Right. So I'm one week late and I really apologise for that. But here you are: the next chapter!
By the way, because I got lazy to reply individually to some of your reviews...
Cheers to Lady Syndra and BookAddiction1 who guessed correctly how Hadria was going to survive! And cheers to the Guest reviewer who predicted Gellert doing something in retaliation as a result of the Quidditch Incident! Also, to Nobels who wanted more interactions with Gerwald, you've gotten lucky this time!
Btw, there's also a Snape-to-Gerwald letter at the end of this fic, for ChizomenoHime who requested for it back in Chapter 11, some four months ago (I remembered it! Hah!)
Pairings: Potential Hadria (FemHarry) x Tom Riddle, but more platonic than romantic, other pairings undecided. See A/N at the end of the chapter.
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter
(My dear Beta Happyfish appears to have gone on a vacation, so wish them all the best in whatever they are doing. On that note, does anyone want to be my temporary Beta? Details at the bottom of the chapter.
P.S. My apologies to those who offered to beta this chapter. I'm afraid I was so in a rush to get this uploaded that I wasn't able to give you guys much time to beta it. Thanks anyway).
Edit: Just some spelling mistakes and stuff. If you guys spot any, do let me know!
Chapter Fourteen: A Dramatic Play, Act 2
"Transit umbra, lux permanet." Shadow passes, light remains. - Unknown
Gellert had a strange sense of foreboding before there was a girl spilling across the rug in the living room. He took in hair dyed a magical flaming colour, face painted a metallic silver, emerald green eyes, the spangled harlequin outfit, and leaped out of his armchair.
"Hydra?"
The girl rolled onto her back and grinned up at him, clearly unharmed and unfazed.
"Hey Gerwald, I missed you so I decided to come home early."
He ignored that comment because it was too sweet and damn it he missed her too, but he trusted in the safety of Hogwarts or at least he had tried to because no matter how much faith he had in Dumbledore's ability to keep his students safe, it was Dumbledore, and Hadria was out of sight and sometimes she would be so caught up in whatever shenanigans she was up to in school that she forgot to write home, not that he was actively waiting for her letter every week—
"Gerwald, your face is changing colour."
Gellert exhaled a breath he didn't realise he had been holding.
"Hadria, what happened?"
Said girl scrambled to her feet, dusted her robes—where did she even get those atrocious things from?—and without any warning, launched herself at him.
"Oh, I almost forgot how much fun it was to do this," she said, and Gellert heaved a tired sigh as he caught her in his arms.
"Hadria Jamie Potter, what happened?"
The koala-like thing that was trying to climb up around him stopped squirming.
"Um," Hadria paused and looked sheepish. "But I swear Quidditch is safe!"
"What. Happened?"
Hadria coughed and wriggled again, wiping some of the silver paint onto his robes.
"We were just watching the Quidditch match, it was Slytherin vs Gryffindor—we were totally winning, by the way. I mean, Fred and George were wonderful Beaters, and the rest of the team were also pretty decent, but one of their Chasers was taken out by a Bludger to the head, and no offence, but their Seeker wasn't the best, I think he was a reserve player, and not to brag and sound like Draco but I could probably play better than him… Okay, I do sound like Draco. I blame him. His egoistic tendencies are rubbing off me. You know—"
"Himmel, arsch und zwirn!"
"Okay okay, um, therewasanexplosioninthestandsinthemiddleofthematchandthebarrier-gavewayandIfelloffbutitreallyfeltlikesomethingmighthavepulledmeoffbecauseIdon'trememberleaningthatmuchonthebarrier."
Then she took a quick breath, and immediately blurted, "Don't blame Quidditch."
Gellert resisted the urge to pinch the bridge of his nose.
"Did you remember the spell?"
"Arresto Momentum? Yeah, I did, but the ground was rushing up way faster than I expected so I decided to play it safe and kill two birds with one stone."
The ex-Dark Lord had never felt the urge to strangle something, or someone—preferably one Albus Dumbledore—as much as he did in that moment. Of all the things he thought could happen to Hadria at Hogwarts—among which was the worry that she would burn down a tower or something—the girl just had to get herself targeted by someone who wanted her dead and no one had been quick enough to help her such that she had to resort to using the Portkey he had the foresight to give her.
