"Have you decided which electives you want to take this year, darling?" The family was relaxing in the living room following dinner. At the moment, Hadrian was losing spectacularly to Pugsley in their game of wizard chess as Wednesday chopped the head off her newest doll.

"Crap…" Hadrian groaned as a smirking Pugsley cornered his queen. "No, Mother. I know I want to take Divination, but I'm not sure about the other."

"A foreign language is always helpful, son," Gomez responded as he checked the stock ticker.

Morticia beamed at her husband. "I think that's a wonderful idea, Gomez! Which one would you be interested in, dear?"

"I dunno. I guess probably either French or Spanish, since that's what you two speak."

"It doesn't have to be one of those, though. Of course, you already know a little bit in both of them."

"True. Maybe I should go with Spanish because of our Castilian heritage." Hadrian moved his bishop, and smirked as he blocked Pugsley's king. "Check."

"Oh no, you don't!" Pugsley swiftly captured his bishop. "Check."

Hadrian groaned again. "How about this. If I win, it's Spanish. If you win, it's French. Then whatever I take, you take the other?" he asked as he moved his knight.

Pugsley grinned. "Deal." The younger boy smirked and moved his queen. "Checkmate…"

"French it is, then." Hadrian sighed.

"Absolutely nothing wrong with French, Hadrian. Your father loves it. Don't you, mon cher?" Morticia grinned as Gomez flew to her side, kissing up her arm.

"That French, Tish…" Gomez groaned between kisses. "Speak some more…"

Morticia cupped her husband's cheek in her hand. "Later, darling. Later." Gomez nodded hesitantly. "As you see, Hadrian, darling… It could come in handy later on in life."

Pugsley and Wednesday laughed as Hadrian tried to shrink in his chair. "Ugh… Gross." He stood quickly. "Come on guys, let's go see if we can find some more dynamite in the attic."

"Cool!" Pugsley cried as he and Wednesday followed their brother up the stairs.

Gomez smiled, watching their children disappear. Once they'd gone up the stairs, he turned back to Morticia. "Now… where was I?"

Morticia pointed to her shoulder. "Right here… Bubele."

Gomez growled.

Hadrian collapsed face down on his bed later that night. "What's wrong, master?" Edgar slithered out of his tank to join Hadrian on the bed.

"Oh, it's nothing, Edgar." Hadrian rolled over, throwing an arm across his face. The ball python slithered up onto his chest as Hadrian ran his hand over the snake's back. "I just miss Joel."

"And Miss Skye?" Edgar gave Hadrian what he could only assume was a laugh.

Hadrian rolled his eyes. "Yes, and Skye."

"You will see them soon."

"I know. And once I'm there, I'll miss Mother and Father. I always do." He sighed as there was a knock on his door. "Come in."

"Hello, darling." Morticia walked in, followed by Gomez. Hadrian sat up on the bed and helped Edgar back into his tank. "May we sit down?"

"Sure, Mother. Father."

Morticia settled herself on the side of his bed as Gomez pulled out the desk chair. "How are you feeling about school this year?"

"I'm fine. I'll send Zelda tomorrow to sign up for French and Divination."

"You know you don't have to take French if you don't want to. But we would like for you to take a foreign language of some sort."

"No, French is fine." Hadrian broke off, staring down at the floor. Morticia reached over and put a hand on his and he sighed. "I know I need to figure out what I want to do after graduation, too."

Gomez raised an eyebrow, confused. "What do you mean, son? You'll come home, of course."

Hadrian looked up at him. "But I'll need to figure out what I want to DO. I'll need to work. I can't live off my parents forever."

"Work!? Watch your language, son. We Addamses haven't worked in 300 years! Supervise or manage, yes, but work, never! Hadrian, you'd be the laughingstock of the entire family…" Gomez looked at their eldest in shock, but Morticia just rubbed a hand over their son's back.

"I can't just do nothing!" Hadrian pleaded.

