Chapter Text
Location: The Cunninghams Estate
October 1st 1995
The Gheiyc submissive, Marianna Cunningham, from the Cunningham military circle sits on the couch in front of Hadrian Maruke, Blood Raven, Contract Ace for the Cunningham circle.
“Are you telling me you do not want to extend your Contract, Ace?”
“Yes Marianna, I had planned on extending despite my training being completed. But for the last month, I have had a soul ache and my Lady’s magic is humming and pulling. And I plan to answer as soon as I leave here. I will forever be grateful to you and your circle for everything you have done for me. But I have somewhere to be, I might not know where yet, but I know it is not in Nevarah.”
Mariannas stare is deep, peeling Hadrian’s facade off, seeing the man he has become. When she took the 16-year-old Gheyo, with Ferros protentional, from the Pitts into her circle with a contract. People thought she had lost it. Her Alpha thought she was crazy. But all she saw was a lost boy, an orphan, who would be condemned to the Pitts forever, unless he was given training and structure. He was taken in to be trained and find himself, not to be her Ace. But you can still see the sadness in her eyes and posture at the prospect of him leaving. She takes a deep breath and answers, probably with the most affectionate talk he has ever had with her.
“Hadrian, I understand. There is nothing more I can teach you. But I hope you know that is not the reason I wish for you to stay, right? We took you in when you were 16 and newly inherited Gheyo, you’re the closest we have to a Circle child. You're not a charity project or contract Ace to me, you’re family. So go on your travels, follow our lady’s magic. But come back when you want, you will always have a place here. You do not need another contract to come home. We will miss you, keep in touch and be safe.”
Marianna shreds the old contract on the coffee table in front of them. Then she stands, kisses Hadrian on the head as she walks past him.
Before Hadrian comes out of his shock, Marianna has already closed the door behind her on her way out. Hadrian's outer mask cracks slightly, softening and eyes a little misty. He promises himself that he will not become a ghost, he will keep in contact.
An hour later, Hadrian has packed up his bedroom, everything going into his void stone. Taken a shower and dressed up in full battle armor. More specifically the ‘Blood Raven’ armor he was given upon winning that title 3 years ago, as the youngest blood title winner ever. As he exits his room, he is met with his training Ace, York, and Mariannas Alpha, Jason. Both are wearing small smiles, give him a half hug each, and yell after him as Hadrian walks out the compound,
“Send us weekly updates, Hadrian! If we don't hear from you, we will hunt you down. Don’t tempt us.”
Hadrian walks outside the wards of the Cunningham estate, before he pulls his shadows up around him, making them surround him and drown him in darkness, before he feels for his magic in his chest. Feels for his aching soul, it feels incomplete, like it's missing something vital, but this feeling isn’t a soulbond or even a potential soulbond that has been activated. There is no bond calling him. The only reason he thinks he can find answers is because of his Lady’s magic guiding him. Lady Death has long favored her reaper; today is no different. He starts to drift along her magic, along the stretch, across realms, ready to do what his lady wishes.
Meanwhile earlier at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
September 1995
Ever Since Harry's birthday, he has felt slightly off. Nothing extreme has happened, just a lot of small things. He had an awful summer, Cedric's death weighing heavily on him, but also a lot of anger. Anger at the headmaster for making him compete in the Triwizard tournament and making him fight for his life again, alone. Murderous at Voldemort and his death eaters, for the death of Cedric and their lack of humanity and belief that torturing a teen is a fun game. Sadness and betrayal towards Sirius, for not being his godfather, and prioritizing Dumbledore's orders over him and leaving his godson with abusive relatives all summer without any contact all summer after Harry had been kidnapped, seen his friend die, and been used as a human potion ingredient in a necromancy resurrection ritual. He wanted to strangle Ron and Hermione for following Dumbledore's orders and not responding to any of his letters all summer, despite being together at headquarters. But to be honest, he has just stopped caring, they weren't worth the effort anymore. The only people who have again and again shown that they care are his devil twins. Fred and George went under the radar, pretended to be obedient and follow the rules, while working on alternative communication methods than owls. Because Dumbledore and their mother would be reading all outgoing mall. They in the end outsmarted their mom, by sending a letter to their friend Lee with a journal attached for them. Their mom thought the journal was empty, but Lee knew better, Afterall he isn’t one to underestimate the twins like their mom. After he cracked the password, it proved to be a two-way journal with instructions inside, to reset the password to ‘Prongslet’, and ship it off to Harry late at night and tell him ‘The twins told me you were lacking notebooks, this is my favorite brand’, don't tell him the password in case it lands in Dumbledore's hands, and last but not least, use the money the twins gave him for safekeeping to send Harry dried food and water once a week.
