No More Lockhart and A Little Bit of Fun
"Ron, you're actually taking calligraphy? With your hand writing?" remarked Blaise and the red head rolled his eyes. "Yes, I am. Shouldn't you be more worried about the Potions essay you still haven't finished?"
Blaise snorted but didn't respond as he went back to his own writing.
After Hadrian had written to Lucius, Hogwarts had undergone an immense change. Athens Fawley, the runes teacher, now only taught first and second years advanced runes while two other professors, Merda Yaxley and Harrison Potts, taught the other years.
Lucius had apparently had a long and tedious discussion with the other Governors as well as the educational department of the ministry and they had finally agreed that Hogwarts wasn't where it should be when it came to education. In fact, Hogwarts had gone down hill since Dumbledore became Headmaster.
Hogwarts had once been the top school for wizarding families to send their children, it was now only ranked ten.
Thanks to Hadrian, the older years now had more options for what they wanted to do in the future.
"Defense is next." sighed Draco as the group stood, packing up their things. They had been finishing up work in the library during lunch. "Oh great." groaned Ron.
"If I have to hear another dim witted Gryffindor girl gush over Lockhart's dimples, I think I might just vomit up my intestines." muttered Neville, Hadrian chuckling. "That wouldn't be good for your health." he said as the group exited the library.
But when they entered the defense room, they were met with the sight of a tall, familiar man writing on the board. He turned to face them and Hadrian couldn't help but stare in disbelief.
"Moony? What are you doing here?" he breathed and the wolf smiled. "I'm your new defense teacher. I will be for quite some time. The ministry were very pleased with my credentials. It's nice to see you all." he said as they took their seats and Blaise gave a sigh of relief.
"Thank Merlin. You have a lesson planned, right? No quizzes on your favorite color? No weird demonstrations?" he remarked and Remus chuckled. "No, none of that. But if you wanted to know, my favorite color happens to be blue." he then paused as the other students entered the room, looking shocked at his appearance.
"Good afternoon everyone. My name is Remus John Lupin. I'll be your permanent defense teacher for your remaining years here at Hogwarts. Professor Lockhart has unfortunately, been terminated upon realization that he is not suited for this position." explained the wolf, smiling in amusement at the disappointed sounds made from most of the girls in the room.
"Sir? Would you tell us something about you?" asked Longbottom, his expression oddly suspicious and Remus hummed. "Alright. What is it that you wish to know?" he remarked, looking around the class.
Lavender Brown raised her hand and Remus nodded toward her.
"What was your House in school?"
"Ravenclaw. With that said, I hope you know I don't take kindly to slackers. I expect you all to pay attention to what I will be teaching you. It's crucial for the future." he replied, nodding to another student.
"Um our defense teacher last year talked to us about cores and affinities. If it isn't too rude, what color is your core?" asked Seamus Finnigan. The boy looked pale, his eyes tired, but he seemed genuinely curious.
"It's not rude at all. My core is grey. Which means I'm good at both light and dark magic, though I lean more toward dark." he said and Hadrian was mildly surprised when there were no outraged hisses from the lions.
"If that's all, can I begin the lesson?" questioned Remus, looking over the class only to receive no protests. "Good. Where did Lockhart leave off?"
"Cornish pixies. I honestly don't know. He hardly taught us anything at all." muttered Ron, the other Slytherins murmuring their agreement and Remus smiled. "I see. He was supposed to teach you about counter curses. Curses that protect from other curses."
~^~
"This is pointless." sighed Hadrian, wiping the blade of his dagger onto the expensive pants he wore. He was finding that he may or may not would need to get a wardrobe specifically for torture and the like. He didn't like getting his nice clothes bloody.
Dobby whimpered pathetically, his body shaking and his breathing ragged as he struggled to hold onto life. The elf had no idea who had taken the diary. Only that the night it happened, he had felt oddly tired.
Hadrian assumed that someone made him get the diary for them then made off with it. It was the only explanation as to why Lucius failed in protecting it. No one could break into Malfoy manor. Not with the wards around it. It made sense that someone on the inside took it.
"And he has no memory of it happening?" commented Sebastian Emrys, the boy making a face as he stared at the elf.
