WOAH WOAH WOAH WOAH THIS BOOK HAS ALMOST 10K READS WTF WTF IM FREAKING OUT
SORRY FOR THE LONG WAIT, I WAS BUSY SORTING OUT SOME DRAMA XOX
now on with the story...
If Hadrian hadn't been a Slytherin, he would have been banging his head against the stone wall at this precise moment.
Why? Just... why?
Sometimes he wondered how he and the brat could possibly be related.
The sound of flesh hitting stone rang out from beside him. Hadrian slid a look to his left and wasn't surprised to find Adrian rubbing his forehead.
The prefect barely held back a smirk of amusement. Ace had never been one to follow Slytherin-esque etiquette... or basic etiquette for that matter.
The crowd parted and Hadrian subtly motioned for his friends to step into the shadows so that they weren't as noticeable. The last thing he needed was for Dumbledore or anyone else to pay special attention to him or any other Slytherins. They were his Slytherins damn it. His to protect.
The raven haired boy concealed a slight scowl. He hated how almost everything bad was always attributed to the Slytherins.
Beside him, Hadrian could hear Marcus shift and tell the Armen twins to start herding the rest of the Slytherins away from the crime scene. Hadrian couldn't' help but feel satisfied. People usually only saw Marcus' muscular build, casual attitude towards academics, and immense fondness for Quidditch, they don't realize that under all that, he was actually a very smart individual. After all, he was a Slytherin.
"Morgana." Weston snarled softly when they heard the Malfoy spawn start taunting Heath, "I thought you said he was better now."
Hadrian halfheartedly moved to stop Wes from going for his wand when the word 'mudblood' was heard. Honestly, Hadrian was also tempted to draw his wand and curse the second year.
"He was," the prefect answered, "At least the first few weeks of school."
"Does his ability of being a proper human being wear off or what?"
Hadrian froze.
"Hey. Hadrian?" Wes asked, alarm seeping into his voice.
The raven haired boy's mind spun rapidly. The possibility...
"I'm fine Wes." Hadrian replied as he used Occlumency to sweep the thought aside.
There were more important matters to deal with right now.
On the top of the list: Keep the Slytherins safe.
Second: Keep the brat safe.
Third: Hunt down and perhaps torture the dipshit that opened the damned Chamber. Seriously, if there's one thing that Hadrian's short on, it's time. He honestly doesn't have the time or patience to deal with stuff like this.
"Fucking Hogwarts. What kind of bloody school is this?"
To his right, Weston scoffed, "Forget about wealth, lordships, or magical strength. That sentence should be enough reason for all of Slytherin to follow you without compliant. Hell, the whole bloody school should bow down to you for just saying that, Hadrian."
Even now, sitting in the middle of snake pit, Heath was still having second doubts. Thankfully it was Christmas Day, the day that he gets his necklace back, fully charged, stronger than ever.*
The second year barely withheld a sigh as he continued to pretend to pay attention to Malfoy talk about his father.
Heath shared a look with Ron. Well, Ron currently polyjuiced as Crabbe, or was it Goyle? Meh, Grabbe then. Heath couldn't really tell the two apart.
"-that's what father told me, and I have to say, I agree."
Heath was proud to say that his imitation of a Grabbe-like grunt was quite spot on.
"What is with you two?" Malfoy snapped, "Why aren't you saying anything?"
While the blond scowled at them from his seat, the two Gryffindors shared a panicked look. As far as Heath knew, the Grabbe duo didn't really talk.
"Uh..." Ron said, "Cupcake."
Heath was preparing to make a run for it when Malfoy's eyes flashed with a strange emotion. To Heath's surprise –now he's thinking that he had hallucinated the whole thing-, the blond boy's expression quickly shifted into its usual sneer and the boy scoffed, "Figures. Seriously, I spend more time with Daphne and you two end up like this." the boy waved carelessly at the two polyjuiced Gryffindors.
Heath didn't know whether to be offended by Malfoy's words or shocked by the sheer lack of malice in it. It almost seems as if the Slytherin wasn't actually insulting them... or Grabbe.
"How's your dog, Crabbe?"
Heath and Ron shared a panicked look. Heath mentally cursed himself for not bothering to check whose face he was currently wearing.
Ah, screw it.
"Fine."
Heath was relieved when Ron had the same idea as him and the two had answered Malfoy's question at the same time. Grabbe unites once again.
Malfoy's silver eyes sharpened. Before Heath could start panicking again, the platinum blond boy had looked away disinterestedly.
"Draco."
