Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, J.K. Rowling does.
The next month of school was very chaotic for Sebastian and his friends. The Ministry officials who were sitting through the classes were clearly unimpressed with many of the classes and teachers. The Official who was sitting through History of Magic practically fell asleep, apparently the Official who sat through Divination left halfway through because Trelawney kept predicting her tragic death. And lastly the Official who sat through the Muggle Studies apparently kept correcting the professor because almost everything the professor said was wrong. Apparently Professor Burbage understood practically nothing about the muggle world, and wasn't qualified to teach the subject at all.
Rumours spread quickly about how Professor Burbage was being replaced by someone in the Ministry because she was entirely unqualified to teach, and nobody knew how she was hired in the first place. Well, they knew Dumbledore hired her, but they didn't understand why he would hire her in the first place, she was absolutely awful at teaching.
The Ministry employee who was covering the class temporarily, worked in muggle relations, and knew much more about the muggle word, and was much better than Burbage at teaching about muggles. Everyone in the class enjoyed it much more, and figured if Minister Slytherin was already making Hogwarts better, they were certainly looking forward to all the other changes he would make.
It was a few weeks into March when Sebastian decided it was high time to start a club. He knew a bunch of older years would like the club more than younger years, but he was determined to start a club on basic warding. He had already asked Professor Babbling, the runes professor, to oversee their meetings, and had put up a few flyers to advertise the club.
Sebastian decided the club would meet Thursday at four, and go until dinner. All years were welcome, but he figured it would appeal more to third years and up. Sebastian himself knew lots about warding, so he would initially lead the meetings and help others learn the basics, but a lot of it would be self taught and working together to learn new wards and warding techniques.
He knew Sam, who loved spell creation, was going to be joining the club in hopes to learn about creating spells. He knew the basics, but was hoping with more structure, it would be easier to learn.
Adrian would be joining the club too, mainly because Sebastian was leading it, but also because he wanted to get a head start on learning runes and a bit of basic warding. The Hogwarts curriculum was too slow in his opinion, so he wanted to add a bit of extra work to his workload. He also wanted to be prepared if they added a warding class to Hogwarts in the future, and with the way everything was changing, he was almost certain a warding class would be added to the curriculum.
Sebastian knew Dumbledore wasn't too happy about him starting the warding club, but there was nothing the old man could do to stop him without causing a big ruckus. He would be surprised if Dumbledore was still the Headmaster next year. Marvolo planned to get him out of the position before the end of the summer, and was easily building a case to get him removed as Headmaster. From leaving Sebastian with his abusive relatives and not checking in on him, even though he was his magical guardian, to not providing proper professors, it all added up very quickly, and Marvolo was certain he would be stripped of his titles.
The first club meeting was a big success. Almost thirty people showed up, and Sebastian taught everyone the very basics of warding. A lot of the higher years knew some of the basics, and were able to test out some basic wards, like a basic protection ward and silencing ward.
The younger years were just taught how different wards work, either through a spell, runes, or both. Sebastian was very happy with how the meeting went, and was complimented on his skills as everyone left the classroom they were meeting in. Adrian was particularly adamant on complementing how good he was at leading the club. Sebastian would never admit that he blushed at all the praise, particularly from Adrian, so he kept his head down to prevent people from noticing.
After dinner he was pulled aside by Professor Snape and congratulated on the success of his first club meeting. Professor Lupin also nodded and smiled at him from his position at the head table.
That night the four second year boys chatted about the meeting, and Jacob spoke about the fact he had gotten his first girlfriend. She was a Ravenclaw named Alice that Jacob had apparently been hanging out with recently. From what Sebastian had seen about her from class she was smart and loud, with long brown hair. Jacon spoke about her for almost half an hour nonstop until Sam steered the conversation away from her, and towards something else.
It wasn't even ten o'clock yet when Sebastian was curled up asleep against Adrian. And for once the two other boys actually questioned Adrian on it.
"Are you two ever going to get together?" Jacob asked bluntly.
"I doubt he would want that. He's never mentioned anything about it." Was Adrian's reply.
"Trust me, bro, he totally likes you. He's currently curled up asleep in your lap, what other signs could you possibly need? He never leaves your side, and you're clearly his favourite person." Sam said.
