Chapter 12

So, I was recently informed by a reader of this story that Snakes can only close their retinas and they can't actually close their eyes…oops.

"Expelliarmus!"

Bellatrix effortlessly blocked the spell, letting it be absorbed by the blue shield, before retaliating with a bludgeoning curse. Hadrian ducked under it and fired off a knockback jinx, which she sidestepped.

"Wingardium Leviosa, Confundo, Stupefy"

Hadrian wasn't quite expecting the notorious dark which Bellatrix Lestrange to use such a…mundane spell such as Wingardium Leviosa, so he shielded against it. He avoided the Confundo, but by doing so, he fell right into Bellatrix's trap. He saw the Stupefy whizz by to his right, but as he prepared to cast his next spell, she casted Stupefy again silently. He could only register a flash of red light speeding before him before his world went black. For the second time that day. There was no need to bring up what had happened during Transfiguration. He and Barty had made an agreement to never mention it to anybody.

Hadrian groaned as he slowly came back into consciousness. He was acutely aware of the throbbing pain in his forehead as tried to sit up.

"Why is it every time we duel that I end up on the floor?" He sighed, rubbing his head.

Bellatrix snorted. "You're just not up to my ability level,"

"Of course not! You've had practice for years more than me, and you've also been in several duels where you've killed people!"

She nodded. "That's true. But, you have improved since our very first duel," She cast a tempus. "You are dismissed,"

Hadrian thanked her before he ran out of the duelling room, relieved that he was leaving both his last lesson of the day and the crazy, spell flinging witch. Excitement coursed through his body as he remembered that he and his father would be going to Malfoy manor tonight for dinner. He would also get to meet other children his age!

In truth, Hadrian was the most eager to talk with and interact with the children of death eaters. He had never truly talked with any other kids or let alone done anything with them. Boy wonder and his cronies Ronald Weasley and Neville Longbottom didn't count.

On his way to his room, he passed Barty who was holding his head in his hands and muttering something about bunny rabbits, switching spells and Larken Avery's undergarments. Hadrian shuddered in horror before he hurried down the hallway. He gave the password to the portrait of Martel the Malevolent before he entered his room, trying to erase that particular memory.

Sonoro raised her head from her rock where she was enjoying the warmth of the sunlight.

'How was duelling?' The diamond starred uniform snake slowly slithered off her rock.

Hadrian sighed. 'The same as every other time. We duel, I end up on the floor. Honestly, I think the floor's starting to get sick of my back, abdomen or face crashing onto it every single lesson'

Sonoro flicked her tongue out. 'Well, just remember that the insane witch has had a lot more experience in duelling than you have'

He nodded. 'That's true. In fact, Bellatrix had said something quite similar when I had asked her. But, on a brighter note that doesn't involve the duelling floor, we're going to Malfoy manor tonight for dinner'

Sonoro hissed happily at this 'Does this mean I can get my scales polished?' She asked in excitement, perking her head up.

Hadrian laughed. 'You'll have to find somebody to polish your scales for you, or probably blackmail poor Walden Mcnair into doing it,'

Sonoro got this look of pure evil on her face that if Hadrian had been facing in combat, he would have been running for the hills.

'Well, snake child, if you need me, just look for Walden Mcnair,' With that, she got off her rock and slithered over to the large white pipe opposite Hadrian's bed and entered it, disappearing from sight. Hadrian shook his head. Sonoro honestly scared him sometimes.

An hour or three later, Riddle manor…

Hadrian arrived in the manor foyer to see his father already standing there, wearing a black cloak with a silver clasp over a pair of dark blue robes. Hadrian himself was in Emerald robes, Sonoro wrapped around his left forearm, a smug expression on her face to match her brightly polished blue and green scales.

"Are you ready?" His father asked. He nodded.

They flooed through to Malfoy manor, to which there was a lot of grumbling from Sonoro and landed gracefully onto a black marble floor. Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy were there to welcome them in.

"Good evening my lord, Hadrian, welcome to our manor. It is an honour for you to be here with us. Please, come in and take a seat," Lucius said smoothly.

"Thank you, Lucius. I'm sure that Hadrian is quite elated to have some contact with others his age," He smiled in amusement.

"Oh, yes. Draco is very happy as well. He is actually in the living room with everybody else. I can show you there if you want," Narcissa spoke up, with a smile.

