was acting, he knew better than to
question her. He would go along with everything she said.
Skylar chewed on his bottom lip quietly, "I- I know there's something
wrong but-"
"No, no he's sick," Luna stressed, her entire body tense as if hanging by a
single taught rope, "There's something wrong."
Luna had always been a rather strange one, yet she seemed to have a
keen understanding of when things were unusual. She had surprised
Skylar on many occasions with knowing information she shouldn't have,
and through a few instances even Hermione gave her grudging respect.
Luna knew things, yet not in the strange supernatural way that Trelawney
was always bemoaning about. Skylar had begun to suspect that she was a
very very good actor, and constantly portrayed herself more daft than
usual to simply listen to what others didn't hear.
Skylar also believed that she was very lonely.
"Okay," Skylar agreed quietly, "Would you like to talk later? After this?"
Luna gave the slightest inclination of a nod before she twirled away,
nearly sending Neville flying.
The caiman gave a low rumble, snapping its silver jaws shut with a
resonating crack!
Near the end of the alloted time, Neville was able to conjure the roughest
shape of a patronus, thanks to the surprising help of Adrian. The patronus
wasn't corporeal yet, flickering between a misty shield or the condensed
flash of something silver and furry.
Ron's patronus, a Jack Russell Terrier, eagerly barked at the door,
personally saying goodbye to the groups of students who slipped out into
the hallways cheerily.
Adrian lingered slightly, sticking to the back wall as he watched the
groups leave, even reciprocating a small wave to the twins.
'He's sick' Skylar thought to himself unsure, looking at the other student a
bit closer.
Adrian Selwyn did appear the slightest bit more pale, although it could
have been the lighting. The dark circles under his eyes were slightly
alarming, yet Skylar couldn't imagine him without them.
The branching scars across his skin were impossible to count, looking
sore and angry although they were starting to silver with age. His eyes
were different too, ever since break he had been staring off in thought
more than before. Moments where he wouldn't meet anyone's eyes,
tracing bricks with fingers absentmindedly as if fretting over something
unknown. He seemed in dilemma, or an ultimatum.
There was something more worrying as well- the fact that Luna had
mentioned what Skylar had firmly been denying.
Remus had mentioned that he as well as Professor Dumbledore suspected
that Adrian was intended to try and kill him, the fact that his patronus
took the form of something so similar to Skylar's patronus' natural enemy
was alarming.
Of course it could be nothing, but a patronus was supposed to reveal or
match parts of the soul- the expression of your innate being.
Skylar knew that his patronus, the Impala or simply the antelope,
represented him pretty well. It was small, but incredibly fast and able to
leap heights so high it almost soared. Catching it when it was running
was no easy feat, and the males took care of the herd and scouted for
threats.
It matched him rather well, more than a deer ever would (although his
dad had been a bit put out).
But a caiman...well, Skylar didn't know much about crocodiles (or
whatever a caiman was), but what he did know was how they lurked in
rivers and dragged prey into the water and drowned it.
And they had a wicked bite.
Skylar didn't know enough about the animals to begin with, so it
probably wasn't worth thinking too much about it.
"Hey mate, we're heading out," Ron cheerfully added, clapping Skylar on
the shoulder once, "You coming?"
Skylar hesitated, "I'm staying back. Luna wants to talk to me."
Ron's eyebrows rose, "Luna? Loony Lovegood?"
"Don't call her that, honestly." Hermione huffed, smacking Ron with one
of her arms as she peered around to look at Skylar worriedly, "Is
something the matter?"
"No, nothing like that." Skylar assured with a small smile, "Ah, just
something maybe important."
Ron frowned and looked at Skylar with a small tilt of his head, "You're a
terrible liar, mate."
Skylar huffed slightly, "Okay, well, I'm just worried over Adrian."
Ron blurted out in a slightly annoyed tone, "Selwyn?" the same time
Hermione yelped, "Adrian!"
The two paused, glancing at each other before looking back at Skylar in
worry.
"What's wrong with Adrian?" Hermione hurriedly said, words slurring
together so that it took a small moment for Skylar to even realize what
she said. "Is it because he ran off over break?"
That was a mystery that they all had to uncover, although Skylar knew
Adrian wouldn't give that information up willingly.
Ron looked a bit more skeptic of the situation, "Why are you worrying
about him, mate?"
Skylar withheld his first impulsive answer, and thought carefully in his
head.
Both Ron and Hermione knew that Adrian Selwyn was in some sort of
trouble, or at least had some sort of 'bloody weird background' in Ron's
words.
Ron had been suspicious that Adrian was a more approachable Draco,
and a 'death eater spy', whereas Hermione had vehemently defended
Adrian's character multiple times.
Hermione had used Adrian's almost charming help and library encounters
back in their first and second years- yet after that (and after he had been
cursed to London and back) he was...different.
More reserved, quiet but undoubtedly more mean. Skylar hadn't told Ron
and Hermione about the time he had to practically drag the other boy off
of Draco, or how much blood really had been shed that day. He knew
without a doubt, that Ron would jump to conclusions and Hermione
would take Adrian's side and once again Skylar would have to mediate
the peace.
It was out of the question to even think about telling them what Remus
had confided in Skylar. He knew that although his two friends meant
well, they didn't know enough about the situation to really form an
unbiased opinion. Yet, on that same trail of thought Skylar wasn't telling
them enough information to not be biased. It was a predicament, and
although he would really love input and advice he didn't feel comfortable
sharing Adrian's personal information.
Something about all of this...sat wrong in Skylar's stomach. It felt private,
inclusive only to Skylar and Skylar alone.
"It's likely nothing," Skylar hesitantly stated, "Luna's worried that he's sick
and doesn't want to admit it."
Hermione tilted her head and pursed her lips considerably, "He was
really helpful today! I didn't think Neville would ever get the patronus
charm." she confessed.
"He was helpful." Ron grudgingly admitted, although he looked almost
annoyed by the fact.
Skylar missed when he too, was that innocent.
"I'm just going to hear Luna out." Skylar smiled reassuringly, "You two
head back, i'll catch up in a bit."
"Don't let Umbridge get you!" Ron retorted, already heading towards the
exit doors.
As soon as they left, Luna entered the room. She likely had been waiting
outside to give the three privacy; Skylar felt almost guilty at how long
she had waited.
"Luna," Skylar greeted pleasantly, peering around the room for anything
to sit on.
Almost instantly, two chairs popped into existence, plush and
comfortable mimicking the Gryffindor common room chairs.
"Oh this is nice," Luna commented, hopping onto her velvet chair with a
happy sigh, "Very homey."
"It's a miracle anyone leaves the tower," Skylar joked with a small quirk
to his mouth.
She smiled, hiding the fragile expression behind a curtain of blonde hair.
Skylar hadn't ever seen her so exposed, the dreamy facade washed away
by concern.
Skylar's gentle smile fell, and he was once again reminded of her worried
voice just an hour before. "What's this about, Luna?"
Luna plucked something from her pocket, a polished wooden talisman
with string and little dried flowers. She played with it in her hands,
turning it over and running her fingers over carved symbols that likely
didn't actually enchant the object.
"I'm worried." Luna muttered, looking reluctant to even speak.
Skylar breathed in, and then out. She was far too stressed to even begin
speaking, and Skylar found the idea of digging for details too rude or
invasive.
"What sort of talisman is that?" He inquired, peering at the deep brown
wood and fraying string.
"Oh," She blinked, holding it out for Skylar's closer inspection, "It's a
celtic torque. They're usually made out of metal, but I thought that
selkies would like the wood more."
Skylar raised the talisman for further investigation, biting his tongue
when he realized that the string was actually very carefully braided strips
of rubbery leather.
"I make them a lot," Luna mentioned, "I like to think that they help."
"Help with what?" Skylar inquired, gently investigating the small dried
flowers, held together likely from a stasis charm.
Luna fiddled with a lock of her hair, accepting the talisman when it was
returned, "Well, some of them are to make other people happier. Some
are to ward off the doxies or lysalanders. That hasn't helped, so I've tried
helping the thestrals more, and making these for selkies or phoenixes or
cat siths."
Skylar rolled his tongue in his mouth, thinking. He knew what selkies
were- Dean Thomas had mentioned seeing a pack swimming off the coast
in the ocean when he was a kid. The creatures were seal-women, and
generally peaceful if left alone. Cat sith's were different, he had thought
that it was just a nickname for feline animagi'. Phoenixes on the other
hand, he knew plenty well.
"Have you met Fawkes?" Skylar asked curiously, "He's Professor
Dumbledore's familiar, a big phoenix."
Luna looked hesitant, "I don't think Fawkes would like me."
"Fawkes likes everyone," Skylar insisted, "He's very beautiful as well, I
think you'd like him a lot."
Luna shook her head, radish earrings bouncing back and forth, "I visit the
thestrals too much, I don't think Fawkes would be comfortable with me."
That was new information. "Do thestrals and phoenix's not get along?"
Luna bit her lip and fumbled with the talisman between her thumbs, "I
didn't think they would. Phoenix's brighten the soul and thestrals steal
them."
"What." What?
Luna shrunk back, "I...Phoenixes help you with their song? It... it lifts the
soul and makes you lighter. Thestrals are like cat siths, they're made from
souls."
Skylar's brain was barely understanding what Luna was saying, "What
about selkies then?"
"They judge them," Luna's voice was quiet, as if she was confessing
something she didn't want to, "Selkies can tell, I think they smell it."
Skylar didn't even know that a soul existed.
Well, no that wasn't true. He knew Dementors kissed by sucking out the
soul of a person, apparently leaving them lifeless but still living. Hagrid
had also mentioned that thestrals had something to do with souls also,
but had insisted that they were completely docile. It would be rather silly
to think that nothing else could affect a 'soul'.
"Well, why don't we go to Fawkes and we'll see what he thinks about all
of this soul stuff?" Skylar offered, "I mean, you weren't positive he
wouldn't like you, so maybe he will."
Luna looked torn, "Professor Dumbledore is gone because of Umbridge.
But-"
Skylar held out his hand, "I'm sure that your soul is perfectly fine, Luna."
She stilled, looking at him as if a great tragedy had taken place, "Oh
Skylar, it's not me."
Several things clicked into place at once.
Skylar swallowed and tried to think clearly- it was no use leaping to
conclusions, "You're worried about Adrian?"
Luna chewed on her tongue and nodded quietly.
"Well," Skylar thought rapidly, "I don't know if you know this, but his
scar is a curse scar and sometimes-"
"It isn't that," Luna corrected quietly, "He...It was after that. The thestrals
are different now, since the start of this year."
"I'm sure it's nothing Luna, he'd likely go to Madam Pomfrey if he thinks
he's sick-"
Luna shook her head, almost desperate with the action, "Skylar he's sick."
'Okay, okay.' Skylar thought to himself quickly, 'I'll ask him.'
"Do you think that I could convinc-"
"No!" She nearly shouted, "You can't tell him I told you anything!"
Skylar nearly jumped at how loud she suddenly was.
"You can't." Luna's lower lip trembled, "He- I don't...Skylar you can't."
"Okay I won't!" Skylar hushed her, eyes wide at how bizarre the entire
conversation is, "Why tell me then?"
Luna's lip was trembling harder, her eyes glassy as if about to cry,
"Because I don't know what to do anymore."
"I wasn't going to tell you," Luna confessed quietly, "I thought that I could
fix this on my own, but I don't think I can."
"It was stupid of me to think that I could actually do anything." Luna
sniffed, and with a pang of horror Skylar realized that she was crying.
"But there's something wrong with him, and..and I can't do anything."
Skylar exhaled shakily, "How...how do you know something's wrong?"
Luna wiped her eyes on her sleeve, sniffling quietly, "My mother was a
spell creator. She...she'd experiment and they had a taste."
Skylar struggled to comprehend what she was saying, "A taste?"
"A feeling," Luna mumbled, correcting herself, "Like when you hear
crinkling parchment and you feel tingles down your spine?"
That Skylar understood, he knew that feeling well.
"It's like that, but there's a feeling kinda, cold or warm. Sour, bitter…"
Luna tucked her legs to her chest, "He was kinda warm, like when a
match is too close to your fingers. But now he…" Her face twisted,
looking sickened and somehow furious, "It's like that feeling after you
sniff bubotuber pus."
Skylar ran his fingers through his hair in exhaustion. He kinda knew
what Luna was talking about, his mother had an affinity for charms and
had confessed a few times that each charm almost had a sound to it. Luna
having a feeling for specific people would be weird, but considering that
curse residue could be picked up by anyone a bit sensitive to spells, it
wasn't that strange. Skylar thought he remembered a foggy statistic, some
number of witches able to have a sense with magic. It was too far back to
remember the number clearly, but he thought it had been high.
And to think, all this time people thought Luna strange when really she
could just feel a tiny bit of spellwork. No wonder she had caught onto the
patronus charm so fast.
"Okay, is anyone else like that?" Skylar asked, thinking through the entire
exchange, "Or has the err...the pus been recent?"
"Nobody else, and since the start of this year." Luna shrugged, pausing
and looking incredibly reluctant.
"...his head is cold." She confessed, closing her eyes in defeat, "It hurts,
Skylar."
Oh.
'We're thinking Adrian may be cursed as a weapon to be used against you. He
may try to kill you due to Bellatrix.'
Skylar stood suddenly, feeling nauseous. "How long?"
It was almost as if Luna understood how grave the information was as
she nearly whispered, "Always."
Since before he was cursed then.
Skylar was beginning to think, that Remus had been right.
Skylar had always referred to his fellow classmates as something
innocent, something naive despite their best wishes to know more. They
haven't experienced the world, yet in retrospect Skylar hadn't either. The
difference, was that Skylar had grown up far too soon under the weight
of loveless support. He had received fanmail, intermingled with death
threats and manic words of devotion, bordering on unsettling devotion.
Since he was a toddler, witches and wizards would whisper about him in
corridors, in the streets. More than once he'd seen a shapeless figure
leave him tokens of love, of respect laced with poisons and honey. Skylar
had seen death- although now he guessed he could say that he had seen
death. He had loved people, he had lost people. He was a hypocrite, but
he was aware of it. He didn't consider himself a child, and the welfare of
another student (no matter how much it pained him) was not a concern
for someone who had the literal weight of the Wizarding World on his
shoulders.
Yet something about Luna struck him deeply, like a thorn he could never
quite dig out from the meat of his palm. Her words were gentle, they
oozed like fresh blood or perhaps the desperate pleas of forgiveness from
someone who committed manslaughter. Luna was a child, matured in
areas that hurt Skylar to think about but she was still a child.
It wasn't time for her to speak in metaphors, or only half truths. Skylar
was tired of games, he was tired of this immense pressure that weighed
on him so heavily it was difficult to rise in the mornings. Luna knew
something, but she was a child.
(Skylar was a child too.)
"Luna," Skylar's voice dropped, barely a tone deeper but perhaps the
inflection behind it was what really struck the girl. "I'm asking you this as
a friend, but I need you to know that I can't do anything, unless you tell
me everything."
Luna chewed on her bottom lip. "You'll help him?"
Skylar settled himself and gave the smallest of a nod towards her, "if It's
within my abilities. But you need to know, that if I can't help him, I can't
just let him suffer alone. If this is beyond me, I need to get him proper
help."
Luna's eyes widened in alarm, a small gasp leaving her mouth. "No- no,
Skylar you can't."
"What do you expect me to do?" Skylar snapped back, feeling instantly
guilty for treating her so sharply. "I'm sorry, I don't mean it like that. It's
just...what can I do that someone else can't? I can't help him with medical
attention, or laws or other problems he may have, Luna. I'm just a kid
still, I really can't do much unless you let me."
Luna was shaking ever so slightly, and Skylar realized just how much
pressure the other girl must be under. "I- I need you to listen-"
"Luna," Skylar soothed her with a resigned smile, "I'm not a trained
mediwizard. I can listen, but if there's a problem I really can't do
anything else. I don't know how, I'm not certified and...and it's not really
fair to me."
Luna looked shaken, alarmed in a sharp aware way. "You're not going to
help him? I'm his friend."
"Being his friend doesn't equate to taking on his problems," Skylar
soothed back. Luna was just a child. "To be a good friend, you don't need
to take on his burdens alone. That's not your job."
Luna's eyes welled with tears, and Skylar felt so immensely saddened.
They were all so young, this war truly was something unspeakable.
"Luna, is it wrong to do terrible things for someone you care about?"
"You're scaring me, Adrian."
'I can appar- I can do magic. I have...I've done magic that's advanced. Very
advanced. I'm strong, I- I know I'm strong. I can- Moody said this was going to
make me useful. I'm useful. I'm so so useful.'
Since the removal of Dumbledore as Headmaster, and the decree banning
all teachers and students to converse, Skylar had barely an opportunity to
talk to anyone about what Luna had confided.
The floo network was being monitored, and all owls were being searched.
He knew that any attempt to contact Dumbledore would result in disaster.
He could see why Luna was so stressed over the information, and now
that Skylar knew it was all that he could think about.
Even if he could get a letter out to Remus, but with Umbridge watching
the halls so carefully, it would be nearly impossible. At this point, Skylar
would have settled with talking to a legal or parental representative, but
requesting one would only draw more attention and make things worse.
Skylar didn't think that Umbridge would allow him to call in his parents
under student rights, he was sure she'd find a way to ban that also.
"It's getting to me," Skylar confessed with a scowl and a half hearted kick
at the ground. "There's nowhere in this castle that's away from her!"
Hermione rolled her eyes but didnt lift her head from the book she was
reading, "What do you expect? With so many accidents at the castle, it
would look terrible on her record."
"Yeah mate, plus I think she has it out for everyone." Ron added, poking
and shifting a stack of parchment into a very precarious tower.
It wouldn't be much longer until something gave way- everyone was
already feeling the tension. The Twins looked just about ready to snap,
although all chaos would surely break loose. If the Gryffindor tower
didn't explode in fireworks, the whole castle was sure the dungeons
would start burning.
"I wish I could get a letter to Dumbledore." Skylar confessed quietly,
finding relief in at least spreading part of his knowledge.
"Hah, not likely." Ron snorted, "With that Umbitch so paranoid, she'd
pounce on your owl at first sight."
"With how paranoid the ministry is also, we'd all get in trouble."
Hermione added, looking out of the window with a large sigh, "I wish
that this year would end already."
"It's like the whole castle is waiting for something." Ron shrugged,
scowling as the movement sent the parchment tower to the floor, "Hey!
You should ask Selwyn to set her on fire."
"Ron!" Hermione gasped, smacking him with the book she had been
reading. Ron yelped, ducking away although.
Skylar's brows crinkled in worry at the thought. With Luna's worries and
Adrian's impressive past record, well…
He wouldn't be surprised if something did happen.
His friends didn't quite understand just how bad something like that
would be. Skylar had heard Remus talking to his father before, stressed to
his hairline with how to juggle Adrian's record. Property damage, student
assault, illegal selling of goods, illegal selling of illicit goods, well,
anything else and Adrian would surely be expelled. It drove Skylar barmy
that Hermione and Ron didn't realize the significance of a single
outburst- how they accepted it as something inevitable.
Once again, Skylar wanted to scream.
"We should push up the next meeting," Skylar interrupted Hermione's
vigorous textbook reading, "I think we should work again on aiming
practice."
"Aim?" Ron protested in a whine. "What? Why!"
Hermione looked puzzled as well, "Why, Skylar? We all have decent aim
for most spells."
'But you haven't seen Adrian spell birds', Skylar bit his tongue, chewing it
consideringly. 'If that's what he can do, what do you think adults can do?'
"I just think that it may relieve some stress in us," He explained
hesitantly.
Hermione's eyes brightened, "Oh! Wonderful idea!"
Skylar only hoped that maybe some excitement would delay the breaking
point a little more.
"I hate her." Adrian spat, taking relish in kicking a stray rock and sending
it clattering down the pipe. It echoed, ringing wetly as it echoed for a fair
distance.
"She is foul," Lutain agreed, coiled gently as they advanced towards
Adalonda's chamber.
There had been an increase in corridor monitors and alarms all
throughout the hallways; Adrian was only able to sneak through the
plumbing thanks to his Animagus form. Never had he appreciated it more
than when Umbridge began tailing him, watching his every movement.
Adrian was almost positive a new rule had been enacted, and she was
waiting for him to unknowingly break it. He tucked into a loo, making
way instantly for the pipes to slip away out of sight. He knew that she
would be more furious, suspecting some sort of foul play now with his
inexplicable vanishing.
"I swear she has it out for me!" Adrian continued, his voice raising in
pitch, "She's been following me for days!"
Lutain made a noise, ignoring him in favour of sliding down and darting
through the dark room.
There was a low groan and a sound of shifting scales on stone. Adalonda
emerged, foggy yellow eyes iridescent in the gloom.
"Cerestes," she greeted, more out of nobility than care, "You've been gone a
while."
"Longer than I'd like." Adrian admitted, sighing and plopping onto the
ground in exhaustion, "It feels like forever."
"You do not have the understanding of eras ending." She chided him in a
smooth rolling rumble.
Adalonda emerged further, her long tongue piercing the air as she
scented it many times, glancing towards Lutain suddenly.
Adrian looked between the two, puzzled, "What?"
Adalonda looked strange, her eyes filled with an emotion Adrian couldn't
place, "I am curious when Lutain will stay in my chambers with me, instead of
your ventures."
Adrian blinked in surprise, "Why would he?"
Adalonda paused, "Forgive me, I had assumed you had...discussed the age."
"Oh what?" Adrian spoke, blurting it in English in his growing dread.
Lutain tasted the air carefully, "My age of resting?"
"Death," Adalonda supplied helpfully, tilting her head to the side to see
him better, "Had you thought he'd live forever?"
Adalonda was painfully blunt at times.
"What?" Adrian nearly shrieked, panic rising quickly in his throat, "Lutain
what are you talking about?"
"I am old, I have lived many suns and seasons." Lutain hesitantly added.
"You're only- only maybe twelve!"
"His kind live for only one of your decades," Adalonda sighed, sounding
condescending the way a parent would over something basic.
Lutain wasn't a magical species.
No.
No.
Nonononono
"You can't die." Adrian blurted, voice hitching and warbling
uncontrollably, "You can't die!"
Lutain's tail flickered, "Master, I am old. I have lived well and-"
"Nagini is like, thirty years old!" Adrian screamed, voice deafening as it
echoed, "You can't die!"
Adalonda's tail lifted slowly, then slammed against the stone like a
battering ram. The ground itself vibrated, water trembling from the
shockwave. Adrian jumped in alarm, staggering on his feet. His breaths
were fluttering too quickly in his chest.
"Leave us, little one?" Adalonda asked Lutain gently. The smaller black
serpent paused, as if considering. After a brief pause he honored her
request and left through one of the dozens of pipes.
Adalonda swung her head back, and once again Adrian was amazed at
her size. Scales thick and strong, flexing and glossy in the dull lighting.
Adrian often forgot how large and how old she was, but on few occasions
her regality bewildered him beyond words.
"Nagini has lasted, as she lives beyond the realm of normal life." Adalonda
hissed, flickering her tongue as fast as a hummingbird's wings, "She has
been enchanted with magics far beyond you."
"That's shite!" Adrian protested, throat clogging sourly, "She- my father got
her when he was in Hogwarts! It can't be that much ahead of me!"
Adalonda's eyes were impossible to read- golden and clouded from the
third membrane she used to protect Adrian.
"It's beyond you," She repeated after a brief pause, "You are a mere speck of
your father's skill."
Adrian flinched, the near obsessive mantra 'I'm useful I'm useful' drowned
out his thoughts in a thrumming haze. He didn't need to think like that
anymore. That wasn't him, it didn't matter.
Still, it ached at him painfully. A hot throbbing like a tooth torn out by
the root.
His head hurt, his ears popping with the pressure of his own fluttering
breaths.
"Please," Adrian's voice was hoarse, raspy from where his throat had
clenched around his words. "Adalonda, Adalonda help him."
"I want to," she soothed, looking genuinely sad, but resigned to Lutain's
fate. "I am fond of the little one. He is intelligent."
"Then help him!" Adrian snapped, feeling his body shake minutely as he
stood there, panic making his skin feel frosty.
Adalonda had to know what to do, she was something with
immeasurable knowledge and information. She had seen things, lived
through eras where commonplace information was what was now
considered lost. She was far too calm, resigned and disinterest despite her
obvious sadness. She had seen this before, she likely had seen many
friends come and go in her age.
Not Nagini, which meant that she knew a way (or suspected) some sort of
way to sustain him.
Lutain was his friend.
Adrian's lungs burned for air, "Adalonda please I'll do anything."
Adalonda pulled her head back, resting her body in thick coils before she
looked down at Adrian in the visage of a cobra, "You would not accept the
requirements, to sustain and prevent the death of Lutain."
She sounded so certain, as if it was a natural truth.
Adrian shook his head wildly, hair mussing as he hoarsely pleaded "I
would! I would do that Adalonda," Adrian's voice cracked, his hissing
trailing off in a whine. "Lutain is everything to me!"
Adalonda's eyes almost glowed, "I do not think you are capable of the
magics."
"I am!" Adrian screamed, trembling as finally something snapped and
spilled, an animalistic gasping that shook his frame, "Adalonda tell me!"
Her tongue flicked the air, smelling.
Testing his worth, his ability.
(I know I'm useful. Maybe I wasn't before, but I am now.)
"A ritual, or a ritual to make a spell." She explained slowly in a crooning
voice, like a siren playing with its food, "Simple to cast, and to prepare."
I can do this
Adrian nodded his head repeatedly, chest and mind steadying roughly. A
soreness spread through his muscles, an exhaustion too pure to describe.
"What do I need? I- I can go buy it, or I can try."
Adalonda exhaled through her nostrils, the wet breath jostled Adrian's
hair. It puffed against his skin, juxtaposing the coolness of the chamber.
"I have all that is needed," Adalonda assured smoothly, voice a gentle
rumble that was more grudging admittance. It didn't mean she was
withholding information anymore, which was an improvement.
Maybe she had finally clued in that Adrian wasn't a child to be coddled.
"What is needed is only one trail."
Only one pathway, only one series of directions to guarantee Lutain's life.
Adrian sniffed and rubbed his eyes and face with the back of his arm. He
was frustrated, embarrassed by the stubborn tears that had leaked out
slowly and continued to do so. He felt hot, warm all over and flushed
with emotion. "If you have everything still, is this what my Father did? For
Nagini? The same one?"
Adalonda paused before responding after a few terse seconds, "No. He did
do this spell not for Nagini. A different method for her."
"I can do it anyways." Adrian hissed out, his throat burning like he was
choking on venom. "What did he do it for? What did he do to Nagini?"
Adalonda watched him carefully, her tail moving slightly. Did she see the
difference? Did she see now how he was motivated for himself?
"Nagini was different," Adalonda rumbled, almost wistful as she stared
over Adrian's shoulder. "Temporary, to prolong her. Eventually, same was
done to her as what will be done to Lutain."
Adrian nodded, swallowing twice to try and compose himself. "When?"
"It will take time."
"I-It'll be hard to sneak out under Umbridge but I could do it during the night
sometime…"
"It will span a day." Adalonda informed him with no sympathy, "You will
be in pain."
He could do it for Lutain. Not even for himself, he could do it for his
friend.
"I don't care." Adrian breathed, "What- what's the spell called? Do I know it?"
The longest pause yet, as if Adalonda was struggling to recall the name,
her maw opened twice, moving with cartilage flexibility.
"I know not names for your magics," Adalonda confessed, dismissing as if it
was nothing important, "I remember the steps."
Adrian didn't think of it. Lutain generally used his own nicknames for
others, not abiding the human system of naming objects and people.
Adalonda was a blessing with her fluidity in human terms and references,
although a few things still miffed her.
She didn't need to know the name of the spell, only how to do it.
"Okay, I can do it during Easter. The week long holiday, I'll stay at the castle."
Adrian licked his lips, feeling dry. "Or... or right before classes start again."
Adalonda thrummed a low noise in her throat, a pleased noise. "I have
doubt, Cerestes."
"I told you!" Adrian screamed, throat raw and hands trembling. "I can do
it!"
Something scurried away, likely Wormtail. He had thought she'd be
startled by his confidence, that she would scold his confidence and
remind him of his weaknesses again. The cruel animal laws, the weak
always die.
Instead, Adalonda watched him with something wicked in her eyes. "I'll
take your word."
Since he learned his friend's fate, Adrian didn't let Lutain out of his sight.
Lutain wasn't happy with the exchange, claiming it was a 'useless human
thing', but didn't act out even when smooshed in Adrian's bag between
quills.
Adrian was very tempted to message his father, yet with the heavy
surveillance on him he would only be able to inquire through the
tattooed snake on his skin.
Despite the flutter of anxiety, the idea of asking his father for help again
was…
Adrian didn't need help. He could do anything his father could. He wasn't
weak, he was useful and Adalonda would help him prove it.
He could do it, he could make his father proud. Most of all, he could
prove to himself that he didn't need to live under his father's praise, that
he didn't need some sort of external assurance.
(He still burned for it.)
"You're being watched," Lutain informed him quietly, peeking his head out
from where he had hid in Adrian's bag. When wasn't he being watched?
Adrian paused and looked casually to the side. He stilled his motions,
careful not to hurt the agitated vine any further.
Herbology took place in the greenhouses, and in the February air, water
had condensed slightly on the windows. He had thought it would be
Filch, or one of the cocky Slytherin students gifted with pompous asinine
excuses for real power.
It was difficult to see through the fogged glass, but not so much he
couldn't see the large black creature, standing a half dozen feet beyond
the edge of the forest.
The thestral, likely Mylla, was watching him.
"I'll tell you when it leaves," Lutain offered, Adrian nodding silently before
he attacked the vine once more.
Mylla never left.
Astoria Greengrass was alarmed when one morning, a Hogwarts barn owl
swooped over the table with the daily post, and delivered her a scroll.
The scroll could barely be called a scroll, in reality it was more a scrap of
paper that was hastily tied in place with a white hair tie.
She hadn't expected a letter, or any note in all honesty. It was almost
arrogant, the audacity to send a letter when owls heading in and out
were so heavily monitored.
Then again...that meant the note must be simple, something of no
concern. Maybe it wasn't arrogant, maybe it was smart.
Without a care and to not draw attention to herself, she plucked the note
free and sent the borrowed owl on its way.
She unraveled the note, peering at the handwritten 'Astoria! Can I borrow
the notes from astromony? Thank you!'
The gal, the author hadn't even spelled astronomy right.
It wasn't marked with a name, although the handwriting was very loopy
and curly, decidedly feminine.
Astoria made a small noise of dismissal, sliding the scrap into her pocket.
The message was innocent enough; except she wasn't taking Astronomy.
Astoria finished her breakfast, gathered her bag and calmly left the Great
Hall and headed towards the astronomy tower.
She wasn't worried, as the note seemed polite enough. She couldn't
imagine any of her yearmates trying to trick her, they had reached a new
level of gullible since the High Inquisitor squad was given roam of the
castle. Her sister had been working her way in with the Headmistress
also, praising her with practiced elegance to charm the new head of
Hogwarts. Astoria was rather safe with being randomly investigated, she
hadn't given anyone a reason to suspect otherwise.
The tower was quite lovely in the morning, the sunlight filtered through
the windows making the spiral staircase rather beautiful. A few of the
portraits waved at her, and she smiled at them in return.
"Do you like the view also?" someone asked, startling Astoria out of her
observations.
A half flight of stairs upwards, a girl was looking at her rather curiously.
The newcomer had blonde hair that gave Astoria's own a run for its
galleons. There was something unsettling in the girl's expression, a
peculiar aura that nearly shouted different.
Like most different things, like deformities or strange social customs,
Astoria felt the primitive desire to walk away. She ignored it of course, it
wouldn't do to simply abandon her mission due to something with an air
of…dottiness.
"Oh, I've never seen it in the morning." Astoria cheerfully responded,
casually locking eyes and sinking forward. Vertigo struck her in her
descent, viciously disorienting her.
A flash of white... snow falling from the other side of the astronomy
tower windows. Snow falling just out of touch... reaching out from the
covered bridge to catch flakes in unraveling wool mittens. They were
faded, fringing in tufts where they had caught on tree branches and bark.
'Reach much further and you'll fall,' Someone spoke, distorted as if hearing
it from water.
Astoria laughed, her voice very much not her own. She found the idea of
falling so very silly, 'That would be a long ways. It would get boring,
wouldn't it?'
'Only you would call falling off a tower 'boring'. Will a griffin appear out of
nowhere and catch you? I wouldn't be surprised at this point.'
She giggled, hiding a breathless grin behind one orange mitten, 'Don't be
silly. You'd catch me.'
Searing green eyes, rapidly darting back and forth as if looking for a
hidden meaning that didn't exist. Paranoid, worried, hiding or scared.
How strange, and how sad to be always prepared for someone to bite
you. Waiting for a crack of a whip, or a blow that would never come.
'I guess I would.' Adrian Selwyn responded slowly, as if unsure himself.
Astoria breathed out, and felt herself snapping back into shape like an
elastic. She balanced the vertigo, righting herself back to the moment.
She was smiling pleasantly once more at the strange girl.
The strange girl had dangerous friends.
The girl blinked twice, tilting her head almost as if she had noticed.
"Hello, I'm Luna."
"Astoria Greengrass." Astoria politely introduced, "I think you're in one of
my classes, Ravenclaw?"
Luna nodded happily, "I am, I also sent you that owl and wondered if we
could talk."
Astoria smiled, although it wasn't as honest as it was before. What does
she want? "Of course, I don't have classes until noon."
Luna turned and skipped up the steps, heading higher and spiraling
towards the top of the tower.
Once there, she opened the heavy iron door, holding it open for Astoria
to clamber through. The girl had manners, how quaint.
The classroom was empty, save the many desks and thick velvet curtains
that were open to reveal a beautiful view of the surrounding mountains.
It was serene and quiet, as well as very isolated.
"I come here sometimes to work on essays, it's nicer in winter." Luna
offered casually.
"I thought the doors were locked when Professor Sinistra isn't here."
"They are," Luna agreed, and didn't clarify any further.
The door creaked closed, and the two were completely alone.
"I'm terribly sorry to tear you away or to message you so suspiciously,"
Luna stated, not sounding apologetic in the slightest.
"It's fine," Astoria smiled, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.
Luna bobbed her head, "I wondered if you know anything about my
friend? I think your sister knows him awfully well."
"Who?" Astoria retorted, eyebrows lifting at the strange question. Inside,
a ball of yarn began unfurling, taunting her in I told you so! I told you so!
Sirens were ringing, her palms were sweating.
"Adrian Selwyn," Luna beamed. Unknowingly, the name rained down like
a shovel, uprooting mud of what would be a grave. Astoria's blood
chilled.
She took one step backwards, suddenly hyper aware how alone they
were, and how high they were.
No, Selwyn couldn't know. She hadn't told anyone besides Daphne her
suspicions- and Daphne knew better than to blab to anyone. Daphne knew
how unstable things had become.
Luna tilted her head, brows scrunching, "Oh, I guess that did come across
a little scary."
The air shimmered, and suddenly someone else was there.
Astoria almost screamed, scrambling for her wand.
"Whoa whoa!" The other person yelped, voice softer and more boyish
than she thought, and recognizable. "We just want to talk!"
Astoria's cheek twitched, "What could Skylar Potter possibly want with
me!" She hissed, mindful to keep her voice low.
"To talk," Skylar hushed, licking his lower lip in a nervous habit as he
kept both hands up and in plain sight; the invisibility cloak fluttered to
the ground.
Astoria's nostrils flared as she pointed her wand between the two quickly,
"If this is about Suzie then-"
"What...Suzie Forestar?" Skylar asked, looking perplexed although Luna's
face didn't change, "What about her?"
Astoria's jaw twitched, choking back words. Slowly, Skylar's face looked
more hesitant, shifting into something older. No, not older, something
more mature.
Oh, she had underestimated Skylar Potter. She had always thought he
was a poster boy, an icon without any weight behind him. He wasn't, he
looked like he had...Astoria didn't know. She repressed the urge to dig
past his eyes, and instead looked at the window behind them
"Are you...Does Adrian know something about Suzie Forestar's death? I
mean, I know that you two were in the same house but…"
What? Why inquire now about Selwyn if not-.
"You don't know." Astoria whispered in disbelief. She adjusted her gaze,
staring at the tremendously stupid girl. "You're his friend and you don't
know?"
Luna's face was alarmingly calm, like she was prepared. "We were
wondering if you noticed Adrian acting a bit strange?"
Skylar slowly lowered his arms, but kept them in her view. "We're
worried about him."
Astoria almost laughed, "You- you're worried?" she sounded only slightly
stressed, "about him?"
Luna frowned, "He's my friend."
Merlin, they were going to get her killed.
Astoria swallowed dryly, feeling that their inexperience and meddling
was a much greater threat at hand. "I...I'm sorry, I need to be going. You
didn't tell him about this, right?" She paused and looked at the two with
something akin to panic, "Right?"
"No, he doesn't know." Luna's voice sounded clipped.
Astoria gave a nod of relief, feeling as if an immense weight lifted off her
shoulders. That didn't mean she was quite in the clear yet, she'd have to
talk to Daphne. Perhaps find a way to suggest that the Lovegood girl
should be monitored, or removed from the school. Once she was out of
the way, it would be simple to spread slander about Skylar Potter,
especially with how much already existed.
"Astoria," Skylar quietly spoke, and something about his resigned yet
gentle voice caused her to stop, "Do you think he's going to hurt you?"
Astoria shouldn't respond.
"Please," Skylar quietly added, his voice dropping even quieter, "I know
it's a lot to ask, but I'd never want to hurt anyone. I'm so sorry if you
think this somehow puts you in danger-"
The snake.
Astoria spun, pulling her wand and sharply snapping out detection spells.
Skylar flinched back, but didn't make for his wand. Luna flicked hers into
a rudimentary shielding charm, preparing for impact.
"The snake," Astoria bit out sharply, "The bloody snake, did you see it?"
"I- no." Skylar adapted quickly, "I checked the room when I got here and
nobody came before you."
"He's been keeping Lutain on him," Luna supplied simply, "it isn't here."
Astoria relaxed once more, sliding her wand back into her pocket.
"Why is the snake so important?" Skylar asked slowly, looking between
the two.
Luna looked at the floor, and refused to look up.
She wasn't going to lead the discussion, and Skylar knew too little.
"Oh," Astoria breathed, understanding the situation so aptly, "So I'm the
chess player."
She wasn't used to this, she...her sister was supposed to be the one in
charge of negotiations. She was the one to talk and smooth the ruffled
edges of diplomacy, Astoria was supposed to be unobtainable. Knowing,
a threat, always out of reach.
The astronomy tower was a strange spot for all of this, and somehow
aptly fitting.
"Selwyn is adopted, but that's old news." Astoria felt numb, explaining as
simply as she could, "I've been trying to figure out where he's from."
Skylar blinked in confusion from the sudden twist of events. "Well, his
name's Riddle-"
Astoria's breathing paused, storing the information in her brain as quick
as possible, "Pardon?"
Skylar Potter looked alarmed, and surprised as if he didn't know the
information was useful, "ah, yes. It- I found out years back on a ma-... I
found out his name is Riddle."
Astoria thought quickly, "Why would someone blood adopted to Riddle,
live with such an infamous dark witch as Bellatrix Lestrange?"
Skylar looked reluctant before he gave a simple shrug.
They were withholding information, fine.
(It wasn't like she couldn't find out later.)
Astoria's cheek twitched again. "Fine. Adrian Riddle or whoever, knew
Suzie Forestar, before Hogwarts. I don't think she recognized him, but he
certainly remembered her."
Skylar looked deep in thought before he shook his head slowly. "No, that
doesn't line up. They were in completely different worlds, and how would
Suzie not know him?"
Astoria prepared her words like venom in her teeth, "they went to the
same orphanage."
Luna looked decidedly alarmed, Skylar looked as if he couldn't
comprehend the information.
"But…" Skylar spluttered in denial, "But...she would recognize-"
"Blood adoption." Luna interrupted quietly, with the weight of something
damaging. "It...dominates the appearance and alters your genealogy."
"So this Riddle adopts Adrian through blood adoption, and then gives him
to Bellatrix Lestrange." Astoria deadpans, feeling now that if they were to
know everything, then she would hold them at as much risk as she was.
"That's not it." Skylar objected in a flat tone. He had seen the flaw, and he
did. He was better than she thought he was, or maybe he truly realized
what was at stake.
"Adrian Selwyn wouldn't tell you that," Skylar continued, voice calculated
and very suspicious. He didn't deny the information, which meant now
he was simply suspicious of her.
Astoria felt like sarcastically complimenting the Golden Boy.
"You're right," Astoria agreed thinly, "I owled Suzie Forestar, asking her if
she remembered what Adrian Selwyn looked like or his name when they
were in the same establishment."
"When?" Skylar asked sharply.
Luna shook her head, rattling her earrings against her jaw. The sound
interrupted them, the ferociousness in which she argued against what
Astoria was saying. "The blood adoption would-"
Astoria crossed her arms and cocked one hip. "The snake."
Skylar's breathing hitched before he exhaled in one long rush, "The- he
had his familiar."
Luna froze, as if so overwhelmed she couldn't move.
"I sent an owl to Suzie Forestar asking if she remembered Adrian, or
remembered that blasted snake. You know what happened?" Astoria's
eyes flashed and her jaw trembled, "She died the next day."
"No." Luna breathed quietly, eyes widening as if something had dawned
on her.
Skylar ran a hand over his face, rubbing his eyes exhaustedly, "Death
Eaters turn up and...and kill Suzie right after you owl her, asking about
Adrian."
Astoria nodded sharply, "Which means someone doesn't want word
getting out."
Skylar looked exhausted, and Luna looked near the point of tears.
"Okay," Skylar breathed, biting his fist in thought, "So, we're assuming
that somehow Suzie Forestar was under watch. If we make a big stretch,
we could say it was Bellatrix Lestrange watching Suzie Forestar to make
sure Adrian Selwyn's cover wasn't blown. That also means, that somebody
doesn't want Adrian Selwyn's real name getting out."
Astoria hadn't given the boy enough credit.
He was taking this seriously.
"Bellatrix Lestrange doesn't work like that," Skylar continued, pulling on
his fingers as if to count the problems with his theory. "Not to mention
she would have just... gotten rid of Suzie instead of waiting until
something came up."
"There's a problem." Luna whispered quietly, fiddling with her hair and
refusing to look upwards, "That...that implies that she'd be protecting him
still."
Astoria caught on quickly, and felt as if she had been struck by a blasting
hex.
"Oh Merlin," She bemoaned quietly, shuffling towards a student desk to
sit down.
"What?" Skylar asked, looking at her with alarm.
"Use your head, Potter!" Astoria's voice was high pitch from stress,
"Bellatrix would be protecting him."
"His scar was intentional." Luna elaborated, her hands shaking, "It would
mean that his appearance was planned."
If that was planned, what else had been falsified? What else was going
on?
"Okay- no." Skylar barked, looking harsh and firm as he crossed his arms,
"Let's not think that. What if it wasn't Bellatrix, but this...this Riddle
fellow. This Riddle goes and...and meets Suzie-"
"Doesn't change the fact someone doesn't want this being known." Astoria
breathed, closing her eyes in stress, "Merlin, Selwyn's going to know
about this. He's going to find us."
Skylar's nostrils flared before he dug in his bag, pulling out parchment
and a single quill. He stomped over to the nearest desk, taking a seat next
to Astoria before he looked at the two girls, "This is what we're going to
do. We are not going to leap to conclusions. We're going to write down
what we know, and then make a plan from there."
Luna sat on the ground, folding her legs under her as she quietly nodded,
looking at Astoria.
Astoria ran one hand through her hair and grabbed her wand to cast the
strongest privacy charm she knew. At this point, with such consequences
in place and the realization that someone was watching Selwyn, the only
way to guarantee her safety would be removing Selwyn himself.
She wasn't safe, she had never been. Perhaps...perhaps if she helped, one
day she would be.
"Alright," Astoria soberly agreed, "But he isn't going to be happy."
"First, Adrian Selwyn is adopted." Skylar spoke, looking at the two girls
for objections. He wrote it carefully, then next to it wrote the mysterious
'Riddle'.
"He went to Suzie's orphanage, but I don't know the name." Astoria
sighed, watching critically as it was added.
"He has a familiar, apparently even before he was adopted." Skylar added
quietly.
"That young?" Astoria looked surprised, tapping her lip considering,
"Birth family must have been abusive."
"Lutain knows English," Luna added without looking at the growing list,
"Most don't."
"Selwyn has a tattoo." Astoria shrugged, "I haven't seen it, although my
sister has. Some python."
"No he doesn't." Skylar stared at her in confusion, "We...St. Mungos did a
check after Bellatrix cursed him-"
"Supposedly cursed him." Astoria interrupted sourly, "And it's hidden or
comes when called or something."
"A hidden tattoo." Luna hunched in on herself, "He has a scar."
"No shite." Astoria snapped, feeling much more high strung with the
entire situation, "The supposed one from Lestrange!"
"A different one," Luna corrected, "Thestrals like him, I think he can hear
one."
Astoria and Skylar paused to look at Luna with matching expressions of
impatience, "Luna, you can't hear-"
"Yes you can," Luna protested although her heart wasn't in it, if anything
she looked like she wanted to hide in the deepest corner she could find,
"Those related to them."
"How are you related to a magical omen of death?"
Luna looked at her hand, fiddling with her fingers, "Children who die in
terrible ways are born as thestrals."
Astoria obviously didn't accept that fact, but Skylar wrote it down
anyways.
There had to be more. What about Riddle?
"His boggart," Astoria perked suddenly, "His second year there was a
boggart, it took shape of...some man. Likely this Riddle fellow."
Skylar scribbled it down, "You sure? Not just some random man?"
"My sister saw him pick up Adrian on the station the end of your third
year." Astoria dismissed, "Same man."
Luna fiddled with her fingers again, "His patronus is a caiman. I don't
know what his animagus form is."
Astoria jolted in surprise, "Animagus?"
Skylar inhaled slowly, and released it. Wordlessly, he wrote it down.
"He's sounding more and more like a prodigy, throw wandless fire spells
on there."
Skylar did so.
"One time he stabbed Mun- er...a friend in the hand with a butter knife."
Skylar smiled wryly, adding it on purely because he could.
Adrian had stayed at the Order for a long while. Skylar could see the
Adrian of then, and he Adrian of now as two entirely different people.
Back then Adrian was a brat, but still a sometimes funny bloke. He had
joined in on conversation, and was rather helpful around the place.
Now...now Adrian seemed closed off, lost in his head but in an entirely
different way than before. Perhaps it was the same sort, but had escalated
so far beyond what they knew.
"At the O- over the summer." Skylar lamely deflected, taking note that the
two people with him weren't Order members, "He...he said he had
something called Oclu- Ocluman-"
"Occlumency." Astoria corrected with a blank expression, "Wonderful."
"He...Actually, maybe you know." Skylar blinked, remembering the single
boggart that he, Adrian, and Sirius banished. He looked at Luna, and with
the most cheerful tone of voice he could muster, asked "Have you ever
heard of a boggart being afraid of something?"
Luna's face was chillingly blank, "No."
Astoria wrapped her fingers on the desk quickly, "I...I think, that Adrian
mentioned having a brother. Accidentally, in his first year."
"Adopted or birth?" Skylar asked, causing Astoria to roll her eyes and
sourly respond "You think I know?"
"He set Millicent on fire, then the train compartment. A lot of books,"
Astoria added, using her fingers to keep count, "Sent Malfoy and Millicent
to the Hospital Wing more times than I can count."
Skylar almost smiled, but it was hollow and meaningless.
The parchment in front of them was filling up fast, and with some
damning evidence.
Something didn't line up right. A single linking segment was missing.
Adrian had his fair share of snapping moments, but just before break
when he 'vanished mysteriously' he had collapsed rather... spectacularly.
Skylar could almost feel the heat, rising to such a degree it felt like his
blood was boiling. He remembered the cushions aflame, the grass
cracking as Adrian curled in on himself and just...shook.
""I left her there to die. I left her, and she died. She was begging me and I left
her there to starve!"
Something about the broken hysterical crying that Adrian had shrieked
was something Skylar would never forget.
Who...who was Adrian referencing? Was it...had he somehow killed his
mother?
Skylar would sell his left kidney to just have ten minutes with Professor
Dumbledore...
"We're missing something," Skylar spoke, his voice slightly hoarse,
"He...he'd have to see someone die, to see the thestrals. So…"
Astoria shifted, looking slightly guilty, "I...It wasn't ever confirmed by
Suzie, it's why I sent her a letter. She...I think that her brother died."
Her brother.
Brother.
That….Adrian had somehow indirectly killed a girl. Who was this boy?
Someone else? Or had it been a boy all along? Skylar was so sure Adrian
had screamed about a girl- had he remembered it wrong?
"His patronus memory is false." Luna contributed, "He knows Legilimency
I think."
Astoria gaped, "Impossible. He can't know both Occlumency and an
Animagus transformation and casually fit in learning Legilimency just in
time for tea!"
"I have to agree," Luna admitted with a small frown, "I don't know how
he does it. It shouldn't be possible, It takes years."
"He can apparate." Skylar blurted.
Astoria very politely cursed foul enough that Skylar blushed.
"Is there anything else that we're missing?" Skylar asked, the opposite of
calm, "Because this parchment right now makes Adrian Selwyn look
scarier than that Vipertooth."
'Other than the fact he may have been raised to kill me,' Skylar thought
sarcastically, biting his tongue so he wouldn't mention it.
"You mean the fact that Adrian Selwyn is some...some sort of psychotic
child prodegy?" Astoria hissed out, lashing out with her discomfort. Skylar
didn't take it to heart.
Luna looked sick, her skin pale. If it weren't for the small tremors in her
hands, Skylar would have mistaken her for relaxed.
'Adrian is a Parselmouth and told that snake of his to murder Suzie's brother.'
Astoria thought to herself.
'Adrian is growing sicker and I'm afraid he may do something horrid.' Luna
thought to herself.
Neither girls vocalized it.
"Then we're done here." Skylar smiled weakly, "I'll leave out the tower- I
brought my broom. Don't tell anyone- thank you so much, Astoria."
Skylar rolled up the parchment, both girls noticed he had the only copy.
Astoria gave a small regal nod, "If my family needs protection due to this,
I expect you to help."
Skylar's smile became more determined, and a fire burned in his eyes,
"Don't worry. Nobody is going to hurt you."
Adrian Selwyn
Hadrianus (Riddle?)
Went to same orphanage as Suzie Forestar.
Abused by birth family/ young age.
Had familiar/Lutain/snake prior to adoption.
Was blood adopted by Riddle (placed with Bellatrix?).
Familiar understands/comprehends or knows English commands.
Snake tattoo that appears on command (Supposedly?)
Multiple scars/ Supposedly second curse scar (check to make sure).
Blood adoption (Riddle) related to bloodline of thestral
Can see thestrals (witnessed death at young age)
Boggart was Riddle (Riddle picked up Adrian end of year)
Caiman Patronus (false happy memory- tie into child abuse_
Animagus transformation (Supposedly?)
Occlumency (Shield mind from being read?)
Legilimency (Reads minds- required eye contact)
Apparate
Fire spell wandless magic affinity
Temper (Set train on fire, attacked Malfoy) Child abuse tie in?
Boggart was afraid/repelled by Adrian
Has a brother (Birth? Adopt?)
Witnessed death of Suzie Forestar brother (David) at orphanage
Indirectly killed girl ("Left to starve") (Mother? Suzie relative?)
Death Eaters murdered Suzie Forestar when letter was sent inquiring about
Adrian (maybe?). Suzie under watch OR Adrian under protection of Death
Eaters (Lestrange?).
If under protection of Death Eaters (Bellatrix) why cursed him? Why
abandoned in Knockturn Alley? If Suzie was under watch why not removed/
killed earlier?
Sick from something, gotten worse since start of year. 'Smells' like 'bubotuber
pus'. Head is 'cold' (curse scar?)
Increased temper and more vicious. Less polite or gentle, tired and eats too
much food.
Skylar kept the curtains to his bed drawn, looking at the parchment
illuminated by a light charm.
Remus said that Adrian was a weapon, that he had somehow
been...transformed by Bellatrix with the intent to injure him.
Looking at the list of disjointed statements, if he applied the assumption
that Adrian was a weapon to kill him…
Well.
"Why would she scar you?" Skylar muttered, curling his knees to his chest
and holding them tightly.
The words looked at him, empty, yet something still didn't fit right.
He'd have to ask Remus just to be positive, but...hadn't Adrian sent a plea
for help to Remus? In Knockturn, after he had escaped from Bellatrix?
If Bellatrix were protecting him still, and the scar had been intentional,
why was it something so noticable? So horrible to look at?
Adrian Selwyn had been injured, and Remus took him in and-
And Remus took him into their lives. He took Adrian into the Order, and
kept him safe next to secret members.
Adrian was being protected by Bellatrix, and he knew the faces of every
member of the Order.
"Shite," Skylar breathed, feeling as if he would vomit. "Shite!"
If Adrian was injured on purpose for some...some sort of strange
sympathy, then it had certainly been achieved. Occlumency- why would
a child need to learn to shield their minds? A coping mechanism? A safety
feature?
(To find out secret information, and keep it hidden?)
Skylar needed to talk to Dumbledore immediately, but he couldn't get a
single owl out under the blasted bitch of a headmistress.
She couldn't keep him there over Holidays, and Easter was rapidly
approaching.
"I just have to last until then," Skylar breathed, still feeling very very ill.
Adrian Selwyn maybe, was a spy.
Guest: I didn't get the whole issue with suzie and Astoria?...Dumbledore's
hypothesis of training multiple weapons is hella hilarious though.
Astoria sent Suzie a letter inquiring about her brother. Suzie was afraid her
brother's killer (Adrian) would kill her, due to people (Astoria) digging
around. Suzie sent a letter to Snape asking for safety. Snape went and told
Cerestes (Adrian) about Adrian. Adrian then ordered Suzie to die.
mizzrazz72:Severus could have saved Suzie himself by going to her
house himself.
Exactly why Rowle went with him. Adrian knew that Rowle would force
Snape's hand.
Zoebel: I'm so glad Adrian has grown a backbone. Don't get me wrong I
love traumatised Adrian, but now is the right time for him to move on
and become a badass .Any update on the chapter of Adrian's big reveal?
Badass Adrian is now in full effect. Big reveal? Next Chapter is partial big
reveal. Trust me, you all are going to freak.
God of 0blivion: so after reading this please tell me that Adrian won't
grow a heart and start working for Dumbledore, I don't think I could
handle the randomness of that
Oh heck no.
gginsc: I keep waiting for this boy to die. I have given up on redemption
for him. He is a monster.
I'm surprised, most people seem to love Adrian. I really love that you have
such a different opinion about him.
Nuada Silverhand:I don't think I've ever sympathised with a character
while simultaneously wanting them to be put down as much as Adrian.
He's in a terrible place, through almost no fault of his own... but damn,
the sooner someone finishes him off the better. You've made a great
protagonist.
I'm speechless with how flattered and honored I am right now. Honestly, thank
you so much.
THE DARKEST OF THEM ALL:I'm not really sure but did Dumbledore
just figure out that Harry's alive?Are Adrians shade powers going to be
the same as they were in shadowed malice? You mentioned that Adrian's
going to go rogue, is he going to do so alone? Are the Dursley coming
back or are they gone forever?Also does Nightmare Wodahs exist is this
story?
Everyone fully believes Harry is dead. Shades are not in this story. Adrian
goes rogue and has some soul searching, but he meets up with different people.
Dursley's will be investigated. No Nightmare Wodahs- no shades.
jeannie kaulitz: Question, if Adrian is like a basilisk, how come lutain
doesn't recognize Adrian and adalonda being the same species?
Adrian has a red plume that Nagini doesn't have, and his scars are transferred
over as weird scale cracking. Lutain just kind of...thought Adrian knew
already.
Dark Lord Potter Black: Do a summary please. The plot has become too
complex, and the story is too big to read again. Though I must apllaud
the work you put in each chapter.
I'm going to make a summary point at the end of each part. Currently there is
Part 1 out, and then the next chapter will be the end of Part 2. I'll have a
summary there to explain in detail what has all occurred in that part.
Thanks everybody, and I love the theories you are all throwing out there. A lot
of you are striking it right on, or getting really close.
Prepare yourself, because next Chapter is the end of Part 2, and where
everything goes wrong.
54. Foal
This chapter was beta'd by our amazing Beta Collective
-Arctic Fox From Afar
-Mahina
-Cyndaquil05
-4everfictional
-Scion of House Lucifer
-Parsi
-Acelenny
-S4m
- and countless anonymous helpers!
I was too excited to let this chapter wait a week, plus with exams
and life, I didn't want to delay it any further.
Enjoy everyone, best wishes to you all!
'I'm not weak. I don't know why some things are so difficult, I know they
shouldn't be. I'm strong, I'm powerful. I'm not weak, I'm not weak. I'm NOT
WEAK.'
February concluded without any problems. That was the unspoken
surprise.
The paranoia had grown to such a degree, everyone spoke with whispers
and bated breaths. Restrictions increased almost daily, and soon every
child felt as if they were shackled every second outside the dorms. Eyes
were fixed on the Weasley Twins, who much to the surprise of everyone,
hung back and were model students. The calm before the storm, and
never had anyone wished more than now that the storm would just
arrive. The pranks were gone, the playful charms in the corridors were
absent, the hallways were silent with the sound of stomping feet. No fires
were lit, and the snow melted away.
Headmistress Umbridge was happier, content with her rule as she
paraded around with a few select Slytherin students, gifted with
authority to freely assign detentions. Daphne Greengrass, Draco Malfoy, a
few other arrogant pricks that nobody bothered to recognize. Filch had
never been happier.
Adrian hadn't let Lutain out of his sight, constantly checking that he was
there by tracing the smooth black scales with the pad of his thumb. Even
Lutain was forced to hide, normally hidden under a quick glamour, or
tucked close to Adrian's heart during the day.
Adrian was forced to do his assignments, completing them ahead of
schedule to avoid Snape's wrath or Umbridge's attention. With deadlines
drawing close, and the lack of freedom for any sort of enjoyable activity,
Adrian had nothing better to do. Adrian didn't attend the Great Hall
meals, finding them far too militaristic for his taste.
(And everyone always just looked at him, like the unspoken begging
would cause him to snap, to cause Umbridge's robes to burn.)
The piping that he and Lutain utilized to move around the castle also
connected to the school kitchens; the house elves were horrified and
alarmed the first time the two had wandered through. After interrogating
one helpful elf on the student confidentiality protection rules set in place
decades ago, Adrian haunted the counter tops often. The elves always fed
him stacks of food when he appeared naturally, otherwise they ignored
Lutain or Adrian's snake form whenever they appeared.
The elves were incredibly curious as to Adrian's face, obviously never
having seen him before around the castle. Although initially incredibly
startled, they warmed up rather quickly. That was a relief, the huge owl
eyes and wrinkly skin had startled him a fair bit the first time an elf
jumped him.
"So strange," Lutain mused, sitting on one of the wooden tables that the
house elves had summoned the instance they saw the two emerge from a
pipe near the sinks.
Adrian shrugged, tapping his fingers on the table as he reached for the
chalice of grape juice.
"They're nice." Adrian replied simply, ignoring the way the nearest elf
nearly squealed when it heard that.
"So small, and willing to serve." Lutain peered at the bustling small bodies,
"To live a life serving others, dependent on others. How sad."
"They enjoy it." Adrian responded simply, shrugging as he took a swig of
juice and set the glass down, "They have for centuries."
"To not hunt, but provide for others." Lutain flickered his tongue in the air,
"Are they the rats?"
"Not everything weaker is considered that, Lutain."
"They provide for others and die if not." Lutain hissed out curiously, "They
are weak, they are rats. Rats live to sustain those better."
Adrian almost smiled at how philosophical Lutain unknowingly got.
"I don't know," Adrian replied simply, "I don't know if they would be
considered rats."
Something popped into existence nearby, startling Adrian enough he
accidentally sent a plate with pastries on it flying. The trey rattled across
the floor, flaking crust sprinkling the ground like glitter. Adrian mourned
the loss, and the house elf that appeared gawked in horror.
"I…" It squeaked, scrambling and snapping multiple times to summon
three platters stacked with pastries, "Is sorry!"
Lutain cackled in good humor, watching as the elf struggled to apologize
before looking victorious. It snapped its fingers, and suddenly a large fat
rat appeared, dangling by its tail.
The rat looked similar to Wormtail, except it was clearly feral.
"Oh," Lutain perked up, tongue flickering wildly as he noticed the
desperately struggling rodent.
The house elf gently tossed it and Lutain struck with glee, curling around
the rodent until it stopped twitching.
"And yousies?" The house elf asked politely, looking at Adrian this time.
"I- you mean a rat?"
"Yes sirs!" The house elf nodded, it's oversized ears flapping, "Yousies
sometimes a snake so rat-"
"No thank you," Adrian waved his hand, pointing towards the stack of
empty plates and newly procured food on the table, "I'll stick to human
food."
"Okay!" The house elf chirped, looking incredibly happy, "Say if yousies
wants more! Many plates, you've had six!"
Adrian numbly looked at the stack of plates that he had stacked, sure
enough there were six. That was...a lot of food.
Admittedly he had noticed that his hunger had increased exponentially a
while back- right after Moody had helped him with whatever potion had
increased his magic. Amazingly enough, he hadn't increased in weight, if
anything calories seemed to slide off his bones, leaving him thinner than
he had ever recalled being.
But his magic had increased, exploding outwards with a viciousness and
strength unparalleled.
If eating more was all that was needed, well, it was well worth it.
"What would you do? Once you graduated?"
"Would? Are you implying I'm not going to graduate, Luna?"
"You do sleep quite a bit. I think Professor Flitwick thinks you're hibernating."
"I don't sleep that much,"
"Oh, you do, it's quite charming sometimes. Would you sleep after you
graduate?"
"Why are you talking like I'm not going to?"
"What would you do, Adrian? What have you always wanted to?"
Easter break was upon them, and very quickly the castle emptied itself of
students.A shocking proportion of students actually, eager to flee from
under Umbridge's eye. A few people remained- a shocking amount of
Slytherins. (The going rumor was something about extra credit, or
leniency on assignments.)
Adrian didn't care. He was nervous, anxious and highly strung as the
predetermined date became closer and closer. He didn't take more than a
glance at the list of staying students- only long enough to spot Skylar
Potter's name, as well as Luna.
(He hadn't the foggiest notion why they would stay- perhaps leaving the
train put students under Ministry supervision? A new law Adrian didn't
know about? Perhaps it was too dangerous with Dumbledore on the
'run'?)
Adalonda had kept Adrian in the dark, assuring him time and time again
that everything was fine. She was purposefully leaving out details
although she had answered his questions if he bothered to ask. Adrian
chalked it up to just another serpent quirk, Lutain sometimes did
something similar.
She assisted with finding the strange cauldron stashed away in one small
room. Her body was too big to fit through the door, although it took a bit
of strength to get it out from the decade old door jam. Dust fluttered
through the air, ancient equipment interspersed with modern tools that
looked far too out of place. It smelled faintly like mildew.
Likely his father had stashed all of the bottles and scales down there
decades back. He would have to come back and look through the objects
stashed away, he was certain he could find illegal books in the back
corners.
The black and red cauldron that Adalonda instructed him to take, looked
bizarre. Adrian had never seen anything like it, it looked incredibly
impractical. It must have cost a fortune, or taken months to track down.
It was dark stone, heavy and cold interspersed with veins of red, running
on a single grain through the bowl. Adrian would have loved to shove
some of his miscellaneous teeth and claws into it, it would look beautiful
on a shelf.
"What is this?" He had asked when he first found it- the cauldron looked
more like a ritualistic bowl. Carved out of one piece of rock, like an
elaborate mortar.
"Bloodstone." Adalonda responded, watching him through the doorway
with one eye, "take the knife and jars."
Adrian followed her direction, snatching the jars and vials that had been
carefully placed next to the bowl. There was a large silver knife next to it,
the blade perhaps the length of his forearm although the hilt was weirdly
blunt. Like the bowl, it looked more decorative than functional. It was
heavier than he expected, he nearly dropped it when gravity grabbed it
suddenly. It must have been solid silver.
Adalonda had been vague, although incredibly useful with instructions.
She watched lazily, instructing which ingredient to add to the bowl, and
teaching him the pronunciations of the few things he didn't recognize.
The potion didn't need any heat, which was unusual. Normally cold
potions required much more precision with ingredients, or were laborious
in procedure. This was...simple. Adalonda didn't explain what he was
sprinkling into the bloodstone bowl towards the end. A few vials and jars
were still labeled. The tags yellowed with age, some with a sharp spidery
script and other with a store brand watermark on the seals.
Adrian didn't even want to know where the Selkie blood container came
from, or why so much of it had been used.
"Take the knife and place it in." Adalonda instructed him calmly, watching
everything with a careful eye. "Submerge it under."
Adrian followed suit, expecting a reaction. The blade shimmered in the
light, glossy and polished as it was swallowed by the thick viscous
potion. Nothing happened, the blade's hilt dipped under the thick black
liquid and rested silently on the bottom.
"That's it?" Adrian asked, looking at the mixture with a degree of
apprehension.
Adalonda's eyes glowed, "That's it. Return tomorrow, and we will begin."
"Saturday then, and I'll be unconscious until Sunday night? Classes start
Monday morning, It'll be done by then, right?"
Adalonda flickered her tongue "It will be done."
"I don't know, Luna. What do you mean by 'what have I always wanted to
do?'"
"Would you be an auror? Or would you live somewhere by the ocean?"
"I- no. I don't know."
"I could see you with creatures, you know. Like Newt Scamander and his
farm."
"That's ridiculous."
"Why?"
"It's impractical, Luna."
"Why is it?"
"I-..."
'You don't need the cold to feel numb. You don't need water to feel like you're
drowning. I'm useful now.'
"Ready?" Adrian asked Lutain, smiling at the curious snake who was all
but thrilled.
"Very!" Lutain hissed back, only illuminated by the many candles Adrian
had placed around the room. The candlelight flickered off Lutain's scales,
making him look as if coated in gold.
"Call Wormtail." Adalonda instructed, coiling herself into one giant mass
in an almost statue worthy pose before them, "I shall teach you the
incantation."
So it was a spell along with a ritual. Maybe it was a blood ritual? He had
certainly poured enough selkie blood to think something along the lines.
"Wormtail!" Adrian shouted, a bit surprised over needing his presence but
obliging nonetheless. Adalonda knew the steps, he wasn't right to ask why
he had to be around. Adrian didn't even realize Wormtail was still
around. Adalonda likely had been watching after the man, keeping him
fed in the dark.
A rat scurried from the dark corner, watching them the entire time with
beady eyes.
"The spell is useless right now." Adalonda warned him, staring with
intensity.
"Once it is in place, you will see your breath. You will take that knife, and
divide it." Adalonda shifted her head slightly to where the knife had been
soaking in the thick black mixture for a day. Adrian couldn't even see the
metal through the congealed top surface.
"Then gift your breath to Lutain."
Adrian blinked in confusion, his jaw clenching slightly. It burned, but he
had to ask for clarification. "I thought this was mostly a spell?"
"Without the spell you would not have your breath appear." Adalonda
explained carefully, sounding reluctant to share information. The spell or
ritual must be very secret. "Without the knife you would not split it."
Adrian nodded, sharply. It was a two part thing then, reliant on the other
to work. Adrian knew that old magic generally relied on that concept,
although now the codependency wasn't common.
From what he had gathered, the spell would make his...breath, whatever
that meant, appear. Breath was likely a word lost in translation,
something from eras back that Adalonda had never learned the
translation to. Most likely symbolic, Adrian couldn't imagine breathing on
Lutain. Once his breath appeared (he hadn't the faintest idea what it
would appear as- would it be a tangible manifestation?), he would use
the knife to...well, cut it in half.
Maybe breaking this mysterious breath would release something in the
air? Somehow gift Lutain with some sort of otherworldly ability?
Adrian still didn't know, yet considering how old this was, would anyone
else know?
How thrilling, to be one of the few people in the world to have this
knowledge.
(His father would be surprised, his father wouldn't have thought him
capable of this. He knew that, and he knew he could.)
Adrian reached into the bowl, digging his fingers through the thick jelly-
like mixture for the metal hilt. His fingers closed around it then he was
gently lifting the knife from the potion. It stretched like honey, clinging
to the metal which shimmered like a polished stone. The liquid refused to
adhere to the blade, sliding off with a small shhhnk! It sounded like a
sword coming from a sheath.
The silver was cool to the touch, unmarred from its marinade. Adrian's
fingertips were stained dark, like he crushed blackberries in his palm.
"Alright, what's the incantation?" Adrian asked, feeling excitement buzz
through his chest.
Adalonda told him, Adrian repeated it back until the great basilisk
approved.
"Okay, I'm ready." Adrian breathed slowly through his nose to calm his
nerves, "What do I do?"
Adalonda's mouth opened, the thick smell of her breath puffed into
Adrian's face, caressing his cheeks. "Turn the rat to a man."
Adrian looked over his shoulder towards the outer edge of the candle
light. He spotted the rat, huddled and shivering like a molding potato.
"Turn back."
The rat paused, obviously thinking things through. After a few seconds,
Wormtail shifted back. Adrian was surprised at the differences. The man
was thin, obviously he had dropped an immense amount of weight. There
were shadows under his eyes, deep bruises on his gaunt skull.
He also had a seething glare on his face, wishing Adrian a long painful
death.
It didn't matter to him. Wormtail was beneath him, Wormtail was a rat.
"Good, Cerestes." Adalonda crooned, soothing as she exhaled into the air-
hot and heavy.
"You would do anything, for Lutain, right?" Adalonda asked, sounding
rhetoric until she looked at him expectantly.
"Of course I would." Adrian frowned, looking at her in growing
frustration. He knew that she doubted his ability. He had reassured her
enough, why was she so distrusting? Why did she think so little of him?
"Cerestes," Adalonda crooned, lowering her head until it was touching the
floor, eye level to Adrian's face, "Kill the man."
Adrian flinched and stumbled one step back, "I- What?"
Adalonda's tongue flicked the air- feathery kisses along Adrian's neck,
"Kill the man, or the spell will not work."
Adrian shook his head, "No, no Adalonda. There, there has to be another
way. I can't just…"
"It's the only way." Adalonda responded bluntly, pausing before huffing a
disappointed noise.
She slowly lifted her head, turning to look away and begin to leave.
"I knew better than to expect so much." She sighed, sounding
disappointment, "The other and Nagini had such promise. Nothing you have."
"That's not true!" Adrian shouted, staring at her in disbelief and quickly
rising panic, "I- Adalonda no!"
"There's no point to stay here. You're weak." She paused, before very
carefully pronouncing, "You're useless."
"I am not useless!" Adrian screamed, tears stinging as his hands shook
and clenched. No- no. He was not going to think like that- he was not
going to let those thought drag him down to the mud. He wouldn't let
some sort of- of insecurities ruin what he had worked so hard to come to
terms with. "I- Adalonda I'm not useless!"
His voice didn't waver this time, it only reached a shrieking level of his
frustration. Wormtail flinched at the noise, staring silently with a beady
hateful expression.
"You can't even kill someone! You can't even strike like a noble kind! You're a
rat," She egged, swinging back to peer over her length through the dark
at him, "If you were hatchling, I'd leave you to die."
Adrian stumbled back with a wet sounding noise leaving his throat.
No. No he would not think like that.
"I would not be surprised if you are left." Adalonda continued, looking at
him with a blank expression, "I would."
No no, he couldn't let- he couldn't think like that-
"No- no…" Adrian was shaking, and oh, how pitiful that looked. Guilt and
shame bubbled in his throat like tar. The knife almost slipped from
between his fingers, cold to the touch. "...Adalonda no…"
Adalonda barely considered him, perhaps she was just ashamed of him as
he was. "So stubborn. So useless, and because of you, Lutain will die."
Adrian's heart stopped.
She wasn't ashamed of him, she was...she was angry. She was
disappointed because he had- he had inspired a false hope that perhaps
another one she held dear would not die. He had made her hopeful, and
his own...his own weakness was ruining that.
Adalonda considered him with disgust, "Your inability to me, is to kill
Lutain. You're useless."
He couldn't save his friend.
(He could feel it wiggling through his brain like maggots, feeding on his
lobes with munching maws. 'Maybe I am? If I can't help the ones I care
about- perhaps I am useless.')
"No I'm not." Adrian whispered, voice inaudible in the chamber,
"I...please don't leave me."
Adalonda's scales shifted as she slithered, moving away from where he
stood with a knife in his hands. She wasn't coming back.
"Adalonda!" He screamed, waiting, and still she moved further. Lutain
was silent nearby, watching and not interrupting. Was he disappointed
too? Had Adrian broken his hope also?
'I'm useful. I'm useful. I'm useful.'
The fine tether, constructed of desperation and hysteria snapped.
Adrian's breathing was by no means steady, but at this point it didn't
matter.
He didn't matter.
Lutain needed to- Lutain needed to be okay.
Adrian didn't need to be, he didn't need to be. Lutain had to be. Lutain
had to be okay.
(What point is all of this, if in the end, Lutain is dead and it's all because
of your own weakness?)
'Is it right to do terrible things for someone you care about?'
What did it matter, if in the end the only one left to judge you is
yourself?
Adrian was sobbing something messy, hitched and gross as he clutched
his wand tightly, palms sweating. His face likely looked disgusting, but
his head was clear and his heart throbbed with sorrow.
Wormtail was still pissed, although looking more and more perturbed by
second.
"I- A…" Adrian gulped air, his vision blurring.
"I-"
"Master?" Lutain asked quietly, trying to possibly comfort him, "He's just a
rat."
A rat.
Just a rat.
'A rat for a snake. A weakling, for the strong.'
Remus would be so sad with him- but didn't Remus have similar
problems? Didn't he too struggle with bloodlust, the ability to grab
someone by the throat and claw their throat out?
If Remus blamed Adrian for this- and judged it as something
irredeemable, then he was a hypocrite.
(Luna would be so sad with him.)
"I- I'm sorry." Adrian choked, words almost entirely unrecognizable
around the lump in his throat. He didn't know who he was apologizing
to, if it was for the rat before him, or someone unknowing.
"Wha-" Wormtail started, eyes widening as self preservation kicked in.
Adrian knew the spell, he knew it.
He could do it.
He was useful.
(He would prove it.)
"A-Avada Kedavra."
There was a flash, and a twist in Adrian's stomach. Wormtail fell to the
ground with a hollow thud. His body bounced, bones rolling with the
impact, elastic tendons snapping. He settled after hitting his skull twice
on the ground, a strange impulsive gurgle from his diaphragm.
Wormtail's eyes were glassy.
Adrian keeled over and hurled.
It was disgustingly thick, chunky; a mixture of everything he had recently
eaten. It tasted disgusting, burning his nose and mouth as he sobbed and
gagged.
"The spell." Adalonda prompted him, sounding forced calm. She hadn't left
then, she had waited.
Right. Adrian stuttered it out, repeating it twice just to make sure it
worked. Then his skin prickled, like the summer sun had caused his flesh
to sizzle. He felt like he was shedding, some part of him breaking away
that he hadn't ever thought of as him.
When he tore out his hair and let it flutter to the ground- was it still him?
When blood from his nose splattered on cobblestone, when did he end,
and blood begin?
Adrian looked at his chest, watched as something blue dripped out. Blue
and hazy, thick like smoke that congealed in a small spinning orb of
light, the size of a grapefruit. It seeped from his pores, thick and waxy-
evaporating and shaping itself into something new.
His breath, or whatever it was.
It was beautiful, but at the same time there was something wrong with it;
parts were tainted and darker in colour, twisted chunks where it looked
almost necrotic. Mud that had dried too quickly under the sun, sandstone
eroded from a storm.
"The knife."
Right. Right the knife.
Adrian's hand was shaking so hard he had to drop his wand to hold the
silver blade with two hands, gripping the hilt to try and steady the
shaking.
Split it in half. Give it to Lutain.
"The knife, Cerestes."
Adrian reeled back and stabbed.
It hurt.
It hurt bad enough it felt like Bellatrix had cursed him again.
It felt like his father's stare, his red eyes and disappointed frown as he
whispered the curse lovingly.
Crucio through his bones, vibrating and arcing through his bones like
Adalonda's venom.
The blue orb had cracked, leaking something clear that dripped over his
hands like blood. It sizzled on his skin, tingling like magic.
He stuck the knife in harder, feeling and seeing the crack strain further.
His knees gave out and he dropped; the orb followed his elevation even
as he slammed onto the ground. Adrian curled up, seizing as the crack
spread, splitting further and further even without his knife's edge.
Adrian had never felt such agony in his life- eternal and overwhelming
and he just wanted it to end.
Kill me Kill me Kill me killmekillmekillme
"Give it to Lutain." Adalonda rumbled, somewhere unseen and only felt.
Lutain. Right, Lutain needed- he needed-
Lutain had to live.
Live Lutain Lutain Lutain.
"Lutain." He croaked out, reaching out but not feeling the black coils.
Killmekillmekillmekillme
It reached a crescendo, and there was a sound of something snapping, the
clean crack of glass or bone.
(It echoed, the melodic noise of wind chimes, of silver bells.)
Adrian's back arched as something wet spread through his mouth; he
vomited blood and whimpered like a dying dog.
His eyes rolled back in his head and at some point between one wave of
agony and the next; he passed out.
"Well...I don't know how to explain it, Luna."
"You could try?"
"Creatures don't seem to like me anymore. Like they're scared of me, like
I'm...Like I smell like some sort of predator ready to eat them."
"Things that are scared of you can learn to love you. You just need to show
them that you're not going to hurt them."
"You don't understand, Luna."
"Hey Hermione, can I ask you a question?" Skylar asked, looking across
from his armchair to where Hermione was buried behind stacks of books.
Break was almost over, yet she hadn't stopped studying once during the
holiday.
She poked her head up, hair secured out of her face by a messy ponytail,
"Yes Sky?"
Skylar sighed and thought through the phrasing, "Hypothetical, I mean."
Hermione sensed that something was amiss and slowly set her quil down.
She placed a bookmark in her book, closing it gently.
She turned, giving him her full attention.
"Now, I'm not trying to sound…" Skylar's voice was pinched, "I..Okay, I
need you to…"
"Skylar?" Hermione asked, her brows pinched with worry, "What is it?"
Skylar lent forward and placed his head in his hands, "Hermione I don't
want to think about this but I know I have to."
Hermione reached out to place her hand on his knee, reassuring him, "I'll
help however I can. I know that with that… that woman watching our
mail we can't reach out, but I'll listen. What's bothering you?"
Skylar looked at her and chewed his lower lip, he looked torn. Hermione
noticed how ill his face twisted, as if he had been thinking of something
for a long time. "I...It's only because I need someone else's thoughts. And I
can't reach my bloody dad or-" Skylar flinched and stared furiously at the
wall, stopping his rant then and there. "Dumbledore thinks...he thinks
that maybe maybe Adrian was...He thinks that he may try to hurt us."
Hermione straightened and she frowned sharply, that was a serious
accusation. She had thought better of Skylar. It was a ridiculous
assumption to make on another student. "Skylar, Adrian wouldn't-"
"I know," Skylar agreed, voice a little higher, "but I want to think about
this hypothetically. I don't think...I like Adrian, but I want to consider
everything."
Hermione obviously wasn't happy with the discussion, it was complete
nonsense to her but Skylar looked quite distressed. If anything, she could
at least run with his silly theory until he was able to talk to the Order
members. Maybe he'd finally get some sleep that way.
She sighed and gave a small nod, already feeling guilty for
Adrian."Alright, I'll try to think about what he'd do if that was the case."
She made it very clear she didn't think it was, but Skylar nodded finally
at peace. He leaned back on his chair, but his expression shifted again
almost instantly. How on Earth had he gotten so worked up over this?
"If...If for some reason, Adrian was working with Voldemort-"
"Sky…" Hermione trailed off warningly, fighting the urge to get up and
storm out right then.
"I know, trust me I hate this too," Skylar grumbled, and in truth he did
look upset. "But...has there ever been a time where...where he told you
something you thought was wrong?"
Hermione bit her lip worriedly, something about this didn't feel right.
"Skylar, I don't think-"
"Trust me, 'Mione," Skylar grimaced, "I'm trying to consider every
possibility."
Hermione stared at him before she looked down at her hands, fiddling
with them.
There was such an instant, she remembered it clearly. It had bothered her
quite a bit, but since the topic was a sensitive one now she hadn't dared
ever bringing her concerns to light. It was likely nothing, there were
trained aurors and adults on the case, it was silly to think that she had
anything important to say.
Skylar looked upset, like he was clinging for anything. It wasn't as if what
she suspected could possibly be true anyways.
"There was...do you remember our second year? When we used Polyjuice
to sneak into the Slytherin Dorms?"
Skylar smiled faintly, "Adrian was furious afterwards."
Hermione nodded, looking off and unsure, "He...You remember
Slytherin's monster? How it was never...never found?"
"Yeah," Skylar nodded quietly, pausing and letting the silence fill the gap.
Hermione shifted, chewing on her lip. She hated to be wrong.
"I thought I knew what the monster was, no, I know what the monster is.
But...Adrian told me I was wrong- and...I don't know." She trailed off,
voice almost warbling, "He...I mean he knows creatures better than I do
so I thought that…"
"He convinced you that you were wrong." Skylar felt like he was chewing
soap, a bitter taste in his mouth, "and you dropped it."
Hermione nodded slowly, "I...I shouldn't have, but...I don't know. Too
many things didn't line up with it."
Skylar entertained the thought; he could see why Hermione had doubted
herself if Adrian shut her down. Adrian was a force, an unstoppable
object. Talking to him about a few topics- well...If Adrian wanted, Skylar
was sure that boy could have persuaded Skylar into thinking a broom
was a chair.
"Do you remember the snake? When you were dueling Draco?"
Skylar gave a bark of laughter, "I'd never forget that."
Hermione looked even more unsure, as if she was reaching new levels of
conspiracy theories. "Well, we never saw that summoned snake be
banished and it just sort of vanished in the crowd-"
Hermione cut herself off quickly, reaching up to undo her hair tie and
run her fingers through the messy locks.
"Hermione." Skylar urged, "Please, I just...what's your theory?"
Hermione shook her head, her hair bouncing around chaotically. "It's
stupid, Sky."
Skylar waited, and let Hermione gather her thoughts. A second passed,
and Hermione blurted words like they would burn her. "Well...I- I don't
know for sure but...didn't the snake you fought look a lot like Adrian's
familiar."
Skylar gaped, "No, no way."
Hermione looked guilty, "I mean, I don't remember him well and I wasn't
that good friends with him, and honestly to me all snakes look the same
but...I never wanted to think that...that he'd spread such a rumor but…"
"He'd...he framed me?" Skylar's voice rose a notch, "As the heir?"
Why would he do that?
"I thought about it for a long time too," Hermione muttered sourly,
"and...and I couldn't think as to why...except…"
Skylar thought quickly, and back to the list hidden carefully under his
textbooks and old Chocolate Frog wrappers. Adrian Selwyn's snake
understood English, which was something impressive considering that
familiars shouldn't know English. They just...they were assumed to have
an inclination for understanding one person. A familiar understanding or
even obeying someone else suggested a high level of intelligence
impossible for nonverbal communication, far higher than just a normal
animal. Astoria Greengrass had panicked the moment they closed the
door, screaming about a snake.
"Lutain is an animagus." Skylar spoke out loud, almost chastising himself
the second after he said it.
Hermione thankfully didn't scowl but blushed slightly, "I had thought the
same, but...but I think that Adrian could...understand it."
Skylar tried to understand what Hermione was suggesting, "Familiar's are
connected-"
"No no, I mean…." Hermione looked on the verge of crying. What kind of
horrible person was she to say such terrible things? To imply that another
student could... "He- don't you think it was a bit strange that you were
framed for being a parselmouth?"
'There were hundreds of things you could have been framed for, easier things.
Why parseltongue?'
"No- no way." Skylar blinked in alarm, his mouth falling open in surprise,
"You think that...that Adrian may be a...a parsel-"
Hermione leaned forward with wide eyes, her face pale and a bit shaken.
"I- I want to say that I feel terrible over this, and I'm likely just...just
plucking straws out of nowhere, but...I mean, I know that I'm leaping to
conclusions but sometimes he knows things that he shouldn't, but that his
snake did."
Skylar wanted to instantly argue about Legilimency, that information
could have easily have been obtained that way. Hermione didn't know
about that, and with how upset she was now, Skylar had no intentions of
showing her.
Familiar's didn't communicate with words, more through emotions and
sensations. There wouldn't be a way to accurately report back
information or anything overheard. Spying through a Familiar would
have been impossible, he would have only gotten impressions on people,
emotional responses.
'If Adrian was a parselmouth, what would he be able to do that nobody else
could?'
He could talk to snakes...was there more?
"Hermione, what do you think the monster is?'
Hermione looked at Skylar in the eyes, "I...I thought that it was this...this
legendary beast called a Basilisk."
Skylar frowned as he tried to remember where he had heard the name,
"A...the medusa snake?"
Hermione shook her head, straightening unconsciously in preparation to
teach. "No, that's a different one, well, there are similarities.
Basilisks...they kill everything that they look at. They're the king of
serpents, and have a crown on their head and bright red plumes…Sky,
Basilisks are said to be horrible monsters."
Skylar's eyebrows furrowed, "Okay this Basilisk- I mean, let's run with it
being a Basilisk. If it's a snake monster, running with the parselmouth
idea...then… the monster would have killed people by looking at them,
but nobody died."
Besides Ginny Weasley.
"I thought of that," Hermione added helpfully, her lower lip beading with
blood as her teeth finally broke through. "Every time someone was
petrified, they didn't look at it directly. Then, it just…. vanished."
"You think that Adrian opened the chamber," Skylar gasped, his voice
going hoarse in horror, "You think that he controlled the monster."
Hermione's eyes widened and she shook her head back and forth, "No!
No, Adrian would never- Skylar we're talking about theories, Adrian did
not-"
'I left her to starve to death!'
He was so distraught, Skylar could never forget the hysterical shrieking.
What if it wasn't just...what if it was guilt?
"What did the wall say." Skylar couldn't breathe, "When Ginny vanished.
Hermione, what did the wall say."
"I- Her skeleton will lie in the chamber forever. I'd never forget it"
Hermione recited with a flinch, "Sky, Sky what's going on. You- you
cannot seriously be presuming that-"
Things clicked into place, the final fact that had been biting Skylar's brain
ever since he made that list.
The snake- the familiar. He had it since a young age, but having a
familiar from such a young age was unheard of. What if Adrian could talk
to it? What if he could speak to it and understood each other? That wasn't
by any means a stretch then- for all purposes it would have looked like a
familiar bond.
The Blood adoption was after being adopted, but the parseltongue was
before. Did Adrian...was Adrian related to someone, someone that was
supposed to be a secret? Someone that would be obvious?
Why did Bellatrix Lestrange pick him? Why did Bellatrix Lestrange pick
him?
(Why would Adrian need to know Occlumency? What if he had
something to hide?)
If what Astoria said was true...if what she said was right, then Suzie
Forestar went to the same orphanage as Adrian (before he was Adrian?).
Astoria wanted to know about him, about Adrian before he was adopted,
and Bellatrix killed her only lead. What could Suzie Forestar have known?
(What would a child have displayed in public? What sort of skill would
Adrian have done that, in retrospect, would have ruined him? Adrian
Selwyn skipped classes, he set trains on fire, he broke Draco's skull, what
small tiny thing could he, and Bellatrix Lestrange, want to keep hidden?)
"We have to go." Skylar spoke, leaping to his feet and yanking Hermione
to hers, "We- Ron!" He screamed towards the stairwell. They were lucky
almost all of Gryffindor bailed for Easter, leaving just the three in the
tower.
Seconds later there was a hollow thud, then Ron stuck his head out to
look down the stairs in alarm, "Sky?"
"Get the cloak!" Skylar shouted, eyes wide and nostrils flaring, "We've got
to go, right now."
'If that's true, if all of that is true, then we need to go right now. It's too
dangerous here, nowhere is safe.'
Hermione shook her head frantically, "Skylar we don't know!"
Something pulsed in frustration, and Skylar wanted to punch a wall.
Hermione was his friend, but she was so naive. What was the worst that
would happen- they'd get expelled? That didn't matter, with what Skylar
had figured out, nobody here was safe.
Merlin's beard, a girl- Suzie Forestar, was dead.
"Hermione I love you to death but I need you to trust me." Skylar rushed
out, "You have an owl in your room?"
Hermione looked baffled, "Ah- yes. Sky you can't sent an owl outside of-"
"Send one now. Luna Lovegood, please, tell her it's urgent."
"I've got it." Ron hurried down the stairs clutching the invisibility cloak
over his head. Hermione bolted up the stairs, looking far too startled to
not follow Skylar's request.
Ron blinked in confusion, wrinkling his eyebrows in a weird face, "What's
this about?"
"Selwyn," Skylar clipped out, eyes flashing, "Ron, don't. We...we need to
get Selwyn out of here- the Shrieking Shack is past the apparition line,
we need to get him to headquarters."
Ron looked baffled, "I- mate we can't apparate! Are you barmy?"
"Selwyn can!" Skylar shouted, staring at the steps until Hermione hurried
down the staircase, nearly tripping in her haste.
"I- I told her to meet us in the front entrance." Hermione hurried in a
hush, "Skylar you don't even know where he is."
"Luna will!" Skylar retorted, flinging the cloak over their shoulders and
ushering them towards the stairs and out of the castle.
The cloak was too short for all of them to wear, so Hermione cast the
best disillusionment spell she could over their feet and Skylar cast the
best muffling charm he knew. Ron was surprisingly helpful, pointing and
shoving them to the side whenever one of the Slytherin monitors slipped
into sight.
("I live with Fred and George," Ron grinned breathless and proud as he
expertly maneuvered them past Filch, "You think I wouldn't know how to
sneak around after curfew?")
They hurried to the grand entrance, moonlight from the nearly full moon
slid through the windows. Luna was standing near one window, looking
incredibly lackluster but almost ethereal when the white light caught her
hair. Skylar was momentarily impressed with how swiftly she had gotten
their response. Maybe she had snuck out to the owlery?
Luna didn't see or hear them approach/Her face was haunted looking,
especially anxious and somber as if she was expecting something truly
horrid. Skylar felt guilty, that he had nothing positive to say.
He would apologize later, for now this was more important then just her.
Skylar pulled the cloak off, revealing himself and his friends suddenly.
Luna nearly jumped, a small inhale the only noise in the silence of the
night.
"Luna," Skylar greeted, and something in his face must have shown
because her expression fell slightly.
"Oh no," She stated quietly, like funeral bells, "What has he done now?"
Ron and Hermione exchanged a look, looking incredibly uncomfortable
with being out so late in such an exposed area.
"Hopefully nothing. We need to get him out of here, now." Skylar
reported with a foreboding expression, "We need to get him out of here,
he can apparate but I don't know how many…"
"The thestrals." Luna responded quickly. She had apparently thought
about this before then, which had chilling ramifications. "They can fly
you wherever you need to go."
"Skylar! We can't just leave!" Hermione hissed quietly, mindful that they
were in fact, breaking curfew.
"Then I'll go." Skylar hissed back, "Luna, do you know where he is?"
Luna blinked and looked worried, "I- He was gone all day. I don't know,
I'm worried for him."
"Does your dad still have the map?" Ron blurted, looking at Skylar with a
slightly unsure expression, "Or, do you have any tracking spells? For the
second task?"
Hermione shook her head quickly, "Tracking spells don't work on people!
Our magical cores make it imposs-"
"Track Lutain," Luna spoke like a shadow, "Adrian hasn't been letting him
leave his side for weeks."
Skylar nodded, looking at Hermione who sighed but held her wand flat
on her palm, "Point Me Lutain!"
Skylar wasn't sure if it would actually work until he saw her wand twist,
spinning until it pointed in a direction that clearly wasn't the dungeons.
Skylar didn't even pause, he took off at a sprint. The muffling charm was
still in effect and thankfully Luna bolted after casting a similar spell at
her feet.
Hermione gasped as her wand spun, pointing in another direction. They
scrambled to keep up with the random shifts in movement.
Skylar felt a small warmth, that even without knowing the entire
situation, his friends were willing to chase him into danger.
"Where is this snake!" Ron grunted, out of breath as he tried to keep up,
"It's like its in the bloody walls!"
"Pipes!" Hermione blurted, looking at Skylar horrified, "That's- the
basilisk!"
"Basilisk?" Luna echoed, eyes wide in silent horror although still a bit
puzzled. She hadn't clued in then. "Oh dear."
"There!" Ron shouted, squinting through the dark. Skylar's eyes focused
on something in the shadows, a flash of movement that was too
impossible to discern in the shadows. Skylar skidded to a stop, pointed
his wand and hoped to Merlin this would work.
Skylar belted out in a strangled yelp. "Accio Lutain!"
There was a second before something long and black flew through the air,
it smacked into his outstretched hand. Snake coils were surprisingly
warm, dry and writhing.
It was hissing, spitting and flailing like an incredibly agitated animal.
(Well, Lutain was an agitated animal.)
"Mobiliarbus!" Hermione cast, levitating the writhing creature away from
Skylar's fleshy fingers.
"Lutain!" Someone yelped, stumbling out of the dark shadows with a
swaying walk, looking dazed and very sick. Skylar took one glance before
he did a second take in dumbfounded puzzlement. Skylar hadn't ever
thought about sounds being used for a description, yet looking at Adrian,
all he could think of was untuned piano strings. Off key, a morbid joke of
what should be soft and gentle.
Luna made a noise like she was choking, Skylar felt like he had
swallowed a bug. Luna took a stumbling step backwards, a violent shiver
nearly tripped her and took her to the floor.
"What have you done?" Luna asked, holding her wand out in front of her
defensively.
Her arm was shaking as she pointed it directly at Adrian.
Adrian looked feverish, almost baffled where he was standing as if
drunken. He swayed slightly, torso shifting back and forth as if
undulating.
"Skylar Potter? You!" Adrian asked with a small slur, his mood changing
to something furious- his words so similar to a hiss Skylar felt sick.
The whiplash between confused and vindictive was a whirlwind. Luna
choked again, reaching out to steady herself on Ron's shoulder. Hermione
looked far too unstable, clutching the invisibility cloak to her chest as if a
security blanket.
"Adrian." Skylar spoke, his voice deadpan although he was almost
trembling. Was it custom to lower oneself to the ground when speaking
to a wild animal? Should he hold his arms out to show he was unarmed?
There was something wrong with him. It was too dark to tell, but Skylar
felt fairly certain that if he were to cast lumos, Adrian's pupils would be
dilated past the normal level. He was inebriated of some sort, not
operating at his normal facilities.
Lutain was spitting, hissing a fury as he writhed in the air above them.
"You I…" Adrian suddenly flinched, a whole body movement that almost
looked like a bucket of ice water had been dumped on him. He blinked
dumbly, completely dismissing Skylar's presence entirely. "I- Luna?"
Suddenly calm, still dazed but simply confused.
Hermione leant over to Skylar's ear, "Something isn't right!"
Skylar knew that, and based on Luna's retching noises she knew also. If it
was stolen firewhiskey, Luna wouldn't be so...so ill. It was almost as if she
had tasted something rotten, like some bad smelling potion ingredien-
Bubotuber pus.
"Luna, you okay?" Skylar asked her, careful to keep the black snake away
from hurting anyone.
Luna was sniffling, shaking on the ground from her kneeling position as
she stared at Adrian with wide traumatized eyes, "You...you smell like
carrion."
"Well well, look who we have here." Someone said with a slightly amused
but high cold voice.
Pristine and polite, a Slytherin girl with long blonde hair walked out with
her wand raised high and an expression of amusement at the sight of
Adrian, "Headmistress Umbridge is going to be very disappointed,
Selwyn."
Adrian blinked once before his facial expression shifted into something
savage, "Oh piss off Daphne!"
Daphne Greengrass, Astoria's sister.
Daphne Greengrass was on Umbridge's squad of student officers, she had
remained over the holidays. She was essentially Umbridge's right hand
helper, obviously assigned a night shift.
Shite shite shite
"I think not, Selwyn." Daphne's face was cold although she held her wand
securely, "I was hoping to catch you on your own, surely you'd be
expelled then. A group though...a shame."
Luna struggled to get off the floor, still looking pained, "Daphne we need
to leave Hogwarts-"
'No! Luna!'
Daphne pointed her wand at Luna without looking at her, her expression
no nonsense, "Shut it, Lovegood."
She obviously knew that Adrian was a threat, which was chilling to think
of.
(Wasn't he? In this hallway, Adrian Selwyn, even while impaired, was the
biggest threat around.)
"Daphne please," Skylar tried, knowing that his voice was strained,
"We...we need to get to the forest-"
"Skylar Potter if you say one more word, I'm going to stun all of you and
drag you to Filch's office myself." Daphne snapped.
"Astoria's letter!" Skylar blurted, almost panting from how high stress the
situation was.
Daphne froze, turning to look at Skylar.
'I'm so sorry Astoria, but if this works you'll be safe.'
"What?" Daphne asked calmly. She wasn't though, her eyes had widened,
the whites bright in the dark. Her skin was paling to porcelain in the
torchlight.
Just in time, loud recognizable clicking shoes broke the silence.
Umbridge emerged from the dark, looking proud and cocky- Daphne
must had triggered an alarm the moment she found the group. Daphne
must have been trying to find Adrian for a while now- to expel him.
No, no this was very bad. Something was wrong with Adrian, and
knowing the boy he would only lash out if they revealed they knew
anything. Yet considering how much Adrian was swaying...would calling
in an auror team be overkill?
(No. No it wouldn't.)
"Well done Ms. Greengrass!" Umbridge chirped, clapping her hands
together in glee, "What was the famous Golden Boy and friends doing out
at this time of night," her eyes narrowed although her lips kept a happy
smile, "Hmm?"
Skylar hated that noise.
Adrian twitched, spasming uncontrollably down his legs before he glared,
unadulterated rage twisting his eyes. He bared his teeth, like something
wild.
Daphne didn't blink, and her face didn't change.
'Please Daphne,' Skylar begged in his head. 'Please.'
"I heard them discussing a weapon in the Forbidden Forest, Ma'am."
Umbridge looked pleased, "Ah yes, Dumbledore's weapon."
Daphne locked eyes with Skylar, blank and unreadable. She knew about
Astoria's letter, Astoria must have told her what she suspected. That
Adrian somehow had something to do with Suzie Forestar's death.
Daphne understood that Skylar was trying to remove Adrian Selwyn, or
trying to get him away. If Skylar ever had the opportunity, he would
thank that girl with every fiber of his being.
"I'll take things from here, Ms. Greengrass." Umbridge smiled, sacchrine
and irritating, "Off you tot."
Daphne walked away with a stiff back, not looking back once. She faded
into the dark, away from the danger into security.
"Well then." Umbridge supplied with a vicious grin, "Shall we?"
"If I don't understand, can you try and explain it to me again?"
"It's….Luna it's...magical things, they used to like me. They used to...I don't
know, it sounds stupid."
"I don't think it sounds stupid."
"Magical things, they used to like me. They don't anymore."
'I'm so sor- No. I just- I didn't mean to. I didn't know what else to do. I just-
I'm so confused. I was confused. I didn't know that would happen- I mean, I
knew it would but I just- It didn't seem real. It didn't seem possible. I left you
down there in the cold, and the dark. Was that the wrong thing? Was that
really the wrong thing to do?'
They exited the hallways, through the corridors of the sleeping castle
until the nighttime air chilled their skin and their breaths puffed gently
in the air.
Umbridge walked at the head of their chain, keeping her wand poised
and pointed at Hermione who grudgingly lead the group; Umbridge
finding her the biggest threat at the moment. Of course, Umbridge had
stolen their wands, stashing them in her oversized pink pockets.
(Skylar found that the greatest irony, that Umbridge couldn't recognize
that Adrian, poor poor Adrian, was likely the biggest threat in the entire
castle.)
Umbridge showed only slight uncertainty in her steps as Hermione lead
them past Hagrid's hut, sleeping silently in the night. The dew from the
grass stuck to Skylar's shoes.
"In there," Hermione pointed coldly into the dark forest. Her face was
ticked, barely any fear in her eyes.
Umbridge frowned, "In the forbidden forest? Not near it?"
Of course not you overgrown louse, if it was sitting in the sunlight a
secret weapon wouldn't be that secret.
Luna peeked out, keeping her body behind Adrian with her thin arms
wrapped around his torso. Skylar hadn't a clue what had gotten into him,
but periodically on the path down he had heard the boy whisper to
himself almost manic- the large black snake coiling and hissing in rage
above their heads in a protective bubble. Had he been sneaking potions?
Skylar had heard the rumors, but- but drugs were something impossible
to think about.
"Dumbledore didn't want any students stumbling on it." Luna spoke up,
her voice wobbly and shaking as if she had been struck.
Oh Hermione was brilliant. Knowing Luna, she likely had swarms of
magical creatures ready to pounce on Umbridge, Hermione was smart to
take the lead, not that she had much choice. Given how much Umbridge
actually knew about her students, she likely thought that Hermione was
the mastermind behind everything. Skylar doubted she even knew Luna's
name.
"Of course," Umbridge stated, although she sounded a little apprehensive
now. "Of course...very well, then...you stay ahead of me."
Skylar and Ron tried to catch Hermione's eye as they neared the first
trees. Adrian and Luna stayed in the back, the girl soothing or quieting
the occasional incoherent murmurs and (chillingly unnerving) moans and
whimpers.. Skylar was beginning to feel uneasy- walking into the Forest
without wands seemed to him like one of the worse ideas he'd followed
through with. At least there weren't any dragons in the forest anymore.
'Oh but don't forget the probably lethal snake hovering above your head.'
Hermione started a brisk walk, one that had the entire chain struggling to
keep up. Although Luna was moving with more ease than all of them
combined, she was stuck dragging the unusually clumsy Adrian over
roots and branches.
Ron leaned in towards Skylar quietly, "Think he's drugged?"
So Ron had noticed too. It was unlikely to be drugs, Adrian wasn't so
stupid to do that in public where he could be found. It had to be
something else, but Skylar didn't know what.
Skylar shook his head subtly, watching carefully along the sides of the
path for anything to leap out at them. Hermione nearly stamped down
the undergrowth. Ron and Skylar exchanged worried looks- they were
making quite the racket.
Umbridge tripped over a fallen nearby sapling. The snake, contained by
the magical bubble, lunged at her as if it could break through. Nobody
paused on the march to help her upright, even as her coat tore on a stray
branch.
They walked on for what seemed like a long time, until they were so
deep in the Forest that the dense arching tree branches above blocked out
the starlight.
Ron gulped and looked around nervously; Skylar felt as if hundreds of
eyes were watching him.
"How much further?" demanded Umbridge angrily, and suddenly, Adrian
inhaled loudly and harshly, then succumbed to low giggles.
"And what are you-" Umbridge turned, pointing the wand threateningly
at the other boy.
No no, don't threaten him-
An arrow flew through the air and landed with a menacing thud in the
tree over Umbridge's head. The air was suddenly full of the sound of
hooves; Skylar could feel the forest trembling.
Umbridge spun with a scream, grabbing Ron to use him as some sort of
shield. Ron kicked out, stumbling away as the group slowly looked at the
circle of hooved creatures watching them; at least twenty centaurs were
emerging on every side equipped with wooden bows raised and loaded at
the group.
Hermione looked alarmed, but distinctly relieved at something. Luna
searched for a single centaur in particular, brow furrowed until she
relaxed suddenly. Thank Merlin for that, if Skylar had to be lost in the
Forbidden Forest with anyone, he'd always pick Luna.
"Who are you?" One centaur demanded, a chestnut-bodied one with his
bow cocked. He emerged from the ranks, circling around to point the
arrow tip towards Umbridge, "Who are you, human?"
"I am Dolores Umbridge!" said woman spoke in a high-pitched, terrified
voice. "Senior Undersecretary to the Minister for Magic and Headmistress
and High Inquisitor of Hogwarts!"
Many of the centaurs shifted restlessly, casting looks off into the forest in
an opposite direction.
"You are from the Ministry of Magic?" said the centaur, eyes narrowed
and nostrils flaring.
"That's right!" she nearly screeched, "So you should-"
One of the centaurs gave a ragged gasp, a stumbling sound as its legs
appeared to tremble slightly, "You brought it!"
Skylar wasn't sure what had scared it until a low murmur spread through
the centaurs and they shifted their aim towards Luna.
"What?" Umbridge gasped in surprise, "I- are you ignoring me?"
The centaur who was in charge didn't even glance her way, "Your status
is insignificant and hence we care naught for you."
Umbridge gaped wordlessly for a few moments, "I...Excuse me?"
"What are you doing in our Forest! Why are you here?" bellowed a hard-
faced grey centaur.
"Your Forest?" said Umbridge, shaking from indignation, "I would remind
you that you live here only because the Ministry of Magic permits you
certain areas of land-"
An arrow flew so close to her head that it nearly sliced her hair; she let
out a scream and threw her hands over her head. The centaurs hadn't
even spared her a look, still staring at Luna in fright. What had Luna
done?
"You are unimportant here, human." One centaur spat, shifting as if
Umbridge was little but dirt.
Umbridge flushed in rage but it was too late: Umbridge pointed her wand
at the chestnut centaur and screamed, "Incarcerous!"
Ropes flew out of midair like thick snakes, wrapping themselves tightly
around the centaur's torso and trapping his arms to his sides. The centaur
gave a cry of rage and reared onto his hind legs, attempting to free
himself.
Arrows flew and Umbridge cast a hasty shielding charm; Skylar felt smug
as he knew that his spell was better.
The centaurs did not seem happy, instead they looked torn between fury
and panic.
"Get the parasite away from here!" One hissed, stomping its foot angrily.
"Leave this forest," another one growled, tail swishing in fright, "before
the creature…"
There was a wordless cry from something in the woods, and suddenly the
centaurs were jostling back and forth skittishly.
The snake of Adrian's was hissing incessantly, loud like rustling wind
through branches.
"How dare you!" Umbridge screamed, and sent off a stunner which
missed.
Then Adrian started giggling, a strange crackling noise that sounded wet
but almost crazed. Skylar had heard Bellatrix Lestrange laugh,
surrounded in a field of blood; it was similar.
"Adrian?" Luna asked quietly but urgently, "Adrian- Adrian."
Adrian was giggling, eyes unseeing as he was murmuring something
repeatedly.
"Kill it!" One centaur demanded, pointing not at Luna, but at Adrian.
What had Adrian done.
"We do not attack foals!" One centaur defended, "We do not harm the
girl!"
They hadn't said anything about Adrian; Skylar felt very bad about the
situation.
The snake hadn't stopped hissing, loud and unbroken in its protective
bubble.
The centaurs had said a creature- a creature roaming the woods and they
were terrified of it and Adrian.
"Oh no." Skylar breathed, locking eyes with Luna. They had to have the
same idea, especially with how her arms were trembling where they were
wrapped around Adrian's shoulders.
Of course.
The snake was hissing.
"Silence the snake!" Skylar shouted, looking at the baffled Umbridge who
was still looking indignant, "silence it!"
"Why you-" Umbridge floundered, and one of the centaurs bolted.
"No," Skylar breathed, looking at Hermione quickly, "The monster…"
She clued in, and paled dramatically. Ron gaped, snapping his head
around to look at Skylar in horror. Oh shite, Skylar never really clued in
that the monster was real.
"What? What." Umbridge nearly screamed, "What monster?"
Adrian twisted, cocking his head like a bird. He turned his upper body
quickly, head pointed towards a very specific direction in the woods. A
breathless crooked grin split his face, looking deranged on his features.
"Hello," Adrian almost crooned, swaying where Luna was supporting him,
"You took a while."
Skylar had never been so scared in his life.
(More than the dragon. More than Cedric. More than him.)
Umbridge floundered, and the centaurs bolted. Skylar hadn't seen
something so fast, in a blur of movement they had vanished.
"Sky?" Ron whispered, voice high pitched as terror leaked into his voice,
"You know how you said that this wasn't going to be hard?"
Hermione slunk back, reaching out to grasp both Skylar and Ron's hands
in her clammy ones; she was trembling. Skylar squeeze her hand
reassuringly, making sure they were there together.
Skylar felt like crying. 'I'm so sorry I dragged you into this, guys.'
Umbridge clued in that something very scary was approaching- she
pointed her wand into the dark.
Luna was shaking Adrian slightly, although the boy was still frowning-
no, he was pouting into the dark woods.
"No." Adrian protested suddenly, causing everyone to jump, "I could have
dealt with this."
Umbridge opened her mouth before Adrian scoffed, "I could have!"
He was talking to himself, but it sounded far too cohesive for it to me
another of the strange delusional ramblings. He was talking, in English.
Skylar- Skylar hadn't told his dad and mum that he loved them. The last
time he saw them he had shouted at them, over something unimportant.
He didn't say goodbye to them.
Luna swallowed and breathed something like a sob. A second, then she
composed her expression and looked into the dark, addressing it with a
quiet shaking voice, "H-hello. I'm Luna, you must be very beautiful."
The forest was silent, not a single insect scurrying over dead leaves.
Adrian tilted his head back laughed, as if he had heard something very
funny. His skull thumped against Luna's shoulder, the arms around his
waist tightened.
"Mate," Ron whispered, sounding like he was about to cry, "Mate are we
going to die?"
Skylar shook his head, unable to comfort his friend.
'I am so sorry.'
Hermione was shaking although she cleared her throat loudly, "A-Adrian,
could you introduce us?"
Hermione, Hermione no.
Adrian looked at them, looking dazed as if concussed. He squinted,
forgetting they were there at all. "I…"
"I wouldn't want to be rude." Hermione hurried, "I-I've never met
something so great."
There was a low rumble, a snap of something cracking perhaps a hundred
feet into the woods. Umbridge paled, her skin looking glassy in the
lighting charm. She had just realized that something existed, something
unseen watching them in the dark.
Adrian lazily rolled his head back to the dark, then back at Umbridge in a
feverish intrigue. "Yeah. You should."
Umbridge had never looked so cowardly before, turning on Adrian in
childish fury. "I- stop your insane ramblings."
There was a low hiss, eerily similar to the Vipertooth dragon Skylar had
faced before. Low, a deep rumble that permeated the air and through
trees and through Skylar's entire body.
Adrian giggled, sagging in Luna's arms.
No. Not a dragon- the basilisk. The basilisk.
"It's a bit dark," Luna admitted, still draped over Adrian's back, "Could
you maybe make it a bit brighter so I could introduce myself properly."
Only Umbridge had a wand, nobody else had any wands.
Adrian looked up Luna with a grin, likely his expression more garish up
close. "She-"
There was a low noise, and Adrian cocked his head before nodding.
Adrian's eyes clouded, a thin trail of blood exited his nose down until it
touched his lip. If not for his frantic breathing and twitching cheek,
Skylar would have assumed the other just fell comatose.
The ground around them burst aflame, long tongues of lapping flame as
long as Skylar's leg. It was stunning, and exuded nearly uncontained
power. Far too much, like fiendfyre.
This wasn't the train, this was- this was much worse. This was an arena, a
growing fence to keep the cattle in.
Hell, this sort of boundary would have kept a bloody Swedish Shortsnout
in.
And Adrian was doing it wandlessly.
Umbridge squealed and stumbled back, lifting her face as if to protect her
from the flames. Instead, they stood tall, lapping around them in a bright
circle; trapping them in place.
Nowhere to run, nowhere to go.
Adrian swayed and the thin trail of blood thickened slightly, "No you're
the stupid one."
"Merlin is he arguing with it?" Ron whispered, voice a high pitched wine.
Sweat beaded down the redhead's face, anxiety or from the heat.
Skylar felt his jaw shake, his heart racing in his chest. He had to shift
this, try and smooth things over. Adrian was the one in control of the
situation, Adrian was the one that commanded the monster.
Adrian hated Skylar, he knew that. Skylar could...Skylar could redirect it,
draw its attention.
Keep his friends alive.
"Hello," Skylar croaked, feeling like there was a rock in his throat, "I'm
Skylar. I've heard a lot about you,"
Adrian scowled and looked put out, "Yeah, the one-"
There was a rumble, this one higher and lilting and resonating from all
around them. Adrian looked shocked, confused even as his brows
furrowed.
"What!" Adrian screamed into the woods, straining against Luna's arms,
"Adalonda what are you-"
Adalonda? Was that the monster's name?
Another rumble and Adrian shook his head looking pissed, "The- no you-"
Then with a cold sense of dread, Skylar's fears were confirmed when
instead of words Adrian's mouth moved and strange almost musical noises
were exchanged.
Hermione looked- Skylar couldn't describe it.
Umbridge paled, stumbling backwards as she pointed her wand at him in
fear, "Parselmouth! Parselmouth you dark…"
A larger answering hiss emerged from the dark, and through the
illumination of the fire something giant emerged.
It was larger than the Vipertooth, and it's skull alone was half the size of
a hippogriff. It's snout was scaly and long, a dark greenish sheen with a
giant maw twice the size of what anything should be.
Umbridge gasped and cursed something incredibly undignified.
The creature, it's eyes were milky as if with cataracts, hissed something
with a long flick of its tongue- as long as half of Skylar's body length. It
was horrifying, it was beautiful.
Luna inhaled with a small noise, tucking herself even closer to Adrian.
Who...was arguing. His face flushed and furious.
"- what do you mean!" Adrian screamed, breaking out of the hisses with a
broken high pitched screech, "You- you useless reptile."
The basilisk recoiled, snapping a tree as thick around as Skylar's neck
with the bulk supporting its weight. It exhaled heavily in annoyance, he
warm air smelled like mold and rot. The basilisk responded and Adrian's
jaw tensed and clicked.
"Don't piss it off." Ron whispered, firmly keeping his eyes shut as he
whimpered softly, "Don't piss off the giant man eating snake."
Skylar couldn't afford to think about the ramifications, he couldn't afford
to think. He was going to die- or he..he had to find a way to- to get
through this.
"I- I don't know." Adrian blinked, looking sheepish suddenly, "I didn't
think I'd get this- hey."
The basilisk's tongue lolled out, nearly kissing the flames as it flickered
like Lutain's rapid movements.
Umbridge seemed to gather her movements, pointing her wand and
screaming a spell that shot out with bright yellow light.
The basilisk flinched but stared at her outright in surprise and
almost...amusement? The spell impacted, and deflected off to uselessly
burn out on the forest floor. Magic repellent scales.
The basilisk hissed something, and Adrian blinked, swaying disoriently.
Adrian giggled, hysterical as the flames suddenly twisted and sputtered
like something ill. Adrian turned, looking at Umbridge with something
amused. Had the basilisk said a joke? Did snakes even have humor?
"Okay, kill her."
(Skylar couldn't breathe.)
Umbridge gasped and stiffened; then she collapsed to the forest floor
lifelessly.
Skylar very quickly closed his eyes, crumpling to the floor with his hands
fumbling over his face just to be safe. He heard the others drop, Skylar
could only bare to imagine that they too were talking cover. There was a
silence, before the crunch of leaves as someone walked. Uneven breaking
of leaves, of cracking twigs. A rustle of cloth, then Adrian was walking
again.
"Here Luna," Adrian spoke, almost bouncing as if all logic or rationality
had abandoned him, "Here."
Luna was shaking, taking her wand from Adrian's outstretched hand.
Adrian was swaying noticeably, large shifting movements as he casually
(so casually) reached into Umbridge's rapidly cooling pockets and pulled
out the other wands. Lutain dropped to the floor, the spell finally
canceling out.
Adrian giggled once more, nodding towards the basilisk, "I know. Luna-
you'll...you'll love Nagini, she's so…"
Luna jaw twitched as tears spilled from the corner of her traumatized
eyes, "Oh Adrian."
Adrian giggled, "she- she's okay," Adrian misinterpreted, brandishing one
arm dramatically behind him towards the basilisk, "She- she won't do
anything unless I tell her!"
Skylar opened his eyes, barely able to breathe through the panic. The dirt
and dead leaves were an inch from his face, the air was musty.
Hermione was the first one to carefully crawl over and retrieve her wand,
whimpering pitifully as she touched the pink coat.
She crawled back over, passing out both Ron and Skylar's wands.
"He'll be so happy!" Adrian was continuing, trapped as if narrating a
fantasy, "You- you'll-"
The black snake was in front of them, Lutain. Skylar held his breath,
stiffening entirely as the midnight black serpent stared at him.
It was strangely intelligent, they had already known that. But...something
else. Something different- almost a strange level of comprehensive
understanding was in its gaze.
Supernatural, smart but beyond a normal point.
Help him, it almost seemed to say with its look, Remus. Help him.
Skylar didn't understand, he- what was…
Sick. Dying. The snake's tongue flickered out, kissing Skylar's nose,
immortal.
What- what.
Help him! It urged, and Skylar found himself exhaling in a mere whisper
"Yes."
The snake moved instantly, shifting to stare at the basilisk and Adrian,
opening its mouth to hiss incessantly.
Adrian paused, looking at the snake before hissing back. They were
communicating, talking.
The basilisk moved, no, it was moving away.
Skylar could hardly breathe but he could almost feel the moment the
oppressive weight of the basilisk's look was off of him. He carefully
pushed himself upright, making sure that Luna, Ron, and Hermione were
okay before he spared a look at Adrian.
The fire was still burning, throwing strange flickering patterns across
Adrian's translucent sickly skin. The scars stood out, darkening like
poison in his veins. His eyes were captivated, all attention on the long
thin snake he had coiled around his forearm, held close to his face. There
was a strange gleam on his face, an obsessive attention he gave the black
snake. He reminded Skylar of Moody- the impostor Moody the night in
the graveyard.
"Is everyone okay?" Skylar asked carefully, trying his best not to look to
his right and see the fallen body.
"I'm okay," Luna answered back quietly, holding her wand tightly in one
hand as she used the other to push off of the ground.
"Same here," Ron choked back, shaking but putting on a brave face as he
helped Hermione up.
Luna struggled to her feet, staying a careful distance from Adrian who
was entirely enraptured by whatever the black snake was saying.
Saying. Talking. The black snake had spoke to Skylar. Obviously not
through words, but he couldn't deny that somehow it had communicated
with him. It was enchanted, something more than he had thought it was.
"The thestrals," Luna breathed, inching backwards as she exchanged
glances with Skylar, "I-I can get one and bring them back. To get away."
"Go." Skylar breathed back, "We'll... distract him."
Luna worried her lower lip, "Stun him, I...he isn't in his right mind."
The idea was chilling, but a hand gently clapped Skylar's shoulder. Ron
was there, staring at Luna with a grim expression but full of honesty,
"We'll take care of him."
Luna gave a small nod, her eyes lingered on the two. She opened her
mouth, as if to say something. Her jaw slowly closed, and for the briefest
of seconds Skylar could have sworn that she knew something.
Skylar opened his mouth to protest- suddenly the idea of Luna running
off didn't seem good. It was too late; she sprinted instantly and leapt over
the flames.
Her body was illuminated for a brief second, glowing in the dark as the
flames licked her skin but never burned her.
Then far too soon she vanished into the dark with an unheard whispering
echo of something lost. Luna departed in the dark.
"I think that magical things used to love you, Adrian. They always were so
fond of you, your heart was wild, like they were."
"That's nonsense."
"That you have a wild heart?"
"No, the love thing. You know I don't believe in love, Luna."
"You don't need to believe it. I know that they loved you, Adrian."
"How?"
Luna sprinted through the woods, knowing that the thestrals were hiding
in the alcove not that far away. Her mind raced around the single
objective; the thestrals the thestrals.
Something heavy shifted, scraping against bark and crunching leaves
without hesitation. She stumbled to a halt, pausing her heavy breathing
to try and isolate the single sound.
Perhaps it was a centaur, if she was lucky it may have been one from the
group before. She hadn't interacted with the herd often, although she and
they had a mutual respect of one another. If she was even more fortunate,
it may have been one of the thestrals, attracted to the area from the smell
of dead me-
Luna choked and rapidly focused on listening instead of the corpse.
A log snapped, far too large for a misplaced hoof.
Oh.
"Hello," She whispered, drawing her wand close to her chest as the
crackling grew nearer. She couldn't run, it was almost certainly faster.
She knew something that large in the woods, she also knew that it was
very very dangerous.
Unheard to her, the great creature responded amused, "Hello."
The low hiss confirmed Luna's fears while also lifting the pale hairs on
her arms. She stood, tense and alert as she squinted into the impenetrable
darkness for the mighty king of serpents. No- queen of serpents; it lacked
the large red plume amidst its pointed crest.
Luna licked her lower lip worriedly, "It's...It's a pleasure to meet you.
You're very beautiful, I've never seen a creature as mighty."
Adalonda huffed lowly, slowly slithering over a branch and cracking it
with her scales; Luna jumped and her head snapped around to peer in the
direction of the noise.
"How sweet of you," Adalonda cooed, voice twisting as if made from
honey, "How precious."
Luna breathed twice, calming her nerves. Very slowly she started
walking, Adalonda in turn shifted her body, keeping pace beside her
unseen but plenty heard.
"I've learned about basilisks." Luna blurted, "You must be very upset.
They're written about very meanly."
Adalonda's eyes blinked leisurely, tasting the air and the surrounding
area. "Oh?"
"The books say horrid untrue things. They say that basilisks are mean
creatures, and out of spite to satisfy their nature,they kill flowers or
harmless animals."
Adalonda watched her, an invisible eye that sent prickles down Luna's
spine. Never had she felt so terrified in the forest. The basilisk didn't hiss
back, so Luna took it as a sign to continue her monologue.
"They say that you're very curious, and very intelligent. I know that the
books were right about that, but It's sad how they call you so cruel."
"You're wrong, little one." Adalonda spoke amused, almost laughing.
"I think you're very nice." Luna continued with a breathy voice, ignorant
of the rising mirth in the serpent. Her panic thrummed under her skin,
pulsing with the rapid beating of her heart.
"I am not; not to humans."
"I'd love to talk to you more, I'm sure you know many things about all
sorts." Luna helplessly continued, mentally hoping that something
anything would emerge from the dark. She knew that roosters were lethal
to a basilisk, although conjuring one wouldn't have the same effect and
the creature would kill her before she could say the spell. Not to mention
that if somehow through sheer dumb luck, the basilisk did die, Adrian
would never forgive her.
"I do, I know things lost to history." Adalonda confirmed wistfully, "Do you
know why I was locked away by Salazar Slytherin?"
Luna didn't respond, she couldn't have. She carefully climbed over a half
rotten log, mindful not to trip.
"I was locked away because you are wrong." Adalonda chided gently, "I am
a cruel creature. Do you know, how long I have slept? Imagining what chaos I
could wrought?"
"When I awoke, what opportunity I had. Do you know what happened after
my movements? I brought a war to your pathetic species, I brought disorder
spanning longer than your lifetime. But once I had seemingly been of use, I
was set asleep once more. Only a month of your time yet It was enough for the
one before." her tongue flickered in the air, tickling against the rough bark
of the ancient trees "But I have been awoken once more and as you said, I
am so curious."
"I wondered," Adalonda continued slithering closer to the terrified girl,
Luna held her breath sharply, hand shaking around the hilt of her wand.
"I wondered, what seeds I could plant if I remained aware for longer, and so I
cradled Cerestes like an undignified worm. The one before him was much
smarter, he at least knew how dangerous I was. Cerestes, all but a hatchling,
was desperate for affection."
"I wondered what havoc would happen when I diseased Cerestes. It was
interesting, but I was so curious, so I tore him apart like I tore the one before
him."
"I envenomed his mind and left him haunted, and how I wanted to break him
further. I've given him hope, told him he is special. He is a basilisk, but not of
his own design. I gave him lies, I let him take form of a king because I let my
breath taint his magic. How proud he was- I wish to see his face when he
learns it is all fake. That he was never something strong, or proud, or
powerful. Is that so greedy? So gluttonous? I wanted to press him to the edge
of madness and corrupt his heart until he was nothing more than a mere rat
before my hunger. Do you know child, that he is so fond of you? Death would
not break him again, but the unliving would."
Adalonda's body coiled in hidden delight, "How letting that hatchling starve
to death has left him cursed. But you...I never cared for Cerestes. True he is
amusing, but for all of the suffering I have struck upon him...I wanted to see
what he would do next."
Adalonda's eyes gleamed and her venom pooled in bloodlust, "I am a
basilisk. I am intelligent, I am cruel and as you said..."
Adalonda moved her bulk, stopping Luna in her tracks. Luna inhaled
sharply as Adalonda brushed near her, the long keratinous crests behind
her skull nearly scraped Luna's face as she passed.
"Hello there," Luna spoke, her voice having adopted an uneasy warble.
Something cold had sunk into her chest, desperate and longing in a silent
scream to get away!
Luna swallowed, hyper aware as adrenaline caused by. Adalonda circled
slowly, until she had completed a small circle and Luna realized sharply,
that she was trapped.
"I- I" Luna stuttered, squeezing her eyes tightly closed before she opened
them, hoping it was just a dream.
Adalonda twisted her head, craning to look down at the feeble creature
wrapped in her body, reeking of fear and panic.
"I'm worried about Adrian." Luna blurted, her voice higher in pitch as she
desperately jumped on anything she could think of, "He- he seems sick.
I'm worried that- that he's...He's dying." Luna stressed, feeling as if
something had grabbed her tightly and squeezed her heart out.
"I know. As you yourself said, I am so, so, curious."
"You had an air around you, when you were younger. You were mean, and
sour, but something about you drew them in."
"That's not-"
"You could have tamed wyverns, or calmed manticores. They loved you, and
you loved them."
"No, I'm unlovable."
"That's not true."
Luna's scream pierced the air and caused Adrian to move before he
realized what was happening.
Adrenaline raced through his veins and inexplicably cleared his mind,
pushing past the disorderly blur that were his thoughts. They continued,
a low whisper of half spoken words and broken sentences jumbled
together in a nonsensical blur.
He moved, legs pumping and burning as the reaching limbs from trees
and saplings tore on his cloak. It was eerily familiar in a overwrought
way; racing through the forbidden forest with bloodlust and enemies
nipping at his heels.
He could hear others behind him, crashing through undergrowth and
along the same trodden path. Paranoia burned coldly, making his eyes
blur as they chased and he ran and ran...
"Cerestes!" Adalonda called in the dark, like a siren leading him to shore.
It pierced through, broken desperate thoughts that clung to the idea of
her comforting presence. She sounded puzzled, obligingly polite as if he
had asked her to do something she didn't understand.
Adalonda Adalonda Adalonda, something crooned, reaching with clawed
fingers and broken knuckles.
"Cerestes?"
Adrian stumbled into the area, hearing her close proximity and the deep
throbbing bass of her voice. He could hear the shlshhlshl of her scales on
the earthen floor, interspersed with the crackling of dead foliage.
"Adalonda!" Adrian screamed, feeling as if his throat would tear from the
abuse.
"Why did you strike her?" Adalonda spoke, simultaneously inquiring and
lamenting.
Adalonda Adalonda Strike who what Adalonda what I strike what who who
who
"What?" Adrian answered, swaying as his words felt underwater,
amplified around him as if contained by glass. Adrian could scarcely feel
Lutain, coiled roughly around his neck. "I- I strike- Who? Who did I…?"
"I don't know why you did, I thought she was your friend, Cerestes?"
Who who who
Adalonda had ceased moving, instead something else drew Adrian's
attention. Shifting wobbly and black- Adrian had dismissed it at first as
something nonexistent. Something imaginary with the nonsensical
ramblings he didn't hear but heard.
"I suppose, that she was just a rat anyways."
There was something in the clearing, an actual thing. Wobbly legged and
shaking where it stood. It was wet, grotesquely so with something clear
and slimy clinging to its legs; reflecting off the lighting charm.
It blinked, nearly falling as it shakily took a step towards him.
It was a thestral. A weak, newborn thestral.
No.
Adalonda strike strike you strike Adalonda you strike Luna[2] Luna Luna
"Luna!" He screamed, voice breaking and horrified, "Luna!"
He couldn't think- disjointed words repeating over in a haze of confusion.
Adalonda wouldn't lie to him, so evidently something had happened
somehow he had struck and he- he didn't remember.
(He didn't understand what was happening.)
I struck struck struck
"You struck her. " Adalonda soothed from the edges of his vision, as if
reminding him gently of some great tragedy. "You shifted and sunk your
teeth in her until she screamed."
She was lying she had to be- it..it had to be fake it-
(Adalonda hadn't ever lied to him before. Adalonda had always helped
him.)
There was someone laying behind the thestral, sprawled on their side
with thick black boots sticking out from behind a tree trunk.
Struck struck I struck I struck Luna
Adrian ignored the thestral, walking with a growing sense of dread.
"No." Adrian whispered, winded and pained as something invisible
stabbed his heart and twisted, "No...no no…"
"It was quite savage, truly. Your venom is strong."
I struck I struck Luna I struck I struck Luna
There were marks in pale skin, long black tendrils spreading from a
single thick puncture in her wrist. Her delicate skin painted in red around
the mark.
No. No.
Luna no no I struck Luna Luna
He didn't remember it- but everything was shrouded in an unassuming
fog. Adalonda had never led him wrong before. Adalonda had never lied
to him before.
He killed her
('Is it wrong, to do terrible things for someone you care about?')
The others crashed into the clearing. The horror clarified like a balm;
Skylar, Hermione and Ron were chasing him. They were in the forest,
they were in the forest and Luna oh Luna.
"Adrian?"
Someone was talking to him, distorted and deeper and close and Luna oh
Luna.
Adrian sunk to his knees, muddied and caked with dead leaves. He
reached with one hand, blistered and scarred, towards her pale angelic
face. Framed by hair glowing silver in the spell's light. He shakily
brushed a strand of hair away from her (cold cold) face.
I struck I struck Luna I struck Luna
"Luna." He moaned, gripping her shoulder firmly, "Lun-Luna wake up."