"I guess, I just don't want to pressure him into anything. I want to wait until he's at least thirteen before I make any type of moves. I turn thirteen next month, and Bast turns thirteen in July, it's not too long to wait." Adrian replied while running a hand through Sebastian's curly locks. He had cut his hair quite a few inches over Christmas break, and Adrian couldn't help but love the new length.
"That makes sense, I guess." Jacob said.
"I'm gonna head to bed now." Adrian said, and even though he wasn't particularly tired, he now had a lot to think about. He picked Sebastian up and carried him to his own bed and tucked him under his blanket, then went to his own bed, where he closed his curtains and lay awake thinking for hours.
The next month flew by, and before Sebastian knew it, it was Adrian's thirteenth birthday. He had been at a loss on what to get the other boy, but had eventually decided on a leather bracelet full of protection runes engraved into it that Sebastian had drawn. It would protect him from lots of different curses, and was a portkey keyed into Sebastian's magical signature, so it would bring Adrian to him when Adrian spoke the activation word. He was certain that Adrian would like it, or at least he hoped he did.
The day passed rather slowly in Sebastian's opinion. The other Slytherin's were having a party later for Adrian, so the classes seemed to drag on forever. Lunch was a fun affair, with confetti raining down from the ceiling, a prank from The Dragons. Cedric and George had figured out the spell work for it, and were immensely happy with the results. They had the confetti spelled to disappear after eleven seconds, so it didn't quite fall into the food, but still fell all the way down from the ceiling.
His afternoon classes passed just as slowly, and Adrian kept telling him to stop fidgeting. He even managed to lose Slytherin five points because he was so restless and it irritated Professor McGonagall.
Finally it was after dinner, and a lot of the Slytherin's celebrated Adrian's birthday together in the common room. Adrian was friends with a bunch of the older years through the quidditch team, and going to gallas and dinner parties when he was younger. An older year brought in butterbeer from Hogsmeade, and Sebastian managed to talk Cedric into helping get to the kitchens, so the house elves brought them some snacks.
The party was fun, and only when it was nearing close to midnight did the party come to a close. Adrian was chatting with some members of the quidditch team, when the party came to a close. He had been chatting with everyone at some point in the evening, and laughed when he came upon most of the quidditch team with Sebastian asleep leaning against Marcus, the team captain. Marcus looked very perplexed at having the boy asleep against him, and Adrian decided it would be best to get him up to his bed.
Adrian gently woke Sebastian up, and walked a groggy Sebastian up to the dorms and helped him get into his pajamas and walked him to the bathroom to brush his teeth. Once he was done in the bathroom, Sebastian walked over to his bed and lay down on his bed, but then suddenly remembered Adrian's present.
"'Rian! I just remembered, I have to give you your present." Sebastian said through a yawn.
"You can give it to me tomorrow, Bast, you're tired, just go to sleep." Adrian said with a smile.
"No! It's not your birthday tomorrow, it has to be tonight." Sebastian said adamantly, and crawled to the end of his bed, opened a side compartment in his trunk and pulled out the small wrapped package. He handed the gift to Adrian when he came and sat beside him on his bed.
Adrian opened the small and smiled at the small leather bracelet inside. Sebastian explained the protection runes engraved into it, and the portkey. Adrian hugged him hard, and thanked him over and over again for the thoughtful gift.
"Now, it's time for you to go to sleep. I'm going to go downstairs and say goodnight to everyone, then i'll be up to bed, alright?" Adrian said softly.
Sebastian just nodded and curled up under the covers. "Night, 'Rian."
"Night, Bast. Sleep well." Adrian said, and ran his hand through Sebastian's bangs and pushed them away from his forehead, before Sebastian was asleep.
Adrian went down to the common room to thank everyone, and wish them a goodnight. When he finally made it to where the team was sitting he sat down with them for a few minutes. Cassius Warrington was the first one to speak to him.
"You're so whipped, man." He said.
"Whatever, I just came down here to say goodnight. Night all." Adrian said while rolling his eyes, but was really just suppressing a smile.
Adrian made his way up to his room to shower and get into his pajamas, before falling into his bed with a smile. This was definitely one of the best birthday's Adrian had ever had, quite possibly even the best.