"You won't be doing nothing, son. You're welcome to go into business with me. We'd call it Addams and Son."

"What would we do?"

"Do? Isn't it enough that we'd be together?"

"What your father means, dear, is that you won't have to work. You and your siblings each have trust funds which are going to be plenty to support you and your family when you have one."

Hadrian's eyes fell back to his knees, as he scratched at his jeans nervously with his nails. "Oh."

"Is something wrong, son?" The teen shrugged and Gomez and Morticia exchanged a quick glance.

"I'll go tuck Wednesday in and leave you men to talk." Morticia smiled as she bent to kiss her son on the forehead. "Goodnight, dear."

"Night, Mother."

Gomez waited until Morticia closed the door behind her before addressing Hadrian again. "What is it, my boy?"

"I dunno. I've been feeling like something's missing. But I don't know what." Hadrian looked up at his father. "You guys give me and Pugsley and Wednesday so much. I don't know why I feel this way."

Gomez joined his eldest on the bed. "I have a feeling you are feeling this mostly when you're at school?" Hadrian nodded. "Well, my guess is that you're just missing us, just as we miss you. We know you have to go to school, but when you're not home with us, it's like a piece of us is missing. We Addamses feed off each other's energy. We need each other. When we're separated it's like we're torn apart. I'm sure you've noticed that when your mother and I are apart."

"I guess you're right." He leaned into his father who draped an arm around his shoulders. "I really miss you guys when I'm at school."

"We miss you too, son. But it's important that you get an education." Gomez smirked. "If you stayed home, there wouldn't be any pretty girls to catch your attention." Hadrian couldn't help but chuckle. "There we go. Get some rest."

"Thanks, Father."

"Anytime, son."

Gomez pulled the door to Hadrian's room closed behind him, intent on finding his wife. He made his way to their bedroom and smiled, seeing her changing into her nightgown. "Tish…" He felt himself drawn to her, as he always did, wrapping his arms around her waist and kissing her shoulder.

"Gomez, darling. Is Hadrian alright?" Morticia's hand cupped her husband's cheek, her long nails gently scratching him.

He sighed. "He's starting to question himself, I think. Do you think we should tell him he's adopted?"

"Oh, the poor dear. I suppose we should. What did he say?" she asked as they climbed into bed.

"Said he feels like something's missing, but he doesn't know what. I told him about how our family always feels a piece is missing when someone's not here, and he understood that. But I wonder if he's feeling a pull towards Lily and James." Gomez held an arm out to his wife, who curled her body towards him, laying her head on his shoulder and draping an arm across his chest.

"He may be. Did he seem to accept your reasoning?"

"He did. But I don't want him to feel like he's not a true Addams."

"Never, Gomez. He knows perfectly well how much we love him."

Gomez tightened his grip on his wife, pressing a kiss to her hair. "Oh, I believe he does. But one day he'll need to know."

"One day. But not now, darling. Let him be happy for now."

The rest of the summer break flew by for the Addams clan, and before they knew it, it was time for Hadrian to return to school. He and his siblings had spent the last couple weeks being extra destructive, as Hadrian wouldn't be allowed to do so at Ilvermorny. Anytime he'd come home from school, they always made sure to have a big blow out when he was there. Hadrian was sure that when his brother joined him at school the following year, it would be much the same. Pugsley would likely go crazy without an explosion or two all the time.

Regardless, Hadrian was glad his brother would be coming to school with him next year. While he loved hanging out with Joel at school, he really missed the time with his brother he'd had growing up. And not just Pugsley, but Wednesday, his parents, Thing, Lurch, and any of the rest of the family who dropped by the ancestral mansion, often unannounced.

