Disclaimer: obviously I only own the idea of my story and not that of the original author of this series.
'Other language thoughts'
"Other language speech"
'English thoughts'
"English speech"
This method is reversed in flashbacks
Not even gonna try putting French accents into the English portions
Chapter 25: A Well Deserved Vacation
The instant Hadrian landed from the portkey travel, the first thing that hit him was the heat. The humidity crashed into him and it felt so much different from the cold British winter that he had just gone through. He looked up at the black sky, showing that they had traveled a large distance. The breeze picked up for a slight moment, bringing a moment of bliss at the slight reprieve from the heavy humidity. He looked towards the house of the backyard they had just landed in. it was a larger house and seemed a little dreary, though Hadrian didn't think it was too bad. Hadrian then took a look around at the palm trees and various plants that surrounded the yard. The very end of the yard opened way to sand then eventually the ocean, which was gently lapping at the shore. He took a look at Sirius, and could see the stare of a man lost in memories. Hadrian decided to knock him out of them.
"Sirius, where are we?" he asked the man.
Sirius seemed to come back to the present at that question. "A family home of the Blacks." He said. "Man, I haven't been here since I was a child." He said with a tone of slight longing. "Has it really been that long?" he added, more as an afterthought to himself than to Hadrian.
Hadrian was slightly confused. "I thought MACUSA was extremely uptight about new arrivals into the country?" he asked. it was one of the reasons he had never tried to travel across the pond before. European countries had much more lax magical travel laws.
"You're thinking of muggle America. While most of country's borders are consistent between muggle and magical worlds, the Hawaii islands never got taken over by the America in the magical world. In the muggle world, it was taken over due to some military reason. The magicals never had that reason." Sirius educated Hadrian. "I think there was also a treaty between the America and the islands, though I'm not entirely sure." He admitted. He remembered asking a similar question when his father had started teaching him and his brother the basics of politics. "The Hawaiians have a much more fluid policy on visitation for their magical side. If you have property here, they generally check you out when you buy the property then let you come and go as you please. The only time they might come check on you is if you bring a large group with you. Other than that, they are pretty easy going. They have a live and let live policy, though they generally keep an eye on newcomers from the outside.
Hadrian nodded his head, he then let his senses scan as far as he could without too much effort. He quickly got one conclusion from his search and asked Sirius to see if he knew. "Why is the air so saturated with magic?" Hadrian asked.
"20 questions time?" Sirius teased. He summoned two chairs from the back porch of the house and plopped down into one. Hadrian followed his example, though in a more refined fashion. He looked at Hadrian with the face of a parent giving his child advice. "My guess is the type of magic they do." Sirius said. "Their style of magic is more rituals than wand work. Don't get me wrong, they use wands. It's just that they don't have any special kind of magic in wand use like many other countries do. They use more natural magic to do things. That's the most likely reason." Sirius explained.
Hadrian didn't argue but felt that there was something flawed with that explanation. The magic in the air was mostly even across his scan, not centered around a ritual site. It was possible for this to happen, but there would be evidence of rituals all over the place and he doubted the muggles would be that blind towards magic happening everywhere. It was also vaguely familiar, though he couldn't place it. He didn't press the point with Sirius. He doubted that the man even felt the magic around him at that level. Hadrian was sure Sirius could find malicious objects in the near vicinity, as his job required, but the more sophisticated magical feelings would most likely go ever the man's head.
"Next question. What are we doing here?" he asked.
Sirius gave him a slightly confused look. "To relax. It's called a vacation. You used to go on them, remember?" he said. Hadrian did remember, albeit vaguely. Ones from when he was a child, naïve to the world and its workings.
"How long are we going to be here?" he probed.
Sirius gave a noncommittal shrug. "As long as we want to. I don't have any obligations in Britain. I have the duties from the Wizengamot, but I can send Andi to do those for me." He told Hadrian.
That confused Hadrian. "Don't you have your job?" he asked the man.
Sirius' face got a little more serious. "I quit. I couldn't handle working there after what they were able to pull. I joined the aurors to fight in the war and hoped to help clean up the system from the influence that the Dark families held upon the court. I thought that at least the light families would have grown a spine so that the trial would happen in a manner that was typical. Instead they let that shitstorm go down. I had no intention of working for something under the purview of those people, not when I know that you were telling the truth about Voldemort. The Dark will try to cut the DMLE out at the knees and Fudge will be too much off an idiot to stop them, most likely aiding them if nothing else. I didn't want to be part of that and chose to cut ties from anything that would tie up my time." Sirius explained.
