19 Jealousy
The next few months passed very quickly, well to Hadrian it did.
The teachers had focused a lot of their attention on Hadrian, this was because he was due to take the 3rd year exams, even though he was in his second year.The teachers had no doubt he was capable of doing such a thing but wanted to make sure that he was ready.
The students had noticed the way the teachers were fawning over him - this elicited some jealousy, even amongst Hadrian's friends. The most noticeable being Oliver and Demetri. He didn't know Demetri very well but he considered him a friend, they spent a significant amount of time together at Duelling Apprentice Club and he was his guide when he first came to Aunriton.
He had begun acting quite cold towards Hadrian - whenever Hadrian asked for Professor Andy's whereabouts or asked for a short spar, he would pretend he didn't hear it.
Hadrian decided to stop asking him.
What hurt him more was Oliver's behavior. Oliver had taken to trying to discount his achievements any time he could. Whether it was in class or outside, he would always say he could do the same and that he didn't understand why Hadrian was getting so much attention.Everyone in their friend group would look at Oliver weirdly and reprimand him whenever he did it. The main person being Daphne.
His other friends were acting normal, they would ask for help from Hadrian and had become the top students of their year thanks to his help.
The top 5 were: Hadrian, Sammie, Daphne, Crow, and Devon.
The remaining 5 were the rest of Hadrian's friends barring Oliver.
Oliver wanted to ask for help but his pride wouldn't let him, so he remained a subpar student.
Hadrian also gaining many 'fans'.
Apparently, he 'looked very pretty' according to the girls, something which Hadrian made sure to declare his distaste towards. Theo and Roan had taken to calling him pretty anytime they could, much to Hadrian's annoyance.
Hadrian and his friends all attended Optional Flying Classes too.
Everyone was floored by Hadrian's flying skills, the Instructor that the school hired, Mr. Belris, had said it was if Hadrian was one with the broom! He truly felt at home in the skies, whether it was due to him possessing Dragon blood or just the feeling, he didn't know. What he did know was that Quidditch was fun!
They would often play a Quidditch match at the end of the lessons, it wasn't very serious and it was quite amateurish, but that was to be expected.
Hadrian had shined out on the Quidditch pitch, he played as a chaser, and would often do daring swoops and dives when scoring. This caused him to be very popular among the male populace, but also spurred more jealousy within some of his other peers.
Some times, many people would come to watch, it was a Sunday so there wasn't anything to do.
The teachers would also come along at times.
Professor Andy had once remarked that he was like a real dragon, this was obviously referring to Hadrian's House, House Dragon, and the creature's relation to flight but Hadrian was very startled when everyone shouted , "Dragon!" when he scored in one of the matches.
This nearly made him fall off his broom, which made everyone laugh.
"Don't worry, Hadrian! There are no Dragons under the water!", shouted Mr. Belris.
This caused everyone to laugh again.
Hadrian looked at his instructor and scowled before shouting back, "Yes, there is!".
Out of spite, Hadrian went on to score 100 points.
This made Hadrian's nickname, 'Dragon' stick.
Hadrian cursed himself for responding to Mr. Belris.
There was nothing he could do about it, so he just let it be. Although, it did get quite irritating when Theo and Roan started calling him, 'A pretty Dragon'.
It became even worse when February 14th came around, Valentine's Day. The school didn't mind the activity of letter passing, as long as it wasn't during class.
Hadrian received plenty, there was even one in there that sounded like a challenge of some sort.
It went something like this, 'Listen, I don't care if you're the best student or really cool and nice or pretty - I'm still better than you!'
It didn't say anything else.
It was the most...interesting one he got, that's for sure.
Daphne had received a good number of them too!
Hadrian was not amongst the many that gave her a letter. She did give Hadrian a letter though, to which Hadrian gave her a hug and a kiss on the back of the hand as thanks. After that incident, Daphne walked around with a smug face - in her mind, what Hadrian had given her was way better than a letter!
Hadrian did send a letter to someone, it wasn't a student though.
It was Professor Miyoshi, the Runes teacher!
The note was composed of compliments on her hands and the grace in which they moved whilst she was using them (when she was helping him write runes). To others, it would seem like an innuendo, but to the Runes loving Hadrian, it was a regular compliment.
This is why when Professor Miyoshi was given the letter, she blushed very brightly.
Hadrian was happy that that month had ended.
Two months after that, Hadrian felt that he was ready to take his exams. Truth be told, he was ready a lot earlier than that. He had been studying during the break and had taken these last months to practice his wandless magic.
It was very taxing to use wandless Transfiguration and Defence spells but Hadrian became slightly more accustomed to it after his training.
He was beyond ready for his exams, the only thing he wanted to make sure he was ready for, was the upcoming Duelling Tournament in Japan. It was for U12's and Hadrian desperately wanted to win, one of his long term goals was to become a Duelling Champion before his N.E.W.T's, possibly even before his O.W.L's!
He trained tirelessly every day, whether it was physically or magically, Hadrian had improved a great deal.
The school had allowed the students a break from lessons for a week, claiming it was for the Easter holiday. Rosewood organized a school-wide egg hunt, which was fun. This event allowed Hadrian to do his exams without anyone questioning his whereabouts.
Hadrian finished his exams in 2 hours, he was supposed to do one test a day but insisted on doing them all at once.
The relevant teachers watched over Hadrian depending on what exam he was doing, this allowed them to mark the test straight after he was done. He only had to wait 30 minutes for the results of his final exam to be marked, after that the teachers had double-checked his marks and gave him his results.Hadrian also had to take practical exams the next day, but his theory exam results were looking amazing.
- Hadrian Charlus Black -
Charms - O+
DADA - O+
Duelling - O+
Transfiguration - O+
Potions - O+
Study Of Ancient Runes - O+
All he had to do was get the same scores on his practical exams and he was sorted.
Hadrian even hoped to show off his wandless magic in some parts of the practical tests.
He tried his hardest not to use his wand for simple magic and instead used it as a training wheel for the spells he would eventually learn how to do wandlessly.
He could now successfully use spells in duels wandlessly.
Merlin had instilled into him the belief that wands should only be used in life and death battles as well as Duelling. It shouldn't be used excessively for every day spells like the 'Lumos' or 'Incendio'.There were spells that required a great deal of control though, so it was recommended to use wands then.
It was also Merlin's belief that this was the main reason that the Magic in wizarding families was getting weaker. The only exception for this was first-generation witch and wizards, however, they had inevitably taken to using only wands too as it was the norm in European countries and they wanted to fit into the world that they had just become part of.
Hadrian wanted to be as proficient as the students in Uagadou, who could perform spells through hand gestures and pointing their fingers.
Those students could probably transition to using a wand very quickly too, the wand is just a focus, after all. They could be very dangerous if they had also taken to using wands AFTER learning how to do the spells wandlessly.
The downsides with wandless magic would be that it's very draining to perform as well as difficult to learn and there was also its casting speed which was quite slow.
A witch or wizard with a wand would be able to cast spells many times faster than one without a wand. However, if a wizard could use magic with and without a wand proficiently, then they would be very, very dangerous. This is what Hadrian aspired to be.
A Sorcerer and a Master Duellist.