Heath looked up when he heard someone call out to Malfoy. It was rather strange hearing someone refer to the blond using his first name rather than his last.
"Daphne, yes?" Malfoy answered.
For the tenth time within the past ten minutes, Heath almost experienced a heart attack –this time from shock, not panic-. Beside him, he could hear Ron muffling a choking sound.
Malfoy, the devil's spawn, had actually smiled. Bloody hell.
Daphne Greengrass approached the trio sitting together. She shot the two polyjuiced boys a strange look before turning to Malfoy, "Draco, you're late."
Malfoy glanced at the large clock directly across the fireplace in the common room, "My apologies Daphne, let's go."
Giving Heath and Ron each curt nod, Malfoy rose, offered the blond girl his arm and the two left, heading towards one of the three corridors leading to the dormitories.
Heath blinked, "Did he just..."
"... Yeah, mate. He just apologized to her. Bloody hell." Ron said, equally as dazed.
Before the two boys could dwell more on that unsettling event, they were startled by a girl wearing a prefect badge.
"Gregory and Vincent right?"
Heath recognized her, more from her kind voice than from her pretty aristocratic face.
"Follow me, boys." Annabelle Rosier said as she made a beeline for the entrance of the Slytherin Common Room.
Heath and Ron shared a frantic look, but they could do nothing but follow the older girl. Already, other Slytherins were staring at the two with curiosity. Heath wondered why, was it unusual for upper years and lower years to interact in Slytherin?
Before stepping out of the snake's pit, Heath glanced back and met silver. Draco Malfoy's eyes were thoughtful as they flickered between Rosier and Heath.
Hurriedly turning back around, Heath stepped out of the common room.
Immediately on high alert –he's the boy-who-lived, of course he had defense tutors in the past!-, the second year reached for his wand, already prepared when Rosier spun around. However, he was not prepared for the worried expression on her face.
"You two shouldn't have gone in there." the prefect said, "Do you have any idea what they would have done? What the Circle would have done?"
"We-I... I don't know what you're talking about."
Rosier's lips were pursed, "I know who you are. I found Hermione Granger in the restroom, with the potion."
Heath felt himself pale at the words.
"Listen, Heath, Ron," the Slytherin said, "I shouldn't be doing this-... Just be careful. You're lucky that Hadrian or the rest of the Circle weren't there."
Heath opened his mouth to say something, but Annabelle Rosier was already walking away.
"Let's go, mate." Ron said quickly.
Heath allowed himself to be dragged away.
The two had snuck into the Slytherin Common Room looking for answers, but now, they left with even more questions.
What is the Circle?
It was May first, the day of the Gryffindor vs. Hufflepuff Quidditch match. Well it was supposed to be, that is until Clearwater and the Golden Boy's little girlfriend went and got themselves petrified outside of the library.
To make matters worse, Theodore Nott, heir to an Ancient and Noble House, Declared Dark, pureblooded, and member of Slytherin House to boot was also found petrified outside the Slytherin Common Room.
Needless to say, Stefano Armen was not in a good mood.
If someone like the Nott Heir could be petrified, than clearly, no one in this school was safe.
"-a basilisk most likely." Hadrian was saying as he sat in his usual chair in the common room. The Inner Circle was safely cocooned in a ridiculous amount of privacy wards to ensure upmost secrecy.
"So we have to find the Chamber of Secrets." Marcus concluded.
Stefano couldn't help but roll his eyes at the obvious conclusion. For the past few months he had found himself becoming more and more aggressive when it came to dealing with Flint. Probably had something to do with how much time his sister and the Quidditch player had been spending together.
Stefano scowled a little when he caught sight of how closely the two sixth years were sitting together on the couch.
"We already have a few leads." Weston answered. Jasper, who was sitting beside Wes, waved his wand and the parchments on the table in front of the Slytherins shuffled and rearranged itself so that all nine members of the Inner Circle could see it.
"We think it's most likely somewhere in or around the second floor girl's lavatory near the Charms corridor." The Head Boy continued Wes' sentence, eyes scanning over the parchments.
"Wait. You mean like, Moaning Myrtle's place?" Celia asked, "Ew." Her mouth twisted in disdain and in that moment, Stefano could clearly see the resemblance between the Greengrass Heiress and her cousin.
Weston shrugged, "We interviewed her, seems likely."
Jasper hummed in agreement, "Yes. We also examined the lavatory-"
Adrian snickered. Stefano had to admit, imagining the ever poised Jasper Rosier snooping around a girl's lavatory is quite amusing.
