Chapter 4: Shit Goes Down
Hadrian had just walked into the apartment building where he lived and he realized that he had a crucial weakness; sleep. Every human needed to sleep, but most were neither genius prodigies or magic users. Hadrian spun on his heel and walked right back out of the building and headed once again that day to the library, he cursed himself for thinking of it when he was already at the library earlier. Hadrian would have run there because it was getting late in the day, but he was properly behaved and quickly walked to his destination instead. Once he arrived at the library he immediately went to the ritual section and then searched the sleep subsection to see if he could find what he was looking for, Hadrian wanted to find a way to rid himself of the need to sleep or at the very least reduce his reliance on it. But there was nothing. The only thing he could find were different ways to make someone's sleep better, be it through meditation techniques or through rituals. Giving up he decided to see if one of the professor's would be willing to teach him or help him create a ritual to rid the body and mind of their need for sleep, he went through the three professors he knew of and he met two. He decide that there was a greater chance that Professor Flamel knew about how to create a ritual, or know of one. Hadrian was at the entrance of the library where he found a map and saw where the building housing the professors was located.
Hadrian set off towards his new destination, interestingly he saw Lucas departing back to the apartments from the direction on the professors tower. Hadrian found that ironically funny, it played into the legend that wizards live in tall towers. Lucas looked like the cat that caught the canary, something really good must have happened for him. Hadrian thought nothing more of it and continued on his way into the tower. Looking at the index for which professors were on which floor, another ironic fact was that the higher ranked professors were closer to the top with the Headmaster having the top floor and Deputy Headmaster Flamel having the floor beneath him. Hadrian looked around and cursed the fact that there were only stairs, another reason to consider athletics is so that he won't be so tired after climbing stairs like these. After what seemed like forever to Hadrian he finally reached the floor that Deputy Headmaster Flemel had his office on he was about to knock on the door when Flamel himself opened the door.
Ah! , I was just about to come and fetch you!" Nick exclaims with a smile on his face.
"You were? Why?" Hadrian asked. Did Nick somehow that he was coming to ask a question. And he didn't believe he had done anything wrong.
"I am not sure. Well that's not true, I do know exactly what is going on, but I want to surprise you." Nick started. The pair walked at a brisk up the tower stairs to the Headmaster's door, or floor ass each professor gets their own floor. "Well this is where I leave you. You know what to do from here, a helpful tip though is to wait until he says to enter."
Hadrian waited until he was reasonably sure enough time that Nick was back in his private office on his floor when suddenly he was startled out of his thoughts.
"Are you going to wait out there forever or are you going to get your ass in here." It wasn't said with any malicious intent, just a sort of humor Hadrian guessed. So Hadrian remembered what Nick had said and figured that this was his permission to enter. The first thing Hadrian noticed when he entered was the functional architecture, it was meant for only how it would function not just for flash. It seemed to be designed like Hadrian's apartment was, after the castles that are so famous in the U.K. and Ireland. Hadrian noticed that the room he was in seemed to be a waiting room because there was the door behind him and a set of double oak doors in front of him. Walking through the oak doors into the Headmaster's office which was styled after the castles of old as well, the office was filled with portraits and powerful trinkets. "Welcome Hadrian, I would like to talk about the school. You see, you and Mr. Greaves are the only two of the Exceptional Six, the name is a work in progress, who are not legacy students. Mr. Greaves and Professor had an excellent talk about my academy and it is like. I offered to talk to myself when I talked to him about this idea. Usually I just let him talk to the students, but I decided to interfere because you and I are alike Hadrian."
"How so, Headmaster?" Hadrian asked. He was confused how could he and Merlin be alike, it's Merlin the most famous and powerful magic user ever.
"You can call me Merlin, Hadrian. We will be spending lots of time together." Merlin told him, before continuing. "I know that you did not have a good childhood, the school's acceptance magic tells me that much. I too had a very unpleasant childhood; I was ostracized within the village where I grew up because I had the gift of magic from birth. Having magic was considered a crime with the penalty of death where I grew up, and it was years ago so the villagers took it upon themselves to punish me. They believed I should have been thankful to them that they never reported me to the liege lord, they would beat me for anything that went wrong in the village. When I was a teenager I finally had enough and ran away. I ran to the only kingdom I had heard allowed magic: Camelot. I'll tell you more about my personal history some other time. Do you have questions so far?" Merlin asked
"What is so special about me that you choose to talk to me yourself?" Hadrian asked. He knew he was a genius and prodigy relating to anything related to magic, but not what made him so special to Merlin.
"Oh, I guess I should explain that. Hadrian do you know why your class has been given the titles of the rulers of well known empires?" Merlin asked, to which Hadrian shook his head in response. "Well one interesting fact is that each of you are descended from the rulers you are named after. I do not have access to your family tree and history so I can't tell you which emperor you are descended from, the acceptance magic also showed me which family you are descended from. It is also this way for the other five in your group of high ranking students. Now I noticed you were looked in the ritual section of the library, were you looking for some performance enhancement ritual?"
"Err… No I wasn't." Hadrian answered the famous headmaster.
"Damn it, I was prepared to act like I didn't know as well. You need to learn when to take advantage of a situation or offer you are given." Merlin started telling Hadrian. "So what were you doing looking around the ritual section of the library? It seems that you couldn't find it either, we have a great many rituals stored in our library, some of them are the only copies in the world."