Something clear and wet was dribbling from her nose and mouth; like the
fluid on the thestral's legs. It was clear like water, thick like honey.
"Luna wake up."
He had no memory of it. Merlin, everything in his head was a blurry fog.
Shrouded in confusion with gaps larger than castles. Adalonda was firm,
she was reassuring. She had helped. She had shattered him.
I struck Luna I struck Luna I struck Luna
(He didn't remember killing her.)
Something rattled in the woods, initially Adrian dismissed it as
Adalonda's curious eyes. It took a second for him to distantly recognize
that Adalonda had left, giving him privacy. Instead, something clicking
and rattling like a box full of bones. Through the trees, many eyes
emerged, milky and luminous. Reptilian faces slowly protruded, eyeing
the clearing with something like hunger.
"Oh Merlin." Skylar breathed, one hand covering his mouth as Hermione
gasped and hid her face in Ron's paling face. They huddled close,
flinching at every hoarse agonized scream Adrian let loose. He didn't
even seem aware of it.
I struck Luna I struck Luna
The newborn thestral, looking fresh from an absent womb, blinked. It
inquisitively peered around and chirped towards the fully mature beasts.
They slowly emerged from the woods, weaving between trees silently
until exposed to the light.
Adrian glanced over his shoulder, hunkering protectively over Luna as
the thestrals granted visit. The largest one he recognized as Mylla,
stepped towards the foal. It lowered its ancient skull, brushing scarred
muzzle against the wet flank of the baby.
"Basilisk venom." Mylla rattled, a hissing whisper that pierced Adrian's
ears as much as he tried to ignore it, "How painful to go."
"Luna wake up!" Adrian screamed, as if he could wake the dead.
"Sky…" Ron spoke, shaking as the other thestrals, the entire herd
appeared from between the trees in silent memorial to their newest
addition. "Sky what are these things?"
Skylar flinched, realizing suddenly that neither Ron or Hermione had
ever seen the monsters before. "Thestrals."
Ron gave a small whine in the back of his throat, swinging his head
suddenly towards a equine shape on the side.
"They're hideous," Hermione stuttered, "They're hideous Sky."
The newborn chirped curiously, looking far too intrigued for standing so
close to a corpse.
A corpse.
"Oh, oh Skylar." Hermione choked, sounding dearly close to wretching,
"It- Luna."
Adrian lifted his head up and screamed.
"G-give him a moment." Skylar could barely speak, feeling dumb with
how quickly everything had gone to shite.
The thestrals were clicking their teeth together, peering over at the
newborn and slowly introducing themselves to the young one. Adrian
sobbed, a loud broken noise before he tilted his head back and screamed.
"Sky…" Ron swallowed, shaking his head and rubbing his hands across
his own crying face, "He…"
Skylar sniffled and nodded, pointing his wand carefully at Adrian before
whispering, "Stupify."
Adrian stiffened and slumped, falling next to Luna onto the ground. If not
for the black poisonous lines across her skin, she looked almost sleeping.
They looked like a pair, the basilisk venom was ironically similar in look
to Adrian's scarring across his face. They lay there, matching in misery.
"I- I need to let my dad know." Skylar exhaled, feeling the tears start to
fall as he looked away and sent a patronus, struggling more than he ever
had in his life.
The thestrals chattered, the newborn stumbled around, its wings see
through and as fragile as tissue paper.
"It's kinda fitting." Ron muttered, twitching as he stared at the thestral,
"She loved these bloody things."
Hermione stared at him in denial, "She...she isn't- she can't-"
Ron numbly pointed to one thestral on the sides, smaller but larger than
the newborn by a significant amount, "I think that's Ginny. I can hear it."
'I let her starve to death!'
Skylar leaned over and vomited all over the floor.
"What do you mean that's not true? Luna, I- I've done bad things. Nothing can
love me."
"I know that's not true, Adrian."
"How?"
"Promise not to laugh?"
OWL's and NEWT's were canceled when students returned after Easter
holidays.
More alarming was the notification that the entire school year would end
prematurely, due to an alarming incident which brought Albus
Dumbledore back to Headmaster position instantly.
The Slytherin's were in bewilderment, instantly assuming and throwing
around preposterous ideas what happened. Daphne Greengrass was
silent, refusing to speak even when Draco tried his best to coax it out of
her. It took only a day until everyone realized the black sheep of
Slytherin was gone: Adrian Selwyn had vanished.
At first, everyone assumed he had gotten expelled until Daphne's thin
lipped smile was far too grim to explain that.
It took Hermione Granger snapping in the library when overhearing a few
gossiping students for the truth to settle around the castle with a heavy
fog.
Looney Lovegood, Luna Lovegood, was dead.
Skylar Potter was mysteriously gone, and suddenly in the wake of that,
Adrian being gone wasn't so odd.
"Merlin," Theo had breathed, looking in Adrian's room with his spare key,
"It's all gone."
The entire room had been stripped; everything was blank as if he hadn't
existed at all.
Daphne refused to say anything, her younger and unassuming sister was
the one to mention anything after a few days of hushed whispers.
"I'd be upset too," Astoria had murmured quietly one day, looking pale
and haunted, "If everyone around me kept dying."
That was enough that even Draco was silenced out of sympathy.
Skylar Potter returned after a few days, looking exhausted and well worn.
For the first time in Draco's memory, Skylar Potter looked like someone
deserving of the 'Golden Boy' title.
He seemed grim, determined, and far far too quiet for how he used to be.
"Does any of this make you worried?" Theo asked with hushed voices,
looking between Millicent, Daphne, Draco, and Blaise, "Do you- do you
even remember what Adrian Selwyn used to be like? Bloody hell, he used
to be our friend."
Daphne was silent, and Draco felt far too much guilt to ever justify
speaking.
"All of you," Theo's nostrils flared in his anger, "You kept pushing him,"
Theo pointed at Blaise accusatory, "and you kept attacking him," he
pointed at Millicent, "and you never let him breathe for one bloody
moment." he pointed at Draco before he rounded on Daphne with
wordless fury. "And..and you wouldn't let him be."
Theo looked somewhere past furious, and just looked tired, "I am so
bloody pissed at all of you."
Theo stormed out, and once again, Slytherin was quiet.
"Have I ever laughed at you before, Luna?"
"Well, no. You haven't."
"I promise I won't laugh. Tell me?"
"Once more, we are here to celebrate the end of an eventful year.
Although I have been absent for most of it, I was...called in, for sake of
unity. It is tradition, to close our last feast with words of enthusiasm and
encouragement for the next term, yet in wake of situations I'm certain
you all know, I find that it would be disgraceful and unimaginable to
simply ignore the events of recent times."
"It has appeared, in the most horrific fashion, somewhat of a new
tradition at Hogwarts, to have someone dear to our hearts depart
unexpectedly. Ginevra Weasley, passed away from our ranks a mere three
years ago. Cedric Diggory passed away from our ranks last year. Days
ago, in my unfortunate absence due to the Ministry of Magic's
intervention in our humble school, the temporary Headmistress Dolores
Umbridge was found murdered in our woods along with our dearly
missed Luna Lovegood."
"In wake of these incidents and the growing powers that threaten our
security, I have put forth the mandatory steps for an abrupt and
indefinite closure of our wonderful school."
"However, the Ministry of Magic has determined that the most recent
fatalities were due to poor administration, and have stated that they
choose to deny all claims that dark forces have gathered once more."
"I believe that it would be a joke, to blindly follow such propaganda and
not inform my students and my friends of such a danger."
"I believe that it would be an inexcusable error to ignore that students
have died, and the threat still exists to threaten the safety of you, my
students. I cannot excuse placing you all in peril, not as your Headmaster
but as person who is concerned not in politics or publicity but as
someone concerned in the right thing to do."
"Against my will, the Ministry of Magic has denied my request for the
closure of this school based on insufficient information or concern.
Despite my efforts, the Ministry will not permit this. They do not want
you to know or equally feel my concern, and as such they decide to keep
you in the dark and not inform you of the situation. Based on our lack of
intervention, our lack of action by our governing body, four students are
forever silent except for words carved into their tombstones."
"I am here to inform you all, that I am suggesting you do not return to
our school if you fear for your lives. If you believe that your family
situation will deny you this request, then I will personally aid you to
inform your guardians of this danger. I have closed the registration for
new students to join our ranks; either this threat has been dealt with
accordingly or in six years our halls will be empty but mentionably, safe."
"Notwithstanding, I know that certain students will take this warning as a
challenge, and return with bright eyes and determination next Fall. Those
that decide to once more return, I welcome you all with open arms, but
do not make a decision hastily."
"In this hall, I wish to give you all a somber goodbye, and to remind you
the many names and faces, and voices that are quiet now, and forever will
be."
Dumbledore reached down with a wrinkled hand, raising a single goblet
in a smooth movement. He held it aloft, glittering like a lighthouse to
guide the way.
"To Ginny Weasley," He announced quietly, resonating the word echoed
around the hall.
Two students raised goblets- Fred and George Weasley holding goblets
aloft to the sky with blank expressions more unsettling than
Dumbledore's words. As if a cue, Ron Weasley grabbed his cup, holding it
up in a silent toast.
Gryffindor house joined in, select students holding cups with bated
breaths.
"To Cedric Diggory," Dumbledore spoke, and this time a black haired
student from Ravenclaw thrust her cup upwards with an expression of
anger.
Others followed, the house Hufflepuff with select older students from
other houses."
"To Suzie Forestar." Dumbledore announced, this time his eyes shifting to
the Slytherin table were sure enough, glasses were lifting quietly into the
air.
"To Luna Lovegood."
Ravenclaws lifted their glasses, eyes downcast hiding shame. Skylar
Potter lifted his goblet, quiet and burning with anger.
"To all of those who we will not let fade to the dark, and who we, along
with their memories, will burn bright. Dark times lie ahead of us and
there will be a time when we must choose between what is easy, and
what is right."
"Well...you see…"
"What is it Luna?"
"You're not unlovable, silly. Because I love you."
End of Part Two
55. Quarantine
This chapter was beta'd by our amazing Beta Collective
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'Let her starve to death.'
"I used birds as target practice. Little bluebirds, or finches. They were
always quick, but so naive and innocent. It took me years to find them
beautiful in their own right; a marvel that a living breathing creature
could fly. Amazing to think about, of course we have dragons and
hippogriffs and Pegasus even but...I don't know. I think birds with how
simple they are, are miracles."
Sirius Black sighed through his nose quietly, leaning back on his chair as
he crossed his arms over his chest. "Have you considered writing a book?"
Adrian glanced at him dryly, knees curled to his chest with his arms
wrapped protectively around them. His cot squeaked slightly, metal
grinding as he shifted his weight.
"I don't think anyone would care to see what I have to say." he dismissed
casually, turning his head back to stare at the single blank corner in the
room; Adrian tended to stare at the single corner often.
"I'm sure someone would." Sirius tiredly assured. "Everyone has a unique
opinion, and I think your perspective would be rather interesting, you
know, considering you commanded a basilisk to murder someone without
blinking and...and oh yes, can speak to snakes."
Adrian didn't rise to the bait, Sirius felt glum about that.
It was more interesting when the boy had arrived, the first time Sirius
had met him and seen the scars- bright red and fresh on his skin.
Adrian had changed a lot, in so many ways Sirius couldn't label them all.
He was more volatile in a way too different to only be dark magic
addiction.
Although he was dangerous, it was certainly more exciting with Adrian at
the headquarters.
But here...here in witness protection (as they had so awkwardly phrased
it), Adrian was...Sirius didn't know how to describe it.
Now the boy just made Sirius sad. Something in Adrian's unpredictability
had settled, and now Adrian was just...quiet.
(Sirius preferred the once snarky boy, he appreciated and admired the
volatile snappishness. He didn't like this, it reminded Sirius too much of
his late brother.)
Adrian didn't say anything, he stared at the corner.
"You know," Sirius began dolefully, "I used to walk around big cities in
my Animagus form a lot. People always treat you differently, and it's
interesting to see how people really are. I met this dog, the sweetest dog
in the world. It would bring me food- not that I ate dumpster trash but
the dog always shared with me. It didn't wag its tail much, and it always
looked a bit worried."
Adrian didn't look like he was responding to Sirius' words, but the man
wasn't concerned. He continued quietly, "Whenever anyone moved quick
it would flinch. It would always run when someone walked towards it,
but it was the nicest dog to me. It was so damn terrified of humans, and
because of that strangers thought it was vicious. All it wanted was to be
left alone, and one day a muggle animal control came and took it away. I
apparated to that muggle pound, wanting to see where that poor dog
went. They had put it down, 'too vicious for public safety' or something like
that."
Sirius stretched quietly, his joints straining silently and cracking mutedly.
Adrian still hadn't looked over.
"What I want to know, is if you view us like that pound. Are you just
waiting for us to put you out of your misery? Because from my point of
view, we're only trying to help you."
Adrian had a wry smile, subtle and small and looking somewhat pained.
The edges of his face were fraying away, and Sirius was afraid of what
would be left when it broke completely.
"That was a shite story." Adrian sighed, sounding weary. "That sounded
so fake, and poorly done it gave me heartburn."
There was the snark, generally absent and only flaring on rare occasions.
Sirius smiled, a small twitch of his lips, "maybe it was."
"You should put more effort into it, it was bloody terrible."
"I don't see you trying!"
Adrian huffed and almost instantaneously the energy drained from him.
Adrian shook his head slightly, as if forcibly removing any competitive
nature he had left.
"Come on kid, you can't be that exhausted yet."
"The repetitive process of breaking, attempting to fix yourself, and falling
apart when you realize you never were fixed is very exhausting, Black."
Adrian glanced at him, turning his head ever so slightly. The light made
his pale skin seem sickly, his eyes almost glazed. "At this point in time, I
wouldn't argue if you were here to put me out. Wasn't that the point of
your story? I'm the dog."
"That's not what we do."
"And who is we, because I'm surer than you are that Albus Dumbledore
has killed more people-"
"Only people that deserve it," Sirius snapped back, reflexively. Almost
instantaneously he felt revolted with himself; he knew better than to
indulge the warped mindset Adrian seemed to express more now than
ever before. Only light banter, only the shallow gentle topics Sirius had
been told. James often was Sirius' only sanity with how to interact with
the kid.
(The one-time Adrian had seen James, they had been forced to stun the
kid. That, or risk James losing an eye or worse.)
Adrian's face tilted slightly into a small scathing grin, directed at the
single wall and nothing further. "Sirius, who do you think deserve
death?"
Sirius said nothing, he knew that he couldn't ever answer that.
"I presume you'd say, terrible people...killers?" Adrian mused, eyebrows
lifting as if he himself were brainstorming something casual. "No, not
that simple...dark wizards and witches? But then how would you classify
them as dark- people who owned a dark artifact? No, that's too
broad...how about…"
The lilting up and down tone, the playful twist of it was driving Sirius
furious, "this isn't a joke, Selwyn."
Adrian snapped his head around, staring at Sirius coldly and blankly.
There was no warmth left in his face, there was no pleased smirk at
instigating a response. "You're the one not dignifying me with a response,
Black."
Sirius swallowed thickly, his throat feeling sore with how sharp he was
breathing. "O-okay, well. There's laws against it, murder."
Adrian's eyes shifted with something, sparking with some sort of energy
that directed the boy's attention to then and now. "I'm listening."
"The Ministry doesn't allow killing people," Sirius started, feeling more
comfortable now that he had backing behind his idea, "they say in auror
training that you can't kill your target."
"You do," Adrian bluntly countered. "Murder in hunting targeted peoples
are permitted in cases where crimes are punishable by the Dementor's
kiss."
Sirius flinched, shaking his head, "that's defense. Those people are
dangerous- even the worst on this planet don't deserve murder. It's cruel."
"It isn't." Adrian leaned backwards, tilting his head to rest against the
wall with his eyes closed. He was becoming bored with the discussion.
"Various curses are actually quite peaceful, more effective than a
Dementor's kiss."
"It wouldn't ever stop people from doing those crimes- it...you aren't
punishing the-"
"You don't consider the loss of your own life, a punishment in itself?
"That isn't what I'm trying to say!" Sirius snapped out, hands clenched
into fists. His fingernails dug into the meat of his palm, painful crescents.
"You're trying to argue why murder is never alright." Adrian murmured
lowly, "and yet, your side in this war murders people every week."
"That's different." Sirius defended, feeling attacked on a personal level.
"Why?" Adrian asked, voice low as if he was no longer talking to Sirius
himself, "because they deserved it? Because they were far too evil to live?
Because they were a... a hazard to others? Black, why do you think
Skylar stunned me, strapped me to the back of a thestral and sent me to
your clutches?"
"Skylar did what he had to, to keep other students safe."
"Do you feel safe now, Black?"
Sirius didn't have anything to say about that.
(Selwyn would leave him feeling sickened more often than not.)
Adrian Selwyn slept a lot.
Sirius had heard about it from Snape's loud complaining, apparently the
kid slept so much he used to skip classes and not do homework. But what
Sirius considered 'a lot' was drastically underwhelming once he was
facing Adrian's intense sixteen hours of sleep a day. Sixteen, every night.
Merlin, how had the child even had decent grades?
Adrian didn't seem exhausted enough to need that amount of sleep, he
just...didn't get out of bed. It looked to Sirius like he didn't bother
climbing out of the cot unless food had arrived, in which case he scarfed
down an unhealthy amount in a short period of time.
Sometimes he'd relocate to different corners of the room, bundling his
blanket around him in a light grey cocoon. It didn't look comfortable, the
one-time Sirius asked about it Adrian only ended up laughing in a
haunting self-deprecating way.
Adrian was like a violent caterpillar, sleeping and eating and sleeping
once more.
Adrian was also incredibly chatty, and so far, hadn't failed to talk once. It
was mostly about irrelevant things, or dismissive comments that were
nonetheless, conversation.
(On the rare occasion, Adrian would muse about abstract concepts,
morality and philosophy with such an innate and advanced level of self-
reflection, it scared Sirius sometimes.)
(What scared Sirius even more, were the rare moments when Adrian
would smile softly and gaze at a wall without seeing.)
"What's your favorite color?" Sirius offered, taking a seat in what had
quickly become, his chair.
Adrian was sitting cross legged this time, looking underwhelmingly plain
in the light grey clothing they had given him. It was like prison garments
much to Sirius' dismay, but James had stressed multiple times that it was
only so they could tell quickly if Adrian somehow injured himself.
"I don't have one." Adrian deadpanned, voice dull and lifeless.
"Really? Not even your noble green? I thought you Slytherin's had house
pride."
"Silver."
Sirius nearly did a double take. "Pardon?"
"You asked about my favorite color," Adrian sighed, fiddling with the
fraying corner of his blanket, "I like silver."
"A bit gaudy," Sirius blinked in surprise, "Never thought you'd fancy that,
though I reckon gold is a bit Gryffindor, isn't it? Silver was Ravenclaw
though- ah, I guess it is pretty by itself. Not a bad choice."
Adrian fiddled with the blanket further, looking ready to tear it beneath
his clipped fingernails.
Sirius nodded slowly, adjusting the topic. "Ah, what's your favorite
magical creature then?"
Adrian blinked slowly, an owlish movement that seemed out of place of
his once sharp expression, "I don't know."
"You- you don't know?" Sirius balked, "I thought you would have liked
thestrals with how much you apparently hung out around them."
Adrian flinched away as if struck, gazing at the wall blankly.
'Shite' Sirius thought quickly, trying to understand what could have set
him off this time.
Sirius struggled to think of how he messed up, he didn't think that was a
bad topi-
"Oh." Sirius very smartly blurted.
Adrian twitched, and hid his face further.
That whole situation was still a mystery, although one that everyone
doubted they'd ever solve. Skylar had given them a rather detailed
summary of what had happened, and given how devastated Adrian was
days after the incident, they had concluded that he hadn't been involved
with the girl's death. It was still a mystery as to how she died- especially
since that twice damned monster was under Adrian's control.
(Why Adrian had been so delirious that night was also another mystery
Sirius didn't think they'd solve. They had tested him for illicit potions or
injected powders, they hadn't found anything.)
The thestrals though...Hagrid had given word that he'd be monitoring the
mysterious new foal. Either out of guilt or a sense of duty, Sirius wasn't
going to ask.
"Yeah, oh." Adrian snapped, the unpredictable temper rising once more. It
was impossible to track, and now a constant hazard of interacting with
the boy.
"I- I'm sorry kid. I'll ah, how about a different topic?" Sirius tried
pathetically.
Adrian gave a bark of brittle laughter that was akin to ice cracking.
"What topic?" Adrian asked, his voice fragile and furious but with no
target, "What could we possibly talk about?"
Sirius's mouth felt dry, "Ah, any topic that interests you?"
Adrian laughed, a high-pitched grieving noise, "You know what the sad
reality is with that, Black? The sad truth is I can't think of one thing that
will make me happy anymore! There's absolutely nothing now!"
"Hey, don't talk like that-"
"What do you want me to say? Why can't you just- why can't you just
bloody call the ministry already and kill me?"
Sirius left the room shaken; he closed the door on the loud noises that
was neither laughter or sobbing but something in between.
"Maybe talking about her will make it easier to-"
"She's gone and will never come back and I have to keep living like this,
Black."
"Merlin, a bit dramati-"
"Leave me alone."
"Why are you so chatty? You used to never say anything to us."
"I'm lonely."
"What- lonely? You never chatted with any of us before."
"I had Lutain. I had Lu-"
"Maybe I should give it a shot?" James asked, brows scrunching together
as they peered through the one-way window on the door. Adrian had
made it off his cot, instead he was now hunched in the corner, countless
plates of food reduced to crumbs. Lily could count the vertebrae on his
back through his shirt.
"The last time you went in there he screamed at you and tried to gut
you." Sirius sighed, rubbing his eyes with the palm of his right hand, "We
need Moony to come back from Germany."
"We can't contact him until he gets in touch with the packs over there."
Lily soothed, looking heartbroken towards the door, "I don't think Remus
even heard the news."
Lily looked through the window again, chewing on her lower lip
nervously, "Do you think we should give him more food? I have that pie
that Molly made yesterday."
"He's ate four times the normal amount, Lil. Any more and his stomach
will burst." James grimaced, looking just as worried. "He- shite Sirius he
hasn't even showered."
"They already did a dozen tests on him, they can't find anything wrong
with him. No disease and his body's working fine. Even Albus can't figure
it out." Sirius admitted sourly, feeling like it was a personal slight. He felt
like it was his own failing, as if he had done something wrong. "I don't
know what to do, mate."
"You're trying, Padfoot. That's all we can ask." James smiled, although the
shadows under his eyes made it hard to take genuine. "I feel terrible over
this. He's just a kid."
"A kid who apparently knows his philosophical arguments. How's Sky?"
Lily and James looked just as somber, "He's doing...better than expecting.
They're with Molly right now, I don't know how long we can shelter
them. Skylar especially, he...he's more determined than ever."
"That bloody prophecy." Sirius cursed sourly, with a pain of exhaustion.
"He's still trying to sneak out?"
Lily shook her head, "No, not since the first time. He's absolutely taken
with that s-"
Sirius cut her off quickly, shaking his head and jerking his thumb towards
the door. Lily froze before she nodded sadly. They still hadn't determined
just how far Adrian could hear, how heightened his senses were along
with how controlled his accidental magic.
"Can I bring him anything?" Lily asked, looking on the verge of tears,
"there has to be something."
"When is Albus coming by?" James murmured quietly, very aware of
Adrian, despite the wards.
"Whenever he's back from wherever he was going. The- that cave thing.
He thinks he found something very important." Sirius muttered back,
shifting on his feet, "I hope soon. I don't think Selwyn is getting any
better."
Lily looked alarmed, "You- you think that he's getting sick?"
"Sky mentioned that Adrian was sick from something, I think he's just
getting worse."
"Sirius?"
"Yeah kid?"
"Where-" Where did they take her body. Where can I see her again?
"Adrian?"
"Never mind." Where are you, Luna?
"Have you ever tried knitting?" Sirius awkwardly asked.
Adrian scoffed quietly, curled small in a ball on his cot. Lily had brought
a softer blanket, baby blue. "You'd give me needles?"
Yeah no, maybe not knitting.
"What about ah, drawing. Arts and crafts and all. You seem like an artsy
person."
Adrian shrugged his shoulders, fiddling with the light blue blanket, "I've
never tried. Outside of classes I mean. I drew a decent Bowtruckle."
Sirius shifted on his chair, "Yeah I never was one for drawing. What
about reading? I thought Lily brought some books on herbology a few
days ago?"
Adrian was stiff with his movements, trying not to show how unsettled
he was by the prospect. "I don't- not much of a reader."
Sirius raised his eyebrows in shock, "Wait really?"
"It's- It's difficult. To focus."
Sirius licked his lips, shifting once more on his chair. He wished he had
something to fiddle with, "That doesn't sound good. Recently?"
Adrian's mouth opened before he closed it wordlessly. He didn't answer
and didn't look like he was going to at all.
Sirius tried a new approach, "Well, I mean I'm in here all day so I don't
mind chatting about whatever. It must get lonely in here."
Adrian gave a quiet bark of sardonic laughter, "It doesn't anymore."
Sirius frowned and leant forward, "What do you mean?"
Adrian tilted his head back, looking dreadfully blank but somehow
wickedly amused, the acidic green and yellow eyes were unnerving to
Sirius, "I have plenty of voices to listen to."
Sirius felt a chill run down his spine, "You hear voices?"
'I deserve it, don't I? It's all my fault, isn't it?'
Adrian's delight slowly faded into something crippled. He hunched lower,
tilting his body away from Sirius, "I want to be alone now."
Sirius opened his mouth to argue, before he closed it with a sigh and
stood. His chair squeaked on the floor, and the door closed a bit louder
than he meant to.
The idea that Adrian was hearing voices wasn't good. The idea of hearing
things that weren't there always accompanied madness. Bellatrix
Lestrange was the best example of that.
Sirius had thought that Adrian's belongings had been dropped off as well,
likely stored in a broom cupboard somewhere. Adrian was meticulous, or
Sirius remembered Adrian being meticulous way back before whatever
horrific event had transpired and warped him this much. Hell, Sirius had
grudgingly liked the kid; he had a breathless exuberance when he was
dive bombing Mundungus with that gyrfalcon of his, or when explaining
the properties of some strange magical monster.
There had to be something in his personal artifacts. Of course, he and
Prongs had scoured through everything once, just to make sure that they
weren't smuggling in a magical artifact. They went so far as to remove
Adrian's wand from the building, it was currently in Tonk's possession
(who had let it slip that Remus would be visiting her first).
Of course, there weren't that many cupboards in the little cottage Sirius
had holed himself up at.
He and James had come to the same decision that keeping Adrian in the
Order headquarters was too big a risk, especially since they didn't have
all the relevant information yet as to how dangerous the boy was. With
Remus and Albus gone on missions, they had quickly jumped on one of
the Black's distant cottages, fit with enough rooms to transform one into
a quiet panic room. A few well-placed charms (courtesy of Lily, the
charm champion) and they had a glorified prison cell until they could
have Albus take a look.
Adrian's gyrfalcon had been sent away and was currently in the care of
Hermione, the snake sent away similarly. It wouldn't do to have a snake
around a parselmouth, and the cottage was off in Ireland so there wasn't
any wildlife that Adrian could interact with if he did manage to escape.
Adrian Selwyn was Sirius' prisoner, no matter how cushy he tried to
make it.
And now his prisoner was hearing voices.
"Merlin, I shouldn't have quit being an auror." Sirius bemoaned, searching
yet another cupboard for the massive trunk and other belongings of
Selwyn. It felt odd to talk out loud with nobody nearby, so he refrained
from it.
He eventually did find the trunk, and after a few seconds of lugging the
behemoth out into the hallway, he popped the lid open and peered
inside. It was magically expanded of course, mostly to accommodate the
large stack of textbooks and other oddities. The kid had a complete set of
combat potions; he and James' had many of the same ones in case of
injury on the job.
Not only that, he had hoarded a strange assortment of magical artifacts
that weren't dangerous but certainly weren't common. Hides and horns,
claws and other strange bits. Letter openers that hadn't ever been used
but looked interesting. A few of the things Sirius recognized from his old
house, when Remus had combed through Adrian's collection allowing a
portion to reside with the younger boy. Nothing looked malicious or evil,
in fact it was all rather innocent.
(A part of Sirius had hoped that he would find something incriminating,
at least then they knew what they were dealing with.)
Sirius had been sorting through all the books for an hour, flipping
through cover to cover in case any pages were hollowed. Instead, it
seemed Selwyn had a hobby of writing in the margins, correcting
information on magical creatures wherever it was applicable. It was
endearing, something snarky which made Sirius smile.
(Adrian had written more than a dozen snarky comments in a potion
book, likely ignoring Snape in favor of doodling.)
Sirius came across a leather-bound journal, high quality too. Flipping
through at first Sirius thought it was an antique business ledger, or stolen
from a store in Hogsmeade. It took a closer examination and a few names
for it to clue in that it was Adrian's business ledger.
Sirius had heard that Adrian had been dealing potions or other illegal
objects to underage students. Merlin knows he and James both had
smuggled enough firewhiskey into Hogwarts to get expelled, but the
details in the book were excruciating.
It had dates, names, precise details on what was exchanged, and then
listed if the debt was ever repaid. It was- it was an empire. An entire
system to keep him in safety- bloody hell the boy had deals with seventh
years.
"Merlin's beard." Sirius gaped, flipping through the high-quality
parchment to see even more tiny print, more and more details in tiny
writing that wasn't magical at all. Every little letter was done
painstakingly by hand; hours and hours of work turned to rubbish.
But...if Adrian was this meticulous he wouldn't have just...stopped.
Sirius had never leapt on the journaling train, but he knew first hand
from Lily that once you start journaling or writing, it's very tricky to stop.
Old habits die hard after all.
Sirius leapt into the trunk once more, hypothetical tail wagging in his
search.
Now he knew what to look for. Anything bound by soft leather, nothing
made of cardstock or other woody materials. There were a few other
leather books, but most were just for notes taken in classes. All of them
were old, the detail and ambition dried up towards the later part of his
Hogwarts years.
(It hurt to think about; it pained Sirius to imagine Adrian withdrawing
more and more, until even the thought of writing exhausted him.
Something he loved turned to bitter ash, as white as Adrian's skin.)
Sirius found something- a leather bound book but rather shoddy quality.
He couldn't even imagine Selwyn using something that looked like it
came from a second-hand store and felt like swede.
Mostly to entertain the thought, Sirius undid the loose binding and
flicked through a few pages.
He nearly dropped it when he spotted handwriting- not too much, but
used.
"What the…" Sirius mumbled to himself, flipping to the first page where
it was dated on the top corner. It was…. the date was...a long while back
actually. Selwyn's fourth year, just before the third task for Skylar.
Sirius traced his finger under the writing, the font unusually neat and
tidy on the paper; the ink had smudged slightly from the cheap quality
paper.
''It was one of the most disgusting things I've ever experienced. Adalonda says
it was blood. Whatever it was, good thing it came in a black bottle. I'd have
lost my nerve if I had to see it."
That was it.
That was it.
"What." Sirius balked, confused beyond words.
He flipped to the next page, peering at the words with morbid curiosity,
'Rancid. Painful for days afterwards, headache and sensitivity to light.;
Sirius frowned, none of this was making any sense. Was this some sort of-
some sort of log? What for?
The next page held only slightly more detail, just a little bit more on the
type of headache or where it was located. Abdominal cramps and pain,
then diaphragm pains. Sounded more like a bad bout of food poisoning.
They continued, slowly starting to branch outwards as the date went
longer. The first log that wasn't about status but instead was more of a
journal was…. almost exactly a year ago.
'It's strange. It's like there is a small gap, a pause between my brain and body.
A second where I don't move, although I'm stepping forward. I'm treading
through water that nobody can see.'
"What in the blazes?" Sirius asked himself in alarm, already flipping
rapidly to the next page which cryptically didn't give any more detail but
resonating a similar thought.
The dates slowly began to be longer, distant apart until Sirius recalled
that it was right around when Adrian was being held at headquarters.
When they were cleaning up all the rooms and keeping Adrian slightly
apart due to his volatile nature.
'I have potions. I'm not sure why. They go down cold, and I can feel them sit
heavy. Remus says that he can smell something wrong with me. Nobody else
seems to be sure, or they can't tell. I'm starting to think that he's right.'
Sirius had a very very bad feeling about it.
He turned the page, alarmed when there wasn't an entry until the date
before everyone had left for next term.
'Sometimes I feel like there's nothing. Inside my body, where my lungs and
stomach are. Just an empty cavern where potions go and slosh around. And
I'm always so hungry.'
Hungry.
Since last year.
Sirius shakily stumbled to his feet, nearly tripping over the mess of
textbooks he left scattered throughout the hallway. If the way the book
was progressing was accurate, the next entry would be after the train
incident. The famous incident here Adrian had seemingly accidentally set
an entire compartment on fire.
'I didn't mean to. I think that's the worst bit. I honestly didn't mean for that to
happen, it's like trying to keep sand from falling between your fingers. It's too
much, it's always too much. The worst bit, the worst bit is that I know nobody
believes that either.'
Sirius desperately flipped through the pages; they didn't get any better.
'I'm confused. I don't know what's going on, I feel antsy and on edge. Like I
need to shed my skin, like It doesn't fit me right anymore. But instead of
growing larger, I feel like I'm shriveling inwards.'
'I can figure this out on my own. I know I can. I wanted to be useful, well,
now I am. Now I'm useful- and, and now I'm second guessing it? This is what I
wanted.'
'I know I'm stronger. I can see it, I can feel it. There's proof, there's so much
proof and somehow...I don't know. I don't feel stronger. I feel terrible.'
'I can cast anything, I know I can. I mean, I mean I can. I'm not struggling in
classes, I mean I can do the spellwork. I can do it. I can cast anything. I can
do it.'
'I can appar- I can do magic. I have...I've done magic that's advanced. Very
advanced. I'm strong, I- I know I'm strong. I can- Moody said this was going to
make me useful. I'm useful. I'm useful.'
Moody. It said Moody.
But- this was during the fifth year, the dates started in fourth so this- this
was the impostor. This was for Barty Crouch Jr.
This was not good. This was very very not good.
Sirius felt nauseous, and very slowly slid his thumb in on the most recent,
and last entry. It would have been the one night before the- before the
one girl had-
Sirius turned the pages, staring at the page a few moments to try and
comprehend the chaotic disjointed writing on the page, nothing like the
careful font from before.
"No, no." Sirius shook his head, turning pages back just to make sure he
hadn't skipped anything. It wasn't any better.
'I'll KILL YOU I;LL KILL you.'
'Illkill you crouch I'll KILL YOU,'
'Idon't I dont what did youdoto me CrOUch.'
This looked bad. This looked horrendous in any way he looked at it. They
were without question, Adrian's handwriting. He had written diligently
over the course of a year, maybe even further. It was personal obviously,
originally some sort of...of log, but towards the end perhaps Adrian had
somehow forgotten its original purpose.
The log reminded Sirius of old historical records of magical experiments,
before they had found a safer way to test. The implications- that Adrian
would for some reason be tracking something not well known.
And Crouch- or rather the impostor. Somehow Adrian had been in
contact with the impostor, somehow this was… (no, Sirius wasn't
positive, he didn't have enough evidence) ...this could have been due to
the man. This was bad, this meant that whatever ailment Adrian had
likely was purposeful.
(It also proved that there was something wrong with the boy.)
He needed to get in contact with Dumbledore now.
Skylar Potter had the weight of the world on his shoulders, and then
some.
In this instance, the 'then some' was a gigantic snake which had no respect
for personal boundaries.
"Seriously, stop squirming!" Skylar hissed under his breath, using the flat
palm of his hand to gently push the inquiring black head further down
under the collar of his cloak.
The snake squirmed a few more seconds as if to spite him before going
docile. It was creepy how intelligent the thing was.
Skylar rushed out of the room he was sharing, peering down the stairwell
to where Mrs. Weasley had been calling for him.
"I'm here!" He shouted down, smiling strained as she looked relieved.
"Oh, good heavens, there you are." Molly sighed, wiping a pot dry with a
worn dishtowel, "the twins have been asking me all day about you!"
Skylar gave a single wave down the stairs, "Sorry! I'll be down in a few
seconds!"
He spun around back into his room, closing the door and making sure it
was shut before he pulled the snake off his neck. It moved obligingly,
slithering nearly silently until it somehow maneuvered onto the bed,
staring at him blankly.
"Okay okay fine." Skylar sighed, leaning against the door exhaustively,
"Look, I know I told you I'd help but the thing is I don't know how."
The snake's tongue flickered in the air twice.
"And I don't speak snake!" Skylar hissed in a loud whisper, "I don't know
what you're saying!"
Its tail thrashed twice. It gave the impression of being distinctly ticked.
"Okay, okay look." Skylar sighed, running his hands through his hair
causing it to stand upright, "He- Adrian is with Sirius at one of the Black
Cottages but I don't know the exact location. I think they're trying to help
with- with ah, his head."
Lutain the snake paused, before very clearly nodded.
Skylar took a step back and slammed himself into the doorknob
accidentally, he hissed and nearly crumbled to the floor.
"Merlin," he wheezed, closing his eyes briefly as his right kidney
recovered, "Okay, okay okay. So, you're really smart."
The snake's tongue flickered in the air, a bland movement that somehow
conveyed much more when Skylar knew that it was intelligence.
"I…" Skylar's mouth felt dry as he thought quickly, "He- you ah, you
talked to him a lot. Didn't you? Like, you were- you were Adrian's best
friend. He must have told you everything."
The snake paused, its body expanding and contracting with its breaths.
"He- do you know who Luna is- was." Skylar painfully corrected, flinching
at his slip, "She, ah, she looked-"
The snake cut him off with a nod. Right, it was intelligent.
"She told me that she was ah, worried over Adrian. That he was sick, or
something was seriously wrong with him. Do you have any idea what it
could be?"
The snake suddenly seemed much more alert, rising and undulating as it
struggled to convey something.
A flash, a burn and Skylar flinched away with a hiss. He pressed one hand
against his eyes, warning off the sting of an impending migraine. The
snake's mouth opened, a low hiss that...that didn't sound like a hiss. It
started, but somewhere along the way it shifted slightly into a more
echoing noise, like a geyser or a slew of water.
Skylar flinched and opened his eyes, looking at the snake as his head
hurt, "what- what are you…"
"The knife…" Something- something was talking. Around him, through
him, in Skylar's head. It wasn't the snake, it wasn't the strange whispers
and emotions that Skylar could barely scrape together. This one... the
'voice' was different. This one was almost feminine, grumbling and raspy
like what he imagined an ancient witch would sound like. Deep, with
strong bass and an accent Skylar couldn't place.
"The knife, Cerestes."
What- no, who was talking. Somehow without a doubt, it was the snake's
doing- the indescribable hiss of escaping gas was unmistakable. The
snake was frozen with its jaws unhinged like a statue. Like a magical
artifact speaking someone else's voice directly into Skylar's brain.
Then, Skylar collapsed to the ground, hands pressed over his ears as he
heard a gut-wrenching scream. The noise was horrible; loud and piercing
and full of unfiltered pain.
"Stop it!" Skylar shouted, he could barely hear his own voice over the
animalistic screaming. It was...it was how he imagined it sounded to be
burned alive. Terror, agony, it rang loud enough his eyes hurt.
"Give it to Lutain." The voice, the strange feminine voice.
What was- he...Skylar couldn't understand…
"Lutain." a single hoarse voice whispered out, torn and ruined. Destroyed
from screaming, vocal cord snapped and withered and welded together
anew. The snake's name was broken with a wet sob, a small pause before
it began anew.
The voice gurgled, a rancid vomiting noise followed with pain filled
whimpers of something dying.
Lutain snake stopped hissing, and its jaws finally snapped shut with an
audible snap.
Skylar felt numb, unable to think.
The room was dead silent. There hadn't been a single noise in it all along.
What Skylar had heard- it was in his head.
(Rattling and screaming and burning and burning-)
"What…" Skylar whispered, letters barely distinguishable to himself.
The snake's tongue flickered through the air and somehow- by some sort
of magical means, the snake's voice (that's all it could be) whispered.
His heart, it somehow said, impressions yet distinct words that pressed
against Skylar's brain like a wax seal. Is mine.
"I don't understand." Skylar felt tears slide over the side of his face, "I-
what did you do? How? I can't- how are you doing this?"
The snake lowered itself, curling itself into a sinewy mass of black scales.
Its yellow belly was hidden, it became shapeless from where it's body
ended.
"This- I'm hallucinating." Skylar whimpered, whining as he kept crying.
He couldn't get the screams out of his head.
The snake hissed, a very snake-sound instead of the strange noise from
earlier.
"Are- are you saying that this...this woman, it...she made him sick?"
The snake hesitated, wavering as if in thought.
"I don't understand. I want to help him." Skylar stressed, "I don't- what did
he do? How do- how do you have his heart?"
The snake's tongue kissed the air. Its gaze could kill a man.
Half. It clarified with broken whispers. Split.
"Okay," Skylar breathed shakily, ignoring the fact he was talking to a
snake, "And the screaming? Who was the woman?"
Merlin, Lutain wasn't an Animagus or a familiar, he was something else.
Something unholy and demonic, but nonetheless something new.
The snake paused, gathering its words. Adalonda.
That was the name of the Basilisk. The giant, murderous basilisk. The
name Adrian argued against, delirious and stumbling in the forest.
"Do…" Skylar's voice was wavering, "Do...do you think that...was she
persuading him?"
Lutain's tail spasmed in fury. Unspoken but easily interpreted rage.
"Do...do you think that...that it was wrong?"
'Are you upset with the basilisk? With whatever it gave him?' Skylar wanted
to ask, but was fearful for his own voice.
The snake gave a subtle nod. Skylar felt his heart pounding, racing harder
and fast enough he could hear it in his ears. He felt like static, as if his
fingertips and toes were not there at all.
The snake was angry with the basilisk, the basilisk somehow had...had
hurt Adrian.
What would this creature ask of Skylar? What could it possibly want in
some sort of...of restitution?
'An eye for an eye' Skylar thought to himself, mouth moving to feel the
words on his lips. That sounded… That sounded like a strain of justice
Adrian Selwyn would indulge in.
And if Skylar was sure of anything, it was how linked the boy was to his
familiar.
"Do you think that...do you want me to...to get rid of the basilisk?" Skylar
asked, leaning forward to look at the snake with as much seriousness as
he could muster.
'Do you want me to kill Adalonda?' Skylar thought to himself with a
certainty that no longer permitted it to be a question. 'An eye for an eye?'
Lutain opened his mouth with a savage hiss. Yes.
Due to the chaotic surplus of reviews, I can't respond to individuals since there
are hundreds of you.
If you want a one-on-one messaging for a question, shoot me a PM. It'll be
faster than waiting for the next published chapter anyways.
Instead, I'll answer a few of the common questions I've seen in dozens of
reviews.
Adalonda? (Insert swear here)
Adalonda is amazing, she's one of my best characters. If you go back and
read, you'll see she actually was twisted from the very start. I just wrote things
subtly, and a few of you did catch on.
Luna? Que a lot of screaming.
I can understand this one. I personally was screaming over her a lot when
writing that scene. She'll still be around, she's an incredibly important
character and I won't let her die in vain, as I'm sure you've caught on with this
recent chapter.
Why did Tom not warn Adrian about Adalonda?
Tom caused Adalonda to go back to sleep/hibernation after he used her,
because he recognized her as an intelligent creature able to betray him or at
least seriously mess with him. Tom arrogantly assumed that Adrian recognized
a similar problem with the basilisk, and didn't take into account the fact that
he contributed to Adrian's massive emotional abuse.
Lutain is a Horcrux?
Yes, he is. That means now, that Lutain cannot die, and Adrian cannot die
unless Lutain does as well.
Why was Adrian all crazy in the forest?
Adrian was going through temporary Psychosis due to his soul breaking from
making the Horcrux. It is super subtly referenced by Adalonda that it will
happen, but isn't outright explained. Adalonda used the knowledge that the
Psychotic episode would occur to distort Adrian's memories and cause him to
think that he killed Luna. In all honesty, Adrian should have stayed in the
Chamber during the episode, but instead Adalonda kicked him out knowing
that drama would occur. Tom also went through Psychosis, so this is not a
strictly Adrian event.
I hate you (referring to author)
I hate me too. I miss Luna
Can you write a spin-off where Luna lives and everything is
happier?
Yes! I have plans to do so. I likely will not post it on FF, since I dislike the
gummy story posting abilities of he site itself. I'll likely post it on AO3 (a sister
website to this one with story linking abilities), or on my Tumblr. My
username is Digitalta, and I respond to questions over there faster than FF
reviews or PM.
56. Horcrux
This chapter was beta'd by our amazing Beta Collective
-Arctic Fox From Afar
-Mahina
-Cyndaquil05
-4everfictional
-Scion of House Lucifer
-Parsi
-Acelenny
-S4m
- and countless anonymous helpers!
'I'll do what it takes. It hurts, It hurts and I can't think and I keep hearing it
but I'll do what it takes I'll be useful I swear I'll be useful I promise I'll be
usefu-'
Skylar Potter jolted down the steps of the Burrow, socks thumping and
nearly sending him tripping down the steps. The snake around his
shoulders tightened itself suddenly, hissing a warning at the jerky
movement.
"Sorry sorry!" Skylar apologized hastily, rushing down the steps once
more.
"Mum!" Skylar beamed, waving quickly when he spotted her red hair.
"Sky!" She smiled back, running one hand through her hair, wrinkles on
the corner of her eyes as she smiled, "How are you?"
"Great! You get him alright?" Skylar asked, leaning over to exchange a
quick hug as from the doorway, Albus Dumbledore stepped through.
"Skylar, how wonderful to see you." Dumbledore smiled, a bright light in
his eye as he observed the other, "Skylar, I'd like to introduce you to an
old friend and colleague of mine."
Lily nearly danced to the side, stepping out of the way to allow the
newest man to step through the doorway, looking strangely paranoid and
wary of his surroundings.
"Skylar Potter, this is Horace Slughorn."
Horace Slughorn was an old man, looking battered and spooked like an
alley cat having brought inside. His clothing reminded Skylar of Remus'
earthy tones, yet they looked more ramshackle.
His eyes widened in surprise, flickering to Skylar's face before his face
shifted into a crooked smile. "Skylar Potter, why I never."
Lily smiled as Horace looked at her in awe, she proudly ruffled Skylar's
hair.
"Slughorn here used to be my potions professor back when I was your
age, Sky."
Horace looked at least a little startled, "Ah, but that was a long time ago!
Funny rumors have reached me since Dolores Umbridge left!"
"Professor Umbridge ran afoul of our centaur herd. Insulted them
outright, as well as a basilisk."
"That's what she did, did she?" said Slughorn. "Idiotic woman. Never liked
her, a shame what happened."
Skylar gave a small dark chuckle, enough to remind the few there that
Skylar had been there to witness such a scene. The atmosphere lilted
slightly, a hesitation in the room as they very clearly realized their
mistake. Skylar for some reason, wasn't as distressed over the memory as
he used to be- darkly amused perhaps, but not as sorrowful. It was
strange how quickly tragedy was forgotten, or repressed for more lively
thoughts.
"I recruited Horace here in hopes he may break through to young
Selwyn." Dumbledore looked apologetic, eyebrows furrowing slightly in
very genuine concern. "I'm very worried for the boy."
"Yes, from what I've heard it seems some sort of strange concoction ails
the child." Slughorn wheezed, looking sympathetic yet also intrigued.
"Avery, you said his name was?"
"Adrian," Lily corrected him quickly, "Adrian Selwyn."
Skylar knew, that Adrian would hate this man.
Skylar had forgotten about the snake until it shifted, popping its head up
in curiosity. Lily gasped in surprise, taking a step back in alarm.
Dumbledore moved, taking three steps approaching Skylar before
pausing, eying the snake with a very calm appearance. It was impressive
considering the violent and loud reactions both Ron and Hermione
treated Skylar with before. Snakes were something to be terrified of-
especially with the memory of the basilisk so fresh.
"Skylar," Dumbledore began, very calmly as if Skylar did not have a large
serpent around his neck. He felt the snake coil slightly tighter, clearly
afraid.
"Sir, I- it's okay." Skylar slowly lifted his arms, showing that he, and by
default, the snake weren't a problem, "It ah, it gets lonely."
Slughorn peered around, eyes widening in dazed surprise as he spotted
the snake. Once you got past Lutain's terrifying power, he was rather
beautiful.
"Merlin's beard! I haven't seen- is that an African Coalspire?"
Lutain lowered himself, settling its head on a coil with a hollow thump of
dull interest. Skylar resisted the urge to smile- Lutain almost radiated
annoyance, Slughorn had likely been wrong in his assumption over the
species. Sky was almost positive that Adrian had mentioned that Lutain
wasn't a magical species.
"Ah, I don't know." Skylar apologized sheepishly, it wasn't as if he could
correct him after all, "I've been carrying him around. He likes uh... he's
smart and understands English."
Dumbledore had a small frown on his face, although Horace seemed
absolutely mesmerized. Who wouldn't be?
"Why it's in perfect condition! What a beautiful specimen! My, even it's
facial scales are intact!"
Lutain flicked its tongue and tightened itself without care. Skylar reached
up to pet him, running fingers over the smooth scales. They were small
and rounded, much smaller than what Skylar had always assumed they
would be. They felt strange under his fingertips, smooth and soft. He
stroked the snake's body with his hand absentmindedly, almost drugged
by the relaxing movement.
"I thought you didn't like snakes, Sky." Lily asked cautious, looking afraid
as if the creature would bite her. That was a justified fear, although
Skylar never thought Lutain had ever bitten anyone. At least, he hadn't
ever heard of Lutain biting someone.
"Yeah but Lutain's different." Skylar struggled to explain, words were
lacking. "He was Adrian's familiar after all."
Horace gasped in surprise, "A familiar? My! I haven't seen a serpent
familiar since-"
all at once his face clouded and he looked almost ashamed, "Well, since
Nagini…"
Lutain's head snapped up, staring at Horace attentively. Something
thrummed in Skylar's skin, buzzing and loud like bees. Skylar turned his
neck, feeling the cool scales press against his cheek. It was a very calming
sensation.
"Skylar, perhaps you should untangle yourself." Dumbledore suggested
slowly, although took care to not walk closer, "only for a second."
No! Something in Sky snapped, the idea of removing Lutain was...was…
painful to comprehend. Why would he take off Lutain? Why would- why?
"Yes, yes perhaps that would be for the best." Lily advised, reaching out
with her hands as if to lift the massive black snake from Skylar's
shoulders. The buzzing was sharp, thrumming and pulsing and it almost
hurt.
Skylar took a step backwards, using one hand to hold Lutain's head to his
shoulder, keeping him secured. The cool scales were so soothing against
his skin, he felt almost feverish.
Lutain gave a low hiss, and tightened further. Skylar couldn't tell where
Lutain ended and he began anymore.
"Skylar my boy, perhaps that would be wise." Horace tried, eying the
snake with something hidden, "Ah, hello...serpent. It is a pleasure to meet
you."
Lutain hissed, his mouth opening as he tucked his head further back,
retreating under the cavern of Skylar's palm. Lutain's eyes almost glowed
a dark maroon, staring out from the darkness with full concentration.
Dumbledore frowned, then with his left hand he reached out slowly to
the snake. His left hand was black, withered in a way which for some
reason was revolting. A beautiful black ring was on his hand, sparkling in
the light.
Skylar believed fully that Lutain was going to strike, that he was going to
sink fangs into flesh and leave venom crawling through blood like the
sluggish drip of molasses.
The ring sparkled, catching the light- the pressure gently released and
Skylar felt cold.
Lutain moved toward the ring entranced. He was flickering his tongue
rapidly as he stretched further and further out until he was barely able to
support himself.
Plop. Lutain fell to the floor, looking just as undignified and offended as
he should. Had the snake not realized what it was doing? Had it not
realized how hypnotized it was by Dumbledore's outstretched hand?
Skylar felt as if someone had opened a door, a sudden waft of air
caressing his skin. Something fresh, although he couldn't describe it
properly.
"How unusual." Horace blinked, watching as the snake hurriedly scaled
itself up a coat stand, trying to climb its way up to the peak to get to
somewhere safe, "How...what a unique personality. It's rather
interesting."
Lutain hissed in offense, flaring with something that left an
impressionable sensation of anger. Male! Lutain!
Skylar's mouth twitched, finding the indignation almost amusing. The
impression was a bit different, a bit more distorted and weakened
without the touch. Lutain must have sent it out to the local environment
instead of through Skylar as a conduit. The emotion and thought was out
loud, spoken by the snake for others to hear.
Evidently, the others were alarmed by the projected emotion.
Dumbledore paled, taking a step backwards and aging many years in a
moment. Horace inhaled sharply, looking horrified as if he had witnessed
something unspeakable. Lily didn't understand, but she grabbed Skylar
and yanked him away from the snake with the instinct only a mother
possessed. Something in Skylar yearned to be closer to the snake, to assist
him back to safety. It made Skylar's fingertips twitch.
"Merlin's beard." Horace wheezed, looking very much like he didn't want
to be in that spot.
"Skylar," Dumbledore spoke almost sadly, "how long have you been in
contact with this...with Lutain."
Lutain's tail twisted, and suddenly the black creature seemed very
sinister.
"I- I don't know. Just...just since Adrian was taken away." Skylar felt
shaken, hollow in a way only deep shame could accomplish, "I- what's
wrong, Sir?"
"Horace." Dumbledore stated instead, and with careful movements
Horace approached the snake, his arms in the air to show he was no
threat.
"A pleasure to meet you Lutain. I- I was curious, you seem rather
intelligent for a species such as yourself."
Lutain flicked his tongue, as if to point out that Horace Slughorn hadn't
even identified him properly.
"He talks." Skylar spoke quietly, "N-not in...not in words but he...he
whispers. I thinks. Impressions, feelings."
Skylar felt stupid the moment he talked. Of course they knew that
already, they had felt it just moments prior.
Somehow, saying it out loud was comforting in a strange way. Reassuring
to Skylar, that this...madness was not something he had to feel alone.
The four were quiet, before Horace plastered a large, obviously fake
smile on his face. "Well! How fascinating! My name is Horace Slughorn,
why, I remember an old student of mine had a snake rather similar to
you! Why, he was practically inseparable from the thing!"
Lutain didn't seem interested, and didn't bother looking at him. The eyes
were locked on Skylar, seeing into his heart.
"He...I think we made a deal." Skylar struggled, blinking in surprise
before giving a bland bark of laughter, "Wow, how ironic."
It was ironic, it was painfully ironic. He had made a deal with Adrian's
snake- something which had been the source and cause of Adrian's great
collapse in Hogwarts.
What sort of person was Skylar to shove Adrian's failures back into his
face?
"A deal?" Lily asked, sounding constantly worried, "I- Skylar. Skylar what
kind of deal?"
Dumbledore looked at Skylar with guarded caution. He knew something,
something that made him fear for Skylar. What threat could Lutain really
be? "I can't have you interact with Mr. Selwyn, Skylar."
Skylar shook his head, not looking up from where he stared at the floor.
He couldn't back out, he didn't know the ramifications of breaking a deal
with snake. Not only that, but he had promised Lutain. He owed it to
Adrian, he had to somehow make up for all the pain and suffering of the
other. "No. I said I'd help kill the basilisk."
Dumbledore's face looked grave, stoney and cold. He didn't look happy,
but he didn't look surprised either. "Adalonda."
The name triggered something. Lutain snapped towards Dumbledore,
hissing loudly with an impression of rage. Lily's breath hitched and she
made the smallest sound of retching. The anger was rolling in waves,
rushing through them like reflected heat off pavement.
"It- the basilisk…" Skylar struggled to explain, feeling almost desperate to
convey things properly. He had to explain, he had to. "It...it messed with
him. It did something, and Lutain wants revenge-."
"What did the basilisk do?" Dumbledore's voice was no longer kind. It
was cold, careful. He spoke like someone in war, no longer was he
treating Skylar as a child. Somehow, they had reached the point where
pleasantries did not exist anymore.
Lutain hissed something low, coiling himself together. Skylar felt cold.
(Would things ever recover? Would they ever return to what they once
had?)
"It...I don't know." Skylar shook his head, "I- I couldn't understand it, Sir.
It...It sounded like he was..like he was being tortured."
"It sounded like?" Horace looked baffled, "Skylar my boy, how on Earth did
you hear such a thing?"
"The snake," Dumbledore grimaced tiredly, having clued in to Lutain's
capabilities a while back. "It appears, that Lutain is enhanced by magical
means. I fear for what has been done to him."
Skylar felt cold, frozen in a numb painful way, "He said his heart. He said
that Adrian broke his heart and gave it to Lutain."
"No." Horace whispered, sounding pained as if witnessing a murder in
front of him. The older man looked well on his way to fainting, he was
pale and clammy and eyes wet. "No, oh no you poor child."
Dumbledore looked ashen, exhausted and tired and Skylar doubted that
things would return to normal. This was what life was now,
disappointment and pain and would Skylar ever have a moment to
breathe? "Lily, remove Skylar from here."
"What? No!" Skylar protested in alarm, "I- Lutain will only talk to me!
You can't- you can't just ask me to leave!"
"You need to stay far away from that creature!" Horace argued, pointing
at Lutain with a dark expression. His hand was shaking.
Lutain was hissing, aggressive yet defensive. The bees were back, buzzing
and causing Skylar's breathing to increase exponentially.
"He hasn't hurt anyone!" Skylar protested, "He- he said he'll help me!"
"Skylar I apologize, Lutain has become something very dangerous to us
all." Dumbledore cautioned with a bland monotone. "I must ask you to
remove yourself from his care."
Protect. Lutain seemed to urge, focusing on Skylar, he sounded alarmed.
He was ignoring Dumbledore, staring at Skylar desperate to listen. Lutain
needed to be heard. Help. Secrets.
Skylar couldn't let Lutain die, he- he had promised him.
"He- what are you going to do with him?"
Dumbledore shook his head carefully, "I do not know."
Nagini. Lutain urged, Prophecy.
A prophecy?
"What?" Skylar blurted in surprise, "What...what prophecy?"
Dumbledore inhaled sharply, as well as Lily.
"Mum?" Skylar asked in worry, "Sir? What...what prophecy? What's going
on?"
"Albus, we need to destroy this...this plague."
Lutain hissed in offense, body flattening as he flared and Merlin had
Lutain always been that big?
"Perhaps we should discuss this in a more private location." Horace
murmured carefully.
"Indeed. The situation has changed; Lily, would it be possible to chat
with Skylar?"
Lily looked pained, weak and old and far too accepting of the situation.
Had she known? About this...this mysterious prophecy? "I...alright."
Dumbledore nodded, walking around the coat rack and towards one of
the living rooms in the house. Slughorn hastily followed, eying the snake
unsure. Lily released Skylar, who took a few steps towards the big black
snake.
"You're not going to hurt me, are you?" Skylar asked under his breath,
"I...I know you don't like me. I want to help Adrian, but I can't do that if
you hurt me."
Lutain slowly uncoiled before moving his way carefully over Skylar's
arms. Won't. Safe.
Something like relief spilled through Skylar, removing anxiety that
gnawed on him since Lutain had stopped touching him. It soothed an itch
inside Skylar's skull, under his skin. The scales remedied his trembling,
calmed him in a lulling drone that was addictive and relaxing.
(Was this what Adrian felt? Was this what drove him to scream and cry
and burn everything?)
"Thank you," Skylar murmured, making sure the creature was secure
before he made his way into the room where Dumbledore and Slughorn
were waiting for him. Lily didn't follow, she watched him walk away
helpless to stop her son.
Once Skylar passed the entry way into the room, Dumbledore waved his
wand and a black shimmering barrier set itself over the door, effectively
silencing the enclosed space. Dumbledore's eyes widened in alarm when
he spotted the snake, coiled tightly around Skylar again. He didn't say
anything, but his displeasure was obvious.
"Have a seat, Skylar."
Skylar sat, Lutain uncoiled to lay on his lap.
"I have a question for you, Lutain." Dumbledore asked the snake, calmly
setting his wand on the table between them to show he was not a threat,
"Do you perhaps know of who I am?"
The snake paused, something uncertain twisting through Skylar. Skylar's
breathing hilted, picking up slightly in pace as Lutain tilted his head,
observing Dumbledore in silent interest. Slowly, Lutain lifted his upper
torso, seated in Skylar's lap like a reared cobra.
Very clearly, Lutain nodded.
Horace wheezed and whispered something under his breath.
"He said that...he said that Adrian was sick. He wants to fix him." Skylar
spoke, blurting his words although they felt dry, wrong. Impulsiveness he
couldn't describe, as if he just needed to talk, to try to explain,
"He...Professor, Adrian was screaming."
Dumbledore's blue eyes were piercing, "Lutain showed you this?"
"I heard it." Skylar almost whispered, he could hear it now. The
screaming, the piercing agony, "It was...it was one of the worst things I've
ever heard."
Horace closed his eyes and set his head in his hands, "A spell. Did he cast
a spell?"
"No, I...he stabbed something. He...he stabbed something I think? Or he
cut something in half, and he gave it to Lutain?"
Heart. Lutain supplied with a haunting whisper. Life.
"His heart," Skylar repeated without thinking, feeling very tired all the
way to his bones, "his life."
"His soul," Horace moaned in pain, "Oh Merlin, that snake is a horcrux."
"A...a what?" Skylar scrambled to think. He had never heard the word
before. Lutain hadn't either from the small rise of curiosity.
"A horcrux is the word used for an object in which a person has
concealed part of their soul."
That would make sense, but it didn't make sense for how to achieve it. It
didn't...things weren't lining up.
(Yet in some ways, Skylar accepted it as truth instantly, as if he knew it
was true. Somehow, Lutain knew it was true.)
Skylar blinked, "I..I don't understand how that works, Sir."
"By splitting your soul, you ensure that if your body is attacked or
destroyed, one cannot die. For part of the soul remains earthbound and
undamaged." Dumbledore explained blandly, eyes not leaving the snake,
as if he was addressing the reptile instead of Skylar himself.
Lutain tilted his head as if confused by the information. He (They?) didn't
understand.
"Sir, is it possible to...to make one without knowing you're making one?"
Skylar asked with dread pooling in his gut.
Slughorn gave a bark of a laugh, "Unlikely! To create a horcrux, why, a
soul is supposed to remain intact and whole. Splitting it is an act of
violation, it is against nature."
Skylar flinched, something twisting in humming intrigue. "Would...would
it make a dementor scared of you?"
The room chilled, Dumbledore looking alarmed while Slughorn looked
confused. They hadn't thought of that, they hadn't taken that concept into
consideration.
(Something sat wrong with it, like the bitter taste of soap under Skylar's
tongue.)
"...It may be."
No. Lutain spoke, a strong sense of wrongness as the snake thrashed. Soon.
"How soon?" Skylar asked, suddenly aware of the silence in the room,
"When...when was the vision you showed me?"
Forest. Adalonda. Luna.
(Yes yes that made sense, that was certainty as clear to Skylar as the sky
was blue and the sun hung in the sky.)
"The day Luna died. He did it that night." Skylar felt like vomiting, a
strange sense of calm and acceptance keeping his nausea at bay. "He
made you into a horcrux that night."
"The spring holidays," Dumbledore exhaled shakily, "This only provides
more questions than answers."
"To split your soul...to go against nature… you can only accomplish that
by an act of evil- the supreme act of evil. By committing murder. Killing
rips the soul apart, Skylar."
What were they-
They were implying that it was...it was Luna?
No, something was so inexplicably wrong. Adrian- he would never hurt
Luna. It was a offense, a statement against nature that Adrian would even
consider murdering Luna!
(Skylar had seen Luna's body with his own eyes, Adrian had been
nowhere near it.)
Skylar shook his head, "He- no. No. No he...he loved Luna. It...they they
d-died after!"
"Which is why this is a concerning thought." Dumbledore admitted
sagely, "It means, that somehow within the castle, Adrian Selwyn
committed cold blooded murder."
Lutain hissed something that sounded almost like a felt amused. Skylar
felt so, so very sick.
"Merlin's Beard," Slughorn breathed, "How many students has he killed,
Albus? How many people have died?"
"Umbridge," Skylar blurted, "...Luna, or she died somehow. I don't know.
Suzie Forestar. Cedric Diggory- but that wasn't... and Ginny Weasley."
Dumbledore looked pained, and didn't object to a single name.
"Albus, one of your students has killed." Horace could barely whisper,
"He...who died?"
"Lutain?" Skylar whispered, drawing the attention of the black snake,
"Please. Who did he kill?"
Lutain's jaw opened and he hissed like the breaking of someone's lungs-
He exhaled and exhaled and it filled the air and Skylar's ears and nose
and his eyes. It was choking and suffocating and his ears rang with the
low buzzing whispery exhale of Lutain's voice.
"No- no… I- Adalonda no…"
"So stubborn. So useless, and because of you, Lutain will die. To kill
Lutain...You're useless."
"No I'm not...I...please don't leave me….Adalonda!"
Skylar keeled over, collapsing onto the floor with gasping wheezes.
Barely aware, he noticed the table and Lutain go soaring to the other side
of the room, far away from where Skylar was choking on his spit. Lutain
thrashed against his magical barrier, twisting in rage.
(Skylar could feel it, distantly. Twisting and curling in his gut, how he
wanted Dumbledore and Slughorn to hurt-)
"Skylar!" Dumbledore urged, propping the smaller male up in his arms,
"Skylar! Are you okay!"
(Skylar felt the desire to reach up and claw the old man's eyes from his
skull like ripened cherry tomatoes, to pluck them out, out of spite.)
Skylar felt like he had been hit, the screaming and crying and devastation
burning deep to his center.
"He didn't- he didn't make- he didn't know." Skylar wheezed, still dizzy
and trying to get the screaming and sobs out of his head. Skylar wanted
to cry, he couldn't forget it. He couldn't forget the cruel noise of that
basilisk.
(He was going to kill her.)
"What are you on about?" Horace asked, bordering on hysteria as he
pointed his wand in a shaky grip towards Lutain.
"Skylar, Skylar what did you see?" Dumbledore urged in alarm, helping
the boy remain upright.
"Adrian, he didn't know about horcrux. He wasn't...he wasn't trying to
live forever." Skylar croaked out, "He was trying to keep Lutain alive."
The room stilled and Horace looked strangely conflicted, "That...that is a
truly strange twisted idea."
Dumbledore looked exhausted beyond words, "If so, we have greatly
underestimated Mr. Selwyn."
"I don't think at any point in my life have I been considered 'normal',
Black." Adrian dryly stated, picking at the dull grey clothing that looked
similar to prisoner garb, "If you've found something I'm overlooking, I'd
be delighted for you to tell me."
Sirius frowned, leaning back on his chair, "Well...you and that Luna girl
had a good-"
Adrian flinched, and Sirius cut himself off sharply.
Adrian inhaled slowly through his nose, hands clenching and then
relaxing, twitching uncontrollably.
"She was a good friend." Adrian spoke quietly in the room, "I never called
her my friend. I hadn't thought she was."
The room was quiet as Adrian regulated his breathing carefully.
"I think, that in the end she was. A friend." Adrian watched his fingers
bend into a fist, "She was. I think I loved her. I don't know. Everything is
so muddled."
Sirius felt Adrian's oppressive gaze, heavy and nearly suffocating as it
landing on him, "Do you know what this is?"
"What?" Sirius asked, his throat scratchy for some unknown reason.
Adrian blinked slowly, like a cat. He tilted his head innocently like a
child, eyes a hypnotic diseased color; green with a starburst ring around
his pupils. "I don't know. I think I loved her, but now I can't remember
what it was like. What anything is like. Are you afraid of me?"
Sirius shook his head, "No, I mean...you've had bad decisions, but it
wasn't your fault…"
"You've read my book," Adrian's eyes widened suddenly before
constricting unnaturally, "You're looking at the end. You're reading it
backwards. It isn't finished, Black."
Sirius felt like something cold pressed against his spine. He- how the
blazes with Selwyn know-
"Crouch is dead. Apparently he was diseased, or something like that. Or
perhaps he was just too mad." Adrian blinked in thought, "Am I mad? I
don't feel mad, but I must be."
Sirius shook his head, opening his mouth to argue.
Adrian lolled his head to the side, looking at him through the greasy
layer of his fringe, "I'm not insane like Bella. I must be different."
Sirius had a very strange feeling that he was staring at something not
human any longer. The idea was ridiculous, hell, he was best friends with
Remus!
But...something about Adrian was...wrong. Different, strange in an
unsettling wrong way.
"I didn't mean to set the train on fire," Adrian blinked slowly, the vibrant
yellow sunburst ring around his pupil was sick against his pale clammy
skin, "I didn't. I wanted to hurt Draco, but I didn't mean to set the train
on fire. Isn't that strange?"
"Accidental magic is common," Sirius sagely added, "You have a good
level of control over it,"
Adrian blinked slowly. Sirius got the impression that the other boy was
somehow lost in thought, or going through a crisis without consciously
realizing it.
"I could set this entire room on fire." Adrian mused quietly, "I could burn
this entire house down and kill you. Burning people smell a lot like
burning meat."
Sirius realized, that he was afraid. He was quite afraid actually.
Adrian blinked slowly almost in realization himself, "I could burn this
house down."
"You could," Sirius agreed, his voice a hoarse croak. His palms were
sweating. "You could burn this house down, but you'd be stuck here."
"I could apparate." Adrian pondered.
"We have wards along the property. Put up by a curse breaker and
Dumbledore."
Adrian pouted slightly, eyes glazing as he hummed to himself in thought.
Sirius needed to talk to Dumbledore immediately, he had a very bad
feeling that this boy was going to eventually result in something horrible.
"What if I only set you on fire, and took your wand and walked out?"
Sirius licked his lips anxiously, very mindful of where his wand was
tucked against his forearm, "You wouldn't have enough control to do that
without a wand."
Adrian hummed to himself, "Remus would be sad. If I cooked you like a
brisket."
Sirius monitored his breathing carefully, like how the auror's had trained
him, "Remus would be very sad."
Adrian hummed to himself, a flat monotone sound that didn't seem more
than a reminder that he could in fact, make noise. It as a blank humming,
like dozens of bees stirring in his throat. Adrian seemed distant, uncaring
of the noise he was making.
(Or how it was driving through Sirius' ears and making his blood rush
like he was underwater.)
"You're very chatty." Sirius choked out, feeling more embarrassed by how
strangled he sounded.
Adrian blinked slowly before shrugging one shoulder, his humming
fading off. "I don't see a point anymore in playing coy."
"Were you always playing coy with us?"
"Of course I was. It doesn't matter anymore, or at least it doesn't matter to
me. Few things do anymore."
Bellatrix looked horrible. She had always appeared sick, eyes too wide
and nostrils flared in a permanent expression of anger. Sometimes she
would grin, lips curling back so far her teeth could be spotted sprouting
from her gums, discolored slightly.
Now...now she was so pale that she seemed to shine in the darkness. Her
long brown hair was snarled into a large birds nest, frizzy and hanging
over her shoulders like a used mop.
"I don't think this is necessary!" Bellatrix hissed out, darting after her
sister. Narcissa threw back her hood, her long blonde hair gave her the
look of a drowned person.
She knocked on the door, using her shoulder to gracelessly shove it open
the moment the latch was moved.
"Narcissa!" said the man, stepping aside as light fell upon her and her
sister too, "What a pleasant surprise."
"Severus," Narcissa said in a heavily strained whisper.
"May I speak to you? It's urgent."
"But of course."
They passed into the house, Bellatrix pausing to twist her face into a
grimace. Snape kept himself composed.
They stepped into a tiny sitting room, which was dark and smelled of old
parchment. Every wall was covered in books, most of them bound in old
black or brown leather; a threadbare sofa was pressed in one available
space with a rickety table nearest the arm. The place had an air of
neglect, as though it was not usually inhabited.
They settled, Narcissa with a sense of urgency and Bellatrix with a much
slower sense of paranoia.
"Severus, I know I ought not to be here, I have been told to say nothing
to anyone, but-"
"Then you ought to hold your tongue!" snarled Bellatrix, her eyes
widening so far that all edges of her iris were visible, "Particularly in
present company!"
"Present company?" repeated Snape sardonically. "And what am I to
understand by that, Bellatrix?"
"That I don't trust you, Snape, as you very well know!"
Narcissa made a noise that might have been a dry sob and covered her
face with her hands. Snape lowered himself backwards into his chair,
arms on the velvet armrests on either side. Bellatrix looked pained.
"Narcissa, I think we ought to hear what Bellatrix is bursting to say; it
will save tedious interruptions."
Bellatrix rumbled with a snarl.
"I think that this is meaningless!" She hissed, nearly leaping to her feet
with the aggression of a panther, "Where to start! Where were you when
the Dark Lord fell? Why did you never make any attempt to find him
when he vanished? What have you been doing all these years that you've
lived in Dumbledore's pocket? Why did you never return? Why did you
not bring him back!"
She paused, her chest rising and falling rapidly. Her cheeks were flushed,
behind her, Narcissa sat motionless.
Snape smiled thinly.
"Do you really think that the Dark Lord has not asked me each and every
one of those questions? And do you really think that, had I not been able
to give satisfactory answers, I would be sitting here talking to you?"
Bellatrix hesitated.
"I know he believes you, but…"
"You think he is mistaken? Or that I have somehow tricked him? Fooled
the Dark Lord, the greatest wizard, the most accomplished Legilimens the
world has ever seen?"
Bellatrix said nothing, but there was something in her eyes that glowed
darkly with a sense of hate.
"I believed him finished. I am not proud of it, I was wrong, but there it
is...If he had not forgiven we who lost faith at the time, he would have
very few followers left."
"He'd have me!" Bellatrix protested passionately, "I have followed his
work in his absence!"
"Yes, indeed, most admirable." Snake said in a bored voice, "How
honorable, running with rumors of you adopting a truly lackluster child
to stave your boredom."
Bellatrix froze with widened eyes.
"Severus." Narcissa whispered, interrupting quietly, "Perhaps I should
speak."
"Lackluster?" Bellatrix hissed with the viciousness of the Dark Lord's
familiar.
"Severus, I- I think you are the only one who can help me, I have
nowhere else to turn. Lucius cannot offer assistance and…" Narcissa
closed her eyes in exhaustion, two tears seeping from the corners of her
eyes. "The Dark Lord has forbidden me to speak of it. He wishes none to
know of the plan. It is...very secret. But-"
"If he has forbidden it, you ought not to speak." Snape suggested calmly,
"His word is law."
Narcissa gaped in horror and Bellatrix still grimaced with a sense of
seething.
"Lackluster." Bellatrix clipped out, positively frosty, "You dare call…"
"I must ask for silence, Bellatrix, as it appears such conversation is
between Narcissa and I only."
Narcissa sighed into her hands and Bellatrix shifted her weight, looking
decidedly unimpressed.
"I was the one who chose Draco for this plan." Bellatrix divulged
indifferently, causing Narcissa to look at her in growing horror. "I was the
one granted the final say over our preparations."
Oh, oh that was a sudden change.
"And because of that, Snape. Because of what you said, I have decided
that you're included as well." Bellatrix hissed, "Dare you fail I will murder
you myself."
"Bella," Narcissa whispered, tears sliding down her pale cheeks. "My
son...my only son…"
"What about mine!" She screeched like a harpy, "He- He has taken him
and placed him in such a position! If not for his treachery your child
would not be involved!"
Snape's mind leapt to conclusions rather quickly, "Ah, I see then this
pertains to the child Adrian Selwyn."
Bellatrix's eyes narrowed, "Lackluster."
Snape withheld a flinch.
"You are now entrusted to enable Draco with his mission," Bellatrix
grinned, baring her teeth savagely, "You have until the end of Summer."
"Bella!" Narcissa cried in pain, "You- It was until Christmas."
"I changed my mind." She snapped back, "I had never understood the
pain of a lost child, Cissy. It would be a shame for both of us to
experience it."
Narcissa flinched and whimpered quietly.
"What are your intentions then, granted that they are from the Dark
Lord."
Bellatrix smirked once in victory, "Return my child to me. Assist Draco in
infiltrating where you've hidden him, and return Cerestes to us."
Snape froze. His face was unreadable, on the interior he had frozen as if
in the face of an arctic fleury.
"I struggle to see how young Draco is relevant in this task."
"I want you to struggle."
Snape averted his eyes to the floor and with a terse nod Bellatrix
laughed.
"If you tell your precious Order." She seethed, stepping forward until her
wand was pressed under his jaw, "Then I will gut Lily Potter and make
you eat her entrails."
"I don't fail." Snape coldly responded, aware of the threat.
"Good." Bellatrix whispered, her breath was sour. "Cerestes will kill you
himself."
"Months. Summer end."
Adrian hummed contently, arms crossed behind his head with his eyes
closed. The room was dark, but he knew he wasn't alone.
"My birthday then?" Adrian hissed back in inquiry, dull interest. What an
excellent present.
"Yes." Nagini hissed in broken words, sliding under his clothes like a
caress. "Draco. Severus."
Adrian felt a curl on his lips, "Really? That will be interesting. I'm sure
Lutain misses me. Let me know what day they are coming for me, I'd hate to
miss it."
Nagini didn't comprehend, but the tattoo didn't need to.
Adrian would be leaving. He would be returned to his father.
As a weapon, as a tool to be used but truly, did it really matter anymore?
Did he actually even have a life anymore?
Sooner or later, everyone would be dead. Why should he remain in
captivity if it would prolong the inevitable. Why would he entertrain his
captors when he could maybe (maybe) find some sort of purpose intended
for him?
(It wasn't as if he had anything left in his life now, if not for his destiny.)
Adrian smiled in the dark.
The smile faltered, twisting into a small frown as Adrian felt the vibration
of feet on wood- stomps up the steps. Sirius, the quick gait that Adrian
recognized as him.
Sirius opened the door, slipping in and closing the door behind him
quickly.
Sirius paused one moment before flipping on the light switch, no mercy
for how Adrian recoiled from the sudden brightness.
"Merlin, are you done brooding yet?" Sirius muttered to himself, likely
not aware that Adrian could hear it at all. "You going to talk about that
damn book yet?"
Of course Adrian wasn't going to talk about that.
'Although…' Adrian thought to himself, righting himself slowly to stare at
Sirius with wide eyes. He didn't dare sink into the man's skull again, he
didn't know if Dumbledore or Snape would investigate or had somehow
created defenses for the case.
"You went through my things," Adrian spoke, not a question with how he
knew the dog had. "You saw the ledger?"
Sirius looked surprised and startled, clearly the conversation had been
derailed, "meticulous work you put into that. I was surprised."
Adrian wasn't fishing for complements, "how many Galleons were in the
net gain in the back."
Sirius looked startled by the whiplash "I- a bit. Quite a sum actually,
why? Planning on hiring a lawyer?"
Adrian breathed slowly to calm the hitch in his breath. His hands
twitched, curling into shaking fists. Sirius noticed and his eyes widened
slightly, already beginning to inquire if Adrian was okay.
"I need you to access the vault." Adrian snapped out, voice harsher than
he intended. "All the galleons in that vault. Send them to Xenophilius
Lovegood." Adrian stopped talking and breathed slowly to make sure the
warbling wouldn't be heard.
Sirius swallowed thickly and when he responded his voice cracked in
turn. "A-alright."
DeviousClass: Can't wait for the happier spin-off :)
The first chapter of the spin-off has been posted on AO3 (Oceanbreeze7) and
on Tumblr (Digitalta)
Fire and Starlight: Doesn't the Wizarding World know about depression?
It's obvious that Adrian is depressed...there are days where [you] can't
function and days where [you are] going to be ok
Considering how Wizards didn't' know about dentists and dental hygiene, I
doubt mental health is studied much.
xxVoidxx: I love Lutain. An eye for an eye. I wonder if Adalonda see this
coming?
She most certainly didn't expect this.
LalaSpade: I forgot about Remus! How the hell will he respond to all the
crazyness that's happened while he was gone? Also what it Voldemort
gonna do If he wants his son back? He has no way to get him without a
fight and maybe letting them know about his son.
Bellatrix is now in charge for getting Adrian back! Voldemort is a terrible
father for all of this. Remus is going to swoop in like a proud mama and give
Adrian bubble baths. That's how devoted he is now.
Jeon Anna: Before, I just read your story, from the very beginning. I
realize that I becominh your fan, because I like the way you describe
your characters in this story and you reply our comments. that's really
nice.
Hm, I just wonder, whether Adrian will end up like Bellatrix or not.
because he hears voices and then you mentioned about Bellatrix became
mad and she hears voices also. And, whether Bellatrix truly really love
Adrian or just like voldemort.
I'm glad you enjoy my style of writing! I love interacting with all of you.
Adrian is experiencing slight hallucinations, although his mental instability is
not akin to Bellatrix's (different types of mental distortions although you were
on a good track). Adrian will remain more lucid than Bellatrix. Bella loves
Adrian, but in the way a kid loves a puppy and accidentally kills it.
KClown: You need to publish a book or something, you are simply
amazing!
I'm working on it!
Whitedrago: I know you plan on making Adrian go crazy with
bloodlust...when this is done I would find it very interesting to see a spin
off start at the end of this chapter that tells of a slow and painful
rehabilitation back into a sane being. Emphasis on slow and painful...I
wouldn't necessarily want to see Harry/Adrian become good...realizing
the world isnt $ !& but it isnt sunshine and rainbows either... to see him
not go against Dumbledore, but also not work for him. To see Adrian
fight against Voldemort, but using dark curses. To see him remain dark,
but only harm those who are guilty (I leave the definition of guilty up to
you :P)
I'm going to add that to possible chapters to add onto the Spin-Off! I already
have a Reveal! One up because so many of you were too tired to wait for the
grand reveal.
Hope1616:In what way did harry love luna. Who or does he love more
Voldemortor luna.
The nature of Adrian and Luna's relationship is up to the readers, since I tend
to not write explicit relationships. Without a question, Adrian loved Luna
more, but he feels more obligation to take make his father proud.
Guest: im half expecting/hoping Sirius to try and contact Dumbledore
about his discoveries but being unable to he confronts Adrian about the
book threatening to reveal all if he doesn't give him answers backing
Adrian into a corner only for him to snap and kill him to make his escape
or alternatively knocking him out and making his escape. Maybe as he is
escaping Skylar shows up with Lutain so they get reunited
That's violent. And you all tell me I'm writing dark. I hope I'll at least surprise
you or catch you off guard when that certainly doesn't happen.
57. Wren
This chapter was beta'd by our amazing Beta Collective
-Arctic Fox From Afar
-Mahina
-Cyndaquil05
-4everfictional
-Scion of House Lucifer
-Parsi
-Acelenny
-S4m
- and countless anonymous helpers!
'Why did they get rid of me. Why am I so replaceable?'
Skylar Potter was shopping for his books and new supplies.
That was it. He swore that was all he was doing.
He was accompanied by Ron and Hermione, keeping the conversation
light and without banter. They were there for books, that was all they
were there for.
Skylar hated it. Skylar absolutely hated the fact they were shopping. Why,
why was it so important that they shop for school supplies?
It seemed entirely asinine, the fact they would be shopping for books.
(Skylar had watched people die in front of him, he had faced dragons and
thestrals and a basilisk. He had to search Umbridge's corpse for his wand.)
And they just- they expected him to buy books?
There was something inexplicably wrong about it, about the concept of
returning to Hogwarts. It felt to Skylar like he was...like he was ignoring
the past, that he was ignoring everything that happened.
(He felt disgusted, as if the death and suffering and everything he
experienced was nothing.)
Voldemort was alive, shouldn't Skylar be doing something important?
Like helping to stop him?
Lutain shifted under Skylar's robes, causing Skylar to flinch. Ron paused,
breaking off mid word uncomfortably. He didn't resume what he was
saying.
"Sorry," Skylar apologized quietly. Ron swallowed and took a small step
away- the red head was painfully timid of anything that hissed now.
(It was understandable, but Skylar couldn't fathom being apart from the
snake. It was...impossible to comprehend, painful to imagine).
They were shopping, and it was only due to pure coincidence that Skylar
had an unimpeded view out of the window.
Lutain did also, the snake rumbled a low dissatisfied noise as the two saw
an infamous student hurrying up the street alone.
Lutain made way to chase, managing a few inches from Skylar's neck.
Skylar reached up to hastily to shove its face back under his collar.
"Sky?" Hermione asked warily, following his eyesight before she too
frowned.
"Wonder where his mummy is?" said Skylar, frowning and in thought. It
was incredibly suspicious.
"Given her the slip by the looks of it. Hasn't he always shopped with his
father?" said Ron.
"Not today. Why, though?" said Hermione.
Skylar frowned; he was thinking too hard. Narcissa Malfoy would not
have let her precious son out of sight willingly; Malfoy must have made a
real effort to free himself from her clutches. With how tensions were
rising and even more whispers of the Dark Lord were stirring, Malfoy
must have pulled an impressive maneuver to escape her clutches.
But why, why would Draco Malfoy be sneaking around for book supplies
so late in the day? Shops were close to closing, the street was fairly
empty.
Skylar, knowing and loathing Malfoy, was sure the reason could not be
innocent.
"Think we could follow?" Skylar asked lowly, Hermione chewed her lip in
concern.
"Got your cloak?" Ron asked in form of an answer, already helping to
block the view as Skylar fumbled in his bag. He had taken to never
leaving home without it, as per Dumbledore's request.
"I don't know, Skylar." Hermione worried.
"Come on," Ron shushed. She hesitated a second, then ducked under the
cloak with Skylar and Ron. Nobody noticed them vanish; the trio
squeezed their way out of the door as quickly as they could but by the
time they gained the street, Malfoy had disappeared just as successfully
as they had.
It was the right thing to follow Malfoy. Maybe it was foolish hope, but
Malfoy was a Slytherin, perhaps he knew something about Adrian that
they didn't. Perhaps he was tied into this- or he knew something. Malfoy
may know something that had far greater implications than anyone
thought of.
"He was going in that direction," Skylar murmured, shuffling them until
they were scurrying along the street. They peered left and right, glancing
through shop windows and doors until Hermione gasped and shoved
them forward.
"That's him, turning left?"
Malfoy glanced around, then slid into Knockturn Alley and out of sight.
Definitely nothing good, but considering how twisted and corrupt the
world itself was now, it was nothing less than Skylar expected. Lutain
thrummed in contentment, perhaps the snake too had figured it as well.
They hurried after, ignoring how the cloak fluttered and exposed their
ankles. Knockturn Alley, the side street devoted to the Dark Arts, looked
completely deserted. They peered into windows as they passed, but none
of the shops seemed to have many customers. It did seem a bit dangerous
and suspicious to buy Dark artifacts, or at least to be seen buying them.
Lutain hissed, wriggling his way free before flopping out onto the
cobblestone and taking off speedily. Skylar cursed and Hermione jumped,
nearly trampling the animal with her shoes. Ron flinched away, yet the
three followed hastily.
"Look! He's in there!" Hermione breathed, barely audible to the two boys.
Lutain on cue reared outside the window, looking in with a strange level
of intelligence. A snake couldn't open a door, no matter how smart in the
end.
Draco Malfoy was barely visible in the window, his back to the front of
the store. He was half visible, obscured by a black cabinet. Judging by
the movement's of his hands, Malfoy was talking animatedly. The
proprietor of the shop, Mr. Borgin, an oily-haired, stooping man, stood
facing Malfoy. He was wearing a curious expression of mingled
resentment and fear.
"If only we could hear what they're saying!" Hermione muttered angrily.
Lutain didn't appear to be bothered by this, because without much
hesitation the snake tilted itself and slammed itself against the glass with
a quiet thump.
The noise normally would have been too muffled to hear, but with the
vacancy of the street the two occupants inside the stoor heard it quite
clearly. They peered at the window, squinting to try and discern what
had made the noise.
Mr. Borgin stamped his way to the front of the store, grimacing with an
expression of disgust when he spotted Lutain, leaning against the glass
like a haphazardly thrown coil of rope.
"Oi! Off!" The man shouted through the glass, grabbing a nearby
umbrella to tap on the glass.
Lutain flicked his tongue once, and the man cursed foul before opening
the door to prod the snake.
"Wait!" Malfoy blurted, having walked closer to see what the commotion
was. Skylar watched in surprise as Malfoy paled to a shade just shy of
parchment. His breathing hitched and he took two steps back, "The- the
snake. Stop!" He hissed at the owner.
Mr. Borgin paused, his eye twitched but he lowered the umbrella. Lutain
seemed pleased, because he slumped down and waited in a calm coil
outside the store.
Malfoy stumbled his way outside the store, kicking the door closed
behind him to keep the store owner on the other side of the glass.
"You." Malfoy murmured so lowly Skylar doubted the store-owner could
hear him, "Where- how are you here?"
Lutain's tongue flickered, and Malfoy paled as if he realized something
horrible.
"Look, I know." Malfoy hissed out, looking on the fringe of desperation, "I-
I didn't know. I'm sorry okay?"
Lutain lifting himself in a sick parody of the basilisk' stance. Malfoy
flinched, as if he had seen something familiar.
"I'm doing the best I can!" Malfoy hissed out again, fingers twitching and
his skin almost translucent in his fear, "If I had more time-"
Lutain opened his mouth in a terrifying hiss. Malfoy took a short stumble
back, throat moving as he swallowed convulsively.
"Fine, fine!" Malfoy snapped, "It'll be done!"
Malfoy turned on his heel as if to storm away before he stiffened with a
sharp breath. Lutain made a low noise, something that sounded
displeased. Malfoy looked terrified of it.
After a few seconds, Malfoy resumed walking. They watched him leave,
before Ron cursed sharply and Hermione let out a breath.
Skylar felt uncomfortable with all of that- would it be possible to stun the
boy and take him into custody? Would the trace be in effect with such a
populated magical area? Could Skylar even do that?
"What was that about?" Ron asked sourly. Lutain turned, seemingly able
to know exactly where they were.
"I don't know," Hermione responded quietly, "It- he seemed so scared."
Ron and Hermione wouldn't understand, Skylar hadn't expected them to.
For as wonderful as his friends were, they were still very innocent and
didn't think of the larger picture.
Malfoy looked terrified of Lutain, which meant that Adrian likely had a
more violent or prominent position in Slytherin than they had originally
assumed.
Or perhaps Malfoy had somehow learned more about Adrian Selwyn
himself? Skylar didn't think that Astoria would have told him, she
seemed downright terrified of Adrian- would she have told her sister,
Daphne? Daphne didn't seem the type to spread information, and only
something major would have warranted that reaction.
Skylar didn't know, but he knew enough to understand that there was
something else at play.
(Did Lutain know? What would it take for him to tell Skylar?)
Lutain stared down the road without moving, and after a second Skylar
tugged the cloak off. The alleyway seemed much more terrifying when
anyone could see them.
Lutain took off, moving in a completely different direction.
"Shite," Skylar cursed, sprinting to keep the nearly invisible snake in his
line of sight. Ron and Hermione cried after, and the three were suddenly
scrambling through a thin alleyway up broken steps towards a second
alleyway. The snake didn't stop, it kept moving faster and faster until
Skylar clued in that it was going towards an intended location.
Then they heard it, unsettling enough that all three slowed to a stop.
Lutain stopped grudgingly, watching them annoyed.
A melodic trilling noise was faint, foreign and captivating despite the
inherent wrongness of it.
"What is that?" Hermione whispered, and abruptly the noise cut off.
Lutain made a noise, egging them closer.
They hesitantly stepped around the corner, and the first thing Skylar
noticed was how beautiful the fountain was.
It was archaic, cast iron with large statues of fish dribbling clear water in
a constant cycle. The size of one of the Prefect baths, it was large enough
to swim in, or for a strange creature to lower itself until only its bulbous
round eyes looked at them.
The snake hissed, and the creature gurgled something, "Hello again,
Sharptail."
Skylar blinked in amazement, and took a half step backwards. The
rusting iron of the fountain, along with the dripping water looked
suspiciously like blood over the edge of the rim.
"You understood him?" Skylar asked cautiously. The creature tilted her
head, her ears were humanoid.
Then it tilted its head back and laughed, as if it had realized the most
hilarious thing.
"How similar," The creature blinked, before peering at Lutain with
something puzzled, "Now you smell sour."
Lutain hissed something and the creature spat in anger. Something
opalescent and scaled moved under the fountain water.
"Skylar, we need to run." Ron urged, already ready to bolt the way they
came. The creature chirped like a bird, and looked upset.
Something cawed above them, a large angry crow.
"You reek." the creature's nose wrinkled, pointing one webbed finger at
the snake, "You reek foul. Plague."
The crow called twice more, and the creature chirped twice like a happy
lark, "Plague! Plague!"
Hermione tugged on Skylar's sleeve, as if to drag him away.
(Skylar couldn't leave yet. This...this thing knew something.)
"Oh," the creature gurgled, hoisting itself out of the water partially. It
looked like it had a disease near its collarbones, scales shimmering and
growing out sickly, "Oh you get plague from the other? How sad."
Lutain hissed something, and the creature gave a bark like a seal. Luna
would have loved this monstrosity.
(It knew something, Skylar couldn't afford to leave without knowing.)
"No offense!" It giggled like a musical instrument, "Curious. Other child
die yet?"
"Selwyn?" Skylar spoke, feeling the worst come from his mouth almost
numbly, "What- what do you mean? You know Lutain?"
The creature blinked, a movement that looked painful, "Other child.
Related? He's dying."
Lutain hissed and the creature shushed him. "Better hurry."
(Selwyn was dying? Selwyn was going to be killed?)
Lutain hissed something final, and without a care for his own being
Skylar grabbed the snake's tail and pulled him backwards.
"Let's go." Skylar confirmed, eager to get away from the freakish insane
creature.
Its weird barkish laughter followed them all the way to Diagon Alley.
(For some reason unknown to Skylar, he wished the weird beast would
die.)
Adrian was sitting on his bed, eyes open and glazed sightless. The door to
his room opened, and without truly reacting he looked.
His eyes sharpened, his breath left him in a small puff and a smile spread,
"Remus."
Lupin stepped through, nursing a wicked cut along his jawline and a
padded area near his shoulder that suggested a wound. His face was
bruised, his eyes sporting shadows but despite it all, he seemed very
happy. "Hello, Adrian."
Adrian twisted, righting himself to sit crossed leg on his blanket. The
grey clothing hung from him, the hollow of his collarbone was large
enough to fit a walnut.
"Oh, Adrian." Remus whispered, as if the sight was something pitiful.
Adrian nearly vibrated from the glee and inexplicable happiness.
"You're back! They said you had to talk to werewolves." Adrian
continued, sounding far too content and happy given his unhealthy state,
"Is that why you're injured?"
Remus swallowed and found the chair Sirius told him would be there,
"Ah, yes. A few weren't happy when I tried to advocate for them."
"Of course they wouldn't be." Adrian blinked as if it were obvious, "Fenrir
holds the most sway and he was converted years ago."
Remus floundered, and settled for saying nothing in the end.
"I missed you," Adrian confessed, then blinked in surprise as if he hadn't
even realized he did.
"I missed you too." Remus spoke. His voice was pinched, strained as if
under great stress.
Adrian beamed, a wide smile that had been long since vacant on his face.
"You're staying here now, right?"
Remus nodded slowly, "My work is done now. Thank you for taking care
of Sirius, I know at times he can be a bit much."
Adrian scowled slightly, "I swear he's illiterate."
Remus chuckled softly, light and breezily, "Don't let him catch you saying
that. He'll throw a book at you."
Adrian rolled his eyes, "there aren't any good books left. I took them all."
"From the Black Estate?"
"Bellatrix took me there a long time ago. She let me take books I thought
interesting from the library."
Remus' face twitched slightly, "You must have been young."
Adrian tilted his head slightly, his teeth were pink.
Remus inhaled sharply and suddenly, he could smell the faintest twinge
of blood.
"Adrian?" Remus asked, his voice firming as he stood suddenly, reaching
out with one arm to gently touch the younger's shoulder, "Adrian are you
bleeding?"
Adrian blinked in surprise, staring at Remus' hand on his shoulder with
something confused, "You're touching me?"
Remus inhaled and suddenly the metallic twinge was much sharper. A
drop of blood dripped down Adrian's face, curling over his lip before
plopping onto his grey shirt.
Adrian breathed in and out, chest rising and falling gently. Two drops of
blood dripped, adding to the single stain with a foreboding warning.
Adrian sniffed, a wet squelching noise, then the stream began.
Remus flinched back, the smell was painfully strong in his nose. Adrian
didn't seem alarmed, instead he poked the stain on his shirt, already
darkening to a wet disgusting black. His fingertips came away red, he
seemed almost mindless of how disgusting the blood was.
He grinned, blood dripping in a frothy pink paste from the corner of his
mouth. He coughed, hacking out a globule of pink foam which hung to
his mouth by a long strand of saliva.
Something in Remus, something deep inside recoiled at the sight of the
blood, the sharp acrid smell. Something in him itched to turn away, to
leave Adrian alone like how he was repelled by rabid animals. Something
sick, festering and contagious.
"Are you in pain?" Remus asked quickly, gently pulling Adrian's hair back
from where a few strands were dangerously close to the sticky situation.
"Is the air too dry?"
Adrian coughed again, this time a large clot that had a blackish sheen. It
reminded Remus of a raw liver.
"I'm fine," Adrian assured, voice nasally and wet. His lips were scarlet. "It
happens."
"Often?" Remus asked concerned, "I didn't know you had a predisposition
for nosebleeds."
Adrian rolled his shoulder, then after a slight pause he leant slightly
sideways, leaning into Remus' hand. Adrian hadn't gone out of his way
for physical contact before.
"Where's Lutain?" Remus asked gently, finally taking note of just how
painfully bare the room was. Truly there was very little, just the bed, a
side table, and the single rickety chair that Sirius had complained about.
Adrian must have been going insane from the boredom.
"I don't know." Adrian confessed, his voice higher and contemplating as
he blinked twice, "I don't know where he is. I should ask him."
'You can't ask him if he isn't here.' Remus thought to himself, biting his
tongue to not say it out loud.
"He doesn't like being with me anyways," Adrian gave a shrug, dismissing
the idea coldly even though even thinking it must have been painful. "He's
been avoiding me."
Remus didn't say anything as he sat down on the bed beside Adrian. The
younger leant back, choking wetly as blood continued to dribble. Remus
was warm, Adrian slumped against his side.
"Familiar's aren't like that." Remus tried to assure him quietly, "They rely
on you and share a connection."
Adrian gave a small noise, something between a hum and a scoff. "I don't
think he's my familiar. He's mine though. He's mine."
Remus crossed his arms, thinking over how Sirius had demanded he not
take his wand into the room with him. He could have at least spared
bringing a tissue with him.
"Muggles used to think that familiars were demons, forced to obey a
witch. They would take the form of animals, and wouldn't hesitate for
any wish of their master." Remus mused quietly with a small smile on his
face, "Of course, that isn't right. They say that our magic finds an animal,
one that we imprint on as much as they imprint on us. Due to this, our
cores align and they become an extension of ourselves."
Adrian blinked lazily, "What is our core?"
Remus hummed quietly, noticing as the tension left Adrian slowly the
longer he talked, "That's magical theory. To be honest, when I was your
age I hated magical theory."
Adrian's nose made a gross high pitched whine, the breaking of pressure.
A blood clot bubbled and dribbled down his face like a slug. Thankfully,
the worst bit seemed to have passed.
"We refer to our magical core as our reserves, or our magical
capabilities." Remus explained, using one hand to try and convey his
words clearer, "Imagine a lake, or a sea of our capabilities. In the past, we
used to believe that our reserves were similar to a tree, and our magical
casting abilities were like the branches that stemmed out from our center.
We know that's not entirely true now, and instead we imagine our core as
a pool."
Adrian fumbled with his shirt, running the fabric between his fingers
leisurely, "And when we cast spells?"
Remus chuckled softly, the vibrations and movements shifting Adrian
slightly from where he rested. "It's always up for interpretation. The
widely accepted explanation is that we have a system of pathways that
generally aren't in use. When we use our magic, our reserves release our
capabilities down these pathways to meet with our wand where it is used
as a conduit for our magic."
"Like a stream." Adrian simplified quietly, "Our magic is a lake and flows
through us like mountain rivers and streams, breaking into thousands of
tributaries throughout our body."
Remus smiled and nodded, his face tickled by Adrian's hair, "With that
model, we've explained accidental magic as a flash flood- an
uncontrollable surplus down one of these pathways. Thankfully, by
having so many different paths we're able to ensure more control over
our magic."
Adrian hummed quietly, "What are the other models?"
"Generally they all have the same principle, that our core and our
conduits are two separate systems. Some people or educational system
refer to it as more of a...a nervous system, in Muggle terms. Others think
of it more as a heart, supplying our bodies with a near constant stream of
magic we are able to redirect when performing feats. The pathways;
rivers, veins, nerves, however you interpret it, are almost unanimously
thought to be our embodiment of our soul."
Adrian's heart beat quickly, thrumming repeatedly with a calming
mantra. "And soul magic? Like the patronus?"
Remus hummed once again, "I presume that magic relies on the
utilization of those pathways. Less the reserves or the capabilities of your
core itself, but the passages by which it travels. It must be why the
patronus is infamous as such a difficult spell."
Adrian tasted blood, and felt it crumble into a gritty dust from where it
caked to the fine hairs lining his face. The hairs had appeared quite
randomly, softening his jawline with the presence of the peach fuzz. It
was strange to see, the hairs had given him a fuzzy downy appearance
that contrasted sharply with the sickly pallor of his skin. The dried blood
made it look like he had been attacked, his shirt was nearly black in a
downwards triangle towards his naval.
"Has your nosebleed stopped?" Remus inquired, unable to see Adrian's
face as the back of the younger's skull rested on the werewolf's side.
Adrian nodded, yawning bored.
"They happen," He shrugged, dismissing it just as he had done earlier,
"Whenever I cast magic."
Remus stiffened, "That doesn't sound healthy."
Adrian laughed, a self deprecating noise that Remus felt sad to hear. It
was all too easy to relate to.
"The first time my nose bled I didn't know it was because of that." Adrian
admitted fondly, as if it was a good memory, "Ron Weasley punched me
in the face so I thought it was from that."
"What?" Remus blinked in surprise, nearly jostling the younger from
where he was plastered to his side, "When was this?"
"I set the train on fire." Adrian nearly laughed, "I remember being so
confused afterwards. I didn't mean for that to happen, I only wanted
Draco to burn."
"You shouldn't want anyone to burn." Remus scolded without much heat.
"Draco was annoying. He deserved it."
Remus didn't know how to respond to that.
"I think if I tried to set a wall on fire, the entire house would be alight."
Adrian confessed quietly, finally for the first time that night, showed
worry.
"What do you mean?"
"I don't have a frame of reference anymore." Adrian struggled to convey,
"If you were to spell lumos, would your spell be brighter than a first
year?"
"Only because I have had practice, and I understand magic more astute
than a first year." Remus professed.
Adrian craned his head back, sliding down Remus' side until his head
rested against the man's thigh. Adrian blinked twice, he had long
eyelashes and hollows below his cheeks. He looked emaciated.
"I think If I tried lumos right now," Adrian whispered, his voice a raspy
thing, "This room would glow as if filled with many lanterns."
"That's a very boastful claim." Remus smiled down at the child (a child no
longer). "I don't doubt it. You were very powerful when I had you as a
student."
Adrian's face pinched as if what Remus sad was something finicky at best.
"That was before. I'm better now. I think I could beat Bellatrix now, I
could explode a dozen birds until they painted her." Adrian paused, then
lamely added, "At one time."
Remus had grown used to Adrian's macabre history. His fascination in
what would be considered cruel or unsettling now was simply an
endearing quality of his individuality. Of course, Sirius had been whining
and cursing under his breath all day about how unnerving Adrian was,
but Remus had long since learned when his words were something to
ignore or something to address.
This was something to address.
"I didn't know you knew a spell to rupture birds. I don't know a spell like
that." Remus carefully commented. His left hand rising to run very gently
through Adrian's hair. It was nearly slimy with the amount of grease in it.
The ends had split so aggressively the knots looked as if he'd have to cut
them out.
"Rumpervis." Adrian whispered reverently, fingers twitching as he stated
the spell almost with adoration, "It was...breathtaking."
Remus didn't know that spell, but he could tell by the tone of voice that it
most certainly was dark magic.
"I've never been one for attacking spells." Remus admitted calmly, "That
was more of Sirius' or James' expertise. I know defensive spells, shielding
spells."
Adrian's face lit up as if delighted, "How did you learn to shield?"
"James learned first," Remus smiled at the memory, "He and Sirius were
trying to learn how to do it, they spent a weekend shooting stinging
hexes at one another. I think others thought we were daft."
Adrian laughed at the idea, small almost soundless giggles that revealed
his teeth. They were pink.
"I kept mispronouncing the spell." Adrian confessed sheepishly, "I got in
trouble for dodging so I spent an entire day learning the spell."
Remus ruffled Adrian's hair with a small smile, "I could spend hours of
telling you my magical disasters."
Adrian grinned looking delighted, "Likewise. I'm bad with fire- well, I'm
not...bad."
Adrian contemplated the topic with a small scrunch of his eyebrows, "No,
no I'm really good at fire. That's the problem."
Remus didn't say anything but continued to gently tug at the knots in
Adrian's hair. They weren't coming loose.
Adrian lolled his head around, stretching his legs out like a content cat,
"You should stay here."
Remus smiled and with a sick ripping noise, removed a nasty knot. "I'm
not. You're my primary concern for now."
Adrian frowned, "No. I mean you should stay with me. I could take you
with me, and you wouldn't have to do this anymore."
Remus' hand stilled, and suddenly Adrian's wide eyes didn't seem so
nonthreatening. Obviously the younger didn't understand what he was
implying, or what he was saying in his uncharacteristic childish
reasoning. Remus had heard that Adrian had been delirious, somehow
inebriated but he seemed quite logical now. If not for this childish
reasoning, this very strange childish reasoning.
(And the fact he was very obviously touch starved, but that was another
concern for a later time.)
"I can't just leave people behind here." Remus explained gently, "I have
people here, Adrian."
Adrian's face clouded in confusion, as if the notion was crazy to think of.
"Tonks? I know you like her. She's loud, she's been nice to me."
Remus tensed and once more he was unsettled by the strange knowledge
Adrian had of things he shouldn't know, "Tonks and I are very close."
"Oh," Adrian blinked, tilting his head in thought, "I could take her with
me. I could mark you, and you would be untouchable. I don't know if you
could boss them around, but wouldn't they be scared of a werewolf?"
Remus wasn't following, but he was intelligent enough to form some
horrifying conclusions on his own. Where had Adrian gotten the idea of a
mark? "I don't like the idea of a mark, Adrian."
Adrian grinned, eyes burning like a fire. His eyes were different, the
heterochromia was startling and very recent. The yellow looked sickly,
like old pus seeping from his pupil into the color of his iris, "You don't
have to always have it! I could make it secret, oh but you can't speak to
it. That would be difficult. Maybe link it to a keyword? It would have to
be intelligent."
"I don't think something like that exists, Adrian." Remus soothed once
again.
Adrian prickled, twitching as if he wanted to pull away from Remus' lap,
but he couldn't in fear of losing the touch. "It does."
Adrian stilled, pausing as if in thought. He looked at Remus with half
lidded eyes, the yellow far too bright to be anything but alarming. "Do
you like me, Remus?"
Remus felt as if he was mourning for the loss of something gone, which
was impossible. Adrian was right there, but he felt so far away. He felt as
if he had changed truly, as if something hideous had condemned him to
something so foul, he had accepted it.
"Of course I do," Remus spoke, voice strained and distorted through his
distress, "Adrian, you know I do. Why would you ever think I wouldn't?"
Adrian's half lidded eyes blinked slowly, and then twisted with something
challenging.
'Do you really?' Adrian silently seemed to ask, dangerous yet screaming for
confirmation, as if Remus' mind would never change.
Then Adrian's neck darkened, looking almost bruised before it moved.
"Oh Adrian." Remus whispered, feeling as if he was going to cry.
Remus had seen the pictures, he had even seen one in person before. It
wasn't a dark mark, but the concept behind it was identical. It looked like
the snake from the mark, although normally being so tiny had the details
impossible to see.
This one...this one was a bold black statement that stained Adrian's skin.
'Do you still, Remus? Do you still like me?' Adrian seemed to challenge in
the small quirk of his lips, tinted red and cracked in the corners.
"Merlin's Beard." Remus whispered, and then he blinked and he was
crying.
"Isn't she beautiful?" Adrian asked cooing as he craned his neck to see the
thick coils imprinted on his flesh lower until it snuck below his
collarbone. Adrian reached down, prying the hem of his shirt up to where
his ribs protruded like spider legs. The snake was moving, trailing and
twisting over his sunken abdomen with the vibrancy of a bruise.
It was massive, vicious and angry looking as it trailed over his hip bone
and below the edge of his trousers.
"I could get you one too," Adrian sighed relaxed, releasing his shirt to
sprawl more leisurely across the bed, careful to remain touching Remus.
"I could get you a beautiful one. Nobody would touch you again."
'I could make you untouchable, Remus.'
Remus' hands were shaking slightly, trembling almost unnoticeable. "I
don't think that's a good idea, Adrian."
Adrian pouted with a huff, "I could hide it for you."
'It could be our secret.'
"I'm...I'm not comfortable with the idea of being branded." Remus
sounded pained, "I don't like you being branded."
Adrian shrugged, "It doesn't hurt."
"Did you ask for it?"
Adrian paused, a second that stretched long enough it was easy for the
surprise to be felt. Adrian looked uncomfortable, and by then it was far
too long for any answer to be taken lightly.
"Bellatrix got it for me." Adrian deflected, although it sounded slightly
unsure and limp.
"Do you like it?" Remus asked calmly, taking every precaution to not
come across too strong or sharp, "It looks like it would be
uncomfortable."
Adrian was quiet. Remus understood, how Adrian decided to direct the
conversation was how they would continue the topic.
Adrian looked torn, and he curled up slightly, nearly fetal. His head was
heavy on Remus' lap, his breaths looked far too laborious. The childish
immaturity faded, he looked far too tired for someone his age.
"It itches. Like when food dries on your arm and you have to peel it
away."
Remus hummed encouragingly, and Adrian curled in on himself slightly
more, "...It's big."
"It looked quite large."
"It is. I didn't want it to be that big. I can feel it."
Adrian paused, his breathing stilling. Remus patiently waited whatever
Adrian was to say- judging by his body language it was something quite
personal Adrian hadn't ever admitted before. "It...It talks to me a lot.
When I don't want it to."
Remus resumed the gentle brushing of Adrian's hair. The poor boy looked
exhausted, as if the simple confession took everything out of him. "How
about you shower? Or bathe if you'd like. Tonks told me to bring some of
her bath potions, apparently they'll make your skin feel soft."
Adrian's face twisted slightly in confusion, "W- why?"
'Why are you still being nice to me?'
Remus smiled gently, "Frankly, you stink. I tried the bath potions once
and honestly I haven't looked back once."
"R-really?"
Remus nodded playfully, "How about I help you up, Pup."
Adrian stared at him, eyes searching with the strange new acidic band
around the black center. A starburst that Remus knew wasn't there
before. He was worried, what possibly could have caused that? Perhaps
he should ask Adrian if he knew anything about it later, but not now. Not
when the child looked ready to fall to pieces.
"Okay." Adrian's voice was small. Cracking and tiny, vulnerable, "A bath?"
Remus very slowly shifted himself, carefully adjusting his right arm to
prop the younger off his lap and into a more seated position. Remus
stood, turning with both hands out to help assist the younger into a
standing position.
Adrian's skin was anemic, the bags below his eyes were purpling. Adrian
stood, grasping Remus' arms to hoist himself up- the bones of his wrist
were far too prominent.
"I'll make sure the water isn't too hot," Remus assured the younger,
pausing a second before he tugged off the blanket to wrap around the
younger. The blanket was grey, yet it looked so much darker against
Adrian's pale flesh.
"I feel gross." Adrian whispered, his voice a high pitched whine with a
slight wobble to it.
"That's okay," Remus assured, opening the door and keeping it open as
Adrian shuffled out of the room for likely the first time in weeks, "I'll try
my best to make you feel better."
Remus thankfully didn't acknowledge when Adrian choked.
The potion made the water soft, the same way Hedwig's feathers felt
when Adrian stroked her back. The water was pink, a pleasing shade just
shy of bubblegum, and smelled sweet and gentle in a way Adrian couldn't
explain.
Remus helped him into the water, offering to leave but understanding
without Adrian vocalizing anything that he really didn't want that.
Remus had a rag, and helped clean the flaking blood from his skin like a
rough tongue.
The water had bubbles, thick frothy bubbles that threatened to spill over
the edge of the moderately sized tubs. These too, were pink.
"Is this a thing people do?" Adrian asked, hanging his head and curling
his shoulders slightly. The water reached the middle of his rib cage, but
he looked so terribly exposed.
Remus didn't pause with his movements, knowing that the gentle touch
was relaxing. "I suppose. I'm not really the best with children."
Adrian gave a small huff, curling in slightly more, "What about Tonks?"
Remus didn't slow his movements, "What about her? She is a wonderful
woman."
"I saw her before coming here, when they took my wand. I know that
you're with her."
Remus, through the might of Merlin himself, didn't stop scrubbing.
Adrian had mentioned Tonks before, that he knew about the two of them.
If he was bringing it up again, then it certainly was an important thought
that had circled in his head for a while.
Remus decided to take the safer route. "I always wondered how you knew
things like that. I looked into it a bit, I hope you aren't offended."
Adrian looked over his shoulder with a strangely perplexed expression, "I-
offended?"
Remus gave a slow nod, "It's normal to feel offended if people invade
your privacy. I though you may be upset that I looked into it."
The corner of Adrian's eyes lifted slightly, his face tightening into a
slightly more pinched expression. "I- I'm not? I mean, I've always had my
things shared or looked through and I don't- Why would I be offended for
you researching?"
That was a concerning thought, that the basic human decency of privacy
was foreign to Adrian. Remus felt a pang of guilt- it likely hadn't helped
that Adrian's things were periodically checked over when he stayed at
order headquarters.
"Are you a legilimens?"
Adrian looked so perplexed, "I- are you asking me?"
Remus smiled slightly, "Well, you could lie but I'd appreciate if you were
honest with me."
Adrian was so baffled with the exchange, he found himself ducking his
head down behind a curtain of his wet hair. "I- yes. I'm a legilimens."
Remus carefully controlled the smile that almost twitched across his face.
"You scared Sirius, I think he thought you could somehow see spirits or
something else."
Adrian's torso shook with repressed laughter, "That would be ridiculous."
"Ah, sometimes Sirius is a bit silly I'd agree. Could you close your eyes?"
Adrian followed his direction, tensing slightly but accepting the water
that was poured over his hair with a borrowed mug from the kitchen.
"I know why you have these bath potions, and why you're with her so
much." Adrian spoke flatly, but not coldly. Monotone, dull and blunt like
a metal butter knife. Not sharp enough to tear, but the implications clear.
"I wouldn't lie to you," Remus soothed, ignoring how Adrian flinched as
the man used a comb and small scissors to clip loose the worst knots.
"Tonks and I are close."
"Are you going to leave me too?"
Adrian's voice was quiet, filled with longing and already expecting the
worst.
"No, I'm not." Remus confided with the smallest shlk shlk of his scissors,
mangled black locks drifted to the pink bath water. "Tonks brought up
moving your belongings to her house, I think she has all of your claws
and teeth in your bedroom in her cottage."
Shlk shlk, more hair fell.
"...my things a-are at her house?"
"Our house," Remus corrected with a tranquil peace to his voice, "Once
things calm down. Tonks has been running herself ragged trying to find
out what sort of heating charm would work with Lutain, there's not much
published on snakes surprisingly."
Adrian curled down, a small weakened ball surrounded by bubbles and
saccharine aroma. He was shaking under Remus' hand, each vertebrae
pronounced like turrets on castles.
"I have the certification necessary to teach, although the Ministry made
sure I won't be hired," Remus sighed wistfully, not sounding too
devastated by the discrimination. "It wouldn't be hard to have you caught
up on school work at your own speed, maybe we could try to fix the
broken garden shed into a little Care for Magical Creatures room for you.
Within reason of course."
Adrian was making horrible noises, gasping wretched inhales of breath
that would have alarmed Remus before.
"Did Skylar ever have this?" Adrian asked, voice slurred and wet and
sounding so undignified Remus was partially surprised he spoke at all.
Did you ever treat Skylar like this?
"Well, I presume at some point in his life he may have experienced a
bubble bath," Remus confessed, nonplussed by Adrian's state. "In truth, I
couldn't imagine inviting that child into my home. Skylar is a wonderful
boy, but he isn't mine."
Adrian made a noise, a hoarse twisted whisper that was impossible to
hear. Remus didn't need to, he knew Adrian far too well now to ever
doubt what he would say.
And I am? He would ask, voice equal parts scathing and longing.
"In my eyes," Remus began, the carefully inflection lilting his voice just
so. "You are far more important to me than Skylar Potter ever will be, So
perhaps the real question you should ask, if you want to be?"
'Do you want to be mine?'
Adrian didn't cry prettily, he sobbed like something monstrous.
There was a saying, that the more you trusted the more likely you were
to be hurt.
Skylar knew that, he tended to wear his heart on his sleeve. He made
friends more than enemies. He would help before hurting others. He
would talk, before cursing.
He was in a bind, he was forced into a corner with Lutain his only
opportunity out. He was diplomatic, he was kind, Skylar was a hero.
He wasn't going to stand aside and watch someone be hurt on his behalf.
So he talked, even when he wasn't asked to. He would talk long into the
night in low murmurs with Lutain curled on his chest. He told the snake
of meaningless things, of flowers and sunsets and quidditch. He would
talk until his eyelids were heavy and his throat abrasive and raw.
(Sometimes he blinked and imagined blood seeping from his nose and
mouth and over his chest and filling his lungs.)
Lutain was always there, a low steady rumble. The deep pulsing of the
reptile's heart over Skylar's pulse-point.
At times Skylar couldn't even recall simple actions, talking and talking
while getting dressed or laying in bed. He felt sore in his bones like a
phantom ache and his skin tingles in the strangest patches. Numb and
burning, peeling glue from his shoulder and chest and hip.
He found a bird, stunned and disoriented from running into the window.
It fluttered weakly, jerking in Skylar's grip. It was beautiful, small and
delicate. It's beak was small, suited for picking bugs from the air or
hovering over the nearby meadow. It's beady black eyes flickered across
Skylar's face, its heart trembled like a pocket watch.
Lutain twisted, coiling over his thigh and hip and over his shoulders
caressing his neck.
Skylar opened his mouth, inhaling slowly and feeling saliva pool below
his tongue.
Lutain whispered in pictures, thrumming and gentle like another limb.
Skylar whispered his heart to the snake, late at night where there was no
light to observe his transgressions.
He gave the snake all he had, in hopes that perhaps the trust and
admiration would be returned in information, and assistance.
The bird chirped frantically, its little bones wiggling between Skylar's
fingers.
Lutain draped around Skylar, around his shoulders and skin and blood
and bone and-
It's prey. Lutain susurrated around his neck. It is a rat.
It was prey, it was a rat.
Skylar rotated his hand, and wrung the bird's neck.
Babywolfchick1142: How long till someone (anyone) finds out Adrian is
an obscurous (sp)? Will he ever experience any kind of happiness? can't
remember if you ever said, is Adrian going to find love, have a pairing?
Adrian is not an Obscurus. Regardless, I have the black potion explained in
two chapters ahead from now. Adrian hopefully is getting some happiness with
Remus! I do not generally write romantic pairings, hence why Luna and his
relationship was very vague and up for your interpretation.
shadowman21: ...does Voldemort become proud of Adrian for Lutain
being a horcrux?
Voldemort would be absolutely furious that Adrian risked his own horcrux
segment, to create one for Lutain. (Thank you for your kind words! For the
sake of space I didn't include them but they were incredibly touching!)
gginsc: I hope Dumbledick doesn't interfere with Lutain's vengeance.
Adalonda is going to die
Janna: Is it bad if I love Adrian like this?
I actually love writing him like this. He's snarky, not holding anything back,
and downright terrifying.
Roostertheking: ...how Skyler is going to save lutain from getting killed
by albus?
Skylar runs for it and steals Lutain
King of the Souls: idk if it is just me or not but [chapters] seem to be
getting better as time goes on
I feel the same! I enjoy writing this story now that it has shifted away from
fact checking the novels and is more free for me to do what I wish. Timelines
were painful to follow.
shadowhunterz: And a lot of shit keeps happening to him that at some
point it was frustrating and contemplated to quit reading. But, I wanted
to finish all written chapters so far before actually deciding. So here I am
I completely understand. I outright knew I was going to lose readers as soon as
Luna died, and I actually did by a significant amount. Adrian will stay on his
own side and do his own Lone-Wolf thing. He'll be incredibly more
independent, and after a while he'll he a downright vicious force and he knows
it. If you can get over this little hump (4 more chapters, then a fight scene)
then Adrian is completely independent and kicking butt. Adrian is currently
grieving, so he's depressed but soon he'll enter the anger phase and drama.
He'll be punished.
jeannie kaulitz: oes that mean that lutain became skylar's familiar
without him realizing it or is it cause lutain is a horcrux that he can
convey his thoughts to skylar cause Hadrian is still technically skylars 'S
twin even if Hadrian is blood adopted.
Lutain is a horcrux, and a very powerful one. Lutain is essentially like the
diary, the more attached or reliant Skylar is on it, the more controlling Lutain
is on Skylar. Lutain will always be, Adrian's familiar. (Except now he's
incredibly intelligent and on the warpath)
HeartOfEmerald9: I was really holding out on Adrian, thinking that if I
waited long enough he'd do something which would prove to me that he
was still good, and now Luna has died (and this broke my heart) I think
my hope for something, anything, for him has shattered. I kind of wish
someone would just put him out of his misery, in the nicest way possible.
What is good, truly? Doing the right thing? Not hurting others? Adrian has a
skewed concept of good, and he's now following his own morals on what
should be done. The best thing about this story now, is that Adrian can't be
killed or put out of his misery unless you're willing to kill Lutain also.
58. Newt
This chapter was beta'd by our amazing Beta Collective
-Arctic Fox From Afar
-Mahina
-Cyndaquil05
-4everfictional
-Scion of House Lucifer
-Parsi
-Acelenny
-S4m
- and countless anonymous helpers!
'Is this your joke. I let you starve, and I'm starving too. I eat and eat and I just
keep starving.'
"Are you with Tonks? More than being with her, I mean." Adrian asked
quietly, sitting with his legs crossed facing the wall. Remus' hands stilled
from where he had been combing through the strands of hair- scissors on
the bed between them.
"I know you are," Adrian continued after a pause, "I heard from Luna that
I should ask questions instead of saying what I know." Adrian paused
once more, thinking hard, "I think it's supposed to make you not panic."
Remus' mouth twitched slightly in amusement as he resumed brushing
his hair, "You always seem to know things you shouldn't. Do you read
minds a lot?"
Adrian shrugged, a very subtle movement mindful of the scissors near his
neck, "Sirius is loud."
"Loud?" Remus hummed, gently clipping away another unsalvageable
knot. It truly was taking several sessions to try and fix the messy cluster
that was Adrian's hair. Although he had worked on it when wet, now that
it had dried it only revealed more problems.
"His head," Adrian clarified quietly, "You were gone. I was worried."
Remus carefully continued moving his hands in calm rhythmic
movements, "Legilimency? I heard from Severus about the skill, fairly
rare. Many people would consider it intrusive, and very rude."
"Oh," Adrian smartly responded, "...I didn't know where you were."
"That doesn't give you permission to look through the minds of others,"
Remus chastised gently, "You should apologize to Sirius."
Adrian stiffened, and Remus resumed clipping until the other slowly
relaxed from his posture.
"I don't want to." Adrian muttered.
"You should, it would be the right thing to do."
"I thought I was insane." Adrian mused without much emotion,
"Disturbed. Psycho. Spastic. Mad. Mental. Thick. Freak." Adrian's body
twitched in a small spasm, "Loony." he practically hissed out.
Remus breathed through his nose carefully, "Who called that to you?"
"Nobody," Adrian murmured quietly, "Everyone. They think it, everyone
does. Selwyn has a few screws loose. Selwyn is a freak."
Remus gently set aside the comb and scissors. He ignored the few scraps
of hair, and instead slid forward slightly so that his weight was a nearby
presence for Adrian.
"That isn't even my name," Adrian whined, shaking across his shoulders,
"I- I just want to be good."
"You are good, Adrian." Remus assured him, "You're exceptional."
"I'm not," Adrian whispered choked, "I don't know what I'm doing."
Remus shushed him softly, "When I was your age, oh what a mess I was. I
had nowhere to go in the world, I had nothing going for me. But you
know, I found something along the way. The secret is that you can do
whatever you want to do."
Adrian hung his head slightly, tucking his knees to his chest. Remus
could count the vertebrae through his shirt, despite the overwhelming
amount of food he had ravenously consumed.
"I don't think so." Adrian whispered, barely audible even for Remus' ears,
"I think I'm dying."
Remus didn't breathe. He didn't have anything to say.
"Absolute rubbish, all of this." Hermione scowled, storming through the
kitchen to throw the prophet against the fridge. It hit, then flopped onto
the floor with a satisfying heavy noise.
Ron slowly looked at Skylar, both of the two were seated at the kitchen
table enjoying the leftover pasta salad Lily had dropped off the day
before. Ron's eyebrows rose slightly and he tilted his head towards
Hermione.
Skylar's eyes widened and he shook his head subtly. Ron paled and
pointed with his spoon, looking desperate.
Skylar spooned more pasta into his mouth and Ron followed suit until
both the boys had cheeks bulging with pasta.
"You know I can see you two." Hermione huffed, crossing her arms before
snatching the paper off the floor and throwing it onto the table between
the two. It was just a normal prophet, the front cover showed its normal
shite but no signs of a Death Eater attack or anything else drastic.
"What's wrong with it?" Skylar tentatively asked after painfully shoving
the pasta down his throat.
Hermione looked at him exasperated, "Does it not bother you the papers
seems obsessed with you?"
Ron blinked slowly and squinted at the headliner, 'Of course we can!'
It was written in bright bold font, under a picture of Dumbledore and
Skylar that the prophet had taken after Skylar's victory for the Triwizard
Cup. He had seen the picture often, he had his arms crossed and a
grimacing snarl across his face- his eyes were pained and furious. Skylar
hated the picture of him.
"I don't see what you're talking about," Ron blinked, "It's just the
prophet."
Hermione gaped in amazement, "This- this isn't news. It's propaganda!"
Skylar looked at Ron, then back at Hermione unsure, "Er...okay?"
Hermione yanked a chair out and sat down heavily. Ron gulped.
"This is wartime propaganda! It's a military and political strategy, by
publishing persuasive or accusatory information public opinion is able to
be swayed to believe or inspire a specific thought." Hermione sniffed,
"Honestly, this wasn't as common in the Wizarding world but World War
Two? Propaganda was across the world against Hitler!"
Skylar slid the bowl away from him, silently mourning the few noodles
he knew he wouldn't have a chance to eat anymore, "Right, there was
some around for Grindelwald but practically everyone already knew that
he was bad news. 'Mione these papers are rubbish but they aren't being
mean."
Hermione frowned, "That's true, but it...everything seems a bit odd. I
mean, you'd think they'd be sprouting things about how awful V-v…" she
choked on her own tongue before hurrying along with her sentence, "
how terrible you-know-who is, but instead they just keep….saying how
great Dumbledore is."
"Well he is great." Ron muttered with a shrug, "Probably trying to cover
their own arses."
Skylar grimaced slightly, "Yeah 'Mione, my dad was muttering about it
too. I think that the papers want to keep most bits about the Death Eaters
out just in case something happens, protect themselves, you know?"
Hermione huffed, "I don't like it. They're putting you on a pedestal Sky!
This- this paper here was claiming that you're able to vanquish Death
Eaters with one spell!"
Skylar's nose wrinkled, "It makes people feel better, Hermione."
"It's rubbish!"
"It helps people be able to go outside." Skylar quietly soothed, "I don't like
it, I don't. I'm...I'm not some sort of hero, or..or the only one able to..to k-
kill Voldemort." Skylar choked but continued with a miserable look, "but
'Mione if it helps...if it helps Madam Rosmerta open up The Three
Broomsticks every day instead of closing it, or if it helps Florean
Fortescue sell ice cream without being so scared that Diagon's going to be
attacked then I'm fine with being something I'm not."
Hermione looked like she had been struck, "Sky…"
"No, no listen to me." Skylar stressed, "Hermione all around the country
people think the name 'Skylar Potter' and you know what they think?
They think 'oh! The boy-who-lived! The boy who survived something
impossible!' and you know what, when people are given miracles then it
gives them hope, that maybe, somehow they can have that same sort of
miracle. I'm not special, Mione. I'm just a kid who likes Quidditch, but for
almost everyone else I'm a symbol of hope, and right now if the prophet
wants to blow me up so I'm the next Merlin, fine. I don't like it, I don't
like being something I'm not."
Skylar's eyes were glassy, his lips were trembling slightly and with a pang
of horror, Hermione and Ron realized he was on the point of tears.
"I've been praised and worshiped for something I had no control of, for
something I have no memory of. Every tragedy, every time I've suffered,
people have celebrated because I'm some- I'm some sort of weapon...and I
don't want to be." Skylar's voice cracked with a whine, "I'm not a hero, I'm
not some… some sort of great wizard. I'm just a kid, and I'm afraid...I'm
afraid that I'm going to end up a martyr for something I don't believe in."
Hermione rightfully looked guilty, Ron looked like he had been struck
but had a strange sense of understanding.
"You know, mate." Ron started with a small shrug, "the thing about
growing up with Fred and George, and Percy and Charlie, is that you sort
of start thinking anything's possible if you've got enough nerve."
Skylar gave a shallow laugh, a small smile despite the fact he was
shaking where he sat, "Ron, Ron you know that's not true mate. I..I'm
supposed to stop him and-"
Ron breathed through his nose loudly and looked very tired, "You're
talking about Ginny."
