"We need to talk"
Hadrian spun and came face to face with an unusual ethereal outline that resembled a man standing right next to the door, even though he had no features Hadrian knew who it was instantly.
"Father?"
How did he get into Hogwarts without alerting the headmaster? Why was he even here in the first place? They agreed to use owls to send messages when possible and if not that then there was a discreet dropbox in Hogsmead he was to sneak out to so for him to be here it must be serious.
"I can't hold this for long due to my magic so I'll get to the point, I need you to keep a close eye on your DADA professor." his father voice was low and strained.
"I already was, he has a dark aura and he was potentially corrupted by a dark artefact that is now stored in this very castle." his father nodded his intangible head with his words.
"Good I would have been disappointed if you hadn't done your own investigation, I spoke to the vampires he met in Albania well the last survivor at least, whatever he found out there, it is supremely powerful. If Albus had hidden it within the school then he must suspect Quirrell if that's true he has become overconfident in his power." The elder Grindelwald's words were so confident that it surprised Hadrian, the thought his useless DADA professor could potentially beat Dumbledore was madness.
"What do you mean? he could defeat the headmaster?" there was no fear was in Hadrian's voice if anything it got his blood pumping.
"No don't be foolish, what I mean is because of his overconfidence he might underestimate Quirrell and if he can throw around spells like what caused the destruction of this clan then the headmaster will regret his folly."
"You want me to destroy Quirrell before Dumbledore tries to intervene?" Again his father nodded.
"yes but not yet, wait till he makes a move on this dark artefact. Albus would have put protections around it and Quirrell will need to bypass them in turn weakening him, I would prefer you to capture him if possible along with the artefact"
Hadrian rose a brow in disbelief "Dumbledore would never let me get away with dragging one of his teachers out of the school, corrupted or not."
"Of course not, he will probably think you're bringing him to me...which you would be. the smart play to do right now is for you to offer your' help' to Albus" When Hadrians eyes lit up with understanding the older Grindelwald smirked.
"That could work...if he agrees then he will likely remain on the sidelines while I feed him slightly altered reports on Quirrell's moves making the old man feel a sense of security and due to the multiple roles he holds on the political side of everything he might get called out from the castle, its already happened a few times this year. When the stuttering fool goes for the artefact I could snatch it from under his nose."
Gellert Grindelwald gave a nod of approval "yes and if you make sure he survives your battle then I will be able to send a team to retrieve him while he is on his way to Azkaban, a win-win situation."
The young blonde contemplated the plan in its full, it could work the only real hitch would be on the power Quirrell possessed. The DADA lessons have been lacklustre but it's clear the turban-wearing fool was just putting up an act but his father wouldn't request something of him if he didn't think he could do it. Plus he has the same advantage Quirrell has over Dumbledore, overconfidence and underestimation on top of him weakening himself to get through any protections...yes the plan was pretty solid.
"My time is running out, you succeed Hadrian and you will be one step closer to your goal." with that his ethereal body began to dissipate leaving the boy alone one again.
It felt like hours had passed as Hadrian stood there going over the conversation again and again in his head, the plan was good and it certainly could work that he was sure but what confused him was how a dark artefact would aid him in his end goal, it would help his father that was a guarantee but himself, he wasn't sure how but he trusted his father's judgement. He needed to clear his head for a few hours so he did one thing that always relaxed him.
He transfigured a piece of debris into an elegant looking gramophone coloured black and gold and with a flick one of his favourite classical songs started; Time to say goodbye.
He walked to the centre of the room and raised his wand erecting a small barrier around himself and his gramophone he then began waving it through the air as if he was conducting an orchestra. The first thing he did was manipulate the size of the room causing it to expand out in all directions the beauty of this charm was on the outside it would still look the same and not long later he had a room double its original size. once that was finished he turned his attention to the dust and it began to rise and spin around the room as in a gale, the furniture soon followed along with all the debris and rubble and Hadrian was suddenly conducting in the heart of a storm blowing around the room. he flicked his wand causing all the dust to begin constricting in size to the point above him, it continued until it became a medium-sized orb of gale-force dust. Hadrian then began transfiguring all the better condition furniture into several new pieces them being, a fancy expensive looking desk of ebony black and gold with eagle figureheads on the corners, a cushioned chair of pure black ebony wood with gold seams in the cushion and a king-sized bed once again black and gold which he placed in the area behind his desk.
