A/N: Warning: Dark themes ahead. Not suitable for children. I apologize if this disappoints you; it wasn't my intention. I wanted to finish this as quickly as possible. This is my first fic, so I may have made some serious mistakes by delving into dark fanfic right away. If you don't like the fic, please don't read it. If you enjoy it, please leave a review.
January 2, 1988
At St. Joseph's Heathgate Primary School, Hadrian Charlus Potter was a bit of a mystery. Not many people knew him, and hardly anyone talked to him. He didn't talk much either. Some thought he couldn't, while others believed he is some sort of psycho. So, everyone left him alone.
In most of his school hours, you'd find him in the playground; you might make a conclusion that he must play some sort of game. No, no, don't make early assumptions. He just goes there to observe everything around him. His green eyes were so intense that nobody dared to look into them for long. You might wonder what he observes and why he observes other people. Then you will be wondering forever. His face has the same response everywhere. His face didn't smile. He didn't laugh at other jokes, he didn't even cry like other kids.
Some kids thought he never blinked. It was hard to tell because he didn't react to things like the other kids. He was always well-dressed, and his clothes were always clean and branded.
Every day, he followed the same routine. He sat in class, did his homework, answered questions when asked, and watched others in his free time. Someday you could see him silently reading a small book behind a large tree. No one ever bothered to ask him why he didn't join in the games and play like other children.
Even the bullies left him alone. That's because strange and terrifying things happened to anyone who tried to pick on him. They'd end up in weird situations, like hanging upside down in the bathroom, sleeping naked in the school backyard, bleeding with broken noses inside empty classrooms. One had even found his whole finger cut with a knife, and another student had his throat slit with some piercing thing, and so on. No one suspected Hadrian in these types of cases because he was out of reach of those who could do such things.
Saint Joseph's Heathgate Primary School had a large pond and a big tree at one side of the school building. It was far from the playground that was generally used by other children. Most children didn't come toward this side, but Hadrian was an exception.
Like any other normal day, he was reading a small book while resting against a tree. It was a gift from his mother for Christmas, just as she gave him on every other occasion. Uncle Sirius and Aunt Marlene had given him a new bike.
His Uncle Remus and his father had gifted him a brand new wardrobe filled with Marauder suits, each one a unique piece made exclusively for him. 'Marauders Clothing and Fashion' was the brand his father and Uncle Sirius had started in 1982. It had become the largest clothing brand in Britain, although no one knew who owned it. His Uncle Remus served as Chairman, working alongside the other two Marauders.
Hadrian had known about the Wizarding world since he was five. His parents had told him on his seventh birthday what had happened to them and why they had left Magical Britain. Since then, they have been teaching him basic Hogwarts education. Hadrian knew what his mother and father expected of him. He also knew what he would do when he entered the Wizarding world. He has a grand plan for them. For that, he will have to prepare. He also knew that to implement his plans, he had to do a lot of things. He will only step up one step at a time. You can't jump directly to the top, can you?
At the age of Six, when his mother had given him the book about Sherlock Holmes, from that day on, he became a fan of him. He loved to watch mystery movies and always tried to act like Sherlock, observing and deducing. Hadrian had become quite proficient in observation and reading people's emotions. That's why he loved to watch people and attempt to deduce their next move.
He was already obsessed with murders, though he had never intended to kill anyone in this small age. Anything doesn't go with plan does it? Hadrian had already crossed that line once. John was being very rude to him; he even tore his book in half. Hadrian could fix it with magic, so he refrained from doing anything that day. After several even more traumatic days, John threw his tiffin into the pond. Hadrian was furious; no one dared to touch something that belonged to him. It was even more precious because his mother had made it personally for him. Who would remain silent even after that?"
Another motive for Hadrian to confront John was to make him experience the challenges of erasing all traces of a crime. He had meticulously attempted to eliminate any evidence from the crime scene. However, despite his efforts, his mother somehow discovered that he had used a sharpened blade to kill one of his classmates. Hadrian often wondered how she had found out. Perhaps his father and his friends were also aware, but they showed no signs of concern. He couldn't discern if they were silently encouraging him to repeat such actions or simply didn't care about the potential harm he could cause with just a pencil sharpener.
He has a sister. Euphenima is 4.5 years old, and she is the most detached person in the world. She talks to fewer people than he ever did. He doesn't talk to anyone because he has his reasons, but she doesn't talk to anyone because she likes a quiet place. She is the best listener in the world. She could listen to you until your voice becomes hoarse, but she will not say anything in reply. She only talks to Hadrian more than she does with others. She is also like him, a bit disturbed and detached from the rest of the world. When she find that she can talk to snakes, from that day most of her friends are snakes. They even sleep with her.