But as much as he would love to storm Hogwarts right there and then, he also didn't want to show his face to Albus just yet. (Because he totally wasn't avoiding Dumbledore or the can of worms that he was very sure he didn't want Hadria to know yet).
So Gellert chose to send Hadria to her room—"But it's barely lunchtime!"—and settled himself in his study to pen a letter to Hogwarts' dear Headmaster. And in a fit of inspiration, he prepared himself to write a letter to Narcissa Malfoy as well.
Hadria snuck away from home that night, because she knew if she stayed any longer, Gellert was likely to keep her prisoner, and left a letter by her bedside telling Gellert not to worry, even though she knew he'd worry anyway.
When she got back to her room in Hogwarts, she was glad the dormitory was empty, because the last time the school saw her, she had been falling to her death. Returning on the back of a Grim wouldn't be a very good idea—though it might be funny, now that she thought about it.
Still, she didn't need to appear with a Grim to make a dramatic entrance. Just walking out of the girls' dorms and into the common room like nothing was wrong had been enough to stun the entire Slytherin House into silence. The Snakes were everywhere, some sitting, some standing—on the seats, by the fireplace, on the floor—and Professor Snape stood in front of the fireplace, the centre of attention until the moment she walked in.
Hadria coughed to cover a giggle, but her friends seemed to notice it anyway, because Draco now had his face in his hands, Pansy was patting his back, and Blaise himself was coughing into a fist.
"What did I miss?" she asked, because it felt like the right thing to say.
Except that it was apparently not the right thing to say because it made Snape blow up.
"What did you miss? What did you miss?! Why Potter, what you missed was a long speech by Professor Dumbledore about accidents happening at Quidditch matches, a school-wide manhunt and rumours circulating around the school about your death, all because you couldn't keep yourself from trouble for just one second!"
Hadria had the decency to look properly chastised. "Well, if it helps, it wasn't really my fault, and I'm sorry anyway?"
Professor Snape took a deep breath that had Hadria comparing him with Gellert for a moment.
"Where have you been?" he finally asked.
"Home," said Hadria. "Gerwald gave me a Portkey to activate in case of such an emergency."
This was greeted with silence. All the first years and some of the older years have heard of Gerwald (because of course everyone has heard of the Gerwald the Wonderful, the Great and Mighty, the Charming and Chivalrous and—you get the idea). Hadria wondered if she should feel insulted or pleased that this probably cemented both her perchance of getting into trouble and Gellert's wisdom gained from spending extended periods of time around her.
"And your guardian allowed you to return to Hogwarts?" Snape raised an eyebrow. He probably recalled Gellert's possessiveness of Hadria from their first meeting.
Hadria shuffled her feet and tried to give her most innocent expression (which was actually so innocent it always looked creepy). "He won't find out I've left the house until morning."
And Hadria got the distinctive feeling that Snape wanted to down an entire bottle of Firewhiskey right there and then. After all, he had seen, first-hand, Gellert upset about her disappearance before. She also suspected that his constipated expression might be due to him restraining himself from asking if they'll be getting a Bad Case of Protective Parent storming Hogwarts any time soon.
But he collected himself and turned to the other Slytherins, saying, "Now that our resident celebrity has been found, alive and unharmed, I see no reason to keep you up any longer. You're all dismissed."
Then he left the common room with a sweep of black robes. Presumably to get a Calming Draught and sleep the day's stress and troubles away.
Hadria dropped herself onto the arm of the chair that Draco was lounging in as the other Slytherins cast them curious looks but oblingingly retreated back to their dorms. One of them gave Pansy a Significant Look which Hadria took to mean that any important information in their subsequent conversation was going to be made known to at least half the House by morning.
"So, did anyone win the match?"
Blaise laughed. "We did." This apparently shook Draco from whatever conflicted trance he was having.
"The snitch flew right past Higgs on his way to catch you," he explained excitedly. "Of course, you had disappeared then, and he was the fastest to react. Did a sharp turn upon realising you were gone, and caught the snitch in the next second."
"You really gave the school a scare, you know," said Pansy, though she seemed more proud than disapproving. "We would've written to our parents too, if Professor Snape hadn't warned us not to do anything without knowing the full picture yet. Imagine the scandal, though, if it had gotten out! Girl-Who-Lived Falls to Her Death at Hogwarts, the 'Safest' Place in the Wizarding World!"
