What Doesn't Kill Me, Makes Me Stronger Chapter 2: Promises and Plans, a harry potter fanfic

What Doesn't Kill Me, Makes Me Stronger

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter universe nor its characters. Familiar characters and references you see here belong to their respected authors and owners. The authors will be mentioned below so as to ensure that they are well credited and recognised.

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Chapter 2: Promises and Plans

Daphne's internal clock woke her up at the break of dawn. She slowly opened her sharp icy blue eyes and the first thing she noticed like the majority of days, was the absence of Adrian's presence beside her. Observing the small cluster of sun rays entering the dark room through the window and knowing where he was at the moment, she shrugged off the blanket off her body, embracing the cold November morning weather and decided to completely wake up to do her self-appointed and designated duties. Rising her back and sitting on the bed, her eyes took the moment to scan her surroundings and promptly softened a bit as it gazed at the photo facing the bed.

Truth is she didn't remember much of her infanthood, much less about her mother and this photo was the only opportunity to know how her mother looked. She had to say, her mother looked exceptionally beautiful, even in her weakened state when this photo was taken, especially with the bright blond hair and bright green eyes. Daphne could only hope to look half as pretty as her mother with the blue eyes from Lord Greengrass and the bright blond hair from her mother.

Since speaking about her late mother was forbidden in her home, especially in presence of Lord Greengrass, the only minute, bits and bits of information she knew about her mother, were from when her mother's friends visited their home. Though their visits were much less frequent now than they were in her childhood, they were her only hope about discovering about her mother. Her mother, Daphne discovered, had been the exact polar opposite of what Lord Greengrass is now. Her mother had been caring, even helping her enemies when they were injured, a pacifist, to never initiate fights over pity and childish reasons, had been understanding, of others' problems and had been overall a pretty positive and cheerful person.

Despite being the heiress of an old pureblood family, her mother's friends commented that Adrianna acted anything but. She was as open-minded as they get, very friendly, never to shy away from making new friends and spending time and effort to maintain and improve her friendships. A verified genius herself, at least in the field of spell creation, she always sought out methods to improve herself with the help from her friends and helping her friends when they needed her help. In this dark, desolate, power-hungry society, perhaps she was the only one without some ulterior motives. She was like the only shining star among the vast dark space.

And in one corner of Daphne's mind, perhaps being like her mother was what she desired, but she knew, it was never possible, at least not, not anymore, given her circumstances. Now that she had matured a bit and was starting to see the surroundings for what it was, she realized what kind of world and society she lived in. Here, everyone was a predator, a wolf, who even in the slightest sign of weakness would sprint to feast upon you. If you run from it, it would chase after you, till either you slowed down or the wolf got tired. But even if the wolf got tired, it wouldn't matter much, for once, after resting, it would be back, back after you, chasing you till it gashes you with its claws. Perhaps the only apt motto of this world, Daphne decided, was to become more powerful and never show any weakness.

Daphne, giving a last look at the photo in front of her, in Adrian's room, took off her legs from the bed and landed them on the soft mattress on the floor. Slowly, gracefully and methodically, she started to walk away from Adrian's room to her room which was just the one on the neighbouring left of his.

Reaching the door to her room, Daphne twisted the knob and pushed the door open.

Her room while much smaller than Adrian's looked much livelier than his. Perhaps it was the lack of useless trinkets whose only purpose was to impress the guests, the lack of useless moving scenic portraits which was used to distract the guests or the much livelier yellow wallpapered walls as opposed to his brown and green ones. Daphne preferred hers more than that oversized pompous one.

Her room was small and simple, with a bed in one corner of the room, a closet and a small study table on the other side and the door to her bathroom, adjacent to the closet. Perhaps the only anomaly in the room was the presence of the table with a few cauldrons, beakers, burners, stirrers and other potion making accessories accompanied by her personal journal and notebook opposite to her bed. A few feet beside the table was a glass shelf, enchanted with the stasis charm, holding various ingredients used to make potions, and several beakers and test tubes filled with various coloured liquids.

Since she had discovered her hidden talent and passion of making potions, probably stemmed from making various potions for Adrian when he was injured, she had decided to practice and become more proficient in it. Since she felt that this was the only way she could be of any help to him.

Deciding to take a shower, Daphne started to walk towards her clothes closet. While walking, her gaze fell on the ordinary looking brown book sitting on her study table. It wasn't just any normal book, no, at least not to her, to her, it was one of her most prized possessions ever. It belonged to her mother and was her personal journal. Finding it had been an accident, as one day as she was just browsing through the books in the family library, and at the end of a particular shelf, she found this plain, inconspicuous looking brown book. Opening it, at the first page she could read none but one word – Adrianna.

This particular journal was where her mother wrote and indexed all the spells created by her. While Daphne could open the book and read her mother's handwritten texts, she couldn't understand any of it. It was not much surprising since, it was her mother's own personal spells and perhaps she didn't want anyone but her trusted ones to look at it, so she encrypted the text. It was still frustrating to Daphne that while she only had a single possession from her mother, she couldn't understand what was written in it.

Daphne had shown that particular book even to her mother's friends when they came over and even dropped a few drops of her blood on the book, as suggested by Adrian, but still couldn't break the code. Since the only way you open an encrypted text was to obtain and use the key, which she didn't have, she took discovering her mother's text as one of her personal missions. Every day, Daphne would sit in front of the book and try different combinations of letters to decrypt the text, but wasn't successful so far, but she had promised herself that she would successfully decrypt that one day and continue her mother's legacy of spell creation. But now, she took solace in the fact that she could at least touch something, which her mother had touched before.

Inwardly chuckling, Daphne wondered how funny and sad it was that the proof of her mother's existence in this world was just a few journals written by her, memories from the friends she made at Hogwarts and the blood flowing through Adrian's and her body.

Slightly shaking her head, Daphne put stop to that line of thought and reaching her destination, pulled the handles to open the closet.

Inside were various coloured dresses, corsets, gowns, night-wares and various other formal and casual clothes. Truth is she didn't have many clothes before and the only dresses she had were presents from her mother's friends when they visited over. These clothes were only recent acquisitions, as only in recent years as Lord Greengrass had allowed her to be trained as the heiress, he one day, just barged in her room, dumped all the new clothes in her closet and went out, ordering her to be at least presentable as a representative of the house.

Daphne scurrying among her numerous clothes delicately took out a rather pretty blue and silver dress from the closet. This was another of the few precious possessions she had obtained in her small life. Last Christmas, even though the festival was not practised in her home, she had found this particular gift on her bed. She didn't know, from where Adrian had obtained this item since going outside of the home's vicinity without Lord Greengrass was forbidden but she was nonetheless grateful to him. The feeling when she climbed out of Adrian's bed to go to her room and reaching it, finding a packaged present addressed to her on her bed, opening it and after a few moments later realising from whom it was and then running back to his room to find him standing with an amused smile on his face was wondrous.

At one time in her childhood she hated Adrian, she really did. After all, it was natural to hate the person because of who your entire existence was fated to be cursed.

