Hello everyone. I had this idea for a story, that wouldn't leave my mind and decided to try to write it out. I would be very grateful if you let me know whether you like it or not.

Also, please, bear in mind, I am a first time writer and additionally, English is not my first language – so any advice would be appreciated.

I am in serious need of beta. Please leave me a message if you are interested and serious about it.

Please, enjoy. J

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Thinking

Horse Heart

Chapter 1.

He was tired of living. He sat alone in his tiny excuse of a flat in Tokyo, Japan waiting for those vultures to show up. Don't ever say that the only two things you cannot avoid are death and taxes. It is certainly not true especially if you are freaking Boy Who Lived or some other ridiculous moniker people grant you with.

First thing wrong with this statement is that, as esteemed Master of Death you are immortal or more accurately, bloody reaper adamantly refuses to let you move on every single time, it will not even touch your soul when it floats back to your body.

Hadrian discovered it when accidentally fell down the stairs and broke his neck – well after few minutes it just popped back in place and he woke up.

Second thing wrong are the fans. After he managed by sheer luck kill Voldemort in his fifth year at the end of his adventure in Ministry of Magic, people would just not leave him alone.

He lost his godfather and any chance to privacy in one swoop. Ever since, the press, the school and teachers would not stop butting in his life. It felt as if his every step and action was scrutinized and judged by everyone. I did not help the matters that while public expected the hero to finish school, become an Auror and marry Ginny Weasley – he could not. He never admitted it to anybody but he was very much repulsed by any female walking earth and was very much gay.

Hadrian's life was still somewhat manageable while he was attending Hogwarts but when he graduated it turned into a horror story. His first action after walking out of grounds was apparating to Gringotts bank and inquiring about his accounts because it would not do to run out of funds to soon and frankly speaking, Hadrian never really got a chance to simply ask "What do I own and How much?"

He walked inside the bank and without wasting time walked up to one of the goblin bankers.

- Excuse me honorable warrior, but my name is Harry Potter and I would like to speak with somebody about my account please. – He said with slight smile on his face.

Goblin looked him with unreadable face, turned around to banker next to him and said something in Gobblydock. He stood up and walking up to Hadrian he barked sharply.

- Follow me. – Then turned around and walked off towards line of doors leading to private offices.

The wizard had to nearly run to keep up with the creature, marveling at the fast service.

They went into small but richly looking room with old-looking desk and two comfortable chairs. The moment the door closed Hadrian could feel snap of the privacy wards falling in place.

Grimly looking Goblin shot him a glance at the whole body flinch in reaction to a wave of warding magic.

- It is rare that a wizard can feel magic just as strongly as us but let us proceed. – He looked seriously at the wizard. – Why would you ask about "account" and not "accounts"?

Hadrian looked back at banker dumbfounded.

-What accounts? I have only one!

The conversation that followed shook his entire world view. Since before he stepped his foot back in wizarding world he was stolen from.

Dumbledore together with most of Weasley family, Lupin and Granger were regularly helping themselves to his money. His invisibility cloak was never lent to Dumbledore by his father – he took it out from his family vault after establishing himself as Hadrian Magical Guardian (about what Hadrian was never informed).

Ron, Hermione, Ginny and Percy were paid significant sum each month ever since starting to attend Hogwarts with him. They were never his genuine friends, it seemed – that news just about broke his heart.

What was worse – there was a marriage contract drawn by Dumbledore between him and Ginny Weasley. He annulled it straight away shuddering at the mere thought of such. If he did not, on occasion of divorce, he would be willingly handing over all of his money and belongings to that whore of a girl.

Over my dead body! – He thought viciously.

Lupin also was not without the fault. Dumbledore started paying him ever since his third year and haven't stopped yet. The more information Hadrian received, the more furious he became. Unfortunately the worst was still to come.

The name he went by his last 18 years of life was false. He was not named Harry James Potter. His true name was Hadrian Pegassus Potter, Lord Hire of Potter fortune and of creature blood.

Goblin, whose name was Bloodclaw, was his account manager and many times in the past has attempted to contact him but was always stopped. Bloodclaw offered Hadrian a ritual to uncover which creature blood he possessed. Intrigued, he agreed.

Goblin pricked his finger with silver knife taken from the desk drawer and dropped bloodied blade into a stone bowl filled with some sort of black liquid, chanting quietly in his own rough sounding language.

After few seconds silver mist started to form over the surface of the liquid. Hazy image slowly become more and more clear. The animal looked like a beautiful black stallion with long powerful legs long snow – white mane and tail. But the most surprising features were two huge coal – black wings.