Jasper shot Adrian a halfhearted glare before continuing, "-We examined the place and found this." here, the Head Boy waved his wand again and a parchment flew from below the pile of parchments and into Hadrian's hands.
The Inner Circle leaned in to catch a glimpse of the parchment.
"A sink. In the girl's lavatory." Hadrian deadpanned.
"Yep." Weston confirmed, "Our esteemed Founder seems to be kind of pervy."
"Or maybe the place had just been redesigned." Annabelle pointed out quietly, always the one willing to see the good in others.
Stefano ignored her, he was still bitter about the incident from a year ago. Out of all of the members of the Inner Circle, Stefano had always disliked Annabelle Rosier the most. It was irrational, since the girl was so damn nice, but Stefano still disliked her. Sometimes the sixth year had trouble believing that Jasper and Annabelle were related. They were so different.
Hadrian examined the parchment, "Did you two find a way to open it?"
Jazz and Wes shook their heads.
"I'll go take a look at it then." Hadrian said as he passed the parchment over to Stefano, who was on his left, to examine, "It'll probably be some sort of parseltongue password though, judging by Slytherin's history."
The rest of the Circle nodded in agreement. The conclusion made sense.
Hadrian leaned back in his chair, emerald eyes glazed over, deep in thought.
The rest of the Circle helped gather the parchments together, Stefano didn't bother to contribute. He had always been the type to just left things for the house elves to deal with.
Anyways, Serafina hated it when he didn't pick up after himself. Well, she deserves to be annoyed tonight. His baby sister actually thought that he wouldn't find out about her and Flint's relationship.
"We need to drop a hint." Hadrian announced suddenly. The eight other Slytherins paused in their actions to give the fifth year their full attention, "Now that Granger isn't there, I doubt that the brat and his friend would be able to solve this mystery without outside help."
Annabelle sighed, "Why don't we have Heath open the Chamber and just go in and take care of the basilisk ourselves?"
The group of Slytherins stared at the fifth year prefect with horror. Even Hadrian, ever the big brother, was looking at his counterpart with a disturbed expression.
"Annie, hon." Celia started sweetly, her demeanor suddenly did a one eighty, "What the fuck is like, wrong with you?"
Stefano noted how Jasper didn't even bother coming to his sister's defense.
"What?" Annabelle said, shrinking into herself, "They're only second years!"
She turned to Hadrian, no doubt hoping that she could sway him.
The raven haired boy raised an eyebrow at his friend, "We are Slytherins Annabelle. We do not participate in heroic deeds like that."
"But it's dangerous!" the brunette protested, "And he's you're brother!"
Wrong move, bitch. Stefano thought viciously.
Friend or not, no one is allowed to manipulate Hadrian using his family.
Hadrian's eyes turned cold. Stefano sucked in a sharp breath when he felt the powerful magic roll through him. Sitting directly across from him, to Hadrian's right, Weston shuddered at the wave of magic. The blond boy had always been the most in tune with Hadrian's magic, what with being the Right Hand and all.
"We look to the bigger picture." Hadrian said, each word was icy, "Heath Potter deals with the challenges as they come. But we ensure that each challenge he passes would contribute to the ultimate goal. I may not agree with our dear Headmaster's methods of training Heath, it is too messy. But Dumbledore does have the right idea. The boy needs to learn to defend himself, to fight."
As quickly as the magic had surrounded them, it was gone. Quickly pulled back by Hadrian's iron control and once again placed under wraps.
Stefano closed his eyes briefly to orientate himself with this new sense of emptiness, of loss.
"As I was saying," Hadrian said, as if the incident had not happened, "We need someone to give the boys a hint."
"I-I'll do it." Annabelle volunteered.
"No."
Stefano was legitimately surprised by the refusal. Hadrian rarely outright used his power over them like that. He gave his Inner Circle, and Slytherin House, a great deal of leeway.
"How about the Longbottom kid? He's on our side right?" Adrian asked.
"We don't have a side-"
"-Yes we do Hadrian." Most of the Circle chimed reflexively.
It was getting old, Hadrian denying leading his own side in this war. Or not so much in denial... Stefano wanted to shoot a stinging hex at the emerald eyed boy when he caught sight of him trying to hide a small smile. Clearly, Hadrian had moved on from his denial and is now just annoying them with this "issue". Damn him. Judging by the annoyed and amused expression of the rest of the Circle's face, they too have just realized that they were being played.
"I will task Zabini with this." Hadrian said, the moment of lightness gone.
