The manor was near silent as the first rays of sun broke the horizon lighting up the face of the face of the bedrooms sole occupant. Under the four poster beds quilt lay a child with pale skin and obsidian black hair with silver and green highlighs. As the thin beams of sunlight crossed their eyes the child groaned and hissed curses burying their head under the pillow trying to sleep just a little bit longer.

"Master Hadrian you must get up and ready to train or Master Harrison will be most displeased." A house elf pulled the quilt off her young master and apologetically pulled the pillow away. "I know you do not like getting up this early but with all the machinations about to come into play you must be prepared. I'll have your breakfast prepapred by the time you finish your morning session young master."

Hadrian hissed and gave a sleepy glare at the house elf, his eyes slit like a dragon and glowing an eery acid green, as she cringed. He wasn't upset with her by any measure whatsoever but he just really wasn't a morning person. "Fine fine..." he grumbled pulling himself out of bed. Grabbing his training clothes he trudged off to change. "Tippy, my apologies. As always. I know I say it every morning but I'm not upset with you, I'm just not a morning person."

Tippy looked at Hadrian and gave her master a smile. "Its ok young master, Tippy understands" she said in a light tone that easily said she forgave him. Even if she wasn't a house elf and needed the bond to Hadrian she would have forgiven the every morning occurence. Hadrian was a very generous master that not only looked out for the health of his house elves and showed them all equal respect but their happiness too. A little thing like a sleepy glare in the morning, even if sometimes it did make her more than a touch uncomfortable, was nothing compared to how her brothers and sister elves suffered under far crueler masters or mistresses.

After changing into a loose set of sweatpants, a black tanktop and running shoes Hadrian jogged down to the large backyard where his uncle was waiting. Harrison, despite being an older man, looked quite good for pushing nearly fifty. Like Hadrian he had obsidian black hair with silver and green highlights and a pale complexion but that was where their similarities ended as he possessed rich dark blue eyes that seemed to gloss over into a light amethyst in just right amount of darkness. "Getting slow there boy. I was expecting you five minutes ago" the older man said huffing with a scowl.

"My apologies uncle" Hadrian said bowing his head. "What will we be training in today?" His eyebrows raised slightly as he watched his uncle looking thoughtful for a moment.

"We aren't." Harrison saw the confusion erupt on Hadrians and raised a hand to cut off the question before it escaped the boys lips. "Don't you remember what today is nephew?" he asked.

"Tuesday? That usually means its dueling practice, defensive spells with my mothers wand in my left hand and my fathers wand in my right for offensive spells" Hadrian said after a moment of thought. Did it really matter anyways? His uncle had always drilled into him the importance of being able to cast with either hand since most wizards and witches relied solely on their dominant hand and were useless if something like a bone breaking or bone exploding hex took out their casting hand.

"Yes and no. Its your birthday you dolt" Harrison said ruffling the younger males hair. The fact it seemed to take a moment for his words to register for Hadrian before the young man gave him a deadpan look made him snicker. "As such you'll be getting your Hogwarts letter today. I thought we would get your school supplies early and later we could invite your friends over for a party."

"You do realize birthday parties, especially for others, are supposed to generally be surprises right?" Hadrian asked palming his face. As much as he loved his uncle Harrison the man was really stupid sometimes. "But that would be nice I suppose. Daphne, Tracey and Blaise have been quite busy with their own family matters as of late if I recall.." He was thoughtful for a moment as he rubbed his chin. "Tippy."

"Tippy is here young master." Tippy looked curiously between the two men as the last echo of the apparition crack faded away. She was mildly surprised the young master and master Harrison were not fighting as usual. She like the other house elves had gotten user to seeing their young master being trainer to fight as both a proper wizard using his parents wands and like a muggle through various means of physical contact and weapon combat. She personally could not understand the neccessity to know how to disarm an opponent by hand or how to do so with a shiny metal stick but master Harrison had said that it was best to use all tool at your disposal and if you can catch your opponent off balance it benefitted you. "How can Tippy serve young master Hadrian and master Harrison?"

"I left some invitations on the foyers mail table. If you could be so kind to as deliver those to the Abbott, Bones, Zabini, Greengrass and Davis families it would be appreciated. Ask them if they can make it tonight to dinner to celebrate Hadrians birthday before moving on. I would rather not have you and the others work yourselves to the bone on food that would go to waste in excess" Harrison said. "After that you and the other elves are free to use the day as you wish but I've set dinner on the invitations for seven o'clock."