"And I don't think you have any obligations either, I also don't think you care for your vote at this time." He said with a querying eye towards Hadrian. Hadrian just shook his head. "Good, then we can leave whenever we feel like it." Sirius said. "For the time being, just kick back and relax." Sirius said as he transfigured his chair to be longer, then propped his legs up. He looked towards the ocean and seemed to get lost in memories, so Hadrian decided to leave him to it.
"I'm going to go inside." Hadrian told the man. Sirius gave a very negligent response, so Hadrian headed into the house. He walked around the inside of the house, looking at the layout. It was a two-story house with all of the rooms focused on the second floor. The first story had a kitchen attached to an eating area as well as a lounge area. There was a room filled with children toys, though the magic seemed to have waned out of most of them. Another door led to a bathroom fit with a shower. The last door opened to reveal a flight of stairs leading down. Hadrian followed them and looked upon the ritual room that was in front of him. 'It seemed like the Blacks didn't pick this place solely for vacation.' Hadrian thought.
He walked back up the stairs before he closed the door to the ritual room. He would explore it more in depth at a later date. He went to the second story and looked at the available rooms. He bypassed the master bedroom and took the one towards the other end of the hall. He sat down on the bed and relaxed back, happy to finally be in a place he didn't have to at least a little on guard at all times.
The next few days were spent getting used to the time difference. During the first few nights, Hadrian took to exploring the surrounding area. He was looking for signs of any constant magic that might explain the feeling of evenly spread out magic that was constantly on his mind. His searches had come up with nothing to give any evidence as to why the magic was behaving like it was. The daylight that they were awake for was spent at the beach and then going out to try some of the local cuisine. They had stuck to muggle restaurants so far, as they wanted to visit the magical portion of society when they had a full day to explore.
Once the few days necessary for their bodies to get used to the native time zone passed, they went out to go explore the magical side of the largest tropical island in the chain. Sirius apparated them to a part of the island that looked much more authentic than the cities that had been slightly corporatized by the muggles. It had some smaller houses that looked more native to the island and had much less technology everywhere. They then started walking to the outskirts of the small area to where two large tiki poles were sitting. Hadrian could feel the massive amounts of magic that was surrounding what he assumed was the gateway to the magical hub of Hawaii. Sirius gave him a little shove towards the gateway which broke Hadrian from his thoughts of how they were doing this particular feat of magic.
Hadrian strode through the gateway, feeling as if the sun's rays were going over him as he walked through, and came out in a huge collection of stalls. There were also large amounts of magicals wandering around and looking at the wares. Hadrian took a step to the side so that he didn't block the gateway and just let the feeling of all the magics wash over him. So many different scents, sensations, and sounds came pouring in. Hadrian could feel the various types of magic that came with different cultures, which would make sense given the border policies.
The one thing that was hard to sense was the place they had just come through. It was muted to him, as if somebody had thrown a blanked over something that had been making noise. Still there, just distorted. In fact, anything that wasn't the market place was hard to get a feel for. It just added to the mystery of the magics surrounding this island. Whatever was going on here, would need significant magical power to be put into it for the effect that they desired. It seemed to be linked to something distant in the ground. Most likely a leyline.
All of this was felt in under thirty seconds, and that seemed to be all the time that Sirius was going to give him. "Come on. Let's go explore." He said excitedly, like a child. "You can do all your research stuff later." He told Hadrian as he pulled out a pouch and handed it to Hadrian.
Hadrian tried to give it back. "I don't need money Sirius." He told him while holding out the money in Sirius' direction. The older man wouldn't take it though.
"It's the job of one's guardian to spoil their charge. If you don't want to accept that excuse, then just think of it as backpay for all of the years of holidays and birthdays that I missed." Sirius said before disappearing, taking with him the chance to give back the money.