Skylar snapped his mouth shut.
"You know, I used to think I knew a lot about death and dying and all
that." Ron's face was unreadable, "but it's bollocks. We know what death's
like once we watch it happen. And it isn't...it's sick. It's a twisted thing."
Skylar nodded, "I don't think I can k-kill…" Skylar's words broke off with
a hitch of his voice, "...Guys I'm supposed to save the world and I can't-"
"You're not doing any of this alone." Hermione interrupted, "Skylar Potter
you're an idiot if you think we're leaving you."
Skylar smiled breathlessly, "I can't ask you-"
"Good, because we're not asking." Ron agreed. "Don't think we haven't
noticed how you've been keeping things from us, mate. It'll drag you
down."
Skylar shook his head, "No, no guys I can't. I can't ask this from you.
Hermione, you...Ron, I...your sister-"
"That wasn't your fault." Ron swallowed painfully, "It took me a while
too, but...but it wasn't Selwyn's fault either."
Skylar flinched back in surprise. Hermione's jaw dropped in amazement.
"I… let me say this, because I don't think I'll ever do it if I don't say it
now." Ron blurted before inhaling and exhaling shakily, "I...I don't know.
I've been...I've been thinking a lot about Selwyn. Like...like a lot. You ah,
you remember when he was here and ah, and we got in a spat about
Ginny. Selwyn...I dunno, he had this look, and I thought about it for
years. He just had this one look on his face right before he dropped, sent
us in a panic."
"Yeah, I remember that." Skylar hoarsely agreed, nodding slightly.
"Yeah well, I don't know if you know it Sky, but you've been havin' the
exact same face after Cedric. And after Luna."
Skylar made a small choking noise, Ron determedly didn't look at him. "I
thought about it so long, for so long, that I think it's scrambled and
gnarled worse than...I don't know. I just...I talked to Remus a bit. I didn't
understand why he was around the bloody git, and just...I dunno." Ron
shrugged, his voice going even quieter, "I always thought of 'abuse' and
'ill' like those kneazles and featherless owls you see on those posters, with
those auror's floo number under it. Shaking little things that flinch if you
talk too loud and stuff. I didn't really...I didn't really ever think of Selwyn
like that but at the same time I knew, and...and I know how scrambled
your head gets after spells and potions- Sirius told me that Bellatrix
Lestrange had a pet cat when she was a kid, bloody loved the thing."
He paused in his monologue, the ticking of the clock echoed through the
room to mark the passage of time.
"I think the point is that I forgive the git," Ron confessed so quiet it was
almost a whisper, "because I sure do still hate him, and I hate what he
did, but I feel sorry for him more than anything. I feel sorry for the bloke,
because the more we know the more sad I am that someone like him
even exists. Doesn't mean he isn't going to pay, just...I dunno, he'll pay
for the other stuff he's done. He'll get a trial and all that rubbish and it'll
be fair. But...Ginny wasn't fair, I don't think he wanted to."
Hermione had started crying at some point, although exactly when was
unknown. She had always felt that way about Adrian, she hadn't known
that Ron had thought about it like that.
"I want to try and help him," Ron winced with a grimace, "but...but at the
same time I want to bloody smash his face in."
"Yeah, I know the feeling." Skylar gave a small bubble of laughter, which
made Ron's face twitch into a slight smile.
Hermione threw herself at Ron, nearly tackling him out of the chair as
her arms wrapped around his neck.
Skylar thought he had to do it alone, but he was quickly realizing that he
didn't have to. He didn't need to be the savior, he didn't need to walk
down the path with only Dumbledore guiding him.
"There's more." Skylar spoke, "About everything."
The two looked at him in confusion, before a well hidden look of
excitement. Skylar had been incredibly tight lipped about what he and
Dumbledore had been discussing, even his parents had been left in the
dark much to their frustration.
"You can't tell my parents," Skylar explained quietly, "I swore to Professor
Dumbledore I wouldn't tell them."
"Blimey, it must be serious." Ron muttered in awe, nodding furiously in
agreement.
"Hermione, have you ever heard of something called Horcruxes?"
She frowned, "Horcruxes...Horcruxes...I've never heard of them."
"You haven't?" Ron gaped in surprise. Skylar instead nodded, expecting
that.
"A horcrux is...Dumbledore told me it's incredibly dark magic. I mean...I
mean dark, some of the darkest that exists." Skylar felt like his
explanation was lacking, "It's foul. Against nature itself."
Hermione and Ron shared a grim look before nodding for Skylar to
continue.
"A horcrux is...it's an object or a thing that contains a broken chunk of
your soul."
Ron flinched back with a gasp, "Your- your soul?"
Hermione blinked in confusion but thankfully clued in that it was terribly
bad news.
"It- by breaking your soul and hiding it in an object, it means that even if
your body is damaged, even if you're killed, you're still alive. Your broken
part makes sure you're still alive."
Hermione inhaled with a sharp horrified gasp, "You-Know-Who has one
of these?"
Skylar shrunk in on himself, "Dumbledore said that...he said that there
wasn't a book that could give this information. That apparently it was so
dark that...that people wouldn't even write about it. Dumbledore thinks,
that Voldemort was expecting the threat of death many times, but no
wizard has ever done more than tear his soul in two."
Ron's hand twitched into a fist, "Skylar…"
"Dumbledore thinks that Voldemort made seven Horcruxes."
Hermione recoiled with a strangled noise of horror. "But- but they could
be anywhere in the world! Hidden, or spelled, or invisible or buried!"
"No, Dumbledore thinks that they'd be something special." Skylar shook
his head.
"Yeah, he's right." Ron agreed, pausing while the two stared at him, "I
mean, You-Know-Who is all about pureblood culture, right? Well, I mean
technically my family is pureblood so I know all about that. Those blokes
are all about heirlooms and trinkets, jewelry and fine china and stuff they
can show off."
Skylar smiled, a small grin creeping across his face, "You see the ring on
Dumbledore's hand?"
Hermione gasped in horror, "The one that looks so sick? That's a
Horcrux?"
"A house ring?" Ron squinted in thought, "Purebloods have house rings
that are for their bloodline or something. I think Bill has ours, never
really cared much for tradition though."
Hermione smiled and nodded slowly, "Then...then there are six more?
Heirlooms?"
"Five, apparently he's got a piece still in him. Dumbledore and I have a
theory that Voldemort went after relics, before he knew his bloodline."
Skylar enthused quietly, "Relics from the-"
"The founders!" Hermione's eyes widened, "Of course! I thought relics
from the founders had been lost to history though?"
Ron scratched his chin with a frown, "I don't know, I'd reckon they'd be
passed down some family or given to a collector of some sort."
Skylar found himself overwhelmed with pride for his friends. How
quickly they believed him, and how quick they were to help. "I already
know two of the relics, and Dumbledore assures me that Gryffindor's
sword is well hidden."
"A sword?" Ron's eyes practically glittered in awe, "Bloody hell."
"Which relics? Hufflepuff's bracelet is on display in a goblin run
museum."
Skylar shook his head, "Hufflepuff's cup, and Slytherin's locket."
Hermione paused, eyebrows scrunching as she tapped her jaw, "Assuming
he found something of Ravenclaw, that still leaves a fifth and sixth
Horcrux."
"Er, yeah," Skylar grimaced, "This is where it gets a bit messy. We ah, we
think we already know what the fifth one is."
"I have a feeling this isn't going to be easy." Ron muttered under his
breath.
"We think it's his snake, this big python thing named Nagini."
"You-Know-Who's snake?" Hermione said, startled. "You can use animals
as Horcruxes?"
"We didn't think so at first, but ah…" Skylar looked uncertain, gnawing
on his lower lip, "...you know Lutain?"
Hermione paled. Ron looked confused, "You mean that pissy black rope?
That's You-Know-Who's horcrux?"
Skylar twitched, "No, it's Adrian's."
Ron's mouth snapped shut. His eyes bulged and Hermione looked ready
to pass out. "Oh," Ron breathed, sounding weak.
"Yeah, oh." Skylar murmured, fiddling with his shirt, "But uh, Lutain
doesn't know that he is. I mean, he knows, but he doesn't know what he
is."
"Hold up, the snake actually bloody talks?" Ron gaped.
"It more...it kinda like...sends ideas? Concepts? Feelings? Oh, and uh,
occasionally can like make you hear memories or something."
Hermione floundered before she swooned into Ron's side, "That isn't
good, Sky."
"I think that Adrian doesn't actually know what a Horcrux is." Skylar
admitted, "I- I don't really think he knew what he was doing."
"The- you don't just accidently make a dark ritual!" Ron hissed under his
breath, looking on the verge of tearing out his hair.
"No no, he…" Skylar's hands flexed into claws, "He made the snake into
one because the snake is- it's normal."
"Lutain had a normal lifespan, and was going to die." said Hermione.
"Oh," Ron blinked and looked downcast, "Now I really feel bad for the
bloke."
"Won't Lutain be bad? Skylar- he's...he's a dark artifact now!"
Skylar winced, "He...I think, that...that Lutain somehow has...has some of
Adrian in him now."
Ron snorted, "What part of splitting your soul did you not hear?"
Skylar's mouth twitched, "I mean I think Lutain has some of his
memories, or...his knowledge."
Hermione sat back in her chair, looking fascinated against her grudging
frown, "There hasn't ever been a recorded way to pass knowledge from
one to another, except through possession but that still isn't quite…"
"Okay wait, I'm lost on something," Ron smacked his palm on the table
between them lightly, "You said that you don't think Selwyn knew what
he was doing? So how did he find out about whatever this Horycox is."
Skylar leant back in his chair with a small sigh, "Well...that's the thing.
You remember the basilisk?"
Hermione gasped, "You said...you said it wasn't in any book, but the
basilisk...Skylar how old is that basilisk?"
Skylar felt like his mind had been hit with a stinging hex. Everything he
knew suddenly clicked into place with a cold realization.
"I..I told Lutain that I'd kill the basilisk." Skylar wheezed out as if he had
been punched, "We...we made a deal."
"Bloody Selwyn and bloody deals." Ron huffed, "I mean, how are we
supposed to take on that...you saw how big that thing was! It- It killed
Lun-"
He cut off abruptly and stared furiously at the table. The clock was
ticking again.
"He's right," Hermione murmured, "It's...it's unrealistic...to take on a
basilisk that's been alive for centuries."
Skylar's mouth twitched, "We aren't Selwyn."
Hermione laughed, a sudden startled noise that sent Ron into quiet
guffaws. The air seemed to shift from sombre to determined.
"Alright," Hermione nodded with a firm look on her face, "Skylar, you
worry about these Horcruxes with Professor Dumbledore. We'll handle
the basilisk."
Ron spluttered, "Excuse me? We?"
Hermione rolled her eyes, "Yes Ronald, we're handling the basilisk."
Ron blinked in surprise and resignation, "'Mione, you're the most brilliant
witch of our age but even you can't take on a bloody basilisk."
Hermione sniffed, "I know that. I'm calling in an expert."
Although the Order of the Phoenix meetings were still going on, Skylar
was rarely actually in the same location. He spent a large proportion of
his time at the Burrow, before jumping to small private cottages or even
to Charlie's shack of a house he was renting for the summer.
Skylar's parents were coming and going, although at no point did they
ignore him. They had taken great care to message him, either through
notes scrawled on parchment sent through a portkey or in plain sight
before his arrival at his temporary dwelling. Sirius had felt bad, so he
slipped him a mirror that allowed Skylar to smile and wave to his father
late at night when Ron and Hermione had long since fallen asleep.
Death Eater activity was increasing, so his father was busy helping out
and preventing damage. Kingsley (the new Minister after Fudge's public
resignation) was sending auror forces to help, politely assisting the Order
through the political filter.
His mum was working by jumping to the first year muggleborn students,
explaining carefully to the parents the problems and why they wouldn't
be accepted into Hogwarts for the next year. Apparently some of the
meetings were incredibly vocal, often Lily left feeling more distraught
than happy. Skylar understood completely, and just as he understood
why his parents were so busy, they understood why they couldn't prevent
him from communicating with Dumbledore.
They tried, and they sheltered him enough and got into enough
arguments with Dumbledore and Sirius, but in the end they couldn't hold
him back.
The fight was bad, and involved a fair bit of screaming on Skylar's part.
("It isn't fair that people die for me!" "That's how the world is, Skylar!"
"No! That's how you are!")
It was painful. Remus had been called in, looking exhausted and worn
but patient and understanding as Skylar cried his guts out.
Remus was too understanding, he was too empathetic and too kind of a
man.
Skylar was shuffled back to the Burrow, practically living out of his trunk
at this point. Crookshanks nearly clawed through his sock, not happy that
he had returned. Sirius gave a bark (which Skylar would never get used
to coming out of his human form) and sent the kneezle running.
"I'll never like that cat," Sirius sniffed, "Here I thought we had an
agreement. I gave you half of my dinner, you thief!"
He shouted up the stairs, shaking a fist angrily in the air. Crookshanks
peered back from the second floor, hissing spitefully.
Skylar smiled thinly before he unhooked his trunk, letting the spitting
angry black snake fly out of the box and into freedom.
Sirius grimaced at the snake, but didn't say anything.
(Nobody did anymore. Ron and Hermione still stared at it in slight fear,
Slughorn and Dumbledore looked resigned at the sight. Skylar couldn't
imagine life without it anymore.)
Crookshanks must have managed its way into Hermione's room, because
only a short while after her head popped over the edge along with a neon
pink afro.
"Wotcher Sky!" Tonks cheered down, wiggling her eyebrows happily.
Skylar beamed, he hadn't seen Tonks in months.
"Hey!" Skylar waved with a grin, "You my house arrest officer?"
Tonks laughed before she changed her hair to something buzz cut and
boring grey. For effect, a bushy stereotypical mustache burst across her
face- it looked terrible.
Sirius cackled, throwing his head back, nearly crying at the sight.
"Ron stepped out with Fred and George," Hermione explained when the
redhead never appeared, "He's uh, helping with supplies."
Skylar arched his eyebrows. Hermione flushed and looked away quickly-
obviously a lie.
"Right well," Sirius rolled his shoulders, "A storms coming in tonight,
mind helping me outside moving the chairs?"
Skylar peered out the window, pouting when he spotted the makings of a
recent bonfire, "You all are terrible."
It was late that night that the door banged open and a loud rustle of
hushed voices were heard downstairs.
Skylar leapt to his feet, snatching his wand hurriedly off the side table
and rushing towards the door. He struggled to open it, hefting it aside
just as something cold and scaly attached itself to his leg and soon after;
his shoulder.
He hurried out to the main stairwell, exchanging glances with Hermione
and a surprisingly steely eyed Tonks. The later swept down the stairwell
ahead of the two, holding her wand in a well practiced dueling position.
Crookshanks took off down the stairs, nearly tripping them. A half second
later Tonks smoothly stepped to the side and allowed a shapeless black
mass to barrel down the steps- Sirius.
A second later a loud bang, noises, and complains were heard.
"Well I- Ronald!" Hermione nearly shrieked, a flush on her cheeks. Ron,
as well as Fred and George were sheepishly plastered to the far wall.
Fred's shoulder was smooshed against one portrait, the occupant was
trying to beat him off with a broom.
"Well," someone else said from the doorway, flicking a wand to
illuminate the lights, "Nice to see you guys too."
"Charlie!" Tonks greeted, shifting her hair back to pink from its
previously black shade (to help disguise her in the dark supposedly.)
"Charlie, I thought you were out trying to find an escaped Wyvern?"
Sirius gaped, before he paused and slowly looked at Hermione.
Hermione tried to look inconspicuous, if not for the fire red blush on her
face.
"A wyvern?" someone else murmured, almost sounding disappointed.
"So...overrated. I'm almost offended."
Charlie ducked his head to try and stifle a chuckle.
It was someone new, someone that Sirius had never seen before. Tonks
hadn't either, although both were politely keeping their wands low.
"Pleasure to meet you all," The newcomer grinned, hobbling in with a
slight limp in his one leg. His face was weathered, but kind and energetic
in a youthful way, "Which one here is Hermione?"
"Er, that's me." Hermione squeaked, raising one hand. The man's eyes
lightened even further. He opened his mouth to say something, before he
spotted the interested kneazle weaving between the group.
"Oh hello there," He cooed to the little demon, "Oh, you're gorgeous aren't
you. You look just like my Milly."
Crookshanks sat and looked at him thoroughly unimpressed.
"That's Crookshanks," Hermione squeaked out, still flushing.
"Well hello there Crookshanks," the man greeted politely, and then
respectfully lowered himself to the ground on ancient legs to reach out
politely. Crookshanks looked at the hand, contemplated, then brushed
itself against the outstretched fingers before walking off to sniff Ron's
shoe.
Hermione looked delighted.
"Whoa," Tonks breathed in surprise, "I didn't know that thing liked
anyone."
Sirius blinked rapidly, as if he couldn't comprehend what had happened.
"Apologies," The man apologized awkwardly, "Just...you know," he
paused before lamely waving towards Crookshanks, "Kneazle."
Hermione nodded understandingly.
"Uh, hi?" Skylar offered, taking a step out and around from Tonks,
mindful of his plain sleeping clothing, "It's a pleasure to meet you."
The old man- for that's what he was, smiled back. His face had dimples,
and long creases around the corners of his eyes as if he had laughed or
smiled most of his life.
"Oh!" The man blinked, recognizing Skylar easily- likely from his pictures
all throughout the post, "Hi there. Sorry I didn't see you there. Anyways,
is there anywhere I can sit? Awful rainy out, you'd be amazed at how it
makes my elbows creek."
That was...a disappointing reaction.
"That's it?" Sirius blinked, feeling just as confused with everything, "I-
Charlie who is this?"
"Oh! Right!" the man apologized, setting his bag down before he wrung
his fingers and held out a hand awkwardly, "Uh, call me Newt. Sorry, I
don't do introductions much. Or people."
Sirius and Tonks looked at Hermione, who looked on the verge of leaping
at the man in excitement.
"Wait," Skylar thought quickly, "Wait."
Hermione looked sheepish as Skylar looked at her in disbelief, "This is
how you're going to fix that problem!"
Hermione crossed her arms defensively, "Well honestly Skylar, even you
said I couldn't stop it myself!"
"That was me actually." Ron blurted, wiggling from where he and the
twins were still stuck to the wall, "Can you let us down?"
"Oops," Tonks hummed then with a mischievous glint in her eye, nullified
the spell and sent the three rapidly floating to the ceiling.
Sirius gave a single bark of laughter before nullifying that spell, sending
the three crashing to the floor.
"Bloody hell Tonks," Fred whined, rubbing his head with a frown.
"Could've taken our eyes out!" George whined in que.
Ron groaned quietly, he had landed on a footstool.
"Right so," Newt cleared his throat, fumbling with his bag awkwardly, "I
ah, heard that you had a situation- a rather impressive one if what you
implied wasn't you know...fake."
Ron mumbled something into the carpet.
"I'll be honest, I dunno why you're here." Tonks shrugged, "But it's nice to
meet you Mr. Newt! I can fancy up a room for you!"
Newt smiled happily, eyes lighting up in a way that could never be faked,
"Thank you Ms...?"
"Nymphadora Tonks, at your service!" She smiled, giving a pleasant wink
as she twirled and offered one arm."But just call me Tonks!"
Newt looked surprised but delighted at her arm, taking the offered limb
gently in his. He reached for his bag before Sirius politely picked it up.
Sirius staggered, puffing out a breath in surprise as the bag was
apparently very heavy.
"Merlin," Sirius wheezed in surprise, "What do you have in here, a bloody
castle?"
"No, ah, that's the other bag." Newt offered sheepishly, "I mean uh, of
course not. Those are illegal."
Tonks laughed and Sirius' face twitched into something surprised and
delighted. The twins exchanged excited looks, looking very eager.
"Right," Charlie smiled from the doorway, "I'll fly the thestral back then."
"You took a bloody thestral?" Ron gaped, finally rolling off the stool but
not yet rising to his feet.
"Oh yes, it was delightful. Haven't ridden one in years." Newt
commentated delighted, "Thank you so much for the ride, Charlie. I do
hope you'll send through those notes on that Ironbelly!"
"I doubt it's anything you don't know after the Eastern Front incident. but
I'll be sure to send through what I've got when I head back." Charlie
teasingly shot back, as if he had known the man for a while.
Newt managed to somehow look proud, and embarrassed at the same
time. The man was sneaky, and grabbed the heavy bag back from Sirius
as if it weighed a twig.
"Wait," Skylar blurted, feeling that everything was moving far too
quickly. Tonks twisted and peered around Newt, everyone pausing to
look at Skylar quietly. It felt strange to be the center of attention in the
Burrow. Lutain tightened slightly, feeling his hesitation.
"I er," Skylar paused trying to think of his phrasing properly, "You're ah,
Newton Scamander? The world famous Magizoologist?"
Newt's face twitched slightly, reflecting something oddly familiar to
Skylar, "Ah, yes. I don't think world fame suits me well, I'm retired."
Skylar smiled slightly, something Newt seemed to recognize as a shared
feeling, "Yeah, sometimes the spotlight gets a little bright."
Newt gave a short nod of acknowledgement, one tired soul to another.
Skylar felt very assured with the man in the house.
"Newt Scamander, eh?" Sirius squinted at him unsure, "Did I have to read
a book by you? Or some sort of... etiquette for centaurs?"
"Newton Artemis Fido Scamander," Newt introduced himself with an
unnecessary flourish, almost mocking the fact he had a long name to
begin with. His elbows creaked audibly.
"Sirius Snuffles Padfoot Black," Sirius introduced himself with a small
twitch of his mouth.
"Snuffles Padfoot," Newt mused, sounding like he was about to laugh, "On
your mother's side I presume?"
Sirius's voice was nasally in his attempt to withhold laughter, "Oh you
know, I found all those pure-blood names unnecessary and a pain to
write out on ministry forms."
Newt laughed, an honest breathless noise with a small wheeze that
betrayed just how old the man was, "I like you, you remind me of an old
friend of mine."
Lutain shifted, a startling reminder what Skylar was going to ask to begin
with, "Oh, er, excuse me Mr. S- Newt." Skylar corrected himself quickly,
"If you wouldn't mind I actually have a question for you. I could grab you
a cup of tea if you'd like?"
Tonks clued in quickly that the question was a private one, and in a swift
move managed to corral not only Fred and George out of the room (they
whined loudly), and dragged Ron out by his ear. Sirius walked along with
Hermione, chatting about something irrelevant but interesting enough for
her attention.
The Burrow wasn't quiet (It would never be, with all its small homely
comforts) but it was as private as ever.
"How may I help you, Skylar Potter." Newt asked, shaping the vowels of
his name with a slight grimace.
Skylar smiled thinly, "Just Skylar. Or Sky if you want, I found that only
the ministry calls me by my whole name. Or journalists."
Newt squinted at him in thought before he hummed in thought and leant
back in his chair with a sigh. He reminded Skylar of Slughorn a little bit,
the way he held himself exhaustively or as if he was waiting for some
stressful request. Skylar presumed that the man likely had to have done
many said requests before, either by the ministry or by past unfair
treatment of magical animals.
Skylar dropped off the cup of tea, taking the seat across with a quiet
shuffle of the wood chair legs.
"Alright," Newt sighed, shifting slightly as if to brace himself, "What is it
you'd like to ask of me?"
Skylar looked at the table, fiddling with the grains in the wood, "I had a
friend. I think you would have loved to meet her."
Newt shrugged slightly, looking suspicious. "I'm sure it would have been
pleasant."
Skylar shook his head slightly, "No I mean, she was very…" dozens of
words flitted through his head. He couldn't quite find the right one- then
again it was always impossible to summarize an entire person in a single
word. "Disorienting."
Newt tilted his head into a small nod, "I've found in all my journeys, that
those most unsettling to us are those who are simply aware."
Skylar inhaled a silent laugh, "Yeah, yeah you could say that. She
introduced me to thestrals actually."
Newt nodded looking sad, "I'm sorry for your misfortune."
Skylar ignored it, instead he looked at the cup held between Newt's
wrinkled fingers, "No, she uh...she went and fed the thestrals all the time.
For years I think, she'd go out in the woods to sit with them and feed
them."
Newt paused, so surprised he was motionless.
"She made talismans and things, something about selkies and cat siths.
She was afraid Fawkes- a phoenix, wouldn't like her."
"Phoenixes like everyone." Newt mumbled under his breath, but it didn't
sound like he was arguing with him. He was trying to fit pieces together.
"Yeah, you would have loved her. She was gentle, and curious. I heard
that she got kicked out of the Beauxbaton stables because she wanted to
see the pegasus. She wouldn't even cut up potion ingredients."
Newt tapped his fingers against the cup, "I'm so sorry for your loss,
Skylar. She sounded interesting."
"She's partially the reason you're here," Skylar confessed quietly, "I don't
know how much Hermione told you."
Newt took a sip of the tea, "Honestly I wasn't going to come. I get letters
all the time you see, it was only because of Charlie. I've stayed in touch
with the Dragon reserve, and I recognized the last name."
Skylar gave a small smile of amusement, "Really? The name of the
famous Boy-Who-Lived couldn't convince you?"
Newt snorted into his cup, "Merlin knows I've met too many famous
witches and wizards. You all need to keep me out of your bloody
business."
Skylar huffed a small laugh, before the mood became serious once more.
"It's...I think we just need advice." Skylar said. "Luna was killed, by a
basilisk."
Newt dropped his cup. It spilled a little and Newt scrambled to mop it,
pulling out rags from his coat pocket that seemed to be stained with the
oddest colours. He mopped it up, not lifting his head as if anxious with
the prospect of what Skylar had said.
He mopped the tea almost robotically, thinking silently with wide eyes.
"A...a basilisk?" Newt asked, sounding resigned and at the same time
uncertain. "Well, that's...not what I had expected. A basilisk?"
"Yeah," Skylar's nostrils flared, "I promised I'd get rid of it. It's...It's done a
lot of damage."
Newt licked his lip and blinked in thought, clutching his upper arms
across his chest defensively, "I..you want my help to kill a basilisk?"
Skylar looked pained, "I...I understand, that you don't want to kill it. I
really do, it's a beautiful creature but I can't ignore the fact it killed my
fr-"
Skylar choked and he looked away, one fist raised to his mouth as it to
keep himself composed. "I'm sorry," Skylar breathed, closing his eyes to
settle himself. "I made a promise that I'd take care of her. It's...the basilisk
is intelligent, it understands what it did. I think, that even though it's a
magical creature, it should be held responsible for its actions."
Newt folded his hands on the table and stared at them, looking quietly
devastated. "This basilisk...it didn't just kill your friend, did it?"
"No." Skylar admitted quietly, "I...I think that it contributed in the rise of
Voldemort."
Newt hissed something low and sour, "Figures I get brought in to another
Dark Lord."
Skylar laughed something cold, "Tell me about it."
Lutain shifted again; Skylar had forgotten that he was even there.
"I uh," Skylar licked his lips before very slowly reaching towards his neck,
"I figured you'd like to meet someone- I mean he's...his name's Lutain and
uh…"
Newt smiled, as if amused by Skylar's awkwardness.
Lutain hissed, suddenly so loud in the room. The snake slithered,
separating himself from under Skylar's shirt and oh, suddenly they were
apart.
It felt strange.
(Skylar felt nauseous and shaky.)
"Oh, hello there." Newt greeted the snake, not looking as afraid or
worried as most people tended to when meeting Lutain. "You're a taipan I
believe? A non-magical species but...you feel enhanced." Newt mused,
looking excited and intrigued with how Lutain coiled himself regally.
"This is Lutain," Skylar introduced between the two, "He's a familiar to
someone who...well. He's a familiar to someone who isn't here right
now."
Newt paused and looked at Skylar from the top of his vision, "You're
separating a familiar from his master?"
"It's consensual." Skylar assured, shifting in his seat once again, "I
promised Lutain that I'd kill the basilisk."
Newt looked at the snake, then at Skylar with an unreadable expression.
If the man was confused as to how Skylar could communicate with a
snake, or how a snake was intelligent enough to have a sense of
commitment, then he never said anything.
"Alright," Newt collectively said, "How much do you know basilisks?"
Skylar paused, "Not much honestly. I should get Hermione, she knows
more about basilisks."
Newt shook his head, "No, I feel that I should tell you this. I wrote my
book as a guide to help people understand why we should be protecting
these creatures instead of killing them. That being said, very few
creatures on this planet are as inherently evil and cruel as a basilisk.
There's a reason I never included them in my books."
Skylar swallowed and nodded, a sense of foreboding sent shivers down
his back. "Okay, I'm not going to like this, am I?"
The old man was impossible to read, not even a thin smile for Skylar's
obvious fear. "I encountered one once, and it was terrifyingly intelligent.
They had gouged its eyes out, and kept it in a cage as a decoration. The
poor thing would entice and behave in a specific way to lure someone to
open the cage. It killed five people before it was caught a week later. It
took them another week to successfully kill it."
Skylar felt sick. "This basilisk...it's very big."
Newt nodded quietly, forlorn and already accepting the fact. "I'm
assuming that this basilisk is terrorizing Hogwarts, which leaves me to
presume this is the basilisk Slytherin sealed in his chamber."
"You knew it was a basilisk?"
Newt shrugged his shoulders, staying at his tea distantly. "I was...I was
fascinated with the story, and determined that out of all creatures, it
likely was a basilisk. As such, it was the only thing that could be sealed
away, or was a mistake that was sealed away. Please understand, the
Chamber had not been opened, it was still a myth."
"A mistake?" Skylar echoed, the one word from Newt's explanation
sticking with him.
"It's my personal belief that Salazar Slytherin sealed the beast due to it's
accidental killing of his child. He couldn't bear to kill it, so he let it sleep
because in the end, a creature as...monstrous as a basilisk may one day be
needed."
Skylar felt sick, "I...the basilisk killed his child?"
Newt looked unsure, "It is only through my encounters with basilisks in
my youth that I have been led to assume my theory. Of course it isn't
confirmed, but in my personal opinion the basilisk is the cause of the
unexplained death of Mylcades Slytherin."
"Why?" Skylar choked out, "Why..why would it do that?"
Newt looked grim, "Well, I'd assume it was jealous. Or it was bored."
Newt Scamander had said that basilisk venom was potent, able to destroy
everything it touched. Able to singe and sear and kill everything it
touched.
(Lutain didn't seem surprised. Lutain wanted the basilisk to die.)
How...funny, that in all the careful plots and calculations of a centuries
old serpent, the single overlook was a tiny black snake.
Guest: Do you have a timeline planned out for when everyone finds out
that he's actually Harry?
I'm having a minor reveal chapter in precisely 3 chapters from here, and
roughly 5 away is the major entire Wizarding World reveal.
Cutiepie120048: even if Voldemort would be mad at Adrian for making
thw horcrux, wouldn't it also ensure that he'll survive? That's accidental
genius right there. Or would that have messed with his horcrux inside
Adrian?
Considering how rare Horcruxes are, and how hard they are to make, I think
it would be safe to say that Voldemort has no clue but he didn't want to risk it.
It's an uncalculated risk, and Voldemort is not all about that uncertainty.
THE DARKEST OF THEM ALL: Is Lutain manipulating Skylar and
turning him into a minion of some kind?
Not a minion in how you'd think. More of a...a free ride, and Lutain mooches
a lot.
Also how powerful of a horcrux is Lutain because if I remember correctly
each time you make a horcrux you split your soul in half.
That's why the diary was so much more powerful than the other
horcruxes because it was essentially 50% of Voldemort and now Lutain is
50% of adrian.
That's why Lutain is so intelligent and able to influence so much. He's a snake,
with human level intelligence.
So is adrian sick because of the potion or is he sick because of the
horcrux?
The potion. The Horcrux added to it, and jump started it a lot faster a lot
quicker.
I have this reeeealy bad feeling that as soon as Remus finds out who
adrian is , he's going to die.
I've been debating a lot about if Remus should die or not. At this point in time,
I've concluded Remus will not die although that may be up to change.
How is Skylar going to feel when Lutain leaves to go back to adrian?
I think that's the next chapter!
Is there going to be a final battle?
Adalonda has to go down somehow, you better know it's going to be dramatic.
jotoho: ...the Horcrux-Creation-Ritual can be undone if the wizard who
split his soul feels genuine regret for the act... With the way you have
given Adrian a pillar in form of Remus that he can depend on..I started to
wonder if you plan on Lutain becoming desperate because his masters
declining physical health and turning to [Skylar's Lifeforce]... a) Adrian
notices his sudden recovery and starts to investigate which is how he
learns of [Skylar's] demise he is responsible for the (unnecessary) death
another person...would make him regret allowing things to come this far
OR b) Adrian notices something is wrong and arrives whereever Lutain is
sacrificing Skylar but [Adrian is] physically too weak by now to stop
Lutain, who only cares about Adrians survival regardless of the cost,
causing [Adrian] to feel regret which frees the soul shard, that keeps
Lutain alive... and saves Skylar though possibly at the cost of Adrians
own life.
Sorry for shortening so much (space wise). I like your theory, although now to
throw you a curve ball- when a Horcrux obtains a life force, it can only use
that to further ITSELF, not the original soul it is fragmented from. With that in
mind, a) Adrian cannot suddenly recover which means he wouldn't
investigate, and with how he has finally gotten over the guilt of killing people,
he wouldn't feel regret. b) Lutain wouldn't sacrifice Skylar obviously, because
once Skylar is dead Lutain loses his bartering chip/ assurance that he won't be
destroyed by the order. Killing Skylar has no benefit for Lutain, only for
Adrian himself. Adrian would only feel regret over the concept that created the
horcrux ITSELf. For Lutain to no longer be a horcrux, Adrian would have to
feel regret over the fact that Lutain's life is now extended, or rather, regret
over the fact Lutain is alive.
DeviousClass: I send you an PM asking if Theo Nott will have a major
role in the upcomming events, after Adrian takes the path of no turning
back ?
I never received a PM. Regardless, I'll answer here. I currently have no plans
for Theo, but I haven't yet written into the fourth and final arc. He will most
likely be present then.
OmnipoentOminousmagician: I think soon Skylar will be completely
under his control like Ginny was to the diary, since just like Ginny
opened herself to the Diary, Skylar himself said he was sharing evrything
with Lutain? Will Lutain posess Skylar so he can use him to kill
Adalonda? Or will he use Skylar as ransom to force the Order to release
Adrian and/or help kill Adalonda?
The diary was a soul fragment in a book. With that idea, the soul was the
single sentient force. With Lutain, Lutain himself is driving the ship with the
soul fragment powering him and giving him heightened intelligence. Lutain
doesn't need to possess Skylar, because he already has a physical form. Lutain
instead can influence and essentially manipulate/ psychologically use Skylar
to his advantage. At times, it is better to not influence Skylar to give a false
sense of security over how Lutain is not a threat.
BrettVT: why would Albus allow Lutain to stay near Skylar if he knows
he's a horcrux and has the ability to manipulate and get into people's
heads.
The only Horcrux Albus knows about is the ring. He does not know about the
diary, or the Horcrux ability to possess or influence the minds of others. Ginny
died before Albus could investigate the diary.
shadowman21: Is Adrian seeing his father's actions and trying to imitate
him in a way, with the "branding" or is that an effect of losing a part of
ones soul and well magical semi brainwashing.?
Branding is his father's technique and preferred method, so it is a guaranteed
way that Remus would be left alone by all Death Eaters. A new technique or
style would take time to catch on.
Dark Lord Potter Black: I really miss the monologues.
I'll try to throw in a few more for convenience, or to summarize what all has
happened.
Meddlesome Guy: 300K words dedicated for Adrian becoming an
upgraded version of Bella on the making. What a drag. Forgive me but I
am just eager to see the part where he will be revealed as a spy, will face
trial and be given veritaserum and let chaos unfold...Brilliant work.
I'm not exactly sure if this was a critique or a complement, but the pace is
picking up. I felt that all that character development was required for a
realistic psychological development of a child. Anyways, the potion reveal is
soon, and then dramatic reveal shortly after.
59. Vitaedax
This chapter was beta'd by our amazing Beta Collective
-Arctic Fox From Afar
-Mahina
-Cyndaquil05
-4everfictional
-Scion of House Lucifer
-Parsi
-Acelenny
-S4m
- and countless anonymous helpers!
'I'm so hungry it hurts I feel like i'm eating myself from the inside out whycant
it juststop-'
"No bloody way," Sirius' jaw dropped, looking absolutely amazed but also
very skeptical.
"Do it!" Tonks cheered, laughing from where she was peeking around the
corner of the kitchen, preparing breakfast. Half of the hash browns had
already been banished, the other half was smoldering far too close to
burning. Nobody minded, especially with such great entertainment that
the newcomer was providing.
Newt had his bag open, pulling out various potions and objects to find his
daily nutritional potion. One of the objects, a collection of vials secured
in what looked like magical bubble wrap, was glowing brightly.
"What's going on?" Skylar asked, stumbling into the kitchen not at all
prepared for the daily events.
"Sky! Oh, Newt here says he can tell Animagus forms!" Tonks cheered,
swaying as she walked into the room curious. Sirius was obviously
interested, but nothing had been successfully created for identifying
unregistered Animagus. It was realistic to presume some sort of scam.
"Honestly," Newt scoffed, although he looked rather pleased and happy to
share what he had. He tapped on the glowing vials lovingly, "It's venom
from an Indian species of turtle. See, its prey is a tricky shapeshifter, so
the venom allows it to locate hidden prey no matter the disguise.
Concentrated and mixed with a root, it does a wonderful job revealing
animagi."
Sirius looked at Skylar as if he didn't know how to react. The skepticism
was almost tangible.
"I know you're a canine by the way," Newt offered helpfully. "You have a
telling bark."
Hermione hurried down the stairs, already dressed and cradling
Crookshanks in her arms. She smiled, ducking her head as Newt gave her
a small wave. She was polite enough to not acknowledge Sirius' awkward
flush. She didn't question the vials on the table, or how everyone seemed
gob smacked.
Lutain hissed sharply, his sound cutting through the air sharply.
Crookshanks tensed, tail fluffing as the kneezle hissed loudly. Skylar
flinched away from the creature and paused, tensing accordingly with
Lutain.
The snake was disgruntled, but still had plenty it wanted known.
Adalonda. It seemed to say, not sounding pleased. Kill her.
"We are." Skylar muttered under his breath, turning away slightly to
disguise his words. "We have other things to do right now. We need to
learn about it first."
Lutain's tail twitched in annoyance, whacking against Skylar's ribs
pointedly. Basilisk. Adalonda. Cerestes.
"Look, I don't know what a Cerestes is." Skylar muttered under his breath,
grabbing a glass filled with juice. "Wasn't that a weapon?"
"Cerestes?" Newt echoed, he must have had impressive ears for someone
likely a hundred years old. Then again, Dumbledore was likely a lot older
than that and still performing strong.
"Er, yeah." Skylar stumbled, mucking with his toast as Newt's eyebrows
furrowed, "I mean it could be something completely irrelevant."
Newt considered his coffee with a tilt to his head, "A Cerestes is a magical
creature living in the deserts of northern Africa."
Hermione slid into the seat next to him, "What are we discussing?"
"Cerestes." Newt smiled politely, "It's a horned serpent, originally found
during ancient Greece. They're relatively uncommon now."
"That's strange, I've never heard of a horned serpent." Hermione
confessed, not even trying to look unimpressed. Her eyes were nearly
gleaming at the new information.
"They aren't true horns, rather they're lures. They hide themselves in the
sand completely out of sight, disguising themselves to appear as
something vulnerable. Then when attacked, they reveal themselves as
actually a predator and consume that which attacked it originally."
Lutain hissed loudly. Cerestes.
Skylar rubbed his eyes tiredly, so many magical snakes out there. They
had to deal with a basilisk and now there's a horned snake out for them
to catch. It figured, it seemed they could never catch a break. A basilisk,
Lutain, Nagini, the horcruxes...Skylar couldn't imagine going back to
Hogwarts at this rate.
(It wasn't a priority, in his mind.)
"Were you in Ravenclaw?" Hermione asked curiously, tucking her hair
behind her shoulders.
"Ah, no. I was in Hufflepuff."
Tonks appeared from the kitchen, whooping loudly before flashing her
hair to bright yellow. They exchanged a wink before she resumed
cleaning up the workspaces. The food Tonks made all went to the trash.
"I know that name." Sirius muttered under his breath, pausing before
shaking his head. "Cerestes...eh."
The morning was uneventful, Hermione nearly interrogated Newt on
various topics and subjects but he didn't tire of her questions. He seemed
to know everything, or at least could point her in a proper direction.
"Merlin, that man's like Selwyn." Ron muttered, feeling dazed after being
part of a discussion on some sort of talking mongoose.
It was just past noon when the floo spluttered something, flames rearing
and kicking out what looked like a paperweight. It rolled across the floor,
knocking into the bottom of a cupboard with a small clatter. There was a
second where the conversation lulled, eventually fading off to an
awkward quiet.
"What was that?" Ron asked, peering over to try and spot the noise.
Tonks was staring at the paper weight frozen. It took her two seconds,
then she was leaping into action, face hardening into preprogrammed
movements. It was easy to forget she was a battle trained auror, until it
sharply snapped into focus and startled Skylar silent.
"Sirius!" Tonks shouted through the room, drawing his attention from
where he had been outside the front porch, "Remus sent a signal!"
A signal obviously was something bad based on the grim expression on
the man's face.
Sirius' jaw locked and he sprinted in the house. Sirius brushed past the
group, grabbing a nondescript wall hanger with one white knuckled fist.
He rattled off something too quickly for the others to understand,
something signature of Moody.
A second later, he popped away.
"What's going on?" Hermione asked, hurrying herself after Tonks. She was
almost instantly pushed back from the woman, who was hurriedly
spelling available surfaces and the doorframe.
"Portkey," Tonks grunted out. It was startling the difference between her
when relaxed and when she was serious, "Something wrong on Remus'
end. Sirius hopped over, it'll bring them back over to the lawn there."
"Outside?" Newt asked, suddenly interested with the events that were
going on, alert and prepared. "I know that I am not welcome to the
actions of your group, but if I may be of assistance I know retainment
spells."
Tonks paused for a second before she nodded, tracing a large area of the
yard outside, "There, the strongest fire containment spell you know. Not
just for humans."
Newt didn't ask, but he did start casting well practiced spells. A few of
them were lengthy, likely made to contain a dragon.
"Is it Selwyn?" Skylar asked, rushing to the front window. "Tonks! Is it
Selwyn!"
Tonks spun around from where she was standing prepared on the lawn.
"I don't know!" She shouted towards the house, preparing herself
nervously, "It could be anything!"
Seconds stretched forever, until they were sticky and painful. The birds
chirped on, unaware.
They waited a few seconds more, then the returning pop had three
figures kneeling on the grass.
"Remus!" Tonks shouted, nearly leaping forward over the dandelions.
"Stay back!" Sirius shouted instantly, throwing one hand up as if to ward
back the household residences. Skylar noticed then, that Sirius himself
was a fair distance from Remus and the now collapsed body between
them. Remus stood slowly, wobbly in his knees and stained wetly as if
someone dumped water over his shirt.
There was a lot of blood.
Earlier.
"Why do you let me walk around?" Adrian asked, leaning against a
window peering outside. The glass fogged from his breath, humid on the
clear pane.
Remus didn't look up from where he was chopping tomatoes for the
sandwiches he was making. "I don't see why you should be locked up."
"I killed someone." Adrian spoke blankly, "Doesn't that mean I should be
locked up?"
Remus placed the tomatoes on the plate, folding the bread over to
complete it, "I'm not sure. I believe that it depends on the situation."
Adrian didn't respond to that, or continue that trail of thought. Instead he
grabbed the sandwich and chowed down, plowing through the two in less
time than it took to make. Remus would make him more in an hour.
Feeding him too much in one sitting led to him vomiting. It was an
uncomfortable experience.
"I was thinking, would you like to travel?" Remus asked politely, he had a
remarkable calm composition.
Adrian frowned as he looked at the man, "I thought you have things to do
here."
Remus nodded, "That's true. I was thinking we could get away for a bit.
Take Tonks with us if that's okay, we could travel to Australia or even
America. They have Thunderbirds out in the prairies there."
Adrian's jaw moved slightly; he looked back out the window.
Frequently Remus would offer him things like that, and he didn't quite
know how to react. He was given blankets, real clothing, every day the
werewolf would draw him a bath with the sweetly smelling potions he
secretly loved.
It was strange, a velvety soft life that felt so fake and impossible Adrian
was waiting for it to collapse.
"I like the smell of outside." Adrian admitted. "The flowers too. I like how
they look, and the colours and the petals they have. The smell of the
ground."
"It's called petrichor. The smell of the ground after a rain." Remus
explained contently. The older man closed his eyes and inhaled strongly,
releasing it slowly. "Have you ever seen the ocean?"
Adrian nodded, "A few times. In passing."
Remus chuckled, "I should show you the cliffs of Dover. Or the tropics,
there the water looks almost green."
"Is it safe?"
"Completely safe."
Adrian hummed, pressing his forehead against the coolness of the
window. He was hungry.
It was quiet, silent and isolating. No whispers except for those inside his
head, no sneers or voices or challenging taunts. It was strange to mark
the massage of time, his heart beat too common and quick to track.
The ground smelled fresh, the humidity in the air made his hair stick to
his neck. He hadn't had the time to sit down and watch the grass in a
long while. He didn't think it grew as green at Rowle's estate, in the
overrun garden his father never cared about.
"I miss Luna." Adrian later confessed quietly, sitting crossed leg on the
tiny porch. His knees were drawn to his chest, one hand clutching
wildflowers he had plucked from the dirt. The broken ends leaked sugary
sap, the petals velvet under his fingers.
"I know you do." Remus stated simply.
Adrian pulled his knees to his chest, clutching them tightly under his
blanket. "I miss her."
Remus breathed the air, "That's natural. To miss something means that
we cared about it."
Adrian shook his head slowly, "I didn't. I didn't think I did at least, but I
didn't want to kill her."
Remus paused, "Adrian you didn't kill her."
I strike Luna
"How did she die then?" Adrian asked blandly, no emotion.
The grass swayed slightly. Sweet and fragrant. The sap from broken
stems left his fingertips sticky.
"They said it was basilisk venom."
I strike Luna.
Adrian closed his eyes, pressed his skull against his kneecaps as if it could
remove the color of her lifeless skin from his mind.
"I used to like thestrals." Adrian admitted, "I used to think they were
beautiful."
"Plenty of people find them beautiful."
"No," Adrian sighed, "It wasn't the thestrals. It was the idea. I had some
sort of...notion, that death would solve everything. And because of that I
thought thestrals were beautiful."
Adrian breathed in and out, his nostrils whistled.
"It isn't," Adrian quietly admitted, "Death isn't beautiful. It's disgusting,
it's horrible but I don't know if I believe that anymore, or if that's just
another expectation."
"I'm so sorry, Adrian." Remus admitted, "and I know that I will never
truly be able to convey with words, how deeply I feel for all of your
suffering."
Adrian smiled sharply, viciously with no target. "It is exceptionally
terrible, being Adrian Selwyn. I don't suggest it, it was a horrible
decision."
"What is it you wanted to be? As an adult in the world?" Remus asked
him, passing over yet another apple. Adrian bit it, the crunch was loud
like the snapping of bone.
"It doesn't matter."
"Of course it matters."
Adrian chewed, and bit again. He chewed and chewed and consumed
until he tossed the apple's spine to the floor amid a pile of skeletons. "A
magizoologist."
Adrian ate another apple, pulling his arm back to throw it. It hit the
ground, rolling until he couldn't see it anymore.
"I wanted to work with magical creatures, like Hippogriffs or Sphinxes. I
thought maybe they'd find a use for me, I could talk to Runespores. That
was before...I just wanted to be good enough." Adrian huffed and curled
in on himself, "I just wanted to prove I shouldn't have been thrown
away."
Remus offered one arm in invitation. Adrian looked at him before sliding
over, tugging the blanket with him to rest in the crook provided.
"I hate it," Adrian admitted quietly, "I hate the fact that I... I know, that I
should just…" Adrian's voice garbled uncontrollably, "but I know I can't. I
never could. I know, that even if there's the slightest chance of him being
proud of me, of him saying 'good job; I can't leave."
"That's not how families are supposed to work, Adrian." Remus reminded
him gently, "That's not how love is supposed to be."
"I think he's incapable of loving, so don't try to persuade me with that
shite," Adrian murmured under his breath with no heat, "I don't think
that I am destined to be loved."
Remus' arm tightened sharply, "Don't say that."
Adrian smiled, almost amused at how angry Remus was at his words.
"I mean it, don't ever think that you aren't allowed love or affection or
anything good in this world." Remus scolded sharply, "You are. You
deserve everything you could possibly want and more."
"I don't know what I want." Adrian mused to himself.
"Love," Remus said. "Affection. Acknowledgement. Revenge."
"Revenge implies that I'm inflicting harm on someone for a wrong
suffered at their hands." Adrian grumbled, "I don't know if I even care
anymore."
"Of course you care," Remus assured, "You're in pain, you're suffering,
you don't know what to do with it. You do care."
Remus' heart was strong and loud, nearly vibrating with every pulse.
Adrian breathed with him, the heavy rise and fall of his lungs prompting
him to breathe on his own.
Breathe in the humid air.
Let her starve.
He is prey.
Avada Kedavra.
Kill her.
I strike Luna.
Breathe out from his lungs.
"I hate them," Adrian breathed from his lungs, the truest statement he
ever said, "I hate them, because every time I look in a mirror I wonder
why I wasn't good enough for them. I hate them because they had a
chance to fix this, and they didn't. They've made me into a monster."
Adrian was sitting on the front porch, nearing noon.
Remus was inside, preparing food once more. Adrian felt like he was
starving, his stomach distended from a meal just before.
He hated it.
He hated it.
He wondered when Remus would go back to Skylar, when he would go
back and take care of the Golden Boy.
"That's okay", Adrian hissed out loud, speaking Parseltongue with the
freedom of knowing it didn't matter. "I am used to people forgetting about
me. My brother is the famous and smart one. I have nothing to offer."
He thought that speaking would make him feel better. It didn't.
The grass was swishing, a bird was circling above.
"Bella and Draco are coming soon," Adrian reasoned out loud, watching the
wildflowers sway. "They'll take me, and then it won't matter at all. Remus
can go back to Skylar, and I'll be back where I belong."
Under the dirt, worms would be moving. Gnawing through roots and dirt
and carving pathways. Avoiding stones, leaving nutrients for the grass
and flowers to use and to reach for the sun.
"Then I'll go back to my destiny," Adrian licked his dry lips. "I'm supposed to
be a tool, a decoration on my father's mantle. I wanted Skylar dead, I want
revenge and I know he isn't going to help me with that. Remus can't help me
with that. I don't know if I want that anymore, or if it's an expectation for me
to follow."
Adrian didn't know what to do.
"I'm the Chosen One. I don't know if what I'm doing is right. I don't know if it's
what I want."
The meadow was peaceful, settled and calm. A lush thriving expanse of
life and serenity. Luna would have loved it. Luna would have hated him
if she knew about his secrets.
Adrian wanted to make the meadow burn.
The air was humid, there was water in puddles between the roots of
crabgrass and soil. It was moist, muddy, and not at all weather for fire.
"I'm the real Boy Who Lived. Not Skylar. I can do whatever I want." Adrian
hissed lowly, rolling the sounds from the instinctive movements of his
tongue. They warmed him and numbed him. Inspired him with hopeless
foreboding.
It took less than a half second for a patch of grass to dry, to shrivel and
pop as suddenly, it was little more than tinder.
It took four seconds before a bonfire was raging, burning and searing the
ground akin to a fireball.
It took ten seconds for the fire to become as large as a barn, boiling and
rolling with the viciousness of a sun. It was orange, molting and burning
and Adrian wanted it to burn.
(His face was going sticky. His eyes were crying blood.)
It swelled and rolled, shifting in shape and twirling in his desire. He
wanted it to move, he wanted it to dance.
"Skylar can't do this. Skylar isn't as powerful as me. Skylar is nothing
compared to me."
A head arched from the flame, just as hands wrapped around Adrian's
chest and yanked him inside away from the sweltering danger that the
fire was. It was growing still, bigger and bigger. The room was tinted red,
glowing through the windows. A supernova just outside, long shadows
and sweating heat inside the shelter of the house.
A fireball rolled outside, the craning neck of something shapeless and
draconic that was growing and growing.
It was large, the largest Adrian had seen. The largest he had ever made.
(Bigger than anyone else could make.)
(Bigger, dare he think it? - than his own father's ability.)
It hurt- he hurt.
More people- another person.
(Was he bleeding from his pores? From the glands beneath his tongue
and in the corner of his eyes and-)
Then...gone.
Adrian blinked a half dozen time, unable to process what had happened.
He was- he was cold. He was suddenly so cold.
Words were slurred, shifting in stilted noises. He was choking on iron,
thick warm fluid that was sliding down his throat. His coughs were wet
and gurgled. Everything was red.
(Was that how his father saw? Through a veil of crimson until everything
was just...red?)
"Stay back!" Sirius shouted, holding on arm outwards towards Tonks as
Remus stood slowly. Adrian was limp, breathing shallow with air bubbles
through the blood. His eyes were wide open, sightless.
"Remus! What happened to him?" Tonks fretted, pacing back and forth on
the other side of the line, whining high in her throat.
"Oh Merlin," Skylar breathed, feeling the urge to hurl. Hermione and Ron
gasped, chests heaving as they watched the figures outside.
"Is he alive!" Tonks shouted, one hand tangling in her hair, "Remus is he
alive?"
"He's alive." Remus croaked out, pale and swaying as he cradled Adrian
in his arms, taking one step towards the house.
"Sirius, step away." someone new spoke. Remus snapped his head up in
confusion, he had never seen this man before.
Sirius stepped back grudgingly, watching carefully as the new man, frail
and old, squinted at Adrian with something unreadable. He took care to
stay behind the line of a ward.
"Remus- that's your name?" the man asked slowly, nodding when Remus
gave the shakiest nod, "Alright. I've heard that you're a werewolf, which
is the only reason I'm going to let you keep touching the child."
Tonks snapped her head around, her eyes wide. It was obvious that
Remus had been treated terribly due to his curse- or was rarely treated
with kindness.
"I'm going to cast a spell," Newt spoke lowly, careful to show his
movements. One hand slipped into his pocket, retrieving a wand that had
seen better days. "Just to see what may be wrong with him."
"He's sick." Skylar spoke through the window, Newt looked at him from
the corner of his eye. The younger children were staying indoors, aware
of the threat at hand. That alone, spoke volumes.
"Luna said he was sick. He felt sour, like pus." Skylar continued, knowing
instinctively that somehow, Newt would have heard of magical
synesthesia.
Newt's cheek twitched, but he nodded. He understood, and was
reevaluating the threat at hand.
Remus' breathing was heavy, but he nodded, allowing Newt to walk
closer to the wards. Remus held Adrian close and Newt took one more
step nearer, just on the other side of the closest containment spells. He
had already crossed several wards, leaving a bare few for the illusion of
security.
Newt cast a spell, one that sounded exotic in nature. The spell was
moderately fast, silvery and circled like a mist once it reached Adrian.
Detection spells, although not one that Remus had ever heard before.
(One that was unlikely the mediwitches had tried.)
Adrian twitched, groaning slightly before curling inwards further.
"Okay," Newt carefully stated, mindful of how Remus was looking very,
very protective. "That was very helpful. I don't know yet what's wrong
with him, but he has a very dark force around him. How old is he?"
"My age," Skylar choked out, nearly shouting to cover the distance. The
Golden Boy was practically leaning out of the open window, trying to get
as close as he could. "This has only started in the last couple years."
Newt nodded slowly under Remus' careful eye, "It's...it's similar to
something I've seen. Not an obscurus, but it's...I wonder." Newt
murmured, pointing his wand slowly once again at Adrian.
The new spell was old Latin, shiny and blue as it spiraled over towards
Adrian.
Adrian flinched, giving a howl as he spasmed, more blood drooling from
his mouth in a pink foam. The corners of his eyes were bleeding, as if his
tear ducts had ruptured. He looked like a plague. The area around him
flickered red, pulsating sourly with a smell of rot.
(Was that what Luna had always seen? Always smelled?)
Newt took a step back, but looked once again somewhere between
confusion and horror. "It's a blood malediction."
"Impossible!" Sirius shouted, shaking his head quickly, "we had him
tested for that in St. Mungos!"
Adrian was bleeding from no injuries, but from every open sensory
orifice. His ears, nose, mouth, eyes- it was horrifying.
"I- I know!" Newt scrambled, shaking his head back and forth, "It- It's just
like a blood malediction! It isn't curse based, which I had thought given
his state."
"He's in pain!" Tonks screamed desperately.
"Okay! Fine!" Newt snapped pointing his wand at the child once more, he
snapped out a spell that was complicated. Foreign in a way Skylar
couldn't recognize the language.
This one, the narrowed detection spell; this spell was the right one.
Adrian puked, something red and filled with far too much undigested
food. But throughout it, and from his eyes and ears something black
started dripping. Thick and pearlescent with a strange shimmery sheen.
Unicorn blood mixed with tar. Black, thick and grotesque to look at.
Newt leapt backwards, scrambling away as if he hadn't expected the spell
to work. The black globules touched grass, instantly the green stems
faded to yellow and died on contact. There was no hissing, or smell of
sulfur. As soon as the black globs touched something alive, it drained the
life and fell apart like aged sandstone.
"That's it." Newt's voice was shaken, he looked horrified as if Adrian was
something unspeakable. "...that's what it is."
"You know what's wrong with him?" Skylar hurried, his hands shaking.
His voice was horrifically scratched over the distance. "You know what's
wrong?"
"He's highly contagious." Newt worried out loud, running a shaking hand
through his greyed hair. "Not to Remus due to the lycanthrope. Any of us,
you cannot touch any of the blood."
"What?" Tonks' voice was high pitch, although she maintained a safe
distance "He- it's contagious."
"Stun him." Remus requested, still holding the seizing boy. "I don't have
my wand on me."
Sirius looked at Newt who nodded, and then very carefully stunned
Adrian. The bleeding slowed the moment the boy went utterly limp. His
arms extended in a partial stretched movement. His palms opened in his
limp unconsciousness. His fingernails were trimmed to nubs, his flesh
pale and his wrist so thin the bones were pronounced. He looked like he
was being crucified in Remus' arms.
"What's wrong with him?" Sirius asked, careful to start banishing the
fluids all over the ground. The black ooze was resisting spells, laying in
strange vicious clumps like congealed jelly.
"It's bad." Newt grimaced, "Paracelsus- a Greek wizard from before the
dark ages, named them vitaedax. It's a parasite."
"A parasite? Like a worm?" Tonks asked, looking very much liked
someone on the verge of a breakdown. "Adrian has worms?"
Newt's face was unreadable, "Could one of you call for Mr. Dumbledore
possibly?"
They shuffled Adrian into the house, clearing off a couch in the living
room. Sirius hastily threw a sheet over the furniture, a thin white barrier
between skin and worn fabric.
Remus deposited Adrian gently, shifting his limp limbs over the sheet and
tucking a pillow under his head. Tonks reappeared, looking grim before
passing a warmed moist washcloth to the werewolf. Without hesitation,
Remus began cleaning away the caked bits of gore from Adrian's skin.
"Diffindo." Tonks cast carefully, splitting the seams of Adrian's shirt.
Remus pried it off carefully, setting it aside in a warped rusted bucket
Sirius scrambled to place there.
"It's very contagious, but only through blood contact," Newt hurriedly
explained, shuffling through his bag and reaching so far down his entire
arm vanished inside its depths, "Phlox pollen is the only thing I know to
neutralize it, but it doesn't kill it. To do that it needs to be completely cut
off, metal and salt should hold it for now."
"Phlox?" Ron whispered, looking at Hermione who was even startled at
the name of the flower.
"How do we kill it?" Skylar broke the silence, hurrying back with towels
and soft blankets, "The- how do we sterilize the yard?"
"I'll isolate it." Newt grimaced, "I've isolated the parasitic life force before
from unfortunate souls. Obscuri. Maledictus. Never a vitaedax; I'm over a
hundred but Merlin, I'm never going to get a break, am I?"
Adrian wheezed on the couch, unconscious yet gagging out a bubble of
blood. It popped silently, gathering on the split edges of his lip.
"What was he doing to trigger this?" Newt scrambled, grabbing a few
bottles and something filled with an orange powder, likely the pollen.
Something else was glowing, something that caused Newt to pause and
look at it. He stared at it far too long, before gently reaching and
plucking the glowing vial free from the bubble wrap.
Skylar had seen that potion from before, the same one Sirius and Tonks
were all excited about that morning. Venom from some sort of sea turtle?
"Skylar," Newt stated slowly, pausing after a few moments to gather his
thoughts. "...This is Lutain's familiar partner, isn't he?"
Skylar chewed his lip slightly, he should have explained the situation
fully before anything had escalated. It was too late to lie, and the man
likely deserved the truth anyways. He was going to help them with the
basilisk. "Yes. His name's Adrian, on the couch there."
"Adrian, right." Newt sighed through his nose quickly, plucking the
glowing vial and waving it through the air meaningfully. "You're aware
that he's an Animagus, correct?"
"He's a what?" Sirius yelped in surprise, glancing over at the other
similarly glowing potions wrapped in bubble wrap. They weren't just
shining the white light from before, now they were a sulfuric yellow.
When Sirius had taken one before in his hand, it had been a deep royal
blue. Unmistakably different.
Now, they were glowing bright like headlamps. The only new presence in
the room was Moony (who couldn't create an Animagus form anymore
due to his furry little problem), and Adrian.
The potions wouldn't have been outright glowing unless Adrian had an
active Animagus form. Which meant Adrian had successfully achieved an
Animagus form. Luna had said that Adrian had been trying, but for some
stupid reason Skylar never thought he had ever actually done it. Skylar
should have known better.
Bloody hell, things were just getting more and more ridiculous.
"Can you help him or not?" Remus asked quietly, his steady hands had
cleaned much of Adrian's face. It was sunken, more ill looking than
Skylar remembered. He could count the other's ribs, it reminded him of
emaciated prisoners. Behind him, Hermione made a small gagging noise,
staying far back. She was aware that she couldn't contribute much to the
situation.
"I'll be able to neutralize the spread for now. It's only temporary, until he
pushes himself once again." Newt hurriedly explained, setting the bottles
to the side as he dug through his bag for something else.
"Sir, I don't think I understand." Hermione interrupted, rudely. With how
desperate everything was, it was easy to understand her blurt.
"This...parasite. What does it do?"
"Vitaedax are rare, and truly ravenous monsters." Newt explained
roughly, grabbing a few other strange ingredients to hastily crush
together into a slimy paste, "Quite rare, I only knew them in passing and
in reference. They were used a lot, especially by Grindelwald, but the
flaw is with them is it takes years to get to a noticeable level. Once you're
there, you have only a short window of opportunity. Devastating of
course, one wiped out almost all of Treviso under Grindelwald."
"Treviso?" Ron blinked in confusion, staying behind Hermione.
The girl in question looked over her shoulder quickly, "Treviso is a city in
northern Italy." She explained incredibly briefly, turning back to look at
Newt with a narrowed eyed desperate look. "A window for what? What
could...could this...thing offer?"
"Power," Skylar blurted, looking horrified. Everything clicked into place
far too clearly. "The train. Guys, the wandless magic."
Sirius cursed loudly, looking ready to kick a wall, "The damn book. That
damn book."
"Right." Newt nodded to Skylar, looking grim as he continued. "Vitaedax
are malevolent dark parasites that exist on a plane unable for us to see
normally. Whereas other parasitic forces like obscuri infect and feed on
the magical reserve itself, vitaedax feed on the passageways, or the
channels by which we use our magic."
"Our souls." Remus' eyes widened in realization, "That's why I can't be
infected. Lycanthropy is a malady of the body and soul."
"Wait wait," Hermione scrambled, staying well clear of the area as Tonks
hurried back and forth from the sink with water, "This...this thing infects
his soul?"
"Maybe that's why he's been bonkers since that basilisk." Ron suggested
over from where he was tantalizingly close to a trash bin, "I mean, you
know."
"Oh," Skylar breathed, "Oh Merlin."
The horcrux. The idea of splitting your soul to hide a segment in an
object. From what Skylar had gathered, Adrian didn't do it for
immortality, but he did it to prevent the natural death of Lutain. Lutain
had said that the basilisk was the one who told him what to do- that
Adrian didn't even know the name of what he had done. Of all things,
why split a soul when there could be dozens of other possible ways to
extend an animal's lifespan?
If a fire was burning, it would finish much faster if half of the log was
removed from the flame.
Newt grabbed the paste, wielding what looked like a long rubber spatula
in his other hand. In almost careless movements, he slapped a big glob of
the slightly lavender mixture onto Adrian's chest, slathering it around
until right over his sternum, he was iced like a cake. All he needed was
the cherry on top.
Newt relaxed finally, scooting away from the boy and werewolf as if the
worst of the damage was over. Assumedly the paste would contain the
spread of this...this parasite. Either it would somehow be contained and
wouldn't spread further, or it was temporarily in stasis. Skylar didn't
know nor understand enough about what was going on to have a genuine
opinion.
"I have a very important question I would appreciate you being honest
with me to answer." Newt stated, reaching into the bubble wrap to pull
out one of the glowing vials, sulfuric yellow and bubbling slightly. Newt
brought it over Adrian, watching as the glow increased slightly in
luminosity. It was responding to Adrian.
Newt uncorked it, yet instead of pouring it the liquid bubbled
aggressively and dissipated into a thick gas. It twisted and turned over
itself, like an intangible yellow meringue. The gas shifted until it
resembled a serpent, made of thick foam like the arching fury of
fiendfyre. A crest rose from between its eyes down its neck, like a spine
from some prehistoric monster.
"Magical Animagus forms are impossible to achieve," Newt stated very
calmly, even though he was holding a vial with a very pissed off sulfuric
magical creature, "However, they can be obtained through direct
artificial influence of a magical creature and its core. I've heard this
about dragons, and met a unicorn Animagus although that took her
nineteen years of living with the herd. Or rather, allow me to rephrase
my question. How is it that Adrian here has a basilisk Animagus form, if
he hasn't spent likely years in incredibly close contact with one?"
Anyone could hear a pin drop in the room.
"Well, you see Mr. Newt Sir." Tonks started quietly, "Adrian here is ah, a
parselmouth."
"Right." Newt blinked and breathed slowly. "This makes much more
sense. Alright, yes, the basilisk has to die."
Adrian woke up with a groan. When he opened his eyes, he couldn't
recognize the ceiling. It was wood, worn with cracks through the exposed
floorboards.
His head was pounding, whispers through his ears in languages he didn't
know. Impossible to discern.
He blinked twice, pausing as the world lagged after, distorting slightly in
a glazed tinge. Then it focused once more, and the pounding receded
slightly.
He was on a couch, he could recognize the feel of the cushions under his
back. There was a clock, ticking loudly in a way that pierced his skull.
His nose felt crackly, like it had a layer of frost through it. His hearing
felt muffled, and his eyes prickly.
"Adrian!" Someone spoke, rushing around to kneel next to him, carefully
not touching his skin although one hand was raised as if tempted.
Adrian would recognize that frizzy hair anywhere, even half asleep.
"Hermione?" Adrian asked, blinking lazily as he rolled his head to the
side, "What-?"
"I- You came in because you were sick." Hermione hurried in a rushed
tone, stepping upright and stumbling backwards as Adrian forced himself
into a sitting position. As the blanket draped around his hips, he was
suddenly aware that he was nearly bare under the fabric over him. There
were faint blood stains where his head had been. Rusted and flaking, like
water stains on his pillow.
"I can get you Remus!" Hermione already started to move away, "He's
making you food."
"When isn't he?" Adrian murmured, sniffing sharply. His nose and throat
stung painfully.
Hermione smiled slightly and Adrian stumbled to his feet, clutching the
blanket close to his shoulders to keep him covered. His head was
pounding, whispers in and out.
Tick
Tick
Tick
The clock was pounding through his skull like a hammer.
Adrian stumbled through the room towards the kitchen, staring in
silence. Tonks and Remus were working smoothly together. Familiar,
smiling, and without him.
Tonks peered over her shoulder, smile widening in pure joy when she
saw him, "Adrian! You're awake!"
Remus turned, and he beamed as well, sliding a plate to the side, heaping
with food that looked handmade.
Adrian stood in the doorway, feeling chilled and out of body. "Why am I
here?"
Remus didn't even blink, "You were injured, I brought you here because
I'm not the best at healing spells."
Adrian snorted lightly, it stung his throat. "You could have left me there.
I'd be fine."
"Actually, you're rather wrong on that." Someone old spoke from behind
him, cautious yet intrigued. Adrian turned around, looking over his
shoulder with a small frown.
The man was familiar, in a way sometimes names were. He was wearing
an old coat, tweed with many pockets. He looked shabby, run down in a
way Remus was with wrinkles and laugh lines and the sadness in his eyes
of a man far too empathetic. Someone who had worked long and hard for
something people cared little for, and never stopped trying.
"I know you," Adrian spoke, voice hoarse but level. "I know your face,
don't I?"
The man gave a few small nods, looking around the room as if
confrontation itself unsettled him, "Ah, yes I presume you would. My
name is Newt Scamander."
Adrian balked in surprise, clutching the blanket tighter around his
shoulders. "You're retired."
Newt shrugged his shoulders and gave a small sheepish laugh, as if that
would explain his presence, "Ah well. I heard that you had a basilisk
problem and I couldn't resist."
Adrian took a half step back, "I don't know what you're talking about."
This man couldn't possibly know about Adalonda- they would only call in
an expert if they wanted to remove her.
'They wouldn't' Adrian thought dazedly, nearly swooning at the thought.
'She's done nothing wrong.'
Newt smiled, a look in his eyes was very similar to nostalgia, "I guess you
wouldn't. I have to ask; do you know you are housing a parasitic entity?"
'What?'
Adrian blinked twice, "I- what?"
Newt sighed, "No, I guess they never do know."
Adrian felt a rising surge of anger, and without a care he jerked his head
forward, met the man's eyes, and pressed and-
Something large and black. Smokey yet powdery, like a million grains of black
salt. It moved like fluid, and felt frozen even from a distance. It was beautiful,
and terrifying.
A boy, perhaps Adrian's age with pale skin and sharp cheekbones. Convulsing,
jerking back and forth with a snarl across his face akin to a rabid animal. His
skin stretched, boiling and distorting and then- then the mass the entity was
roaring, screaming in a million voices and tendrils of hate and anger and
destruction.
"I think that's enough now." Newt sighed politely, turning his head to
break the connection, "I get enough of that from my sister-in-law."
"What was that?" Adrian asked in awe, quiet fascination that he would
never be able to deny. Remus and Tonks were silent, watching the
unspoken conversation quietly.
"That was an unfortunate child, who died long before you were born,
perhaps before even your parents were born." Newt sighed, looking
haunted as if it still bothered him to the day, "his name was Credence. He
was something called an obscurus."
Adrian twitched slightly, "I know what obscuri are. They're all gone."
Newt gave a small huff, "Yes I suppose you would know what they are.
I've met three, all terrible circumstances. I've encountered others as well,
maledictus, nagarus, curses and monsters and cat siths and so many
more." Newt raised his hand to tap along his temple, "Would you like to
take a look?"
Adrian shifted unsure, pulling the blanket closer around his shoulders,
"No. I'm fine."
Adrian would never admit it, but he was rather afraid to see what the
other knew. To see the memories of monsters and creatures and- and
Adrian was jealous.
Adrian had read his book a dozen times over, written topics and thoughts
in the margins until it was more of his ink than the publisher's. He had
discussed the book over and over, conversing with Luna over creatures
that seemed too obscure to be true.
(They both knew they were true. They just liked to argue over outlandish
things, like if pinecones were a suitable dietary replacement for a selkie.)
"Luna would have loved to meet you." Adrian whispered quietly, and his
heart stung painfully. "She talked about you a lot."
Newt smiled, he had dimples in his leathery face, "I've heard a lot about
her. She seemed quite spectacular."
"She was extraordinary," Adrian countered coldly, "She thought the world
of you."
"From what I've heard, she thought highly of you as well." Newt
countered.
Adrian flinched and looked away, Newt's face softened, "Adrian, I want to
talk with you. I want to help you."
"You can't." Adrian responded without a breath of pause.
Newt gave a small sigh, "Perhaps not, but I'm afraid you don't know
what's happening to you. I know that you're in a lot of pain, and you're
very hungry. I know that you must be very scared."
Adrian locked his jaw firmly, not looking at the man. He was hungry, but
confessing or admitting that felt like a defeat. It felt as if Adrian was
agreeing to whatever the man- famous or not- wanted. The conversation
was over, he, as well as the others in the room, recognized that.
"Adrian, would you like to wash up for dinner?" Tonks asked teasingly,
swatting him with a dish towel. Adrian turned to look at her, his
expression blank. She still smiled, happy as if him simply being there was
enough.
"Where's Lutain?" Adrian asked.
"With Skylar, he's taken a liking to your familiar." Newt nodded towards
the stairs, waving his wand silently.
A few minutes later Adrian heard a stumble of feet, and Skylar ran into
the kitchen, looking breathless.
"Adrian!" Skylar grinned, and around his neck, was Lutain.
Adrian's heart beat twice, thumping loud and hard as if the world had
nothing left to say.
"What did you do." Adrian inhaled sharply, looking at Lutain. The black
snake flicked his tongue in the air towards him, body tightening
instinctively around the brunet as if making a statement.
Adrian couldn't hide how his face was skewed in horror. "Skylar, what
have you done with him?"
"Skylar has been mine since you've been gone, Master." Lutain informed him
politely, although distantly, "I've made a deal with him."
"What?" Adrian whispered, his voice crackling rather horribly. Skylar's
eyebrows furrowed and he opened his mouth to talk, only to stop in dim
realization as Lutain reared and hissed. The boy hadn't realized the
conversation wasn't directed at him.
"He has helped!" Lutain defended sharply, "Keeps me safe and protected.
Terrible things have happened."
"I'm looking at one!" Adrian snapped out, at this point Skylar's face had
fallen and the room was silent as everyone present realized the unspoken
taboo.
"Not all is bad. He offers decent rats. Yours are better, but you are sick."
"You didn't care before."
"It's bad, Master. It reeks of rot. You're dying."
Adrian shook his head, hating how his eyes were burning. This was
personal. "Lutain we had- we were going to kill Potter! Not befriend him!"
"You didn't seem like you wanted to."
"What the- I was mourning! That's what people do when people die!"
Tonks and Skylar flinched at the unexpected parseltongue. Newt in
contrast only looked more amazed. Remus didn't blink, Adrian had taken
to talking to himself in the unknown language when he needed to think
freely.
"Skylar has been useful to me-"
Adrian screamed, a loud vicious downright furious noise. "How dare you
say that!"
Lutain recoiled, then hissed threateningly, reared towards Adrian as his
master's hands curled into angry claws.
"Alright, alright." Remus interjected, moving between the two slowly,
"Let's calm down here."
"I'll calm down when you realize that your mind has rotted! You do not see
the possibilities!"
"You're sticking with Skylar! You're choosing bloody Skylar!"
"You do not see reason! There is more at play here!"
"'You're with the- you bloody picked Skylar!"
"I don't know what you're saying Adrian," Remus shushed him gently,
snapping the tension suddenly. "I need you to calm down."
Adrian was trembling, at some point the blanket around his shoulders
had slipped slightly. His collarbone looked like it was simply laying on
the surface of his body.
"Adrian," Newt began, talking very formally. "You're something called a
vitaedax. It's a parasitic force, which feeds on your soul which is the
channel for your magic. I need you to calm down, because any accidental
magic is very dangerous."
"Good." Adrian sniped out, glaring at Lutain but not really listening.
"Bite me."
"No, Adrian I need you to listen to me," Newt shushed, stepping beside
Remus to block his line of sight completely, "Adrian, you're in very late
stages. You've likely had this for years, which means someone purposely
infected you with it. It's made your magic very wild and unpredictable,
because you now have little to no control over it."
Adrian seethed and ducked his head, he already knew that he was
powerful.
"At this rate, we cannot separate it from you without killing you. But, if
you continue to abuse your magic at this rate you likely have only a few
years left."
"What?" Adrian whispered, eyes wide in confusion. What was the man
implying? Only a few years left? Left for what? "I- I'm dying?"
Newt's face was pained, "I'm so, so sorry."
Adrian felt his skin split and he winced, hunching over as the sick twisted
sensation of Nagini twisted over his stomach. Remus reached out, gently
placing one palm against his shoulder as if to steady him.
"Tonight." Nagini hissed dumbly, then vanished.
"Oh Master," Lutain hissed quietly, as if disappointed or frustrated all in
one, "What have you done?"
zapking5: Lutain is da real MVP.
I hope the Horcrux actually comes into play at some point with Adrian
coming back from the dead.
I'm laughing a lot at this, but I really can't explain why.
DeviousClass: I was more impatient to read your answers to the
reviewers than to read the chapter itself XD
Thank you, thank you for portraing Ron in a good light. I'm fed up with
bashing!Ron. I like how your characters feel genuine. I'm always
expecting to find Skylar annoying and it is always a nice surprise and
feeling to be proven wrong :3
I feel like every character should be portrayed neutral, and its up to the
readers to determine how to read it! Thank you so much, I like to try and
personalize myself more this way, it's wonderful to talk with you all.
shadowman21: How will Skylar react when Lutain leaves his side in
favour of Adrian will it grant Adrian a level of control over Skylar?
Withdrawal at first, as the separation of any horcrux would leave the host
with that sensation. Gradually they would return to normal, and realize how
out of character they were all along.
KilluaKagura: Will Adrian/Harry's scars ever heal, so he'll look like
Skylar's twin again?
He went through a blood adoption to Voldemort so he can't look like Skylar
even if he didn't have any scars.
Comrade'sRoza: Also, what exactly is happening to Skylar?
First, you're very sweet for all your words! Skylar is currently being used by
Lutain intermittently, not possession but more of an emotional and mental
manipulation. Not constantly, but only here and there. He's linking Skylar
with more of Adrian's mindset and memories.
Guest: Is Skylar getting dark magic addiction from being around Lutain
all of the time or is there a different reason Skylar feels odd when away
from Lutain?
Horcrux Addiction!
TheMasterofDeath: Does Adrain/Harry have a mental illness? He is
certainly showing many simptons. Ann's of he does, is it from the neglect
he felt as a child, of from his relationships the his father and Bellatrix?
Yes, I write it in such a way the mental illness is up to the reader to determine.
It's due to multiple factors, although mostly environmental.
vaxaeon: Please kill Remus
Why would you say something so controversial yet so brave?
Guest: I must ask, adrian feels like he is dying, and were thinking it is a
combination of the potion and the horcrux, but the entire point of the
horcrux is to prevent death. But we have seen that it doesn't protect the
body. So with a earth-bound soul and rapidly withering body, with a
potion we still don't know the full affects of.
Now I don't want to make assumptions, but that seems like a recipe for
something crazy happening.
Am I anywhere close to the right track?
:) Did this chapter answer your questions?
Jostanos: Will/May Adrian die if Lutain isn't returned to him? May he
live if Adalonda is killed or captured?
Will/May Adrian die regardless what happens with Lutain and or
Adalonda?
Adrian will not die if Lutain isn't returned to him. Adalonda's fate has nothing
to do with Adrian and Lutain's health.
60. Pseudonym
This chapter was beta'd by our amazing Beta Collective
-Arctic Fox From Afar
-Mahina
-Cyndaquil05
-4everfictional
-Scion of House Lucifer
-Parsi
-Acelenny
-S4m
- and countless anonymous helpers!
'Lutain doesn't understand he doesn't get it he he was always good always
useful NAgini always liked him father liked him he was always liked he wasn't
he wasnt thrown away he doesnt he doesnt-'
Lutain was at an ultimatum.
He knew, he heard the inked serpent speak. He knew that something was
happening. That night, most likely some sort of...attack on the den.
If Lutain told Skylar, than his Master would know instantly based on the
preparations. If he didn't tell Skylar, then the chance that Lutain would be
taken back to assist his Master, was high- and the likelihood of the
basilisk's death very little.
If he simply refused to rejoin his Master, then he was ensuring Adalonda's
death; if he didn't tell the child at all then it was incredibly likely that
multiple people who were important to Skylar would die, and thus, his
worth would decrease.
It was a difficult situation, one that Lutain would have struggled
immensely with in the past. But now...with his new sense of individuality
and independence well...well his Master smelled wrong. He understood
the new man's words, he understood that his Master was dying (how
ironic), but simply he was a choice. Guarantee the revenge and death of
his master, or comfort him and watch him rot.
What an interesting and heartbreaking dilemma he had found himself in.
Perhaps, he could make a deal.
"Can you understand other creatures? Or only serpents?"
Adrian glanced over his shoulder, not moving even as the ancient geyser
of a wizard slowly inched his way over and sat down heavily on the
couch next to him. "You would not imagine how often I've wondered
that. How amazing, to finally meet someone so gifted."
Adrian's face twitched into the smallest quirk of a smile, "I can
understand serpents completely. I think species of reptiles that are closely
related to snakes, or more serpent-like are able to understand me,
although they're much more...exotic sounding."
"Imagine parseltongue accents," Newt Scamander mused, looking far too
content as he reclined on the couch, "What a marvelous thing. I'm almost
jealous of you, what I would give to hear the words of a creature is a
miracle I will unfortunately never experience."
Adrian inhaled and exhaled slowly, his chest rising and falling. They
were quiet, enjoying the company in itself.
"Why did you never learn the animagus transformation?"
Newt chuckled slightly, "In my prime it wasn't well known. Besides that, I
found more love for learning and tending to various creatures, not
changing myself into one of them."
Adrian would accept that, "It's strange. Confusing."
"I'd believe so. Adjusting to having no legs must have been quite
exciting."
Adrian smiled distantly, he could hardly remember it in all honesty. He
remembered struggling at first, but after that it was a simply instinctive
movement. Using his animagus form had defined muscles along his sides
he had never used before. He had strange definition, muscles taught and
bulging slightly where others had none. Adrian didn't mind it, it allowed
him more flexibility through his back. Adrian had thought that the man
would love to hear it, but with the atmosphere of the room he could tell
it wasn't the proper time. Newt Scamander wanted something, words
gnawing to be let out under the guise of pleasant small talk. Adrian had
no need to politeness.
"As charming as this conversation is, you're not here to talk about
snakes."
Newt's face sobered up, and instead looked slightly dreading, "No, I
suppose i'm not. I'll be honest, I've never met one of you before. I've read
about you plenty, but I've never met one."
Adrian gave a dry snort of amusement, "Of course, because supposedly
dark parasitizing forces are so common."
Newt flinched with a grimace, "You'd be surprised how often they pop
up."
Adrian almost laughed at how...offended the man sounded. "You sound
like you've had one over for tea."
"Well." Newt looked slightly torn, shifting in his seat, "I shared a campfire
with one in Africa ages ago. Offered to take one out for that bloody
American coffee once also."
Adrian snorted, a low muffled noise which stung his throat. Newt's face
was wistful and his smile faltering.
"I'm sad for you," Newt explained quietly, "From what I've gathered you
seemed to be quite a fan, the expert on magical creatures apparently in
your year and yet you haven't truly asked me a single question. You aren't
excited, or happy or even more than this...indifference. I think that's what
I hate most about these monsters, what they do to the hosts."
Adrian twitched slightly, looking at his hands as his body felt chilled.
Was that all the man saw when he looked at him? Not Adrian the person,
but Adrian the parasite? Adrian the object?
(Was that all everyone saw in him?)
"Is that all I am to you?" Adrian spoke coldly, not looking away from
where he had been staring at the wall, "A new species of monster who
coincidentally has a host?"
"Of course not. What concerns me is that I've heard all these stories of a
child named Luna who I assume you were close with, and although
others can barely say your name you don't even blink at the thought."
I strike Luna.
He had already come to accept the horrific deed that he had done, he had
considered this...this slow death his penance. His weight to bear alone to
atone for her murder.
"Well," Adrian paused in thought, "I killed her. I suppose I hate myself
enough to not care about the fact she's dead."
Oh, well, that was a sudden realization.
I hate myself. Adrian thought sharply yet with a sense of calm acceptance.
He hated himself. That was why he was fine with this- that was why he
had snuffed out the growing flame of anger that always presented itself.
What use was violence and anger if not for a means? What was the point
of...of trying, if in the end it would never accomplish anything.
(Perhaps, he wanted to hate himself. Did he, Adrian, really deserve
anything besides hate?)
He killed Luna.
(He was a monster.)
"You killed her?" Newt stated, pausing in confusion before he shook his
head slightly, "I- I apologize but I had thought that a basilisk killed her."
Adrian blinked slowly, would his eyes shift to the noxious yellow of
Adalonda's? "I know."
There was an uncomfortable pause, as if Newt was so baffled by Adrian's
confession he had nothing to say.
Adrian hated himself, he hated himself.
And yet he didn't feel it.
(Was he able to feel anymore?)
"You seem very close with Mr. Lupin."
"Remus is different," Adrian countered instantly, pulling himself out of
the haze of his head without thinking, "He isn't like the others."
"He treats you with a careful hand," Newt cautiously stated, "Its the
werewolf. They can sense terminal illnesses."
Adrian's mouth quirked slightly, "Remus is always like that. Even before.
I already knew I was dying anyways."
"You did?"
"Well, not from this. Isn't everyone always dying? I couldn't ever imagine
living past twenty. Even now that seems very far away."
"That's not a good mentality to have, Adrian."
"I'm just saying I think I always knew I would die, or maybe I just didn't
care enough to live. This though...this is fitting. I'm dying by being
powerful, it's ironic."
"If you permit me the opportunity to study you, perhaps I can assist with
isolating the parasitic force."
Adrian laughed, he threw his head back until his neck was exposed and
his skull rested on the backrest. "I'm happy to die if it means I had some
final purpose, some sort of true use, and Mr. Scamander I can say it was
certainly worth it."
"I don't think it was." Newt commented quietly, sighing a rattling tired
breath, "I have seen some truly horrible things in my time, Mr. Selwyn.
I've seen murders and deaths, and taken part in too many to count. I've
watched the rise and fall of two dark lords, and now I'm tired. Without a
doubt, you are one of the cruelest fates I've seen."
Adrian grinned, teeth vicious and smile partway transitioned into a snarl.
"All this means is that I need to work faster, and I need to ensure a few
things."
If my time is limited, and I'm going to die, I need to finish what I started.
Newt sighed quietly, Adrian didn't open his eyes.
"Only misfortune happens to those similar to you, Mr. Selwyn." Newt
warned. "Whatever you're thinking, you should reconsider."
I need to figure out how to kill Skylar.
"Oh I know," Adrian hummed back, carefree as if truly it was barely of
importance, "my life is a tragedy. I think I hadn't cared to truly involve
myself to my full capabilities. Now...now with a deadline, I think that It's
time for me to step forward."
Newt's stomach dropped with a sense of dread, "Mr. Selwyn I must highly
advise against-"
"I think, that I'm done talking." Adrian thought out loud almost curiously.
"Well I'm not." Newt interrupted, his old nostrils flaring. The whites of his
eyes were visible. "Mr. Selwyn, if I had known about you years ago I
would have invited you to my reserves. I have heard nothing but glowing
recommendations for your skill-"
"I don't want that," Adrian countered, voice lowering to something soft
and muted. "Luna did."
Adrian clambered to his feet, swaying slightly and sauntered off. His
footsteps were ghostly quiet.
Newt had a terrible feeling in his heart.
The sun was beginning to set, and Lutain was being downright irritating.
"What do you want!" Skylar hissed under his breath, nearly stomping to
faceplant on his bed. Ron and Hermione watched in silence as the black
snake hurried after him, hissing incessantly. The more it spoke, the more
Skylar felt like something under his skin was twitching, squirming like a
dozen worms just beneath his flesh.
It itched, it made Skylar burn.
Cerestes. Lutain urged angrily. Cerestes!
"I don't know what that is!" Skylar screamed into his pillow. Ron reached
over to pat his back sympathetically. The touch sent Skylar's back
muscles twitching, spasms jerking as if his skin didn't remember how to
feel. Everything stung in a echoing tinge, something sick and wrong.
The snake hissed again, a higher breathy noise that trickled coldly down
Skylar's spine. Skylar wanted to punch a wall.
Instead, his hands clawed into the pillows further and he screamed.
Abruptly, Ron reached out to take Skylar's nearby shoulder in a firm grip.
He jolted Skylar twice, shaking him gently although with a firm strength.
Skylar snapped around, jaw closing with an audible click into a twisted
snarl. Ron's eyes widened but before any of them could comment, the low
simmering rage abruptly vanished. Snuffed out, like a single candle
flame.
Skylar panted, exhausted. The snake was done too, obviously disgruntled
but looking finished with its temper tantrum.
"...you okay there, mate?" Ron asked slowly, moving with careful obvious
movements. Skylar's chest heaved as he nodded, feeling distinctly
winded. "Yeah, thanks."
Ron only nodded, still moving slow and carefully as if Skylar was going
to lash out and strike him.
The snake coiled and looked absolutely frustrated. It opened its mouth
slowly, unhinging to unreal proportions in preparation.
Skylar spun around and with two fingers, shoved Lutain's mouth shut.
"No!" Skylar growled out, feeling the hairs on the back of his neck prickle
in annoyance, "I am really sick of you."
Cerestes, Lutain argued, tongue flickering in the air as if scolding him.
"Yeah, well, you can't have any more snake friends." Skylar snapped back,
resisting the urge to rub the bridge of his nose. "Merlin knows you have
enough."
Nagini. Lutain argued, and Skylar got the distinct feeling that the snake
was offended.
"Yeah, that snake is a bloody pain, like you."
Lutain hissed, annoyed but also curious as to the sudden banter.
"Mate." Ron spoke, low but loud enough to snap Skylar out of whatever
trance he had been in. "Mate, you're acting really weird."
"Not my fault," Skylar huffed, pointing one finger at the snake. "He
started it."
Did not.
"You totally did! Shut up!"
Lutain hissed something and looked far to ready to argue again.
Ron clapped, the sudden sharp noise and outrageous feel of the action
caused both snake and boy to freeze.
"Okay," Ron started hesitantly, "I err...well, you're really freaking me out
mate."
Skylar instantly felt guilty, hanging his head awkwardly. "Sorry, the
snake's just really riled up."
Ron snorted quietly, "What got its knickers in a twist? Feeling a bit cold?
Food too tepid for its mangy taste?"
Lutain hissed low, annoyed but not in the infuriated rage from before.
"None of that," Skylar smiled, resisting the small bubble of laughter, "it
keeps going on about that Cerestes rubbish."
Ron groaned and flopped back on the bed, "blimey, another snake? How
many we at now? Four? Five?"
"Four I think," Skylar awkwardly muttered, "Voldemort's got that giant
boa thing, and we've got Lutain. Basilisk still running loose, and now
we've got some mysterious desert snake?"
"Bollocks mate, ever think we're being played?"
Skylar jolted and looked at Ron as if he had been struck. "Played? What
do you mean?"
"Well," Ron grimaced, looking unsure but pretty determined regardless,
"it's just like...Before it was just us vs. them, you know? And now we've
got like...a dozen monsters and people to fight and it's still just us, you
know? Where did all this...shite come from? It had to take time to pop up
but everywhere we look it's a new problem."
"You think they're bluffing." Skylar's eyes widened in surprise. "I hadn't
thought of that before."
Ron rolled his shoulder in a half shrug, "I dunno mate. Feels a bit too
much like a mind trick, like, what are the chances that all of this isn't
connected."
Lutain hissed, flinching backwards as if he had something to contribute.
Ron looked decidedly unimpressed. "Oi, mangy snake. Yeah, I'm talking
about you. Shut up."
Lutain huffed and flopped into a tight coil.
Skylar hadn't ever considered that before, that all of the information used
against them was actually a bluff.
"Okay, what would you do?" Skylar asked, flopping onto his back on the
bed next to his friend.
Ron huffed something unsure, "erm, I mean, like in Wizard Chess you
always do plays, like a bunch of moves to distract or attack or to shift
things around."
"So explain the chess board to me?" Skylar asked, closing his eyes to help
visualize it. "Obviously Voldemort's the King."
"Oh bloody hell no. Those ruddy Horcrux things are the king, he's trying
to protect them. You-Know-Who is the queen."
The queen on a chess board was capable of doing all moves, the most
dangerous threat on the entire board. Often the queen was able to
destroy and remove pivotal pieces easier than any other.
"I mean, I'd imagine You-Know-Who has a bunch of close supporters,
those would be rooks, because they move straight line and you always
know where they hit and move."
That made sense. Likely Bellatrix was a rook in this metaphorical chess
set. Heavy hitter, powerful, feared.
"Then we'd have knights. Those are pretty restrained, but they're
unexpected. Bloody hard to keep track of, and they can surprise and take
quick shots at you all the time."
"That would be the basilisk." Skylar confirmed lowly, imagining how
horrible the massive beast was to look at.
"Right, damn snake. So, then we have bishops. I like to think they're the
most useful, they can skirt around and behind lines pretty easy. They pin
and counter all the time, you hate losing your bishops."
"That would be Voldemort's closest allies." Skylar spoke, but he frowned
the moment the words left his mouth. They didn't feel right. "No, no they
would be the spies, the sneaky ones?"
"Right." Skylar couldn't see Ron from where he was sprawled, but based
on his tone the red head was pleased with the analogy. "But see, in chess
bishops are only good if its an open game, because then they can move. If
its a closed game where you're all crammed together, knights are your
best."
Skylar sat up suddenly. "Ron you're a genius. We're playing an open game!
They're spreading us so thin they've made this into an open game."
"Well yeah." Ron blinked, sitting upright as well. "I reckon they've split us
up so much, we can't even tell the big threat now. We've got a raging
basilisk, Lestrange on the prowl for her rabid kid, this Cerestes bloke,
Death Eaters, and You-Know-Who!"
Skylar felt a pang of guilt twist up in him. He itched to dig around for
that extensive list he had made, all of the strange things that hadn't lined
up with Selwyn.
They were completely useless, every fact Skylar had painstakingly pulled
from Luna and Astoria.
Had Luna known? Had Luna known about Adrian or about the Horcrux
or about the Parseltongue?
(Had she betrayed them all, or was she only trying her best?)
"Remus thought that Adrian was going to try and kill me at some point."
Skylar confessed quietly. "I think that with what we know, he was
supposed to be some sort of time bomb."
Ron didn't respond for a while. The silence lagged on.
Didn't want. Lutain hissed, causing Skylar to flinch at the intrusion. The
words were thick, cloying in Skylar's brain in a way he didn't ever think
he'd get used to. Broken.
"I know," Skylar spoke suddenly, jarring Ron but it was quickly evident
Skylar was not talking to him. "Did you tell him to make the Horcrux?"
No. Lutain spoke, slowly slithering closer to be near the boy. Ron made a
low whimpering noise when he felt warm scales touch his exposed arm;
Skylar's skin tingled and hummed immediately on contact. Adalonda.
Save me.
"Yeah, I just wondered if he knew how dark it was." Skylar sighed,
throwing one forearm over his eyes. Lutain shifted, coiling up and over to
rest on Skylar's chest. The heavy weight was comforting and relaxing in a
way Skylar couldn't explain. "Why he would...why he would infect
himself."
Not useful. Lutain responded, misery so thick Skylar almost choked on it.
Not useful.
"Why would he think that?" Skylar balked in surprise, "Bloody hell,
Selwyn is one of the most talented wizards I've ever met. A bit barmy,
but still bloody useful. Merlin knows we could use him on this side."
Ron huffed sourly, "I don't think so mate. Only a matter of time before
someone clues in and Fred and George try to murder him."
"What? Why would they try to kill him? Hasn't he gone through enough?"
Ron blinked with a fairly dull and blank expression. "Sky mate, Selwyn
killed my sister."
Didn't want. Lutain defended sharply, rising upwards to show his vividly
yellow belly. Want useful.
"I think I know that he's going to die anyway." Ron sighed quietly,
fumbling his fingers over the comforter of his bed, "I think that's the only
reason I can look at him in the face."
"I-" Skylar's mouth suddenly felt dry. He knew of course, but it hadn't
sunk in properly. "Adrian is dying."
Lutain twisted and writhed and Skylar was filled with the most painful
sensation.
"Shite," Skylar gasped, curling in on himself barely aware of how his eyes
were welling and his throat felt sick, "Mas- Selwyn is dying."
Ron offered a gentle pat on Skylar's back, and that was that.
Adrian sat curled up on the outside porch, a thick patched quilt around
his shoulders hiding his body from sight. It was summer, but in the shade
of the overhang it was chilly enough Adrian wanted the blanket.
The screen door opened, bouncing off the back wall before slowly
swinging shut. A woman bounced out- literally bouncing across the balls
of her feet. Her toe nails were painted avocado green, she walked like a
dinosaur.
"Wotcher!" Tonks beamed, plopping down into a crossed leg sit next to
Adrian, gazing out over the growing corn and swaying grass. "Blimey, it
is really nice out. Remus was telling me I should grow a garden for
flowers, but all I can grow is potatoes."
Adrian's face twitched into a small smile. "I like potatoes."
Tonks nodded contently, "anyone who doesn't like potatoes is not a
person to be trusted. Especially sweet potatoes. Not to be dramatic, but
I'd sell my left kidney for a good sweet potato."
Adrian snorted lightly, a wet noise that didn't affect Tonks' grin in the
slightest.
"I didn't think anyone was going to talk to me out here." Adrian confessed
quietly.
"Well, I could go if you want." Tonks shrugged her shoulders, "but
eventually you can't run away from me. I'll get some of that muggle duct
tape and tape you to a chair at our house."
Adrian blinked rapidly in unabashed surprise before he looked at her
suspiciously. "...why?"
Tonks smiled innocently, "think of how Moony would look. You know
that 'why-are-you-like-this?' face? I live for that face."
Adrian giggled, honest to Merlin giggled. Tonks mentally cheered.
"You're going to give him a heart attack." Adrian chuckled with a small
shine to his eyes.
"Want to listen to my punk music at maximum volume?"
"Oh my-"
"Want to make matching ear piercings by stealing some of Molly's safety
pins?"
Adrian tilted his head back and laughed. It was a delightful noise, slightly
nasally (which Tonks could figure with that aristocratic bridge), and
Adrian's eyes turned squinted. Tonks already found herself loving it.
"I've been trying to convince Remus that we could totally foster magical
creatures from a preserve. I mean, I totally didn't get in trouble when I
was your age by trying to steal a tortoise from the forest."
Adrian's eyebrows shot up, "trying?"
"In my defense, tortoises are actually pretty speedy."
Adrian looked absolutely baffled in all the best ways.
The screen door opened and this time, it was Remus who poked his head
out. He had slight crease lines, he was worrying his bottom lip. The
moment he spotted the two of them, the wrinkles smoothed from his
face.
"There's the two people I was looking for." Remus sighed affectionately, a
small quirk to his mouth in all the fondest way.
"I was telling Adrian here about how I tried to steal that tortoise!" Tonks
chirped.
Remus' face pinched into the why-are-you-like-this? Face.
Tonks' expression lit up like a firecracker, Remus' softened into
something Adrian had never seen before.
"I still marvel over how you failed to capture a tortoise."
"Alright, you shut your furry rear. It was a really speedy tortoise, okay?"
Remus chuckled, warm and deep like honey. "Of course it was. I assume
you're going
to try and adopt one as well?"
"Oh Merlin no. I'm protecting my potatoes with jinxes if I need to.
Tortoises be damned, this is now war."
Adrian laughed, and the two adults glanced at him with very soft
expressions.
Someone from inside called for Tonks who pouted and rose to stumble
inside. She tripped over the door hinge, cursing a storm as she barely
made it inside before the screen banged shut behind her.
"She's wonderful."
Remus chuckled, taking Tonks' seat next to Adrian's blanket wrapped
form. Adrian paused and glanced into Remus' face, dipping slightly below
the surface in all the ways he knew he shouldn't…
"Oh." Adrian breathed, so surprised he hadn't even realized when he
verbalized his own shock, "you love her."
Remus arched one eyebrow, maintaining eye contact which was
practically an open invitation. "Go ahead."
Adrian nodded the slightest bit, tilting his head just so to peer the
slightest bit deeper. Skimming the surface of a moonlit pool, trailing
fingers through water and tangible emotion.
Remus loved her- he loved the child he loved the-
Adrian flinched back in awe, "She- she's pregnant."
Remus nodded carefully blinking slowly now as if to dispel Adrian from
any unfortunate memories in that area. "Yes, and-"
Things caught up to Adrian, and the boy found himself releasing a small
pitiful whine. He teetered, Remus catching him firmly against his side.
"You love me," Adrian whined out like a dying animal. (Which, he
supposed, he was).
Remus rested his chin on the top of Adrian's head, "Of course I do. I do
love you, Adrian."
"Even if my name isn't Adrian?"
Remus paused for only the smallest of seconds, so short it had to be
genuine. "Of course."
'You won't,' Adrian thought to himself desperately, 'you shouldn't.'
"Whatever happens, Tonks and I will always love you. Nothing will
change that." Remus assured him with soothing whispers, calloused
fingers and scarred hands running through his hair.
'I'm a monster, Remus. You shouldn't love me.'
"Even if I've done terrible things?" Adrian asked quietly, desperately in all
ways he hated.
"Always." Remus sternly affirmed, "your past does not define you. It's how
you decide to move forward, and what you do that is important."
Adrian shook his head, "I- you should hate me Remus."
"Do you want me to?"
"Y- no." Adrian paused before there was something low and wounded
steadily rising in volume. "I- I-"
"It's okay." Remus shushed him, holding him closer and beginning the
gentle movements of rocking him back and forth, "when was the last time
someone ever let you talk?"
Adrian shook his head, unable to even think.
"I'd make you a vow but my wand's too far away," Remus lightheartedly
added, running his hand in steady circles against Adrian's back, "I'm here
to listen. I think you're long overdue to just talk."
'You're going to hate me, you're going to hate me.'
"I met L-Lutain at a zoo." Adrian choked out, voice small and weak as he
tilted his head sideways to breathe. He was practically laying entirely
upon the werewolf, blankets enveloping both of them in a sweltering
shell. "H-he was in a cage. I talked to him and he escaped with me."
Remus made a low rumbling noise, assuring Adrian that he was still
listening.
"H-he lived under the car for a day because...because I didn't want him
abandoned because I mean- I've been left fou-five times now and-"
Remus slowly pulled Adrian in tighter, "we're not going to leave you,
Adrian."
"I'm not worth it." Adrian whispered.
"Yes you are."
"No I'm not."
Remus gently maneuvered Adrian, sitting next to him with the smaller
boy's hands in his. Adrian was almost sixteen now, yet he seemed so
small and frail. His skin was porcelain, waxy and clear in all the ways
skin should not be. His eyes were glazed, water filled and welling with
dismay.
"Adrian," Remus began calmly, holding his fingers tightly as if desperate
to convey some sort of message. "Adrian, there is nothing you can say or
do that will make me love you less. You deserve so much more than the
hand you've been dealt. You deserve the world and more. You are worth
it, and you are important. Nothing will ever change that."
Adrian's heart beat loudly in his ears.
Thu-thump. Thu-thump.
"I don't want to go back." Adrian whispered, finally tears tailed down his
cheeks, pooling on the underside of his jaw. "I don't want to go."
Remus' hands tightened, "Then don't."
Adrian's jaw wavered, trembling loosely. "It's not that easy."
Remus smiled softly, releasing one hand to gently brush back Adrian's
fringe, capturing his head in one of his palms. "I know, but if you don't
want to go, then I will do everything in my power to make you happy."
Thu-thump. Thu-thump.
"You said you'd never be angry with me." Adrian whispered.
"I won't."
Thu-thump. Thu-thump.
"My name isn't Adrian Selwyn."
Thu-thump. Thu-thump.
Remus shook his head slowly, "Adrian, It's okay. I don't care. That doesn't
matter."
Adrian recoiled as if struck. "I- what do you mean that doesn't matter?"
"Exactly what I said." Remus assured him strongly. "Maybe you were
named something else, maybe you were someone else. But now, you're
you. If you want to change your name, then do it. Don't let others or your
past label you as something you're not."
Adrian's mouth was dry, his head spun dizzily. "I-"
"Do you want me to call you a different name? Whatever you need, I'll
help."
If a key slid into a lock, it was then that Remus had turned it and clicked
it open.
Something new, something bright. Hope, trust, love.
Adrian didn't want to die, he didn't want to go back.
(Was this happiness? He could scarcely remember.)
"Can you keep a secret?" Adrian whispered. He had never felt
such...conviction before- such assurance that this, was the right thing.
He was tired of being alone. He was tired of doing everything and the
weight of the world on his shoulders.
(Luna had always said he didn't need to act alone, that he could rely on
others.)
"I can." Remus promised him, and for the first time Adrian felt that he
could trust someone else.
"I-" Adrian's mouth was dry, despite how much he crying and how tight
his throat felt, "I- I was left at an orphanage...I think I was s-seven?
Maybe?"
Remus nodded slowly, never did he let up in the indescribable comfort.
Slowly, Adrian's voice gained strength.
"A-and and I had Lutain...he- Bellatrix found us…" Adrian's gaze stared
off sightless, trembling ever so minutely under Remus' watch, "...she
thought that...she thought that being parseltongue would be...useful...and
she took me, and she killed so many children and she took us and she-"
"You're okay." Remus soothed, carefully adjusting to hold Adrian in a
closer grip. The boy was so dreadfully touch-starved.
"...She kept us like...I thought she was a good mother but...but she was
terrible. She hurt me so much. It- it wasn't right."
"It wasn't." Remus agreed carefully, although his voice was ever so
carefully pinched, "It was wrong. You didn't deserve that."
"I know." Adrian nearly wheezed out, nodding almost uncontrollably.
"...It...It wasn't bad, for a while. I- I brought the book back- I didn't know
what would happen, b-but the book...and then...then he was back and I
was- I thought I could make him proud." Adrian's voice broke, a shiver
ran down Remus' spine. "H-he said that I could...I just wanted to be
useful, Remus. And- and he- look at what he did to my face!"
Adrian started quiet, but by the end he was screaming. Remus could
faintly hear people scrambling inside, likely ready to burst through the
door. Remus could hear the low tones of Tonks, presumably keeping
people inside.
The implications of Adrian's screaming were bad. The way he was
shaking was even worse.
"A-and now he's coming for me." Adrian continued to sob, eyes glazed
and sightless as he was already entering the starts of an anxiety attack,
"he's sending Bella and- and they're going to find me and I don't want to
go, and- and he's going to lock me away and I don't want to be locked
away and he's going to hurt me and I know now that he- father's aren't
supposed to curse their children!"
Adrian was shaking his head and Remus could only hold him and hope
for the best.
"This- your father…" Remus trailed off, feeling so sickened he had to
pause to compose himself. "Is he…"
Adrian only cried harder.
"Adrian, listen to me." Remus shushed him, gently squeezing the arm
around Adrian's body slightly tighter to him, "Adrian, you're okay."
Adrian shook his head back and forth, the movement made Remus dizzy
just watching.
"No, listen." Remus urged him gently, "would you feel better if I called
Dumbledore? I know you may not like him, but I don't think Bellatrix
would show if he's around."
Adrian sniffed loudly, "I don't like the coot."
Remus smiled thinly, too sad to stop and think of the situation. How had
things come this far? How had they fallen apart so quickly. "Who would
you like to stay here with you? Who would make you feel better?"
Adrian sniffled wetly; Remus could smell the salt permeate the air.
"...Sirius." Adrian mumbled, confessing it with a white knuckled fist as if
he was embarrassed by the confession. "Moody."
"Then I'll call them over and I'll have them stay in the guest room. I know
Sirius has been asking about you, would it be alright to have James and
Lily here as well?"
Adrian flinched, a full body shiver that spoke volumes. He gave a small
instinctual whine, a low whispering coo that Remus had never heard
before.
"I don't want them." Adrian protested weakly, shaking his head with his
eyes screwed tightly closed. "Moony please."
Remus swallowed the guilt, "If Skylar is here, they're going to pop in now
and then. Until we can relocate Skylar to a safe house, they're going to
visit."
"W-why not the...the Black Estate?"
"Dumbledore suspects it's been compromised, it isn't safe even with the
spellwork hiding it. We'll be moving Skylar soon, but we need just a little
bit longer. A week, maximum."
Adrian shook his head and forcefully shoved his face into Remus' side.
"Moony please."
"Adrian, he's their child. You can't prevent them from checking in-"
"They can go to hell."
Remus twitched, nostrils flaring although he kept his face and breathing
regulated. "Adrian, they're good parents."
Adrian laughed, as if Remus had said something so funny. "No, no they
killed their kid."
Remus flinched for real this time. "Adrian, as much as I love you I'm
going to have to ask you to refrain from speaking about things you don't
know about."
Adrian pulled away as if burned. His face twisted up into something
furious, the agitated snarl of something wounded.
"I don't know what I'm talking about?" Adrian seethed, struggling to his
feet. The blanket fell away from him, landing in lumpy layers on the
porch. Adrian's legs shook, knobbly knees trembling like a young tree in
the wind. "I- I have every right."
Remus straightened and his expression shifted into something stony.
"That's enou-"
"No!" Adrian screamed, seemingly not caring of the likely audience inside
watching them. "I am- I am sick and tired of this. They are shite parents,
and I want to murder them myself!"
Remus stood quickly, and although he was taller than the other boy,
Adrian didn't let it intimidate him. The frail boy was flushed in fury, the
aura around him menacing in a way Remus couldn't explain. The air
itself crackled, like the impending chill of a thunderstorm.
"Adrian." Remus clipped out sharply, all too aware of likely the half
dozen wands inside, prepared to rush out and stun him. Proclaiming his
desire to murder was not smart in any instance, Adrian was no exempt
from that. "You cannot say things like that."
Adrian sneered, eyes far too bright with a pinprick pupil; terrified and
running on adrenaline.
"They deserve it!"
"You don't know what hap-"
"I deserve revenge!"
"They didn't do anything to you."
Adrian flinched and reared back, eerily like a snake. In one smooth jolt
forward, his hands curled to his sides and his voice warped far too
hissing like for a normal human vocal range. Remus could still
understand what he said, which made it that more unusual.
"They abandoned me!"
There were birds chirping. Something with a steady chirping noise Remus
may have found annoying if he lived there permanently. In that pause,
where nothing sounded and Remus couldn't even hear his heartbeat, that
one bird sang far too loud in his ears.
Adrian was silently panting, far too distraught to truly care. Slowly he
crumbled, looking more like a scared small child than a sixteen year old.
"I...I wasn't supposed to tell you that."
What? Remus' brain failed to work. It was moving sluggishly, churning
molasses and trying to free thoughts from the sticky tangle.
Adrian took one step back, nearly stumbling. "I- I wasn't supposed to say
that."
'Abandon him?' Remus thought frantically, blinking uncontrollably in
shock. 'I- It can't-'
Adrian swallowed, the movement stark against the thin skin of his throat.
It twisted the scars, stretching and shrinking them with the rapid heaving
breaths of his trachea.
Adrian looked well on his way to another panic attack, he had only just
recovered from the previous meltdown.
(They had a crowd inside, no doubt they had heard the shouting, but
Remus doubted they could have heard everything discussed.)
"Adrian," Remus began slowly, trying to calm himself to not trigger
something horrible, "how about we calm down a second. How about you
head inside to your room and lay down for a while, I'll bring you some
food."
Adrian was swaying dangerously, eyes shifting to heavily dilated. "I- I
don't-"
(Remus couldn't think. He was already overwhelmed, he needed time to
think and to figure things out.)
"It's okay, I'm not going to contact anyone. I'll be up in a minute."
Adrian shakily nodded, not moving even as Remus slowly recovered the
thick blanket and wrapped it around the small shoulders. "Let's go inside,
Adrian."
Remus moved first, a single glance around once he opened the door sent
everyone skittering out of sight. Tonks didn't move, instead she gripped
the door and held it open. Waiting only for Adrian to stumble into the
doorway before she carefully steered him towards the vacant stairwell.
Remus breathed out a heavy sigh, sagging against the open door
exhaustively.
At what point had his life devolved to this? Taking care of a fragile dy-
sick boy, treating him with as much care as an infant and with the
caution of a dragon. Adrian was...Adrian was dangerous. If half of what
he suspected (and learned from Albus) was true, then the boy already
owed years in Azkaban. His unexplained rage against James and Lily was
something that had bothered Remus for as long as he knew Adrian.
Remus had once suspected it was microaggression since Skylar was an
easy target, but Adrian had grown more passive to Skylar and more
aggressive towards James and Lily.
With what he had just said- Adrian had claimed that somehow, James
and Lily had abandoned him.
When? How?
The requirements for abandoning a child implied that at some point, they
were responsible for that child's well being. James hadn't recognized or
known Selwyn, in fact James had mournfully gone on long rants about
that damn Selwyn kid when he taught at Hogwarts that one year. James
was equally startled and a stranger to Adrian when Remus had saved him
from Knockturn alley after being cursed.
Now that was an entire basket of flobberworms Remus was too tired to
think about.
"He's the heir."
Remus jumped, he hadn't heard anyone approach. Skylar was standing
there, having come out from hiding. Ron and Hermione were not with
him, instead he stood in the center of the floor as if to block Remus' way.
Skylar was...he stood like a statue. Stiff, unmoving and slightly hunched
forwards. Eyes wide, he didn't blink and the expression was quickly
becoming unsettling.
The snake was coiled around him, draped over his shoulders and around
his ribs almost lovingly; Lutain was wearing Skylar.
"Adrian Selwyn is the heir to Slytherin." Skylar spoke, voice somewhat
flat although thank Merlin he finally blinked. "Lutain told me."
"What else has Lutain told you?" Remus asked slowly, wary as the black
snake looked at him silently. It didn't even flicker its tongue.
Skylar's eyes were off, they were muddied and different and wrong. The
color was- Remus was too far to see-
"Lutain and I have made a deal." Skylar spoke blankly before blinking
and looking away, focusing at a corner without actually seeing it. "I'm the
Chosen One, after all."
"Lutain, If I give you protection and I carry you with me for as long as you
want, can you give me the information I need?"
'Carry me. Cherish me. Protect me.'
"All of that. But I need your help. If you help me, I'll let you use me."
'Deal.'
ippon: I still dont get why they (Dumbledore, the Potters, etc.) let Lutain
stay with Skylar. I mean okay, they dont know that a Horcrux can
influence a person, but they do know that Lutain can somehow transmit
words, feelings etc to Skylar. And as far as they know he is Adrians
familiar and has a piece of his soul in it. At this point they also know that
Adrian murdered someone in Hogwarts and was raised by Bellatrix, so
why in gods name would they let his snake stay near Skylar?
Double assurance. Skylar is relatively safe if he has Lutain- nobody would
dare accidentally hurt Lutain from Voldemort's side, and Lutain serves as
protection for Skylar. Of course, this entire things isn't ideal, but considering
what they have it's the best they've got. Skylar won't let Lutain be taken from
him.
EmperorVolt: Correct me if I'm wrong, but Adrian is dying of a sickness
that infects the soul. Adrian is a Horcrux, and has a Horcrux. So when he
dies of an infection of the soul (assuming he does) does that he will come
back even though it was infecting his soul, because he has a Horcrux?
You're pretty good at this. If Adrian dies, his body will contain only
Voldemort's Horcrux and the parasite only. Adrian will still have half a soul in
Lutain. The parasite is not transmitted to animals.
Guest:Oh, so a very obscure combination to kill Adrian very quickly and
very painfully, the potion being given as a power boost by eating the
soul, then slicing said soul in half. Adalonda really wanted him to suffer.
Exactly, I'm so relieved you all caught on so quickly.
wolfclaw1098: I thought voldemorr wanted to keep his horcrux/
weapon useful why did he give him something to kill him ?
The parasite was given to Adrian by Barty Crouch Jr. who didn't know Adrian
was Voldemort's heir. Adalonda forced Adrian to infect himself with the
parasite, Voldemort still doesn't know about it.
noulis: A parasite is a failure of it kills its host, so was this one made
artificially, or maybe was transferred from some other creature...
Cordyceps inspired actually. The parasite is completely fine to kill its host, it
functions to develop and spread and infect others and continue its life cycle.
The potion was originally plant based, causing plants to leak infected sap. It
somehow spread and became blood-based.
fanfic-addict91: [an idea that]Adrian creating a SECOND horcrux, this
time amputating the corrupted part of his soul. Assuming he can get
everything at once. And I believe it's more likely you do this because it
involves more conflict and controversy.
Fascinating concept. Not what I have written, but this is a brilliant idea.
Roostertheking: Why did Adalonda allowed Adrian eat the parasite...
She knew it will kill him..she knew he is voldemort's son..who is her
master? Or is she plain evil who want every one to die expect her?
Adalonda has no master. Adalonda is a cruel, ancient monster that lives to
amuse herself and treat others as trash.
vaxaeon: It's really quite selfish but I want Adrian to finally act rather
than be a victim of things happening. He had a goal to get revenge on his
family and Lutain's perceived (slight) betrayal and the later death of
Remus (especially if Remus died defending a potter or anyone that isn't
Adrian) would probably spur him to action on the only concrete goal he
has in his entire, sad, short existence.
I think next chapter, Adrian murders someone~ Your controversial staement
two, I completely agree with.
DeviousClass: That's disgusting. Why did Barty gave [the parasite] to
Adrian again ?
Not that long ago Adrian would have love to meet Nwet... (Quick english
question : how do I phrase this sentence correctly because I sense it's not
real english ? :/)
Barty infected himself with the parasite also, if you go back and read you can
see the super subtle signs of it. He didn't know who Adrian was, he wanted to
make a powerful weapon for his lord from some poor anxious kid. ('Not that
long ago, Adrian would have loved to meet Newt.')
Comrade'sRoza: By the way, how long is this story going to be?
80 Chapters!
OmnipotentOminousmagician: If this parasite and an obscurus are
similar, could he not survive just as Credence has? Also, why did Adrian
not just just try to set Skylar alight or kill him some othercwsy right then
and there? Lutain would have jumped off Skylar so he would be in no
danger. Surely he had the perfect opportunity to kill Skylar?
The parasite is different than an obscurus. A different parasite infection,
although they were indeed both parasites. Different treatment, different
symptoms, different deaths. If Lutain leaves Skylar, there is no promise that
Adalonda will die. Skylar living assures that Adalonda dies.
61. Perforate
This chapter was beta'd by our amazing Beta Collective
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'It's not fair it's not fair I dont I don't understand what what did Crouch-'
Dusk was falling, and Lutain was growing more unsettled by the hour.
The sun had fallen below the horizon, casting a ghostly orange hue to
splash against the clouds in a vivid misting of crimson and pumpkin
orange. It was beautiful, reflecting off the growing rows of corn and
painting dark green leaves to dark shades near black. Speckles of colour
on waxy leaves, reminiscent of the frothy spread of blood in a perforated
lung.
Skylar felt hazy, as if his brain resembled something more like damp
parchment. Wet, distorted, liable to turn to mush under enough pressure.
Lutain was constricting, tight along his shoulders and chest with his head
resting heavily atop Skylar's skull.
Cerestes. Lutain urged with unmistakable panic, Cerestes!
Skylar didn't understand, he had half a mind to swat the snake to the
floor.
"Everything alright, mate?" Ron asked lowly, eyeing him from across the
bed with cautious eyes.
No, everything wasn't alright.
Hermione worried her lip, looking at Ron with something unspoken.
"Skylar, you know you can talk to us." Hermione urged, eyes nearly
watering with some sort of restrained emotion. "Something's wrong, isn't
it?"
Skylar gave the briefest nod. "Yeah, I don't….I don't know what but
something's coming."
Lutain hissed sourly. Cerestes.
The same name again, repeating over and over although it had some sort
of meaning Skylar didn't know. A meaning he should know. "The snake is
repeating Cerestes again."
Hermione's brow furrowed, "like an omen?"
Cerestes! Lutain hissed furiously, sounding desperate as if he was holding
something back.
Skylar was tired of it. He knew Adrian was the heir, something had
wormed into his skull and told him only hours prior. Since then, he lived
in a daze. Unable, and incohesive to the world around him.
"Tell us something new." Skylar spoke bluntly, barely blinking as he was
aware of every scale, ever breath of his companion. "Or stop talking
entirely."
Lutain's reluctance was nearly tangible. So sour and potent, Skylar could
nearly taste it on his tongue.
Mad lady. Lutain whispered quietly. Soon. I think.
Skylar inhaled sharply, eyes widening in alarm. "When? Lutain, when?"
Lutain twitched, but once the dam opened it was impossible to restrain
the tide. Night.
Skylar cursed so foul Ron's eyes widened. "Hermione, we- we've got to
go."
Hermione paled, but nodded. She stumbled for something, muttering
under her breath as she started gathering random objects from around
the room. She placed them on the bed hurriedly. A few rolled inwards
from Skylar's body weight, resting against his thigh encouragingly.
"Wait, mate." Ron stumbled, clearly baffled by how quickly the
atmosphere escalated. "We need details."
Skylar inhaled slowly and turned to look at Lutain with a small glare.
"Hear that Lutain? We need details. Now."
Lutain managed to somehow look guilty, floundering a few seconds
before grudgingly. This night. Attack. Cerestes. Here.
That wasn't much to go on, but it was enough for Skylar.
"We're getting that contingency plan going," Skylar bit out, looking at
Hermione who already was hauling a nondescript canvas bag from the
back of the closet. "Just in case."
Ron nodded without question. "The plan where we go looking for those
Horcrux thingies? Or the one where we get to that safehouse? Mate, we
can't apparate yet even!"
"I can." Hermione confessed quietly, blushing under the two boys' amazed
stares. "Tonks taught me. Honestly! I wanted to prepare just in case and
Tonks is surprisingly good at apparating!"
"Huh." Ron blinked without question, "so...which plan?"
Skylar swallowed thickly. "I...I don't know. I think something is coming
here- that Cerestes bloke is going to attack here- likely for Selwyn."
"Adrian isn't in the right mind for that." Hermione's lip wobbled, "I- you
saw him earlier!"
"Shite, that's bad timing." Ron sighed but looked far too tired of the
situation in general. "Bloody hell, our parents are going to murder us."
Skylar exhaled quietly and knew he couldn't argue that. He had tried
sneaking out earlier that summer and was downright terrified that his
mother was going to snap his wand with how furious she had been. Molly
Weasley had exploded time and time again over Ron's safety, Skylar
didn't know how Hermione's parents were okay with her being there the
entire summer.
The problem, was that the parents didn't understand. The war was bigger
than some...some societal concept of a proper childhood. Skylar couldn't
sit back and wait for everything to blow over, the war wasn't going to
wait until he was middle aged.
People were dying, and it was his duty to stop Voldemort. Learning
advanced potions or how to do a couple new spells wasn't going to
change that fact.
(His parents didn't understand. Dumbledore did, that was why he told him
about the Horcruxes. That's why he confided in Skylar about them.)
"It doesn't matter what our parents' think." Skylar admitted quietly. His
heart hammering in his chest. "If...If everything we know and suspect is
true, then Voldemort's got a half dozen magical artifacts that're keeping
him alive. We have a starting point, we have an idea on what to do and
where to look and we're the only one that can stop him."
Hermione nodded quietly, although she looked terrified of the prospect.
Ron nodded grimly, he had long since understood that.
"Mr. Scamander is going to take care of the basilisk." Skylar continued to
explain with a rush, "he and Dumbledore are going to try and stop that
thing."
"The rest of the Order I thinks trying to stop the attacks, and figure out
what his followers are up to." Ron's brows furrowed as he chewed his lip,
"some Gringotts nonsense or something."
"Which means we need to find those secret objects." Hermione sighed, "oh
I hate this."
"On the bright side, we already know about a few." Skylar soothed the
two, "Dumbledore let me know his suspicions. He has the one, but he's
pretty sure that the snake is one, so is Slytherin's locket and Hufflepuff's
goblet."
Lutain snapped his head up, although frustratingly said nothing.
"Any idea where those may be?" Ron asked rhetorically, flopping
backwards onto his bed in disbelief. "Congrats, so we have three,
Professor Dumbledore has four, we still are missing two then, but those
are probably Gryffindor's thing and Ravenclaw's thing."
"Sounds easy." Hermione jokingly added, although her voice was weak.
This was looking like a horrible adventure ahead of them. "I hate this,
Sky."
Skylar hated it just as much. "I'm going to Floo Dumbledore, let him
know that there's likely going to be an attack tonight. Keep packing."
Hermione nodded sagely, sighing down at the bed as if the world was
falling apart at her fingertips. "Alright, I need to thank Mr. Scamander for
that expansion spell. Truly something amazing."
Skylar was sure that it was.
Lutain tightened slightly, dragging Skylar back to the threat at hand.
With one hand, he shushed the snake and the other he patted Hermione's
shoulder. "We'll get through this fine, guys."
Hermione shook her head, "Skylar, we don't even know how to destroy
these Horcruxes!"
Skylar knew. Dumbledore had confided in him why killing the basilisk
was now such a priority. Basilisk venom was one of the few things
capable of destroying a Horcrux.
(Adrian Selwyn, was a basilisk animagus.)
"Don't worry about that." Skylar smiled weakly, "I uh, I have that
covered."
What would Adrian Selwyn possibly desire enough to help them?
(Lutain and Skylar both could only think of one thing.)
They appeared like lightning bugs, barely visible through the growing
stalks of corn. Floating a pale blue, they circled around the house like
wolves.
Remus peered out the window, spotting them instantly and growing
tense. Tonks glanced at him quietly, then at the fireplace hesitantly.
"Go get Albus." Remus murmured, face stony.
"I- Adrian said only Sirius and old Moody." Tonks nearly whispered back.
"I don't want to upset him."
Remus licked his lip worriedly, "I think it's Bellatrix. Tonks, please, get
Albus."
Tonks chewed her lower lip before she looked at the fireplace with a kink
in her eyebrows. "I-...I can't. I'm sorry, I don't want to break Adrian's
trust."
Remus turned to look at her directly, pausing and nearly stepping
backwards at the strangely determined expression on Tonks' face.
"Tonks-..."
"No, let me…" Tonks inhaled and let it out slowly. "Remus Lupin, I
understand completely where you're coming from, but just as much as
Adrian is your child he is also mine. I know that this seems….bad, but if
Adrian said not to get Albus then by Merlin's name I'm not going to just
go get him!" Tonks had a slight flush, her eyes wide but Remus hadn't
seen her look so certain in his life.
Instantly his face softened, "Tonks...I- I just want him to be safe."
Tonks wrung her hands with a small sigh, "Remus, he's practically an
adult now and he's not the best, but he's still alive. Merlin, I have more
trust that he'll be okay than you being okay."
Remus chuckled softly, although he didn't look any less tense. Tonks
smiled knowingly. She lifted on her tiptoes, drawing her face close to his
jawline. "I'll go wake Moody and Sirius, okay?" She whispered gently,
giving a couple pats on Remus' shoulder as she sauntered off in the near
dark. Remus didn't realise he was smiling until long after she left.
Moments like those reminded Remus of just how fond he was of Tonks.
The flickering lights were growing larger, closer. It wasn't good. There
were many, likely five or six shapeless forms in the corn.
"Great," Remus sighed through his nose, tense in the dark where he
squinted out over the kitchen sink. "Five Death Eaters, and Bellatrix
Lestrange."
"Hate that bitch." Someone grumbled behind him quietly, Sirius
scampering through the dark carefully and hanging low out of sight.
Sirius blended in well with the night, practically invisible even where he
loosely brushed against Remus' side. "Five you think?"
Remus squinted out once again, his eyesight was generally superior to
others in the dark. "I'm fairly sure. If it's Bellatrix, it's likely the other two
Lestranges with her."
"Rabastan and Rodolphus." Sirius grunted back quietly, "yeah, Selwyn
talked about them a bit. They'd likely come with. Selwyn mentioned
Rowle too."
"Rowle? Damn, he's a good dueler." Remus grimaced slightly, holding his
breath as someone knew with a limp joined them in the dark.
"Good, you're already here." Moody grumbled, miraculously quiet as he
too stared out, magical eye rolling around. "How many?"
"Six total," Sirius repeated back, "Bellabitch for sure, we're guessing
Rabastan and Rodolphus Lestrange also, possibly Rowle, but we don't
know about the final two."
Moody gave a small frown, "Greyback. I can see him out there, didn't
think we'd spot him but I see that mangy dog. Not Rowle, the gait's all
wrong."
"Great," Sirius huffed under his breath, "Tonks is sending the delay to
Albus, if we don't check in again he's coming over with Shacklebolt.
Somehow he already knew, there's a raid over by Cardiff right now, but
Tonks has got him updated."
Remus' mouth flickered into a small smile. He had underestimated Tonks
yet again.
Sirius gave a small chuckle, a huge wordless grin spreading across ear to
ear. His eyes were sparkling. "Moony, you're adorable."
Remus flushed and drew his wand with a pointed look.
Sirius nearly wheezed with how he tried to keep his laughing silent.
"Oh Merlin, you killed him." Tonks whispered, sliding back into the small
group. Her hair was as black as Sirius' and for once Remus could see the
family resemblance.
"Not yet, cousin." Sirius grinned, his teeth white in the dark.
"Alright." Moody grumbled quietly under his breath, "This is the plan. I'll
take Greyback, I can spot him better in the dark than you folk."
"I'll take Bellatrix." Remus murmured quietly, causing Moody to shake his
head sharply.
"No, none of that." Moody growled out, eye rolling around. "You're too
big a target against her, and you don't have formal training. You take on
Rabastan and Rodolphus, don't worry about taking them out, just keep
them distracted enough. Tonks, you're on support for Remus or Sirius
depending on who needs it."
"Great, I get the bitch." Sirius grinned, rolling his head and popping his
neck a few times. "And by that, I'm just distracting her until Greyback is
down, then we switch and she's the main target?"
"You know it." Moody grumbled with a rare grin, "Ready?"