"Tippy understands master Harrison. Tippy will be on it right away after morning chores."

"Tippy wait a moment. I don't want you and the others to go overboard cooking something extravagant tonight ok? I know you and the others don't mind it since you all think so highly of me but really I don't want super fancy. If you want to do fancy, try and see if you can find a nice ham roast or a nice fish" Hadrian said.

"Of course young master. Tippy will talk to the others and make sure they understand you do not want us to be extravagant in tonights meal" the elf said nodding her head before disappearing inside the house.

"Sometimes my nephew I wonder who the real master of the house is" Harrison said rolling his eyes. He admired the way Hadrian treated the family elves but sometimes he was a too lax with them in his opinion. Since his understanding of magic as a whole outweighed Hadrians own he understood more of the magic that came with the bond of wizard and house elf, magic that his nephew left slack.

"They rely on my magic for the bond to keep their health and sanity uncle, that does not mean that they do not deserve basic dignity and respect even if they are subservient beings by nature" Hadrian snorted rolling his own eyes. "Besides, Tippy and all the other elves in the house helped you raise me so why wouldn't I be a little more lenient with them? Even if they are magically bound to me they're family in my book and you treat family well."

"Just checkin to make sure" Harrison said pushing on Hadrians shoulder. "Can't have my nephew become a total ponce on a power trip like most of stagnant magical Britain."

Hadrian rolled his eyes again and was a moment from giving a sarcastic response when a hoot broke the air between them. Looking he spotted an owl flying toware them with a letter tied to its leg. Extending an arm for the beautiful bird he watched it land and look at him appraisingly. "Well aren't you a beautiful bird" he said petting the owls breast feathers earning him another cooing hoot from the owl as she puffed her chest out. Taking the letter attached to her leg he opened it and read it before heading inside. "Stay right here and I'll get you a treat." He set the owl down on the marble counter before crossing to a cupboard and pulled out a jar of owl treats around with a sheet of parchment and a pen. While the owl enjoyed her treat he wrote out a short acceptance response and ties it to the owls leg. "Fly safely now. Magic and Athena bless you flight" he said gently tossing the owl into the air once he was back outside where the barn owl took flight back from whence she came.

"You just continue to defy expectations don't you?" Harrison asked shaking his head amused. "If I hadn't known better I would call you a creature activist."

"Well someone has to be in our archaic dark age system. Magical creatures no matter their form have feelings, their own sentient thoughts and aspirations even if they are as simple as to live long enough go have children of their. Witches and wizards aren't the only being to walk this earth, why should everything else be treated like dirt or subservient pets when some magical creatures are older than even Merlin" Hadrian said with a dirty look.

"I didn't sat that now did I?" Harrison said pointedly.

"It was implied and I know you wouldn't. Most other witches and wizards would though. I would love to see a ponce arrogant wizard tell a High Elf what to do or say they were no more than a filthy creature to do as a witch or wizard tells them too." A small sadistic gleam entered Hadrians eyes at the thought since every record of High Elves spoke of them being extremely patiennt, borderline saintly really, they were also noted to be extremely vicious when slighted. "Or watch a moron try to steal gold from a 'dumb dragon'. Creature intelligence is so readily tossed aside with wizarding society its a wonder we haven't started more wars over it" he said shrugging. "If we aren't training today I'm going to back to bed for a couple of hours before we hit Diagon Alley. And I am NOT going in this form to be recognized as a celebrity."

"Drat! Here I was hoping to bank on drawing in the ladies by guiding my celebrity nephew around to get his school supplies" Harrison drawled sarcastically. "I wasn't expecting you to Hadrian. I would've been shocked if you did but then again Daphne has you whipped."

"I plead the American muggle fifth" Hadrian said with a scathing look. Daphne did not have him whipped! Sure he liked Daphne a little more than just a friend, everything about her seemed to perk up around him, and he was pretty sure she liked him like that at least a little too. Sure he did his best not to do anything to annoy or upset her but that was easily attributed to being a good friend before he started to like her. It did not mean he was whipped... whatever that fully meant! He stomped into the manor amidst his uncle doubling over in laughter.