They shared grins as they pictured the headlines in the Daily Prophet and the outrage it would've caused. Then there a sudden sombre hush.
"Hey, do you think…?" Pansy began.
"He couldn't have. He may be mad, but surely not that mad," Draco said, though he sounded uncertain.
Hadria blinked. "Are we actually discussing if Dumbledore just tried to kill me?"
"It seems unlikely," admitted Pansy. "But who else could it be? He could have caught onto our attempts to expose his nefarious plans, but then… Why would he target you?"
"Exactly! Hadria's the Girl-Who-Lived!" Draco exclaimed.
Blaise crossed his legs and uncrossed his arms to lean forward. "Actually, there could be many reasons why Dumbledore would target Hadria. She may be the Girl-Who-Lived, but she's evidently not his poster child. She left the guardians he had appointed for her to live with a probably dangerous foreign wizard. She got Sorted into Slytherin and doesn't get ostracised despite acting like a Lion or Badger half the time. She hangs out with us. And he's got to know that she's behind half the pranks in this school even though she's only a first-year, and the Professors like her. For all he knows, she could secretly be a Dark Lady in the making, hiding under the cover of an innocent Slytherin."
Hadria wondered if it was too late to tell them they've got it all wrong. Of course, she wouldn't be surprised if Dumbledore was actually suspicious of her, but she doubted he'd actually make a direct attempt on her life. After all, he never killed Gellert when he could, and she didn't think he ever tried to kill Riddle either.
Morning came with all the drama Hadria expected and more.
When she sat back at the breakfast table, nibbling on a piece of toast lathered with treacle marmalade and topped with sliced sausages (Pansy was too busy staring at the owls to reprimand her choice of food combination) and reflected about her past life, she felt an immense satisfaction with her life decisions. For one, having Gellert as a guardian was fantastic. For another, being a Slytherin was hilarious.
Combine the two?
Howlers. Dozens of them, red and fluttering, delivering words sharp and cold like flying knives. There was one from Narcissa who did not howl, but her wintry voice was crisp and clear for the entire Hall to hear. There was one from Pansy's mother, and Hadria could see where Pansy got her tongue from. There was also one from Lady Zabini, much to Blaise's surprise. And there was even one from Mrs Weasley, who was probably the only one who howled in her Howler.
("—DISAPPOINTED IN YOU! LETTING A STUDENT FALL TO THEIR DEATH ON YOUR WATCH! QUIDDITCH WAS SUPPOSED TO BE SAFE IN HOGWARTS! HADRIA COULD HAVE DIED! HOW COULD NONE OF YOU REACT IN TIME TO CATCH HER?! HOW WERE THE QUIDDITCH PLAYERS FASTER THAN YOUR STAFF?!—")
Hadria looked across the Hall and saw the twins clapping each other on the backs, while Percy looked grim-faced, and Ron was gaping like someone had just told him the Chudley Cannons had disbanded.
("—LETTER LAST NIGHT, AND I WOULDN'T HAVE BELIEVED THEM—")
"What's going on?" Draco demanded when he finally joined them at the table with Crabbe and Goyle trailing behind him, a few strands of ferret fur still stuck to his usually immaculate robes.
"Dumbledore's got Howlers," Hadria cackled, causing several Slytherins to turn and stare.
("—RECEIVED A LETTER WITH THE SAME MESSAGE FROM PERCY, AND I TRUSTED YOU WITH MY CHILDREN! WHAT IF IT HAD BEEN RON? WHAT IF IT HAD BEEN FRED OR GEORGE OR PERCY?! HOW DO I KNOW MY DEAR GINNY WON'T HAVE A NEAR-DEATH EXPERIENCE IN YOUR SCHOOL NEXT YEAR?!—")
"Yes, thank you for stating the obvious," Draco muttered. Louder, he said, "Severus gave us strict instructions not to write to our parents. How did this happen?"
It was Pucey who was the first to draw the right conclusion.
"None of us did. But one of us didn't have to," he said wonderingly, as realisation dawned on him. "This. This must be the work of Potter's guardian whom we've all been told we do not want to piss off."