"Thank you,"

As Narcissa led Hadrian out of the floo atrium, he noticed all the fancy décor and paintings that lined the walls. It was quite different to Riddle manor, which was more simply elegant than overly exquisite. The wizards and witches in the portraits slowly woke up as the two went by, and stared at them curiously, yet still managing to look cold and poised. He noticed that nearly all of them had white-blond hair.

They arrived after a few twists, turns, corners and moments at a spacious room. Two crystal chandeliers were illuminated and hung from the high ceiling which was supported by marble beams with intricate carvings on it. The fireplace in the stone wall was lit, and the clear night sky could be seen out of the tall, near-floor length windows. Bookshelves lined the walls, and pieces of fancy, luxurious furniture were situated on the green-grey patterned carpet.

A group of children who looked around the same age as Hadrian were seated on the green and blue couches and armchairs, talking and occasionally snickering at something. They all stopped when they noticed them standing in the doorway.

"Draco, Pansy, Theo, Blaise and Daphne, I would like you to meet Hadrian Riddle, the son of the dark lord," Narcissa introduced him to the 5 that were all staring at him in curiosity. A look of surprise came over the faces of everybody but Daphne when they heard who his father was, but it quickly disappeared a second later.

"Hello, I'm Draco Malfoy. This is Pansy, Theo, Blaise and you've already met Daphne. It's a pleasure to meet you," The boy who had white-blonde hair and looked quite a lot like Lucius Malfoy said formally.

"I shall leave you all to get acquainted. Dinner is being served in 45 minutes," Narcissa said before leaving.

"Come sit with us," Daphne motioned towards the empty seat besides her. Hadrian sat and looked at the other three who he had never met before.

The girl, Pansy, he assumed, had long black hair. Her face sort of reminded Hadrian of a Pug, which he had seen a still photograph of once in a muggle book he found in the Potter's attic about the characteristics of different Dog breeds. It was meant to be for Callistus as a present for when the Potter's had visited the muggle world, but Callistus had thrown a huge fit about receiving an ordinary muggle book, not brooms, candy or toys. How did he know this? The Potter's had planned to leave him at Potter manor, which Hadrian was quite content with, but then they realized that Hadrian could possibly wreck-havoc on and sneak into parts of the manor he wasn't allowed in, such as the brewery, or gods forbid, Callistus's toy room. Not that he had any use for the brewery or wanted to enter Callistus's room. He feared that all the bright red would make him throw up.

He shook himself out of the memories of Potter manor, and back to Malfoy manor. The next boy, either Theo or Blaise on the right of Pansy had olive skin and dark hair. He was quite broadly built and had a strong jaw. He was quite the opposite to the boy beside him, who looked rather weedy, had glasses and from what Hadrian could tell, was quite tall.

The girl spoke up "Hi Hadrian, I'm Pansy Parkison. Pleasure to meet you!" She said brightly.

"I'm Blaise Zabini," The boy on her right said.

"I'm Theodore Nott," Said the boy with glasses.

"It's a pleasure to meet you all," Hadrian said politely, even though internally he was excited.

There was a bit of an awkward silence amongst the six, until Hadrian broke it.

"I would like you all to meet Sonoro," Here, Sonoro peeked her head out of Hadrian's left sleeve.

Pansy cooed, while Draco and Blaise both marvelled at her.

"You have a snake?" Draco asked, quite amazed. Hadrian nodded.

"She's my companion,"

'I still feel dizzy. I'm going back to sleep' Sonoro grumbled and started to retreat her head again but stopped when she saw the other 5.

'Who are they?' She hissed curiously.

'That is Draco Malfoy, Pansy Parkison, Blaise Zabini, Theodore Nott and Daphne Greengrass,'

'Oh, I remember Daphne! She's that girl who bet you in a race while she was in a dress! Hi Daphne!' She hissed happily.

"Sonoro says hi, Daphne," Hadrian translated.

"You're a parselmouth?" Theo asked quietly. "There's only been a dozen or so parselmouths by birth, including Salazar Slytherin,"

'That's true. Parselmouths by birth are extremely rare. Typically, Parselmouths teach themselves by interacting a lot with my species. You are quite special' Sonoro hissed.

Draco, Blaise and Pansy were all still gaping at them, but in a way that only an aristocratical pureblood could pull off.