"I was looking for sleep rituals. I realized that the only way I could do everything I want is to rid myself of the need to sleep for about seven years." Hadrian answered honestly.
"Oh? And what do you want to do?" Merlin asked.
"I want to be better than my family in every conceivable way. If I ever see them again, or if they somehow hear about me in their self-absorbed world, then I want them to know that I am their superior. I want them to know if they look at me that I am a god compared to them. If I meet them again I want them to kneel in front of me begging for my help finally realizing that I can change the course of their world, only to be utterly crushed and hopeless when I tell them I won't help." Hadrian said with conviction.
"Wow, you really want to ruin your family." Merlin stated in shock. "I understand the feeling, I did the same thing to villagers that tortured me when I was growing up. Why do you want to refuse them your help when it could be much easier to ignore them?" Merlin asked wanting to know the reason.
"A few years ago they pulled a "prank" on me." Hadrian said using air quotes when he said pranks. He continued saying: "I was walking into a room that only I used that had a piano in it and when I walked through the door a bucket of scalding hot water fell on top of me. I ran away crying constantly feeling the scalding hot water burning me, I hid in a door alcove and made a vow to myself that when the Potters come to me begging for my help that I will refuse, I may not be on the enemy's but I definitely won't be on theirs."
"Seems justified." Merlin said simply. "I am familiar with what your parents achieved, it will be quite remarkable if someone were to complete them even younger. Ancient magic users used to perform many feats like this when they were around the same age as you are now, Hadrian, so you will become quite similar to them."
"You're helping me? I was told that the professors only give you what you need to know to perform what you want?" Hadrian asked surprised
"What do you think I'm doing, I am not performing the ritual for you. That would be ridiculous and bring massive backlash back on myself." Merlin said sarcastically. "I am giving you the materials you need and teaching you how to create rituals."
"Oh, right." Hadrian said feeling dumb.
"Most students believe that I am unwilling to help a student that asks for help because I am the headmaster and must be busy all the time running the school. However, running a school full of geniuses and spoiled rich kids that can't contact their families is a lot easier than one may think. Now, a lot of people disagree with me on this because they believe only giving blood to the ritual is enough to get the maximum potential, but they are wrong. There are four tiers to every ritual; base, blood, mind, and soul. Never involve your soul in a ritual you are performing. The base tier is having the correct ingredients and offering most likely your body, there are rituals to imbue objects with power but that's pretty rare after enchantments were created. The second tier is about using your blood as part of the sacrifice, many believe that this is both the final tier and the most evil tier because blood is considered sacred in modern society mainly due to religion. The last tier anyone should ever consider using is offering your mind as a sacrifice, offering can be dangerous if you don't know what you are doing as you may lose your ability to think entirely or breathe, during the ritual you should only think about what you want to sacrifice. When I do rituals that involve the mind I allow the ritual to cause me pain, that way the mind sacrifice only lasts temporarily during the ritual. What you must do is open your mind during the ritual and allow your mind to feel everything. Any questions?"
"What is so dangerous about using your soul as a sacrifice? In most countries using magic involving the mind is more illegal than using magic involving the soul." Hadrian asked.
"Those countries are wrong, soul magic is the only thing in magic that can be considered evil." Merlin answered and cut Hadrian off when he saw his student was about to ask why. "You are not prepared to learn about magic involving the soul, you are still haunted by your ghosts of the past."
"Fair enough, what is needed for the ritual?" Hadrian asked.
"I know you don't have access to funds yet, so you can use my materials. Remember what Deputy Headmaster Flamel said, you need to find a way to get money for yourself, nothing in life is free." Merlin tells Hadrian, before continuing on to list the ingredients. "The necessary ingredients are: unicorn heart, horned serpent tongue, and thunderbird lightning. The unicorn heart is so you don't suffer the consequences of sleep deprivation, the horned serpent tongue is so that your mind continues working, and the thunderbird lightning is for keeping your body energized. Of course your blood is also needed so that magic knows that the ritual is for you, otherwise each of us will only get three and a half years without sleep. We will be using my ritual chambers, for others you can use the ritual room in your apartment."
Merlin showed Hadrian the way druids performed rituals and drew the proper ritual engraving outline, then with a wave of his wand the drawing became engraved on the floor. Hadrian recognized the shape, it was the druidic spiral. Merlin then tells Hadrian that his wand is; english oak, alder, phoenix feather, and fang of a Pendragon. Hadrian was excited for the wandlore class he would take.
"Walk to the middle of the engraving, and then sit down." Merlin tells Hadrian, he watches Hadrian doing what he said before he continued: "I am going to cut your wrists, let the blood flow onto the floor."
As soon as the blood hit the floor and began filling the engraving the ritual began. All Hadrian knew in the next few minutes, was pain. The pain was all consuming and he was constantly fighting to allow himself to feel the pain and remain conscious, if he fell unconscious the ritual may do the opposite of what he wanted. The ritual felt like it was taking an eternity from Hadrian's pain riddled mind, in truth it took four hours and afterwards he felt an indescribable feeling. Like he shouldn't be awake, but he was awake.
"How do you feel?" The Headmaster asked.
"I feel what's the word… discombobulated because I know I should be unconscious but I am perfectly awake." Hadrian answered.