Hadrian pocketed the money and made his way into the stalls. It seemed as if there wasn't much if any regulation that happened as he could feel the amount of magic coming off of objects and could see the variety of runes that covered objects. The stalls weren't just limited to natives. Once you got past the opening stalls, the nationality of the stalls started varying by quite a large degree. He could see various European wares as well as wares that had a much more Eastern look and feel to them. The wares from the African stalls were the most similar to the things the Hawaiian stalls were selling, though with a different feel to them. The largest space that any shop got was given to stave stalls. They had all types of staves from old, gnarled wood to sleek and shiny polished ones. He could feel the varying connection to some of them, and the outright rejection he would receive should he try out some of the others.
He continued making his way through the stalls, blindly wandering throughout the sprawl of stalls. He waited for something of interest to catch his senses rather than his eyes. Seeing something that was worthwhile was going to be hard in this myriad of colors and displays of people selling their wars. At one point during his wandering he saw Sirius talking to some local lady and Hadrian just shook his head. Regardless of place in the world, Sirius seemed to be a horndog. Hadrian continued further into the expanse of stalls.
It was after another twenty to thirty minutes of walking that he walked over a ward line. He stopped quickly to evaluate before finding it to be safe to cross. As he did, there was a distinct change in the air. The general hubbub of the market started to fade away and in turn the air was being charged with a much higher amount of magic. This portion of the market was a bit more organized in terms of how the stalls were set up and how no one was trying was just up trying to display their wares to passerby. The number of shoppers was also significantly lower, though held much more power than most of the people in the larger portion of the market.
One of the first stalls was a Japanese sword stall, holding enchanted katanas. His eyes glanced over the swords hung up on the walls and came to rest on one of the ones resting about two thirds of the way up the wall on the back-left side. His eyes weren't drawn to it for its look, it wasn't even impressive in that department. It was matted with dust and the design upon the handle had faded. The feel of it overshadowed all of the other swords in the stall like a torch in a room full of matches. It was a sword made to cut, and not just physical things. He could feel the magic on the sword destroying whatever effects the aura of any of the other swords that were around it when it came in contact with the sword. He continued to look at it.
"You into antiques or something?" The owner asked Hadrian in a heavily accented voice. He was a squat man with flowing black hair and distinct Japanese features.
Hadrian was about to brush off the question with a more general answer before he looked into the eyes of the man and saw the calculating gleam in the man's eyes. He knew what he was carrying and he wanted to make sure that Hadrian actually knew what he was looking at before engaging in any serious dialogue. The fact that he didn't even have to look back to know what sword Hadrian was looking at was also a tip off. "Older things can be much more than most realize, especially if one is sharp enough to see it." Hadrian replied, putting double meaning into his words. The man seemed to catch on and smiled. "Do you have any true interest in any of these right now?" the man asked him.
Hadrian thought about it for a second before shaking his head. "Then let me give you a word of advice newcomer. You have entered the serious magical market. Be careful what you look for, lest you find it." he told Hadrian before relaxing.
Hadrian gave a slight bow of the head before heading into the new stalls. He came across potions and ritual instructions for how to find your inner animal. He came across boxes for trapping ghosts or spirits and boxes that had ghosts or spirits trapped in them currently. He saw many types of armor as well as more exotic wares. One such item was a pair of shoes modeled after the myths of Hermes that were sitting in a bird cage. The shoes had pairs of wings that were gently flapping. Another strange item he saw was a flint that sparked fiendfyre. 'Only an idiot would buy that. Somebody who can't create will never be able to control it.' he thought to himself.
This was a grave folly of magicals. Thinking that creations from other people meant that they controlled the magic the item gave them an advantage over. The only reason one would ever use that flint would be if they couldn't create fiendfyre and had the intention of leaving the area immediately. He also wandered past a tattoo parlor that put live tattoos on. He spent the next few hours walking through the stalls and not finding anything he actually wanted to buy until he came across a necromancy stall owned by a German woman.
She had a tall figure with a heavy set of features on her face. She looked to be somewhere in her fifties, although with magic it was always hard to tell. He looked around her stall and looked around. He was forced to read the labels available, as he had no experience with the feeling of most of the things she was selling. He had no doubt that most if not all of the items were legitimate just from the amount of magic that was oozing out of them. The things within the stall looked promising and promised himself that he would come back after doing some research.
