":You knew she was gonna do that?:" Hadrianus couldn't stop the accusation in his voice.
":Who really knows anything Lord Shiva has decided for anyone?:"
Being acquainted with one seer, Hadrianus was already familiar with such cryptic remarks. So he backtracked and smiled blandly, unaware of how he looked exactly like his father as he did, ":I guess so.:"
":Himalayan Great Horned albino owl.:" Baba noted, ":Seen to bring luck and wisdom, while their screech is an omen of death, the vehicle of Goddess Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth and good fortune. May luck and prosperity always be on your side, little Devarsh, and remember, spiritual riches are the greatest of all riches.:"
"Uh," Hadrianus looked between Baba and his amused father, ":Thanks.:"
":Baba, before we leave,:" Marvolo stated as he turned to him, acting as if it was merely an afterthought and not what he was looking for when they arrived and thinking about since then, ":We wish to seek knowledge on something of great importance from you."
":Knowledge is a treasure.:" Pack Elder stated wisely, ":But I have a feeling this one may not be.:"
You bet, Marvolo thought, clearing his throat. ":I wish to learn how to suppress one's creature.:"
The silence that surrounded them was louder than the outrageous yells that followed soon after. Here comes nothing, Marvolo thought. He could ascertain from his glance that Pack Elder was angry. Terrifyingly angry. The air around him seemed thick and the clouds overhead seemed to be collecting and swirling above them, his Staff cackling with power.
"YOU DARE!" He hollered with might that sent vibrations around, threatening to bring an earthquake, birds chirping as they fly away at the powerful voice. Within moments, the Pack Warriors surrounded the family of three, their spears, swords, and other weapons pointing at them threateningly, hissing menacingly. Marvolo and Hadrianus whipped out their own wands, but as his father told him before, Hadrianus kept his wand pointed at the ground, just like his father did, appearing to be as non-threatening as possible. Azure was already sitting on Hadrianus's shoulder and snarling at anyone who dare look at his human.
":As an honorable Naga yourself, don't you ask why I seek such advice now, after I already spent decades as Naga?:" Marvolo asked, keeping his eyes on Baba, but he did pay attention to every move of the pack warriors surrounding them. He knows that the moment they attacks, he would activate the emergency portkey and leave with his family. But he really needed the knowledge for his son's safety.
":You lost the privilege to speak to Baba, traitor!:" Leader of the pack warrior snarled, ":Get lost!:" In his self-righteous fury, he shoved them, making Nagini misstep in surprise and tumble on the ground. Seeing his mother on the dirt, bleeding from the cut in the stony pebbles, Hadrianus saw red. Without further prompt, he changed back into his human form, and his martial arts training kicked in, and before anyone realized what was happening, the surprised Leader of the pack warrior was on the ground, groaning from his shattered wrists and sprained ankle, his spear lay broken harmlessly beside him, with a snarling Hadrianus standing by his head.
"Don't touch my mum!" The child Naga roared at him, dismissing the hesitant weapons from other pack warriors aimed at him, which were withdrawn on orders from the Pack Elder. Azure took a dive at him, clawing his face, and Hadrianus let him.
Marvolo clenched his teeth, his knuckles fisted around his wand turned white and trembling from the struggle to keep himself from snarling out the Killing Curse, if the tip of his wand is flickering an unnatural shade of green, no one but Nagini noticed it. How dare that wretch touches his wife? No matter, Marvolo told himself, in an effort to calm down, the wretch would go out of the Tribe one day or another, whom he can blame but himself if a landslide happened to crush him in these dangerous hilly areas?
Knowing his boys are plotting murders, Nagini stood accepting her Hatchling's proffered hand, brushing the dirt off her skirt, before snatching Azure from the ground where the swooping evil was clawing and biting the fallen warrior's face trying to eat his brain. She then grabbed her curse-happy boys' hands and squeezed them comfortingly. No need to start a blood bath just because she had a tumble! It was her duty to protect her Hatchling, not the other way around! Honestly, boys! They behave like she is a damsel! She is a saw-scaled viper, for Goodness' sake!
"Look at that blessed nestling, younger than a decade, yet what a fine warrior he makes, defending his mother's honor! He is going to be Earth's greatest treasure one day." The Pack Elder praised, approaching a whimpering Dhruva on the ground, the Leader of the pack Warrior.":Are you okay?:"
":The traitor's nestling attacked me, unprovoked!:" He moaned in pain.
