Once again, it's been far too long since I updated. No excuses I'm just really bad at remembering this story.

Enjoy :) SuchaNarcissist

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§Parseltongue§

Bold is notes or screaming, it should be pretty obvious which.

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But the only soldier now is me
I'm fighting things I cannot see
I think it's called my destiny
That I am changing
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The aftermath of the bird massacre and the first opening of the chamber of secrets was kept surprisingly quiet, surprising to Hadrian anyway who was honestly expecting the ministry to show up again. However as Hermione pointed out it wasn't as if anybody human was hurt and both events were probably written off as pranks gone wrong. If Hadrian was in charge he would have definitely sent people to look into it, but he wasn't complaining about the lack of ministerial oversight; it gave him more room to hunt down the person that nearly managed to explode his owl, luckily Deumos was still with his mother.

The Slytherins had come out of the situation worst off as logically (for once) the students had made the assumption that the heir of Slytherin must be a Slytherin student. Hadrian had separated himself from the school body on this front, his detailed knowledge of the diary and how it got out allowed him to remove most of the lower year Slytherins from the suspect pool, in fact it was far more likely that the culprit was a Ravenclaw. Of course he couldn't tell anyone this- and nor did he wish to, any statement on his part would have to be explained and that wasn't possible.

However knowing what he knew meant that he wanted no part in the heir of Slytherin manhunt that was now an ongoing part of school life. The only other person who stood apart from it was Luna and that was because she was too busy holding several hundred avian funerals for all of the dead birds. Typically this involved her painting dramatic black tears on her face and wandering round the castle making odd screechy bird noises while holding a rotting bird corpse. She would continue this for an hour or two at which point Hadrian would be available to find her and gently guide her to the mass grave being dug at the side of the castle.

Considering his regular Luna breaks and his search for the still-at-large diary on top of normal schoolwork and his multitude of research projects it was unsurprising that when he was approached by Hermione who was wanting to investigate Draco Malfoy as the heir of Slytherin that he didn't even allow her to explain her plan before stating no and returning to his work. He really should have known that she would investigate with or without his help.

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Hermione was furious, how dare Hadrian just dismiss her ideas? Just dismiss her?

"Malfoy is up to something, he's barely said a word to anyone not a Slytherin this year and now this, the chamber of secrets! It fits, it does- this needs looking into, with or without Hadrian. Are you with me?" She muttered fiercely to Neville who was sat next to her in charms "I already have the plan, but I need someone else to help me with it to make it work."

Neville shot her a considering look, before turning to stare at his teacup "Of course I'll help, but I don't know what use I'll be I'm not really very good at magic" he prodded his teacup as he spoke, the inside of it was still as dirty as when the lesson had started. He glanced up as Hermione started talking again.

"Neville you'll be more useful than you could possibly know" Her mouth curved upwards in a pleased grin a Neville felt his face move to echo her smile, maybe just maybe he could make a friend through this little plan.

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"Step one – obtain Moste Potente Potions- is already complete, that's the book with the potion recipe in Neville. Step two: Get the missing ingredients, I still need Boomslang skin and Bicorn Horn, that's the bit I'll need your help with Neville, those ingredients aren't in the student potion kits but I do know where they are- all I need from you is a bit of a distraction." Hermione was grinning as she outlined her 'foolproof' plan

"I don't like where this is going Hermione it sounds like we'll be in a lot of trouble if anything goes wrong" It was easy to see that Neville was wavering in his conviction, the tremor in his voice demonstrating the depths of his fear.

"Nothing will go wrong Neville and even if it does the only thing we're doing wrong is the ingredients, everything else Mr Lockhart basically gave me permission for when he signed the book slip." She leaned in closer, looking Neville in the eyes to help push the point across "And besides your part is easy, all you have to do is mess up your potion Professor Snape won't suspect a thing and if anyone asks all you have to say is that you were scared and you must've missed a step"

"You want me to fail on purpose?" The stammer in his voice was gone and Hermione knew she had him.

"Yes just wait till half way through the potion and then skip a step, or even two- the potion will fail dramatically and Professor Snape will come over to check on you, leaving me free to slip into the storeroom and grab the ingredients." Hermione knew she'd won as Neville nodded along with her words. She would prove that Draco was the heir of Slytherin and then Hadrian could take care of it and everything would be perfect.

"Ok, but if we're doing this we do it today, so I can't back out"

"Sounds good to me Neville, I'll wait for your signal"

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Hadrian was confused, Hermione who was normally so bossy and in control during potions was looking a tad frazzled and almost nervous. She wasn't even commenting on his stirring for once.

"Hermione are you feeling alright? You look a little worried" He watched carefully for her reaction and just as he expected her body gave her away, a twitch of the eyes to left then back to the front and then to the clock before her response.

"I'm fine Harry, just a little stress- this potion is very complicated." A scrunch of her eyebrows on the word this. Hadrian leant forwards a little under the guise of pulling his stool closer to the desk, most of the class was sat on their left for once, unusual as they normally sat centre front.

"Are you sure, this isn't about that heir business is it?" This time she glanced left for a longer time and Hadrian followed her line of sight to Draco. Well if she wanted to investigate Draco, she couldn't do any true harm, but perhaps he should pay a little bit more attention.

"No, no don't worry about me Harry" The forced smile and eye contact confirmed it for Hadrian.

"Hermione I-" his next question was interrupted by a loud bang and a spectacular orange fountain from the other side of the room and as his eyes glanced over he felt Hermione slide past him towards the side of the room. She was gone for less than two minutes, during which time two other potions erupted and Snape had vanished half the cauldrons in the room. Hermione smiled tightly at him as she sat down again, fragile confidence in her eyes. "Alright, I won't ask any more questions but if you need me" he trailed off, uncertain of how to express himself.

"I know Hadrian, I can rely on you but this is something I want to do myself." She held his eyes for a minute, smile slowly slipping away until he nodded acquiescing to her request. Turning back to their desk at Snape's shout of "OUT OUT ALL OF YOU" before grasping their bags and leaving the room.

Hadrian pretended not to notice Hermione slipping two glass jars into her bag in the chaos.

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So shorter chapter, but hey an update is an update and you can thank oceanmiri for this one.

Enjoy :) SuchaNarcissist