Hadrian rested his head against his palm as he scribbled fiercely on the parchment in front of him. The heel of his hand pressed firmly against his temple where a seemingly permanent headache pounded relentlessly.

Ever since the incident in the Room of Requirement a little over a week ago, he hadn't been able to sleep well. He kept feeling restless and paranoid over the warning the Dark Lord had given him before his departure. He knew that the constant anxiousness he was feeling was a bit excessive. It was highly unlikely that the man was just going to waltz in out of nowhere and demand answers, but the lord was unpredictable like that and might just do so anyway.

Over the past week, he had been avoiding the Room of Requirement completely and had instead taken to hiding himself among the various stacks in the library. He wasn't under the illusion that the library was safer than anywhere else in Hogwarts, but the idea of it being populated gave him enough comfort to get some school work done.

There was a sudden twinge of magical feedback in his mind and the poor quill that had been subjected to his abuse all evening suddenly snapped, spilling large blobs of ink onto the letters when the quill caught the parchment just a fraction too hard. Hadrian stared at the mess incomprehensibly for a minute before finally groaning and sitting back, running a hand through his hair. He felt like he had been working on the same assignment for days, which he probably had thanks to his distracted mindset, and now he was going to have to write it again.

He cast a tempus spell and saw that it was just about curfew. Curfew, and just about the right time for getting feedback from the makeshift ward he had placed along the fifth floor corridor. Not counting the night he had placed it, he had gotten notice of the late night adventures three times now, about every third night since and always at the same time.

In hindsight, he probably should have thought through his plan more. He was lucky no one had caught onto the ward yet. It was just sitting out in the open, and it was highly unlikely it would survive unnoticed if an experienced wizard found it. Still, it worked and already gave him the information he needed and would hopefully be untraceable.

He hadn't decided what he wanted to do with them yet. In his defense he had other things, namely an ominous Dark Lord, on his mind lately. He's sure his helicopter of a father would want to hear about both Neville and his friend's midnight expeditions and his oh-so-pleasant conversion with the Dark Lord, but he really wasn't up to dealing with the fallout of that yet.

Hadrian grabbed his things and headed back to the dorms for undoubtedly another night of restless sleep. There was only one other person in his dorm room when he arrived, but they were preoccupied with sorting their own belongings and didn't acknowledge him.

Feeling tired and impatient, he threw his things into his trunk and was about to close it when he spontaneously changed his mind and instead caught the lid before it closed. He pulled out the book he had checked out from the library the other day before finally locking the trunk.

He climbed onto his bed and let the curtains close, using the Lumos spell to light up the book in his lap. History of Dementors was written on the cover. He hadn't originally been searching for it, but after seeing the title on the shelf, he couldn't help but be reminded of the creature that left the mark on his arm. So, more out of curiosity than anything, he checked it out.

He leaned back and opened the book, planning to skim a few chapters before going to sleep. It was rather interesting. They had covered it briefly in Defense class, but Professor Lestrange usually got bored of textbooks quickly and would often move on to practical lessons instead. He had hoped the book might go back further than their discovery in Azkaban or might discuss a connection to Death, but so far he was disappointed in both chapters.

Hadrian yawned and blinked away the sleep when it tried to pull at him. He wasn't sure how long he had been reading by that point. The text was fascinating and had drawn him in, but he knew he would need to stop soon. The words on the page began to blur, becoming hard to read. He rubbed his eyes and noticed that the light from his wand had dimmed and the pages grew too dark to see clearly.

"Lumos," Hadrian said sleepily. When nothing happened, he felt unease start to build and, now much more awake, he tried again. "Lumos."

The light went out completely and everything went dark.

Hadrian sat up and set the book aside. He had long since mastered the beginner level Lumos spell. Anyone his age really couldn't call themselves a wizard if they couldn't even cast something that basic. There was no chance he had cast it wrong twice. This darkness wasn't natural.

Although it was dangerous to use at Hogwarts, Hadrian reached internally for his magic, but was alarmed when nothing responded. He felt cold and empty as if there was no magical core inside him at all. This all felt very familiar but the lingering sense of something watching him made it hard to calm down and focus.

There was something, just beyond the edge of the curtains. If he pushed them aside he would see it. He was sure of it. It could just be one of his roommates messing with him, but he couldn't get over the sense of wrong that made him feel more like prey. With his useless but still physical wand in one hand, Hadrian reached out to throw the curtains aside, but before his hand could reach the edge, a black shadow shot through the small break in the fabric and grabbed his arm in a tight hold that was so cold it burned like fire.