With the leftover furniture, he decided to turn them into decorative objects like paintings which mounted the wall, rugs that spread out across various parts of the floor and light fittings which turned the room from bleak into a much more homely feel, he also created some training dummies on the opposite side of the room from his bed followed up by an area dedicated to potions. The conductor of magic then raised his wand to the orb of dust above him and flicked it towards an open window of the side as it flew across the room he decided to have a little fun and morphed the shape of dust into a decently sized dragon he then melded the dust together giving it a more lifelike feel and solid form although as soon as it comes into contact it will break into a dust cloud again, with his alterations made it flew out the window. All that was left for him to do was fix all the damage to the room so as he continued his orchestra routine all the broken pieces of ceiling and wall began flying back to their slots leaving not even a slight crack in the surface.
Finally, he created several stone statues that resembled ancient greek warriors and animated them to come to life, Hadrian directed each one to march to various spots in the room where they would stand guard, two either side of the door, two beside his desk, four by his bed and two standing guards beside each of the four windows so sixteen in total. Pleased with his work he flicked the music off and lowered his barrier only to spin when he heard the sound of clapping, instead of an old man this time his eyes fell upon the beautiful blonde Daphne Greengrass.
"That was amazing Hadrian, it was very beautiful to watch" she had a bright smile on her face and her eyes shone.
"Daphne? How did you find me?" he berated himself for having two people get the drop on him.
"Some older students said they heard music coming from the seventh floor, they thought it might have been the headmaster doing something crazy again but I thought it might have been a certain elusive fellow blonde I was looking for," she spoke in good humour.
"I forgot to put silencing wards up," Hadrian mumbled to himself "What can I do for you?"
Daphne looked nervous, Hadrian got Deja Vu from a moment ago with Dumbledore, as she looked down at her feet and bit her bottom lip she took a few minutes to compose herself before looking up and straight into Hadrians eyes.
"I have some questions I would like to ask, obviously your not forced to answer if you don't want to," Daphne asked staring intently at him.
Hadrian knew this was going to happen sooner or later, she was a very bright witch and most likely hated not having all the information so she would have gone off to do research into the son of Grindelwald sadly for her she would find little in terms of Hadrians own existence.
"Okay I can do that although you can't get upset if I say no...okay?" she was reluctant but she agreed.
They settled around his new desk after Hadrian conjured a comfortable chair for her to sit on she quickly began her questioning "Firstly everyone knows of the legendary duel your father and Dumbledore had that is a fact but what doesn't make sense is that it a common belief is that either your father died in the duel or was thrown into prison yet that's not possible as you yourself claimed he trained you...?"
'Right for the heavy hitters it seems' he mused.
"It is a somewhat governmental secret, basically a deal was struck that meant my father could be a 'free' man as per Dumbledores request" he saw the look of disbelief on her face so he explained a bit more "at the time after my fathers defeat Dumbledore had a lot of political power, much more than he even has today, he had so much because people felt what he was cable off, the very earth shook under the might of their battle it wasn't called a legendary duel for no reason. Once the already terrifying threat of Grindelwald was taken down, a dark lord who turned a continent on its head, everyone looked at Dumbledore blinded by the fear he unintentionally instilled in them. Once he put forward his request to 'release' my father all the former follows of the dark lord who managed to escape persecution quickly joined in voting their favour that combined with the fear made it a fairly smooth process."
"Why would they so easily bend to Dumbledore like that even if they were afraid? Surely it would send a bad message as they just took down a dark lord they refused to kneel at."
"Fear can make people do crazy things Daphne but the main reason well...during my father's reign everyone held a spec of hope Dumbledore would step in and take him down and because everyone knew there was someone who could beat Grindelwald it installed a sense of bravery in them even if they themselves wouldn't survive a battle against him they knew they could at least hold the tide back for a while. So after the fall of Grindelwald, everyone realised there was no one who could stand up to Dumbledore if he decided to one day carry on my fathers plan it was that which truly scared people."