More letters, less Howlers now, were still being delivered by the host of owls. Many, Hadria suspected were from the parents of the children in the other Houses.
"Mrs Weasley's Howler is the combined effort of Prefect Weasley and the twins," was all Hadria said, still casually helping herself to more breakfast.
A few Slytherins shuddered, the shrill voice of Mrs Weasley still ringing in their ears.
"Something feels wrong here, though," Blaise commented. He didn't seem particularly worried, but he did appear somewhat puzzled.
"It's Gerwald," Hadria chuckled. "He has a way with words… and ladies."
Blaise stared, and his face twisted into something funny. "I don't know how powerful your guardian really is, but as a… friend, I feel obliged to point out that your guardian would be advised not to bite off more than he can chew."
There were a few raised eyebrows at this, and Hadria spluttered into her drink. Pansy patted the other Slytherin girl on her back.
"What Blaise meant to say is, he's mother's the Black Widow and for your sake, it would be best if your guardian never tried to court her."
"B-but—" Hadria found herself spluttering. "Gerwald may be a real charmer but I don't think he's actually looking to… court anyone!"
Students all around her gave her sympathetic looks which she did not understand.
"Hadria dear, your guardian… Is he young, good-looking and single?" Pansy said.
Finally, Hadria realised where they were going with this. And introduced her head to the table with a loud thunk, alarming several other Slytherins. Forget it, she was not going to have this conversation with them.
It was Gellert, for Merlin's sake! There were so many problems with Gellert being Gellert that Hadria wasn't sure if Gellert would ever get a partner, and that was when one didn't take into account the whole being the unknowing guardian of a time-travelling Master of Death issue.
The Howlers in the morning were all the students talked about for the rest of the day. The next most popular and also related topic was Hadria's fall. One theory was that a Slytherin had enough of her and had pushed her off, while another theory was that she had fallen off herself to get attention and had Apparated away just in time. The craziest theory was that the entire thing was all a shared hallucination, while another crazy theory involved her actually dying but coming back from the dead to haunt Dumbledore with Howlers. There were actually quite a few of these Hadria-actually-died theories.
"Now they're saying you're not actually here, and that our brains have all been modified to believe you're here with us. There's a rumour that the Ministry have been experimenting on mind control in the Department of Mysteries," Pansy said, when she returned from a toilet break. It appeared that half the time she went to the girl's bathroom, she was actually scouting for gossip. Hadria herself had stopped quite a couple of times outside the restroom door and heard other girls chatter about all sorts of stuff when they thought there was no one else around to hear.
"Perhaps we're all traumatised by the incident, so the Ministry wouldn't even need to modify our brains," said Blaise, enthusiastically. "Our minds couldn't cope, so now we're hallucinating your continued existence."
Then there was a shriek, as Tracey began to hitch up her school robes and scrambled onto her desk, knocking over an ink pot and her caged white mouse in the process. There was a white shape darting like an eel between the legs of the tables and chairs.
Draco let loose a few choice cruse words Hadria was sure would've gotten him a mouthful of soap if Narcissa had heard him.
"Is that your Jarvey?" Pansy asked, watching the chaos unfold with wary fascination.
Hadria didn't know if she should laugh or sigh. Instead of doing either, she decided to do something before her pet decided to reveal its Jarvey-speaking-abilities. A second and a flash of light later, there was a white tissue box on the ground in place of a furred creature.
Professor McGonagall took one look at the box and turned to survey the class.
"Whose ferret was that?"
Hadria glanced over at Draco who had his face in his hands and was groaning audibly. Then she raised a hand.
"Technically, it's mine. I lent it to Draco at the start of the term."
The Professor pursed her lips, then said, "Five points for a transfiguration well-done. Now, Mr Malfoy, Ms Potter, please come with me."
"Are we going to get expelled? We're going to be expelled, aren't we? My father won't allow it… He can't! And this is all your fault, Potter. Why did you have to bring that bloody creature to school? Why couldn't—"
Hadria yawned.
"Hadria Potter," Draco gritted out. The girl merely waved a hand dismissively.
"Chill, Draco. We're not getting expelled and your father won't have to pull any strings."