In a noble house, only the eldest was considered the heir if male, or heiress if female and the second child had no use in the overall politicking of that particular house. Lord Greengrass had, from as far as she could remember, made it clear that he would educate and pay attention to only the heir of the house, only the heir, and for the other he had no use of and was worthless in his eyes. To show Lord Greengrass, her father, that she wasn't worthless, she would spy on their sessions and after learning what the heir was supposed to do for tomorrow, would run to finish that assignment faster than him and better than him to show her father that she wasn't worthless, that she too deserved love, love from her father. But her father continued to ignore her.

And after learning the circumstances of her birth, her hate intensified. Just because her brother had been delivered before, he was the heir, if, if she had been discovered before, she would have been the heiress. Daphne hated it. That just because he was delivered before, her chance at life was doomed. She despised it. She hated the fates for making her being discovered later. She hated the doctors for delivering her after. She hated Adrian for being born and taking her chance away. She hated her mother for delivering both the babies and abandoning her. She hated Lord Greengrass for ignoring her presence and not giving her the love of a daughter. And most of all, she hated herself for being born in this cursed existence. She knew time would never heal these wounds and she would never get the attention of her father. She would have to live forever in the heir's shadow. No one in the family loved her. Her existence was as despised as a house-elf.

And so, Daphne decided, there was no way she would allow herself to live in this cursed existence forever.

If something had to change, she had to do it herself.

She had to become the heiress.

Since she wasn't born first, there was only one other way that the succession of the heir would be passed down to her.

And that was to kill the current heir.

She had to do it, for her future.

And most of all,

She had to do it, for getting her father's attention and love.

She would kill the heir and become the heiress or die trying.

Taking the Adrian-gifted dress with her in the bathroom, Daphne slowly closed and locked the door and hanged the dress in a nearby hook beside the towel. Undressing, she piled her worn clothes in a nearby basket and activating the heating rune with her magic, stood in front of the shower head and let warm water cascade over her body.

In her idiotic and naïve childhood, she had tried, tried to kill Adrian. She couldn't fight him since he was bigger and taller than her, she couldn't cast a spell on him because she didn't know any magic, so she tried to do the deed subtly. Creating a poison from the worst things she could find, she hoped to poison him and become the heiress but was caught by the house-elves before she could do it. Daphne didn't know if the house-elves had told her father or not, but she still couldn't get any attention from him.

And since she couldn't find any other ways to kill him at that moment, she entered Adrian's room, climbed the book-shelf besides the door carrying the heaviest object her physical strength could hold and waited for him to arrive. And as soon as Adrian entered the door, she took no time to bash his head with the object.

He was bleeding, holding his hand over the injured area, bleeding, and at first, he was surprised by the sudden attack, but then his eyes softened as he looked over the culprit and asked,

"Why?"

Why, why, he dared to ask? Here she was trying to murder him and he didn't even know why? No, that won't do. And so, she neared her kneeling and injured brother and replied,

"Why? Why? Because of you, I have to live in this cursed existence! Because of you, I will never get father's love! All! Because! Of! You!"

She ranted and raved, pouring all her suppressed emotions collected over the years and worst of all he listened, he listened as she cursed their mother, cursed him and cursed her own life, he listened.

She didn't even know when she started banging and beating her hands over his chest with tears rolling out of her eyes.

And after she had finished ranting, she looked at him, his wound slowly healing thanks to latent magic in the body, daring him to say something, anything, and so he spoke and she listened.

Daphne listened as he spoke about his end of the spectrum, about his life and about his struggles.

As he showed her his hand with engorged veins and back with purple bruises, and she realised.

Attention from Lord Greengrass wasn't love, it was pure curse.

But still, wary of his words and seeing the scene in front of her, the little girl in her mind wanted, wanted her father's attention and so Adrian agreed.

Agreed to teach her. Agreed to play with her. And agreed to help her.

Expecting nothing in return. Expecting no rewards. Just to make her happy.

But Lord Greengrass wasn't of similar mind.

He lashed at Adrian, in front of her and there she was, able to do nothing to stop him. In a desperate attempt, she materialised the shield in front of him, and at moment Daphne didn't know what was going on Lord Greengrass' mind, but with a single glance at her, he left the injured Adrian on the floor and walked away.

Shaking, Daphne helped Adrian to move into her room and started to wipe the blood off his wounds with a clean cloth.

While doing so, she understood. She understood, all this happened because of her. All these happened because Adrian agreed.

Agreed to teach her. Agreed to play with her. And agreed to help her.

Regretting her decision, Daphne was about to vow to never be in presence of him again and then she looked into his eyes and heard him say,

"No secrets or lies between us. Ever."

And Daphne agreed. She heard him promise that he would make Lord Greengrass acknowledge her, and when she was about to say that there was no need for that, a look in his eyes full of resolve stopped her.

And so, a few months later, he fulfilled his promise and every time when he arrived injured, Daphne was there, to heal him, to support him and to say that all these pain, all these efforts, she wasn't worth it.

He was and forever would be the heir, and the second child was trained only in case if the first-born died. But she didn't want it. She no longer wanted to be the heiress. She just wanted to be beside Adrian. Even with her status as an heiress in the house, for the outside world, it wouldn't matter. There could be only one heir or heiress and Daphne knew Adrian wasn't doing this for the outside world. He was just doing it for her because for the training of heiress Lord Greengrass had to look at her. Had to acknowledge her.

And later, when Lord Greengrass had started training her besides Adrian, as the heiress of the house, in case. Daphne was happy. Happy not because of that her father had finally acknowledged her presence but because she was with Adrian. Besides Adrian.

In every wound, in every injury, she and Adrian were together. She practised potion making to help him when he was injured, and he supported her by teaching her occlumency after being attacked by Lord Greengrass.

And so slowly, slowly as the years passed, Daphne realised. The fates weren't cruel when two children were born in one womb. When they had lived together for nine months and shared everything including food, water and magic. No, Daphne realised, the twins were meant to be one and so will be. She would support Adrian like she supported her. He was her biggest strength as she was his.

It is said that a person is only as strong as his biggest weakness, and Daphne would become strong. So as to no longer hinder him. So as to be able to support him. So as to able to fight along and beside him.

And that was a promise.

Turning the shower off, Daphne dried herself using the towel and put on her dress. Exiting the bathroom, she moved towards the potion table to do what she had wanted to do.

Support Adrian.

XXXXX

Adrian ran.

Farther and farther into the green meadows, he ran.

There was no one before and after him, but Adrian still ran.

Breathing heavily and feeling a burning sensation in his lungs and legs, he still ran.

Not a lot had changed since he attained the age of nine years and seven months.

Stopping at quite a distance from the house, Adrian closed his eyes to scanned the area to check if there was any recording device or charm in his vicinity. Finding none, he somewhat relaxed and took out a charmed pouch from the pocket of his pants. Opening the pouch, Adrian removed a rather simple sword from it.

Gripping the sword in his hand, he twirled it around and started to stab and slash the air around him while keeping in mind of his surroundings.

The Greengrass manor was rather isolated from the world. With the single mansion in the centre, all its surroundings were just green meadows and rather large trees. And whenever Adrian ventured far away in a particular direction, he was greeted by a dense white fog which threatened to go deeper and deeper and he wasn't prepared to go into such an unknown location without any additional information.