"That's right, and we let him. But unprovoked? Are you sure about that?:" Dhruva fell silent at that, ":Remember, that the said nesting is a better man than you would ever hope to be.:" He spat at the ground near his head, earning another whimper which he ignored and looked at the other warriors. He deserved the suffering, for violating one of the basic rules by hurting a lady, one without any weapons, at that. "Take him away. No one is to heal him until he learned his lesson." After that, the Pack Elder dismissed them and turned to Marvolo, "You better have a good explanation for daring to seek such abominable knowledge to dishonor the blessed nestling, Durjaya!"
"Baba, as you already know, My home country Britain thinks being a Creature is a disgrace. I wish to rectify that, but for that, I will need to establish myself in their system, and my child would need to be educated among the humans, or else they would never accept us. Right now, Britain's ministry thinks a creature is an abomination and seeks to kill them." As he mentioned that, several outrageous gasps and growls echoed around the warriors.
But it was not enough to sway the Pack Elder, "Your home country had been giving grief to our home country for over a century, looting our treasures and demolishing our heritages. Why would we care for them? Leave your nestling in our den, we shall raise him as our own while you restore your disgraced nation."
Marvolo took a deep breath, already expecting this answer, "I wish I could do that, but Britain already knows about the existence of my nestling. If he is to disappear, it would draw attention to us, in a bad way. I wish to not draw such negative attention to myself, as it may hinder my plans regarding the changes in Britain. Besides, he already has a life there, with several friends, I don't think he would be happy to leave them."
"He is just a nestling, not even a fledgling! He is yet to be a decade old, yet to shed all his egg teeth! What life he could have? Leave him with us, he will be happy and safe."
"No Baba, I can't. He will need to attend the school for the human. He will turn a fledgling before I sent him to the school. As I won't be declaring blood war for our cause anymore, we will be doing political war. Hadrianus's presence is needed in the school, as he is the Heir of the School Castle, and children would listen to him. But if he was out as a creature before I can do anything, the whole of Britain will be out for our blood."
"Your words make me more convinced to keep the nestling here."
"But is it not a Naga's responsibility to look after those seeking his sanctuary, Baba?" Marvolo argued back, "Those creatures in Britain are seeking my sanctuary, looking up to me to make their home safe for them."
At that point, Pack Elder fell silent, staring at him, demanding an explanation.
"This is why I wanted to learn how to train him to be a human for the time being, so when the time comes and we reveal ourselves as creatures, him being a creature yet being so normal and mingling with other human children, and not being an 'abomination' will come to light. We can present several proofs that we are not an abomination as Britain's Ministry of Magic believes us to be. My nestling will be the brand ambassador of them, as he had been a creature since he was eight yet he was a completely ordinary child, capable of doing whatever a human child can do. All my nestling needs to do is to exist among them and that's it. To them, he would be the perfect example, being a creature yet so very ordinary, just like any other human child."
"You present a factual explanation." The Pack Elder sighed, "Fine, I will grant you the abominable knowledge. Come hither, before I change my mind."
Marvolo approached and knelt down before Pack Elder. Hadrianus and Nagini watched in rapt attention as Pack Elder looked straight into Marvolo's eyes, and their gaze locked. They were passing information via the advanced method of Legimonkey, Hadrianus realized. He will learn those techniques as well when he gets older. He can't wait to get older!
A minute passed before they broke eye contact, "Until you cease such practices, you won't be welcomed in our Tribe anymore. I have a feeling this knowledge will do him more harm than good."
"Yes sir, thank you." Marvolo sighed, dejectedly.
"How do you feel, Little Mamba?"
Honestly? Hadrianus doesn't know. One thing is for sure. Hadrianus didn't like the ritual at. All.
The next day after returning home, at dawn father woke him up and had him perform the ritual with the sunrise. It was nothing but ingesting a bitter-tasting potion, followed by a series of breathing exercises and wrapping the magic around the core in a specific clockwise anticlockwise, then crisscross pattern until he would choke on nothingness.
Whenever he would perform it, he'd feel a strange emptiness settle right on his skin. As if someone had stripped him of a blanket of blessing from his soul.
He wondered if it was supposed to feel like that. If the ritual is stripping him of his Creature until he can feel nothing. Strange. Hollow. As if something big is missing. Something that had been a blanket of blessing over his soul. Even his magic would fluctuate, and he became more prone to accidental overpowering of spells.
He also noticed that every time he did it, the shifting to his Mamba form would take longer, as if his creature had been lost inside the depth of his soul and trying to slither out of World's most complicated Mirror Maze. But once he was shifted, he could shift easily enough for the rest of the day until his father would make him practice the ritual the very next sunrise.
