Hadrian Riddle Harmonia - A Harry Potter Fanfiction

Chapter 4

He could see his bone.

No, that wasn't it. He was bone. Nothing else. Except, when he looked closer, there was muscle and sinew and blood, hanging by threads and swaying with his movements, but no skin, no skin anywhere-

Did you think you would be safe here?

Yes. He thought he would be safe. He was promised he would be safe, that this place couldn't touch him, couldn't hurt him. He had trusted those words, built his world around them, and yet-

Why would you ever believe me?

You promised. You promised. You promised.

Now now Hadrian, you always knew how this would turn out. After all, there is only one thing that Death can promise for one like you.

Golden eyes flashed cruelly-

"Hadrian! Get up already, dear Merlin, how long are you going to waste my time sleeping!"

He jolted up and scrambled to throw the constricting sheets off his body, wiping the sweat from his face.

"I'm up Lysander, give me just a minute." He said, cringing at how scratchy his usually smooth and even voice sounded.

"This lead is time sensitive, in case you haven't noticed. You're lucky I even got us a minute with the bodies, considering how trusting these Japanese wizards are." Lysander continued, sarcasm coating his words and only adding to Hadrian's already pounding headache.

"Yes, I know, I'll be right out Lys, I'll meet you in the lobby." He called back, slipping into the bathroom and shutting the door with an audible click. He consciously ignored the exaggerated sigh that came from the other side of the door.

~*~*~*~*

"And you found them like this?"

"As I said, the bodies were never tampered with. It almost seems like they were singled out, though. The attacker followed each individual for days before finally killing them, and all in only two days." The man replied, leading them away from the morgue.

"And how many are there?" Hadrian inquired, looking over the man's shoulder.

"Victims? Twenty six. I'm sorry, but I have to get started on these, if you'd excuse me." Hadrian nodded and let the man go, turning to Lysander as they walked out of the building.

"What do you think?" He asked. Lysander let out a deep sigh, looking up at the cloudy skies above them.

"I think it's a curious coincidence that the only naturally red-haired Japanese in all of Kyoto have all turned up dead." He stated simply, and led them into the city.

"But you have an idea of why this happened." Hadrian replied, following close behind.

"I do. There is a particular subspecies of Were-beings that share the same characteristics as those victims. I've set up an appointment with the clan leader, so we will head there now." Lysander said, offering nothing else. Hadrian scowled, but accepted the enforced silence.

He took this opportunity to finally appreciate the beauty of the city there were in. The area they were now entering was a gorgeous union of nature and historical buildings. Nothing Hadrian had ever seen in his life could compare to what he was seeing, not even Hogwarts. The classical European architecture he had spent his life surrounded by held nothing to the effortless character of Japan. For a first destination on his grand journey, his expectations of the rest of the world were now set impossibly high.