He decided to call it a day after viewing that shop and headed back into the main part of the shopping district where cacophony resumed after he passed the ward line. It took him about ten minutes to find Sirius, chatting up some girl, and waited while Sirius and the lady made plans to meet at a later date. They both walked the distance back to the gateway and walked back out into the non-magical world. The instant they crossed the gateway the sights and sounds, as well as any magical sensation, died out. Nothing that Hadrian had just been feeling from the stalls was there anymore. It felt like the differences after using magical transportation over large distances, though Hadrian knew they were transported anywhere far as he could feel the outside while he was in the market place. It just added to the already complex mystery he wanted to look into.
The sun was falling close to the horizon as the both apparated back to the house and walked through the door. Sirius placed down some trinkets onto the table. They looked and felt more like souvenirs than anything that was actually useful. Sirius looked a little downcast as the only thing Hadrian put on the table was the pouch that Sirius had given him at the beginning of their time at the market. "You didn't find anything you wanted, huh?" Sirius asked.
"Nothing I could actually justify buying currently." He replied.
"Maybe next time." Sirius said optimistically. He wanted Hadrian to have something physical that he could remember the trip with. Even if it wasn't a conventional souvenir. "We'll go to dinner in about an hour." He told the younger man.
"Alright, I'll be in my room till then." He told Sirius as he walked up the stairs. He plunked down onto his bed and wondered what his future searches would reveal to him about the island.
Hadrian spent the next month looking around the gateway of the market. He was trying to figure out what made it work. He also went in and talked to the merchants in the back portion of the shopping place. He learned more about the wares pedaled by the necromancer and was close to purchasing a few of the items, although the items were at hellacious prices.
The first interesting thing about the gateway was that the runes were made in Western styled runes, not the local dialect. With the disconnect between the MACUSA and the Hawaiian Islands, Hadrian thought that there would be more of a separation of how things were created and used. He also found out that the market was put in its own pocket dimension, though it was slightly removed from the space and time of the surrounding area. That was a more interesting find. Seeing as nobody had reliably figured out how to have this effect with any consistency, he wanted to know how a group of separated magicals had figured out how to do that magic over a large area with a language that clearly did not originate from them.
With that mystery solved, Hadrian had much more spare time on his hands. He used that time learning to surf, although it was probably a lot easier for him since he could create his own waves. That was another thing. The feeling of being surrounded by his element at all times was slightly euphoric. He was connected with so much around him. He tried to push his limit every day, expanding his already significant reach further and further. His control expanded deep into the ocean and he was happy with his progress. His other time was spent hanging out with Sirius, though that didn't stop the women that came to their home. Hadrian didn't mind, it very rarely interrupted whatever Hadrian was doing and Sirius was very consistent about remembering to put up a silencing ward.
It was about three months since arriving. The only thing that had happened of any note was that Sirius took Hadrian out to a really nice restaurant for his birthday and that Sirius had started to branch out into the muggle world for the women that he was seeing. The current one he was hanging out with was a nature lover and slight health nut from the States. He hadn't really cared to learn her name. She had managed to rope Sirius into going on a hike up towards the volcano and for the life of him, he didn't know how Sirius had talked him into it. This all lead to them being in a car, driving for a couple of hours to where you started the hike. The only good thing that came out of the car ride was that he learned her name was Madeline. Madeline parked the car and the trio looked around the area. The road cut off just up ahead and from there on out it was a bunch of cooled magma. It almost endless and held the promise of miles of hiking. Hadrian could see that Sirius was slightly regretting agreeing to this.
An hour and a half in and Sirius' face was drenched in sweat from the blazing sun. He had refused to use a cooling charm due to it being to suspicious if his date ever touched him and felt the coolness of his skin. Hadrian, on the other hand, just used his element to keep the water molecules in the air around him at a manageable level and was good with that.
The irony of the hike was that as it went on, Sirius lost interest while Hadrian gained it. The closer they got to the volcano, the stronger the sensation of the magical feeling around the island was getting stronger. He could also feel that there was a ley line running underneath the volcano.
"You feeling good, old man? I don't want to have to carry you back to the car." Hadrian teased Sirius with a slight smirk.
Sirius gave Hadrian an indignant look as he inhaled a couple times to catch his breath. "I'll have you know that I'm in peak physical." Sirius rebuffed, earning a scoff from Hadrian and a slight giggle from his date.
"The only peak I'm seeing here is that one from your belly." He said as he pointed at Sirius' stomach.
Sirius gave an indignant squawking "What?". Hadrian didn't actually think that Sirius was too out of shape, the man just didn't have the training for long cardio activities. He was trained for short bursts of movements in duels and quick reactions in the field. Long and unending walks weren't in his training regimen, especially in the humid heat.