Hadrian bit back a yelp of surprise and rather than pull back against the hold he lunged forward to strike the shadow beyond the curtain. Just as the curtain opened, Hadrian sat up in bed with a gasp.

The book on his chest fell onto the bed as he bolted upright. Light illuminating the space around him through the cracks in the curtains and the sound of shuffling filled the silence. He threw the draping fabric aside but the room looked as it always did. His roommates looked up at him with various annoyed and surprised expressions at the sudden motion.

"What's wrong with you?" The startled boy next to him said, but Hadrian got up quickly and moved away to grab a new set of school clothes.

"Nothing," Hadrian threw over his shoulder, not looking at the person who spoke to him.

His arm had burned like mad since waking and now that he was holding his robes he took the opportunity to discreetly check his arm over. He could see the black mark on his wrist looking red and inflamed, irritated to the point that it looked like it was freshly burned into the skin. He hissed when turning his arm caused the stinging pain to get worse.

He could still feel the stares of his roommates against his back, so he got dressed as quickly as possible and fled the room. He paused in the hall outside of his room and once he made sure he was alone, pulled the sleeve of his robe up again.

"Ferula," he whispered, using a miniscule wand movement to conjure bandages around his arm. He felt instant relief that the spell had worked. He had been in too much of a panic after waking, but casting the spell just now caused him shudder as he remembered how empty he was without his magic in whatever vision or dream that was. He finally felt normal again, a warmth pulsated back from his core when he sought it out.

He kept to himself and was practically invisible on his way to the Great Hall. He wasn't particularly hungry, just really wanted to be anywhere but that room. He arrived later than he usually did, and the hall was already filled with students. The room buzzed with a liveliness that hadn't been seen since the morning of the last Quidditch match, but Hadrian could barely focus. His arm throbbed with annoying persistence, and his mind felt clouded with an exhaustion that felt much more intense than the previous day. It was strange. He didn't remember falling asleep at all. He felt like he had only slept minutes but it had to have been hours.

He rubbed his eyes, trying to clear his head but it didn't help. He needed sleep, not one haunted by a demonic creature or an overly-inquisitive Dark Lord, but a deep and dreamless one. If this continued any longer he may be willing to actually go and bluff his way through a talk with the school nurse about why he needed a Dreamless Sleep potion, or twenty of them.

He drank some water and shoved some food in his mouth before getting up to head to class. If he sat around any longer he would probably fall asleep again. He thought he could work up some energy after breakfast but even a walk through the castle couldn't seem to rouse him.

He unfortunately had a full class schedule with no free periods, so he suffered through class after class, counting down the hours until he could return to the dorms. The enthusiasm from the other students continued throughout the day. At one point, he caught the tail end of a conversation discussing a "visitor," but today he really couldn't care less.

When Hadrian finally returned to the dorm that night, he wanted to go right to bed. He intended to skip his nightly routine and just drop straight onto the bed and pass out, but a single black envelope waiting for him on the bed stopped him. Hadrian stared at the unexpected piece of stationary for a moment, wondering if it was a trap from one of his roommates or another Slytherin. It's never happened before but Hadrian wouldn't count out the possibility.

It was completely plain with nothing written on it, not his name or anything to indicate who left it. Hadrian pulled out his wand and ran every examination spell he could think of but there was no indication of any malicious curse or hex hidden on the envelope. Feeling only slightly better, he went to pick up the envelope when a small, barely noticeable sensation had him pausing. It was hard to discern, but it was almost like he felt a slight tingle right before his finger touched the paper.

Pulling back, Hadrian glanced around to make sure he was still the only person in the room before reaching out with his magic this time. The instant it touched the envelope he understood what was wrong with it. There was another trace of magic wrapped like a secondary, invisible envelope around the physical one, and its dark, cold, dense nature was very recognizable.

His heart felt like it was racing, like the whole week of anxiety building up to this moment. He couldn't help looking around the room again like he could catch sight of the sender even though he knew he was alone. Hadrian forced himself to take a deep breath to try to calm down, knowing that getting worked up wasn't going to help him in the slightest. He looked down and studied the envelope closer.

