Classes soon enough resumed within Hogwarts, leaving the Christmas spirit behind and got back to normal. Hadrian mostly felt sorry for the House-elves (he knew they had enough magic to clean with a click of their fingers though so it wasn't so bad, they didn't have to get down and dirty in the disgusting sick that people had left in puddles on New Year), he was pretty sure it wasn't just the Slytherin's that celebrated so vivaciously, although during his schooling while in Gryffindor there hadn't been a single party quite like the one he'd experienced these past years as a student in Slytherin. Sure Fred and George had snuck in Butterbeer and treats, but fire whiskey had been a precious commodity that not many Gryffindors brought out to share. Most Gryffindors in his time were actually Muggle-born's, Half-blood's or purebloods with not much in the way of wealth. While everyone within Slytherin had more than they could spend in a single lifetime. There hadn't been three wars yet that decimated the magical population.
"I hate the first day back," Lestrange groaned, sitting there looking much like an inferi, he was utterly exhausted. He hadn't been able to sleep before one am, and was back up at six to get ready for the day ahead. Despite the fact he was exhausted he hadn't neglected his pureblood decorum, he was impeccably dressed and for most part didn't show just how exhausted he was. His back straight, calmly eating breakfast he was hungry but his stomach wasn't quite agreeing with him.
"You say that every time," Carrow said rolling his eyes, after summer holidays, Christmas, Easter and so on. "We have DADA first thing, you best be awake for it," Merrythought was harsh on slackers, and more often than not did something productive after the holidays, last year had been a duel, everyone loved practical lessons.
"You wrote your essay didn't you? Professor Slughorn won't let you hear the end of it if you haven't!" Hadrian asked, sliding down to sit on the bench opposite them, his bag plonking on the floor as Hadrian began grabbing toast, wedging sausage and bacon between them, and began to chew on them hastily, absently adding a lot of scrambled egg to his plate, he had approximately five minutes, which would leave him only with five minutes to get to class. He noticed a lot of the others had already left, or were in the process of gathering their bags to go.
"Oh no," Lestrange whispered horrified, his eyes extremely round, he'd completely forgotten his potions essay.
"Here's your mail, the owls were getting impatient," Carrow said, handing over the small bundle of letters, unopened and put them beside Hadrian's breakfast so he could pick them up before he left.
Hadrian snorted in amusement, "Guess that's your lunch hour taken up then," he commented as he ate his scrambled egg hastily swallowing thickly before saying. "Thanks Amycus,"
Lestrange grunted in annoyance and agreement, he couldn't go to class without it, and he wasn't going to ask anyone to help, he wanted to go an entire year without owing someone a debt to collect later. It wasn't just small things anymore; they were becoming more unreasonable and bothersome as they got older. He'd usually ask Avery…unfortunately he couldn't do that not without commit social suicide. He missed him, he'd grown up with him after all, but his actions were inexcusable. He was lucky he hadn't been bloody killed, a poisonous snake of all things, he just wished Avery had spoken to him so he could have talked him out of it or something.
"Where's Tom?" Dolohov asked, glancing at Hadrian waiting for a reply expectantly.
"He's coming," Hadrian replied he'd literally just jumped out of bed got dressed and came down; Tom was probably just out the shower. He wasn't exactly vain about his looks but he did use it to get what he wanted, that and he always kept up an impeccable appearance he acted more 'pureblood' than the actual pureblood's did. The first thing he'd done with money was buy clothes that would make even the pureblood's sit up and take notice as if his powers didn't do that for him already. They'd never slept in quite so badly before, he nor Tom had ever actually missed breakfast. While Tom had never been starved, there was never quite enough food to go around especially after the war had begun.
The warning bell chose that exact moment to go off.
Cursing he stood up, swung his bag over his back and quickly nabbed a couple of napkins and filled pieces of toast with bacon, harsh browns, egg, black pudding and sausages for Tom. The others stood up automatically and followed him, much to Hadrian's confused amusement, and he wasn't Tom why would they act like he was? He smirked a little and sped up, they did too automatically he really had to suppress a laugh.
It didn't take them long to reach the DADA class, the classroom door was open but the teacher wasn't anywhere to be seen. Hadrian walked in and took his seat at the back of the classroom, noticing a cupboard at the front of the stairs to the teacher's office, the others sat in the two rows of seats in front of him. The majority of Slytherin's trickled in and sat down before even a single Gryffindor made an appearance. Charles Potter was one of them, apart from his green eyes it was scary how much he had looked like him, he would go so far as to say he looked more like his grandfather than he had his dad.
Tom made his appearance directly after him, annoyed at Hadrian's attention being on someone else, a Gryffindor of all things, but the jealousy wasn't there, of course it wasn't, and he knew the wizard was Hadrian's grandfather. He slid into the inside seat, setting his bag on the floor beside him everyone aware of him and his power.
