Chapter 5: Imprisonment

Anastasia walked towards her brother, channelling magic throughout her as she did, her body shrinking as she walked, until he was face to face with Harry. "Adrian Potter, pleasure to make your reacquaintance." Adrian held out his hand for a rather bewildered Harry to shake, before turning to Rose. "It's a pleasure to meet you as well, of course."

Rose looked at him rather oddly "Are you a metamorph?"

"A meta-what now?"

"Y'know, a metamorph."

"No, I assure you I don't." Clearly this girl was a moron.

Rose opened her mouth, presumably to ask a variation of the same question, but thankfully the Old Man cut her off "I'm afraid that Adrian here didn't have the pleasure of being raised around magic."

The girl looked horrified, tears in her eyes as she patted him on the shoulder. "It's okay, I'll teach you everything I know, I'll help you get through this, you'll be a great wizard one day."

Adrian removed her hand from his shoulder, feeling decidedly uncomfortable "Right, erm, thanks?" He really hoped the rest of the family weren't like this or he wouldn't last the next seven years, someone, whether it be him or one of the others, would die.

"Now if you'll all excuse us for a moment I'd like to have a chat with Adrian."

The room's other occupants shuffled out just leaving him and the old man. "Now then Adrian, I feel we have a few things to discuss. Though first things first I believe I should welcome you back to the Wizarding world."

"Thanks, I guess."

Albus sighed " I suppose I should apologise. It was me who sent you to live with your Aunt and Uncle."

Albus expected anger, but when Adrian spoke he just sounded tired. "Why?"

"The wizarding world is a wondrous place, with enough determination you could achieve your wildest dreams. See, despite what most people don't know is that with enough time and hard work magic can do anything, but for as wondrous as it is, there is a darkness as well. This darkness often ensnares the brightest of minds."

Albus paused as if to gather his thoughts. "There was a student I taught, a boy by the name of Tom Riddle. He was terrified of his own mortality and so threw himself into ancient books and scrolls, trying desperately to find a way to achieve immortality. He succeeded, of course, but by that point his fear had driven him mad, he started to see himself as above everyone else. He began to believe only he was fit to rule Britain and in 1970 he sparked a civil war, a war that only ended when, in 1981, he attacked your family. Riddle murdered your grandparents and attempted to kill your brother. He cast an unblockable curse that's entire purpose is to kill at Harry, but the curse was reflected back at himself, destroying his body."

"Only his body?"

Despite himself Albus smiled "You're quite right. He's still out there, gathering his strength." Albus paused again "He had a group of loyal followers, they wished to put him in charge of the country and purge those they saw as unworthy of magic, mainly those born of muggles." At Adrian's blank look he elaborated "A muggle is someone without magic. Now a lot of these followers escaped punishment, sadly the Wizarding Government is as corrupt as they come, as long as you have enough gold, and line the right people's pockets, you can get away with almost anything. While the rest of Britain celebrated his defeat, many of us waited for the other shoe to drop, and drop it did, though not in the way we expected. The war ended, well and truly ended, but another one was about to begin. People's trust in the government had been shaken, and the widespread unemployment and economic downturn certainly didn't help things. The people were angry, and they were crying for justice, for the government to do something, anything, and the politicians buried their heads in the sand. You were sent away to keep you safe. Despite many practically worshipping your brother, and by extension your family, many others despised them for ending the war. In the weeks following the war, your family was attacked multiple times, both by sympathisers of Tom's ideals and those who lost their jobs when the war ended."

"What about?"

"They grew up here, with your parents. It was never the intention. You and Harry even lived with your Aunt and Uncle together, though not for long, mind you."
"What happened? Why did you bring him back?"

"We couldn't not. He was ill, so very very ill. He spent so long going between the magical and muggle worlds that it was simpler and safer to keep him here for treatment. It was the same with Rose." Albus sighed "We should have brought you home as well. Your abandonment, for lack of a better term, was a point of great contention between myself and your parents. In the end it was decided at least one of you deserved a chance to grow up normally, away from all the hatred and persecution. Though it seems that you ended up suffering regardless. I hope you can forgive us."

Adrian ran his hand through his hair and heaved out a sigh. "I don't really have a choice. I'll be stuck here regardless. Might as well make it as painless as possible."

Albus smiled sadly at him. "No, I don't suppose you do, but regardless, we all regret what we felt we had to-"

Adrian cut him off. "I don't particularly care to hear your regrets. Life's too short to double guess everything you do and dwell on every little mistake. You can only push forward and try to do better."

"I think you'll find life is a lot longer than you think. I myself am over one hundred, we wizards live a lot longer than the muggles, plenty of time to dwell on those mistakes."