From behind the group, a new voice spoke up in the dark. "No. I'm
walking out there. You're staying in here."
In the center of the kitchen Adrian Selwyn stood wearing a black robe he
likely stole from Hermione (it was quite small but fit him better than
anyone else's would), with his eyes sharp and nearly glowing in the dark.
Remus opened his mouth to protest before Moody lifted one hand to
demand silence.
"...You expecting them?" Moody inquired with a small squint, jerking his
head in the direction of outside.
Adrian tilted his neck slightly, a large black stain vanishing from the side
of his throat in the imprint of scales. "I heard. They're here to pick me
up."
Moody's lip curled in annoyance, "You taking that bloody snake with
you?"
Adrian twitched slightly, his face unreadable."No. Skylar...likes him."
Remus would have to address the way Adrian's body twitched, as if the
admittance hurt him.
"You'll walk right out there, and leave with Lestrange?" Moody asked
with a frown, visibly skeptic, "we're supposed to trust you?"
Adrian rubbed his upper arm uncomfortably, "The- Voldemort's currently
based at Rowle's manor. Near Kirkwall. It's warded against muggles but
nothing against wizards, it would show up on ministry scans although its
supposedly abandoned."
Remus inhaled sharply, Tonks blinked in surprise.
Sirius had the strangest reaction yet. He lowered himself to his knees,
now lower in height than Adrian himself. Sirius' face looked sad but he
extended one hand with a small grimace. "Hey, kid. Look, we never got
along amazing but...I don't know. I grew up with arses and really, after
all this shites over you need to come over. I respect you kid, hang in
there. Helps coming eventually."
Adrian's eyes were wide and he genuinely looked taken off guard. "I-
Black?"
"Sirius." Sirius quickly corrected with a small smile, "You're not a bad kid,
Adrian. I mean, shites been bad for you but in a lot of ways you're so
much better than I was with all that pureblood family crap. Maybe after
this, we'll go wreck some more couches, eh?"
Adrian's eyes were wet, but he nodded and accepted the outstretched
hand, shaking it slightly. "Alright. I need to go."
"Selwyn." Moody grumbled, nodding towards the front door, "first sign of
trouble, we're coming out."
Adrian gave a small nod before he snuck past and paused in front of
Remus and Tonks.
Tonks was smiling but there was no way to disguise how heartbroken she
looked.
Remus wasn't faring better, especially when Adrian focused his attention
on him and only him.
"Remus…" Adrian paused, voice lingering between them before dragging
off hoarsely. It sounded pained, accompanied by the way his throat felt
thick. "I-..."
Remus smiled weakly, "It's okay." It isn't.
Adrian shook his head slightly, "I- the…" Adrian exhaled shakily and his
hands curled into fist, "I- it's Harry."
Remus blinked in confusion, opening his mouth before Adrian looked at
him with desperate seriousness. "My- my name. It's Harry."
Harry. Har-
Oh.
Oh.
Remus was frozen in shock, and in that moment Adrian slipped past him
and out of the front door. Leaving like a whisper, unspoken and hanging
in the air between them.
The door banged shut behind him, and in that moment the darkness
swallowed his shadow until he was gone.
Across the yard, a single bobbing light darted forward.
"There's Bellatrix." Moody grumbled under his breath, watching
attentively as slowly a dark figure made its way over the grass in the
dark.
Sirius grimaced and inched towards the door, "I don't like this. It's too
calm, they're too spread out."
"I know." Moody grumbled, squinting before his mouth curled and he
shook his head, "Get Albus. It's a trap, they're going to attack the house."
"Mr. Newt put up wards on the whole house before Adrian got here,"
Tonks supplied, voice low as she rattled off the information, "It'll hold all
the way up to Fiendfyre and blasting curses."
"Remind me to give that man my thanks." Moody nodded, slowly making
his way to the door. "Sirius, think you can get around them and flank
them?"
Sirius didn't reply more than shifting smoothly into a lean black dog,
sleek and invisible in the night. He knew which side Greyback was on, he
would go around the other way.
Moody opened the door slowly, being sure the hinges didn't creak. Tonks
in return grabbed a paperweight, other hand filled with floo powder
ready to send the waiting signal. Remus hung back with Moody, ready to
burst out with wands raised the moment Sirius made the signal, or
Bellatrix attacked.
They didn't have to wait long at all.
Adrian walked over the grass slowly, hearing it crunch under his feet.
He knew where to walk, something dragging and pushing him further out
to where the corn was towering high. His breaths were loud, puffs that he
forced in and out as each step lolled him further.
The stolen robe was itchy, scratching on his exposed arms where his shirt
didn't cover. It was a miracle his trousers could be drawn tight enough.
He saw the light, the main glowing one that was rapidly approaching. He
could detail faintly the chaotic black hair.
"Bella!" Adrian shouted, knowing his voice was slightly hoarse. The light
wavered slightly, before it bobbed and the woman took off in a sprint.
He almost clued in too late that the woman would have tackled him to
the ground. He skittered aside, fumbling jerkily to avoid her sharp nailed
grab, well aware of how disastrous his blood spilled would be.
Bellatrix was suddenly there, face gaunt and crazed and teeth bared in a
snarl (had he once thought it was a smile?) and everything Adrian didn't
want.
"My baby." She cooed, swaying in place as she fumbled in her cloak,
yanking out a wand Adrian hadn't seen in a long while. "Your wand!"
(Something about it felt wrong, to take it so casually when he had no
memory of where Sirius put his other.)
"Thank you." Adrian nodded back, taking the wood back in an
unpracticed grip. Bellatrix's snarl was uncomfortable.
"I missed you!" She chirped like something foul, "You're so pretty and tall
now!"
(He was disgusting and stunted.)
Adrian didn't say anything, he only placed his wand in his sleeve in the
cheap sewn in wand holster. It was bound to slip later on, he just needed
his hands free to avoid Bellatrix's talons. The corn was swaying high
around them.
"How did you find me?" Adrian asked flatly, not bothering to fake a
pleasantry. It was dark enough he doubted that the woman would see his
facial details well, even with the lumos.
"Oh!" Bella's voice chirped like a wren. "Cissy! I took her brat and he
found out about those blood traitors! Knew where you'd likely be!"
(Merlin, had Bellatrix always been so...batty?)
"Draco?" Adrian translated after a second, pausing to gather his thoughts.
"He's...here?"
That would be a revelation for the blonde. Adrian almost wished he had
seen the other's face when Bellatrix stormed into his house.
"Yep!" Bella nearly giggled, spinning around to face the blackened field,
"Draco!"
She shrieked hoarsely, loud and arrogant with the slumbering house
behind them. With this level of carelessness, how had she never been
taken down before?
(She had, he almost forgot about Azkaban and what it had done to her.)
The corn parted after a second, fumbling under clunky footsteps stirring
soil and mice. Adrian's eyes glowed in the face of the lumos spell,
practically shoved right in front of him. The yellow brightened eerily, as
if he was something beyond human anymore.
Draco on the other hand, looked terrified.
His skin was pale, translucent yet not to the point of sickly. Stressed more
likely, eyes nearly bulging with the effort of each forced breath. A fake
calm to not impede his movements and functioning, a terrible coping
mechanism.
Adrian felt his mouth curling, the one half grin he spent years practicing
in the mirror to just look unsettling enough. Instinctive and dry, twisting
the scars across his face until it looked painful.
"Hi Draco." Adrian chirped, the effort falling flat as his tone didn't sound
nearly chipper enough. He sounded tired, exhausted and ready to be
taken away. "Sorry about Bella. She get impatient."
Bella snarled, and without hesitation Adrian turned and drew his wand,
pointing it between her eyes with a twisted grimace on his face. "Bella,
shut up."
Either out of respect for his father, or out of admiration for his sudden
maturity, Bellatrix fell back with no noise. Draco's nostrils flared with the
force of his inhales and exhales. If not for the careful regulation, Adrian
was sure the blonde would have been hyperventilating.
"Hi." Draco croaked out, his voice breaking and fragmenting to where it
was almost unrecognizable.
Adrian nodded out towards the others staying hidden in the field. "Who
else did you bring? Rodolphus and Rabastan also. Was that Fenrir I
heard?"
Bellatrix took two steps forward, hunching over and resting her boney
chin on his shoulder as if he was okay with it. (He wasn't.)
"What good ears." She crooned happily, "That silly dog wanted to come
light some fires. That bastard traitor is here too."' Bellatrix sneered looking
annoyed. "He called you lackluster."
That left Adrian blinking in surprise, "I- Snape? Not Rowle?"
"Off doing something. Paper pushers or something boring." Bellatrix
dismissed without a care. Anything Rowle was doing was likely
incredibly important. Draco swallowed thickly.
"Right, well." Adrian sighed, running one hand across the back of his
neck, "did you bring my cloak also?"
Bellatrix grinned and dug around in her cloak with shaking fingers. Her
breath smelled foul, she was a marionette with rusted gears. Adrian
despised her, something about her...existence, was rubbing him wrong.
Bellatrix tugged it out with a flourish, the long tassels along the bottom
refused to abide to gravity and floated leisurely after the fabric,
unsettling and ethereal in all the wrong ways. It was terribly ironic, how
his appearance was made to match something so foul.
Draco paled once more, looking even more horrified as Bellatrix lowered
herself to one knee to assist Adrian into it, then sinking lower into the
dirt and mud humbly.
The cloak was cold in the way silk was, gentle and soothing against the
irritated spots of skin where the borrowed cheap cloak scratched him. It
was luxury and gentle and Adrian felt like he was burning in it.
"My Lord." Bellatrix hissed with a giggle, huffing out breaths of poorly
restrained laughter as Draco whimpered.
"Stop that." Adrian snapped, glaring at Bellatrix as his irritation rose. "I
was never given that title. Let's go already. Merlin knows I'm going to get
enough shite from this." Adrian muttered under his breath, walking past
Bella without looking back. "And Draco? Try not to be an arse, because
this time, someone else will kill you."
Draco gulped and shook his head, "I- I'm sorry."
Adrian paused, and turned to look at him. Half hidden under the cloak,
green and yellow sunburst staring with a look of undisguised rage.
"No." Adrian spoke, short and flat. "No, you aren't sorry. You don't want
to die, and now you realize that I can kill you."
From behind him, someone gave a huffing gruff laugh, swaggering
through plants with a hunched position. Adrian didn't look, he was
practically untouchable now.
"You don't have that courage yet, lord." The man growled, a low bass
rumble that Adrian placed at once.
"Greyback." Adrian sighed, this time taking a step to turn and face the
man directly. "So we meet. I've heard a lot about you."
He didn't look how Adrian expected him to. He looked more...more like
an animagus than a werewolf, somehow his features were morphed and
emphasized even in human form. His teeth were long, canines poking out
from his upper lip like some sort of eldritch horror. He was covered in
grey scar tissue, his eyes golden despite the full moon not near. Ink
traced over his exposed ears, the illusion of points and fur tracing down
his neck. Adrian couldn't see his hands, but they were likely long and
pointed.
"I haven't heard about you much." Greyback laughed, a low chuffing
noise as he approached leisurely, hunching over and looking more
impressive by the second.
"I'm something of a secret weapon, dog." Adrian coldly retorted. He was
well aware of how Draco was shaking beside him. Obviously terrified out
of wits end.
"Me?" Greyback's bushy eyebrow lifted as he finally got to the point
where he was nearly walking on his hands, prowling towards Adrian
savagely. "You look more like the Lord's lap dog, brat. How I'd love to
sink my teeth into you."
If Lutain were here, this was when he would rise. Hissing and dancing
and exposing his dazzlingly yellow belly and long fangs. Lutain wasn't
there, no matter how Adrian looked at it.
Adrian on the other hand, he had fangs himself.
"Oh really?" Adrian asked, already starting to grin as he focused and tried
to shift ever so slowly. It wasn't as slow and as careful as he wanted- he
could feel his hair shifting oddly as the plume began to rise like a sail.
His eyes itched in the weird cloudy yellow they always turned, glowing in
the dark.
His teeth were sharpening, the large carnivorous rows of backwards
hooks; he nearly stumbled to force the change to simply...stop.
"Take a bite out of me." Adrian purred, all of the pent up aggression and
frustration coming through in the morbid amusement over the situation.
His words, still English, held a very heavily accented hiss.
Draco whimpered quietly, although not as much as Greyback's full body
flinch backwards. Instinctively repelled by the basilisk, even without his
eyes showing.
(He never knew how to get his eyelids to lift. He'd have to ask Adalonda
about it when everything was over.)
"Well, look at you." Greyback rumbled lowly, staying low to the ground
in a reluctant submissive pose. "Looks like my runt did house you in."
Bellatrix snapped her head around ,eyes wide in unmistakable disgust.
"Excuse me? Your runt?"
"Y-yes." Draco stuttered up, clearing his throat as he tried to summon
words, "he- Selwyn's been w-with Remus Lupin, the d- werewolf."
Greyback snapped halfheartedly at Draco, causing the boy to flinch away.
Bellatrix, well, she had little to stop her from any slurs.
"A filthy monster?" she practically screamed, "taking care of my Adrian?"
Oh, Draco had really done it now.
"I change my mind!" Bellatrix hollered, pulling her wand and spinning
towards the sleeping house, "Confringo!"
The curse flew, then impacted some sort of invisible barrier and exploded
sharply with a rattling bang like fireworks. Anyone who had still been
sleeping wouldn't be anymore.
Adrian sighed through his nose, half out of anxiety and half out of
frustration. Why couldn't they just leave already?
"What?" Bellatrix guffawed, pausing and staring at her wand as if it was
the flaw.
"There's a ward, you buffoon. If they hadn't grown suspicious of Mr.
Selwyn's absence, you've essentially blown all semblance of cover."
Someone drawled from behind, slipping through the corn to join the
group. Snape was being escorted on either side by Rabastan and
Rodolphus.
"Kid," Rodolphus grunted with a small nod, his brother had a small grin
as Snape flinched slightly at the sight of Adrian.
Oh, this was deliciously hilarious.
"So." Adrian paused, pointedly staring at Snape with a rather
unimpressed look. "I heard you called me lackluster."
Snape had a phenomenal grasp on his expression. Nothing shifted,
although Adrian could tell that underneath it all, he was unsettled.
"My apologies." Snape clipped back, but made no further advancement to
grovel.
Adrian frowned, "That's not very...apologetic."
Remus had told him it was rude to pry into people's head, but
considering that this was Snape of all people, he felt he was allowed that
right.
Snape grunted slightly and his legs began to buckle. Flashes drifted too
quickly through Adrian's head, images and pictures too disjointed and
frazzled to clearly be seen or deciphered. Snape's head was chaotic and
torn, shredded with a disarray of thoughts and ideas and lies and truths
that it was impossible to see.
Adrian pulled back roughly with no care for being nice. It was relieving
to have no care of subtlety, when he pressed past Sirius' eyes he was so
gentle it made his hands shake. Snape, he tore free like a barbed hook
from a fish's cheek.
"That was disappointing." Adrian sighed, although all three Lestrange's
didn't seem to comprehend what had happened. With one look, Snape
was left recovering undignified. Draco flinched once again, Greyback
cackled.
"Well." Bellatrix huffed with a frown, "I want to blow up that house. And
slit my cousins throat."
Without further prompting, she spun and cast Fiendfyre.
"Shite!" Draco hissed under his breath, throwing himself on the ground as
the chaotic dark magic spun and burned and spread far too quickly and
untamed for even Adrian's taste. It rose and fought against the barrier,
singing and coiling like a wildfire quickly spreading outwards. Even if it
couldn't break the local ward, it could trap it in a hurricane of smoke and
eventually choke out the occupants.
Adrian fell to his knees as Greyback leapt over him, claws just shy of
piercing his cloak. A second later the werewolf was running towards the
building, howling oddly in his human voice.
Snape cursed and stood, trying to throw off the restraining hands of the
Lestrange brothers. Draco stayed on the ground in shock.
"Shite," Adrian hissed under his breath, running his hands through his
hair and dislodging his cloak.
Bellatrix on the other hand, spun and started gouging out the earth with
huge crevices all while blasting at the ward with darker and darker
curses. The bangs were getting louder until the shock waves were so hard
Adrian felt his ears pop.
A second later, and something slammed into Rodolphus and Rabastan,
sending them sailing towards the ground. Adrian didn't miss the way
Snape grabbed Draco and took off into the fields out of sight.
Instead, Rodolphus screamed as a large black dog bit into his arm,
spilling blood into the air.
"No!" Bellatrix screamed, spinning around and pointing her wand at
Sirius who took up a terrifying snarl. His teeth were pink and dripping
froth, his body invisible.
A second later, spells were flying from the direction of the house.
Adrian hit the ground and rolled, trying to keep under the fray as
Bellatrix countered with more and more violent spells. Rabastan
recovered and sent Sirius flying, he shifted back halfway in the air to
land sprawled on the ground just shy of the fire.
"Why does everything involving you," Sirius shouted face first into the
ground, "involve bloody fire."
Bellatrix screamed and Moody joined in, deflecting her curses and
cursing as Greyback lunged at him, nearly removing his one good eye.
Just as Rodolphus nearly sent a cutting curse into Sirius, Tonks flew out
from nowhere and sent a shield up, deflecting the shield towards Bellatrix.
"You look like someone who licks toes!" Tonks screeched at Rabastan,
causing the man to pause in downright bafflement.
Sirius sprang up and sent a blasting hex, nailing the man's hip and
projected him across the field. "Cousin, if that's your smack talk, we need
to work on it." Sirius grinned in response, shielding a haywire spell.
Of course, all good things could never last.
Adrian had expected them to leave quickly, but Bellatrix would not ever
pass the opportunity to take shots at what she herself was angry with.
Adrian had thought that she was simply furious with Remus, in his care
and adoption of him from under her hands. He thought that her rage and
wrath and the relentless curses were simply for dramatics.
The door to the house slammed open, and lo and behold, Skylar Potter
with Lutain coiled around his throat stood in the doorway with a
determined expression.
Adrian inhaled sharply, eyes wide as he struggled to his feet and
screamed in Parseltongue "Lutain! No!"'
Of course, he didn't listen.
Skylar and Lutain leapt through the flames, clumsily shielding to get
through. It was a miracle the boy could shield at all. Tonks spotted the
brown haired boy and started cursing under her breath, her vulgarity a
sharp contrast to the playful sass from before.
Adrian clutched his wand and rose, spitting out a deflection spell to clash
with what was likely lethal.
"Skylar!" Adrian hissed, stumbling his way over the grass and countering
the flames with his wand for once, "do you have a death wish?"
"No!" Skylar heaved for breath, shifting without thought to press his back
against Adrian's. "I can't let Bellatrix get away!"
"What the-" Adrian honestly stumbled, his brain short circuiting over the
sheer stupidity of what the boy had said. "Have you ever stopped and
thought for one second in your life?"
Lutain hissed, pressing his scales around as he looped his coils around
both Skylar and Adrian, a living chain to tie them together. "He's not as
smart as you."
Adrian snorted and Skylar huffed sourly.
"Shut up, you garden hose." Skylar panted out, yelping as a stunner came
far too close. "I'm plenty smart!"
"Wait-" Adrian flinched in alarm, "you- did you just understand him?"
"Duck!" Skylar screamed, reaching behind him aimlessly to grab Lutain
(and Adrian's throat) and pull them to the ground.
Just in time for Fenrir Greyback to leap from the burning haze and smoke
and press Skylar to the ground with one massive clawed hand.
Skylar gasped, inhaling hoarsely in panic as his breathing cut off.
Adrian inhaled in alarm, Lutain didn't respond to Skylar's wordless pleas.
"Skylar!" Remus shouted, not at all happy but desperate under it all.
Adrian could understand that- shite was he supposed to save Skylar?
A curse flew through the air, and hit Remus' side with dangerous
precision. The man paused, lurching and gagging as he dropped to the
ground, seizing.
Bellatrix grinned with blood pooling down a split lip, her wand trailed on
Remus' prone body.
Adrian's hearing faded out. He didn't realise he was screaming until the
soreness of his throat got to him.
He stood wobbly, at an angle as he trailed his wand in the air pointed at
Bellatrix. The sudden shift of the battlefield triggered Lutain's hissing, the
werewolf nearly yipping in his haste to get away.
Adrian turned on Bellatrix, hand still as stone and entire existence
shaking.
"You-" Adrian seethed, taking a few steps. The battlefield quieted, drawn
to a hasty and tense stalemate as Adrian slowly stalked his way across the
field.
Remus wasn't moving.
Adrian saw red.
"He was mine!" Adrian screamed, spittle flying in an enraged froth. "He
was mine and you- you-..."
Bella made a small noise of surprise and confusion, lifting both hands
upwards as she stepped backwards in alarm. "Adrian? I-."
"He was mine!"
"I- I am yours too!" Bellatrix countered, blinking quickly and stumbling,
"I- I'm yours, my Lord!"
My Lord. That was all he would ever be to her.
She wasn't a mother, she was a weapon in the war that he was now (and
always would be, thanks to her) trapped in.
Bellatrix Lestrange, his bitch of a caretaker, had just killed the only family
he loved.
Over it all, Tonks was screaming, sobbing and crying and Sirius was
roughly holding her back. Skylar was on the ground, his bloody hero
complex had killed him.
No. Bellatrix was the one to curse him. Bellatrix was the one to-
( A million years ago, Luna had sat on the bridge and watched finches
play in the gorge aside the castle. 'Do you think the birds know, that the
earth with gorge on them when they decide to stop flying?')
"You're right." Adrian spoke. Voice flat, a monotone that left her paling.
"You are mine to do with as I wish."
(How similar to his father did he sound? Did she know what was
coming?)
"An eye for an eye." Adrian bristly laughed, holding his wand aloft. There
would be no coming back, but in the end (because of her), there was
nothing worth coming back to.
A tooth, for a tooth.
"Avada Kedavra."
The spell flew, as bright green as his eyes.
Bellatrix fell dead to the ground.
narakunohime: After Adrian gave the statement of "They abandoned
me!" does Remus finally figure out who Selwyn really is?
Well, he certainly knows how he is now.
Babywolfchick1142: Every chapter lately feel like its on the brink of
great revelation, letting out subtle pieces to tease. If Skylar, Snape,
Dumbledore, and Remus just all sat down together and talked like the
order ought, they would find out almost everything.
I'm glad you've picked up on one of the greatest reoccurring motifs of this
story.
Fanfic-addict91: I'm wondering exactly how susceptible Voldemort
would be to the Vitadaex considering he only has like 1/128 of a soul left
in his body ( if he always had to half it).
Oh my gosh, Voldemort would last maybe one battle that would be so
disastrous it would wipe out all of Wales. It would be absolutely devastating,
then he's still on a rampage afterwards, AND impossible to kill without the
horcruxes being destroyed first.
Aile d'Argent: It has been a nice ride but I think I'll stop reading this
story.
It's been wonderful having you! I hope you enjoyed it as far as you did!
OmnipotentOminousmagician: I am rather bored of fragile, young (he
is behaving like a 7 year old, not a teenager) and sad Adrian. I want him
to finally begin his plans...How has Remusnot connected the dots after
Adrian practically told him he was Harry Potter? How is Ron not super
pissed at Adrian? I find it strange that knowing he will die comforts him.
If Adrian is now certain to die with no ressurection, what happens to
Lutain after? Finally, why does he have disproportionate muscle
definition? A snake uses it's entire body to move, and when transforming
his limbs would become part of his body, so shoukd he not have muscle
definition across his whole body?
Well, hopefully this chaotic entity of a chapter appeased your desire for
bloodlust. Adrian isn't behaving as a child, he's behaving like a teenager with a
mental illness. Remus has connected the dots, Ron is emotionally mature
instead of being a childish brat. Adrian is incredibly depressed, such reflections
of his are completely reasonable. A snake (depending on the species) has a
disproportionate muscle definition. A basilisk is a colubrid, and the limbs are
present just vestigial, similar to modern day snake anatomy. Thus, Adrian has
incredibly developed serratus anterior, serratus interior, and both internal and
external oblique muscles.
DeviousClass: Why can't Lutain makes himself clearer ? Like
CerestesMasterheir Voldemort or something like that ? P.S. Do you
already have ideas about another stories ?
Well, if Lutain does that it's incredibly obvious that he betrayed Adrian and
switched sides, by being a general ambiguous pain in the butt, he is still
neutral. The only other stories I have planned are just tiny Oneshots for other
fandoms, nothing for HP. I have an original book I've been working on too!
Darklife21Please dont kill Remus!
COMA COMA COMACOMACOMA
GreekSSR:How many if any chapters have you written ahead, I know
you used to have a lot but I'm not sure anymore, and if you do have some
overwritten are you going to do a mega update when you have all the
last chapters done? Asking because the author of another story i liked did
it and it sorta came out of the blue
You're so right. I have maybe 2 chapters ahead written. I know, i'm so far
behind. I won't do a massive update generally because I like sticking to once a
week, and I don't have anything to dump. If I am planning on posting multiple
chapters, it's because I'll be gone for the next posting date.
Mermaid1108:Wait this story is only going to be 80 chapters? No! That's
too soon! I hecking love this story!
I know! My pain! Argh!
cleveradjective: You manage to create such a tension in each chapter
that I am left on the edge of my seat. The characterization is fantastic,
and as someone who deals with CPTSD, I feel as though you have really
done great work in writing Adrian and developing his personality in
relation to his trauma.
I am so thankful that I've done justice in the portrayal of mental illness. My
main hope is to spread this knowledge and the mindset to others so they are
aware of various illness'. Send me a PM, you're incredibly humbling and I
would be delighted to talk further with you.
sami217: with how you made Adrian into a well.. Quite a pathetic over
emotional mess is starting to make it really hard to even want to continue
reading the story... I mean I'm not flaming you or anything but is Adrian
always going to stay the way he is now?.. Is he ever gonna actually stop
being the victim and start taking action for himself.. I would really like to
know if Adrian will get over all the crap he's been having and get back to
his goal of revenge against his abandoning parents and personally for me
to get revenge on all the backstabbing slytherins like daphne among
others on everything they did to him... I don't mean to offend you but
this is just what I think of how the story is currently going.
You don't offend me at all, you're a unique individual who is without question,
encouraged to express how you feel. This chapter marks the end of the
'Domestic arc' as I like to call it. From here on out, there will be no more
bubble baths or cutesy meals. More pain, more suffering, more revenge, and a
lot more death. You haven't offended me at all, I completely understand your
perspective and you are not a flame since you have explained helpfully what
in particular you dislike. Next chapter I think is based heavily on the concept
of revenge.
Antonyfal2: I also agree that seeing him take action soon would be nice.
Well lucky for you, he just killed Bella.
Friena: Is this story going to end similarly to shadowed malice
Nope. No shades at all.
Before everyone screams and panics, Remus is not dead.
62. Pain
This chapter was beta'd by our amazing Beta Collective
-Arctic Fox From Afar
-Mahina
-Cyndaquil05
-4everfictional
-Scion of House Lucifer
-Parsi
-Acelenny
-S4m
- and countless anonymous helpers!
Thanks to Ahuuda, who helped me out with all political and
economic structure modeling!
'I'll make you proud I'll make you so proud father love me I'll make you so
proud love me I'll be useful I'm useful I'm USEFUL.'
They said that he was stabilized, somehow suspended in a coma as his
body struggled to repair itself. Blissfully unaware, as his organs and
functions chugged along like a rusted steamboat making its way
upstream. They didn't know what would happen during the full moon,
how his wolf form would manifest under the heavy potions and medical
spells. They didn't know, and it was Skylar's fault.
They told him it wasn't his fault, that it was coincidence. That it was
Bellatrix Lestrange's fault, her body removed from the ground where it had
dropped heavily.
She never would have sent the curse if it wasn't for him, she never would
have actually hit Remus if he hadn't…
His mother, his father...they told him again and again that it wasn't his
fault.
Skylar had begun to view the world differently, see the shades and
shadows and the hopelessness of the world. The cruel twisted concept that
in the end, everything was likely rotten.
Remus was in a suspended coma, unlikely to wake, because of Skylar
Potter's childish desire to save everyone.
"Lutain," Skylar spoke flatly, staring out the window of the new safe
house. Hundreds of miles away, isolated and overcast with thick clouds
like sheep wool. "You're a dark artifact. They others don't realize what
you can do, can they?"
Lutain didn't move, leisurely sprawled across the brunet's shoulders as if
the boy was now his. No.
Skylar knew now that Lutain was much more than the others thought,
much more dangerous than even Dumbledore had thought. Maybe if
Dumbledore had found the ring earlier- maybe if the ring was as...large as
Lutain, he would have known.
(If Voldemort had split his soul so many times, how small was the
fragment in the ring? How sentient was it? How much did it influence
the Headmaster?)
Lutain was a creature of his own, powered by half of Adrian's soul. He
had memories, thoughts, an ability to think and formulate ideas on his
own that was much more terrifying than others likely believed.
Skylar believed the good in everyone, that deep at heart, everyone would
choose the right thing.
Lutain had shown him that what others considered the right thing, was
something cruel indeed.
"You know Adrian better than anyone," Skylar's lip twitched into a
grimace, a mockery of his once carefree smiles. "Cerestes, Lord
Voldemort's son. You know him, what he hates and how he thinks."
Lutain dragged his tail closer, his tail caressing Skylar's collar bone
through his shirt.
"Adrian doesn't know about Horcruxes, are you going to tell him?" Skylar
asked bluntly.
Lutain's tongue flickered through the air, perhaps.
Skylar nodded as if that made sense. "You're having me kill the Basilisk
because it hurt Adrian. Adrian k-killed Bellatrix, do you know what's
going to happen to him now?"
Lutain hissed, recoiling slightly. Skylar felt it, he felt the low simmering
pain and longing and desperation for 'was this the right thing?'
"Adrian's going to be hurt, badly." Skylar spoke, his mouth dry like it was
filled with salty crackers. His tongue moved without thinking, without
his own control, "his father will hurt him."
Will he have more scars? Will he be so harmed he can't tell what's there
anymore?
"I want to make another deal." Skylar hung his head, feeling a deep
resignation settle into his bones. "Not with you, with Adrian."
Lutain didn't move. How?
Skylar didn't even blink. "You're half his soul, aren't you?"
Nagini kept him company, watching him choke on his own vomit on the
floor.
His body seized, twitching and contracting reflexively. His mind was an
exposed wire, snapping and crackling unwillingly. His knee had popped
outwards when he smashed it against the floor, it hadn't been cracked
back in.
His stomach clenched, contracting harshly and against his will vomit
spilled from the corner of his mouth. His jaw had been open, mouth
gasping wetly for breaths. A mixture of tears, snot, and bile burned
against the cheek, pressed into the floor.
Somewhere past the point of rationality, cognitive function fired far too
quick and unprepared to really leave Adrian in the present.
He was suffering, agonizing in all senses he had.
Did pain count as a sense? Pain was as important to him as sight or taste
or smell ever would be. Touch relied heavily on pain, taste distinguished
spice from sweet. Pain in eyes determined pressure, pain in nose
determined if blood would swiftly follow.
Did stimuli have to always exist to be considered a sense? If Adrian closed
his eyes, he would still see. He couldn't choose to...not hear. Was that
what distinguished what was, and what was not considered a primary
sense?
Whether sensation was there or whether it wasn't, pain always existed.
Pain was relative, pain was unique to an individual. Pain taught him in
sugary whispers that 'pain is yours, and you exist.' Thought could be
achieved by anything, thought could come in the mind of a conjured
dove.
I suffer, therefore I am.
Adrian laughed, the noise barely heard from his wrecked vocal chords.
The air puffed his cheeks, caused the pool of fluids to bubble against his
face.
His hands contracted into agonizing claws, unable to respond to his
brain's desperate cry to stop!
Was this what drove Bellatrix to madness? Was this the ultimate cause of
her demise?
How ironic, Adrian thought lazily, barely comprehending his own
thoughts, that I feel the same.
A whine broke from Adrian's mouth, something primitive and animal and
heaving as his ribs ground sharply.
"I didn't say you were permitted to speak." His father spoke coldly, sitting
on his throne above Adrian. "Crucio."
Pain was something odd to explain. Often, it would be linked to a
physical object, to a part of you that was somehow damaged or could be
isolated. A pain in his knee, a toothache from a molar. Pain in that sense,
was a physical condition.
But pain could be...there was nothing wrong with Adrian, after Luna died.
He hadn't been struck or wounded, yet he hurt in a primal way
impossible to ever explain. An experience, not constrained by physical
limitations.
Torture, was something different. Pain didn't explain it, it was
something...something which transcended who Adrian was as a person. It
reached beyond, puncturing through flesh and muscle into his mind and
senses into his existence itself.
It was impossible to remember pain, it was impossible to recall the
precise sensation of pain. It was something humans couldn't do, a
protection (or a weakness?) of the soul itself. Crucio was different, it
wasn't bound by the rules of mind and body.
It changed his perception itself, it twisted and tugged in all the ways
where Adrian couldn't determine what was him and what was suffering.
There was no wound to isolate, to try and distract himself from. There
was no memory untouched, no moment of laughter he could try and
recall to make it easier. His concept of time itself was forgotten, what
could be one minute of agony blurred and distorted until what was a
minute? What was an hour, a day, a week?
His identity, his entity, his existence itself was this sensation of-
It wasn't discomfort. It wasn't irritation or soreness or...Adrian couldn't
remember. Stubbing his toe or chopping his toe off would be preferable,
the sharp burn that he could see and comprehend.
He would gladly watch Remus fall again, watch and feel the moment
something inside of him snapped and left him with the crippling
breathless loneliness.
He would rather anything else a thousand times over, because Crucio was
nothing like that. Crucio was pain in all ways an umbrella term was for
something indescribable.
Crucio was the opposite of reality, of existence. The moment the curse
touched him, the abstraction of actuality rebelled and flipped until all
that Adrian was, was cessation.
(A temporary or complete stopping; a discontinuance of Adrian himself.)
Nothing is real. You aren't real.
The curse ended. Adrian existed, he was alive and life was real. His body
hurt, his mind hurt, he hurt.
(Adrian wanted to laugh, hysterical and crying because was it over? Was
it actually over? Had he snapped? Had his mind cracked until even this
was just a figment of his imagination?)
"Bellatrix was one of my closest supporters. You killed her, and you have
nothing to say?"
"What is there to say?" Adrian choked out, resisting the giggle that
wormed from his cracked ribs and hot breath. "What would you like me
to say next?"
"Crucio."
When it ended, Adrian was crying something between laughter and ruin.
"Why did you kill Bellatrix?"
Adrian lolled his head, twitching on the ground like something dead.
"She touched what was mine."
His father paused, unbridled fury in his eyes. His wand was pointed at
Adrian, unwavering in a strong determined grip. "Bellatrix, was mine."
Adrian laughed into the ground, unable to raise to his knees. "Aren't I
also?"
(Was this why Bellatrix always laughed? Nothing was real?)
I suffer, therefore I am.
Logic returns in the absence of crisis.
Adrian screamed, clawing at the walls because then the aftershocks had a
source for his brain to label.
Do you know what it is like, to be unmade?
"As you can see...Bellatrix has...failed, to return to us."
Adrian kept his body limp, sprawled gracelessly like an obedient lap dog.
Coiled and loose, the flare along the back of his skull flat to his scales.
"She failed in obeying orders of those above her," Voldemort sighed
wistfully, not at all displaying the rage and ferocity he had demonstrated
days before. "Bellatrix was punished, her life forfeit."
The Death Eaters were quiet, sweat and fear thick in the air like a scented
candle. Nagini shifted along the back wall, securing the door for anyone
wishing to make a speedy escape.
"I presume you have reports to present." Voldemort drawled, curling one
finger as a nameless follower stepped forward humbly.
"Yes, my Lord." The unknown man murmured under his breath, bowing
so low his mask near came loose. "We have secured a Pius Thicknesse in
position, willingly he has joined our cause. Amelia Bones is still refusing
to reduce the force of the magical law enforcement division, she has been
proving...difficult."
Voldemort waved his hand dismissively, neither impressed or
disappointed with the news. Adrian's head spun, who were these people?
He hadn't ever heard of them- the magical law enforcement division was
a department in the Ministry of Magic. Had his father actually infiltrated
it? That department ran all of the aurors, the chief force that hunted his
father's supporters.
"What of the Improper Use of Magic Department?" Voldemort asked
calmly, looking pointedly at one rounded woman, features disguised
under the mask.
"Malfalda Hopkirk has been placed under the Imperius," the woman
spoke, voice warbling ever so slightly with her anxiety, "the locations of
magical use is now in our control. We have extended the blind eye to
various areas to disguise our movements, my Lord."
The- they had somehow infiltrated the trace?
Merlin, what had happened in Adrian's absence?
Slowly, the names began accumulating.
The Office of the Magical Law Enforcement Squad, which generally
covered minor law offenses; under control of influenced. The Misuse of
Muggle Artifacts Office, Perkins (the director) was a supporter. The
Detection and Confiscation of Counterfeit Defensive Spells and Protective
Objects had been recently constructed by Rufus Scrimgeour, who was
proving a slight challenge.
They had worms on the third floor of the Ministry of Magic. Festering
maggots that had gnawed deep into every office in the Department of
Magical Accidents and Catastrophes. The Accidental Magic Reversal
Squad, tasked with containing and reversing accidental magic or
unexpected magical effects like splinching; the entire squad was
influenced with bribery and threats. The Obliviator Headquarters, for
Merlin's sake the director was in the throne room with them.
The Muggle-Worthy Excuse Committee that explained and handled public
relations with muggle accidents was working overtime and reporting to
nothing. How many muggle massacres had happened without news
reaching the light of day? How many people tortured and killed? Without
the minister even knowing?
The Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures-
how else did they gain the werewolf packs? The Goblin Liaison Office
was filled with spies and followers, tightening down on the regulation
and rights for Goblins without any explanation why.
(Why would his father want to blackmail the goblins? They protected the
wealth and vaults of the elite houses, what did Gringotts have to do with
anything?)
Department of Magical Transportation on the sixth floor; the construction
of portkeys and floo network under watch and being recorded for
patterns. The apparition test center, the record of every apparate licenced
witch or wizard was now public information for them.
The Department of International Magical Cooperation was apparently the
most difficult to sink into, the fifth floor unreachable until recently.
Adrian had distracted Dumbledore, distracted Mad-Eye Moody and
distracted the minister himself (who had seemingly been debating and
arguing with detaining Adrian. 'The child of Bellatrix Lestrange is too
dangerous to walk away, a child who is possibly linked to multiple deaths
at a wizarding school must be interrogated, Albus!')
Adrian had been isolated alone without care, because his mistakes were a
proper distraction. His father didn't check in, because Adrian had been
doing a wonderful job already wasting everyone's time.
Barty Crouch Sr. died of suspicious means, murdered apparently in an
excessively violent manner. Gore everywhere, blood and body parts flung
around the room it was a marvel that Barty's head was found in tact. The
paper's didn't report it, they were printing propaganda in large font and
black ink stains.
Spies were in place, Imperius curse functioning perfectly and without the
world ever knowing, Magical Britain's policy for the trade standards and
the cooperation with other magical governments was run by Lord
Voldemort.
Basilisks couldn't vomit out of horror, it didn't quell Adrian's desire to do
so anyways.
Adrian returned as Cerestes. Draped in black, standing motionless on the
balcony over the throne room. A statue, watching above without
contributing.
Nobody asked questions, although he saw the eyes drift upwards from
under the masks.
(Was this his purpose? To serve the monster that tore him apart until he
was nothing and always would be?)
They said the Cruciatus Curse changed you, twisted you on a scale so
great you never recovered. It didn't pain you, it destroyed you.
Adrian had a father once; Adrian watched him die and killed the woman
who struck him down.
This monster on his throne, he may biologically be his sire but he was no
father for Adrian. He didn't deserve the title, he didn't deserve the
obedience.
An eye for an eye. To gain Adrian's loyalty, Adrian had to gain his.
What monster would tear apart his child until nothing was left? What
beast in this chaotic world dare assume that title after such atrocities?
Adrian's eyes narrowed from under his hood, staring at his father with a
rising level of disgust.
Adrian inhaled in surprise as something twitched for lack of better words,
in his head. Adrian reached out slowly, grasping the iron railing with
both hands as he stared down at the mass of black and white masks.
It was unmistakable, something was twitching in his head. Moving in a
way nostalgic of...something.
It moved, disrupting his thoughts like a thrashing carp on the water's
surface. Something was in his brain, moving slightly and tentatively.
Adrian sunk away, investigating out of curiosity. He found it, void of
detail and thrashing sloppily. Attempting to move without gaining
ground.
It stopped suddenly, almost aware of Adrian's knowledge. He watched it,
finding it familiar in all ways he knew.
Master?
It sunk away, broken, and the high nasally pitch of Lord Voldemort sent
Adrian biting his tongue.
Somehow, somehow, Lutain was in Adrian's mind.
The Department of Mysteries was located on the ninth level in the
Ministry of Magic. Disguised and hidden with various traps and wards to
keep out those without clearance.
It investigated the strangest wonders of the world, the concepts and
truths that had not yet been discovered (and likely never would.)
A selection of well trained unspeakables, silent over their work and what
dwelled in the depths. Sworn to the Ministry, except those of course, who
had thrown away their lives and now humbly kneeled to what they
considered a god.
Broderick Bode was under the Imperius Curse, cast by Lucius Malfoy.
Augustus Rookwood is a Death Eater himself, grinning savagely as he
spilled the secrets that nobody had ever known.
The Department studied things impossible; death, time, space, thought,
and love. They held the halls of prophecies, marveling over thoughts far
too complex to ever understand.
Adrian wondered, if the Department of Mysteries invented the Cruciatus
Curse itself.
Lutain pressed into Adrian's head again, somehow pushing through the
rain puddle like a fish stuck on a hook.
It was fascinating to watch, to sense the squirming and observe from a
distance. Interesting in the same way it was interesting to watch a rabbit
squirm in the clutches of a hawk.
Somehow, the fact that Lutain was (impossibly) connecting with Adrian
was reassuring. Calming in the way everything wasn't. Maybe this was
what a familiar was, the ability to understand and to connect without
words spoken.
Nagini didn't visit him that night, he imagined that she was guilty of
what he had turned into.
Adrian stood silently, shrouded in black with his head bowed. He knew it
was unsettling, he knew that he was unsettling.
The man sitting across from his father, nearly sweating through the
clothing he wore, was ministry at minimum. Voldemort sat in his high
clawed chair, hands folded calmly in his lap as the stranger mumbled and
fumbled with his leather bag. He pulled scrolls and documents out by the
dozen, scrambling to align them properly in the well lit room.
His father said nothing, watching with crimson eyes.
"S-so, we have these in transit to Bulgaria-" The man gulped out, pointing
at something on the parchment. Adrian couldn't see much of it, but from
what he could, it looked like official documentation of some sort.
"I presume you've contacted the houses in France." Adrian's father spoke,
voice flat and cold. A question phrased as a statement.
"Y-yes my lord." The man humbly nodded, nearly shaking where he sat,
"The German corporations have agreed to retain goods instead of
exporting them."
Voldemort shifted, folding his hands in one another, knuckles curled
together carefully. "And the other countries?"
The man gulped, a thin sheen of sweat spreading over his brow. "The
United States are struggling to come back since we've increased taxation
rates- thankfully out of public eye. They've reduced importation rates by
7%. China isn't as cooperative, but I'm confident our terrorist group will
divert enough attention for us to slip legislature under them. The French
shell vaults are working with the Netherlands and Norway."
Adrian wasn't understanding what was happening. He hadn't...he hadn't
ever thought of his Father's influence to extend out of Magical Britain. He
hadn't ever expected to somehow...to somehow be a pawn in a global
playing field.
Germany was retaining goods instead of selling them? Germany wouldn't
get money then, they would have a surplus.
And Magical Britain would have a shortage.
His father had damaged the importation rate of goods leaving the
country- that was why it was so pivotal to infiltrate the Ministry of
Magic. He was creating hidden legislation, illegally passing laws to
increase the scarcity and surplus of things commonly exported.
Wouldn't that reduce the price of things they exported- what did the UK
export? Adrian couldn't remember the precise details- wasn't the Magical
UK the main supplier for potion distillation? Fuels? Transportative
processes like floo powder?
What did they import?
"How are the Goblins reacting?"
The man gulped, shuffling through his papers for something else.
"They've filed lawsuits against the legislation set in place. The suits have
been frozen thankfully, our allies in the courts have truly been
remarkable. So far, their profits are dwindling and they're nearly
removed from other economic ventures other than the vaults and banks."
Voldemort smirked, the smallest cruelest grin. It made the stranger
flinch.
"Excellent to hear." Voldemort continued calmly, "the papers are
continuing to print our work?"
The man nodded feverently. "Yes, my lord. They're continuing with the
increased focal on Skylar Potter….Although I- forgive me, but I don't
understand why we are focusing on the child."
Voldemort blinked slowly, like a predatory animal. "You question my
work?"
Adrian looked away, still deep in thought. He didn't need to look at the
man to know he was being tortured, he could hear the screams just fine.
"I don't expect you to understand what is occurring." His father spoke,
hissing low without looking over towards Adrian. Adrian swallowed
heavily, and didn't respond from where he stood in the corner.
"Your part will be approaching soon." His father continued bluntly. "I expect
you to not fail me."
Adrian nodded, pausing before hoarsely hissing out a quiet, "yes father."
Voldemort's hand twitched slightly, other than that he didn't move. "You
are different. Regardless of your weakness, should you fail me I will not be
happy."
Adrian almost smiled, wry and dry. His father hadn't asked, his father
likely didn't know.
(He likely didn't care, that Adrian was dying.)
"I won't fail." Adrian croaked back. In heart, he knew he would likely fail.
"Good. It is time to show that old fool that he was wrong all along. Isn't that
right, Harry Potter?"
"I want to make a deal with you." Skylar spoke, whispering quietly into
the dark. Eyes wide, glazed without thought as he stared into the dark
Lutain sat across from him, his jaw open wide and eyes glazed in cue. A
pause, a second before the low hissing mist of Lutain's ability responded.
A memory in the making, voices unheard and being heard all at once.
Skylar's head pounded, his heart beating as if he was running a
marathon.
A second later, a whisper echoed back in a clearly amused and curious
voice. Tinted wrongly, heard underwater or from ears unlike Skylar's
own.
"I haven't made a deal in a long time."
Adrian smiled ironically in the dark. Drifting through the foggy haze of
inside his mind, he watched the lethargic splashing of what he
considered his other half.
"The last time we tried to make deals, Lutain, well...I'm sure you
remember how that ended."
"Lutain is a translator, he...he's the messenger."
It was distorted, choppy and weak as if through a floo call. Broken,
unmistakable.
Adrian's smile slipped away instantly. He nearly recoiled, chillingly
unsure of how to proceed. "I- Skylar?"
"I have a deal."
Skylar had no hesitations, no regret. His morals had gotten in the way
before, this was war. Not everyone could be saved anymore.
Not everyone could live. People would die, that was a fact of life. Some
people were more at risk than others, some people were destined to die.
"There's a few objects I need, that belong to your father." Skylar began,
fumbling over the words only slightly. Somewhere miles away, a
headache pounded in heavy unrelenting pulses. "Things he cherishes. A
locket, a cup, something of Ravenclaw, possibly something of Gryffindor."
"He cherishes little, Boy Wonder. He values power."
"They're secret." Skylar fumbled over his tongue, "si- four objects of great
importance to him."
Assuming that Adrian was close with the giant snake, Nagini, it was
better not to mention that at all. The snake, Voldemort himself, and the
ring shouldn't be talked about. The four objects, belonging to the
founders were all fair game.
"Why do you need these things? Ransom? Are they artifacts?"
Adrian couldn't know about the Horcruxes, it wouldn't do for the boy to
realize what could possibly happen to his own familiar.
"I need you to destroy them- as a Basilisk."
Adrian's breath hitched in surprise, confusion swirling like a fleury of
snow through his mind.
Four objects of great importance? Adrian could only presume that they
would be powerful, his father only valued power. It wouldn't be
something rare or expensive, it would be something with strength or
abilities far beyond normal.
The only thing Adrian instantly thought of, was the diary he had found
when he was twelve. He had returned it to his father, apparently it was
somehow destroyed- did Skylar only need three objects then?
And why did Skylar need him to destroy them as a Basilisk?
"What are you looking for?" Adrian asked, a low murmur under his
breath as his thoughts swirled around him.
"A locket. Belonging to Salazar Slytherin. A Goblet belonging to Helga
Hufflepuff. An unknown artifact belonging to Rowena Ravenclaw or Godric
Gryffindor."
Adrian knew the locket.
He always thought there was something powerful about it, inexplicably
so.
(He knew where it was, hidden away out of sight. Nagini had taken it,
bemoaned the journey she made to a hidden cave miles away.)
A goblet- that wasn't something Adrian knew about. Between the last two
founders, Ravenclaw was the more likely founder to have an object
worshipped. Adrian couldn't possibly think of what.
Skylar must truly be desperate, to contact Adrian.
(How was he doing this, anyways?)
"I know of the locket." Adrian spoke back, voice clipped in return. "You're
asking me to betray my father."
"I'm asking you for a deal, not as the Boy Who Lived to Cerestes', but as
Skylar to Adrian."
Under the table. Skylar was operating without anyone else's knowledge,
working on his own.
How...interesting.
"You're talking as if I'm going to agree to this...impending disaster."
Adrian's lip curled twistedly. "What could you, Skylar Potter, possibly
have that I want?"
Adrian sunk, seeping through the rippling water with a deep exhale of his
mind and body.
Tinted, distorted, seeing clumsily through Lutain's eyes as if they were his
own.
Skylar Potter, looking as genuine and as infuriating as the day they had
last seen each other.
"If you help me get the objects and destroy them, once this is over I'll give you
what you want more than anything."
Lutain and Adrian tilted their head, speaking as one in a broken croon
and gurgle, "it must be good if you're so confident to contact me. Afterall,
you killed Remus."
What could Skylar Potter offer him, to rectify his own failure?
Skylar whispered, like a breeze. "Once this is over, you'll kill me in any
gruesome way you can imagine, and I'll welcome it like a brother."
I don't know what gave the impression, but Skylar is not dead
(obviously).
S. G. Gorm: on the subject of Rowle I suggest you show him being a
good dueler instead of having characters telling us. After all, feats are
vastly more concrete than statements.
Of course! There's actually a reason why I haven't shown him dueling in
action! He will certainly be important.
Nuada Silverhand: Well that Author's Note ended with a spoiler and a
fecking half, didn't it. You haven't quite grasped the knack of this "cliff-
hanger" thing, have you? :P
You'd be amazed at all the threats I get and people that quit reading. Really,
that spoiler in the AN was needed, and even then people didn't see it!
Whitedrago: Good chapter, but trixie's death was a bit anticlimactic. I
mean, Adrian watches Remus go down and his reaction is just an AK? He
needs to be more savage.
He was in shock, don't worry. I'm thinking of how I can get Adrian to chop of
someones finger's with wire cutters. At least 3 fingers. Violently.
dmalf: And now I have to wait another week until the next chapter
aaaaaaaaaaaa
Oh boy, I have news for you. You're going to get two for the price of one!
Jostanos: Had they just left like Adrian thought that they would... NONE
of this would have happened.
But noooo… Bellatrix wanted to get her revenge on Remus and all in the
warded house.
#SkylarYouIdiot
fanfic-addict91: Well that aside I don't think I like Tonks kinda sudden
affection to Adrian. I mean they have only really interacted once last
chapter. Her sudden exclamation of 'He's mine' seems both rushed and
shallow.
Yeah, I completely agree. I really messed that one up, I tried to make enough
scenes with her and Adrian but I did fall short. I kept forgetting, and it was
completely my bad. I tried to fix it by implying that Tonks and Remus
discussed Adrian off screen, but it fell flat. Completely shallow.
patiflops2: when Adrian told Remus his old name did the others hear
him say that, I couldn't see if he wispered it or something?
To be honest, it doesn't really even matter at this point anymore
ImoLex: Not trying to sound like a dick, but I've noticed some super
minor spelling/punctuation errors (I hardly noticed them), and I would
be happy to point them out if you want? I know you have heaps of betas
so I completely get it if you don't want me to
The struggles of so many beta's! Different dialects around the world change the
structure of my sentences, and the spelling also. Canadian 'Colour, Harbour',
British 'Realising', there's so many things muddled through that it's chaotic to
try and track. Feel free to help if you'd like, no stress if it doesn't work out!
Kclown:Damn there goes Bella, how is Voldemort going to feel after
finding out his favorite is dead?
Hah!
sassy-in-glasses: HI WHAT TH WAS THAT, KAE?! WHY, W H Y WOULD
YOU /DO/ THAT?! WHY WOULD YOU GIVE US THESE CINNAMON
ROLLS AND THEN KILL THEM?!
I brought them into this world. I can take them away anytime I want.
Schlepian: Quite a good story. I'm surprised with how brutal Ginny's
death is in my head, maybe one of the darkest things I've read here on
HP fanfiction, impressive for not actually going into any detail of the
actual scene happening.
Thank you, I'm so proud of that one also!
Guest: You know your poll that you have on your account?
Adrian and Luna are still third.
Isn't that a wonderful summary of how tragic this story really is?
63. Withdraw
This chapter was beta'd by our amazing Beta Collective
-Arctic Fox From Afar
-Mahina
-Cyndaquil05
-4everfictional
-Scion of House Lucifer
-Parsi
-Acelenny
-S4m
- and countless anonymous helpers!
Thanks to Ahuuda, who helped me out with all political and
economic structure modeling!
''Love me love me love me love me lovemelove m.e'
It was a beautiful sunny day when the Magical world panicked, and the
economy collapsed.
It was unexplained, brief and simple. No foul play- the ancient Pureblood
houses simply...withdrew their vaults.
This alone wouldn't be a problem; the finances of Purebloods were of no
concern to others. What was a concern, was the legislation set in place to
deter Goblin galleon fraud, stating that if at any point 'A Goblin operated
institution experiences a dip in financial inventory by greater than 40% the
closing of such institution is imminent and final until such store may be
rectified.'
Purebloods withdrew and canceled vaults, which together compiled 49%
of all individual vaults within the depths of Gringotts. Due to the legal
ramifications, panic hit, interest rates froze, the entire market crashed.
Similarly, the world drew attention to the previously unknown shortage
in global imports, and the failure to sell general exports. A surplus of
useless distilled potion ingredients, a shortage of food. Chaos unfolded,
people panicked, a store near Cardiff was robbed and set on fire.
The Minister fumbled, scrambling in the spotlight as he struggled to
explain things he knew nothing about. Fudge, the idiot, graciously leapt
at the single opportunity a planted reporter threw at him.
"Yes yes- I, I will certainly be meeting with our saviors!" Fudge laughed
uncomfortable, looking close to running out. "I- an exclusive meeting! Yes
yes, Albus Dumbledore and Skylar Potter here! Tonight!"
Adrian flinched away after seeing the paper, slowly lifting his head to
look at his father who in his normal skin, looked very close to gloating.
"The man is so lost," Voldemort sighed, tracing one human finger across
Fudge's printed face. "It would be a mercy to kill him. I am curious to see
how he spins this, especially with the murder of the late Undersecretary."
A pause, a single red eye looking at him from across the table. "You
impressed me with that one."
Adrian didn't speak.
Voldemort sighed, a large sound as he took a seat. Tilting his face with
narrowed eyes. He was a handsome man. Adrian would have been also.
"I don't have much to say anymore." Adrian said back, calmly and flat.
Voldemort smiled, a sharp lipped movement which set his teeth
gleaming. "Ah, I see the world has finally ruined that...youthful
innocence of yours."
Adrian's hand twitched, flexing harshly and causing his father to laugh
sharply. Amused by Adrian's aggressiveness.
"I have questions, father."
Voldemort tilted his head, dark hair perfectly groomed. A pause, then a
furrow between Voldemort's brows as he leant forward partially. "Your
eyes have changed."
Adrian didn't break eye contact, but he didn't feel the pressure of
legilimency in his mind. "It happened a while ago."
Voldemort looked interested, a spark in his eyes. Fascination over
something he didn't know. "How...interesting. Of all traits to carry from
your animagus form."
It's not because of that. Adrian chewed his tongue sharply. It's because I
have a parasite that apparently is eating my soul.
Voldemort waved one hand leisurely, looking as relaxed as any other.
"You have questions."
Adrian licked his lower lip and nodded ever so slightly, lowering his eyes
out of respect. "I do not understand the...the goblin legislation."
Voldemort to his credit, didn't sigh. Instead, he tapped one finger on his
chin as if thinking. "Ah, you were there when I monitored our
movements. Yes, a rather...finicky plan on my side, perhaps. Difficult to
follow."
Adrian didn't move, and his father sighed as if annoyed he never got a
rise.
"Since the Goblin Rebellions, Gringotts Wizarding Bank has run the
economic stability of our country." Voldemort picked at his nails, clawing
out grime from under the white edge. "Of course, the general racism of
society has...inhibited, the true control of our finances to goblins. Goblins
are represented by the Goblin Liaison Office in the Department for the
Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. Of course, since the
department interaction is near impossible due to the unnecessarily
complex system of department communication, Goblins are generally
unaware of all proceedings from other departments. The Department of
International Magical Cooperation is not required to inform the Goblin
Liaison Office when new standards for trade are set in place, which
allowed us to trigger an economic stagnation."
"What purpose does that serve?" Adrian asked unsurely, feeling far too
unaware to truly contribute to the conversation. "Ruining the economy?"
Voldemort stared at him, evaluating him. "We are not inflating the
standard for currency, merely the price for produce and other
perishables. I have plans set to subtly damage public services such as floo
networks, public areas, other government held operations. Legislation
will be signed at any time now in a guise to assist the impending collapse
of the goblin economy. This will allow the Ministry to borrow money for
public relief programs, further deteriorating the goblin influence on our
effort."
Adrian finally caught a grip on the information, filtering through it the
best he could. "The taxation rates would-"
"Increase." Voldemort confirmed with a slow blink and the smallest tilt of
a smirk. "A stressed population which pressures the incompetent
Ministry, and eats propaganda praising Albus Dumbledore and Skylar
Potter?"
Adrian felt equal parts amazed, and horrified. "The population will rebel."
"And our puppet is placed in Fudge's steed." Voldemort nodded without
care, "we'll reduce the importation and exportation redirection, reduce
the taxation rate, and shift the public image into discrediting Albus
Dumbledore and his work. Once we have suitably eradicated the former
establishment, we will gain control of the Ministry first hand and
repurpose this nation."
The war was never about fighting and battle. It had been a distraction-
Adrian had been a distraction. How many days had Moody watched him
instead of sniffing out the rats in the ministry? How many days had
Tonks cleaned the house for him instead of reporting to the aurors to
hunt down the various leads?
"Today, Fudge will invite Albus Dumbledore and Skylar Potter into the
Ministry, likely for his public image. We will retrieve the prophecy, and
remove those hindrances once and for all."
Adrian nodded and lowered his eyes, staring at the table resolutely.
His father watched, then huffed quietly. "You were much more exciting
when you were younger and naive."
"I grew up." Adrian murmured back. "I learned, that sometimes speaking
gets you nowhere."
Voldemort tilted his head, looking at him inquisitively. "You surprise me.
That was unexpectedly insightful."
Adrian paused, "I've been thinking."
Voldemort smiled in interest once more, "I will admit, I had always
doubted your use. Bellatrix was adamant that you...would prove yourself,
so to speak. Not how she intended of course, but perhaps there is
something for you yet."
A while back, that would have crippled Adrian.
This Adrian, the one who had murdered Bellatrix and watched Remus
die- this Adrian didn't care anymore.
"I hope so, father." Adrian said numbly.
I know what it is like, to be unmade.
I know what it is like, to be nothing.
And through that, I know I am not.
Adrian didn't know when it sunk in, when it soaked through his bones
and into his marrow.
Skylar gave him a proposition, he had thought it ridiculous.
What could Adrian gain? What was he getting? The genuine promise that
if Adrian had managed to screw up that badly, Skylar would finally let
Adrian kill him? Would Skylar change his mind when he found out?
Would everything change?
(Skylar- the others, they had no idea of everything. They had no idea of
all the strings pulling and twisting. They had no idea of how...imminent it
was.)
Objects of importance, for Skylar's life.
Adrian had to destroy the objects in his Animagus form, for Skylar's life.
(an eye for an eye, but nothing about this was fair.)
Adrian loved his father, in the warped unconditional way he could do
nothing about. He loved Remus, he loved Luna. Perhaps it was destiny,
that everyone he adored would always die?
Adrian had seen both sides, had been incorporated in the efforts of
Dumbledore's side and Voldemort's side. Without question, Dumbledore's
side was more naive and arrogant but undisputedly more ethically good.
Voldemort...Adrian was afraid to live in a world where his father ran it,
where he was in the background as an executioner for everything he
stood for.
Perhaps it was a mercy, that he was dying. He wouldn't have to watch
the world burn, when he himself was burning out.
For all the protections of the Ministry of Magic, they had no way to stop
someone from using the floo network and simply...walking in.
The network was open to public, as most of the visitors were civilians
seeking government aid or filling out necessary forms. The floo filtered
thinly, detecting and monitoring only a few fireplaces that were strictly
red marked. The loophole was simply- utilize a public floo and enter the
building.
With Skylar Potter and Albus Dumbledore's public meeting later that day,
the ministry was quite empty. The busy offices were cleared so less
workers would be present for the meeting and public statements, there
were perhaps dozens of wizards and witches in the center atrium
compared to the usual hundreds. The stone was cold, dark and echoing as
they walked over it. Adrian wore the hard soles on his boots, they clicked
loudly and imposingly as he followed the silent steps of his father. They
strode across the floor without care, his father in his natural skin. Adrian
didn't like how similar they looked, unmistakably related when compared
side to side.
Adrian was wearing his cloak, the Cerestes cloak disguised only subtly to
give it the appearance of a normal cloak along the bottom. His true wand
in his sleeve- he still had blood on his hands from the last time he used it.
They walked, Adrian felt like his stomach was going to drop out from
under him.
His father, (Voldemort, in the Ministry of Magic) strode without pause over
to the gated device and waited.
"Name." It prompted in a cheery mechanical voice.
"Tom Riddle." His father drawled, his lips quirking in a smirk to himself.
"Visitor."
The machine chimed and popped out a sticker, bright font exactly what
he had said. With a small grimace, his father peeled off the adhesive side
and placed it just over his breast pocket. It looked so ridiculous, Adrian
snorted out a hysterical giggle.
Voldemort sighed as if the entire thing was beneath him. "We're meeting
Broderick Bode, then we will descend to level nine. Today the
department has been cleared."
Adrian nodded and said nothing, the two of them walked towards the
fountain. His father barely glanced at it, instead he scoured the multiple
elevators as if searching each individual one.
A moment later one of the elevators opened, a stiff backed tall man
walked out. Sallow-skinned, his face was twisted into a frown as if he
was always sad. He was unsettling to look at, just as Adrian was.
"Hello." Broderick Bode spoke, monotone and flat as his eyes looked at
both before behind them, "I will take you to the Department of
Mysteries."
Voldemort didn't respond, he just started walking towards the elevators
as if he were the one in control of the march. Adrian checked the massive
clock hanging in the atrium- they had an hour before Dumbledore and
Skylar would appear.
The elevator was jarring, nearly sending Adrian flying. He grasped the
security ropes, clutching them tightly with a hiss between his teeth. His
father glanced at him with minor amusement, as if nearly delighted with
how Adrian had almost smashed his skull into the wall.
They descended, flipped and swirled on a chaotic path downwards before
they broke through into a hollow. The door was massive, unsettling and
cold. Adrian shivered, all three of them exited the lift.
The door opened under Broderick's hand, spinning multiple gears to shift
out of place. The room then, was large and in the shape of a circle.
Multiple doors spin around them like a clock, clicking into place without
help with which room would move to which.
One door opened, and the spy Augustus Rookwood walked out with a
small swagger. The man glanced at Broderick who stiffly left through
another unmarked door.
"My Lord." Rookwood murmured, lowering to one knee in his
Unspeakable's robe, "I-..." The man trailed off, seeing Adrian with the
smallest flicker of surprise and confusion.
"Ignore him." Voldemort dismissed without care, "Rookwood. Take us to
the Hall of Prophecy."
The man nodded, "of course, my Lord. This way, watch your step."
They entered a door on the furthest right, pausing to allow it to spin
behind them. The walls were stacked with thousands of glowing spheres,
filled with a white smoke similar to the patronus spell. It was eerily
quiet, hushed with whispers impossible to hear.
"This way, although I must warn there are intense detection spells and
protections in place." Rookwood warned, taking a winding path through
the shelves. They were careful not to touch any of the orbs, Adrian's
clicking boots echoed through the cavern.
Finally, they reached an unremarkable orb, different in the label on the
shelf that held it. Skylar/Harry Potter (?), Dark Lord Voldemort.
Adrian wanted to flinch, he wanted to turn around and march out and
ignore the solid proof that his life was a lie.
"You've done well, Rookwood." Voldemort murmured, looking at Adrian
expectantly.
Adrian reached out with shaky hands, and placed his fingers on the cold
glass. Rookwood inhaled sharply and shifted away slightly, as if to
protect himself from an explosion.
Nothing happened, the mist inside swirled and Adrian swallowed thickly
as he lowered it protectively towards his chest.
"Activate it." Voldemort murmured, looking at the orb in obvious hunger.
The prophecy warmed, and when Adrian repeated his father's words it
shifted to a bright silver like a pensieve. The voice that came from it was
unfamiliar to Adrian, raspy and hoarse in an ancient knowing way. "The
one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches... born to those who
have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies... and the Dark Lord
will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not...
and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other
survives... the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as
the seventh month dies…"
It trailed off, and Rookwood exhaled shakily. The prophecy to defeat the
dark lord. The reason why Adrian was targeted. The reason his entire life
had turned to this.
"Obliviate." Voldemort sharply spoke, flickering his wand to leave
Rookwood frozen, jaw dropping and his eyes blank and foggy. "Adrian.
Follow me."
Adrian was helpless to argue. They walked through the shelves, silent
and imposing. It felt like a graveyard, like a forest after a wildfire had
struck. The elevator was just as empty. The way back up was much
longer than the way going down.
"Tempus." Voldemort murmured, glancing at the conjured clock briefly
before he smoothed his robe and fixed his hair. He looked perfect, he
looked more a minister of magic than the Minister of Magic. He looked
down at Adrian- still shorter but now reaching a respectable height. With
the tip of his wand, he shifted Adrian's bangs to the side to stare at the
lightning bolt scar on his upper forehead.
"I tried to kill you there," Voldemort murmured, tapping the scar with his
wand gently, "I still do not know why it didn't work."
Adrian met his father's eyes, the man's expression was always a mystery
to him.
The elevator stopped. The doors rattled as they slowly opened, and the
atrium was in chaos.
A photoshoot was occurring in front of the fountain. Skylar Potter was
obvious, dressed in neat tidy robed with Albus wearing sparkly blue and
silver robes. The man looked tired, but relatively confident and good.
One hand on Skylar's shoulder- the boy looked slightly overwhelmed with
everything.
Something about...Skylar felt off, almost magnetic. Something
gravitational that would have left Adrian walking towards the boy if not
for the cold prophecy in his hands and his father's grasp on his shoulder.
A small flicker of recognition, and Adrian inhaled slightly. Skylar had
Lutain on him, disguised somewhere under his clothing.
(That was impressive, Lutain hated hiding under clothing and not around
a neck.)
"How wonderful this will be." Voldemort spoke softly, watching the mob
of reporters and cameras with a smile exhilarated smile, "I can barely
wait to see the old fool's face."
Adrian licked his lower lip anxiously, "No spells?"
Voldemort nearly snorted. "No spells, unless the coot attacks first.
Defensive only. We are here to invalidate the man. Here marks the
beginning of my ministry."
With nothing else to say, Voldemort started walking towards the masses.
Adrian followed, his clicking shoes drawing a few eyes. A half dozen
people glanced over, watching him out of pity or disbelief over his scars.
He should have been used to it by now.
Fudge was bumbling on, stumbling over words and trying to remedy the
situation the best he could. The man was so incompetent it worried
Adrian how the entire ministry could function at all.
They walked until they were close enough to hear the chaotically shouted
questions. Adrian could spot the subtle flicks and movements of his
father's hand, casting charms and wards without vocalizing them.
Wordless magic Adrian could never hope to accomplish.
With a small pause, Voldemort rolled his head and snapped a few
vertebrae. Adrian could hear the pop from where he stood next to him.
An inhale, and then an exhale.
"Albus Dumbledore," his father's voice echoed, not so loud it burst
eardrums. It was a low bass rumble that was clearly heard, exasperated
in a darkly amused and annoyed way. An amplifying charm executed the
proper way, the stunning awestruck way. "Are you done falsely
campaigning your lies?"
The crowd paused in surprise, before stumbling apart and turning the
cameras behind to start flashing them at Adrian and his father. Adrian
said nothing, holding still even as his head ached and his anxiety
fluttered like a desperate butterfly.
Skylar Potter snapped his head around, locking eyes with Adrian and
then the unfamiliar man standing next to him. Dumbledore instantly
reacted, taking one step forward and using one hand to hold Skylar
behind him. The other held his wand, pointed at Voldemort with steady
hands.
"Tom." Dumbledore greeted calmly, a small dread filled look in his eye. "I
fear it's been a while. How have you been? You look positively radiant."
Voldemort responded instantaneously quick. "I fear you've been
spreading lies of my appearance. A monster- truly? How offensive."
Fudge fumbled, trying to say something only for Skylar to shush him.
"Well." Dumbledore started, looking very on guard, "I hadn't expected to
see you so soon. A Dark Lord doesn't suit you, Tom."
The murmurs and whispers started up, until someone seemed to get the
clue and then the people were throwing themselves out of the way. A
large clearing as they stuck to the walls.
"I'm here because I am tired of the lies you have spread." Voldemort
drawled, taking one step forward to dismissively swish one hand through
the air, "the propaganda, the...faith, in your so-called Wizarding Hero."
Skylar gulped so visibly, his throat moved.
"Tom, leave young Skylar out of this quarrel." Dumbledore soothed,
taking one step forward. "He is of no concern to you."
Voldemort smiled, the expression sharp. "Perhaps you're right. Fudge,"
Voldemort sighed, shifting his expression to look at the Minister (who
was terrified beyond words.) "Your ministry is incompetent. Your
regulations are foolish, your economy has collapsed, you have built your
political strength on the word of a false hero."
Fudge floundered, face pale and hands shaking beyond words. Voldemort
clicked his tongue disappointedly, looking back at Dumbledore. "All of
this faith, in poor poor Skylar Potter."
Skylar stepped forward like the rash impulsive Gryffindor he was. "We'll
stop you!"
Voldemort looked at the boy unimpressed, "Skylar Potter. I expected
better."
Skylar fumed, and looked scared at the right time.
Adrian flinched slightly as the grip on his shoulder tightened slightly.
Adrian inhaled silently, and took a step forward to direct public attention
to him.
He didn't want this.
"Did you truly think, that you were something special?" Voldemort asked
Skylar, tilting his head to the side slightly. "If you were something
remarkable, I would have addressed that years ago."
"Tom…" Dumbledore warned, his wand still at the ready.
Voldemort ignored that, not looking away from Skylar even as the
reporters began whispering along the walls. "Skylar Potter, did you truly
think, that you were somehow something superior? That you had
some...ability, that would change the world?"
Skylar looked pale and shaky. Adrian knew, that Skylar had thought
those ideas.
"I'm the Boy-Who-Lived!" Skylar shouted back, sounding choked and
close to crying.
Voldemort laughed, a cruel sharp noise that sent the hair on Adrian's arms
standing upright.
"No," Voldemort grinned, "no, you aren't."
Dumbledore flinched in surprise, eyebrows rising in an obvious question
and well hid confusion.
Voldemort beckoned behind him, and Adrian took a few stumbling steps
forward.
Dumbledore's brows furrowed, and he inhaled so shakily at the sight of
the prophecy in Adrian's hands he aged a decade in a second.
"Adrian." Skylar breathed in surprise, flickering between Adrian and
Voldemort. Adrian could see the second it really clicked, the moment
where the resemblance was finally set into place through the shape of
their noses and the arch of their brow.
Dumbledore seemed to clue in quicker, and the man gasped and looked
so stunned he fell to a knee.
"Sir!" Skylar gasped, grabbing his arm to help hold him up. Dumbledore
didn't look away from Adrian for a second.
"Tell them." Voldemort hissed, grinning with a sadistic smile so wide it
could have split his face.
"I- I was born on July 31st," Adrian swallowed, his throat thick and voice
slightly strangled. "I... My birth name is Harry James Potter."
Skylar collapsed to his knees. Eyes wide, Dumbledore closed his eyes as if
already resigned. Voldemort's smile spread wider.
The whispers began, Adrian's hands were shaking.
"I'm the real Boy-Who-Lived." Adrian spoke, not hearing himself speak.
"Dumbledore has said nothing but lies, and slander. Skylar Potter is not
the savior of the wizarding world, and he never was."'
The cameras began flashing, looking only at Adrian and the glowing orb
that he held.
Adrian inhaled shakily, and exhaled.
"The prophecy is a lie." Adrian spoke, the words tasting sour. "Everything
Dumbledore has said, is a lie."
Adrian let go, and the orb smashed on the ground in an explosion of
shards and white smoke. It whispered, vanishing into the air.
Dumbledore sighed in defeat. Skylar was shaking, as if he had seen a
ghost. In shock, too overwhelmed to speak or even think.
Dumbledore was discredited, the public opinion broken now and
distrusting the only sense of hope they had. The economy was broken,
the ministry was incompetent. Because of Adrian, an entire revolution
would likely take place in the matter of a week.
"Harry." Skylar whispered, unheard in the commotion and chaos of
everything unfolding. The reporters turned, shouting and screaming at
Fudge and Dumbledore demanding answers. Voldemort stood amid the
chaos, the public now turned against those who had just favored him.
Do you know what it is like, to be unmade?
Adrian closed his eyes. Luna would have cried.
"Why didn't you tell me!" Skylar screamed, head pounding either from the
soreness of crying, or the chaotic whirl of his thoughts.
They were hidden in one of the cottages, unmarked by the Potter wealth
except for Gringotts. Dumbledore didn't think that the goblins had fallen-
how had everything fallen?
"Sky-"
"No!" Skylar screamed, slashing weakly with one hand as his nose drooled
snot. "I- you told me he was dead!"
"We thought he was!" Lily shouted back, her voice a hoarse whisper with
how hard she was shaking. "He- my sister-"
"W-what?" Skylar's head spun as he scrambled to think, Lutain tightening
around him to secure him to reality. "The- you mean the Dursleys? Dad
said they were terrible!"
James hung his head, saying nothing.
"He-" Skylar's vision tinted red. "You- you left him with anti-magics?"
"Skylar." James started, quiet and sad as if he had no fight left within
him, "nobody would have looked for him-"
"But someone did!" Skylar screamed, tears making his face sticky.
"Someone went in and bloody slaughtered them! They took my brother, and
brainwashed him into into-"
Lily crumpled to the ground, legs folding awkwardly around her as she
held her face in her hands.
Good. Skylar thought vindictively. They deserve that.
Lutain hissed, twisting around to stare at Skylar the best he could from
his vantage point. The tongue tasted air, the scales pressing against his
skin. Orphanage.
It clicked, pieces of thoughts and ideas that Skylar knew as truth without
questioning. A cruel matron, a cold blank building with crumbling walls.
A garden snake, hanging in the meaty fist of an abusive child.
Skylar floundered for a few second, barely able to make words from his
thoughts. "He- those bastards abandoned him at an orphanage?"
"What?" James asked in alarm, snapping his head up. "I- I didn't know-"
How could his dad not know about the location of his brother?
Skylar felt his chest heave. Lutain tucked closer, warm beyond the realm
of reality. Something fueled him, caressing and coaxing the rage over the
entire situation higher and stronger like a monster hatching.
His parents didn't know where his brother had been. They didn't know he
was...given up. They had presumed that he had died in the cluster of
blood and gore they all never spoke about. The elephant in the room, the
nearly unrecognizable corpses of his aunt, uncle, cousin, and brother.
They had...they hadn't known.
Skylar reached a crescendo, he ducked his head into his hands and
screamed.
(The floorboard nearest him blackened ever so slightly, and wafted a thin
plume of dark grey smoke.)
End of Part 3
Heads up that I will be away for a couple weeks on a vacation, hence why I
posted these chapters so soon. I'll resume the new chapters at the end of this
month when I get back!
64. Cyclic
This chapter was beta'd by our amazing Beta Collective
-Arctic Fox From Afar
-Mahina
-Cyndaquil05
-4everfictional
-Scion of House Lucifer
-Parsi
-Acelenny
-S4m
- and countless anonymous helpers!
'I'm so hungry so hhungry.'
Adrian was almost ashamed of how cyclic his thoughts had become. An
unending cycle of paranoia, twisting his desires and emotions with
flashes of pain and anxiety.
Never before had he doubted the eyes of the manor's paintings, never had
he questioned the carpet for unseen rules recording his voice. Even
parseltongue was no longer safe, Nagini and the statues ears for his
mumblings.
Never had the house felt so...hostile, twisted and guarded in a way that
felt wrong. He felt that despite being so high in the hierarchy (is that
what this was?) he was so low in everything important. He felt like a spy,
someone rogue with nobody to return to, nobody awaiting him in turn.
Did his father know that? Was that why he had let Adrian roam around
the house aimlessly, silent and wandering with no destination in mind?
(Did his father know what it was like? To be unmade into something
shapeless and broken?)
Was he supposed to be a replacement for Bellatrix? Was that the intent
behind it all, baptized and purified in a puddle of snot and vomit; reborn
in death like a perverse phoenix.
He knew what it was like to suffer, to be assured of life and reassured
with every breath. The fact he felt through sensation was promise
enough.
He had his wand, foreign and wrong where it pressed against his skin.
Snug on his forearm, resting in the notch of his ulna and radius. Warmed
with his blood, pressed against his pulse point.
Cyclic thoughts, alternating unsteadily between exasperation and
exhausting. Questioning reality while reassuring himself that this was
real.
(Do you know what it is like to be unmade?)
Were the birds he conjured real? Did they feel pain- did they suffer when
he conjured them again and again and popped them like pimples. Pus
and entrails thrown about the carpet as if leftover tinsel; banished
without a second glance.
(When he died, would he too, be banished? Worth a cleaning spell and a
"oh what a shame," as his brain was cleaned from the nearest tapestry?)
There was a sense of...power, with death. The knowledge that your
consequences for actions couldn't be worse than what fate had already
determined. He was going to die, to be unmade by the thick black poison
that nestled in his bones.
He was going to die- why not go out blazing with a fire, that for the first
time ever, sparked from his own amusement.
Adrian was sick of playing for a side. There were none, not anymore.
Skylar had made him a deal, it was only proper that he...hold his side of
the bargain.
Skylar Potter wanted objects relating to the founders, and the mysterious
journal. If what Skylar Potter wanted was...important, then inquiring
would only be catastrophic. The best course of action was to work around
it, to find a loophole in the system that would keep his father
unsuspecting. To be docile, calm and quiet.
From what he had gathered from the diary, the objects must be
immensely powerful. Skylar didn't say to destroy them once he got them,
instead he wanted them gathered and delivered. That implied that they
had some sort of protective warding, a failsafe that alerted his father to
their movement or removal. It wasn't impossible to assume his father
could sense their presence then, which meant they would have to be
stored outside the property. Hidden close enough for Adrian to access
without apparation (it was trackable now with the control of the
ministry), but far enough it wouldn't be detected from local scanning.
The objects themselves would be difficult to get. The locket he knew of,
only from Nagini's complaining about how far she had to go to hide it.
The diary he hadn't seen in years, he thought it was destroyed.
The other objects of Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff were completely different,
he could only assume where they would be hidden. His father seemed
especially pleased with the temporary closing of Gringotts- would it be
unrealistic to assume something was hidden in the vaults? They would be
even harder to access now, with the difficulty in removing any objects.
His father had spoken highly of Bellatrix, screeching praise between the-
oh god oh- torture. He spoke of her as if her death had pained him, but
Adrian had seen his father's face. The man cared for nobody.
(Why was he so desperate with her death? Why would he be
so...worried?)
Her vault then, the Lestrange vault was a likely place to look.
Impenetrable, feeding on Bellatrix's unhealthy devotion; it would anchor
her for life to serve her lord so humbly.
The locket had to be taken first, removed from where Nagini hid it and
taken somewhere else. Then he'd have to ask about the diary- it would be
all too obvious what he was after if he tackled the vault first.
Then, he'd have to find a way to get the objects to Skylar; not floo or
portkey. Apparation was impossible, the only thing foolproof now was
physically crossing the distance with non-magical means. On a broom, a
bus, a bloody dragon for all he knew.
"Shite." Adrian cursed quietly, the sound loud as it traveled through the
empty manor. Echoing off stone, swallowed by the rugs. Adrian missed
Lutain.
Was Adrian even allowed to leave the property? Was he allowed?
Nagini was as loyal to his father as-.
Adrian twitched, and forced himself to not think about Lutain.
The best thing he could do was to venture out with Nagini, surely his
father wouldn't be suspicious if he borrowed his familiar. Nagini could
report back even, say if Adrian asked suspicious at all.
It was a shame legilimency didn't work on snakes.
Nagini was fast, the thick muscles under her scales were for a purpose
other than strangulation. She parted grass and flowers easily, her
streamline nose forcing between stems and over roots without pause.
Adrian could marvel that, the path she made was plenty wide enough for
him to follow.
He was fast, but his body was darker. It wasn't as hot as summer used to
be, but the air was still stifling and sharp to breathe. The broken stalks of
grass poked him sharply, not painful but unsettling against his scales. No
wonder Nagini spent her time basking on a heated rock in the humid
bathroom.
The double vision was something alarming, the way his senses flared and
imprinted an echo of what he saw. Heat spitting him knowledge that
permeated trees and physical objects, maps where the sun shone hottest
or the trails where shrews visited regularly.
Nagini didn't stop, she only got faster once reaching the shade of the
trees. They towered far above, branches and leaves so high they looked
like abstract interpretations of clouds.
"Do you go this far always?" Adrian asked, voice garbled and lisping. His
tongue felt foreign, quick and eager. Nagini didn't acknowledge his
impediment, instead she changed course towards a pine.
"Sometimes," she hissed back passively. He could tell she was enjoying
herself, enjoying how fast she was in comparison without really trying.
A bird chirped above, sounding off key and unsettling. The ears of a
snake distorted the world itself, turning something so beautiful into a
freakish sound.
"It's a long way," Adrian commented carefully, restraining the strained
note he felt in his throat, "I'm surprised you leave the house."
Nagini glanced at him, her slit eyes impossible to read. "I used to hunt with
Lutain. I miss him."
Adrian exhaled hurriedly, the small puff audible in a strange sound. "I do
too."
Nagini stared a moment longer, before she continued.
She obviously wasn't as pleased with Adrian as she used to be. Lutain
said that he smelled sick, that he smelled rotten and sour. Perhaps Nagini
noticed also, perhaps her own instincts screamed to stay away from the
diseased beast but her own master forced her to stay at his side.
"I've never gone this far," Adrian offered, recoiling sharply at the double
vision he received at flicking his tongue. "Have you ever gotten lost?"
"Never." Nagini boasted, a spark of her old personality shining through,
"Master says I am very special."
Adrian huffed and without thinking, self-deprecating hissed out, "Yeah, he
never thought that about me."
Nagini swung her head around, craning her neck so sharply her scales
wrinkled like fabric. Her tongue flicked air, curling up and down like a
whale's tail.
"You think that?" She asked, a strain of curiosity bleeding through. "That
he does not cherish you?"
Adrian's mouth tasted wrong. "He treats me like a gemstone."
Nagini's tail curled slightly, "you are precious to him."
She didn't deny the gemstone comment.
"Do you ever wish you were more?' Adrian asked, finding words much
easier now that Nagini seemed more open to what he said. She was less
closed off, moving only ahead of him a small amount instead of creating
the trail for him to follow. "More away from him?"
"I will always obey Master," Nagini responded without hesitation. "I leave
him on important journeys when he asks."
"Like that locket trip?" Adrian asked with forced casualness, "how did you
move it?"
"I ate it." Nagini hummed out, barely pausing as if it was obvious.
She...ate it.
Oh god, how was Adrian going to bring it back?
Adrian flicked his tongue, a nervous reaction. The after image burned
and he mentally cursed himself over it.
"You must be very strong." Adrian rushed out, appealing to the python's
vanity the best he could. "It is difficult to move after eating."
Nagini puffed proudly, "I moved very far. It was difficult, but I am very
strong."
Adrian forced his breathing to be calm. "Was it across many dens?"
Nagini spat something which could be considered a huff, or perhaps a
balk. "No! Many fields, to the edge of the forest and under a rock!"
She put emphasis on the rock part, so Adrian made sure to give a sound
of shock. She seemed content, more delighted at his surprise.
"Yes," Nagini hummed in delight, "only rat-man could touch it. I heard you
killed rat-man."
Adrian breathed. "I did."
"Did you eat him?"
"No, but he begged for his life a lot."
Nagini huffed before she turned, finding the trail they ventured out on to
return with, "pity. Should have ate him."
Adrian turned to follow her back towards the house, mentally scrambling
to remember the layout of the surrounding forest. "He would have made
me sick."
"Hah!" Nagini hissed in amusement, "you should come with me more. You're
fun."
Adrian tried not to show how sick he felt.
He did know the forest edge that Nagini mentioned, and he knew the cliff
edge where the ground split like the maws of a hound. Large boulders
jutting like teeth towards the sky. Exposed slate in the layers of a cake,
coated in water and moss and slippery to the touch. He didn't know if he
would be able to sense the locket again, but as a serpent he would have
to find the hole and wriggle his way down. Then, he would have to eat
the locket.
For Merlin's sake, how did his jaw even work?
His room felt empty and cold, the impractical spiral staircase he once
adored now looked daunting. He would have to climb it, clothed in robes
that disgusted him and a hood which hid him from everyone.
He wished he could write, that he could scribble his thoughts on paper
and try to organize the whirlwind of his brain. Maybe if he drew or
wrote, the cycle would end. The questions could be addressed and solved.
(It was too much a risk to write them, not with so many prying eyes and
a father who would likely kill him. Who would make him beg for death.)
Skylar wanted the diary, how was he going to somehow sneak that out?
He couldn't imagine eating it, even a locked seemed impossible. He
would…he would have to walk out with it. He would have to leave the
manor with his father's full knowledge.
"Shite," Adrian gasped hoarsely, sitting on the corner of his bed to hold
his face in his hands. His whole body was shaking slightly, causing the
frame to squeak. "Shite."
His father would only let him leave the manor if he trusted him, if he
viewed his independence as an asset. Adrian was jewelry, something
pretty to look at and to own.
Shite, the wizarding world knew who he was.
If he ever showed his face in public, he'd be instantly known either as the
betrayer of the wizarding world or their only hope. He would be
swarmed, unprotected and at the mercy of others. He couldn't perform
magic, or his life was at risk. His father didn't know that, his father
would view any failure to protect himself as a weakness.
Adrian would have to portray himself as some sort of...as something
powerful, like Nagini. Something that could fight and defend and strike.
If he did attack, then the parasite or Vitaedax would increase and he
would die quicker.
"Shite," Adrian gasped out, gulping for air as his nails dug sharply into his
hairline.
What did his father view as power? Raw strength like what Bella had?
The political influence like Draco's father? The lethal potential that
Nagini possessed?
Adrian didn't have any of that- well, he had the power but he couldn't
very well use it. He wasn't charismatic- his face made sure of that. He
maybe was a political pawn but he knew next to bloody nothing about
what was going on with the world. The lethal potential he had was his
animagus form which was thinner than a bedpost.
Was there a way to...imply power? Show that it existed without actually
showing his limits?
"Dammit." Adrian whispered, shoving the meat of his palm into his eyes
and reveling in the squishing noise of his eyes being pressed, "shite,
where's Luna when you need her?"
If anyone, anyone, could figure a way out of all of this, it would have
been her.
"Do you know half of the school is afraid of you?" Luna asked him, her voice
adopting the slightly melancholic tone that signaled to Adrian that she was
being serious. The music of the Yule Ball was far away, the classroom quiet.
"It wouldn't surprise me."
"It's not because of how you look." Luna explained, as if it needed further
explanation, "It's because of what you've done."
"I'm not sure how to tell you this, but that literally didn't help at all."
"It's because of the rumors, and your classes. Most of the rumors are true,
though."
"If this is about Millicent-"
"You know, everyone in the school went to you if they needed something, even
if it did cost them." Luna sighed wistfully, "Everyone knew that you could find
out things they couldn't. Maybe you didn't know it then, but that's what it was.
Adrian Selwyn, he knows how to curse you in four different ways, and how to
heal you in five."
"Yeah well, you know how that business went up in flames."
"But you did that. I don't think anyone in Hogwarts' history made a bartering
system for students. That's impressive."
"People aren't afraid of you because of Bellatrix Lestrange, they were afraid of
you long before that." Luna conceded, "I heard that you don't struggle with
spells."
"No, but that's because I practice."
"Adrian you're good at spells."
"I'm really not," he automatically blurted.
"Why are you arguing? Why do you think you're so...mediocre?"
"Because I am!" Adrian blurted.
Luna's spell faded out. She whispered it once more, squinting into his face as if
looking for something in particular.
"I don't think you are," She confided, "I think you're brilliant."
"Shite." Adrian breathed, rubbing the sleep from his eyes and the sticky
remnants of tears during the night. "Shite."
Luna was right all along, too mature and too aware for her own good.
"Shite, i'm so sorry." Adrian mumbled into his hands, pausing before
trying to compose himself the best he could. He had nearly forgotten
about Yule. The snow, the lumos charms and the conjured birds in the
rafters. He taught her how to do the spell better, she kept her wrist too
limp to flick her wand.
He chuckled brokenly, trying not to think too much about those
godforsaken herb bundle earrings, which made her smell like Snape's
private stores. He tried not to think about the terrible dress she wore- the
one she confessed a week later had given her a rash from chafing. He
tried not to remember the way her eyes glowed and her hair looked in
the unicorn horn tiara she made.
"Okay," Adrian breathed to himself, his voice distorted and snotty and
broken even in his ears, "Okay, you were right, Luna."
He paused, making a low groan before he rolled his head, snapping the
bones in his neck. His hands fisted in his blanket, curling so tightly his
knuckles creaked. He steadied his breathing, let it out slowly in the way
Remus showed him.
Luna said he could learn spells faster than others, that it took him less
time to learn them. She said he was dangerous in his knowledge, his
obscurity.
"Looks like I have spells to learn." Adrian whispered to himself. He
inhaled once more, held it in sorrow for the loss he was about to make-
and let it go.
There was a time for him to accept his flaws, for him to recognize his
shortcomings and know that it didn't matter. It didn't matter that he wasn't
perfect, or that he couldn't reach the expectations placed upon him.
Luna was right, she was always right.
"I'm afraid you're going to do something stupid for the approval of someone
that doesn't matter."
"Time to change that," Adrian breathed, mindful of the air around him, of
all the eyes that would forever be watching him from now on. "Time to
change this."
If his father desired a weapon, then he would pretend to be just that, and
in heart be what he always desired. A weapon, silent and obeying, and
maybe through his actions he would be given freedom.
"Okay," Adrian breathed, rubbing his eyes and straightening his
shoulders. He grabbed his cloak, pulling it over and fastening the ties. His
father was busy, but Rowle wouldn't be.
He found Rowle in the training hall, demolition dummies without a
glance. Adrian felt his anxiety grow as he watched- the man was an
excellent dueler.
"Rowle." Adrian spoke, licking his lips from under his cloak, he waited
until the larger man paused, turning to look at him without a care. One
eyebrow lifted, his mouth twisting into an amused smirk.
"Well, there you are." Rowle spoke, his voice low and as threatening as
before. Adrian was thankful for the cloak, thankful that it shrouded his
face.
"I heard you killed Bellatrix." Rowle paused, twisting his torso to address
Adrian fully, "was it a cheap shot?"
Offensive, rude, just as Adrian remembered him.
"No," Adrian spoke, calming himself the best he could before he reached
up and lowered the hood of his cloak. "It was fair."
Rowle exhaled quickly through his nose, scrutinizing Adrian with a small
frown. "You look terrible."
Adrian's mouth twitched slightly, "what did you expect?"
Rowle rolled one shoulder, nodding his head back at the dummies, "you
here for those? You've been a ghost around here, making the new recruits
nearly shite themselves."
Adrian drew his wand quickly, grasping the wood tightly in his hand.
"You taught me spells before. You gave me dark magic addiction."
Rowle shrugged without a care. "You were idiot enough to not ask
questions. How young were you, twelve? Thirteen?" Rowle's eyes sparked
dangerously, "you any smarter now?"
That was a bribe, a sharp taunt to Adrian's infamous temper.
He heard the words, recognized where he once may have been furious.
What point was there to be angry, when it would accomplish nothing.
What would it matter in two years, if Adrian would be dead by then?
"Obviously." Adrian stated back, bluntly and numb. He could see the
moment Rowle heard it, the confused twitch of his cheek. Adrian lifted
his wand to the side, unthreatening but very clear what he wanted.
"What's the most obscure spell you know."
Rowle moved slowly, away from the targets and closer to Adrian himself.
"Transmogrification curse."
Adrian had heard of it, loosely described as a killing torture curse. Pain
so extreme it caused the heart to fail, death from torture. Uninteresting-
(nothing would ever compare to Crucio)- and known. "I said obscure,
Rowle."
"Corpotabeo." Rowle drawled, stressing the vowels until it sounded like
another language, "old spell right there. Never got the hang of it."
Adrian hadn't heard of that one. "What's the wand movement."
Rowle stepped back, lowering himself in a mock bow, a small smirk on
his face the entire while. Adrian could tell, just by Rowle's expression,
that the spell was likely incredibly dark.
It couldn't be worse than what Adrian had already done, what he had
seen.
Do you know what it is like to be unmade?
Adrian looked at the dummy, steadied his hand and pointed his wand.
Rowle demonstrated the wand movement, sharp yet simple. Adrian
mimicked it once, then stared at his target. The center dummy, with two
on either flank.
"Corpotabeo."
The rush existed, stinging and painful along his arteries and veins in the
way all dark magic was. It felt like bliss, in a strange muted way.
Delightful but not the way it used to be. Not a high enough dosage for
true, pure bliss.
The dummy crinkled, blackened, and dropped to the ground in festering
slimy rot. It looked decomposed, melting away before his eyes in a
grotesque display of ruined wet cloth and slime.
The dummies on its flank- melted away.
The dummies behind that- melted away.
The floor itself stank, floorboards peeling the stain and arching into a
single circular area of stink and illness.
Twelve feet at the minimum, the dummy was nothing more than
shapeless decay.
Adrian stared at the pile, rotating just enough to look at Rowle from the
corner of his eye.
Rowle had taken steps back, stumbling over his feet desperately. His skin
had turned waxy, visible sweat and trembling across his shoulders.
"You-" Rowle gaped, looking at Adrian as if he was a dementor, not a
person, "You- you did it."
"And the dummies next to it," Adrian noted bluntly, "and the ones behind
those. And the floor. Were you testing me, Rowle?"
The man looked at him with something impossible to describe, the
grudging hatred of something going unexpectedly. The pain of
frustration, the growing terror. "No, my lord."
Adrian felt his throat wet, metallic and coppery on his tongue. His nose
was bleeding, subtle and cold down his throat like snot. He ignored it,
instead looking down at Rowle without any expression. "Then I expect
you to show me more spells. You'll find, that there aren't any I can't
perform."
The spiral staircase and the impractical balcony over the throne room
was just as cold and uninviting as ever.
Adrian stood, shrouded in black with the hood disguising his face. His
father below him, lounged on his throne build on blood and bone with
Nagini around his heels like a reminder.
Adrian couldn't see his father from the angle where he stood, only the sea
of black and white masks which filled the large room. Packed like
sardines in a tin can, an amalgamate of bodies and nameless faces that
meant nothing and everything to Adrian at once. What purpose did he
serve, looking out over a sea of people without ever having a role? A
poster child for what went wrong, a reminder for everyone who bound
themselves to eventual death, that even the strongest figure of hope was
a lie.
Adrian knew what hell was, he knew the agony of realization and
knowing that his entire life was built on false promises. He was nothing
special in his father's eyes, he was everything special in everyone else's.
He once had Lutain, and he had lost him.
He once had Luna, and he had killed her.
Below, his father was talking in the hissing voice that disturbed
everyone. The voice that over pronounces his 's' until it verged on
parseltongue. Nagini was quiet, content or perturbed by it all.
"Snape," his father spoke, and from the masses a single body moved and
the crowd parted like a biblical painting. He walked forward, moving
without pause or hesitation.
Adrian knew with certainty stronger than the knowledge of his own
name, that Snape was going to die.
"How convenient." his father began calmly and amused, "that you have
failed me once more."
Snape always failed them, he had failed Adrian more times than he could
count. He failed Harry Potter before he was even born.
Adrian tilted his head slightly as he viewed the man below, barely able to
be seen over the railing. Betrayed once his parents. Betrayed twice by his
school. Would Adrian be betraying his father for the third time, or had he
already been betrayed?
"My Lord, I live to serve." Snape spoke, voice low as he lowered himself
humbly to the floor. The marble would soon be stained with blood,
maybe organs if his father was feeling particularly unhappy.
"And yet," his father began with a sigh, wistful and toying with the man,
"you fled as soon as Bellatrix began her assault such a long time ago.
Perhaps if you had assisted, she would be here in our ranks still."
Snape was trembling, terrified in a way that meant he too knew what
was coming.
"What a disappointment," Voldemort toyed, the entire room watching
soundlessly. "I had expected more, after all I've done for you. I took your
request and spared that mudblood when you asked, and since then you
have been of little use."
Voldemort stood, Adrian could hear his shoes on the ground out of sight.
"I thought perhaps, you would infiltrate Dumbledore's Order but no,
instead you fail at even that. You fail at passing information I wanted
implanted, and you failed at reporting information I wanted."
There was a buzz in the air, static and sharp. Snape was low on the
ground, pressed flush and silent in wordless prayer to a god above that
would heed his calls.
Yet there was no god in this twisted bastardized world; the only being
above Snape was Adrian, built on his throne of lies.
And perhaps the thought of that, was the enlightenment Adrian had
always needed. The knowledge and faith in knowing that he had the right
for choosing who lived or died. Adrian had the power and influence to let
those live, or choose to let those die.
Snape waited, knowing his impending death and unaware of how his fate
was held in no divine intervention, but in the blood-soaked palms of
Adrian's own mercy.
Adrian inhaled, and stepped forward, peering over the railing until he
could begin to see the black cloak of his father.
He settled his heart the best he could, and hissed loudly into the room. "I
want to deal with him."
There was a pause, a stilted moment where the room spiked in fear at the
parseltongue. He could imagine his father tilting his head in
contemplation, surveying Snape and his throne and the curiosity that
bubbled under his tongue.
"Your pleas have been heard, Severus." Voldemort spoke, a slight edge of
fascination unheard to everyone but Adrian. "I am interested to see what
you have planned."
Adrian walked forward, the drop would be about twenty feet, far too
long to jump down. Short enough that when he shifted into his scaled
body, legs and arms useless and eyes filmed yellow, he could descend
speedily and horrifically.
On the ground he slithered, shifting quickly and dangerously, the red
crest between his eyes and neck flared high like a dorsal fin on a shark.
Bright, obvious, displaying how dangerous he truly was.
He shifted mid movement, cleanly into a walking step with boots that
clicked loud enough to fall into tempo with a hundred hearts.
'Do I scare you yet, Severus?' Adrian thought to himself, finding sick
satisfaction in the thought. 'Do you want me dead also?'
Adrian shifted on his heels, clicking twice before standing stationary,
looking downwards at the kneeling man who had ruled over him for
years. Criticizing him, spitting insults, turning a blind eye when students
had cursed him and assaulted him with their own hands and shoes.
Adrian's blood was on this man's hands- had he realized that?
"Lackluster." Adrian spoke sharply, pausing before reaching up to lower
his hood. His face in display, a secret that had been exploited by his
father's own hand. "I heard that's what you said to Bellatrix."
Snape didn't move from his kneeling position, hair hanging around his
face.
"Look at me," Adrian spoke, voice low like a whisper. Ever so slowly, the
older man lifted his head, keeping his eyes averted out of respect. That
wouldn't do, not for what Adrian wanted to know.
"At my eyes." Adrian spoke again, voice softer and more crooning than
before. Ever so slowly, the beady black eyes met the corrupted yellow
and green of Adrian's own. "How many times did you look at me, and
decide to turn a blind eye as your students beat me and cursed me under
your watch? Well, now you're going to look me in the eyes, professor, and
you're going to beg me to let you live."
Snape's throat moved, a harsh swallow. Adrian tilted his head slightly, a
small sardonic smile twisting his features, "didn't you tell me to try
harder?"
Snape's mouth moved, but no words came out. His eyes flickered down
before they jerked back up, desperate to obey Adrian's request.
The hall was silent, under Adrian's own breathing he could barely hear
the soft scraping noise of Nagini slithering on the floor.
Did Snape really deserve to die? No, not at all. Adrian didn't deserve to
die either, but here he was. The world was unfair, filled with pain and
suffering and despite it all, perhaps existence was the greatest agony yet.
"I don't like you," Adrian spoke, voice cold and young. Disconcerting and
horrific in the silence of the hall, "You were a horrible teacher to me, you
only looked out for those you liked and how...unfortunate, that you didn't
like me."
Adrian's heart beat and he tilted his head slightly, head hazy with
musings and the cloying thrum of power. "Do you like me now,
professor?"
Snape choked quietly, stumbling over sounds before he could rasp out a
staggered, "yes, my lord."
Adrian frowned, his eyes scrunching ever so slightly. "I don't think you
do. I think you don't give a shite about all of this, and that you were only
here because you were indebted to the Potters and Dumbledore and you
could never quite find a way...out."
Snape said nothing, Adrian had the distinct impression that his father
was rather delighted with how things were going.
Adrian sighed and drew his wand, tapping his fingers against the holly
wood that felt so strange in his hands after all this time. "You offended
me a lot. Perhaps your heart was in the right place, caring for those you
believed should deserve it, but you are a petty selfish man. You're cruel,
angry, and bitter. I heard about all the rumors you know, that you only
joined this side to protect Lily Potter. I saw how much you hate James
Potter, and I've seen how some childish rivalry caused you to treat Skylar
Potter like trash."
Adrian paused, and like a whisper a thought came to him. "I was going to
kill you, but that's petty."
He could see the way Snape's eyes widened slightly, the smallest amount
of moisture accumulating as he broke into a cold sweat. Adrian pointed
his wand down, the tip pressing against the older man's face firm enough
the skin distorted around it.
"But killing you would be too simple," Adrian murmured quietly, eyes
wide and childish as he stared downward. "You're going to leave here,
and you're never going to return. You're going to run to Dumbledore and
his Order and you're going to vomit up everything that you've seen,
because that's all you ever do. You're going to tell them all of this, how
Harry Potter spared you because living with the knowledge that you
helped make me, will haunt you until you die."
Snape inhaled sharply and Adrian withdrew his wand, lowering himself
in a squat until he was close to Snape's face, eyes still not breaking
contact.
Adrian shrugged and glanced away, feeling sick to his heart but knowing
despite it all, his father would be (and was) ecstatic with how things were
unveiling.
"I'm surprised you never noticed, in all honesty." Adrian mentioned with
a wry smile, "after all, professor. I have my mother's eyes."
Snape stumbled to the table, desperately grabbing a decanter in a shaking
grip. For the first time in a long while, Dumbledore didn't even stop him.
Instead the older wizard had both hands to his head, one covering his eye
while the other pressed against the bridge of his nose as if that would
ward off everything, as if that would end the nightmares surely to come.
"And you're sure of this?" Dumbledore asked quietly, although the two of
them knew there were no questions left to ask.
Snape just laughed instead, high pitched and curt and bordering on
manic. "I- There is nothing left to be said!"
Dumbledore knew that, and understood why the other man was having
such a strong reaction. Agitation and shouting was allowed, it was
expected.
Snape sat heavily, throwing back the liquor as if it would offer him a way
out. A moment later he slammed his head into his arms, crossed and
braced against the table. Hiding his face from sight.
"I don't know how to look at this." Dumbledore confessed, feeling as
weary as ever, "if the fact he spared you is a message of hope still."
Snape hissed as if burned, "there is nothing left in that- that-"
"He is Lily's child." Dumbledore input quietly, the words feeling sour on
his tongue, "no matter how misguided."
Snape sneered something ugly, "there is nothing left of Lily in that- that
monster!"
Dumbledore shook his head slowly, "I cannot in good faith turn my eyes
aside from-"
Snape slammed his hands down on the table hard enough that the glass
tumblers rattled. "He is foul and twisted! We both know that based on his
appearance that monster is the one that attacked the forbidden forest
years ago! The one that attempted to murder that blasted-"
"The snake, which we now know is Lutain, did not kill James."
Dumbledore interrupted with a sigh, "I must account for that as a mercy."
"Then- then what of the others!" Snape spat out, "what of that- the girl
who died in the forest! That blasted Umbridge who was murdered!"
Dumbledore shook his head and Snape looked at him with an expression
of utter betrayal. "For all your talk of the greater good, you are a
hypocrite. There is a distance where you cannot return from, and if you
don't try to kill that child then this war is lost!"
Dumbledore's heart twisted. "I cannot kill a child, Severus. I will not kill a
child."
Snape's expression shifted into awe, then outrage. "You have been
pampering that- that Potter brat for that prophecy his entire life! You
have been preparing a child to die!"
"Never." Dumbledore snapped out, instantly feeling regret as Snape
flinched away from the aggression. "No Severus, if I had my way Skylar
Potter would be spared of this all, and perhaps it was for naught or
perhaps Skylar has aided Adrian Selwyn in a way we cannot quite
understand. I will not lose faith in Skylar Potter, the prophecy is what we
make of it."
Snape's lip curled into something predatory, "You mean to say that you
have been ignoring the prophecy?"
Dumbledore's eyes sharpened, then softened in guilt. He looked aside,
fumbling with his fingers and the blackened digits that didn't respond the
way they used to. "I have not ignored it, but I will never treat a child as a
weapon. I will not rob Skylar of his innocence and his childhood for the
sake of a prophecy we do not truly understand."
Snape's face twitched, "perhaps if you had trained the boy, we wouldn't
be in this situation."
Dumbledore's eyes softened and he looked very sad. "I am sorry, Severus,
perhaps Adrian was right. Your jealousy has made you cruel. Perhaps you
can treat a child without care of compassion, but I will never take that
from them. Perhaps I have made a mistake, but I have given Skylar the
chance to be happy."
Snape shook his head with a disgusted look. "You've doomed us all,
you've placed all your faith in an idiot boy and now look at us!"
Dumbledore looked to his hands, fiddling the ring on his finger. "I have
faith and hope in Skylar, and through that I have hope in Adrian."
"How?" Severus exasperatedly sighed, "How can you dare think that?"
"For one thing," Dumbledore started quietly, "you're still here. And above
all else, Skylar carries around a piece of Adrian's heart."
It worked, the stunt and portrayal of himself left Adrian free to roam
about with no eyes watching his movements. No threats, no torture, basic
terrifying whispers and a fate worse than death and suddenly Adrian was
untouchable.
Death Eaters parted and bowed before him, every snake treated with the
same respect since nobody apparently knew what a basilisk looked like.
Adrian could wander outside, through the shriveled gardens or past
Walter the Grifdor who looked in wonderful shape as he chased beetles
outside.
Everything was calm and at ease, except the swirl of emotions in Adrian
himself.
Was it right to spare Snape? He had no regrets for the suffering he surely
gave the man, it was revenge in its finest form. Was it right to let him
flee? To let Dumbledore know just how deeply he was involved with all
of this?
(He knew, that Luna would understand. He wasn't sure if Remus ever
would have.)
He was free to move around, he was free to gather those weird objects
that Skylar was so fixated on and then after all that, perhaps then he
would find some sort of respite in all this chaos.
He knew, that something likely was within Bellatrix's vault; he had been
keyed into access a long while back when he was still a child. He would
have to actually get into Gringotts, but once managing to pull a few
strings it would be easy then. Obviously, once he did that there would be
no returning or hiding what he was doing.
The diary was an enigma, although he was rather sure it had been
destroyed long ago. That left the locket, which Nagini had hid although
pointed out where it had been placed.
He would have to eat it, escape from the rocky crevice and regurgitate it,
then somehow mask its presence until he could get back to Skylar and
explain the situation. He had no idea where the other object would be,
perhaps with time Skylar would come to some sort of conclusion.
What would it take for his father to trust him enough to allow him to
venture off unchecked? What would it take, for him to allow Adrian to go
where he wanted without fear of his injury?
Luna had been right, Adrian was a threat. He needed to show it.
Adrian needed to kill someone without thought, without care, and
without hesitation.
(Perhaps then, he would know freedom.)
S058: I'd give [Tom's plan] a 5 out of 10. Props for not being outright
open and easy to resist, but no points gained for crashing the economy.
That tends to have knock on effects and draw quite a bit of heat. Also too
easy to go out of control. I mean, there could've easily been a massive
uprising of Muggleborns simply because they feel they got nothing to
lose.
I actually modeled this out with a politics professional, our goal was to try and
create an artificial recession that would only damage Wizarding Society.
Muggleborns would be relatively unaffected, which would cause them to be
targets of aggression since they aren't struggling nearly as much as fully
immersed Wizarding families. The recession is generally in place just from
shifting exports and importation rates, so reverting the damage would be
simple and easy to initiate once Voldemort felt that enough blame was placed
on Muggleborns.
Impstar: Maybe when Adrian dies he meets Luna again. That would be
an ending that I could be satisfied with.
I have wonderful news for you then
KClown: I really hope you have a satisfying ending and response to
Skylar's deal in mind because nothing ticks me off and makes me sadder
than when an author has a great story but ruins it all by a pathetic
ending and irritating responses.
I have a large selection of people who are helping me with ideas that they
would find satisfying for an ending. Of course, all sample sizes and results are
different, but this one is rather large so hopefully you'll enjoy how it turns out
also.
Jostanos: Huh.. dark Grey Smoke? Was that a Horcrux? or something
else?
Accidental magic influenced by Adrian's horcrux
Moxiemae: i love how you are trying politics and economics into in a
very real and believable way. i don't think i've seen that before in a fic.
so, so, so good!
Thank you! I had a lot of help with that!
ines: I saw on tumblr that it going to make it a good ending now and I
was wondering if you could post both stories, the really bad one where
remus dies and the good one where he lives and it's a happy ending
This story actually has transformed into the good one. I don't have two
parallel stories, although at the end I will explain how it originally was going
to go
guest: Question, does Adrian like or hate Voldemort, or is it more of he
doesn't care for him.
Voldemort cares for him like an object, not in the healthy way required for a
sentient being
65. Memory
This chapter was beta'd by our amazing Beta Collective
-Arctic Fox From Afar
-Mahina
-Cyndaquil05
-4everfictional
-Scion of House Lucifer
-Parsi
-Acelenny
-S4m
- and countless anonymous helpers!
Also thanks to the Discord server which is filled with wonderful
readers who helped me with ideas! (I'm looking at you, Jaybean,
Arc, Nelchael, Wolf, S4m, and many more)
'Maybe maybe she deserved it yes she deserved it why did she get to to be liked
and nd not me its is not fair not FAIR she DESERVED IT she she starved and
i'm STARVING.'
The opportunity came the day the papers were posted, where Skylar's
face was marked as an Undesirable and the aurors were purged from
operation.
The day that dark witches and wizards somehow gained control, dark
magic lawful once more and slowly but surely, plans for hunting and
tracking were put into motion.
Muggleborns were to be chased out of hiding, like a porcupine in a hole.
Smoked out, waiting to be speared.
It sat wrong in Adrian's gut, it felt wrong. The treatment of Muggleborns,
the cruelty and harsh ramifications around the circumstances of your
birth. Who was he to argue, who was he to really have a claim in the
discussions?
Instead he was to sit on the side during his father's meetings, or coiled
tightly like a desk decoration with his plume high and bold. He scared
the corrupted ministry officials, he made their breathing stutter and he
understood why.
(He had to pretend to be indifferent, he had to pretend that the only
mercy he gave was something swift and painless. The robbing of
someone's life tasted sick to him.)
He stood on one meeting, an especially corrupted official that made
Adrian's spine prickle. From under his hood, they couldn't see his eyes
but he could delve into their mind and peruse all he wanted.
This man, Pickering, was a half blood weasel who filed paperwork to
repress werewolf rights, to allow the open poaching of them as if
mindless animals. It didn't pass of course, but Adrian saw his heart and
judged him for what he knew.
The man was discussing something minor, perhaps something about
goblins although it didn't seem important. Adrian could tell his father
wasn't interested, simply listening for the sake of necessity to
micromanage everything.
Adrian inhaled and took a step forward, instantly drawing attention to
himself. He had never broken routine before, he had never intervened on
these discussions.
"I don't like you," Adrian spoke bluntly, forcing his face to turn blank as
he lowered his hood. His eyes glazed and tired, sick looking and cold.
Adrian pulled his wand subtly and tilted his head slightly, watching the
beads of sweat that gathered on the man's temples. "Your voice sounds
nasally, like a rat."
The man stumbled, wordlessly choking on his words. He was stupid, to
confident in his position and power to take the threat as seriously as he
should have. He choked out a response, already disrespectful instead of
being quiet.
Adrian's face twitched and he lifted his wand while blinking slowly. "You
bore me, and you're replaceable. Avada Kedavra."
The room flashed, the man died. Adrian pulled his hood back up and
quietly moved back to where he had been standing before. He ignored
the nausea that rose abruptly, forcing himself to stare at the wall instead
of at the corpse that was rattling with death spasms on his father's desk.
His father paused, folding his white skeletal hands together. Adrian could
see from his peripherals the way the glamour fell away to pale but pink
skin. "You murdered a follower of mine."
Adrian closed his eyes and steadied his heart. "He was disrespectful,
father."
A second, two seconds.
Then Voldemort threw his head back and laughed, a sound that would
have been pleasant if not for the man the sound was coming from. His
father grinned, wide and deranged with white teeth sparkling. One hand
ran through his hair, pushing it back until it trickled through his fingers.
"Oh, what have I done to you, child?" His father asked, looking far too
bemused. Adrian swallowed thickly and didn't lower his hood. His father
looked far too human like this, far too handsome and far too demonic
with the bloody iris. "I've corrupted you so terribly. I remember the day I
taught you to shield, you were so small and innocent then."
Adrian wanted to vomit. "I grew up."
Voldemort tapped one finger against his mouth, the manicured digit
resting on the quirk of bemusement. "You have, I daresay I missed the
moment you did."
Adrian's heart thrummed loudly and painfully and his eyes stung and
hurt and he tried his best to not look at the corpse. With an exhausted
self hating exhale, he thought to himself, 'checkmate.'
Skylar Potter tapped his fingers on his arm, alternating which finger in a
disjointed pattern similar to rain. It should be raining, maybe then it
would reflect just how somber everything was.
Hermione and Ron at least had their plan in place, the expanded purse of
Hermione's was filled with stolen and smuggled necessities. She assured
him the last time he saw her, that whenever they were ready to go she
could apparate them all away. Then they'd be on the run, away from
civilization and family and completely alone.
Nobody would be able to track them, but Skylar's mum and dad wouldn't
know where they were also. It was safer that way, they weren't
Undesirables #1.
(How had the world turned to this? Sheltered away in a safe house,
Skylar's life switched around from saviour of the Wizarding World to
Bane of the Wizarding World.)
His parents were keeping their distance from him, either his shouting had
scared them off or they were respecting his choice to remain isolated.
(Was he really that isolated, if he had Lutain?)
Skylar was mad at them, mad at them for the lies and deception, but mad
at himself because he should have known. Weren't twins supposed to be
connected? Linked?
He should have known somehow, he should have acted sooner or or-
(But hadn't he? He had Lutain, he was Adrian's friend before it all-)
Skylar choked, a wet audible noise that caused the black snake to glance
over curiously. It observed him for a moment, flicking its tongue before
lowering its head once again.
Skylar heard movement from outside his room, movement on the
floorboards and the low rumble of voices. Skylar tucked himself further
into the corner, well aware and dreading the imminent knock on his
door.
It took a few moments for the voices to migrate, coming closer before
they lowered and vanished. Skylar held his breath, and the door rang
with a quiet knock.
"Come in," Skylar spoke, voice hoarse and quiet. He had screamed far too
much recently, he had shouted until his throat felt raw.
The door opened, and Skylar stumbled to his feet, hand twisting into a
fist. The broken edges of his nails dug into the meat of his palm, any
harder and the skin would part and let him bleed.
"Dumbledore." Skylar blurted in surprise, fumbling over his tongue in his
sheer bafflement, "I- I thought you were out-"
"Skylar," Dumbledore smiled, his eyes and face carrying an exhaustion
heavier than a mountain, "please. We have much to discuss."
Skylar's eyes flickered towards the door, his hesitation was obvious.
Dumbledore's expression fell further, accompanied by the slow shake of
his head. "No, this discussion is between us only."
Skylar was almost ashamed of how much he calmed, nodding and
shifting towards his bed.
He barely thought of the black snake, on instinct he snapped his fingers
and pointed at the floor. Lutain reared and hissed, Skylar batted him
away, knocking the snake softly aside. Dumbledore watched warily, not
mentioning it but taking the seat on the bed that Skylar offered.
Skylar fumbled with his hands, picking at his nails and flexing his
knuckles. "Why are you here, sir?"
Dumbledore sighed through his nose, looking a thousand miles away. His
hand shifted, clutching the blackened hand and ring close to his chest. He
looked unnerved, shaken and unsettled as if all the troubles in the world
finally caught up to him.
"When I was young, I had a sister I loved very dearly." Albus began
quietly. Skylar's head snapped around and his mouth opened in surprise,
awe rendering him speechless.
"You-" Skylar choked, one hand covering his mouth as he struggled to
think.
Dumbledore smiled faintly, gentle and cruel only to himself. "Her name
was Ariana. When...when she was young, muggle boys saw her using
magic. They were… it damaged her. It twisted her and broke her so, that
she refused to ever use magic again."
Skylar bit his tongue, and gazed away in his own shame.
Dumbledore continued talking. "She couldn't remove herself of her magic,
it festered and turned her sick. It exploded from her when angry or hurt,
it turned her dangerous but in heart she was sweet and scared and so
gentle."
Skylar didn't want to ask. "What did she do?"
Dumbledore chuckled once, a low pained noise that Skylar would never
forget. "When she was fourteen she had an incident, killing her mother.
By then, our father had already been imprisoned in Azkaban, he tortured
and murdered the boys which damaged her so. I became Ariana's
caretaker, but I didn't want to be her guardian, I resented it."
Skylar huffed through his nose shallowly, "what was she?"
Dumbledore's mouth quirked once. "Ariana was an obscurus, a magical
parasite not unlike that which ails dear Adrian. I must apologize, for not
visiting and being present for the raid upon you and our friends. I must
admit, I wanted to pretend that dear Adrian did not exist."
Skylar smiled quietly and pained. "He reminded you of her, didn't he?
The outbursts, the damage. The parasite. You never came to visit him,
because you kept seeing her."
Dumbledore paused his breathing, "there was an incident not long after
Ariana came into my care. She attempted to stop a fight between my
brother and a lover of mine, and in her attempt to stop our duel a curse
bounced wrong and she-" Dumbledore flinched, a full body movement
that Skylar never imagined bearing witness to. "She died. She was the
first obscurus I had ever seen, or had Gellert Grindelwald and I dread
saying it sparked his fascination with such cruel monsters."
Skylar's heart froze and his breathing choked off into a wheeze. "You
were with Grindelwald?"
Dumbledore looked wistful, "It was a mistake, not for the memories we
shared, but for not dampening his fascination with the dark arts. Not a
moment passes where I wonder, that if not for me, would the secret of
Obscuri and Vitaedax and other creatures remain a secret? I apologize to
you, dear Skylar, not for what has been outside my abilities but for the
damage and fear my own love has caused us all."
Skylar crossed his legs, thumping his fingers against his thigh. "You didn't
know, none of us did."
Dumbledore looked at him with a small smile, "you hold me in too high
regard. We've all made mistakes, and in my old life perhaps I've made
more than most. I have many regrets, dear Skylar. I've tried to allow you
to keep your innocence, the joy of childhood that you can never recover."
Skylar fumbled with his hands again, a strange sort of calmness settling
over him. "I know, I always wondered why you didn't include me on
things. I had thought that you didn't think that I could help, or maybe I
was too young to understand. But...I don't know." Skylar sighed quietly,
"maybe it was Lutain or maybe it was Luna or...somewhere along the way
I realized that you wanted to keep me from this."
Dumbledore didn't look at him. "If I had a choice, I would shield you all
from this. From all my mistakes that only worsened in my attempts to fix
them."
Skylar's heart thrummed loudly, "sir, what did the prophecy say?"
Dumbledore's fingers twitched, he still didn't look down at Skylar. "It was
such an unfortunate thing. The one with the power to vanquish the Dark
Lord approaches... born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the
seventh month dies... and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he
will have power the Dark Lord knows not... and either must die at the hand of
the other for neither can live while the other survives... the one with the power
to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies...I believe
that if this prophecy had not been made, this tragedy would never had
occurred."
Skylar tilted his head and blinked quietly, mind fumbling over the words
with a sense of lethargic urgency. He knew he would remember it, but he
couldn't comprehend the words right now.
"Who killed your sister?" Skylar asked with little more than a whisper,
"who cast the curse?"
Dumbledore didn't answer, and Skylar smiled sadly as if that spoke the
most of everything yet.
"Professor," Skylar asked far too innocently given the question he had.
"Are you going to kill my brother?"
Dumbledore leant backwards until the bones in his back cracked and his
skull rested on the wall. "I cannot in good faith ever harm a child, no
matter the damage or chaos they have wrought. That is my greatest flaw,
that in all my heart and in all my glory and ability- I would comb the
world to find a way to apologize to Ariana for the suffering I gave her."
Dumbledore smiled, a small broken expression, "and in irony, I shall see
her soon. I have a gift for you, a gift that will turn the brave man mad
and the most broken of hearts to heal."
Dumbledore pulled the ring off his weathered hand, pinching it free from
broken skin to hold between two fingers. "This was a horcrux, my dear
boy. I destroyed it, and it released its curse which will kill me."
Skylar's tongue felt numb. "How long do you have?"
Dumbledore sighed through his nose quietly. "Not long, perhaps the end
of next year my time will come. I do not intend to leave you all unaided,
but I have my hands tied as you can see."
Skylar nodded, "I have Adrian getting me the other Horcruxes, or as
many as he can."
Dumbledore twitched slightly in surprise, "I- I certainly had not
anticipated such...Adrian's help?"
Skylar smiled, more self assured and amused as he chuckled slightly,
"yeah. He's helping us, but he doesn't know what Horcruxes are."
Dumbledore accepted it without thought and glanced down at Lutain,
who watched him carefully. "I presume that you wish to know the plans
in place to target the basilisk?"
Lutain hissed and Skylar nodded for Dumbledore's sake. "Yeah, Ron
Hermione and I are going to have to go on the run, Undesirables you
know? So long as you can kill that thing, then we're alright."
Dumbledore leant forward and placed his face in his hands, rubbing his
temples. "What a mess we have now. I had feared that we would focus on
Tom Riddle's young life to discern the location of his horcruxes, but
almost all have been found. All that is left, is waiting."
Lutain hissed, and something in Skylar's gut twisted. "Actually, sir…"
Skylar swallowed around the lump in his throat, "there is one thing I'd
like your help with. It's a bit strange but...but I need this."
"I collected these years ago," Dumbledore explained quietly, walking with
hesitation as if unsure of what they would see. "I spent years searching
for Harry Potter, I viewed these memories more than any other. Your
mother helpfully offered anything she could, but it wasn't enough."
The mist swirled around them, nausea churned in Skylar's stomach but he
wasn't afraid.
He barely recognized the house, dark and clouded from time and
memory. It whispered gently, the floorboards creaked. Skylar glanced at
a nearby window, it was dark outside but impossible to tell just how late.
Skylar could recognize himself, sitting in blue pajamas and thick baby
fat. His hair was fluffy and brown, eyes wide and innocent and how that
hurt to look at. Another version of Dumbledore sat as well at the table,
talking quietly to Skylar's parents. They were in a dining room, too old
for Skylar to remember truly.
The door behind them opened slightly, the smallest creak permeated the
air. A small emerald eye poked through the gap, looking at them with an
innocence that made Skylar hurt.
"Harry." Skylar breathed, reaching out although he knew that in a
memory, nothing would ever change.
"Harry!" Skylar's mother gushed, rushing over while running one of her
hands through her hair in nervous habit. It was strange to see his parents
so young, with so few wrinkles. She shushed him back to the door he just
came from. Skylar wanted to stop her, to have a moment to just look at
his brother.
"Out you go, back to sleep! Your ankle isn't well and-"
"It already healed." Harry quietly corrected, ducking his eyes submissively.
He looked sad, weary and tired and all too knowing. Merlin, how young
was he?
Skylar choked in agony, one hand covering his mouth simply to hold
back the choked noises. Dumbledore watched Skylar, no words could
ever convey his sadness.
"Listen to your mother, this is a conversation for adults." Skylar's father
spoke instead, firm but hypocritical. How could they not see the hurt that
flashed through Harry's eyes? How could they just let him go when he
looked so sad?
"No, don't go." Skylar choked out, shaking at the horrific sight.
Harry's eyes widened, focusing on something else. Skylar followed the
trail of sight, knowing the exact moment Harry recognized Skylar at the
table. The pensieve could show everything, every thought, every moment
that Skylar wanted to scream.
Skylar could never begin to imagine the emotions that traveled through
his twin's mind, but in that moment he could easily see the sheer utter
heartbreak and devastation in emerald eyes.
"Oh Merlin," Skylar choked, dropping to his knees as the memory of his
twin gave a reluctant nod, accepting of his fate and dismissal as if it was
nothing unusual. "Oh my god."
"I am so sorry." Dumbledore murmured, "I have another if you would like
to view it."
"I want to see them all." Skylar stuttered out, sobbing brokenly and
clutching his arms fiercely, "I want to see every way I bloody ruined his
life."
The next memory launched as the ground disintegrated in powder,
reshaping itself like a boggart into Skylar's worst nightmare.
No, worse, because Skylar knew this memory.
(It was his.)
"When-" Skylar choked out, clutching his face with broken whines.
Dumbledore understood, even without having to ask. "After he vanished.
You were young, but the memory was solid."
The door opened, the child bedroom door swung open, and young
chubby cheeked Skylar launched himself across the room to jump onto
the sleeping black haired boy.
Skylar could remember the shriek of rage, the phantom sound he never
knew if he imagined it or if it was real. He could remember the frustrated
noise Harry made- although he never knew what words he said or the
tone of voice.
(He knew it now, he knew it now like the pain of a sword through his
heart.)
"Harry!"
Harry Potter yelped, slipping out from the covers onto the floor in a
fantastic display of something clumsy. It reminded Skylar of a baby
animal, unknowing of its own limbs. Skylar's memory snickered, giggling
as Harry puffed his hair and scowled playfully.
"Gotcha, didn't I?" Skylar's copy snickered, straightening his back to peer
down at still tired twin.
"Why-" Harry started, giving a small cough to clear his throat, "Why would
you do that?" "Mum and Dad wanted us told me to get you."
"And you couldn't have just knocked?" Harry muttered under his breath,
getting to his feet. The real Skylar choked, smiling at the sass that never
faded away. The spark that he could see in the smirk of Adrian's face.
"See ya downstairs!" Young Skylar's face lit up, he hopped down and
clumsily skipped towards the door. He turned and called back at Harry
with a large grin. "Mum made pancakes! Our favourite!"
"My favourite." Skylar corrected with a whimper, wanting to smash his
face into a wall.
"Your favourite," Harry Potter corrected without a thought. Skylar cried,
and his memory shrugged from the doorway. "Same thing."
Skylar skipped away and the memory was forced to follow. It blurred
slightly, until Skylar was sitting at the same dining table and from the
doorway a tired emerald eyed boy slipped through. His hair a mess,
resembling Skylar's father. His skin pure and gentle, complexion soft like
all children were.
"Did you know?"
"That this would all happen?" Dumbledore asked rhetorically, gazing at
the scene with a sad familiarity. "No, I never thought something of this
caliber could ever occur."
"Harry!" Lily blinked, peeking through the archway and looking back at
the table, "There's pancakes if you would-"
"I'm okay." Harry mumbled, walking into the kitchen and sliding into the
one seat that was available. Everything about his movements screamed
sadness, it spoke of something depressed. Harry Potter stared at the table,
where a chalice was missing from the table.
"What was there?" Skylar nodded at the place mat, "a cup? Someone
snatch it?"
Dumbledore sighed out a wheezy breath. "A mystery we will never know.
Regardless, it dearly distressed young Adrian."
The moment seemed to break, and the young memory of Harry turned his
head to the side, swinging his legs under the chair. "Is there something
important?"
"Yeah!" The memory of Skylar blurted, swallowing a large clump of
dough with a small cringe. Syrup dripped down his face, the pudgy
fingers delved into his pocket to tear out something tiny. "I got this!"
The small fist sized griffin gave a miniature roar, flapping its small wings
to create tiny gusts strong enough to knock over a blueberry. It paced on
the tabletop, totally enrapturing Skylar's attention.
"Where did you get that?" Harry asked quietly. Jealousy burning brightly,
It was obvious, that he had nothing to show.
"I hadn't even thought to gift Harry something in turn." Dumbledore
admitted quietly, "I was so blinded by the misfortune of the prophecy."
The griffin figurine snapped audibly.
"We all were." Skylar admitted.
"Dumbledore! You should have seen him- he's the headmaster at that one
school!"