When Harry received a letter from Lee, and realized Lee was just a go between, he cried and for the first time since school let out, he felt something other than betrayal and hopelessness. All summer the twins kept him updated and helped as much as they could from a distance, they tried to help him work through everything he was feeling and kept him distracted when needed. Lee dutifully sent him food and water weekly. The only reason he was alive come September 1st was the Twins. Despite staying at headquarters after the dementor attack, nothing changed, Sirius still acted like a kid and only saw him as a mini-James. Mrs. Weasley constant fake concern almost made him snap. The farce of a trial and Ron getting prefect was enough. Harry stopped caring and expecting anything. Only the twins kept him going.
After school started, he found out this was another year where the defense professor would try their best to kill him or at least bleed him dry. Snape raping his brain twice weekly was just what he needed, digging up his worst memories without mercy, forcing him to relive his parents and Cedrics murder, his beating by his relatives and his encounters with Voldemort.
Walking out of detention with Umbridge and occlumency with Snape, was with a pain in his chest, while his hand was bleeding and infected and his brain scrambled, it was the pain in his chest that was the worst. A deep ache, becoming more and more noticeable the longer time went. Harry sneaked off to the twin’s bed nightly, and slept in between them, finding some relief in knowing they were there, even if they were fussing over him constantly.
With the pain in his chest and his weird eating habits, he could no longer stomach certain meats, like fish or chicken, it had to be beef, the bloodier the better. And his fruit intake has skyrocketed; he snacks all day on whatever fruit Fred or George sneaks him between classes. Where Harry usually swayed away from physical contact, he now instigated it constantly. At dinner, he was sitting so close to Fred and George that their shoulders or legs touched. At night he needed both their arms over him to sleep. On the couches in the common room, Harry's feet could often be found either on them or underneath their thighs. And sometimes when he was in the in-between state between awake and asleep, he could swear that he was purring. Like some kind of kitten.
Gryffindor common room
Late evening October first 1996
When Hadrian arrives after a few hours of drifting through the shadows, through realms following his Lady’s magic, he arrives in the shadows of a large room, which looks like a common room for a bunch of teenage kids. But that is not what steals his attention, it is the gorgeous looking young man, with captivating green emerald eyes, whose head immediately snaps up quickly, eyes boring into him. Despite the fact that Hadrian knows, he is invisible and covered in shadows. He cannot see him. But when the stare continues and the gorgeous young man tilts his head slightly, in confusion, the ache in his chest eases slightly. And then he knows, this is who his lady wanted him to find. Now he just needs to find out why.
The two red heads notice their friends fixation on the corner of the room and asks
“Harry, is everything alright ? Are you hungry?”
“or do you want to get ready for bed?”
So Little emerald’s name is Harry.
“ Everything is fine, I just felt a weird sensation and it caught my attention, and no thank you Fred, if I eat any more fruit today, I will throw up, but I think I am ready for bed.”
I guess he actually did notice my presence, or at least my shadows.
“Sure thing Harrikins, Go get ready.” Harry leans into who must be George, gets a side hug before he stands and goes to the staircase. Hadrian follows Harry into a dormitory. but decides not to follow him into the adjacent bathroom. The other 4 occupants in the room completely ignore Harrys presence, just laying on their beds playing games or reading different magazines. When Harry goes to the furthest away bed in the corner, he says goodnight to the other people before he pretends to enter his bed and pulls the curtains shut. While hiding, Harry pulls out an invisibility cloak, which reeks of death magic. Not the bad kind of death magic, but the calming protective magic. He feels his own Reaper magic stir, but his Reaper doesn’t get mad that someone has his lady’s property, quite the opposite, he gets a strong urge to protect Harry.