"Here," Hadrian said, passing over the two napkins wrapped breakfast filled toast. It went without saying that he had better be quick in eating it, if Merrythought caught him she'd deduct points…or maybe not given that it was Tom, he could charm any teacher into getting what he wanted, with one exception - Dumbledore.
"Thanks," Tom murmured gratefully, glancing up to make sure the professor wasn't there and began to eat. If it had been anyone else to hand it to him he wouldn't have said a word.
Sudden thumping had the Gryffindors jumping in fright and startling the Slytherins. "What the bloody hell was that?" one of the students cried out.
"Well…this is going to be an interesting class," Hadrian said staring at the cupboard that once again thumped, it didn't startle anyone this time.
"What is in there?!" another student asked a little worriedly.
"A Boggart," Hadrian commented.
"A Boggart?" squeaked one of the Gryffindors eyes wide.
"I've heard of those, they're amortal shape-shifting non-beings that take the shape of whatever we fear the most." Charles Potter said, staring at the cupboard curiously. "Nobody knows what they look like, since as soon as it comes out it transforms into the shape we fear the most."
"Very well done, Mr. Potter, ten points to Gryffindor!" Merrythought exclaimed as she entered the classroom. "Can anyone else tell me anything about them?" seeing hands raise, she pointed to Tom, "Yes, Tom?"
"The spell to counter their attack is 'Riddikulus', professor, but one must think of something funny or amusing to transform it into," Tom said smoothly. His hands swiping at his clothes to ensure all crumbs were gone, the napkins in his pocket already.
"Ten points to Slytherin, yes, Riddikulus is the only known way to counter a Boggart attack," Merrythought said, standing in front of her desk. She noticed that Hadrian Peverell had his hand up, so she called on him too, wondering what he could add. "Yes, Mr. Peverell?"
"They're sentient to a certain degree," Hadrian informed her.
"I am afraid that it is incorrect, Mr. Peverell," Merrythought replied, "But it certainly is something worth thinking about."
Hadrian just hummed, sitting back, he wasn't about to argue with the teacher, ignoring the sniggering, or the muttered words of him being 'stupid' coming from the Gryffindors, he knew they were from personal experience. They didn't just take on the form of something that scares you; it can literally make you feel the same thing too. Like the Dementor his Boggart had transformed into, he had felt its affects as if had been the real thing, admittedly not quite so fully but enough. He'd even heard of a Boggart transforming into a Banshee, and their scream had affected the classroom causing DADA to be cancelled and the students taken to Madam Pomfrey. He ignored the looks the others were giving him, he knew what they were thinking, wondering if he was just guessing or if he was actually right - and they had to admit that Hadrian was never wrong. He doubted the Dementor was still the thing he feared the most, and wondered what it was his Boggart would turn into now.
"Now stand up in a single row on the left side of the room! Nice and carefully you'll all get a turn!" Merrythought admonished them, levitating the desks to the other side of the room before bringing the cupboard closer, so it wasn't stuck in a corner and she could help if they needed it. The banging got intensely louder as if it sensed everybody's fear from the other side of the door. "Wands out!"
Hadrian leaned against the wall coolly, he had done this once, and there was nothing exciting about it to him. Tom was in front of him; they removed their wands, and began to utter the spell when they were asked to. Hadrian cocked his head to the side, watching the others step forward one at time to face their fears. Mummies wrapped in bandages, large spiders, snakes, rats, Thestrals, quite a few had what was probably their parents, judging by the resemblance saying they were failures and not worthy of being the heir, Avery saw his own dead body with a puncture wound to his neck, which was most definitely supposed to be a snake bite. Others had people Hadrian didn't recognize appearing, dead.
The row was starting to thin down, and the teacher had only had to intervene once so far, Lestrange stepped forward confidently, wand raised waiting, and he didn't have to wait long. A large hissing basilisk appeared, and it definitely wasn't hissing in snake language, because neither he nor Tom could understand a word it hissed. "Riddikulus!" Lestrange rasped out, shuddering, not quite looking at the snake for fear of it killing or petrifying him. The snake turned into a harmless dog, which yapped playfully causing everyone to laugh and coo over it.
Carrow went next; facing his father telling him he was a failure, "Riddikulus," Amycus cast and his father was gone replaced by a clown. Hadrian definitely wanted to know where he had seen a clown, that was definitely a Muggle thing…at least he assumed so; he'd never seen a clown in the magical world.
"Interesting," Hadrian muttered quietly, Tom's lips twitched, giving a nod, he was thinking the same thing.
Dolohov stepped forward, and saw Avery, Lestrange, Tom and Hadrian all denouncing him, but before anything too vicious could be said, he had cast the spell, it turned into a jack-in-box one of those really old fashioned wind up ones.
"Very good," Merrythought said, nodding, she'd assumed for a moment there she would need to intervene.