"Hogwarts, sweetie," Lily scoffed playfully, "You'll go there too one day, Sky."
Harry shifted uncomfortably on his chair, looking down at his plate
where his untouched food sat. He didn't say anything more, but his
anxiety was high.
"Did he have any accidental magic?" Skylar asked quietly, "as a kid? I'd
imagine he lit something on fire."
Dumbledore shook his head quietly, "we will never know what thoughts
troubled him, but he rarely experienced accidental magic. It concerned
your mother a great deal."
"Why was Dumbledore here?" Harry interrupted, bringing the two back on
topic.
Lily's expression faltered, shifting to something unsure. She wrung her
hands and looked at the table with a very hesitant expression, "Well, we
have to talk to you about that."
Skylar stared at Harry, and watched as the young child's jaw started
wavering then abruptly stilled. With a sharp throb, Skylar realized that
Harry was on the edge of tears.
"Hey!" James poked his head in, blinking a few times. His glasses were
slightly askew, he seemed startled to see Harry in the room. They looked,
they looked so similar.
"James! Good!" Lily sighed in relief, queuing for the man to come into the
kitchen. At once, James seemed alarmed and tried to skitter out of the
kitchen. "James."
He groaned in protest yet slid into the kitchen and plopped on the chair
at the head of the table.
Lily walked over, somehow having a mug in her hands as she twirled one
strand of hair behind her ear nervously.
"So," James started, awkwardly rapping his fingers on the table, "Well, uh.
You see-"
"Honestly James, alright." She started, looking very seriously at the two
children, "Do you remember that there are unfriendly people who are very
upset with us?"
Skylar nodded eagerly, looking curiously at the parents. Harry didn't look
up once.
"Well, we've learned that those people are trying harder to find us. So we have
to leave."
"Leave?" Young Skylar gasped, mouth opening in surprise. There was a
chunk of food between his teeth, "And go where?"
"That's the thing," Lily sighed, sliding downwards into the chair next to
James and Skylar, "Albus- Dumbledore says that he'll be able to find us a safe
place, but he wants to begin your training as soon as possible."
"To defeat the death-munchers!" Skylar chirped, looking at James who
seemed sheepish at the name.
"I was an arse." Skylar choked out, feeling more and more disgusted by
the second. "I was a spoiled brat."
"Yes. They don't like you- They don't like Skylar, Harry dear." She directed
this time at Harry, "And they'll hurt some of us to get to Skylar."
Skylar looked worried this time, "What- no! No! Mum that's not-"
"It's okay, your father and I know how to protect ourselves."
"Your mother is right, we'll be fine." James wiggled his eyebrows in a
reassuring way which seemed to dispel some of the nervous tension in
the room.
"I can't defend myself." Harry mentioned quietly, drawing all eyes on him,
"I'm a risk?"
"Oh fuck," Skylar gasped, putting his head in his hands and screaming.
The noise muffled out the next words, but Skylar could never forget
Harry's face.
"Or you could come with us. It would… it's feasible."
Harry looked down at his hands, he knew. He knew.
"I can't- I can't do this." Skylar sobbed brokenly, "I can't bloody do this-"
"We think that Remus and Sirius may be targeted as well. We aren't quite sure
what extend we all are going into hiding."
"Where else? Have you thought of another place?"
"My sister, Petunia. She's a muggle. She has a nice muggle family. Nobody
would ever look in a muggle family, especially from a wizarding family."
"Of course it's your choice. You can come with us, or Padfoot or Moony, or
with Lily's family."
"But everyone is going into hiding?"
"Everyone is. It's not safe anymore."
"We'll have to be leaving pretty soon. A friend of ours is going to watch the
house for a bit so nobody thinks we've left."
"...It's safer if I go?" Harry asked, voice rising at the end.
"No! It isn't!" Skylar screamed.
"Much safer. Nobody would look for a wizard in a house of muggles. It'll be
safer for you and It'll be safer for-"
"You don't have to make a decision, we just thought we should bring it up
and-"
"I'll go." Harry accepted quietly, "If it's better for Skylar, I'll go."
"Thanks Harry," Lily smiled, rising from her chair and giving Skylar one
last pat on his shoulder.
"I don't mind." Harry murmured quietly, like someone who had just lost
everything in the world.
"I can't do this anymore." Skylar could barely breathe, "I- Take me out of
here. Get me out of here."
The last thing Skylar saw, was the quiet tormented look in Harry's face.
The worst bit, was that truly, Adrian Selwyn had the exact same eyes.
(Where did Harry Potter stop, and Adrian Selwyn begin?)
"Father," Adrian began quietly, humbly and numb with the lethargy
which hung around his body like a cape. "I beg permission to leave the
wards."
His father paused, the scratching of his quill on the reports suddenly
silent. The room was absent of sound, even Nagini long gone.
"Oh?" His father asked, turning his head to curiously examine Adrian
from where he bowed submissively, "I dare ask if my accommodations
are...unsuitable?"
Adrian withheld a retort, and scarcely moved. "I ask permission to hunt
down undesirables."
His father made a small noise, not quite a hum but something of curious
nature. "Undesirables, surely you recognize your talents are above such
activities."
He was pressing, pushing sharply and causing something in Adrian's
stomach to twist. "Yes, father."
"I wonder why you wish to hunt down vermin like a simple dog."
Adrian's tongue felt numb. "I want to make Skylar Potter suffer."
Adrian could see from the corner of his eye, his father's mouth quirk into
a sharp cruel grimace. The pale fingers folded together, nails clicking
sharply.
"Well," his father said with a sigh that was anything but exasperated, "I
suppose that aggression is warranted. He is your brother, after all."
Adrian couldn't suppress the flinch, and his father's eyes seemed to glow
in amusement.
"Go then," His father confirmed in a lazy drawl, "and make the old man
weep for all his foolishness."
Adrian nodded slowly, turned and walked from the room. He didn't stop
walking until he passed the wards, until he passed where he stashed the
locket, coated in visceral fluids and his own saliva. He kept walking until
the cows watched him sleepily and the stars began to emerge in the sky.
Adrian kept walking until his feet bled, and he kept walking then.
He didn't really know where he was going, he had no intentions or aim.
He knew he wouldn't ever be alone, not with the ink under his skin that
would emerge around his throat whenever his father wanted. He couldn't
truly ever be free, but perhaps now he had the ability to do what he
wanted.
The sheep watched him, walking from lamppost to lamppost. Hugging
the curb and old Scottish cobblestone walls. He kept walking, fearing the
tracking ability for apparation. Portkey may have worked, but he didn't
have a destination in mind. He had no goal. He would have to access
Bellatrix's vault at some point, but not until he reconvened with Skylar.
For now, all Adrian had was himself.
In the sweet smelling heather and deep earthy peat bogs out of sight, in
the moonlit shadow of a moss covered mountain which towered over an
isolated cobblestone road cut from the mountain itself; Adrian found
peace.
Cutiepie120048: So, reading the comments you're answering, is
Dumbledore's talk of hope being mentioned ONLY because it turned into
the good ending?
That scene was always going to happen!
S058: Adrian being groomed by Voldy as a potential replacement
Bellatrix? That's worrying, given some of the fanon around her, to say the
least. If he ever wakes up and finds some new dresses in his wardrobe, I
advise leaving like now.
I want you to know I posted that in the Discord, and it spawned some truly
disgusting pictures of Adrian wearing heels and fishnets.
Kclown:1. What is the purpose of walter in this story?
Walter is an example of how far Adrian went in his panic to keep his identity
a secret. He sent the storeowner to Saint Mungos for the rest of his life,
because Adrian panicked. It was important in his development, and a nice
permanent reminder to Adrian for all the people he's hurt.
2. What was the reason you made the selkie scene in knockturn alley?
An Easter Egg to Shadowed Malice, although she is also important in an
upcoming scene with Adrian, Skylar, and Lutain.
3. Why did Luna call Adrian Shadis and mention shades when you said
there would be no shades in this story?
Once again, an Easter Egg to Shadowed Malice.
4. Why did Voldemort crash the economy? Since he plans on ruling
Britain and as far as I know fixing an economy is very difficult
He artifically crashed it because it only affects wizards, not muggle world.
That means that those that aren't affected or hurt at all are the muggles or
muggleborns, which are now a scapegoat for frustrated and furious witches
and wizards who are suffering. He turned the public anger and hate at the
muggleborns.
5. Is the parasite in only Adrian or also in Lutain?
Only Adrian. Animals cannot get the parasite.
6. If only in Adrian then will Adrian live on as/in Lutain or something
after he dies, because Lutain is his horocrux?
It's complex to explain, you'll see later on likely.
Hope1616: So Harry is an anti hero now. BTW did Harry like luna is the
romantic or friendly way?
That's really for your own interpretation.
King of the Souls: This brings me into my next question, after this story
is done, what is next for you?
I've recently gotten inspiration and assistance with my next work! It's going to
be a Time Travel fic- feeding into the fact that the cliche is very common but
I'm confident I can mix it up again. The next plot will be this: Tom Riddle
from London Blitz full blown WWII PTSD and trauma, in modern day trying
to function with various societal triggers and the stigma against him in present
day. It'll be fun, it'll be angst, and best of all, it'll be Tom being absolutely
savage.
66. Coalesce
Thanks to the Discord server which is filled with wonderful readers
who helped me with ideas! (I'm looking at you, Jaybean, Arc,
Nelchael, Wolf, S4m, and many more)
So sorry for the long wait, I've only recently returned from an
extended vacation.
'Whatshappening to me?'
Lutain coiled thick and still, head resting in lethargy as the world stirred
around him. He felt disconnected, conjoined and segmented but entirely
whole. His body felt like stone, whole and complete. He felt itchy, blind
as if going into shed and his vision tinted blue. He felt wrong, but no
matter how often he looked, his scales remained black. He hadn't grown
a day.
He was with Skylar, he had always been with Skylar. He had always been
close, sapping and leaching his heat and warmth like it was blood of
something divine. Like it was the silken hair of a maiden untouched by
sun.
Skylar moved quickly, pacing again across the floor in front of him.
Passing by Lutain, sensed by his heat pits as warmth moving back and
forth and- was that bloody cashmere? Merlin even Skylar's fashion taste
was outrageous- heat moving back and forth back and forth- For Merlin's
sake, did that spoiled brat really have his bloody parents pick out his
robes- heat moving back and forth.
Lutain flickered his tongue, the after image burning and clarifying what
was real and what wasn't, his memory urging him to flinch although his
instincts comforted him and confirmed it was natural.
Heat moving back and forth.
Skylar what a bloody prick-.
Heat moving back and forth.
Remus no don't-.
Heat moving back and forth.
Do you know what it is like to be unmade?
Skylar threw his head back and made a noise that was far too odd to ever
be considered animalistic. It would be cruel to Lutain himself to think as
such. If anything, it changed Skylar's face in a way his Master never did,
his face flushed and his mouth moved wobbly. Lutain knew human's
couldn't flex their jaw the way he could, so the expression seemed
absolutely pointless in his mind.
"You can't open your mouth." Lutain hissed boredly, watching as the boy's
eyes seemed wet in a weird way. "I'm sorry, my fault. I forgot you were an
idiot."
Skylar turned to look at Lutain, squinting and tilting his head as if deep
in thought. It just pinched and made his facial expression even more
distorted. Was he trying to intimidate Lutain by looking more freakish?
"Stop that, it won't work." Lutain hissed back snappishly. "I'm not as dumb
as you look."
"Are you…" Skylar trailed off unsure, rubbing his upper arms unsure.
Lutain's Master crossed his arms like that, but he looked strong. Skylar
just looked weak and indecisive. "Are you...talking to me?"
Lutain shifted his tail. "No. I'm talking to the wall."
Skylar squinted and wiggled his nose. Lutain pondered if perhaps the Rat-
man would have liked Skylar.
No, both were far too impulsive and timid to ever be friends. It was much
more likely that the two would have forgone wands all together and
scrabbled at each other with the soft nails human had, and their blunt
fangless mouths. Maybe if Lutain egged on the fight, Skylar would
summon the courage to bite off the Rat-man's ear?
No, it was pointless to ponder an imaginary fight, especially with how
Skylar had resumed his vigorous battle between his feet and the wooden
floor. Maybe in the next hour, Skylar would summon the power for a
debilitating stomp. Maybe the floor would trip him.
His Master was so much more interesting than this. Skylar hadn't even
destroyed a lamp, or smashed anything on the wall. Skylar hadn't even
shouted in frustration once, instead he just shrieked wordlessly in a pitch
that made Lutain want to squirm.
"I just-" Skylar huffed and flopped onto the bed, careful not to land on top
of the large snake. "I just can't imagine this."
"I doubt you can imagine much to begin with." Lutain consoled bored.
"Perhaps a cloud. Maybe a unicorn on a good day, although they have four
legs which is more than you can count."
"I just-" Skylar continued on, rubbing his eyes out of frustration, "I can't-
I- I hurt Adrian so much.'
"Really." Lutain deadpanned. "Was that before, or after you kidnapped him?"
Skylar sniffled wetly, and curled up further on the bed. Lutain exhaled.
Sometimes he wished he could huff, just to audibly show his annoyance.
Skylar needed to know how annoyed he was.
Despite his best effort, he tried. He exhaled in a rush. A small high
pitched whistle echoed through his nose. Skylar peeked out from under
his arm, looking at Lutain in concern. "Did you sneeze?"
Adalonda be damned. Lutain was going to- he was going to murder this
brat.
"Don't tell me you're getting a cold now." Skylar reached out carefully,
running his finger along Lutain's jaw to investigate his nostrils and mouth
worriedly. "Can snake's take potions? Do you want me to get you a
potion?"
"If you could understand me, I would call you the most foul names." Lutain
hissed back. Skylar used that opportunity to peak into the bright gum's of
Lutain's mouth. "The most insulting names. No. Insults are above you."
"I can go get Sirius, you like Sirius, right?"
"Horrible things." Lutain confirmed, stumbling through the collection of
few names that he knew. Names that Nagini mumbled under her breath
when she was annoyed. "I- I would… Stop it. Silence, Lord...Dementia."
"What about my mum?" Skylar tilted his head, chewing on his bottom lip.
"Is my mum okay?"
"Lord Dementia Salazar Snape Gaunt." Lutain hissed out cruelly, tail
lashing around in fury. After a moment of consideration, he spat out an
accompanying "Slytherin! That's you! Lord Dementia Salazar Snape Gaunt
Slytherin!"
Skylar frowned and eased back. "Okay, not my mum. I'm sorry, but you
need to tell me if you're not feeling well. You're my friend now,
remember?"
"I hate you, Dementia."
Skylar frowned and reached out again, poking Lutain along his side
where his belly scales morphed into the small smooth scales of his side.
"I'm sorry. For everything, and I know Adrian won't listen to me, so I
want to say it to you."
Lutain stilled.
"I messed up Adrian so much," Skylar whispered quietly, looking at the
bed instead of Lutain himself. He poked Lutain's scales, nails catching on
the plates. "I messed him up and he should never forgive me."
Lutain tilted his head, and latched onto Skylar's warmth. He fed on it,
warming his body with the gentle heat that made him relax and feel so
strong. Skylar twitched, his breathing jolting although he didn't seem
aware of it. He leaned forward, arching over Lutain as if suddenly
unfearing of the serpent.
The prodding shifted, turning into gentle smooth strokes along Lutain's
spine in a way much more comfortable.
"I would want me dead also," Skylar murmured out, voice lower and
smoother in a quiet contemplative drawl. "I've ruined so much."
"You have." Lutain agreed. Skylar scowled, tapping Lutain with his nails
as if teasingly scolding the snake. "Wow, you didn't need to agree you
know. Some familiar you are."
"Silence, Dementia." Lutain spat out, without much of the heat that was
present before. Everything felt lazy, delightfully relaxed.
Skylar twitched slightly, "I-" Skylar paused, staring off as his focus
shifted. Unseeing, blank and empty.
"You're a pain." Lutain sighed out happily, "you were always the favourite. I
hate you, I hate you so much and I'm so-"
It- he- Lutain was, no Adrian was he-
He was a- the rat kill the rat- I don't-
(Do you know, what is is like, to be unmade?)
"I am going to make you wish that you were dead." Lutain whispered, and
Skylar trembled ever so slightly. Gaze unseeing, heat and warmth and
soul linked in a way nobody could ever describe. "I'm going to hurt
everything you care about like how you hurt me. And in the end, I'll make you
wish that you had never been born. Because you know what, Sky? I wish that
every day."
"I-" Skylar choked out, his breathing rapid. His pulse thrummed so close,
under his throat like a rabbit.
Lutain wanted to reach out and close his fingers around that neck until
Skylar choked and begg-
Lutain didn't have any hands. He was a snake. He had never had hands.
They were clumsy and scaleless and odd to look at. A half dozen tails on
a limb? It looked clumsy, stupid and thick like Skylar's face
Lutain pulled back, focus sharpening like Skylar's. A moment later, the
pulse and thrumming seemed to fade, pulling apart by the fibers until it
was torn and ragged but not there anymore.
"I- Lutain?" Skylar blinked, looking dazed but pretty perplexed, "I- I think
we should go see Dumbledore."
Lutain sprawled on the bed. "I'm open to suggestions. However, I am not
taking them."
"I don't know what happened right there." Skylar confessed, running one
hand through his hair worriedly.
"If it comforts you, you know very little to begin with."
"Do you know?" Skylar asked tentatively, worrying his bottom lip with his
teeth. "What just happened I mean?"
"It's not a difficult concept." Lutain wanted to shout in frustration. Merlin
knew how much work he was putting into this. Lutain reached out,
slithering from his comfortable position until his body draped over
Skylar's arm, his skin warm and soaking into Lutain's belly. Lutain
focused on it, basking in the comfort before he very clearly hissed with a
hot feel in his lungs, "yes."
Skylar nodded, eyelids drooping ever so slowly as he gently positioned
Lutain more comfortably around his bicep. 'Okay, uh, was it bad?"
Lutain tightened slightly around the exposed skin. "Helps me talk with
you."
Simple sentences, treat Skylar like the infant he was.
"Oh," Skylar blinked slowly, his breathing slowing slightly. "Was that
what happened earlier? You tried talking with me and it was too much?"
That was a reliable conclusion, although Lutain himself didn't even know
what actually happened.
"Yes," Lutain hesitantly agreed, although Skylar seemed to pick up on the
hesitation. He pulled Lutain closer, looping him over and around his
throat. The warmth was calming, soothing to them both in a way nothing
else was.
"There, that's better." Skylar smiled, turning as if modeling the snake
around his throat. "You're like a beautiful scarf."
Lutain hissed in mock offense. The mirror in the corner showed them
spinning, the black cloak twirling around them and the way that the light
caught his Master's scars-
Skylar stopped spinning and glanced back at the mirror, taking a second
glance as if something caught his eye. He reached up, tracing a hand
along his cheek to trace a scar which had alwa- never been there.
Skylar blinked, traced the scar as he exhaled deeply, eyes half lidded and
pulse thrumming under Lutain's scales. "Come on Lutain, we've got work
to do."
Lutain was something Skylar could never imagine life without. It was
hard to remember what it was like before he had the black snake, the
snide broken commentary and subtle emotional waves of amusement or
frustration. It was a second opinion, a conscience that assisted him with
all the thoughts and troubles he had.
Lutain was helpful in a way Ron and Hermione couldn't be. Lutain
understood, he knew Adrian and knew the risks.
Horcruxes were dangerous, they needed them destroyed. Voldemort
needed to be destroyed, and Lutain knew that like he needed Adalonda to
be destroyed.
But now...for now, Skylar couldn't do anything. He was trapped in a
place he couldn't do anything, stuck in a location where he was useles-
Skylar flinched away and clenched his jaw, blinking away a sudden wave
of devastation. Lutain twitched around his throat, and slowly Skylar
calmed himself. The waves of unexplained emotions were coming more
often, unprompted and unexpected. If Skylar was feeling it through
Lutain, then Adrian must have truly had something terrible happened just
then.
That was further evidence that he had to leave. He had to go and and-
(And deep in his heart, he knew that he couldn't...he couldn't trust his
mother and father. They didn't understand. He had to leave them, he
couldn't stay here with them.)
"Lutain?" Skylar asked softly, "you've been with Adrian a long time."
The snake around his shoulder felt annoyed, hissed something broken as
if underwater. Skylar blinked and kept talking. "Where did Adrian grow
up?"
Lutain twisted, the world distorting and blurring and Skylar without
knowing, simply...knew.
He knew, and he had to leave. Now.
Skylar turned and walked, he moved to his room and grabbed the small
bag that he slung over his shoulder, careful not to jostle the snake. He
secured it, and without bothering to leave a note, approached the
emergency portkey in the kitchen that would take them to the other
remote base where Ron and Hermione were hiding.
He- wait. He- shouldn't he at least look for his mum and dad? He knew
his mum was likely out in the garden and his dad with her-
"No." Lutain hissed calmly, urging him with a sense of peace that soothed
away his doubts. "They will stop you."
They would stop him, he had to go now.
"Arcadia." Skylar repeated numbly, and the portkey quietly snapped him
into the other safehouse. It was quiet, obviously everyone was spread far
away simply for security.
He walked, his shoes silent. Shouldn't they be clicking?
"Mate?" Ron asked, voice quiet as he peered around a corner, squinting
before his eyes widened in resignation. "Time to go?"
"Time to go." Skylar confirmed, pausing to stare at the pictures on the
wall. They had been burned out, the faces blurred for safety.
Hermione returned, rushed and worried with her bag over her shoulder.
She held her hand out, grabbing Skylar and Ron's wrist in a shaking
hand. Her nails were painted sky blue, soft and chipping on the corners.
"Where are we going?" Hermione asked in a whisper, looking frazzled
already. "I- I had Tonks key me into the apparation wards. We can leave
but they'll know instantly and the Ministry is tracking apparation and-"
Skylar cut her off with the name of the street and corner. Hermione
looked taken aback, but she didn't argue. They vanished with a crack,
spinning and twisting before landing harsh on cement. Skylar fell to his
knees, but he didn't really feel it.
The road was dusty, barren and empty without much more than sheep
and cows.
"Do you have your trace removed?" Skylar asked, pulling out his wand
from where he had it stashed. "Dumbledore took mine off-"
"Yeah mate," Ron nodded uncomfortably, "Bill did it for us, he knows
curse breaking so we're in the clear."
"Great." Skylar nodded, petting Lutain out of stress. "Where to, Lutain?"
Lutain told him without words, and they walked.
They walked and walked, until the sky turned black (it was still day),
until Skylar's feet bled (they- they weren't bleeding) and then he kept
walking (he kept walking.)
He walked, they walked. Adri-Skylar walked.
"What is that?" Hermione gasped, pointing down the road ahead of them,
down the street where the land broke in the shape of a building.
Or what once had been a building.
"The Earth will eat us all," Skylar murmured to himself, smirking dryly to
himself as he pet his friend around our neck. "The Earth eats our
buildings and machines. It eats our work and effort. Surely the Earth will
eat the birds too, when they grow tired of flying."
"You uh, working on poetry, mate?" Ron asked uncomfortably, shifting
from Skylar's side. Skylar blinked, jolting forward and nearly tripping
over a rock on the road. He had forgotten Ron was with him.
"Er, no." Skylar awkwardly recovered, ignoring the slight dizziness that
plagued him. "It's an orphanage."
Ron and Hermione froze. Skylar kept walking until he noticed, a few
strides ahead of them.
"Err." Ron paused, looking at the broken building ahead of them. "You
mean...you mean the orphanage?"
"How did you find this place, Sky?" Hermione asked quietly.
A wind rustled the ground and weeds and the charred boards of the
orphanage. The fence still stood, although all the snakes were likely long
gone. Lutain pressed tighter, Skylar could almost imagine the children
playing outside. The laughter, the isolation.
He hated Suzie. He hated-.
"David." Skylar breathed, his head pounded. "You murdered David."
"No." Lutain defended although it sounded proud.
The air clarified, the wind rustled Skylar's hair.
'No,' Skylar thought in a voice that was not his own, 'I told Lutain to kill
him.'
"And then Bella found me." Skylar whispered, "and the fire. And all the
fire started."
It burned and purified and changed his life. His rebirth, the murder and
the start of everything, because of fire.
Skylar had never seen such chaos before, he had never seen such
righteous vengeance and revenge before. Fire destroyed all, fire hurt
others like how he had been wronged and hurt and-
'The fire' Adrian and Skylar and nobody at all, thought. 'It burns because
it's something uncontrollable.'
It was beautiful in a way he would never be again. Gorgeous, strong,
terrifying. Useful.
"I want it to burn." Skylar whispered.
And so.
It did.
Hermione screamed when the house in the distance started burning.
Small, a medium strength fire charm but unexpected enough that it
caused her to shriek.
It was far enough away it wouldn't hurt them, but the charred wood
spread quickly. A bonfire, easily enough to put out with the proper spell.
"Shite, is there someone in there?" Ron hissed, shoving the two of them
down to take cover in the grasses. Skylar was unresponsive, staring away
while the snake similarly was limp. Hermione was peeking through the
weeds, eyes wide and wet.
Ron couldn't see anyone moving, but it was far too suspicious for things
to set on fire. They were on the list of most wanted, they couldn't afford
to be caught right now.
"Ron," Hermione whispered, crawling over hurriedly to try and whisper
to him, "it's- it's on fire."
A second, then Ron clued in.
"Shite," Ron muttered under his breath, casting a look at Skylar and the
snake. Both were unconscious on the ground. "Selwyn?"
Hermione bit her lip until it bled.
"Right," Ron exhaled, "well, we can't stay here. How big is that bag of
yours?"
Hermione glanced down at her hip at the bag that Newt Scamander had
charmed. "Big? He, he said it would fit all of our stuff and more."
Ron looked at Skylar. Hermione looked at Skylar.
"Oh," Hermione sighed, "he's not going to be happy with us."
Although all of the wizarding world seemed to have troubles with the
economy, the muggle world was positively booming.
Prices were low in comparison, food was on the shelves. Lights and cars
and all these crazy inventions were giving Ron a headache.
"Merlin," Ron gasped under his breath, keeping his head low as Hermione
lead him across a stripped patch of black street. "Is this how you live?"
Hermione tried to disguise the small smile on her face, but tugged him
further down the road.
They didn't know where they were going, but anywhere further in the
muggle world was the best place to hide right now. Especially with
Skylar still unconscious, although they couldn't exactly say they weren't
upset the snake was unconscious at all.
"Do you feel bad at all?" Hermione asked, tucking closer to his side to
whisper under her breath. "About Skylar?"
Ron didn't blink. "What about him?"
Hermione hunkered slightly further, as if ashamed of what she was
thinking. "I- He's been acting weird."
Ron didn't respond, he knew what she meant.
"I mean, he's still wonderful!" Hermione defended, feeling guilty enough
for the both of them. "It's just...I don't know, it just…"
"It's the snake." Ron muttered, voice nearly swallowed by a nearby bus.
"The horcrux."
Hermione gave the smallest nod, tugging him down steps until they
entered what looked like a train station. After a few moments where
Hermione instructed him on how to enter, they settled on a fast moving
underground train. It was similar to the Hogwarts Express, but smaller
and dirtier.
"We're supposed to destroy them." Hermione whispered on the seat next
to him. "Skylar said that he's got that covered."
Ron nodded again, "do you trust that?"
Hermione bit her lip. She didn't answer.
The train moved fast, opening and closing its strange doors until they had
moved miles away from where they started. Ingenious travel, filled with
unsuspecting people.
"Sky isn't the prophecy child." Ron spoke quietly, keeping his voice
hushed the best he could. "But...I don't know. It...It doesn't feel right."
"I know." Hermione agreed with a small whine to her voice. "It- I don't
know what we're going to do. We, Skylar is our friend."
The train thudded through the dark, the lights flashed through the
windows.
"He isn't going to kill Selwyn." Ron confirmed, "the poor bloke is dying
anyways. What happens when he dies, if that bloody snake is a horcrux."
Hermione's scab broke, blood dripping down towards her chin.
"What's going to happen when all that's left is that snake? What's going to
happen to Sky?"
"I don't know." Hermione sniffled, clutching the bag to her lap. "I mean,
would it be that bad? He- Skylar and Adrian live and-."
"That's cruel, Mione." Ron argued, "he...Mione what does Selwyn have
left?"
"He's the chosen one!" Hermione hissed back under her breath, "We need
Adrian-"
Ron flinched back, staring at her as if disgusted. "You didn't need Adrian
before you found out about all this prophecy shite."
Hermione balked.
Ron closed his eyes and his nostrils flared. "If you really think that
Selwyn's going to just...help us because of that prophecy, then Mione
you're more daft than you think. Selwyn bloody hates the idea of that
Chosen One shite more than he hates Sky. You think he'll just...switch
sides?"
"But he is helping us!" Hermione argued, "he's helping Sky!"
"Who he hates." Ron argued back, opening his eyes to look down at his
hands. "So why is he helping us?"
The train thudded on. Hermione visibly twitched as her thoughts caught
up.
"You think Skylar did something," she couldn't keep the horror out of her
voice. "You...what do you think happened?"
"Well…" Ron's face pinched in an expression of bitter humor. "...I'm not
Selwyn."
Hermione inhaled sharply, "...you think Skylar made a deal? But- but
Adrian always wanted equal exchange for deal- oh."
"We're killing Selwyn's dad." Ron's face didn't twitch, "what's equal
exchange for Selwyn?"
"No." Hermione breathed and pulled back. "No, Skylar would...would not
sell out his...Skylar loves his dad!"
"That snake doesn't." Ron nodded towards the bag.
The train thudded on.
Skylar couldn't comprehend.
His dreams were blurred, but he hadn't ever been aware that he was
dreaming until then.
If you realized you were dreaming, weren't you somehow supposed to
take control of your dream? Weren't you supposed to somehow change it
from there?
He wasn't. He was walking, viewing the world from a different angle.
Watching it like a muggle movie, from the eyes of a character within a
memory.
But it was different, it was isolating and broken and distorted because it
wasn't.
The air was humid, the ground spongy like Northern Scotland always
was. It was colder than he thought, he was wearing a warm cloak that
felt cold paradoxically. His bones hurt deep, his legs throbbed and he
kept walking.
The heather was beautiful, a pinkish purple that Skylar hadn't ever
noticed before. The flowers were pretty, weeds that others would pluck
that had overgrown into something enchanting.
Skylar sniffed, his nose was running. His throat was dry and his eyes
itched. The sun was hidden behind a cloud, but the light burned his
foggy head. A headache buzzed on the border of his brain, his skin itched
wrong.
How long had he been walking? Why didn't he bring food with him? Why
didn't he bring water, or a way to separate the salt from the ocean?
He had been walking for so long, the sun buzzed and everything hurt.
The horizon distorted, twisting from a heat that didn't exist.
Maybe he should carve a hole into the cliff, blast it until he bled onto the
rubble. He could lay there, fetal like an unborn fawn and simply wait for
the sun to lower to the horizon and ultimately, end.
He was so...so tired.
"You are, aren't you?" The words distorted, in his head and out.
He swung his head around, the ground wavering sharply under vertigo.
His skin was dry without sweat.
"Whe-" His voice cracked, lower and unlike his own.
Nothing was there, nobody was with him. Where was Lutain? Where was
everyone who ever loved him?
'Abandoned, because they don't like you.' it whispered, feminine and cruel.
A coon that was unlike any real person.
"That's a lie!" He screamed, pulling his wand to point it at the rolls of
heather. A gull circled high above him.
'Nobody likes you, Adrian.'
He smirked cruel, lips pulling back in a snarl as the ground distorted.
Nausea had turned his hunger off, thirst had turned him mad.
He didn't care anymore. He cared far too much and this was the price he
had to pay.
Everything swirled, a memory pressed against his side like a hug. He saw
it even, the pale arms wrapped around his side, the blonde hair that
tickled his skin. 'Are you done brooding yet?'
"I don't brood." He whispered, and he heard the laughter. His voice
cracked and broken like crushed marble.
'Yes you do. You should come inside, you'll catch a cold in this rain.'
It wasn't raining. He heard it, he felt it but it was cloudy and he was so
thirsty.
'Come inside, Adrian.' she coaxed gently. 'You need to take better care of
yourself, I won't always be around to help you.'
He smiled, lip cracking and bleeding. He remembered how the discussion
went, he remembered.
And he quoted back in a whisper of nostalgia, "you'll always find me
anyways, Luna."
There was a thumping in the air, Skylar's heart thumped loudly in his
chest. He was so tired, his mouth tasted like blood and he smelled only
iron.
Standing on the road, in the middle of the wildflowers, was a tall black
thestral.
Daphne received the letter well past dusk. It arrived in the talons of a
beautiful eagle owl, tied hastily and poorly to its talon.
Daphne knew it was a Malfoy owl, they were very distinct. The letter in
its grip wasn't its usual sort of letter, it didn't have the appropriate
calligraphy or the decorations that generally accompanied it. If Daphne
hadn't known the owl, she would have assumed that it was someone else
entirely.
The owl came to her window, not the owlery where the house elves
would deposit the post. The owl was instructed to come to her.
(She knew, she had heard the rumors, she had seen the posters.)
She accepted the owl in, tore the letter free and instantly the owl
returned to the night and left without a sound. She wasn't supposed to
reply.
She didn't know what was in it, but she dreaded the contents
immediately. It couldn't be good.
It was from Draco, who everyone knew was part of a heavily dark family.
Merlin, what had they gotten into?
(How long was she safe? Was this letter a warning? A threat?)
She fished around for a letter opener, prying the flap open carefully if
only to procrastinate seconds more. Her hands were shaking.
The letter unrolled, sloppily written. Words going off on a slant, almost
as if written in the dark or in low light. There was an ink drop at the top,
as if he hesitated before spilling out whatever it was.
She read, and tried not to think.
(She knew, she had seen the papers. She had seen the photos.)
'It's true.' Draco had written, letters bleeding together. 'I watched him
murder Bellatrix Lestrange because she made him mad.'
Bellatrix Lestrange, the infamous mother that they all thought he had. All
lies. Because after all of her speculating and fear, it was actually the Dark
Lord. Skylar bloody Potter's twin.
Draco said that he murdered Bellatrix Lestrange.
The paper was trembling in her grip, too shaky for her to continue
reading. She set it on the table.
'He's gone. Hunting.'
Adrian Selwyn is gone, he went hunting.
"Shite." Daphne breathed, breathing anf voice hitching in the rising tide
of her panic. What had she gotten into, what had she done?
Who was he hunting? Who was he targeting? Was he after Skylar Potter
who was now wanted by all of Magical Britain? Was he- was he out for
revenge?
(How high were they on the list? How long until they came for her?)
Oh Merlin, Suzie was dead and he- he-
Astoria wasn't safe, none of them were safe. Daphne couldn't think-
everyone was at risk. Who would Adrian not attack? Who had pissed him
off the least?
Theodore Nott, he was always rather fond of Theodore Nott.
(Why had she gotten involved in all of this? Why did she have to pry?)
How many people did she inadvertently kill? Suzie- that...that store owner
in Hogsmeade that went insane after they left?
They were going to die, they were all going to die.
She had killed them, all, and...oh Merlin, she had to take Astoria and run,
now.
Daphne bolted. She ran through her house uncaring of how loud her feet
were and how she nearly toppled a decorative vase. Her parents wouldn't
hear, the rooms and hallways were all silenced. Children were to never
be heard after all.
Daphne never cared for her parents, they were proud and had high
expectations but she and they were never close. It was an obligation and
a duty to have children, not a privilege. Astoria was a privilege for
Daphne, and she had to protect her sister. Which meant that she had to
run.
But...the next Hogwarts term was coming up. Only a few more weeks,
really. If she moved, took Astoria and ran to one of the lesser known
summer houses, would they be safe?
It was incredibly unlikely that anyone would ever storm Hogwarts- the
castle had never fallen before. Nowhere in the world was safe for Daphne
and her sister, except maybe within the stone walls.
"Merlin," Daphne breathed, clutching her head with the sense of
impending doom.
At the end of the night, there was truly nothing she could do. She
couldn't think of anything to do.
After all, she wasn't Selwyn.
Impstar:So, roughly how much longer?
The story has 80 Chapters, not including the Epilogue and the Bonus Ending
S058:But still, I'm not 100% certain if Tom actually was that well known
as Voldy, so might not be that bad. Granted, PTSD from the Blitz might
be a good plot, allow him to be more humanized and all that. Plus, you
can show him how London's done since then!
I'm actually fairly confident that story will be better written than Antithesis
Shirotani: does Adrian still loathe/want to murder Skylar? And how will
Skylar possibly be affected once luthain is back to Adrian's side?
Adrian certainly wants Skylar dead, however he's starting to realize that after
he kills Skylar he has nothing left, and as such he's questioning the action in
direct regards to his life purpose. Skylar is going to be affected for sure, I'll
address it.
King of the Souls: how do you get to the discord server?
does not allow me to hyperlink to websites outside of Fanfiction itself. Due to
this, I cannot link you all the invitation to join. Please find this story on AO3
(Same username, same story name) and the link is at the end of the later
chapters.
TatsuyaShiva4: Did like it, first Harry is dark, now he helps the stupid
Light. Harry should stay dark. And how you made Tom is just argh...sad
to say, its not good anymore.
I completely understand and I respect your opinions. Thank you for reading as
far as you have, and I wish you the best luck finding other stories you enjoy!
liannathejinx: I knew I recognized the writing style from all of your
Avengers ficswhich by the way are some of the best I ever read. How you
picture the highs and lows of a depressed person is spot on (and kinda
hits close to home) and this is overall an exciting read, also way more
realistic than most Harry Potter fanfics out there.
Thank you! It seems multiple people have recognized me from my Avengers
stories- although I'm honestly not sure how to describe my style or how it's in
any way recognizable. Thank you for noticing the way I portray depression,
and I'm sorry that it is something you feel as well.
KM: So, a few chapters back, Luna called Adrian "Shadis", does that have
anything to do with his condition with the parasite? What did she know?
It was a small Easter Egg for the original work, just for people who have read
the other story as well! Don't worry, the other one is pretty rough and it was
out there for a few people to chuckle over.
67. Picture
Thanks to the Discord server which is filled with wonderful readers
who helped me with ideas!
'Make it stopplease mAke it stop'
Adrian sat in grass, crunching stems and flowers under his nails. They
were short, rippled in malnutrition. Adrian felt cold, unbothered.
"Why are you here?" Adrian asked quietly, murmuring low yet clearly
audible.
The crunch of clawed hooves, the smell of sap in the air. Adrian read
once that the smell of cut grass was a cry from the vegetation itself- that
somehow grass knew it was being injured and was trying to warn its
neighbours.
Did grass know, when it was reaching its end? When its stems turned
yellow and crunchy and it powdered into flakes smaller than snow?
"I was sent," Mylla retorted with a huff, pausing before her wings and
joints and knobbly bones folded sickly and she sunk to the ground next to
him. She crushed daisies under her ribs, her long gnarled tail spilled over
wildflowers like blood.
"Sent by who?" Adrian asked with a dry smile, his lips cracking. The
sunlight burned, bright in the glare of the blue sky.
Mylla didn't respond, but a small huff from her large nostrils was clear
enough to comprehend.
He had water, food. Sanity returned, whether he deserved it or not. It
didn't matter to him anymore.
"I will tell you a story." Mylla started, hissing freakishly. It was unsettling,
similar to how the skin stretched over her bones and the milky white of
her eyes stared aimlessly. Her wings were leathery, large and cracked in
the sunlight. He wasn't sure if any part of her would be soft, if maternal
instinct still blessed her.
"I was born long ago," Mylla started. She talked in no rush, much more
eloquent and intelligent than Adrian had suspected. She had talked so
gruff, short without thought. Animalistic, or perhaps that too was an act.
Perhaps she was cunning enough to wait and bide her time. "I was a good
child."
Adrian couldn't talk. He grabbed a step with a flower, and he began to
pluck each petal with purpose.
"I died painfully." Mylla spoke, softly for the first time. Adrian eyed her
from the corner of his eye, spotting the long tongue and sharp canine
fangs. "Adalonda was young, half my size and thick as my leg."
Smaller than Nagini. Adrian pulled off the petals, throwing the stem
away from him. He wished it was an apple core.
"Adalonda bit me, and she killed me painfully." Mylla spoke calmly.
Adrian stilled.
"I wondered why for a long time." Mylla spoke, her tail swishing
unnaturally. "I wondered why I lived. I asked, after. My sire said he bartered,
his students created something and that created me."
"Which students?" Adrian asked quietly, swallowing thickly.
"Morgan le Fay. Merlin." Mylla turned her head, face twisted and wrong,
"Father was so happy. He had me again. Adalonda was not."
Adrian's heart twisted. He breathed out choked, "what happened?"
Mylla blinked slowly, ears twitching around on her great reptilian skull.
"She killed. She murdered children, and I took them as mine. Father found
out, but I was not his child anymore. I was not his pride. Adalonda was
something I could not be, but he could not kill her. He sealed her away, made
her sleep because he could never kill her."
Adrian stood up quickly, pacing away. He kicked at the grass, sending
small pebbles rolling. "That- that doesn't make sense. Adalonda wouldn't-"
"Basilisks are creatures of cruelty." Mylla informed him bluntly, blinking
slowly with a second eyelid. "In her age Adalonda has grown vengeful. My
father lives not, but his children do and so she takes revenge."
Adrian's face twitched into a snarl, "Adalonda would not-"
"Adalonda was bored." Mylla hissed out, her tongue flickering through the
air. "So she killed what you hold most precious."
Adrian inhaled shakily and looked away, "I...I can't believe that Adalonda
would do something to hurt another."
Mylla stood, her body cracking like a tree in winter. Her joints shifted
unnaturally. She flapped her wings, large massive folds of leathery skin
that buffeted the grass with their power. She tossed her head, mane
flowing and tail swishing in a breeze created by herself.
"I did not think you would take my word." Mylla spoke bluntly, without
care. She approached, tall and imposing. It was inspiring to think he had
ridden on her back, privileged to ride something so beautiful. "I believe
you will listen."
Adrian sneered, lips pulling away from his mouth in a sneer so cruel he
could imagine his eyes turning golden. Venom in his jaws, strength and
power in his coiled muscles. "You're full of lies. Adalonda would never
hurt me."
Mylla breathed, hot and humid between them. Warm blooded,
thrumming in her veins.
"I am to tell you," Mylla paused before she lowered her head, eyes at his
level as she knelt before him. "That it is irony. What happened."
Adrian took a step backwards, not liking how close Mylla had gotten, "no
don't-"
"I think you'd be a wonderful thestral," Mylla hissed out in something close
to a croon.
Adrian flinched backwards. "What is that supposed to mean?"
Was it a threat? Was it something bad?
"I-" Adrian shook his head and stepped back again, "I don't know what
you're talking about.
He didn't, he didn't even know that much about thestrals to begin with.
He had only heard about thestrals before from Hagrid, and when he went
with Luna to feed them-
Bu-dum
Bu-dum
Bu-dum
His heart beat, vibrating in his throat.
Luna smiled something soft and sad. Eying the foal stumbling across the
ground. Newborn, wobbling on spindly legs.
"You know, I think you'd be a wonderful thestral."
"Okay," Adrian croaked out quietly, his voice strangled and muted in his
own ears. "I'm listening."
"I was born long ago," Mylla began raspily, croaking and hissing out words
as if the idea of smooth speech was something long since forgotten.
"Centuries, time before you could ever imagine. I was daughter for my father,
a great man."
"Salazar Slytherin." Adrian added in quietly, filling in the gaps more out
of obligation to Luna than any sense of loyalty to the disconcerting
thestral.
"Yes," Mylla hissed with a small snort through her nostrils. The air was
hot and humid, wet on his exposed skin. "A great man. Have no doubt, he
loved me very much. And that is why I died."
Adrian stilled in confusion. "I- pardon?'
"It is a joke, perhaps." Mylla mused almost scathingly, "our existence. The
concept of the thestrals. Do you know, how thestrals are made, Cerestes?"
Adrian flinched at the title. He bit his lip, until his skin felt hot and
swollen around his teeth. "They're children that die in excruciating ways.
We already know this, it's common knowledge."
Mylla tilted her head, skeletal face and glazed eyes making her seem
more like the dead than anything else. Her hair trailed down, thin and
straggly. It reminded Adrian of Bella's hair, the way it was once likely
shiny and something beautiful.
"No," Mylla mused, soft and gentle although barely that at all, "we were
born out of desperation. A curse, that lasts in the world like the Werewolves.
Thestrals are made, when we suffer and beg for death under the venom of a
basilisk."
Adrian stilled, and Myllal approached. She lowered herself, front legs
buckling on the knobbly knees until her large face was drawing so close
Adrian could only smell the hot moist air of her breath.
"Thestrals are born the moment we accept it, the moment we know it and we
beg for it."' Mylla hissed out almost in delight. "The moment we stare that
wretched demon in the face and beg for mercy. The moment we beg not for
our lives but for the relief of just dying already. We explode from the spine,
dripping blood and gore and we are cursed to exist forever because we can
never die."
Adrian didn't realize he wasn't breathing until the hot exhale forced air
into his lungs. Mylla pulled back, looking down at him with something
similar to pity. "It is an irony, that thestrals are doomed to live forever and
you are fated to die."
"You're lying." Adrian's voice was scratchy, barely a noise between them.
"No, I'm not." Mylla huffed, her long tail swishing. "I am cruel because time
has made me so. The difference is that eternity has made me this way.
Creation, made Adalonda as so."
"What about her?" Adrian snapped out sourly, "you've been complaining
about Adalonda for a while and as far as I can tell, you're the one looking
like the bloody demon!"
Mylla's ears flickered down in surprise at the sudden shriek of his voice.
A moment later she recovered, and thus she began to speak.
"Basilisks are creatures that are born cruel, born unatural and as such they
are unatural to all life." Mylla spat out in a croon. "They poison wells out of
spite. They murder the trees and plants from boredom. They kill the children,
out of jealousy. I died, because I was my father's precious child who he loved
and she was naught more than his beloved creature." Mylla's ears twitched,
"and once I had been removed, she was the child he doted on until he died."
Adrian's lip curled. "That story is shite. Are you saying that somehow
Thestrals were coincidently made right after? That somehow basilisks
create this nightmarish-"
"Salazar Slytherin died from the debt he owed to Morgana for the curse she
inflicted to create me." Mylla spat out, looking more furious than ever
before. "Blood and bone to create blood and bone. Adalonda never forgave
him for his devotion to me, even in death. I told him, how how she poisoned
my blood and he hid me from all of those who had never seen death. Basilisks,
from their eyes and vanity, have never directly seen death."
Adrian's heart chilled and he shook his eyes, "I- but basilisks use their
eyes-"
"And they are blinded for that moment." Mylla hissed back. "I told my father
of how his precious monster murdered me out of spite, and he was too caring
to ever slaughter his other child, no matter how foul. He sealed her away, and
the price of my curse came true and he passed away in years. The lineage
carried on, broken and twisted and unknowing of Adalonda's spite from the
secret he took to his grave."
Adrian shook his head, robotically and horrified. "Adalonda wouldn't-"
"Did Adalonda twist your words against you? Did she comfort you until you
felt her word was more than that of the sun? Did she advise you secrets that
you were certain were worth more than gems themselves?" If Mylla could
have smiled, Adrian had no doubt that she would have. "You unfortunate
cursed child. Perhaps all of our lineage are condemned to suffering in itself."
Adrian stared blankly at the ground. A few ants walked there, pushing
strands of grass aside. Ants could move mountains, they could carry the
weight of the world on their backs and never stumble.
Were humans the same as ants, to basilisks?
"The irony of this all," Mylla started calmly, sounding almost sad now. "Is
that now, you are destined the fortune to die."
"Why do you say I'm fortunate?" Adrian asked bluntly, sounding cut off
and emotionless even in his own ears.
Mylla breathed in and out. "In the life of a thestral, I would murder a
thousand children and eat their corpses if only the blessing to finally end this
suffering. To live as a thestral, is something abhorred."
Over the grass, a house erupted from the grass. It was then, that Adrian
realized Mylla had been slowly leading him to a single destination in
mind.
The house was tall and whimsical in a way not entirely unappealing to
the eye. The shudders were a burnt orange, the siding a faded colour that
perhaps once had been a bright white. There was a fence spattered
around the property, broken in a few spots and in others it sported large
birdhouses and other decorations. Large glass baubles from ocean ships
hung in thick rope, on other spots replicas of garden gnomes chewed on a
porcelain giant pumpkin, there was even something that looked like a
large artistic owl constructed entirely out of butterbeer bottles.
All in all, it was something Adrian's father would have despised beyond
words. There was no modesty, no artistic decoration that looked well
placed or designed. It was lovely, homely in the way chaos and
personality bloomed.
Adrian recognized it at once.
"Why are we here?" Adrian breathed in alarm, Mylla brushing past him to
step over the fence as if it was nothing more than wildflowers under her
hooves.
Mylla didn't answer, and Adrian pushed open the gate to the Lovegood
estate.
The house was quiet, the front door unlocked. It didn't look like a forced
entry, instead it seemed like it was unlocked always. Inviting even to
strangers.
The door creaked slightly, the floorboards warped with old humidity
damage that never got fixed. There were small scratch marks along the
door frame, made by a kneazle Luna told him about. It had passed when
she was a young girl.
"Hello?" Adrian asked, his voice echoing through the dark house
suspiciously, nothing responding as he inched slowly further inside.
Mylla stood outside, resting on the stepping stones that lead to the front
door.
Adrian made his way to the kitchen, smiling in slight delight at the
assortment of herbs and plants that hung from the ceiling. Twine and bits
of string bound them around their stalks, stuck to the plaster with spell-o-
tape to make the dried lavender and sunflowers sway in the slightest
breeze.
Upstairs, the flooring creaked and Adrian drew his wand, watching the
stairwell in slight caution.
Adrian had never met Luna's father, he had seen pictures that Luna
showed him. He had seen the man being wed next to Luna's deceased
mother, he had seen him when Luna was a toddler, he had seen him in
the papers when the ninth page of the prophet posted a photo about the
funeral the size of an apple.
"Hello," Adrian spoke quietly, the house suddenly much more somber
despite the light flickering through the windows.
The man blinked, the tired look from his face didn't fade as he
approached slowly. "I didn't think you'd ever show."
Adrian looked down, tracing his hand across the rough countertop. The
tile likely had once been smoothed, but it had been repaired so many
times the texture of it was gritty. Adrian slid his wand back into his
holster.
"I'm sorry I couldn't come sooner." Adrian apologized. His voice was
small, but heartfelt in the most painful way. "I...I didn't think I'd be
welcome."
"You aren't," the man responded instantly. "If I had my wish, you'd be
kicked off my property right now. But I won't do that, because I'm a
grieving man and you're a grieving boy and nothing will ever be
accomplished if you go."
Adrian squeezed his eyes shut, broken nails scraping on the rough tile.
"You have the right to do that, if you want me to leave."
The man's face changed, twitching into something sad. "I do, but my
daughter wouldn't want you to go so quickly."
"I killed her." Adrian explained softly, voice warbling between them.
"Maybe- maybe not directly but...but she was- it was my fault and...she-."
"I know." Xenophilius said, "she wrote to me almost every day until she
died. She talked about you a lot."
"Yeah," Adrian's face twisted into a smile that was as self damaging as he
could make it. "I know."
Xeno gave a small nod, glancing out the window. There used to be an
impressive garden, one that grew tomatoes and peppers that Luna would
bottle into salsa. Adrian knew that out further there were pecan trees,
Luna had told him various stories of her walking barefoot through the
fallen nuts to gather those that looked edible.
"I've seen the papers," Xenophilius spoke again, softly and haunted. "They
keep sending them to me, those that don't like the Quibbler. Harry
Potter?"
Adrian twitched and looked aside, lowering his eyes to the kitchen table.
There wasn't anything on it anymore, no papers or bowls of fruit. There
were four chairs, all of which were pushed in fully.
"I don't go by that name much," Adrian murmured quietly, "there's an
expectation in it, that's larger than just words."
"Same could be said for your father." Xenophilius mentioned, "and not
James Potter."
Adrian's lip twitched into something difficult to understand. "Yeah, well. I
don't suppose anyone is going to forget that soon."
Xenophilius huffed once, a small sound that maybe was amusement. "No,
I suppose not. Harry Potter. The Dark Lord's Heir. The-Boy-Who-Lived.
The saviour of the Wizarding World."
Adrian breathed lavender and dried catnip, and tried to remember if
Luna's eyes were the same colour as the hanging forget-me-nots.
"No," Adrian nearly whispered, "I'm just Adrian."
Luna's room was beautiful in a whimsical way. The lamp on her bedside
table buzzed like a dozen pixies were trapped inside, although Adrian
knew it was just a charm. Her room had flowers, it would be strange to
ever think she didn't have any. They weren't hanging from the ceiling,
but instead dried and placed in bottles and beakers. A set of potion
equipment repurposed to keep a bundle of daisy's pointing towards the
sky.
Her bed was patchwork in a style that looked disastrous. Nothing
uniform, nothing measured. Large looping whipstitch over the seams.
One of her pillows was misshapen, the other looked like a unicorn with
yarn hair. The four posters were drawn, the canopy was sheer from what
Adrian could see.
"This is hers," Xenophilius explained unnecessarily, "I haven't changed it
at all."
Adrian crossed the threshold into the room, trailing his fingers over the
dresser near the door. A few clocks were sitting on the painted wood, one
of them designed like a sleeping kneazle. A half eaten bag of caramels,
likely as hard as a rock now.
Dozens of photographs moved in their frames, tacked into the plaster.
Silver frames, tarnished from finger's tracing the decorative flourishes too
many times. Luna's mother was in the center, waving and beaming. She
silently bounced a small blonde girl on her knee, pointing at the camera
delighted.
"Hello," Adrian breathed, throat constricting so tightly he couldn't make
his breath have sound. The frame next to it had Luna carrying a pumpkin
so large her hands couldn't meet around the middle. Another was of a
forest, an elusive creature with a long feathered tail ducking just out of
sight.
Adrian craned his head back, squinting. There were constellations on her
ceiling, charmed no doubt to look like the night sky. He had always
wondered why she enjoyed the covered bridge so much.
Her hairbrush still had her hair in it. A single tube of cosmetics still open,
the black liquid dried and cracked like the desert. An umbrella leant
against a large mirror- a ridiculous paper mache eagle hat was hooked
over the frame.
A massive record book for the regulation of cauldron bottoms slumped
near the foot of her bed, spine bulging from the amount of steps poking
out from between the pages.
"You always did like flowers," Adrian breathed quietly, the sound was
closer to him being punched in the chest. From her closet door, he could
see the beginning of something frilly and ridiculously covered. Adrian
knew it on sight.
He tugged the door open, breathing out shakily. It was the dress from
Yule. It was sticking out, sideways on the hanger compared to all the
other dresses which were aligned properly. On display, as if she had
looked at it proudly. The material was just as he remembered it, sliding
through his fingers. Just as beautiful as he remembered.
Her unicorn horn tiara as on a small shelf, surrounded by bracelets and
other gems. Diamonds, rubies, all pushed the tiara was front and center.
The prized treasure, something she would look at often. More valuable to
her than anything else.
The bedroom door opened again. Adrian recoiled back from the dress,
walking out from the closet. He pointedly didn't look at Xenophilius,
instead he glanced at the trunk he had brought with him.
"She sent letters," Xenophilius explained, staring at the trunk although he
had already said that downstairs. "She- she sent you presents too. The
owls never found you- I didn't have the heart to tell her that. I- I'll get
them."
Xenophilius left the trunk and hurried away, not wanting to be in the
room any longer than he had to.
The trunk was full. Some of the letters thick and bulging, others thin and
rolled into tiny slips of paper. Adrian recognized the stationary on a few
of them, the ridiculous blue parchment with little stars dancing across the
edges.
Adrian choked on his own voice as he drew one letter towards the end,
unrolling it shakily to take in the writing.
It was only ink on parchment, a contrast of light and dark. It wasn't
anything, except it was everything to him.
Dear papa,
I got a nice grade on the Transfiguration homework, I even got the book to
walk around on the desk. I wonder if we could do that to the table? It would
be wonderful to eat outside, although it's nice to eat on the porch.
Adrian nearly crumpled the paper with how tightly he gripped it. Hastily
he rolled it back up, sliding it into the small space it had been in.
A few of the letters stood out as ones removed the most. Adrian
tentatively pulled one out, unfolding the envelope and quickly catching
the papers inside.
It took a second for Adrian to recognize them, but the moment he did,
Merlin.
He desperately flipped it over, seeing a carefully scribbled 'Attempt 2!'
written on the back. There were three others, all marked the same.
Adrian fumbled to open the letter.
Dear papa.
Lutain was keeping me company when I was working on my potions essay. I
thought that his scales look very pretty, but I can't etch them for you like the
trees. We came up with a wonderful idea to paint with my ink, it's okay I'm
sure Professor Snape won't mind.
Adrian grabbed the attached pieces of parchment, tracing a shaking hand
over the marks. Clear stains, shaped in arcing scales that undeniably was
Lutain slithering through ink.
Adrian didn't- Adrian didn't even remember that.
Xenophilius returned, setting a new box down. Things in bright paper,
tied hastily with little tags.
"Oh," the man blurted, looking at the black ink scale marks with
fondness, "she adored your snake."
Adrian swallowed around the rock in his throat. "He adored her too."
Xenophilius didn't comment on the wetness in Adrian's voice. He left,
closing the door behind him for a semblance of privacy.
It got worse, the letters got so much worse.
Dear papa, Adrian said he's going to teach me spells! I'm so excited!
(She was terrible with charms.)
Dear papa, do you know how to keep lysalanders away? I know pumpkin but
maybe a potion too? Adrian seems so sad now…
(He bought her that parchment, jokingly on a Hogsmede outing.)
Dear papa, I think you'd really like Adrian! He says after we graduate we can
go look for Crumple Horned Snorkacks!
(Her handwriting was painful to read.)
Dear papa, he can see thestrals too, and he doesn't think I'm strange.
(The irony of it, the irony of it all.)
Dear papa, I think mama would have really liked Adrian too.
(He thought he would have liked her too.)
Luna had gotten him presents, birthday presents every year. She couldn't
find him behind the wards, either on the Order's property or on his
Father's. They came in small packages, mindful of the distance the owl
would have to fly.
The first present in order was a quill, pretty with a metal nib. Adrian
would have dozens better quality, taken from eagles and ravens and each
with an equally gaudy price tag.
The next was a scarf, knitted out of yarn that was slightly scratchy and
unlooping from one missed stitch. There was an embroidered snake on
the end, black with a yellow belly. The next was an empty book, made
out of faux dragonhide with equally fake gold leaf along the pages. She
scribbled happy birthday! Along the inside cover.
The final gift- the one from the summer before his fifth year where
everything went wrong- was the best one. Small, subtle and cute. A
wooden picture frame made out of something dark brown, glass with a
thin scratch near the edges.
Adrian supposed that there were countless photographers at Yule; he
never imagined that one of them would have taken a picture of someone
as ugly as him.
He never imagined that he'd have a photo, of him and Luna twirling and
laughing. She wore the same dress hanging in her closet. He was smiling,
scars looking freakish and eyes bright green. It was the happiest day he
could remember.
The glass distorted as a tear dropped, smudging over the background
chandeleurs. Adrian took the picture with him, clutching it so hard he
was almost afraid he'd break the wood. He curled up on Luna's horrible
looking quilt, smashing his face into her lopsided pillow. It still smelled
like her, after all this time he wouldn't forget it.
(The canopy above her bed had been spelled. Sloppily, wavering on the
edges. It looked like the view from their bridge.)
Mylla didn't leave, even when morning came and Xenophilius offered
Adrian breakfast. Tea, toast, something bland that tasted like ash.
Xeno didn't sit at the table. He left it, standing awkwardly over the
counter to eat. Breadcrumbs got on the floor.
"What happened to the Quibbler?" Adrian asked quietly, a low murmur in
the silence of the room. The insects outside had died off in the cold, fall
had long since approached.
"Shut down," Xenophillius responded equally quietly, "the news is heavily
monitored now. The new ministry is strict with what information goes to
the public."
Right, of course.
"I'm saving my money," Xenophilius offered with a single laugh that was
painful to hear, "I hope that- well, maybe one day I'll manage a pensieve.
I've heard of them, and I…"
Adrian understood.
"I'm afraid that I'll forget her." Xenophilius confessed with a twisted
laugh. "Not what they looked like, Pandora and her looked so close. But-
I'm afraid I'll forget her laugh."
Adrian leaned heavily against the wall, closing his eyes.
"I know." Adrian pinched out, hands trembling. "It- it kills me, you know?"
Adrian exploded suddenly. Desperately, hoping, wanting the man to
understand. "I- It was such a...I wasn't thinking and I-...I- Merlin. I don't
remember the last thing I said to her." Adrian confessed with a twisted
hitching of his breath. "I just- everything is so foggy and I come to and
she's dead and I can't remember the last thing she said to me."
Xenophilius didn't respond. Adrian tilted his head back against the wall
and clenched his jaw and waited for his eyes to stop.
"Do you want to come with me to Diagon?" Xenophilius asked quietly,
clutching his mug of tea in both hands. "I get the prophet in person now,
just...so owls don't come here."
Adrian nodded jerkily. He needed to check out Gringotts anyways, he
needed to get into Bella's vault.
Bellatrix being dead was known to the Death Eaters, but to the public at
large she was still alive and murdering. The Order knew, of course, but
the Order was fairly scattered with how much money their heads were
priced at.
It was a miracle Dumbledore was even able to walk around without
someone trying to kill him. Skylar's face was worth more than the
Weasley's fortune.
Gringotts was just as large and imposing as ever, the outside goblin
guards only added to the terror. People walked in hushed groups, tucked
tight together as they moved from building to building. Shopping for the
approaching holidays perhaps.
"This is what's happened?" Adrian asked quietly, the hood of his
borrowed cloak pulled high. He figured his Cerestes outfit would only
make things worse.
"It's a different world." Xenophilius muttered back, hastily walking into
the post shop. Adrian stuck outside, partially to keep watch and partially
to look at the imposing wizard bank.
He knew he had to get into Bella's vault. She was dead, so Polyjuice
wouldn't work. There were other potions though, other glamours that
would work to disguise himself as her.
He wouldn't fool the goblins, that was a given. If Adrian recalled
correctly, he was almost certain that he had been listed to inherit the
Lestrange fortune. That is, if Rabastan and Rodulphus hadn't kicked him
out of it. He doubted they had, it would make his father angry.
Adrian could always just...walk in, but his face was recognizable. His
father would know and it wouldn't do him any good to poke around in
the Lestrange vault if this artifact was as important as Skylar implicated.
Xenophilius returned, glancing around with a cautious eye. The Daily
Prophet was tucked under his arm.
"Do you know any shapeshifting potions?" Adrian asked him under a
hushed breath. Xenophilius looked at him with a small frown, ducking
his head away from three shady looking figures walking through the
alley.
"Polyjuice?"
"Not Polyjuice," Adrian clarified quietly. "She's dead."
"Ah," a pause, "a glamour."
Adrian swallowed and pulled the hood to his cloak lower, "are you
talented at them?"
Xenophilius licked his lip and began to usher Adrian down the road,
"Passable. Not enough for the Ministry, but good enough."
Adrian nodded subtly, hurrying towards the public apparation point.
Good enough would have to do.
They returned, Xenophilius scrambling with his wand to figure out the
proper glamour once Adrian filled him in on his plan. It was only out of
loyalty to his daughter that he was even trying. Adrian effectively had
ruined his life.
Adrian himself was in Luna's room, sitting on the floor and running his
fingers over the letters. There were a lot of them, most of them included
a reference to him in name.
"I'm so sorry," Adrian offered quietly, tracing the crease on the
parchment. "I'm so sorry, Luna."
It felt wrong to leave, to close the door to her room knowing that he
could never return. This place was special, and Adrian wasn't welcome
here. No matter what Xenophilius said, this was a shrine he could never
return to once he left.
He wouldn't ever see the pictures on her wall, or inhale the sweet smell
of her perfume. He wouldn't be able to run his fingers through the
mittens she wore in winter, the ones with the hole near the thumb.
Luna had a small chest of special things, a broach from her mother. A
letter from her grandfather. A few pieces of twine that had a significance
Adrian didn't know. The first quill she ever stole from Adrian. He
remembered her doing that, plucking it right from his hand.
Her earrings were pretty, standard like most jewelry was. He couldn't
take much with him, living on the run. He couldn't carry around a trunk
of memories or a book full of whispered words in the night. He could
take only himself, and that was sit.
Xenophilius didn't comment or complain when he saw Adrian next. He
ran through the base knowledge of his glamour- how it would only affect
skin and basic features. Working around Adrian's curse scars were tricky,
the extra strength to change the appearance of his clothing wasn't there.
Luna would have laughed at him, would have teased him with the special
light in her eyes.
"That's fine," Adrian nodded metal swishing near his neck. "I know where
to get the clothes. I'll be here tomorrow, will you be able to apparate me
to Diagon?"
Xenophilius looked confused but nodded. Adrian turned, walking out to
where Mylla had been waiting for the day and the night. "I need to go
somewhere specific."
"I know." Mylla agreed, not moving until Adrian had mounted. He didn't
think Xenophilius could see thestrals, which was a blessing Adrian didn't
share.
His ear hurt, throbbing and dripping blood down his neck. He didn't feel
it much anymore, or maybe he didn't care enough to feel it at all. The
earing jingled, the crescent moon swinging gently as Mylla flapped and
then flew.
They swooped low, over the grasses around the house. The flew towards
the nut tree, where Luna had spent her summer.
They flew over the marble tomb, as white as the moon itself. Behind
them, Luna rested forever, as well as the bundle of radishes Adrian had
left in her memory.
Adrian inhaled once as far as he actually could, and then exhaled
pinched. His nostrils whistled faintly, his arm itched where the lace
rubbed against it in a way that felt irritatingly similar to shedding scales.
This was horrible. There was absolutely nothing about this entire
situation that would make this better. It was torture, and Adrian had
lived through torture.
The torture he knew at least was different, it was an existential crisis and
this was just agony on the arches of his feet, his calves, and the imminent
hip transplant. Why was he doing this. Why, were the only shoes he
could find suitable for this eight inches tall?
Even then, Adrian would have assumed that they would be fine. But no,
obviously he didn't understand fashion since the shoes were then
decorated with small metallic studs and belts that although did strap the
shoe to nearly his knee, it also turned the accumulating sweat into a glue.
The fact the material of the shoe was a thin glossy leather didn't help.
Adrian almost thought the heel- thinner than his own wand- had stepped
in mud or somehow crushed someone to the point they bled. Apparently
they made his calves look good. Adrian wanted to cry.
The problem he hadn't thought about was his leg hair. He wasn't going to
sacrifice a sign of his masculinity, he still had his pride at least. The
remedy was the thin silky stockings that slipped up to this thighs, more
maneuverable in case he needed to run than the standard tights. They
were held in place by small clips attached to a garter belt that nestled
over his hip bones. It looked fine, it had a practical purpose, but the
insinuation made him prickle uncomfortable.
(His usual undergarments bunched under the thin material, so it was only
logic that he had to choke on the small amount of pride he had left. Lace
was terribly, terribly itchy.)
His dress was better simply because it was modest. Modest in the way his
favourite dragonhide boots were, comfortable and broken in over years
of use. The dress was thin on the tops of his shoulders, broken on the
seams under his arms slightly to allow him better range of motion.
Warm, soft, velvet that lost its fuzz in some places.
What he didn't like was the lace on the sleeves that came to his elbow.
They were big enough to disguise his wand holster, a simple decoy since
the velvet clung to his rear and thighs . He didn't like the plunging
neckline, which made him feel like simply bending over would reveal his
navel and horrid tan lines. Merlin, the built in corset twisted against his
floating ribs until he wheezed. It took hours to get used to it, and the
weird way the ivory bones of it stuck out against his sternum and sides.
He didn't like the massive tear on the one hem, similar to a barely
dodged cutting hex. The fabric was fraying horizontally from the initial
vertical slice. He was petrified that a single unexpected movement (or
wind) would suddenly display his undergarments to the world.
One step forward, one nearly sprained ankle. Adrian moaned something
pained deep in his throat. He needed to get this. How could he ever walk
casually in public if he couldn't walk? He needed to do this, it wasn't
something optional anymore.
"Small steps," he breathed to himself, closing his eyes to try and compose
himself.
This time he managed four quick steps- more like stomps, before he lost
his balance when one foot slid too far forward in his shoe. His nails
crunches against the end of the foot ware, he could imagine the crunch of
his big toe folding in on itself. He barely withheld a scream.
Maybe there was an easier way to walk? Could he lock his knees and
march? Was it toe to heel-knife, or heel-knife to toe? Was he supposed to
work with the wobble or not wobble at all?
What did Luna do? What had she done?
(He almost pulled out the picture of them. He could get lost for hours,
watching her spin and twirl.)
She had a unique swagger to her, a strange grace that followed her as she
skipped down a hallway. She had a smile, a quirk to her mouth that
always made him grin.
The house was empty, not even her memory could haunt him here.
(He would do anything, to hear her voice again.)
In some twisted sense, he almost wished that Bella was still around. She
could have taught him how to walk properly, how to spin and twirl the
right ways to disorient foes or to draw eyes. It was a shame, that in his
raw fury he acted so hasty.
It didn't matter now, she was dead and that was the cause of all of this. If
she were alive, he wouldn't have to know any sort of this disguise and he
wouldn't have to concern himself with heels. Now, he was stuck walking
up and down wooden floorboards in the upstairs hallway of a house he
was raised in. It had been raided, of course, but the clothing and other
harmless decorations were left in tact. Maybe now he could fit in the old
shirts and cloaks of Rabastan, although his were in better quality
anyways.
He twirled and walked down the hallway again. The candle mount
flickered slightly, the lace itched near his throat.
He twirled, throwing in an experimental jutting movement of his hip. The
garter and dress shifted oddly, but not in a way distinctly unappealing. It
would be distracting enough should he need it, although the true mastery
of it all would be his face.
He knew how to curl his lip just enough, he knew how to echo the
slightly maddened twitch to his eyes. He knew how to walk, head and
chin lifted upwards with his shoulders back as if wearing a cape. (he was
used to wearing a deadly serpent, but he presumed not everyone knew
that.)
The room was dark, empty and dusty. He could remember sitting at the
table in the kitchen, he remembered getting the few harmless books that
remained on the bookshelves. All the talons and skulls and dark objects
had long since been taken. All that remained were tarnished silver
cutlery and the occasional lopsided picture frame. In the cellar, between
what used to be large barrels of wine, small cases of innocent potions
were mostly untouched. None were harmful or dangerous, which was
why they remained even after the raids. Dreamless sleep, minor healing
potions. Potions for sickness, and for muscle aches.
They had cleaned the house, purged it of everything except memories. No
more lessons in the dueling room, no more shouting outside at the birds
that frequented the breadcrumbs that Adrian scattered there. No more
dry remarks, as Rodolphus read the Daily Prophet out loud to him.
He killed Bella. He killed her and watched her fall, and from that
moment everything severed and snapped. Rodolphus and Rabastan
wouldn't look at him, wouldn't dare say anything to the child that was
now their lord.
And here Adrian was, walking in shoes far too large for him to fit, in a
role he never wanted.
Click. Click.
He spun, not even wavering this time, he marched down the hall, leaning
far back and wobbling as he tried to mimic the lazy stretch. His hand
smacked into the peeling wallpaper. Again.
The lace itched, he had scratched his neck enough that he could feel the
blood raise to the surface of his throat. Raised lines where his broken
nails trailed across skin, black lace rubbing irritatingly. His shoes clicked,
his thighs as calves burned.
Again.
He walked and walked, until he was certain that he could pass
convincingly enough. He stormed through the house, aggression boiling
in his blood. He wanted to destroy the wretched building, he wanted
everything to be left for the termites. For a moment, he understood Sirius
Black's hatred for his own house.
And still, it was not even close to the pain of Luna's bedroom.
"Okay," Adrian stormed out, Mylla shook herself and stretched again. It
was dark now, starlight sparkling above them. "Let's go."
Mylla snorted in the air. "I was there."
Adrian's back bristled, irritation either from the thestral herself or the
lace that was going to give him a rash. "No shite, you haven't gotten up
since we got-"
"I know what she said." Mylla hissed out in a rattle. "I was there when she
died."
Adrian tensed and climbed on her back. He hoped the sharp heels of the
shoes made the thestral bleed.
"Do you want to know?" Mylla asked, genuinely curious, "what her last
words were? What she said when she died?"
Adrian's jaw locked. Mylla craned her head around to peer at him with
one milky eye.
"Do you want to know if she asked for you?"
"No." Adrian spoke hoarsely. "I don't want to know."
'You aren't unlovable, silly.'
"I have enough memories of her to last."
Mylla huffed but flapped her wings, and they were off.
(In truth, Adrian was terrified that in the end, Luna died alone and
afraid.)
(It would always haunt him.)
Skylar gasped awake, curled into a small ball whimpering. Instantly, Ron
and Hermione hurried over, ignoring the stiff black snake that lay prone
nearby.
"He's ready," Skylar gasped, partially in pain and partially in exhaustion.
His bones hurt, his blood felt like acid in his body. "Selwyn's ready to
meet us."
Roostertheking: Wonderful chapter once again...when will they kill
basilisk...?... Is Adrian going to take over Skyler's body like tom diary
took Ginny's...?
This chapter was mostly about Adalonda, now that Adrian knows about her
the discussion on how to kill her will come around.
LordSinnoh:Slight aside. I don't know if it was on purpose, but that
opening bit with Skylar and Lutain was absolutely hilarious. Didn't know
you had such a flair for comedy.
A few people on the Discord asked me if I could write humor. I had to throw
that bit in, it really lightens the story. I used to write quite a bit of comedy,
just not as often anymore.
DeviousClass: Do you recommend any music to ambiance the reading ?
I don't normally write with music playing- I mean on occasion. I listen to most
Indie music, generally anything acoustic or haunting will work. Piano covers
of Ed Sheeran with no vocals, Margot and the Nuclear So and So's, Elliot
Smith, that sort.
Throw Me Far Away:this story is terribly sad. it's like those tragedy fics
that make readers cry. adrian has one of those lives.
i feel like the best ending for adrian is his death, probably become a
thestral together at last with luna. if it is, it better be f*ckin good because
i feel sad reading this, the epilogue better be perfect with heartsoftening
scenes.
I'm planning two epilogues, and I really do think that the ending of this story is
a good one, so I think you'll be okay with it.
68. Bluff
Thanks to the Discord server which is filled with wonderful readers
who helped me with ideas!
'Howwhy why why did they leave me I howcould they do this to me.'
Skylar walked through Diagon with the hood to his cloak kept low. Out
of the three of them, he was the only one that was relatively
unrecognizable (ironically). Ron's tall gangly body was something easy to
spot, from there the pale freckles skin or bright red hair only made things
worse. Hermione could have passed if not for the stutter or the way she
anxiously chewed on her lip. Skylar at least, could walk around
pretending he knew where he was going.
That, and Lutain was curled visibly outside his cloak.
He could faintly hear Hermione and Ron behind him, stumbling to follow
closely from under the invisibility cloak. Lutain hissed quietly,
thrumming in discontent.
"Hush," Skylar soothed the snake, stroking it carefully as he turned
sharply down one alley. The various 'undesirable hunters' had started to
patrol Diagon, sometimes bleeding into Muggle London.
Stupid. Lutain mumbled back, less audible but more felt through the
power of whatever strange sickness they had. Loud, could hear them across
a den.
"Oh I know," Skylar sighed, right as he heard Hermione hiss in pain. Ron
likely stepped on her foot.
They ducked down and around another alley, the line between Diagon
and Knockturn was increasingly blurred. It seemed that the hags and
other uncomfortable folk were leaking into the once cheery atmosphere-
vampires were hiding outside of the pet stores.
The world was falling apart, either from the increasingly ridiculous
galleon rates for something as mundane as a sheaf of parchment.
Something flew above them, the dark shadow moving quickly over the
cobblestones. Skylar kept moving, keeping his head low and Lutain close.
The fountain that had always been running, rusted red like blood, was
empty. It was barren, a thick sludge on the bottom from the many years
of rust and algae. It was strange to imagine the fountain was every
anything besides the home of the disturbing cackling creature that lived
in it so long ago. Skylar distantly hoped that such a wretched thing died
in the purge of the ministry.
"Okay, we're here." Skylar murmured, tense and exhausted. Lutain hissed
out his confirmation, uncoiling as Skylar sat himself on the edge of the
fountain. His robes would likely be coated in grime, but he didn't care
much for it anymore.
Someone walked out from the other side of the alley, short and
accompanied by someone equally shrouded. Only when they drew closer
was it obvious who it was, the scars catching in the faint light of the day.
"Selwyn," Ron grumbled from behind Skylar, voice heard yet still unseen.
Adrian glanced between them, spotting Skylar and Lutain at once. He
paused, looking at the snake before he glanced behind him, peering
around slowly through the open area. Then, just to add to the surreal
experience of it all, Selwyn's eyes distorted and shrunk into something
clearly reptilian. He stuck his tongue out, suddenly much longer to where
it hung below his chin, flickering in the air.
"Potter." Adrian spoke, eyes and mouth returning to normal. "I've got
what you've wanted."
Skylar's heart thrummed loudly, he licked his lower lip. "All of them?"
Adrian frowned slightly, the movement tugged on his face cruelly.
Adrian's hair was getting long, more messy than ever before. "Most of
them. The diary you asked for is destroyed. Trust me, it's gone."
"Okay," Skylar breathed worriedly, his hands twitching nervously. Adrian
glanced down, looking at Lutain with a faint smile that softened his face
enormously. "Hello, Lutain."
Skylar flinched, and Lutain hissed out something back, Skylar knew it was
a greeting.
"Alright, the last thing you want is in Bella's vault." Adrian nodded
towards the alley they came down, in the direction of the bank they
walked past. "I can get us in."
"How?" Skylar asked, shifting his weight. He brushed off the grime that
clung to his robes, mindlessly picking off dead moss.
"Glamour, the world doesn't know Bella's dead."
Skylar flinched when he realized Adrian didn't look at all phased by the
situation. He looked dull, monotone.
"Xenophilius?" Adrian asked, looking to the side. The taller man, still
unrecognizable from under the robe, pulled out his wand. He cast
something shaky, and Adrian shifted, distorting and blurring into the
blank bored expression of Bellatrix Lestrange.
Skylar took an unconscious step back, looking in horror as Bellatrix
stretched her arms in front of her, taking a moment to peel off her cloak
to reveal and outfit so undeniably her, it couldn't be faked.
"Oh my god," Skylar found himself blurting without thought, "Oh my-"
Bellatrix tilted her head and shot him a glare, her face twisted slightly
into a downright nasty look, before it smoothed over once again. "Glad to
see it's convincing."
The voice was partially accurate, the right pitch but the inflections were
all wrong. Adrian (it could only be Adrian) grimaced in a way so unique
to him, Skylar's heart settled almost instantly.
"Right," Skylar breathed, if only to calm himself, "Er, Hermione and Ron
are here-"
Bellatrix's eyes narrowed in a clear look of challenge.
"- although they aren't going to intervene," Skylar squeaked out, barely
managing to keep himself from stumbling backwards again.
"I should have guessed you'd bring them," Adrian sighed, glancing over at
the stranger who had spelled him. He nodded once, then left without
saying anything further.
"Uh, mate?" Skylar asked uncertain, still not knowing who it was that had
worn the cloak and come with him.
"It's nothing." Bellatrix dismissed, rolling her shoulders and neck, running
one hand through her hair. It was average, not quite as namesake as what
Bellatrix usually wore.
A rustle of material and Hermione poked her way out, chewing on her
lower lip nervously. "I er- I can fix-"
Adrian waved one hand dismissively and Hermione began charming,
slowly shaping the long curls into the trademark style.
"Great." Bellatrix sighed (Merlin it was scary), reaching out with one
slender hand to Lutain. The snake without hesitation coiled, twisting up
and around her arm until the gleaming scales and lace patterns made her
the embodiment of the dark.
"Granger," Adrian clipped out, looking at the girl with an unimpressed
look, "I need you to transfigure Skylar."
"What! No!" Ron emerged from under the cloak, looking absolutely
furious, "transfiguration is dangerous!"
Lutain hissed and Adrian rolled his eyes, "Do it or you can't come with."
"Hermione, do it." Skylar demanded, matching Adrian in the eye. A
moment past, neither of them looked away.
Skylar couldn't withhold his scream of surprise the moment his legs and
arms were gone, when he was slumping towards the ground very quickly
with no way to slow himself.
A hand grabbed him around the midsection, righting him up until he was
looking at a very large face.
"There we are," Adrian grinned, a mad twinkle in his eye. His lips pulled
a little sharper, a little more feral, and it was Bellatrix back from the
dead.
"He's worse than you, Master." Lutain spoke, startling Skylar into being
speechless. He knew rationally that if he was a snake, he should be able
to comprehend the snake language- but he hadn't ever thought he would
actually talk with Lutain.
"Don't be rude, it took me weeks of practicing to get slithering down."
Adrian deflected calmly, bopping Lutain's nose gently like an old friend.
"He flails there, like a worm." Lutain noted dryly although with an obvious
edge of amusement, "he's fat."
"I am not!" Skylar argued back, alarmed by the hissing noise and the fact
he could understand it.
Adrian's mouth quirked upwards, eyes searing into his.
"He's fine," Adrian translated to the fretting Hermione and Ron, "we're
going into Gringotts. Don't follow us, and for Merlin's sake stay out of
sight."
Ron flushed again, but before he could truly argue Adrian had turned and
walked off. Shoes clicking on cobblestone- miraculously stable.
The hags glanced at them once before nearly diving out of the way.
Adrian twirled his wand- Skylar's wand- between his fingers. Glamoured
to look long and thin, dexterous around the wood.
"Why do you need his wand?" Lutain asked, grouchy although content
around the glamoured neck.
"He can't carry it like that," Adrian responded without a pause, "swallowing
a wand isn't fun, no matter how Nagini does it."
"You swallowed a wand?"
Adrian's mouth quirked upwards ever so slightly. "You've missed out on a
lot, Lutain."
Lutain fell silent, and Skylar shifted from his weird constricted grip
around Adrian's shoulder.
"When were you going to tell me?" Adrian asked, breaking the silence. They
kept walking, eyes watching from the alleys. "About Adalonda."
Lutain tensed, firming so hard Skylar was afraid he had been petrified.
"Master I-"
"You didn't think I'd believe you." Adrian soothed him with a sad sound, "I
know. I know now, and I'm guessing that's why he's been with you, Skylar."
Skylar would have swollowed if he could.
"We made a deal." Skylar consoled, his voice weak and wavering even in
accented hisses, "He- he said that- I said I'd kill Adalonda-"
Adrian laughed, a single curt noise that trailed off into giggles infected
with madness. A woman hurried along from where she walked far ahead
on the street. "Good luck. That snake knows every trick there is. She needs to
die, or I'll die trying."
"Master-"
"Lutain, I love you to death but if you keep talking I'm going to tie you to a
balloon and send you into the sky."
Skylar let out a burst of incredulous laughter- was this what all of those
suspected conversations were? Adrian and Lutain exchanging sarcasm?
"Oh, don't get me started, Lutain." Adrian continued, giving a single
terrifying grin at one curious hag in a window, "you've been keeping secrets
from me and I'm very mad."
"I can tell master, you've practically burned down the entire alley!"
There wasn't a fire in sight.
"Burn down one train compartment once…" Adrian trailed off, although his
tone was very clearly affectionate. They turned the corner, approaching
Gringotts from the side.
From there, the show truly began.
The change was visible as well as felt. The smooth walk changed into
something jerky, teetering as if they were constantly on the edge of
falling over. Adrian began giggling, a low vibrating cackle that sounded
delighted and reminiscent of the night he destroyed the couch with
Sirius. Skylar wouldn't ever forget it.
They approached the steps, Adrian jumping up the two stone blocks
before he landed on the heels, fumbling slightly before recovering. They
waltzed into the building, witches and wizards struggling to get past the
new goblin restrictions for vault ownership palled at the sight.
All at once, they bolted, one even screamed in fright when Bellatrix
Lestrange seemingly waved at her.
"Well!" Adrian began, throwing his voice high into a terrible pitch, "now
that's done-" he trailed off, almost singing.
Then slammed both hands down on the nearest goblin desk. The creature
didn't startle, although it did blink twice quickly.
"I want in my vault." Adrian snapped out, shifting back and altering his
weight until a single glamoured hip stuck out far, "now."
The goblin paused, and took off its glasses. It folded them carefully,
before squinting down at Adrian with a frown.
"Is it beyond your knowledge," it began, a low voice that could clearly be
heard throughout the entire empty lobby of the building, "that we can
sense glamours and spells?"
Adrian shifted his posture, crossing his arms. A small delighted grin
pulling on his face.
"We've been caught." Skylar fretted, barely resisting the urge to bolt. "We've
got to run-"
"How you've managed to live this long is a mystery." Lutain deadpanned
from next to him. "Let Master work."
"I am aware," Adrian nodded, arching his eyebrows when the smallest
flash of confusion flickered through the goblin's expression. "Oh, not
expecting that? I look like this so I could get rid of the pests."
"Yes," Lutain thrilled in delight, "call them rats, call them rats-"
"They were rats, and I ah, came to exterminate." Adrian twirled one
strand of hair around his hand, using Skylar's wand pointedly.
Lutain sighed happily, "I love when master calls people rats."
Skylar was feeling very overwhelmed very quickly.
"I see." The goblin confirmed, pausing a moment before recovering, "my
name is Rangok, how may I assist you today?"
Adrian slumped against the desk, keeping in the persona as long as he
could given that the doors were public access. "I wan't in my vault."
The goblin's face didn't change. "With the obvious glamour, we can not
confirm your vault. Have you provided a key?"
Adrian pouted, Skylar felt like he was going to faint.
"I don't need a key." Adrian snapped out pointedly, "Take me to the
Lestrange vault now."
The goblin's face darkened, "you are not Bellatrix Lestrange-"
"I'm not." Adrian confirmed pointedly, tapping his neck where Lutain was
coiled pointedly, "but I have permission to enter, don't I Rangok?"
The goblin's mouth twitched, "you are not Mrs. Lestrang-"
"Lutain, it's show time." Adrian hissed, watching as the goblin stilled as
well as all others in the room, "put on a show."
"Perhaps if you watch, you may one day be something not stupid." Lutain
sniped at Skylar before slithering down, coiling quickly and pointedly in
a large dangerous mass of scales. A hiss, arching towards the goblin and a
flash of fangs.
"...I see." The goblin swallowed with a pause, "...all recognized
parselmouths are granted access to the Lestrange vault, however a blood
identification would be preferred-"
"I'm sure you don't want to do that." Adrian grinned, his tone dripping
something dry and harsh and downright cruel, "I have a bit of a...vitaedax
problem."
The goblin paled, looking outright ill. Hushed whispers spread
throughout the room, a few goblins outright leaving and abandoning
their desks.
"...I see." The goblin managed to choke out, Lutain nothing in place of the
new threat. The presence of an outright bioweapon. "...In that case, follow
me, Mrs…?"
The goblin trailed off awkwardly, and Adrian didn't provide a name.
Lutain coiled around his arm again, and they were moving.
"Wow," Skylar breathed, more in shock than anything, "this is what
happens?"
"Amazing the weight my name carries, Potter." Adrian dryly remarked, the
goblin flinching at the use of parseltongue. "Of course, you wouldn't know
anything about that."
Skylar snorted at the dry sarcasm, Lutain even huffing slightly in delight.
They walked through the back of the hallway, back towards the mine
shafts that would take them down. Goblins would easily fight to the
death to protect their gold, but an outbreak of Vitaedax? The spilling of
blood and the release of a parasite that would never be removed would
absolutely ruin everything. They would close the bank, desperate to
contain the outbreak.
Adrian was a living walking bartering chip- and they hadn't even the
confirmation that he was a parseltongue, or that he was with the parasite.
It was...it was a horrifying bluff.
The goblin stiffly got into the cart, Adrian climbing in after to politely
fold the edges of his dress before taking a seat. He huffed, remaining in
character- Bellatrix Lestrange was someone he was not but for as long as
he pretended to be her, the goblins couldn't get a read on him.
"Hang on," Skylar warned Lutain, who tightened instantly at the first
movement.
They went down the tunnels along the rails much quicker than normal.
Skylar was starting to think that it was the goblin's bad attempt to shake
them out of the cart.
They kept spiraling, down towards the noble house vaults which were all
locked up except apparently, they were an exception.
The goblin wasn't looking happy, especially when Lutain brushed against
his arm.
A large waterfall poured ahead of them, shimmering a pale silver. The
goblin was adjusting the moment it spotted it, angling itself to peer back
at Adrian.
"Detection spell!" Skylar hissed out, rapidly struggling to uncoil himself,
"washes away spells!"
Skylar was momentarily surprised when Adrian reacted so quickly,
reaching around to shrug off both snakes before he stepped back, flipping
out his wand to point it at the goblin. The spell washed over them both,
leaving Skylar spluttering and shaking water from his hair and
scrambling to clear the sulfuric spelling spell out of his eyes. Skylar
gagged, coughing out fluid before he forced himself to his knees,
squinting in the dark to comprehend the new state of the cart.
Adrian had Skylar's wand pointing at the goblin- who had Lutain around
his throat. The scene would have been a relief, if not for the outfit Adrian
was wearing.
"Merlin's beard," Skylar wheezed, slamming into the side of the cart on
one sharp turn, "are you wearing heels?"
Adrian flushed, a bright red along his cheekbone that wouldn't have been
seen if not for the lantern, "get up before I bloody step on you."
Skylar wheezed out a laugh and pulled himself upright, wincing as he
slammed into the edge of the cart again. He took his wand back from
Adrian, who pulled out a different wand from inside a lacy sleeve.
It was shorter, a bright inviting wood. Skylar had never seen it before in
his life.
"Hurry up!" Lutain snapped, drawing attention from the two, "he's
fighting!"
Adrian grunted as he slammed into the side of the cart, Skylar struggled
to remain on his feet.
"Aren't you a bloody seeker?" Adrian growled out, tripping backwards as
Skylar stumbled forward again, "where's that bloody balancing act?"
"I used it up being the golden boy!" Skylar shouted back, smiling
exhilarated as Adrian gave a loud bark of unexpected laughter.
They were nearing a sharp turn, one that the goblin was rather devoted
to throwing them over the edge. Lutain realized it instantly, the thrum of
panic and adrenaline pulsing through Adrian, his horcrux, and Skylar all
in one.
Curse it! Three minds screamed at once, and Skylar reacted under the
minds of multiple.
"Imperio!" The goblin tensed, gasping in surprise before going docile,
recovering the cart into a much safer route. Adrian let out a breath of
relief, Lutain mirroring it as he released his grip around the goblin's
shoulder.
Skylar slumped downwards, legs folding under him. He stared, sightless
until the cart came to a gentle stop outside a large elaborate door.
"Skylar," Adrian started, nudging him with one high heel, "Skylar get up."
Skylar lolled, limp and eyes blown. Adrian prodded him again, mentally
cursing the moment he recognized the look of dark magic addiction.
"Is he asleep?" Lutain asked, coming closer to the prone body.
"No," Adrian sighed, stretching and trying to release the tight clench of
his knuckles, "the idiot likely hasn't ever used a dark spell before. He'll he
like this for a while, at least the goblin slowed us down."
Lutain made a small noise of agreement, glancing at the Lestrange vault.
Adrian knew roughly what to look for, he knew the rough feel of what he
had to find. The best example was the locket, hidden low out of sight in
the gap of his sternum and the bones of the corset. The vaults were cold,
Adrian shivered as air drifted between his thighs.
Adrian stumbled out of the cart, walking across the stone path. His shoes
clicked obscenely, echoing for seconds afterwards through the empty
tunnels around them. Lutain slithered after, the sound of scales on stone
was reminiscent of the chamber.
"Why are you in a dress?"
"You know, Lutain," Adrian sighed through his nose, "I would greatly
appreciate never talking about this again."
The large door recognized Adrian, he was permitted access after all.
Adrian hadn't ever seen the vault, but he always thought it would be
larger. He supposed, that his father's plan to crash the economy must
have caused the money to be withdrawn. Very little coins remained.
Instead, there were large mounds of artifacts, shimmering goblets and
plates with ornate gems molded into the handle. Giant mirrors with
beautiful frames, paintings with absent portraits inside. It was expensive
and lavish in every sense.
"Okay," Adrian sighed to himself, looking through the assortment of
cutlery and precious artifacts. "It would be much more helpful if I knew
what I was actually looking for."
Lutain shifted uncomfortably, but didn't say anything else.
There was only one thing in the room that had an inexplicable draw to it,
similar to how the chain around his neck tugged on his heart. There was
a beauty in it, a wordless whisper to cherish me, love me, and it was
suddenly the most beautiful thing Adrian had ever seen.
"I found it," Adrian spoke, eyes not leaving the cup. He walked forward,
knocking into other things along the ground. They vibrated worryingly
before settling, recognizing him as being permitted inside.
The cup likely couldn't be summoned, so Adrian walked forward until he
could reach it by standing on a small table carved from a single piece of
ivory. The cup was warm in his fingers, searingly so. Then, it cooled and
glistened in his grip.
"So this is it," Adrian started to murmurer, tracing the details and the
carefully crafted badger on the side, "this is all that Skylar wanted.
Curious, why would he want this, Lutain?"
Lutain had stayed by the door, intelligent enough to rationalize that
crossing into the vault may trigger an alarm. "We should go, Master."
Adrian frowned, tracing the cup again. "I shouldn't listen to you. You left
me, you know. You left me when you shouldn't have."
"Master-"
"Maybe I should leave you this time."
"Master!"
Adrian turned, looking in the direction of the cart. Skylar had recovered,
stumbling his way out of the transportation, and was on his knees
vomiting onto the stone. It was gross, a thick mixture of digested food
that came out of his nose in sludgy bubbles.
"Gross." Lutain commented, as if he weren't a creature which commonly
regurgitated food.
Adrian walked back, dress swishing. His stockings had been torn over his
left leg, likely caught on one of the gaudy knives on display in the vault.
"Get up, I got your bloody cup."
Skylar heaved again, trembling on all fours. Adrian made a small noise of
frustration, lowering himself into a squat to try and push the other aside.
The corset was really impeding with his ability to move.
"Come on, let's go." Adrian tried, shoving the boy to a seated position
against the back of the cart, "snap out of it."
"How can you stomach it?" Skylar gasped, body trembling. He rubbed his
sleeve against his mouth, smearing the excess saliva that dripped from
the corner of his lip. "H-how can you stand it?"
Adrian felt a chill go down his back, a small tang that things were wrong.
He closed his eyes, and steadied himself. "If I do it, then someone else
doesn't have to."
Skylar looked at him, as if he were someone on his deathbed.
'I suppose,' Adrian thought to himself quietly, 'that I am.'
"I don't want you to die." Skylar confessed shakily, "I- I just got you back
and I-"
"No. You didn't." Adrian sharply cut him off. "You did not just...get me
back. You-"
"What are you talking about?" Skylar whispered, eyebrows narrowing in
confusion, "you left us after Umbridge, and we couldn't find you. You
were gone, and...I don't know. Some part of you was wrong, like you had
gone mad. And you're back now, you're the Selwyn I remember."
Adrian sat back on his heels, completely floored.
Skylar looked down at the rancid smelling vomit next to him, making a
noise of disgust. "Wanna know something stupid? I thought I could...I
could get through this whole bloody thing without killing anyone. I
dunno, I just...it never felt right. I thought with that bloody prophecy
maybe there was a way around it."
"There isn't." Adrian spoke back numbly. "The prophecy is now void."
Skylar looked at him with a wry twist to his mouth, not quite a smile but
not a frown. "You really think that?"
A pause, a second that stretched forever.
"We need to go." Adrian muttered, forcing himself upright. His dress
flared, he looked at it in annoyance. How he would kill for his proper
cloak, even his Cerestes cloak instead of his deceased maternal figure's
wardrobe.
"You look like a goddamn sight." Skylar giggled out, half exhausted and
the other half mentally jello. "Should have had a pageant at Hogwarts,
you'd have won."
Adrian scoffed and Skylar shook his head, shuffling away from the cart.
The goblin stood there, wide dopey smile across its face.
"We can't leave it here." Adrian noted, nodding towards the goblin, "He
knows what we look like, he knows what we took. If this thing is as
important as you say, he can't leave here alive."
Skylar inhaled hoarsely and closed his eyes. "I'm not going to kill him."
Adrian's expression was fairly flat. "You won't have to. Lutain- what was
that you said you smelled?"
Lutain hissed back and Skylar sharpened at the unexplained knowledge
that forced itself into his mind. "No- no a dragon?"
Adrian looked at him with an expression of surprise, scars twisting across
his face. "How did you…"
Skylar shook his head and ran past, reaching down to mindlessly snatch
Lutain who adjusted in his grip. Lutain coiled, shouting about the passage
ahead. Lutain was right, there was a dragon. Large, pale white although
clearly from neglect.
Adrian caught up, and a high pitched whine broke from his mouth. "Oh
no no, what did they do to you…" Adrian moaned quietly, approaching
before the beast snapped its head up, peering around with sightless eyes.
Hurt, Lutain thought sadly Skylar feeling just as sickened as before.
"What species is it?" Skylar asked quietly, the dragon snapped its head
around, spitting and hissing furiously. Its face was a mess of scars over
scales, broken horns and other marks deep into its muscle.
"I don't even know." Adrian whispered, shaking his head slowly. "It- it's a
hind leg dragon, look at the fore-claws on it."
The dragon twisted, looking right at them behind the blind eyes. It
snarled, opening its maw, half of the teeth were broken or crooked. Its
tongue was dark blue, long in its mouth and forked on the end.
A moment later, a molten liquid squirted out and bright red fire shot out
with heat and light brighter than Fiendfyre.
Adrian and Skylar dodged, hiding behind the rock wall where the
dragon's flame couldn't reach. Adrian looked hauntedly ahead, staring at
nothing.
"Lutain," Adrian scrambled, thinking rapidly, "I- did you get-"
Another plume of fire and Skylar was tucking the snake inwards away
from the heat. It was suffocating, searing their lungs.
"I-" Adrian scrambled, eyes wide in panic as he fretted quickly, "I- they
may have trained it-"
Another plume, and Skylar realized sharply that he was screaming.
"Selwyn!"
"I don't know!"
Another plume, something broke away and fell- rock glowing red and
melting on the edges. The dragon roared, the ground shook and Skylar's
teeth rattled in his mouth.
Lutain was squirming, not out of hope but out of sheer panic. Terror,
bleeding through from one to another. Adrian was terrified, so was
Skylar.
"Focus!" Skylar shouted, barely heard over the gnashing teeth just out of
sight, "I'm not Selwyn! You are! Bloody think Adrian!"
Adrian nodded jerkily, shoving his head back against the rock to think
desperately. "I-"
Another plume of flame, the ground was glowing orange around them,
likely to burn clear through their shoes.
"Opaleye!" Adrian screamed, eyes wide and the whites showing like he
were possessed, "Antipodean Opaleye! That or a Ironbelly but Opaleye
are- are said to be part of the Rainbow Serpent!"
"The what?" Skylar screamed back, desperately summoning water to try
and cool the rock around them. The water evaporated on touch, hissing
into steam. It was too hot, it was too burning and singing their skin.
They were going to bake alive.
"The- the Borlung! The Dhakkan!" Adrian was shouting, scrambling
through his encyclopedia of information.
"Do you have anything helpful in your list of useless information?'
"They're nicknamed Taipan!" Adrian bellowed back, face red from
shouting.
"What does that mean?"
"That I hope to Merlin I'm right!" Adrian shouted back, before shoving
himself forward over the glowing stone frantically. The long trail of his
dress burst into fire, parts of his shoes began to melt.
Skylar opened his mouth to scream as Adrian forced himself into the
direct path of the chained dragon. Adrian opened his mouth and hissed.
The dragon paused, tilting its head and rearing back like an inquisitive
bird. It paused, opening and closing its mouth before rumbling out a low
noise. Adrian panted, chest heaving to get air in the lethally hot room
and the tight confines of the corset.
The dragon grumbled again, and Adrian hissed back. Finally, Adrian
hung his head and laughed.
"What-" Skylar asked, his throat hoarse and torn from the hot air and the
screaming. "You- you can talk to dragons?"
"No," Adrian croaked out, equally exhausted, "Taipan, Sky, a taipan."
Skylar ran one hand through his sweat soaked hair, "that means
absolutely nothing to me and you bloody well know that."
Adrian laughed, "Taipan! That's Lutain! It isn't a species it's a bloody
ancestor! This dragon is related to a serpent!"
The dragon tilted its head curiously and warbled, its long forked tongue
flickered through the air.
Skylar found himself a patch of not flaming ground, putting out the
flames on Adrian's dress and trying his best to fix the damage to his
shoes, "I thought you said it was an Iron Belly?"
"Oh, well, no." Adrian confessed, suddenly looking partially sheepish and
uncertain, "I uh, well I guessed."
Skylar's eyebrows rose to his soot singed hairline, "you guessed?"
Adrian shrugged, Skylar looked upwards at the top of the cavern and
exhaled slowly. "Mate, you're bloody awful."
"Yeah well," Adrian argued back, tentatively touching the dragon's
massive head with his hands. The creature was adamant that Adrian
touch its snout, seemingly forgetting that it had been trying to murder
them earlier. "It's in my blood."
Skylar paused before snorting, "that's downright terrible."
Adrian smiled, almost shyly. He traced the dragon, careful to avoid the
blinded eyes. Skylar felt a deep resonating sense of beauty for the
creature, a sense of awe and respect he could never describe.
"How about we get you a snack?" Adrian murmured to himself, "an eye
for an eye."
He traced along the deep gouges on its face, inflicted by goblin swords.
A tooth for a tooth.
(Skylar looked away, and tried to remember that the goblin deserved it
for ever harming something as sacred as a dragon.)
The chains were thick, strong but ultimately weak to certain spells.
They stayed down there longer than expected, Adrian trying to coax a
spell from Skylar's wand.
(It's easy, he said, It makes you feel wonderful, but you'll only have to do it
twice. Never again.)
(I don't want to do this, is this dark magic, Adrian?)
(It is, but you'll never have to use this spell again. We need to get her free, she
can't die here alone. I'm never going to let anyone die alone again.)
(Okay.)
(Abrumpo)
The dragon clawed her way through bedrock, bursting through tunnels
and avoiding the vaults and wards. She worked her way upward, patient
and understanding to the crooning praise Adrian gave her- words that
Skylar could understand although he didn't know why.
They didn't burst out from the depths, instead they detoured down the
path away from the vault. They dug and moved, breaking through busted
cobblestone in Knockturn Alley. The light was bright, the dragon's scales
were peeling, and Adrian's grin could have melted steel.
"You're free." Adrian assured the dragon, rubbing his hands over the
worst flaking of her scales in a reassuring pattern, "You're free, beautiful."
Skylar shivered, Lutain coiled tighter.
The dragon turned and looked over its shoulder, blindly staring in his
direction. Adrian whispered words to it again, and then it broke through
the slate roof and took off into the sky over muggle London.
There were more screams outside, more than those from seeing a dragon.
Adrian's smile faltered, his breath pausing into a quiet noise of surprise.
There was something already happening.
The alley was in chaos already, spells firing and ragged ministry workers
were shooting spells at people. People that everyone knew, normal store
owners fighting against the corruption. After all, when a loaf of bread
cost now as much as a lavish robe, of course there would be unjust
actions.
"Shit," Skylar cursed under his breath, dropping into a duck next to where
Adrian crouched, "there's Ron and Mione, they got caught."
Skylar smelled like smoke and ash, his hands were blackened where they
clung to the stone remains of the wall separating them from the alley.
He was right, Ron and Hermione were easy to spot in the confusion.
They were there, back to back taking shelter behind a bookstore. A
corner of the stone was already destroyed, a gap into the building was
smoldering.
"They didn't stay out of sight." Adrian clarified with a grimace, scanning
up and down the street. "This isn't a raid."
"Not recognize anyone?" Skylar asked, helping Lutain get adjusted into a
more convenient position.
Adrian shot him a glance, something small that lingered unsure, "...no,
not really. I mean, I think these are snatchers, but- shit."
Adrian yanked Skylar down, forcing him to stay low as a spell soared
overhead. They peeked over again, cursing as a swam of new people
apparated in.
"Why are my bloody parents here?" Skylar hissed out, looking alarmed
and impressed.
Adrian snorted, "and here I thought you were going to try and say
something brotherly."
"Nah mate," Skylar responded distractedly, "that train has left the
station."
Adrian snorted and grinned, ducking again to avoid anyone looking at
them. There was a warmth in his chest, a sensation he hadn't thought
he'd feel. Something enjoyable with the chaos, a sense of serenity in the
pandemonium.
Unfortunately, it couldn't always last.
One of the snatchers got too close. He crossed the threshold of far and
near, and then he was suddenly right in front of them.
He recognized hem, either Adrian's scars or Skylar's smile that echoed on
every Undesirable No. 1 there was.
The man gasped, pointing his wand at them even though they were
practically within grabbing distance. It was an instinct, although simply
grabbing them would be more effective. He was scruffy looking, wild and
poor.
In that moment, this stranger, this snatcher, was a threat.
Skylar didn't even think- his mind buzzed, he reacted. "Lutain! Bite him!"
Lutain struck without pause, running on pure instinct. He responded to
the wrong Master.
Adrian didn't expect it- he didn't expect Skylar's gut reaction to command
his familiar. He didn't expect Lutain lunging out, sinking fangs into the
man's exposed neck and shoulder, he didn't expect the man to scream in
surprise and fear.
Adrian didn't expect the hissing words that were clearly legible to him,
yet not from his lips.
Adrian wheeled back, dropping to the ground in outright alarm and
horror. Skylar panted, eyes slowly widening when he realized what had
happened. The blood began to pool from the deep gashes, it was likely
that Lutain had hit something major- the blood was thick and dark.
Almost black.
The man was gurgling thrashing on the ground in terror. Lutain writhed,
keeping his strong grip before recoiling and striking again, tearing out
the man's throat.
"I-" Skylar choked, looking at his hands and then the ground and Lutain
and there was so much blood.
Adrian ignored that- it wasn't important to him.
Skylar was.
"How did you do that?" Adrian asked, a whisper that was partially
fascinated partially terrified. "I- you-..."
"No, wait," Skylar reached out, tearing his eyes away from the grisly
scene.
Adrian took an unconscious step back, looking as if he had been struck.
"Adrian I didn't-"
"You're a parselmouth?" Adrian repeated in stunned confusion.
"No! I-"
"You're a parselmouth," Adrian deadpanned, sounding resigned and
confused. "That...that explains…"
"No! Listen to me!" Skylar shouted desperately, reaching out again.
Adrian angled his face away, looking as if Skylar had done something
unspeakable. He looked resigned, tired, and Skylar was suddenly very
afraid of what he would do.
Skylar was very afraid, that the next time he'd see pale skin would be in a
casket.
Adrian twisted, his body dropped away. Suddenly a fast thick snake was
uncoiling on the floor. Between its eyes a folded red plume rested against
it's skull, a bright sail as tall as Skylar's hand.
The snake paused, looking at him with milky yellow eyes. A second
passed, each tick of a watch articulated by screams and fire outside their
bubble of raw emotions.
Adrian turned away and slithered quickly, dark scales moving over
broken slate roofing tiles until it vanished out of sight through the busted
doorway.
In his wake, he left a shimmering golden cup and a gem infused locket.
Impstar: At this point I'm looking forward to an end to Adrian's
suffering. He deserves the chance to rest.
Only 12 chapters left.
shadowman21: I don't approve Adrian helping Skylar but I understand
but seriously fantastic job and making me feel for the characters.
Emotions are one of the most visceral things to write. Thank you for enjoying
them.
Babywolfchick1142: Simply amazing, im so proud of you for pulling
yourself slightly out of your own funk.
We all have moments, but through those struggles we learn to drag ourselves
together and keep going on regardless of what we leave behind.
Roostertheking: Do some miracle and create a new Adrian to rule the
dark after killing daddy voldy... And please kill James if u really want to
kill somebody ( I don't like him and backboneless Lilly)...
They'll be coming up in a few chapters.
Pholinleaf: This is my first ff review ever. I was a long time fanfiction
lurker. It has never occur to me to review any story I'd read, until I came
across this. In 4 days, I caught up with this story then I went back and
finished Shadow Maliced. SM feels like a awesome fanfiction story; easy
to read and feels satisfied after reading, and then move on to the next ff
story. But Antithesis feel like a published novel, very well written.
Characters feel real and easy to attach to. Every chapter makes me crave
for more.
Thank you so much for reviewing, it's always a wonderful thing to hear from
my readers. Truly, it's amazing to hear that this is your first review ever.
Shadowed Malice is cute in its own way, but I wanted to write something
more...real, and thus, Antithesis was made.
DeviousClass: No surprise but I cried through most of this chapter. The
amazing thing is that you didn't force the angst here but I still could feel
Adrian's and Xenophilius' grief immensely.
Thank you for the high heels paragraph. Like, really; so nice X) (Is that
how you feel on high heels ?)
The emotions are real to those of us who have had the misfortune to feel
something similar.
The heels, are without a doubt, my own love for clicky shoes coming to shine.
Dragonfruit112: I usually don't let the tone of a story get the best of me,
y'know? Well, for probably the first time in /years/, this story (more
specifically this chapter) has made me tear up and almost start balling
my eyes out. Dunno what it was really, but when Adrian started to go
through Luna's things I just couldn't help myself, I got all sniffley and
weepy.
Everything I wrote for Adrian is something I've had to do for those who have
passed on. Moments like that are...impossible to describe, maybe that was
what you realized.
69. Affix
Thanks to the Discord server which is filled with wonderful readers
who helped me with ideas!
'Idon't I dont what did youdoto me CrOUch.'
Ginny's gravestone was something small, modest in where it was placed.
They never found her body, so it was a casket filled with things
important to her. Childhood dolls, toys, books and a toy wand she always
played with when young.
The days were colder, almost all the leaves had fallen from the trees. Her
tombstone was barren, the shriveled remains of a few flowers that had
been placed there long ago.
"Hey Ginny." Skylar began, voice hoarse and quiet. The wind blew, some
of the empty branches from the nearby trees bent ominously.
Hello, Ginny. Lutain echoed, coiled around Skylar's shoulder.
"I'm sorry we couldn't save you," Skylar repeated quietly, reaching out to
run his fingers along the rough stone. "Although I don't think I could
have. The basilisk is...I'll take her down for you."
Let me? Lutain asked, tongue flickering against Skylar's ear.
Skylar wouldn't pretend to understand what was happening, or how it
did. He wouldn't say that it didn't scare him, but he wouldn't say that he
didn't deserve it either.
Skylar nodded slightly and closed his eyes, reaching up with one hand to
trace along Lutain's scales. Skylar breathed out, and let his mind wander
in a way he realized now- was not his own.
"I'm sorry," Skylar spoke out loud, words feeling strange in his mouth,
like they were slurred around the edges. "I didn't want to leave you
there."
A pause, a sense of fragmentation around thoughts themselves. Memories
flickered, a sense of screaming, of desperation and hysteria. Moments of
panic, of loss, or sheer hatred directed at self. Looking at the grave of
Ginny Weasley, everything else seemed so different.
"I'm sorry I let you starve to death." Skylar whispered wrongly, tingling
and tainted, sparking on the edges. "I'm sorry I left you there to die."
The nights they spent screaming over what he had done.
The monster he was to treat her so.
The scrapes on Adalonda's shed skin, the ravenous madness of starvation.
The bright red of her hair, scattered around the scattered bones of her
skeleton.
"I'm going to free you, of your curse." Skylar spoke without thought, with
a mind foreign to him. "I'm going to end the thestrals."
'What?'
The confusion of the statement snapped Skylar back to clarity. It was a
slow process, a moment of thought that took a while to manifest fully.
Lutain twitched in response, receding with a similar level of confusion.
"Thestrals?" Skylar spoke out loud, finally in a voice his own, "I- Lutain
what does he mean?"
It was without a doubt, Adrian's thoughts. A concept or idea that didn't
make sense, which didn't match what they knew. The thoughts they
shared together, the haunted memories that Skylar had snippets of in the
middle of the night.
I don't know, Lutain offered, staring at the grave with just as much
hopelessness as Skylar felt, I don't know what Master means.
The tent they made rattled in the breeze, edges buckling in the wind.
Despite the heating charms, it was chilly inside. Hermione had a sweater
wrapped around her, up to her nose which was red in the cold.
Skylar slipped inside, Ron glancing up from where he was seated at the
table, chasing food around in a ceramic bowl.
"Sky!" Hermione hushed out quickly, "there you are!"
Skylar nodded slightly, slowly making his way over to the table, "how's
things going?"
Hermione chewed on her lower lip. "The paper's aren't looking good."
Skylar was afraid as much.
Ron huffed ugly into his bowl, sliding the paper across the table where
Skylar could glance at the title.
Skylar's heart dropped, his eyes widened in horror.
Albus Dumbledore! Fleeing the Fight?
The paper got worse.
"No." Skylar gaped, scrambling to open the papers, "they tried to arrest
Dumbledore? He's the Headmaster."
"Doesn't matter anymore. The Ministry evicted him and he ran, they can't
find him anymore." Hermione deadpanned coldly with a sniff. "He's likely
at Order Headquarters now. Apparently Professor McGonagall has taken
over as Headmistress, although they've imposed a new teacher for
Transfiguration if things couldn't get worse. Professor Slughorn is still
teaching Potions, but with Professor Snape as the Defence teacher I'm not
sure how much information the students are getting."
Skylar frowned and looked at the paper, tilting his head in thought, "You
think Snape would withhold information?"
"Well, he's a slimy Death Eater isn't he?"' Ron growled out with a pointed
scowl.
Skylar blinked and stared at the table, concentrating and relaxing. Lutain
twitched slightly around his neck, exhaling with a low hiss.
Flashes of colour, sudden spikes of frustration and agitation.
You're a mediocre student, and if you continue to act in such a way you will
be expelled-.
What a disgrace-...
Moments of anger, downright hostility directed at such a petty, cold head
of house. How unwelcome he felt, the beady hawkish eyes focused on him
in the late nights.
No, past that there was a swell of hate, a satisfaction out of being
vindictive.
Yes my lord…
Bowing at his feet, the grudging respect and horror in his eyes.
No, more than that. The sick sense of impending death, the sheen of
outright sweat on his waxy skin and greasy hair.
Lutain hissed sharply, tensing, and Skylar knew it and Lutain knew it and
Adrian remembered…
"How many times did you look at me, and decide to turn a blind eye as your
students beat me and cursed me under your watch? Well, now you're going to
look me in the eyes, professor, and you're going to beg me to let you live."
He could remember it, the way Snape trembled under his eyes. The
hundreds of heartbeats in the room. The delighted, expectant thrum of
his father behind him.
The sense of power, the grudging acknowledgement that of everyone in
that room would sleep easier the moment he died. The moment the feral
dog of Lord Voldemort was taken outside and had its throat slit.
"You're going to leave here, and you're never going to return. You're going to
run to Dumbledore and his Order and you're going to vomit up everything that
you've seen, because that's all you ever do. You're going to tell them all of this,
how Harry Potter spared you because living with the knowledge that you
helped make me, will haunt you until you die."
Snape inhaled sharply and Skylar withdrew his wand, lowering himself in a
squat until he was close to Snape's face, eyes still not breaking contact.
Skylar shrugged and glanced away, feeling sick to his heart but knowing
despite it all, his father would be (and was) ecstatic with how things were
unveiling.
"I'm surprised you never noticed, in all honesty." Skylar mentioned with a wry
smile, "after all, professor. I have my mother's eyes."
Skylar flinched, and with a hoarse inhale he blinked awake to the two
grim faces of his friends.
"He won't," Skylar rasped out, coughing twice to fight off the nausea.
"Snape's on the run, if he goes back to Voldemort he's going to die."
There was a pause, a moment of hesitation before Ron shifted, "how do
you know that, mate?"
A thrum in his heart, an ache in his bones so deep his marrow felt like
melting.
"Just a feeling."
The words tasted like ash.
The first reported killing of two muggleborns were in the paper the next
day, snuck from a vendor on the corner of the Leaky Cauldron. It wasn't
anything new, in fact it should have been so minor it was overlooked and
dismissed with the overcast sky of London approaching winter. They
were wearing scarves now, thick woolen hats pulled low over their eyes.
The killing was important, because it was the first killing directly linked
to someone unassuming. The first murder, from a half-blood not
associated with Voldemort to take out those with muggle relations.
"I guess this is it now," Hermione whispered, clutching Ron's arm close as
they skimmed through the paper, "the start of the next civil war."
Two muggle-born wizards had died, because they were seen through
their windows unloading groceries as the Wizarding World was
experiencing the worst economic depression in history.
"I understand it now, why he crashed the economy." Ron mentioned over
dinner, illuminated by candlelight and the single cold wooden bench. "It's
easy, to find them muggleborns. Its the people that aren't starving now,
and the only people who won't fight back."
Hermione's eyes softened, and she didn't say a word back to argue.
The first snow began to fall, peppering the ground gently with white. The
ground was frozen, they needed to use small blasting spells to drive the
tent stakes down.
The food was lasting them, the stockpile they had managed to gather the
summer before they left. They spread themselves thin, working carefully
and shopping cheaply in Muggle London before the Galleon to Muggle
currency rate completely broke.
Skylar had mentioned quietly, one morning when he stroked Lutain at
the table, that if they were truly struggling he could always spell himself
and walk into the Muggle world, taking some food where nobody would
ever realize what happen.
Hermione looked horrified, Ron looked furious at the world in general.
Lutain, who had a body made to adapt to long periods of starvation, was
looking a bit thin.
"I can always Imperio them," Skylar shrugged, trying to look more
unaffected by his own suggestion than he was.
"Oh Sky." Hermione whispered, and that was that.
November was drawing to a close, and five more Muggle-born murder
incidents occurred. The last one ended with fourteen casualties, three of
which were students withheld from Hogwarts in fear of the growing war.
It was nobody Skylar knew personally.
"When am I going to die, Lutain?" Skylar asked, curled with his knees to
his chest. The black snake was coiled around his neck, watching the
white world turn bleak.
You know, I've been asked that before. Lutain responded back, less in words
and more in concrete thoughts. Different ways of dying.
Skylar chuckled slightly to himself, reaching out past the tent to touch
the frozen water that fluttered down from above. "I guess so."
Lutain didn't answer, and Skylar sighed to himself quietly.
That was the unspoken agreement between them, a universal code that
neither of them were going to bring up.
Ron and Hermione were increasingly concerned and worried, furious
with the snake although never quite voiced it to Skylar's face. Skylar
knew outright how dangerous Lutain was, and Lutain was blunt enough
to tell Skylar to his face what was happening.
A coexistence, a codependency because in the end, they needed each
other until their goals came together. The goals of who would live longer,
who would be the first to die.
Skylar knew, quite well in fact, that he was going to die. He didn't know
how, he didn't know when, but he knew he likely wouldn't survive
another year. His lifespan hinged on Adrian Selwyn's lifespan- which was
slowly decaying away at a concerning rate.
Skylar almost didn't recognize Adrian once the spell washed away the
glamour, and not just in terms of his outfit. The boy looked pale, much
paler than he ever assumed. His hands were shaking as if he was an old
man. His eyes were glazed, the whites a faint yellow and the backs of his
arms translucent to the degree Skylar could trace the path of his veins
and arteries with his fingers.
He was thin, emaciated and exhausted. Skylar was tired, tired of the war
and what happens to everyone in it.
The prophecy came down to a single fact- Adrian Selwyn was going to
kill Voldemort or Voldemort was going to kill Selwyn. There was nothing
they could do to change that, there was no way to disguise that fact.
So far, Selwyn was going around collecting Horcruxes none the wiser,
they still had two unknown horcruxes they had to find before this was all
over, although it was highly speculated that the secret one was the
bloody massive snake Voldemort kept, and then a mysterious object
within Hogwarts itself. Dumbledore was quite adamant about that fact,
which meant that they'd need to get Selwyn to the castle at some point to
sniff them out like a bloodhound.
It didn't matter, considering there was a basilisk on the loose Selwyn
likely would be heading there eventually. Voldemort would show up as
well, once he learned about what had all been going on. For now, they
just needed to wait and tide out winter and hope that Selwyn would
return at some point.
Skylar was going to die, this was likely the last winter he would ever see.
"It's pretty, you know?" Skylar asked out loud, rhetoric and quiet in the
air. "The snow. It's so weird, that it's natural. If I didn't know better, I'd
guess it was magic."
Lutain shifted slightly from where he was laying on Skylar. I can take you
there.
Skylar smiled simply in light of the vague statement. "You know the
address?"'
Lutain sent a confirmation, and a single destination. A picture of
birdhouses, of pastel window shutters and an unkempt garden out back.
"I don't know if I should go," Skylar confessed quietly, a hot wash of
shame overwhelming him, "I...I failed her, you know? I don't…"
You're dying. Lutain countered, tongue flickering in the air. You won't have
anymore chances.
And that was a simple summary for why they were here at all, why
Skylar had curled himself in front of Ginny's gravestone as if in the end it
would have mattered.
"I've made a lot of mistakes," Skylar gave a single curt laugh, "do you
know what that's like? To have something you'll always regret?"
A flash, something large and hissing, cruel and amused beyond it all.
Sharp eyes, vicious words. Adalonda.
Yes, I know. Lutain grumbled back, just as loathing and tired as Skylar
felt. Time to say apologies.
Skylar stilled slightly in thought, "Is that why you made me go to the
orphanage?'
They hadn't been close before, but something had changed. Some sort of
link had been forged and with that, they were closer than ever. Distinct
creatures, but united and linked in a way Skylar couldn't explain.
Yes. Lutain confessed quietly, twisting with a strange sense of guilt.
Master never went back.
"I imagine he wouldn't want to." Skylar huffed ever so quietly, Lutain
twitching in the slightest hint of amusement.
I struck wrong. Lutain confessed guiltily, ruined many things for a long time.
Skylar nodded and closed his eyes, slumping backwards the best he
could. "I used an unforgivable. And...and that spell Adrian told me...I
never want to experience that again."
Soon you wont. Lutain informed him bluntly. Many places to go still.
"For me or for you?" Skylar smiled ever so thinly. "There are a few places
left for me as well. I guess we could likely go wherever we need to, under
the guise of looking for Horcruxes."
Don't tell Master. Lutain soothed with a sense of foreboding. He'll kill you.
Skylar smiled thinly, "he already is going to, isn't he?"
Lutain was distinctly amused. The snow was bright in contrast to his
black body. Yes. He'll kill you instantly if he knows what he did. What he's
doing.
Skylar reached out, catching gentle flakes on his palm. "I gathered. You
know where Luna's grave is then?"
Yes.
Skylar gave a small nod, "then we'll head there next I guess. I want to...I
don't know."
Lutain understood, he understood better than anyone ever would.
Okay. Lutain agreed calmly, twisting before he rested again closer to
Skylar's neck. Need more strength. More information.
Skylar inhaled with a pinched sound, his ribs twinging in pain at the
forced movement in the cold. He was tired, he was going to be much
more tired.
"Okay, do it." Skylar agreed, reclining himself backwards the best he
could before he closed his eyes and tried to relax as much as he could.
Hermione and Ron found him hours later, shivering from the cold and
clearly unconscious. There was blood dripping from the corners of his
mouth, thin and crusted. Lutain coiled on top his chest, scales glossy and
dark. He was catching snow on his back, the white flakes bright contrast
on the dark scales.
"We should be going," Skylar muttered, pulling out an apple before he
fiddled with it, trailing fingers over the glossy red skin. "Moving on I
mean."
Hermione gaped, looking at the equally baffled Ron.
"Sky! No!" Hermione rushed out worriedly, "I- you were unconscious!
You've barely recovered!"
"Not like he ever takes a break." Ron muttered sourly, "I mean, when was
the last time you put that bloody snake down?"
Skylar stilled, Lutain twisted in the beginning stirs of fascination. Lutain
moved, reminding everyone that he was indeed, a living creature. Lutain
unraveled, nearly loosing his grip at one point. Instead, he cursed
something in a low mumble, nearly drawing a smile to Skylar's face.
We can be apart. Lutain scathingly bit out, slithering down until he
plopped oddly onto the table, rapidly coiling back up on the wooden
surface. Do not rely on each other.
"Yeah mate, Lutain just likes me."
You're as smart as a pinecone. Lutain chirped out just because he always
was quite mean.
"Likes you is a word for it." Ron muttered, reaching out with a spoon to
prod the snake. Lutain flinched back with a hiss, tongue flickering wildly.
"What have you been up to?" Skylar asked, peering at the thick book on
the table between them.
"Oh!" Hermione flushed, looking down at her hands uncomfortably, "I
managed to find the book requirements for Hogwarts, I thought it would
be good to stay up to date on our classwork- I don't want to be too far
behind our NEWTS!"
"Oh," Skylar repeated numbly, "NEWTS, right."
"Yeah mate, we're on vacation." Ron huffed out a laugh, "not time to be
thinking about bloody schoolwork."
Schoolwork.
"Right." Skylar mirrored, staring at the table in dumb shock.
He had completely forgotten about NEWTS.
Has it hit you yet? Lutain asked. The distance made it strained, like it was
whispered from a few feet away, but still clearly audible in Skylar's
thoughts. You won't be going back to your school.
He wasn't going to be going back to school.
"Right," Skylar struggled to smile, "I'm sure you can uh...uh teach
yourselves better than Professor Snape."
Ron barked out a laugh, "bloody right, there!"
Hermione scowled, swatting him with her heavy book. Ron barked out
something to defend himself, Lutain dutifully returned to Skylar's arm as
the weight of the world started to set in fully.
Skylar wasn't going to be getting his NEWTs, he was going to be dying
instead.
Where do you want to lay? Lutain asked him in vague curiosity, In the
ground?
Where did he want his gravesite to be?
Where did he want his family to mourn him?
Skylar leant over and puked on the floor.
Hermione and Ron sprang away, Hermione flinching in surprise. It
sloshed over the ground, the single apple he managed to eat was now
splattered on the canvas bottom. It smelled foul, rancid in the confines.
"Sky!" Hermione shrieked, pausing one second before she tugged him
away from the mess. Her fingers yanked free the moment Lutain moved,
a permanent reminder of the sake around his neck.
"I'm fine," Skylar choked out, gagging as his mind raced quickly.
He was going to die soon, if not from Voldemort and the Death Eaters, it
would be the deal finally coming into due. He wasn't going to be seen
again, he was going to die and there was nothing he could do about it.
It was over, and he hadn't ever thought of what he was going to be
leaving behind.
He didn't ever think about his grave, or what sort of funeral he wanted.
He never considered the shape of his shrine or what cemetery he'd be in.
He always thought it would be Godric's Hollow, or maybe he'd have
found a new spot. He never...he never thought about it.
He should have.
You realize it now? Lutain asked him gently, as if he had always known all
along. You should do it too. What Master is doing.
Skylar almost didn't want to ask, but he knew that in life there were few
opportunities to ever play ignorant to those around you.
"What's he doing?" Skylar asked out loud, choking on the words in a
desperate hope that maybe they weren't as bad as he feared.
Lutain shifted his body. He's saying goodbye.
They arrived at Luna Lovegood's house a week after, crunching snow up
to the small wooden gate. It was frozen at first, stiff enough that Ron had
to use his body weight to dislodge it open.
The snow wasn't thick, but it was intrusive enough. It hurt their lungs,
burning their throats until Skylar felt like he was choking on blood in
phantom memories.
He had been to this house, or maybe he hadn't it wasn't something he
could ever describe fully.
"You sure this is the right place?" Ron muttered quietly, looking around.
The atmosphere was unsettling, quiet and empty in a house far too large.
The front door was locked, so they knocked and tucked themselves close
together to stave off the heat.
The man who opened the door was recognizable in memory not his own.
"Oh," Skylar breathed in surprise, "Mr. Lovegood, I uh, I'm sorry we were
wondering if we could talk."
The man stared at them, haunted and broken and far too quiet for
anyone to be.
"Well, I suppose you may as well come in." Mr. Lovegood muttered,
quietly stepping aside to allow them all access, "I don't have much to
offer you. The markets are a bit...scarce."
"I'll say." Ron muttered under his breath, Hermione bumping into him
pointedly.
"What about heading into Muggle London for food?" Hermione chimed
in, causing Mr. Lovegood to stare at her unreadingly.
"The apparation network is under watch for any muggle locations," he
informed them quietly, "likewise with floo. If you're observed with
supplies, others tend to...look down on you. It's not safe."
"That's crazy." Ron huffed sourly, crossing his arms with a scowl, "what
are they gonna do? Fine you? The galleon rate is through the roof!"
Mr. Lovegood's expression didn't change, just as cold and flat as before.
"No, people will come in and kill you."
The tension in the room escalated and the silence dragged on.
"That's horrible!" Hermione gasped in shock, "what about the ministry-
surely they wouldn't stand for it!"
The ministry was destroyed, instead it was constructed in a mockery of
another. Anything to do with Aurors would likely end in their deaths.
Mr. Lovegood knew this, and so did Skylar.
"The ministry is corrupted." Mr. Lovegood finished bluntly, shrugging
once before offering tea at the table. It was weaker than normal.
"Can we help you with anything?" Skylar asked instead, cutting off the
conversation that likely would end with shouting and outrage on
Hermione and Ron's side, "anything?"
"No, I'm doing fine here, thank you." Mr. Lovegood smiled pinched,
shifting uncertainty eve as Ron plopped down and drank his tea with a
scowl.
"Do you mind If I go look around, just to make sure you're not being
watched?" Skylar asked politely, already tugging his invisibility cloak free
from where he had stashed it.
"No, it's-" Mr. Lovegood's eyes widened in surprise the moment he spotted
the cloak, words stilling in his mouth before he could even say it. He
stared at the material, in blatant surprise and shock. "...Go ahead."