Though, for some reason, every time, after practice, all the animals of the garden started to flock towards him. The garden pixies, squirrels, birds, occamies, kelpies, merpeople, demiguises, and even the shy animals like wood nymphs and diricrawl would become more daring in approaching him or eating from his hand. He didn't even need to bribe them with food beforehand!
Still, Hadrianus didn't like the ritual. Hated it, in fact. Not being able to feel his Inner Mamba. He felt as if his sensitivity to smell and hearing has decreased a fewfold every time he did it, though his father told him that it was all inside his head, that his sensitivity hasn't been affected at all. He even showed proof by pointing out that his fangs are still there, just more hidden to make certain it's not obvious. That he would soon become accustomed to it.
Hadrianus would pout, protest, throw tantrums, and even try to hide from his father, but still, his father would find him and drag him out of his hiding places, and make him practice the ritual with every sunrise, to keep up the practice.
Every time he would feel a strange emptiness. He couldn't wait to shift back to his Serpentine form as soon as possible. Forcing his creature to come out and be one with him. He wondered how he is going to survive feeling this emptiness all the time once he is in Hogwarts. He knows he can't shift to Naga form there, as it will make the ritual useless.
After all, his father's fear was not unfounded. Hadrianus knows that the ritual is a necessary evil, or as he still can't control his Mamba form from breaking out whenever startled unprovoked. His father had estimated that they would need at least five or six years of fighting to remove the Kill On Sight order from the Creatures, even with the Creature Equality laws, as ridiculous as it may sound.
Honestly, adults are so weird!
Thankfully, his father allowed him to shift back to his Naga form within one or two hours after the ritual, wanting him to get used to such a feeling and practice it until he is at least fifteen. He had already told him that they would gradually increase the time limit, to make him get used to it.
"I'm fine, father."
Hadrianus wondered how he is going to get used to such strange hollowness.
"I told you they would agree." Luna preened after Hadrianus finished his tale about visiting the Tribe. Nagini was there, supervising them as the three of them prepared fruit salad for their snacks. Uncle Severus has recommended the supervised use of knives to exercise the art of evenly cutting, dicing, and mincing.
"Yeah, and my father had to pay the price," Hadrianus replied dejectedly, and Neville bumped his shoulder with his best friend, offering comfort, both his hands busy carefully cutting the kiwis evenly as per Auntie's instructions.
Luna shrugged nonchalantly, "But they agreed."
A beat passed as Hadrianus and Neville stared at Luna incredulously.
"Luna, dear," Nagini intervened, smiling at the quirky little Seer, "While I am delighted that you're a Seer and using the ability to predict positive outcomes, you should know that you shouldn't tell everyone about what you Saw."
Luna frowned at her, "But..."
"Darling, remember, that one should always trust themselves and make their own fortune, and not in Divination and Prophecies." Nagini explained patiently, "Nothing is fixed and written on stone."
"Then what's the point of Seeing, if there's nothing fixed on stone?"
"Just imagine the following scenario, dear. Say, it's your birthday, you Saw your favorite cake waiting for you in the shop, and told them that." Nagini pointed at curiously looking Hadrianus and Neville, "Now imagine, if either of them became confident that the cake would stay there, and went got distracted on way to shop, and then someone came and brought the cake. You missed the cake. Now imagine, if you didn't tell him about it, they will go buy the cake first thing."
Understanding drew in her eyes as she considered it. "You're right, Auntie! I shouldn't tell them everything!"
"You're a smart girl, Luna. I know you would understand." She smiled.
"Mum's right. Not even a Seer sees everything Fate has planned." Hadrianus said, glancing at Neville, "Okay. New rule, Luna. You'll not tell us anything you 'see'. I don't want to get cocky and pay more price for my arrogance. My father is not welcomed in his pack anymore because of me, I don't want to miss the cake anymore!"
"I second that," Neville said, he too was shaken, "No future predictions anymore Luna, unless we're going to do something that may kill us or others. Then you can stop us. Of course, that doesn't mean we don't want your opinion, just...not what you See, but what you think."
"Yeah," Harianus agreed, nodding at his best friend. "Exactly what he said."
"But...how would I know what I think, and not see?" Luna asked. She never knows the difference between them.
"You're smart, Luna. I know you'd figure it out."
"Besides, what are we? Chopped liver?"
"Not helping, Adrian! Luna, what he means is we are here to help as well. So not to worry, you will be fine."