Even after living here, in the mansion all his life, he didn't know where in the world was it located. It could be in England, it could be in any other part of the world or could be in a different plane of existence altogether, Adrian didn't know.

Stopping for a bit and wiping the sweat from his forehead with his long sleeve, Adrian put the sword back in the pouch and secured the pouch back in his pocket. After that, once again scanning his environment for any spectators, Adrian reached a nearby tree and started to punch its bark.

Since Greengrass manor had no threat of any outside interference, all the secrecy he was minding was for the people inside the manor, or specifically for Lord Greengrass.

In recent months, Adrian thought, how was he supposed to defeat these people? All these people with more power, more magic and more spells, how would he be able to compete? And the answer appeared before him when he was out last year with his mother's friend, after getting permission from Lord Greengrass, in Diagon Alley to buy Daphne a present.

In a novelty shop, his eyes fell upon this particular sword and Adrian wondered, how surprising it would be that while fighting, when the opponent was expecting a spell from his wand, he would get close and stab the person with his sword.

The sword he was currently carrying, was pretty simple. Since it was from a novelty store, and were only meant to hang as a decoration, the sword didn't have much sharp edges but it was the best he could do at the moment. The sword wasn't capable of harming any one at the moment, but it was just for practise till he obtained a better one.

Since magical Britain didn't encourage fighting with fists or swords than wands, and he couldn't venture out to other places to find a better sword, this was the best he could do at the moment. The same was the case with a trainer for sword fighting. He had to practise it alone, in secrecy because he didn't want to go to Lord Greengrass requesting a trainer and lose his element of surprise.

And so, Adrian practised, swinging the sword in the air and beating the tree with his fists till they became bloodied, he practised. He knew that it his fighting style was pretty basic, but it was still better than nothing.

A few moments later, Adrian stopped hitting the bark and quickly wore some fingerless gloves over his fist, to hide his recent injures, in case, just in case, Lord Greengrass woke up early and expected to see him.

Jogging to the door of the mansion, Adrian entered it and as usual found Daphne standing there, waiting for him with a potion in her hand.

Muttering a quick "Thanks" to her, Adrian took the test tube from her hands. Chugging down the fresh made rejuvenating potion down his throat, he handed the container back to her and they started walking back to his room together.

Daphne had changed much in the recent years. She was not the care-free nine-year child she was supposed to be and one just had to look into her eyes to find that out. The once clear sapphire eyes had turned into emotionless and guarded icy blue ones. Daphne no longer identified Lord Greengrass as her father and behaved in front of him as such. She had become quite emotionless in front of strangers and had become quite mis-trustful and wary of them. Of course, there's also the fact that she had become rather over-protective and clingy to him recently and wouldn't sleep anywhere but besides him. It wasn't like she couldn't sleep without him, it was just that she didn't want to sleep without him.

But looking in her room was perhaps the easiest way to determine what was her heart subconsciously wanted. Thick walls outside but a lively yellow colour inside, Daphne wanted nothing more than to be loved, the lively little girl hidden by the thick, solid walls erected by the suffering from her childhood.

"Adrian?" Daphne said and looked at him as he was lost in his thoughts.

And once reaching his room, Daphne wasted no time to shove him in and closing the door behind them. Taking his hands in hers and removing the gloves from them, she took no time to look over his injuries.

Adrian. Thinking of which, wasn't that what she always called him? He couldn't think of a time when he heard her regard him as her big brother. Perhaps it was natural, earlier she had considered him as a rival and now perhaps she regarded him as a partner or best friend. In the shared suffering of their childhood, perhaps their bond had evolved, and she no longer wanted some big brother to dote on her, she probably wanted some one who could understand her, someone with her, someone equal and he was honoured to provide that cherished bond to her.

Adrian looked towards Daphne as she used a beginner healing spell using the trainer wand and applied her personal made healing salve over his injuries, concern clearly visible in her clear, blue eyes. Nowadays, he was the only one in front of whom, she wasn't emotionless. He was the only one with whom she wasn't guarded. He was the only one with whom Daphne could be herself.

Adrian slowly took his hands away from hers and placing them on the back of her head, and pulled Daphne closer. Kissing her forehead slowly, Adrian reinforced his once made promise.

He would forever and ever support and love her.

Like a big brother loved his little sister.

XXXXX

Adrian and Daphne were discussing and studying magical and spell theories, when a house-elf informed them that Lord Greengrass was waiting for them at the table for breakfast. Finding it odd since Lord Greengrass never had breakfast or lunch with them, they shared a look but still started to walk towards the dining room to not anger the Lord.

Reaching the table and finding Lord Greengrass already sitting there, they bowed to him first and took their respective places on the table. Finding their usual breakfast laid before them on the table and glancing at the Lord of the house who had started eating his breakfast, they too followed his example and dug into theirs.

In the middle of their meal, Adrian heard Lord Greengrass clear his throat and like Daphne, turned to look at him and hear what he had to address.

"Adrian, you are to come with me this afternoon."

Adrian felt his hand gripped below the table and he replied,

"Is there any particular occasion, my Lord?"

He noticed Lord Greengrass looking in his eyes with an unrecognisable emotion, perhaps anger because he had the gall to question the lord, but nonetheless after a few seconds, heard him reply,

"The ICW has a formal gathering tonight and you are to accompany me." Noticing them not saying anything, Lord Greengrass continued, "And this afternoon you are to come with me to get some appropriate apparels for the occasion."

Adrian noticing that Lord Greengrass was waiting for his response, slightly bowed toward him and replied,

"It would be my honour Lord Greengrass."

Apparently satisfied, Lord Greengrass stood up from his seat and started to walk towards his room.

Adrian noticed his hand still gripped by Daphne, looked towards her and locked his eyes with hers.

"Are you going to be okay?" Adrian heard Daphne's thought in his mind. Replying quickly, he delivered his thoughts to her,

"Yes, I will manage, but what about you? You will be alone in the house for the night till we get back."

Legilimency, in barest definition, was reading one's mind. But one of the other obscure way legilimency could be used was to insert your thoughts into another's minds and overlap them with their own native ones, making the other person think that the foreign though was the product of their own mind. Reading and manipulating minds was the power of legilimency.

While Daphne wasn't as skilled in the art as perhaps Adrian was, he had taught her enough so that they could have their own private conversations among others. The only downside of this particular use was that to convey their thought to one another, they always, had to, maintain continuous eye contact.

"It will be okay, I know how to protect myself and if any dire situation arises, I can call the house-elves."

"But still, keep the trainer wand always with you and stay in my room with the door locked till I return."

Adrian felt something of a mental nod from Daphne and heard her speak back,

"But what about you? You will be alone with that man, outside. What if he does something to you?"

Adrian took his still gripped hand from her hold and squeezed her hand,

"Daphne, you know, that given the… circumstances, I am more valuable to him alive and uninjured. I don't think he would make any attacks on me."

Adrian recognising the signs of another argument from her, broke eye contact with Daphne. Putting his free hand on her shoulder, in the most confident voice, he said,

"It will be okay, I will be back before you know it. I promise."

And Daphne couldn't argue with him. He had a knack for fulfilling promises after all. And so, she believed him. She really did.

