Ch82. End of the first year
The time passed as Hadrian spent a great deal of it with Dora, Narcissa, and Bellatrix. They studied, trained, joked, talked, and of course, slept together. It was awkward for Dora at first but Bellatrix quickly set the girl straight.
Hadrian spent a lot of time with Susan, discussing Necromancy. Contrary to the popular belief, it was not only about animating corpses. It was a study of unlife.
Their debates started with Susan quoting the founder of the Bones family.
"There is life and then there is death. In that case, what exactly are un-dead? Are they alive or dead? I think a bit of both..."
She quoted excitedly and it pulled Hadrian's interest to the topic.
Susan was already starting to get past the theory-only stage and began practicing her first dead magic, Withering Hex.
That little thing was dangerous as heck...
It was just a concentrated death magic shot at the target. The problem was that death magic nullified life energy so the impacted spot started to decay. The effect can be countered easily enough with normal magic as it was quite a low-level spell but... the life force used to power up the decaying would be forever lost. That means every time a person was hit by this withering hex, even if he managed to counter it in time and not get injured, a bit of his life-span would be consumed.
Of course, Susan practiced it only on the wooden dummies in the Room of Requirement.
Dora pouted as she got to know what Hadrian practiced with Susan. She was still a bit apprehensive about anything dubbed dark... even though she didn't mind Bellatrix all that much.
It was kinda baffling when Dora and Bella became quite good friends despite their differences. They bonded over their trash-talking about Narcissa. Bella had a bit of a fear of her sister from the time her mind was destroyed as she could remember that moment vividly and Dora had nightmares from her Occlumency lessons with Narcissa.
Narcissa definitely didn't use the method she did with Hadrian... instead of the pleasurable one, she opted for the painful path with Dora. Needless to say, Dora had much, much to shudder about in the following months.
Tomorrow would be the End-of-Term feast and that meant Hadrian had to have a serious talk with Susan.
They both sat in the Room of Requirement near the hearth as Hadrian looked at the confused girl. He sighed. this was not going to be without problems...
"Susan, I need you to return the books I lent you."
Susan looked like a deer in headlights but soon enough her expression turned to imitate a kicked puppy.
"Why?" She lowered her head and bit her lips as she held back tears.
Hadrian knew that she was in an intense internal struggle. Bones... once they start studying Necromancy, they can't stop themselves. It is in their blood, in their magic. That was most likely the reason why Amelia never even opened the Necromancy books and merrily gave them to 'Lord Black'.
Susan would never part with them willingly but that wasn't Hadrian's goal.
"Susan," He caught her attention. "you can read them but you would have to come to the Grimmauld Place library. Ask your aunt to contact Andromeda Tonks or Narcissa Bl-, ahem, Malfoy," Damn, he almost misspoke! "and set a date. Lord Black will surely accommodate you. Just say you want to meet with Dora or something."
Susan mutely nodded with a defeated look.
"Sue," Hadrian tried to make this easier for the girl. "You know that if your aunt discovers you having these books... you will never be able to read more of them."
Susan sobbed but knew it was the truth.
"I will make sure to visit..." She whispered. "Lord Black."
Hadrian tilted his head at her, making her chuckle.
"I am not stupid, Harry. The way Dora acts around you... the rumors of her being betrothed to Lord Black. It's simple math." Susan told him bluntly as he could only dryly laugh.
"Well, at least I don't have to keep it from you." He shrugged, making Susan smile.
"Un, we can see each other during the holidays!" She beamed but Hadrian quickly put a stop to that.
"Sorry, Sue, I won't be in England during the holidays." Hadrian sadly shook his head.
"Uh? Why not!?" Susan shouted, her hopes to spend time with Hadrian crushed.
"Sorry." Hadrian smiled apologetically at her but didn't elaborate.
"Fine..." Susan sullenly pouted and Hadrian vowed to get his trip over with fast so he could spend at least a part of his holidays with her.
...
The end-of-term feast was nothing extraordinary. Same as always with the expectation of total bullshit when Dumbledore awarded twenty points to Gryffindor for showing their inner fire in Quidditch. Wood of course cheered.
Then Hermione got twenty points for writing long-ass essays. She was bouncing in her seat at the praise and Hadrian just awkwardly clapped. He tried to 'convert' the girl and make her see the 'light' but... it was a work in progress. Maybe if she attended the study group more?
And when Ron got twenty points for eating more than the whole first-year class of Gryffindor...
At that, even McGonagal was looking at him weirdly but nobody interrupted his tirade of courage, love, and friendship. With one last 'I am so disappointed' look at the Slytherin table, his speech finally ended.
As such, Gryffindors won the house cup by two points, taking the victory from Ravenclaw.
Slytherins without Snape were actually at a two-digit number when it came to house points while Puffs just didn't care... Only Ravenclaws were staring at Dumbledore with their jaws on the ground as he completely screwed them over.
...
Hadrian entered the Grimmauld Place 12. He was home.
He smiled at Dora who held his hand but before he could open his mouth, Narcissa-bullet impacted him in a tight hug.
"I am home, Cissy." Hadrian whispered to her gently.
"Welcome back." Narcissa cuddled into his hair, happy that now she would spend the entire two months with him.
They had a major project in front of them and it would require them to work together for quite some time! And in between... Narcissa couldn't help but smile at her imagination. After all, they couldn't work all the time, now, could they?