Skylar smiled, looking more uncomfortable with the sudden change in
permission than anything. "Right, thank you, sir."
Mr. Lovegood gave a single nod, eyes not leaving the cloak.
"Hi Luna," Skylar breathed, sitting down in the snow to gaze at the grave,
"It's been a while since I saw you last, I'm sorry I didn't come back since
the funeral."
It felt forever ago, lifetimes. The grave was just as he remembered it, still
pristine and in excellent condition.
He remembered her casket, wreathed in water lilies and catnip. He never
understood the catnip, but it left the air with an herbal tinge.
Skylar remembered the crying, the bawling shrieking of her father, the
man who had been so impassive inside. Skylar remembered the numb
somber faces of the Hogwarts populace, the way the Ravenclaws stood
there in dumb shock as if they had never thought anyone would die.
The funeral was beautiful, gentle music and various creatures. A unicorn
was hired to pull the casket down the progression, bored and shining
white. It wasn't anything like a wild unicorn, but the intention was all
there.
Thestrals had watched from the side, eerily peering at them from the
sides of the forest. The large milky eyes made Skylar shiver, even dressed
in all black.
"I'm sure you'd be so upset with what's been going on," Skylar whispered
quietly, "how chaotic everything's gotten...I think a lot of the stores have
closed now, we should probably be in a state of emergency, you know?"
The grave didn't answer. Skylar didn't think it would.
Master's been here. Lutain spoke instead, tongue flicking through the air
rapidly before he shrunk back for more warmth. I can tell.
Skylar could too, to some degree, a faint tingling or sense of something
he should know and forgot. Another sense, a concept he never
remembered learning.
"Yeah," Skylar breathed shakily, "I guess that means you've had some
recent company, that's wonderful."
It was quiet, solitary around them. All of the birds had migrated, all the
grass had died.
"I'm so sorry, Luna." Skylar whispered, hanging his head low. "You told
me to take care of Adrian and...and I wasn't able to."
It was quiet, too quiet for someone as unique and loud as Luna.
"Here," Skylar smiled weakly, conjuring flowers although they were
rather lopsided in their petals, "I think you'd like them. I just…"
A pause, the flowers were set on her grave near something covered in
thin snow. Skylar brushed it aside, a pain through his heart as he
recognized them as radishes.
Someone left her radishes, under a stasis charm. They were still red,
although wilting in the cold.
"He cared about you, you know." Skylar whispered quietly, "he was so
devastated after everything happened. He didn't eat for so long, Luna…"
Skylar's bottom lip trembled, he hung his head and tried to ignore how
terrible the world was. "I'm so sorry, and I know I'll never make it up to
you, but I'm going to kill Voldemort even if some prophecy says I can't,
and I'm going to try to make up all the pain I've caused you."
The grave didn't answer, because of course, Luna would never speak
again.
"Do you know you have a Deathly Hallow?" Mr. Lovegood asked him
when he returned. It was obvious where he had been, it didn't take hours
to do a small check around the house.
Skylar's eyebrows shot up in surprise. "A hollow?"
Ron spewed out his mouthful of tea, causing Hermione to hurry and
banish the fluid from all over the floor. Skylar gracefully ignored his
friend, focusing only on Mr. Lovegood.
"Yes." Mr. Lovegood nodded, reaching up to pull free a necklace with a
symbol Skylar recognized from the age of Grindelwald, "The three
hallow, I believe you have the Invisibility Cloak."
Skylar floundered, shaking his head in surprise, "Erm, okay uh, Mr.
Lovegood."
The man frowned, obviously put out by the reaction but he didn't
elaborate any further.
"Oh! You should maybe move away from here," Hermione gushed out
looking worried, "Your address is known and-"
"And you don't want bloody Selwyn showing up," Ron spat out, looking
downright vicious, "that bloke is more likely to murder you than anyone
else."
Mr. Lovegood tensed before lowering his head slightly, "...I see."
"It really would be wise to-" Hermione started before the man cut her off
with one raised hand.
"I will not abandon my daughter." Mr. Lovegood spoke hoarsely, "If I am
attacked then so be it, but I refuse to ever leave the resting place of my
wife and daughter ever again."
Something about his face spoke that they had overstayed their welcome.
Mylla moved quickly, streamline through the air as if Adrian was nothing
along her back.
Adrian sat on the gaps in front of her wings, between the large scapular
blades of her front legs. It wasn't comfortable, but he had re-purposed his
Cerestes cloak as a sort of cushion to help him against the protruding
spine. The cloak as far too magical to ever get dirty, but there was a
small part of him that hoped purely out of spite it would.
The clouds were freezing, piercing through even the strongest warming
charms. Adrian had half a mind to cut off his hair, reducing the time it
dragged against his neck coldly.
They soared, the bright white of the clouds contrasting below them.
"Where are we going?" Adrian shouted, barely heard over the rush of the
wind. His fingers had long since gone numb in the long tangled mane of
Mylla's neck.
"You're dying." Mylla responded with a noise clearly audible through the
wind. "We have places to go."
Adrian didn't argue, instead he leant forward into the sudden dive that
Mylla took, forcing them to break through the cloud cover.
The sky was dark, cold and humid with impending snow. The
temperature was lower, Adrian shivered and tucked himself closer.
There was something else, intrusive thoughts that weren't his but very
obviously were. It had taken him a while to comprehend where they
were coming from, to recognize that they were not his normal thinking.
"Hallows?" Adrian blurted in surprise, the word feeling foreign in his
mouth. "Deathly Hallows?"
Mylla stuttered, her wings pausing in a movement that sent them jerking
through turbulence. She recovered, her ears pinned to her skull and the
thin leathery membrane of her wings quivering in the adjustments of the
thermals.
"Ah," she spoke, something between grudging resignation and outright
discomfort. "The hallows. I wondered when those would be back, I didn't
think so soon."
Adrian twitched slightly, using his knees to pinch her wide ribs and his
shivering fingers to pull on her hair. He didn't know what she was talking
about, but then again Mylla seemed to know many things he couldn't
even comprehend yet.
Adrian gnashed his teeth, careful not to bite his tongue with the
unexpected jarring of flying on her back.
Besides that, there was a sort of beautiful grace to it all. Adrian always
did enjoy flying, he found the rush of wind a thrill that wasn't that
different than striking at his top speeds. There was a rush, a moment of
utter trust between human and creature- the fact he could actually talk to
what he was riding was irrelevant.
If Adrian had the chance, he would have loved to ride the dragon he
freed. Until then, he doubted few things would ever match Mylla in a
steep dive.
They turned. Mylla's long wings folding behind her partway until they
resembled an oriental fan half spread. The membrane vibrated, a high
pitched whistle that hummed around them as the air split in two.
They tilted downwards, until Mylla's skull and neck bowed so low she
lowered from Adrian's sight. For a split second, all he could see was the
wide open land. The vibrant colour of the shrubs and vegetation, muted
in the cold. The bright splurge of purple heather that managed to stand
strong in the winter winds. The outcroppings of rock, formed millennia
ago that made up the land that was Adrian's home.
The forests, the countryside, the towns and sprawling cities that spanned
from coast to coast. The sheer cliffs where puffins roosted and selkies
swam in the rough waters below.
This was his land, no matter how twisted and cruel and corrupted it was.
No matter the fires he set, and the ones he didn't- this was the place he
loved.
He was going to miss it.
Impstar: Skylar a parselmouth? What's up with that, because I'm pretty
sure he wasn't at the beginning of the chapter.
The more Skylar allows Lutain to feed off him, the more traits of Adrian's he
gains, this includes the parselmouth although he can't control it as easily as a
naturally born one. Only in situations where Adrian has a gut instinct to use
parseltongue- like ordering Lutain.
Guest: Funny how the more aware Skylar is, the more he hurts Adrian
without meaning to.
I use far too much irony to ever defend myself.
LeftUnity: Is the story with Tom and the London blitz only going to
happen after you're finished with this story, or are you gonna start
writing it before this is over?
Antithesis'nt (as people have come to name it affectionately, just to mess with
me) has its plot mapped out. I'm currently figuring out dramatic scenes and
pivotal moments, I'm not certain that I'd have a chapter posted before this
story is finished but It is being worked over extensively right now.
Roostertheking: I enjoyed the part Adrian dealing with globins...you left
us in very main twist... Is sky praselmouth or not? Or Adrian's soul left a
imprint on him? Oh my Merlin! Just now Adrian laughed in this chapter
after so long and u made him sad and betrayed again... U r a really cruel
writter...
Lutain is a powerful force of nature, and a quite cruel one despite his best
intentions. Adrian laughing was a last minute addition, I wanted to portray the
twins working together in a way which gives everyone a glimpse of what could
have been. It makes the heartbreak that much harder, since as you know, one
of them is going to die.
malicious: This is the first fanfic that I actually like the pairing (?) of
Luna and Harry OR with Harry and Luna being really good friends. I
think you've portrayed Luna and Adrian's friendship fantastically. Also
just wanted to say that that "do you know what it's like to be unmade"
thing was driving me insane and I adored the repetition at the same time.
I felt that through the repeating verse you were trying to convey Adrian's
feelings through this whole messed up turn of events.
Can't wait for James, Lily and Adrian's explosive meeting and your
writing is one of the best I've seen, a very rare fanfic.
I actually posted this message to my friends and was so outright delighted that
you enjoyed the parts of insanity. I'm so ecstatic that you could feel it as
strongly as you do- you have a treat next chapter. I like the Luna and Adrian
dynamics because it's entirely up for interpretation as to what you do with it.
James and Lily are a bit further down the road, but they will ultimately come
up.
70. Dream
Thanks to the Discord server which is filled with wonderful readers
who helped me with ideas!
Skylar sighed softly, running his fingers over the smooth small scales. The
canvas lining of the tent above them vibrated in the wind, shaking with a
high pitched thrum.
The thrumming noise sounded odd, the low noise was...Skylar didn't
know. It sounded different than he thought he should. At the same time,
he knew it shouldn't sound different at all.
"Lutain," Skylar began quietly, breathing through his nose. It made a high
pitched whine, a whistle that sounded odd in the room.
Yes? Lutain asked back, contently sprawling across Skylar's pillow. The
snake was odd, something calm and too intelligent.
That was a fact that was already known, something which couldn't be
stopped or changed. A sin that Skylar had permitted, a momentary
weakness of his mind that allowed such a rotten thing to feed on him.
A gnawing beast rendering him to to nothing more than roadkill.
"How quaint." Skylar muttered, closing his eyes as his nose continued to
whistle. The thrumming sounded off.
What is? Lutain asked him curiously, looking over lazily. Did you think of
something for once?
"No," Skylar huffed back with a small quirk to his mouth, "I want to try
something."
Lutain stilled, Skylar ignored it.
"We both know that there's this...bond between us." Skylar started at the
lull in conversation, "I know it, you know it too."
Lutain twisted, righting himself into an alert mass the size of a
watermelon. His bright yellow belly was startling, yet a very familiar
sight.
What of it? Lutain countered with a small hesitant bite to his words.
Skylar smiled thinly, "I know that somehow, you're still connected to
Adrian. You're his soul piece, right?"
Lutain didn't move, but Skylar could tell he was clearly unsettled.
"I know, that...sometimes, I know things." Skylar began breezily, air cold
in his mouth and lungs, "things I shouldn't know. Memories that aren't
mine, and aren't yours."
They're Masters. Lutain confirmed after a small pause, I see them too.
"And they don't worry you?" Skylar wondered, poking the yellow belly
with his pinky finger, "I suppose they wouldn't, since they're Adrian's."
They feel right. Lutain dismissed uncomfortably, They're mine also.
Skylar tilted his head, shoving his elbows back to rightsize himself into a
sitting position. The snake rapidly coiled, moving far enough away the
two of them could stare at each other from across the camping cot.
Lutain's tongue tasted the air, the canvas ceiling thrummed.
"We could talk to him, before." Skylar stated, less a question and more a
curious statement. "You gave me his memories that he made in the
moment."
Yes, I did. Lutain agreed, sides flaring as he breathed quickly.
"That was impressive." Skylar began with a small pause, "and the
memories I'm getting, are they from you, or from him?"
I...Lutain trailed off with a sense of growing confusion. I don't know.
"Want to find out?"
Lutain was shaken, not used to having the tides turn on him so
unexpectedly. He was curious too, but in the macabre way people
wondered what colour their liver was.
I don't think that's a good idea. Lutain finally spoke, slowly and with
obvious dread. Master is not someone to trespass.
"It's not trespassing if it's you," Skylar instantly responded with a small
frown, "you're his familiar, you're his soul. You can't trespass on
something that you are."
He was right, he was true. Lutain knew that also, Lutain was simply
afraid of losing his bargaining chip. His transportation, his promise that
Adalonda would pay.
"How about this," Skylar began with a thin smile, "we'll make a deal.
You're the conduit between us, right? Obviously you're feeding off of me,
so simply...sink in a bit harder. Let me through, and I'll see what I can
find."
You can't. Lutain instantaneously blurted. I can't.
A flash of fear, of burning paranoia that made his skin crawl. A parasite,
a parasite. He was dying they were going to die, they were burning apart
and the world was so cold.
"Okay." Skylar twitched, a harsh spasm just below his left eye in
something that likely looked painful. "Then do what you've done before.
Guide me."
I don't know how. Lutain argued, sounding distressed and perplexed all
the same.
"I'm sure it will be easy." Skylar breathed, and something inside of his
heart told him to lean forward. Something instinctual told him to breath
his words, to whisper across in something foreign that wasn't
comprehensible but instead, only innate birthright could permit.
Something Skylar was never destined to know, and through something
perverse he knew it all the same. "Trust me, Lutain. It's okay, because I trust
you."
Skylar didn't like it, he didn't like the churning heat of guilt and nausea
that parseltongue gave him, the horrifying split of identity into a mess of
jumbled concepts he couldn't make sense of. He could go mad with it.
Lutain pulled closer, his eyes suddenly so bright and his stomach so
startling against the black contrast of his scales. Lutain's fangs were large,
bright in the dim lighting of the canvas and the low hissing thrum from
the serpent throat which felt invasive like water.
Invasive like smoke, everywhere at once and never able to be touched.
Intangible and sickening and wrong in a way that made Skylar want to
scream.
He could go mad like this.
'He could go mad like this.'
Lutain was gone, the world and existence and am I real? Is this real?
The world was a swirl of sounds and noises and a blower the bloomed
into something hideous. A spider-lily, long legs dripping tar that choked
Skylar until his lungs turned to gills and he breathed smoke.
It hurt and it didn't, his skin felt wrong and stretched like canvas set out
to dry. His eyes spotted flashes, an aurora borealis in the sky around him
that slowly was consumed by spilled ink.
His head thrummed, sour and pulsating like a wound. Feral, wild and
savage and so very sad.
It was a quiet place, somewhere sad in the bones of what it was. A
structure made on the foundations of something lost, a ruin aging past
the point of preservation.
There was something else, a flower closed tightly and tainted black.
Fringed with red, gore from something unseen but evidently aching.
It scared Skylar, more than this surreal dreamscape did. It felt wrong,
worse than Skylar felt walking in this undefined place. It looked...Skylar
didn't know. It looked horrid, like a thorn that punctured through flesh
and Skylar was looking at it from the inside.
Something different, something new.
The world twisted, a single heartbeat that thrummed through everything
before it split apart like a soap bubble, and then it popped.
Skylar grimaced, mouth open in wordless surprise over the sudden
rupture of something he hadn't realized. The relief sprang immediately
after, like poking a blister with an especially sharp quill.
Skylar panted, breaths heavy although there was no relief. His lungs
maybe were gills now, changed through something too irrational to ever
be magic. Everything felt underwater, and chilled like a breeze.
"Hello," Someone spoke, voice echoing clearly but with a thousand
whispers from every direction, "I'd stay away from that."
Skylar spun around, the world dizzying and tilting in whiplash. It settled,
condensed in the fog that gave tangibility to Skylar's shoes.
Adrian was standing there, looking at him with eyes wide and glowing.
They were dangerous, bright and observant where his skin was pale and
flaking, rotting on the surface.
"What?" Skylar croaked, hands twitching as the whispers echoed his
word.
Adrian tilted his head, unblinking. The golden band around his pupil was
gone, vanished without a trace.
"Oh my-" Skylar inhaled sharply, awe striking his face firmly enough he
could ignore the whispers that called out to him. "What- your face!"
Face, face, face, they whispered, all strikingly in Adrian's own croon.
Adrian blinked slowly, like the eyes of a curious animal. One hand rose-
untouched and unblemished, to trace along his cheek. Another wide eyed
blink, another pause for the whispers to stir around them like inquisitive
shadows.
"What's wrong with it?" Adrian asked again, the ground tilting jarringly
through the strongest sense of vertigo. Everything warped, distorting and
sending Skylar to the ground- Adrian remained standing as if gravity had
never altered to him. "There's nothing wrong with it."
There wasn't anything wrong with it at all.
Skylar struggled upwards, recovering the best he could given the
disorienting haze.
Everything smelled strange too, floral and wild in a forest way. The rank
odor of rotting leaf litter, the sharp pungent fragrance of broken pine
needles. An overwhelming sharp spike, of catnip and lavender that didn't
belong at all.
"How did you get here?" Adrian asked, walking over the distance and
drawing ever closer. He made no noise as he moved, no clicking of those
boots everyone knew him for. "I didn't think anyone could."
Could, could, could…
"Well..." Adrian spoke again, the whispers cutting off so suddenly the
absolute silence was absolutely staggering. "Except…"
No whispers accompanied it, Skylar felt cold all the way down his spine.
A sense of impending dread, a sense of outright hostility.
The flower bud behind him, dripping gore and black slime, seemed much
more terrifying.
Green eyes slid back to Skylar, a pattering of impressions too quick to
comprehend flickered past. The fog rolled back, the white noise returning
in a comforting hum.
"I- I'm here." Skylar forced himself upwards, legs wobbly against the
misleading signals his eyes gave him, "I- because Lutain-"
"Lutain?" Adrian cut him off sharply, face seeming to lose some of its
curiosity and instead it looked more bothered. "Lutain? I- He's not-,"
Not here, not anywhere. Gone away, betrayed, broken and gone and how
could he go? He deserved this, Lutain gets better, I HATEYOUSKYLAR-
"Shite!" Skylar hissed out, keeling over until his forehead pressed against
his knees. The shrieking cut off, back to a gentle whispering croon.
"What are you doing here?" Adrian asked gently, sweetly and as sadly as
everything in here felt. "Haven't you taken enough from me?"
It stirred up again, the crackling haze of confusion. Adrian smiled, a
small expression that was almost shy.
Then it twisted, wider and wider until it was almost as large as Adrian's
entire skull. Wider and wider, bright green eyes growing larger until
something shapeless and massive bowed its head. A crest as large as a
broomstick rising high in the air, a sail as red as an ancient crown.
"You've taken so much from me!" Adrian spoke, voice still perfectly heard
without the unique ascent of parseltongue. Its (for that was all Adrian
was now) mouth opened, rows and rows of teeth revealing itself until the
gaping hole of its mouth was bottomless and serrated like a cactus inside
out.
All the way down, bottomless and spiked with large green eyes that
wanted to devour.
"No no no," Skylar scrambled backwards, ankles and wrists sinking into
the ground which now was as squishy as plum pudding. "No no! Adrian
no!"
Adrian advanced, moving with a series of scales that never affected his
body. An illusion, like the Gaussian blur that Skylar saw when he flew
past the quidditch stands on his broom. "Oh Adrian, yes."
Advancing slowly, eyes penetrating like lanterns. Skylar wanted to
scream, the whispering choir rose in volume until his heartbeat pulsed in
his ears.
"I want you to die." Adrian very clearly said, despite the endless gaping
void of his mouth. "I want you to suffer, Skylar. Because this isn't fair- this
isn't bloody fair!"
Skylar foundered, and then suddenly Adrian's voice was screaming from
all around him. The whispers now shrieking in agony and pain and
outright devastation.
"Why does this happen to me!" He howled, something wet sucking at
Skylar's arms.
Skylar looked down, pulling his ankles and legs free from what he
realized- with a pang of outright devastation, was a sea of viscera and
ravaged bodies. Recognizable, yet different in mutilation. Skylar wasn't
sure he'd ever recognize them on the street, not with their nose and eyes
intact. "Why is my life such a goddamn tragedy!"
It smelled putrid, like bile and pus and that overwhelming fresh spike of
catnip.
"It isn't fair!" Adrian wailed, "Why can't I just die!"
"I- Adrian!" Skylar shouted, trying to not vomit himself, "Adrian listen to
me!"
"Everyone only listens to you!" The great monstrosity moaned, an
impression of thrashing it never moved itself. "That's the problem! You're
so bloody-"
"Adrian!"
"I hate you!"
"Adrian please-!"
"You're so bloody selfish!"
Skylar forced himself to swallow. "Adrian please! I- I'm here! I'm actually
here!"
"Nobody is ever here," Adrian seemed to sob, teeth moving like a saw
blade and eyes never blinking, "everyone dies, everyone leaves me."
"No, I mean-" Skylar made his hand into a fist, trying to summon that
blasted Gryffindor courage to scream into the face of something that
shouldn't exist, "I'm actually here! I don't- Lutain did this! I'm here right
now!"
"No no no everyone always leaves. That's not possible, how could that ever be?
How could you ever not leave me-"
Skylar bit back his frustration, "Well I'm not bloody Selwyn! I don't know
everything!"
A pause, everything hung suspended, like jello.
Then it crashed downwards like a nullified levitation charm. The beast
melted, Adrian walked out from its acidic remains to look at him with
outright suspicion and bafflement. "I would never say that." Adrian
confessed in a quiet hushed noise. His eyebrows scrunched in confusion,
"I- I don't know-"
"What?" Skylar scrambled upwards, the ground clear and pristine if not
fogged over. No guts, no gore. No whispers to stir his madness. "I- what
are you on about? You're like, one of the smartest people I know."
Adrian's eyebrows rose and his jaw dropped in stunned silence.
"Yeah mate," Skylar breathed with a grin, feeling very off guard but
catching on quickly enough. "You're a genius, and like, so helpful."
A small wind, stirring leaves that never existed. They danced together,
two oak leaves twirling in the gust before blowing out of sight. There was
a strange smell, a pang of slimy iron. The smell of fresh meat, struck by
preservation charms.
"What?" Adrian whispered in confusion, "I- I don't-...I'm useless."
"No, no way." Skylar protested instantly, "mate, you may be one big pain
in my arse but you are never useless."
The fog shattered, like glass, and then it was clear. Unblemished,
unmarked. A large, white room with a slimy flower pod impaled in the
back corner.
The yellow sunk into Adrian's eyes, the scars snaking across his face
before they flashed and melted into his skin. Ropes of metal, red hot that
burned flesh slowly and agonizingly, seconds at a time until Adrian
blinked once and he was just as Skylar saw him last. Emaciated, sickly,
quiet and tortured.
"Skylar?"
There was something different with it now, a sense of stability that hadn't
been present earlier. The room made sense, it was cold and empty, but it
made sense.
Skylar thumped backwards, relief overpowering him so strongy that he
needed a moment to compose himself.
"Skylar," Adrian said again, more resigned then anything, "great, even my
subconscious is manifesting you. For Merlin's sake, can't I get a break?"
Skylar gave a single burst of laughter, more hysterical over the situation
than anything. "You need a break? Shite man, I thought you were going
to bloody eat me!"
Adrian's face blanked, entirely emotionless. It wasn't an attempt to mask
his expression, rather, Skylar's statement was so outlandish Adrian
couldn't fathom an appropriate reaction even on a fundamental level.
"Okay so," Adrian ran one hand through his hair, messing it much more
than he would have in reality, "apparently I'm getting creative now."
"Oi," Skylar scowled, flushed from the adrenaline that still coursed
through his body, "you were the one that turned into a- a bloody thing
and tried to eat me!"
Adrian opened his mouth, then closed it with a snap. "I genuinely have no
idea what you're talking about, and I'm still fairly sure that you're just a
figment of my imagination-"
"I'm real!"
"Oh Merlin, I've finally snapped."
Skylar stumbled upwards, legs feeling like jelly as he approached closer,
reaching out one shaky hand to grab onto Adrian's arm.
Skylar flinched back, recoiling at the touch on an instinctual level. He
made a noise of shock, as if he had touched a hot skillet or grasped a fire
poker on the other end. Skylar's hand was dripping black, oily residue
that originated from the single spot he touched Adrian.
Adrian, looked downright horrified.
"You're real," Adrian breathed, paling so white he likely could challenge
snow for who was lighter, "you're real."
Skylar nodded, watching the strange oily slime on his hand start to
smoke, then start to burn.
Skylar yelped, flailing his arm and sending the goo flying, it left his hand
clean, if a bit pink and singed. It must have been some sort of acid,
something aggressive.
Adrian looked at the slime leaking from his arm, paying it no attention as
it seemed to sink into his flesh again. A moment later, it looked like there
was nothing there at all.
"What was that?" Skylar asked shakily, hand still tingling from where it
had burned.
"I don't know," Adrian quietly answered, looking very young and very
tired, "I'd like to imagine that I couldn't ever come up with something,
but I guess it's just my representation for the parasite."
Skylar's gut dropped, and Adrian smiled at him with a twisted expression,
"we can think about that later. How did you get past my barriers?"
"Barriers?" Skylar mirrored, throwing his arms around to beckon towards
the entire room, "this place is a deathtrap!"
Adrian looked at Skylar as if he had said something remarkably stupid.
"Well done, boy hero. It's not like that was my intent."
Skylar scowled, huffed, and sat down crossed leg on the floor. A pause,
then Adrian awkwardly joined him, folding his legs clumsily like a deer.
They sat, ignoring the bright light of the room.
"This is my head," Adrian confessed quietly, "I don't like to come here
often. Mostly it's just to…" A pause, then Adrian looked past Skylar, over
his shoulder.
Skylar glanced that direction, spotting the weeping flower with a sense of
growing dread. "What is that?"
"...You don't want to know." Adrian murmured quietly back, forcing
himself to look away to observe something else, "somehow you got past
my barriers, which shouldn't be possible but you seem to defy the rules of
magic so-"
"Lutain got me in," Skylar confessed hurriedly, "I think he's possessing me
or something. I got sent here, where you tried to eat me."
"It's called occlumancy," Adrian huffed out with a scowl that looked
outright nasty, "Although you got past my original barriers so Merlin if I
know how. Then again, I don't even know where you are- is there a
different type of mind magic? Worse than Legilimancy?"
Skylar stumbled over the words before he shook his head quickly, "I- no-
no, it's like, I'm here through the bond between you and Lutain."
"Oh," Adrian blinked a few times before he tilted his head slightly, "why
didn't you say so?"
"I- I did." Skylar sighed out tiredly, "why are you taking this so calmly?"
"Lutain's talked to me before." Adrian bluntly added, peering around the
blank space of the room, "I don't know how, but I trust him."
A sharp pang speared through Skylar, forcing him to clutch his chest in
sudden pain. It hurt, a deep aching way that he couldn't determine the
source. Heartbreak, sadness that left physical pain behind.
"Why are you so sad about Lutain?" Skylar ground out from between his
clenched teeth, the sound was guttural and filled with discomfort.
A moment, and the pain lessened. Adrian's face was blank, if slightly
surprised. "Oh, I didn't...I didn't think you'd feel what I felt. I…"
Adrian tilted his head slightly, then Skylar was-.
Screaming, no, screaming required a body which of course he had.
But...but he didn't. He was cells, small microbes stuck together by atoms
and bonds that were in truth sustained by nothing. He was pieces, glued
together and somehow that meant that he was something larger?
Was blue to him, blue to another person? What was the meaning of a
word, was happiness that he felt the same sensation of sadness to another
but the only difference was how he interpreted it? The learned
association of words to meanings that in the end, meant nothing.
Everything was relative, nothing was concrete.
Nothing was real, if he were to die, how could he ever prove that this
was existence? What if he was something conjured- could he ever know?
What was the difference between life, and death or was he already dead?
Make it stop make it stop (what was stopping, but the cessation of
sensation and what was sensation but life itself?)
Makeitstopmakeitstop-
Do you know what it is like, to be unmade?
Skylar came to, screaming.
Adrian opened his eyes, twisting his head to free the tension that had
become trapped in his neck.
His head hurt, his chest burning in a strange jagged line. He recognized
it, the shape of the slice as if he cut it himself.
Adrian clicked his tongue, swishing for a moment before spitting out a
glob of saliva. With the back of his hand, he wiped against his face to get
rid of any drool that remained.
The air was cold, sharp. December always caught Adrian off guard, even
more so now that almost all his body fat was gone. He was sure that his
knees were bruised from where he sat on the ground.
Slowly, he forced himself upright, shrugging his shoulders to try and free
them from his stiffened position. He had been hunched for a while.
"Damn," he whispered to himself, throat raw and sore with the bite in the
air. His nose was bleeding, faint, but obvious.
With clear resignation, Adrian began the slow trek back towards the
house.
He managed inside, abandoning the wood he had gone outside to fetch.
The stove had enough in it to keep burning for a few hours still, once his
nose stopped bleeding he'd venture out again.
Adrian shucked off the coat he was wearing, thick and warm but it was
clearly too large for him.
"I'm back," Adrian said, coughing once into his elbow. He grabbed a cloth
that hung near the door, reeking of flower petals and covered in dried
blood.
"This thing is disgusting," Adrian mumbled to himself, pressing it to his
nose to catch the blood that leaked out. It smelled atrocious, but most of
his rags had been conditioned with whatever crazy mixture kept the
parasite at bay, neutralizing it so he wasn't quite so dangerous to be
around.
He kicked off his shoes, not caring where they fell. The thick rubber soles
made a dull thud, bits of snow splattering around to inevitably melt into
a puddle. Adrian's feet were bruised, toe joints swollen and damaged that
couldn't be corrected anymore. His body at war with itself, gout and
arthritis and everything else fighting within his joints.
Adrian fumbled around, hanging the coat on the hook and shuffling
further into the house.
"I'm back," Adrian repeated himself, hearing nothing echo towards him.
Adrian didn't feel disappointed, he instead made his way to the small
couch and grabbed the old quilt that hung on the back. He wrapped it
around his shoulders, nestling into the itchy fabric with a sigh. The room
was cold, but there wasn't much he could do about that.
A door closed down the short hallway, loud enough that Adrian peered
over the back of the couch. Tonks appeared, her hair brushing her
shoulders and a dark black. It took effort to keep the transformation
permanent, with how stressed she was it was a miracle at all she could
keep some of her facial features different.
Moments like that, when her face was tired and unguarded, she looked
eerily like someone else that Adrian remembered sharply. The twisted
grin, the high pitched cackling laughter. Bellatrix may be dead, but
something of her hair and bone structure had clearly been passed
through lineage.
"Hey," Adrian nodded over the back of the couch, his face blank. Tonks
glanced up, running one hand through her hair before she sighed
dramatically. Her shoulders heaved, she looked sore.
"Hey yourself." She quipped back, a small smile that didn't quite reach
her eyes, "you bring back the wood?"
Adrian shook his head slightly, "something came up. I'll get it in a while.
Nosebleed."
Tonks waddled her way over, plopping down on the couch next to him,
arching her back in a desperate attempt to find relief. "Merlin, my back is
killing me."
Adrian's mouth twitched, "oh really? Can't relate."
A pause, then Tonks was snorting behind a hand held to her mouth.
Adrian smiled, a grim twist of his face that actually was filled with
humor.
"Merlin," Tonks wheezed out, trying to restrain giggles, "I should- I should
be scolding you over that. What have I said about morbid humour in the
house!"
Adrian rolled his eyes, both of them knew he wouldn't be holding up that
end of the bargain.
The house was quiet, the wood stove crackled and cast flickering
shadows on the wall.
"I got a vision." Adrian spoke up quietly, fiddling with the edges of his
blanket.
Tonks' shoulders curled in slightly. "Ah," her voice was quiet, tired and
filled with dread, "a uh, a dark lord kind of vision?"
Adrian curled his hand into a small skeletal fist. "No. More of a...a pain in
my side, kind of vision."
Tonks straightened instantly, "Skylar? You heard from Skylar?"
Adrian huffed out a soundless breath. "That fact you could figure out I
meant him so quickly is either impressive or sad."
"Impressive," Tonks teasingly interjected, running one hand through her
hair. It was curly and black in her natural form, it hadn't been pink in a
while. "What about Skylar? Some sort of…"
Twin thing, hung in the air between them. Adrian didn't mind, he didn't
think much of it anymore.
"It's been a while since I saw him last," Adrian admitted quietly, curling
up a bit more, "Not since...since I had that dragon incident."
"One day you are going to explain the dragon incident."
"Never, anyways, I imagine somehow he...I don't know. He's looking for
me again I think." Adrian rested the bony end of his chin on one knee. "I
should probably go find him."
Tonks sighed, the noise was louder. Her stomach rounded, she likely
needed the blanket more than he did.
"You know," Tonks paused before thinking, "come here."
She lifted one arm in invitation, Adrian slid under it until his back rested
along her side, her arm falling to wrap around him like a restraint. Soft,
warm and despite all the stress of life, her pregnancy was making her
glow.
"You know, I remember a long time ago, there was this little boy who
liked to shout at us a lot." Tonks started, swaying back and forth, taking
Adrian with her. The movements were soothing, the gentle rocking was
pleasing to an aesthetic sense and Adrian lost himself in the movements.
"I remember a little boy who used to pluck out my damn flowers and left
a dozen ruddy apple cores in my yard."
Adrian tried not to smile, Tonks ruffled his hair.
"I'm saying," Tonks' voice lowered into something more serious,
"that...that I don't want you to go. Because I don't think you're going to
come back to us."
Her grip tightened around him ever so slightly.
"I don't want to lose you too," she whispered sadly, quietly, in a house
that was far too large for the figures made of twigs and twine inside.
"I wouldn't, come back." Adrian clarified with something lodged in his
throat, "If I come back someone may watch me, they may come for you
two."
Tonks huffed, and said nothing.
The silence spoke for them, and suddenly Adrian was desperate to fill it
with promises he knew in his heart he could never keep.
"I don't want to go," Adrian trembled ever so slightly, "I don't, but…"
"I know," Tonks sighed back, finally releasing him with a jerky
movement, "I know I can't stop you. Merlin, even Remus would let you
go."
A pause, a whisper in the air. Candle light in the dark.
"How is he?" Adrian whispered, wishing he had Lutain if only to rub his
scales, "any better?"
"Slowly," Tonks smiled, distant and shallow, "he was awake a bit longer
today. Still tired, but he knew where he was."
It was taxing on them both. A parasite, feeding on both of them until
they were to be nothing but shells. Except Adriann would die, and Tonks
would have a replacement of his own.
There were times that Adrian forgot how advanced Tonks was, how
skilled she was to be an auror at how young she was. She was finishing
her last year at Hogwarts when Adrian was just getting started. She was
leaving, when he was entering the world wide eyed with ridiculous
ambitions. The distance between them was large, it felt even larger now
that she had a life of her own to feed.
"Well, now I know how you feel." Tonks teased playfully, slowly making
her way to her feet, "I'm starving!"
Adrian followed suit, feet quiet over the floor. He would need to head
back out soon, to grab more wood for the stove. Life was so simple, so
slow for them all.
Tonks began the motions, swishing her wand and hastily forcing knives
to chop. She had gotten good at that, she was better with magic than
Adrian had eve given her credit for. He couldn't imagine her mentor, Mad
Eye, teaching her how to chop a carrot quickly.
They didn't have that much food, they both knew that. They had been
eating soups and stews far too often, sometimes partaking in illegally
caught wild animals when they managed the time. It was difficult, Tonks
the only one between them who could use magic yet Adrian the one able
to move around somewhat freely. Mylla stayed, checking in every few
days. Sometimes she brought rabbits with her, wet and dripping. Adrian
was so ravenous he could eat them raw.
Tonks never asked much about Mylla, although he did see her watch his
interactions with her on occasion. From the window, or from the front
porch when bundled in blankets. Mylla talked to him sometimes, when
the night grew dark so quickly and daylight was as rare as a deer in the
woods. She told him stories, answering his questions when she knew
them. He liked to imagine that it amused her, the passage of time and
Adrian's desperate attempts to know more. Adalonda had been born
cruel, time had made Mylla so.
He learned about the stories, the way the thestrals were tied into
mythology. Unicorns and princesses, dragons and knights, phoenixes and
Merlin, thestrals and the Deathly Hallows.
"The invisibility cloak," Mylla told him while they watched the blizzard
roar. It wouldn't be safe to fly for the night, the porch sheltered the worst
of the wind from tearing her massive wings. "Inspired by my wings. Only
one of the brothers could see me, he thought that invisibility was something to
be cherished."
"The resurrection stone," Mylla told him a week later, depositing a squirrel
that was more fluff than meat to him. "The brother liked me the most. He
knew that we were children, he made it black as my skin and spent decades
trying to bring back the dead. Inspired by us, a man obsessed with us. Married
into the line, wanting to speak with me even."
It didn't work, Adrian doubted anything ever would.
"The Elder Wand," Mylla began with something like dry humor, morbid
and twisted like Adrian's own. "Something marvelous. Made with my tail
hair, given to the brother who demanded power. Demanded to know secrets."
Mylla looked different, her entire body changing into something barely
constrained. Vengeance, wrath withheld in a body that did not belong to
her. A spirit bound to the mortal realm when all it wanted was to run
free.
"The wand is made with my tail," Mylla began and suddenly Adrian wanted
her to stop talking. "It is tied to the curse itself. It is powerful, because it does
not rely on core. It feeds on the world itself, it sustains through the magic of
the world that my curse is woven into. The wand harnesses the magic in
everything. Even a muggle could use it."
Adrian felt numb, and it wasn't from the cold. "Why would you give your
tail to make something that dangerous?"
Mylla's eyes should have been glowing yellow.
"I wanted to see what he would do next."
Christmas was something sad, something quiet that they tried to be
festive for.
They had the bed moved into the living room. A tree chopped down by
Adrian's hands, using a conjured axe that was misshapen but still
effective. The tree was small, Adrian's bones and limbs straining with the
effort, Tonks managed to levitate it inside once she could see it on the
edge of the forest.
The tree was decorated with misshapen baubles, conjured balls that
looked deflated and squished. Adrian could have done better, but he
didn't bother or else the green would be covered in festive bright red.
They could have celebrated Yule, or other wizarding traditions, but in the
end they didn't care. There was little to be cheery for, except the fact
they were all still alive.
They had a roasted ham, something which was cooked rather well but
the smell of fatty meat left Tonks heaving in the loo.
Adrian let the others take from it first, waiting patiently before
demolishing the meat from the bone with the ravenous hunger of
starvation. He ate and chewed until his teeth ground against marrow.
Adrian's teeth were getting a bit loose, he felt a bit more fragile as things
continued.
"I don't know what kind of gift to offer," Adrian said as the festivities
slowed down, fiddling with conjured paper to hide the way his hands
shook. "All of my shite is a bit hard to reach."
Tonks smiled, wearing a thick sweater that had a couple stains on the
side. "Don't worry about it!"
Adrian smiled a little, fiddling with the paper until it tore. "I mean, I have
some boots that click a lot. I think it would match your ridiculous
personality."
Tonks laughed, a bright chiming sound that made something in Adrian's
heart twist. She looked beautiful, tired, but radiant with a glow. Pregnant
on Christmas, wearing a sweater and trousers that had seen better days
and hair that should have been washed a few days ago but nobody cared
anymore.
"Stop that," Tonks teased back, "Or I'll get a feather and chase you
around."
Adrian raised both hands above his head, showing that he was
defenseless. A new chuckle broke through the giggle, low and hoarse and
weak but strong in how it sounded.
"Settle down," Remus croaked out, prone and feeble with a beard now
brushing the bottom of his ears. "Don't go chasing him out."
Tonks pouted, her eyes alight with mirth. "If you run, I get full
permission to tackle you."
Adrian smiled back, almost shyly. "Oh no, I'd be crushed under your
sheer bulk."
A pause.
Tonks shrieked in mock rage, wiggling her fingers at him before throwing
a small pillow. "You called me fat!" She teased with a fake huff, her hair
lighting up in a festive display of red and green. "You don't get to do that!
Or Adrian will be a-drying my dishes!"
Adrian instantly complained, and Remus smiled tiredly.
"This is supposed to be a festive break," Adrian commented quietly, knees
drawn to his chest and his back against the headboard, "This is supposed
to be a moment for celebration."
"Celebrating is relative," Remus croaked back with a small smile, "I'm
certainly celebrating. You're home for the holidays."
Adrian rolled his face, the apple of his cheek pressing into the hard bone
of his kneecap. "I never thought I'd have a home. I thought I'd just keep
moving. Fa-...Rowle's house, and then Luna's...then the forest and valleys,
and now here." Adrian blinked slowly, innocently in all ways he was not,
"I don't think I should have a home."
"Everyone needs a home," Remus countered firmly. "You know that."
"Home is where the heart is," Adrian crooned out quietly, pausing to run
his fingers over the sheet, "but Remus, don't you know? I don't have a
heart anymore. Maybe I did, but then things went wrong. People died,
people starved. And this is my penance, this is my pilgrimage."
"Then where are you going?" Remus asked back.
Adrian tilted his head slightly. "I think you already know."
A bated breath, a single thread over an abyss that they balanced over so
carefully. A moment of pause.
"You're right." Remus nodded, looking far too old. Something haunted,
something broken in his face. "No dad should ever have to bury his
child."
Adrian tilted his head again, a wide eyed fascinated look that was just as
unnerving as it was Adrian. "You're not my father,"
Remus smiled and reached out with one hand. His muscles atrophied,
thin along his body like something fit with skin too large for his body.
"No, I'm your dad."
A breath, a pause and an exhale.
"Tell me why," Adrian spoke gently, and Remus strained to think against
the pain that his life was now.
"You get to choose," Remus smiled, his lips cracking and tearing along the
bottom. "A father is someone your born into, but a dad is who you
choose. A dad cares for you, a dad knows and understands you. A dad
has you always in mind, and a dad will always, always put you before
himself."
Adrian breathed nearly silently.
"If I were a monster, like my father." Adrian crooned gently. "Would you
kill me?"
Remus didn't hesitate. "Never."
Remus didn't get up, he could move only for a short duration of time. The
curse wasted his muscles, melting his tendons and forcing him to regrow
them all the same. A body far too old, with a skeleton too young to
support it.
Remus hurt, his beard was growing out fuller and his hands trembled too
uncoordinated to do anything about it. Tonks helped him, whispering
and giggling as she did her best. Adrian knew it wasn't enough. Remus
knew it wasn't enough. Tonks knew it wasn't enough.
Being pregnant was difficult. Being pregnant while trying to care for an
immobile man in the middle of a famine and a recession and an outright
hunt for their lives, well.
Adrian pretended he didn't hear it, the shushed crying and the strained
whispers. At night, when the two held each other close and tried to
pretend things were going to be okay. That the war would end, that they
would have enough food to support a new child, that they weren't likely
to miscarry.
(The full moons already were grotesque and wrong, a wounded animal
begging to be shot.)
"If I could, I would give you everything I had." Remus told him one night,
Adrian curled against his side like a child in all the ways he never had, "I
would give you the rivers, I'd give you the valleys, I'd give you every star
in the sky."
"The centaurs would be pretty mad." Adrian sleepily mumbled back,
lulled into peace from the shaking hand in his hair.
"I imagine so," Remus chuckled, "but once I explained myself I'm sure
they'd be okay with it."
"They wouldn't." Adrian argued for the sake of arguing. The gentle rise
and fall of a chest pulling him deeper into a trace.
"Oh they would," Remus countered, "you see, once I explained that I had
a child that everyone loved, they would understand. This child wasn't just
an ordinary boy, this boy was able to calm the most ferocious monsters.
Able to set fire to mountains without a word. So precious and wonderful,
that even the moon couldn't resist."
Adrian squirmed halfheartedly, listening absentmindedly.
"And in the end," Remus whispered gently, "the moon loved him more
than life itself."
Do you know what it's like to be unmade?
"I think," Adrian whispered into isolating silence, "that it's time to make
myself again."
King of the Souls: i honestly wish I could favorite this story twice
I'm so delighted that you like it that much!
blackicethunder: This story honestly feels like its just dragging along,
80% of every chapter is "skylar becoming more like adrian" and then
some key dialouge
Oh yikes, you must really have disliked this chapter. On the bright side, we're
on the final stretch. Only 10 chapters left in the story.
Guest: Is the next chapter your last one? I thought you said there were
70 chapters but I might be remembering that wrong xD and is Lutain
going to leave Skylar soon, is he just playing with Skylar to get what he
wants or is he actually starting to care for Skylar? :/
And is Skylar going to keep this connection with Adrian even when
Lutain leaves? ( I hope not xD )
There are 80 Chapters in this story. Next chapter is the last Skylar-and-Lutain
Chapter.
10 Chapters Left
71. Catabolism
Thanks to the Discord server which is filled with wonderful readers
who helped me with ideas!
Skylar apparated with a mind that was partially not his own. A decision
that wasn't his, a compulsion with no start and no end. He moved, unable
to ever consider his actions, and drew on his magic with the automatic
ease of breathing.
Bodies moved, shouting and screaming. They crashed together, clumsy
limbs and a flailing snake in the middle of snow.
A forest surrounded them, tall with pines and the occasional chirp of a
bird which didn't migrate.
It was eerily still, even more so with the single massive thestral standing
in front of them. It was towering, easily the largest creature they had
ever seen. It didn't move, standing solemnly in the snow.
"Merlin!" Ron practically screamed, shoving the legs and joints away from
him. Ron recovered quickly, skittered on his back away from the mess of
limbs from the unexpected apparation. Ron took a moment to point at
Skylar who was keeled over, blood dripping from his mouth. "Sky! That's
it! That's- that's bloody it!"
Hermione scrambled up, jerking herself away. She instantly burst into
tears, looking downright terrified. Ron fumed, face flushed and wand
pointing at the pseudo-Golden Boy.
"I have had enough!" Ron screamed, loud enough that it silenced itself
quickly in the cold, "you- you are off your rocker! You just- you just
grabbed us with no planning and just apparated and and what if You-
Know-Who was here! What bloody then!"
A pause, Skylar wheezed pitifully, whimpering like a pained animal.
Hermione shivered, terrified by the new surroundings. Lutain was cold,
tired, weakened by the jump.
"Well," a new voice, blunt and bland. As frosty as the snow around them,
as sharp as the juniper in the air. "That's a bit cruel."
Two feet hopped down, crunching snow. A coat much too large dragged
against the ground, oversized gloves vibrated around rattling fingers.
"Oh put the bloody wand away," Adrian huffed with a scowl, "I'm
unarmed, see?"
He spun, doing a small dance. Adrian's hair was longer, greasy. The
thestral had hidden him from sight, maybe even let him sit on its back,
hidden by its wings.
Skylar forced himself upwards, bright red splattering on the snow like a
gruesome Christmas card.
"Not so fun, is it?" Adrian looked on with some sort of twisted sympathy,
"don't swallow, it'll turn your stomach."
"Can you shut the bloody fuck up!" Ron screamed, pointing his wand with
a steady hand.
A pause, a moment.
"Well," Adrian sighed as if Ron's words had pained him more in terms of
exasperation, "that's justified."
Ron looked just as furious as before.
The thestral chuffed, tossing its head and Adrian glanced back at it,
pausing before nodding ever so slightly. Adrian crammed his fingers in
the pocket of his oversized coat. He hung his head slightly, the long
bangs shrouding over his face; his unsettling inhuman eyes stared at
them from the gaps between the black strands. He fit in with the
surroundings, in a strange way; the unnatural stillness and animal quality
to his movements.
"We need to get moving, if you want to get back before dark." Adrian
explained with a stiff roll of his shoulder, "It gets cold at night."
"We can manage on our own." Hermione clipped out bravely, lip
wobbling as she clutched her upper arm to ward off the chill. They didn't
know where they were.
"No you can't." Adrian argued with a small furrowing of his eyebrows,
"you have no supplies, and you can't apparate back to your things or
you'll be tracked. We have to move, it's not safe here anymore."
Skylar wretched and more blood drained from his mouth, Lutain was
listless and prone, unconscious around Skylar's neck.
"Sorry about possessing you," Adrian mentioned towards the limp snake
and the trembling hero, "I needed you to come here."
Oh, oh that explained it then.
"Why!" Ron shouted, taking a quick step to get in between Skylar and
Adrian, ignoring the thestral which towered over all of them. "Why are
we expected to go with you! You have given us nothing and I am sick of
being left out of the loop!"
A breath, a pause.
Adrian looked startled, surprised by the outburst. Skylar almost smiled,
drooling out a frothy mixture of colours from his lip.
"We- we need more information." Hermione piped up with glassy eyes, "I-
I'm not going anywhere with you until you tell us what we need to
know!"
Adrian rolled his shoulders again, hands deep in his coat pockets. "Well,
look at you, growing a spine."
Ron's flush faded and instead he glared with an absolutely loathing
expression. "And look at you, you're not doing so hot, are you?"
Adrian's smile turned quite forced, his entire face looked pained. "Can we
do this later?"
"No!" Ron argued, protesting. Skylar finally recovered his breath,
stumbling to his knees. Hermione hurried over, helping him up. She
didn't touch Lutain's prone body, instead only helped Skylar to his feet.
Adrian pulled out one of his hands to run over his face exhausted. "Look,
I really don't want to do this now."
The thestral clicked its fangs together in a terrifying rattle. Adrian didn't
look at it, but he twitched at the noise fairly visibly.
"Too bad, we're not going anywhere with you." Ron snapped back,
Hermione taking a step backwards and dragging Skylar in the opposite
direction.
Adrian spotted the movement, then he sighed and suddenly he looked
very tired for his age. He looked mature, wizened, and very very
exhausted.
"Look," Adrian sighed, pointing his thumb over his shoulder in the
direction he wanted them to go, "hear me out at least. I don't have my
wand on me, Merlin this isn't even my coat. You have the upper hand, I'll
explain everything once we're out of this weather."
The thestral rattled and Adrian's face looked slightly pinched.
"Okay," Skylar croaked, Hermione instantly hushed him, she tried to
subtly soothe him.
"No mate." Ron grimaced, shaking his head at Skylar who still looked
fairly disoriented. "You can barely stand. You scared the shite out of us,
grabbing us and apparating here. Not to mention you got bloody
possessed. I'll go, and then come back if it's safe."
Adrian scowled but sighed dramatically. "Fine. Let's get going, I'm only
coming out here once."
Ron huffed and nodded, walking across the snow determinedly. Adrian
fumbled slightly as he walked, recovering quickly but the fact he tripped
was obvious. The thestral lowered itself slightly, extending its wings
backwards into a triangle to show an easy step near its ribs. Adrian
grabbed its back, thin hands wrapping around pronounced vertebrae to
use as a handhold. Curved ribs worked like a stool, and Adrian clambered
on in a practiced, yet fumbling motion.
Ron walked toward it, pausing and staring at the creature unsure. Adrian
snorted and smacked the thestral with the back of his hand.
"Her name is Mylla," Adrian introduced with a small thin smile, "she's an
arse. Let's go, trust me, you'll keep pace fine."
They began walking, and Ron tried to think he would come back to
Hermione and Skylar as soon as he could.
The thestral walked slowly, a pace just a tad bit less than Ron's own
normal walking speed. Each of its clawed hooves could have smashed a
decently sized plate- the tracks behind it looked like some sort of
prehistoric creature.
Adrian sat in the crook of its bones, resting on vertebrae that obviously
weren't comfortable. The thestral didn't seem to care, and considering the
fact that as soon as Adrian seated himself he slumped forward slightly
and closed his eyes- he seemed rather relaxed on the creatures back.
They walked through the trees, following the footprints that Adrian had
used to get to the clearing. There was only one set of footprints, so he
had ridden on the back of the creature to get there.
"Where are we going?" Ron asked in the quiet, jolting Adrian awake. The
other looked down to see Ron. He had bags under his eyes, purpling and
looking horribly bruised on his skin.
"A house," Adrian simply responded, mindlessly twirling the thestrals hair
between his fingers. "They're expecting you."
Ron huffed at the silence, Adrian's eyes slipped close again.
Ron liked nothing about this, he didn't like anything. 'They' could be
referring to anyone, anyone at all.
A second passed and then Ron had his wand out and pointed it upwards
at Adrian. This close to the other, Ron knew he wouldn't miss. The
thestral exhaled loudly, spotting the movement from the corner of its eye.
Ron could do it. He could blast this arse point blank and all that would
be left was a corpse. Adrian didn't look that much different from one
already. It wouldn't be hard- he said that he was defenseless.
The whole war would be over then, the traitor-boy-who-lived, finally
dead.
Ron could finish it all. His moment of fame, a monument to murdering a
boy in the middle of winter where his body would never be found. It
sounded to Ron, like the perfect mercy in these dark times.
The thestral slowed before coming to a stop. Adrian opened his eyes
slowly, almost like a cat. He glanced over, spotting the wand pointed
between his eyes. Adrian's face didn't change at all, not a single flicker of
emotion through his eyes. Ron knew the other was intelligent enough to
know that Ron could kill him.
Ron should kill him.
"So that's it?" Adrian sighed, sounding disappointed and miserable,
although that was most likely due to the weather. "Are you going to
just...kill me?'
"I should." Ron spat out, trying his best to keep his hand from shaking,
"you you...you bloody monster!"
Adrian blinked slowly, the thestral made a clicking noise with its teeth.
The forest was too quiet.
Ron wanted to kill the boy, but he didn't want to be a murderer.
(How much blood would be on his hands then?)
"You know," Adrian started calmly, although a bit quiet. "You were never
this mad after your sister died. You were never this mad even after L-
Luna. It makes me wonder, why now you're so determined to kill me. Was
it realizing that in this world there isn't a place for you anymore? Was it
watching Lutain replace you at Skylar's side? Was it knowing, that you
are absolutely useless in the greater role of things."
Ron's jaw twitched, and Adrian sighed through his nose rather
dramatically.
"Listen," Adrian started, voice a little more harsh but not at all angry,
"I've got a lot of things to do right now, I have a lot of things to deal with
still. I've got a bloody deal with Skylar that I have to somehow finish, I've
got Lutain and his bloody mess. Now I've got to deal with Mylla and her
heard, my father, and kill fucking Adalonda. If you try to curse me, I'm
going to bite your throat out because I am sick of this shite."
A pause, Adrian's nostrils were flaring in the cold and his pupils had
suddenly elongated into something not human. "Are we clear?"
Ron should kill him, but in the greater picture of things, this wasn't Ron's
job.
Ron was...Ron was just Ron. He wasn't in a prophecy or raised for war, he
didn't grow up with adults whispering about him. His sister died- and he
missed her every single day, but in the world there were millions of people
with dead sisters. He wasn't anything special, but he was individual.
It wouldn't be right to rob someone of their own life, even someone as
monstrous as Adrian Selwyn.
'He's right,' Ron thought to himself sickly, 'I am useless in the big picture.
Selwyn has dozens of things to do still.'
Ron couldn't kill Selwyn, because Skylar thought he had something left to
do.
(Did he really want to be a killer? Did he really want to have something like
that on his soul?)
Ron swallowed thickly, and lowered his wand.
No, Ron couldn't kill Selwyn because it wasn't his place. He wasn't
important in the bigger picture, but that didn't mean that his role was
something tiny. He was Skylar's friend, his best mate. He would watch out
for Sky when the boy couldn't watch out for himself. He had to report
back to him, to let him know its okay.
"Great, wonderful." Adrian deadpanned, hissing something out in a
surprising use of parseltongue. The thestral began walking again-
swishing its tail so the long hairs smacked into Ron's face.
Ron eventually ambled along, wand shoved in his sleeve. The thestral
kept going and in the distance, a house emerged from between the trees.
It was small, easy to overlook. They passed wards, tickling on Ron's skin
before the thestral came to a stop near a cleared area.
"I'm back!" Adrian shouted at the house, wincing before he hunkered to
cough into his arm, "Weasley, go get the others now that you know this
isn't my murder cabin."
Ron could barely think, the house was small and charming and not at all
what he was expecting. "You could still murder me here." He fumbled
out.
The door swung open, bright warm light spread outside and a new figure
stood in the doorway.
"No murdering on my bloody porch!" The unmistakable, and heavily
pregnant, Tonks shouted. She had a smile, and an outrageous scarf
wrapped around her neck.
"You kill a bloody rabbit on the porch one time…" Adrian mumbled to
himself, sliding off the thestral before he made his way inside. Tonks
smiled, positively beaming.
Ron was relieved beyond words.
By the time the three of them returned to the house, slipping past the
wards and the sleeping thestral on the porch, the sun had set and the
night was drawing closer. They walked inside, shucking off their coats
and boots only to receive three mugs of hot chocolate, steaming and
awaiting them.
Tonks was busy doing something, fiddling in the kitchen over something
to eat. She had on a sweater, stretched over her stomach. Adrian was on
the couch, a patched blanket pulled over his shoulders. There was a rag
in his sleep-limp hand, stained with blood both old and new.
He stayed like that for hours, barely moving if not for the intermittent
croaking of his breathing. Not a snore, but not quite a moan either.
Something stuck in between, as if his body had worn out even in sleep.
Sunset came fast, the cocoa fell empty and Ron and Hermione both
slipped away into a bedroom given to them for the designation of their
stay. Ron had been strangely quiet, staring and watching but not
speaking up as he used to. He seemed to have lost a lot of the fiery
personality in the brief walk to the house.
They slipped away, and Skylar found himself in the kitchen and feeling
very out of place but better than anywhere else. He couldn't imagine the
quiet tension of the bedroom, the accusatory looks.
'You brought us here,' he knew Hermione would be saying with her tear
filled eyes, 'there's something wrong with you.'
Skylar knew that, so he clutched the countertop with white knuckles and
hid away like a coward.
"Don't mind him," Tonks nodded towards the couch with a shrug, "tired
himself out earlier with fetching wood all morning. Wotcher Sky!"
Skylar managed a smile, although the expression didn't reach his eyes.
The light in his eyes had burned out almost half a year ago. Skylar didn't
mention that Adrian had been sleeping for hours and looked no closer to
waking now than before. He likely would sleep through the night.
"Hey Tonks," Skylar croaked out, voice hoarse. Tonks didn't even glance
over at him before she was plucking out an empty glass and filling it with
water from the tap. Skylar blinked in surprise, accepting it graciously. It
did little to help the soreness of his throat, but the generosity of the
action soothed him.
He set the empty glass on the counter, the small click of it drew attention
back. Tonks was humming under her breath, gentle and cautious
although there was an unrelenting tension to her frame. Maybe it was the
pregnancy, maybe something else.
"When are you due?" Skylar croaked out, wincing at the sound.
Tonks glanced over her shoulder, "oh! A few more months, maybe April."
Skylar jerkily nodded. The house was quiet, unsettling.
"Ron and Hermione are up in the guest room," Skylar managed again,
shuffling unsure on his feet, "thank you for taking us in for a while."
Tonks smiled, a small expression that couldn't hide the worried look in
her eyes. "Of course, Sky."
A pause, Adrian over on the couch made a gurgled wheeze in his sleep.
Tonks sighed at the sound, not looking over even as it increased slightly
in volume. Skylar was itching to head over, to investigate and make sure
the sleeping boy was alright.
"Don't worry about that," Tonks dismissed it, although she had been
fumbling with cleaning the same spot on the counter for the entire
discussion so far, "'he does that sometimes. It's normal, he'll maybe make
a few more noises."
Another wet gurgle, Skylar twitched at the noise.
"That sounds aweful." He muttered under his breath, wishing more than
anything he still had water in his glass to drink out of how awkward the
exchange felt. "Always like that?"
Tonks made a noise that was slightly too high pitched to be the
dismissive noise she wanted.
Skylar bit his lip, and stepped forward carefully. "...Tonks…"
Tonks' head fell, hanging forward. She made a noise like a broken laugh,
tapering off into a sob. She ran one hand through her black hair,
abandoning the counter and instead managing to fist both hands near her
scalp.
"Sorry," she tried to apologize, smiling forced before it too cracked into
an open mouth sob, "I just- I- sorry."
Skylar didn't know what would be okay. He stepped forward, keeping his
hands obvious as he very gently wrapped his arms around Tonks' waist.
She clung to him, nails digging sharply into the back of her shoulder. Her
frame trembled in his arms, her sobs became more high pitched and
distressing.
"I- I know It's selfish to put all of this on you," she blubbered apologetic,
sounding snotty even muffled in Skylar's shirt, "but- but I'm so afraid.
You- you don't know what it's like here.. I- I'm so afraid i'm going to wake
up to this cold house and both of them will have died during the night.
There's-." Tonk's breathing hitched into something that sounded horrible
to Skylar's ears. "There's always so much blood. I'm afraid I'm going to
wake up to corpses, and I can't do anything about it!"
Skylar tucked his face down into her hair, eyes slipping closed as they
held each other.
"I'm so sorry." Skylar managed to rasp out, hoarse and shaky and to that-
Tonks just cried harder.
"Alright," Adrian croaked in the morning, when the sunlight thawed the
frost on the windows and the watered down coffee and hot chocolate
filled the air.
They were seated around the small table, Adrian sharing his couch with
an exhausted looking Remus Lupin. Both of them looked sick with eyes
red rimmed. "Let's talk, oh brother of mine."
Skylar shifted uncomfortably, the newly awakened Lutain coiled near his
throat. Ron and Hermione sat in the other two chairs, Tonks between
them and keeping the peace in the room.
"What about?" Ron sniped out, abrupt and harsh and in no way welcome.
Better than before, but still furious to anyone listening.
Adrian's mouth flickered into a small smile, "well," he began, pausing to
wet his dry cracked lips. "The last time I saw you was a few months ago,
and I was cross dressing."
Lutain hissed wordlessly, and Skylar found himself smiling ever so
slightly despite himself.
Tonks tried to hold back a small laugh, Remus gave a low throaty rumble
of amusement before he leaned back against the pillows again.
"We've been trying to survive." Hermione spoke lowly, flat and sour,
fiddling with her fingers. "It's...it's been rough."
Adrian's facial expressions didn't change, but he did nod slightly.
Skylar shrugged wordlessly.
"What about you, Lutain?" Adrian asked the snake, tilting his head
slightly as the snake started to hiss. Nobody was able to understand the
conversation, although something in the discussion made Adrian frown
quickly.
A moment passed then Adrian was blinking in confusion and slight
alarm, glancing over at Skylar almost timidly before back at Lutain,
"really?"
Lutain hissed something, his bright belly on display. Adrian swallowed
noticeably.
A pause, then Adrian scratched the edge of his jaw with his bony fingers.
"Okay, well, ah...it seems we have a similar interest at hand."
Skylar glanced over sharply, Ron's eyebrows rose and Hermione's
breathing shuttered in surprise.
"You're...well, you're going to head to Hogwarts?" Adrian confirmed,
nodding before continuing quietly, "as am I. I need to get in touch with
Scamander and...and Dumbledore, and figure out what's going on."
"What?" Ron blurted in amazement, "you- you want to talk with
Dumbledore?"
"I have a basilisk to kill." Adrian snapped out, cheeks flushed as if
embarrassed. "And...and I was supposed to bite those things for you, the
locket and the cup."
"Yeah," Skylar nodded slowly, still on high alert, "we have them still."
"Great," Adrian sighed quietly, looking so weary it made Hermione want
to cry. "So what, do you know how to contact the bloody coot?"
"Only if you do us one more thing!" Hermione blurted with a flush.
Adrian tilted his head back and groaned quietly.
Tonks made a small affronted noise; Adrian quickly snapped out an
apology that sounded weak to everyone.
"Mione…" Ron warned lowly, looking at her from the corner of her eye.
Hermione gnawed on her lip, brows furrowing In determination.
"I want you to stop whatever you're doing to Sky!"
Adrian blinked in bafflement before his composure set in again. His face
shifted slightly into outright hostility, mouth opening to argue-.
Remus reached out, gently resting a hand on the boy's shoulder. Adrian
instantly snapped his head around, staring wordlessly at the werewolf.
A moment passed, a silent conversation between the two that ended with
Adrian lowering his head to tuck it under the man's neck. His black hair
contrasted with the poorly kept beard, his body shuddering from where it
was sprawled entirely over the older man.
"Okay," Adrian spoke, quiet and somehow heartbreaking to hear. His eyes
were half closed, quiet and somehow guilty or anxious, "I don't know
what I'm doing though."'
Ron slowly turned to look at Hermione, mouthing a quiet 'what the fuck?'
"Er…" Hermione blinked quickly, trying to recover from the dramatic and
completely unexpected personality jump. "He...he's…"
Skylar shuddered, a large movement that contorted his body for a
moment. His elbows clicked on the table, his jaw twitching before he
instantly blinked quickly and then smiled crookedly and awkwardly. "No!
Guys, honestly I'm fine. Just a little stressed, but really."
Hermione chewed on her lip, even Tonks looked a little worried with the
sudden movement.
"Well, that is a bit strange." Adrian confessed in a small drawl, still laying
with his cheek disfigured against Remus' shirt.
"I'm fine!"
"No you're not, mate." Ron argued with a scowl, "something is wrong with
you!"
"I'm fine!" Skylar bit out, feeling his face flush with his frustration, "I'm
just under a lot of stress!"
"No you're acting like him!" Ron shouted back, swinging a hand around to
point directly at Adrian.
Adrian blinked twice before he could comprehend, then his lips puckered
in what could only be described as a pout and he muttered out an
offended, "hey!"
"You freakin- you stole a dragon-."
"Okay okay," Skylar lifted both his hands before pointing at Adrian, "that
was all him."
Ron carried on, ignoring him out of spite. "You've been sitting in the rain
for hours all the time, you start going on and on about absolute
nonsense-."
"Poetry, Ron." Hermione sighed exhaustively, "he's seeking his creative
expression."
"We're in a bloody war this is no time for haikus about the sunset!"
Adrian recoiled and looked a little hurt although he tried his best to
disguise it with indifference. "...Sunset between trees-"
"Selwyn, I may come across as a pretty dumb bloke but I know the killing
curse!"
"Whoa! How convenient!" Adrian gasped in mock surprise, "so do I!"
Tonks felt something like a hysterical giggle bubble out of her mouth.
"Adrian," Remus sighed, calm and gentle. Instantly Adrian relaxed, visibly
slouching under the single hand that ran through his hair. Adrian's eyes
fell back into that half closed state, completely lethargic and relaxed.
"...I'm not going to lie, I don't know how I feel about this." Skylar
confessed awkwardly, referring to the stunning personality change.
Hermione hid her face behind her hands, trying to hide how hopeless she
felt with the situation.
"What else is Skylar doing besides Leaky Cauldron open mic?" Adrian
muttered without caring much, "learning to play heartfelt toad orchestral
arrangements?"
Remus gave a low chuff of a laugh, Adrian smiling widely in such a way
it was obvious the insult wasn't genuine.
"No," Ron huffed, crossing his arms sourly and sliding lower in his seat,
"he made us visit your bloody orphanage though."
Adrian tensed, then slowly right sided himself. A clock ticked
somewhere. Adrian quickly slid off the couch, bare feet wobbling over
the flooring until he was standing in front of the table. The humor had
faded from his body, leaving him serious and taught. The difference was
palpable.
"I-..." Adrian struggled, choking and words becoming silent. He paused,
face twitching before trying again, "you...went there?"
Hermione looked down guiltily, Ron huffed again. Adrian looked more
startled over the situation than anything else.
"I-..." Skylar choked on words in his mouth which felt raw and sour like
fermenting fruit, "I needed to see it."
Adrian tilted his head and his eyes narrowed curiously, "...why?"
Skylar swallowed, his skin prickled under the close eye of the other. "I...I
don't know. It just...it felt…"
Adrian finally broke eye contact, looking down and watching as his
fingers traced the edge of the table, small circles on the edge.
"I thought about going back," Adrian confessed quietly, almost lost in his
thoughts, "I remember it. The building was...well. I imagine it's...I
imagine it's a skeleton now. It doesn't matter. The Earth will eat us all
anyways. The Earth eats our buildings and machines, and all our work,
all our effort."
Skylar jolted, tilting his head just so before murmuring out words he had
whispered in the shadow of the building itself. "Surely the Earth will eat
the birds too, when they grow tired of flying."
Adrian stilled carefully, fingers pausing before tapping gently on the
table. He didn't meet anyone's eyes, face hidden by his hair.
"'I didn't think I had ever told anyone that," Adrian mused out loud, voice
low and quiet but demanding enough attention everyone in the room
struggled to breathe. "About that place. I had never seen such chaos
before- such...righteous vengeance and intent. Something memorable,
really. The fire burned away everything."
Skylar stood up, chair scratching across the floor. Lutain hissed and
coiled tighter around his arm, Skylar's head hurt and prickled and he
blurted out- "the fire burns because it's something uncontrollable."
It was beautiful in a way he would never be again. Gorgeous, strong,
terrifying. Useful.
Adrian inhaled deeply, the sound made his nose whistle and with a long
suffering sigh he exhaled. He looked at Skylar, looking weary and
exhausted and above all, almost sorrowful. Hermione couldn't breathe,
Ron felt the crippling sadness as the actuality of something being wrong
was realized. Tonks looked ill, silent and just as overwhelmed as
everyone else. Remus closed his eyes without a word.
"Tell me, Skylar." Adrian murmured, fingers twitching and tapping on the
tabletop in a frantic dance, "do you know what it's like-..."
"-To be unmade." Skylar finished his sentence with a low whisper,
twitching and feeling the spasm move through his back. Skylar gave a
shudder, whole body moving in a large shiver. He blinked a few times,
trying to shake off the concerning blur on the corners of his vision.
A hand reached his jaw, gently lifting it upwards.
Adrian's hand was cold and thin, fingers long and knobby from where
they rested along Skylar's neck. The nail beds were swollen, purpling
under the brittle warped claw of his fingertips. It was so soft and gentle,
a caress nearly against the fluttering thrum of Skylar's throat and the
bone of his jaw.
Skylar looked up, breath hitching as he spotted the close yellow and
green eyes- staring at him in something similar to awe. Skylar had never
seen anyone with eyes like Adrian's, the thin golden hairs that leaked
from his pupil like strands of liquid sunshine.
Skylar then realized, that he had been sitting on the opposite side of the
table. Said table, was now covered in Adrian's sprawled body. A glass of
hot chocolate had crashed to the floor; both Ron and Hermione looked
thoroughly exhausted with today.
"Oh for fucks sake." Ron mumbled, sliding his chair away to storm off.
Adrian didn't even glance over his shoulder, ignoring how utterly
dramatic throwing himself over a table is.
Adrian forced Skylar's head to tilt, scanning over the planes of his face
curiously. Skylar wondered if he was looking for the spiderweb of scars
across Adrian's own skin.
"Sky?" Hermione asked, voice a little bit higher in pitch as her discomfort
became more apparent.
"That's weird." Adrian murmured under his breath, almost denying the
fact that Tonks and Hermione were so close his trousers were practically
in their personal space. "You've seen inside my head for real, and now
you can't stop it from slipping out."
Skylar winced and tried to pull away. Adrian's hand gripped tighter, the
broken tips of his nails pressing into the meat of his face.
Hermione inhaled sharply, hearing the words not meant for her.
"...What?" Hermione asked, breaking the silence. Adrian smiled,
something sharp and amused and cautious all the same.
"Skylar here has been up to something horrible, hasn't he?" Adrian
muttered, low as if it were only to himself although it was clearly audible
to Tonks and Hermione. Remus watched silently from the couch, not
interjecting unless needed. Skylar imagined the werewolf wasn't capable
of much now.
"Sky, what...what is he saying?" Hermione blurted out, wringing her
fingers worriedly. "Skylar what did you do?"
"Adrian," Tonks spoke up. The single word instantly caused Adrian to
snap his head around, looking at her inquisitively.
Tonks nodded towards the table, "no sprawling on the table."
A pause, a breathe that smelled like rotting sugar.
Adrian huffed and slowly slid back down, landing on his feet on the other
side. He didn't look away from Skylar once. Skylar felt his blood pulse
with adrenaline, his mind buzzing with primitive terror.
"Do you want me to explain it?" Adrian asked dryly, cocking his hip to sit
on the corner of the table instead, "or do you?"
'No no, Adrian don't-...'
"I-" Skylar scrambled, fumbling to think with all the eyes focused on him.
Lutain hissed something sharply, and Adrian made an absent minded
shushing motion, swiping his hand through the air, "not now, Lutain."
"I…" Skylar faded off, throat feeling itchy and dry. "I've...I've
been...looking in his head…"
'Do you know what it is like to be unmade?'
"What!" Hermione shrieked, slapping both hands on the table, "Skylar
mind magic is not a joke!"
Adrian almost smiled, rolling his eyes at how infuriated the girl looked.
"'I didn't have any other-."
"Skylar Potter! Of course you have bloody options-."
Adrian interjected again with a curious tilt of his head, "you said that you
were using Lutain somehow."
Hermione paled suddenly, looking on the verge of being sick. Skylar
could feel the sweat stick to his skin, the way he felt clammy and
nauseous.
"Sky…" Hermione whispered in outright horror, clearly cluing into what
was happening.
"What?" Adrian asked, glancing between the two, "oh I see, a secret?
Lutain?"
Right, Adrian was a parselmouth. He could speak to the snake- the spy in
the group that knew Skylar's heart like it was prime real-estate.
Lutain shifted guiltily, and then started hissing and spitting.
Adrian's expression was a smile, light and amused.
The first thing that changed was his eyes.
They darkened, the bright shine to them faded almost instantly. Then the
smile looked forced, before it too started to tilt downwards. The two
toned eyes looked at the snake on the table in something disgusted and
very very small.
"...Lutain?" Adrian asked again, a name without a question except the
tone was everything.
Lutain coiled tighter. Skylar had to swallow to ward off the vomit.
"Okay," Adrian breathed slowly, running one hand through his hair,
"then…" Adrian's voice cut off into a small very confused sound, "I- then
can't you come back to me?"
Lutain's tail thrashed, and Adrian's face fell further.
Skylar couldn't breathe, the air was cloying and sweet and his ears were
buzzing. Everything felt wrong and confusing and under that there were
layers of outright hate and vengeance. A desire for vindictive pain and
hurt that Skylar couldn't fathom but he knew needed to be done.
He wanted he wanted he wanted…
He wanted he wanted he wanted-.
"Adalonda." Skylar spoke sharply, spitting out words that weren't his like
vomit from his mouth. Heaving breaths that spat sounds he couldn't think
of, "she needs to die."
Adrian looked up from Lutain, glancing at Skylar with the starting
touches of anger, "I already know that, you twat-."
No no he needed to know-.
"She needs to die." Skylar blurted. His face twitched oddly, neck jerking
in a small cracking noise, "she she- I need to strike her-."
Adrian took two steps back, nearly tripping over his two feet. A pause, a
moment, then Adrian exhaled slowly. He looked at Skylar with
something perplexed, an innate fear of not understanding something in
front of him. Adrian looked sick, he looked foul and rotting from the
inside out until blood dripped from his ears. Adrian was a creature that
had been corrupted and ruined and still, still he looked at Skylar as if he
was the monster.
It was an unsettling realization, to see the eyes of a predator reflected
back. A law of the simplest order, that natural predators feasted on the
prey.
Skylar didn't- he didn't-.
'Let me,' Skylar's mind whispered, he did.
'Let me,' someone else whispered, and Skylar never resisted.
Skylar shuddered again, spine cracking with the force of his jerking. He
dropped his jaw, bones straining near his ears, and made a gurgled noise
of frustration and pain. Urgency that was wordless, desperate like a feral
mutt.
"Ah," Adrian breathed, eyes finally clearing from confusion. Adrian took a
step forward, reaching out with one hand that seemed shaky except it
wasn't. He was loyal to him, he knew him and trusted him and if he said
that it would be okay then maybe maybe in this cruel twisted place of a
world…
"Don't worry about that Lutain, I've got that covered." Adrian continued,
smiling thin and in a way that was secret except for themselves. A
wordless whisper, an assurance that things would be alright. Maybe they
would be, maybe they wouldn't be. He couldn't imagine the future, how
that wretched worm of a basilisk was permitted to thrive and exist.
Everything was so clouded, sluggish and slow. His brain could barely
function, weighted down and unresponsive. The chew thing for a bored
malevolent force that had all the time in the world and too little insight
to care more.
'I see you,' Skylar wanted to say, to coo out teasingly and insult his master
because that was what he did. It was what they did. 'I know you.'
A pause, a moment that stretched so far there was no start and no end in
sight.
"Trust me." Adrian whispered quietly, brokenly with longing so thick it
could curdle like heavy cream.
A heart beat, a pause, a clock ticking again and again and again and-.
He did trust him.
Lutain moved, slithering across the table. Scales over wood, scraping
further away as if each sharp ridge was a scrape over flesh. The distance
growing further, the chill pulling from his bones like a wet cloth from a
lake. Peeling skin from burnt red flesh, digging claws into his scalp to
remove the flesh from his skull in a single comedic movement.
Out and out and out the string and cloth and everything pulled until
Skylar felt that he was going to be wrung dry…
His ears popped.
The world seemed brighter.
Skylar could breathe again.
(And under it all, he felt wholly and completely, alone.)
Lutain jerked on the table, curling and coiling in a strange pattern that
looked quite painful.
"It's okay," Adrian breathed quietly, reaching out to his friend- his friend,
to lift him gently and cradle him to his heart, "It's okay Lutain, I'm here."'
"Adalonda-." Lutain brokenly hissed out, sounding agonized from
somewhere far beyond him.
"It's okay, I'm going to kill her." Adrian stroked his back lovingly, trying to
soothe the pains of his body, "you don't need to be on this path for revenge
anymore. I'm here, it's okay now."
Lutain whimpered, curling tight and close and Adrian smiled as
something in his heart felt complete again. Something broken, soothed
and coated in a balm. Alleviated, clear, and he could relax from some
tension he never noticed.
Skylar retched, a strange vomiting noise that made Hermione and Tonks
shove themselves away from the table. Nothing came up, but Skylar's
body shook and trembled violently. The other boy's eyes rolled around
sightless, like Mad Eye Moody's glass orb. They were clouded, unfocused
before they rolled up into his skull and his jaw dropped slack. A globule
of vomit trailed over his chin.
"I'm apart now." Lutain confessed quietly, "we're no longer attached."
Adrian didn't want to walk closer to the boy, something in him urging
him to stay back. It was unsettling, the strange display. Hermione looked
close to screaming.
"You were a parasite?" Adrian asked with a fine bite to his words. Lutain
slumped in his arms, limp and tired.
"I'm sorry," Lutain apologize, "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."
Skylar seized again, hands lifting to claw at his exposed skin. His whole
body shook, and he smashed his face down onto the table. Fluid
splattered, the sudden sound of cartilage fracturing, snapping everyone
into movement.
Adrian took a step backwards, out of the way of the two women. He
cradled Lutain close, he vowed to never let him go again.
"Sky!" Hermione screamed. From somewhere else in the house, Ron ran
out from around a corner, looking at the sight with horror.
"Stand back," Tonks instructed everyone, sending out a well aimed
stunner without hesitation. It was easily to forget about her skill when
she was so pregnant. When she moved slowly and timidly, bones and
muscles weak and organs bulged and swollen. It must be painful, to fuel
a new life in such a crude animal way.
Skylar slumped onto the table. He was unconscious, unaware of the blood
that seeped from his broken nose or the raised lines along his flesh. His
fingers twitched slightly, not obeying in his blissful silence.
It didn't matter what happened now, not with the question hanging so
heavily in the air.
'This is what you do,' something whispered to Adrian, the part of himself
he always tried to ignore. 'You kill people.'
"I doubt I can possess him anymore." Adrian spoke first, looking at the
brown haired boy with something guarded. After all, he had somehow
done this without knowing. He had somehow influenced, controlled,
accessed the boys mind without any cause or reason. Was it the potion
that Adalonda gave him? The ritual which sustained Lutain's life and
made everything now so much worse?
Adrian didn't remember much of that day, only voices and whispers he
knew weren't real. Mania and hysteria he had never felt before the cru-.
Before...his father had...hurt him.
It was something that scared him, how little he knew about what had
been done to him. About what had been done to Lutain. Perhaps if he
had time, more years and lifetimes, he could investigate and reversed
whatever monstrosity plagued his friend. He couldn't now, not with how
the clock was now a permanent reminder instead of its general role to
mark the passage of time.
Adrian's mouth felt sour, like he had gone a week without washing.
"Lutain's presence is gone too."
"Oh thank Merlin," Ron sighed in relief, "that bloody worm was the worst
thing that ever happened to us."
Lutain shrunk lower in Adrian's arms, sheepish and ashamed. His friend
knew, how utterly repulsed and drawn he was.
"It looked like a withdrawal." Remus spoke up now, for the first time in a
while. Hoarse, quiet, eyes full of memories and horrors nobody wanted to
think about. They looked at him, trying not to stare at the beard or the
blanket around his waist; they looked at his disability and judged him
useless as society had as well.
The world had a rather disgusting habit, of evaluating one's intelligence
based on the state of their physical being.
It was something that drove Adrian vicious, the way that someone would
dismiss him with pity due to the scars on his skin. The way young
children used to stare at him, classmates assumed that his horrid injuries
were somehow deserved. Always a victim, and simultaneously, a villain
to society. They would brush them aside if they could, the general
population would easily pluck out the disfigured and damaged like they
were plucking bruised apples from a crate. Did their skin or limbs
somehow mean they were worth less? Inherently unequal to someone
lucky enough to be born untarnished?
(Adrian would have argued until they stabbed him in the streets, except
he knew his visage would label him as a madman. How ironic, that he
was the most insightful of them all.)
"A magical withdrawal." Remus clarified, ignoring the truth that Adrian
knew.
Tonks sighed, using her wand to scratch the base of her neck. "Great. It's
not like I can't take care of him too. Shite!" she shouted, spinning on her
heels to blast a hole in the nearest wall. The noise was alarming,
everyone jumped but stayed quiet as Tonks panted in frustration and
overwhelming hopelessness of the situation.
"This is unfair!" Tonks screamed, pausing to kick the wall before she hung
her head and started crying. The hiccups echoed, the sobbing was
disgusting and loud.
Adrian swallowed and looked down at the mess he had made.
"'I'm sorry," Adrian apologized quietly, flexing his toes on the cold
flooring. "I...I know that this is…"
He trailed off. Remus didn't say anything, Tonks didn't stop crying. Ron
and Hermione were looking at him with an expression impossible to
read. Skylar was unconscious, bleeding from his mouth from where he bit
his tongue.
Adrian didn't belong here.
"I'll…" Adrian struggled to talk, trying to organize his stuttered thoughts,
"I'm...I'll be back I just…"
I need time.
Adrian shuffled to the door, shoving on boots and the giant jacket and he
grabbed the scarves already stained with blood.
"Adrian?" Remus asked quietly, knowing and understanding. He could
tell, he knew what he needed.
Adrian hung his head, pressing it against the wood of the door.
"Be back in a few days." Remus finished quietly. Adrian almost smiled at
the time limit, at the calendar that moved forward and forward against
his best wishes to stop it.
"Yeah," Adrian choked out, "I'll see you next year."
Adrian knew where he was flying, he knew the location on a map and in
the whispers and things he had inferred. He knew the trees around him
like a fake memory he constructed in the middle of the night. He knew
the streets and houses from the words of a pathological liar.
He found it, half buried in snow. The stone was rough, many many years
old. Exposed to the elements, raw and organic like Adrian himself.
"So," Adrian sighed, using his nails to claw out the ice that stuck to the
carved lettering, "this is it."
Harry James Potter.
Beloved son, and brother.
What has been lost to us all, we will see once more.
There were flowers near his grave. Candles that were nothing more than
stumps of wax melted into the stone. Memorial lasting over a decade, a
monument to a lie.
Mylla curled up in the shade of a yew tree. Adrian grabbed the thick coat
and tugged it closer, keeping Lutain close to his heart.
New Year's Eve passed in the cemetery, and Adrian woke to the dawn of
a new world. A sunrise through the small cottages of Godric's Hollow. He
sat there on his throne, the world unaware it was built with lies.
Adrian wanted to laugh at the sight of the sun, remembering all too
sharply Ron Weasley's accusation of sunset haikus.
"It's not a sunset," Adrian spoke into the cold air, glancing around
curiously for inspiration. Mylla opened her eyes, looking at him in muted
curiosity. He could work with it, with the air and slabs of granite and the
wilted flowers from the fall.
A haiku from his lips, already tingling with frostbite.
"Sunrise on headstones. Thestral eats the tall bouquets." Adrian's mouth
flickered into a smile when Mylla gave an affronted snort. Adrian's words
trailed off as he struggled to think, glancing down at the grave for
someone who was never him.
A new year, the start of a fresh beginning.
Adrian knew better.
Adrian breathed out, finding a single way to finish his new year
resolution. ""Sunrise on headstones. Thestral eats the tall bouquets."
Around a new grave.
Impstar: I'm having a lot of difficulty getting a good grasp of the time
scale going on here. How long as this been by now?
That's completely my bad- I've been struggling with explaining things properly
but here's my best explanation. Most of these dates are super rough, I just
spent some time composing this list so it's only rough but it's a decent estimate.
Luna died: Easter Holidays (April 21st)
Remus returns and takes over watching Adrian: May 25
Adrian sets house on fire (accident): June 12
Scamander and Adrian meet: June 28
Bellatrix dies: July: 15
Voldemort and Adrian go public (as Harry): August 11
Economy crashes: August 13
Adrian scares Snape: August 18
Adrian goes rogue: August:20
Skylar goes rogue and burns orphanage: Aug 20
Daphne gets letter from Draco and panics: Aug 20
Adrian meets Mylla: August: 22
Adrian at Luna's house: Sept: 14
Adrian and Skylar rob Gringotts: Sept 22
Skylar at Ginny's Grave: Oct 14
(Multiple Muggleborn murders due to scapegoating the depression) Skylar
camping and Hermione studying for NEWTS: throughout November
Skylar at Luna's grave: December 1
Adrian being at Remus and Tonks': implied from October to December 26
Skylar forced apparated to Remus and Tonks': December 30
Adrian runs off and goes to his grave: December 31
Guest: Are you planning on making a sequel of any kind? I don't know
where I'll be without your writing
The ending makes it impossible to make a sequel. I may make other spin-offs,
so far I have 4 posted on AO3 which are related stories to this one. One of
them is a crack genderswap with Adrian and everyone, another is Adrian's
happily ever after, one where Skylar reveals Adrian's last name is Riddle to
Dumbledore, and a few others. They're located on AO3. There is a story I'm
planning to write after this one but it's unrelated.
r0oulette: are you okay? as a reader this story affects my emotion, do
you feel that more strongly as the writer?
You are so so undeniably sweet to be concerned. I'm doing alright, I write for
my own coping mechanisms from the high stress and depressing reality of what
our world is. I feel very strongly for my characters.
THE DARKEST OF THEM ALL: But to me the most interesting thing in
this chapter was the flower(kinda obvious)
I'll bring that back up in the next few chapters! I love your theories, it's very
fascinating to think about it, isn't it?
The Sage of Whirlpool:f you ever write a book you are obilgated to tell
us
I'm working on it!
NotASmurf: Looks like it's about time for you to make me want Adrian
to live... only to crush those dreams in the last few chapters. Please have
mercy
Antithesis: "Oh man, this story couldn't possible get any worse." *Proceeds to
get worse.*
DarkFireofAngelsSouls: Though I gotta ask, can we get a small spin off
where there's no real plot to it but it's like a random summer day in
which Adrian is Harry, living with Remus and Tonks, hanging out with
his best friend and life partner Luna?
You known, something to both make us smile but almost break inside
because of what could have been after you destroy us with the end which
I am confident will be amazing.
Already made actually! It's over on AO3 (same username) under the title
"Pastel." It's Luna and Adrian having adopted far too many animals and the
really brightly painted walls make Voldemort want to cry.
EXOman: As someone who has two dads, the part where remus said that
your father is biologically but you choose your dad hit me hard.
This. This is why I write. I don't have a dad anymore, but in a way I always
will have him.
9 Chapters Left
72. Abuse
Thanks to the Discord server which is filled with wonderful readers
who helped me with ideas!
This chapter is written and dedicated to everyone who needs it.
And to say Fuck You to a few people in the world who never have it
said to them.
Adrian opened the gate, pausing to run his fingers over the texture of the
wood. It was cold, soft and broken from the repeated frost and thaw of
spring and winter. The cyclical pattern of the year that rained abuse and
froze it solid. Crystalline destruction over the unmentionable passage of
time.
The gate creaked, snapping and rattling like the clicking beak of an owl.
Ice accumulated in the joints and stiffened, wood bowing and warping
under the pressure, before the glassy ice broke apart like a frozen
shoulder forced into rotation. Bits of cartilage and bone spurns snapping
off, grinding into powder.
"You sure?" Lutain asked quietly, his body a snug scarf around Adrian's
throat. Adrian hadn't the time to work anymore on using heating charms,
he didn't want to choke on the nosebleeds just to keep Lutain warm. He
wasn't used to it, both the unconscious charms and the heavy scales of his
friend. The snake had been gone for so long, it was almost a foreign
weight around his neck, the light strangulation both a threat and a sign
of affection.
"No," Adrian confessed, his nose steaming out moist air in the morning.
"I'm not sure about this at all."
Lutain nestled closer, his body still fighting the temperature even as he
caressed the skin of his chest. The wards of the property washed right
over Adrian, feeling thick and strange. Uniquely like sliding his hand into
a great bowl of gelatin. Slimy and wet, without an residue on his hand.
"I need to do this though," Adrian confessed quietly, tapping his fingers
again and again on the wood of the fence. The wood of the gate, that he
still struggled to walk through. "Or It'll haunt me. It's something I should
have done a while ago."
The words hung there, as the wind itself held its breath and gently
whispered as it brushed against the siding of the house.
"Okay," Adrian breathed out, almost soundless with how breathy his
voice was, "let's do this."
Adrian stepped forward, his boots crunching as he walked along a
downtrodden path towards the rickety front porch.
The overhang kept the snow off the deck, the support posts were covered
in spiraling ivy and other decorative festivities. Holly hung from a front
window, with fake charmed cardinals chirping in a wicker nest. Adrian
lifted one hand, pausing as he hesitated to gather his thoughts.
He could still turn around. He could theoretically walk away and climb
back on Mylla (and bruise his tailbone further). He could return back to
Remus and Tonks and forget that he had ever made a stop to begin with.
He could play ignorant, forcing himself to dismiss the overbearing fear
and terror he irrationally felt.
(He knew, that if he walked away he would never come back.)
This was his chance, and in the face of death, even he hesitated over
something so fickle.
It was a strange thought, a strange sense of fear. Dying was the cessation
of life, the ending and beginning of something nobody knew anything
about. A great mystery, the thoughts and focus of millennia.
But this...Adrian knew everything about this. He knew their eyes and
faces, the small quirks and the way they would shout. Facing them here,
even with the knowledge of every possibility, was much more terrifying
than facing the unknown. More terrifying than dying ever would be.
He had to do this, for a sense of peace and for his sense of vindictiveness.
He didn't know if it was targeted at them, or targeted at himself.
Adrian knocked twice. Gently clicking his knuckle joints against the
wood of the door. The glass of the door had been covered with something
sparkly gold, another festive ornament Adrian hadn't recognized. It must
have taken a while to set up, a moment in this depression to try and
bring brightness to daily life. Ignoring others, ignoring the suffering of
others.
He heard footsteps inside, frantic and quick paced. Adrian imagined this
would be quite a surprise, a wonderful way to start the new year. He
should have brought a cake.
The door opened, and before Adrian could choke on his own paranoia
and increasing anxiety, he belted out the single sentence he had been
mentally and verbally rehearsing for almost an hour now.
"Hi," Adrian stumbled over the greeting like it was the first time he ever
heard it, "I have things to say and you're going to let me inside and listen
to me."
The words should have been powerful, instead they felt flat and warbled
on the wrong inflections and made him sound more like a child than
basic talking. He hated how obvious his anxiety was, how his skin
prickled and his eyes burned. He sounded vulnerable, trying to speak
about things too large for him to understand.
(Adrian knew this, he knew everything about this.)
James Potter's jaw dropped, open in blatant shock. Adrian shifted on the
porch, with palms sweating from inside the oversized coat.
He could smell something spicy from inside the house, warm and homely.
It smelled like Diagon Alley in the fall, warm with cinnamon and other
spices Adrian couldn't remember. There was something sweet and smooth
under it all, vanilla or cream or something Bellatrix never liked. It
bothered him, that the Potters were living in such pleasure when the
world was turning feral on one another. It bothered him that they had
the gall to live so leisurely, when other people couldn't.
"Let me in," Adrian commanded, voice twisting on the end to sound like a
question. He felt like he was standing in shoes too large for him, swathed
in a cloak that he swiped from a closet.
James Potter's mouth moved, opening and closing before it snapped shut.
A moment, then it passed and James Potter was stumbling over words,
drawing his wand with the efficiency of a master dueler.
"The wards-," the man blurted, as he lifted his wand. Adrian took one
step backwards, frantically flailing both arms to show he was unarmed.
He instantly mourned the loss of his warm pockets.
"I'm unarmed." Adrian rushed out, words slurring together in his haste to
talk. His face twitched - likely a small spasm likely from the cold air, "I-
you used blood wards."
James' eyes widened in confusion and outright suspicion, "Yeah? And you
shouldn't-..."
Adrian could see the moment he realized it, the moment that the
ramifications of what Adrian said sunk into him. It was an easy mistake
to make, blood adoptions weren't common nor were they that legal. The
full complications or the situations around it weren't well known.
Adrian was here now, it was obvious he had been here a while.
James Potter paused, lowering his wand and sliding it into a harness
hidden on his forearm. He stepped to the side, propping the door open to
let Adrian inside.
Adrian knew it was a trap, that other wards would be in place in the
unlikely event intruders penetrated the outer protection. He likely
wouldn't be able to enter the house unless invited, so James Potter was
allowing him into their home; into the warmth and leisure that they had
been hiding in as people were slaughtered over a loaf of bread. The
privilege of being rich and famous.
"James? Is it Sk-." Lily's voice cut off sharply as she emerged from a small
kitchen, spotting Adrian standing in the foyer with an expression he
never thought capable on his face.
"He's fine, by the way." Adrian added in with a low mumble, feeling too
uncomfortable to ever consider elevating the volume to something
higher, "'ust saw 'im."
Lily's face tightened slightly, Oh?" She asked. Cooly, holding a plate and a
drying rag in the other hand. Clearly they had just finished eating
something, maybe breakfast with how early it was. Adrian doubted it was
something as plain as a dinner roll, or toast.
Adrian gave a jerky nod, more like a bird than it was human. He
internally winced, mentally chastising himself for how pathetic his
behavior was. Adrian swallowed, resisting the urge to flex his fingers, as
his joints throbbed from the transition from the cold outdoors to the
warm and cozy interior.
"Lutain is hidden beneath my jacket," Adrian warned quietly, "I just want
to tell you that. It's cold outside, so I carried him where it was safer."
Lily's eyes narrowed in suspicion, her face scrunching together as if she
could see through Adrian as James took a step back.
Adrian found himself standing in the middle of an incredibly
uncomfortable silence.
'Coming here was a mistake.' Adrian desperately thought, feeling almost
like crying. 'I should have never come here.'
Despite Lily and James not being his parents, there was a way that they
made him feel so incredibly small and insignificant.
"I… I just want to talk." Adrian choked out, hating how his words
sounded in his ears.
He could imagine them throwing him out right now; chucking him out
the door and leaving him in the snow.
It was ridiculous to think about that. Deep down, he knew he was
stronger, his magic more potent, more deadly. He could burn the house
down, tear it from existence itself, without even saying a single word. He
could order Lutain to strike them in the time it took them to scream. He
could shift form and glare and that would be it.
(Somehow, somehow, they still had a power over him he could never
understand.)
"Okay," Lily spoke first, nodding her head in the direction of a log
fireplace - there were two couches there, enough to properly seat them in
order to have a conversation.
James didn't move until Adrian did, escorting him like a prisoner on his
way to a cell. Adrian tried to ignore it, the way it made his skin feel
wrong and his hands twitch, but he was sure that they could tell. He had
never had this, this comfort of a small house and doting parents. He
didn't know how to act, and they could tell easily.
"Alright," Lily spoke, cautious and threatening under the pretty face. She
took a seat on the edge of the cushion, mirroring Adrian's own seating
arrangement. James opted to stay standing, hostile and threatening
despite his relaxed posture. Adrian knew the man could draw his wand
faster than Adrian could ever think.
"...Is this a hostage negotiation?" James asked lowly with his arms
crossed, the white lines of his knuckles shone prominently, and his
fingernails dug deep into his biceps. "Is that why you're here?"
"Only Skylar ever knew about this house." Lily chimed in, her soothing
voice lulling despite the implied threat. "I'm curious how you found it."
Lutain was waking up from his hibernation, becoming more alert as he
shifted in the coat, curling closer to where Adrian's heart and lungs
shifted with the pulsating of his blood. Adrian slowly began unzipping
the massive coat, freeing the snake which clung to his bare chest. James'
eyes followed the movement closely, lingering on the dozing snake.
"If you would prefer," Adrian started, relieved that his voice had
recovered and was taking on its deeper murmur, "I can ask Lutain to lay
over by the fireplace."
Lily's face didn't change, but James gave a jerky nod. Adrian very slowly
lowered his hands, gripping the armrest and splaying the other over the
seat next to him. He let his eyes stay locked with James Potter, spotting
the same shade of brown that Skylar's wide eyes always looked at him
with.
"Lutain," Adrian started, trying to not flinch at the way the other two
inhaled sharply, "could you lay by the fireplace? It would be warmer and I
want to try and make neutral ground."
Lutain hesitated, pausing one moment while curled in his shirt.
"Please," Adrian tacked on after a second, keeping his hands still. "This is
important."
"Okay, Master." Lutain agreed with a small sense of dread. Carefully
unraveling before gracelessly plopping over Adrian's knees. The snake
recovered, slithering over the fabric and the rug before curling into a
lopsided pile near the heat of the flames. The reflection danced over
Lutain's small black scales, he truly was gorgeous to look at.
"Okay," Adrian began quietly, inhaling through his nose and exhaling
from his mouth. "I want to talk."
"Go ahead then," James jerked his chin, tensing as Adrian pulled his
hands back to his lap and fumbled with his fingers.
James and Lily were addressing him as a monster, as a villain. Any day,
Adrian would accept that. He could agree under normal circumstances
that he was something foul. That he was something and someone to be
feared.
But not today. Today Adrian refused to accept those expressions and
those faces and he refused to succumb to the terror that the two adults
gave him.
Adrian wet his lips with his tongue, and slid further back on the couch.
His polite well composed posture fell apart, instead he curled with his
knees to his chest and a pillow lodged under one elbow. It was a sprawl,
defensive and almost fetal.
Adrian had to talk, he had to choke over the words or he would never say
anything and he never would. He needed to spit it out, to force out all of
the bottled hate and fear that had been haunting him.
He was Adrian Selwyn, but the creature of who he was now was built on
the skeleton of Harry James Potter.
"When I was young," Adrian started, his tongue felt limp and thick and
his throat felt swollen. He felt like he had a flu, that he would start
gagging on mucus and phlegm. He didn't know if the words were even
comprehendible, if he was speaking in a language known to anyone else
but him.
He kept talking, because he knew he would never say these words again.
"When I was young," Adrian began again and fumbled with his fingers. "I
had...I learned, that Skylar was more important than me. Not like...I knew
about...that he was the Boy Who Lived...but...but I...I thought that Skylar
was worth more than me."
Lutain was watching him from the mantel, he knew the two adults were
watching him also but he didn't dare look up from his fingers or
everything he had spent so long to manage would fall apart.
"It shouldn't be like that," Adrian spoke, a croaking sound that hurt to
hear. "It...It shouldn't be that we...I- like economics. It…"
He knew he wasn't making sense but he had to keep talking.
"It- It's…" Adrian was choking. "Only so much time can go into one s-so if
you devote resources… on the one you get a better product so-."
"What the bloody hell are you talking about?" James interrupted, looking
well and truly baffled by Adrian's stressed ramblings. At least he didn't
look ready to snap Adrian's neck.
"Let me talk!" Adrian snapped out, suddenly a much higher volume.
Adrian flinched back, alarmed by his own outburst like Lily and James
were.
There was a tense pause before Adrian inhaled shakily and forced himself
to continue. "I- I learned, that... I was worth less than Sky." Adrian
mumbled out between numb lips, "that...that Sky's importance was
greater than mine. And...And as a kid you...you think that how you're
treated means it's who you are, and...and because Sky got preferential it
made me think that I was nothing important."
The silence was almost tangible.
"...And because of that," Adrian almost laughed because of how much it
hurt, "because you spent all your time on him, I thought...I thought that
maybe, maybe if I did the same, you'd...you'd like me...more?"
His voice lifted towards the end, tilting upwards into a question that
cracked partway through.
"So I tried," Adrian whispered and gagged, "I tried so hard, and...and I told
you to leave me or to… to spend more time with him, because maybe if I
do things which help you help Sky, you'd like me more?" Adrian's bottom
lip was trembling, twitching uncontrollably, "...maybe you'd love me?"
Adrian's hand curled into a fist, and he curled up slightly tighter on the
couch. He didn't dare look over. He couldn't dare look over.
"I…" Adrian trailed off, trying to stitch the thousands of words and
adjectives in his head into something that could convey the hell he
suffered. "Families are supposed to be our models for the world. It's...as a
kid you look at your family and that's how life is. And...And if your family
tells you with words or actions that you're an obstacle, or that you're in
the way, or you're an afterthought or hopeless or rude or…" Adrian's lip
trembled and his voice was so distorted, "...that you're useless….it has an
effect…"
"Harry-." A soft voice interrupted, gentle and heartbroken. He knew it
was Lily.
"No!" Adrian snapped, ducking his head lower to glare at his knees. "No
you don't get to say anything! You are going to listen!"
They didn't talk again, so Adrian kept going. Words moving faster and
faster as he fumbled to talk quick enough.
"When I was young," Adrian continued again, "I...I always felt guilty, like,
I knew I was a waste of space. I knew that I was getting in the way and
you had to keep working around me because just existing was a hassle to
Skylar. And...And whenever people came to visit, everyone always said
that I should do everything I can to make my brother and my mum and
my dad happy because they're my family. And I felt guilty, that there
would be less food for Sky, or that I had a toy he didn't, or that...that I
was just around and I made you all worry when you should be worried
over Skylar."
Adrian swallowed and kept going. "And... and I felt bad when I knew
things he didn't. I felt bad when...when I could read faster than him. Or,
or that I knew magical creatures he didn't know. I felt bad that I could do
anything Sky couldn't. Because I was...because I was worthless and I
shouldn't have anything when Skylar inherently needs better." Adrian's
eyes watered and his hands twitched, "you don't know what it's like, to be
four years old and convinced that you should just die already."
He could hear the simultaneous quick inhale, the sharp inwards gasp that
fueled the fire and made Adrian keep going.
"I didn't argue," he continued, voice too similar with a sob, "with going to
the Dursleys. Because I thought if I stuck around, I would...I thought if I
stuck around I'd be in the way," there were tears on his face. "I thought
that...that I'd somehow mess things up and then Voldemort would show
up and I already knew I was useless and in the way so I left because I
thought that Skylar needed the attention."
"And you know what!" Adrian screamed, turning to finally glare at the
two horror struck faces, "I wanted you to argue so fucking bad, that I
should stay! I wanted to stay! And you threw me aside like I was fucking
trash!"
The screaming made them jump, it made them tremble.
Adrian wasn't done.
"The worst thing," Adrian kept going, "was...the worst thing about child
abuse is betrayal. Because you were my world and it wasn't just...it wasn't
some stranger that hurt me. It was the people who were supposed to love
me and protect me, and maybe that's why everyone always talks about
loving and forgiving your family. Because that was your job and instead
you betrayed me and agreed that I was worthless when all I ever wanted
in the world was for you to hug me and tell me I'm not fucking useless!"
"Master." Lutain interjected, trying to stop the sudden rant Adrian found
himself on.
"No, no you shut up too." Adrian spat out, pointing one shaky finger at
the snake, "do you have any idea what it's like, in this sort of society, to
hate your parents? I could be- I could be beaten, I could be raped or- I've
had my limbs torn off, but their actions are justified and I'm the bad one if
I don't love them."
Lutain lowered his head, flinching back. Adrian's nostrils were flaring.
"Every bloody holiday!" Adrian howled, "every bloody holiday everyone
talks about going back to see their family! Tips and tricks on how to get
along with your old blokes! How to love your drunkard father! How to
forgive your offensive cousin! If I had a bloody knut for every time
anyone told my 'oh, your parents mean well,' I'd be bloody rich! So I have
to keep bloody pretending that my life is wonderful! That my face is just
some bloody accident! That I come from a loving family and I completely
love them back!"
"And that is not bloody fair! It's taken me my entire life to figure out that
it's okay to not love your parents! It's okay to not forgive your parents!
It's okay that I'm a little bit mad my face looks like a goddamn quilt! It's
okay that I want to cry or throw up thinking about my family! I didn't
fucking choose this!"
"Harry-," Lily cut in again, voice strained and broken. It didn't sound like
all of the ways Adrian imagined it would sound. It didn't sound like the
millions of times he thought this conversation over in his head.
"Adrian," James interjected softly, his preferred name was enough that
Adrian could swallow and slowly look over, keeping his eyes on the
man's legs instead of their faces.
James moved, very slowly and carefully walking around the couch until
he could sit next to his wife. His body language was open, not at all the
cautious defensive posture from before. Adrian didn't know why, but he
hated that the most.
"Humans can't help how they feel," James started quietly, voice gentle
and ashamed but knowing. "We have very little control over our feelings.
Merlin knows I know that, there were times I'd hide away as Prongs just
so I could stop feeling."
It was always so much easier, being an animal.
Adrian wanted to pretend he had never thought about running away,
shifting into his animagus form and living out his life as a predator.
"But humans have complete control over our actions," James continued,
voice quiet and struck but strong, "and I can never deny that any of what
we did was right. I can never deny, that we didn't hurt you."
"You chose that." Adrian sniffled, sounding betrayed so viscerally he
could cough blood and it would be fitting, "you chose, with your free will,
to treat me like shite. And I had no control over how that made me feel."
Lily sniffed and trembled from where she sat, "a-a-" she paused, trying to
breathe through the stuttering of her words, "...a-and how did that make
you feel?"
Adrian smiled, a weak shaky smile. An expression so heartbroken and
tortured that it took the breath away from everyone in the room.
"I've been hit by the cruciatus," Adrian confessed in a near whisper, "I..I
know what it's like to be unmade...and it hurt. It's painful, and it hurts.
But every time I think back about that, about what you did to me...I'll
never forget the feeling of being absolutely alone in the world with no
one to love or protect me... And that absolute, deep shame."
Adrian exhaled, the gasping rattling sob could kill someone.
"And I will never forget it," Adrian couldn't help it, "the...I will never forget
that. The guilt, and...and I know now that none of it was my fault, that I
had nothing to do with it, but It doesn't make it go away."
"Adrian-."
"You know," Adrian smiled, in a breathless hysterical sob of something
pretending to be happy, "I almost wish you did just beat me. That you
just...just bashed my skull in. Because all you did was...it was just words,
right? Words don't hurt you...right?"
Lutain moved slightly, the sound of scales over the flooring. The snake
didn't approach or move further away. Instead, he tensed and moved out
of pure anxiety over the emotions of the discussions.
Adrian hiccuped, fiddling with his fingers. He wanted to claw at his
cuticles until they bled, but he knew the risks of that.
"I hate you," Adrian confessed quietly with a small sniffle. "I hate you so
much, because for years I thought I wasn't good enough. I thought I
wasn't smart enough, or powerful enough. And...and because of all of
that, I was used like a broken toy and I knew I was being used, but I was
okay with that, because maybe, maybe if I get a bit stronger or a bit better,
then maybe they'll love me."
Adrian was trembling again, hands twitching, "I wasted my life, trying to
make the Dark Lord love me."
"Master…"
"...and I did everything so perfectly," Adrian whispered. "I did...I became
a monster, because I thought if I was finally better than Sky, then maybe
I would be good enough to...to…"
To be loved. To be adored. To be something that people acknowledged. To be
a person.
"...I've done terrible things, because they were expected of me." Adrian
confessed with a sniff, "I've done horrible things, because sometimes,
sometimes, Bella would smile at me or give me a hug. I killed someone
because I wanted someone to praise me. I let my father scar my face and
put me through agony, because I wanted someone to be proud of me."
Adrian hiccuped, and it hurt his chest so sharply it burned. "I threw my
life away, because I wanted to beat Skylar at one thing, and you would
have to apologize to me about what you did to me...I wanted to see your
face, and I wanted to break your heart like you broke mine."
"Adrian-," James whispered, and Adrian shook his head. The world spun
in a wave of dizziness, the blood pressure in his head too low to support
such sudden movements. Adrian ignored it, forced himself to see through
it as he glared.
"No," Adrian argued with a small voice. "I...I know, that I wanted to see
your face. I wanted to see your eyes horrified and scared because you
deserved it. I wasted my life on that, because I wanted to hear what words
you have to say to defend yourself."
Lily swallowed, her eyes were bloodshot and silent tears had turned her
skin patchy.
"I don't want that," Adrian whispered quietly, knowing he likely didn't
look any better. "I don't want that anymore. It gives you too much power,
because it means after all this time I'm still willing to kill myself for your
acknowledgement. And that means nothing now. I don't care about it
anymore."
Adrian stood sharply, suddenly. He was standing, towering over the two
adults in their own house. They weren't his parents, they were his
abusers. They were Lily and James Potter, two people who made poor
life choices and because of that, Adrian couldn't find it in him to ever
refer to them as a title again. They didn't deserve it. They didn't deserve
his attempts even now.
"The fact I'm here means nothing. My ability to expose myself to the
source of my trauma is no measure of how successful my healing is. It
means nothing. Just because I can handle sitting here doesn't mean I
forgive you at all. Showing up here only proves to you that I'm strong
enough to take what you throw at me. I'm not going to stay here, because
I'm sane enough to handle it. I'm not going to stay here because I'm sick
enough to not leave." Adrian wiped one arm under his nose, inhaling
sharply as he thought through his last words, "'I hate you two, so so much.
And it isn't because of some...sense of morality that I'm going to walk out
of here. It isn't some 'great plan' of mine. It's out of respect for Remus,
that I am not going to kill you right now because we all fucking know you
deserve it."
Lutain perked up, slithering across the floor and up Adrian's arm
obediently. Adrian glared, tears tracking down his face and hiccups
forcing his chest to move.
"I hate you," Adrian whispered out, "and you have to live knowing that."
Adrian turned, and walked out without another word.
Mylla obviously expected it to take longer, she snapped her head around
in instant surprise the moment she heard him walk across the path. Snow
crunched, his breath puffed, and Mylla made a low rumbling noise as she
shook her head.
Her ears flopped around like a dog before she composed herself,
stretching her wings like a ballerina's pirouette. Her jaw gnashed,
stretching the joint as old sharpened fangs clicked together gently.
"I thought you would take longer." Mylla commented, stretching her legs
before rising into a single lanky creature. The sky was bright now,
although he hadn't been gone long.
"Yeah well," Adrian huffed sourly, hunching his shoulders together to
ward off the chill. "It wasn't much of a discussion."
Mylla's tail swished. Long and black, the hairs looked tough and poorly
treated, it was a marvel that there weren't any mats.
"Good." Mylla confided with a distinctly pleased huff. "Apologies are rarely
deserved."
Adrian's face twitched. His face felt disgusting, sugary and tight from
where his tears had dried. He knew his eyes would be bloodshot, Mylla
didn't mention it.
"You saying that I don't deserve an apology?" Adrian scowled, snapping
out his words viciously. Mylla walked towards him, sticking to the road
to avoid the uneven snow banks that would damage her footing.
"I say that apologies accomplish little." Mylla clarified with the infuriating
ancient knowledge she flaunted about. "It is an oath based on words, but
afterwards when words are exchanged the action has still occurred. Why
apologies after a wrongdoing, if it will not change the wrongdoing itself?"
Adrian shrugged his shoulders. "Sometimes it makes us feel better."
Mylla chuffed, her breath white foam in the air. "Feelings.
How...mundane."
Adrian rolled his eyes, feeling far too sensitive to banter or debate as
much as Mylla enjoyed. "Feelings give us abilities. Sometimes we forgive,
sometimes we can move on. Acknowledging our feelings gives us
opportunities to continue on with our life."
"Feelings are what inhibit you to begin with." Mylla countered with a
grumble, clicking her fangs uncomfortably close to Adrian's ears. "You
give too many chances."
"It's cowardly to attack someone when their back is turned." Adrian
muttered, "giving them a...giving them an opportunity allows them-."
"Allows you to be betrayed." Mylla hissed back, sounding aggravated and
furious the way she got whenever Adalonda was being implied. "Betrayal
always happens. How about those people you just visited? How many times
have they betrayed you?"
Adrian's jaw floundered, "I- I mean-."
"Once? I heard you." Mylla chattered her teeth, words hissing and spitting
from her reptilian throat. "Twice? From the forest when you were dragged
from that corpse screaming and crying?"
"I-..." Adrian flinched at the mention of Luna, uncomfortable with the
knowledge that Mylla knew what happened that night.
"Three times?" Mylla pressed with something like glee now, "they did not
chase you to beg for your forgiveness."
They hadn't chased after him when he stormed out, did they?
"It doesn't matter anymore." Adrian muttered to her with a sour note, "I'm
done with them. That's it."
"That's not the point." Mylla continued to argue angrily, "you offer too many
chances. You shouldn't do that."
"Just because you don't offer a second chance doesn't mean I shouldn't."
Adrian denied sharply. "I'm not an animal."
Mylla chilled, her body tensing into something furious but contained.
"You've changed."
"No," Adrian's smirk was all teeth, "I just realized how cruel you really
were."
Mylla landed sharply and with no mercy, nearly sending Adrian flying
from her back. Adrian cursed, grabbing the hair of her neck with sweaty
palms to stabilize himself.
The moment Mylla landed, the door to the cottage opened. A bushy
haired head poked out, details impossible to see over the distance.
Despite it, Adrian knew it was Hermione.
"Go." Mylla seethed, frustrated but knowing she couldn't be rid of Adrian
yet. "I need to hunt."
Adrian clambered down, not looking as Mylla sprinted off and leapt out
of sight. She had a bit of a temper.
Lutain stirred back into awareness the moment the heat of the wards
washed over them. A stewpot boiling and releasing gentle fumes that
only brought the cavernous pit of Adrian's stomach back into focus. He
could have eaten the entire pot, metal and all if he truly desired.
"I'm back." Adrian grunted, shucking off the coat and boots before
brushing past Hermione, sliding into the small living room. His couch
was occupied with Skylar and Ron, the former looking much healthier.
Adrian scowled, snatched the blanket from the redhead's lap before he
curled it around his slight frame. It was his blanket as far as he was
concerned.
"Oi!" Ron squawked, jumping in alarm at seeing the other so close. "Give
that back!"
Adrian bared his teeth and hissed wordlessly in parseltongue. Ron glared,
not deterred.
"Let him have it," Skylar croaked out with a small smile, "he's always
chilly."
"It's to counteract your hot-head." Adrian sniped back with a scowl.
Skylar raised his eyebrows, looking distinctly amused by everything.
"I'm sorry, I didn't hear you." Skylar blinked in mock surprise, "were you
calling me, the hotheaded one?"
"I swear to god if you bring up the-."
"You set the train on fire."
Adrian rolled his eyes and didn't respond.
"How was your outing?" Skylar asked curiously, adopting a
conversational tone. He blinked slowly, clearly tired but still energetic
enough for conversation.
"Oi, we don't want to hear about murder." Ron grumbled under his
breath. Skylar subtly kicked him, frowning at the viciousness.
"I didn't kill anyone." Adrian muttered in annoyance.
"Unlike Skylar's active murder on his brain."" Lutain slurred out, coming
back into awareness as the heat warmed his body.
Skylar glanced at the snake, eyes lingering before he quickly looked
away. "I don't know what he's saying, but I know he probably just called
me stupid."
Adrian almost smiled, "pretty much."
Hermione ran around the corner, holding a basket of assorted rolls. The
sight caught Adrian off guard, he hadn't seen so much bread in quite a
while.
"Here!" Hermione hurried, handing over the massive basket, "Tonks said
to give this to you the moment you got back! She's sleeping right now, so
is Professor Lupin-."
Adrian grabbed a roll, shoved it in his mouth and gave a grunt not unlike
a troll. He curled up further in the patchwork quilt, folding his legs
around him in a makeshift blanket nest with the basket in the center.
"I'm gonna be honest," Adrian spoke loudly, already tearing into another
roll, "if any of you take my food you're going to lose a finger."
"Bite them regardless." Lutain advised sleepily.
Ron paled and Hermione took a stumbling step backwards.
"I- you can't just bite people!" Hermione nearly shrieked, containing her
volume at the last minute.
"Unless they consent." Skylar piped up after a small moment.
Adrian didn't hesitate. "Kinky."
Hermione flushed so red, Adrian was sure she was darker than the
Gryffindor house colours. Ron looked ready to walk out the door and
forget any of them existed.
"I'm sure you know all about that," Skylar smiled back, a small timid
expression. His eyes were bright with delight and humour.
"I'm an animagus," Adrian responded without a pause, "I swallow things
whol-"
Hermione looked like she wanted to scream. Instead, she grabbed the
nearest pillow and chucked it across the room as quickly as she could.
Adrian flinched back, smacking the pillow aside before he tore into yet
another roll.
"Where did you go?" Skylar asked out of curiosity, "you ran out quick."
Adrian shuffled and tore bread into tiny pieces no bigger than his pinky
nail. "How's the relapse?"
Skylar gave a single shoulder shrug, "It's fine. I keep thinking that...well.
Sometimes I keep thinking I'm places where I'm not."
Adrian tilted his head partially, eyes locked and inquisitive. He stuffed
more bread in his face.
"Just tiny things," Skylar confessed with a small wince. "Uh...I keep
thinking my left arm is on...wrong…"
"Lost that once," Adrian grunted with a small nod, trying to keep the
information as impersonal as possible, "hurt when I was younger. Bella
chopped it off."
Skylar blinked quickly, then glanced down at his hand as if it was
something different.
"You had your arm fall off?" Ron looked at him in horror. Adrian ignored
him.
"My face hurts too." Skylar mentioned quietly, the atmosphere lowering
to a tense pause. Skylar pulled a hand to his own face, tracing along his
jaw and over his cheek, an obvious mimicry of the various scars across
Adrian's own skin. "I...I feel like I'm going insane. It..it hurt but it...it
was...nice?"
Adrian felt like vomiting all he managed to eat.
"Yeah," Adrian shrugged off as if it didn't bother him, "I wanted it at the
time."
Sometimes horror and disgust worked to silence conversations better
than a charm.
"...My skin itches too, like it's being pulled." Skylar spoke quietly, staring
at the wall blankly instead of looking at anyone in general.
"...A tattoo." Adrian tried not to think about it lest he summoned it, "it's
big."
He could see Hermione mouthing the word silently to herself, too shaken
to make words.
"Catnip." Skylar blurted, the word sharp and crisp. Firm, where
everything else hadn't been. "I smell catnip. All the time. When I look at
your snake, or that earring you've got now. That big thestral, or that
pudding Tonks gave when you were gone."
Adrian grabbed the last roll, rolling it between his fingers. He didn't want
to answer it, not really, but he knew for some reason he should.
"When someone dies, the first thing you forget is their voice." Adrian
mumbled, tearing the bread out of something to do. Something
destructive to hide how much his chest throbbed. "The last thing to go, is
the smell."
A pause, and Skylar inhaled shakily. "Catnip?"
Adrian bit and chewed and it tasted like ash.
"Did you have a fun New Years?" Hermione attempted to change the
conversation topic, forced bright and uplifting. Adrian smiled crookedly.
"Sure," He admitted with a glint to his eye, "spent it on my gravestone.
Saw our good mumsy and dadsy this morning."
Skylar choked, Ron instantly flung an arm out to keep Skylar on the
couch. Hermione gasped in horror and drew her wand instantly.
Lutain reared, coiling into a sharp S shape with the ready intent to strike.
Such loyalty, it was commendable.
"Don't worry, "Adrian huffed with a frown, "Merlin, I told you I didn't kill
anyone."
"My mum? Dad?" Skylar looked pale, any colour to his cheeks had fled at
the single mention. "You...you didn't hurt them?"
"I should have." Adrian confessed quietly, fumbling with the edge of the
empty basket. "I screamed at them a bit. Then I left. That was it."
"That was it my arse-."
"What about?" Skylar demanded, looking frightened and worried, "Adrian
what about?"
"Why do you think I would do something to them?" Adrian asked instead,
quietly and curious with something tired in the shape of his brows. "Just
because they abused me, doesn't mean that I in turn would abuse them."
"No," Skylar argued with something desperate in his eyes, "I'm worried
because you're fucked up, Adrian."
Adrian stilled, looked down at his hands. He flexed them, opening and
closing them as if somehow that would magic away his problems.
"Yeah," Adrian sighed wearily, "yeah, I guess that's justified."
Skylar swallowed, and looked no less afraid.
"I think, that If I had more time, I'd go to St. Mungos." Adrian confessed
in a low mutter, "find a mind healer. See if there was anything they can
do about it."
'But you're dying,' everyone knew and nobody said. Adrian could have
smiled.
"You're right, I am messed up." Adrian confirmed, "but I know that now. I
didn't before, but now I know that. I know it's not right, what happened
to me and how I am now. So I went, and I told them that. I told them,
that they were cruel and horrible, and I hate them for everything they
did."
Skylar watched him before he nodded slowly, "I don't hate them, but I...I
can't look at them. Knowing what they did."
"Then don't." Adrian shrugged and curled the blanket tighter around him,
"you aren't under an obligation to see them if you don't want to."
"It's not that easy!" Skylar snapped back, sounding scared and hurt and
very lost, "I don't want to ruin our family."
Adrian tilted his head with something small. "Sky, it took me a while, but
I figured out a secret. Screwed up kids can't ruin families, it's the screwed
up parents that deserve all the blame."
Guest: I don't see how can this get better with only 9 chapters left. You
better have a happily ever after
Buckle up, I was really really proud of this chapter.
Impstar: .. Why was Ron so suddenly hostile? And why did he think that
killing Adrian would end anything?
Ron doesn't know what to do. He has very little understanding or control over
what is happening, but he knows his friend is being hurt because of Adrian.
Ron wants to be a good friend, because that's all he can be. Ending Adrian
may have worked, but Ron has morals that last longer than anyone else's
through this entire story.
DeviousClass: Oh no, don't do a decount; I'm not ready to let this story
go :'(
I was writing yesterday and I realized, that after a certain scene, it was the
last time I'd ever write that character. I actually teared up a bit. I don't want
this multiple year adventure to end.
W0lfbr0ther:Alright, so I just binge read this Amazing story in like a day
and some. First holy crap your an awesome writer. I actually cried at
parts. The way you portray characters without going to "bashing"
territory is surprising especially since you use a fair amount of Pov's. You
kept it engaging without getting either over detailed or to simplistic. Man
such a well done tragedy is rare can't wait for the final chapters. Thanks
for writing this.
Thank you. I'm so so so happy, that you find this tragedy as horrific as I do.
I'm not ready for all of this to end.
8 Chapters Left
73. Parting
Thanks to the Discord server which is filled with wonderful readers
who helped me with ideas!
Goodbyes are always so sour. Especially the ones you never got.
There was only one place in the world where Adrian could ever imagine
Dumbledore hiding out. There was no building that could contain him-
no walls or land that would house him, except that of Hogwarts.
From what Adrian knew and heard, the man was wanted by all the
corrupt government. The papers failed to detail where he went and how
he moved. There was very little that Adrian could do to find him, except
the knowledge that no man could dare resist the allure of a place he
called home.
"I know he's at Hogwarts." Adrian spoke in the early morning, when
Remus was aware, and when Tonks had finished vomiting. They sat
around the table, quiet in the morning haze. They didn't talk louder in
fear of waking the three others that lived in the house. They didn't want
to face that morning yet.
"I think so too," Remus agreed tiredly, "there's many places in the castle
he could hide."
It seemed rational, it seemed realistic.
"Is this it, then?" Tonks asked quietly, hand rubbing the swell of her
stomach. "The battle we've all been denying?"
"Tonks-."
"No, you know I'm right, Remus." Tonks argued quietly, "Ever since
Bellatrix...we've just been waiting. We've been buying time we don't have
anymore."
Remus shook his head, raising a shaky hand to scratch the side of his jaw,
"I- I can help-."
"You can't even walk on your own." Adrian argued although he had no
fight in him anymore. "You can't leave this house, Remus."
Tonks couldn't either.
Adrian could.
"I think," Adrian exhaled shakily, "that I need to head out soon. Go find
Dumbledore and Scamander, put Adalonda down once and for all."
"There's no rush." Remus argued although it felt weak between them.
There was a rush, there was a ticking clock that was counting down
slowly until Adrian simply...stopped.
"Yes, there is," Adrian smiled weakly, looking down at the kitchen table.
He had sat at this table every day for months now, throughout the cold
winter. He knew its scratches and stains better than everyone.
"Do you have a plan?" Tonks asked quietly, fiddling with the tips of her
black hair. "To stop the basilisk?"
Lutain twisted around Adrian's upper arm, thankfully silent in this quiet
discussion.
"Yeah," Adrian sighed, confessing quietly things he didn't want to think
about. "I'm not sure how well It'll work, but I think it's the best plan I
have."
"Basilisks are magic repellent." Remus croaked out with a worried look in
his eye. "You can't spell it Adrian."
"I know." Adrian smiled fondly, "I'm a basilisk too. Her glare can't kill me.
I don't know if her venom can."
Tonks cursed and punched the table. She was crying.
"I imagine I'll be in the papers."' Adrian tried to smile. He couldn't quite
manage it. "Maybe this ugly mug will actually get his picture taken, eh?"
"You're very handsome." Tonks warbled out, trying to look stern although
the fact she was on the edge of tears didn't help. "Don't let anyone ever
say that."
"Wow Tonks, really tackling those self-esteem issues, aren't you?" Adrian
teased, hands fumbling on the table.
Just…shite.
"I want to name the baby after you." Tonks gasped out in a sob, face
turning red and something somber. "Adian."
Adrian wasn't faring better. "That's...that's a horrible spelling. Do...Aidan,
or Ayden."
Tonks laughed out a sob, reaching out with one hand to grab Adrian's
one. Remus reached out, clutching the other long thin hand between his
calloused fingers.
"Oh, thanks," Adrian smiled at the way their hands stopped his from
shaking. "It...I get cold sometimes, and…"'
"Adrian." Remus whispered gently, Adrian looked at him, barely keeping
things together.
Remus smiled, tears dripping from his eyes. "I love you."
"I- I love you too." Adrian struggled out, blinking in surprise and outright
devastation, "I- I don't know if I've ever said that before."
"I love you." Tonks mirrored, barely audible through the silent sobbing.
Remus' thumb ran over the back of Adrian's hand.
Adrian hung his head and cried.
"I'm so happy I came home." Adrian confessed, entire body shaking
violently. Water was giving the table new stains. "It...it was so short
and...I... I don't want to die and I-..."
"We love you." Remus assured him, repeating it again and again until
Adrian could finally let himself say goodbye.
Skylar shuffled downstairs when it was nearing noon, finally feeling
rested after a genuine good sleep.
It was strange to be distant from Lutain. It felt like he had a weight off
his back, layers and layers of a thick bandage finally unraveled from a
long-healed wound. He felt empty in his head, quiet and peaceful. He
knew it would take time to get used to it, but he wasn't sure how much
time they really had.
Skylar shuffled into the kitchen, hesitating the moment he felt the tension
in the room. Tonks and Remus were on the couch, holding each other
close. Adrian was nowhere to be seen.
"Hey," Skylar awkwardly announced, sliding further into the room. "Is
everything okay?"
Skylar hated that the first thing he could think of, was that Adrian had
bolted. He had left without saying a word and now they were trapped in
a tiny cottage in a world far too large to think about.
'No,' Skylar reasoned with information he remembered too distinctly, 'he
wouldn't leave without a reason.'
"Hey!" Tonks tried to say happily, instead she sounded like a miserable
toad. "I uh, he...Adrian's outside."
Skylar nodded and smiled awkwardly. He lingered a few moments,
looking at the decorations or the scratches on the cupboard doors. Once
it was far too evident he was lingering out of politeness, he ducked out
into the foyer. There were countless coats hanging on the pegs there, the
one oversized coat that Adrian had claimed was gone.
Skylar fumbled, trying to jam his feet into boots too small for him. His
actual shoes were still upstairs, he didn't want to risk the creaky steps
just so he could walk a bit more comfortably. The boots worked- they
were a bit snug around the edges of his toes but nothing too horrible. The
jacket he grabbed was thin, but better than nothing.
Skylar slipped outside into the frigid air and shivered as it slapped his
face ruthlessly.
"Adrian!" Skylar called, quiet and gentle to avoid waking the house
further, "Adrian!"
He didn't get a response, but after a few steps off the porch it was easy to
see the other.
Adrian was always something fascinating to look at.
He was someone that commanded attention, either from his appearance
or his personality or the strange poetic cadence of his speech. Skylar
couldn't ever recall the other talking or acting like anything else, he
was...he was just Adrian.
Skylar could have pictured the same scarred body sitting anywhere.
Skylar could imagine him perched on the head of the Giant Squid. Adrian
had a quality to him that defied reality, a strange sense that caused
Skylar to dismiss the concepts of rationality and accept whatever it was.
Adrian looked sad, and Skylar felt very struck by the unusually open
expression on the other.
"Hey," Skylar spoke, wobbling as he walked over towards the other boy.
