From some of the reviews in my last chapter, I noticed my readers are complaining that I have turned 180 and made Hadrianus soft, where he had shown his ruthlessness before. (I'm sorry if I miss replying to anyone's review, I was incredibly busy)
My apologies if Hadrianus's pov seemed to be 'too soft to be the son of Voldemort', not tossing around Unforgivables like candies! He is only a child at the moment and I am not going to ruin his chance to enjoy his childhood, beyond the roller coaster he is going to have as a hazard of being The Dark Lord's child and Heir.
However, I have explained my reasoning in this chapter :)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Yeah, no." Fenrir quickly stepped in and blocked the giggling Pup from sneaking away with two pieces of cake with his wizardling mates, "Your Old Man told me no more than one piece, and you had enough excitement for the day without adding sugar high to the mix." He lectured, taking the second piece from his plate despite his protests, "And making your eyes googly large at me will not stop me, Pup."
Hadrianus harrumphed and petulantly cross his arms over his chest, glaring mutinously, because Fenrir didn't even bat an eyelash at the younger Nott brother who had two pieces of cake as well. Why Theodoret is allowed two pieces, and he can eat only one piece of the sugary good? Why is he being punished? He deserved two pieces as well. Is it because he hurt the Dursleys?
But father said it was okay!
Fenrir sighed, rolling his eyes as he understood the Pup's dilemma. Unlike what it seems to be in the Pup's perspective, he doesn't care what the wizardlings do, they all can go sugar high and crash in the middle of the hallway or even in the forest for all he cares. He won't even try and rescue them if any other predator of the forest preys on them. It's not like he actually agreed to look after them. The Houdinis never cared for him or his pack member, or even his species, then why would he extend the same courtesy? They are nothing more than some blips in his field of vision. Only the Pup belongs to his pack, thus having his protection. Not them.
"Eat up, Pup. Then I'll take you to your Old Man's quarter. I received word that His meetings are finished for the day."
As expected, the wee slip of a nine-year-old pup perked up immediately like a cub smelling steak, and quickly started to inhale the dessert. When he went to put his plate back, Ms. Linda, one of the Pack members, handed him a napkin with a pointed look and Hadrianus agreed to wipe his mouth and hand with minimal fuss, before racing back to Mr. Hulk who was waiting for them to finish, followed by the Nott brothers. Theodore was both relieved and a little offended to be ignored by the adult werewolves like that, though he didn't complain, not wanting their attention any more than absolutely necessary.
"Oliver, take the others to their wizard," Fenrir ordered his Beta, not wanting to take a chance that he might end up throttling the wizardlings if left alone with them for more than a minute. It caught Hadrianus's attention who looked back at his friend, raising his eyebrow asking if they were okay with it. Theodore smiled a little and nodded, hiding his anxiety and dread to be separated from The Dark Prince. No, he is a big boy. He can deal with it and take care of his brother. He will be home sooner if they go their separate ways. And as much he loved spending time with The Dark Prince, Theodore really wants to go home, now.
Hadrianus stared at his eyes, searching for assurance before nodding back, when he realized Theodore doesn't need him to request otherwise.
"Bye Adrian!" Theodoret, the blissfully oblivious seven years old waved his hand and Hadrianus waved back, wishing both of them good night.
"Let's go." Mr. Hulk said gruffly, turning on his heels and Hadrianus followed obediently. To Hadrianus's surprise, Mr. Hulk led them through some new Hallway that they have never seen before. His father certainly never brought him here. Hadrianus looked around, wide-eyed and curious, his eyes caught the sight of some shiny stuff adorning the several shelves and racks on the wall, there are also some creepy-looking stuff with a very dreadful and scary aura that had his instincts scream 'Danger! Run away!'. Hadrianus shuddered and leaned a little closer to Mr. Hulk. Most of them are under glass box, and Hadrianus can tell even without checking that they're locked.
As they walked, Hadrianus's attention was suddenly zeroed on an ancient-looking candle stick. For some reason, he felt drawn toward it and didn't notice when his feet adjusted the course, ignoring his Inner Mamba's screams of protest. He grabbed the shelf and pulled himself closer to the candlestick, standing on his tippytoes and tilting his head, studying it closely when suddenly there was a massive yank from behind. Hadrianus blinked, and the next thing he knew, he was hanging by his clothes, a foot above from air. Without thinking, his Flight and Fight instincts kicked in, having been suppressed ever since he entered the Hallway, and started flailing his limbs to get away.