XXXXX

Arriving to the destination with the help of a pentagon shaped portkey, Adrian stumbled a bit to control his balance. It had been his first time travelling with the help of a portkey and he had to say, feeling a tugging sensation behind his navel and swirling and swirling was not going to be on the list of his favourite sensations anytime soon.

After a few seconds of stabilising his body, Adrian looked at Lord Greengrass who was waiting for him a few steps ahead, and so he walked towards him and waited for his instructions.

Lord Greengrass apparently bored of watching him making a fool of himself, looked into his eyes and said,

"I hope you will not embarrass me or the house any further."

Even though it sounded like a suggestion, Adrian knew what Lord Greengrass said was nothing short of an order and threat.

"And remember to be on your best behaviour."

With that Lord Greengrass started walking towards the main hall and Adrian following his steps, walked besides him.

While walking, Adrian allowed his eyes to gaze upon the venue there currently were in.

The whole area was a castle, or at least looked like one from the inside. It reminded Adrian of the Hogwarts caste but the similarities ended with just the structure. This particular castle had sentries located every two feet and had several visible runes and wards enchanted on its walls. Adrian despite his limited knowledge in runes could identify several common ones such as warming rune, probably to counter the freezing weather outside, anti-apparition rune and opacity rune, to prevent anyone to look inside the walls and prevent x-ray vision.

The ICW, or International Confederation of Wizards was a wizarding inter-governmental organisation, roughly equivalent to the United Nations in Adrian's previous life and held a very high level of influence in the wizarding world overall. They had a strong, authoritative presence within all matters of international magical cooperation and were primarily responsible of promoting peace, security, and cooperation. Since, it was an international organisation, every major magical country had a delegation which worked in the ICW, so that any of the laws passed weren't unjust to any of the citizens of that particular country.

Since the ICW was founded around 1689(1), every century or so, they had a party to celebrate it. This year 1989, marked the 300 years since the establishment of the ICW and such all the members were invited for the gathering. This year, the party was held in a place called Chateau located in Switzerland. It was an isolated island far, far above in the snowy hills and with the snowing stormy weather outside, travelling with the portkey provided was the only way to enter the castle.

Reaching the main hall with Lord Greengrass, Adrian wasn't surprised to find hundreds of people chattering with one another. Wearing different attires, the ensemble looked pretty colourful and Adrian took the moment to observe the guests.

Like Lord Greengrass was a representative from Great Britain, there were hundred more representatives from different countries attending this gathering. Representative from Luxemburg, the representative from China, the representative from America, the representative from France, the representative from India, the representative from Japan and various other countries were present there. And Adrian had to introduce him to them all.

Lucky him.

But what could he do at the moment? Nothing.

And so, Adrian dutifully followed Lord Greengrass everywhere as he greeted his fellow colleagues and introduced Adrian to them.

Adrian made sure to pay compliments and give respects to the strangers his father was introducing him to. He made sure to call the people with their appropriate titles as Lord Greengrass introduced him to them. Calling some Lord, some Mister or even in a particular case -sama, to the representative from Japan. Adrian made sure to endear them all. Shaking hands with some, bowing to some and kissing the back of the hands for others, Adrian made sure to make no mistakes.

And after an hour or so, of this unnecessary politicking (at least according to Adrian), Adrian and Lord Greengrass made their way to the biggest circle among all the groups present here. It was the circle with the Supreme Mugwump in it. It was time for him to introduce himself to Albus Dumbledore.

Greeting a few people on the way, Lord Greengrass made into the inner circle with Adrian where Dumbledore could be seen talking to some dignitaries from Scotland and so, he and Lord Greengrass waited to be noticed.

After a few moments, Adrian heard Dumbledore exclaim, "Eugene!" and so, Lord Greengrass made his way towards him with Adrian walking besides him.

"Dumbledore."

Adrian heard Lord Greengrass say and first he was shocked by the respect in his voice, while Adrian knew speaking respectfully with Dumbledore was a must, he didn't think Lord Greengrass would do that. Adrian didn't think Lord Greengrass was capable of respecting others. Since Dumbledore was just a half-blood that too from a minor pureblood family, calling him Lord was out of the question. But still, a holder of three important titles deserved to be highly respected and such, Adrian bowed in front of Dumbledore and greeted him.

After being acknowledged by Dumbledore, Adrian stood beside his father and heard Dumbledore speak.

"Ah! Eugene, what did I say about being greeted like that? Don't you think your former professor deserves to be treated in a bit friendlier manner?"

"Dumbledore." Lord Greengrass insisted and so Dumbledore decided to forgo the point and turned his attention towards Adrian.

"And this would be you son, wouldn't he?" Dumbledore remarked and motioned Adrian to come towards him.

After a subtle glance at Lord Greengrass, Adrian made his way towards Dumbledore and stood beside him. Standing there, Adrian heard Lord Greengrass say,

"Yes, that would be Adrian Greengrass, my son and the heir to the Ancient and Most Noble House of Greengrass."

Noticing Dumbledore looking at him, Adrian turned his occlumency shields full force to obstruct any probes from entering and looked back at Dumbledore. There was no particular reason for such, but call it a particular paranoia originated from reading too many fanfictions in the previous life.

A few moments later, putting his hands, on Adrian's shoulders, Dumbledore looked back at Eugene and inquired,

"And he would be coming to Hogwarts, yes?"

"Yes, that is the current plan."

Adrian heard Lord Greengrass reply back and felt Dumbledore bending to speak something in his ears,

"You know, you don't have to involve yourselves in this politics and all. Perhaps you should enjoy your childhood the way you want. Don't you think so?"

"Ah... thank you sir." Adrian started awkwardly but Dumbledore gave no mind to that and stood straight.

Clapping his hands together, Dumbledore in a great show of magic, chanted some phony magical words like Abracadabra, gilly wup and sesame, opened his hands, and in the middle of his palm stood a candy in a purple wrapper.

Giving the candy to Adrian, Adrian once again respectfully bowed towards Dumbledore and after muttering a quick "Thank You Sir.", took the offered candy and once again stood beside his father.

Lord Greengrass giving Dumbledore a last nod, made his way away from that particular circle with Adrian following beside him.

Arriving just outside of the group, Adrian only had the time to secure the Dumbledore-given candy inside of his coat pocket when he heard another exclamation.

"Eugene!"

Adrian turned his head to find a trio of people moving towards them. While the other people had also turned their gazes toward the group, they couldn't particularly take their eyes off one of them.

A heavenly beauty, walking with the grace of a goddess, with silver-blonde hair and full assets, the woman walking towards them, was nothing short of a dream come true for most men.

As soon as she came particularly near him, Adrian could fell that everything had become high definition for him, the light just existing to shine upon this beauty and all. And after a few moments, Adrian felt annoyed, annoyed at falling prey to this particular trap.

Closing his eyes, Adrian arrived near the occlumency shields of his mind and as suspected, it was filled entirely with a shining, glittering gas like substance which was clouding his judgement and making his thoughts go wary. Rapidly clearing all the glittering substance from his mind, Adrian opened his eyes to discover that the people had come pretty close to them and so he stood still, waiting for them to come over and for his father to introduce them.