Harry waits until a person exits the dormitory before he sneaks back out onto the staircase, where he walks up until a door, labeled 7th year boys. When he enters, he hurries over to an expanded canopy bed with the curtains open, takes his cloak off and without a word, shuffles his way over Freds body and lands in between the twins, who quickly cuddles him close and shifts the comforter to cover them all, before each twin kisses Harrys head before slowly trying to drift off to sleep.
As Hadrian drifts closer to the three, he inhales deeply and lets his magic out to search. His shadows flow over Fred and George first, they are projecting a Pareya aura, protection and concern, there is no real dragel magic though. They have managed to pull the instincts furth, but they are not inherited, which seems odd, they seem too old. When he lets his shadow flow over Harry, something happens, that hasn’t happened in years. He loses control of his shadows, Harry shift slightly in between the twins, and Hadrian’s shadows flocks to the crock of Harrys neck and swarms his hands, where Harry seems to be playing with his shadows? twirling his fingers. Harry tilts his head towards his shoulder, almost as if he is hugging his shadows? all the while purring, softly but happily. It seems the shadow cuddles was all that was needed for Harry to fall into a deep sleep, all the while Hadrian stands there frozen in shock. Reeling over what just happened.
Absolutely no doubt, They should all 3 be dragels. But something has kept them from inheriting. Guessing the twins are pareya and Harry is a submissive with a shadow affinity.
Despite the surprising news, Hadrian still can’t help but feel he is missing something. Something vital. His shadows comes back to him once Harry is in a deep sleep, and he settles in the corner, hidden trying to rest a little. He gets pulled out of his slumber when he hears someone tossing around in bed. He walks to the bed and sees harry tossing and turning, whining quietly. Hadrian rumbles soothingly back and sends his shadows to the crock of his neck again, a combination of those makes Harry purr in his sleep and he settles down to sleep again.
The next morning Hadrian follows Harry to breakfast and notices multiple things. First, they are currently in a castle, which is a boarding school, which is overrun by bound house elf magic. Their breakfast options are the unhealthiest options he has ever seen, except for right where the twins and Harry sits. They are surrounded by different red meats, boiled eggs and a lot of precut fruit.
They must have endeared themselves to some house elves. This is a simple varied dragel breakfast.
While Hadrian shadows Harry all day though his different classes, he is appalled by the teaching standards, the professors are down right abusive and the student body bullies and hexes Harry as soon as no professors are looking, and nobody says anything except for the twins. He is baffled.
Wixen children are horrendous. Is this the standard? Or is there something specifically that makes Harry a target. It can’t be his inheritance, since he technically isn’t a dragel yet.
By the end of the last class of the day, Harry knows somebody is following him. Although so far, Hadrian doesn’t think he minds, Hadrian has stopped two people who hexed him while his back was turned, and during his last class, the defense lesson, he directed a shadow to Harrys wrist right before Harry was about to blow up and hex the defense teacher. As soon as the shadow attached itself, Harrys body sagged and he bared his neck slightly, purely on instinct, which are running high due to the situation.
Apparently, Harry claims a Dark Lord is back? And that dark lord killed a student last year? In a school tournament where they got kidnapped? But Harry is being accused of murdering a student and being a deranged lunatic who lies and undermines the authority of the British ministry of magic?
Harry keeps his head down and ignores everybody while he fiddles with the shadow underneath the table. Hadrian isn’t quite sure how he is supposed to feel about a ‘should be’ submissive playing so calmly with his shadows filled with death magic. Especially because he doesn’t feel a soulbond.
After dinner, Harry apparently has ‘remedial potions’ lessons, so Hadrian walks down to the dungeons with Harry. The lesson turns out not to be potions at all, but a professor mind-raping a student.