"Great, during the ritual I sent some books and scrolls you should read while you relax on your downtime. There are some potions, rituals, spells, charms, and other topics included." Merlin tells him while leading him out. "You can keep those copies, you may want to pass them down onto any kids you may have, or build up an enormous personal collection like I did."
Hadrian thanked him and headed on his way, when he got outside he realized that a couple hours must have passed because it was night now. Hadrian hustled back to his apartment. Once he got inside he went to the kitchen to cook himself some food when he realized that he never bought any, thankfully when he searched the kitchen that school seemed to provide students seemed to provide food for the students. He doesn't know how to cook much food, so he grabs a can of chicken noodle soup and pours it into a bowl. Putting the bowl in the microwave for three minutes he walks away to the dining room to see what Merlin sent him, he walked past it earlier on his way to the kitchen barely noticing it's presence. He knew he didn't have too much time so he only briefly looked at the titles, he noticed; all the Hogwarts textbooks, scrolls sorted by subject each loaded to the brim with information, and some notes. Suddenly the microwave goes off signaling to Hadrian that his chicken noodle soup was ready to be eaten. Hadrian grabbed the bowl and went back to the dining room table to begin reading, he decided to start with the notes.
Hadrian,
Don't expect me or this school to give you everything you want. I recommend starting a company to get some cash. The books are everything taught at Hogwarts, and the scrolls are neat tricks and important information. Everything can be used in a fight.
Merlin.
Hadrian wondered why Merlin would include that bit about everything he had could be used for a fight, was Merlin a seer and giving him a heads up?. Moving onto the next note Hadrian noticed it was from one of his new friends; Noah Lockridge.
Hadrian,
My friends and I went to your apartment and waited for you, but you never opened the door or arrive while we were waiting outside. Are you alright? And do you want to hang out with us tomorrow?
Noah Lockridge.
Hadrian felt bad that they all waited while he was gone, or more accurately that they didn't know that he wasn't in his apartment. Next time he left he would leave a note so people would know that he wasn't in his apartment. The last note was from Lucas Greaves, the closest thing he has to a rival right now.
Hadrian,
Expect us at eight pm, we will be meeting in your apartment.
Lucas Greaves.
Hadrian had a few thoughts running through his head after reading all of the notes. He had no idea how to start a company or what he would do with it if he did manage to start up a company. He wondered how the Headmaster either got his hands on Hogwarts textbooks or found out what the booklist contained for all seven years there including every elective. He found that the scrolls contained information that would be useful in different types of fights, he decided to start with the scroll named tactics while he wanted the few minutes.
Tactics.
By Prokles
I could sit here and wax on and on about what tactics could be used to win a battle, which strategy will win an army a war. But I can't, no one can and anyone who tells you that is full of… something. The only way to win any type of battle is to gain experience, experience can be the deciding vote in a battle.
The youth always have; strength, vitality, and ideals. All of these are useful in a fight, ideals are always the underestimated trait which is wrong because when someone fights for what they believe in nothing can stand in their way. The matured person always has; realism, wisdom, and experience. Wisdom is seldom used in a fight because what experienced warrior lets you talk when they could kill you in that time instead, realism is knowing how the world is.
The world is harsh, greedy, and doesn't care about you. The sooner someone realizes that, the sooner they can gain some real experience. The only thing that matters in a fight is experience, it is why a master could teach their apprentice everything they know and still win a fight against the student.
Hadrian heard a knock on his door right when he finished reading the scroll. He knew the author of the scroll was right, his childhood taught him that much. Walking over to the door he let Lucas in he noticed that the other four were waiting with Lucas.
"Welcome, please come in." Hadrian said allowing them to enter the apartment with kindness, he had no reason to do the opposite yet.
"Thank you, I just wanted to meet with you to tell you, all of you, that I am the leader of this group. You will not do anything if I don't approve of it first." Lucas stated calmly, but seriously.
"I would normally let you finish speaking, but I wouldn't forgive myself if I didn't speak up." Hadrian said cutting off what Lucas was going to say. "No, we won't allow you to govern our lives like that. We all have the right to do what we want with the privacy we do it in." Hadrian finished passionately.
Lucas seeing that Hadrian was not going to back down without a fight said: "Very well. We shall duel about it, if you are agreeable? Whoever wins is the leader."
"When and where?" Was all Hadrian replied.
"Two weeks at noon in the first dueling room in the Belmont Building." Lucas said before walking out of the apartment. Hugh Pierce and Clarence Blackburn decided to follow Lucas out of the apartment.
"Well it seems like the battle lines have been drawn." Logas says a few seconds after Lucas, Hugh, and Clarence left Hadrian's apartment.
"You guys will probably be dragged into fights with Hugh and Clarence should train as well." Hadrian told them and they agreed but Isaac had a message for Hadrian since he would be fighting Lucas.
"I would be careful if I were you, Hadrian. Apparently Lucas has already mastered the Ilvermorny curriculum, so I don't know about Logan but I would like to help you train." Isaac started, continuing with: "I have already learned some dark arts that can be useful in a fight."
"I don't know anything that can be useful in a fight but I would be willing to help you train." Logan said. "How about we meet up again tomorrow?"
"I can't do tomorrow I am going to hang out with some new friends of mine." Hadrian replied.
"Why not have them train with us tomorrow? I believe that training is a great way to build friendships." Logan said
"I guess I could send them a note, but I am not sure how." Hadrian said with uncertainty.