"Delacour." Lord Greengrass greeted as soon as the group stood before him.

"Ah! Eugene, you wound me, you really do. I still remember than young man who used to challenge me…" Delacour said in a heavily French-accented English. He was about to rant but a cough from Lord Greengrass stopped him. Smiling sheepishly, he turned his attention towards Adrian.

"Eugene! I didn't know, your son had grown up so much. And rather handsome too, but I guess that was to be expected from your genes. Why I remember when you were in Hogwarts…."

As he was about to rant again, Adrian bowed in front of him and spoke.

"You flatter me too much, Lord Delacour."

Flapping his hand around, I head Delacour speak, "Ah! No need for that Lord crap, you are my friend's son after all."

Turning towards Lord Greengrass, Adrian warily observed as Delacour elbowed Lord Greengrass in the chest and spoke, "Now, Eugene, don't you think you should introduce us?"

Lord Greengrass shot an annoyed look towards the man, but nonetheless, he looked at Adrian and started to speak, "The man in front of you is Monsieur Delacour and he is the French representative to the ICW. The one accompanying him is his wife Appoline Delacour and their daughter Fleur Delacour."

Lord Greengrass then took a few seconds to observe as Adrian shook Monsieur Delacour's hand and kissed the back of Appoline's and Fleur's hands.

After that, Lord Greengrass looked at Monsieur and continued speaking,

"And that is my son and heir, Adrian Greengrass."

Adrian gave them another bow and stood besides his father. Subtly glancing towards the girl, Fleur, as from the moment she arrived her, she had been giving him strange looks, but he ignored it. Hearing Monsieur speak, Adrian turned his attention towards the elder French.

"Ah! Now that introductions are over. Let us move out! Come with me Eugene, I wanted to introduce you to someone." Adrian watched as Lord Delacour proceeded to drag an annoyed Lord Greengrass with him and as Adrian was about to follow him, Lord Delacour turned his head towards him and addressed him,

"Adrian, why don't you spend time with Fleur while we get back."

And without hearing his response, Lord Greengrass and The Delacour couple left the group leaving him and Fleur there.

While they were leaving, Adrian couldn't help but notice how all the experienced politicians in the room had directed their glassy eyed gaze towards Appoline Delacour. And so, Adrian wondered, perhaps this was another reason why Lord Delacour was accompanied by Appoline than just to show-off.

"So… Adrian, right?" Adrian turned his head towards Fleur's slightly accented voice and found her staring at him awkwardly.

To find out the reason why she was staring at him this evening, he smoothly commented,

"You have questions for me."

"How did you…?"

At that moment, Adrian looked around, only to find the looks that were once directed towards Appoline, currently directed towards the girl in front of him. Adrian wondered, perhaps this was because of her mother's presence before and she had been more powerful, so the gazes were directed towards her and once she left, all the attention focused on Fleur.

Trying to save the girl from these hungry gazes of men perhaps triple her age, he looked at her and said,

"Come with me."

"Where?" Adrian heard her speak in a guarded tone, so he quickly replied back,

"Not too far away, just somewhere less crowded."

Adrian then walked forward, while giving the appropriate space to the girl behind him and arrived at the same hall way he had portkeyed into, earlier this evening.

Adrian observed the hallway which was currently surprisingly free of sentries and waited a few seconds for Fleur to catch up to him.

"So, what is it you wanted to ask me?" Adrian politely asked her as Fleur stood in front of him.

"Well… I didn't want to impose…." Fleur started, but Adrian snorted and replied back,

"When a person keeps staring at another person ever since their first contact…" Adrian slightly tilted his head, watching the girl get embarrassed, probably from getting caught, continued, "…there is bound to be a particular reason, don't you think so?"

Fleur, probably to shake off the embarrassment, shook her head a few times and looking towards Adrian replied,

"I just, I just wanted to know why you weren't affected by the allure?"

"Allure?"

Adrian inquired, he was sure what she was talking about, but it would never hurt to hear from her to be sure. And after Adrian inquired, he felt the glittery substance coming back all full waves towards him, threatening to take over his mind, but he didn't even let the substance's presence enter his mind's premises and started cleaning and repelling them.

A few moments later, Adrian realising, that Fleur was back at looking at him strangely, he teasingly commented,

"Aaaannd… you are back at staring."

Fleur, didn't look away this time and continued looking at him. On Adrian's part, he felt the glittering substance come back towards him now at twice the speed and force and had to travel to his mind's gates to actively participate in ward it off.

After a few seconds of silence, in which Fleur and Adrian were simply looking in each other's eyes, at least to the outside perspective, Adrian felt the substance started slowing down and so, he too stepped down from the premises of his mind and let his subconscious shields, do the rest of passive warding.

Apparently annoyed, Fleur crossed her arms over her chest and looking at him, commented,

"And you still didn't tell me how you are resisting the allure."

Adrian didn't shy away from her gaze and replied back,

"I might be able to say, if you told me what it was."

Fleur continued shooting him annoyed gazes and took a step towards him, invading his personal space and asked,

"What do you think of me?"

"W-What?"

Adrian shot back and subconsciously took a step backwards from the suddenly brunt girl in front of him. But Fleur continued walking forward.

"What do you feel when you look at me? What do you think about my appearance?"

And with that, Fleur stopped, with less than two feet of distance between them and looked at Adrian expectantly, waiting for his response.

Adrian on his part, decided to comply with the crazy girl's request and speculatively looked toward her. He had to say, she looked pretty good, with silver-blonde hair, blue eyes and a budding figure, and in a few years of time, Monsieur Delacour had to beat boys with sticks to stop them from admiring the girl. Tonight, Fleur had worn a particularly enchanting blue and silver dress which only added to enhance the beauty in front of him.

"And you are asking this only to boost your ego or what…" Adrian started to say, but stopped when he noticed that the girl was not amused by his response and so with a sigh, replied truthfully,

"Well, you are pretty."

"And?" Fleur insisted.

"And what? Madame are looking particularly enchanting tonight. Thank you for letting this commoner gaze upon your majestic presence." Adrian replied back with a rather sarcastic tone when he saw that the girl wouldn't leave this topic aside.

Fleur deciding that the conversation wasn't of much use, with a sigh, un-crossed her hands and asked him,

"Do you know what a Veela is?"

"Ah, yes, yes I do." Adrian nodded and replied back, he had read about them in a book attributed to magical creatures.

Veela's were rather interesting creatures. They were a race comprised mostly of females, and to attract mates towards them and continue their population, their body adapted to produce allure to enchant and seduce males. But of course, it had some rather adverse effects, that instead of just being able to direct one male, the allure spread across to attract every male in the vicinity, and hence every male wanted a piece of them. So, to counter this particular threat, their body adapted yet again, making the Veelas able to manipulate and produce fire for self-protection. It is also rumoured that some pure-blooded veelas, had the ability to sprout wings and fly, but it wasn't documented. Sadly, Veelas like all other magical creatures like vampires and werewolves faced extreme prejudices and some of the hardcore extremists preferred hunting to exterminate them and were almost extinct nowadays.

Shaking his head to clear out his thoughts about the total bullshit pureblood dogmatism in the world, Adrian turned to look towards Fleur who had begun to start speaking,

"Then you must have noticed how the males were behaving in presence of my mother."

