Ch45. Arrival at Hogwarts

After Draco left, Dora and Hadrian continued their good-natured banter.

It was a few hours later they decided to stop chatting and opened their books. Dora started reading the NEWT potion theory while Hadrian decided to continue his Charm book while trying to cast the Charms.

Hadrian was quite smug when he learned Alohomora and asked Dora to lock the door to the compartment. Dora, seeing his expression, narrowed her eyes in mischief and used her strongest lock on the door.

"Hehe, show me what you got, Harry." She playfully quipped, knowing well no Alohomora can open the lock she used.

"You are such an excitable Puff." Hadrian rolled his eyes at her, getting a cheeky scowl in return. "Alohomora." He swished his wand at the door and... nothing happened.

He blinked, not understanding why the spell malfunctioned, and swished his wand again, now with more force.

"Your wand-movement is wrong." Dora delivered her jab with glee, amused at Hadrian's attempts.

He knew it is not in wand-movements though. His wand was useless! He was casting wandlessly no matter how he moved his wand.

He closed his eyes, appearing to be pondering on the outside but instead he focused his perception toward the door.

An angry scowl marred his face as he understood he won't be able to force the door open with a simple Alohomora. Dora made it too magically strong and his Alohomora just seeped inside her magical Lock, doing nothing.

He turned to Dora and crossed his arms.

"Oops." She stuck out her tongue and took her wand when it was clear she was caught. As she prepared to unlock the door, a girl suddenly grabbed the handle and pulled, expecting the door to open. She didn't wait though and ran straight into them when they didn't open, her head impacted the door and rebounded backward, sending the girl falling on her ass.

Dora and Hadrian looked at each other and started laughing. Dora circled her wand in anti-clockwise motion, unlocking the door.

"That was golden. What did the door do to you, girl?" She asked mirthfully.

"Wow, you really do know how to use your head, don't you?" Hadrian quipped, chuckling some more.

The girl just stood up, not knowing what to do, meekly staring at her feet in embarrassment as she rubbed her forehead.

"Come here." Dora warmly invited her in. "Sorry, sorry. We aren't really laughing at you. We are laughing at the situation you caused." She apologetically explained.

Hadrian swept the girl with his eyes. Bushy brown hair. Brown eyes. That was all that clued him on the identity of the girl.

While she was definitely not bossy... Well, no one who ran headfirst into the door would act bossy, now, would they? But it was definitely Hermione Granger.

"Did you see a toad? A boy called Neville lost it." She asked, ordering tone seeping into her voice.

Dora and Hadrian shrugged and said simultaneously.

"Nah."

"Oh," She exclaimed sadly. "Okay." And she left.

'How… underwhelming.' Hadrian thought.

"Who the hell was that?" Dora asked, miffed about the girl's swift leave. "She did not even introduce herself. Tsk. Tsk. No manners."

Just then the bushy-haired girl appeared again, flushing crimson.

"You should don your robes. We are almost there." She said in a full 'bossy' mode, covering her embarrassment but her cheeks reddened even more and she added in a quiet tone. "Hermione Granger, by the way."

And disappeared again.

Hadrian, amused at Dora's flushed face, just shrugged, and continued to read his book.

...

Hadrian blanked out for the majority of the following events. Focusing mostly on feeling the magic around him. When the boats sailed through the Black Lake, he could feel the mermaid city underneath and the giant squid made him quite uneasy.

But it was the Hogwarts that made the biggest impression on him so far. The amount of magic seeping from the castle was staggering. But mostly, it was the first time Hadrian saw a magical ley-line up close.

The Earth was as if a chimney spewing highly concentrated magic to the world and in the middle of these eruptions, Hogwarts stood. Just by being present, Hadrian could feel his core maturing slightly faster, slowly growing more efficient. It filled him with glee.

As he followed Professor McGonnagal to the Great Hall, he subtly swept his perception over the Professors.

They were... nothing much. Above-average adult wizards.

Minerva was the fourth-strongest in the staff, magic strength considered.

Snape was third. His magic showed some dark magic residue and Hadrian deeply wondered if the git did never discover purifying ritual.

Flitwick, the half-goblin had surprisingly a lot more magic than Snape coursing through his body. He was the strongest wizard Hadrian perceived so far, even surpassing Narcissa by a slight margin power-wise.

But it was Dumbledore who almost stopped Hadrian up short. His magic was immense. Layer after layer, tightly compressed, and definitely powerful. The amounts made Hadrian grit his teeth in frustration. Dumbledore easily towered above Flitwick's magic by at least three times!

As Hadrian's group came closer to the Staff Table, Hadrian ceased his perception and started to sweep the teachers with his eyes.

As his eyes fell on Snape's glare, he instantly felt the Legilimency probe. He did not panic though. The probe was a child's play compared to what Narcissa was capable of.

Hadrian felt the probe was shallow and will only reveal his thoughts so with barely veiled urge to smirk, he let the probe in while busying himself thinking.

'Why is the crook-nosed man looking at me like that?'

'Is he one of these pheedopheeles, my Aunt warned me about?'

'Does he like children?'

'He looks like a bat!'

'He is a teacher, of course, he must like children!'

'I don't feel safe being taught by someone who looks at me so heatedly!'

'Mister! I am not tasty!'

The more thoughts Hadrian fed to the probe with a completely innocent expression, the more Snape's face contorted until it was in a full-blown scowl, sneer, and snarl joined together in a weird mix as he was fuming so much, it was a wonder he did not release foam from his mouth.

Hadrian's gaze left Snape and continued its path through the teachers.

Dumbledore's twinkling eyes stopped him short. They really did tempt people to look into it.

And as with Snape, he instantly felt a probe. This time a much stronger and deeper one. He yet again started feeding it the thoughts.

'Is that weird old man also a child lover as the greasy-haired man?'

As Hadrian saw Dumbledore's smile to widen he continued that train of thought, projecting feeling danger.

'I bet he will offer me candy and try to kidnap me!'

Dumbledore's eyes bulged slightly as he frowned in alarm but Hadrian cut the probe by diverting his eyes, looking at his feet, trying to appear shy and meek.