"Do you have a delivery bird? In America we use all kinds of birds to make deliveries, however in my parents home country of Japan they use different species of gulls that have been modified with magic." Isaac tells Hadrian
"My grandfather was from Italy and he tells me that both Italy and Greece use magical eagles in honor of Zeus." Logan tells Hadrian.
"Interesting. Britain uses owls though some people do choose to use some other animals. In Ireland it is traditional to use a breed of falcon named the Buzzard." Hadrian says.
"What I find really interesting is that from where I grew up in Canada they use the Canada Goose as their messenger birds." Logan informed the other two.
"Okay, I do not have a delivery bird. What other way is there for me to get a message?" Hadrian asked the pair.
"What about in that pile of books and scrolls on your table?" Isaac asked motioning towards the pile of books and scrolls.
"I can check but it'd be way quicker if you two can help me?" Hadrian asked the pair.
"Yeah, we'll help you out." Logan said and Isaac gave a nod agreeing with what Logan said.
The three started reading the Hogwarts textbooks to see if they could find a spell or charm they could use to send a message or a note.
"I know that there is a way to send messages using a patronus, but Albus Dumbledore created it and only taught it to Order of the Phoenix members." Hadrian stated. "If we could get our hands on it we could learn it."
"Aren't you worried the patronus charm may be a little out of the way of our league? It says here that the patronus charm is only taught to seventh years and that most of them can't even form a corporeal version." Logan who was reading the seventh year charms textbook.
"I feel like we are missing something obvious." Isaac stated, reading through the sixth year charms book.
"Yeah, you're probably right there Isaac. I wonder if it won't be easier to invent a spell and then use that." Hadrian said wondering about how hard that would be.
"Well you ponder about how difficult it could be to create a spell Logan and I have to get going, we are tired and would like to relax in our own apartments. Have fun." Isaac said to Hadrian before he and Logan left.
During the next few hours Hadrian quickly read through the textbooks to see if the other two had missed something. He had to make sure that a simple spell wasn't missed in one of the chapters he wasn't the one to read. Hadrian could not find any messaging spell among the Hogwarts textbooks, so he checked the scrolls for anything. He found a scroll that described that Nick Flamel used a spell that allowed him to speak to portraits of others from a book he has.
'Now that sounds useful.' Hadrian thought as he read about the spell. However, Hadrian wasn't interested in creating a book like what Flamel had. Hadrian searched the scrolls for one about spell creation, luckily he found one written by Sentia Scato, the downside was that it was written in Latin.
"Latin. I can't read Latin. Merlin damn it!" Hadrian shouted to himself. "I really felt good about this lead, now I have to learn Latin!" Hadrian took some deep breaths to calm down. "I need to learn spells geared toward combat anyways so I guess it was a good thing I hit a dead end." Hadrian started having calmed down.
Hadrian was putting the pile of scrolls and books into his office when he uncovered a scroll he had not noticed before, the scroll was about enchanting. Enchanting could be useful in a fight; he could enchant his clothes to be like armour, or a sword to become able to pierce everything. The options were only limited to the amount of magic someone has, and their imagination. So Hadrian decided that he would learn how to enchant items for his duel with Lucas Greaves. When Hadrian opened the enchanting scroll he found one major problem with it, it was written in French.
"Damn it Merlin!" Hadrian shouted at no one in particular.
Hearing a knock on his door he opened it up to see his floormates outside, he welcomed them in and asked if they needed anything.
"Hadrian, I believe that you have that British saying of yours wrong. It is Merlin damn it." Bruno joked.
"Normally you would be correct Bruno, but I got some books and scrolls from the headmaster when I talked with him-" Hadrian was cut off before he could finish.
"You spoke to the Headmaster?!" Oscar suddenly exclaimed, interrupting Hadrian.
"Yes I did, what is the big deal?" Hadrian didn't see what was so odd.
"Hadrian when we said that the professors only give the students what they need, we weren't kidding." Brock began explaining. "They do this by not helping most students outside of classes. This is my last year at the Academy and I have never talked to the Headmaster."
"Does he think that I can't do it like everyone else? Because I can." Hadrian said defensively.
"No, that's not the case Hadrian." Lucas intervened. "My family has been going to this school for generations and it's rare but there has been cases where professors have helped exceptionally gifted students. What is the name for the top students in your class?"
"We are titled after the positions of rulers." Hadrian started, before continuing; "I'm Caesar, Lucas Greaves is Kaiser, Isaac Barrington is Tsar, Hugh Pierce is King, Logan Davenport is Imperator, and Clarence Blackburn is Mikado.
"Wow, my father is a seer and he said that something would be this." Brock added into the conversation.
"Typically the top students are given the names of dangerous animals, Levi here was titled Dragon for his title and we all thought he would be powerful." Miles said
"You see, Hadrian there is a rumour that there is a prophecy-" Brock started but was cut off by Hadrian.
"No." Was all Hadrian said at first, surprising his floormates with his finality. "No prophecies, all they do is bring ruin into people's lives. Let's talk about the secret societies instead."
"How do you know about the secret societies? They're called secret for a reason." Oscar asked.
"I got an invite to join one earlier." Hadrian explained. When he saw Oscar and Brock suddenly whip their wands and cast some spells he was surprised. "What are you doing?"
"We were putting up secrecy charms and wards so that the others wouldn't hear us. Now, we are both part of different secret societies, which one did you get an invite to?" Oscar asked.
