Thanks for those who have reviewed/followed/faved me~ XD Love you guys
Chapter Five (or Four, depending on how you count them) is here~! Enjoy.
Pairings: Potential Hadria (FemHarry) x Tom Riddle, but more platonic than romantic, other pairings undecided.
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter
Beta: Happyfish
Chapter Five: Familial Life
"Innumeras curas secum adferunt liberi." Children are uncertain comforts but certain cares. —Latin Proverb
China, 1986
Gerwald sighed as he watched little Hadria riding a large black dog, chasing a baby dragon around the dragon sanctuary. The little Chinese Fireball hissed and spat a stream of fire at the girl and her companion before scampering off, tiny wings flapping uselessly.
"That dog... Is it a Tiangou?"
Gerwald turned to see one of the dragon keepers watching the girl play with the dragonlet. But his eyes were on the shadowy figure in the shape of a dog.
"Germans call it the Bärgeist, the Irish know it as the Cu Sidhe, while English call it the Grim," Gerwald smoothly replied, secretly amused at the dragon keeper's shock.
"How did your nü'er come to befriend one?" the dragon keeper sounded quite torn between wonder and alarm. Understandably.
Gerwald shrugged. A few months ago, he had been just as awed and horrified. But he had since grown used to the presence of the hellhound.
...
It was Yule, when he first met the harbinger of Death. They had spent the Winter Solstice in Russia, in a small Wizarding village, and were settling in for a cosy night by the fireplace with hot chocolate when someone outside the inn started yelling about the arrival of Simargl.
A glance outside the partially frosted window revealed villagers on the street or at their windows warily watching a large shadowy black dog gliding towards the inn on wings that looked like they were ablaze with black flames.
There was a strange sound, like soft thunder, and the wall beside the window vibrated before a black thing charged through, howling wind accompanying its appearance. Gerwald remembered he had gasped then, utterly shocked, as the wind died down as soon as it arrived, and the wall bore no trace of having had anything pass through.
The next thing that stunned the former Dark Lord was Hadria's gleeful shout of, "Shadow! You found me!"
The third thing that had Gerwald wonder if he was dreaming was when the black thing turned out to be the Grim, and was nuzzling a giggling Hadria like a playful puppy, its flaming wings harmlessly dissipating into smoke.
Then he recalled the imaginary black dog that Hadria had once told him about and groaned. And the Grim had turned to him at the sound, and said, in a deep gravelly voice, "Do you have a problem?"
"It's just... Of all things... I mean. Do you know how ridiculous this is? The girl I decided to adopt so happens to have Death's familiar as a playmate?" Gerwald had replied, running a hand through his blonde hair in exasperation.
"She's the Girl-Who-Lived," the hellhound had pointed out with a bark-like laugh. Gerwald suppressed another groan.
"How many people in this village are going to die tonight?" He asked instead.
"One," the Grim had replied, and gave Gerwald a shark's grin, which was very disconcerting, with his sharp white teeth and unnaturally green eyes-brighter and more incandescent than Hadria's irises- gleaming with the reflected light of the fire. "You'll be dead before sunrise."
And Gerwald had visible turned green (because a Grim was a creature—amortal non-being, unclassified but would have been given a septuple-X rating if possible—that one does not mess with, Dark Lord or not), wondering what the hell he had gotten himself into and how much the Higher Entities seemed to like messing up his second chance at life when Hadria swatted at the Grim's head.
"Bad Shadow!" Hadria scolded. "Dun scare 'im like that."
And the Grim had nuzzled her again before laughing—a dark, eerie laugh that would have endeared the hearts of any Dark witch or wizard if it had not come from a Grim—at him. "Alright. I was just kidding."
It was Hadria's first wonderful Christmas and Gerwald's first nightmarish Yule. The Grim had stayed with them ever since. Or to be more specific, it came and went as it pleased, like a stray cat, but it would visit Hadria often and play with her. (And it loved passing by humans, especially European Wizarding folk, just to give them a scare and let them think they're about to die or face certain doom.)
It was Gerwald who changed the name of Shadow to Scáth, however, and the Grim had been quite pleased. That didn't mean it stopped delivering death threats though. The Grim seemed to enjoy reminding the former Dark Lord about how lenient Death had been to him, whenever Hadria was out of earshot.
...
"Your nü'er must be quite special if the Tiangou is her familiar," the dragon keeper commented. There was now a swarm of baby dragons chasing after the girl riding the black dog.
