(DISC) The Rise of Hadrian Potter

School's Out For The Summer

Great Hall, 29/06/1992, 17:30

"Another year gone!" Came the booming voice of Albus Dumbledore over the hubbub of the students speaking in the Great Hall. "Another year gone. And now, as I understand it, the house cup needs awarding. And the points stand thus: In fourth place, Hufflepuff with 394 points. Third place, Gryffindor with 412 points. In second place, Ravenclaw with 421 points. And in first place, with 488 points, Slytherin house. With that, Slytherin House win the House Cup for the seventh year running!" Dumbledore smiled as the Slytherins celebrated respectfully whilst everyone else in the hall was silent or groaning in frustration.

People thought with Hadrian losing many points with several detentions related to the third floor corridor that Slytherin would fall behind Ravenclaw, but the Potter boy worked harder than ever to earn back his points along with his betrothed and their friends. This sudden switch in gear meant that by the final day of the year, Slytherin had closed the gap enough to the Ravenclaws that the Quidditch Cup win lifted by Marcus Flint shot them ahead of the house of intellect. After Dumbledore's speech, he clapped his hands together twice and the final feast appeared.

"So what are you guys planning for the summer?" Tracey asked after swallowing a large gulp of pumpkin juice. Hadrian swallowed a piece of lamb and looked up at his friend before responding. "Well, my twelfth birthday is in July, Daphne's 13th is early September so her family is organising something at the end of summer to celebrate. Then there's the pureblood ball on August 30th," Hadrian groaned out the last sentence, Blaise sighed and clutched the bridge of his nose, Daphne stabbed her fork into her steak vehemently whilst Tracey laughed at their trepidation.

"My parents are taking me and Tori on a week visit to Rome near the start of July. I believe that they also extended an invitation to Canis and Hadrian's families to come?" she questioned and took a sip of her pumpkin juice before looking at Hadrian who smiled. "Yeah, Grandfather said that he would bring us along but Marlene can't come as there has been a spike in workload at St Mungo's recently and she's quite bogged down."

After Hadrian finished speaking, Canis plonked down into the seat next to his cousin with Neville taking the one next to the redhead. "You got lucky, Potter. Next year, I'm going to lead Gryffindor to that House Cup," Canis said making the group laugh. "Stop laughing, I'm serious!" he complained before taking a slab of beef onto his plate. "No you're not, that's your father," Neville muttered which earned a backhand to the chin from Canis. "And our peace is ruined," Daphne sighed deeply causing Hadrian to smile.

After the feast, the group of six made their way up to the Room of Requirement for the final night of the year. With their trunks packed and the next morning's clothes hung in a shared wardrobe, they got into bed and talked themselves to sleep. Canis was the first to go out, followed by Tracey. After twenty minutes, Neville also fell asleep, closely followed by Blaise. No noise came from the two betrothed aside from their breathing as they sat reading a book on runes together.

"How come you don't want people to know the real reason we're going to Rome?" Daphne whispered as she tilted her head up to look at him. "Because if I did then they would fret and worry about me and I wouldn't be allowed to compete by my Grandfather," he responded with a smile. Daphne hummed and leaned back with her eyes closed. The book fell closed into her lap as she lost consciousness, still leaning on Hadrian who smiled softly.

A small snicker made him look up from Daphne and search each of the other beds in the room. Canis sat up in his bed with a shit-eating grin on his face causing Hadrian to blush furiously. "Oh this blackmail material is so good!" Canis gasped, rubbing his hands together mischievously. "The lie about Rome first of all is hilarious, I don't know how you think you're hiding that from Grandpa Charlus when he trains your Occlumency. Then I have the blackmail of you sleeping with your girlfriend at 12. This will be brilliant for when I need favours later!" Hadrian sighed and just leaned back against the headboard slowly so as not to wake Daphne. He shut his eyes, a smile on his face but still blushing and eventually got to sleep with Canis dropping off soon after.