"How would you know?" Draco demanded. "We're not his favoured Gryffindors, we're the total opposite!" Ahead of them, Professor McGonagall was pretending not to hear every single thing they were saying.
But Hadria couldn't tell him she'd crashed a flying car into the Whomping Willow before and hadn't gotten expelled for that. She couldn't tell him about all the other times she had broken so many school rules she deserved half of Snape's scorn for her.
So, Hadria said, "What do you think would've happened if you had gotten caught smuggling in a racing broom instead?" Then realised she shouldn't have known about that either, because in this timeline, she had never met the blonde boy before school, in Madam Malkin's shop.
"How did you know I—Never mind," Draco huffed. "Well, I wouldn't have gotten caught!"
"Right," Hadria said, shaking her head, amused, remembering the time he'd gotten caught breaking curfew when he had been trying to get them (the old trio) caught with the dragon. Speaking of Norbert—or rather, Norberta—when was she due to appear? Because that was also around the time when Quirrellmort began unicorn-vampirism, and had that been before or after Christmas? Because Christmas was when the Mirror would make its first appearance, and—
"What if McGonagall's an accomplice?" Draco suddenly hissed into Hadria's ear. She shot the Professor an alarmed look, wondering how sharp her hearing was outside her feline form, before turning to Draco and whispering even softer.
"Please don't tell me you think we're being led to the Headmaster's office to be murdered?"
"Or Imperiused," Draco added, nodding fearfully. Hadria almost gaped at him. Had they all been that naïve as eleven-year-olds? Then she realised that the answer was yes. Hadn't the old trio automatically assumed that Snape had been after the Stone and had been the one who attempted to kill Harriet by jinxing her broom, simply because he was suspicious and unlikable?
"He's the Headmaster!" Hadria hissed back.
"Precisely!" Draco snapped and the raven-haired girl groaned. "I bet they were just waiting for an excuse and your blasted Snag was it!"
"Why didn't you leave him in the dorm as usual?"
"I did! He sneaked into my book bag after!"
Hadria sighed.
"Okay, how about this: If we get the tiniest inkling that the Headmaster is about to harm us in any way, you'll grab hold of me and I'll use my Portkey to get us to Gerwald and we can transfer to Durmstrang or something?"
Draco stared at her, then seemed to consider it. "Maybe we should just use your Portkey now and be done with it."
Hadria had never thought she would feel so frustrated in her life since her rebirth eleven years ago. "You're being bloody paranoid."
"I'm a Slytherin! It's called self-preservation!"
"We're here."
Draco gasped, while Hadria took in the gargoyle then took in Professor McGonagall's face. Hadria couldn't tell if the Deputy Headmistress had everything they had been whispering about, but if she had, she wasn't showing it.
"This is it," whined Draco, and Hadria elbowed him.
"Don't be melodramatic."
They stood in front of Professor Dumbledore like a pair of guilty school children. In fact, they were a pair of guilty school children. Well, Draco was more skittish than guilty, and looked like he might start doing a Quirrell impression anytime soon, while Hadria couldn't quite manage the guilt (she found the whole thing rather hilarious, to be honest) and had settled for just being reluctantly apologetic about the whole thing. Professor McGonagall had just finished telling the Headmaster what had occurred in the Transfiguration classroom, and Dumbledore was now gazing at them genially from behind half-moon spectacles. Snag the tissue box was now lying innocently on the table that was cluttered with a great many other trinkets.
"Well, I must say, my dear Hadria, you've managed to cause quite a stir in the school since your first week here," he finally said, a twinkle in his eye and an amused smile expressed in every wrinkle of his face. "I don't think we've had such excitement in the school since the days of the Marauders."
Hadria snuck a glance at Professor McGonagall who looked like a disgruntled cat. Draco, on the other hand, had quit his fidgeting and was trying his best to mimic his father's too-Pureblood-to-feel-stressed facade.
"Who are the Marauders?" Hadria asked, because those were her lines in this strange little play she now found herself a part of. And Dumbledore, who had to have been expecting that question since he dropped the name so casually, smiled even wider.
"They were a group of Gryffindors—" ("Troublemakers," McGonagall corrected none too softly.) "Who, like you, were looking to liven up their school days with a bit of fun. They were the precursors of the Weasley twins, though I believe their legacy was not fully manifested until your arrival in Hogwarts."
