Disclaimer: This is a work of fanfiction based on the Harry Potter universe. All recognizable characters, plots and settings are the exclusive property of J.K Rowling.

Thanks to my beta

Snowleopardcheetah

and my editor

alexandertheII

Harry Potter: Rise of Darkness

Act 1

Chapter: 14

Demons From The Abyss, Part 2

June 3, 1992

Old hut

4:23 PM

"The fine skill of reflection does not require brute, savage strength, but sensitivity and extreme precision," Alden inculcated him for the hundredth time.

"It is its own art, which demands not to be trained, but rather to be lived. You have to be able to anticipate, almost foresee, in order to react at the right moment. Only then does reaction become action."

Hadrian stood with the old man in the front garden, a few metres away from the hut. While Alden still looked as chipper as in the early morning, Hadrian was drenched in sweat. Gasping for breath, he wiped his wet forehead with his sleeve.

All day they had stood in the June sun and trained. Or rather, he had trained while the old man had stood more. But that was not the point.

Of much greater importance, however, was the fact that Hadrian had been running, casting spells and dodging curses from early on. So his slowly but steadily growing exhaustion was consequently not too much of a surprise.

Once more Hadrian readied himself to reflect another curse. It was a tactic they had begun to practise in the winter and had steadily been honing over the months. It had turned out that Alden's twirling with his wand was much more difficult to imitate than initially thought.

"Three, two, one, now," Alden called out loudly as he shot a Stinging Hex at Hadrian.

The latter forced his body to go against all its instincts and not directly put up a shield. Instead, he waited that one crucial second, until at the last moment he raised his finger and batted the spell away just like a baseball player.

As before, Hadrian felt a strange, unpleasant sensation. It was meant to reflect curses with a wand, but of course, due to his unique condition, he wasn't even remotely in the realm of anything considered normal. Instead, he sought direct contact with the spells in order to be able to reflect them.

He would imagine putting something like a mirror on his finger, which would only last for a millisecond, but if successful, would redirect the curse in the direction he had just aimed. But each time he hit the curse with his finger, a cold, almost biting feeling would run through his arm.

Hadrian, disregarding it, followed the white light that shot high up into the sky, just past an outraged cooing dove, until all at once it hit a transparent greyish barrier and was absorbed.

"The defences around the hut," Hadrian thought quietly.

"You missed the dove," Alden commented with a raised eyebrow.

"My mistake," Hadrian retorted dryly.

The old Rosier ignored the comment and lowered his wand instead.

"Your skill still has room for improvement, especially since you deflect the spell more than actually reflect it, but I think you've earned a little break along with a glass of water."

"How generous of you," Hadrian remarked wryly as he summoned a glass from the hut and filled it with a quick Aguamenti spell.

"This new-found impudence of yours is entirely unfamiliar to me," Alden frowned.

Hadrian, however, merely shrugged his shoulders. He only had eyes for the glass, or rather the water, which he drank greedily, while fully enjoying the refreshing feeling of liquid wetting his dry throat.

"Probably a subconscious way of compensating for my earlier years?" Hadrian pondered with the start of a slight grin on his face.

"Whatever it is, it has to stop. At least during training."

"Yes, yes," Hadrian replied absently, while still smiling slightly, as if being amused about a joke only known to him.

With a casual flick of his wand, Alden conjured up a comfortable-looking green armchair and settled down on it with a sigh.

"My legs aren't getting any younger either," he commented in response to Hadrian's raised eyebrow and interested look. "You've made remarkable progress in the last few months. It pleases me to know that my time has not been wasted."

"Remarkable progress. Please. It took me weeks to successfully deflect a curse and I'm still worlds away from actually reflecting one purposefully..."

Alden chuckled as he listened to the usual rant, lost in his thoughts. Hadrian had been living with him for a few years now. Years that had flown by, especially in contrast to his former days. He had trained him from the beginning. Had accepted him into his life. At that time, it had been on the basis of a promise, but today, he could not even imagine a different daily routine.