Orion stepped forward, gripping his wand tightly, squeaking when his worst fear showed itself, a very large werewolf, snarling with its sharp pointy fangs glistening in the moonlight. "R-r-r-Riddikulus!" he managed to get out, then the werewolf had on a red cloak, no teeth and very large eyes, a nod to the child's tale they were told as young children.
"Oh my what big eyes you have," one of the Gryffindors said in a high pitched voice laughing uproariously, the other Gryffindors laughed with him.
Hadrian watched Tom closely; he was the only one he'd known what the Boggart turned into. It was obvious really, Tom had been scared of death from a young age, and he would see himself dead, although this one would actually be Tom not the Voldemort look alike. He was correct of course, it was himself dead he was seeing, Hadrian thought with sadness, but his eyes widened in shock when it morphed into himself dead, now that would have been freaky if he hadn't seen himself dead-like by a Boggart before. Instead all he felt was shock that him dying was one of Tom's worst fears, it spoke volumes…a lot of volume actually.
"Riddikulus!" Tom stated confidently, he would never let either one happen, he would ensure that.
"Next," Merrythought said, gesturing for Hadrian to move forward. "Come now, Mr. Peverell, we don't have all day."
"I don't think it's a good idea," Hadrian said, he wasn't sure if anyone would be affected if his Boggart was still a Dementor but they could be.
"If you want zero points for today's class then very well," Merrythought barked.
A lot of the students were laughing now.
Hadrian sighed, "Very well, on your head be it," Hadrian informed her and stood in front of the Boggart before she could say anything. The Slytherin's sensing it was going to be something dramatic took a few steps back just to be on the safe side, unfortunately they weren't any safer there than anyone else. The room began to get freezing cold, as one by one each of the students began to succumb to their worst memories, the teacher completely paralyzed as a Dementor began to float in the middle of the classroom.
Only once his own memories began to get the better of him did Hadrian flick out his wand, "EXPECTO PATRONUM!" and a Jackal of all things leapt from Hadrian's wand causing many of the pureblood's to shriek in horror knowing what that spell did to dark wizards. It didn't happen; the jackal instead surrounded the Boggart, forcing it back into the cupboard before Hadrian slammed it shut with a loud deafening thud. The room remained ominously silent, as the students continued to shudder under the affects of the Dementors.
"What on earth is going on here?" Professor Boots cried out as she entered the room having heard the loud commotion. The Muggle studies teacher froze at the sight of all the students clearly affected by something…but what? She couldn't see anything that could have caused it.
"We were being taught how to defend ourselves against a Boggart, Professor Boots," Lestrange explained straightening up refusing to show fear. "Hadrian's Boggart was a…a…Dementor,"
"Mr. Peverell are you alright?" the professor immediately asked, zoning in on him concern splashed across her face.
"I warned Professor Merrythought that it wasn't a good idea," Hadrian said, not even glancing at the teacher but just watching the jackal roam around the room.
The Muggle studies teacher immediately twirled around in search for her colleague, eyes widening in shock when she saw the fully fledged patronus. Gaping in astonishment, she literally had to stop herself thinking on it further, she had to ensure everyone was alright, she'd never expected to hear that they'd just faced a damn Dementor and somehow were feeling its affects. Then she saw her, quickly grabbing a hold of the catatonic woman, she began herding her from the classroom, making her way the few doors down to the hospital wing, calling out for Healer Change before she'd even opened the door.
"Dear Merlin, what happened?" Change asked, moving forward worried for the vacant woman.
"Mr. Peverells Boggart turned into a Dementor, the entire class is feeling the affects," Boots quickly explained in a hushed rush.
"POPPY! Come at once!" Change called out, "Put her on the bed, inform Poppy to give her a calming draught." with that she was stepping out her ward and making her way to the Defence classroom.
For the half hour, Healer change was truly run ragged as she got all the students to the hospital wing and administered calming draughts to them all. Then she'd had to contact both groups head of house to be there and the Headmaster, Merrythought was the worst off, understandably she wasn't a child and had more memory's and things to fear.
"How is everyone?" Dippet commanded as he entered the room, his eyes filled with concern for each and every student.
"Some are sleeping it off as you can see, some are still feeling a bit of a chill," Change informed him, as she placed a cup of hot chocolate in the hands of each student that was still awake. There was a chocolate biscuit on the saucer for them that would get rid of any lingering affects.
"How are you feeling, Hadrian?" Dippet asked, sitting down next to him.
"I'll be alright, Headmaster," Hadrian said giving him a grateful smile.