He was careful to keep his balance between the debris on the ground,
large chunks of wood scattered into needles as long as his foot.
Adrian traced his fingers over the edge of the frozen stump. His fingertips
were turning blue.
"You know," Adrian started in a low murmur, "nobody really gets it. Do
they?"
Skylar coughed and shuffled. "Get what?"
Skylar liked to imagine that he and Adrian had somehow gotten closer,
but the undeniable truth was that they hadn't. Adrian was still as
terrifying as he always had been. There was a link between them that
hadn't connected- maybe at one point it could have but somewhere down
the path they verged off. Skylar didn't know Adrian, and Adrian still
didn't know Skylar.
It made conversations like this that much more jarring.
"The fact we're going to die." Adrian huffed out casually, like he was
talking about the weather, "the fact that we're going to leave this place
and we're not coming back here."
Skylar twitched, and found he couldn't think of anything to say.
"This is bullshit," Adrian muttered quietly before correcting himself, "no,
dying is bullshit."
"Yeah," Skylar added after a small pause. "It's...it sucks."
Adrian barked out a laugh, curt and dry and sad. "It's...it's shit. People
keep talking about hope and the future, but they don't say anything about
the fact I'm not in it."
Skylar walked closer and brushed another stump off with the sleeve of his
arm. He sat down, freezing his arse almost instantly.
"I think they're just trying to keep you happy." Skylar confessed. Adrian
huffed out a sound, looking offended.
"Trying to keep me happy?" Adrian's face twisted into a look of disgust,
"that's...I'm dying. This is it. Instead of actually...being productive,
everyone keeps skirting around the topic. Everyone keeps acting like I'm
going to fall apart-."
"Aren't you?" Skylar asked curiously, tilting his head ever so slightly, "I
mean like, I haven't really thought much about it. Dying, I mean I know
you're going to kill me but it…"
Adrian swung his leg, kicking the snow carelessly. "It doesn't feel real. It
feels like you can push it off, like just wait another day. It's only a few
more hours, it's only a little longer."
Skylar blinked quickly, "yeah. It... It doesn't feel...now."
Adrian's mouth twitched into a corner of a smile. "And is it now? Is that
all we've got?"
Skylar shifted, his rear was nearly numb now.
"I've already said my goodbye." Adrian confessed in a monotone, "It was
brief, forgettable."
"What?" Skylar spluttered in shock, "you...you already-..."
"I thought about it," Adrian mused quietly in the strange musical way he
sometimes adopted. "Often. Over and over, all the things someone would
say before they die, the last words. The single sentence that you
remember more than anything else. I think it's...wrong. See," Adrian
turned, rotating his body to look at Skylar head on.
Skylar flinched at the look of sheer loss and acceptance in Adrian's eyes.
A look that made Skylar want to scream and run for Remus at that exact
moment.
"Skylar," Adrian started in a low voice. "I don't like goodbyes, because
that's the thing you remember. That's the only thing that runs through
your head over and over whenever you think of them. I don't want that, I
don't want them to...to think of me like this. Bloodstained and deranged.
I'm not saying anything more, because when they try to remember me
they don't have a single memory to use."
Skylar found his words brittle. "That's cruel. You can't do that."
Adrian shrugged, rolling his shoulder. "I'd rather have them scrambling
over memories of my entire life, then have them put a single half hour on
a pedestal and turn me into something I'm not."
"That's bullshit." Skylar argued instantly, feeling furious and vicious. He
stood, kicking the frozen stump until it rang out with a muted noise.
Adrian looked at him, eyebrows raised in disinterest. His eyes looked sick
in the bright light.
"That's absolute bullshit and you know it," Skylar seethed, withholding
the urge to punch the boy right across his scarred nose. "You're going to
go back inside because you can't leave like this."
Adrian's breath puffed in steam. He tilted his head, looking far too
intelligent for his own good.
"Why not?" Adrian asked, blinking slowly. "I never said goodbye to Luna."
The air chilled, and Skylar felt absolutely horrified.
"Luna died," Skylar started, voice quieter as the topic edged into
dangerous territory, "suddenly, and without warning. You're not like that,
you know what's going to happen."
"That's true," Adrian admitted, then he smiled something small and cruel.
"Maybe I'm just too vindictive to give them something to remember me
by."
Skylar inhaled, thought very clearly, 'fuck it', and decked Adrian across
his face.
Adrian spun on the impact, knocked clear off the log. He scrambled in
the snow, looking at Skylar in outright shock. His nose started dripping,
bleeding downwards into the crusty collar of the bloodstained jacket.
"Right," Skylar huffed, feeling much more satisfied. "You are an arse. I
don't get to say goodbye to my mum and dad, so you are going back
inside right now and saying goodbye!"
Adrian's face twisted into a snarl. "Oh! So, I'm just some scapegoat you're
trying to live through? Emulating your daddy issues on me now!"
Skylar gaped before shaking his head in disbelief. "You are a bloody
hypocrite. No, you're going to go back inside, because the only way you
can ever tell if you've spent your time well is the number of bloody
awkward conversations you've had."
Adrian's nostrils flared, blood dripped, and Skylar waited until Adrian
slowly stumbled upwards, wavering slowly on his feet.
"What's that cliché bullshit you just said?"
Skylar's nostrils flared, and he stood his ground. "The bloody truth."
They stared at each other.
Adrian didn't say anything, but he walked to the house. Skylar followed
him.
They opened the door, stepping inside. Ron and Hermione were up,
Lutain was curled on the table that everyone was ignoring. Tonks spotted
Adrian, eyes widening in surprise. She stood quickly, practically vaulting
herself off the couch as quickly as she could in her state.
Adrian shifted next to Skylar, the latter grabbed his arm to keep him in
place.
"We thought you-..." Tonks trailed off, looking away pointedly. Remus on
the couch, looked at everything in silence. The room stilled, all eyes on
Adrian.
"I, ah…" Adrian cut off, clearing his throat uncomfortably. "I... I asked
you once, Remus...I asked if you were going to leave me."
Remus nodded slowly, a small smile on his mouth. "I remember," he
croaked out gently, "the bath."
"Yeah, right." Adrian grunted, running one hand through his hair
nervously. He paced in place, shifting his weight back and forth. He
looked so small, in the oversized coat.
"I wanted to apologize." Adrian rushed out in a single breath, "because I
am. Now. Leaving you, I mean."
Remus' face didn't falter. Tonks swallowed, and her hands twitched but
she stayed where she was.
"I…" 'Adrian squeezed his eyes shut, the skin on his cheekbones
puckering. "I've thought about this a lot and...I... People die." Adrian
blurted.
Adrian swallowed, curled his hands into fists, and looked up with fire
burning.
"Someday, someone you love is going to die, and you can't do anything
about it. And... And it hurts, so bad. And they tell you that shite, that
time heals all wounds, but it doesn't. It doesn't get better...and I…"
"Adrian," Remus spoke, gentle and soft. He right sided himself slowly,
wheezing and wincing as damaged bones moved and jerked. Adrian
watched silently, then walked over the moment a spot revealed itself.
He sat, and Remus rested against his side.
"Someday, someone you love will die." Adrian began again, "and it makes
life so meaningless and irrelevant. And you can't stop it, and it doesn't get
better and it hurts every single day forever."
Remus' arm tightened, and Adrian tried to keep his eyes closed so they
wouldn't see his heart.
"...but eventually," Adrian continued forcefully, "...some things seem a
little bit okay. Life is shit, it's complete utter shit, but because sometimes I
can smile at something silly, it means that life is a little bit more
meaningful."
Remus chuckled, low and gentle and hugged Adrian until his bones hurt.
"I love you so much," Remus whispered to him gently, foreheads pressing
together, "thank you, for saving me."
"I- no." Adrian argued with a wet laugh in his throat. "You saved me."
(Thank you.)
"We can't all take Mylla." Adrian spoke from outside, leaning against a
tree. The large thestral was over his shoulder, staring at them from the
shadows of a pine.
"No shite." Ron grunted, looking around at the small group
uncomfortably. "This is going to be bonkers, you know this right?"
Adrian shrugged, "I just need to see Dumbledore and Scamander."
"We're looking for Dumbledore also." Skylar added in, grimacing after a
pause, "we still need you to bite the cup and locket."
Adrian huffed and shifted, a small glint of Lutain's black body poked out
of his collar.
"I think we should apparate." Hermione added, looking nervous but
determined. "The wards extend before Hogsmeade, if we apparate in, we
could use the hidden tunnels to get into the castle."
"Great," Adrian sighed, glancing down at Lutain as if sharing a
conversation. "I can't see this going wrong at all."
"The moment they realize who it was that aparated, we're caught."
Hermione hushed, chewing on her lower lip. "Apparating isn't good if we
all go at once, but if we don't, then we won't be able to find each other."
"No offence, mate." Ron blurted, he gave Skylar a pointed look, "but
you're not running off on us again."
Adrian almost snorted with the ridiculous statement. He kicked at the
ground, scuffing it with his boot.
"I can get to Hogwarts fine." Adrian huffed dramatically, "I still don't see
why your arses are trying to get me to come with you."
Hermione huffed and put her hands on her hips. Her eyes lit up, and
Adrian's breath stilled in shock.
"Adrian Selwyn," she clipped out sharply and professionally. "I am very
annoyed with your lack of cooperation. We have established that you are
very recognizable, not to mention infamous currently. You wouldn't be
able to get into the castle before someone recognized you, let alone talk
to the Headmaster!"
"Mione-..." Ron started, only to stop once Skylar hushed him gently.
Skylar was trying to hold back a smile.
"Oh, excuse me?" Adrian shot back in disbelief, "I know that bloody castle
better than anyone!"
"And what are you going to do about the guards?" Hermione taunted
sharply, "the new wards? The teachers who know who you are?"
"I'll deal with them."
"You won't be able to deal with them if you're stuck at wand point before
you manage to get to the Great Hall!"
Adrian ran one hand through his hair, it stuck up in odd clumps from the
insane amount of grease on his scalp. "Fine! What do you suggest then!
You apparate in and instantly start running from the Death Eaters? You
somehow sneak into the castle once it's on high alert?"
Hermione cocked her hip and crossed her arms. She frowned, eyes
narrowing in suspicion.
"You cross-dressed as Bellatrix Lestrange." She snapped out, face blank
even as Adrian felt an embarrassed flush light on his cheeks. Lutain made
a muffled noise that Skylar identified as laughter.
"It was impressive," Hermione continued without any hesitation, "but you
had her clothes. You have ways of knowing information about You-Know-
Who, which means you'd be able to talk with anyone that chases after
us."
Adrian blinked in surprise, more taken aback by the neutral tone of her
voice, void of outright accusation.
Hermione continued, clearly not intending for him to say anything at all.
"You're going to kill the basilisk," she sniffed pointedly, as if the notion
was foolish, "you said you wanted to meet with Professor Dumbledore
and Mr. Scamander. Do you even know if they're at Hogwarts? Do you
have a way to contact them?"
"I-." Adrian gaped in surprise, feeling like shrinking under her pointed
look.
"No, you do not." Hermione huffed out. "Skylar has a patronus which the
Headmaster recognizes. Once Skylar is in the castle, we can easily send a
message. The Headmaster will be there, and Mr. Scamander too if we ask,
and you'll be in the castle."
Adrian crossed his arms and huffed. "You need me to get into Hogsmeade
and not have your cover blown. I apparently need your help to get into
the castle itself."
"Yes." Hermione nodded before her face sharpened ever so slightly, "not
to mention, you're a little defenseless right now, aren't you? I haven't
seen you do magic since we've gotten here."
Adrian stared at her unblinkingly. It was impressive how still he could
go. He tilted his head ever so slightly, unblinkingly, before he huffed
through his nose.
"Only if I get Skylar's invisibility cloak."
"What!" Skylar squeaked out, waving both hands through the air, "what
no! Don't drag me into this! That's a family heirloom!"
"Oh, you want to play that card?" Adrian gnashed out from between
clenched teeth, "because those blood wards sure weren't arguing with me!"
"Fine." Hermione clipped out calmly, barely blinking. "You get to borrow
Skylar's cloak once all the objects we need destroyed, are destroyed."
Adrian huffed, "great. I break that blasted cup and locket of yours, you
give me the cloak."
"After all the objects are destroyed." Hermione clarified with a thin smile.
"We have one additional object at Hogwarts."
"You bitch." Adrian scowled before he gave a jerky nod, "fine. What are
you planning to do to get to Hogsmeade without a problem?"
"Bloody hell, Hermione." Ron gaped in surprise over the entire situation.
"How long have you been planning this?"
"Months," Hermione delightfully added, "months, Ronald. I couldn't just
sit around studying for NEWTS, could I? I had to figure something out."
"You scare me sometimes." Skylar confessed with an affectionate smile,
"alright Mione, how are we sneaking in?"
"Well," Hermione started, looking at Adrian with a victorious gleam in
her eye, "Your tattoo is large; however, I've never truly seen it. That
means it's under some sort of disguise- not a glamour or Mad Eye Moody
would have seen it the moment you met. Your tattoo must have some
other type of magical communication- since you're parseltongue it would
easily mean that your mark must have some level of intelligence to carry
difficult messages or stay out of sight. It could be a number of things,
obviously, but all that matters is that you can summon your mark at will
to talk to Y- You-Know-Who."
Adrian blinked and quickly recovered. His jaw clicked shut, and he tried
to ignore the equally speechless looks on Ron and Skylar's face.
"So, what?" Adrian challenged, "you want to invite that bastard for tea?"
Ron leaned over and whispered very quietly into Skylar's ear, 'daddy
issues, mate?'
"I want you to say that you found us," Hermione clarified with frown, as
if Adrian was daft for not comprehending what her plan was. "You found
out we plan to go to Hogsmeade. We wait for a while, then we apparate
away and you follow. Since you're chasing us, others wouldn't be called
in to assist."
"And then all four of us are at Hogsmeade with no problem, and without
father telling anyone about where you are." Adrian finished with a small
curse, "bloody hell, except that means the man will know you're at
Hogwarts."
Hermione paused ever so slightly before she jutted out her chin. "So,
what?"
Skylar inhaled sharply and tried to disguise it as a cough.
Oh, Oh Hermione was a genius.
Voldemort's Horcruxes, they had captured all the ones they knew about
except for the snake. Dumbledore had the ring, the diary had been
destroyed according to Adrian, which left the single artifact at Hogwarts
itself. (It was the only place they could ever rationalize something being.)
With Adrian not being able to get his cloak for whatever purpose he
wanted, Adrian would be forced to assist them in finding and then
destroying the last Horcrux.
Since Adrian would have contacted Voldemort about where they were
going, Voldemort would be able to confront them once they sent a signal
that his greatest secret had been found out and dealt with accordingly.
They would have a defensive front, the entire castle, Dumbledore and all
the Order to help them in a final stand!
Adrian would be forced to stay with them until the Basilisk was
destroyed- which wasn't an issue on any part. If Adrian managed to kill
the basilisk and then left, then they could use the basilisk venom to
destroy the horcruxes instead.
They would have to take care of the monster before sending any signal
for Voldemort to chase after them, it would be lethal to try and defend on
both fronts especially with so little time to reinforce their ranks.
"That sounds good to me." Skylar spoke, trying to sound confident
although it mostly was just strained. "That okay with everyone else?"
Adrian looked at him with a frown, brows furrowing ever so slightly. He
could tell that they were keeping something from him, Skylar only hoped
that he didn't press it until after they were actually there.
"...Fine." Adrian spoke slowly, eyes flickering to the single massive
thestral that had remained- the one he called Mylla. "The cloak."
"I have it,"' Skylar assured him calmly, trying to keep his breathing
regular. "I promise you, we just need you to do one thing."
"You need me to do so many things." Adrian complained under his breath,
looking ready to punch a tree. "Now I have to bloody contact him because
of you?"
Adrian continued to grumble before he reached for his coat and began to
strip.
Hermione flushed bright red as Adrian kept removing layers. The scarf
came off, the outer jacket, then the sweater. Lutain looked thoroughly
annoyed with all the movement, but a simple warming charm on both
the boy and snake quickly had Adrian's shivering stop. He wouldn't thank
Skylar for it, but he didn't say anything either.
"Alright," Adrian stretched, looking tall and skeletal in a grotesque way.
The scar tissue of his electrical burns stood out starkly, nothing about
him looked appealing.
Adrian closed his eyes opened his mouth and hissed.
"Nagini." He summoned, flinching when his skin felt like tearing. It split
through, black ink over hard bone and Adrian was twitching at the
unsettling sensation. Skylar felt a phantom flare and found himself
covering his left shoulder.
The tattoo kept moving, over and around, looping over his boy and
rubbing on him like rope burn. Adrian tried to settle himself, closing his
eyes to fight off the nausea.
"Nagini," he murmured to the tattoo, "is father present?"
A pause, the tattoo did another loop before hissing out a single dumb
affirmative.
"Good," Adrian muttered lowly, trying to resist the urge to claw the ink
off. "Tell him that I found Skylar Potter, running to Hogsmeade."
The snake hissed out and then dove into the meat of his stomach. Adrian
keeled over gasping like it had bludgeoned him.
Adrian only managed to catch his breath before the tattoo returned, a
low pain filled groan slipping through his mouth.
"You okay-."
"Shut up!" Adrian panted out, not glancing upwards at the concerned
Skylar even as he braced himself on his knees to try and recover from
Nagini sprouting around his spine. "I'm fine!"
Nagini circled around, pulling heavily on his flesh. "Master wonders why
so long? Why not strike sooner? Very disappointed."
At an earlier point in his life, Adrian would have felt ashamed by that. He
would have felt crippled at the knowledge that he had disappointed the
man- but now, now he felt only fury and rage at the blatant
manipulation.
"It wasn't easy," Adrian snapped out, his mouth clicking audibly as the
tattoo waited for his words. "I'm working on taking down Dumbledore too."
"No." Nagini cut him off robotically. "Dumbledore is not to be attacked."
Adrian almost recoiled, instead his mind scrambled for thoughts as to
why.
"Why is that?" he hissed, righting himself slowly to adjust to the blood
pressure change. "Why can't I go after him?"
"Dumbledore is not to be attacked." The dumb lump of ink echoed.
"You useless animal," Adrian spat out in English, running one hand
through his hair before he jumped back into Parseltongue. "Why not!
Where is he?"
"Dumbledore is not to be attacked."
"Where is he so I can stay away and not attack him?"
The tattoo paused, considering his question. "...Hogwarts."
Great, excellent, they were in the right place.
"Alright, go away now." Adrian dismissed the ink, flinching as it dove into
the hollow of his sternum and collarbones.
Adrian winced and rolled his shoulders, cracking the joints a few times
before fumbling for his clothes. He pawed through them, pulling on the
heavy warm coat at the soonest convenience.
"You make a habit of shedding in the cold." Lutain noted somewhat amused.
"Shut up," Adrian countered with a gentle bop to the snake's nose, "at
least this time there aren't any cows."
"I have no idea what you could be saying right now," Skylar interrupted
smoothly with a far too chipper voice for the body horror he had just
witnessed, "but how did it go?"
"He knows." Adrian shrugged back, trying to stretch out the annoying
kink in his spine. "We've got time before we can run."
"Wonderful!" Hermione clapped happily, reaching into a small purse on
her hip to pull out a massively large picnic blanket. "I packed lunch!"
Adrian stared. They looked at him expectantly.
"On one hand, I hate you all so much." Adrian deadpanned. "On the other
hand, I am starving."
"I came prepared." Hermione pacified, pulling out something in foil that
was ridiculously large. She opened it, revealing an unnecessarily large
bowl of plain rice.
"My parents were one of those fallout shelter people," Hermione
explained quietly, "It ah, it helped."
Adrian huffed and grabbed the bowl, plopping down before taking the
offered spoon. At this point it was just empty calories that wouldn't do
anything, mindless chewing and eating in the desperate hope it would
drive off the hunger pangs.
"Skylar." Adrian abruptly spoke, not pausing in his careful shoveling of
food. The boy jolted, looking up from his sad looking sandwich.
"Yeah?"
"Dursleys." Adrian said, "I never heard the entire story."
Adrian's spoon clicked on the large bowl. Hermione forced herself to keep
eating, Ron flat out stopped.
"Oh, ah…" Skylar trailed off uncomfortably, fiddling with the corner of
the blanket. It was beginning to get soggy, the warming charm was
melting the snow around them.
"They passed away a while ago." Skylar finished very vaguely, not
looking up at all.
Adrian almost snorted. "I know. Was it Bella?"
Skylar didn't look up, instead he fiddled with the blanket over and over.
Ron got back to eating, Hermione too.
"It wasn't good." Skylar shivered, "there...there was some sort of spell
that...made people explode. They...they didn't find enough of the bodies
to…. we thought you were with them, there wasn't enough of anyone left
to know who was who."
Adrian looked down thoughtfully. He hadn't...he hadn't ever considered
that the corpses of the Dursley's were so mauled and unrecognizable, that
they assumed he was within the gore.
"Rumpervis, I think." Adrian mumbled, shifting the rice around in his
bowl, "or something related. It...it explodes birds. Maybe it works on
people, I never tried."
Adrian went back to eating. He found he was the only one.
They popped into Hogsmeade loudly, Adrian following a second after.
Instantly they moved, darting between the buildings for the shelter of an
alley. It was dark, dusk rising and lampposts burning with captured
pixies. Adrian didn't imagine the taverns would be open long, with the
increased outrageous price of butterbeer.
They scuttled down the street as fast as they could, anxious in the open
presence of civilization. They had been living in the woods, surviving off
rations for so long, it was a strange new word to have cobblestone and
mortar.
It was cold, but the adrenaline kept them warm. Adrian breathed in the
moist air of the heating charm, shrugging in the foreign feel of the light
cloak around his shoulders. It had been a very long time since he wore it;
sitting on his cloak for long rides on Mylla hadn't damaged the fabric at
all.
"Three ahead." Lutain warned, Adrian reached out and gestured against
the wall. The other three followed, ducking behind frozen barrels to be
hidden as three men walked past. The street was much quieter than they
expected, it seemed sadder too.
"Honeydukes." Skylar whispered, peering out across the large open
walkway they'd have to sprint if they wanted to get into the store. They
likely would set off a few wards, but at this level of tension Adrian
couldn't care less.
It was almost fun in a strange way, the exhilarating thrill of adrenaline
coursing through his veins. The chance of being caught, the risk that was
pinning them down with a lengthy glare.
"You need to get into it?" Adrian murmured quietly, thoughts racing. He
could easily move across the clearing unseen in his animagus form, but
that wouldn't fix permeating the wards of the store itself. He would need
to use magic, and he wasn't fond of the idea of vomiting blood
everywhere he walked. He'd need to get someone else across the clearing
with him. He couldn't shrink them, less he be stuck with a shrunken ally
without the ability to return them to normal.
He could always give one of them his cloak, walking around wearing the
infamous Cerestes outfit would easily deter anyone looking at them.
Adrian didn't want to give it up for a selfish reason, so he instantly
dismissed that idea.
"Why don't we set a building on fire, cause a distraction?" Adrian
proposed. Three glares in his direction easily denied that option as well.
Ron bit his tongue to keep the insult from leaking out.
"Fire would be too obvious." Hermione hushed under her voice, peering
around critically. "Any sort of attention will attract people we don't want
right now. We can't just walk over there, not without being spotted and
attacked."
Adrian frowned and shifted uncomfortably, "I could."
All three slowly looked at him, Lutain a reassuring weight on his
shoulders.
"You could…" Hermione trailed off slowly, "I don't think the people here
would like you very much."
"Well," Adrian huffed, tucking the cloak of his hood up to mask his
features entirely. "It never stopped me before." He could feel the slight
suction, the charms activating and masking his face forever. It felt odd
now, to be so careful in disguise when everyone knew his birth name.
The snow felt so far away, everything hidden behind the impenetrable
fabric of the cloak. He felt so far away, protected and dressed like a
military outfit for dressage.
Adrian didn't like the way the cloak stuck to him, the way each forearm
had a wand on it. His right arm had the second wand he went through
Hogwarts with. The left arm had the Holly Phoenix feather wand that he
never should have had.
He was armed, and he didn't want to be.
"Ready, Lutain?"
His friend tightened a fraction of a movement. "Yes."
"Come right back," Hermione hissed at him, grasping his arm so tightly
her nails dug in. He ignored her, shrugging her off.
Adrian walked across the lit street, ignoring the three hidden heroes
behind him. He walked across the snow, over the cobblestone towards
the closed down storefront.
It was dark, wards in affect. Adrian reached out, tracing numb fingertips
over the frosted glass. There weren't any sweets in the window anymore,
instead it was empty and scarce. Adrian had never seen it look this sad
before.
He tried the handle, finding it locked. He didn't know why he tried, it
didn't matter.
He heard feet approaching, too quick over the ground to be anyone
walking. It was purposefully, impossible to hide with all the snow.
"Master," Lutain warned quietly, rustling against his skin. Adrian didn't
remove his hand, instead he closed his eyes and exhaled slowly.
"Ay kid," Someone spoke, gruff and accented. Low level economic status,
someone itching for food or money given the trying times. "What's in
your pocket, eh? Looking for sweets?"
Oh, the economic times. They wouldn't be able to just...break in. The
wards would be reinforced, likely linked to the government if they sold
food. Their plan was ruined already. Hermione hadn't thought of that,
neither had Adrian. They would need a different way inside.
"No," Adrian spoke quietly, blandly. "I'm not in the mood for much
anymore."
The footsteps got closer, two men. They were large, looking and gaunt.
Adrian turned to see them approach from the corner of his cloak, they
looked cold and thin under the lamp light.
"Oh wow, the kid's looking for something else." The one on the left joked,
elbowing his partner. The man drew his wand, the other pulled his out as
well, waving it threateningly without looking qualified.
Adrian reached up slowly and pulled down his cloak hood.
The two men flinched back, likely at his grisly features. He could see the
moment they clued in, the moment their breathing hitched and stopped
puffing in front of their faces.
Adrian reached up to scratch his cheek broadly. He shifted his weight,
feeling completely at ease.
"Hey," Adrian shrugged with a sigh, breath puffing as he cracked his neck
and blinked slowly, "You two looking for a fun time?"
The man on the left shuddered and took a step back, "Wecker- Wecker
that's him, that's...that's bloody Harry Potter."
Adrian felt a small sharp pain at being identified at that. He didn't want
to be related to that family. Then again, he didn't want to be identified as
his father's son anymore either.
Who was he?
"I am," Adrian smiled thinly, trying to keep his expression as calm as
could be given the quickly escalating situation. "And you two?"
The one stuttered, stumbling over words while the other glared at him
with a square jaw. This one was Wecker, although Adrian didn't
recognize the name nor the face. Likely a brutish man who was taking
advantage of the current times through brute force alone.
"...You don't look like all that." Wecker huffed out, his companion looked
ready to bolt.
"I guess I don't." Adrian agreed dismissively. He could imagine Skylar and
his gang, watching the exchange with a bated breath. Adrian had work to
do, he couldn't have knowledge of his presence extend and spread around
this quickly. "Break into this store for me."
They looked baffled, skittish, and quickly growing defiant.
"We don't take orders from you," Wecker ground out from his clenched
jaw. His wand was wavering, still pointed downwards but in Adrian's
direction. That wouldn't do, the man was still too much of a risk.
"Rude." Adrian hummed back, trying not to appear as anxious as he
certainly felt. "Lutain, how fast can you go with all the snow?"
Lutain slid out from the hood, coiling around Adrian's throat in the well-
practiced intimidation technique. Although Adrian was thinner and felt
older, and Lutain was thicker and aged, it felt like a well-rehearsed
movement unbound by the claws of time.
The men gaped, flinching at the parseltongue. Lutain tasted the air,
circling into thick lazy coils.
"I can strike one for sure." Lutain responded with a critical eye. "The other
may be trouble. I am warm, but snow is not easy."
Bless Skylar and his petty warming charms and spells.
"Right," Adrian hummed, stroking along Lutain's scales with the flat of his
fingers. "Men? Shall we?"
They flustered, gulping and looking ready to scream.
"Master," Lutain warned instantly, "someone new."
Adrian didn't turn, but his back did stiffen. He heard the approach a few
seconds after, large stomping steps quickly accompanied by a tall
somewhat familiar man. He had a short-cropped beard, weathered skin
and piercing eyes. The scowl on his face could rival Adrian's own, the
wrinkles and crow's feet didn't help.
"Oi!" The newcomer shouted, winded and hoarse but still loud and
commanding. "Scram!"
The two men bolted easily, leaving Adrian standing along under a
lamppost outside a boarded-up store being approached by someone who
looked out of place in this decade.
"Wonderful." Adrian drawled to hide the growing panic he felt- was this
man one of his Father's men? It was more likely it was an independent
wizard, someone who recognized Adrian; someone choosing to work
accordingly on his own. Adrian could be at risk, but the new man showed
no intentions of stopping his harsh stomps.
"I…" Lutain trailed off unsure, tail tip twitching. Adrian stiffened himself
in preparation of shifting if needed.
"Boy," The man grunted, not unlike Hagrid. He came to a stomp, thick
coat fluttering around him dramatically but Adrian could tell it was just
coincidence. "You that Selwyn brat?"
Adrian's jaw dropped ever so slightly, he caught it before it would have
been noticeable.
"You going to just stand there?" The man demanded with a scowl, "c'mon
then!"
He turned and started to walk away.
Adrian took a half step forward before he shouted out, "If you think I'm
going with you you're insane."
The man laughed, "coming from you? Shite, I heard you were bad, but do
you ever use that bloody head of yours?"
Adrian's hand twitched and he smelled smoke. He exhaled and quelled
his urge.
"Aberforth." The man grunted out with another frown, displeased that he
had to say even that. "Let's go then."
A shuffle, a clatter then suddenly a red nosed cold Skylar was bolting
from the alley. His eyes were bright in surprise and disbelief, and he was
once again acting stupid.
"He should have drowned in a bathtub." Lutain exhaustedly inputted to
Adrian's own cursing.
"Aberforth!" Skylar shouted, ignoring the hush they were trying to keep.
Aberforth swore crudely, swishing his wand in a complex maneuver that
Adrian recognized as a silencing ward. The fact the man could cast it fast-
likely faster than Adrian's father himself, said something.
"Blasted boy! Don't go shouting names about!" Aberforth spat, running
one hand through his short grey hair, "rotten lot, you all are. A goddamn
magical recession you bloody monsters gave us."
Adrian scrambled to think of anything to say.
Skylar didn't look at all phased by the insult, likely because Lutain had
thoroughly trained the boy to ignore jabs against him. Skylar instead
fumbled over the snow to go right up to the stranger, scanning the man's
face for something Adrian didn't know.
"It is you!" Skylar sounded pleased, a large grin on his face, "do you know
how to get into the castle?"
Adrian choked, sputtering over his words. "Skylar how would he-."
Aberforth gave a grunt and a nod, scowling at Adrian as if he had kicked
the man's prized pet opossum. Lutain made a small whining noise. Adrian
would have thought his friend was used to this level of chaos already.
"Course I do." The man mumbled under his breath, having the audacity to
sound offended. "Get your friends and this baby Dark Lord out of here,
we're drawing eyes."
"You're not." Lutain assured Adrian, still on the watch for any scents or
movements.
Adrian's nostrils flared. He crossed his arms, scowling and gnashing his
teeth. "I'm not going anywhere until you explain further."
Aberforth looked ready to leave him out in the cold, Skylar rushed to
soothe the situation with one of his awkward smiles and frustratingly
endearing cowlicks.
"No no no! It's fine!" Skylar tried to soothe Adrian like he was some sort
of startled deer, "he's a friend of ours!"
"I've never met you before in my life, boy." Aberforth grunted. Skylar
woefully ignored it.
"He's going to help us!"
"Should I investigate?" Lutain timidly asked, just as baffled by the situation
as Adrian was.
"Oi! No snake talking, or I'll curse you!" Aberforth grunted out.
Adrian recoiled in offense. "You start cursing me I'll start cursing you!"
Skylar jolted in alarm, "no no, Adrian no that is a very not good idea."
"This is a disaster." Lutain bemoaned in distress, "you're going to make me
vomit from this."
"Stop it Skylar, you're giving Lutain anxiety!"
"Adrian please don't curse anyone here, we really need to be sneaky about
this and you looking like a corpse isn't going to help anything!"
"What's this?" Aberforth shouted into the fray, "you're already looking
like a ruddy corpse to me!"
"At least I'm not a goddamn geriatric."
Aberforth looked ready to roll up his sleeves and start punching.
"Okay okay, introductions are in order!" Skylar shrieked out, looking and
sounding a lot more panicked than his words suggested. "Adrian- Adrian
no. Er, Aberforth this is Adrian, he's got a snake Lutain and this magical
parasite. Er, this is Aberforth, he's Dumbledore's brother and-."
At the same moment, Adrian shrieked out "are you kidding me!'" in
absolute dismay; Aberforth shouted back in alarm "magical parasite?"
Skylar pressed both his palms into his face and resisted the urge to
scream.
"Yes! Yes okay!" Skylar hissed out frustrated, 'Adrian's got a Vitiday-,"
"Vitaedax." Adrian corrected him with a numb expression of shock.
"Right right, a Vitaedax, and Aberforth is Dumbledore's older brother.
They're related, lots of great family bonding. Can we please go?"
Aberforth crossed his arms and took a half step backwards. His
expression was stony as he glanced at Adrian, surveying his high-quality
cloak and the gleaming black snake. Old eyes traced the sharp ridges of
Skylar's cheekbones and the pointed protrusion of his jaw. The hollows of
his cheek, the sunken bags below his eyes.
"Vitaedax, I know that one." Aberforth grunted out with an unreadable
look over his face. He gave a slow nod, looking at Adrian once again
before jerking his head back the direction he came from. Skylar let out a
breath of relief, signaling for Ron and Hermione to shuffle out.
The entire walk back to Aberforth's pub (The Hog's Head? Really?), the
man kept stealing glances at Adrian's face.
(There were uncanny parallels from those diseased and poisoned. A
strange likeness, that couldn't be explained by the matter of flesh or the
matter of blood. It was the eyes, the strange lilting of speech. The same
way that he and Ariana had both accepted death before they ever truly
began to live.
It made Aberforth feel like a very old man, doomed to watch history
repeat itself over and over.)
11 different reviewers: Thank you for the chapter.
You're welcome. I know the content was hard. It was something people needed
to hear.
R0ulette: Was this chapter early?
Yep! I've been rushing out these chapters to see if I can finish this story on, or
before Halloween.
It's time, for things to start to close.
7 Chapters Left
74. Thespian
Thanks to the Discord server which is filled with wonderful readers
who helped me with ideas!
Adrian is head Drama bitch and nothing can convince me otherwise.
Adrian Selwyn felt like an absolute fool.
He had overlooked something so basic, so ordinary in his wealth of
knowledge. He dismissed his information of magical creatures and similar
topics and along with that, he dismissed Newt Scamander much more
than he should have.
Newt Scamander was famous for his wonderful findings in Magizoology;
the discoveries he made revolutionized the world. He was a hero in the
eyes of many, but all of this was possibly only from the man's phenomenal
ward-work. It didn't seem like much, but wards were everything when it
came to magical creatures.
A ward to dispel fire, a ward to regulate arctic temperatures. A ward to
corral and contain dangerous creatures, a ward to funnel and ensnare
those that got away.
Adrian had overlooked that, he hadn't even considered that Newt
Scamander could have a greater role to play.
Let alone, that he, Albus Dumbledore, and countless others were now
living essentially, out of a suitcase.
"I hate everything about this." Adrian deadpanned, trying not to twitch
away from the movement near his shoulder. Dumbledore adjusted
himself on the large plush chair, willfully ignoring the way that they
were sitting on ornate furniture in the middle of a pasture.
Newt Scamander contemplated, resting his old head in his gnarled hands.
His cup of tea was in front of him, half drunk.
"Well," The man confessed awkwardly, "given our situations, it's certainly
not the worst idea."
He was right. Adrian was simply furious he hadn't even factored a
magically expanded and heavily warded suitcase into his equation.
"Ah, do not let it bother you." Dumbledore advised with a small smile
tugging at the corner of his lips, "it was certainly a surprise to my old
eyes."
'Liar,' Adrian wanted to spit out, 'I bet you helped him make it.'
Newt Scamander shuffled uncomfortably, clearing his throat. Ron,
Hermione, and Skylar looked nearly gleeful watching Adrian and
Dumbledore interact.
"So," Dumbledore sighed, stretching and groaning quietly at the
movement. Adrian glared even more fiercely at the noise. It was an
obvious show, the old man could easily duel everyone in the room and
come out unscathed. "I must admit, I was quiet startled when you four
appeared."
Skylar grinned, expression so wide and bright Adrian nearly had a
headache from looking at him directly. "Oh! No, we were looking for you,
Professor!"
Dumbledore's eyes flickered over Skylar's body before settling on his face.
Somehow, his face softened in relief. "I see you are unaccompanied
anymore."
Adrian shifted backwards, wishing Lutain hadn't run off the moment he
felt the warmed air and warded pasture around them. Adrian wouldn't be
surprised if there was a fully equipped ecosystem inside this trunk.
"Ah, no." Skylar's grin didn't falter. "Lutain's back where he belongs!
Headmaster I am so happy to see you!"
Adrian's stomach twisted in nausea at the sound; Skylar's excitement and
selfless delight was making something curdle wrongly.
"It's been a rough ride," Ron confessed, running one hand through his
lengthening hair. "Merlin knows how we managed it."
"I would presume young Ms. Granger here is the key to your success."
Dumbledore's eyes twinkled in amusement. Hermione flushed at the
praise, ducking her head.
Adrian shifted uncomfortably, feeling even more out of place with the
discussion.
"No! Honestly, it was a combined effort from everyone!" Skylar quickly
defended her, looking far too proud.
"It must have been quite difficult," Newt Scamander muttered under his
breath, tracing the lid of his teacup, "things have become quite rotten out
there."
Dumbledore's smile fell ever so slightly, his wrinkles duplicated in
number on his brow.
"The world has gone to shite." Adrian deadpanned for everyone here, "the
economy is bloody crazy, politics is a sham, at this point I would be
surprised if all international ties were cut off."
"Ah," Dumbledore sighed heavily, "that is the concern we have at hand,
Mr. Po-."
Adrian hissed, a single noise of wordless frustration. Dumbledore
obediently fell silent.
"'I don't care," Adrian began with nostrils flaring, "what you are doing. I
want into that castle, and I am going to find Adalonda and I am going to
kill her."
Everyone sat quietly around the table. Somewhere far above, Fawkes was
flying freely in the sky.
"I see," Dumbledore sighed once again, reclining on his plush chair as if
his bones pained him. "I assume you have thought of how to accomplish
this? A basilisk is no easy task, let alone one as old as this one."
Adrian huffed and crossed his arms. Scamander slid forward, resting his
forearms on the table as he looked at Adrian in the eye.
"Adrian." The man started, treating him gently yet cautiously. "I
understand you are mad, but a basilisk is not an easy target."
"I know that!" Adrian spat back in frustration. Why couldn't they all see?
Adalonda was- she was dangerous.
Not to mention Adrian still didn't understand why Dumbledore was
apparently off limits to kill, or what his father was doing.
"I know that." Adrian repeated, forcing his temper to settle, "but she is
mine. I know her, if anyone can try to kill her, than it's me."
Skylar cleared his throat uncomfortably. "Not to, er...to be rude, mate.
But ah, I've thought of how to kill the thing myself and I couldn't come
up with a single plan."
"Mr. Selwyn," Scamander interrupted bluntly although in a hurried voice,
"I feel that it's important we do not dance around the single problem we
have. I'm afraid you wouldn't survive any attack against a basilisk; I have
no doubt's you'd be capable of it, but what then? What after? I'm afraid
that with your state it's simply too dangerous to attack a basilisk with
magic-."
"Basilisk's have magic retardant scales." Adrian interrupted sharply, "I've
already thought that through. Adalonda isn't affected by cold or heat
either, so burning her isn't going to work- Skylar before you say anything
I know you thought that was my plan."
Skylar flushed and closed his mouth.
Dumbledore coughed to disguise a short laugh.
"I'm immune to her eyes, nobody else is." Adrian deadpanned shortly,
"that includes animals. Lutain will have to stay with one of you, or here."
Skylar inhaled sharply but nodded, eyes flickering around anxiously.
"What else?" Scamander asked, his face completely serious. His fingers
were tapping along the lip of his tea cup.
Adrian glanced at Hermione, who was biting her lower lip. Adrian arched
his brows, the girl instantly scrambled.
"No no!" She squawked in surprise and embarrassment, "I er, I think that
you should take the lead."
That was a surprise.
Hermione blushed further. "I...I'm not Selwyn, after all."
Oh.
Adrian exhaled and nodded, eyes looking down at the table as he
contemplated quickly. "A...A basilisk is a reptile. It's a monster of one, but
it's still a reptile. It can thermoregulate better, has ridiculous eyesight and
heat pits so light changes nothing. It's sense of smell is decent, above
average but nothing spectacular. Hearing is similar, the spines on the
back of our- her head can help detect movement, so sneaking up on her is
difficult to begin with. She's got incredibly venomous teeth, multiple like
a boa or a python, not like general snake fangs. I don't think her belly
scales are any weaker than the rest of her body."
Scamander ran one hand along the edge of his jaw, deep in thought as he
looked at the table. Ron was shifting uncomfortably, unable to contribute
to the discussion at hand.
"What about personality?" Ron offered quietly, clearly not wanting to be
there. "I mean, you can talk to the ruddy thing. Is it...scared by
something?"
Adrian wanted to laugh at the idea of Adalonda being scared.
"Merlin no," Adrian huffed out, smirking sardonically, "...god that would
make this so much easier. She's...she's wonderful. She's everything I ever
wanted, kind, compassionate. Knowledgeable, helpful. I didn't even know
about her ambitions until...afterwards."
"That is most distressing." Dumbledore muttered lowly, one hand stroking
his unkempt beard. He looked distracted, gazing off in thought.
"She's my friend." Adrian confessed quietly, "...or, she was."
Things have changed.
"What about natural deterrents?" Scamander asked hesitantly,
"Marigolds? Garlic?"
Adrian huffed and shook his head, "If you think a plant is going to freak
her out, then you're hopeless."
"I imagine you can't just like, I don't know." Skylar scratched his cheek,
"stab her with a sword or something?"
Adrian inhaled, held his breath, than exhaled slowly.
"Skylar," Adrian closed his eyes to keep his mind as calm as possible.
"You are an absolute idiot and a useless contribution to this table."
A pause.
"That's fair." Skylar conceded with a nod, "but like, can't you just kill her
from the inside or something then? Poke out an eye?"
Hermione thwacked his arm suddenly, "Skylar!" She hissed under her
breath, as if the innocent question was going to start a fight.
Adrian rolled his eyes.
Then, he froze.
"Oh." Adrian blinked in surprise, mind racing frantically as he thought.
"Dumbledore, is Filch still working at Hogwarts?"
Daphne hurried down the steps towards the Slytherin Common room,
keeping her head low and ears peeled.
The world was so different now. Everything was so so different.
Draco never returned, he had vanished almost entirely after the
mysterious letter over the summer. She had been waiting on a baited
breath, but she never heard anything else.
Then, the economy broke and Daphne was far too informed to ever
suspect it as something other than foul play. Her parents had been
discussing it nervously, phrases about marriage jumped back and forth
between them.
Astoria though, Astoria always looked like she was haunted.
Astoria was Daphne's life now, she was all she had left. Not Blaise and
Pansy who quickly turned sour and petty, not Millicent who acted so
aggressive and impulsive she nearly had been expelled twice now, and
certainly not Theo who was more vicious than Adrian Selwyn had ever
been.
Oh Adrian Selwyn.
(Oh Harry Potter.)
How everything came together so sickeningly wrong.
The last thing Daphne Greengrass expected, was a small flash of
movement from the corner of her eye.
Daphne didn't know every corridor in the castle, but she was observant.
She had been permitted to roam about last year under Headmistress
Umbridge. Headmistress McGonagall wasn't nearly so cruel, but she was
more strict than ever before. Either personal policy, or the difficult
wartimes.
(Everyone wondered when they would be attacked. Everyone wondered
when the depleting amount of food at the feasts would finally run out.)
The movement was fast, quick against the floor.
Daphne instantly had her wand out, pointed at the shapeless thing in the
shadows under a tapestry.
A pause, Daphne's heart pounded in her throat.
Slowly, the animal moved, drawing itself further into the light. It was
early morning, before others would be awake for the feast. Daphne found
pacing at such an early hour helped keep her mind sharp and active- she
needed to be that now.
But this, but this, was something else entirely.
It was a snake, long and thick. Daphne briefly wondered how it had
disguised itself at all. It was dark in colour, maybe a dark olive or a dark
brown; the light was too dim to truly see what colour the scales were.
Daphne could briefly see damages along its body, like someone had
thwacked it with a heavy branch. Some patches looked shattered, like
broken glass painted along its back along its impressively elastic girth.
It pulled out, its head circling around. Head pointed and long- more like
a dragon's muzzle yet undeniably serpentine. It's eyes were clouded like
how all reptiles looked when shedding, acidic yellow with a strange
green rim where eye met socket.
Merlin, how long was this thing?
Eight feet? More? It was thicker than Daphne's thigh, maybe the girth of
a small watermelon. It was huge, watching her with a long forked tongue
that flickered distended in the air.
'It's going to kill me,' Daphne thought distantly, feeling panic and
adrenaline freeze her in place. 'A spy for the Dark Lord is going to kill me.'
The snake tasted the air. Between its two eyes, a spike lifted- as thick
around as a twig from a racing broom. It arched upwards, pointing
towards the sky and revealed a bright scarlet sail.
Daphne's breathing stopped entirely.
It hissed, slithered closer and lifted its entire upper body from the floor.
Daphne squeezed her eyes closed, hoping that it would kill her quickly.
Something cracked, a small popping noise like a knuckle shifting or
maybe a book closing. The air moved, gentle drafts shifting the loose
strands of hair along her cheeks. Her face itched, it had broken out in
thick welts of acne from stress.
'This is it,' she thought to herself with a dazed sort of clarity. She wished
she could have held her sister one last time.
Something exhaled, sickly sweet like rotting fruit.
"'Hello Daphne."
Daphne snapped her eyes open with a forced inhale.
Adrian Selwyn smiled at her, like how portraits of the deceased were
always smiling.
"Oh my god," She breathed, pupils dilating as she crumbled to the floor.
Her knees gave way under her, the stone was rough against her ankle
bones. "Oh my god."
Adrian looked at her, the thin fixed expression chilled her.
Daphne started to sob, and Adrian didn't look away once.
"Are you going to kill me?" Daphne asked, hiccuping in hysteria. She
wished her hair wasn't tied up, or that she had more of it to trail down
her sides. She needed to twist her fingers in it, to try and pull and pull
herself together.
Adrian's face fell then, twitching into a frown. He looked away, face
almost sad. "Do you think I am?"
Daphne sobbed and curled her legs in closer. She never got to say
goodbye to her sister.
"Do you believe me something so cruel?" Adrian asked her, gently and
rhetoric. "That I'm a monster?"
Daphne shook her head desperately, uncaring of how undignified she
looked.
"I suppose you knew me, better than most." Adrian contemplated quietly.
"You dug and dug for information, like a maggot in a wound. Did you
like what you found, Daphne? Did you like what you're ridiculous
childish obsession with blackmail gave you?"
"No! No I didn't!" Daphne defended, her voice was lifting, higher into the
shrieking noise she could make. "I- I didn't mean for any of this to
happen!"
Adrian looked almost pitying. "I've learned in life, that the most
unfortunate things commonly befall us."
Daphne's teeth were chattering, her wand forgotten.
She was at his mercy, and Adrian looked at her with pity.
"In all my experiences and all my shadows," Adrian whispered to himself
and to her, "forever chasing forward. If only I had turned and looked
back."
The sun was rising on a new day, and Adrian Selwyn had never looked
more horrific in Daphne's memory.
"You know, Daphne." Adrian sighed wistfully, "It's impossible to look at
someone and gauge their experiences from their past self to present. It's
useless to look at me like that, I honestly don't know what I'm doing
talking with you. I have some things to do."
"The prophecy?" Daphne blurted, trembling and filled with a irreversible
sense of hope, "the one that- that was in the news? You're going to save
us, you're going to-."
"No." Adrian spoke shortly. Looking at her with acidic eyes both yellow
and green. "I'm not."
Daphne refused to accept that. "But...but you're the Chosen One, right?
He- you can save us all, right?"
Adrian's face clouded over. "No."
"But you're supposed to! You're Harry Potter! You're supposed to-."
"I'm supposed to do nothing." Adrian shifted his weight, face blank but
very frosty. "I owe you all nothing. You all thought Skylar Potter was the
Chosen One until a year ago, have you thrown away your hero already?"
Daphne's head was buzzing with words and she couldn't think. She
needed to keep Astoria safe. She had to bargain with a devil and a
monster if only to keep her sister safe.
"But you're the real Chosen One!" She shouted, uncaring of how her voice
echoed. Students up for breakfast would be stumbling across them soon.
Adrian's lip curled back into a small grimace, "I owe you all nothing. I'll
treat you all, like how the world has treated me. I'm going to stand aside,
and do nothing."
Daphne was crying, desperation tugging on her heart and making her
eyes burn. "But you're supposed to save us!"
Adrian shook his head slowly, ashamed of what had happened to a once
noble opponent. "No. Go find your own bloody martyr."
Adrian twisted, a small popping noise and the large sailed snake was
slithering away, hugging the fading shadows of dawn.
Daphne was left, lying curled and crying in the middle of an empty
hallway.
The tunnels were small, expanding under Adrian's activation in
parseltongue. He settled, withdrawing a handful of rooster feathers to
stuff in the opening. The smell would be enough to keep Adalonda away,
but even he knew that she would find some way to avoid a Rooster's call.
Adrian huffed, pulling out more feathers before cramming them down the
drain, shoving them in the piping to ward off the area. Around the castle,
Lutain was guiding Scamander to other passages Adalonda frequented.
Skylar, Ron and Hermione had wandered off, chasing Dumbledore like
waddling ducklings. It was all so cute to see, but Adrian had little care
for their activities.
He needed to hurry and fill the other areas of the castle, clogging them
with feathers and bedding that stank of poultry. Scamander had been
raising far too many of the damned birds, although Adrian's idea was
much more ambitious than simply 'letting the roosters roam free.'
"This is ridiculous." Adrian hissed under his breath, feeling more and
more asinine as he fumbled with his bag. Corralling Adalonda was
impractical, but for now it was all he could do to contain her location to
a single place.
The castle was waking up; Dumbledore had assured him that the other
teachers wouldn't be alarmed with his presence but that was saying
nothing for the countless students who had hoped him dead. Adrian
didn't want to stop, afraid that he would be caught in the waves of
nostalgia that threatened to drown him in his mistakes.
The sun was rising; Adrian could barely remember the last time he saw
the sunset from the covered bridge, nor the company he once had.
Adrian ran through the hallways, briefly mourning the loss of his clicking
boots in Remus' hallway closet. It was more practical to have solid silent
footwear, although it wasn't nearly as stylish or comforting. The Cerestes
cloak fluttered around his sides, his hair fluffy and washed after however
long. Adrian felt foreign in his own skin, and felt dread more solidly than
the wands on his arms.
The lower levels were filled with feathers, the upper levels similarly
stuffed. The forest opening was broken under a landslide and similar
openings met a disastrous fate. There was little left for Adalonda to
venture to, Adrian imagined she had been peacefully basking in her
triumph for months.
Adrian couldn't imagine a life like that, where the tainted and corrupt sat
on a throne of delight and decadence. Yet, his father ruled the country,
and the Potter's had morning breakfast.
Adrian didn't know how to think about that.
He felt overwhelmed that in the face of something foul, all his time
would come to an end. He would be leaving soon, but he wasn't sure
where he was going to go.
He still had many things left to do, he needed the wand, the stone, and
the cloak.
To get the cloak he needed to destroy those objects of Skylar's, to get the
stone he needed to find it and the wand as well. Mylla told him it was at
Hogwarts, and knowing how fate loved to mess with Adrian so much, he
would be willing to bet money on Dumbledore being involved.
Adrian had so many things to do, but he had no desire to truly act out on
them.
It was a confession of his that he would never admit, the shadow he cast
regardless of the source. The intrusive illogical thinking that he knew
truly as he himself; some things were made to defy logic.
He wasn't avoiding responsibility. Though there was one thing he clung
to. An excuse perhaps, like the traumatized child. The soul of the
wretched, apathy. The belief that nothing was his fault, the belief that he
couldn't change anything even if he wanted. If someone was cursed, or
believed they were not at fault, then they wouldn't feel hurt when they
failed. The failures he had made could never have been prevented;
someone or something else would always live to make his existence hell.
Was it his fault if he couldn't overcome an adversary created to oppose
him? Was it his fault if he failed facing Adalonda when all odds were
against him? He would try, but would his own flaws be overlooked
because he simply, had too much damage to ever be successful.
It was a darker thought, that Adrian always tried to ignore. The concept
of destiny was foreign and wrong to him, as unwanted as the parasite in
his blood.
What was the point of prophecy, if all they ever did was eat away at you
from the inside.
Adrian didn't mean to.
He really truly didn't.
He was in the Headmaster's office, ignoring the portraits that leered at
him openly. He sat on a stool in the corner, back to the bookshelves and
the shelves that had been cleared of clutter and knick-knacks.
McGonagall had truly renovated, altered the room into something
different but still ancient.
Adrian didn't mean to, but when the headache began he thought it was
something small so he ignored it.
Lutain noticed but said nothing, exhausted and tired from his frantic
slithering to guide the older wizard to the common openings.
Dumbledore was talking with the acting Headmistress in quiet tones.
Skylar was writing quickly a letter, assuredly to his parents.
Adrian couldn't help but find his eye attracted to the grotesque withered
flesh of Dumbledore's hand. The single ring on his finger called to Adrian
like a siren's song. It felt sour but sweet, like buttermilk.
It was as black and as unsettling as a thestrals eye.
The ring was beautiful.
Adrian's head hurt.
Something opened, peeled from his flesh like a glob of gum; stretching
and sticking a flower bud opened.
Adrian wheezed, a hoarse noise had him falling from his stool, the
wooden legs skittering across the floor.
"Adrian!" Skylar shouted, spilling the inkwell in his haste. He sprinted,
Hermione similarly reaching Adrian before any of the adults.
Hermione moved first, basic first aid forcing her to roll Adrian on his
side, keeping his airways clear in case he vomited. Adrian contorted,
gasping in pain. His muscles contorted against his control, moving before
his hands.
"Master! Master!" Lutain cried out in stress, unable to do anything. Adrian
gagged, mouth open and heaving. Snakelike in its movements.
"Stand back," Dumbledore commanded, waving his wand quickly to force
the furniture away in a clear circle in the room. Adrian whined, head
burning.
He felt his skin pop, a small cut carving itself open across his face.
"Blood!" Skylar warned, regretfully pulling his hands back. Hermione
quickly moved away as well, careful not to touch it. Poor Headmistress
McGonagall was looking very overwhelmed with the situation.
Adrian gagged, his head was on fi-.
'Oh you poor wretched creature,' something cooed in his head, amused and
disinterested. Viewing something little with an abstract interest.
Watching a kitten crawl across a road, legs broken and close to death.
Adrian's eyes flickered, moving in the grasps of something too large and
too overwhelming to see. His right eye was viewing red, blood dripping
from his hairline.
Adrian's eyes drifted, wobbling and darting back and forth in animalistic
desperation. Flickering over the bookshelves and portraits, over Skylar's
concerned face and Newt Scamander's paling expression. Scanning across
Dumbledore's guarded face, down to the withered hand and the long
wand in his grasp.
The ring glinted, and after that, all Adrian could think of was agony.
Adrian's entire body shook and trembled, looking agonizing to any
observer.
Nothing could possibly compare to when Adrian's eyes rolled back in his
head, leaving the bloodshot whites exposed; and he started chuckling.
Maybe chuckling wasn't the right word, but there was something very
sinister and amused. Adrian laughed, unlike his normal dry snark.
It sent shivers down Skylar's spine, and caused Dumbledore to pale in
horror.
Adrian lifted himself up, elbows cracking ominously although he seemed
to ignore his own body's protest. He hoisted himself into an unsettling
kneeling position, unable to raise any further given the muscle spasms in
his body. Skylar could see the meat of his thighs bulging, pulsating
periodically. It must have hurt excruciatingly so.
"Dumbledore." Adrian croaked out, voice higher pitch than it should have
been. Adrian's eyes rolled back down, pupils dilated unevenly. The blood
from a scar on his forehead was leaking downwards, spilling into the
glassy membrane and down near his chin. They would have to remove
the carpet in the office once everything was done with.
Adrian's mouth twisted into a grin, all teeth and gums. His lips split,
cracking on the edges and dribbling more blood down his face. "Have you
accepted your fate?"
Dumbledore steadied himself and responded in a very calm and cold
voice, "I am afraid Tom, that it is you who has denied your own
ramifications."
Adrian's smile twitched, faltering ever so slightly. The dazed fogged eyes
drifted downwards, pausing on the wand. Hunger, desire burned at the
sight of it.
The ring caught the light, glittering like the rot of Dumbledore's arm.
Adrian's breathing hitched, his eyes widened in alarm, and he screamed.
Adrian came to laying in the hospital wing, mind burning and clouded.
The light hurt, making him squint against it and hiss in pain.
There were bandages wrapped around his head, making his hair stand up
stiffly and awkwardly. His forehead hurt, pulsing with pain that he rarely
experienced.
"What…" Adrian croaked out, wincing and stumbling upright. He was
still wearing his clothing, his Cerestes cloak was hanging on the bedpost
at his foot.
Lutain instantly stirred, jolting upright in alarm.
"Master!" Lutain cried out hurriedly, sounding far too frantic for Adrian's
still foggy mind. "Master we must hurry! You were diseased and-."
"I'm always diseased." Adrian groaned out, batting his friend to the side
gently so he could throw his legs over the side of the bed. There were
slippers there, his shoes mysteriously vanished. Thankfully both his
wands and harnesses were on the side table, he slipped them on sloppily.
"Master!" Lutain was complaining, trying his best to grab his attention,
"Master please we-."
"Where is everyone?" Adrian blurted, realizing quite quickly that the
entire Hospital Wing was empty. Not even the matron was there, which
was alarming. Never had she abandoned her post.
"The Great Hall," Lutain explained, although he sounded incredibly
anxious.
Adrian needed to head there anyways to work on his final trap for
Adalonda- Merlin knows how long he had been unconscious.
Adrian ran, seeing the sun in the sky past noon. It was morning still when
he checked last. This was looking very bad and he was very pressed for
time.
Adrian ran, his slippers quiet. Soundless, compared to the clicking he
longed for. Lutain slung around his neck, Cerestes cloak flapping with
each step.
Nobody was on the staircases, or in the hallways when Adrian bolted
past. He didn't know how to feel.
The Great Hall was open, the large doors propped up. Masses and masses
of students stood, large swarms that neither sat at tables or listened to
order. Loud whispers, panic and hysteria and above it all, Skylar Potter
and Dumbledore stood where Adrian imagined an alter should be. The
podium was there, and Dumbledore looked grim.
"Lutain," Adrian mumbled lowly, looking at the unexpected sight in
dread. Why would all of the students be assembled? Why would they be
this alarmed? Surely Dumbledore didn't tell them about the basilisk?
Why had nobody noticed him yet?
"You were possessed." Lutain finally explained, sounding small and timid
around Adrian's throat. "Your father is coming."
Adrian's heart stopped.
"What." Adrian whispered, barely willing to breathe.
"I'm sorry." Lutain apologized, understanding the impact of what he said,
"they decided to stay and fight."
Oh.
They were assembling for war.
Voices, whispers, students crying and screaming. No wonder Skylar
looked so horrified on his pedestal.
Adrian shook his head, closing his eyes and breathed. He needed the hall
empty so he could work, so he had enough space to work on his plan.
(If there was one thing Adrian had learned, it was that he could be
bloody dramatic when he wanted to.)
"Alright Lutain," Adrian sighed under his breath, sounding exasperated to
his own ears, "It's show time."
Lutain nestled closer, and prepared himself.
Adrian swept the cloak tighter, closing it formally and taking a position.
He waited, listening to the voices to hear the conversation.
Skylar was trying to soothe them all, hands high and coaxing even as a
few students shouted for his arrest. Skylar was wanted by the
government, he was a villain in the eye of the people.
No, that wasn't right, Dumbledore, Skylar; they weren't on their stage for
a dramatic end. This wasn't their tragedy, it was Adrian's.
Skylar managed to spot Adrian lingering in the doorway, a flash of relief
flickered across his face. Adrian could have smiled, if not for the rising
frustration.
He didn't want to fight his father, he didn't want to pick a side. Adrian
was realizing quite quickly that he was going to be forced to.
Adrian didn't want to join the light, he didn't want to be a mindless pawn
for his father. He wanted to be indifferent, neutral in the wake of chaos.
Adrian didn't want this.
He wanted to stop Adalonda, he wanted to end whatever plague was
infecting the thestrals. He wanted peace but he knew he was never
destined for it.
There were those that chose their sides based on loyalty to lineage,
loyalty based on the actions of others; Adrian chose his loyalty based on
the chances others took and how they utilized his trust.
The students were shouting in a panic, pushing at the front of the Great
Hall. Tables were flipped, a swarm of black cloaks under the blank dread
filled faces of the staff. They were children, scrambling and rolling in a
mass grave at their feet.
Adrian had never seen Dumbledore look so horrible in his life.
"What are we going to do?" A girl screamed, young and Hufflepuff.
"Save us, Skylar!" A cry from the Gryffindors.
"Don't just stand there!"
"Help us please!"
"You-." Another voice was cut off in the swarm of students. Skylar looked
like he was going to cry.
"Master?" Lutain asked, tight around his shoulders.
Adrian didn't want to be here.
(He knew he could make a show of it all.)
A final grand entrance.
Adrian met Skylar's eyes, then pointedly looked downwards at the masses
in front of him. He jerked his chin back up, staring pointedly.
Skylar's eyes widened and he pulled out his wand, pointing it into the
crowd unsure.
The crowd panicked, screaming even more and fumbling over one
another.
"Do something!"
"What? I'm not Selwyn!"
Oh, perfect.
Skylar seemed to realize that as well, and cast a rather clumsy silencing
ward.
Adrian inhaled, Lutain tightened, and then they exhaled.
"Lucky for you!" Adrian shouted, stomping forward like a demonic
creature. He mourned his clicking boots. "That I'm here then!"
The crowd parted, stumbling backwards into each other as Adrian
demanded the attention in the room. Scars on display, Lutain rearing like
his trademark, and eyes glowing like something horrible.
Dumbledore's eyes flickered with the barest traces of amusement at
Adrian's dramatic entrance.
Skylar looked relieved.
Adrian steered himself, and made his way to the front of the Great Hall.
He didn't want to do any of this, he just wanted the Hall cleared for his
final stand with Adalonda.
It was time for Adrian to die.
Guest: Wow I love how you're not answering any questions anymore
cause there is nothing left to say
To be honest I think everyone is in a state of shock and can't even think of
questions.
DX-MaStema-XG: Daphne?..
Surprise!
Guest: Have Everyone die!
You're a genius. 100% that's how this is going to end. Give Adrian a machine-
gun 2k18
6 Chapters Left
75. Echoes
Thanks to the Discord server which is filled with wonderful readers
who helped me with ideas!
I understand this Chapter is completely different in feel, but I felt
like it was necessary.
Twelve Years ago.
Skylar didn't know what it was, but there was something that always felt
funny to him.
Maybe it was how his parents doted on him so much, or maybe how they
always came to him a few moments before they went to his brother.
It wasn't that noticeable, except sometimes it was.
Sometimes they'd forget about Harry entirely, too busy fretting over him.
Sometimes they'd grab him lunch and chop the things too big to eat and
Skylar would almost be done before they scurried to grab Harry's food.
His brother used to complain about it, he cried sometimes when they
were in bed but he got food so it was okay, right?
Skylar didn't think much about it, his parents were the ones in charge,
right?
He didn't think about it because that's how life was.
Harry was a good brother, he gave him some toys or the extra sweets he
didn't want. Harry didn't keep him up at night, and he didn't argue when
Skylar tossed and turned too much. Harry was wonderful, and held things
for him when Skylar was getting his shoes on.
Harry asked him questions sometimes. Things about why his shoes were
new when his weren't. Why his clothes were new when Harry hadn't
gotten anything yet. Skylar didn't know the answer, and that sometimes
made Harry nod.
One night they were in their room, getting ready for bed when Harry
climbed over. Harry liked Skylar's sheets more than his own, that made
sense because Harry's sheets had a stain from when Skylar spilled juice
on the covers.
"Sky?" Harry asked quietly, Skylar said that he liked it when Harry talked
quieter so it didn't hurt his ears when his head hurt. "Why do you get so
many different things?"
Skylar thought and frowned. The answer was obvious to him, maybe it
wasn't to Harry?
"Because I'm special!" Skylar grinned, toothy and excited.
Harry's eyes were big and green, just like their mum. Sometimes they
watered, like now.
"Okay." Harry accepted quietly, fumbling with the soft blanket in his
hands, "why are you special?"
Sometimes Harry stared at him. His eyes were pretty but sometimes they
weren't. They looked at Skylar a lot, really hard and sometimes they
didn't blink. Skylar didn't want to say anything about it because he loved
his brother but sometimes when Harry looked at him hard, it scared
Skylar a little.
"Mummy and Daddy said I was special." Skylar settled on happily. That
made plenty of sense.
Harry blinked slowly and nodded, that made sense to him.
"Sky? Why don't Mummy and Daddy love me?"
That was a tough question. Skylar didn't know the answer, but he
couldn't say that. Otherwise Harry wouldn't think Skylar knew things!
Skylar hummed and thought. "Maybe you don't smile enough?"
"Oh," Harry blinked again and tried to smile. It looked weird, his eyes
were too bright an kinda creepy. "Okay, thanks Sky."
"Yeah!" Skylar grinned, patting his brother on his shoulder. Harry hopped
down and walked across the room to climb into his own bed. He didn't
say anything else that night.
(Skylar got his own room his next birthday once he told his Mummy and
Daddy how sometimes Harry would ask him questions late at night. Sky
kinda missed Harry, but now he had more room for all his toys so he
didn't mind it.)
Lutain didn't know what to think of the strange human.
The human lived in a den smaller than Lutain's old den, darker with stale
air. It smelled of foul rat droppings and waste. It was sick, cold and damp
in a way that would surely rot the human's scales.
The human had strange eyes, bright unlike most. Beyond that Lutain
couldn't imagine much more, humans all looked the same to him even
through the glass.
Lutain was thankful to be free, even though his rats would not be regular
anymore and it was too cold for his taste. He was crammed under the
humans scales which alarmed him. He never knew humans could remove
their brightly coloured scales, or exchange them for others.
This humans scales were weirdly shaped, much too large for its body and
muted where others were firm. They looked like they were half torn,
fringed and sticking like stuck shed.
Everything about this human was strange to him, but he owed this
human his freedom. This human was unique, and it could talk.
Lutain never knew a human that could talk before.
"What are you doing?" Lutain asked the human curiously. Was it preparing
to hunt? Lutain was hungry himself, maybe this human could provide
him with a rat?
The human looked at him, small and misshapen in the dark. It was warm,
bright for Lutian's heat sensing. The human looked at him with its bright
eyes. It must have been a hatchling to be so small.
"Getting ready for bed?" It responded, hissing but clearly confused.
Bed? What was bed? It sounded like a strange word that Lutain didn't
know.
"Bed?" Lutain echoed, interested.
"Yeah," the human agreed, pausing before it shifted the pelts and
coverings from the small ledge it was sitting on, "this is a bed. You sleep on
it."
Sleeping in a specific spot? How fascinating. Lutain always slept in the
warmest spots or carefully hidden locations to help him digest his
dinners.
"Warm?" Lutain asked curiously, perhaps the bed was heated as well.
The human paused, tentative as it fumbled with the coverings. "Not really.
I could...I could sleep on my side? You could lay with me and I could keep
you warm? I'm sorry it isn't much...can I help you at all? Please stay."
Lutain scrambled to comprehend what the strange human was saying.
The human could make things warm? Lutain always had to find heat on
his own. Laying on its side seemed interesting, perhaps it designated its
sides based on the unnecessary amount of limbs? Where would Lutain go
after? It wasn't as if this den had an easy exit, which baffled Lutain even
further.
"I'm sorry I can't sneak out, my...my aunt would be really mad."
What a strange human.
Snakes didn't have to concern themselves with this level of thought,
although Lutain was feeling very intrigued. He didn't know of any other
speakers, maybe they were all like this? Lutain didn't know that much in
truth, but he was completely willing to learn more.
Later that night the human curled on its thin fabric on its foreign bed,
and it gasped out sobs like it was regurgitating its food. Its face was wet,
twisted in expression Lutain imagined was only possible from its lack of
scales.
Lutain watched it belt out pitiful noises in its human tongue, begging
desperately perhaps. Why did it cry so? Surely it was no longer a
hatchling and it was able to survive on its own, why would its sire wait
for it? Why would its kin care for it?
How strange. Perhaps humans like snakes, would forget about this in a
few more seasons.
(In a couple years, Harry Potter forgot it ever happened at all.)
Bellatrix Lestrange didn't know what to expect of the little boy that her
husband and brother in law brought home. At first, she imagined she
could use the poor little thing for target practice. At least a human child
would scream and move more realistically than conjured crows or stolen
dogs.
It surprised her, the sudden boldness of the little boy. The way its large
green eyes were constantly filled with fear and dread, the way its hands
shook as it peered around her home with such obvious terror. The poor
thing wouldn't last a day on its own, before some silly little monster
snatched it up and wrung its neck.
...But the snake around its neck, oh, that was the surprise. That was the
punch that rattled Bellatrix's teeth and made her vision swim. The little
boy was terrified of shadows itself but was so starved of love and
attention it sought the company of animals before the company of
humans.
Bellatrix couldn't help but find herself enthralled by the little creature, by
the small pudgy cheeks it had and the weirdly large feet on its little body.
Thin frame, thick hideous glasses and wide innocent green eyes.
Bellatrix wanted to pluck them out, so they would stop staring at him. He
looked at her like he was waiting for the knife to fall, the single curse
that would take his life and he was waiting for it.
That wasn't fun. Bellatrix didn't want to play with tools that were ready
to break themselves.
It was settling into her home, living in the small room Bella never cared
much for. Her husband and brother were working around, cleaning and
readying things for a new human in their midst. It bothered her a little
bit, if they were so desperate to have a new pet why wouldn't they simply
purchase a cat? A new dog? Bella wouldn't even kill this one.
The wide eyed knobbly child bumbled around, peeking around corners
and trying to be sneaky. It was sad, truly; its footsteps were loud and its
mumbling was rather aggravating. How often did it need to be let out?
How often did she need to get it fresh water? Weren't little humans
needing training to use the loo?
Merlin, maybe she needed to contact her dear sissy to find out all of these
puzzling questions.
She muttered, scraping a knife against the kitchen table. She woke up
grumpy, sour and feeling stir crazy. It wasn't her fault that wherever they
grabbed the little brat from had burned down. Well, maybe it was
partially her fault. They were wanted now, more attention drawn to them
after she had been doing wonderful at hiding under the radar. She
couldn't even go for a stroll, instead she was trapped in the house with
some feral baby human while her husband and brother were off finding a
new place to stay low.
Once her Lord returned...they would all pay.
For now, she was going to carve a crude shape into the kitchen table with
a sharp knife, and wait until she could wreck a window.
The stairs creaked under weight, Bellatrix glanced up from the corner of
her eye.
The young little human was slinking out, looking like a skittish alley cat.
The snake was around his neck, looping down over his arm. She
wondered where he had gotten a snake as pretty as that one, bright
yellow bellies were pretty rare.
She had seen an array of snakes in her life, most of them fast and likely
lethal. They swarmed to her lord, and she treated them all with
adoration. They were beautiful creatures, although she didn't understand
them. They were mindless animals, but her lord cherished them, so by
default she would as well.
The boy looked at her, peering at him from the stairwell. He stared at
her, eyes bright and focused. The snake flickered its tongue, the only clue
that it was alive.
Bellatrix itched to curse the brat, but she still wasn't sure why exactly he
had been brought to her. What exactly was it here for? Was she supposed
to curse it?
"What?" She snapped back, stabbing the knife sharply into the table. It
stuck there, vibrating like a tuning fork.
The boy flinched, a whole body shudder although it didn't run away.
Skittish and easy to spook, but holding its ground for some unseeable
reason. The snake shifted slightly, clinging to the boy's bony shoulders.
Bella's skin itched. Surely she wouldn't get in trouble for cursing the boy
too much.
She stood slowly, nails scratching over the grooves she cut into the table.
With a jerk, she pried the knife from the wood. The boy watched her
movements carefully, not budging.
"What are you looking at?" She sneered, taking a jerky step forward to
spook the child into skittering up a couple steps. If it had ears like a cat,
they would be pressed flat to its head.
"'There's a good kitty." She grinned, taking a slow cautious step forward.
Her steps were much quieter than its childish movements. It's eyes
widened slightly, catching the glint from the knife.
"Why don't you come here to play?" She asked, taking another closer step.
If she healed the child afterwards, she was sure the thing would be too
skittish to ever speak up about what she did. She'd even be so nice to
clean the bloodstains from the floor.
The boy licked its lower lip, a small tongue that Bellatrix itched to pluck
out. Maybe she'd gouge out its eyes too, if only so she wouldn't have to
look at those disgusting glasses.
"'No." It spoke, voice soft and quiet and very unsteady. Bold, but quiet.
Bellatrix stilled, tilting her head slightly to the side in amusement. So it
could talk after all? How interesting.
"Don't you want something to do?" She asked with a wicked grin, "you've
been watching me."
The little boy twitched, looking ready to bolt up the stairs again.
"...You're the mad lady." The child croaked out, voice airy and high
pitched like all snotty nosed brats, "...Bellatrix Lestrange."
Bella grinned, "so you do know me!"
The boy's eyes widened further, looking more panicked than before.
Perhaps he didn't like how excited she was to hear that he knew her? She
liked being recognizable, it made people cry at the sight of her.
"Stay back." The boy warned, voice warbling in its obvious fear. It's eyes
were wet, glassy on the edges.
"Oh!" She gaped in delight, "are you going to cry? Ickle little kitten gonna
cry?"
The boy's face twitched, lower lip shifting ever so slightly. It was inching
backwards, hand against the wall as it traced the railing.
Bellatrix took one step forward, and the boy breathed heavily. Not
hyperventilating, but looking on the verge of some idiotic decision.
Bellatrix was curious what a little brat was capable of doing.
"I'm going to gut you," Bellatrix whispered, loving the way the little boy
paled into something ghostly. It's eyes were pinpricks, adrenaline causing
it's miniature fingers to twitch and flutter.
The snake hissed, lifting into a small twig of an opponent. Bellatrix
Lestrange knew better than to test the speed of an unidentified snake,
especially one that seemed so intelligent.
She could pull her wand to shield her one side to deflect the snake, but it
would be far too obvious what she was doing. It was unlikely the boy
would be able to do anything about it anyways.
Maybe this was the challenge her husband brought. A fun little game; get
past the snake and slaughter the child.
"Aren't you cute." Bellatrix cooed, finding the challenge very exciting. "A
pretty little boy like you."
The boy's nostrils flared, looking far too terrified and brave to ever
survive in a house with her. What a pity, she always wished her toys
would last longer.
She lifted the knife, eyeing the snake as she twisted into a prepared
position.
The boy shifted, jerking his shoulder out with the snake leading. The
small reptile reared back, hissing and spluttering in a way that would
make another pause. Bellatrix had seen Nagini, she had fed the massive
creature severed arms. She didn't pause at the small ribbon of an animal.
The snake lunged, she smacked the thing sideways near its neck. It
deflected off course, as surprised as the boy was.
The knife glinted, the boy threw his hands up in alarm before he opened
his mouth.
Bellatrix loved how they screamed.
The boy's eyes changed, somehow shifting. The pinprick black of its pupil
dilated rapidly into a thick black circle with a green rim. It shuddered,
and suddenly Bellatrix's hand snapped.
She stumbled away, dropping the knife from twisted fingers. A surge of
heat through her arm; dislocated fingers and one fractured pinky.
She felt the joints, snapping the cartilage like the neck of a small rodent.
The snake had recovered by then, coiling around protectively. The boy
was breathing heavy, eyes pinpricks once again. The knife forgotten on
the floor.
Bellatrix slowly looked at the boy, holding the bruising joints that she
didn't care much for.
"You…" She trailed off, straightening the joints once more, just to make
sure they were bending right. "...you dislocated my fingers?"
The boy crossed one arm in front of him, chest heaving. Protective, wary
of what she would do next.
How fascinating, how absolutely fascinating. Did the boy somehow charm
the snake itself? Did he control it somehow?
"You were going to stab me." The boy choked back, sounding defensive
and terrified. The tremor was back. "You were going to stab me."
He had dislocated her fingers, nearly breaking them. Without a word,
faster than she could see.
It was magic, it could only be. But careful magic, able to target the hand
around the knife and only that. Purposeful, controlled.
"Of course I was." Bellatrix sniffed, huffing as the boy looked even more
unsettled. "I was bored."
The boy's neck moved in a nervous anxious swallow. How precious.
"Can you do it again?" Bella asked, eyes flickering to the knife, "do I need
to stab you again?"
The boy balked, shaking his head quickly.
"I- maybe?" he croaked out, chewing on his lower lip, "I- I don't know."
"Do it." Bella snapped out, grin faltering. What use was a toy that didn't
surprise her?
The boy's eyes flickered over the room, barely willing to stay away from
her longer than a moment. Smart of him.
The boy's face twitched, eyes wet and stressed.
Bella huffed after a few seconds, lunging forward at the child
unexpectedly.
The snake recoiled, ready to strike. The boy's eyes widened in alarm and
he jerked back, one arm raised between them.
The crack this time was audible; loud, crunching through her bones and
body and sending her jerking to the ground.
Bellatrix Lestrange wheezed on the ground, clenching her jaw through
the unexpected flare. She had certainly experienced worse, but the
surprise of it had caught her off guard.
She tilted her neck, cracking it to relieve the pressure. There was nothing
she could do for the shattered fingers and likely broken arms until her
husband returned.
"Oh, aren't you precious." She cooed back, ignoring the way her hands
twisted into gnarled things.
The boy's eyes widened, a flush swelling high in his cheeks. The boy
looked away, sheepish and bashful. Oh, that was interesting.
"You're perfect," she coed, watching his reactions in delight. "I like you,
I'm going to keep you, my ickle little present. You're perfect."
The boy choked, an audible wet gasping noise. Eyes wide as if struck,
flush getting darker. Its hands shook, overwhelmed at the praise.
"Really?" It whispered, looking on the verge of leaning forward to soak in
the praise.
How precious.
"I like you," Bellatrix crooned, a small grin spreading across her face. The
boy looked like a flower, soaking up adoration and affection. "Can you
make me happy? Can you destroy the table?"
The boy was swaying, eyes wide and starstruck, he hadn't looked away
from her.
"You like me?" He whispered, more to himself than anything else. "You
aren't going to get rid of me?"
Oh, what a poor poor kitten.
"I think you're wonderful," she cooed, resisting the urge to claw its hair
and tug its scalp, "break my table."
The boy's eyes flared, it swayed in vertigo and disorientation.
Crack.
How desperate to please.
This was better than another toy to throw curses at.
Rodolphus knew he should have killed the child, just to spare the hassle
of keeping it alive. His brother agreed with him, watching with frowns as
Bella coddled the boy like it was something precious.
Maybe it was precious, or something different all together.
It took a strange sort, to swoon and grin wide in delight when getting
your severed arm reattached.
Bella always was strange with her affection, but this kid was warped even
more.
The child, Adrian Selwyn, was something fascinating to watch.
A pet project, created and growing like a tumor. Something malignant on
its own, developing into a single moment in which he would destroy
everything Dumbledore had ever accomplished.
A martyr for the light, a symbol of peace. The truth of all the man's lies,
the object of public faith and hope. Grown from nothing into the greatest
threat; Dumbledore's greatest mistake.
It was interesting to see the child grow, to see him develop into
something warped and distorted from the smallest signs of human
decency. The lengths he would go for praise, the limits he would surpass
for a single confirmation of his duty.
The boy would sever his own leg for a moment of affection. He had never
seen an example of a human so starved, so desperate.
If his plans fell through, simply revealing how traumatized and damaged
the boy was would be satisfying itself.
He was strong too, that perhaps was the most interesting sight. An
experiment years in the making, destroying the concepts of ethics and
morals to fashion a boy into the shape he wanted.
Bellatrix had raised him proper, feeding him the barest touches of love
and companionship after acts of horror. Desensitizing him into something
comfortable in pain and gore. Raising him along a snake, normalizing
animalistic tendencies and thought patterns.
The boy was interesting- he had the makings to be someone intelligent
but the continuous stunted social interaction had quelled that. Only in a
few areas did the boy shine, thankfully all in areas of little threat or
interest. He would gladly pander to these strange obsessions, crafting a
false sense of security and kinship through whatever odd connections the
boy made.
What hassle was it to have one of his men fetch a skull or claw? How
much effort to obtain little pesky treasures in exchange of thoughtless
and utter loyalty.
The boy was willing to throw his flesh at his feet, and felt love the
moment he cursed his flesh until it burned.
The screams of suffering, the laughter of pleasing him.
What a wonderful little self destructive monster he made.
He would be socially ostracized, set apart from others his age due to his
face. Isolated from his lack of social comprehension. Desperate for
affection, aggressive from his rearing. Forever stumbling over his deep
seated loathing for Skylar Potter, willing to die for his revenge.
In the end of it all, the boy would be something so loyal to his cause and
his devotion, that he would never be a threat. If that ever occurred, he
had marked the child as his own. He would always find the little vermin,
tracking him down from the outrageously large mark on his skin or the
trace he left in his mind. An accident of course, but if he ever felt too
threatened he could always tear apart the boy with torture, leaving him
empty and drooling. His soul would be protected forever in a lifeless
shell, captured in a moral issue.
His only threat would ever be Dumbledore, and the man would never kill
an innocent boy in vain for a greater cause. Perhaps he would create a
situation with his old manipulations, but the blatant slaughter of a
defenseless child?
Never, and so, he had finished it..
The prophecy didn't matter, because in one smooth motion he had
completely and utterly, won.
Snape hated teaching potions to the Gryffindor and Slytherin students.
He adored his Slytherins, they were all steller students and capable of
extraordinary things. Aligned next to Gryffindor idiots, it turned his
classroom into a war zone.
He knew his Godson Draco was the cause of much of the aggression, but
he couldn't address this blatantly. He would talk to the boy after class in
private, until then, Snape was confined to a single room with not only
one headache, but multiple.
Neville Longbottom was capable of melting a cauldron while boiling
water. Ron Weasley was so daft, it was a mystery how the boy hadn't
killed anyone prior. Hermione Granger was a know-it-all that went out of
her way to bask in the idiocy of her fellow peers. Skylar Potter was the
worst.
He loved Lily, he truly did, but he would never forgive her for spawning
an absolute oaf of a child.
He could handle those four if it weren't for the black sheep of his own
house, the lazy excuse of a Slytherin.
Adrian Selwyn was a walking disaster.
The boy was quiet, observant in a lazy dazed way. The scars were
obvious, often making his features look more ghoulish than normal with
the dim light of the potions classroom. Perhaps that was why his partner,
Theodore Nott, often threw glances at him. Even Snape felt sickened
when he looked at the boy.
He couldn't imagine the agony the child went through, but he had
suspicions that the curse somehow left him brain damaged.
The child barely did homework, what he did do was pathetic and sloppy.
His essays were late, he overslept constantly. He ate like a starving dog
and looked equally as sloppy. Snape was beginning to suspect the boy
was abusing cleaning charms in exchange for actually bathing like a
civilized human being.
Whenever the boy sat on the aisle seat with Skylar Potter nearby, it
almost exponentially increased the disasters in the room.
For some reason unconfirmed, all of his Slytherin students were terrified
of Selwyn. Snape had run countless security scans over the boy, searching
for dark artifacts or weapons. He only ever detected the curse scar, which
was a threat in itself. That, and the blasted snake.
If it wasn't for the Headmaster's assurances that the serpent was a
"Traumatic-therapy-assistance-animal," Snape would have the ruddy
creature burned.
He had to deal with serpents enough with the Dark Lord, he didn't want
to have to deal with them in his classroom also.
Skylar Potter seemed far too chipper, trying to bridge the gap between
Gryffindor and the single Slytherin student. His efforts were amusing, as
they almost always failed. For how often Adrian Selwyn and Skylar
Potter interacted, it was obvious that Adrian Selwyn absolutely loathed
the Golden Boy.
Snape couldn't figure out why, especially with the alarmingly powerful
Legilimency barriers on the boy's mind. He suspected they were trauma-
constructed; made from memories selectively forgotten in the heat of
torture. Bellatrix Lestrange was a foul and insane lady, it was a marvel
the boy survived at all.
(Severus Snape suspected that the boy lied about that as well, it was
impossible to ever be reared by that lady. Likely lying for attention.)
If Severus Snape had a choice, he would expel the useless Selwyn brat at
the soonest convenience. It was a pain that the boy exceeded at Care for
Magical Creatures, otherwise he could have presented a case and had the
lethargic waste removed from his dungeons.
Until then, Snape was perfectly content ignoring the brat who was
determined to ghost his way through his Hogwarts years with pathetic
grades, and equally pathetic work effort.
Adalonda was utterly surprised and delighted the moment the small
creature, Cerestes, came to her.
Begging for power, knowledgeable and ignorant all at once. Proud of his
inferior skill with magical creatures; certain that his rudimentary
information would somehow protect him.
Desperate for love, leaning on those to help carry the weight of his
troubles. Obvious with his flaws, so innocently trusting in anything loyal
to his cause.
What a poor poor pitiful creature, created and destroyed over years
before she even met it. Generally it would take years to reach this level of
chaos, this level of potential disaster.
He leaned on only one other, talking about them fondly and with
indecisive trust. He could confide in her, he could ruin her work by
mentioning things that tasted wrong.
Adalonda knew this other human would be no threat to her; if push came
to shove she could easily worm her ideas into Cerestes' skull until he
turned against the world in animalistic rage. She could rewrite the mind
of this lesser little insect, and see what would happen with her subtle
prompting.
It had been a long, long time.
And Adalonda was very bored.
This Cerestes, well. She always wondered if she could drive a human so
mad, reality was no longer recognizable.
Remus didn't know what to think of the boy when he opened the door
and stepped inside.
He had been warned by Sirius; the things Adrian had said, the things he
did.
Remus could barely recognize the boy he once knew and invited into his
office. It had been years since then, years and he had done nothing.
He couldn't help the guilt, but he could help now.
He could help now if he understood why.
He opened the door and slipped inside. Everything was soft, rounded
corners and pale in colour. It smelled sterile, blunted over what actually
happened.
Remus couldn't believe it, he couldn't believe what James and Sirius
desperately told him the moment he returned. He couldn't imagine it,
until he had seen the damage himself and looked at the records of
Headmistress Umbridge's death.
He couldn't believe it until he saw the recorded and documented death of
Luna Lovegood.
But it didn't make any sense.
From what Remus knew, Adrian Selwyn's only friend was Luna Lovegood.
Remus had taught her as a second year, he certainly remembered the odd
yet thrilling charisma of the girl. She was kind, she even brought him
chocolates and referred to him fondly. It didn't make any sense.
And the rest of the information? That Adrian Selwyn was a parselmouth
and apparently controlled a basilisk? The monstrous creature that Salazar
Slytherin had locked away in an imaginary chamber was suddenly real and
had murdered someone?
(Adrian Selwyn had killed someone?)
No, no that didn't line up. The boy Remus knew was in a difficult
situation, but eager to please and dying to impress. He had expectations
pressed on him that overwhelmed the boy and linked him to something
sad. Once the year was over, Remus had been debating taking the child
to another mind healer to determine if the boy wasn't only curse-
damaged, but also depressed or anxious. It would explain the sudden
plummet in his grades towards the end of the year, especially with no
obvious cause.
Remus had suspected that something happened with the impostor the year
earlier. Adrian had taken many detentions with the hidden death eater,
perhaps the man had...done something to the boy, traumatized him further
and triggered this slow deterioration.
Adrian wouldn't have done this, he wouldn't have done this.
Adrian would have bitten off his own fingers to make Remus proud of
him, although that had taken a long time to get to. The boy had stumbled
over words, confessing half-truths that Remus could hear the instant he
confessed to living with Bellatrix Lestrange. There was more to the story
but he never pressed because Adrian Selwyn was abused.
Adrian Selwyn had whispered under his breath over and over, that he was
useful. Trying to assure himself, trying to promise himself.
He wouldn't snap and kill someone when he was so pressured to do the
right thing.
(From the small confessions and half smiles, Luna Lovegood was his
anchor. He wouldn't do this.)
The boy in front of him, curled up in a pale blanket on a pale bed, looked
like he maybe would.
He had never seen Adrian look so maddened. He looked like the
prisoners from Azkaban, twitching on the cusps of something violent.
Asleep apparently, but not restful. His blankets were bloodstained, scabs
around his cuticles. His face was pale, waxy and unwashed. Remus
doubted the boy had been let out in a long while, or had seen the sun in
weeks.
Adrian was looking sick, grieving and mourning even unconscious.
Scarfing down food but not gaining weight. Did the stress of the situation
somehow compromise his immune system? Was the curse-scar activating
now that he was at his weakest?
He hadn't laughed, Sirius said. He hadn't laughed and instead he stared at
walls like they talked to him. He wallowed, curling on the bed or in the
corners when he could. Lashing out viciously without actions. Spitting
venom, staring at his hands numb and detached. Sirius wanted to have a
mind healer come in to see if the boy was experiencing dissociative
episodes.
(They couldn't have one come in, now with Adrian wanted as a suspect
for a double murder.)
Could they give him medicine? Potions for depression? Not with how
something was clearly wrong with him, not with how his limbs shook
and he stared wide eyed at nothing. Haunted, something murdering him
slowly.
Adrian looked like he had the world and he lost it without ever realizing
what he had.
Sirius told him that the boy hadn't even responded to praise or other
signs of affection. He recoiled at physical contact, finding basic human
decency somehow wrong.
He didn't know small talk, or casual conversation. He was fascinated with
small things that was general knowledge; famous toys from when Skylar
was a child, music bands, even trademark sweets. He had a large gap in
his memory or perhaps he wasn't experienced with it at all.
(Merlin, growing up with Bellatrix Lestrange.)
Remus sat on the softened chair, looking at Adrian Selwyn's small
sleeping form in nothing more than a cell block.
Remus was going to have to tell Sirius to spell all plates and utensils
unbreakable.
(Remus was terrified what Adrian Selwyn would do with broken ceramic,
loneliness, and overwhelming utter loss.)
"I'm not afraid of dying anymore." Adrian confessed in a whisper, talking
out loud although Newt Scamander knew that he wasn't supposed to hear
it. "I'm not afraid of it. It's hard to be afraid when I'm...I'm so tired, of
being afraid. I'm sad now."
Adrian smiled, tracing a single finger along the condensation on a
window. "I'm sad now, and I don't even know why anymore."
Newt Scamander had seen many terrible things, but something about
Adrian Selwyn shook him to his core.
Tonks loved Adrian.
She loved him so so much.
(Sometimes, watching him keel over and vomit blood into a snowbank;
she wished he had died as a child to be spared of all his suffering.)
A lifetime ago
She knew, that words were always small things.
Translated emotions to express to another. They were always
inconsistent, broken and fraying on the edges.
She knew, as she talked gently with cues and whispers, that sometimes
words were so very important.
It was the little things that people remembered, the half muttered
promises in the stairwells. The laughing under lantern light. The
shrieking delight near windows and sniffles by the courtyard. Somethings
would always stand out in memory, like photographs repeated over and
over until that's all you knew.
She knew when she was talking, when her words were important. When
the moment was perfect and she knew she could change everything.
These exchanges were the ones she'd remember, because they hurt oh
how they hurt.
She talked, hoping that maybe she wouldn't have to be afraid of hearing
others' condolences. She talked, hoping that maybe she wouldn't have to
go buy a black dress. She talked, hoping that maybe, she could imagine
him happy.
He talked and she talked and she wanted to cry.
It was so cold, and she loved their bridge but it scared her so much.
"Well...you see.." she trailed off, feeling cold and knowing that this, this
was what he would remember in a dozen years.
He looked at her. He looked grotesque and burning and one day he
would burn himself out; she never knew when it was but there was one
thing she could say and she would say however many times he needed.
"What is it Luna?" He asked, and he looked so, so tired.
"You're not unlovable, silly." She smiled, because if she didn't, she
thought that she would cry. "Because I love you."
Our memories demand attention, they demand us to remember and watch
them over and over. Sometimes they are not nice, sometimes they are cruel,
and vicious, and they hunt in our minds like wolves after a kill. Sometimes
they ambush us in dark corners, ensnaring us and leaving us a bloodied mess.
We can't ignore our past, we can't pretend our memories don't haunt us. When
we know this, when we can look at our histories and the echoes of who we
were to ourselves and who we were to others, and... Sometimes I can't tell
what's real and what isn't, what happened and what didn't.
I can't simply move on, but it's my choice to try and try and keep trying to
walk away and emerge something new from my broken life.
Anontbhfam: I thought Selwyn was just gonna lead the Basilisk to the
hall when the fighting starts to have it somehow die in the crossfire or
kill everyone trying lol
Adrian accidentally kills every single opponent he had in the entire story by
being a complete numbskull: a summary.
r0ulette: 'Ive been watching My Hero recently and I keep getting images
of Bakugo in my head whenever Adrian says things.
I actually laughed at this. Ironically enough, I have plans to post a My Hero
story either today or tomorrow. Don't you dare insult my Baku-baby. He is my
child and I need to give that good child some decent trauma.
Guest: Wouldn't Newt have some idea how to kill a basilisk? Granted,
roosters are always a good option to kill anything with their constant
cries.
The plan is set in motion! I didn't want to reveal it too soon because it is set in
surprise, but Newt completely helped with it.
shadowman21: So Adrian can't die because horcrux and the only person
who would use the killing curse on him would be Dumbledore. Because if
he doesn't Voldy lives, ugh Horcruxes make things complicated.
I ghost wrote this at 3:32 AM with my hand elbow deep in a bag of junk food
and my eyes bloodshot from sleep deprivation.
Rooster the king: Ewwww... I don't like Daphne.. She is the start of
Adrian 's second horrible life... Kill her I say or make her mad in fear...
And
What the hell! Adrian going to save the ungrateful bast**ds and B**hes...
I will quit this fic if u make him do that...
Those good for nothing potters enjoying themselves when their one son
they chased away and another on the run and their best friend are living
in poverty ...
They don't deserve to live
Kill them
Adrian is a strong, independent, slowly dying man. He needs no allies. He just
needed everyone out of the Great Hall and his mortal weakness is being a
dramatic ass when he can.
Guest: Generally well-written story. For what you seemingly tried to do,
I think you did well.
Personally, the end result left over a bad taste. A main character who is
so utterly weak and helpless for at least 90% of the story is just not
appealing in any way to me. Your start was fantastic - your beginning
year at Hogwarts was quite decent - and then it just went down hill ever
since. A few brief glimpses of good scenes, but generally just angst
overdone to the extreme.
Too many I'M ABUSED WHY IS THE WORLD SO CRUEL moments. While
I'm not saying it can't happen, that people completely lose themselves
like this, it certainly isn't great to read about. Not because dark or
depressing stories are inherently bad, but because the end result just
ended up unappealing. There should be some light in all the darkness,
and the inner turmoil should not continue being the same for such a long
time.
You call him extremely talented and intelligent, but you have him fail at
the most basic recognition of human emotion throughout the entire story.
You twist his ability to view the world to fuel your plot, and it gets old,
fast.
Other than that, I feel the Remus relationship felt extremely forced, but
that may be because you used so many timeskips and we didn't actually
really see them properly bonding. We just saw him choose this particular
kid to nurture for no good reason. The Tonks addition was also
completely unfounded based on what we were shown - but again, you
used timeskips.
I'd say this was very much the same with Luna as well, who ended up
becoming so incredibly important to him in the end.. it's just.. we never
saw that. Sure, they were two bullied people who didn't treat each other
like garbage, but if you want the reader to actually feel strongly about
these relationships, they'll have to be built in view.
You could have spent 30k less words crying "woe is me" and spent them
characterizing and showing relationships instead. But you chose to keep
it full dark, pretty much the entire time, and it was exhausting.
First off- for any readers do not interpret this review as a flame. It is
constructive criticism and does not deserve any negative retaliation.
There's a few areas I could comment on, but in all honesty this review
shouldn't ever get an excuse. The best response I can give you is that I agree.
Wholeheartedly in truth. I feel that I stretched out the timeline for the years at
Hogwarts far too long and made that part of the story incredibly dull and
repetitive. Cyclical and very predictable. The story is very angsty, but because
I repeated the same ideas of "woe is me, my life sucks" it did get boring. I
should have alternated it with different styles, or different events and mental
development. Instead I kept repeating the same thing in a very dull blur. The
highlights didn't appear as much as I wanted; I failed horribly in writing this
story in a well constructed timeline. The time skips towards the end should
have been used at the start of the story over the unimportant things, the latter
part of the story should have been drawn out longer. Luna was important but
only because of the fanbase's preexisting attachment to her. If she was an OC,
nobody would like her.
Antithesis was made both as an experiment for me as a person to grow
stronger as a writer, and to test out various techniques and styles to see which
ideas would be better for a professional story or novel. Obviously there would
be some level of growth or skill development throughout Antithesis, but I very
much would like to redo a good portion of this story now that I've learned
what I have. Thank you so much for your criticism, it's especially helpful not
only for knowing how to approach future stories, but also knowing how to
develop ideas better.
5 Chapters Left
76. Denial
The 5 Stages of Grief: DENIAL
You may think life makes no sense, has no meaning and is too overwhelming.
You start to deny reality, and in effect, go numb. You exist in a state of shock
because life as you once knew it has changed irreversibly. You deny what the
world has given you, because it is too damaging to comprehend.
There was something in Nagini that felt wrong and broken. Something
twisted and mutilated and tugged on her innards like a bird tugging on
her tail. She didn't know what it was, she didn't question it, but she knew
it was wrong.
She knew it when she woke, and her master was screaming in fury,
burning in her head and making her body prickle in pain. She knew that
it was something horrible when he screamed for his underlings, filing the
estate with bodies that reeked of sweat. She knew there was something
terribly wrong when humans flocked and swarmed in numbers she never
imagined.
Nagini had a sense of hope still, that perhaps it was not to such extremes
yet. Perhaps it was not the single idea which filled her with dread so
thick she hesitated to move.
"Nagini," her master hissed at her, furious and shrieking in his human skin
and bloodied eyes. "Go kill that boy's mongrel bird!"
Nagini tried to ignore that anything was wrong when she struck, pulling
the white feathered creature into her coils. She tried to ignore that it was
anything to do with the child she sometimes considered hers.
The bird stilled, the one her master's hatchling fed treats and cared for
gently. Nagini tried to ignore the way her stomach turned, when she
murdered what Cerestes left behind when he fled.
Nagini knew in the world of the predators and prey, that the child she
was so fond of would never be a predator to her.
She never thought that she would have to look at him, and label him as
prey.
What Cerestes' beauty had created was demolished by his actions; Nagini
understood the former that Cerestes was a predator, and from the latter
Nagini accepted that he was now prey.
Hadn't her master always told Nagini, that she were not a mindless
animal no longer?
Was sentience a curse, or a promise of morality itself?
Her master told her the day he saved her, the day he brought her warmth
and brought her meaning, "You become responsible forever for what creature
you have tamed."
She would not forget the day she had her life given to her.
Cerestes was a creature wild and heartless according to her master- he
had betrayed them all like something feral.
She had tamed him, and she had tamed Lutain.
"You become responsible forever for what creature you have tamed."
Skylar Potter held his breath, closed his eyes, and prayed.
Dumbledore had contacted the Order, gathered their forces. The students
had rallied together, evacuating those too young to fight.
The armour clanged and walked, the bridges broke underfoot and
crumbled into the ravine below. Skylar tried to ignore the way Adrian
stood alone on the broken bridge, looking like Icarus ready to flap his
wings and soar.
The sky was overcast but starting to clear. They would have sunshine
soon.
"Okay Lutain," Skylar began with a hoarse noise in his throat. Everything
in his body screamed to get away from the creature wrapped around his
throat. "You know the plan? Squeeze if you- okay yes not so tight."
The snake slackened and burrowed closer.
Adrian had run off after giving his familiar to Skylar with a pointed look.
Take care of him. Skylar would.
Newt Scamander was assisting him; the last Skylar saw of the man he had
a dozen buckets and House Elves chasing him like madness. The Great
Hall was apparently now off limits, which was fine as far as Skylar was
concerned.
Ron and Hermione had run off, apparently Dumbledore had located the
last Horcrux and now they were scrambling to gather them all
accordingly, all the while working under the confusion of Adrian's own
deluded goals. Skylar was standing in the main courtyard, trying to smile
at the students who knew they were likely going to die.
The had Dumbledore (the crippled man who wouldn't live to Summer),
Adrian Selwyn (a monster luring a monster), and Skylar Potter (a fake, an
impostor) all facing against the Dark Lord and the world itself.
Skylar knew that this sunshine would maybe be his last, but he would
draw warmth from it if he could.
Owls were circling above them, watching and waiting.
The wards were enacted and glowed like a Dreamless Sleep potion. The
snow stopped falling, protecting them.
"It's great to have you back, mate." Dean Thomas confessed, standing near
Skylar with a grimace across his face. Skylar didn't remember the boy
having a scar near his eyebrow before.
"Thanks," Skylar choked out uncertain, nearly jumping when a new
student stomped to stand at his side. Skylar glanced over and felt hot
shame when he didn't recognize the thin faced boy. He certainly would
have remembered that sneer and glare before, aimed out at nothing.
"Nott," the boy curtly introduced himself, "I wasn't going to help your
bloody arse 'till I saw him."
The boy nodded to Skylar, confusing the boy until he remembered the
snake coiled around his throat. Skylar gulped, and Nott huffed.
"I owe Selwyn a lot," the boy deadpanned, "we all know the world is
going to shite anyways. I don't see any of us making it, and I can't live
knowing it may have been my bloody fault."
"It wasn't-," Skylar started before cutting off at the single look the boy
gave him.
"You don't know my life, Potter." The boy cut out, sharp and sour. "You
don't know what I did or said, and you don't know what I never did. I got
to carry that on me, so I'm trying to make amends for it. Plus, I always
wanted to curse Malfoy."
A pause, Skylar's breathing shuddered.
"Right." Thomas sighed, trying to soothe over how uncomfortable
everything felt, "any idea on time?"
Skylar smiled thinly, and the entire barrier rumbled like thunder.
The ground under them quaked, the walls of the castle groaned behind
them.
"About now," Skylar apologized, not daring to look behind him. "I'm so
sorry for all of this."
"Nah," Thomas rolled his shoulders, "you were a good mate, Sky."
Skylar guessed that was all he could have been.
The barrier cracked, spells flew, and charms were fired. The Order was
there, dueling and hexing in the battle.
Skylar didn't look when Lutain struck from his shoulder, impacting
someone tall and lean and snarling like a dog. Lutain seemed gleeful,
Skylar only felt sick.
He was the decoy, giving time as Dumbledore and Ron and Hermione
hurried against a clock that worked against them like a monster.
It was only the first wave, and already Skylar could see students falling
and crying. Sirius was there, only a short glimpse of him as a large black
dog sprinted over the stones towards somewhere that needed defending.
Skylar wondered if his parents were there, if they were defending too.
He dueled, shielding and smiling as students he tutored sent patronus
against the dementors spiraling above them.
Some sort of weight shifted, then the Dementors were screaming
inhumane noises of dismay. Owls were diving like magpies, cruel and
sharp. Large black beasts interspersed, long claws kicking and tearing
against the thin wraith bodies of the Dementors.
Skylar blurted a curt laugh of surprise as thestrals- thestrals, were chasing
away Dementors like patronus themselves. The large grotesque horses
were quick, not quite so acrobatic but sufficing in numbers and ability to
land and mow down Death Eater ranks with their long fangs and claw
tipped hooves.
A thestral landed near Skylar, snorting loudly and tossing its long-
mangled hair. It looked at him with blank white eyes, an unpainted
marble. It stared at him, nearly stealing the breath from his lungs, then
its head swung back into the fray and madness. It walked off, slow and
calm as if the chaos around it didn't matter at all.
Lutain tightened, people screamed, and a large snake was there.
Lutain remembered that scent from anywhere, and he remembered that
beautiful pattern along her back like it was a fact.
"Nagini!" Lutain cheered, both delighted and in dismay. Nagini advanced
slowly, cautiously yet with all the grace of a predatory animal.
Skylar noticed his movements and turned to look, not at all as seamless
as the two of them once more. Lutain knew better than to ever connect
like that again; even at risk of his own death.
"Lutain." Nagini addressed, pausing to rear high enough to send people
screaming. Lutain could hear the conflict in her voice, the way it paused
unsure. "Master said that I am to kill you."
Lutain's heart strangled itself and he flicked his tongue. "I thought as
much."
Nagini paused, tail twitching slightly. Lutain could feel the pulse of
Skylar throb quickly under his belly.
"I'm sorry for this all." Lutain apologized wholeheartedly. "I wanted to kill
Adalonda."
Nagini paused in surprise, "the basilisk? Of what transgression!"
"Monstrosity!" Lutain defended himself viciously. The level of his rage
easily took Nagini off guard, "that worm has been nothing but chaos! She
has destroyed everything! She broke my master! She broke your master! She
wants us to slaughter each other because she is bored!"
Nagini looked alarmed, confused, and hesitant.
"She is something rotten," Lutain confessed quietly, "I am a fool to have ever
trusted her."
"She…" Nagini struggled audibly, even her body was tense in confusion,
"she...hurt? Cerestes?"
Lutain hissed wordlessly before he clarified, "She made him sick in mind.
She fed him diseased meat and watched sickness spread."
Nagini paused before she twisted unsure, "I... I do not want to kill you."
"I do not want to kill you either." Lutain confessed equally ashamed,
"Adalonda will kill me. She needs to die, she hurt my master."
Nagini lowered herself slowly, then looked around unsure.
Obviously, that was when the wall exploded behind them.
Humans screamed, stiffening and dropping like insects. Skylar inhaled
sharply, scrambling to the ground mindless of Nagini's nearby body.
Something heavy hit the ground with a ferocious noise of wordless anger.
Lutain felt his body stiffen in instinctual fear.
"Maggots!" Adalonda, the queen of all serpents, screamed. "Maggots all of
you! Worthless wastes of my time! Where is he! Where is Cerestes!"
Lutain kept his eyes averted, he could hear the screams of humans in the
vibrations in the air. He could smell the adrenaline and fear spike. Nagini
kept motionless, horrified.
"Where is he!" Adalonda screamed, all pleasantries of her voice washed
away behind a guttural outburst of bloodlust. "I will tear him limb from
limb and make him watch!"
"She is madness." Nagini whispered in realization, as if all lies were
washed away in a gentle rain. It was then, that the giant creature caught
sight of Skylar and Lutain.
"You!" Adalonda screeched, the ground vibrating and shaking under the
movement of her scales. "I will bring him your bones!"
Lutain tightened his scales, and Skylar took the cue as if they were one.
Skylar lifted and bolted in a sprint, careful not to look behind him as
Lutain kept his focus on scent marking and heat signature. Adalonda
crashed around them, stone pillars breaking and suits of armor crumpling
like foil. Many people would be dying today.
"Where is he! Where is that worthless rat you dare protect! I will slaughter
him!"
"Adalonda, Great Queen, no!" Nagini interrupted, lifting herself boldly to
stop the chasing serpent. Skylar kept running, Lutain opened his maw to
shriek at her no.
"I ask of you to explain-,"
Adalonda glanced over Nagini's body and without hesitation, closed her
maw downwards and severed Nagini's skull from her ribs.
"No!" Lutain screamed afterwards, even as his mind told him that Nagini
had perished. He knew it, and yet he screamed. "No!"
They passed indoors, Skylar shouting something in a language Lutain
couldn't focus enough to process, and they descended steps.
Lutain spotted his master on a stairwell, unknowing- oblivious of it all.
He didn't know what Nagini had done for- he didn't-
"No." Lutain repeated dumbly.
He wondered, if this was how his master felt over the human girl he
never forgot.
"Cerestes!" She screamed, and Adrian knew that she had seen him, that
she had smelled his scent and now she was hunting.
Adrian ran.
His feet moved, his lungs forced air in and out faster and faster, and he
ran.
Lutain was absent from him, a weight around his neck that didn't hold
him back. He felt weightless, free and fluid as he sprinted up steps and
across hallways. He could hear the crashing sound of scales on flooring,
the ancient castle moaning as tapestries tore and rock crumbled.
Adrian ran, his feet barely touching the ground like all the birds he had
watched before. He threw his head back, laughing a single sound of
exhilaration to chase the fear from out of his heart.
Adrian had always had death beckoning him, but he had never
experienced it chasing him.
Adrian ran, running and forcing himself to move forward. To keep going
and never look back. If he looked back, he would die. If he looked back,
then he would be facing a monster that he knew he could never
overcome.
Adrian threw open the doors to the Great Hall, running through them as
if it was his first day all over again. He could remember it; how young
and naive he was. The sorting hat standing on its little stool in the center,
the rows of children and teachers and the bright smell of the Welcoming
Feast.
Now, the room was empty and barren. No illuminated candles, only large
buckets of soapy water and other cleaning solutions. The reek of
ammonium, the scunge of dirt on the floor.
The room was dim but bright, sunlight tinted darkly through the large
stained-glass windows. Adrian always thought the Great Hall looked like
a church, that there should be some sort of pew or altar on the far end
where the Headmaster stood to deliver their speech.
Adrian gagged, exhaustion burning across his skin as he keeled over,
hands on his knees to catch his breath. It burned.
"You cannot run," Adalonda crooned, finally slowing her deathly pursuit.
She slithered into the hall like a queen, the large door finally sliding shut
as the last of her tail slipped inside. Adrian knew he wouldn't be opening
that door. It closed with a noise that felt like a clap, the applause for his
final act.
"Well," Adrian gurgled from where he keeled over, a room away from the
majestic serpent, "I managed to run here."
Adalonda looked calm, confident, and furious. Her eyes were wide, bright
glowing yellow like a full moon. The murkiness was gone, the killing
sight ineffective against another basilisk.
"Oh, thank god," Adrian's voice cracked in relief, "It would be a bit of a
downer if your face killed me now."
Adalonda hissed a large abrupt noise, inhaling so fiercely her entire bulk
expanded by nearly a foot.
"I will kill you, you insolent brat!" Adalonda spat in delight. "I have torn you
down to nothing!"
Adrian laughed out of disbelief, "really? Really? Adalonda, I gave you all
of me and now I am nothing. But you know what? I'm still standing!"
Adalonda hissed in frustration, scenting and breathing sharply.
Adrian's eyes hurt.
"That's right." Adalonda spat out, lowering her head to stalk towards him
predatorily, "you are nothing compared to me. You are a child, a blind
useless child that had dreams so large they could only be obtained in death."
Adrian took a step back, shuffling around the Hufflepuff table. "That
won't work on me anymore, Adalonda. There are more things in life than
your fucked-up philosophy."
"Oh," Adalonda almost cheered, "the rat finally shows its fangs? The vermin
finally scrambling amongst the filth?"
Adrian almost laughed, instead he choked.
Adalonda reared back, so tall her head nearly touched the ceiling of the
hall. "Oh yes! How pathetic you are! If only you could see what a miserable
mess you were, begging for my aid and idiotic enough to accept it. I have
ruined many humans, I had wrecked the lives of so many but you, Cerestes,
are the greatest blunder of them all."
Adrian shook his head and stumbled backwards, gagging on the smell of
ammonia which burned his nose. "No, you're full of shite, Adalonda. And
you know what? I'm sorry for you, that you lost to Mylla and you had
to-."
"Do not talk to me about that wretched worm!" Adalonda screamed, flashing
her long teeth as her breaths heaved in frustration. "She is nothing! A
diseased creature that is so foul it shall never be allowed to die!"
"No! That's your greatest flaw!" Adrian shouted back, coughing into his
hand. "You think you're so high and mighty! You're just as here as the
rest of us! You're not immortal!"'
"I am a basilisk!" Adalonda screamed.
Adrian laughed, and she roared in frustration.
"'I have ruined you!" She continued in the throes of rage. "I have taken your
life and I have ruined you! I have destroyed all you hold precious, I have
rotted everything you considered beautiful! You are a foul bastardized
creature now who is so sick even monsters shy from your touch!"
Adrian shook his head, a smile still spreading across his face. His eyes
hurt, and from what he could see, the bright yellow gaze of Adalonda's
eyes were now turning orange.
"No, you're wrong!" Adrian hoarsely shouted at her, "If you really ruined
me, I wouldn't be here!"
Adalonda stared at him, fuming, before she started to move.
It wasn't fast. It was slow, a slow predatory lurching movement that had
Adrian stumbling backwards the best he could. Adrian ascended the steps
to the staff table, trying to remain as far out of reach of the giant basilisk
as he could.
"You're so confident." Adalonda hissed out, keeping her mouth open to
gape at air, "you believe you have me beat? You diseased rot. You can't
attack me; my scales are too strong. My strike is too fast. Even now, I am
decades older and wiser than you will ever be you pathetic maggot. You will
die, and I will live and lead this world into chaos because none can oppose
me, lest of all you."
Adrian shook his head, and Adalonda laughed.
"You think you have a chance!" She chortled in delight. "I have always been
a step ahead of you. The girl you left to rot in my chamber? I struck her and
turned her into those blasted birds to render you forever tormented."
Adrian twitched, "Ginny. You...you bit Ginny, so she'd be a thestral."
"Of course, I did you silly thing," Adalonda laughed. "I bit the other girl too.
She begged to live, she begged me to help you and I did by rendering you to
insanity. She wanted you to be saved, so I assured your death."
Adrian's heart lurched at the mention of Luna. He bowed his head,
squinting his eyes and clenching his mouth shut. His skin burned,
everything hurt.
"You trusted me, confided in me, and I put poison in your veins." Adalonda
thrummed in delight, hissing vindictively in a way Adrian had never
heard. "I slaughtered that worm you once held dear, and once I am done with
you I will slaughter that serpent you carry around obsessively."
Lutain, she meant Lutain.
Adrian felt his eyes water, liquid accumulating and burning all at once.
Why was it so hard to breathe?
"I wanted to keep you alive, to have you watch as I end everything you hold
precious." Adalonda continued, breath rattling in her throat. Her teeth
were long, mouth open like some sort of dragon. "I want you to watch; you
know this is all your fault."
Her body flailed, her torso twitching as she breathed in and out.
Breathed in.
Breathed out.
Adrian shook his head, "No, Adalonda. You treated me like a pawn and
that's your own downfall."
Adalonda recoiled in shock. "You dare defy me!"'
"You treated me like a tool with no thoughts of my own!" Adrian
antagonized, keeling over with a gasp, hand fumbling through his robe
for small glass bottles. "And that's your own fault! I'm not useless! And it's
taken me a long while to realize that, but this ends here!"
Adalonda hissed a low gurgled noise. "You can't kill me. You can't use spells
or magic lest you die. Look at you, you can hardly stand on those two legs of
yours."
Adrian wheezed.
Adrian smiled.
"You're right," He gasped out, "I can't. But if there's one thing I know, I
know magical creatures really damned well!"
"That does nothing!" Adalonda defended, confused but hiding it behind her
heaving breaths and pink saliva drooling from the corner of her mouth.
Her red eyes were staring furiously, willing him to die right then and
there.
"You're right," Adrian croaked back, coughing and nearly stumbling to his
knees. His hands closed on the glass bottles he had been reaching for,
pulling them out carefully and slowly. The chilled liquid inside sloshed,
freezing to the touch. He stashed them there against his sides, given to
him sadly by Scamander in his last moments.
'I'm sorry,' The man told him.
Adrian grinned.
"Adalonda!" Adrian screamed, making sure he had her attention. "Snakes
only have one lung! Snakes have a membrane running all the way down
the back of their trachea, so they don't suffocate while swallowing. In
humans, we have oxygen enter our lungs at the bottom, but in snakes,
that happens at the top,"
Adalonda wavered side to side, looking confused and disoriented and
somehow small despite her hunkering height. There was blood dripping
from her eyes, thick mucus slime dripped from her mouth.
"That means nothing. Basilisks are immortal!"
"Yeah," Adrian grinned, his mouth pink, "only from the outside."
Adalonda's eyes widened in alarm and confusion. "What?"
She had given him the idea once, or maybe he had always been dreaming
of it. Mixed in his waking hours, curiosity edged in cruelty that made him
flinch away from it.
The glass vials in his hands were chilled, cold in his fingers. He wondered
if she ever knew her own mortality.
Adrian smashed the glass on the ground, liquid instantly evaporating and
mixing with the fumes from dozens and dozens of cleaning buckets
scattered throughout the entire Great Hall. The buckets, that had been
filled with rapidly evaporating ammonium. Cleaning solutions that
burned to breathe in.
'You put poison in my blood,' Adrian thought dazed and disoriented,
humour tickling in all the morbidly wrong ways. 'I put it in the air.'
"I hear they fumigate vermin," Adrian croaked out, thankful that the
mixture was lighter than air and had accumulated up near Adalonda's
head level, "I think it's time to kill a rat."
Ammonia gas was light, stinging and burning away at the mucus
membranes available. It crept in, difficult to tell by the rancid odor alone
if you were lacking certain olfactory senses like a snake. It burned his
eyes, boiling against Adrian's skin. His mouth felt like he had drunk
vinegar, his throat drooled.
The bottles exploded, chlorine evaporating and mixing into a single thick
cloud of opaque gas.
This one, well.
Combining with fluid in a throat and lung, it created an acid so strong
flesh and tissue melted from the inside out. Once a puncture appeared in
a trachea or a lung, the pressure would deflate, and the victim would
suffocate to death, if they didn't drown in their own blood.
There was a reason chlorine gas was something people did not mess with.
Adrian smiled, blood and slime dripping from his nose and mouth, skin
blistering when brushed against the noxious cloud that burned the snake
from the inside out.
A queen rendered dying from something peasants cleaned with.
"We're all damaged somehow," Adrian croaked out through the dizzying
agony and pain on his flesh. He could hear Adalonda screaming,
thrashing against the reinforced walls and glass of the sealed Great Hall.
Gas rises, and Adalonda was so tall.
(Where was Adalonda's crown now?)
There wasn't anything pretty about it. There was no poetry to be written
about the moment.
It was garish and disgusting, cruel even beyond that of Adalonda's nature.
Adrian felt no glee, watching her die. He felt no satisfaction or delight in
the prolonged agony and cries of a creature unable to perish quickly. He
watched her eyes burst, corroding and melting as her lungs and throat
turned liquid. It smelled foul, tainting the room and tainting Adrian's
heart.
It had been a long struggle, a long battle against one another and at the
end, all Adrian could feel was sadness.
'I wanted her to die,' Adrian thought to himself, 'because it would be mercy
with one so deranged as her.'
This wasn't mercy.
This was something beyond comprehension.
Adrian couldn't tell if the liquid running down his face was blood or tears
or some mixture between the two.
Adalonda breathed twice, and then, she died.
Adrian stumbled out of the Great Hall, crawling on his knees with a
wheeze and bloody spit. His eyes burned, his exposed skin was flushed
and blistering. The inside of his mouth felt like a blood pop.
The fresh air felt strange, stinging as he hacked out the beginnings of his
melted organs. Adrian couldn't help but smile, crawling wobbly with his
head low as he spat out and choked on air like a newborn.
The gas behind him would escape when Scamander showed up to blast
out the windows. The gas would escape naturally, everyone knew the
Great Hall was off limits. Until then, it slowly creeped out behind him,
spilling from the open doors like a curious foal.
Adrian had… he had to keep moving.
Adrian had to find Lutain he...he had left the snake near the main
courtyard…
Adrian hacked and crawled, finding a railing to help him upwards. His
eyes burned, blood dripping from his face. For once, it wasn't even from
the parasite.
(It hurt oh god it stung so badly oh god his eyes were going to explode.)
He staggered down stairs, shut down from moving. Debris scattered
around, paintings on fire, carpets shredded. Adrian kept walking, back
down the path he had sprinted not long earlier. His mouth drooled foam
and spit, he breathed poison.
It felt surreal, to walk down the steps he had walked a thousand times.
The steps from the Great Hall to the courtyard. This time, he walked and
left the corpse of a monster behind.
He walked unburdened by weight and guilt. Adrian reached up with
shaking fingers, unclasping the Cerestes cloak. He let it flutter to the
ground, reeking of toxins from its discarded heap. Adrian ignored it and
kept walking. The cloak left behind him, poisonous to any who touched
it.
There was shouting, bright lights and noises that disoriented him. The
world was spinning, noises were slurred, and sounds had no meaning. He
blinked through pink and saw clearly only for the world to pink over
again.
His teeth tasted like rust. His chest felt heavy and wet.
Adrian grinned, teeth wide and gums hurting. His entire face hurt, body
throbbing and numb. His head felt heavy and dizzy, burning and wet.
He had never a moment before to notice how bright the sun looked, even
now in winter. It would be approaching spring soon, he imagined. The
lake would thaw, and the water lilies would cover the surface in so many
of those soft looking flowers. He liked the ones that were yellow, soft and
pastel on the glassy surface.
Adrian giggled, bubbles from his lips at the thought. His eyes were wet,
and the sun was very bright in the sky.
He knew he fell to the ground when the pink and red stained the snow
write. He didn't think there would be much snow left over with all the
chaos; all the feet running over it again and again.
He couldn't make sense of noises, of words. Sounds bright and sharp,
movement all around him. He knew he managed to the courtyard, where
Lutain would be in all the scramble.
(Adrian was so tired, and his entire chest hurt.)
A face was next to his, one he recognized in nightmares and in mirrors.
Adrian grinned, wide and pleased through the tingling vertigo of gravity.
A mouth moved, quick and fierce, teeth bared in a silent snarl.
'Oh, he's mad.' Adrian could barely ration out. His father snarled like a
furious monster, but Adrian had killed the last monster he met. Adrian
had done the impossible and in return he coughed the words of the
dying; blood and rot.
His father looked mad, or maybe he always had, and Adrian never
noticed. It was strange, how clear his mind was now that it was boiling in
formaldehyde. Would someone pull out his innards and place them in
bottles along the Potions classroom? Adrian imagined they would be
pitted and filled with holes, maggots feasting on his innards.
(Why was it, his hearing was the first thing to go?)
His father looked so, so mad at him.
Adrian was happy, he had done something wonderful after all.
Adrian grinned, gums blistered and melting. Teeth stained, eyes clouded
and blue like those eyeballs he had that swished in bottles a lifetime ago.
He wondered where Tonks had put them.
Voldemort was so mad at him.
His mouth moved in two words, wand pointed at Adrian's face.
Adrian Selwyn grinned, and dissolved away.
r0ulette: I do want to say that your concept of Adrian isn't unappealing
to me, it just isnt what FFnet users have come to expect from their main
characters. (and I gotta admit, I probably wouldn't be mad if he did some
epic shit and the story ended happily) But I think this concept is very
unique and I have been very entertained and it wouldn't be the same if it
was different you know. Also I love Bakugo and if you're writing My Hero
shit I can't fucking wait omG
There's a super fascinating rift between this story on Ao3 and here, in regards
to how people interpret things and what they respond with. I don't mind at all,
and truly all criticism is very welcome. I like to imagine my story is
unorthodox, and I understand it's not for everyone. My BNHA story is on hold
for a little bit since I got distracted with this one- I left off somewhere with
Aizawa calling in a Bomb SWAT team to disarm Bakugou's dirty hamper since
the dorm washing machine can't get Nitroglycerin out.
shadowman21: How are you doing? This seems rough on you.
It's the ending of something which helped me greatly with my own grief. It's the
ending of something I could prolong forever, but everything has its time and it's
time for me to move on.
ilyillumina: is Adrian ever going to find out if he actually killed Luna?
(Or did he already? My memory sucks : )
He has! Mylla told him a while back. I remember you!
Copper Hillier: Some people have been commenting that you focus a lot
on the downs and Adrian basically being sad, but I think it really helps to
develop his character. It shows the reader just how desperate and the
lengths Adrian would go to for a small bit of recongition. Added to the
fact that this isn't a happy story, things are gonna get dark!
That being said I completely understand if people don't like this story due to
those factors! Everyone is valid, especially with how this story is ending!
Rooster the king: First thing first... I apologize for saying "I will quit this
story " in my last review ...i lovethis story too much to do it...
You're in too deep. Welcome to having an addiction.
4 Chapters Left
77. Anger
The 5 Stages of Grief: ANGER
The more you feel it, the more it will begin to vanish. There are many
emotions within it all, and not always in the way you imagine. Anger has no
limits, it can extend to everyone and everything. Under it all, is your pain. It is
natural to feel deserted and abandoned; anger is strength and can offer you
shelter to the nothingness of loss. Anger is just another indication of the
intensity of your love. Through it all, you may ask: "Where is God in this?"
It was spring. The grass was soft and fresh, smelling of fertile earth and
morning dew. It coated his cheek, brushing against his face in what
would surely be a rash.
It was a nice temperature, foggy and crisp. It didn't burn or hurt his lungs
like the winter air did, it wasn't sharp or fragrant like the peat bogs. It
was gentle and soft, rounded on the edges.
Adrian grunted and used his forearms to lift him, gentle and careful. His
joints didn't break, his skin didn't burn.
He righted himself, confused and dazed all at once. He had never been
here where the grass was so green, darker and healthier than the
evergreen trees. Even the soil under it was dark brown and lush.
There was moisture in the air but no threat of rain. It was overcast but
still bright. It was an illusion so perfect it could only be real.
"Where…" Adrian paused, startling at the sound of his own voice. Deep,
smooth without the rasp that followed him like a shadow. His words
hung there before spreading out gently. He blinked and inhaled slowly,
scratching his cheek in an anxious tick.
"Where am I?" Adrian whispered, smooth and quiet. Somewhere in the
distant through the fog, there was a lake. He could see the movement of
gentle waves lapping at the edges, but the sound was swallowed in the
serenity.
He spun on his heels, bare feet digging into the grass. It must have been
mixed with moss, there was no such grass as soft as this.
"Hello!" Adrian shouted, fearing for his own sanity for a moment. Had he
somehow been trapped in his own mind? Had he been taken captive by a
foreign invader?
A twig snapped, which was alarming since the trees around looked
pristine and healthy. No such twigs should have fallen or littered the
ground already.
Adrian spun, tearing up vegetation with the speed of his twirl.
Standing there, looking cheeky and ashamed, was a pale face with hair
like spun gold.
"Hello," Luna grinned, eyes bright and ecstatic.
Luna showed him the lake, laughing and sprinting across the grass with
no care. She was wearing a dress, long and white. It trailed after her like
the wings of a dove, flowing and flapping like a patronus. She beamed,
eyes bright and smile so pointed it threatened her face with bruising.
The water of the lake was cool, biting on his feet whereas the small
minnows flitted around instead. The aquatic bugs skittered on the
surface, the tadpoles sticking to the reeds that lined the mud layer.
"Here!" Luna laughed, forcing Adrian to fumble and hold the trail of her
dress in his hands. The material was smooth and slick, untarnished and
pristine where her toes wiggled coated in smelly clay.
"Do you think we could catch a frog?" Luna laughed, tugging her hair up
on her head to twist it into a braid. Adrian's brow furrowed as he scoured
his eyes along the bank.
"There's tadpoles…"' Adrian trailed off thoughtfully, "so there should be
frogs."
Luna grinned, and they hunted like a pack of benign wolves.
They found frogs, large croaking ones that went 'ribbit!' in Luna's thin
fingers.
They planted seeds they plucked from sunflowers, burying them carefully
and feeding it water from their cupped palms. They drank from the lake,
splashing each other until Adrian slipped and stumbled in. Luna leapt in
after, kicking and throwing muck in his hair. Her dress made her legs
look like a mermaid; she looked serene.
"Where are the birds?" Adrian asked, squinting in the trees. Luna lent on
him heavily, warm cheek resting against his. Her skin was pale and
flawless, her perfume was just as he remembered it.
"I don't know," Luna confessed sheepishly, "want to go find them?"
Adrian huffed in good humor, "I doubt we'll find any."
"Where do you think they'd be?" Luna asked teasingly, her tongue poking
out from between her white teeth. "We'll look there first."
Adrian rolled his eyes and huffed, plucking strands of grass out from her
hair. "Maybe by the spruce trees. The top branches."
They looked and watched the crow flock, picking out berries that were
bright red and juicy even in their eyes. Adrian plucked a few, not
recognizing them but Luna didn't protest. They feasted until their fingers
were sticky and pink, tongue stained with their prizes.
"Hey Luna?" Adrian asked curiously, sprawled on his back with the girl
laying next to him. Her hair spread around her like a pillow, his arm over
them like a pillow. The sky above had clouds moving slowly, plump and
fluffy in various shapes. They picked out the ones they could see, making
up names for the ones they couldn't interpret.
"Yeah?" She chirped back, glowing under the sunlight.
Adrian's mouth twitched into a grin, "I'm dead, aren't I?"
She didn't stop smiling. "Yep."
Adrian laughed, and Luna giggled in good humour over it all.
"That one looks like that one dragon!" Luna cheered, poking at the sky.
Adrian traced his eyes along her hand, following her direction.
Adrian tilted his head and squinted a little, "I guess it does look like that
one dragon. I wonder what happened to it after Skylar and I freed it."
Luna hummed a gentle tune, "it probably ate a pumpkin patch."
Adrian cackled; Luna was warm and gentle in his hands.