- By Gods of old… - Bloodclaw whispered in awe – You are a Sleipnir!

Hadrian asked for explanation. He has never heard before about creature such as this one. In response Goblin has told a fantastic tale about son of one of the Old forgotten Gods. His form was that of a magical battle horse, who was over 30 feet tall and with tattoo of his hoofs could cause an earthquake.

According to a tale, every few centuries God's son would possess a male and make love to women, to experience a pleasure of human flesh as gods were forbidden from such.

Usually women impregnated by Him and his children were dying during labor, because gods power is not meant to be wielded by the mortals, but twice in known history such a children survived. First one was known as Salazar Slytherin. Second one was Hadrian.

Wizard had sworn Bloodclaw to secrecy and in silence started pondering uncovered information. First and foremost he was horribly angry and disappointed. Then feeling of a betrayal swept over him like wave. Absolute shock about his inheritance hit him but soon was quenched – after all – he was used to expecting the unexpected when it came to himself. Finally the rage came back.

How dare they?! How dare they do that to him? After all he has done, after all he suffered at the hands of Dursleys. How many times did he save others asses? And after he nearly died four times for them?!

That is it! No more!

He would continue pretending, that nothing is wrong. Of course, he stopped all the payments from his accounts.

We shall see if they ask why the money had stopped coming. No…. I don't think they will.

Hadrian smirked to himself. He had a plan.

Let Dumbledore and rest of them think, they have me firmly in their grasp. I shall learn all I can, I will pack everything I need and then I will disappear. I will find somewhere far away and quiet to live and let them find themselves another idiot to play hero and martyr. Then I will be free!

It took Hadrian six years. Six long and lonely years of pretending, false smiles, bitter thoughts and sleepless nights to learn all he could.

During that time, despite attending Auror academy and farce of dating Ginny, he managed to read nearly all books and scrolls from Potter and Black libraries and make copies of all the books he could get his hands on. He also managed to buy lovely ebony, encrusted with silver snakes designs a multicompartment trunk.

Over last few years he had turned four rooms in his trunk in very comfortable and elegantly furnished one bedroom flat. He also made sure he had fully equipped potion lab and big stock of ingredients. Next room was used as weapon storage.

Hadrian discovered his love of blades of all kinds. He was dangerous with broadsword and cutlass but he was truly frightening with his long covered in basilisk venom twin daggers. He also took eye-correction potion to get rid of the glasses. His aim with short throwing blades was positively deadly.

Lastly, he converted his biggest room into a library, containing copies of complete Potter and Black libraries, as well as any other books he copied or bought over the years.

It took a fair bit of cunning, lot of planning and huge amount of determination but he finally was ready.

He had sworn goblins to secrecy; they have become his allies and over the years – close friends. Bloodclaw in particular has earned big spot in Hadrian's heart.

Many times he was wizard's biggest supporter, source of strength and trusted confidant. If Hadrian ever needed respite from watchful eye of wizarding world, he was always welcome in quiet banker's office. I did not matter if he came for a cup of tea, friendly chat, serious advice or just to sit and relax in silence – Bloodclaw has never turned him away.

Goblin was never-ending source of stories, anecdotes and myths. He helped Hadrian learn occlumency and legilimency.

It was rather funny, that wizard found it easier to trust a Goblin rather than another wizard, and to learn mental arts, trust was a must. In light of that revelation, his lack of success while learning from Snape in his fifth year was self-explanatory.

Bloodclaw also managed to get Hadrian to accept his abilities and make peace with shock of parentage. He no longer thought of serpent speaking as a dark or evil. It simply was another language, like German or French. Another revelation was that as heir to Sleipnir it was his mother tongue.

Hadrian together with Bloodclaw has spent hundreds of hours looking for any clues as to what exactly being heir to Sleipnir would mean for him. What they discovered was absolutely mind-numbing. Originally most plausible idea was an animagus form, but there was so much more than just that.

According to one of the legends, Sleipnir was not a man with ability to turn into a horse. He WAS a horse – that's why he could not take lovers by himself – only via possession. Obviously mating between horse and woman would be extremely difficult if not outright impossible.

It was said god's son has tried it before once, using magic to "ease the passage" – shall we say. This mating was the beginning of a race later known as centaurs.

Hadrian was born out of union of a god-horse and witch, not a muggle and that's why he was not a man with lower body of an equine. He was a horse in man's body.

