Anchor Of Life

4. A Cuddle Bug And Magic Trick

"Holy schnikes! Father? Is that the heirship ring of Peverell? I thought it was lost!"

"As you can see, it's not!"

"Oh, but why did you put the similar charms on it?"

"It is a backup, and more focused on the tracking charms. You can, of course, use it to detect if there are any potions with bad intent in your food. And I can find you even if you're under strong wards. Nothing less than Fidelius can keep me away."

Hadrianus nodded and yawned as he put the ring on. The ring immediately adjusted itself to fit his long and delicate finger and then vanished from the view, indicating it had accepted Hadrianus as a worthy owner. Marvolo watched in amusement as his little mamba crawled towards him tucked himself shamelessly to his side, and yawned again.

"Someone wants cuddles, I see."

A vigorous nodding added with the yawn, made Marvolo chuckle again. Lately, Hadrianus had again started behaving clingy, wanting to cuddle with them as much as he could before it was time for Hogwarts. Marvolo didn't mind, wanting to spend as much time as he could with the child before he went to school until December. 

Besides, it was very late. Narcissa was quite busy with the influx of more patients, all wanting to check up to prepare a medical fitness document for Hogwarts. Thanks to their new law, more and more magical humanoid creatures are coming out of the shadows to send their progeny to Hogwarts to learn advanced magic. It helped that Lord Slytherin welcomed everyone readily, with open arms. The only demand he made of them was to check themselves out by a proper Healer for a medical fitness certificate. At least it ensured all the preteens coming to Hogwarts were healthy. If not, they will obviously still be welcomed, so that they can have a proper healer look after them unless their condition is something contagious or requires bed rest.

"Sleep, son."

The child was curled up against his side, head pillowed on his shoulder and with one hand still gripping his father's robe though it started to loosen as Hadrianus fell asleep. For his part, Marvolo kept one arm firmly wrapped around his son, the steady puffs of hot air against his collar and the warm weight resting against him.

Once he was sure his son was completely asleep, only then he removed himself, rather reluctantly, to go to his office. After all, Narcissa is waiting for him with the news.

"Sit," Marvolo ordered Narcissa, who was having tea with Nagini and talking, and started to stand on seeing him. Judging by Nagini's concerned eyes, she already knows. Marvolo took his chair behind the table, "Now tell me, what have you so concerned about?"

"My Lord, as you already knew Hadrianus had a pure dark core, a minus 7 on the scale set by Unspeakable Saruman Dawlish." 

This was a standard scale of Magical Core that was accepted Internationally, with zero being the perfect grey core and anything brighter than it considered on the plus side, and darker being on the minus side. Tom himself had been minus 9, recorded as having the darkest core, and Albus Dumbledore was recorded as having plus 6.5, the lightest core to the record. It was important to learn one's core, to know their magical affinity and strength. Having a light-core doesn't mean one is unable to cast dark magic, it's just they need to apply more power and strength behind their spells than light magic, and vice versa. Marvolo has also read that casting dark makes the caster drain faster and feel some sort of discomfort, but Marvolo has dismissed the last part.

"What do you mean, 'had'?" Marvolo asked as he felt dread pooling in his stomach. Is something messing with their son's core? 

"Today's reading is suggesting that his core has changed drastically, it's plus 9 now," Narcissa mumbled out, causing Marvolo's eyebrow to almost fly past his hairline and he glanced at his wife. That means Hadrianus has a pure light core, lighter than even Dumbledore, who was recorded to have the lightest core in this century, but not anymore, thanks to Hadrianus.