"You did this wrong," Luna hummed quietly, her finger tapping the single
earring Adrian had stolen from her bedroom. Adrian huffed as if
annoyed, he knew he could never be mad at her.
"Is that why It hurt so much?" Adrian smirked, eyes bright as he danced
away from her reaching fingers. "How was I supposed to do it then?"
"Not like that!" Luna teased, leaping at him. Adrian danced away, knees
bending and hips moving and nothing cracked.
"Did I do the right thing, Luna?"
"Of course you did, silly."
"Am I a good person?" Adrian asked her in a whisper. The sun set, the sky
lit with green and purple dancing above them like fire. It was a gentle
fire, a beautiful aura to it that Adrian could never replicate.
Luna rolled on her side, face hard to see in the darkness of the night. "I
think you're a good person."
Adrian's brow furrowed ever so slightly in confusion, he chewed on his
lower lip nervously. "How can you say that? I've done terrible things,
Luna."
He could tell she was smiling at him, even if he couldn't see her face.
"It's okay," Luna whispered to him gently, a hand resting along his face to
trace along the edge of his jaw. "It's okay Adrian."
"Luna I killed-."
"It's okay." Luna soothed in a whisper.
The fire in him burned out, and the hollow that existed in him remained
empty and quiet and calm.
"How are you here?" Adrian asked, sitting on a rock with his feet in the
water. He swished them back and forth, causing ripples that traveled
over the surface.
Luna stood waist deep in the water, trailing fingers through wet hair to
keep it smooth. It was shiny and soft, angelic.
Luna glanced over at him, sparing a moment to roll her eyes at him as if
the question was stupid.
Adrian didn't notice that she didn't answer.
"What do you want to do today?" Luna asked him.
Her eyes sparkled like all the stars in the sky. They were blue, bright and
clear.
Adrian's face softened, his fingers ran through her hair to tuck it behind
her ears.
"I don't know." Adrian confessed quietly, running his thumb along her
cheekbone. "I'm happy though."
Luna grabbed his wrist and smiled soft and shy. "Me too."
"Luna? Why are there no animals here?"
"Do you want there to be?"
"Hey Luna? What was the last thing you said to me?"
Luna's smile could have ended poverty. "You're not unlovable silly."
(That wasn't the last thing she said to him.)
(That was the last thing he remembered.)
Things didn't line up. Small things that bothered him; the softness of the
grass despite there never being any rain.
The water was always gentle with minnows swimming. Adrian had never
seen a large fish, but the moment he started looking he found them. The
sun was overhead, but no matter how long they laid beneath it they
never got sunburn until the moment Adrian thought about it .
Luna was just how he remembered her, how he dreamt of her in his
mourning. She smelled like her perfume and her laugh were church bells.
Adrian thought that he had died in a church, or something similar. Under
the crown of some wrathful god that didn't understand the ramifications
of its actions.
He thought he died under his father's hand, but it was so hazy and hard
to remember.
Luna, was exactly how he remembered.
"This place is an oasis." Adrian hummed, hand toying with leaves plucked
from the nearby trees. "It's a paradise."
"Biblical today?" Luna teased, skipping between the tall columns of bark.
"Does that make me Eve then?"
(LutainLutainLutain-)
Luna's face didn't even shift. "What about Ogygia? Do you know that
myth?"
Adrian's eyes flickered in slight surprise. "Yeah, I didn't think you did. It's
Greek."
Luna trailed her fingers across the rough bark and spun slowly around
the trunk. "Calypso lived on Ogygia," Luna explained, looking deep in
thought as Adrian too scrambled through his memory. "She was beautiful
and the island was as well. It was paradise, and she and Odysseus lived
there for eternity."
Adrian grinned and nodded, gazing around the valley and lake and
forests and flowers. "This is Ogygia then."
Luna agreed with a wide toothed smile.
'Calypso kept Odysseus prisoner at Ogygia for seven years. Odysseus wished
for circumstances to change, so at the request of the gods she bid him farewell
on a raft.'
Luna's voice changed, shifting in melody and tune until it was something
gentle.
He couldn't imagine her shouting at him.
They sat under the trees, watching the shade spill over the grass.
"If this is paradise," Adrian quietly asked, tilting his head in thought,
"what do you gift someone who has everything they ever wanted?"
Luna leant against him.
He knew what she was going to say.
"You give them things they couldn't have." She explained contently.
"Things they could never have again."
Adrian's mouth felt wrong. "You're not dead, Luna."
Luna shrugged her shoulder. "Thestrals, nobody really knows how that
works."
(No, Adrian didn't know how that worked.)
"Did you ever think?" Luna started, leaning against his side as a gentle
weight, "that what you were trying to do, leaving Tonks and Remus
before you could say goodbye, is what you've done here? You said you
wanted to leave them so they didn't turn your last moments into a
concept on a pedestal. You wanted to leave so your memory wouldn't be
inflated into something perfect and not you."
Luna grinned, eyes sparkling and so so happy. "Isn't that what you've done
with me?"
Adrian woke next to something perfect. He woke next to something fake
and made in his mind and something so wonderful, he could never look
away.
"Come swimming with me?" Luna asked, tugging on his hand gently.
Adrian followed her, because he didn't know what else to do other than
chase her.
"You're not real." Adrian spoke curtly, he wished his voice sounded as
gravelly as he felt. "You're not the real Luna."
"I'm the Luna you remember," she pointedly poked back at him. "I'm
everything you remembered, because you're afraid that you're a monster
in the end. That I'm going to be afraid of this disgusting aberration you
are now. That's why you look like this, that's why you aren't sick
anymore."
Adrian flinched away, avoiding looking at his perfect skin and subtle
muscle.
Luna smiled gently, "you love me, because you're terrified I'll hate you
and your entire life will be worthless. You're a hypocrite, Adrian Selwyn.
You're a disgusting hideous monster that deserves no love so that's why
you're going to stay with me."
Adrian's throat felt sick despite the fact it couldn't be here. "Why are you
saying that to me?"
Luna blinked, wide eyed and innocent. "Because you want me to say
that."
"You're a very sick person." Luna confessed, pointing at the constellations
he already knew. "But it's okay. I'm here now."
'You're not real.' Adrian wanted to whisper.
Adrian realized it with a certain clarity.
Paradise is dependent on the person. Paradise for one is not a paradise
for another.
Everyone is relative, but what do you give someone who dreams of the
one thing they cannot ever have?
(You draft their memories and pluck on harpsichord until it's close
enough, you can accept it all the same.)
"I love you," Luna repeated gently, smiling like the sun. He couldn't
imagine her frowning. "I love you so much, Adrian."
Adrian closed his eyes, trying not to think of her.
"Nobody is going to love you more than I do." She whispered, fingers
tracing along the tops of his shoulder.
Adrian flinched, and looked away.
Adrian knew, when he remembered Sunflowers don't grow in spring, that
everything was fake.
The sunflowers weren't here, the lake and the trees and the grass wasn't
here.
Nothing was here, it was only here because he wanted it to be.
This wasn't Luna. This was his skewed and biased memory but it wasn't-.
"You're right, what you said." Luna spoke, smiling contently despite the
horror of her words. Adrian had never felt so close to vomiting before.
"That I'm not here. I'm everything you've thought and everything you've
dreamed up- I'm all this for you."
No. Oh god no.
"No, you're not real." Adrian protested, barely able to get the words from
his throat.
Luna frowned, tilting her head with a frown.
"You're just in my head." Adrian argued.
Luna reached out, her fingers cupping his cheek to rest below his eye.
Adrian leaned into the touch, smelling the fragrance of her skin.
"Isn't that what you want?" Luna asked gently, the breath from her lips
sugary and sweet. "It's over now, Adrian. I'm everything you've ever
wanted. I'm here, and you can stay with me forever."
Adrian wanted to cry, everything was so wrong, warped and perfect and
he had forgotten the sound of her voice. He had forgotten the exact shade
of blue that her eyes were, the smell of her skin and the way her smile lit
up her whole face, "but you're not real."
Luna leaned forward, her hair silk over his skin. "It doesn't matter," she
whispered gently to him, kind and unjust for the monstrosity he was,
"because I'm here with you forever, and I love you."
"No," Adrian shook his head, shaking her hand free from where it
touched his face. "I- I can't do that. You're not real, you're just in my
head."
Luna looked hurt, and Adrian's heart throbbed in agony. She lowered her
hand, taking a step back. Her shoes parted the wildflowers at her feet,
Adrian recognized every flower from the bundles she gifted him.
"Does that make me not okay?" Luna asked, looking close to tears,
"are...are you saying that just because I'm in your head, I'm not…"
"No," Adrian blurted instantly, breathing shakily and fisting his hands in
his hair, "you- you're in my head so you can't-."
"Memories are in our head," Luna whispered gently, "yet those are things
we hold more precious than life itself."
"Luna I-."
"It's okay," she whispered, nodding her her head as if she knew all along.
"It's okay now. I'm not real, but I'm here. You've made it."
Adrian tried to summon a sense of courage or defiance in the wake of her
devoted understanding. "That's not fair to you."
Luna smiled and sighed so gentle it was barely more than a breath. "It
doesn't need to be fair, because this is all for you. This is your finale,
Adrian. This is where you finally let go, because you're done, you can
finally close your eyes and let go."
Adrian wanted to, oh god how he wanted to. He wanted to run his hands
through her hair, braiding it down her neck and trace the notches of her
spine. He wanted to breathe, to feel the sun on his face and banish away
the eternal coldness that had haunted his bones for years. Adrian wanted
to finally rest, but he couldn't.
"No," he denied with the smallest twitch of a smile, saltiness burning on
his face. "I can't."
"Adrian, it's okay, you can rest now-."
"No, because because I haven't made it, Luna." Adrian cut off with a
warbling laugh, "because I'm not done yet. I know, that one day the time
will come when I can finally just…stop, but it's not now. I have things to
do, I have things to finish. You're in my head, I know that, but I can
never stop until the Luna I know can rest as well."
Luna stood there, tilting her head silently. "When are you going to stop?"
"I'll know the time has come, when I see you again again and you'll bring
a smile to my face before a tear to my eye, and I will never[1] stop until
then."
Luna tilted her head, and the world flashed.
"Is this it?" She asked, quiet and nervous. The grass was gone, instead
now they were on a bridge. Made of stone in large arching patterns,
seagulls circling below them towards the coast. He could spot seals if he
searched. The breeze was salty, it blew the ornate flowers from Luna's
hair.
It lifted the white veil from in front of her face.
Adrian cried; Luna looked amazing in white.
"I always wanted birdhouses." Luna laughed, running down the sidewalk
in her obnoxiously orange shoes. The fence was built almost entirely out
of birdhouses, the house a horrible shade of bright pastels. It was
disgusting and perfect and Adrian could wake up and have his morning
coffee at the kitchen table. He could shoo the household kneazle off the
counter.
He knew there would be animals in the back, all the serpents and rescued
magical creatures needing care. He could live like this, waking up to
perfume and hippogriff feathers. He could live his entire life content and
happy.
"Is this better?" Luna asked, twirling and looking absolutely obscene in
her giant sweater. It managed to hide the swell of her stomach. It hid the
shape of her body because it wasn't important to him. Her face was older,
wrinkles on the corner and a small burn scar under one ear. She was
wearing simple earrings, little black obsidian shards in the shape of a
snake.
Adrian's hand flashed to his ear- a single crescent moon earring jangled.
Luna looked down sheepishly, scuffing her shoes on the floor. Herbs hung
from the ceiling like an apothecary, it smelled like lavender and catnip.
"Luna." Adrian choked out, everything so domestic it hurt.
"What do you want from me?" Luna asked worriedly, chewing on her
lower lip. "Because you have me. All of me. Forever."
Adrian choked, shaking hands covering his face. His unblemished face, fit
with wrinkles and laugh lines on the corner. "I- fuck."
Luna walked closer to him, worried and so caring. "Adrian? Adrian are
you okay? Adrian I-."
"You're not real!" Adrian screamed. The household kneazle bolted,
startled by the noise. It nearly knocked down a jar of flowers that Adrian
remembered giving her.
(No he didn't. This wasn't real.)
"I-." Luna's eyes were watering, "I- I am real."
"No," Adrian moaned, crying into his trembling hands. "This is a perfect
dream and I don't want to wake up."
Luna gently lowered herself to her knees. "I...no, no. It's...the other place.
The other life, that was the bad dream, Adrian."
Adrian keeled over and whimpered.
"It's okay now," Luna whispered into his shoulder. "I love you forever and
ever."
(You're not real.)
"You can spend an entire lifetime, in a blink of an eye." Luna whispered
to him. Her breath sweet on his skin. "There aren't anymore clocks to
keep count anymore."
Adrian shivered, twitching as something in him gave. "I want to spend
forever with you, Luna."
She smiled and pressed her forehead against his. "I know."
"This isn't perfection," Adrian whispered, choking on the words.
Luna stirred slightly from where she had napped on him. Her voice sleep-
thick and dazed. "It's torture."
"Goodmorning," Luna grinned bright and delighted, "do you want to go
looking for chestnuts?"
Adrian shrugged one shoulder, staring out the window. There was no
point to it, if he desired to see something it would be there. That was
how perfection worked.
"Do you want to go for a walk?"
Adrian gave a single curt laugh. "I want to go."
Luna's face didn't change. "No you don't."
No, he didn't.
"You make me so happy, Adrian."
"Do I?"
"You make me so happy."
"You're not Luna." Adrian didn't look away from the window. He didn't
look away from the sunrise so gorgeous it made his breath still. "You're...I
loved you, Luna. I loved you so much."
Luna tilted her head slightly, curious. She was everything he wanted her
to be. "I loved you like the fall of Rome?"
Adrian smiled bitterly, and dreamed of fire.
I loved you like the fall of Rome;
for the empires crushed to dirt beneath your heels,
for the buildings that burnt in my hands when I touched you.
"I killed Adalonda for you." Adrian whispered as the rain came down,
soothing on the roof shingles. "I killed her so so horribly, Luna."
Luna was dozing, almost asleep. "Y' didn' do it f'r me."
"You're right." Adrian whispered, letting her sleep. "I did it for Luna."
He wouldn't ever forget her scream, the gurgling wrasp of her death
throes. He crawled away from her body before it started trembling from
post-mortem twitches. He killed a god, and then he left it to rot.
I loved you like the devil came screaming downwards from heaven
Trailing angels in his wake
"You know there's a chance that she won't love you." Luna pouted,
kneading dough with her fingers. Her hair was spiraled and tied on the
top of her head, shaped like a crown.
Adrian's fingers tapped along the table. "I know."
"I don't know why you'd ever think to risk it?" Luna confessed quietly, "I
love you."
Adrian's smile was thin, "you're not Luna. That's why I can't stand this
anymore."
Luna's lower lip trembled. "I...I love you."
Adrian twitched. "You're only saying that, because I want the real Luna to
love me."
She didn't respond.
Adrian grinned savagely, and wished that this time, the gas would boil
him from the inside out.
"When you're here with me," Luna whispered to him, "it means you never
failed at saving me."
Adrian closed his eyes. He knew that already.
You were the end of the world, and I
Craved you
Thoughtlessly
"I remembered the Greek Myth with Calypso, I didn't at first." Adrian
smiled, sitting with his feet dipped into the lake. "I didn't realize the
irony of it when we called this place Ogygia."
Luna didn't respond. She knew, because he did.
"See," Adrian continued, a single dry huff of amusement to try and stave
off how much it hurt, "the myth said that Calypso kept Odysseus captive,
bewitching him with her voice and music. He was held prisoner there for
seven years, she intended it to be for eternity."
Luna swallowed thickly. "But the gods refused her request, and she gave
him supplies to build a raft. And he left."
Adrian nodded, kicking the water so it splashed. "And he left."
There was a chance that he would be alone forever.
If he did nothing, then that wasn't simply a chance for Luna.
That was her reality.
"I'm not leaving because I don't love you," Adrian whispered into the
crown of her head. "I can't do this, because the longer I stay here the less
I love myself."
'Can I tell you a secret? You're not unlovable silly, because I love you.'
Adrian sighed and stepped onto the raft, kicking it off into the little lake.
Luna stood on the edge of the water. She looked beautiful in her white
dress. A concept, a symbol he made of her memory to validate his own
means.
He hadn't thought of her as a person in a long, long time.
He doubted he'd ever see her face again.
Adrian didn't want to live chasing a memory.
So Adrian grabbed a small paddle, and he started pushing water, and he
let Luna go.
You were a deep hole in me, a rendering of the flesh
And I was foolish enough to love the wound.
"It's okay," Adrian whispered to himself, pulling his small raft further into
the mist. "Things we lose have a way of coming back to us in the end, if
not always in the way we expect."
S058: To be honest, I was kinda leery about ever using poison on a
Basilisk, because well, I figured given her own poison, she'd need a fair
bit. Plus, given her size and being a reptile which means a slow
metabolism, easily enough time for her to rip someone apart.
I researched extensively into the effects of toxins on venomous animals.
Reptiles may have a slower metabolism, but they are incredibly sensitive to
fumes and gas. If you have a pet reptile, it is incredibly dangerous to even
have an unlit candle in the same room as them due to the likelihood of
respiratory damage.
Impstar: So... why did Adalonda come crashing in, furious at Adrian?
Somehow he provoked her, obviously. But how?
I'll elaborate in the next chapter. Scamander was chucking roosters down the
plumbing.
Fireflyyy: I feel that, apart from some spelling errors, it's around the
quality of an actual story, which is amazing on a fanfiction website.
Thank you so much!
3 Chapters Left
(Have I broken your heart yet?) (Clark?)
78. Bargaining
This chapter was delayed due to the virus that has been infecting
various users on . The staff released a formal notice that they are
dealing with the issue, however I do advise you all head to Reddit or to
the Twitter to view the updates yourself.
The 5 Stages of Grief: BARGAINING
The normal reaction to the helplessness and vulnerability that comes through
loss is an attempt to regain control. We negotiate, we bargain, and try to find
a way to equal what we lost. Maybe if I had done things different? Maybe I
could have stopped this? We cling to the threads of hope and wait for them to
tear apart.
Have you ever seen something so horrible, that you instantly fight the
notion it could have happened. You instantly deny its ability, or the
possibility what you saw was true. Facts aren't facts anymore, truth
becomes lies because this cannot be life. This cannot be reality anymore.
People screaming faded into a buzz. A flash of movement that couldn't-
that wouldn't be understood.
A thrum of blood that was so overwhelming Skylar couldn't understand
it. He couldn't understand any of the sounds, the lights.
He didn't- he couldn't-.
Adrian slumped to the ground, entire body shifting and shuddering. He
was twitching, little subtle trembles of his body. Skylar could have
believed it, he could have smiled and gasped in relief and he could have
believed it; Adrian fell with his head at an obscure angle, jaw open and
facing Skylar.
He looked a bit like those images in textbooks, the ones that didn't move
because they were too grotesque. His eyes were glazed over like sheep
eyeballs in jars, thick and white with a blue circle in the middle. His skin
looked a bit ill, a bit overcooked, blistering in patches like a well roasted
Christmas Turkey.
There was liquid pooling from his mouth, thick and frothing; like vomit if
Skylar hadn't eyesight good enough to see chunks of his throat peel away
like the segments on an orange.
Skylar couldn't look away.
Voldemort ( it'sHimIt'sHim) look up, red eyes glimmering and furious. His
eyes met Skylar's across the courtyard, across the span of running
screaming bodies. Skylar couldn't hear words, and the monster across
from him didn't say anything.
Voldemort's eyes narrowed, his nostrils flared, and he vanished without a
sound.
Silent apparation was very difficult, Skylar didn't think it was possible.
Adrian gurgled wetly, diaphragm shifting with a spasm.
He...he'd need to help Adrian get up. They needed to run away, he
needed to get over there and help Adrian to his feet and they could both
get out of there…
Arms grabbed him, gristle and strong. They were dragging him away
from Adrian, from where he was laying sprawled on the ground waiting
for someone to help him up.
"No no," Skylar mumbled, quickly increasing in volume, "no! No put me
down! Put me down!"
The- the snake where was- where was the snake-.
Skylar spotted Lutain, prone and sprawled, twitching in death rattles next
to his master.
Skylar hadn't...he...he hadn't seen…
When had Lutain gone- had had he gone to to...to check on-.
Adrian wasn't moving. His skin looked...he…
"Adrian!" Skylar screamed, thrashing in the tough grip around his sides,
yanking him into the castle, "Adrian! Adrian!"
He...when had Lutain been- he-.
Oh, he...Lutain had...gone over the moment his master stumbled out in
the light-
Adrian was grinning and drooling and-.
"Adrian." Skylar mumbled, feeling very very sick. "He- we... Adrian."
He couldn't hear or understand what people were saying, even as they
shuffled him into the castle. He briefly spotted Moody- he hadn't seen the
man in a long time, tend to the small cuts from shrapnel. Skylar felt cold,
shaken and confused.
"I- I we…" Skylar's jaw was rattling, "w-we...we've got to- Adrian he, he
needs help he…"
A hand on his shoulder, then a blanket tucked under his chin close to his
body. "W-we need to, he needs help…"
"Boy," Moody grimaced, looking unsettled and unsure, "we...Selwyn's
dead."
No, Skylar wanted to argue, picturing white and blue eyes, thick like
rotting meat, I just saw him.
Adrian had been dying for months now. Skylar never really thought
about what he'd look like dead.
Skylar heaved, until nothing came out.
Dumbledore hurried, shushing students passed him into the direction of
the Hospital Wing. The Great Hall was still off limits, windows smashed
with Newt Scamander's help. It was only when the fumes had escaped
that Dumbledore could run inside, retrieving a fang from the basilisk (
Merlin's beard, it was huge. ).
The fang made quick work of the ring around his finger, releasing a
plume of corrosive magic. The wards enacted to force out the gas easily
contained the malignant fragment. The children, Ron Weasley and
Hermione Granger sprinted behind him, carrying the other portions they
had all gathered.
The locket went first, shattering under the brutal force of the venom tip.
It cracked the fang, barely breaking through the protective shell to the
inner core. Thankfully, the corpse of the giant basilisk had dozens more
to offer, each deadly to banish away the fractions of Tom's soul.
The Hufflepuff Chalice, Ravenclaw's Lost Diadem in the Room of Hidden
things, just as he suspected. The diary long since destroyed for Tom's
resurrection, Nagini succumbing to Salazar's beast with dozens of
witnesses.
They were destroyed, damaged, and Dumbledore's shaking poisoned hand
fumbled with the ring; the resurrection stone untouched in the light.
He had no time for this now, not with his passing looming ever closer.
Tom was weakened, defenseless. Perhaps he was wrong in his
interpretation of the prophecy, perhaps the role of young Adrian Selwyn
was finished.
What he had heard so far- that Tom had...had struck down his child with
no mercy…
Dumbledore felt old, and far too weak to ever witness something like this
again.
He rushed to where they were storing the boy, both his two young
escorts racing after.
Skylar Potter was curled in the corner, pale and shaking. His teeth rattled
so loudly it seemed as if they would fall out. Alastor stood over him, a
firm frown arching on his mouth. Skylar twitched, eyes unseeing and
flitting around frantically.
"Skylar," Dumbledore sighed in relief, thankful that the boy was not being
treated for wounds, "are you alright?"
Alastor shook his head sharply, "'fraid not, Albus. The boy's unresponsive.
I was going to contact…" he trailed off pointedly. That's right, James and
Lily were invited to fight as well. Albus had feared something happened
to them.
"Sky?" Hermione blurted in alarm, nearly running forward to grab the
boy. Ron grabbed her arm, holding her back. "No! Ron let me go! Skylar!"
Skylar didn't react, numb to the world.
"What happened?" Dumbledore asked lowly, eyes on Moody who
grimaced in response. He fumbled with his wand, not wanting to meet
the man's eyes. "Selwyn got the killing curse. In front of everyone. He
wasn't looking that good from that bloody plan of his."
Dumbledore's eyes widened in horror; he had seen the damage on the
basilisk, more gruesome than the dark perverse magics Grindelwald had
dabbled in. He couldn't imagine what poor Selwyn resembled now. Albus
had seen the bodies, gassed and begging even in death over in Germany.
He had been too late then, as well.
"Oh, my boy." Dumbledore sighed, lowering himself gently to his knees.
They creaked in his age, protesting the movement.
"Sir," Skylar sobbed out, barely present in the focus of his eyes, "he- he-
Adrian, he, they...they...he needs his...his body."
"It's okay," Dumbledore soothed, trying to find some sort of peace in the
silent crying around them. At some point, Miss Granger clued in and was
now sobbing horrible gasping noises. Mr. Weasley looked like he
expected it all along.
It was far too soon, far far too soon.
Newt Scamander hurried in, looking far too anxious. Considering the
castle was under siege, it was understandable.
"Albus," Newt stumbled out, chewing on his lower lip, "I ah, I'm sorry but
ah, we...we can't move him it...I've neutralized the trail he left but-..."
Dumbledore closed his eyes in frustration. "The parasite. I understand."
Scamander's breath left him in a rush. "I'm so sorry, Albus. I...There was
nothing I could do."
"No I imagine not," Dumbledore shook his head sadly. He felt numb,
helpless and faced with something far too overwhelming to ever accept
as real.
"Albus," Scamander started in a whisper, trying to tug the man away for a
small hint of privacy. "I...it...It wasn't good."
Albus tried not to twitch at the broken sound in his friend's voice. He
nearly hung his head in his shame.
"It was bad." Scamander kept whispering, looking ready to keel over. "I...I
hadn't thought it would... Merlin, I let him lure that thing into the hall
and I- I only threw roosters down that pipe and he…"
"You didn't know." Albus interjected, trying to cut off the broken man's
ramblings. "You didn't know how badly it would damage him."
Newt gave a curt laugh. His eyes were watering, glazed in horror. "Albus,
I have never seen something as horrific. Not even...Albus his eyes…"
Albus closed his eyes and breathed through his nose. It helped only
slightly against the nausea.
"I know how Tom intends to act on this." Dumbledore murmured lowly,
lifting his eyes slightly to draw Alastor Moody over to the discussion. Ron
and Hermione bolted to Skylar, falling to their knees to try and soothe
their hysterical friend.
"What is it, Albus?" Moody asked in a low grumble, looking far too grim
to have no suspicions.
Dumbledore smiled, and Moody glanced away quickly.
"Ah," Moody grumbled under his breath, "so it's that then."
"It's what?" Scamander hurried out, wringing his hands, "oh Merlin, oh
Merlin there's more."
"Unfortunately, we cannot allow ourselves to rest-."
"Do you have no sympathy!" Newt Scamander shouted, reeling back with
wide desperate eyes. "He- a boy just died!"
Ron and Hermione quieted instantly. Skylar gave another horrible
sounding sob.
Dumbledore smiled softly, tears finally breaking down his face. "I know, I
know. I will never forget this loss but I cannot afford to slow myself
down, for you see...I fear that Tom is already returning in another
assault, blinded with pride and arrogance in his victory."
"No," Newt whispered, shaking his head slowly. " Already? He- it's been
only an hour!"
"That's how war is," Moody grumbled although he too sounded
exhausted. "He's pressing his advantage. He bloody killed the prophecy
boy, he's cocky now."
"Maybe he didn't." Ron sniffed, voice quiet and small in the room. He too,
was crying. "Selwyn he- the prophecy thing. What was it? Like, it said he
would defeat You-Know-Who, right? Didn't he?"
Hermione gasped and jolted, looking hopeful but rather ugly with her
puffy eyes. "Ronald! Vanquish! Vanquish is defined as defeating
thoroughly, but defeat could...couldn't defeat refer to preventing You-
Know-Who? From his goal?"
Dumbledore smiled thinly, "optimism. Perhaps you are right, and young
Mr. Selwyn unknowingly did complete the prophecy, but that is all we
can hope for in these times. I find, that hope is something quite
powerful."
"Albus…" Moody warned in a low growl, "...what are you planning?"
Albus smiled sadly and looked down at Skylar, still trembling under the
unconscious tight grip on the blanket around him. "Perhaps it is time,
that I too face atoning for all the pain I have caused. If perhaps my
opportunity will protect the innocent, then it is a cost I will always be
willing to provide."
"No," Scamander whispered, paling with horror, "surely you don't
mean…"
Albus reached out and patted the man on his shoulder, "I thank you, for
the help and compassion you have given us all. You were my student, but
you have taught us all many lessons, my friend."
"Sir?" Hermione whispered, eyes welling in tears as she clutched Ron to
her side. Skylar watched it all blankly, not able to comprehend.
"I'll send the word," Moody looked grim, resigned and knowing. "It'll be
public, you know."
Dumbledore smiled, "well, I suppose it is good I decided to wear my best
socks today."
The dungeons were dark and damp, the air clouded by dust that stirred
through the air from the rumbling vibrations of fighting.
They stayed out of sight, hidden and forgotten next to the large slabs of
bedrock, pulled lovingly from a forgotten quarry. The torch scones
looked wet, reflecting firelight off cast iron like it was a street performer
showing an illusion.
Daphne hated the dungeons, she always found herself walking around the
upper levels instead. The long dark hallways were safe, confusing to
those who didn't run through them often. The potions classroom was
towards the start of the dungeons, not at all pushed into the forgotten
bowels of the castle. Daphne always wondered if she looked far enough,
would she would find catacombs?
The dungeons used to be something safe and secure, but now for the
Slytherin students they felt oppressive. They were thrown down to their
dorms in the heat of battle, cast aside because they were snakes.
'It's not fair!' Daphne wanted to shout desperately, 'Selwyn is a snake too!'
Instead, he was above them running along staircases and throwing fires.
She wondered if he knew where they were all hidden, forced to stay out
of sight.
"You're thinking too hard." Astoria whispered, walking next to her sister
to lean against her side gently. The year had been hard, Astoria felt like a
ghost now in both mind and presence. Maybe she had decided to fill the
void left by Lovegood.
"I'm not." Daphne defended weakly. "I don't like being down here."
Astoria hummed quietly, lighting her wand with a soft blue glow. The
castle above them had been quiet for a while, she wondered if they had
lost already.
She heard people walking behind, emerging from the labyrinth most of
her house was wandering through anxiously. She peered over her
shoulder, spotting the small group of glowing wands and shapeless
bodies. Gaunt faces, eyes reflecting like a cat in firelight.
"Greengrass." Millicent grunted, her thick jaw threw shadows over her
face that made her look more troll-like. "Any word?"
Astoria shifted, resting her head against Daphne's shoulder further.
Theodore Nott walked around, leading the small group through the
darkened passages. He looked quiet, composed and far too cold for her
comfort.
"No," Daphne muttered quietly, the hallways too quiet to speak at full
voice, "they're keeping us in the dark."
"Fat lot of good that'd do." Theo muttered, looking pale and haunted.
Daphne didn't remember seeing him down before, when they were forced
into the basement at wand point. "It's...it's not good."
Astoria tilted her head curiously, Theo kept walking around until they
formed a loose misshapen circle.
"You heard from up there?" Millicent blurted sharply with a scowl, "why
didn't you say earlier? You showed up out of the blue like bloody Peeves-
what's going on up there!"
Theo shifted, rolling his shoulders dismissively. Crabbe and Goyle
glanced at each other from the back of the group, confused and aimless.
"They killed the basilisk," Theo informed them, his voice flat and dead. "I
heard when I came back down."
A chill in the air, the thought of a basilisk in the walls hunting them for
years…
"Bloody Hell." Millicent cursed quietly, kicking a nearby wall. It didn't do
anything.
Daphne wanted to go upstairs, but she wasn't sure what she would face.
She wasn't sure if there was a guard, ready to kill her on sight. She didn't
have the same pass that Theodore did, she wasn't a friend of a madman.
"What's that?" Theo whispered, entire body arching into a tense bend. His
wand was poised, ready to go.
They froze, breathing paused. They heard footsteps from the direction of
the stairs, slow, lazy thumping with a scuffling of someone smaller.
"Nox." Astoria whispered, her wand flickering out. On cue, the group
around her followed, washing them in darkness.
The footsteps came closer, adrenaline pulsed. A wand was glowing down
the hallway coming closer.
They would never forget the face in question, pale with bloodshot eyes.
Eye bags were dark and purpling, bruises across the lower edge of his
pointed jaw.
Pansy, hanging back and silent from behind Crabbe stepped forward.
Blindly wiggling past Astoria to squint and see the face they hadn't
forgotten almost a year later. They didn't think to see him alive again.
"Draco?" Pansy whispered, voice loud in the silence of the cold cold
hallway.
Draco stopped moving, his throat shifted as he swallowed. Someone large
moved behind him, a wand glowing much brighter than Draco's charm.
Daphne recognized the scarred leathery face of the man instantly, he was
something of a legend after-all. She had met him on occasion, at the
charity gala's before everything went to shite.
"Fuck," Theo breathed, taking a step backwards when he recognized the
grizzled and amused eyes of the master dueler Rowle. " Fuck."
Rowle grinned, sharp teeth like a hyena. "I can hear you, you know."
Draco's face twitched; Daphne knew horror and terror when she saw it.
Astoria's breathing stopped, and Daphne stepped a half step forward. She
lifted her wand, and murmured a shaky, " lumos."
Her face glowed, Rowle's eyes scanned her features. She couldn't tell if he
remembered her or not.
"Well," Rowle started, a low grumble of his voice, "I was looking for
Severus but instead I find some brats."
Theo was shying away, trying to disguise his face or hide it. Daphne
didn't know why, but she was starting to feel dread over it.
"I don't know where the professor is." Daphne informed him, proud of
how her voice shook only slightly, "I imagine he's upstairs."
Rowle smiled, amused. "Don't be like that. I have a score to settle with
Severus, but well...I'm a bit bored."
Draco swallowed, eyes glazed and desperate.
'He's going to kill him,' Daphne realized with a cold shift down her back.
Rowle, the famous duelist, was going to kill Draco.
"I imagine there's excitement upstairs." Theo broke in, voice curt and
sharp. He faced the light directly, thin nose throwing a shadow over his
cheekbone. "I imagine lots of blood if you're into that."
Rowle's eyes flickered slightly, "You'd know. I saw you up there, fighting
with that brat."
Theo's jaw twitched slightly, "yeah well, I saw you kill a couple
Ravenclaws. Fair's fair, ya know?"
The casual tone of it all scared Daphne the most. Rowle laughed, eyes
and face sharp. Pansy was edging around, watching from the safety of
Theo's shoulder.
"You're fun." Rowle admitted with one eyebrow lifted, "I'm going to slit
your goddamn horse faced throat."
Theo grinned back, "I have a rat face. Not like you, if you were anymore
inbred you'd be a fuckin sandwich."
Rowle paused, looking stunned for a split second. Theo dropped to the
ground, jabbing his wand and spitting out "Expecto Patronus! Eat
Sunbittern you disgusting fuck!"
Something small but fast shot out- flying with startling speed. The bright
silvery glow of the bird nearly blinded the group, especially as it flared
its short wings which were decorated with two nearly fluorescent spots
similar to eyes. It flapped, diving forward ferociously and hissed out an
unexpected noise.
Rowle jolted backwards, Draco dropped to the ground and scampered on
his knees in a desperate lunge that looks awkward and unsightly. Rowle
cursed crudely, lifting his hand to smack the bird aside- it couldn't have
been larger than a chicken.
"Avis!" Pansy shouted, filling the hallway with a dozen small blackbirds.
She repeated it desperately, forcing the distance between them to be lit
by fast moving feathers.
"Crucio!" Rowle spat out, finally ignoring the silvery patronus. The red
spell shot towards them, striking one of the many near invisible birds in
the darkness. It screamed in a noise Astoria found herself shivering at.
"Well come on!" Theo shouted at them, grabbing Draco's hand from the
ground to yank the other to his feet. Crabbe and Goyle took off in a
sprint, Pansy lagging behind to conjure more and more birds. They didn't
dare light a spell, afraid any sort of illumination would give away their
position.
"Muffliato." Draco croaked out, sounding as horrible as he looked. Their
feet were silenced, they kept sprinting. Astoria was panting desperately,
adrenaline making her skin itch.
Rowle was using blasting curses now, explosions illuminating the hallway
with fire. They barely managed to escape down a sharp turn, already
aware of the disadvantage they had.
"Keep going!" Theo hissed, twisting to aim over his shoulder. His eyes
narrowed before he stumbled out the patronus charm again. The same
bird shot out- Daphne couldn't tell before but it had a crane-like head to
it. Some sort of small fishing bird she had never seen before.
The bird took off down a different hallway; everyone knew that Rowle
was too intelligent to fall for a trick so obvious.
"We need help." Draco gasped out, breathing heavy, "we- we can't-."
"I know, alright?" Theo snapped back viciously, "I was bloody up there, I
saw!"
The wall behind them exploded. Only a few meters away from them- the
blast would have easily killed them.
They stumbled over something squawking, feathers flying as something
sprinted away from them. Pansy barely regained her footing, shrieking in
surprise. Rowle rounded the corner, lumos lighting up the completely
unexpected rooster. It was a pretty rooster, large and feathered. Daphne
had no idea why a rooster was running loose in the bowels of Hogwarts.
Rowle though skittered to a stop, nearly slamming himself into a wall to
not hit the poor bird. It would have been more in character for the man
to have crushed it under his foot, so the sudden violent caution made
even Theo stumble on his next stride.
"Bloody- Grifdor." Rowle spat out between his teeth, verging around the
confused chicken before he continued in hot pursuit- although the gap
was much larger now.
"What's a-." Goyle started in a grunt, before he suddenly seized and
gasped, dropping unexpectedly. Pansy screamed, Crabbe stumbled and
forced her to keep moving.
Daphne glanced from the corner of her eye how Goyle's face was very
bloody and different in normal shape. She didn't glance a second time,
but instead ushered Astoria to run even faster.
"Goyle!" Pansy was sobbing brokenly, hands curling into claws to leave
small bloody lines on Crabbe's forearm, "he- he-."
"'Keep fucking running!" Theo hissed viciously, forcing them to take
another bend down a thinner hallway. "Bombarda!"
The spell shot down the narrow hallway, it missed but it still forced
Rowle to step aside instead of deflecting and causing the hallway to come
down on him.
"Come on out!" Rowle shouted, taunting them even as they sprinted,
"come on out little brats!"
"Like fuck we will!" Millicent screamed back, doing a marvelous job of
keeping up so far. "Crucio!" she screamed.
The spell fizzled and fell short, not managing to materialize. Draco swore,
and Millicent stared at her with with something like acceptance.
"Come on!" Pansy shouted desperately, ignoring the way Millicent smiled
at her wand with a challenge in her eye.
"You go ahead," Millicent jutted out her chin, readying herself. Pansy
grabbed her own hair in hysteria.
"Stop being stupid!" Pansy shrieked, Theo cursed and shoved his wand
upwards towards the ceiling of the corridor.
"Defodio!" Theo shouted, casting the spell behind them at the ceiling of
the corridor. Instantly, the mining spell started to carve out large chunks
of the stone archway. It was easy to see what he wanted, because after
three of the spells the hallway groaned and large rocks started cascading.
"No!" They could hear Rowle on the other side, thoroughly frustrated
with everything going on, "Tabificus!"
The curse was fast, much faster than falling rocks. It was a putrid yellow,
impacting Millicent's side and sending her shrieking to the ground. The
landslide caved in, separating the Death Eater from the group of terrified
students.
Millicent contorted, gasping and whimpering. Pansy scrambled to her
knees, tearing her tights on rubble as she hurriedly conjured light.
Millicent was moaning in pain, the side of her arm where the curse had
struck was bubbling, rolling around like hot way. Pansy's hands hovered
unsure of what to do to alleviate the pain.
"Leave it," Draco rasped out shakily, "It wears off. It only glanced her."
Millicent sobbed, tears and snot running down her face as her arm
melted.
"What the hell was that!" Daphne turned on Theo, teeth gnashing
together, "you could have crushed us!"
"Better crushed than goddamn slaughtered!"
"What you did was dangerous," Draco added in quietly, backing up until
his back could rest against the stone. "It could have hurt us."
Theo looked between the two in outrage, "are you bloody serious right
now?"
"W-What about the chicken?" Pansy sobbed out nervously, "I- I touched
it. Am- am I going to die?"
Crabbe slowly lowered himself to the ground, staring blankly at the wall.
They were all too aware of the lack of Goyle.
"No," Daphne clipped out shakily, "he...he called it a Grifdor. Selwyn
bought one in Hogsmeade, from that store before the owner went mad."
Draco swore quietly, fumbling with his hands. "That bloody Grifdor.
Different thing, but looks like a ruddy chicken alright."
Astoria swallowed and stared at the wall, "..the...the owner went mad?"
Daphne shushed her sister, trying to soothe her the best she could. "Yes
but it's alright, it was long ago. Selwyn probably did something
accidentally, it's alright that wasn't a Grifdor."
Astoria exhaled heavily, "he made someone go mad when he was young?"
Draco stood shakily, "we need to keep moving, it's not saf-."
The wall shuddered, rocks began to roll.
"Move!" Theo shouted, grabbing Pansy's arm to hurl her away from
Millicent. He grabbed the larger girl's good arm, yanking her up around
his shoulders. They started a hobble, quick and haphazard in Millicent's
condition but desperate.
The wall shook again, Daphne's breathing hitched and Astoria
whimpered.
The wall melted, bright purple flames burned through the gap in the trail
of a whip. It pulled apart, lighting the hallway and the backs of the
sprinting students.
"Keep moving!" Draco shouted, cursing under his breath. Everyone knew
they couldn't take the man in a duel, it was insane to ever think of that.
"I'll hold him!"
"You can't you idiot!" Theo seethed, nearly spitting fire at the thought.
Draco scoffed, eyes looking haunted as he turned to spit out something
vicious, "Abrumpo!"
The curse sliced through the entire wall, deep gouges in the stone and
walls although Rowle manged to deflect it with some sort of shielding
spell which created actual sparks.
Draco shuddered at the spell, head lolling for a moment before he
recovered and kept sprinting.
"Go!" Daphne heaved, helping Theo with Millicent as they rounded
another corner.
Astoria started to slow, her head and eyes burned.
There was something always really strange about Selwyn, that bothered
her. Things that he knew that he shouldn't, the strange look in his eye.
He scared Daphne, he scared Astoria too.
Adrian Selwyn had made a man go mad when he went in to purchase a
chicken- they didn't know any insanity curses and even now she doubted
Draco could perform any without passing out.
'Mind Arts are dangerous,' Astoria thought to herself quietly and forlorn.
Astoria stopped running once she turned around the corner, she pressed
her body flat against the back of the stone. She closed her eyes, and
stopped the heaving of her breaths.
The darkness swallowed her, and they swallowed the running sobbing
noises of her friends who hadn't realized her absence.
Daphne was going to be so mad at her.
Rowle turned the corner, so close that the warmth from his body made
her skin burn. So close, she could smell the stink of his skin and the many
days he had gone unwashed. His cloak brushed her legs, trialing against
the tights that lined her calves.
Her eyes barely came to the defined line of his collarbone. She tilted her
head up, and breathed.
Maybe it was the soft whoosh of her breath, but his eyes flickered
downwards in surprise. His mouth started to move, wand jerking from
where it was aimed down the hallway- not at her.
Astoria's wand was pointed upwards, gently readied for now.
Her body trembled, and she shakily sobbed " Legilimens."
Thorfinn Rowle was a strange man, who had a strange life.
Pureblood and estranged, married into blood and sired by a woman who
died from disease and stress. Raised by a brute who was weakened by
loss and greed. He went to Hogwarts, he dueled and practiced in the
night and mastered spells and curses and got a trophy from a dueling
tournament for years back.
He killed aurors, killing curses raining down like meteors. He taught
children, he murdered one of them as well when it was asked of him by
the family. Illegitimate heirs were no heirs in the eyes of others.
He was invited by the Dark Lord himself, brought into power and
brought into training to whip and whip the new recruits. He murdered
two, because they couldn't ever be weak when he wasted his entire life to
be strong.
He would never be weak he would never be weak.
He murdered a woman with his own hands, to feel her pulse stop in his
palms.
He wanted to hurt everyone, like that weak bitch of his mother who died
because of a disease. Like the fat arse of his father who was so greedy and
gluttonous he stabbed him and peeled the fat away with his fingers.
He wanted to make the kid cry, he wanted to watch him fall apart
because he was pathetic.
"I want you to teach me a spell. Something for combat, something strong."
His face spread into a vicious grin, adrenaline thrumming as his entire
personality lightened. "Oh? Dealing some damage, are we?"
Adrian Selwyn's face didn't flicker, " Something brutal."
He saw the kids corpse, splayed sprawled out on the cobblestone with
that blasted snake of his.
Rowle wish that he could have cooked him alive instead. Maybe then,
that little bastard would have known real power.
If he stepped a little too hard on his bone and crunched a corpses' left
hand, well...nobody could blame him in the end.
Astoria flinched back, took one step before her knees folded and she
stared at a wall.
A body crumpled to the ground in front of her, but she didn't pay any
attention to it. It was just a body, she'd seen a dozen and had made a
dozen. She murdered and killed and Merlin how great it felt to watch
cocky James Potter's neck rupture like a goddamn geyser-.
"Astoria!" Someone screamed, and it took her a second to remember that
was her. She turned and glanced over her shoulder, not understanding
why Daphne Greengrass was screaming and crying.
"You're okay?" Daphne blubbered, grabbing Astoria from her shoulder's to
press her tightly into her chest, "What- oh god I was so scared, oh Merlin
Astoria-."
" Fuck," Draco hissed out in alarm and horror, he prodded Rowle with his
foot, "Merlin he's still alive?"
"What?" Millicent croaked through the pain. Crabbe came around
cautiously rolling the limp man so his face was exposed.
Blank, eyes open. Mouth breathing gently, nothing twitching and no
recognition in his face.
"Oh god," Pansy mewled, skittering backwards, "Oh Merlin, what- what
did she-."
"Legilimency," Astoria croaked out when finally her thoughts arranged
like little folders in a great big cabinet, "I- he hadn't expected me. I'm
sorry."
Oh god she was sorry. Oh god oh god. She had- she-.
She killed so many people and she laughed at them and she had seen Lily
Potter screaming and there was so much blood and Adrian oh Adrian she
made him cast spells and laughed as he writhed in agony-.
"I'm sorry." She repeated, hanging her head and twitching slightly. "I'm so
sorry."
"It's okay," Daphne soothed shakily, "He, we're safe. I'm...I'm going to help
you-."
"We need to get Greg." Crabbe blurted in a low rumble, "we're getting
Greg."
"Go with him, Daphne." Theo panted, still holding Millicent with one
arm, "Rowle's not going anywhere. Draco needs to help me with Millicent
and get her to the Hospital Wing."
"I'm going to get someone." Astoria lied through numb lips. Corpses and
blood and- she was a monster. "A teacher or someone. I'm going to get
help."
Daphne looked torn, but she nodded, pressing a kiss to Astoria's forehead
before she sprinted after Crabbe and Pansy back the way they came.
Astoria rose with a smile that felt fake. Her wand felt wrong- it was
wrong. Draco looked at her worried- Lucius' boy, he looked positively
delicious strewn out on the ground and crying in agony. It was always
gorgeous when their voices cracked and-.
"I'm going to get help." Astoria repeated much calmer than she felt. She
was a monster after all.
Adrian's corpse was still warm when Dumbledore walked past it quietly.
He lay on his side, boiling and blistered and grinning in the face of death.
His familiar lay sprawled beside him, limp and twisted into an unsettling
sight. The dust had settled, a faint groaning of rocks and shattered wood.
Fallen bodies were on the ground, shrouded in black and faceless. The
mindless allies of Tom, the ones that had been recruited out of
desperation and hope for a better life.
Albus knew there was very little he could do. His strength was failing
him even now, his hand numb and cold and his blood felt thick in his
body. Even know, the distance loomed foggy and a question to all. He
used to know so much, but now he was tired and he could think of only
one action left.
He had ruined many things in his life, he had made many mistakes.
Perhaps he could have changed it if he knew, but the world of what-if had
long left him. It felt like an exchange, a wondering question of all the
things he could have done better.
He had watched Tom sully the world due to his own flaws. He was an old
man now, the current age was no longer for him to watch and advise.
Albus kept walking, until he reached near the fractured shattered wards
of Hogwarts. They looked like shards from a mirror, broken and faint to
his own eyes.
Albus slowly lifted his wand, and began to pull the strings of magic
together the best he could. The strings of magic were sliced apart, but he
could tie knots although mangled, to try and piece things together.
He worked, stringing the thrumming of the castle's soul together piece by
piece until it glowed faintly. It reminded him of Fawkes in a way, the
glowing heat of something forever reborn. Was that what Hogwarts did?
Forever living through the knowledge and safety she gave her students?
There was something special about Hogwarts, the way she lived sentient
and cared for everyone in her walls. She sheltered them all, she protected
them all. Her wards were broken, her walls turned to dust, and still, she
stood to protect them.
"I am sorry, my old friend." Albus whispered to the castle herself,
stringing protection through the air as his soul and magic pulsed gently
in reverence, "for the pain I have brought on you."
She could not respond, but Albus had long since accepted this and
instead bowed his head to her.
There was something magical about sacrifice, a magic old and as ancient
as the trees and animals themselves. Not the sacrifice of slaughtering
animals or humans, or burning food and flowers at a pyre.
The act of willingly giving something of value, for something worthy or
more important than yourself. The whispered blessings, the opportunity
to die with a smile on your face because it was for something more
important- something that was more powerful than your entire life and
meaning.
Albus hadn't understood it before, but he did now. He was an old man,
he had made many mistakes. He was not immortal or wise or pivotal. He
was not a martyr, hoping for others to take up arms in his wake.
Albus was a man, unimportant and average. He was old, he was tired, but
the fate of others and the protection of the innocent was something
beyond his own desires and love. Something beyond his own ambitions
and self-preservation.
'I want you to stand tall,' Albus thought to the castle, 'because you provide
meaning to others.'
Albus smiled and stood tall, casting wards with a shaking hand. He
smiled, and did not falter as Tom returned and screeched at his figure.
Albus did not falter, as Tom approached and rained fury and hate,
because Albus had chosen something beyond Tom's understanding.
There was love of the physical world, and there was love that was
unbound by time and space. A sense of admiration, of joy and glee. A
love someone felt at the sight of soft clouds, at birds hatching from their
eggs. An unconditional love at pebbles skipping over water, at deer
chewing new grass.
It was a love that was limited by the limitless possibilities of life itself.
Dumbledore loved Hogwarts, and he faced death with a smile.
(Tom never could understand love, or the unconditional love of a
sacrifice.)
Dumbledore chuckled gently, feeling serene as red eyes widened in
confusion and rage.
"How dare you!" Tom shrieked, raising his wand like the poised strike of
a cobra, " face me!"
Dumbledore smiled, and raised his arms beside him. Spread apart, like
Fawkes' large wingspan. The wand in his old wrinkled hand hummed,
begging him to shift into a stance and duel. To fight back, to defend
against a threat and obey his instinctual cry of survival.
"Oh Tom," Dumbledore chuckled tiredly, "I have faced you all my life.
You never deserved an opponent, you never deserved such scorn as a
child."
Tom was confused, clearly crazed in the bloodlust that filled the air with
iron. Albus' heart throbbed at the sight, at how even now Tom was
confused in the face of kindness.
"Face me!" Tom screamed back, voice higher pitched and piercing, " do
not dismiss me!"
Albus smiled fondly, "I would never. But I cannot stand aside Tom, you
see, this castle is not something you can damage. She is a home to all
who needs it, and a shelter to all who seek it."
Tom's lip curled, his hand tightened on his wand. His followers, flocking
behind him over a wide berth watched with caution. It was obviously a
strange sight, Albus Dumbledore- the only man who could stand against
Lord Voldemort, refusing to fight.
"This is pointless!" Tom hissed in fury, " martyrs are lies! Only the
pathetic die in such way!"
Albus chuckled tiredly, "oh Tom. I'm not a martyr. I know that my own
life is less than that of something larger, and I would be willing to die for
such thing."
Tom twitched and hunkered, skin pale and skeletal and eyes red and
liquid.
"I am sorry, for all the ways I have failed you." Albus admitted shortly
and bravely, "and I am sorry for all the troubles I have caused. Perhaps I
am a fool, but I cherish something far greater than I, and that, Tom, you
will never understand."
Tom screamed, and his mouth moved in the fated words.
The wards boomed as Albus' soul slipped away, energy joining the web of
the world itself. It would not last- the dead were not meant to remain
with the living, but for a few moments his heart and his life spread and
fueled the object of his devotion; Hogwarts thrummed and her wards
came alive, thick and strong. For now.
Under a barrage of spells and curses, it wouldn't hold out forever. Albus
had known that, but he would always offer his soul for the protection of
one child innocent in the eyes of the world.
(It was an unfair bargain, and he knew he was a hypocrite. It would
never atone for all he had done, but he would give his life any day for a
few more moments of safety for an innocent.)
Astoria tilted her head and stared.
There were thestrals flying around. She had never seen them before until
she had and she had murdered and killed and slaughtered and laughed
and-.
"I'm a monster." She spoke, calmly, accepting. People told her that, they
screamed it at her and she smiled and the twisted their neck.
She was a monster, and like that basilisk she heard about, monsters
deserved to be exterminated.
Astoria hummed, looking at the clouds and the sky. She didn't feel the
cold, or the breeze at the top of the tower.
She was a monster.
(She stepped forward.)
Guest: One of my only critiques is sometimes you intentionally try to
make you writing overly dramatic/complicated. That's not necessarily a
bad thing in reasonable dosages. However, almost constantly doing so
can get a bit... taxing I guess is the best word. Nothing wrong with doing
that but it's okay to describe a toolshed as a toolshed instead of making it
out to be the Palace of Versailles.
Oh no, I completely understand your perspective. My favourite book so far is
actually written in a unique style I've been experimenting with. The perspective
is poetry interspersed with actual event, and the protagonist is incredibly
unreliable and is psychologically unstable. I've been experimenting with using
poetry excessively in my writing as a personal challenge and flair for myself. I
know for sure it isn't something everyone enjoys, and really I do understand.
I'll have to keep practicing until it isn't so taxing even for those who don't
enjoy lyrical writing.
wolfclaw1098: the author that can write a bridge between verbal beauty
in my head and the story I fell in love with as a kid.
Thank you so so much.
NoobSama: Hello. Im depressed now :)
Hello Depressed, I'm Kae
Harriverse: How can anyone give up their version of paradise? His life
was so unfair it hurt to think about it, yet endure it. What could possibly
be left for him? He has no life to return to and it seems nothing short of
he'll is acceptable?
Sometimes, even in the weirdest moments you find something to live for. A
fake reality isn't reality to everyone.
winterstar77: have you ever seen the Fifth Element (if you haven't you
really need to!)?
I haven't, I'll add it to my list.
Thank you everyone who has made it here, and stuck with me
through thick and thin. I know that the content of this story isn't
easy, and with all my heart I wish I could explain just how much
this all means to me. This story has been in my mind for years and
to finally bring everything to a close is strange and yet, very
satisfying.
It's time for our finale, my friends.
Two Chapters Left
79. Depression
The 5 Stages of Grief: DEPRESSION
Meaning and resolution has abandoned you, so in turn, you naturally
abandon everything and anything life have given you. It's pointless now, or
maybe it always was.
They cleared out the Great Hall, opening the windows to let the cold air
in. It was warmed and warded, but it didn't take away from the room
itself. There were buckets filled with cleaning solutions, soapy water that
had turned pink in the corner. The floor was covered with a thick canvas,
double rolled over in a cover near the Hufflepuff table or where it used to
be. If Skylar squinted, he could see small specks where congealed blood
squished through.
It smelled bad in the hall, like antiseptic and vinegar. Madam Pomfrey
was running herself ragged, tending to one side of the hall where linens
and pillows splayed on the ground in a large infirmary. They were
running low on potions, now tending to wounds and injuries with
conjured bandages that didn't fix some of the worst injuries. Cho Chang
was whimpering over on one bed, her innards held in place by careful
splints and heavy gauze.
Then there were the dead,
There were many of them, laid across the other side where the Slytherin
and Ravenclaw table were pushed together. They were in various states,
some laying calmly with eyes closed like they were sleeping. The ones
that were caught off guard. The ones that had looked at the wrong
monster at the wrong time, and then couldn't look any further. The ones
that took a killing curse to the chest, and fell to the ground with cut
strings.
Then there were the gruesome ones, the ones where full limbs were
missing or looked torn off. The ones where the flesh had been removed
and organs lacerated and they were given a waterproof white sheet for
modesty. The ones with eyes open in surprise were one of the worst. The
ones that were lax and still rattling from where they were laying next to
another body.
Skylar had seen a lot of bodies, he had watched as Hagrid and Alastor
fetched Dumbledore's body from the wardline, unflinching from the
explosive curses within arms reach. They carried him back in, laying him
shrouded in blue silk that shimmered like the night sky. He laid on his
own podium, the Headmaster's spot, with Fawkes perched near his head
and watching the world with dry eyes. Skylar imagined the bird didn't
have any tears left to cry.
There was the basilisk corpse, larger than any dragon. Thick and wide, its
entire eye was as large as Skylar's head. They couldn't move it, not when
it wasn't affected by magic. It was sprawled out in a curled position,
mouth open in a silent gasp for air. It was drooling slime, a thick mixture
of acid and melting tissue that still pooled out from its nose and empty
eye sockets. A House Elf had been considerate and propped up a bucket
to catch the foul liquid. Its teeth were buffered with cantaloupes,
forcefully covering each tooth to prevent an accidental poke.
It was beautiful in death, the way it must have been ugly in life.
Everyone was too shocked to marvel over its horror.
People were crying, high pitched sobbing noises over near the corpses.
He hadn't seen Mrs. Weasley in forever, but now he did; clutching the
hand of Percy Weasley as he stayed in the state of nearly dead but not
quite there. He gurgled, breathing slowly and too far between to ever
come back. His skin had a concerning dark maroon brand across the neck
and fingers.
Skylar couldn't remember the last thing Adrian said to him. He couldn't
remember it, and he couldn't remember the original colour of his eyes.
Only the white haze like molding grape juice. Blue in the middle;
periwinkle.
What a cruel world, to tempt them with freedom and tear it away so
sharply. Dumbledore was dead. Luna Lovegood was dead. Adrian Selwyn
was dead. James Potter was dead.
Skylar hadn't even been told about that. He walked into the Great Hall,
hazy and lost and saw the corpse of his father being held by his mother.
Skylar never knew that a neck could be severed that way, a single slice
thick and through like beheading a fish. His father died with his eyes
closed, or maybe they closed his eyelids for him.
Skylar's mother cried, holding him close in her misery. Sirius was sitting
nearby, head hung low in silent memory of their friend. IT bothered
Skylar a little bit, how they were so damaged by death. Death had been
around them for a long time- for all of Skylar's life. Skylar had known he
was going to die for months now; why were they so devastated by
something they should have expected?
But Skylar then remembered Adrian Selwyn, laying alone outside with
nobody to cry over him.
Ron was sitting next to his family, whispering tearful goodbyes as Percy
Weasley refused to die peacefully. Both twins were there- Skylar heard
they had really given hell with their explosive fireworks. Hermione was
over with Madam Pomfrey, whispering to the few that seemed they may
make it.
"Oi," A low voice murmured, walking up from Skylar's side to stand
carefully next to him. Skylar recognized him from before, standing next
to him ready to face the gates of hell. Skylar hadn't realized that it was
more like the River Styx, a small ship to sail across corpses.
"Hey," Skylar croaked back, voice flat without expression. Theodore Nott
didn't look offended at all, if anything he looked more relaxed by it.
People were crying, Skylar felt like he was an outsider to it all.
"I'm sorry, about it." Theodore Nott confessed quietly, shifting unsettled.
"I was...I was one of the ones that helped take down Rowle. Not that it
matters. Rowle was the one that got…" Nott paused, nodding his head
over in the direction of Skylar's family.
"You saw?" Skylar asked numbly. Theodore sighed through his nose, and
that was all he needed to say.
"...Why are you helping me?" Skylar asked quietly.
Theodore ran one hand through his hair. "I feel guilty I guess. I was a shit
friend. It doesn't make up for it, but I can't sit around."
Skylar made a small hum in his throat. "Hermione said she felt guilty
once. When we were running. She thought that...that since she made
Adrian drag her to your dorm, she was the one that pushed you all
into…"
"Treating him like shite?" Theo offered with a dry bark. The boy shook
his head with a pinched expression. "No, she had nothing to do with it.
Selwyn was a prick, he was a downright arsehole but he didn't…"
Skylar swallowed, his eyes flickered to the hollow eye sockets of the
basilisk's eyes. Theo noticed, and didn't say anything else.
"I hate that bloody thing." Skylar choked out, sniffing and running the
back of his hand against his nose. He stomped over to the basilisk head,
nobody was around to tell him no. He pulled hack his foot, kicking out
until the flat of his heel hit the root of the serpent's jaw. It took four more
kicks, escalating in noises of frustration and hate until the tooth snapped
free. It was still lodged in the cantaloupe.
Theo grabbed it, tossing the tooth and fruit with a blank face. With one
twisted snarl of fury, the tall thin boy kicked the snake's face near a
nostril. It squished out more rank smelling slime.
"Alright," Theo grumbled, chest heaving as he flushed in frustration,
"come on. We're not bloody leaving him out there."
Without pausing, Skylar followed and the two boys left the Great Hall.
Some of the hallways had students in them, young first years hiding in
alcoves where the suits of armor one stood. A few had blankets, curled up
in various states of consciousness. Under the crushed rubble and
destruction, they could see the start of a few pairs of shoes. Skylar didn't
know if there was anyone under it all.
Skylar hadn't found Scamander yet, the old man was probably off alone
somewhere pondering what chaos he had made.
They walked, Theo and Skylar padding down the single trail from the
Great Hall to the Courtyard that was still stained in a single trail despite
scrubbing. Skylar could imagine Adrian crawling along it, laughing in
delight over the god he had killed.
"Here," Theo muttered, tugging Skylar to the side as five girls ran past,
sheltering one in the middle who was crying and bleeding from her ears.
"Thanks," Skylar whispered, walking out the closed doors and letting
them click behind him. It was much colder outside, it was likely around
nightfall now that it was winter. The day would continue still, long into
the night. Skylar wondered if they'd keep fighting until every single one
of them had been slaughtered like insects.
Nobody had touched Adrian, nobody had even approached him. There
was an unpleasant side to death, where the muscles of the body relaxed
and the digestive organs emptied themselves. Skylar couldn't tell if the
stink was from that or from the burned and slimy patches of skin. Adrian
looked like one of those people who were fished out of a river, pale and
grotesque and gaping at nothing.
" Fuck." Theo cursed, backing up to retch and vomit on the ground. He
hadn't seen Adrian up close. Skylar ignored him, and walked across the
cobblestone before he dropped himself into an awkward seating position
near Adrian's head.
Lutain was splayed out, Skylar very shakily prodded and moved the cold
scales into something less contorted. Lutain felt like overcooked pork.
"Fuck mate," Theo started, voice broken and high pitched. Theo sniffed,
rubbing his face viciously. Skylar folded his shaking fingers in his lap.
"I'm so sorry," Theo choked out between his shaking breaths, "I'm so
fucking sorry."
"Do you know how to conjure a blanket?" Skylar croaked out, voice
warbling uncontrollably. Theo fumbled with his wand; the blanket
brought was patchy and thin in some spots, overly thick in others. It
wasn't overly warm but it was something Adrian didn't have before.
"Help me get him on his back?" Skylar asked weakly. Theo helped him,
they tried to ignore the way even on his back, Adrian's sprawled position
remained firm. He was like a statue.
"Fucker," Theo cursed quietly under his breath, hand hanging suspected
over Adrian's left hand. It was shattered, crumpled from a boot. Someone
had stepped on his hand after he died, crunching the bones together.
Skylar summoned water, used another shoddy blanket torn in strips, and
began the painstaking process of cleaning the slime and gore off Adrian's
face. There was a concerning amount of it, especially with how toxic his
body was although truthfully Skylar didn't care anymore.
"They're flocking," Theo mumbled under his breath, watching black
shapes that were skirting around them inside the wards, "I don't- Potter.
Potter do those things eat-..?"
Skylar looked up wearily, spotting the thestrals that glanced around the
clearing curiously. A few were sniffing the ground, ears pressing flat to
their skull as they came across the bodies of Voldemort's troops, hidden
in the rubble.
"There's so many of them," Theo cursed quietly, holding his wand ready if
necessary, "go away you mangy crows-."
"They liked Adrian." Skylar slurred through numb lips. "They're probably
wanting to see why he won't get up."
One pawed the ground, Skylar shakily forced Adrian's eyelids closed.
"I'm going to go get a broom and look around the grounds." Theo broke
the silence after they held vigil. "Daphne's been looking for her sister for
a while now."
"Astoria?" Skylar mumbled. Theo nodded, and got up to leave. The
thestrals flapped their wings like geese, hopping around curiously as the
taller boy made his way back into the castle. It was dangerous to be
outside, especially the offensive front of curses clashed against the barrier
like thunder. When it fell, Skylar would be the first to die.
Where else would they go? They had nowhere else to be.
"I'm sorry," Skylar apologized although tears slipped down his face, "looks
like you couldn't kill me in the end. Seems shitty, that you go out like
that."
It was cold outside. Skylar felt like he was being watched by vultures.
"I'm so sorry." Skylar squeezed his eyes shut tightly, "I- I we knew that…
I'm so sorry Adrian. I...I didn't...I knew you were going to but I...I thought
I had more time."
Skylar hung his head, and the noises he made sounded worse than the
crash of curses on wards.
"I'll, I'll get you a nice funeral." Skylar choked out brokenly, "w-with
ah...lavender, and catnip. I...I knew that you...I was in your h-head for a
while…"
Words didn't flow right, he couldn't think of the right ones in the
oppressive silence. Curses smashed against the heavy warding
surrounding the castle. Adrian was so still.
"...I'm so sorry." Skylar whispered brokenly, "I... I should have done so
much more but I...I know I couldn't have and...I'm so sorry I fucked
everything up."
The thestrals were watching him oddly; like they were waiting for him to
leave. Maybe that's what they wanted, him to walk away so they could
skitter forward and eat his corpse. Maybe that's what happened to
Umbridge.
"Potter!" Theo shouted, screaming more like. He returned from above,
swooping with desperation instead of talent. It was reckless, Skylar would
have scolded him if he had something in him to care. "Potter! Get your
arse up here, now!"
Skylar didn't know why, but the level of shrieking panic made him grab
the broom that was chucked at him. He mounted it, lifting into the sky
with muscle memory and no feeling. His hands felt numb around the
wood.
"Shite shite," Theo cursed under his breath, taking off and guiding Skylar
somewhere off the courtyard, " shite! I- I bloody found Greengrass' sister."
They passed over a bridge, the one that Skylar remembered Adrian used
to sit at. There was a ravine below it, in the distance the grey shapeless
mass of the partially frozen lake. Theo angled his broom downwards,
twisting into an incredibly wobbly dive.
"Oh," Skylar echoed distantly once he realized that they were going into
the crevice, towards the bottom. "I'm not going to like this."
Maybe it was the shock of everything that happened, maybe it was just
how tired Skylar felt with it all that he didn't complain when he hoisted a
ruptured warm body on the broom in front of him.
The poor girl looked unsightly, Theo cursed under his breath hysterically
muttering something about 'getting help' over and over. Astoria didn't look
as bad as Adrian did, but Theo instantly shucked his robe so the better of
the two fliers could give her modesty.
Her warm blood seeped through the material, pooling against Skylar's
throat and chest as they ascended. He didn't feel it.
Skylar walked inside the Great Hall, carrying Astoria in his arms
although Theo had gone ahead and lightened her weight. He was
muttering about the dangers of levitating her, since some pieces may fall
off.
Something must have betrayed him, because the moment they entered
the hall Skylar could see Daphne bolting towards them, desperation in
her eyes.
The moment she saw that Skylar was carrying something shrouded in
black, she started shaking her head and spreading tears.
"No no," She denied, running faster and screaming louder. "No! No!
Astoria! Theo you found her who- Astoria!"
Maybe if Skylar could feel something right now, his heart would have
broken.
Theo reached out, snagging Daphne around her middle, holding her back
as Skylar made his way towards the right side of the Great Hall; towards
where the dead were separated from the living.
"No!" Daphne screamed louder than a banshee, "Astoria wake up! Astoria!"
Theo was crying too, his head hanging. Pansy Parkinson had her face
hidden in Draco Malfoy, who seemed permanently traumatized now.
"Astoria! Please! 'Storia wake up!"
Skylar laid her down gently, and stepped back so Daphne could throw
herself over her sister to protect her from the world. Skylar's neck was
itchy from the blood drying.
Alastor walked up to him, sticking to the back of the Hall to watch over
the grieving populace.
"You're not crying?" Skylar asked, knowing his face was blank and
broken. Alastor gave a small grunt.
"Battle's not over yet." he stated simply, "Albus wanted me to hand these
to you."
Alastor gave him something, a wand and something small. Skylar
recognized it as the ring that poisoned the man, the wand he used to
sacrifice himself.
"Did he say why?" Skylar asked quietly, taking the two objects to set in
his pocket. He had forgotten that he still had the basilisk fang he set in
there until it clicked against the ring. He had forgotten it although it was
not that long ago.
"Said it was better in your hands than others." Alastor simply mentioned,
crossing his arms to look throughout the Hall. "It's a terrible thing, ain't
it? War."
Skylar hummed flatly and his eyes drifted over the nearby table. His
mother was still there, Sirius still crooning and holding his father's dead
hands. He felt like an outsider, like those people didn't belong to him.
"Snape was doing rounds in the dungeons when he stumbled on Rowle,"
Moody explained, looking at Daphne who was sobbing out a nursery
rhyme, or perhaps a lullaby. Her blonde hair was turning pink from
where it brushed over the shrouded mass under her. "The man said he
near had a heart attack when he found him. Completely brain dead,
reckless thing too."
Skylar played with the wand in his pocket, tracing the strange rippled
texture along the wand.
"See, mind arts are fickle things." Moody grumbled sympathetically,
"dangerous. If you force too hard, you can tear yourself apart. If you
break in too harshly, shattered bits will stick to you until you don't
remember who you are. I heard rumors, that girl was natural born
Legilimens. A pity."
Skylar's face twitched ever so slightly, "you think she did this to herself?"
Moody gave a dry pitying sound, "whatever left in Rowle's head sure gave
Severus a scare. I reckon that poor girl lashed out, and went mad when
she tried to stop. Mind Arts are something that ought to be illegal,
sometimes the mind is worse than anything we can touch or break."
Skylar nodded and ducked his head, trying to not think of who else was
going to fall.
"How's my mum?" Skylar muttered.
Moody glanced over and gave a small huff. "You feeling it too now?"
Skylar turned to look inquisitively at the man. Moody grinned, although
the face looked more lost and sad than anything delighted.
"The disconnect." Moody elaborated waving one hand in the air. "You've
seen shit, kid. You lose something from that, every battle everybody, you
lose a piece of yourself and people expect you to come back from it. You
don't not in the way others want you to and eventually you feel out of
place in the worst of places."
Skylar blinked a few times, breath shuddering in his chest, "It doesn't get
better, does it?"
"Most people go their whole lives, counting the times they ever truly felt
panic on one hand." Moody explained after a small pause. "They can look
back on it, remember it, learn from it and move on. It happened and it
was an experience, but it's not like that for me and it's not like that for
you now, kid. Maybe in ten years the brats that made it through today
can think back on now and get worked up...but you and I? This is us now.
It's hard to get it so deep in ya', it'd take more than a damn vivisection to
cut it out."
Skylar exhaled in a shudder and nodded. "I don't feel like I should be
here. I feel like...I mean, I'm not different than anyone else but I feel...
wrong, being here."
Sirius had his head hung low, hands clasped between him over his dad's
chest. The man's mouth was moving gently, maybe he was praying or
mumbling. Skylar couldn't find it in him to walk over and kneel in vigil.
He couldn't find it in him to face what he knew he'd have to with an
audience.
"Yeah," Moody grunted roughly, "they teach you how to survive, and you
all learn what you need to do to keep living. Nobody teaches you what to
do after it all settles, when nobody is ready to kill you but you can't stop
thinking about it."
Skylar's lip quirked. "Constant vigilance?"
"I bloody hate it." Moody said.
Adrian felt wrong, so he turned and left the Great Hall. Nobody followed
him.
"I never thought much about death." Skylar confessed quietly. The blood
on his robe had hardened into a crusty shell that made his arms and neck
itch. "I mean, I hadthought about it, but not like...death."
It sounded lame to his own ears, and Skylar's breath puffed in the air.
"I hope that we're just hand puppets to our souls or something," Skylar
mused quietly, "although I wasn't sure how you'd take the whole 'hand-
puppet' idea. I figured you'd get a bit mad about that."
Adrian didn't move. Skylar missed the snarky comeback.
"You'd probably argue something about how...how my life was a joke
already." Skylar weakly added in after a small pause, "no, no you'd call
me a joke. That seems more like you."
The wand in his pocket felt cold, so Skylar pulled it out to fumble with. It
was longer than what he was used to, he felt weird to have Dumbledore's
wand.
"I found Astoria in the ravine." Skylar admitted quietly. "I think- well,
Moody said that Snape said that she went insane. I don't like Snape, so
I'm not sure how true that whole thing was."
The thestrals were still watching him from the corner of his vision,
peering at him with milky eyes like Adrian's. The eyes reminded Skylar of
the ring in his pocket, the way they reflected light and seemed just as
endless.
"Death is weird to think about." Skylar confessed quietly. "It's...I don't
know. It's finality? It's...It's like finishing a book. Flipping that last page
and knowing there's nothing left. And you can read about the author or
crummy book reviews but...it's over. It's...it's final?"
Skylar's voice was so small. He shivered slightly. The bang of the curses
on the barrier sounded like bombs. Skylar wondered if this was what the
London Blitz was like.
"It scares me," Skylar confessed in nothing more than a whisper, "what if
there's nothing afterwards? Not...What if we're nothing and when we die,
that's it? We're just...we're nothing, there's no existence anymore. We're
just...a handful of homework assignments and old clothes and
photographs?"
Skylar swallowed and looked over at Adrian regretfully, "I… I don't want
you to be like that. But...but what if death is different? What if...is it like
sleeping? Is that why Astoria stepped off and you're smiling?"
The barrier rattled with the force of the explosions, Skylar could already
see the trace marks of where it was starting to crack.
Skylar shuddered and whispered very quietly, "...is it peaceful now?"
Skylar fumbled with the wand in his hand, looking over the cracks in the
ground. "I have so many regrets and I'm...I'm so sorry Adrian…"
Skylar hung his head sharply, "I know you're my brother or some shite,
but...I don't know...I thought...towards the end that...that we were like
family, you know?"
Skylar's lip wobbled, "you...you were like my one c-cousin I hated having
over for Christmas dinner, b-because you'd keep going on about c-
conspiracy theories…"
Skylar inhaled and exhaled with broken high pitched noises. His hands
fisted in his hair, pulling at the roots until they hurt.
"I want you to come home," Skylar sobbed quietly into the crusty
material of his robe, "I-I want you t-to c-curse out Sirius and...and be
all...all high and m-mighty and...and I want you to l-live with Remus
and...and you're my brother b-but I want y-you to be my family, n-not
that…"
Nothing answered back, so Skylar tilted his head up towards the sky and
screameduntil his ears throbbed and rang and his throat felt raw.
Something small and dark in Skylar felt so loud in the oppressive silence,
"I hoped that maybe when w-we die it's...we're united again, or we...we're
joined or…"
Skylar felt a wrongness he always tried to ignore rise in his throat. He felt
it on his tongue, like nutmeg.
"I kind of want to die," Skylar weakly confessed, "I'm really quite tired."
Skylar shifted his hand in his pocket, fingers pulling out the ring Moody
gave him. It really was quite gorgeous, but it was too eerily similar to the
thestrals swarming them.
Skylar traced the smooth face of the stone, rolling it over and over in his
hand. It was cold, like the flat face of a crystal. Like a mountain stream
from a source nobody could determine.
He felt cold, a sudden sharp flare of electricity which left him shivering.
He could have sworn he saw his breath for a split second.
The thestrals skittered backwards, wings flaring in some display Skylar
couldn't understand.
Skylar shivered, the barrier rattled under explosive curses and crackled
ominously.
"I'm so tired," Skylar confessed, trying not to fall inwards on himself in
fear of how he'd ever recover, "why couldn't I just die like you did?"
A pause, then, something rattling and hollow and wrong.
"I don't advise it," Adrian Selwyn spoke with a voice as smooth and
gorgeous as rabies, "It bloody sucks."
You've followed me this far, my friends.
Thank you, for this strange path you've allowed me to carve out with my
broken fingernails and sleepless nights.
Once more, for old time's sake.
80. Acceptance
The 5 Stages of Grief: ACCEPTANCE
It isn't about saying it's okay. It's not okay, it isn't fine. We begin to realize
that the reality we live in now, is the reality we have to face. It may not be
okay, but we know and we understand that what we love has left us and
slowly, we learn to live again.
The first thing Adrian could think, was that the sunset was going to be
especially pretty.
The sky was tinged dark, humidity high from how overcast it was earlier.
Blood was in the air, thick in the air behind the putrid stench of acid.
Adrian could imagine all the constellations that would sparkle so high in
the sky, they would be especially gorgeous now that it was still winter.
He heard cursing, slurred and difficult to comprehend fully. Adrian
grinned, his mouth splitting and peeling and stinging sharply despite it.
" Fuck!" Someone screamed, either in awe or shock. Adrian gave a raspy
gurgling cough, thick mucus melting out of his mouth. He felt like an
incontinent old man, unable to keep fluids inside of him.
"Hi," Adrian croaked out, struggling to get his eyelids to cooperate.
Everything burned quite painfully in sharp pins and needles. Even
breathing hurt, muscles in his chest twitching with harsh spasms that
were crippling. "I lived, you arse."
Skylar's voice rose into hysterics, Adrian finally managed to get his
eyelids to open fully. The sky above blinded him, although everything
was hazy and smoggy through a noticeable blur. Adrian almost squinted,
except everything on his face hurt.
"Oh bloody hell," Adrian gurgled out, "am I bloody blind? This is bullshit,
I want a refund."
Skylar made a noise of choked laughter that sounded strangled. A
movement, colour that was separated from the other clouded mess.
Adrian nearly sobbed in relief that he wasn't blind, although his eyesight
was something to vomit about.
"Oh god, oh god." Skylar was repeating in a mantra, steadily rising in
shrieking tones, "oh god oh Merlin-."
"Will you shut up?" Adrian groaned, trying to shift his joints from an
uncomfortable position on his back. His bones snapped, his muscles
shrieked in agony. He felt like a baby, being born anew and he wanted to
scream.
"Yep yes, shutting up." Skylar was repeating now, swaying precariously
from where he was kneeling near Adrian.
Adrian blinked, his vision didn't change much beyond the Gaussian blur
that only determined differences in colour. He didn't know what he had
been expecting.
"Oh god oh fuck." Skylar was babbling insanely, fingers digging sharply
into Adrian's side. A sudden flare of agony left Adrian wheezing between
clenched teeth. " Merlin's goddam- did someone break my bloody hand?"
His left hand throbbed on cue, reminding him that it indeed, was broken.
Skylar was babbling, and Adrian jerked, his entire arm snapping
obscenely loud as he struggled into an upright position. His torso burned
in agony, visceral pain that felt toxic, electrifying stew sloshing around in
his stomach.
Adrian opened his mouth, then promptly vomited. Heaving, less effort
other than an overwhelming amount of oozing fluid draining out of his
mouth. His nose felt wet and wrong, as if everything was a giant clot.
Hands grabbed his shoulders, securing him in place as he gurgled weakly.
Something jerked near him, unexpectedly moving and then Skylar was
screaming again.
"Oh god oh god," Skylar was babbling hurriedly, "Oh god, Merlin please
please have mercy this isn't fair this isn't fair-."
"Shut up," Adrian moaned pitifully, hunching forward into Skylar's
shaking arms, "please shut up."
Skylar quieted his whimpers, but he was shaking even as hands curled
and yanked painfully on Adrian's hair. Adrian's eyes slipped closed, he
was so exhausted.
"You're dead." Skylar breathed shakily, something was twitching near
Adrian's leg but he was too exhausted to try and squint through it all to
see it. "I- you're dead."
"Turns out they don't take walk-ins." Adrian slurred into Skylar's robe.
"Gotta...gotta book an appointment...inconsiderate pricks."
Skylar giggled hysterically.
The twitching started up again, Adrian groaned in annoyance as it
violently jerked into his side.
"Oh my god okay," Skylar exhaled heavily, "so- so if I'm not insane, which
I'm not so sure about right now-."
"Y're not." Adrian assured him tiredly, "been there, done that."
Skylar made a high pitched whimper, "okay not reassuring, if- I- what the
hell Adrian."
Adrian grinned, teeth on display even though he knew Skylar couldn't see
it. "Didn't ya' hear? 'M the Boy-who-lived, asshole."
Skylar paused, entire body freezing before he threw his head back and
laughed. Adrian felt the wetness on his head, and he certainly felt as
Skylar curled inwards and pressed his face into Adrian's gore matted hair
and rocked them back and forth.
"Don't ever do that." Skylar babbled out, "you- you can't ever do that-."
"What? Die?" Adrian snorted although it made a glob of something come
out. He rolled, cradling his broken left hand to his chest to sprawl on the
other in a more secure position. Adrian's head rested on Skylar's thigh,
his body sheltered between Skylar's legs. "You think I'm really gonna live
forever?'
To reiterate his point, Adrian coughed wetly.
Skylar hunkered over him further, " no, you never get to leave me without
saying goodbye again."
Adrian's chest twitched slightly, "ah, I killed the bitch, right?"
Adrian could almost see the unimpressed look on Skylar's face, "yes, yes
you did, but then the head bitch killed you."
Adrian blinked quickly to try and clear the fog over his head, "what? You
mean- father killed me?"
"I couldn't imagine anyone who would want to kill you." Skylar
deadpanned more out of habit than viciousness. "You- fuck, you're alive."
"Hi," Adrian mumbled with a wince, body hurting. "Being dead sucks."
The thing near his leg jerked again, then very clearly, Skylar swore
crudely.
On cue, something started moving almost coordinately.
Adrian grinned, "well, sonofabitch, you made it?"
"I hate you," Lutain moaned out disoriented and small, "I hate you so
much."
"You don't mean that, you love me." Adrian countered shakily.
"You killed me, and then brought me back. I'm done, i need a break. A nice
den. No, I know your words. I know what makes sense to you stupid creatures.
Fuck you, Master."
Adrian laughed until he choked.
"We should move you inside," Skylar whispered quietly, unable to speak
louder in the quiet of the moment. The barrier was starting to crack,
large spindling marks that spread higher and higher. He knew Adrian
couldn't see it, but it bothered him nonetheless.
Adrian huffed, white clouded eyes staring upwards although they
flickered on occasion. "You know i'm dying."
He did. It was obvious even now, the oozing putrid smell had abated
somewhat but Adrian was still a horrible sight. Broken cracked skin that
clotted into small dotted marks. Bruising all across his body from
hemorrhaging. His nose looked like something had melted out then had
been shoved back inside. Skylar thought the boy's tooth had fallen out at
one point.
"You could have a pillow, get comfortable." Skylar offered quietly, unable
to let the boy in his arms go. "A blanket maybe."
Adrian hummed quietly and stared upwards into the sky. "Nah, I didn't
come back for that."
Skylar's body jerked ever so slightly, "you...you got to choose?"
Adrian's mouth twisted into a small fond smile. "Yeah. I had unfinished
business."
Skylar blinked quickly, "I- what? What could you possibly have left here?"
Adrian's face closed off slightly and he rolled one shoulder in a shrug.
The sun was lowering, it was going to be a beautiful sunset.
"Ah, there she is." Adrian mumbled quietly, tilting his head in the
direction of the dozens of thestrals that still hadn't left them alone, "come
to look at your roadkill?"
A thestral clopped out from the edges, the largest of the herd. It tossed its
head, looking familiar although Skylar couldn't place it. They all looked
pretty similar to him.
Adrian chuckled at it, like it said something funny. He curled his right
hand, the only one that moved properly, and flipped the horse off. It was
aimed a little to the left, but still obvious enough that the horse could
understand it.
"Yeah, thought so." Adrian mumbled, eyes closing again. "Where's the
others?"
Skylar glanced away and chewed on his lip. "Dumbledore died."
Adrian stilled after a small moment, "no, really? Damn, wish I could have
seen it."
Skylar exhaled shakily, "don't worry, you drama queen. You still showed
everyone up."
"Glad to hear." Adrian mumbled, eyes slipping closed as he reclined fully
against Skylar. "Why aren't you with your friends and family?"
"I am." Skylar blurted without hesitation.
Adrian stilled, "...ah."
There was a rumbling bang as another spell hit the barrier. Adrian was
smart enough to know the sound, and know that it was something bad.
He still didn't move.
Lutain was laying curled, uncoordinated and confused. Skylar didn't
understand it, maybe somehow the killing curse only broke off a segment
of soul and somehow stole the horcrux. Then it wouldn't explain how the
hell Adrian came back to life, unless-.
"Oh my god." Skylar breathed in horror, "Oh my god. You- I- Adrian the
bloody prophecy."
Adrian made a small noise of annoyance, "that shite? Really?"
"No no, the phrasing." Skylar stressed quietly, "ah..The one with the
power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches, born to those who have
thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies. And the Dark Lord
will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows
not, and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live
while the other survives. The one with the power to vanquish the Dark
Lord will be born as the seventh month dies!"
Adrian hummed under his breath, "and you still forget how to be
intelligent."
Skylar tried not to laugh at the insult, "no no, Adrian, listen. The
prophecy! He marked you as his equal but what if that was the power he
didn't know about!"
"The power was friendship."
"Shut the hell up oh my god how are you this bad and you were dead."
Adrian peeked open one horrifying eye, "my point. I just died, let me
have this."
"Don't you get it!" Skylar blurted exhilarated, "you were a horcrux!"
"A what?"
"A- no! Nevermind! You completed the prophecy! You turned Voldemort
mortal!"
Adrian frowned before he shrugged, "he killed me, fuck him."
Skylar laughed hysterically, running one hand through his hair, "oh god,
oh Me rlin, we have a chance. He...we have a bloody chance…"
"Skylar," Adrian cut in sharply, "what's your philosophy on life?"
The topic change was sudden and left Skylar scrambling on the shreds.
He could tell that whatever this was, it was important for Adrian, so it
was important to him.
The barrier banged, and Skylar ran his hand through Adrian's hair. Lutain
lethargically curled closer, into the warm cushion of Skylar's hip and
stomach.
"I...I don't know?" Skylar confessed weakly, "I just...I feel happy when I
have that sense of purpose that comes from doing good things. I guess I
just...I don't know, I don't know the minds of other people, so I just...tried
to be the best I could be for everyone? Everyone deserves a second
chance, and people do what they can with what they have."
Adrian hummed, "what about the assholes?"
Skylar laughed quietly, "I made friends with you, didn't I? I think that...a
lot of people are like you, wherever you are. Fumbling around or just
waiting to find some sort of meaning, so I just...I do what I can to make
people happy, and it brings me joy."
Adrian relaxed, Skylar's hand scratched gently over scalp.
"I can't imagine a life without those moments," Skylar confessed, "without
making people smile, or helping people whenever I can. I think that's
why I always wanted to help you, because I could tell you needed it."
"I needed help?"
"You needed happiness, and I like to think maybe somewhere along the
way I made you happy for a little bit?"
Adrian didn't respond.
The barrier rang out eerily, the shattering marks were spreading.
"I want to be remembered." Adrian whispered quietly, strained and very
vulnerable, "I wanted to be important, but I think it was because I was
afraid people would forget me."
Skylar helped Adrian as the latter tried to sit upright, stumbling to a
wobbly kneeling position. The thestrals flocked, skittering around
nervously as Lutain leant on Skylar's one side and Adrian on the other.
"I wanted to be someone people thought of," Adrian grinned, glancing
over at Skylar with a look he had seen hundreds of times before. A wide
grin, curved and sharp and breathless. Eyes wide and wild, a challenge in
the slight flush on his skin. 'You ready?' he asked without words, even as
he needed someone to help him upright and his eyes clouded and he was
dying with every breath.
"I think," Adrian started, eyebrows furrowing ever so slightly in thought,
"that you should live a good story by helping other people write theirs."
Skylar's mouth felt dry. "What chapter are we on now then?"
'You ready?' Adrian's face asked in an echo of everything. A shadow of
youth, of trauma and battles and sorrows and everything he had ever
been.
"The last one," Adrian grinned, "this is my finale."
The barrier rang, then shattered in something opalescent.
Voldemort walked forward calmly with the fury of a restrained
hurricane. Every step he took closer to the castle, the death tally added.
His army walked at his heels, low and submissive in his wake. All of the
country would crumple under his rule, they already had lost.
He hadn't anticipated the old man sacrificing himself, a branch of magic
he never understood and never pretended to know. The idea of sacrifice
and love was beyond him, and it was weak. Even now, he walked across
the shattered remains of Albus Dumbledore's great desperation.
Once he swarmed the castle and murdered every living soul there, he
would reclaim the Elder Wand off the man's corpse, and raze the castle to
the ground. The last monument of resistance would be destroyed, and it
would be the pyre that burned every opponent he had.
Most of all that bastardized chaotic creature he had foolishly brought to
his side.
Voldemort walked across the main entry, shattering the gates like the
ribcage of an infant. The castle wards groaned under his touch, wilting
and burning.
Nobody would ever resist him again.
He would slaughter everyone.
Adrian tilted his head and chuckled slightly when the barrier fell. Skylar
felt his heart leap to his throat, dizzying his head.
"I guess he got through then?" Adrian croaked out, his body weight
moving as he struggled to his feet, "well, guess this will be a good
surprise."
"You can't-" Skylar fumbled, jerkily holding the boy in place while
keeping Lutain carefully on his shoulder. "Adrian you can't."
Adrian huffed and tried to rise further. There were voices increasing in
volume, fleeing from the castle as a last line of defense. "Why not?"
Skylar exhaled quickly, "you're blind-."
Adrian huffed, "then be my eyes."
Lutain tightened around Skylar's neck, Adrian's arm around his shoulder
squeezed. Skylar's heart pulsed loudly, and beyond it all, Skylar couldn't
find it in him to protest.
"Now you're getting it."
Lutain squeezed, and Skylar swallowed. He adjusted his hands to loop
under Adrian's arms, hoisting the scarred boy into a shaky standing
position. Adrian laughed breathy, scrambling with his right hand and his
left elbow- the broken hand curled protectively in front of his chest. His
feet touched the ground, they stood facing the broken gates of hell.
"This is going to be fun," Adrian exhaled, his right hand shakily fumbled
along his left forearm, pulling out a wand from a holster originally out of
sight.
"Oh my god this is a disaster." Skylar whimpered, trying to hold himself
upright with how precariously balanced this was.
"No," Adrian wheezed out with something like a laugh, "the disaster is
just you."
Lutain chuffed and moved in a small rhythmic undulating Skylar knew
was laughter.
The doors to the castle behind them opened and the waves of defense ran
out, skittering and gasping with audible noises of horror and confusion.
Skylar couldn't understand individual words in the large roar of noise,
generally they were along the lines of confusion or disbelief.
"Surprise!" Adrian croaked out, unable to get his voice to get to a high
enough volume to be heard by everyone.
Moody was in the front, looking at the two boys standing there. His
single magical eye bugged out so far it almost fell from its socket. Then
he threw his head back and laughed.
Sirius Black poked his face out, looking grim and cruel. The moment he
saw the two standing, his face paled in shock before he was shrieking out
"What the bloody fuck?"
"Selwyn?"
"What! No! It has to be someone else!"
"Is that bloody Selwyn?"
"You ruddy kidding me?"
Someone in the back jumped, a student with messy hair who began
shrieking in laughter. "Selwyn you prick!" Pansy Parkinson howled like a
banshee.
Adrian looked them over, face grizzly and disgusting and causing many
to look away. He winked, even though he couldn't see it.
Sirius Black barked out a laugh, shaking his head in disbelief, "You
lived?"
Adrian grinned and didn't respond, grinning aimlessly towards where he
knew the broken gates were.
Lutain tightened on instinct, tongue flickering through the air with small
noises. Skylar noticed how Adrian corrected his posture without thinking,
changing the way his body was positioned to face the threat fully. Skylar
smiled through the adrenaline in his blood.
"You know you're likely not going to survive, right?" Adrian asked
casually.
Skylar shakily nodded, not trusting his own words.
Slowly, the swarm of black approached.
Skylar would never forget the look on the Dark Lord's face the moment
he saw and realized what had happened.
Voldemort had always been some sort of chaotic entity, something
beyond understanding. Skylar could never imagine living with it, or the
creature somehow being anything but mortal. He always seemed
confident, proud and arrogant and powerful.
Now, there was nothing but outright obvious shock and fear. Adrian
couldn't see it, but Lutain's tongue kept flickering and slowly the boy
looked more and more confused.
The Death Eaters swarmed, caught sight of Adrian, and fell back in a
mess of shapes and bodies and slowly a circle surrounded them. Skylar
and Adrian in the center, the Hogwarts defenders behind and the Death
Eaters. Whispers were filling the sky with noise, and Adrian had the gall
to smile.
"I don't want anyone else to try to help." Adrian croaked out, Skylar
shakily hurried to amplify his voice with a shaking wand, "It's got to be
me."
Voldemort hissed in a noise serpentine. His eyes wide and nearly glowing
red. Face twisted into something unreal and warped, molded from hot
wax.
"You don't mean that," he hissed out in a shrill warped voice. "That isn't
how you work, is it? Who are you going to run away from today? Who
are you going to leave to die this time, brat?"
Adrian tilted his head ever so simply, constantly adjusting to 'look' in the
proper direction. "Nobody." He stated simply.
Voldemort's teeth pulled back into a snarl before he cackled loudly, "look
at you, taking instructions from a worm.You're pathetic, are you blind?
Did you do that to yourself?"
Adrian rolled his eyes, which was an impressive feat considering his eyes
looked like moldy cottage cheese. "I slaughtered Adalonda."
Voldemort stiffened in surprise before he carefully resumed, shifting into
a slow pacing. Skylar cursed quietly, trying to twist and tug Adrian along
with him so they weren't facing the wrong direction.
"How'd you do that?" Voldemort almost crooned playfully, "who did you
sacrifice as bait?"
Adrian huffed, amazingly not annoyed by the intrusive and terrifying
banter between them. "Wow, I know you've always thought so little of
me, father, but I actually did kill her. Really bloody satisfying too."
Voldemort's eyes flashed in rage before he composed himself. "It matters
not, you are a child and I am a god!"
Adrian rolled one shoulder, clutching the wand in his grasp a little
tighter. "Before you try to kill me again, I'm going to let you think about
what you've done...About what you've really done."
Voldemort nearly gaped, " what is this?"
Of all the things Adrian could have said, nothing shocked Skylar more
than that. Adrian held firm, not seeming bothered at all even at his
request. Skylar saw Voldemort's pupils constrict to thin slits, the skin
around his eyes whiten further.
"It's your last chance," said Adrian simply with a small tilt of his head.
"It's all you've got left...I thought I should give you a second chance, or
maybe a third or fourth. I know it…"
Adrian licked away the gore on his lower lip before he continued through
with a stronger voice, "...It may seem a bit silly, but I've been thinking it
through a long while. Here's your chance to be something better than the
monster you are."
Voldemort shrieked in rage, "you dare offer me a chance? I will kill you!"
Adrian huffed. "You already did! But look who is standing and oh you
must be furious. What are you going to do! Are you going to think about
the shit you've put me through? Are you going to think about the monster
you are? You may be my father, but you are not my dad!"
Adrian's teeth clenched and then he spat out words with more venom
than the rotting basilisk. "I have a dad and he saved me after you broke
me! I have friends that your own fucked up regime ruined! I had a life,
that you stole from me, and you are going to know that!"
"I owe you nothing!" Voldemort screamed in fury, "you should have been
murdered as a child! I should have never let you live!"
Adrian smiled softly, his head tilted ever so gently.
"If I were a monster, like my father...Would you kill me?"
Remus didn't hesitate. "Never."
"So that's your choice." Adrian whispered gently, and Skylar swallowed
and adjusted himself. "I am sorry that something as wretched as you ever
lived."
Voldemort snarled silently, lifted his white wand, and his lips moved.
Adrian clued in the moment Skylar tensed, and he lifted his wand
pointing in the general direction. Lutain jerked, coiling and shifting until
his cold scales adjusted his aim. Adrian didn't falter, trusting his familiar
and Skylar, and with a whisper of the dead, he spoke "Avada Kedavra."
Vitaedax are special things.
They weaken your soul, munching on the pathways until you're weak and
dying. The soul, our magical pathways help determine the flow and
strength of our magic. The shorter our pathways, the less distance for
magic to travel before usage.
Adrian, on death's door and accepting his fate, released his magic like the
collapse of a dam. The floodgates opened, and bright green shot across to
impact a similar spell.
Maybe in a fight, Voldemort would have won. Voldemort was a superior
wizard in all sense, more intelligent, more skilled. His flaw, was his
innate dismissal over Adrian's health. Maybe if he knew, if he had asked
about the parasite, he would have realized Adrian would only have one,
incredibly overpowered spell in his arsenal. He could have countered, he
could have transfiguration a rock into a barrier and then, Adrian would
have died.
Voldemort wasn't one to care for others. He was a selfish, egocentric man
who manipulated others and failed to realize the threats others posed. He
fired a powerful killing curse, and faced a year's worth of terminal illness
and grief and disease. It was luck, it was coincident and it was luck, but
the spell from Adrian's wand was fueled by the blood cascading down his
chin and the scarred emptiness in his eyes and the memories of a lifetime
of trauma.
A flood consumed a man, the riptide tugging on legs and bones until the
ocean swallowed him and left nothing behind but ash and corpses.
Adrian tilted his head, legs giving out as the pores along his brow began
to ooze pin prick marks of red. Skylar remembered Scamander telling
him in hushed whispers a lifetime ago what would happen. How
eventually Adrian would start bleeding until there was nothing left to
give, the parasite's last attempt to infect someone else.
Skylar didn't have any open wounds or sores where he could be infected
from. Adrian panted, heaving in dry hollow sounding gurgles, and his
skin dampened and he sweat blood.
"Oh god," Skylar breathed out, stumbling over the limp weight of Adrian,
"Adrian? Adrian stay with me- Adrian?"
Adrian huffed, head bowing as he panted. Sweating, dripping from his
chin onto the dust under them. "...Did it work?"
Skylar's breath caught at the sight of Adrian crying, looking like some
sort of biblical figure.
"I hope it did," Adrian babbled weakly, paling far too quickly to be
healthy. He looked ready to faint.
A thestral came close, and people started to scream. Death Eaters running
desperately or standing to fight against those that swarmed forward.
Skylar could hear a few voices, people rushing towards him to take the
weakened body from his arms.
Lutain moved, uncoiling and the thestral tugged too close, shadowing
them in its wings. Thick and large, leathery membrane of black- and then
Adrian was laughing, a high pitched noise- and he was being moved.
"Wait!" Skylar lunged forward, breath leaving him as he slammed into
something large and muscular. A thestral's flank, intercepting him as the
swarm of leather and skeletal horses pulled him away and- " Adrian!"
A swarm of hands on his skin, on his shoulders tugging him back away
from the flocking herd. They moved like stampeding animals, the largest
one that Skylar saw earlier- the one that had lived near Remus and Tonks'
house, opened its large wings and flapped into the sky with a small figure
on its back.
"No!" Skylar screamed, struck with the horrifying possibility that Adrian
would be gone forever- that he would vanish on this creature's back in a
dramatic show.
It didn't fly off, instead it flapped upwards through the air laboriously
until Skylar could think of only one destination where it could be flying.
Skylar backed up, bumping into a few bodies that were trying to grab
him, trying to lift him in celebration. He saw Sirius, met his eyes at one
point. There was some sort of understanding in the man's eyes, the way
they scanned through the crowd before he forced his way through the
waves of children.
His godfather grabbed Skylar's arm gently, tugging him through the
crowd fast dozens of faces. Terrified and horror struck Hermione, blank
faced Ron. Ecstatic Pansy leaping for joy, Neville Longbottom on the
ground in throes of a panic attack.
He saw Theo, staring upwards in the direction of the broken covered
bridge. He was looking aimlessly, unseeing really. He was crying, a small
smile of gratitude. He looked like he was saying goodbye.
Skylar's breathing broke in a crackle, and once Sirius finally guided him
through the crowd, Skylar ran and didn't stop.
He bolted up past figures and shapes. He barely recognized Professor
Slughorn who looked far too shocked to be happy. Severus Snape,
weeping tears of relief hidden in the shadow of a window. He sprinted up
steps where the Twins were both leaning on the railing of the staircase,
heads hanging in quiet mourning.
He could hear the sobbing screams from inside the Great Hall, the loud
piercing wails of Daphne Greengrass barely covered the small whispers of
reassurances to those leaving life.
Skylar ran upwards, higher and higher until his legs burned in agony. He
ascended, the walls getting lighter as more windows crossed his path.
Portraits absent, the noises fading away below him. He ran up and up,
ascending towards a single destination.
He burst through into the light of the slowly setting sun. The air was
fresh, untouched by dust and rubble. The light sharp, clean; the bridge
was broken only a half dozen meters out over the gorge.
There wasn't anything there, but the small broken figure sitting next to
the edge of the busted path. Legs folded disturbingly around him, a small
puddle of blood spreading every time he shifted to smear it further.
Adrian looked out at the scenery, tracing the mountains and lake and the
trees with his eyes from memory alone, unable to see it but knowing it
well enough to never forget it.
"You're never going to give me some peace, eh?" Adrian croaked out. He
sounded much much worse than Skylar thought he would.
"You love the attention." Skylar numbly responded, unable to walk
forward and break it.
Adrian chuckled softly, fingers tracing the stone.
"You know," Adrian whispered, "I really missed this view."
"I'm sorry you can't see it." Skylar weakly offered, finally taking two steps
out.
Adrian's hand stilled before he tapped the rock gently. "I don't need to see
it. I used to sit up here almost every day. It helped me think. It reminded
me that I was small, that I didn't need to be something to still exist."
Skylar's heartbeat was loud, thrumming in his throat. Adrian tilted his
head slightly, listening.
A thestral approached them- a new one. Not the large scarred body that
kidnapped Adrian before, but one Skylar had never seen. It was small,
although still hunkered over him by loads. Its wings were long and
graceful, untorn although its hooves were far too large for its body. It
flapped, forcing its wings in gentle figures as it made its way closer, legs
kicking out to run along the stone as it landed gently. It was a strangely
childish display, awkward and clumsy and unique.
Adrian laughed, a hoarse bubbling noise. He threw his face back,
entertained at the very new creature. Skylar knew he had never seen this
one before in his life.
"I wondered when you'd get here." Adrian said. "I'm sorry I took so long."
The thestral timidly approached, almost catlike. It wobbled towards the
edge where Adrian was seated, struggling to lower itself gracefully. It
ended up dropping onto its belly and side with the click of bones on rock.
It looked like a dog, sprawled out half on its side.
"There you go," Adrian murmured under his breath gently, reaching out
with a trembling red stained hand to trace the bones of the creature's
front humerus. It's vertebrae stuck out on its long dragon-like neck, its
bright white fangs looked new.
Adrian lent back against it chest, tilting his head towards the side to look
out at the ravine and lake and everything else.
Skylar felt like he was intruding on something so peaceful and perfect,
something so gorgeous and private.
"Aren't you going to say hello?" Adrian grumbled out, closing his eyes
gently as he reclined back against the omen of death, "that's rude, even
for you."
Skylar floundered, mind scrambling to think.
Thestrals were...were made? They were made from children who...who
had died horrible deaths. Who would...he…
"Oh," Skylar's mind screeched to a halt, a memory of wet fluid and a wide
eyes knobbly legged foal with feet too large for its body. Stumbling
around, away from a body who- "...I-...L-Luna?"
The thestral turned its head ever so slightly, there was no way to disguise
the slightly protective tilt of its massive skull near Adrian's face.
"There you go," Adrian whispered, although Skylar wasn't sure if it was to
himself or the creature.
"I…" Skylar's breathing fumbled, "I...Thank you. For everything."
Adrian opened his eyes, half lidded. They stared like fermenting fish. He
shrugged, "it's not easy to find someone infected with a super dark
parasite. Once in a lifetime."
Skylar smiled and took a step forward. Merlin, Adrian was looking almost
translucent.
"Yeah, you better slow down, Mr. Dark Lord." Skylar's voice broke
halfway through, warbling uncontrollably.
Adrian laughed a small noise.
Skylar's smile started to falter, then it broke completely.
"Oh my god." Skylar whispered in awe, "I- oh my god."
"What?" Adrian asked lazily, Lutain uncoiling from his shoulder to lay
across his lap docile, "you find those missing brain cells?"
"No, the prophecy." Skylar breathed out, ignoring how Adrian groaned at
the sound of it again, "Adrian I was...what...what if the prophecy...wasn't
just about V-Vold-."
"What," Adrian moaned out annoyed, "there's another big bad Dark Lord
run- no. No. You are- what is the prophecy tell me right now."
"The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches, born to
those who have thrice defied him-."
"There!" Adrian victoriously interrupted with a crooked smile, "that's
already- aw shite. Bloody- for fucks sake."
The thestral exhaled heavily, and Adrian shakily rubbed his face.
"Alright, shite." Adrian grimaced, "I...I went and screamed at your parents
a while back, and ah...shite what was- yeah thanks Lutain, Mylla said
that they...betrayed me three times. Once as a kid, second as teachers and
third as parents."
Skylar grinned exhilarated, and Adrian almost laughed at how ridiculous
it all was.
"...Born as the seventh month dies- which works for both of us."
"Please, shut up."
"...And the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal...does that mean like,
the Dark Lord like, your father or like, you marking me as your equal
somehow or-."
"Please, just…" Adrian wheezed out pained, "keep going."
Skylar frowned, but obliged. "...But he will have power the Dark Lord
knows not, and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can
live while the other survives."
Adrian closed his eyes and thumped his head back against the thestral (
Luna, he had to remind himself.)
"I want you to take Lutain." Adrian croaked out, ignoring how the snake
startled in alarm, "I don't trust anyone else. I don't know what happened ,
Merlin knows this little centipede should be dead but apparently he defied
killing curses also...I want you to take care of him when I'm gone."
Skylar swallowed thickly, then sat down heavily. "Oh my god, oh my god,
it meant horcruxes. Shit you- he- oh my god."
Adrian sighed and resigned himself to not understanding. Skylar
proceeded to rub his face in shock, "the...the prophecy was about us, the
entire time."
"Yeah, about that," Adrian croaked out sourly, "I'm going to ignore
everything you just said. Is that Dumbledore's wand?"
"Yeah!" Skylar fumbled to pull it out, accidentally yanking the basilisk
fang (he forgot he was carrying with him) out onto the ground. It
clattered loudly, and Adrian tilted his head at the noise.
"Lutain what is-...a...a basilisk fang?"
Adrian's voice tilted up dangerously at the end.
Skylar looked at him, and felt horrified at the strangely hopeful
expression on his face.
"Sky?" Adrian asked quietly, innocently. He was chewing on his lower lip,
he was shivering, he...Skylar can't…
"Oh god," Skylar whispered, unable to drag himself closer.
He was watching Adrian die.
"I...There's a curse, for thestrals." Adrian explained quietly, "if...if you die
f-from basilisk venom, you turn into a thestral...I…"
Adrian's eyes welled with bloody tears, "...I don't want to be alone again
in that. I...Sky?"
Oh god please no, please no-
"Can you kill me with that?"
Skylar inhaled and bit his tongue and squeezed his eyes shut because he
knew, that he couldn't say no.
"This isn't fair!" Skylar exploded, shaky hands grabbing the fang. "It...I- I
can't-."
"Please?" Adrian whispered gently, staring off over the valley and lake
and mountains. "I don't want to be alone anymore."
Skylar couldn't say no.
"You're supposed to kill me," Skylar blurted impulsively, "we had a deal."
"Not sure if you noticed," Adrian wheezed, "but I'm dying now."
Then, Skylar thought of a truly terrible idea.
"You're right." Skylar spoke, voice thick and understanding. He stood up,
picking up the fang to walk closer to the boy. He sat down carefully, "you
can't murder me, but you can kill me."
Adrian's face twisted in confusion; Skylar transfigured a nearby chunk of
rubble into a cup, and dragged it through the shallow drippings of
Adrian's mess.
Adrian gaped as Lutain hastily explained what was going on, then laughed
as Skylar gagged and infected himself. As the parasite wiggled itself free,
spreading from not one, but two hosts. Two hosts, which it would
torment for the rest of their lives and ruin what soul they had left.
"Oh Skylar," Adrian laughed although it sounded pained, "you don't know
what you've done."
"Then tell me." Skylar challenged. "Tell me everything."
"Okay," Adrian agreed with a bloody grin. Skylar reached out, and
handed the basilisk fang over.
Adrian started to talk.
"I'm going to tell you a story, although it's a bit long. I'm going to make
you listen, because I want you to understand every single way you have
made me into this bloody monster. I'll call this story antithesis, and
you're going to learn every single moment where things went wrong. I
want you to cry, and beg for me to kill you, and when I'm done with this,
you're going to want to do that to yourself. You're going to listen, because
in the end, you owe me that much. You owe me so much more, but here
we are, and this is how it's going to end. Who knows, maybe this useless
battle between you and me and this bloody world, well, maybe we
always were fated to kill each other."
There was something fascinating, about Vitaedax. About a simple little
parasite which drove humans to insanity.
Not many things infected the soul, or managed to warp it beyond
recognition. A dementor could remove it, a selkie could sense it.
A thestral was born from it.
A vitaedax destroyed it.
What a strange thing, for a parasite which survived by gnawing and
shredding soul and soul connections, to find itself suddenly assaulted by
basilisk venom and exposed to a very unusual curse. What a strange
thing, for a vitaedax to chew and gnaw and feast until something,
something gave way.
What a strange thing, when thestrals began to drop, when their leathery
bones started melting and the Elder Wand split in two over a core which
fizzled out of existence.
The vitaedax kept feasting, because a curse that transformed soul was
never a match for a parasite.
What a strange thing- no.
What a silly thing.
81. Epilogue
This story is dedicated to Ani, without whom I would be without friendship
and loved ones, and this may never have finished.
This story is dedicated to Ahuuda, who talked with me about the world and
reminded me that I am small, but I am in no way unimportant.
This story is dedicated to Ruby, who reminds me that my impact transcends
time or boundaries set by man.
This story is dedicated to Nelchael, and Wolf, and so many others, who
convinced me to think even when I didn't want to.
This story is dedicated to Kelsey, who although we have grown apart in all
senses, helped me find my footing and put the first sentences to paper.
This story is dedicated to Pandy, who slept at my side and listened to my
chatter, and whose urn keeps me company even now.
This story is dedicated to the reader; I hope you find happiness
Skylar cheered when Remus managed down the porch steps all on his
own one nice April morning. He walked down the steps, wobbling a little,
but able to walk all on his own.
"Watch out!" Skylar cheered happily, clapping his hands dramatically as
Tonks guffawed loudly, "you've got a lady killer on the loose!"
Tonks laughed so hard, her face flushed red and her hair matched it.
She was due any day now, but it didn't matter. Life was...it was better.
The international relations apparently soothed themselves over, various
shell companies and international deals came to light with the sudden
shift of political leadership in the wake of Voldemort's death. The great
food shortage ended when huge amounts of produce was shipped in from
where it had, quite literally, been going to rot. It was...horrifying, to see
the full manipulations of everyone.
Investigations were being put into place for the various muggle and
muggleborn murders during the recession, although Skylar honestly
doubted anything would come of it until well into the next decade.
Hermione already had been told various possible academic options to try
and keep her out of the public eye- she most likely would be a target in
the upcoming summer since there were huge swarms of Voldemort
supporters still incorporated into society.
Lutain was an...an old snake. Skylar hadn't realized that until he met up
with Scamander later on, staying a couple weeks out on the man's animal
reservation just to help out the best he could. Scamander was sharp, he
clued in a lot faster as to why Skylar was suddenly fond of manual
labour. The man wasn't happy, but he couldn't say much.
Aidian Lupin was due any day now; Tonks was huge with pregnancy and
graciously accepting everything others practically threw at her. The day
Sirius wandered onto the small house and found his friend walking on his
own, the man broke into tears and nearly tackled the rehabilitative man
to the floor.
Ron went back to his family, preferring to take the next year off before
returning to his schooling if only to help soothe the gap of having lost so
many siblings. Percy had passed away, and was buried out with Ginny's
monument grave. Charlie was severely injured, and it was unlikely that
he'd be able to walk without a limp and the uncoordinated left arm.
Scamander took him under his wing and instantly hired the man on the
spot for one of his many reservations.
Skylar hadn't heard much of the others, he spotted Theodore Nott one
day while he was skirting around St. Mungos. Skylar didn't hear the full
story, but over a small conversation of complementary tea for waiting
visitors, Skylar heard about all of the Slytherins' friends. Draco was under
a probationary period of time, originally he was facing a jail sentence
before a few other students came to his aid and helped validate his
backstory. It was mandated that Draco attend various counseling sessions
for grieving families who suffered from Dark Magic Attacks. Skylar
thought it was unnecessary.
Daphne Greengrass was institutionalized. Theodore Nott didn't talk about
her much.
Skylar spent a lot of his time now with Remus and Tonks, helping out
wherever he could. He didn't realize how much work went into a
pregnancy, especially when the only other in the house struggled to walk
most days. Sirius helped out often, Skylar imagined the man felt guilty he
hadn't come by more when the war was at its worst.
Skylar had seen his mother on occasion, he stopped by for his dad's
funeral and helped lower his casket into the ground. They met up on
occasion in public; he thought she was getting some help as well.
"Look at that bushy tail go!" Tonks shouted, despite the fact that Remus
was not at all looking wolf life. Remus playfully scowled at her, which
only forced Sirius into wolf-whistling as loud as he could. It ended badly,
more of a high pitched shrill noise which startled the massive Elkhound
from where it was sleeping by the door. They had adopted it not that
long back, finding comfort in something large and docile.
Skylar grinned, leaning back against the tree behind him. Lutain hung on
snugly, although his scales and grip wasn't what it used to be. Skylar
should have thought of it, a Taipan didn't generally live past seven years.
"Well, isn't this just cozy." Skylar grinned, cheeks flushed in delight.
Sirius shifted into his animagus form, the Elkhound perked up in
excitement and took off directly afterwards.
Nobody really liked talking about how the castle was damaged- still
under renovation. Nobody talked much about Dumbledore or his own
tomb made from white marble on the small island in the giant lake near
Hogwarts. Nobody talked about how the thestrals all mysteriously
vanished that battle, or how a few people could have sworn that they
melted away until nothing was left.
"It's getting late, isn't it?" Skylar asked the snake around his neck, gently
stroking the black scales, "we'll have to be going soon."
The snake flickered its tongue. Skylar could practically hear the insult.
"Moony! Padfoot! Tonks!" Skylar shouted, waving one arm, "I'm heading
out!"
Tonks glanced up with a beaming smile the boy hadn't seen in almost a
year, "Okay! Be safe! Send an owl!"
Sirius barked, Remus lifted one arm and all on his own, waved.
Skylar hesitated one moment, watching the scene with an affectionate
twist on his mouth. He watched a while longer, before he summoned his
courage and turned and hiked into the woods.
Not too many people knew about it, but if you kept walking and walking
and walked a bit further, to the point where you felt lost and lonesome
and kept walking, you'd find a nondescript grave. It was a nice grave,
made out of dark stone that crumbled a bit on the edges. Shale or some
other stone that was just as impractical as Adrian's' taste in it. He lived to
make other people lives' hell.
Skylar smiled at it, tracing his hand along the small grave. He helped
lower it down alongside Scamander, who warded it and contained his
remains so that the parasite would never spread any further.
"Well, nice to see you." Skylar greeted the stone. He took a seat, gently
sitting on the forest floor in front of the monument. "I know I was here
just last day, but well, you know."
The stone didn't answer, but Skylar didn't mind.
"Anyways," Skylar smiled, feeling the April sunshine on his skin. He
always felt so cold now. His bones pressed against his skin so sharply; his
casual use of magic hadn't been doing him any favours either. "I know
that we kinda figured things out at the end but...well.."
Skylar shifted unsure, pulling out his wand to hold gently in his hand. He
sniffled, ignoring the small nosebleed and the piercing migraine he was
sure was going to pop up.
"Well…" Skylar trailed off unsure, eyes scanning towards the side where a
small section of warded ground had been burned into the dirt. He spent
nearly a day working on it, copying carefully the intricate little motions
and marks Scamander drew out for him.
Lutain shifted, staring at Skylar with old tired eyes.
A wind whispered through the clearing, stirring up some of the dead
leaves that survived the winter. Small vegetation was starting to grow;
Skylar always did like spring.
"Well Lutain," Skylar hummed, content for the first time in a very long
time. "We wouldn't want to keep Adrian waiting."
Luna jerked awake with a gasp.
Her head hurt a little, a small buzzing throb that was fading already. The
grass under her was soft, like the moss that nestled between large tree
roots.
The air felt crisp and clean, gentle although not humid. She couldn't
place the taste in the air, or the strange feeling of familiarity that
bothered her.
The sun above her was warm, heating her skin in a way she never
thought of much before. It felt wonderful, she wiggled her toes in the
light.
She smiled lightly, running fingers through the grass and slight clover
that poked up curiously from between the strands. Violets appeared
further down, vibrant and pastel in the sunlight.
A bird fluttered above her, large but not one she recognized. It peered
down at her, jerking its head to observe her with both eyes.
"Hello," She smiled at the bird, reaching out although she knew she
wouldn't be able to touch it. "You're pretty, aren't you?"
Someone chuckled behind her, she nearly launched herself upwards to
bounce clumsily off the balls of her feet. She spun around, thankful she
was wearing her work trousers although they did have some bright grass
stains.
Someone was standing there looking at her, a healthy distance away but
still close enough to have seen her when she was asleep. She didn't like
that, although something foreign and hazy whispered at her. She didn't
like it, and it felt odd.
"Those are some wicked grass stains," The stranger said, seemingly having
a strange fixation with her knees, "bloody hell, that's so much better than
white dresses."
Luna shifted backwards self-consciously, not liking how the sun made a
glare in her eyes. The stranger was taller than her, thin too like a
beanpole.
"Who are you?" She asked, careful and cautious. She didn't have her
wand on her, which confused her a little bit. She didn't know where she
was.
Whoever the man was inhaled sharply, almost baffled.
Then he laughed, a low smooth noise that didn't help her confusion at all.
"Right, yeah," the man stumbled through the words almost giddy, "yeah
just, wow. Alright, so uh, my name is Adrian-."
"Adrian?" Luna cut him off, her voice breathy like an exhale, mixed with
a gasp and a murmur all in one. The stranger paused, waiting patiently.
Luna took one unsure step forward. The bird was still chirping above
them, fluttering its wings on occasion.
She got a bit closer and could see detail, how he wasn't actually thin by
build but instead looked horribly thin. Sickly really, his eyes were bright
and wrong and felt very ill with the limp broken ends of his hair.
"Hey," he smiled, gums bright and discoloured and teeth seeming too
large in his mouth. "It's ah, it's been a while."
Luna stared, and took a half step backwards.
The stranger's face twitched, faltering slightly, then one hand ran
anxiously through his hair. It parted it, and maybe it was the light or
maybe it was the familiar nervous gesture, but something in it worked
and then Luna was smiling timidly.
"Adrian?" She asked quietly, wanting to step back but also run forward,
"I- you-."
Adrian, (that smile could only be him) beamed. His entire face lit up, the
scars on his face contorted and the concave hollows of his cheeks looked
worse. His eyes looked feral and bright and he looked like a skeleton.
His voice though, was so happy and recognizable.
"Yes!" He urged excitedly, "I- I hadn't realized how much I changed. I
didn't think about it, I- I'm sorry,"
Luna cautiously came closer, until she reached out and took one of his
long bony hands in hers. She twisted it, flipping it over and over to trace
the small pock marks and scars from something, and the way the joints
stuck out so far.
"You look horrible." Luna's nose wrinkled as she spotted the colour of his
veins and arteries, "worse than usual."
Adrian laughed, beaming. "Right, yeah, I mean, I'm disgusting for sure.
Wow, I haven't heard you insult me in forever."
Luna felt whiplash, "you...you want me to insult you?"
Adrian grinned brightly, "I'm not that sensitive anymore. Oh, I have so
much to tell you. Do you remember anything about being a thestral?"
"What?"
"About me being Harry Potter? Or killing my father- Voldemort, although
James Potter is dead too I think-."
Luna made a small noise of distress. Adrian grabbed her, yanked her into
his chest and hugged her so tight she couldn't breathe.
"Let me out!" She yowled in surprise and sudden delight. "This isn't fair!
It's illegal!"
"You going to send a howler after me?" He shouted back, folding
backwards to send both of them to the ground. The grass absorbed their
impact, catching them as they defied gravity.
"Adrian Selwyn you are the worst!"
"I know!" Adrian cheered in delight, "Oh my- okay Luna, Luna so. So I
went off and I broke a dragon out of Gringotts!"
She gaped in surprise, "you did not."
"I did!" Adrian chortled in delight, "It was after Skylar and Scamander
met up-."
"Stop!" Luna cried, dramatically flinging her arms around, "you- you
mean you talked to Skylar Potter! Civilly?"
Adrian grinned, and Luna wasn't so sure the sun was above her.
"I did!"
"And you met Newt Scamander?"
"I think I threw my drink at him!" Adrian was nearly cackling in delight,
"I threw my drinks at a lot of people! Both metaphorically and literally! I
also set a lot of buildings on fire, Luna! So many buildings!"
Luna opened her mouth, closed it, and failed to stop the bubble of
confused and exhilarated laughter from breaking through her mouth.
'I think I'm going to like it here,' she thought to herself happily.
"Hey Luna? What's the last thing you ever said to me?"
Luna looked at Adrian, tilting her head in thought before she shrugged. "I
don't remember. Does it really matter?"
Adrian threw his head back with a loud laugh,
and finally,
felt at peace.
Thank you all, for joining me on this adventure. It was rough at times, difficult
and painful to us all, but we've made it in the end, haven't we?
I originally wrote this story as a challenge to myself, something to pass the
time. This changed, and with my love and all of you, this became our passion.
It wasn't easy, even I can say that, but this story was made to be realistic.
Nothing is easy, we all have our struggles that we smile through. We learned
our lessons, or maybe we read them and recognized them.
Don't waste your life trying to impress people that don't care about you.
Even if you do everything right, you may still fail.
Don't neglect your health; physical, mental.
Find your passion, even if it's small or unimportant; it will save you when you
feel lost.
Family doesn't depend on your birth.
People lie to you, people betray you, people love you.
You are not invincible, no matter how intelligent or strong. Your actions have
consequence.
We make our own path, we fight our own monsters no matter how innocent
they seem.
We all have a bit of Adrian Selwyn in us, and I finished this tragedy with him
healing.
I hope, that somewhere along the way, you have as well.
Questions and Answers:
How did you come up with the idea?
The first fanfiction I ever read was a story called Fate's Favourite. It
wasn't complete at the time, but the style of writing and the creative
opportunities it gave me made me instantly fall in love with darker styles
of writing. I wanted to make a Wrong-Boy-Who-Lived, because It seemed
the easiest way to make someone evil to my 12 year old mind. I decided
to redo the story, because the plot and attempt behind my younger self
were quite good, but the execution was absolute agony.
Why were they named that way they were?
Skylar was named Skylar because in Shadowed Malice he was named as
such. I think I just really liked the name when I was younger. Adrian was
selected because 'Hadrianus' was close enough to work from Harry, and it
had a name meaning which meant 'dark', because I love throwing in little
Easter Eggs.
How long did this take?
Two years, 4 months I believe?
Any random tidbits you didn't plan that are in there?
Yes. A lot. Almost all of the humour scenes are spontaneously written, a
lot of the last minute additions are things I throw in towards the end of
the chapter. Small tidbits, single poetic lines that I like that fit in well. I
originally didn't plan for Theo to have a role at the end. I didn't plan for
the ending to be as optimistic either. Keeping Remus alive was a
spontaneous addition, I had already drafted him as being dead but
changed it right before posting. Ironically enough, Luna dying was a last
minute addition that I wrote in a single moment in the edit section on the
website for posting.
Did it just sit on your drive for awhile? If so how long?
No. I wrote the prologue, and I posted it likely within the day. At one
point up until little over halfway in the story, I stayed constantly 20
chapters ahead of the posting date. Eventually, that stopped, and for
almost the last third of the story I was writing and posting chapter by
chapter basis. It never really sat for any point.
Did you ever lose interest in writing Antithesis? If so what brought
you back?
Yes. I lost inspiration because I wasn't able to talk or interact with
anyone. I thought people lost interest, and I too lost inspiration. I started
talking to my cat, and although she couldn't understand it I felt better
and I gained my passion back because I was able to think creatively and
continue. My cat unfortunately passed away in February (2018),
although I should have made her my co-author. Sometimes just talking
about what you love is enough to bring it back.
Did you always have to be in one specific mood or mindset to write?
No, not necessarily. I get into incredibly focused mindset, so
obsessively...directed, where I forget the passage of time and I forget
what thought is. I don't have active ideas or trails of intent, I simply type
and it's a surprise to everyone what comes out. I write from 11:30 am to
2:30 pm on Mondays and Wednesdays, and in that little time I create a
chapter. Then I forget about it or post it the next day, sometimes I wait a
bit longer. I cannot stress how much this story was a pleasure for me, it
was a moment to relax and create instead of dealing with academics or
other work.
How were you able to balance your daily life with writing this near
constantly?
Well, that's a bit tricky to explain. I write in one sitting, I take a seat and
have a coffee or a cat near me, and I type. My hands cramp or maybe my
laptop dies because I forgot about battery charge, and that's that. I do
what life demands of me, and when I need to breathe I write. Maybe
sometime I'll have a book on the shelf, and it'll be your relaxing break
just like writing was mine.
Why did you decide to write Antithesis in such a depressing way?
There's a unique flair to writing depressing things. It's an untouched area
of writing- sure there are sad books or movies, but nobody ever writes
the taboo. Nobody writes about how much you want to scream. Nobody
writes about the days you're too tired to breathe. Maybe I pushed too far
or the story was too depressing for others, but that's okay. Someone
maybe loved it just enough, that it made their day better.
How much of Antithesis is taken from Shadowed Malice?
About all of the school years. It deviated around the fourth book, and
never focused much on Luna. Adalonda wasn't...herself. Adrian never
went mad in that book. It was like a child's crayon drawing of this,
although I suppose I did make it when I was 12. I'm more proud of
Antithesis than any other story.
Why did you change so much of the certain plots, or what made you
turn from certain plot points and make the new ones?
I went for realism. I made Adrian weak because we all are. I made him
fragile because we all are. I made him volatile and cruel and anxious and
depressed and I made him feel far too much, because we do too. I wanted
realism, the ideas of Shadowed Malice were too OC focused and
impractical. They were foreign and focused on the wrong parts when I
wanted something that hurt us on a visceral level.
Mermaid scaly creature in the fountain that had a bigger part in
Shadowed Malice; why was it made so much smaller and less
relevant?
It seemed out of place to create an entirely new creature that had strange
powers. Even the Shades from Shadowed Malice felt wrong, I didn't want
to create an entire new culture and species from nothing. That's why I
had the Thestrals- they represent the new culture and mindset and
personality of everything the shades were.
Why did you turn Luna into a thestral instead of just dead?
Because in real life, our mistakes don't go away until we accept them
emotionally and do something about them.
Why did you focus so much on magical creatures?
My personality and interest shining through. I have animals of my own, a
dog, a tortoise, a lizard who passed in the writing of this fic, a snake I
housed due to this story, two cats I adopted for the long nights, and my
one cat who passed in February (2018) who should have been listed as
my co-author. She likely wrote a paragraph of this story from the
instances she prowled across my keyboard.
Why did you give so much time to develop side characters (Theo,
Daphne, Ron and Hermione?)
I hate bashing. I hate the idea of writing bashing because everyone has a
personality and a mindset that is unique to them, and is formed by their
life and experiences. Maybe you don't like a character, that is completely
fine. You shouldn't like Adrian, most people don't like Skylar. I wanted to
give you an option, a choice and a decision where you formed your own
opinion based on the actions I wrote. You never know the experiences of
others.
Are you going to write more?
Of course, but this story has said all the messages I have left to write. A
different pasture now. Let the dead stay peaceful.
Are you happy this is over?
Do you believe the 5 stages of grief for the past chapter titles were
written for the characters? They were written, for you and I.
What are the main messages you wanted people to hear when
reading antithesis?
This is a tricky question to answer.
People have asked me throughout the story repeatedly, "what exactly is
wrong with Adrian?" We as people relate to things we recognize. We find
comfort in familiarity, we like the people we view ourselves in. That's
why I never specifically answered it. I never explicitly said what Adrian's
relationship is with Luna, I never explicitly said what Adrian's disorders
are. If you write a character who is in a firm relationship, you exclude
the few readers who do not identify with that orientation. If you give an
explicit diagnoses, you ostracized those who judge themselves against
that. Adrian has a disorder, sure, he has what you need. Some days there
is no sunshine and no hope or point: some days Adrian feels the same.
Some days everything is too fast and all your worries and pressure builds
until it explodes: sometimes Adrian feels the same. Someday, maybe
Adrian wishes he were dead; maybe someone out there needed to read
something similar to know they're not alone. I want this story to be the
opportunity you don't have, I want Adrian screaming at James and Lily to
be the words you could never say to abusers. I want Adrian's laughter
and acceptance to be your catharsis.
I want you to identify with Adrian, because here at the end, he found
peace.
(It's time you find it too.)
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