Consuming Shadows

Chapter 12

The next day, Hadrian sat on his bed in an entirely new room, books strewn around him as his eyes darted between the pages.

He had approached Madame Maxime about switching rooms, and the woman, after staring at him closely, had agreed to move him. Though, he did not trade places with another boy, like he had expected. Instead, the Headmistress had informed him that he was being given a room all to himself.

He had been confused at first, but Madame Maxime had told him, gently, that it was for his own comfort. She had explained that being champion would put him under an extreme amount of stress, and the least they could do for him was give him a space all his own, somewhere safe he could retreat to should he need it.

Hadrian was just relieved that he did not have to spend the rest of the year in a room with Jacob. Last night had been incredibly painful and filled with tense silence.

At least now he could sleep without being overwhelmed with the knowledge that someone he had been betrayed by was lying just a few feet away.

It was a little smaller than the room he had shared with the other boy, but no less extravagant, and the soft blues, golds and whites gave the room a sense of calm elegance, mirroring Beauxbatons'. It set him at ease to be surrounded with such familiar features.

He tapped his wand listlessly against his thigh as he shoved one book away and dragged another to take its place. His bottom lip was likely a little swollen from how heavily he was biting it, but he paid little attention to it as his mind buzzed with information.

He flipped through the book quickly until he found the page he was looking for. With a hum, he brought his left wrist up to study the squiggly carvings in the metal. Now, in the bright afternoon light streaming through his window, he could clearly see that the bracelet was not fully silver.

It was electrum, an alloy of gold and silver, and a particularly powerful magical metal. Hadrian was not an alchemist, but he had a good enough grasp of the subject to understand a little about it. By using electrum, the Parselscript runes were given a natural boost in terms of strength. It was a simple method to increase the effectiveness of whatever was carved into it.

He sighed lightly and dropped his arm, eyes staring blankly at the wall.

This was harder than he had anticipated. As far as he could tell, there was no existing translation of Parselscript in any of the numerous books he had pilfered from the carriage and his classmates – who were all too eager to help him. They thought he was preparing for the first task.

In reality, he was trying to find a way to get this bloody bracelet off of him. He did not like the fact that it was crafted by the Dark Lord, and that it gave the man all sorts of information about what he did. Those 'monitoring' charms Malfoy had mentioned last night were no doubt more extensive than the minister had informed them.

Plus, it reminded Hadrian far too much of a manacle for his liking.

He sighed again, returning his focus to his books.

It was...frustrating, not being able to understand. He had always been an exceptionally bright student, with theories and knowledge coming to him easily. To be confronted with a problem he could not solve was testing his patience.

He was very competent at Ancient Runes, and had always been able to translate texts with little to no problem.

If only he had a key...

Parselscript was just like any language. Each symbol meant something. Each placement had a purpose. And like all other languages, you could translate it.