Warden or Wizard

Chapter 6

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World Earth. Hogwarts: Hadrian

Stopping just outside the massive hall once more, Draco then turned and gave a gentle bow with a smirk, "see you outside by the lake, sometime after classes a little while later," before sauntering off in the direction of the stairs.

Tugging on a flaying sleeve in uncommon nervousness, Hadrian then straightened up, letting fidgeting fingers fall to rest naturally on his daggers. Stiff shoulders shifted unconsciously, resettling the bow upon a tense back once more. Pushing forward, entered into the long vast hall. Green eyes fell upon the few older figures still hovering around, among a few older students studying texts upon the tables. They were clearly not teaching the young magi right now if they had time to loiter here and gossip.

"So that's him?" His ears picked it up right away, the strange, slurred, an almost foreign common language of this land. The words were hard to understand, strange to his tongue, as his mind translated them back to his own words, thanks to the little elf's magic revealing the secret of this worlds language.

"I near didn't recognize the lad." Keeping up the pretence, looked between them all with a suspicious and tense stare. Acting as though the warden could still not understand the words spoken.

It was then he caught the eyes of the shoulder-length dark-haired Human. It was just a glance, a slight narrowing of the eyes before the other carried on talking while looking back at the person beside him. But at that moment, Hadrian got the weirdest sensation, a subtle whisper that flickered past a pointed ear 'he knows...'

That voice! The bond maybe? Had it evolved again?

The elf slowly walked up to the high table, while the fingers of his right hand trailed across the top of the wooden surface of one of the smaller students table, as the warden moved between the four tables.

"And there he is, my Boy welcome." Freezing, snapped his head up to regard the oldest human of them all. Hadrian... remembered this one, white hair and beard, both long but well taken care of. Eccentric nature it seemed, but something seemed almost calculative behind those bright blue eyes, those half-moon shaped glasses perched upon the elder's nose, hid what looked to be a manipulative mind. While dark orange robes with the oddest green and yellow colour's that flickered in and out of view adorned his tall stature.

"Please sit, eat" green-eyes followed the gesturing arm and looked down at the seat at the high table which had a spread of meats, fruits and veg, "and we shall figure out how to make you understand our language."

"So he truly is..?"

"...it seems so."

Ignoring the chatter in the background from lots of practice from being a knife-ear half-breed elf and the warden who won the fifth blight, almost made this easy. The little elf had allowed him to scope out the humans without them being any wiser to his knowledge of their own language, for at least a little while.

The frowning dark-haired man was suspicious, but reading from his body language was more than likely either a spy or an assassin and normally those kinds of people were suspicious of everything. But Hadrian knew he would have to watch the man carefully, especially after their first encounter in the healing rooms.

The elder looked to be a well-meaning manipulator. Not the type to think he was doing anything wrong, but the type to not think of his people in terms of being people. Did people become pawns in a larger game and that mentality? Dangerous. People died because they became nothing more than collateral damage for the larger picture, for the greater good. A saying that Loghain twisted in the end without realizing before he died "It was for the greater good for my country." and became the reason he let his king and friend die.

"...high elven?"

"...all terminated by the ministry."

His hand froze for a moment before placing another piece of carrot in his mouth. Terminated? Killed? By the ministry? Who was this ministry? A governing body of some kind? Who were these people? By Mythral…

"...be inhuman. Won't be accepted like that."

"Hi, there!" He jolted, fingers yanked out his weapons and were already in motion. Upon his feet and swinging his daggers towards the perceived threat. Before stopping with a jerk seeing nothing more than two children in front of him and two terrified children at that, who were staring at the weapons inches from their noses.

Blinking, daggers in hand, slowly stepped back. Then with a grunt sheaved his weapons safely away, before sitting back down with a thump. Eyes closed exasperatedly, as the right hand came up and rubbed between his eyebrows as a headache brewed, as it did when Adrenalin had no outlet. Without his partner at his back, to watch for threats, Hadrian felt exposed and extremely vulnerable.