Hadria made a funny face then adopted a sheepishly hopeful look.. "I'm flattered, I think?"
Dumbledore chuckled. "Your father was one of the Marauders. I believe he would've been proud of all the chaos you've brought to this school in your wake. He was also a remarkable Transfiguration student." He picked up the tissue box and gave it to her. "Are you able to reverse the transformation?"
Hadria examined the tissue box she had transfigured. It was almost perfectly white, marred only by two pairs of faint paw prints on the underside. There was a neat stack of tissue paper in it. The Slytherin girl drew her wand and a quick glance told her that everyone in the office, even the Phoenix in the corner which she had yet to ask about, was watching her. Hadria grinned.
And the tissue box came to life.
"Never again!" It declared, shaking out the white from its fur like a dog covered in flour, until an overgrown ferret with fur the colour of blended mocha took its place on the Headmaster's desk.
"A Jarvey?!" McGonagall looked like she just came face to face with Lee's tarantula. There was a funny mixture of shock, exasperation and horror on her face. And not the kind of horror one might expect of a girl like Lavender Brown, but the kind of horror that came with being a Professor of more than one generation of pranksters.
"Obvious," Snag snorted, and Professor McGonagall shot him a glare so fierce it silenced him... temporarily. It was still quite a sight to see.
"Oh my, that is one interesting pet you have, Hadria," Dumbledore said, good-naturedly. "Wherever did you find him from? I don't expect Magical Menagerie to sell such a species. Not much demand for them, though I can't imagine why."
"I got him in Greece," Hadria replied truthfully. "The storekeeper gave him to me for free."
Dumbledore nodded sagely. Exaggeratedly. Indeed, it was like a play.
"I must ask, how did you get Mr Malfoy to keep him for you?"
Draco, who had been getting comfortable with the attention away from him, now straightened comically (considering how his natural posture was already pretty straight) like a soldier at a parade. He flushed and gave Hadria a Look.
"We had a deal," she said proudly, ignoring the Look, because she had no idea what it meant. It was probably just Draco still miffed at her for getting them into this situation. "If I made it into Slytherin, Draco would keep the Jarvey for me, since I already had Holly as a pet and we're not exactly allowed two pets. So the Hat was having trouble Sorting me, and I decided to help it along by giving it an incentive to Sort me into Slytherin by telling him about the deal and since the Hat did want to see a Malfoy with a Jarvey, here we are!"
Draco was now giving her another Look and this one was clearly one of disbelief. He glanced at the Professors, then leaned in to hiss softly, "You just told him everything!"
Hadria shrugged. "He's Professor Dumbledore." This got her another look of horrified disbelief.
She did, in fact, know what his problem was. But she wasn't going to tell him that while keeping some information to oneself was a good (and Slytherin) thing to do most of the time, in this case, she did have a motive to give the Headmaster her full honesty.
Snag, on the other hand, had regained his voice, "Stupid. Idiotic. Dull. Brainless. Vapid. Moronic. Obtuse. Dolt—"
A flash of light later and on the table was a funny coloured jelly-bean (dirty brown and off-white-striped ) that wouldn't look out of place in a Bertie Bott's box. Draco was blinking rapidly at the display, and Hadria couldn't decide if she imagined the brief look of satisfaction that flitted across the face of their Transfiguration Professor.
Meanwhile, Dumbledore continued to smile easily, as if everything that was going on in his office was a daily occurrence.
"Multiple pets are still not allowed, Miss Potter," said Professor McGonagall, bringing them back on track.
"Oh, I'm sure we can make an exception—"
"Favouritism is also not allowed for a Headmaster, Albus." The interruption wasn't as stern, more exasperated, and it sounded like something she had said way too many times to Dumbledore before.
The Professors turned back to the students, and found Hadria looking at them with a slight frown, while Draco simply had a pale expressionless face.
"Can I please keep Snag? Pretty please?" said Hadria, shifting her weight from foot to foot anxiously. "I'm afraid my guardian might throw him out if we have to keep him at home. They don't get along much."
"Well," Dumbledore began, and turned to look at McGonagall expectantly, who huffed and said, "If you wish to keep the Jarvey, I expect you to ensure that it will cause no more trouble to the staff and students here. I will not have it disrupt my class again. However, you will have to send your owl home, and she will only be allowed in the school to deliver mail, as per the school rules."