"Pup! Stop that!"
Hadrianus twitched and turned within the hold, looking up and noticing Mr. Hulk was glowering at his face, having grabbed him by the back of his neck and raising him to his eye level. He stopped struggling when he realized what was happening, blinking owlishly and staring at Fenrir with his huge eyes, his limbs hanging loosely.
Fenrir scowled at him, "Did the Darkest Lord not teach you to never touch anything that your instincts scream danger?"
Hadrianus blushed at being reprimanded and nodded, still hanging by his neck and a picture of wide-eyed innocence.
"Then why were you touching that? Is it too shiny? Last time I checked, you're a Naga, not a Niffler. Didn't He set some rules about it?"
"Well," Hadrianus defended himself, "The new rule number twelve was, 'If it is locked, it's dangerous. Do not approach/touch/attempt to break in.' And it wasn't locked, and I didn't know it was dangerous. So technically I didn't break any rule. And it was a pretty candlestick, I only wanted to see it from closer."
Fenrir growled at his sound defense and then glared at the wall as if by willpower he could find the wizard who had left the accursed things behind and rip them apart. The Pup was not to blame, Fenrir knew it. Many adults have fallen prey to Dark and Cursed Artifacts.
"You have fallen for the compulsion on it, a few more seconds near it and you would have wanted to touch it as well." Fenrir growled, "When I meet your Old Man, I will tell Him that if I see those wizards leaving randomly cursed pieces of stuff laid out where my pup or cubs can reach it one more time, I will bite them next moon."
Hadrianus stayed silent, loosely swaying his limbs in the air. He felt cold, very cold. He didn't like this Hallway and with every second passed, it seems to get even colder. He shuddered and rubbed his arms until Mr. Hulk gently put him down. "Come on pup, let's go. Your Old Man is waiting."
Hadrianus nodded and hugged himself tighter, pulling his robes together. Why is it so cold? "I don't like it here. It's too cold. Can we go through another Hallway?" Hadrianus shivered. September night breeze is not supposed to be so cold, isn't it? Hadrianus frowned at the candlestick, where ice has started to form. Is he hallucinating? He can already feel the fatigue starting to creep inside his muscles. Why was he feeling like that? He didn't touch any of those things, did he? Mr. Hulk stopped him from touching, right?
"It...really is getting colder, isn't it?" Fenrir stopped and frowned then looked around, sniffing. "Why is it...wait, what the..." Fenrir suddenly yelped, looking at something behind them, and let out some choice of colorful words that had Hadrianus interested and gleefully added to his evergrowing vocabulary of curses. "What are those beasts doing here?" He cried.
Hadrianus frowned, this is the first time he noticed Mr. Hulk being afraid of something. "Beasts?" He asked, before looking behind, and his heart almost stopped. He wished he hadn't looked.
Standing in the Hallway was three cloaked figures. Their faces were completely hidden beneath its hood. Hadrianus's eyes darted downward, and what he saw made his stomach churn in disgust and fear. There was a hand protruding from one of the cloaks and it was glistening, grayish, slimy-looking, and scabbed, like something dead that had decayed in water. But it was visible only for a split second. As though the creature beneath the cloak sensed Hadrianus's gaze, the hand was suddenly withdrawn into the folds of its black cloak, and they crept closer, drawing a long, slow, rattling breath, as though it were trying to suck something more than air from its surroundings.
Hadrianus felt his own breath catch in his chest, ignoring Mr. Hulk's frantic call for his attention. He didn't even notice as Mr. Hulk picked him up again, and started running in the opposite direction. The freezing cold went deeper than his skin, piercing into his bone, inside his very heart. He felt his eyes roll up into his head, unable to perceive what was happening around him anymore. He felt like he had fallen into the frozen lake on one cold night in December. There was a rushing in his ears as though the water. He was being dragged downward, the roaring growing louder, a thick white fog was swirling around him, inside him.