He thought, it actually made a lot of sense. Even as a very young child, he always loved open spaces, nature called to him strongly. He hated being confined in his tiny cupboard under the stairs. He never really preferred veg over meat – but supposedly Sleipnir was omnivorous as well.

What Hadrian did notice – were his very strong and rather sharp teeth. There was a reason after all why he usually smiled with tightly closed lips.

He clearly remembered when he was in primary school and grinned at some joke, children closest to him that did see his toothy grin were afraid of him for months afterwards. Hadrian had to admit, his eye-teeth were looking a bit more like fangs than a normal human teeth – the mirror in the bathroom did not lie after all.

Another thing that came to mind was his enormous stamina and love of speed. It did not matter if the speed was achieved by broom, car or his own legs – boy- could he run. If he had space to run, Harry Hunting was rarely successful, big D and his band of bullies could never catch him.

His senses seemed to be a lot sharper than that of a normal human. His eyesight, taste, and his smell and speed of reflexes were particularly brilliant. No wonder he made seeker in his first year.

But back to his inherited abilities. Bloodclaw and Hadrian discovered, he didn't have an actual animagus form. He simply had ability to transform. What was the difference between those two; he was not bound to one animal. With a bit of will and magical tweaking, Hadrian could take on a body just about any animal, as long as animal was magical. An animagus could never become a magical animal – the forms were always those of ordinary beasts.

Hadrian, as soon as they discovered this, started experimenting. Of course he was cautious and never attempted the change by himself, only in safety of Bloodclaw office and with the Goblin present.

It did take him over a year just to change his hair into a white horse mane, but hey – the Rome was not build in one day, was it?

Slowly and with growing determination he made more and more progress every day. Finally, after nearly three years, he changed completely for the first time.

The feeling was indescribable. The sheer rightness and power of his true form was awe-inspiring.

Hadrian was huge. Nearly eight feet tall, his body was made of steel hard muscles, covered in blackest coat ever seen. Not a single blemish was to be seen except for a white lightning bolt in the middle of his forehead. His eyes were the same emerald-green color as in his human body, teeth were a deadly looking fangs and nose looked like it was dipped in freshly spilt blood. Mane and tail were long and silky, color of a pristine snow. Even hoofs were extraordinary. They were huge and shiny black, with silver shoes already on.

To be frank – Hadrian looked absolutely otherworldly.

Bloodclaw jaw was on the floor. Never before had he seen such a magnificent creature. He slowly circled around patiently standing Hadrian, admiration clear in his eyes. Suddenly he smiled wickedly. Chuckling was a truly fearsome sound, coming from Goblin's mouth.

You have done it finally, dear friend! Soon, you will be able to bring your plans to completion. Now, let's talk business…

Another three years passed since that moment. Hadrian was very busy man in the meantime. He finally completed all he wanted to accomplish. He finished preparing and stocking his trunk. He also had made an arrangement with Goblins, concerning his properties and monies.

Obviously, if he tried to sell his various houses on public market, wizarding world would immediately come to realization he was planning something. Alas, Hadrian had an idea, which suprised Goblin Nation; he quietly sold nearly all of his properties to them in exchange of few trunks full of raw gold and jewels. At the end of a day, it didn't matter wher you went, gold and jewels had value everywhere.

And there was the main problem. Hadrian was absolutely brokenhearted over one fact. Wherever he went, those bloody vultures of a fans have managed to track him regardless of a place and distance.

On the rare occasion of leave from his Auror Academy, he visited locations all over the world. From crowds of Paris, lonesome tundra of Siberia, wilds of Canadian forests to craziness of life in Japan, he was followed everywhere.

It usually took three weeks at the most, before suddenly some obsessed wizard or witch popped up on his doorstep, bubbling how great it was to meet him, what an honor it was to have him in a neighborhood.

Even when he was in his animal form, with his trunk carefully hidden, living in absolute wildness, he witnessed quiet pops of apparition of people looking for him.

Over the years Bloodclaw has removed countless tracking charms, locator spells and bloody enchantments. There was even ritual or two that had to be dismantled. Hadrian had magic of this type applied to his clothes, various personal belongings, his wand, even his hair. But every time he had them removed, new ones seemed to pop up from clear air.

Hadrian came to painful realization. There was no place on earth he wouldn't be found.

So together with Bloodclaw, they started to look for something else. In one of books in Black library he read about seer, who was known for accuracy and truthfulness of his predictions, until he started to preach about his ability to see visions of other worlds. The truth was, it was impossible to approve or disapprove how genuine they were, but just the idea of different worlds existing seemed so ridiculous to wizarding world, that he ended up being a laughing-stock.

