Summary: Hadriel, the dark one, the most powerful creature to ever be born on this earth. He was locked away deep within himself, and placed on the mortal realm in a desperate attempt to protect him from those who would see him condemned for his heritage. This is his story, Harry's story. So begins the end of all things…
Notes: This is kind of a mash-up of all 3 eras, Tom Riddle, the Marauders and HP. This is also a bit of a crossover with Diablo 3. It will contain a lot of elements from that game (mainly characters), but if you're not familiar with the game, that's fine. I'll do my best to explain it in a way that you won't need to be. But for all my fellow fans out there… MALTHAEL FOREVER! P.S. Hadriel never existed like in the game. Just disregard everything you ever knew about him. I just liked the name cause it sounds like Hadrian, which sounds like Harry… hehe… why are you looking at me like that? Also, this is how I figure it; the hoods the angels wear stop mortals from being blinded by them, but other angels can see their faces. Okay? Great. Moving on~!
Disclaimer: If I owned HP it would go like this, and if I owned Diablo Malthael would have kicked ass and the Nephalem would have been his lover and they would have ruled the world. Muahahaha…
Malthael Malthael Malthael Malthael Malthael Malthael Malthael Malthael Malthael Malthael
"Run, Arael!" The Prime Evil's voice rang out through the castle, but he need not have made such an order. Arael was already running, clutching her newborn babe to her breast as she did so.
She dared not turn around as she fled across the courtyard, even as her lover screamed in agony and split into the beings that would be forever known as the Prime Evils. She just continued running, for the life of the babe, her beloved Hadriel, in her arms.
He was all that mattered now.
She ran, ran until she reached the surface, and the light blinded her, but she continued. Continued running like the wings she had shed were still with her, lending her their strength as she raced through the decrepit mortal realm, screaming for her mother.
"Mother! Auriel! Please! Please help me…" she sobbed, collapsing mid stride in exhaustion and just barely shielding her child from the blow. Just before she hit the ground, however, two strong and familiar arms caught her and held her against a dark, armoured chest.
She gazed tearfully up at her father, Malthael, the angel of death. Perhaps, in a way, it was fitting that the child of the angel of death and the angel of hope would fall in love as she did, as she was fated to from conception, through her youth and into her adulthood, when she made the decision to fall, fall from heaven and into her lover's arms.
"Your mother is waiting for us." Was all she heard, before she was whisked away by the imposing figure, bone-like wings stretching across the sky as he flew with impossible speed to the portal, to the place where she would have to bid her beloved child farewell, forever, if she hoped for him to live.
Knowing this, she could not help but sob and hold the baby a little tighter to her, and the only response from her father was the slight tightening of his arms around her as he continued on, as impassive as ever.
It took a truly remarkable individual to touch his heart, and that was a privilege afforded to her mother, Auriel, for however long it lasted. However, he had never neglected her, his daughter, and for that she was more grateful than he could know, would ever know.
The time it took them to reach her mother passed in a way that she could not describe. It was like water, running through her fingers, lost time with her son, flowing away, never to be found. Her heart was heavy, and she knew that this would be the last blow dealt to her fragile heart. She would not survive the loss of her beloved child, that much was certain.
Malthael landed smoothly, seeming to glide over the ground and he had barely placed her on her feet before Auriel swooped her into her warm, comforting embrace, wings folding slightly to envelope her, as though to shield her from pain.
"Mother…" she sobbed, and her mother crooned softly in reply. "Please… my baby…" she held the baby, wrapped in the very fabric of the cosmos, up to her mother in a silent plea for him to be taken by someone who could hold him.
Her mother was reluctant to let her go and, as a result, it was her father who took the child, swiftly turning from them so they would not see the soft expression on his face, hidden by his hood.
The child looked like a combination of the four of them. His hair was as black as Malthael's had ever been, but the ringlet curls were Auriel's. His skin was pale like his mother's, not deathly like Malthael's own, nor golden like Auriel, but more of a porcelain white, with rosy cheeks. He could tell that the eyes were his father's, though. Different colours, all swirling together. Appearing and fading to make room for the next, glittering and glowing and Malthael felt like he was staring into the heart of the world in those eyes.