The navy eyed boy wasn't the only one that was surprised by this revelation. It seems like none of the Circle, except for Weston –obviously-, had been aware that Hadrian was associating with Desdemona Zabini's son.
"None of you will interfere." Hadrian commanded, though his heavy gaze lingered mostly on Annabelle.
When the rest of the Circle left to work in the library, attend to Head Boy duties, or to play Quidditch, Stefano remained behind.
"Stef?" Hadrian asked, "What's wrong?"
The sixth year arranged his seat so that he, Wes, and Hadrian were sitting in a loose circle, "It's about Annabelle."
Stefano paused, curiosity peaked when he noticed Weston frown slightly.
"What about her?" Hadrian asked, voice seemingly casual.
Stefano wasn't fooled, "You're singling her out. What did she do?"
He waited patiently as the two fifth years exchanged a look, most likely having a silent conversation using a combination of their Legilimency skills and the Brothers-In-Arms Bond* between them.
At last, they broke eye contact and Weston answered, "She's having doubts about us, about the whole system. A few months ago during Yule Break, the Potter brat was able to sneak into the Slytherin Common Room,"
Stefano felt a scowl forming on his face as he thought about the Gryffindor in their Common Room. Salazar, the brat truly doesn't understand common courtesy. As a prefect, Stefano was privy to the passwords and locations of all of the Houses' common rooms. But you don't see him infiltrating their privacy do you? Stupid Gryffindor and their lack of respect, and people actually call them noble.
"Annabelle stepped in didn't she?" Stefano asked darkly, "That's why none of us found out about the intrusion."
Hadrian nodded curtly, "Yes."
Stefano paused, "Wait. How did you find out eventually?"
Here, Weston actually pouted and mumbled something.
"I'm sorry, what?"
Hadrian rolled his eyes and elbowed the dirty blond haired boy, "Oh, get over your childish grudges Wes." He turned to Stefano, "Malfoy told us."
Stefano felt both of his eyebrows rise in surprise as he motioned for Hadrian to continue.
"The kid thought something was off about Crabbe and Goyle, they weren't acting like themselves-"
"-not like they have much of a personality in the first place-" Wes muttered.
"-he saw Annabelle escort the two out of the Common Room. He wasn't a hundred percent sure about what was going on, but he brought his suspicions to me and from there, it wasn't hard to uncover the truth."
"Huh. So the Malfoy spawn isn't totally hopeless."
Although Weston grimaced, he didn't refute the statement.
"So what are we going to do with her?"
Hadrian looked upset but resolved, "This is the third time that she has done something like this."
Stefano nodded in agreement as he recounted the past incidents. Her interaction with Tracey Davis last year even though Hadrian had told them not to get involved with the issue, her argument with Serafina, and now this, helping Gryffindors sneak out of the Common Room.
"Are you going to... exile her?"
Even Wes was looking at Hadrian now, it seems like Hadrian hadn't informed his Right Hand of his decision concerning this matter.
"No." Both Weston and Stefano let out a small sigh of relief, exile was really quite horrifying.
Hadrian's next words chilled Stefano to the bone.
"Not yet."
And this is exactly why Hadrian Black is the ultimate Slytherin.
For the millionth time, Blaise Zabini was glad that he was a member of Slytherin House. At least now, he has a distraction from staring at his best friend's still form.
Last Friday was probably the second worst days of his life. The first being The Incident with Mother as he had so promptly named that day.
He was supposed to meet Theo outside of the Slytherin Common Room, but he had been running late. When he had finally arrived at their meeting spot ten minutes later, he was greeted with Theo's unmoving form. For a split second, Blaise had actually thought that his best friend had died.
For the next few days, all the golden brown eyed boy could think about was how close his best friend had actually come to dying.
It was without said, a relief when Hadrian Black had given him a task during one of their informational meet-ups about his mother, or as Blaise secretly liked to call them, therapy sessions.
So now, instead of spending all of his time replaying the horrifying scene he had stumbled upon a few days ago, Blaise is now spending all of his time trying to figure out a way to get close enough to Heath Potter, pass on a message, and still not look suspicious.
Using a combination of Potter's simplicity, Blaise's cunning Slytherin skills –aw Theo would be so proud-, and a ridiculously large dose of good luck, a perfect opportunity presented itself a week after he had been given his task.
Armed with a perfect plan of action, Blaise Zabini was so ready.
Of course Malfoy just had to go and screw with the perfect plan.
Ancient and Noble Heir or not, Blaise was so going to bitch slap the blond after this.