Hadria cheered enthusiastically and launched herself at the senior witch. "Thank you so much, Professor! I promise to keep Snag in line!"
Dumbledore beamed. "Well, now that that's settled, Draco, you may leave for lunch. Fear not, this incident will not be held against you, and you will not have to deal with Hadria's Jarvey much longer, given that she is now allowed to look after him herself."
Draco looked at Hadria and the jelly-bean skeptically, because a deal was a deal, and it didn't matter if the Slytherin girl had been given the permission to keep Snag. After all, Hadria could have easily left Holly with her guardian to solve the problem of too many pets and kept the Jarvey with her. It wasn't like the thought had never crossed her mind, and all three of them (including the Jarvey who was not actually capable of conscious thought just then, but would have counted if he was) knew that.
But the Malfoy scion had been dismissed, while Hadria clearly hadn't been, so he gave her one last look and left, wondering what the Headmaster could be keeping her back for. If he didn't see her again by the end of lunch, he was just going to have to rope in as many Slytherins as possible to see Professor Snape and hope his godfather wasn't in league with the Headmaster as well.
When Draco had left, Dumbledore waved his wand and a seat trotted over to Hadria who took it as an invitation to sit down. Their meeting had been going well so far, and she hoped it would also end well. If not, well, she would have to make it end well.
"What's this about, Albus?" Professor McGonagall asked when Hadria had settled comfortably in her seat.
"Why, her guardian, of course," said Dumbledore in reply.
"My guardian?" Hadria echoed. Oh, she had expected this conversation to come up sooner or later, and it seemed that the time was then.
Dumbledore nodded. "Just a concern a Headmaster has for his student, you see. I'm assuming he was the one who brought you to Greece? What's he like? Are you happy with him? Because I must admit, I almost panicked when I paid your Aunt Petunia a visit, and she told me a young wizard had taken you away."
Hadria grimaced internally, and wondered if he had expected her to be happy with the Dursleys, but she said nothing about it. Instead, she grabbed his bait, and grinned. He expected a fish—she'd give him a whale… which was not a fish, but, you get the idea.
Hadria left the office beaming, jelly-bean in her pocket (Professor McGonagall had decided to give her the challenge of turning it back herself, though Hadria suspected she might have simply wanted the Jarvey to suffer some Transfiguration mishap).
She felt like patting herself on the back. After all, aside from the jelly-bean Jarvey (which didn't really count as a set-back nor did it put any bit of a damper on anything) she had successfully sold the idea of being a playful Chimera (part-Lion, part-Badger, part-Snake, part-Eagle) with the help of the Sorting Hat (who piped in from time to time to back her up) to Dumbledore, and convinced him that 'Gerwald' keeping her had originally been an accident, and the wizard been enamoured by her and adopted her from the Dursleys, after which they'd traveled the world together, and if he must, he could ask Snape for his opinion, because they'd met him at the Potions Convention before school started.
"And sorry for the Howlers, sir, I hope they didn't cause you too much trouble. I don't get why everyone was so worked up over it. I mean, I'm sure the Quidditch thing was just an accident and it's said that Hogwarts is the safest place in the Wizarding World aside from Gringotts and you're here, aren't you? Perhaps this whole thing could've been avoided if I hadn't activated my Portkey and waited for one of you Professors or the Quidditch team members to catch me, but I had been panicking then so please excuse me for that. Terribly sorry, though."
And Dumbledore assured her that it was fine, he was glad she was happy, she's a brilliant child, keep up the good work, she's welcome to visit him anytime for anything, and he'd love to meet her guardian for tea someday, just to thank him personally for taking wonderful care of Hadria and raising her right, because the Headmaster has met many guardians before—the Weasleys, the Bones, the Longbottoms, the Malfoys, the Notts, a good number of Muggle parents, and even her own parents, long ago—but he had yet to meet her guardian.
Through it all, Hadria was proud of herself for not telling a single lie either. Sure, she tweaked some things a little bit, left out the fact that Gellert had essentially kidnapped her at first, and had totally not been enamoured by her straightaway, and that he wasn't just upset about the danger but held some sort of grudge against the Headmaster (so he was more likely to hex him than to sit down with him for a cup of tea), but what harm was there in a white lie or two for a good story-telling?