"Be that as it may, we Magical Girls die a lot earlier than normal people. Our lives are dangerous ones." Adrian couldn't help the smile that tugged at his lips as he thought back on the past few months, or had it been years? He shook his head to clear his thoughts before continuing. "Many of us may be free from the burdens of an ordinary life, but that freedom comes at a cost. Not only is it our job to protect those that cannot protect themselves, but we often find ourselves at odds with our comrades, death lies around every corner. It's invigorating. Well, I think it is anyway, many others disagree. Anyway, that's neither here nor there, the point is I don't expect to live past twenty."

"Now, now my boy, there's no need to talk like that. I'm sure you'll live a long life."

Adrian gave a dry chuckle "Twenty's being optimistic."

"Well, we'll just have to make twenty look pessimistic eh?"

"Good luck with that. I certainly won't be making it easy."

"I don't suppose you will."

"What's life without a little danger, eh?"

"Rather boring I imagine,

"I'll let you go in a second, but before I do there's one last thing." Albus reached into his robes and pulled out a tarnished silver pocket watch. With a muttered word in Latin and a wave of his stick, the pocket watch glowed a pale blue. "Here." Albus handed him the watch and at Adrian's inquisitive look the old man smiled. "It's a Portkey. A type of wizarding transportation, this particular one possesses two locations. One is right here, and the other is your flat." Adrian opened his mouth, but the old man raised his hand to silence him. "I will take over paying your rent, it's the least I could do. Now to get back to your flat, you need to hold the watch in your hand and say sanctuary and to get back here the password is Bastille."

Adrian looked at Albus sceptically but took the watch regardless. "What do you want in exchange?"

"What makes you think I want anything in exchange?"

"Nothing is ever free. You may not notice it at first but everything you gain has a cost; all power comes with a curse. So, what do you want?"

"I want you to keep an eye on your brother and sister. Especially while you're at Hogwarts. Lots of people want them dead, the whole of the Potter family really, but you, you have the rather unique situation of being practically unknown to the wizarding public. If things get bad, I want you to get the two of them away with that portkey I gave you."

"Surely I'd have a target on my back as soon as people realise, I'm a Potter."

"Ah, but that's just the thing, you have a trick up your sleeve, people will underestimate you, they won't have heard of you and would never expect your transformation. You'll be able to keep them safe. Though I'm afraid you'll have to avoid transforming unless completely necessary."

"What? You can't do that!"

"I'm afraid I can, as headmaster of the school you'll be attending there are many things I can do." Though the tone was benign the words still sent a shiver down Adrian's spine.

This old man held far more power over him then he felt comfortable with, then again Adrian was opposed to anyone holding power over him, he'd had enough of that to last a lifetime. She was already subservient to one group, and really didn't want to 'align' herself with two, especially if they ever came into conflict with one another. No, she wasn't going to take that risk.

"Thanks, but I'll pass." Adrian threw the watch back at him.

Albus looked perplexed "Can I ask why?"

"You can, but I won't answer, now would you kindly fuck off."

The old man smiled "I must say it's been quite some time since someone spoke to me like that. I suppose I'll acquiesce, though I suspect your family will want to see you again."

Adrian just glared at him until he left before throwing himself onto the uncomfortably soft bed, letting out a frankly enormous yawn. It seemed that no matter how much she slept she never felt rested, and it appeared being unconscious was no different. She really wasn't sure she'd made the right decision, the Old Man seemed to have a lot of influence over her life, so pissing him off was not a good idea, and yet she decided to reject his offering for a small show of rebellion. It was honestly pointless; they both knew she had no choice. Besides, she needed to do some good to start offsetting her bad Karma.

Groaning, Anastasia rolled out of bed, feeling her magic flow through her, landing on her hands and knees, she crawled over to her safe. Lazily opening it, she was absolutely exhausted, worryingly so. She really needed to sleep, but she couldn't, not yet, she needed something to settle her nerves first, reaching into the safe she grabbed a rolled white paper and a lighter. With a practised movement she popped the joint into her mouth and lit it in one smooth movement.
She wrinkled her nose at the smell, it was a necessary evil, but God did she hate the stuff. Quickly finishing her joint, she rolled under the bed, the firmness of the carpet much more comfortable than the bed. Rolling onto her side, she folded her arm under her head and promptly passed out.

A/N: Well, I'm back I guess. Sorry I was gone for so long; this past year was complicated, and I've been through a period of great turmoil. When I started Hero Complex, I was like sixteen, and that was years ago. I was just a boy when I started this, now I'm an adult woman, so a lot has changed and still is changing so please forgive me if I don't upload very often.

Now onto the story. This chapter feels a lot longer than it actually is. Then again that's to be expected. I've been working on it for more than a year. Its gone through more than half a dozen rewrites so please excuse me if it reads a bit weirdly. I tried to catch everything but there are almost certainly a few things I missed. Hopefully, I'll be able to update quickly this time…