Seeing him, giving a small nod, Fleur continued,

"That is the work of her allure. Allure makes the bearer endearing to the opposite gender."

Fleur then turned her surprisingly sharp gaze towards him,

"And you still haven't told me how you can resist the allure. Because as far as I know, there are only two ways to be immune to one…" She then waited a few moments to glace at him up and down and continued,

"…. Either the allure doesn't affect the males who haven't mature yet or… you might swing the other way."

Adrian chuckled a bit and replied,

"I assure you Miss Delacour that I definitely don't swing the other way, and as far as maturity is concerned, I have matured enough to at least admire and notice the female beauty." A few seconds of exaggeratedly looking over her body, he continued, "And I believe, I have already commented on the fact that you are looking very beautiful this evening."

Fleur amused by his words, fell silent and a comfortable silence reigned upon the area.

Naturally, Adrian had to break it.

"I have to say, Miss Delacour, that dress only exists to enhance your natural beauty."

Fleur looked amused by his words and comfortable by his presence, replied back,

"And that dress robes suit you too. And please, call me Fleur."

"You think so?" Adrian replied as he looked over his dress. His robes were dark green in colour with black accented borders and accompanying the upper robe was similarly designed black pants. They were among the clothes, Lord Greengrass had bought him this afternoon from a rather peculiar shop in Wales. With his speculation over, he continued, "These were chosen by my sister."

"Oh?" Fleur neared him and with an interested look in her eyes, inquired, "You have a sister too?"

Adrian took a few steps back and leaning on the nearby wall, nodded and replied,

"Yes, her name is Daphne. She is currently nine years old and we were born twins."

Fleur too accompanied him by leaning on the wall besides him. Hearing his words, she turned her head and looking at him strangely, commented, "You are only nine? I thought from your words, you were at least my age?"

Adrian shook his head and spoke back.

"Yeah, I get that a lot. But what about you?"

"About me?"

"What about your age? Your sister?"

"Hmm…" Fleur looked at him with a small smile on her face and commented back, "Asking a lady her age, and here Adrian, I thought you were a gentleman."

Adrian, catching her drift, turned towards her and shot back, "Yes, I am. But it doesn't apply for the lady who was blatantly staring at me, just to solve a doubt, right?"

Fleur sounded amused by the banter, replied back, "No, no it doesn't." She the continued, "And to answer your question I am 12 years old and my baby sister's name is Gabrielle who is currently 6."

Adrian speculatively looked at her and said, "Then you must in the second year of your school."

"Third year." Fleur corrected. "Beauxbatons starts at 10 years of age."

Adrian could fell Fleur getting somewhat sad over the mention of her school, so tried to change the subject,

"So, … I couldn't help but notice your father is a bit…"

"Sugar-high?" Fleur supplied.

"…. Crazy, but I guess that works too."

Fleur seemed amused by his response and replied back,

"Its not that he always acts like that, He is just in the presence of his family and friends. Its enough that he has to face so much hate back home, so he wants to make people around him a bit livelier. You know?" At the end, Fleur's voice turned pensive.

"Ah, I understand." Adrian replied back in a small voice and a hushed silence fell over them.

Marrying a Veela, which was classified not even as a human, but a creature, it was no wonder Lord Delacour received hate. It would have been especially bad in a place like magical Britain where blood status matter more, but it seems being in France, one of the Veela friendly countries, didn't limit any prejudices towards him.

And as Adrian was about to introduce a new topic to uplift this somber atmosphere, in his peripheral vision, he noticed something was rapidly coming towards them, so he dragged Fleur by her shoulder and tackled them towards the ground.

As soon as their body hit the ground, the wall they were leaning on, scorched, curtesy of a large fireball.

Adrian and Fleur lifted their heads to find a peculiarly dressed man standing on the other side, holding a magical staff. From the small smoke coming from the shaman's staff, it wasn't hard to determine who tossed the fireball at them.

Adrian abruptly stood up to find the man looking at him and so he questioned him,

"Hello! Did you cast a fireball by mistake, Mr….?"

No response.

"Hello, is there any reason for you to attack us?"

Still no response.

The man was just blankly staring at Adrian with his dark eyes.

Adrian, with his peripheral vision, noticed Fleur's allure being directed towards the man, but the man didn't even twitch. Defeated, Fleur retreated the allure and continued looking at the man staring towards Adrian.

"Adrian?" Fleur inquired, "Do you know him?"

"No." Shaking his head, he replied back.

Suddenly, the man slammed his staff into the ground, and a blue colored dome surrounded the area.

Looking around Adrian noticed the silence and privacy runes on the walls lit up and inwardly cursed,

'Shit. This is bad. Now no one in the party would be able to hear or see anything going on in the dome.'

Adrian took out his trainer wand from his pocket and looked toward Fleur and whispered toward her,

"Fleur. Take out your wand."

Fleur understanding where this was going to end up, took out her wand and securely held it in her grip.

The intruder, probably alarmed by the wand in their hands, made a thrusting motion towards them and another fireball crashed towards them, forcing Adrian and Fleur to jump towards opposite sides.

Seeing that the man wasn't going to stop attacking them, the pair decided to attack the man.

Adrian thrusted his wand towards the man and muttered, "Stupefy!" and watched the red colored ray travelling towards his opponent. On the other side, he noticed, Fleur too had casted a spell and a yellow beam was travelling towards the man.

They waited as the man silently stood in the way of the spells and then the spells collided with him, making him…. Do nothing? The man didn't even shrug as the spells exploded against his body.

'He must be wearing magic resistant clothing.' Adrian thought out and as he was about to move towards Fleur, noticed the shaman raise the staff towards the sky and slammed it down. Hard.

Pure blue lightning originated from the point and with near the speed of light travelled towards Fleur.

Adrian watched in horror, as Fleur screamed, sparks became visible on her skin and her wand fell out of her grip.

Sprinting towards her, he caught her in his arms before she could fall. And noticing her state, he quickly dug into his pouch and took out a green colored vial and unscrewed it. Placing her head on his lap, Adrian took the vial near Fleur's mouth.

Fleur, having enough awareness, noticing his movement and quirked her eyebrow.

"Don't worry." Adrian replied. "This is a potion created by Daphne in case I ever got electrocuted."

Fleur opened her mouth, perhaps to chuckle, about Daphne's worry over her brother, but Adrian didn't give her the time and promptly emptied the contents of the vial into her mouth.

While the potion took time to lessen the effects, Adrian was at least thankful towards the shaman who was giving them the time to recover. He mentally reminded himself to thank Daphne when he arrived home, who knew that a portion created by her in case Lord Greengrass ever electrified him, would come to rescue now.

Seeing Fleur somewhat recovered, Adrian addressed her,

"Fleur, the man is clearly after me. You are injured. It would be better if you ran towards your father or Lord Greengrass to inform about the situation."

As Fleur was about to argue, Adrian looked at her,

"Can't you see it? None of our spells can do any harm to him! We are useless here!" He turned towards Fleur with a pleading expression and said, "Go, go, at least save your own life."