"Special? Yes. Yes, she is," Gerwald murmured. He did not fail to notice that though the Grim wasn't actually her familiar, he might as well be, what with the girl being the potential Master of Death.
Japan, 1986
Gerwald should have expected it, when he was awoken one night, by Hadria's voice, scolding something. But one does not simply expect this sort of thing. Even after his fair share of strange happenings in his two lives.
When the former Dark Lord burst into the girl's room, his wand raised, he found her standing on her bed, wearing an oversized shirt as per usual (she seemed to like them better than nightdresses), waving a retractable staff made of peach and cherry wood in one hand, her illegally-obtained wand in the other. Floating gently just above the floor was a rippling black patch, that resembled a pool of watered silk.
The room, Gerwald noted, was unusually bright. Then he noticed the silvery white form of a nine-headed serpent-like beast, glowing brilliantly above her, hovering near the ceiling. A Patronus! At such a young age? But what was she doing?
"Hadria, what are you trying to do?" Gerwald demanded, as he watched the six-year-old poke at what looked like a mass of rippling black cloth with her peach-and-cherry wooden staff. He had bought it for her birthday, from an exorcist in China.
"Saito-san said that an ittan-momen might appear in the night! I'm trying to catch one!"
Gerwald stared at the creature on the floor. "Hadria... That isn't an ittan-momen. That's a Lethifold."
Hadria blinked owlishly. "Oh."
Then she stared at the thing on the floor. "Is that why he's scared of my Protector?"
"If you didn't know it was a Lethifold, why did you even cast a Patronus charm?" Gerwald exclaimed, rubbing his eyes tiredly.
"'Cuz it was dark...?"
"Lumos!" he snapped, patience wearing thin with his lack of sleep,lighting his wand. "That's how you get light. Where did you learn the Patronus charm from anyway?"
"Scáth taught me."
"Right. Trust that damn hellhound to teach you something complicated for a simple purpose."
"So... Can we keep him?"
"Keep what?"
"The Lethifold. I've named him Noh. Like, the Japanese play you brought me to watch last night."
"Why?"
"Oh. 'Cuz it's like 'no', as in 'negative'. And he also reminds me of the black curtains before the show started. And he hasn't got a face, so he could wear a mask. And—"
"No! I meant, why did you even name it?"
"But then what could I call him? He needs a name. Everyone needs one. Even Scáth has a name."
"That thing will eat you alive when you sleep!" (Because as much as he didn't want to admit it, he wasn't keen on losing the girl just yet, and it most definitely wasn't because he had grown somewhat attached to her. Oh no. Of course not.)
"No, he won't. He'll be good. Won't you, Noh?"
And Gerwald thought he must have imagined it when the Lethifold flapped it's flat manta-ray-like 'head' up and down.
"See? He nodded." The Lethifold flapped more vigorously now.
Gerwald decided he had too little sleep to deal with the ridiculousness of his ward-child-whatever at the moment. So he merely sighed and called out, "Nacht!"
There was a light breeze and the Thestral galloped down the hallway of their rented apartment.
"Nacht, make sure she isn't harmed. If the Lethifold so much as lift itself one inch off the floor, attack it and wake her up. I'm going to bed," he told the Thestral. The intelligent horse whinnied and cantered past him into the room.
"But Gerwald, who are you talking to?" Hadria asked curiously, staring at the empty space that her guardian had addressed. (He was technically now her father and she his daughter, and she went by the name of 'Hadria Grinsen', but the both of them found it too strange to contemplate that they stopped attempting to refer to each other as such. Hadria, because she never had a father-figure before, and she thought Gerwald was more of a friend than a parent. An adult friend, but a friend nonetheless. Gerwald, because he never had a child before and never intended to have one. He thought of Hadria as a favorite niece or goddaughter instead.)
"None of your business," Gerwald replied irritably and went back to his room for some sleep, leaving Hadria alone in the room with a Lethifold on the floor and an invisible creature by the door.
The next morning, he found her playing shogi with Scáth the Grim, and the both of them were sitting on the Lethifold on the floor. The Thestral was watching them with much interest. Gerwald suddenly wondered how did keeping a creature as a pet involved using it as a carpet. If the thing wasn't a Lethifold, he might have been concerned over the mistreatment of the poor magical creature.
Australia, 1987
Gerwald returned to the motel room after a long of day at Uluru, studying the patterns of old magic while trying to avoid the billywig nests. Getting bitten by those infernal creatures was horrifying. Especially when he found himself hovering ten feet off the ground for over an hour. And apparently, stunning them was not an option because the deceptively silly creatures understood the concept of revenge.