Sonoro started to make a cross between a hiss and a chuckle.

'That blond boy reminds me of a white ferret. Ferrets taste good'

"Draco, Sonoro says that you look like a white ferret, and that ferrets taste good," An offended look came over Draco's face as he slowly scooted away from Hadrian and Sonoro, while Daphne snorted in the most un-ladylike manner.

"There you go, Draco. See, you do look like a ferret. Even Sonoro says it," She smirked.

"Hey! It's not my fault that snakes think everything is food!" Draco retorted in a slightly hurt tone.

"Admit it, Draco. You look like a ferret," Theo said.

"Not like you can say much, weed," Draco shot back.

"Ooooooo snap!" Blaise cried, laughing.

This ended up turning into an argument amongst the 5 where everybody was insulting everybody else. Hadrian and Sonoro swivelled their heads between everybody as they fired roast after roast, all while still managing to look and sound the part of regal, civil composed pureblood children they were.

"You're one to speak, Pansy. You can barely dress yourself without looking like a try-hard who had an epileptic fit in a muggle makeup store,"

"Don't even go there, Daphne. We all know you are completely un-aware as how to properly apply makeup," Pansy sniffed.

Just then, the 5 arguing purebloods, plus Hadrian and a fitfully snoozing Sonoro, honestly, how that snake managed to sleep with all the ruckus going on around her was completely beyond Hadrian, all went quiet as a loud crack sounded through the living room, and a house elf wearing a pillowcase appeared in front of them. Well, except for Sonoro. She continued to slumber blissfully, undisturbed by all the craziness going on around her.

"Mistress and master Malfoy wants Dobby to tells master Draco and his friends that dinner is ready," He squeaked in a high pitch voice. Draco nodded and waved a hand dismissively at the house elf.

"Tell father and mother we are on our way. Now go,"

Dobby bowed, snapped his bony fingers together and disapparated from the room with a loud crack.

"Everybody, lets go," Draco said as he stood up from the couch. They all stood up and patted down their robes, making sure that their appearances were all perfect and pristine.

When they arrived at the dining room, the 6 saw that their parents were already there. They all sat next and as soon as they were seated and ready, the entrée magically appeared in front of them.

As everybody was enjoying the wonderful mushroom and cream soup, Hadrian was introduced to everybody's parents. He politely nodded and said greeted them all.

Once the main course, Bison Steak with Potato, Rosemary and Aspagagus in a chilli Bursted Tomato spread was served, the adults moved to talking about politics and the death eaters. Draco, Pansy and Daphne started to make conversation within themselves, making sure to remain courteous and well-mannered in front of their parents. Hadrian was pretty shocked at how different they were behaving in front of their parents, compared to when they were in the living room. A few meters away, curled up on a rock whilst being fed raw meat by a terrified house elf, Sonoro yawned, revealing her sharp teeth and making the poor house elf squeak in terror and drop the piece of Venison clutched in its hands onto the Malfoy's polished black marble floors. Trembling, while keeping its eyes on Sonoro, it picked it back up and quickly vanished the stain with a snap of his fingers.

As Dessert, Ice cream Profiteroles, was served, Hadrian noticed Theo staring at Sonoro as she rather scarily swallowed a roasted pidgeon whole. It was a rather gruesome sight.

"She's a Diamond starred uniform snake. The last of her kind, sadly," Theo looked over from Sonoro, startled that he had been caught staring.

"Oh, that's a pity. She's such a beautiful snake too," He said softly.

"I'll be sure to tell her you said that. Great, that's just going to boost her ego even more…" He muttered. Theo snickered quietly.

After everybody was well stuffed with delicious food and had just about finished their conversations, it was quite late. Voldemort stood up.

"Lucius, Narcissa, thank you for your gracious invitation to us tonight. I'm afraid it is quite late and that we must be leaving," He said, before turning to Hadrian.

"Hadrian, we shall be going now. Go say goodbye your new friends and allies,"

He waved to the 5 who all waved back and politely said goodbyes to their parents, before thanking Mr and Mrs Malfoy. He picked up Sonoro who was having fun slithering in and out of a mini tree-log that the house elves had brought her. Ignoring her hissed protests, he put her around his left forearm and went over to his father who was waiting for him.

The pair flooed back to the manor's floo room, and everything stopped spinning, Hadrian head Sonoro declare that she would never use the floo again. Voldemort just smirked.