"I am so sorry, we didn't mean to give you a fright." The young female's voice came forth with gentle concern.

Opening green-eyes to look back upon the two, looked back and forth in confusion at why they had approached him.

"Really I'm truly sorry. Accept my apology?" She was still going, this brown wavy haired female, a small smile upon her face. The ginger-haired male was now frowning as the warden looked even more confused at the two of them.

"Say something will you!" the lad snapped, clearly thinking the elf was ignoring them.

"Yasot emtnaw uoyodtahw?!" He snapped back. Though hearing his own language even though he could understand theirs made Hadrian realize two things.

One, even though he had spoken to Draco in this worlds common earth tongue, it was much more difficult to speak it naturally instead of reverting back to his own language.

Two, he didn't want to speak it. Draco was the exception for now. He didn't actually trust the lad, but the magi had got him help when he least expected it and hadn't asked any favor for it.

The two looked at each other with a glance. Before with a still smile and an insincere sorry, the girl pulled the now concerned male away, to his protests. "Hermione! Come on, can't we at least help." With a brewing argument between the two.

Turning away, looked over the high-table with calculating eyes. Green soon meet black eyes once again and those eyes glittered with knowledge. Somehow, Hadrian knew, the other had figured it out, maybe it was the body language that the elf had given out. Maybe the way he was slightly tilting his head, listening to the conversations around him, when before they were brushed off as unknown. But the spy had clicked on and with a minuscule tilt of his head towards the entrance, began to talk to his other magi colleges about leaving and finding quarters for their elven-guest.

"Excellent Severus, we shall leave you to sort out the room placement shall we. The school is ready to provide, just give the word, green-fields when ready." The elder magi said with a jovial smile. With a nod, the man Severus stood, before striding towards the doors.

Looking down at the plate, Hadrian shook his head. Appetite had fled, leaving him in a pained state, see the bond was throbbing making it difficult to even eat, though he had tried. Sighing, he stood up from the table, and bowed towards the elder magi with a hand on his chest, before turning and walking back towards the hall doors, where Severus was waiting with a scowl on his face.

"...can see that, so polite..."

"...raised right, see Minerva?"

"Indeed."

The man jerked his head over his shoulder, before turning with a snap of his robe and striding away out the doors.

"...no need to worry."

And Hadrian followed with the conversation fading behind him, actually glad to getaway. Trying to translate all those words was actually quite exhausting for the first time and much kept getting missed, only half of what was heard could his mind decode.

Leaving the hall, would give the elf chance to rest his mind. Perhaps a shaded area under the trees? It was worth looking for.

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It had all been explained by the man called Severus, the cautious one. As they had walked, the man began to explain in a soft voice the situation that the elf was now stuck in. Of magic so unnerving it ripped the fabric of reality, how Hadrian had been stolen from his home. The reason the elf had been taken and the consequences of such an action. Severus had left nothing out and although man talked in coded word, the green-eyed elf still understood what he was saying. For any spy or assassin, they were never were the types to talk straight if it was something serious. As the warden knew being an assassin himself. But the man was still talking to him as an equal and that was something strange he wasn't really used to.

Elves, those of Thedas, were never treated equally. They were seen as nothing more than the scum of the earth. It was only being conscripted into the Grey Wardens did some respect come and even then, most humans usually had a face like they had bitten into something sour when talking to him.

After a quick tour of the castle the older magi took him to a room, told him the passphrase, handed over a medium-sized pouch and left. This was up at the top of the left stairs facing the front door. This would allow him to escape out into the grounds of the castle, away from the constant noise of the castle.

Hadrian found a place beside a large lake, upon a stone that jutted out of the ground. With the shade of the forest behind him, golden beams of light flickering over his form in the breeze. It was just out of the view of anyone coming from the building.

Settling down, opened up the pouch Hadrian had been handed. He was cautious as the pouch could have contained any number of traps, but all there seemed to be were little rectangular items inside. Reaching in grabbed one and pulled it out, instantly it grew in size until a sizable tomb was laying on the grass.