Deep in his thoughts, he summoned a cup of tea from the kitchen, which stopped on its own just next to him and stayed floating mid-air. Often as of late, his thoughts had drifted to a certain conversation that had taken his most cherished, but was to save him years later.

It was with none other than Grindelwald.

A Stinging Hex shot from Alden's wand at an unsuspecting Hadrian. But the latter caught sight of the light out of the corner of his eyes at the last moment and successfully deflected it.

"Fu-"

But before Hadrian could finish the sentence, his mouth suddenly tasted suspiciously soap-like.

"I warned you that if you ever put such a vile word in your mouth again, I would wash it out until those filthy words do not even dare to come into your mouth again."

Meanwhile Hadrian spat and gasped horribly to get the disgusting soapy taste out of his mouth.

"Here, don't you want another glass of water," Alden offered him a tad too kindly all of a sudden again, while holding Hadrian's old glass in his hands, once again filled to the brim with fresh water.

But Hadrian stared at him as if he had grown a second head and instead held his finger against his tongue for a moment before a brief dull light filled his mouth and Hadrian took a deep breath a moment later.

"Why?" he asked him, gasping.

"I warned you," Alden said indifferently, while vanishing the glass of water with a flick of his wand.

"Whatever," Hadrian answered annoyed after a brief moment in which he had waited for him to elaborate. "Is there a reason as to why you sought my attention?"

"Another than that if I ever happen to hear one more even remotely bad word from you, I'm going to force-feed you my poison capsule?"

"Poison capsule?" Hadrian asked for one now completely irritated, as well as more than just a bit annoyed.

"You're just begging to have your ears cleaned as well," Alden now shot back, also annoyed. "A poison capsule. A potion hidden in a fake tooth which, if I bite down on it, will finish me faster than your impudence."

"And why, tell me, do you still have a poison capsule in your mouth anyway?" Hadrian demanded with a noticeable ironic lack of understanding before answering his own question.

"Oh yeah, forgot about that. Old, depressed man ahead."

Faster than one would have thought a man his age could react, Alden drew out his wand again and once more shot a Stinging Hex at Hadrian. But Hadrian had expected the spell with a grin and was ready this time. And thus he managed, not in an elegant but successful way, to deflect the spell with his fingertips. However, he had not taken into account the direction in which the spell would be directed, and so he followed the light with his eyes, slightly embarrassed, as it shot towards one of the windows of the living room. A loud clink could be heard from not very far away.

An uncomfortable silence fell over the hill, while Hadrian, though not ashamed, looked at Alden with a touch of guilt. The latter, however, stared back with a expression that could have frightened even a face as long as a fiddle.

"Oops," Hadrian suddenly remarked nonchalantly, dropping his apparent masked guilt and revealing a casual grin underneath. With relaxed steps, he strolled over to the now shattered window and concentrated for a moment before muttering softly, "Reparo." In response, the shards of glass that had previously lain on the floor began to rise gently into the air before reassembling to form a virtually new window.

Alden, who was watching the event from a distance, merely groaned quietly. "He'll be the death of me, that moron," he grumbled from under his beard, before his features tightened grimly once more.

He then continued to speak, but louder and in an increasingly bitter voice.

"You know that this old and depressed man has been through not one, but two wars, more brutal and deadly than even your most daring fantasies?".

Hadrian who had heard the new harshness in Alden's voice immediately grew more serious as well. His previous nonchalance slipped away and he stood rooted to the spot. He seemed to be thinking intimately about his next words and choosing them carefully.

"I know, but you never talk about it".

"Just because I never talk about it doesn't mean I haven't lived through it. More than anything, this exactly means that I' ve lived through it," Alden countered tightly.

"I know," Hadrian reaffirmed. His own voice sounded more strained and torn than a thread drawn out. "Better than most. But I also know about the importance of the past and how much you can learn from it."

Rosier's face turned into a grimace and his eyes narrowed to slits. "Do you realize how hypocritical that sounds, especially coming out of your mouth?".