'You're still better than Nagini. She straight up refuses to use the floo at all and will anchor herself to anything she sees if you try to make her' He hissed, amused.

'Well, she's a lot bigger than me. I can't do that' Sonoro grumbled.

"Hadrian, Sonoro, I trust you had an enjoyable time and made new friends and allies. Now, it is quite late. Both of you should be heading to bed now. Goodnight,"

"Goodnight, father,"

Hadrian gave the password to Martel the Malevolent and entered his bedroom. He was rather happy that he had met five new young wizards and witches who he now considered friends.

'Sleep well, Snakeling,' Sonoro hissed as Hadrian got into his bed.

'Goodnight, Sonoro,' He fell asleep, a peaceful expression on his face as he dreamed of all the things he would do with his new allies and friends.

The next morning, Potter manor…

Lily Potter was sitting in the Potter manor living room, sipping a cup of orange juice and reading a muggle magazine when the idea to phone her sister suddenly appeared in her mind. She picked up the telephone and dialled the number that Albus Dumbledore had gotten from Dave Mason, the father of the owner of the company that Vernon worked at. A few rings later, a fake happy voice came through the telephone.

"Hello, you have reached Petunia Dursley! Who is this?"

"Hi, Tuney, it's me, Lily. Lily Potter,"

She could instantly hear the change in her sister's voice. "Lily. How did you get this number?" Petunia said coldly.

"Well, when James and I heard you and Vernon had moved, we phoned Grunnings and asked for your new number," She lied smoothly. "By the way, tell Vernon I said congratulations on his new promotion!"

"Hmph. Anyways, what is the reason you called today?"

"Oh, I just wanted to say congratulations on Vernon's promotion and ask how you and the rest of your family is settling in! I hope everything is going smoothly for you?"

On the other end, Petunia started to sweat nervously. Lily couldn't know that she and Vernon had sent her son off to some god-forbidden, crumbling orphanage in the middle of England. In fact, she had heard from her friend Margaret Halford that the old orphanage had recently burnt down…

"We're doing just fine. Your son and his…freakish abilities have been a new change for us, but we have managed to make slight changes to our routine to take care of him," Petunia sniffed in distaste as she mentioned Harry, but Lily waved it off. Her sister would never be comfortable around magic. Lily had also been slightly confused for a second about what Harry was doing with Petunia, but then remembered that they had sent Harry away to live with her. For some odd reason, he was also rather happy to go live the Dursleys too…

"That's good to hear. Petunia, I also need to tell you that usually, when a wizarding child turns 11, they receive a letter of acceptance into a magical school,"

"Vernon and I are NOT going to pay money for your son to go learn magic spells and how to make toad spawn at some expensive magic school! We will not have it!" Petunia hissed.

"Petunia, you don't need to worry about that. All the costs for Harry's education are going to be covered by James and me. Once he is 11 and until he turns 17, he will spend the majority of the year at the school," She frowned. Obviously, Harry couldn't go to Hogwarts. He would probably be jealous that Callistus got special training and was the boy-who-lived, not him. And that wouldn't be good if her poor Callistus or anybody around him got hurt…Durmstrang? No…It wouldn't do to have a Potter, even if it were a Potter not living with them in an institution of dark magic.

"Fine. But he better not cause any mischief around our household with his abilities, or else we will pull him out and transfer him to Duddykins. He would be better off there, anways," She spat out the word abilities as if it were a curse word.

Lily nodded. That sounded fair enough, after all, if Harry was doing things with magic were too difficult for Vernon and Petunia to handle, there was nothing else to do but pull him out. And besides, she wanted Harry to have the least amount of contact with Harry as possible. The more he knew, the bigger a threat to Callistus and the rest of the wizarding he would be.

She heard a loud wail from upstairs, and instantly shot up from the couch, alarmed.

"Sorry Petunia, I have to go! Thank you again for taking in Harry!" She quickly put down the telephone and rushed upstairs to see what was wrong.

She found Callistus throwing a temper tantrum on the hallway floor in front of a bookshelf.

"Callistus, honey! What's wrong?" She kneeled down so she was eye level with her son.

"This book says that this muggle boy is the boy-who-lived, not me!" He yelled. By now, James had come up as well to investigate what the problem was. He picked up the book and threw it to the floor in anger.