"I was given an invite to the athletic secret society while I was given a tour of the athletic complex." Hadrian told the pair of older students.
"Their real name is The Society of the Ruthless Kris, the members are given a cursed Indonesian dagger. You didn't tell them that you would be joining, did you?" Brock explained to Hadrian.
"No I didn't, why is it a big deal?" Hadrian asked.
"If you don't support the beliefs of the society, the cursed dagger kills you." Brock tells Hadrian. "You can't go back into the complex until you become a member of an even more powerful secret society."
"Well both of you are in secret societies, can't I join one of yours and be done with it?" Hadrian asked.
"If it were that simple we would have just persuaded one of our secret societies and be done with it, but Hadrian you got an invite to one of the most powerful secret societies in the world. If you thought the Illuminati was the only global secret society, guess again." Oscar tells him. "Our societies are more like less talked about societies, they're basically public clubs."
"I really got myself into something deep, right? Now the only way to evade joining The Society of the Ruthless Kris is to join an even more powerful secret society? Do you guys have any connections to people in those secret societies?" Hadrian asked.
"Hadrian these secret societies are called that for a reason, no one knows who joins them or where they meet. Your best bet is to be yourself and if they want you they will come to you." Brock told Hadrian.
"If a society they'll be like the mob and come to you. They'll want you for any talents that you display. Most of the societies will have heard that you have been invited into the Society of the Ruthless Kris and will decide that it isn't worth the trouble to give you an invite, Society of the Ruthless Kris could decide that the smaller needs to be eliminated." Oscar informed Hadrian.
"You mean like murder?" Hadrian asks, and sees the two seventh year students nod their heads. "That has to be against school rules, students shouldn't be allowed to kill each other." Hadrian says.
"When you get involved in the secret societies, life becomes survival of the fittest, if you aren't powerful enough to defeat and kill whoever the head of the society says. And if you think you'll get out of the society's responsibility when you graduate you are mistaken you are mistaken, once you enter the underbelly you are stuck there or you could claw your way out." Oscar explains to Hadrian. "By clawing your way out I mean that you would have to kill every member of at least the most powerful societies and that is basically impossible."
"I never should have visited the athletic complex, that is turning out to be a massive mistake." Hadrian said tiredly. "Do you guys think that my upcoming duel with Lucas Greaves will help me out in any way?"
"If you learn all the spells that you use in the fight then perhaps, the most of your friends is to provide you with people to duel." Brock told Hadrian.
"That would be immensely helpful, that's most of dueling, having a decent arsenal of spells is useful but what really helps is different types of opponents to train against." Hadrian said he knew this from one of the books he had read in the Potter library.
"I guess that would be true, not a lot of students that we know are expert fighters though." Brock said. "We will all come back in two days, try to learn as many spells as you can in that time, and don't bother with the theory you won't be needing it."
After that the two older students took down the multiple privacy wards and charms and told the other students that they needed to leave. As soon as everyone left Hadrian walked over to the Hogwarts textbooks and skipped the beginning grades of the classes because he knew a fair bit of the magic already from reading it in the Potter library. He decided that he would start with transfiguration, he was debating between transfiguration and charms but chose transfiguration first because it is focused on intent and not certain motions and words. He knew there were three types of transfiguration; switching, vanishing, and conjuration. Hadrian dedicated however it would take for him to learn all he felt he needed to know for his duel against Lucas.
-Time Skip: Noon the next day-
Hadrian felt comfortable with the level he had reached for transfiguration in preparation for his duel. He had decided to start with learning how to vanish objects because it seemed like the easiest at the time, he found out the hard way why vanishing is not taught first when he vanished all of his training dummies and had to move onto conjuration before he was ready. Conjuration took up the vast majority of the hours Hadran devoted to learning transfiguration, he was by no means a master at it but he knew enough to get by in his fight. In comparison to learning how to conjure items, learning how to switch one item to another is childsplay for Hadrian and he essentially masters it.
Hadrian then had an internal debate on whether or not he should move onto charms or should he double down on learning transfiguration. Hadrian decided that he would focus exclusively on transfiguration for this fight, it was a big risk for Hadrian but he felt like he could pull it off. Hadrian knew that it was likely that Lucas either already had an arsenal of spells or that he was building the arsenal up, and that would be the weakness Hadrian would use to defeat him. Hadrian remembers a quote he was once told that originated from Bruce Lee: I fear not the man who has practised 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.
It was during this training session for this fight that Hadrian learned something about himself, he was a perfectionist. He was a perfectionist and he would never stop training until he got what he wanted to be perfect, he never let himself rest and for his magic to refill itself. It was very taxing on Hadrian's magic, but it made him stronger. Hadrian wanted to prove himself in the upcoming fight, he planned on using this fight to show to the more powerful secret societies what he was made of, he was already in that world he needed all the advantages he could get. He didn't want to get trapped with the one society that gave him an invitation and who may kill him simply because he didn't agree with them.
-Time Skip: One day-
It was the day that his floormates and friends would help him train, he told his friends to meet him at his apartment if they wanted to hang out. Noah and his friends didn't know that they would be helping train for a fight, but what they didn't know won't hurt them. Hadrian had a plan for how he wanted this to go; he wanted everyone to go after him at the same time. He knew that it wasn't very realistic but he felt that it would be great exercise.