The boy was becoming close with the other Royals in such a short amount of time and they were happy to learn from him. His family, that descends from Merlin himself, had quite the library at home, that he was more than willing to share with them.
The group had begun practicing elements and the like and at that moment, Hadrian was particularly fond of using fire. This was proven when he opened his hand, a small ball of flames flickering there. Dobby immediately tensed up.
"None at all. He must have been under the imperius. Shame. Maybe he would have lived longer." said the raven, stepping closer to the elf and Draco scoffed, smirking at the sadistic glint he could see in Hadrian's eyes. "Don't give him false hope. He's lucky to have even lasted this long. When dad hears about this, he'll be furious."
Hadrian paused.
"Oh, right. Maybe he will last longer then. I was just going to burn him to death without taking into consideration that he's the reason why Tom had to punish Lucius." sighed the boy, sounding fairly disappointed and the others snickered as he let the flame disperse.
"You are one of a kind Hades." said Ron and the raven rolled his eyes. "I hope that's a compliment. Fred, could you tie him up somewhere? He's so weak, he won't be able to pop away like usual. Make sure he stays that way." he said, the elder twin nodding as he stood, Dobby flinching back at his cold gaze.
"And what do we do about you? Hm Cho?" remarked Hadrian, looking over at the girl who had been cowering in the corner, tears in her eyes. She obviously didn't know what this was about but no matter. It was necessary. Couldn't have her slipping Diggory a love potion of some sort.
"I'd say you're pretty lucky, Chang. We can't play with you because then, it wouldn't look like the basilisk killed you." pouted George, playing in the girl's hair and she flinched, a muffled whimper escaping her lips. Muggles may be disgusting, but tape was definitely a good invention.
And, more fun than a silencing spell.
"That's right, you are restless, aren't you?" remarked Hadrian, looking out over his friends. He hadn't even noticed the excited gleams in their eyes when he had been tormenting Dobby.
How rude.
"A bit. You've been having all the fun." muttered Neville and Ron seemed a bit jumpy as he added, "I admit, I did like the first time, with Justin. It was fun."
Hadrian chuckled at that.
Fun?
Yes, he supposed watching your enemies writhe in agony, was, fun.
"I see. How about this, you can do whatever you want with Cho and we just dump her body in the Dark Forest?" he remarked, conjuring a chair and taking a seat, watching with a smirk as George brought the girl to the very center of the room; where the Royals now stood, surrounding the girl.
It reminded Hadrian a lot of Tom's Death Eaters.
Though without the cool name. Maybe he should think about naming his own friends. He could almost imagine how elated they would be.
"That's a brilliant idea." said Blaise, his eyes glittering as he held onto his wand and Theo gave him a nudge. "Why not try out some wandless magic? I'm fairly good in that area." he suggested and Ron's eyes brightened.
"We can do anything to her, right? I've been doing good in elements. Ice is my favorite." said the red head, moving his hands and Hadrian watched, intrigued as several sharp shards of ice appeared, hovering in mid air.
With a wave of Ron's hand, the shards had cut the rope used to keep Cho in place, the girl shooting up and attempting to run, only to cry out as she was impaled with the shards; her body landing on the floor with a hard thud. Her arms and legs shook, tears streaming down her face as she looked back in fear, her lips quivering.
"Why are you doing this?! I haven't done anything to any of you!" she cried, shrieking with pain when she was hit with a crackling blue light. Hadrian's eyes widening as he looked over at Draco. "Lightning? That's an advanced element. To be able to control that, you'd have to have full master over the light element, its base form."
Draco nodded, smirking slightly as the lightning crackled through one hand only to appear in the other.
"I know. I apparently have a natural talent for it. The professor says it could be because of my grey core." he said and Hadrian hummed. "Interesting. Fred, why don't you go next?" he smiled and the red head jumped up with excitement.
"Did you hear me? I didn't-"
"Yes, we heard your pathetic cries. We're doing this because it's fun. And you just so happen to be in Hadrian's way. And no one gets in our King's way." said Neville, Hadrian smirking at the words. He tried not to be full of himself, but he did love how high he was placed among his friends.
