Darkness is my ally

A Matter of Honour

"Thank you," Hermione replied, putting her arms around Neville while their wands were extinguished;

Leaving the two Gryffindors to be swallowed up by the darkness once and for all…

Chapter 11: A Matter of Honour

The first week of his second-year status at Hogwarts was like déjà vu from his first year for Hadrian;

The biggest reason for this sensation was that, by the end of it, Hadrian had found something else that annoyed him more than interfering old men and people thinking him a hero and saviour of the masses…and its name was Gilderoy Lockhart.

Every morning, right from that first morning's feast, the man seemed fixated on Hadrian with a stare of longing and hope that, if he was being honest, made the Slytherin King feel a little uneasy. Thankfully, he was safe in the knowledge that the guy couldn't really do much without aggravating some of his incredible power or the rage and fury of one of his Brotherhood members.

Besides that, Hadrian found himself remembering Luna's words when he'd asked her about something that would annoy him to no end: Lockhart would be gone by the Dark Night, which, for Hadrian, was the darkest night of his life: Halloween.

'And even then,' the Slytherin King added in thought when he considered these revelations, 'That's if I let Lockhart live that long.'

And, speaking of Luna, despite her placement in Ravenclaw, the blonde-haired enigma soon started spending her breakfasts and other feasts amongst the Slytherins, which prompted Hadrian to inform the other snakes that she was an honorary member just like Hermione and Neville. Knowing what it meant for their King to consider someone as an honorary Slytherin, there weren't many of the emerald-clad students that argued against his point.

Another annoyance for Hadrian was a Gryffindor first-year named Colin Creevey who, right from the word go, seemed intent on bothering him and his brotherhood to no end. During their first lesson of the week with the Gryffindors, which was Herbology, Neville told his leader of how the boy had flashed his camera at every little piece of magic and boasted about sending them home to his Dad.

When Hadrian gave Neville a command to deal with him, the Dark Apprentice took it to heart and destroyed all of the pictures with a quick spell, but that didn't stop the little idiot from bothering Hadrian. From an anonymous source that Hermione and Neville had a feeling they knew the identity of, Creevey then learned that the dark duo were close friends with Hadrian and, after learning this, the two were badgered with questions and requests about meeting the Boy-Who-Lived.

Secretly, Hermione shared a madness that Hadrian compared to her Mother at the thought of Creevey meeting Hadrian, but the madness only really came from how she considered just how long the boy would sleep after calling Hadrian by that accursed title.

While Neville did his best to keep the brat from Hadrian, he couldn't stop the almost hero-worshipping glances that Creevey sent Hadrian when he saw him in the corridors or whenever he saw how the Slytherin King commanded his followers and his friends. Like Hermione, Neville also held a secret sense of amusement at the thought of the boy meeting Hadrian, only to have his hero-worship turned into his worst nightmares.

If it wasn't for the fact that both Gryffindors knew how much Hadrian would really make them remember their mistake in letting the little idiot get close to him, they probably would have acted on those thoughts as well.

The final annoyance of Hadrian's week came from the fact that, ever since his sister was sorted into Slytherin, Ronald Weasley had made it his life's mission to blame Hadrian for this fact by proclaiming loudly whenever the boy was in earshot of how his sister had dreamed of marrying the Boy-Who-Lived.