"Yeah, what he said. You'll be fine. In fact, let's start small. Why don't you share what is bothering you at the moment, and we will go from there, trying to figure out if it is something you Saw or just the result of your overthinking. Make sure to pick something that doesn't involve me or Neville. Or our parents."
"Yeah, that's a good idea!" Neville approved, earning a small smile from Nagini as she looked at the conversing children proudly. When did they become so wise?
Luna looked between them, then slowly nodded, agreeing to this new boundary. It's nice, having people who want her around, not for her ability, but for her wisdom, and simply her company. Luna knew she had taken a huge risk when she exposed herself to the Dark side, but she also knew if anyone could save her from a possible grave future, it is the boy sitting right in front of her, begging her to not let them use her abilities.
Upon returning home, the little albino owl turned fledgling within a few days, hopping around his room and trying to fly. Hadrianus had already shown her a few documentaries on how to fly, not knowing how much it helped the fledgling. But judging by her constantly trying and flapping her wings, hopping around, she understood whatever she saw. So Hadrianus let her continue to do so while keeping an eye on her from distance, knowing from his lessons that a fledgling is like a teenage bird who doesn't need external help, but occasional guidance, a constant effort to learn how to fly and a safe place to do so.
Hadrianus soon find out she is a very clingy and needy bird, even more than Azure, and for some reason, she is immensely jealous of Azure. More than once he had to stop them from fighting for his attention. Marvolo brought a perch for Hadrianus's new familiar when he noticed the bloody bird doesn't stay away from Hadrianus. She would start fretting, letting out distressed 'krek' 'krek' sounds if Hadrianus is not within her eyesight for more than an hour, making the child Naga rush back to her as soon as possible and pet her until she is satisfied. Hadrianus even started to carry the fledgling inside the chest pocket of his robes and gave his father a mini heart attack or two, who had thought the child Naga was carrying another XXXXX creature inside his clothes. Not that it's his fault when Hadrianus WAS carrying Azure on his wrist.
After that incident, Hadrianus would let the fledgling rest either on his shoulder or forearm, her sharp talons clutching his flesh tearing the fabrics away. Mum would chuckle and supply the healing paste, and have the House Elves mend the fabrics later. But soon almost all of Hadrianus's clothes have tears on them. When it continued, mum informed father who upon finding out, had the tailors add extra padding on his both shoulder and forearms of all his clothes so both of his familiars can perch on him comfortably but their sharp talons or claws did not hurt Hadrianus. Marvolo had also installed several wooden perches that looked like small leafless trees near the window, bed, training room, study room, his office, or playroom, so the bird can perch and keep an eye on Hadrianus as he plays, practices skateboarding, flies or exercises. He tried to install ornate perch but she rejected all of them, preferring wooden ones.
Soon, she started growing feathers and Hadrianus would pet her, always with the feather to not disrupt the alignment. Hadrianus had learned that with how his father pets him when he is in serpentine form or mum. Even Azure. He has a lot of practice with Azure. Hadrianus also find out that she loves to shower, she would immensely enjoy it when Hadrianus sprays her with cold water, and bring small bugs that he caught. It was the exact opposite of Azure, who would screech and try to flee whenever Hadrianus bath him, not that it saved him from those baths as Hadrianus quickly learned how to hold him tightly before giving him a proper shower. After all, Azure is completely harmless to his human because of their bond negating the effect of his venomous bite which is nothing more than a paper cut to Hadrianus.
What gave Hadrianus the most headache was selecting a name for her. He made a list and had already tried many names and she kept biting him, rejecting all of them.
That's what he had been thinking when Nagini came slithering, finding her Hatchling glaring at a piece of parchment and nursing his red nose where the fledgling bite him. ":What is going on?:"
":She is rejecting all the names I selected for her.:" Hadrianus pouted, showing her the list.
Nagini looked at the list and choked on laughter. Seriously? A moody owl like her, with names Hootie, Owlfie, or Snowy?
":Well, she is quite a warrior, she won a battle against death with your support. Do you think she will settle for these names?:"
":Then suggest something!:"
":Well,:" Nagini glanced at the fledgling looking at them from her perch suspiciously, ":She's your familiar, so why don't we try something related to your name?:"
":Like...starting with H? I already tried that, see here, Hootie!:"
Nagini laughed as the fledgling screeched, indignant, knowing what he was talking about even when he was speaking in Parseltongue. She truly is a smart owl! ":How about... Hades?:"
":Father already has an owl called Hades...:" Hadrianus trailed off, thinking about what she said...a warrior, huh? He immediately ran to the shelf, pulled one of his German name books, and brought it back to his bean bag, then scrolled through it, before coming to stop in front of a page. He then glanced at the owl. "How about Hedwig?"