Some may think Lily Potter doesn't care about her children; that's why they are loners. But at home, the Potters are the happiest family in the world. In their home, they always become themselves. Father and mother always listen to their talks and make them happy. Hadrian talks and laughs at home in a single day more than he ever laughed and talked during his three years in primary school.
His mother always appeared authoritative and dominant to the rest of the world. However, at home, she laughed and engaged in silly prank wars with the Marauders. Most of the time Marauders were like this, different from the rest of the world. No one could ever guess that his mother would play pranks on others. Almost as no one could guess the true nature of the Potters and their closest friends.
Hadrian didn't have any close friends. He could say his sister was the closest person to his age group whom he could talk to, not that he was desperate for it. His mentor, Sherlock, worked alone until he met John Watson, and that's the reason Hadrian didn't talk to any of these Muggles. They wouldn't understand magic or how his brain functioned; they were unworthy of his time. He was powerful among them. Powerful people don't associate with inferiors.
Another reason was that he knew none of them would be useful in his grand plan. He had to find a John Watson in his life, and he was sure that he would make only one dear friend in his whole life, just as Sherlock had done.
Hadrian didn't trust anyone with anything. In most of Sherlock's cases, many murders had been committed by close acquaintances. Although he knew he could trust his family with everything. For him, family meant happiness and fun. He could play and do anything at home, and no one would tease him, bully him, or betray him.
Now he was reading about unique case of Sherlock Holmes , but his senses told him something was wrong in his surroundings. Hadrian looked up, searching for the anomaly, and finally found what he had been looking for.
There was a girl of similar age, at least 50 meters away from him, with hair like a bird's nest.' She looks familiar ,But who cares?' he could see older students picking on her, and she was struggling to collect her books from the ground. Again, he thought to himself, 'They are always like that, ignore them; they are barbarians.' He stood up from there, moved to the other side of the tree, and tried to resume reading.
However, he couldn't focus on the book; his mind refused to cooperate. Irritated, he shook his head, slammed the book shut, stuffed it into his bag, and began to walk toward the group of bullies.
He could hear and see what they were doing, but he continued to approach them in silence.
"Boo boo, I am Bossy Bookworm. Listen to me, or I will complain to the teacher," one of them mimicked in a girly voice, provoking laughter from the group.
Another bully snatched all the books she had collected and threw them on the ground once more. Many book covers were torn, and pages ripped from their bindings were scattered around her. She sobbed audibly, unable to contain her emotions any longer.
"Where are your teachers now, teacher's pet?" a large boy among them sneered as he picked up her bag from the ground, attempting to tear it apart—
"Oi, Samuel, leave her alone."
"Ahh, another loner comes to rescue his loner friend," the boy named Samuel dropped the girl's bag on the ground and approached him. 'Stupid pig,' he muttered to himself. Samuel raised his hand to strike him, but Hadrian stopped his hand without a wand. He had learned a few wandless tricks from the Marauders during his home lessons. He used his magic to restrain Samuel, whose face turned a deep shade of red due to the blood rushing to his head.
Hadrian leaned close to Samuel's ear and whispered, "Do you know what happened to John? What will happen if I leave your body hanging upside down on the school gate, just like I left him in the branch of tree?".
Samuel's eyes widened in terror. Gradually, his face returned to its normal color. He retreated from Harry and fled toward the school grounds without looking back. His gang stared at him strangely; their leader had left, so there was no reason to stay. They followed suit and fled the scene.
'I know her. Her name is Hermione Granger,' Hadrian thought. She had been one of his suspects for a while now. He had been silently observing her since she first entered the school. But Harry had no intention of speaking to her; she was just a suspect in his observations. He turned toward the big tree where he could peacefully read about the another case solved by Sherlock Holmes. However, he had a nagging feeling that something was amiss nearby. Before he could react—
WHAM!
In the blink of an eye, he felt as though he had been slammed to the ground. He struggled to open his eyes and found himself surrounded by a mass of hair. His face and eyes were covered by the tangled locks. He could also feel a soft mass resting on top of him. Before he could comprehend what had happened, the mass on top of him shifted and stood up.
