Never Trust A Snake

Chapter Thirty-two

'The Beginning of The End'

The Champions were lined up outside a large maze that now covered the Quidditch pitch. On the blow of a whistle, Hadrian, Krum and Evan, who had, by order of Dumbledore, been given special permission to begin the maze with the leading Champions. Hadrian stalked into the maze, the lights that blazed around the stands being shut off as the hedges closed behind him. A sinister grin appeared on his face as he began to follow the track set out. He had been preparing for this moment ever since he became a Champion.

With one hand remaining on the hedge wall, his fingers drifting over the tangled leaves, he continued on his path towards the cup. As he walked, he felt the shifting of cold scales against his stomach. Circe was entwined around his torso, but now out of the crowds view, she had moved to a position draped around his neck.

"I sssmell the boy, he'sss struggling" She hissed gently, scenting the air before whispering the path he must take. Following her instructions, Hadrian took turn after turn, rushing through the maze, his feet narrowly avoiding the twisted roots that covered the ground. After what seemed like hundreds of whispered directions Hadrian was met with a struggling lump of orange hair and vibrant red clothing.
Evan Potter was wrapped in a deep purple root that had crawled out from under the hedge and imprisoned the boy. Potter continued to squirm, thrashing out at the roots as it began to encircle his neck. His wand lay a directly next to Hadrian's feet, and with a sadistic smile, Hadrian picked it up.

"Oh, Evan. The Boy-Who-Lived trapped by a plant? Surely not," He mocked, pointing the stolen wand at the large boy.

"Y-you!" The redhead gasped out, his lumpy fingers attempting to grip the vines that had chocked him. Hadrian's eyes gleamed with excitement as he thought about how easy it would be to kill Evan right here. No one would realise, he would be left to rot in a hedge after the roots pulled his body away. It would all be so simple, he thought as a spell shot from the wand.

In a burst of flames, the vines clutching Evan's fat body were destroyed and the boy sat up, coughing madly as oxygen began entering his lungs once more.

"W-what are you doing! You br-brat!" Potter managed to choke out as he glared at Hadrian.
The boy in question offered him his wand then pulled him to his feet.

"I've had a change of heart, you really do deserve to get the cup, Evan." He grinned wolfishly, his eyes gleaming insanely as he grabbed the boy from the ground and pulled him to his feet, already pushing him away from the remains of his attacker. Evan grinned, he would gladly accept the help of someone like his brother, the poor brat must have finally realised how great the powerful Boy-Who-Lived really was.

"You ssshould have ended him," The snake hissed bitterly from around Hadrian's shoulder.

"I have better planss," Hadrian smirked, before taking a place next to Evan, subtly guiding them towards where he knew the cup would be.

***

Two boys arrived at a glistening blue cup that sat grandly on a pedestal, the hedges surrounding them seemed to have grown even taller than before, casting them into almost absolute darkness.

"Ha! I've won!" Yelled out Evan, a horrible smile that only emphasized his ugliness, stretching across his face.

"You led me right too it, you idiot!" He laughed out, his hand reaching to grab the cup. Two hands grabbed the TriWizard Cup, the large fingers of the first hand loosely gripping the top whilst Hadrian's pale fingers crawled around the handle. Both boys felt a rough tug at the backs of their necks and the world around them dissolved into nothing, the hedges faded away and the group disappeared as everything spun. The close confines of the maze were replaced with a large clearing, filled with old, worn graves that jutted out the ground like broken bones. Skeletal trees encircled the graveyard, isolating them completely and leaving them with only the light of the moon.

The harshly made portkey landed the boys with a thud on the muddy ground, next to a broken tomb, pieces of stone scattered around the base of the grave. Hadrian's head collided with the broken stone as he landed as gracefully as he could. Evan collapsed behind him, falling onto the muddy ground with a large thud.

Slowly, Hadrian got up, blood drilling down the side of his head and down his lips which were now parted in a crazed grin. He roughly reached over to the other boy, pulling him up.

"You can't be lying down when the Dark Lord arrives, dear brother." His words were cold, yet filling with a sadistic excitement and an insanity that couldn't compare to anything Evan had ever known before. The redhead, despite what he would let on, was terrified. His brother had also seemed eerie, strange, a freak, yet this was completely new.

"W-what do you mean! You traitor! G-get off me!" He yelled, attempting to sound brave, but the panic in both his voice and eyes have him away.

Suddenly, a dark chill seemed to enveloped the graveyard. A pitch black mist seemed to swirl at the foot of the large reaper statue, despite Evan not seeing anything special, a chill ran through his spine, fear coursed through his veins. Slowly, his graze flickered back to Harry. The boy looked almost completely different, his normally get black hair was white, and his eyes seemed even more insane. His cold, chilling eyes were practically glowing with power, the exact shade of the killing curse. What really confused Evan was the scar that cut down from his forehead to just next to his eye. It looked like a horrible gash caused by the broken grave they landed on, yet despite the blood dripping down Hadrian's face, even someone like Evan could tell it wasn't. This was something far darker, far more sinister than a simple cut. Evan gasped out in fear as he recognised those eyes and that hair. The assassin that Kingsley had fought in Diagon alley, the one who murdered Percy Weasley and so, so many others. Harry Potter, no, Hadrian Black was the assassin Hades. But not even that realisation scared him as much as the next words that slipped out of Hadrian's mouth in a hiss-like whisper.

"He's here,"

***

"As my story came to a close I realised that I was the villain all along"