The magical trace enveloped the paper in a unique but obvious way that was designed more like a signature than a spell with intent, though he didn't doubt that there had to be some form of protection in the spell. It was like the sender knew he would be able to read it and wanted him to know who sent it, but to read a signature like this would require a high level of skill, usually not taught until 7th year, or exceptional magical sensitivity. Was it a trap? Test? Neither? He couldn't tell. Other than the nature, he couldn't perceive any other purpose to it, at least, on the surface. He briefly considered what would happen if he just threw it in the trash and pretended not to know what it was, but knew the consequences would be more than he could afford right now.

Reluctantly, he picked up the envelope, carefully watching the magic traces for any signs of reactivity to being touched, but it remained steady and undisturbed. He flipped it around to see the back and only an unmarked wax seal held the fold shut. He unlatched the seal and only had half a second to regret it when the magic surged and Hadrian's vision spun. His head felt momentarily disconnected from his body before he snapped back and he caught himself on his knees next to the bed before he had fallen completely to the floor.

"Shit. Shit! Shit!" Hadrian repeated frantically. He desperately felt around the ground and picked up his wand from where he had dropped it in his dizzy spell and quickly cast the diagnostic spells on himself. When they returned clean he unabashedly pulled his magic up from his center and ran it through his body, ignoring the burning pain of his ring, to look for any trace of foreign energy. He searched and searched but couldn't feel anything unordinary.

He cursed again and dropped his head into his hands. He felt like an idiot. It was a moment like this that Hadrian cursed his lack of practice, his lack of experience, his lack of knowledge on how to actually use this abundance of raw magic accurately. Because something undoubtedly happened, but he can't tell what.

He ran this hand anxiously through his hair but paused when he saw what the envelope had dropped next to him. Single inch of parchment had fallen out of the envelope when he dropped it and landed face up. It had only one neatly written line on it.

22:00 Great Hall

Whatever he had been expecting it hadn't been this. A summons to the Great Hall after curfew didn't really bode well for him, but after whatever curse was hidden on the envelope it really spelled out a disaster waiting to happen.

He wavered back and forth over what he should do. Should he set up a contingency? What were the chances that he wouldn't come back from this? Was he really going to face an interrogation over such a short meeting with the Dark Lord? Whatever awaited him, it wasn't like he could just ignore it if he didn't want to seem any more suspicious. Feeling only partially confident in what he was about to do, Hadrian moved to his trunk and dug around for the supplies he would need.

Nearing the scheduled time, Hadrian left the common room only 10 minutes before the hour. It wasn't surprising to see that the halls were completely deserted. He only made it 20 steps away from the dorm before he was stopped.

"Stop." A voice called.

Hadrian did, not surprised to see the Slytherin Prefect stalking toward him.

"It's nearly curfew," the Prefect said. "You should be headed back to the dorm not wandering the halls. Off with you." The Prefect motioned back in the direction of the dorm like he was planning to escort him but paused when he saw the black card in Hadrian's hand. His entire demeanor seemed to change instantly. His lips pursed like he ate something sour and spoke with a brusque tone. "If you're being called, hurry along! Don't linger this close to curfew."

"Right, sorry," Hadrian said, stepping around the Prefect and continuing down the hall when he wasn't stopped again. He flipped the card curiously in his hand as he considered it. One look at the card and he got a free pass through the halls. Interesting.

Hadrian reached the doors to the Great Hall at the last minute, wanting to put off whatever waited behind that door as long as possible. He glanced down at the note again to triple check he had the right place and time, but the same three words reflected back to him. Bracing himself, Hadrian stepped forward and opened the door with more confidence than he felt.

The instant the door opened, multiple pairs of eyes turned to stare at him in what he could only describe as complete bewilderment. He recognized most of the students there including, Draco Malfoy, Blaise Zabini, Daphne Greengrass, Sue Li, and about four 7th years. Hadrian too stood in shock when he realized what exactly he had been summoned to.

There was a heavy sensation of coldness that drew his eyes away from the other students and to the source. Amused, deep red eyes were already watching him.

"Come in. Students, welcome our guest for tonight's class."

AN:

Hi Everyone!

Thank you to anyone who stuck around, even through the ridiculously long hiatus. I know it's been a long time since the last post, but I still thought about this story all the time. I just suffered a lot of writer's block and lack of time. And recently, I got hit with inspiration out of nowhere in the middle of the night and finally figured out what I want to do with this chapter.

This is the fourth iteration of the chapter. It suffered many rewrites to get something I even remotely liked. There's kind of a lack of dialog in this chapter, so I hoped it wasn't too boring. Hadrian is such a solitary character at the moment that dialog didn't really work out for this chapter. He will get to work on those social skills soon though!