Consuming Shadows

Chapter 17

"Lord Korin," he started neutrally. "may I ask why you are here, rather than with the others?" As if they both did not already know, Hadrian merely hoped he was mistaken because he was not in the mood.

Éric watched him closely, brown eyes never straying from his face. There was a pause between them, before the man nodded once sharply. "There is much I wanted to discuss with you, Hadrian. When I noticed you leave I knew now was as good a time as any. How are you faring?"

Hadrian scanned the man from the toes of his polished boots to the tips of his hair. He shrugged, "As well as I can be, I suppose." He offered casually, trusting that Éric would understand the meaning behind his non-answer.

The man's lips twitched briefly, in the same half-amused way they always tended to do when Hadrian was around. "And your preparations for the first task? I had heard it was against a manticore?"

He inclined his head, confirming the statement. "Work in progress."

"And your mother, is she well?"

Hadrian rolled his eyes, uncrossing his arms and gesturing for the man to follow him. "Lord Korin, it's been a long day, and I have a lot on my mind recently. Why don't we go somewhere more private so we can skip the pleasantries and get to why you are really here."

Éric nodded in agreement, and together they walked further down the darkened hallway, away from the faint noise of the ongoing party, and lessening the chances of someone stumbling across them and overhearing something they had no business knowing. With a faint scowl, Hadrian glanced down at his bracelet, and was pleased to note that the eyes were not glowing. If his theory was correct, that meant there was no unwanted third person hovering.

Hadrian selected a classroom at random, pulling it open and letting Éric enter first. It was not a room he was familiar with, but in a castle this size it was no surprise. Hadrian doubted that he had even been in every room at Beauxbatons.

The thought of his school brought a wave of serenity to him. Hogwarts was magnificent, and a part of him desperately wished that he had had the chance to come here, to experience all the wonders of this ancient building, to walk the same hallways his parents did before him.

But Beauxbatons was, and always would be his home. Nothing could ever sever the connection he felt with the mountain-carved academy.

Hadrian walked deeper into the room, passing Éric and whipping around to face him when there was a good two metres between them. His eyes bored into the politician's, bypassing the typical cat-and-mouse routine they had. "You are here about my falling out with Jacob, yes?"

At once, all traces of politeness dropped from Éric's face, and something very much like frustration took over his strong features. "'Falling out' is a rather weak way of putting it, from what my son has told me."

Though he did not show it, a trickle of discomfort hit Hadrian. If Jacob had let slip to his father the reason behind their fight, this could go bad very quickly. He had to discern just how much Jacob had revealed when he told his father of what happened between them.

"Yes, well, Jacob has been saying and doing an awful lot of things lately." The bitterness in his words was not feigned or manipulated in the least, and Éric's eyes narrowed at his tone. "I would have thought you would be pleased we are no longer speaking. You always were annoyed over our friendship."

"I was more annoyed over the fact that my only son and heir allowed himself to be lead around by his nose by a -" Éric cut himself off abruptly, and Hadrian smiled viciously.

"By a - what, Lord Korin? A mudblood? A no-name? Do complete your sentence, I am waiting with baited breath."

"By someone who is more foe than friend."