While being a Parselmouth was something that separated him from the rest of the Addamses, the fact that he could actually hold a conversation with Edgar was something which helped ground him when he was feeling a bit lonely at school. Edgar was more than just a pet. He was a familiar for Hadrian. After Kaa had died when Hadrian was nine, he had been devastated. Kaa had been his first friend, and someone he could count on. But garter snakes just didn't live very long. So, when his father had taken him looking for a new snake, he knew he wanted one that would live much longer and share his life for years to come. They'd done their research prior to their trip and had decided on a ball python, knowing that the snake would live around 30 years, possibly even longer as it would be a wizarding familiar.

When Hadrian found Edgar in the exotic pet store, he had known immediately that he was the one. While the other snakes around had largely ignored him, the hatchling's gaze had followed him as he moved around the shop. As it was a No-Maj shop, Hadrian couldn't just start speaking Parseltongue without drawing the attention of the shop owner, so Gomez had distracted him while Hadrian looked around. Upon seeing the young snake, Hadrian had quietly hissed to him, and Edgar had immediately responded. He reached into the tank, pulling out the snake, who quickly settled himself around Hadrian's neck. From that moment, Hadrian knew that Edgar was his. Gomez had happily paid for the ball python, glad to see that Hadrian was happy again. Hadrian had named the snake after his parents' favorite No-Maj writer, Edgar Allan Poe. Morticia had read many of his poems and stories to Hadrian as bedtime stories when he was little.

The Ilvermorny acceptance letters didn't list snakes as acceptable pets for their students, but a strongly worded letter from Gomez, along with a generous donation, had allowed Hadrian to take Edgar to school with him. While a few students were frightened of the snake, most just accepted it as part of that weird Addams kid. However, by the end of his second year, Hadrian had made a name for himself as both an excellent student, as well as an outstanding quodpot player, which quieted most of the mutterings from both the students and the staff.

Once he was back at school for the third year, he quickly fell back into his normal routine of quodpot practices, classes, and hanging out with Gage, Troy, and Joel. The other two boys in his dorm had begun feeling more comfortable with him the previous year, and it wasn't uncommon for them to spend their evenings in their dorm room goofing off. They were also getting to an age where their bodies were changing and girls started to be even more on their minds.

Hadrian's voice started cracking around the end of September, but luckily no one was apt to tease him for it. His reputation as an Addams preceded him, and no one wanted to mess with an Addams. He still couldn't get up the courage to ask Skye out, so as third years were allowed to go into town on the weekends, he spent many of them with Joel. That didn't mean he couldn't still dream, though. There were more than a few moments he found himself daydreaming in classes, and being abruptly roused from them either by the teacher, or by Joel poking him in the ribs.

Although his classmates didn't make fun of him for the changes he was going through, Wednesday and Pugsley found it extremely amusing over the Christmas break. His parents, on the other hand, just said it was part of growing up. Gomez even decided it was time to have the "wands and snitches" talk with his eldest while he was home from school. Of course, as a child of Gomez and Morticia Addams, it was impossible to not have any idea about where babies come from, but by the time Gomez had finished their "chat," Hadrian was absolutely mortified and spent the rest of the day wandering the cemetery in shock. For once, he'd actually been glad to go back to school.

He had a bit of a leg up in French, having grown up hearing his mother speaking it rather regularly, even though most of what she said was directed at Gomez. Hadrian was trying to remember as much of it as he could, if he ever managed to get a girlfriend, he hoped it would have the same effect his mother's did.

He also didn't have any problems in divination class. His Grandmama's lessons had stuck with him, although the rest of the class was a bit shocked that all the teacher's readings on him were rather dark and dreary, sometimes even saying he was going to die. Hadrian didn't mind, though. Of course, what Addams would ever be afraid of death?

The Horned Serpent quodpot team thoroughly trounced all the other teams at the school and they emerged victorious at the end of the year. Despite Hadrian's tendency to daydream during class, he still managed to end the year at the top of his class. He was glad the year was over, though. What his father had said before he went to school had stuck with him, and he understood that he really needed to go back home and recharge. Being around family was good for him, after all.