Over the next twenty minutes everybody arrived, usually in a group or with someone else. What really surprised Hadrian was when he got a note from the headmaster telling Hadrian that he was watching and wished him luck.
"Welcome everybody, this is going to sound strange and probably strange as well, but I have a particular way I want to train for this fight." Hadrian started speaking. "I want everybody to come at me all at once, I want to prepare to fight multiple enemies at once if it comes to that. And cast whatever spell you know." Hadrian said this as he led the group into his personal dueling room.
Right after everybody got into the room the casting began from the older students, they instantly connected with Hadrian and put him in a dazed state. They didn't relent after that either, especially Brock and Oscar, and some may see as a type of hazing or humiliation they knew from experience that this is helpful. Most people never train like this until they are much older so the fact he was starting so early was a great indicator to them about what type of magic user he wanted to be, they did however have one question.
"Hadrian, how are you staying conscious, we are casting spells that are supposed to knock somebody out at you?" Oscar asked.
"I performed a ritual that would keep me awake constantly for the next seven years." Was Hadrian's answer. "I believe that it will benefit me greatly for learning magic while I attend here."
"Well it seems like Hadrian intends on becoming one of the most powerful mages by the time he graduates." Brock says impressed. "You will learn about the classification of magic users soon." Brock finishes seeing confused faces on the first year students faces.
"I did not think you would attack as soon as everybody entered the room, that's a lesson for me. Anyway, I also thought this would be a good time for some of the younger years to learn spells to cast. I am not interested in expanding my arsenal right now, I believe I have a winning strategy for my upcoming fight." Hadrian explained
Over the next three hours the students decided to work up to all attacking Hadrian at once so everyone could learn. Hadrian was able to block the spells of the first three years and fire back at the second and third years, but was consistently defeated by the fourth through seventh years. The seventh years casted so quickly he couldn't even keep up with what they were doing, it was all a blur.
"How do you guys cast so quickly?" Hadrian asked Brock and Oscar.
"Do you think that you are the only one performing rituals?" Brock asked rhetorically.
"One of the seventh years when we were first years taught it to us. It's the only ritual we have ever done. He, however, was extremely interested in them and performed multiple on himself." Oscar explained
"Who was it?" Hadrian had a vested interest and wanted to see if he had ever heard of him.
"He was an Armenian student named Sion Sevan. He hasn't done anything of note since graduation." Oscar explained. "In fact, he probably died from a volatile ritual."
"I have a question for you, Hadrian." Brock began saying to Hadrian, before continuing to his question. "Why did you decide to only focus on Transfiguration so far?"
"Well I figured it would be better to master one type of magic for the fight than to learn a whole bunch of spells. Now I would hopefully have a much better grasp on transfiguration than Lucas does with any of the spells in his arsenal."
"Ah, going with the Bruce Lee method." Noah chimed in, catching everyone's attention. "Bruce Lee was a famous martial artist actor a few decades ago, he said; I fear not the man who has practised 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times. And since then the style of training of mastering one thing instead of becoming adept in many things."
"So your goal is to hope is that Lucas didn't choose to the same thing and that he won't be better than you at it?" Hamilton asked.
"Well… yeah that's the plan." Hadrian replied.
"It seems to me like you should duel against first years through fourth year until you can combat us." Maximus Kirkland commented.
Maximus' comment led to Hadrian dueling the students from first through fourth year, but this time was harder than he expected. The students who knew spells held nothing back and Hadrian was hit several times because he wasn't fast enough.
An hour after practicing dueling against the first through the fourth everyone left, Logan and Isaac told him before they left that they would train the same way as him only with different branches of magic. Isaac said that he would be practicing the dark arts, and Logan would be practicing battle magic. When Hadrian walked into his living room after showing all his guests out he was surprised to see the Headmaster sitting on his couch.
"It seems that we have a similar taste in interior design, Hadrian." Merlin began. "Also, that's a very unique way to begin your dueling training, not helpful in your upcoming fight."
"It wasn't entirely for the upcoming fight." Hadrian commented defensively.
"No need to get feisty with me Hadrian, I am on your side. The secret societies are a very slippery path to walk down Hadrian, are you sure you want to?"
"I have already been invited to one that I am not inclined to join." Hadrian informed the Headmaster. "I do not want to start killing people yet, I do not want to start at all. I want to become who I am meant to be."
"You do not have a choice, that is who you are." Merlin tells his student. "Some people get to live lives where they can live in their happy little bubbles and never have to hurt or kill other people, other people walk in the dark and must kill their enemies. Besides, I know that is not what you truly want, you do not care about killing your enemies. Your enemies killed people you loved and meant to kill your whole family, yet spare you because you are powerful."
"How would you know what I have to go through?" Hadrian asked tersely.
"I had to do the same thing. You never get to choose when you must kill your enemies, and you must kill them otherwise they come back at you and take away everything you care for."
"It won't matter if it comes to that, I don't have anything I care for." Hadrian tells the Headmaster.
"Do not take me for a fool, Hadrian!" Merlin yelled and released some magic showing an aura. "I was in your shoes once! I came here to offer you help, but now I see you don't need it."
"No, wait! I'm sorry." Hadrian began saying. "I was frustrated at not being able to beat all of them and I was taking my frustration out on you. It was wrong of me and you have my apologies."
