Chapter Text
Soon enough, the heat of the incident in the quidditch pitch lost strength, in its place, plans for the Yule break began to flutter around the school population. In each class, you could feel the restlessness building beneath the bones of the students – and professors. The young wixens were not the only ones that were tired of the workload they had, watching over a big group of teenagers was a very taxing job. They needed the break, or they would hex someone.
Probably the headmaster as there would be less legal trouble if they did.
Granted, nobody truly forgot what had happened, certainly not the headmaster. Which was why an investigation had happened and, much like Hadrian and his little gang had suspected, Dumbledore had turned out to be the culprit behind the abnormal speed of the brooms. His own lions being the ones stepping forward to share this bit of information.
And much like they had expected (but had secretly hoped that it would not happen) the transfiguration professor was able to wiggle himself out from getting punished for his actions. Claiming that while, yes he had modified the brooms to make them faster, he had done so a day earlier to the match, insisting that he had given his students enough time to become familiar with the new speed of the brooms.
Coming to the conclusion that the lions had been too confident in themselves by not testing their brooms beforehand, and the only crime that could be attributed to Dumbledore was his failure in ensuring his students had done as they should have. In the end, Dippet had given the man a good scolding before letting Dumbledore continue on his marry way.
And while Hadrian did feel pissed off at Dumbledore and his uncanny ability to talk himself out of trouble, he figured that it was only a matter of time before the old man gave him another opportunity to see him fall. He only needed to be patient and wait for him to mess up.
Furthermore, he had other important things occupying his mind, such as finishing last minute assignments and packing his things for the yule break. Oh, and figuring how it would be best to sneak Thanatos out of Hogwarts. Tom may have said nothing about it but a part of him believed that the slytherin would feel happy to have a companion with him while staying with the Peverells.
Besides he wanted Thanatos to meet the other snakes that lived in the Sanctuary, he was sure that the snake would love to lay around their warm enclosures.
With that in mind, he picked up another book and began to see which warming charms would be best to cast around his trunk for a snake to sleep in.
**************
“Eryol, is you don’t finish soon, the train will leave without us” Hadrian said, foot tapping on the floor and arms crossed as he watched his friend flutter around the room looking for his things and all but throwing them into his trunk. Beside him, Avalon was looking just as impatient to leave as him.
“I’m almost done, I swear. Has anyone seen my flute?” he asked, his voice slightly distorted from speaking underneath his bed.
Avalon arched an eyebrow, “you mean the one that’s sitting on your bed?”
“No! I mean the other one, the one that blows bubbles when you use it”
The redhead sighed, “you lend it to Olivia, remember?”
“Oh! Right” Eryol wiggled himself out from underneath the bed, not before his head got intimately acquainted with the sturdiness of the frame and rose to his feet. Grabbing hold of the wooden flute on his bed and throwing it into his trunk, which was overflowing with clothes, shoes, books and other personal items, he went to close the trunk. Despite knowing that the trunk had expansion charms placed in it, Hadrian worried for a moment there that Eryol would not have been able to close the lid.
Soon, their dark-haired friend was standing next to them, much to their relief. “Right, I’m ready now, let’s go”
Neither teen needed to be told twice before grabbing their trunks and cages and making a beeline for the exit, barely even waiting for Nyx to land on Hadrian’s shoulder before they were off. Lucky for them, there were still some carriages left for them to take them to the station and the thestrals were kind enough to trot at a faster pace when Hadrian asked.
Once inside the train, they had to look for an empty compartment, which turned out to be a much harder task than they had expected despite the fact that not every student had decided to return home. Logically, that would mean that there would be more available carts for them, and yet, everywhere they looked they would find them occupied.
Their salvation came in the form of one Tom Riddle, who looked to have come from the direction of the restroom.
“Lost little cousin?” Tom asked, glancing at the trunks the trio were carrying.
“No, just looking for a place to sit” he replied, internally pouting at being called ‘little’, he was perfectly withing the average heigh a boy his age should be, Tom was just a giant, “any chance that you have some free space for us?”
Tom merely hummed and made his way towards the compartment he was currently using, confident that Hadrian would take the silent cue and follow him. He internally smirked when he heard footsteps following him.
Hadrian let a sigh of relief when he found that the compartment Tom was using was empty save for the slytherin. There was more than enough space for the four of them, or rather five of them, if he counted Nyx.