The Himalayan snowy owl thought about it, then hooted, fluffing up her feathers and settling down, content.
Hadrianus beamed proudly, ":She likes it. Hedwig it is, then!:"
Nagini tilted her head and flickered her tongue over the top of his head, her version of kissing. ":Perfect. Now, why don't you show me the drawings you made this morning?:"
":Yes, mummy!:" Hadrianus quickly scrambled off his bean bag and ran off to his desk to bring his sketchbook.
It took one more day until Hedwig learned to fly, and the first thing Hadrianus find out her is her favorite food was whatever she can steal from his plate.
It also didn't take him any more than two days before Hadrianus learned quickly that trying to ignore the little owl cum phoenix has awful consequences. The little rascal could wreak untold havoc! Hedwig made the results of Hadrianus's actions clear. She had somehow mastered the art of pyromancy, and figured out that the charms protecting against its phoenix fire could be overcome. The flame-freezing charm, water, or fume charm was designed to stop the normal non-magical fire, not the magical fire like hers.
Fail to allow her to burrow into a comfortable position and to cuddle on him and she'd roast everything in sight.
Ignoring her and petting Azure? That's burning!
Studying without petting her? That's burning too!
Eating and not letting her steal food from his plate? Say goodbye to it because, by the next bite, it has turned into charcoal.
Yet whatever was burned was, so far, never truly important or irreplaceable, but merely of smaller inconvenience and mostly a nuisance to Hadrianus. Burning a letter he had just written to his friends, some pieces of notes he'd made while studying, his food, handkerchief, quill, some common and nonvolatile potion ingredients, and so forth, all items which were of minimal importance. None of his books, notebooks, homework, or even volatile, uncommon, expensive potion ingredients were ever harmed.
Hadrianus doesn't know if it all was whether or not a coincidence. If it wasn't, then just how intelligent was this little phoenix owl? She seemed to be able to recognize what was and was not acceptable fuel for the pyromancy tantrums that she is too fond of throwing. Probably due to the small size of the owl, she could commence a small burst of her phoenix fire, fortunately, and Hadrianus was immensely thankful that Hedwig had Phoneix inheritance, not a dragon! Though he doesn't know what he'd do when the menace would turn into a fully mature phoenix owl.
What used to make Hadrianus wonder was why Azure never seemed to be so needy for his attention, before his mum pointed out that Azure is practically nesting in his arm in his cocoon form all the time, which probably made Hedwig all the more jealous and claim his mop of hair as her personal nest until Hadrianus would agree to let her coddle inside his robes and nap together.
When Hadrianus wouldn't pay attention to them for more than an hour, Hedwig would fluff up her feathers and horns, and start by screeching and stress-preening his hair, trying to draw his attention, and in reply, Azure would screech back and climb up his hand to shoulder and nuzzle his neck, like some jealous kitten. They would continue until either the three of them would have a cuddle session, all the while Azure and Hedwig aggressively glaring at each other while being petted by their human, or some stuff belonging to Hadrianus would be reduced to a pile of ashes.
After many trials and errors over the next few weeks later, Hadrianus finds out how to give both of them his equal attention. The best way is to let them perch on him, Hedwig in the middle of his hair or his shoulder, and Azure on his lap, and he would read them some books. But even then, Hadrianus had to set up some boundaries to stop his familiars from fighting for his attention.
"Come on Hedwig, you know the rules. You picked the genre last time. This time Azure gets to choose a genre and you will choose the book."
Hedwig let out an affirmative hoot and landed on his shoulder and glared at Azure. Azure took his sweet time to pick up a piece of parchment written from the jar and bought it to Hadrianus, making him snort, not surprised to see him picking up 'fiction'. Azure seems to love them.
"Fiction." He told Hedwig.
Hedwig hopped down from Hadrianus's hair with a slight ruffle of her feathers to fly on the fiction shelf of their library that father had installed for his leisure reads. She stared around the spines of books before tapping her beak on a thick paperback.
Hadrianus took the book out of the shelves and stared at it, before turning to Hedwig, "This is the fourth time you picked up India-based books. Nostalgic, much?"
Hedwig let out a hoot, puffing out her feathers, making Hadrianus roll his eyes, "Yes yes, okay. I'll read it. Geez, stupid needy flying turkey."
Hedwig responded by setting his hair ablaze.