Hadrian Riddle Harmonia - A Harry Potter Fanfiction

Chapter 7

"It's cold."

"Yes, well, it is winter in Germany."

A glare was sent Lysander's way, muted however by the shivers racking his lithe body.

"I told you to bring a coat." Lys commented.

"Well you failed to mention the magical snow that eliminates the effects of the warming charm." Hadrian snapped.

"I thought you would pick up on that, since I said we would be in a muggle area, thus not wearing robes."

Hadrian huffed, turning away from the vampire to walk the path to the bar. Lysander sighed and followed close behind, making sure that the teenager didn't get lost.

"So this elf we're meeting, you know him?" Hadrian asked, glancing up.

"Not personally. Elves... aren't too fond of vampires. They may not be happy to see what I am." He replied, visibly annoyed. Hadrian nodded, and followed quickly behind as Lys led the way.

~•~•~•~•~

"Greetings. My name is Nylec. I am the hand of the King, and will escort you to our lands." A tall, otherworldly man bowed as they entered the secluded bar, leading them to a table in the corner. "But first, I must request the immediate departure of your companion."

"He stays." Hadrian snapped back, arms crossed. A dark look passed through the elf's golden eyes, but was gone in an instant.

"I apologize, but the elves of Königssee have not welcomed a vampire since the Dark Ages. That will not be changing now. Either he leaves, or you do not receive what it is that you have come for." Nylec finished.

"That's fine. Hadrian, I will wait here for you. Finish talking with the king, and we'll stay here for the night." Lysander responded, throwing a glare at Hadrian who opened his mouth to protest.

"Wonderful. If you will follow me, Heir Riddle." Nylec stood, stretching out a hand towards the door. Hadrian gave one last glance towards Lysander, who appeared curiously unbothered by the turn of events, and followed the elf out the door.

~*~*~*~*

"Greetings, young human. Welcome to our domain."

Hadrian gave a short bow to the golden haired man sitting before him, the tension that had entered his body upon entering the forest not letting up for a second.

"Thank you for having me. I appreciate your willingness to speak with me on such short notice." He conceded, looking into the forest with caution as he saw pairs of golden eyes appearing with more and more frequency.

"We confess our self curious as to why the son of the great Lord Voldemort would desire an audience with us." The king replied. Hadrian nodded, willfully ignoring the king's incessant use of the royal 'we'.

"As you may have heard, a number of magical creatures have had their clans attacked by a mysterious assailant. As your kind have not been targeted yet, I was hoping to receive some insight as to your strategy regarding this threat." He replied.

The king looked amused for a moment, and Hadrian caught him with distrusting eyes sending a signal to the elves that had been slowly making their way towards the clearing they were in. The king languidly stood from his throne, making his way closer to where Hadrian stood.

"Young human, are you aware of the history of the elves?" He questioned, slowly circling Hadrian. With growing clarity, Hadrian began to realize that his instincts hadn't been wrong when he had entered this forest. "Long ago, the elves existed as one race, free from the constraints of other magical kind. But when an impure was born among us, we were faced with a clear division among ranks. And among that division, do you know what was born?" At this the king leaned in close, golden eyes boring into Hadrian's green.

From Hadrian's perspective, a number of things happened at once. As the king's mouth opened to utter the first word of his answer, his mind finally clicked into place all of the pieces that had been floating around. The overwhelming dread he felt upon entering the forest; the dignitary's unwillingness to allow Lys into the forest; the rapidly growing number of elves surrounding the clearing in which he stood; and finally, the words that the king let fall from his mouth: "Dark Elf."

As soon as those words registered, Hadrian grabbed onto the shadows and let his body fall into them. But as this happened, pain laced through his arm and he was stopped halfway. He turned to see the king halfway in the shadows as well, a pale arm grasping his own in a deathly grip, preventing him from fleeing.

He twisted in the shadows, a snarl his only reply to the king, and with his free hand sent a lacerating curse to the elf, which was swiftly dodged but allowed him to escape.

The king smiled, and signaled to his dark elves: "Follow him."

~•~•~•~•~

Hadrian reappeared under a massive tree, clutching his arm in pain. While it wasn't broken, the final pull to get out of the king's grasp had dislocated his shoulder, leaving his wand arm limp at his side.

He looked around at his surroundings, trying to get a grasp on his location. The forest was blanketed in magic, smothering any sense of direction he might have had and preventing him from sensing any magic except what was suffocating him. He heard a branch break to his left, and took off through the shadows, towards what he hoped was the edge of the forest.

But just as he reappeared, another hand came out to grab him, dragging him to the forest floor. He sent off a curse in a random direction, hoping it hit something, and rolled to the side when a fist came down upon him, dangerously close to where his head had been. Just as he was about to shoot off a killing curse, his breath was stolen from him, and his feet lifted from the ground.

He clawed at the hand around his neck, gasping for air. The golden eyes staring into his own glimmered in the darkness, and he kicked out, only hitting air.

"Young human, you trust so easily, and follow so well. What I wouldn't give to have met you under different circumstances, and in a different time. You are a rare treasure, human, but what were you expecting?" The king smiled sadistically, reaching with his free hand to pet Hadrian's raven hair.

Hadrian dropped his hand from where it was clutching at his captor, and quickly pulled his wand to it from where it had landed on the ground. Just as he pointed it at the elf, however, a hand came to circle his own, preventing it from coming up. The hand squeezed around his own, tighter than could be humanly possible, and caught his wand from where it fell from his now broken hand.

"This won't help you now, Riddle." The king grinned, and promptly snapped the black yew with a careless ease.

In a mad fury, Hadrian let his magic explode outward, sending the dark elf flying away and giving him just seconds to escape.

But just as he picked himself up from the ground, a cold, sharp pain spread across his chest. He coughed, blood spraying across the leaf-covered ground. The moon suddenly appeared from behind the clouds, and with the light, Hadrian looked down to see a pale hand sticking out of his chest, drenched in his blood.

He felt the dark elf smile into his hair, and suddenly the hand was gone and he was on the ground, breath hitching and blood slowly dripping from his mouth. With hazy vision, he saw the king kneel beside him, cleaning his arm of Hadrian's blood with a pure white cloth.

"Do not hold this against me, Hadrian. You and your father represent an ideal, but an unrealistic one. With your death, I have secured the prosperity of my people. Surely you can't blame me for putting the lives of thousands over the life of one measly human?" The king said.

Hadrian heard him as though he were underwater, the words not quite reaching him, nor the meaning. He felt the king pat his cheek, and suddenly he was gone, leaving just as Hadrian drew his last breath.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*