Six, he corrected himself when he felt the slight movement coming from his robe pocket.
“Shouldn’t she be in her cage? Or better yet, making her way to the state?” Tom asked, looking at the dark owl that had settled over the silver haired teen after he placed his trunk in the rack above him.
Nyx, for her part, glared at the teen, ‘shouldn’t you be in one too? Snake’s hate the cold, don’t they?’ she argued back, clicking her beak in distaste.
Hadrian sighed, “Be nice Nyx, she is not strong enough to fly to the manor on her own and she prefers to be outside instead of the cage, to stretch her wings” he absentmindedly began to preen the owls baby feathers that had started to sprout along her neck, “besides, I quite like having her in my arms.”
‘I also like being with you hatchling, you give the best scritches’
The older teen nodded, “you have a thing for carrying animals with you” he recalled the bowtruckle that his cousin carried on his pocket and the way he would sometimes take Thanatos in his arms when they went to the Black Lake.
Hadrian snorted, he supposed he did, but could they blame him? Most of the creatures he petted were soft to the touch or very cuddly or adorable, and as far as he knew, it was human instinct to pet anything that looked remotely adorable, even if it was potentially dangerous to your health. If anything, his ‘carrying animals thing’ was perfectly normal.
He watched as the teen took out a book and began to read, noticing how his foot tapped the floor every now and then, not stopping even when the train finally began to move. His lips tilted upwards in amusement. Well, someone was excited for the holidays, an understandable feeling as he had never gone anywhere during the holidays. This was a new experience for the teen, one that he looked more than happy to welcome.
He left Tom to read in peace and instead focused on the conversation going with his friends, letting them rope him in a game of chess – which he still sucked at. They were visited by Olivia at one point of the trip and stayed with them a few minutes before returning to her female friends.
The two Blacks that they had grown familiar with ended up winding up in their compartment and stayed there for a long while. Alphard running Hadrian’s ear dry with stories about his friends, his classes or his family, while Orion quietly debated with Tom about whatever rune sequence they had seen in class.
All and all, it was a warm and peaceful atmosphere. The easy companionship surrounding the area, the clicking of Nyx’s beak as she napped and the lulling motion of the train, made for the perfect combination of elements to make one sleepy Hadrian Peverell.
At one point of the conversation, he lost his battle with himself and ended up taking quite the long nap, arousing only when he felt a hand on his arm gently shake him awake.
Opening his eyes, he found Tom standing over him with his and Hadrian’s trunk in hand. He frowned at the sight, then he noticed that the train was no longer moving.
“We have arrived?” he asked, he could have sworn that he had just closed his eyes for a few seconds.
“Only just, your friends went ahead of us”
Hadrian took the trunk offered to him and carefully rose to his feet, Nyx protesting the sudden change of posture, but otherwise stayed where she was. “How come they all left, and you stayed behind?” he walked towards the exit, Tom following him closely behind.
“I believe that they did not wish to earn your ire for waking you and fled while they could.”
The younger teen groaned. He had only hexed them once for waking him up, just once, and yet, it seemed like that was more than enough for them to suddenly fear waking him up. In his defense, they had woken him up by playing a trumpet above his head, of course he was going to wake up cursing everything on sight! Ripping the covers from him would have been a much better way to wake him or maybe a tickling charm would have done the trick but no, they had to go for the most heart-stopping option.
The bright side of that incident was that they had learned just how fast his shadows could be when scared shitless.
Tom’s lips twitched, “I hope one day you will share what happened for them to flee like that?” it sounded like an interesting story and one that could help him learn more about his cousin’s usual behavior, which in turn would tell him what he should avoid doing to make him displeased with him.
“Perhaps” Hadrian said before an idea struck and an innocent smile found its way on his face, “or you could learn from personal experience.”
Before Tom could even utter a reply, Hadrian found the figures of his guardians and all but dragged Tom towards them. It was until they were before the two adults that they noticed they were not alone.
“Lord Black, Lady Black” Hadrian inclined his head to both of them and sent an inquiring look at Orion, who was standing beside his mother, straight backed and face a perfect blank canvas. It was a big contrast to how he had looked in the train and made him feel a little strange seeing such a serious expression on his face when moments prior (or what he felt where moments before when it had actually been hours as he had slept most of the ride away) he had been laughing at a joke he had said, he could not understand why that was the case.
“Heir Peverell, Mr. Riddle, I trust you had an uneventful trip?”