In a fleeting moment, he wondered what became of the being his daughter had given her everything for, but the moment barely lasted before his attention was once more captivated by the infant in his arms.
"Yes, sweet one?" he murmured softly, on hand reaching up to catch the boy's own, and he watched in silent awe as the tiny hand curled into a fist around his finger.
The sound of tinkling laughter made him turn slightly to see Auriel and Arael staring at him with identical expressions of soft love. Auriel, he had once loved her, he knew that, but now felt no more fondness for her than he did for the once-angel at her side. The child, however, he knew he was doomed to love for all eternity.
"He is beautiful." Auriel commented, smiling when the child looked her way, before his gaze fixed on his mother.
"He is the most beautiful being in existence." Arael agreed. "Malthael." She held out her arms in a silent, yet respectful, demand for her child.
"It is time." Auriel sighed, stroking her daughter's brow.
"Fear not, this will not be the end. Rather, I daresay it shall be his beginning." Malthael intoned, as Arael sniffled softly, kneeling before the pool.
Arael couldn't reply, her voice seemed to be choking her and her hands clutched at her child instinctively, afraid to leave him to venture alone into the unknown.
"He will be safe." Auriel told her. "The blossoms will see to that." She pulled out some of her sacred blossoms, from her Garden of Hope, and let the cherry blossom petals float on the surface.
"This will give him protection from my domain." Malthael placed a pure white lotus blossom on the pool.
"And with this, we shall seal him within himself." Arael finished, taking a small, white stone with an ornate black H engraved on it from her mother and placing it over her child's heart. She watched as it glowed, sinking into the skin and engulfing her child in light before fading away, leaving the mortal babe in her arms in place of the presence she had grown used to in the 24 hours she had had with him. "Please give Tyrael my sincerest thanks. There is nothing that could ever repay the gift he has given us."
"Tyrael wished to see the child survive just as desperately as we all did." Malthael replied. "To think that Imperius would go so far as to attack Hell, it's…" he trailed off, at a loss for words.
"Disgustingly in character?" Auriel supplied, a rare moment of unforgiving hatred before she returned to her usual gentle countenance.
"You are so loved, Hadriel, remember that." Arael whispered, once again wrapping her baby in the fine cloak, engraved with an H, before placing him on the surface of the water, one tear falling onto his forehead before he was carried away from her, forever, and fell over the side of the High Heavens.
Arael collapsed to the ground, sobbing her heartbreak as she cried for what was denied her forevermore. Her chance to hold her son, her lover, her family. Her chance to watch him grow into the beautiful boy he would undoubtedly be. To watch him fall in love in turn, to have children of his own. To save the world, or even just an ant. She would never see him do any of these things. And that was the last thing she knew, before she knew nothing at all.
Auriel let out a soft sob at the sight of her daughter's empty body.
"She suffers no more." Malthael said coldly, and Auriel couldn't help but smile when she recognised the attempt at comforting her, knowing that was all she would ever get, now that their only tie was gone.
"Keep her well, Malthael."
"Of course."
Meanwhile, a lady with a black dress and hood over her head, and a cross over her chest, heard the sound of knocking on the door. When she went to open it, there was no one there, and, suddenly in an all-too familiar situation, she looked down to find the expected babe, abandoned on the top step.
With a heavy sigh, she reached down and lifted the child into her arms, turning and closing the door behind her firmly. Carelessly, she noted the fine features, curly black locks and pale skin and instantly assumed the child to be female. Lucky for it, she thought, given that it was an all girls' orphanage.
Walking into the nursery, she disinterestedly placed the baby in the third and last crib in the room, glancing back once to make sure it was really sleeping before closing the door behind her firmly and went back to watching her soap opera.
Sitting back down, she scowled. The stupid brat had made her miss the beginning.