At these words, Cho gave a horrified stare, trying to crawl away; only for her heart to drop when she found she could not move her arms or legs. Because of the shards stuck in them it seemed that they had gone numb. She could no longer feel them. Her blood was steadily pooling onto the floor and her eyes grew heavy.
"Oh we can't have that, now can we." tutted Fred, ripping the ice shards from each of Cho's limbs and smirking at the scream of pain she gave. The elder twin went into his pockets, retrieving a small jar. He used a quick enlarging spell and Hadrian tilted his head at the sight of centipedes, slowly crawling up to the lid of the jar.
"And what do you plan on doing with those?" remarked Blaise, eyes curious. Fred chuckled and smirked as Cho flinched away from him, her body quivering as he opened the jar.
"You'll see. Try not to move too much Cho. You'll die quick if you do. These aren't just normal centipedes. Severus let me borrow them for a project I'm working on. For every time that you move, a centipede will inject you with a small dose of poison. If you move multiple times, the dose will get stronger. If you attempt to remove them, you'll get burned. Though, that will be impossible." he stated and slowly picked up one of the centipedes, carefully placing it below the bleeding wound on Cho's right leg.
In an instant, the insect had crawled into the wound, burying into her flesh and causing the young witch to scream in agony. Fred took his wand, closing the wound and cast an immobulus, Cho going completely still. Though the pain and fear was clear in her eyes.
Once each wound had been closed with a centipede inside, Fred released the spell and Cho began to writhe and scream, tears streaming down her face. Hadrian was fascinated, yet disgusted as he watched the centipedes crawl beneath her skin like worms.
"Fred! She'll die too soon!" complained Padma, crossing her arms and the twin shook his head. "The only flaw with this poison is that it takes a while to settle in. Which is why it's determined by movement. They only give out small doses that slowly increase. I'd say you have at least four more hours with her and that's if you all don't get too excited." he replied, eyes gleaming as Cho's skin began to change from its healthy olive color, to a mixture of sickly yellows, blacks, reds and blues.
The centipedes were eating her from the inside out.
"Is the poison painful?" inquired Hadrian and Fred shrugged. "I'm not sure. It's hard to test like this. I'd say she's more hurt by the bugs themselves than the actual poison. She isn't supposed to feel it at all." he said and Hadrian nodded. "Interesting."
The raven now watched in cruel amusement as his friends took turns tormenting the girl. Each using their favorite form of magic, Ron taking his own approach and using a dagger that had the Lestrange family crest engraved in the hilt.
Cho's screams had become raw, her voice cracking as she pleaded and begged, but no one showed her mercy. They would not unless Hadrian commanded them to. And he would not, he was far too entertained.
"Say ah," cooed Theo as he held Cho's mouth open, forcing shards of glass down her throat. She choked, trying not to swallow but that only made it worse, the glass shards getting stuck inside of her neck, the elder witch coughing up blood. "When did you get so cruel, Theo?" smirked Hadrian and Theo gave the raven an innocent look.
"I don't know what you mean, Hades."
"Lunch is almost over, Hades." commented George, checking the time with a quick, tempus and the raven sighed in slight disappointment. "Alright..who wants the kill?" he remarked, looking between his friends and they shared a look. "You should have it, Hades." said Neville, Ron nodding in agreement.
"Really? Are you sure?" grinned Hadrian, a hand full of flames flickering as he stood. Parvati gave an almost, excited, nod and Hadrian chuckled. "Alright...any last words Cho?" he remarked, eyes alight with malice as he met her petrified gaze.
She opened her mouth, but no sound came out, just more blood and her head fell. She accepted her fate.
"No? Good.." Hadrian paused, "This doesn't go against the alliance, does it? She is a Ravenclaw."
Draco shook his head. "No. She isn't just a Ravenclaw. She is a threat to you, making it okay for you to get rid of her. Slytherin is the leader of the alliance. You are the leader. If someone gets in your way, we can't stop you from doing something about it."
Hadrian smirked widely at this. "Good."
He stared at the witch for a moment, then thrust out his hand, a barrage of flames engulfing Cho's mangled and mutilated body. She let out one last final, blood curdling shriek as the flames licked at her skin, burning the flesh until it was nothing more than piles of ash.