Then her good mood faltered in the face of a sour-faced Severus Snape who was glaring at her, arms crossed, as if everything was her fault (which, she admitted, usually was, but not this time, not really). And with him were a… group—horde? Throng? Army? –of Slytherins. She could even see some of the older years and a prefect with their wands out.
"Oh, thank Merlin, you're alive!" exclaimed Draco.
In the late evening of a fine but chilly November day, Severus Snape, who was feeling distinctively not fine, rubbed his temple and took a sip from a Calming Draught. He wondered if he should get something stronger, like a good bottle of elf-made wine.
The Potions Master sighed, and inspected the finished letter. It had been difficult, writing it. He did not typically send letters to the guardians of his students—he did not typically need to—but even then, if it had been any other student, he would not have much of a problem penning the appropriate report.
To most guardians, he would not hesitate to inform them precisely what he thought of their children. To Lords and Ladies, he would not hesitate to subtly inform them precisely what he thought of their children (any Lord or Lady would be able to read between the lines, anyway). But to his best knowledge, Gerwald Grinsen was not a Lord. In fact, he (and the rest of the Slytherin House) was pretty sure Grinsen was not a Wizarding last name. Yet, everyone with half a brain knew that this Gerwald of Hadria's was not someone to cross. Not after the Howler incident. It wasn't common knowledge, but it wasn't exactly a well-kept secret either, that said incident had been ignited by this man.
And Severus had the fortune of meeting this man face-to-face before. The encounter had left him slightly uncomfortable because there was just something about that man...
So, it had left him with the dilemma of how best to inform said man—who was evidently rather possessive and protective of Hadria—about his terrible ward.
Mister Gerwald Grinsen,
I believe we have been met before, at the Potions Convention in August, so I shall spare the introductions and get straight down to business.
I had hope that should I ever need to write to you, it would be under more favourable circumstances, but I regret to say that this letter has been penned to inform you about the trouble your ward has gotten herself into.
Miss Potter has been causing havoc since stepping into Hogwarts, and I could list here all the offences she has committed should you be interested, but this current problem is more dangerous than the rest. I believe that you, as her guardian, should be notified about the dangers your ward is selectively oblivious to, so that you could take measures to ensure that she reign in her Gryffindor tendencies and exercise some self-preservation that she is sorely lacking in.
There is something brewing in the school, of which I am not as privy to as I would like, so I cannot tell you much about it. However, the Headmaster has plans which I have been assured would not endanger the students should they follow the typical school rules and explicit instructions given to them. Unfortunately, your ward has chosen to ignore these rules and instructions, and has dragged the whole Slytherin House with her. I am doing my best to contain the situation on my side, as their Head-of-House, but it would help if you were to shake some sense into your ward before she gets herself killed.
Yours Respectfully,
Severus Snape
And that's all for now! I'll see if I can update another chapter by September. Thanks for reading!
Btw, is anyone interested in being a temp-beta? You don't have to have a beta profile or anything. I just need someone to help me check for spelling and grammar, though it will also be nice if you could comment on the chapter the way you would in a review.
My requirements are: Respond (PM) within a few days, able to give me an estimated time required to complete the beta-reading, able to complete the beta-reading within the estimated time given by themselves, otherwise, able to forewarn me about the delay.
ABOUT GELLERT-PAIRINGS: (Based on reviewers' input)
Current popular choices: (female) Amelia Bones, (male) Sirius Black
Runner-ups: (female) Lady Zabini, (male) Severus Snape
Other suggestions:
(female) Tonks (?), Rosmerta, Ollivander's daughter/apprentice
(male) Remus Lupin, Mad-Eye Moody
(or) Nobody i.e let's not complicate things with Gellert and romance (which is also getting more popular)
No longer considering: Bellatrix (because of Neville), Luna (she's younger than Hadria)
Definitely not considering: Hadria (If you want to see a Hadria/Gellert fic, wait for it. Wait a very long time for it, because I don't have the time right now but some day, it might happen. Who knows?)
Did I miss out anyone? Well, do continue to provide your ideas and comments on this topic, and these results may change!