Hadrian, however, would not be swayed so easily. "You know that I don't care about my past."

The old man snorted in amusement in his chair, as if he didn't entirely believe Hadrian's words, but left it at that and didn't question them further. Instead, he stared at him piercingly.

"So you want to know more about the first war? Want to know more about that bastard?".

"About Grindelwald?" Hadrian probed.

"Grindelwald," Alden confirmed absently, while his hands clenched into fists and his grip on his wand tightened.

Why do you call him a bastard? Didn't you like him?".

"Oh yes, I did admire him," Alden answered bluntly. "But it is also why he is such a proper bastard. He gives and takes, his words the sweetest honey, all for his so-called 'righteous' cause. He took my daughter, took my family, my house, my treasures, my everything gone, and it's all because of him and his delusions about muggles and how they ruin our world. And look where this has gotten us. On the brink of extinction and weaker than ever before!".

Breathing heavily and with a few drops of sweat, Alden finished his rant. He had unconsciously gripped the armrest of his armchair tightly with his left free hand. It took him a few heavy and long breaths to regain his composure, during which Hadrian looked at him impassively as if expecting more.

And he would not be disappointed, for after a few moments Alden seemed to have calmed down enough to continue.

"No one knew or knows anything these days about this man, his origins, his education, only that rumors had broken out at some point, about a man who was in favor of complete control over the muggles. They were to be controlled from the shadows, with the wizards deciding the direction. And thus began a war unlike any other. A war with the highest magical casualties ever recorded."

Alden paused briefly to take a sip of his tea.

"At the head of the war was he, Grindelwald. You would think his strongest weapon would have been his magic, but his true power lay in his words. Take Austria for instance. Grindelwald went into the parliament as a wanted man and left as a national hero. He warned us wizards of a war, a second Muggle War, worse than anything imaginable before. Grindelwald saw it as our duty not only to prevent it, but also, in the long term, to control and rein in the muggles who had proven themselves untrustworthy of their power. And when the war portrayed in his visions became reality, the countries naturally aligned themselves with him. And so, the First Wizarding War was born."

An uncomfortable silence fell again upon the hill, while Alden quietly sipped his still steaming tea. Hadrian, who was still standing in contrast, shifted his weight unsteadily from his right leg to his left and back again until he himself broke the long-stretched silence.

"But he was stopped. By Dumbledore, wasn't he?"

"Yes, yes, Dumbledore," Alden grumbled, meanwhile making some obscene and, for him, downright inappropriate gestures. "A man, not quite so unknown back then, but who had also fallen off the face of the earth for years until he suddenly reappeared to fight Grindelwald. And then they both started gathering supporters, gathering troops and the world sank into chaos, despair and death..."

Alden's voice became brittle until it suddenly failed him altogether.

"That's it?" Hadrian asked with a furrowed brow.

The old man snapped out of his silence again and shot a Stinging Hex straight at Hadrian.

"Yes, enough break. Back to training. Next lesson, dodging. Better start moving now."

June 3, 1992

Old hut

9:35 PM

Alden Rosier lay down in his welcoming bed, tired and exhausted. He had not been this sleepy for a long time. His bones ached, they seemed to have been exhausted from simply watching.

His head almost sank into the soft, warm pillow that protected him from the sounds rising from the city. He almost instinctively grasped his left hand next to him and as usual, all he should feel was the blanket beside him. A long held grief and disappointment rose in him, but he wrestled these emotions down as he had done so many times before.

His gaze drifted along the wall until it reached a familiar portrait. A painting whose likeness hung a few rooms away. It showed him and Hadrian. The boy sitting disciplined, although a smile played around his lips as he stood proudly behind him with a hand on his shoulder.

He kept smiling at how similar this picture was to a family photo. But in the end, so were they. They had lived together too long, they had changed too much. The grumpy, unfriendly old man had still been able to develop a compassionate, soft bone, while his closed, cold boy had also been able to experience a somewhat normal childhood, even if only in certain respects.