"Oh, sorry, sorry, I didn't mean to do that. I just wanted to thank you for saving me. They've been harassing me since the beginning of the year. I try to avoid them, but they don't leave me alone. They always—" 'Oh my god, she talks at the speed of a bullet,' Hadrian thought. He didn't want to listen to any more of her rant. Before he could decide what to do, her voice interrupted his thoughts once again, "—they make me write their notes for them. I'm a fast writer; I can write your notes too, if you'd like me to do your work in exchange for thanking you. I can also help you with your studies. I don't have any friends, not that I expect you to want to be friends with me, I'm just a bushy-haired bookworm and teacher's pet—" 'What! What did she say? Of course she can't be his friend; his friend will be another genius like him. I can't turn a Muggle into a John Watson, can I?' Harry stopped himself from his thoughts. She was still talking, and he had to stop her.
"Stop, just stop. Has anyone ever told you that you talk too much? Let me tell you, I know who you are. You're Hermione Jean Granger. Your father and mother are dentists. You live at 8 Heathgate, Hampstead. Your father always comes to pick you up at 3:30 PM. You transferred here this year because your father's dental practice was relocated to this location. And no, you don't have to do anything for me. I can handle my own work." He stood up and began to walk away from her. 'Who needs help with such trivial things like schoolwork?'
She is staring at him in astonishment, resembling a fish gasping for air. Eventually, she regained her composure enough to utter an unexpected sentence as he walked away. "What I was going to say is, I know what you did earlier. You stopped his hand in midair. I can do that too. My books always mend themselves together in my bag automatically. When I get angry, all the things around me scatter and destroy themselves. I don't know what's happening to me, but I think you know something about why it's happening. I want to learn that too. I want to know how you can control it."
'What? She says she's magical.' Harry stopped dead in his tracks. 'No, no, she didn't say that, did she?' Hadrian replayed her entire rant in his mind. 'Yes, she said she's magical.' Finally, he turned back toward her. 'Now she's the person worth speaking to.'
"What did you say? Can you just repeat that?"
"I am saying, can you teach me how to control this freakiness? I've never tried to show anyone, not even my mother, who is deeply Catholic. She would think I'm Devil spawn. I don't think my father would accept it either. I have to gain control before they find out. Please teach me, I promise I will give you anything you want." Hermione replied timidly. He was her last hope. She didn't want to be thrown out by her own parents. Hermione had been trying to control these abilities since she was five; she knew they were unnatural. That's why she always tried to appear as the most natural person in the world.
Her willingness to follow the rules and try to correct others' mistakes was all a facade. She had been maintaining that facade ever since she had discovered she was unnatural. She didn't know she had become a master at portraying herself as bossy and nothing more. Older students picked on her because she complained about them. Isn't that typical behavior for students of their age? Complaining to teachers, crying if anyone tried to hurt them? She was just doing what was expected. No one had ever suspected that she was not who she claimed to be.
And before today, she had no hope of gaining control over her unnaturalness. That's why she hadn't said anything about her powers to anyone. She would give that boy everything she owned if he could give her an idea of how to control this. She couldn't bear the thought of living like a street child if her parents threw her out. No one would accept her because she didn't belong to the normal world. Normal people didn't have unnatural powers like hers, did they?
"You are saying you would give anything to me if I teach you how to control it?" The boy asked her, his eyes boring into her like a shovel digging a grave. She felt uncomfortable under his gaze. He was studying her, and she had no protection against it.
"Yes, anything." What could he ask for? Homework? She could do that for him. Candy? Yes, she would give him that daily. Money? She could steal it from her father. All the things she owned, like books and notes? Yes, she could give those too. He didn't want her to do his homework; he had made that clear earlier, hadn't he?
"Can you kill Samuel for me? I want his head for some experiments."
Her eyes widened like saucers. Who was this boy? He was only eight and wanted her to murder someone of his own age, and for experiments with real human heads. She could see he was abnormal, but she had no idea he was like this. Killing someone seemed exciting, but could she really do it for him? Why did she think it would be exciting? Surely, it wasn't normal human behavior, was it? She had read in books that killing a human was an unforgivable sin. But surely, being unnatural was also a sin in the eyes of normal people, wasn't it? If this boy could help her with her unnaturalness, was it worth it to kill another child? Sure, Samuel was a bully, and he deserved to be punished, but killing?
She looks at the boy's face again. He is watching her, his face remaining the same as before. He doesn't show any emotion. His eyes are the same as before, curiously watching her. His face turned, and he started to leave—' What? He can't just leave like that.' She has to learn to control this. She has waited long enough. 'Think fast, Granger, the boy is leaving,' she mentally cried. Is it worth it to kill for knowledge? No. What if she doesn't know how to control this and her parents find out? She'll be on the road, alone, unable to find work because she doesn't know how to do anything except read and write. Reading and writing aren't jobs, are they? Even if she finds something to do, normal people wouldn't accept her if they see her doing unnatural things. She doesn't want to end up like street children, scavenging for food in dumpsters. Can she do what he wants? She has promised to do anything for him, hasn't she? She looked up and saw the boy is not far from her. He is near the large tree by the pond. She ran toward him.