Hadrian and Sirius bickered back and forth a bit more before lapsing back into silence, upon which Madeline started a conversation with Sirius and their attention was pulled into one another.
It took another couple of hours of walking to reach the point where they weren't supposed to go any further. They stood towards the end and watched the magma trickle down over the earth as the sun had descended halfway down the sky. They pulled out some food they had in their packs and quietly ate while looking at the scenery. After they had all finished their food, Madeline stood up and swiped her hands to get rid of the crumbs. "Seems like its time to be heading back." She told the both of them.
Hadrian disagreed. He had come all this way and he felt the anti-apparition ward that they had passed close to an hour ago. He assumed that it surrounded the entire volcano and that the only way to get here was by walking or some official way to travel faster to the volcano. "You guys head back, I'm going to hang out here for a bit longer." He told the both of them.
Madeline gained a look of concern and looked towards Sirius to see if he was going to go against Hadrian's statement. Seeing as he wasn't, she decided to take it upon herself. "We can't do that. It's going to get dark soon after we arrive at the car and it wouldn't be responsible of us to leave you out here where you might get lost or stumble and injure yourself. Right Sirius?" she ended with a voice that was prompting him to say yes.
Sirius was torn between going with what would seem logical in the situation for most kids of fifteen or answering in the way that took into account things that Madeline didn't know. However, he was relieved of the choice when Hadrian waved his hand at the woman and he saw her eyes go glassy. He looked at Hadrian with some anger. "What the hell are you doing?" he demanded in a heated voice.
"Relax." Hadrian stated in a calm tone. "She's just confounded to believe that I'm leaving with you. I have no desire to have someone I don't know try to dictate my life because of societal norms. She'll be fine once you guys get home. Plus, I have something I want to go look into and I don't need any people who could possibly be untrustworthy to know." He tried to placate the man.
Sirius took a few calming breaths. "Fine." He said curtly. "But no more using magic on the people I bring over without my talking to me about it or it being an emergency, capeesh?" He told Hadrian.
"Alright." Hadrian agreed negligently. "I'll meet you at home." He told Sirius before heading off behind some rocks and disappearing from sight using the cloak. He watched Sirius and Madeline disappear into the direction of where they had started their hike before he floated himself over the fencing put up around the area and landed back onto the ground. Looking at the volcano it seemed like it would be another half hour to hike to it and he didn't know how long it would take to explore what he wanted.
He started walking and very quickly came upon a muggle repelling ward that was put there to make any wayward muggles turn and go back to whichever point they had started their hike from. Shortly afterwards was a befuddlement ward, made to deter the magicals that got this far and would make them forget why they had started this journey in the first place. This would make them turn around as there is no sense in continuing a journey without reason. It was a ward that could be ignored with strong enough mental barriers.
Hadrian continued on his way going up the volcano as he felt the magic continue to grow in strength. Another ten minutes had him standing at the edge of an alert ward created to ping somebody monitoring it and to grab the magical signature of the person who crossed it. The cloak keeping him hidden allowed him to bypass this ward and he continued on his merry way. The rest of the way up the volcano was a minefield of various traps. They were made to shock the recipient in a show if electricity which would make him visible to anyone watching and in no position to defend themselves. It wasn't until he was close to reaching the summit of the volcano that he was able to make out the suppressed magic of people guarding something a little way off of the path.
He silently walked over to them, making sure not to disturb anything beneath his feet. He crept up right behind both of them before stunning the both of them, giving them no time to react. The both dropped like a sack of bricks and their disillusions enchantments faded away to reveal two natives that were armed with two wands each as well as emergency portkeys and some other magical items. Hadrian searched their person for keys and found one on one of the men. He relieved the men of their wands and magical items before tying the two of them up and placing gags over their mouths. He put all their stiff in a bag that he placed under some loose rubble. Beyond being in his way, these guys were just doing their jobs and it was most likely in a governmental capacity.
He searched around a bit and found the illusioned door which he used the key to walk into. The door opened into a hallway leading downwards and towards the center of the volcano. The feeling of a magic that was so familiar but thought would be impossible to feel anywhere. The tunnel led out to a viewing room. He looked out into what the room was meant to monitor.
'I think I know what the agreement was.' He thought to himself.