Harry Potter: Dark Lord, Loving Father

Hadrian taught the young man, grinning deviously all the while. "You'll be a wonderful Necromancer, Raphael – better than the ones I knew as Hadrian Slytherin, indeed."

–

Chapter 15: Consequences of Telling the Truth

There was something that was bothering him; it wasn't all that pleasant, either. It was an aura, of sorts that was weighing down on him, but not completely.

"Maybe it's guilt," Draco accused over breakfast, nursing his cup of black tea.

"That's not the word I was looking for, Malfoy," Hadrian sneered in response, stabbing his eggs with his fork, formerly brilliant Killing Curse-green eyes now a perpetual stormy emerald, oft becoming darker in his more aggressive moods. "It's only since Raphael's arrival, I think – well, since I started training him, perhaps."

"Death aura, then," he drawled, very unenthusiastic, raising an eyebrow at his Lord's violent temper. Days like these didn't usually spell out good things for his future. Perhaps he should consult Smith for a reading. On second thought, it wasn't as if the boy knew much more than how to kill some animals with his Necromancy powers at the moment, outside of the other Dark Arts he knew, which wasn't going to be much help, in that area.

"I suppose," Hadrian grumbled, finishing his breakfast in silence.

The silence was only broken by the arrival of Raphael Smith, himself, who was dressed in all black, unlike his normal attire, seeming much more subdued than previously. "Good morning," he greeted, rather quietly, then taking a seat by Harry.

"Good morning, Raphael," Harry returned, his expression brightening by a fraction. He couldn't help but notice the avoidance of the redhead's eyes. Which, to Harry, was rather intriguing, to say the least. "Tell me," he commanded, knowing that something was off.

"I had a nightmare," he confessed, bowing his head down as he put some food on his pate. Eventually, however, Raphael raised his gaze to meet his professor's. "It was horrifying, to be honest, sir."

Hadrian did have a good deal of experience with those sorts of things, truth be told, after the lifetimes' worth of memories coming back to him in the form of dreams every night that year. Of course, this was in addition to the other strange nightmares he'd been experiencing the last few months.

"It's to be expected, Raphael. It's been... three weeks since we started, has it not?"

"Yes."

"There's quite a lot you still need to learn, yet, and we've only just begun. Shall we resume our lessons in an hour, after breakfast is taken care of and settled?" It wasn't really much of a question, coming from Hadrian, but he was attempting to be polite, at least, in front of Draco. After all, he didn't want the blonde to think that he was going to order just anyone around – didn't want his fellow teacher to think he wasn't special or anything, right?

Nodding, Raphael ate his breakfast next to Harry, focusing on just that, not the Malfoy that was sitting across from him, or the man that radiated power and confidence adjacent to him. Only after a sufficient length of silence (which followed Draco leaving the room to work on his teaching schedule for Potions the next school year for all the classes), the Slytherin boy finally spoke up: "If you don't mind, Harry, I was wondering if you would explain to me why you've kept Albus out of this entire thing, although you've told me – who's not even remotely considered a part of the family."

"I don't want Albus to get hurt, as I did in my youth and inexperience," Harry whispered, quickly correcting himself, "as Hadrian, I mean."

The two's eyes met once again, understanding dawning upon Raphael for a second – and the feeling vanished as soon as it came. What had he seen in those troubled, tortured eyes that belonged to the man who was once the only hope of the wizarding world who had likely become its greatest fear behind the scenes?

"He's my son and I don't want him exposed to all of this at such an early age. After all, at least he won't have to deal with these responsibilities until I deem it to be an appropriate time to do such," he concluded, grinning slightly, not much emotion behind it, making his expression appear empty and hollow.

"I understand," Raphael started, grasping for words once again – it was becoming something that he faced often when in Harry's presence, especially when Hadrian's force made him very well-known in Harry. "But, those who are faced with their destiny too late in their life, before the end of the period in which they're impressionable in the slightest sense of the word, they reject it. Aren't you afraid that protecting Albus in such a way might end up damaging him? It might cause him to oppose you and what you're trying to do, and as he's more of you heir than James is-"

"Silence!" Hadrian hissed, his deep voice rough at the edges as he issued the order to the younger man. "You know nothing of what Albus is like," he continued in equally dangerous tones, now standing, pointing at Raphael, looking very threatening.

