Adrian glared at her coldly, his lip curling in a way he knew made his face appear even more grotesque.
"Adrian." Remus barked, his voice stern and layered with something dissapointed, "That is no way to speak to elders or to behave,"
"Oh sorry, I haven't had manners ingrained into me," Adrian snappishly retorted, "I was busy learning other lessons of fine etiquette instead of how to talk to blood traitors."
He felt a surge of satisfaction, a sadistic sense of glee at his scathing remark. Lily flinched boldly, while Mrs. Weasley gasped obscurely.
"That's it," James' face darkened and his voice was clipped. He stood up imposingly, which would have had more effect if Adrian wasn't nearly his own height, "That is no way to talk to us."
Remus stood as well, at this point the small group of children had stopped laughing and were now watching fascinated.
"James…" Remus trailed off with a sigh, "You're being too harsh-"
"Harsh?" James echoed in disbelief, "Moony, you have no idea how to raise a child-"
"I'm not being raised, by anyone." Adrian hissed back sourly, "I don't need raising!"
"Then stop being an idiotic kid and smarten up!" James shouted back, face flushing angrily, "or Merlin forbid, I'll convince Moony to drop you right off at St. Mungo's for the rest of the holidays."
Adrian tensed and leant forward slightly, hunkering instantly to accommodate the phantom scales that should have risen to coil around his shoulders. He felt nothing, and with a flash of sorrow he flinched noticeably.
"Dad," Skylar complained boldly, crossing his arms with a frown, "He didn't mean it, he's been around Malfoy too much and he just slipped."
"Yeah-" The two twins chorused, "Everyone knows how that slimy ferret-"
"Is such a fan of us-"
"Why Gred, I do believe that he says the most beautiful names-"
"Oh Forge, I know, It's a marvel our little scaled friend-"
"Nothing mean by that, you're our favourite little slimy snake-"
"We say it in the nicest way-"
Adrian rubbed his eyes sharply and resisted the urge to draw his wand and start throwing curses.
Considering how often he talked and arranged deals with people, he truly didn't know how to socialize with people.
"We'll take him off your hands-" The twins started, one of them lazily throwing an arm around his shoulders.
Adrian opened his mouth to argue, but the Twins' involvement had apparently soothed James enough that the topic was dropped. The twins were a soft spot in the hearts of the pranksters.
"You do that," James nodded and paused consideringly, "Maybe talk to him about those seats."
'Seats?' Adrian wondered instantly, yet whatever it was, he had a bad feeling about it.
He was right. He didn't like the seats to the Quidditch World Cup at all.
Fred and George were the only tolerable ones in the entire house.
More often than not, Adrian woke up to the muffled noises of visitors in the home. Remus, having never been exposed to or used to children, was struggling in his attempts to 'raise Adrian'. He had overheard Sirius muttering about how Remus certainly picked a challenge for his first try.
Adrian tried not to feel smug about that.
He was labeled as the brooding type, which was fine as everyone seemed to give him distance. Well, as much distance as possible in the small home Remus could afford with his Hogwarts staff wages and other unknown income sources. In another life, Adrian may have offered to periodically cut Remus' hair and sell it to Knockturn Alley potion suppliers. Werewolf hair was never ever easy to come by.
Up close, Adrian was able to see another side to Skylar and the others, which contrasted and simultaneously fueled his assumptions in one go. Skylar wasn't a brat; he knew the brattish type after one glance at Draco. Skylar was overwhelmingly good, his morals and compassion so strong it struck Adrian like a physical blow.
He could throw boiling water at the boy, clobber him or spit threats for days on end. Somehow, the golden hero would smile and accept it and apologize because somehow he had upset Adrian, and that was certainly not polite of him.
It was infuriating and suffocating. Adrian wanted to fight a brat, he wanted to fight a selfish naive jerk, who would siffle and mewl under his curses.
Adrian knew that instead of that, Skylar would simply smile sadly and accept anything and everything he cast at him.
It was unfair. He wanted a challenge, he wanted a target that with one glance he knew that he was justified.
Adrian was vindictive, and Potter was so masochistically subdued it ruined all of his assurance.
Not only that, the other boy seemed to take in the burdens of everyone else without buckling under the strain. He offered the Weasley's a shoulder to cry on, he offered his best friend, Ron, someone to confide in.
Adrian had wandered through the rooms one night, a few days before they were to leave for the Quidditch World Cup. The adults were in the kitchen, discussing plans under silencing charms and steaming mugs of tea.
The twins had left with their older brothers (Adrian had formed a sort of peculiar bond with the one boy, Charlie. A mutual friendship over snarky puns involving Wyverns and Hungarian Horntails), leaving the house unsettlingly quiet.
The lack of Lutain's snark and softly scraping scales made everything seem that much lonelier.
Adrian knew that the Potters wouldn't abandon Skylar here all alone, no matter how important their discussion was. Which led to the unfortunate scene Adrian stumbled into.
Ronald Weasley, normally brash and hard headed, mewling and sobbing disgusting sounds onto the shoulder of Skylar. The latter of course had a sort of unwavering sympathy, patting the other boy's shoulder firmly yet somehow gentle.
"I can't..." Ron sobbed, entire body shaking as he trembled harder, "...Ginny."
Oh, right.
Ginny Weasley.
....
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