"Good, now let us help you train. You are only using the branch of transfiguration in this fight, correct." Merlin asked, seeing Hadrian nod he continued. "I am going to take a gander and say you are exceptionally advanced?" Again Merlin asked, and seeing Hadrian nod he continued. "Let me see what you got then."
Merlin walks away from Hadrian and into the dueling leaving Hadrian to catch up to him. Merlin walks to the far end of the chamber and Hadrian walks the few feet to the opposite side.
"We shall begin with switching spells, do you know the specific spells or do you just transfigure?" Merlin asked.
"I guess I just transfigure, it's all about intent and creativity anyways." Hadrian answered, before asking: "Is one more difficult than the other?"
"You are correct about intent, however it does not need creativity because sometimes simple is better." Merlin taught Hadrian. "And to answer your question, it is typically easier to learn the incantations and wand movements, that is why magic schools teach it like that. Let's get started."
For the next hour Merlin tested Hadrian in all sorts of different ways; turn something unanimated into something animated, something animated into something unanimated, turning an object into a different object, turning an animal into a different animal, turning a plant into a different plant, vanishing different things of various size and density, and conjuring something specific.
"By the end of the year you may be talented enough to get your first mastery. I am nearly certain it would be a world record for the youngest mastery ever earned, however it would bring a lot of publicity with it." Merlin told Hadrian
"I don't want anyone to become aware of what I am capable of just yet. So unless we can keep the announcement under wraps at least until I graduate, I believe we should hold off. What do you think I should do?" Hadrian replied to Merlin.
"I believe you should file for a mastery, not as many people pay attention to it as one would think. We have a testing center on campus, they are really useful for situations like yours." Merlin told Hadrian.
"What's the catch?" Hadrian asked, he didn't believe this came free. "How much do I have to pay for discretion?"
"Fifty galleons, but your younger brother is believed to be the boy-who-lived so it may cost closer to one hundred galleons." Merlin honestly told him. "It sucks being related to an international celebrity, but what are you going to do?" Merlin finished sarcastically.
"Pray that he gets assassinated." Hadrian replied.
"I believe it is always better to kill those you hate yourself, then you actually get the closure you want." Merlin said. "Now I have to go, I will be back tonight. You relax for a while or read some theory books." Merlin told him. "Or start learning a foreign language, it's always useful to know a lot of languages."
-Time Skip: Day of the fight-
It continued like that until it was the day of the fight. Hadrian would practise a new skill or learn a foreign language during the day and duel Merlin at night. He never got so much as a pebble to hit the Headmaster no matter how hard he tried, and he could now combat the fifth years though they still won. He could tell he was making good progress, at least that's what everyone he knew said. Maybe the Headmaster was right and he could earn his first mastery by the end of this year.
Hadrian hoped the more powerful secret societies would somehow find out about his progress and give him an invite to join them; he didn't want to join the Society of the Ruthless Kris.
Walking out of the apartment building, which he found out was named the Ravenswood after the family donated money for it to be built, he met up with Isaac and Logan. They decided they would all meet up in the foyer of the Ravenswood ten minutes before the fight began, that way they would enter as a team and not individual fighters.
On the walk to the Belmont Building the three discussed what they believed the others have decided to learn, and if they had any help from the professors. Isaac and Logan revealed if they had help from any of the teachers as well.
"Do you guys think any professors helped the other three?" Isaac asked the other two. "I was approached by Professor Alucard and Professor Farrell, Alucard told me about blood magic and Professor Farrell helped me duel. It was a very enlightening experience."
"You got two professors? That's so cool, I had Professor Sigurdsson helping me train. He gave me loads of useful tips, did you have any professors help you, Hadrian?" Logan excitedly asked.
"First off, I know that Deputy Headmaster Flamel helped Lucas train. I am not sure about who helped the other two." Hadrian could not finish speaking before Logan intervened.
"How did you figure that out?" Logan asked.
"The Headmaster told me two weeks ago." Hadrian answered and before Logan got a chance to ask another question he said: "He helped me train."
"Woah, you have the Headmaster helping you train?! That's so cool!" Logan exclaimed. "Did he teach you any cool powerful long lost magic?"
"No. We only had two weeks, he only duelled me using transfiguration, not even a pebble would hit him." Hadrian informed his teammates.
The three students then arrived at the Belmont building, the Belmont was a building specifically designed for dueling. Students would come here to practise dueling against another person within the regulations and rules of the International Dueling Circuit Association. The rooms were organized by the type of duel a student would be training for from not hurting the opponent to battle to near death. Sometimes deaths would occur by accident, but duellers were not allowed to purposefully kill the other dueller. The Belmont was built to resemble a factory on the exterior, but the interior was brightly lit and had marble flooring.
"So you three actually decided to show up, too bad you are all going to lose." Lucas stated, mocking the other three. "Follow me I guess we are heading to a regulation dueling circuit arena room."
Lucas led the three to the room he wanted to use, it was located on the first floor all the way down the the third hallway down and then the group turned right and midway down that hallway before they arrived at a set of wooden double doors.
"This is the room we are using is used by students interested in dueling professionally, so it follows the rules and regulations of the Worldwide Dueling Championship." Lucas tells the other three. "Just a heads up, I have learned a lot of new spells, so prepare to get annihilated, Potter."
Hadrian just smirked at Lucas which unnerved his opponent. Lucas wondered if somehow Hadrian found out every spell he learned and a way to counter it, or if Hadrian had learned even more spells than he did.