He closed his eyes for a moment. The sounds of a loud honk drifted in from the open window. Alden turned to the other side.

"Wasn't he allowed a single quiet moment?" he thought morosely. But then it hit him like a fist to the eye.

Noises? From the city?

The defensive spells around the hut blocked every single sound from the city and ensured silence on the one hand, but their much more important purpose was to ensure their safety.

If he could hear sounds from the city now, it could only mean...

"Hadrian!" Alden yelled as loud as he could as he shot out of his bed. His muscles, aching and tired only a moment ago, were as if forgotten in the face of danger.

The defensive wards had been broken!

Alden grabbed his wand from the bedside table before stumbling and limping out of the bedroom as fast as he could. Ignoring the old wooden door, he slammed it open, nearly sending it flying off its hinges.

"Boy!" he yelled louder than ever. His legs almost flew over the old steps as he rushed to Hadrian's room.

As he ran he raised his wand, pointed it at the door and shouted "Confringo," whereupon the door was blasted to pieces.

This was followed by a "Protego" to protect himself from Hadrian's expected curses. But his safety precaution proved superfluous. For instead of catching sight of the startled boy, Alden witnessed Hadrian writhing in his bed.

"Hadrian, wake up, now!" he shouted as he closed the distance between himself and the bed. He shook at his shoulder, but all that would happen was a louder incoherent muttering from the latter's mouth.

"You bloody useless boy," Alden grumbled energetically. He concentrated for a moment and tried to apparate along with Hadrian, but no matter how many times he tried, he was not to succeed.

"Damn...," it slipped out of him in frustration. He looked around and towards the door lying in pieces on the floor. Even from down here he was able to hear the loud footsteps from outside.

He shook Hadrian once more, when suddenly something cold grabbed him by the wrist. Startled, Alden turned and looked into Hadrian's emerald eyes, still cloudy from sleep.

"Hadrian, we must flee, now!"

But the boy gave no sign of having heard him. Only now did the old man realise that the boy's hand was trembling. Absent-mindedly, he stared up into Alden's eyes as if oblivious to the world around him.

"Are you all right? Hadrian? Say..." his noticeably deceived calm-sounding words, were interrupted by a shaky, weak voice.

"It is upon us, …"

Alden stared at him in confusion, the words he had just muttered making no sense. "What did you say?"

But Hadrian did not seem to hear his voice.

"…it's approaching..."

Hadrian's thoughts were frozen, unable to detach themselves from that one sound. That voice.

▂▂▅▅▂▂▃▃▃▅▅▃▃▃▄▄▄▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▃▃▂▂▂.

So full of loathing, so full of malice, as if it hated life itself with such an all-consuming passion. And in his dream, full of darkness, he had heard it. From an abyss of no return, where someone... or something, was trapped. Broken, doomed to crave eternity for completion.

But that sound! It petrified him, froze his blood and made it impossible for him to move even the smallest muscle. It was not a scream, not a roar. Nothing that a mortal voice could produce.

That sound was the definition of damnation.

"...the end."

Author Note's:

Merry Christmas to you all!

I would like to point out on this day, in addition to another chapter of this story, that my PJ ff has been updated, as well as that a new one will be coming soon. Be sure to check those out as well.

We are now one chapter away from the finale of Act 1. I've already written 4,000 words and it looks awesome so far. After that I will try to write the first chapters of the next act first before publishing them, as this is a bit calmer and easier for me. Anyway, be curious.

I want to thank you for all the comments and for any criticism so far that helps me to improve this story. A special thanks goes to Premedicated, who really comments under every chapter for so many authors that I'm sure he alone keeps half of all ff alive.

Sujjin: I can only recommend Evil Be Thou My Good for more Hellraiser vibes.

Once again, a pleasant and peaceful christmas season to all of you and your families. Stay healthy!

Next Chapter - No More Fairy Tales

Before the end of this year...