Hadrian Riddle Harmonia - A Harry Potter Fanfiction

Chapter 3

It was still dark out as Hadrian made his way through the manor, taking his time to soak in the home he had lived in for so many years.

Before, he had always been sent out by his father into the world, told where to go and how long he had before his presence would be required yet again. It had never bothered him; it was an excuse to get away from the paternal protection his father smothered him in and to explore what the world had to offer by himself.

Now though, now he was leaving of his own accord. There would be no rules, no limitations on where he could go or what he could do. He could leave for years and claim it was necessary, that he was following a trail, and his father couldn't fight him on it.

This newfound freedom terrified him.

*~*~*~*

"You understand that with Ash gone, we will have to return to our original plans." Marvolo said as Hadrian sat down across from him. The fire was still roaring from the night before, and the stack of papers that had once filled the desk was now reduced to a single piece.

"And what does that entail?" Hadrian asked, curious. "You briefly mentioned your tactics from before my birth, but the details were sparse."

"Originally, we were going to take the ministry. With Xerthea's familial ties and titles, she held massive influence in the Wizengamot, and with her and the number of pureblood families loyal to me, we could easily have won the majority in any important cases that came up. Ultimately, our goal was to gain enough power in the ministry so that a vote of no faith would throw out the old minister and put me into power as a dictator. Of course, before we were able to do that, Dumbledore managed to meddle into those affairs and derailed all of our plans. You were taken, my body was destroyed, and your mother killed. The Dark's leadership was snuffed out in a single night, unfortunately." Marvolo retold, surprisingly calm as he related his own defeat at the hands of Dumbledore.

"Aria played a major role in that, correct?" He asked. Marvolo nodded.

"Her alliance is an extreme concern to me. When you were still in Hogwarts, I foolishly assumed that with Ash at your side, a ministry take over would be unnecessary, that we could skip straight to Hogwarts and force our way through each barrier. But with him gone, we are back to our original plans. Lucius is already leading the purebloods in the Wizengamot, and our influence throughout Britain is growing. We will soon be back to where we were before, and this time, the Light will be caught unaware."

"And Hogwarts? If Aria is protecting it, as she did the night I left, how do you plan on defeating her? Ash said she is able to kill me. How do you plan to contend with that?" Hadrian pressed, searching for more answers.

"Aria is not your concern. I will handle everything from here on out. Your job is to leave, alright?" Marvolo dismissed, returning to his work.

"Are you serious?" Hadrian cried indignantly. "There is potentially a greater threat than even Dumbledore, and you want me to just leave you here to deal with it yourself, and not even tell me what you have planned?!"

"We have gone over this, Hadrian. My role as Voldemort is just that, mine. You have your own worries to deal with; let me handle mine." He snapped, red eyes narrowing in warning.

"At least tell me how she became so powerful. If she is able to kill me, that surely has to be an unnatural ability, some dark magic we could counter! I can help you Father, let me -"

"Will you stop with the pretentious bullshit! Merlin, you're beginning to sound worse than Lucius' offspring. If there was something you could do, Hadrian, I would tell you. But right now, I need you to leave, since it's what you want so much anyway."

"Why won't you just trust me already!" Hadrian shouted, the fire blazing to new heights and the shadows reaching outwards.

"Because you are a child!"

Hadrian fell back onto the couch, disbelief stretching across his face.

"Fine then." He murmured, and sank into the shadows.

*~*~*~*~*

"We're leaving." Hadrian spat, stepping out of the shadow underneath the windowsill.

"Now?" Lysander questioned, sitting up from his bed to stare at the noticeably aggravated teen.

"Yes, now. You can go say goodbye to your friends and family if you want, but I'm not spending another second in this god-awful manor." He replied, sitting down in a chair to bitterly stare out the window. A snort cut through the tense air in the room, drawing Hadrian's attention back to the white-haired vampire. He raised an eyebrow in question.

"In case you haven't realized yet, I'm not the most beloved member of my clan." Lysander said, standing from his unused bed to collect his belongings from the closet.

"Oh?" Hadrian prompted him to continue.

"The only pure-born son of the leader of the strongest vampire clan in Europe? No one can be friends with me, let alone get close enough to call me by my name. My clan doesn't care for me; they fear me." He scathingly remarked, throwing his filled bag onto the bed angrily.

"Pure-born?" Hadrian inquired, confusion crossing his features. He had never come across the term in his schooling; of course, he wasn't exactly familiar with vampires as a whole.

"You really know nothing of magical creatures, don't you?" Lysander scoffed, patronizingly looking down on the wizard.

"Enlighten me." Hadrian smiled, eyes narrowing dangerously. A flash of something Hadrian couldn't quite place ran across the vampire's face before quickly disappearing as he turned.

"A pure-bred is a vampire born of two vampires, rather than having been turned after living as a human. Pure-born births are rare enough as is, so having even one in a clan is a blessing. To have been born to a leader is that much more rare." Lysander explainer, surprisingly calm after their near verbal battle.

"I see." Hadrian said, letting the conversation drop. He could understand being feared, never having the opportunity to have friends or even to let anyone close. Of having your life defined for you at birth.

He swiftly rose from his seat, crossing the room to face the vampire in a few purposeful strides.

"Well, then I suppose we'll be counting on each other more than expected for this journey. Wouldn't you say, Lys?"

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