The four first years entered the dueling chamber, three of them for the first time, and the first thing they all noticed was the raised black platform. The platform looked like an elongated stage if Hadrian was being honest with himself.
"Do you know proper dueling etiquette, Lucas?" Hadrian asked his opponent.
"Of course I know the proper etiquette, I am not a plebian." Lucas said, he was slightly insulted which Hadrian would be to if was asked the same question. "The real question is: do you know the proper dueling etiquette? The Deputy Headmaster told me that your family forgot that you even exist and didn't teach you anything because your younger brother is superior to you."
That's it, Lucas crossed a line. Before he crossed the line Hadrian was going to be content with just beating him, but now Hadrian would only be satisfied if Lucas was completely and utterly humiliated. Hadrian was sporting a smirk that unnerved Lucas, but he now sporting a stone cold facade but his eyes shone with a determined fire.
The two duelers walked onto the platform to their prospective sides before walking to the middle and bowing to each other. Lucas took up a dueling stance taught to him by Nick Flamel that the famous Alchemist invented himself, Flamel called it the Philosopher's Stance. Hadrian assumed a stance he learned from Merlin, he called it the Stance of Attrition. The purpose of Lucas's stance was for using a wide variety of spells while also keeping yourself decently shielded, it was made for ending a duel before it could truly begin. Hadrian's stance on the other hand had been created for making duels last extremely long and wearing out the opponent before finally finishing him off. The two students both learned from their teachers that there were levels for dueling stances that corresponded with how skilled someone was, the better they were the more complicated the stance they could use.
In accordance with the dueling strategy he had trained with Lucas attacked fast and hard, he was hoping to overwhelm Hadrian at the beginning because he knew he couldn't last super long. Hadrian however just conjured stone blocks to intercept the spells that were coming his way, after the stone block were destroyed by the number of spells that were impacting them Hadrian vanished the rubble. They were both casting silently, though Lucas had not mastered the spells well enough to cast them with shortened wand movements. Suddenly Hadrian felt an impact, he looked down and found out that he was bleeding because while he wasn't paying attention Lucas hit him with a piercing curse.
"Expelliarmus!" Lucas shouted, casting verbally for the first time in the duel. Hadrian wand fell out of his hand and onto the floor the a few feet ahead of him. "Everte Statum! Relashio! Alarte Ascendare!" Lucas cast in rapid succession, causing Hadrian to fly backwards and then up in the air.
Hadrian reaches out to the directions of his wand and wandlassly summons it back to him. When Hadrian performed the feat of wandless and silent magic is irises glowed golden and his wand flew back to his hand. As he was descending Hadrian conjured a pillar of stone to catch him before he could hit the ground .
"This has gone on long enough." Hadrian stated ominously once he was back on the dueling platform.
"Yes it has." Lucas said back to Hadrian.
Lucas raised his wand and opened his mouth beginning to cast a spell that he believed would end the fight. But before he could do anything else he felt extreme piercing pains from multiple parts of his body, looking down he noticed that Hadrian caused parts of the platform to spike up and impale him multiple times.
"I could've ended this duel anytime I felt like it, but I decided to drag it out since you decided that you would mention that my bastard brother was better than me. He isn't and he never will be." Hadrian told Lucas. "And if you say anything like that again, I'll kill you."
"Looks like we all have the freedom to do what we want." Logan said. "I never doubted Hadrian for a second!"
"I did." Isaac commented, earning a bewildered look from Logan. "It did not look positive near the end when Lucas was connected the spells with Hadrian."
"I can't believe you didn't believe in Hadrian." Logan told Isaac.
"You talk like you think I am not glad that he won. He had a trick up his sleeve that we were not aware of." Isaac tells Logan.
"Whatever, I guess I see your point." Logan said ending the conversation.
A.N: I bet a lot of you guys can guess where part of this story is heading. This chapter actually deviated from what I wrote down in planning while I was writing so it took longer than I anticipated.
Also, I realized that I forgot to correct that I changed the OC Malfoy's name, I just did not like the way Lupa Malfoy sounded and changed it to Callisto which is the original name of Ursa Major. So, I will likely be re-uploading it after this chapter is posted.
I know the fight in this chapter was anticlimactic compared to what I built it up to be, but the two don't know many types of magic. Lucas Greaves just knows a bunch of less powerful spells, the ones I had him verbally saying were the most powerful spells he knows. And Hadrian can only conjure stone and alter whatever surface he is standing on. They are not gods at eleven years old. The later chapters get much more gorey and delve into magical lore.
Anyways onto pairings (I'm also putting the amount of votes for each option)
Nymphadora Tonks: 10
Hestia Jones: 5
Fleur Delacour: 8
Parvati Patil: 1
Padma Patil: 0
Daphne Greengrass: 0
Tracey Davis: 0
Susan Bones: 0
Hannah Abbot: 0
Callisto Malfoy: 0
OC Supermodel: 3
OC LeFay Institute student: 1
Harem: 7
It seems that Tonks is in the lead followed by Fleur, and I didn't think it would be popular but harem is in third. Next chapter will have a section that takes place back in the U.K, and we will begin to learn what the LeFay Institute is like. Who I write about in the next chapter depends on the voting, many of the characters will probably be in the harem if it goes there.
Hope you enjoyed it! Don't be afraid to ask questions in the reviews, leave suggestions, or make requests for what you would like to include in the story in the reviews!