“Melania will do dearie, today I am just another mother welcoming her son home, not the lady of a noble house” The smile that was gifted to them was small, but it changed the woman’s face, melting away the unapproachable look she had been wearing moments ago, giving her a gentler and loving look.
Nevertheless, Hadrian mirrored the smile and gave a small tilt of his head, “Melania then, but only if you call me Hadrian too” he had always hated formalities, both in his past life and in this new one (even if he now understood why they were in place), so it was all too easy for him to drop them when given the green light to do so.
From his side, Tom turned to look at his cousin as if he had gone mad. Hadrian had saved a member of the family and had befriended their son, sure, but they were still Blacks, surely some level of formality needed to be kept, right? They would not curse his cousin for being so familiar with them, right? He remembered them being quite tolerant of him a few weeks ago.
The pleased glint in the woman’s eyes made him relax. Dear gods this was exhausting, was this what it was going to be like being around his cousin all the time? He was beginning to dread how Hadrian would be after leaving Hogwarts, especially if he decided to enter the political arena.
“Rian, Tom” Mirta called, coming to stand close to the boys and passing her hand through their hair affectionally, much to the surprise of the blue-eyed boy “welcome back.”
“Got everything with you?” Icarus asked, eyeing the trunks in their hands and the owl on his son’s shoulder. Their nods made him arch an eyebrow but let it slide, “well then, let’s get going.”
“Before you go Lord Peverell, I’d like to extend an invitation to you and your family to spend Yule with us.” Lord Black said, his posture deceptively calm and his face carefully blank, making it hard to discern what the man was thinking, not that Icarus needed that when the invitation said more than enough to him, “if you and yours are amendable to it, that is”
Tom’s eyes widened. The Blacks had only met the Peverells once and they were already inviting them to their home to celebrate one of the most important celebrations of their kind? Clearly, he had underestimated the sense of debt the Blacks felt over the Peverells. But he believed it was a honest mistake, after all, this actions would be reasonable had it been their son – their heir – that had almost been killed. Apparently, the Blacks cared very much for each of their members.
And he would love nothing more to visit the Black family home in hopes of getting his hands in the infamous Black library, and he was not above begging his new guardian to accept in order to get what he wanted.
Hadrian, seeing the downright pleading look Tom was directing his father, made him want to snicker. He could already imagine what it was that he wanted, Tom’s thirst for knowledge made him a bit predictable. Although he would also not mind visiting the Blacks, it would do them good spending some time with their friends.
There was also the upside of finally seeing what the Blacks used to be like before they fell. He was particularly curious about Walburga, Sirius’s mother. He wanted to know if she had always been a harpy or if something had happened after her marriage that made her one.
Mirta and Icarus exchanged looks, silently coming to a decision before turning to the lord, “we would be honored to join you and your family” Icarus said, looking at his boys (for they were his indeed) he added, “it would be good for the boys to spend some time with their friends”
A bright smile appeared on Melania’s face, “I agree”
By the time they finally left the train station, a date had been set for their yule gathering, floo directions had been exchanged and promises to exchange owls had been made. All and all, Tom believed it was an incredible way to start his winter holidays and reaffirmed his belief that he had made the right decision in getting close to Hadrian.
***********
“Hadrian, do something”
“I’m kind of busy right now”
“Well, get un-busy and help me!”
“Kind of difficult to do when you have an armful of occamys trying to choke you to death” Hadrian countered, his voice a little breathless from the tight grip of the feathery snakes clinging to him had. If he ever needed a sign to that they had missed him, well, he had received it.
Loud and clear.
Now if they could just let up a little, he would be very thankful and so would his lungs.
“They are going to eat me Hadrian!” Tom protested, his eyes focused on the beasts before him, particularly on their rather sharp teeth.
“Tom, they are Puffskeins, they won’t hurt you. But they sure as hell will ensure that you have a clean nose, so stop panicking!”
Blue eyes glanced at the other teen, who had thought it a brilliant idea to bring him here, “then why do they have fangs?! The books said nothing about them having fangs!”
Hadrian did not answer, he had managed to free one of his hands and he went ahead and very softly scratched the underside of one of the occamys – coincidentally the one that was most restricting him - a gentle caress, which had the effect of making the occamy let go of him, fall to the ground and twist around like a worm being covered in salt. He was quick to repeat the process with the remaining occamys and his reward was the sweet sweet air filling his lungs.
