It was October 31, 1981 and all seemed well on Privet Drive, Surrey. The time was 11:58 pm.
A green-eyed, black-haired boy twitched in his small dark corner. The walls had been covered with blood, writings from his fractured mind, random images of war and bloodshed that refused to leave his mind. His slim arms and legs were covered in raised scars, fifteen of them still bleeding and the sticky blade lay on the permanently stained wooden floor. A blue plastic bin still smelled of bile and small amounts of food that he fought to keep down being expelled during one of his more painful 'episodes.'
He let out a small gasp of pain as his mind erupted into a pain so deucedly aggravating and he flung himself to his bucket. He retched loudly and after one go, he began to get his dry heaves under control.
A quiet 'tap-tap-tap' noise at the door alerted him to the fact that someone wanted in.
"C-come in," he croaked, his throat cracked and dry.
The door creaked open and a pair of baby blue eyes peeked in at him, seeing his hunched, shivering form over the bucket. The door opened more fully to let in a broad-shouldered boy with shoulder-length caramel blond hair with a wooden bowl with hot water and a towel inside. The new boy quickly walked over to the shaking figure, careful not to spill any of the bowl's contents, and sat down next to his companion.
"Godwin, I thought you left with Aunt and Uncle," the unnamed boy whispered, coughing as soon as the words left his lips. Godwin rubbed his friend's back soothingly until the dreaded cough ended.
"I could never leave you alone in this house while you were sick, Hadrian. You've been my only friend since I came into my 'freakishness' eleven years ago."
Hadrian wiped the blood from his lips and gave Godwin a small smile. His smile quickly turned into a small 'o' as his brilliant green eyes became a dark, swirling amethyst. Hadrian's off-white-colored aura lit the room, evolving into the same swirling dark violet as his eyes and pure silver ribbons interlaced with a black ribbon that disintegrated before Godwin's eyes. Godwin pushed his magic outward, a soft turquoise with ribbons of pure silver, to show the other's power that it was familiar and meant no harm to the power's beholder.
After several long minutes of the magic changing to its master's now active blood, Hadrian's eyes fluttered open after having been closed halfway through the process. His hair had grown to a good four foot long pool around the boy's head. Half hidden behind his long hair were two pointed ears with two piercings on each and his eyes were now a deep amethyst. His figure was no longer the form of a wiry adolescent boy but was fuller and much more feminine than it should have been. His face was sharper now with high cheek bones that gently protruded under his sparkling emerald eyes. The scars that had covered his arms, legs, and forehead were gone, leaving no trace of ever being there in the first place. He lifted his long, slender-fingered hands to his mouth and felt two sharp incisors where his duller ones had been.
As Hadrian explored the new features of his body, Godwin sat quietly with his cousin's head in his lap and smiled. Then he whispered a kind, "Happy sixteenth birthday, Hadrian."