Lily looked at the cover of the book. It was a muggle book and it showed a picture of a smiling boy with a metal arm. The title read 'The boy-who-lived'.

"Oh, Callistus, sweetie! People call that boy the boy-who-lived because he survived a shark attack! You're the wizarding world's saviour and our hero! You vanquished a dark lord! You're the real boy-who-lived," She reassured Callistus. At this, he stopped wailing immediately and sat up.

"Come on, let's go flying, son," James said, trying to cheer Callistus up. It worked. His face instantly brightened up at the thought of being on a broom. They both rushed off in a competition to see who could get changed the fastest into their Quiddich robes. As Lily watched their retreating figures dash off with a smile, her previous conversation with Petunia drifted back into her mind.

Callistus was the boy-who-lived. He had vanquished Voldemort. The prophecy about Callistus defeating Voldemort for the last time had shattered. This meant that he could have a happy childhood. If Harry, his twin, went to Hogwarts, he would see how Callistus was treated due to being the saviour of the wizarding world. Harry Potter could not go to Hogwarts. She would try to do everything in her power to make sure that Harry Potter would not set foot in Hogwarts within the next 10 years.

"Harry Potter must not go to Hogwarts. If he did, Callistus will get hurt," She said and shuddered as she imagined her poor Callistus getting injured.

She walked into the room that she and James shared to get her wand, and out of the corner of her eye, she saw a pair of James's robes that had the symbol of a Panther-like creature on it. The crest of the Ilvermorny house, Wampus.

She remember that James had gotten it from that time in their 7th year, when everybody in their year level was invited to spend a month at Ilvermorny, the American wizarding school as exchange students. Lily herself had refused, but she remembered that James had enthusiastically agreed and had had a great time there, if his continuously told stories of the times he and the Marauders there was any indication.

Harry could go to Ilvermorny. It was basically the American version of Hogwarts. It spoke English and didn't dabble in the dark arts or any form of magic that was illegal. She'd have to speak to James and perhaps Albus, but she felt that Ilvermorny was the perfect school for Harry to go to. Besides, if he went to Ilvermorny, he wouldn't have too much contact with anything that concerned Callistus. Lily nodded to herself and went back to the living room, where she went downstairs and started practicing some advanced charm work while the delighted whoops and shouts from her son and husband on the Quiddich pitch sounded through the house. She smiled as she watched them. She could honestly swear sometimes that there were two Potter kids in their family, not just one.

The house of the Beach, Melbourne, same time…

Petunia Dursley breathed a sigh of relief as the telephone line went dead. Her sister had not suspected that in fact, they were not housing her freakish son and that there was quite a large chance that he was either six feet under, ashes or seriously injured. Just then, Vernon walked into the living room dressed in short sleeves and a pair of shorts.

"Who was that?" He asked as he grabbed his cap off the table.

"Oh, it was just my sister. She wanted to say congratulations on your promotion and ask how her freaky son was," She said airly. "I told her that he was still with us," He nodded.

"As long as she and the other freaks don't come breaking down our front door, we should be fine," He said before he kissed her on the cheek. "Bye, Pet. I'm going to the park with Dudley to play some football. He's turning out to be a fine lad at it too,"

Dudley came into the room holding a rather grubby looking football and wearing a t-shirt with the number 5 on the back. Whenever it stood for his number on the local football team or his IQ is still debatable.

"Bye, Vernon dear! Bye, Duddykins!" She gave her son a hug as he and his father both walked out of the front door.

Petunia picked up the telephone again and dialled in a number.

"Hello Ava! How are you? Oh, that's excellent! I was just calling to let you know that you our next book club meeting can be at my place. Yes, I did see that dress! What was she thinking? Yeah. Really rather unfortunate..."

Petunia continued to gossip away with her friend the phone about the locals. She eventually hung up and began watering the flowers in her garden. The conversation with her sister had completely slipped from her mind as she hummed to herself and sprinkled water onto a Rose bush. Her lie about Harry had fooled Lily Potter, but little did she know that it would all come unravelled in 4 years, when Harry Potter would turn 11.

My apologies for how long this chapter took, and if anybody seemed particularly OOC, especially the Dursleys. I'm also really not quite sure how pureblood 7-year olds behave, so I took my best shot. Anyways, thanks for reading!