"What about me?" came Albus' voice from the other side of the room.

In their argument, the young Potter had come down to eat his breakfast, taking the other two by surprise.

"Al, what are you doing down so early?" Harry asked, Hadrian quickly and nearly completely vanishing from him, aura as well, warming the room a few degrees.

"I couldn't sleep, really. Some weird dream – Mum, er..." Albus cut himself off, gauging his father's reaction, trying to decide if the subject was kosher with him, as not to tread on any sensitive nerves, so to say. Finding that speaking of Ginny wasn't nearly as sensitive a topic as it had been before, Albus continued on, "Well, she came here and came to take be away, saying something about you breaking a promise or something. I remember her talking about you making the news for being under suspicion of the practising of Dark Arts to such a degree that you were to go to trial or whatever.

"It was just a dream, though," Al wrote off shrugging. "Although it was really kind of weird in the sense that it felt so bloody real...."

Followed by some contemplation, Harry sighed, then hugged his son tightly. "Don't worry – I won't let something like that happen. I mean, really, the Ministry accusing the Hero of being a Dark Lord or something? That's rather silly, isn't it?"

"Dad," Al replied, his tones warning.

"What's wrong?" the elder Potter questioned, eyebrows knitting together, his pulse beginning to accelerate, praying to Merlin that his hands weren't shaking all that horribly. But what on earth was he so nervous about? If his son found out, that meant that his son was a true Slytherin and deserved to be his heir... but what that said about him was he wasn't entirely too careful as he should have been if he was indeed found out.

"I just can't help but thing that there's something up that you're not telling me about," he admitted, smiling a little warily at his father, his own green eyes glowing with a repressed emotion. "After all, Raphael's been with you for three weeks when he's not studying with us, and he didn't say anything about needing any help in Defence."

Overwhelming silence filled the room.

So great was the silence, Harry could now hear the rapid pounding of his heart against the wall of his chest as he stared at his son. There was no turning back from this, was there? Oh, how he wanted to tell Albus that he shouldn't worry about it, to go on being a teenager and doing things with Scorpius and his other friends that he always did. He didn't want his son's innocence to be forever ruined as his had – in both of his lives, to be exact – so abruptly, with nearly no warning beforehand.

"You know of the Slytherin Code, don't you, Albus?" Harry (...or could it be Hadrian? He wasn't all too sure of who he was, exactly, at the moment) inquired, his voice soft and quivering with nervousness. "And how we're the closest remaining wizarding family in the Slytherin line?"

Albus affirmed these facts with the nod of his head, slowly, wondering what his father was trying to tell him. It was all so confusing, really.... what'd happened? Was this still a dream and he was still sleeping in his bed, comfortably? That seemed like the most likely explanation for the time being.

"Well," he paused, gathering his bearings. "I'm the next Dark Lord, Albus, and you'll be the one to follow me – that's what it all means. You've met Salazar Slytherin – he was a Dark Lord – and so was his son. His son, Hadrian Xanthus Slytherin-" this is were it became tough for Harry to continue at all, his hands and voice was shaking so badly that he appeared as if he was going to either break down in sobs or have a seizure of sorts. And he certainly felt like it, too. He'd never remembered being so afraid of his own son before.

"You're Hadrian, aren't you?" Al finished for him, putting the pieces together for himself. He'd thought it to be rather fishy when Raphael had tried to explain what'd happened to him a few weeks before. Now, Al knew. At least, he knew what he believed he needed to know to start understanding things. "I think I kind of knew, unconsciously, when you'd gotten sick after you'd tried to summon him. You can't summon a soul with the ring that's alive."

Harry breathed. His nerves calmed, albeit slowly, but they calmed, his heart slowed and his vision cleared. When he put himself almost completely back together, he started laughing lightly, soon turning into a roaring laugh that made both students in the room watch him cautiously. At last, Harry stopped, breathing deeply once more, wiping his face with his sleeve, then sitting back down in his chair, looking to Raphael first, then back to his son.