This wasn't the first time, Adrian regretted his insight to learn more spells. Adrian regretted not helping Daphne crack their mother's diary's code to get access to her personal spells. Adrian regretted not training hard enough, so that he could have the access to family grimoires earlier. Even though he was carrying his sword, it wouldn't be able to cut and hence only be a hindrance. But, there's nothing he could do now, but to try to survive.

And with that, Adrian turned his back to Fleur and looked toward the man, who was still blankly staring at him.

Adrian addressing the man, spoke,

"Okay, I don't know who you are and why you are after me. But I have made a promise to Daphne this morning and I will damn! fulfill! it!"

With that, Adrian ran towards the man and shouted, "Expelliarmus!" and a scarlet colored beam erupted from his wand towards the man who sprouted another fireball at him.

Ducking under the fireball, Adrian lifted his head to find the man, very near him and somewhat smiling, Adrian attempted the most powerful spell currently in his inventory,

"Bombarda Maxima!"

Adrian hopefully watched as his spell connected at point-blank range and black smoke enveloped the man but was somewhat disappointed and scared to find that when the smog cleared, the man wasn't injured and in front of his head, was the staff wielded by the man.

Accepting defeat, Adrian closed his eyes and muttered a simple "Sorry." to Daphne for not fulfilling their promise.

Feeling the concentrated magic in front of him, Adrian waited for his untimely demise but was surprised that a few seconds later, found the concentrated magic moved backwards.

He opened his eyes to find the shaman skidding a few steps backwards and turned around to find Fleur, her wand laid forgotten on the ground, catering to two small fireballs, in both her hands.

Breaking out of his near-death stupor, Adrian moved towards her and remarked,

"Not that I am not grateful to you, but why didn't you go away when you had the chance?"

Fleur raised an eyebrow at him and replied, "What, no question about how you managed the fireball?"

Adrian shot an annoyed look towards her, "I already told you I read about veelas and know they have the ability to manipulate fire."

"Quarter-Veela" Fleur corrected him. "I am a quarter-Veela, so manipulating fire is pretty hard for us. But lucky for you, I am a genius in this particular art."

Giving no time for Adrian to reply, Fleur continued, "And to answer your previous question, what kind of friend I would be if I ran away while leaving you in peril?"

"Friend huh…" Adrian looked at her, "Since when did we become friends?"

"Since, the moment you saved my life." Fleur shot back. "And now, that I have also saved your life, the debts are cleared."

There was no more time to talk as the shaman, this time with a black, soot covered face, once again shot another large fireball at them.

"Can't you just manipulate the fire in his fireballs and send it back?" Adrian asked Fleur as they dodged and he watched her throw two small fireballs at the man, who apparently, no longer surprised, just swiped the fireballs with his cloth covered arm.

"No. I am not that proficient yet and for us quarter-veelas, learning any fire ability is then times harder." Fleur replied back. Looking towards him, she asked, "Do you have any plan for taking him down?"

Adrian pondered for a moment and replied back,

"Yes, I do. But how much time do you think you would need to launch your strongest attack?"

"A little."

Adrian gave a small nod and addressed her, "Fleur, I will go in and try to distract him while buying you some time. When I give the signal, sent it towards him as fast as you can."

Fleur looked at him in concern, and exclaimed,

"B-but you could get caught in the crossfire!"

Adrian simply placed his hand on her shoulder and replied back, "Don't worry, I will be back. I promise."

And with that Adrian proceeded to sprint towards the man. While moving only a few steps forward, Adrian looked back to find Fleur concentrating and creating a semi-circle with her joined hands and so spoke towards her,

"Fleur." Once, he had her attention, he gave her a small smile and continued, "Don't worry, I believe in you."

And with the last parting words, Adrian turned his back towards Fleur and marched ahead towards the man.

Adrian's plan was pretty simple. Go in, be wary of his shots and attack the man to give Fleur the necessary time.

And so, Adrian quickly pocketed his trainer wand and charged towards the man.

Watching the boy, reach towards him, the man didn't waste any time to fire a close-range fireball.

But Adrian was prepared, casting his prototype wandless shield, which he had spent countless months practicing with Daphne to recreate her accidental magic, Adrian watched in fascination as the fireball struggled against the shield and was later snuffed out by the shield. But Adrian didn't have any time to celebrate as the thrusting motion of the staff used to create the fireball passed through his shield and impacted on his chest.

It hurt. It so bloody hurt. But he persevered.

Initiating the next part of his plan, Adrian concentrated all the magic in his body into his arms and collided both of his fists, on the man's stomach with great force. As the man, doubled over, Adrian then put some magic in his legs and with a frog-like jump, pounded his magic-concentrated fists, under the man's chins giving him a twin uppercut.

Adrian didn't allow himself to celebrate as the man was lifted a few inches of the ground, but shouted,

"Fleur."

And with that, he quickly gripped back his wand, pointed towards one of the far away walls and muttered "Vectatio!" Just in the brink of time as he felt a heat source rapidly approaching his position.

As Adrian allowed himself to be transported over, using the pretty common spell, in which the user had to point towards a nearby object to be transported towards it, he watched in fascination, as a large white-hot fireball collided with the man and carried the man to impact over a nearby wall.

After landing near the wall, Adrian wasted no time to run towards Fleur who had her hands placed on her knees and was panting heavily. Acquiring her wand, which was laying on the ground, Adrian gave the wand back to her, and asked her,

"Are you okay?"

"Idiot…" Still panting, Fleur replied, "Didn't… you… get hurt?"

Adrian put on a strong face and replied back, "It's okay, don't worry I am fine." He wasn't. He could feel the bruise forming on his chest.

Seeing the signs of an upcoming argument, Adrian decided to change the topic of conversation.

"Do you think that he is defeated?"

Fleur slowly shook her head and replied, "I don't know. But I don't think I can last much longer. I poured almost all my magic into that attack."

Adrian wanted to say that everything would be okay, but couldn't, he too was in the same condition as her and they truly would be dead, if the fight lasted any longer.

And as if to tempt their fates, the man walked forward, Adrian and Fleur could see the dent in the wall where the man had impacted curtesy of Fleur's fireball, but other than a few burned garments and a soot-covered face, the man didn't even look injured by the attack.

Adrian and Fleur gripped their wands hard as the man was about to raise his staff for another attack.

But at that moment, a blue spell coming from behind the pair, impacted the man and he simply slipped unconscious.

Fleur and Adrian turned around to find Dumbledore who was with an extended wand, Fleur's parents and Lord Greengrass walking towards them.

As Fleur ran towards her parents and Adrian neared Lord Greengrass, he couldn't help but notice the dome now slowly vanishing.

After waiting for a few seconds as Fleur hugged her mother, Dumbledore cleared his throat and looked towards the children.

"Perhaps, anyone could tell me what exactly happened here?"

Adrian and Fleur looked at one another and Adrian started speaking,

"Well, we were walking here and …"

Adrian told Dumbledore, Lord Greengrass and the Delacour couple what exactly had transpired at the place, while leaving out his wandless magic bit, with Fleur occasionally adding in bits and bits of information.

"…. And then we watched as he recovered from Fleur's fireball and was about to attack us, when you showed up." Adrian finished.