When Gerwald opened the door, he was greeted by a hyper Hadria who hugged him enthusiastically, before hurrying off to the kitchen. She returned with a large chocolate cake that looked like it was made entirely out of chocolate, and far too many candles.
"Happy Birthday, Gerwald!" she said cheerfully, presenting him with the cake, which he now realised must have been baked herself. From the chocolate icing to the chocolate sauce to the chocolate chips and chocolate fudge... He didn't know any cake shop around here that would use that much chocolate in one cake. And his ward was a chocolate fanatic. (Her love for chocolate was second only to her love for treacle tart.)
But she was his chocolate fanatic, he thought fondly, as he accepted the cake. At one point in time, he took her in because it was his Task, and because having the Girl-Who-Lived by his side was sure to be advantageous in the long run. Or so he told himself anyway.
For months he denied the fact that he had taken her on impulse, that he had kidnapped her after realising how horrible her Muggle relatives were treating her...
He spent nights convincing himself that it wouldn't matter if she found out his true identity because he didn't really care about her or what she might think of him... He pretended that her smiles weren't sweet and that her affections meant nothing...
(Even after those times when he seriously frightened her with his anger, after breaking his promise to her to keep her safe because harm could come in many forms, after he nearly lost her...)
He would then remind himself of how annoying she could be, how ridiculous things tend to happen around her, how trouble always seemed attracted to her...
"I've got a prezzie for you too!" Hadria said blithely, and ran off again. He noticed that she had a Grim at her heels and a Lethifold draped over her shoulders like a cloak, billowing dramatically just the way she liked it.
Gerwald couldn't deny that the kid had a certain adorable charm about her though.
"Here! Open it! I found him last week, so I've already managed to train him," Hadria said as she shoved a large ribbon-wrapped box in his hands. The box rattled. Gerwald stared. Another pet?
He opened it.
And a gigantic billywig flew out.
Gerwald was loathed to admit that he very nearly let loose several Dark curses then, a majority of them being highly inappropriate to be used in the presence of an impressionable child. The only thing that kept him from panicking was the sight of his ward's adorably furious expression.
Hadria smacked the creature with a rolled-up newspaper that she seemed to have taken out of nowhere. "Geist! If you don't behave, I'll turn you into something ridiculous again!"
The gigantic billywig obediently turned into a fuzzy sooty gray ball with large colorless eyes and slitted-pupils, small cat-like ears, and a long thin tail. The fuzzball floated to Hadria and gave a sheepish grin which consisted of rows of tiny sharp teeth.
"Congratulations, you're the second human to have ever seen the true form of a Boggart," the Grim commented dryly. Gerwald made an odd choking sound as he watched Hadria pull the boggart's tail as it tried to escape. She looked like she was holding on to a gray cat-head-shaped balloon.
"Hadria, can you please stop catching Dark creatures and keeping them as pets?" Gerwald said, exasperatedly. Hadria froze before turning slowly to look at him with wide green eyes that suddenly seemed to take up the majority of her face.
"You mean... You don't like him?" she asked hesitantly. "I thought he can be quite funny." The Boggart turned away, resolutely not looking at anyone, and blew a raspberry, as if it had been offended by the mere thought of being remotely humorous.
Gerwald sighed, when he noticed the disappointment in those unnaturally large and green eyes. Hadria was rarely ever upset, and she never ever cried (except for that one time when she nearly got gored by a Graphorn...), but when she was unhappy, her eyes would widen like that, and her face would become eerily blank. Gerwald was starting to think that her unhappy expression might become one of his greatest weaknesses.
"No. I like him," he hastily said to the seven-year-old girl.
"Really?" Hadria questioned, brightening visibly.
"Yes, really," he replied in the most reassuring voice he could manage (because the girl was becoming annoyingly intuitive about when he's just charming someone and when he's sincere). The grumpy Boggart blew another raspberry.
When Gerwald glared at the creature, it turned into a young, auburn-haired man with twinkling electric blue eyes and a serene smile.
Gerwald blasted the Dumbledore-boggart into the next room with a well-aimed Bombarda.
Nope. He took everything back. He did not like the Boggart and Hadria was more troublesome than she was worth.
...
((Oh, who was he kidding?))
That's all for now. Please review~! Comments are appreciated, especially constructive ones! Feel free to PM me or send me a review if you have any questions about the story. I will try my best to answer them :)
Next Chapter: Next Thursday (because I'll be rushing university applications this week. Thank goodness I already have Chapter Five half written.)