"The thing you had to fear is fear itself, you are a constant surprise," Dippet said, patting at his arm. If he had known Merrythought's plans he would have pulled Hadrian from the class. Out of fear that seeing his attackers again could cause him more emotional upheaval when he was just learning to live a normal unencumbered life. It was nice to see Hadrian enjoying himself, laughing, making friends; he'd feared for a while that Hadrian had just been too damaged by his life with the Muggles to adapt. He'd thrown himself into his work, then suddenly he and Tom were talking and eating together, he was exactly what Hadrian had needed, calm, just as much a hard worker and had a group of friends.
"I did try and tell her it was a bad idea," Hadrian added, pretending to be scared of possible expulsion.
"Oh, dear me, no, you aren't responsible nobody is," Dippet waved his concern away. Glancing up he looked for Tom and he didn't need to look far, he was on the next bed after all, you'd never find one far away from the other. "How are you fairing, Tom?"
"I'm fine, Headmaster Dippet," Tom said, giving him a smile, the only ones that knew it was completely fake was Dumbledore, Hadrian and of course their close friends.
"There's no need to be so strong all the time, Tom, you have good friends who will be there for you when you need them," Headmaster Dippet informed him sympathy written across his face. The newspaper had reported a fight to the death between a man Tom Riddle Senior and Morfin Gaunt, with how pale Tom had gone, it had been obvious to all that at least one of them was a family member. Probably his father and he knew Tom had grown up in an Orphanage, what a way to find out your father had been alive, in a wizarding newspaper reporting his death.
Tom turned to face Hadrian, black eyes possessive, "I do, Headmaster, I know," Hadrian would do absolutely anything for him, that much had become obvious on New Year. It had been the turning point for Tom, and unfortunately the Boggart had opened up another one before its time.
Dumbledore just observed the scene suspicion churning in his gut, he had done something about it, he had anonymously written to the Ministry and implied they should question Tom Riddle days ago, that not everything was as it seemed. He wasn't sure if anything would come of it, he knew the history between Gaunt and Riddle, and it had started long before the boy had been born. He was positive that Tom Riddle had something to do with it, it was all too convenient, and he couldn't remove the boy's wand and check it, not without cause, and the Auror's didn't exactly need cause, just suspicion. He couldn't let them two out into the world if they were breaking the law.
"Headmaster Dippet?" a voice called out walking into the hospital wing, eyes widening when he saw it was full of students.
"You called the Auror's?" Hadrian squeaked out in shock, finding hilarity in Auror Prewitts eyes widening as well as the look of confused bafflement on Dippet's face. "I conjured a patronus when I realized what was going on! I didn't mean for anyone to get hurt!"
"Calm down, I'm sure they aren't here for that," Dippet calmed the hysterical wizard down, before standing up and heading over to them, he noticed that Prewitt was with his usual partner Auror Moody.
Hadrian turned to Tom, raising an eyebrow, questioning whether Tom had been able to glean their surface thoughts to find out why they were there. He was just sitting there his brow furrowed, either he was thinking about what he learned, or he hadn't been able to get anything from their thoughts and he didn't like it. He wasn't sure which way he preferred it be. Turning back he found that the Headmaster had left with the Auror's, seeing a flash of buoyant orange robes his eyes narrowed suspiciously, Dumbledore was the nosiest wizard in the world, there was no way he wasn't curious about what was going on…unless…unless he knew already…
Climbing out of bed, he put his cup down and napped his biscuit and made his way over to Tom's side, Tom shuffled to the side and Hadrian climbed beside him. "What did you get?" Hadrian whispered into Tom's ear, keeping an eye out on Dumbledore, who was watching them, his blue eyes filed with fire.
"They're here to question me," Tom told him, keeping his voice very low too, he'd only gotten it because of their surprise when Hadrian had distracted them enough with talks of Patronuses.
"I think Dumbledore's behind it," Harry whispered, he hadn't done that in the future…or maybe he had, perhaps he'd charmed the Aurors…who knew? Or maybe they hadn't had much to investigate due to the fact that Morfin Gaunt had confessed everything.
Tom's eyes flashed furiously, his teeth bearing animalistic like, the feel of Hadrian touching his hand, "Calm down, they won't think a fifteen year old did it, alright? They've probably been told by their superior to investigate for the sake of covering all bases and return to the Ministry. I know you can do it," he added smirking a little, before getting himself comfortable and eating his biscuit. He had missed Transfiguration with Dumbledore, then Potions after lunch.
Hadrian noticed that Lestrange was scribbling away at the end of his bed, and he would bet anyone ten galleons that it was that potions essay he had forgotten. It wasn't long before an annoyed Dippet and sheepish Auror's entered the hospital wing again. All the while Hadrian rubbed his knuckles against Tom's hand. Trying to tell him to keep his cool without saying any words.
Well they wouldn't be laughing at him anymore, he thought staring at the Gryffindors before trailing back towards his own housemates, the teacher was still catatonic, she would also be forced to revaluate her belief that Boggarts weren't sentient. He certainly hadn't seen all this occurring when he stepped forth to face the blasted Boggart.