Also, while Adrian and Fleur were retelling the incident, no one noticed Lord Greengrass discreetly pocket a pentagon-shaped portkey from the ground.

"Papa, how did you find us?" Adrian turned towards Fleur as he heard her question Lord Delacour.

"Well, even through the privacy wards, your mother could fell you using the particular magic and after quickly getting a hold of Dumbledore, we came here."

Nodding to the tale, Dumbledore spoke aloud,

"That was a commendable amount of bravery and talent shown by you children." Nodding his head, he continued, "If it were Hogwarts, I would have rewarded 100 points to you."

Turning towards Fleur, he addressed her, "Fleur Delacour, I will make sure to let Madame Maxime, the Headmistress of Beauxbatons know about the bravery and talent shown by you here."

Fleur simply bowed her head towards him and then Dumbledore turned towards Adrian,

"And as for you Adrian, I have only one think to say to you that, I would be waiting for you at Hogwarts in a couple years."

Adrian too bowed his head towards the Supreme Mugwump.

"Dumbledore sir." Lord Delacour remarked and Dumbledore turned towards him, "What about the unwanted guest?" Delacour pointed towards the unconscious body.

But Dumbledore simply waved his hand and spoke, "Do not worry, it could be clearly seen that the man was under the effects of a potion. But being the Supreme Mugwump, I am responsible for your safety and do not worry, an investigation will be carried out on the man and its results will be mailed to you and Lord Greengrass."

Lord Greengrass apparently satisfied with enough drama for the evening, turned towards Adrian and spoke,

"Come along, we are leaving."

And giving a small nod to Dumbledore and Monsieur Delacour, he took out the pentagon portkey from his pockets.

Adrian gave a small smile and nod to Fleur and mouthed,

"Promise Fulfilled."

to her and seeing her nod back, took hold of the portkey and transported away from there.

After the Greengrass' left, Dumbledore turned towards the Delacours and spoke, "Well, I too must depart now. Some one has to tell the guards that there is an unconscious man in the hallways." And with that Dumbledore left.

Fleur watched as her parents fused over her well-being, but only one thought was going through her mind.

'Adrian Greengrass.'

XXXXX

Adrian was transported in the main entrance hall of the Greengrass manor and while he stumbled a bit, it was better than earlier this evening. As Adrian and Lord Greengrass stood across one another, Adrian dutifully remained silent, waiting to be addressed.

"Adrian."

Adrian looked up towards Lord Greengrass and watched as Lord Greengrass continued,

"Meet me tomorrow morning in my office. It is time you started learning the family spells."

Lord Greengrass watched as Adrian didn't show any emotion on his face and apparently satisfied, started to walk away towards his room.

As soon as Lord Greengrass left, a small smile sprouted on his face and slightly shaking his head, Adrian too walked towards his room.

Knocking on the closed door of his room, Adrian waited for a few moments for Daphne.

"Who is it?" Adrian heard Daphne question from the other side of the door.

"Its me. Adrian."

"And how do I know its not just a Polyjuiced person or you are not using a voice-changing charm?"

A small teasing smile broke on his face, and so he replied,

"Of course not. You wouldn't know. But I know about a little girl who didn't know how to fly on a broom and in her first flight crashed into a nearby tree. Of course, I would also know how the girl was hanging upside down with her frock turned towards the head …"

The door suddenly opened and Adrian prepared himself for an impact as a red-faced, embarrassed Daphne started beating on his chest.

Of course, that beating soon stopped as she realized that he had been hurt and started fusing over him and asking him numerable questions.

All in one, Adrian realized that this would be a memorable day as he made a new friend and shared some precious memories with his sister.

XXXXX

Instead of going to his bedroom, Eugene Greengrass took a turn to enter his study. Walking towards his table, he took out a wooden mailbox from one of the drawers of the table. Opening the mailbox, he took out one envelope from the box, simply labeled Sullivan.

Opening the envelope, Lord Greengrass wasted no time to fill it with hundreds of galleons and watched as the galleons simply disappeared when he closed and sealed the envelope (2).

Today had been an eventful day, he decided.

Today was meant to be a test. Test for eligibility.

Lord Greengrass' eyes fell on the pentagon portkey.

He had intentionally, dropped the portkey in the hallway and after some considerable duration, was going to make Adrian go fetch it. And when Adrian reached the hallway, the test would commerce.

Survive.

It was pretty easy to bribe a tribal shaman to do his bidding.

Inserting Adrian's appearance in the shaman's mind and obliviating the rest of his meeting with Lord Greengrass. Then making him take a rage, pain killer and focusing potion so that the shaman wouldn't be affected by speech or emotions while creating a temporary portkey for him to enter the hallway at the exact time when Lord Greengrass knew sentries wouldn't be posted.

Even if Dumbledore scanned the man's memories, he wouldn't find any trace or involvement of Lord Greengrass' and when the shaman would finally be free and would enter his house, he would, as in the contract, find hundreds of galleons addressed to him.

While the Delacours had threatened to make his plan fail as he wanted to follow Adrian discreetly and watch him survive, but Monsieur had dragged him away and Lord Greengrass also wanted Adrian to single-handedly survive, so the presence of the daughter had made that option unavailable, but the plan still worked. Not as perfectly as he calibrated and planned it to be, but it was still okay.

The Greengrass heir survived.

When the house-elves had complained to him how Daphne had attempted to poison and kill the heir, he just wanted to see who would win, hatred or suffering.

But it wasn't to be, as the twins soon reconciled. And Eugene had no problem with that. If they could become stronger depending on each other, it was still okay.

It wouldn't matter. Much.

Maybe that's why he decided to reward Daphne by making her accidently stumble upon Adrianna's journal.

Though he could have supplied the key too, he wanted to see if she could decrypt it on her own. If she cracked the code herself, no worries and if she didn't, there was a possibility that she could accidently stumble upon the key too in a few years.

But it wasn't his problem now.

Turning off the lights of the study room, Eugene started walking towards his bedroom.

Today had been an eventful day. He decided.

Everything was going according to the plan.

AN: Quick question, do you prefer Adrian's 1st person POV as in the first chapter or the third person POV as exhibited in this chapter? And reasons.

(1) In the hpwikia, the ICW was said to be founded before the 1690s, and so taking it as 1689, making 300 years later 1989, the current year, worked in my favour.

(2) It works similar to that of the vanishing cabinet used by Draco Malfoy.

I think this chapter was a bit longer than what I had expected but I didn't want to leave it on a cliff-hanger.

The fight scene was specifically crafted to show that a nine-year boy, perhaps even a reincarnated one, stood no chance against a fully trained wizard.

Also, pairing isn't confirmed yet, though it might look now that the pairing could be with Fleur, I don't know when they would meet again and how the years would change them. But still, I don't think there would be any pairing recently, at least not till the fourth year.

You guy can complain, that this is so slow paced and all, but I like to build some story, some plot, backstory and characterization before moving to interactions and actions. The prime example would be Daphne's backstory.

Looking for a beta, if interested PM me.

The tone of the fic will neither be dark or light, it will be neutral grey.

All suggestions, reviews, criticism, remarks are welcome. Share with me what you think in the reviews.

Posted on 7th April 2018