"I won't let your dream happen, Al, my dear son – for your sake, I won't let her take you away from me," he whispered, pulling Albus into his arms for a tight hug. "I'll be your father, I'll keep you with me, no matter what. I love you so much, Al..."

"Thanks, Dad, but I already knew that – I love you too, Dad," the smaller Potter replied, smiling freely. He'd quite missed this close feeling between him and his father – it'd been at least a year or so since he'd felt so in-touch with his dad, it calmed him and reassured him that Harry really wouldn't let such a thing as he'd dreamt come to pass.

–

A while after telling Albus about everything the boy needed to know, answering the man questions that the young Slytherin had, Harry turned to Raphael, who had been sitting quietly the entire time, doing his best not to impose or interrupt them.

Raphael knew what Harry was asking of him, and he knew what he needed to do: he was to be the one that told Al about being a Necromancer. There wasn't going to be any way around it. Besides, how would it be explained that he knew about the whole thing before Al had, if he didn't?

"Albus," he started, trying to break this as easily as he could. Raphael didn't want to make Albus scared of him, as he was the only person, really, outside of his brother, Ifrin, that he was close to and felt he was friends with, even if it wasn't as tightly knit as Scorpius and Al's friendship. "I don't know any other way of telling you this, but I'm not an average wizard. I suppose that I never have been – I just didn't know it until a few weeks ago."

More silence filled the room and Al stared at Raphael expectantly, and Harry watched as he felt the tension in the room evaporate as the elder teen finally pulled himself together enough to tell his friend the truth:

"Al, I'm a Necromancer."

"Really?" the Potter replied, his voice soft but rather neutral in tone – not even Harry could tell if his son was in awe or in shock.

"Yeah," Raphael agreed, nodding his head, beginning to get a bit nervous with Al's reaction.

"That's so totally awesome!" he exclaimed, grinning foolishly, laughing a little.

It took a bit for Raphael to realise what had just happened. When he did, he returned the grin, although not so foolish of one as Al's, and added, "You're father's the one who's teaching me to control and use my powers as a Necromancer, so, staying over here for the summer hols didn't turn out so bad, I suppose."

"Much agreed, man," Albus cheered, sniggering. "I mean, who was to think that such a person like you, Raph, would be a Necromancer? I most certainly wasn't expecting it."

"And that's why he's been able to avoid the Ministry's attention, thank Merlin," Harry put in, smiling passively, relaxing in his chair at the table. "But, the time has come for us to get back to training. You may come if you like, but Scorpius would be at a loss for a friend."

Nodding, Albus thought about what he'd do... Scorpius would likely be angry with him for a week if he ditched him even for just a few hours. Really, that man didn't know when to let go of a grudge, in Al's opinion. He'd pound some sense into Scorpius afterwards, he decided, and let him learn his lesson for trying to take advantage of Raphael. It wasn't as if the three of them weren't going to be at the Malfoy manor all summer, and Al needed Scorpius to see that truth and force him to learn how to deal with the consequences.

------

Well, as this is the third chapter in a row, in two days straight, I think it might be best if I backed off and wrote more for WAITS and Mirrors and Shadows. After all, did I not promise that I would do a rotation? Eh, well, if I do chapters of the same thing, in the appropriate order, does that count? Anyway, there's a poll up for those interested on my profile page. It's just something that I'm curious about and it won't impact anything for updates or anything.

Thanks go to Moogle (Boogum) once more for the first word that got me started and who also chose the initial prospective out of a lotto I made and for additional things that I've already forgotten about (Oh! And for allowing me to use Raphael's brother, Ifrin, who is her character). Other thanks go to my loyal readers and to those who aren't ashamed of what they think and write a review!

Be daring: write a review, leave a comment, question, or whatever floats your boat!! And I'll answer and questions (other than the text of the Slytherin Code; sorry) directed my way to the best of my ability. I hope that you've enjoyed this chapter.