A peal of cruel laughter rang throughout the room, and a green light he had seen in his nightmares slammed into him, making him topple back into his crib. Wait, cribs?
It felt as though Time itself has stopped and there was painpainpainpain. It felt like he was torn apart and instantly put back together, every part of him annihilated and remade from the inside out. He felt like thousands of volts of electricity is flowing throughout his veins. His very soul thrummed and hummed. As if from somewhere far away, he was aware that the room, probably the Earth was shaking to its very foundations.
He heard voices and another baby voice crying out, calling again and again in a desperate, "Hawwy! Hawwy!"
What was that? 'Harry'? Who is calling him by that blasted name? No one ever called him by that name! Nothing good was ever associated with that name!
There was a brief pause. Hadrianus doesn't know how long it passed, whether hardly a moment or hours, when he woke up again. No one was crying this time, it was too eerily calm and the silence was overbearing. He still felt like the Universe herself was still stopped, then the eerie silence was gone with two voices talking urgently. Their voices are muffled and scattered, and Hadrianus can only pick up some words, though he can not tell for the life of him whether they were male voice, or female.
"...definitely not planned for this...unlocked the powers...body is too immature, it almost melted...so many plans, all going to waste....calling in favors....if you can help..."
Another voice joined in, "...blocking his core...restore over next few years...delay the plans....wings are a problem..."
There was another pause, like the one before the voices, and this time, he felt like he was in clouds, numb, and the same voices were talking again.
"...stupid humans... can't believe... can't risk extinction... Earth is doomed... needs to go back... unbalanced... the energy flow..."
"... blessings... My creature... will be healed...dark..."
"Where's the Anchor?"
The last sentence echoed around his head, whispering and hammering him with sharp pain. 'Whereistheanchorwhereistheanchorwhereistheanchor...' Suddenly the world whorled and twirled like a maelstrom as a blinding light erupted from somewhere.
Hadrianus knew nothing more but blissful silence.
-----------------------------
"I'll call you when he wakes," Marvolo nodded, and Narcissa bowed, before standing up and shooting unconscious Hadrianus a concerned glance, and then walking out of her Lord's quarter in Headquarters. She can't believe how close the Dementors came to harming The Dark Prince. Thankfully their Master was nearby and the moment He noticed, He took action and summoned his Basilisk Patronus, sending the flock of Dementors screeching.
The Dark Lord was evidently not pleased about their ignorance of His warnings about appearing at the Headquarters unannounced and especially, harming His son. Narcissa heard from an equally concerned Severus that they never saw their Lord this furious, which was understandable as none of them thought they would come so close to losing The Dark Prince forever, right inside the safety of the Headquarters of the Dark Sect. It was supposed to be a safe haven!
"I will be around, my Lord." Narcissa left, respectfully closing the door behind her to give the family a bit of privacy.
Nagini was sitting on the edge of the bed, with her Hatchling's head on her lap as the child slept off the effect of Dementors. She was still seething from the afternoon incident but was distracted by the recent development and the fact that Marvolo swore he had ordered the Dementors to not come without warning him beforehand. She had calmed down when the Dementors left and her Hatchling was safe in her arms, with his soul intact. The child can't catch a breath, can he?
As Marvolo sat beside her, suddenly her earlier anger and frustration came over, making her snap at him.
"You manipulated him!" Nagini accused, "How could you! He's only a child!"
"Nagini!" Marvolo raised his hand, as if to placate a raging beast from biting his head off, which was not too far from the truth.
"He didn't want to hurt anyone, even if it was them! But you forced him!"
"What are you speaking of, darling? I didn't force him to do anything ." Marvolo widened his eyes, his hand going to his chest as if Nagini's word had hurt him. "I was not even in the vicinity to do anything!"
"Spare the theatrics!" Nagini snapped, "I am well aware of exactly what you're capable of through the Horcrux bond."
Marvolo's facial expression cracked as he smirked smugly, "Ah, but I didn't possess my son's body to do the bidding as I do yours, occasionally. With your consent, mind you."
"So you admit that you forced him to hurt people?"
"As I said before, I didn't force him to do anything. I merely suggested it, so he can move on from his fear and resentment of that family. It's very therapeutic, you should try it sometimes."