Lifting the book, grunted at the weight that the item had suddenly gained. Where the book had been as light as a stone, now weighed about several buckets of water.

Opening the heavily decorated leather cover, stared at the yellowing stiff pages, as fingers gently traced over the strange words. So futile it seemed his pursuit to understand the changing language of these people and failing with every moment. Even so with the magic helping his understanding of the spoken tongue, the written word was a different beast entirely. One language the warden could now speak, but within these tomb's there were at least three others that he had no clue how to decipher.

These were, as the elf slowly figured out from the list on first page, Common English, Old English, Galic & Latin. Still, identifying the words didn't really help the elf understand the language.

Sighing, he leaned back, looking upwards into the sky. Gentle white wisps of cloud slowly moved over the sky. At least this was the same, sky so blue like a summers day. Looking back down at the book in his lap, Hadrian shook his head, closing weary green eyes. 'Please Zevran, find a way.'

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Later on that day, as the sky began to turn the colours of the sunset. A figure could be seen exiting the castle. Heavy black robes were tugged on, as a silver mask was held in one hand, the other his wand. Stretching out his arm, pressed the tip of the wood into his arm, and vanished with a twist.

Landing within a desolate graveyard, placed the mask over his face-concealing who he was. Walking up to the house, which was dark and unkempt, swept into the building focused on the person he was here to see. There was no one else around it seemed, for the hallways were empty, yet there was a feeling of someone watching in the darkness, perhaps the guards that stayed behind to protect their leader.

Striding forward, came to a room with a lit fire, the only source of light and sitting reading was the man he had come to see.

"Severus, welcome my friend." The tone was gentle, yet when the other turned to look at him, those intense green-eyes stared with a hidden threat. "What news do you bring in such a short time?" Longing fingers closed the book, as the man stood up head tilted in curiosity, dark locks of hair falling over handsome features.

Severus bowed, sinking to the ground. "My lord, I bring strange news from Hogwarts."

"Go on." The other wizard began to walk around the room, slowly circling around the younger wizards prone form.

"Five days ago, the headmaster utilized a summoning spell. It drew forth the one who we thought had been missing." Looking up at the figure as they appeared back in front of him, Severus locked eyes. "Harry Potter was summoned back with black magic, but the boy was not the same."

"Young Potter, you say?"

Severus swallowed, before continuing. "Yes my lord, yet the boy was no child. He had grown and changed. A high elf, an eradicated species."

The male sat slowly down, face creased in thought. "How did they react my dear Severus?"

At this a grimace appeared, clearly, the wizard had no problems showing how he felt about it. "They want to use magic to force the boy into a human form. They were not pleased to have an inhuman creature as their saviour."

Silence permeated the air for a long moment before the elder wizard raised his hand up, the kneeling Severus stood slowly and methodically, always in control of how he acted.

"Severus, go back to the school. Gain the trust of young Potter. Protect him if you must and offer sanctuary if it is needed. Mentor the boy, do not let them destroy the very thing I had given away and if he should come to harm?"

"All of our lives are forfeit. For gods do not forget the bargain's they strike."

"My lord?"

"You have your orders, Severus. Go, leave me."

"Yes my lord." With a deep bow, the younger wizard turned and exited the room.

The older wizard turned and moved towards a covered item in the corner of the room. Gripping the cloth, pulled it off with a flourish, revealing a mirror engraved in a language not known to him. The surface of the mirror was a silver sheen reflecting back at him shadows, as though the surface absorbed the light.

Facing it, while holding up his wand began to murmur strange words, as the pointed tip trailed over the mirror's edge. As the wand pointed at the last word, the mirror glowed while white light spilled out into the room.

Taking a step back he could see a figure form in the light. They walked forward framed within the surface and an amused voice echoed out. "Why Tom Riddle, what brings one such as you to call one such as I?"

Green eyes, sharp and intelligent met those of piercing golden. Gently resting a hand upon his chest, bowed lightly to the being. "Flemeth, it has been a long time."

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End Chapter 5