Hadrian however took to the idea quite enthusiastically. When he was a child, wizards and witches were beings of fantasy stories until visit from Hagrid proved they existed. Who was he to say, that other worlds didn't exist as well?

Goblins were rather disappointed to risk loss of an ally but they supported him in his search.

Finally, one of the leads took him to Tokyo. Hadrian, despite of difficulty of misleading his watchdogs, as he called Dumbledore's minions, managed to arrive to the city unnoticed and found the seller of the book Goblins told him about.

Paying quite dearly for a sole manuscript, Hadrian became a proud owner of "Want to start over? A guide to different dimensions & how to get there."

Now, sitting in his tiny, acquired for short period of time flat in Tokyo, Hadrian was ready to leave. He had all of his belongings shrunk and stored in his tiny trunk, which he hung on his neck on unbreakable and made invisible chain, as not to lose it, including ten simple trunks filled with riches. It wouldn't do to end up poverty-stricken wherever will he end up going.

Bloodclaw was sitting on the chair next to him, enjoying steaming mug of Firewhiskey. He arrived month ago, as soon as wizard had let him known about the book. They spent exhausting four weeks researching the manuscript.

According to the author, he discovered how to travel to different dimensions by accident. His name was Yakumo and he was a Master of eastern ritual magic. He was attempting a rite to change his continuous streak of bad luck, but instead of expected result he opened a rift leading to totally different world.

Yakumo, curious about it, packed necessities and went throughout the rift. He spent nearly a year in a dimension, where such a thing as wizarding world didn't exist.

The world he described, was covered in vast amount of ocean and only occasional islands. The people were rather primitive and they treated Yakumo like a god because of his magical abilities.

He came back after year-long vacation and continued research of the ritual. He discovered, the magic responded to the wishes of a caster and looked for a world or a dimension, where the caster had the biggest chance of achieving happiness, be it by lack of trouble, simplicity of life or a presence of a soul-mate.

Finished reading the book, Hadrian was absolutely elated. That was what he was looking for! And additionally, unless he left manuscript behind (which he wouldn't do), Dumbledore had no way of tracking him and getting him back. Hadrian knew, that the only other person, who will know where he went, wouldn't tell a soul about it without his permission.

He could nearly taste the freedom waiting for him. He could finally be himself! The only doubt he had – which was not losing his magic in this new world – had been put to rest, as the wizard Yakumo has explained – his magic came from his blood, internally, not from his surroundings.

Hadrian decided to gift the rest of his wealth to Goblin Nation, as they had become more a family to him than any others in this world. Bloodclaw was nearly in tears, because never before has a wizard declared Goblin a family.

Bloodclaw swirled the last bit of a drink in his glass and swallowed it in one gulp. Took a deep breath and looked at quietly sitting Hadrian.

- Well, you are as prepared as you can be, my dear friend. I believe the only thing you have left to do is say your goodbyes and open the portal.

Wizard took last sip of his own beverage and stood up. Together, they spent next fifteen minutes making sure complicated ritual circle drawn in the middle of empty floor was done correctly and none of the writing done with chalk was smudged.

Hadrian went to his bedroom and changed in black leather trousers and black sleeveless vest laced at the front. On top, he put on long, olive-green travelling cloak with deep hood. He made sure all of his things were in the trunk hanging on his neck and double-checked his weapons.

In his black dragonhide boots he's had two slender daggers, on his belt hung his favorite cutlass made of matte black goblin metal, and in the harness crisscrossing his strong chest were over fifty small throwing blades. Harness was enchanted to never run out of them.

Finally, in silence, he came up to Bloodclaw and knelt in front of him. For a moment he looked into his eyes then thrown his arms around him in tight hug.

- I will miss you.

Then he quickly stood up and moved to the middle of runic circle. Taking deep breath to steady himself, he reached with his magic and touched chalked lines. The whole design light up in green fire and with loud tearing sound portal in the shape of unstable oval has opened two feet above the wizard. He looked back at Goblin and said.

- Take care of yourself my friend, and tell THEM nothing.

Then he closed his eyes and jumped up to be pulled with yank into an open rift. With bright flash of emerald flame he was gone. All that was left were smudged ritual circle and mourning Goblin.

TBC.

Please be merciful in your reviews. Continuation depends on reactions to the fanfic.

Best wishes to everyone J