“Hadrian!”
Bloody hell, he is worse than Ron when dealing with spiders! Hadrian thought and turned towards his panicking cousin, isn’t he supposed to be a buddying Dark Lord? Why the hell does he get his pants into a twist for some balls of fur!?
Technically, he is not a buddying dark lord, just a troubled boy, Death clarified. As always, appearing in the least appropriate of times.
Who could still become a Dark Lord, he paused for a moment, a less murder one perhaps. At least he hoped so, last time he had become quite happy with murder after finding out he had been abandoned by his father and a strange witch stole what he had considered his property. He did not include Mirtle’s death in the list as that had mostly been an accident, not a premeditated murder.
Said mini–Dark Lord had finally decided to run towards his cousin and hide behind his back. The coward.
“Tom, just give them their treats and they will leave you alone”
“They have fangs Hadrian! Fangs!” Tom mumbled, completely ignoring his cousin’s words. He was not moving from his spot, specially not now that those things were beginning to chatter amongst each other, for all he knew they were planning his murder. The least the teen could do for dragging him here was act as a shield for him, it was only logical for him to do so as he knew how to handle the beasts after all.
“Oh for Merlin’s sake, give me that!” he took the small bag he had given the older teen before entering the enclosure and, using shadow manipulation for he refused to touch what was inside, took a handful of wiggling insects that were thrown at the fluffy army that had gathered around them. He made sure to throw another handful when an all-out war broke between the creatures in an attempt to get some of the goods.
When the chaos lessened and the puffskeins began to clear, having sated their hunger, he turned unamused green eyes on the angelic teen that was still cowering behind him. “You are a terrible assistant” he declared.
“I’ll have you that I’m an excellent assistant when not dealing with bloodthirsty menaces” the older teen countered, not ashamed of the actions he had taken to keep himself safe. Self-preservation was a revered skill amongst slytherins he’ll have you know.
“Bloodthirsty? Tom, the only insects and buggers! They are as harmless as a newborn fawn!”
“Then why in Morgana do they have fangs? Hm?”
“Snakes have fangs, and I don’t see you complaining about them” Hadrian pointed out, closing the bag in his hold and making his way back to the occamys, who had stopped twisting around, and offering them some of the bugs inside the bag. At least now he would not be squished to death.
“I’m a parselmouth, they would never used their fangs against me” Tom looked at the retreating forms of the puffskeins, “can’t say the same about those things”
Hadrian felt his eyelid twitch. When they returned to the manor, he would look for a book in magical creatures and throw it at his face, maybe then he would stop running away from every single creature they encounter and finally help him feed them. One would think that he would have listened to his instructions if only because he could bloody speak to them.
Suddenly an idea came to mind and made him give the other teen a sweet smile. One that made Tom feel wary.
“Then, I’m sure you won’t have any problems feeding the reptiles in the reptile enclosure, right?” he asked, his voice dripping with false cheer, already guiding the teen towards the door leading to said enclosure.
“I- Wait, Hadrian-“
“Thank you for offering to take care of them, you’ll be a lot of help there Tom” the silver-haired wizard kept going and opened the door, letting the sound of different hisses to reach their ears.
“I didn’t-“
“Make sure to feed Susan first, she will make a big fuss if she sees you feeding another before her” Hadrian advised him, handing him a bucket containing mice and a few other rodents.
Tom blinked, “Susan?” he asked, still very much confused over the turn of events and the way Hadrian was acting.
“Our Komodo dragon, the magical variation of course, she is usually a sweetheart but quite a menace when hungry or in heat” he explained, handing his thick gloves now, “just evade the spikes and you’ll be fine”
“Spikes?!” Tom squeaked, outright squeaked, already digging his feet on the ground and wanting to turn back. Too bad that that was the moment Hadrian closed the door behind him, “Hadrian!” he called.
“Good luck Tom, make sure to put that parseltongue to good use” with that, Hadrian turned back to continued feeding the creatures he had been supposed to be feeding alongside Tom and maybe sneak in a cuddle session with his dear Blue, now that her siblings were not trying to choke the life out of him. All the while he ignored Tom, the teenager would be fine, he had made sure to put him in an enclosure with the least dangerous of the reptiles and pretty much all of them understood parseltongue to some extent, so the boy would be fine.
Once he saw the snakes, he doubted he would like to leave that place.