Hadrian stood and walked to the front of the desk and leant against it crossing his arms.
"It was Voldemorts rise that took all the power from Dumbledore" she flinched at the name "it's true Dumbledore matched the dark lord in every fight but he never defeated him, even though it was still an incredible feat to everyone else it showed his power wasn't absolute. I know it is silly to think people would be happy to find out the greatest wizard of all time couldn't defeat a dark lord but people don't like the unknown and through the last war, Dumbledore became a known quantity at least in their misguided eyes."
"Wow I never looked at it like that before, however, I doubt it was enough to convince the leaders that he should be free so Dumbledore must have had more to offer. After all, if word got out that they let him walk away well they'll probably bring back muggle witch-burning just for them." Daphne asked her eyes shining in intrigue.
"That is a much more sensitive topic, Dumbledore was close to my father...very close, a little fact no one but three people know was that Dumbledore and my father were a team at one point before they split due to difference in ideals. So when my father lost against him, Dumbledore did something that made my father hate the man. The 'hero of the great war' gave my father a choice, imprisonment or... a blood oath, several blood oaths, one made him be unable to attack anyone even in self-defence, another forced him to be incapable of lying to Dumbledore then there was one that would allow the headmaster to find him wherever he was, you get the idea. However, the one he probably despised him for the most was the one that bound his magic constricting his core until he would barely be stronger than an average first year."
Hadrian knew sharing this information was risky but he wanted to offer her an olive branch of trust, he felt stupid for being so enraptured by a girl as easily as he had been but he could see great potential in Daphne, with the right training she could be a mistress of control in any political debate on top of becoming a powerful witch.
As for Daphne, she was dumbfounded by the truth of the outcome of the duel between two of the most powerful wizards in history. She was curious to how close they must have been for Dumbledore to do something so drastic just to keep him out of prison but she didn't want to push Hadrian as she is aware of what he is offering her with this information but she did have to ask.
"If this is sensitive then why didn't you get me to swear an unbreakable vow?"
"Because I want to trust you, Daphne, and a vow would be counterproductive to forming any actual trust, my father used them a lot in the war. Too much..." his eyes were sincere which made Daphne get butterflies.
"Thank you Hadrian it means a lot that your willing to go this far, I won't tell anyone about what we talked about I promise." She gave him a soft smile which he easily returned.
An idea struck Hadrian all of a sudden, she was one of the most observant people in the school and was good friends with a certain brunette who has taken the throne of gossip even in her short time here. She could prove to be an invaluable help when dealing with Quirrell even if just through association to Tracy who will hear about any unusual behaviour from the stuttering twitchy man.
"Daph I have a little project involving professor Quirrell, would you want to help me?" his smile was charming but his eyes gleamed.
AN: THE SMALLEST CHAPTER SO FAR :O I know, but I promise this will be one of the very few if not the only one that is this short. As you read this was purely conversation with a sprinkle of magic(sneak peek: the way he cast in this chapter is kinda how he will battle, as in a very elegant and refined way) we also got to somewhat meet Gellert Grindelwald, discover the truth behind Grindelwald's freedom which basically is still being a prisoner, there still a fair bit behind the curtain but much will be revealed by the end of the first year. We also got the first of many times where Hadrian will bring Daphne into the fold as it were.
That brings me to a question for you guys and gals, nicknames, I find they make relationships much more romantic, they could have the usual Harry/Daph nicknames but they don't feel very unique so if you got any suggestions then I would love to hear them!
Also from this point on Hadrian will be directly going after Quirrell so maybe we might get to see some actual fighting...;)
Now I shall answer some wee questions that came up.
Harem: Nope strictly Daphne only (although I might have another story in the works that might be a harem *wink* *wink*)
Lemon/s: I will try that's all I can promise and it won't be till much later.
Battles: Once again I'm going to try and make them very detailed but the true battles won't begin until year four but I promise there will be fighting before then.
THANK YOU ALL FOR READING AND PLEASE REVIEW! YOUR ALL AWESOME!