"So you admit that you planned all this? For Dursleys to try and hurt my Hatchling?"
"It was an entirely controlled setting," Marvolo argued back, "Did you honestly believe I would deliberately permit anyone or anything to hurt my offspring?"
"Oh, I don't know, it looked like that to me!"
"Don't be so melodramatic, Nagini! As I stated earlier, it was an entirely controlled setting. I was monitoring everything right from the beginning, and I was only one apparition away." Nagini glared at Marvolo, making the Naga sigh, "Come on, darling, don't you understand how significant progress it was?"
"I fail to understand how manipulating your nine-year-old child and forcing him to do something he clearly doesn't like sounds like significant progress to you."
"Well, this is his first exposure to blood and violence, if you kindly overlook Bella's mishap. And I am delighted with his improvement. Truthfully, I was expecting him to back off and refuse to hurt anyone, given his morals were so virtuous. But as it seems, if he is motivated properly, even my nine years old child is capable of violence. That's the Hadrianus I knew from all those decades ago, Nagini. And I am absolutely positive that, with my correct influence and practice, he would get there in no time."
Nagini sighed, rubbing her face with her hands. She had been fearing this, Tom's obsession with the boy from his past is going to cost her Hatchling's innocence and sanity. "Tom, I'm afraid that to mold our son into the person you remember when you were a teenager, would break our Hatchling. You didn't see his face when he saw the after-effects of his violence. He doesn't need this kind of tough love."
"He'll be fine, he is stronger than you realize, darling." Marvolo dismissed it. Some small bouts of dismay and affliction are expected, essential even to balance out and make him appreciate the pleasure. Every sort of venture counts for greater schemes, to make him stronger. "But yes, you're right. I guess my son and I would need to have an extended discussion, so he doesn't overwhelm himself with unnecessary guilt." That would be an unwelcomed setback he can't allow to hold Hadrianus back.
"I know my son is stronger than I could possibly imagine, heaven knows he would certainly need that to survive this." Nagini deadpanned.
"You talk like I'd purposefully hurt my son." Marvolo frowned at her, "I'm not intending to 'mold him into the person I remember', Nagini. You'll not be able to sway me from this stance. I'm doing this for my son's own good, to make certain he's prepared sufficiently to look after himself and those he considers as his. We will not be there all the time, and as my Heir and The Dark Prince, he would need to defend himself from the adversaries and rivals that would dare and try to hurt him. I can't have my son become a weakling to preserve his innocence and then get killed, I'd rather have him turn into a ruthless predator, unafraid to take down any threat that dared pit themselves against him."
"It's not fair, he is only a child!"
"The world is hardly a fair place, darling! All we can do is prepare him to face it."
"But"
"No, Nagini, just think! Hadrianus is a Naga, and his creature is the dominant one in his mind. To the creature part, he is not ready to step out of his guardian's influence and hunt for himself, or defend his territory. Even with my encouragement, he only resorts to some harmless prank spells when faced with a bully, nothing that would truly wound anyone. You know the closeness to us, especially in our human form, had been affecting the Naga child into believing he would be able to hunt without fearing retaliation from his prey when he was practicing it." Nagini nodded resigned, having figured it out on her own, "But today was different. I was not present here and you were under attack as well, in your serpentine form. As I expected, without our direct influence and calming presence, his flashback and fears were more pronounced, even with their soul link. And yet, he was able to overcome the emotions enough to cast the spell, and hurt them...actually hurt them!" Marvolo chuckled, gazing softly and running his hand through his sleeping son's downy mop of hair, delighted and immensely proud of his Little Mamba, he truly hadn't expected it to work on the first try. "Yes, he is still too softhearted to kill them, but at least he managed to injure them, very different from what he did to Malfoy! It's a significant improvement for me!" Even if later he made sure to heal them, he still did it. "He is getting stronger and overcoming his anxiety without my direct influence and presence. Soon, he would not even hesitate to cast the spell when faced with an adversary."
If he raised him right, Hadrianus will be good enough to hold on his own against the whole Slytherin House and claim his throne as the Prince and Ruler
You are reading the story above: TeenFic.Net