Hadrian could feel she was coming toward him. He knew she would come. That's why he had left; it was a moment of reconsideration on her part. He was finally happy; someone in this Muggle world was worthy of his attention.
"I want to learn. I will give you his head tomorrow. Though I don't know how to kill anyone, it seems exciting," Hermione admitted.
Hadrian's smile finally broke out on his lips. "I can teach you how to kill, too. I know all about it."
"Really? You don't seem like someone who can kill," her nervousness evident as she tapped her finger on her skirt and fidgeted.
"Don't you know about John, who was upside down on this very tree, throat slit, and his blood dripping like filtrate water from filter paper?"
She was now totally uncomfortable, clearly debating with herself. Hadrian grinned and added, "Oh, I haven't introduced myself, have I? I'm Hadrian Charlus Potter. You can call me Harry if you want."
"Yeah, I can call you that. You already know me, uhh..okay, umm... You have promised me you'll teach me if I bring you his head for your experiment?" Hermione asked, regaining her composure, though she seemed totally nervous now.
"I don't think you'll have to bring me any head; I'm just checking you. Maybe you'll need to do it for me later. For now, just meet me here every day at recess break. I always come here for 30 minutes daily to read."
"Oh, yes, thank you for helping me earlier. I'm not even ready to kill. I just want to stop being unnatural. You're my only hope. I've been trying to be a good girl and act normal since I was five. You're my escape. I can't let you go, can I? It's my only opportunity to learn. I'll give you anything if you want, even now, if you want. Just teach me to stop this freakiness," she ranted as fast as she could. Her eyes are filled with tears.
Hadrian went and hugged her. It might sound weird and unnatural, but Hadrian hugged her. He didn't know why he did it, but he couldn't let her go in her moment of embarrassment. Hadrian Potter didn't back down from challenges. He hadn't hugged any girl besides his sister, but it felt good.
The girl in his arms was sobbing, clutching onto him like a leech. Harry was finally feeling weird now. But he held her. His mother always held him when he was crying. She would also rock him slightly, but he couldn't do that, could he?
She released her grip from his body and wiped her eyes. Her cheeks were pink with embarrassment. Before he could come up with anything to say, she spoke quickly again.
"Ohh sorry, I weep on your shoulder. I am just get emotional. No one has help me selflessly before today. They just tease me, I never tries to stop them. I know if I had tries I could have blasted them.It always happens. Once snake was attacking me when I was 6 and He get blasted and reduced into smaller pieces. I am always terrified after that I will bast anyone in my way. And My parents will know about my Freakiness. I don't want to live in road—"
Harry silenced her wand less again. This is the second trick of marauders. They said to him that they have use it to the students when anyone tries to complain about them.
"First you have to learn how to be silent. You can't rant whole day. If you want to learn you have to stop speaking and started thinking. Not like you are thinking now. Your thoughts are bizarre I can guess what you are thinking even from here. you have to learn to watch others. And Its not freakiness,Its magic. Refer it as magic. There are so many people like you and me. My whole family can do that. Its not a unnatural things, Its a power given to people who is worthy to wield it. You are worthy of magic so mother magic give you that gift. Don't treat it like curse to be stopped. Just go with flow. Don't stop if you want to something unnatural. Just let it loose. If you start resisting it then it will be even more difficult to control. And I don't have to teach you anything even if you don't want to learn from me. When you will turn eleven you will be receive a pellicular letter. And a Old witch will come to your house to take you to magical world. They help children to control magic. There is whole magical world hiding from plain eye." Harry explained her as much as he could. He have a feeling he could trust her with some information so he let himself go with feeling. 'Sorry Sherlock, I can't control myself like you' He mentally apologised.
She seems to digesting all the word he had said. She is looking at ground at thoughtful manner.
"Rinnnng".
She jumped up. It seems like Recess is over now.
She finally said. "Thank you for explaining all the things I want to hear from 5 years old. But I want to learn with you. I want to learn how you know me before we could ever talk. I want to be like you. Uhh.. I will wait for you tomorrow. Uhh. Bye" She runs Clutching her bag to her chest.
Hadrian watches her as she leave. He has biggest smile in his face. He couldn't say if she could be his John Watson. But she could be a good ally.
