AN: 'Lord Sweater emerges from his slumber, gnarled beard upon his face and a crazed look in his eyes' WHAT YEAR IS IT?!

Chapter 7: The First Day

A few days later found Hadrian in the unfortunate circumstance of going to breakfast with the bulk of his classmates. While, it wasn't that he found the presence of his classmates revolting, it was just far too early, in his humble opinion, to endure Daphne and Tracey's particular brand of…enthusiasm. Said invaders of his precious peace and quiet were currently flanking him as they walked through the dungeons toward the Great Hall engaged in a hyper-active conversation over top of him. He was paying enough attention to know that they were excited to get their class schedules, however, internally, he was bemoaning that they couldn't just post it to the common room wall and save him this headache. However, his recent acquaintances, Daphne especially, had accused him of avoiding them over the weekend when in reality he had simply been engaging in private study in his new private study room. So, at least spending the morning with them would calm their suspicions before they started following him through the castle. And small part of him would be lying if he said he didn't find their enthusiasm somewhat endearing. He was excited too, after all, he just wasn't as up front about it.

As they sat down at their usual spots at the Slytherin table, Hadrian tuned back in to the conversation fully as Tracey leveled a question at him. "What class are you most excited about, Hadrian. Defense? No, wait. Potions. You give off a Snape vibe. Dark and mysterious and all that."

"Don't be so quick to judge a book by its cover, Davis." Hadrian responded as he calmly pulled some toast to his plate and started to butter it. "Honestly, I am looking forward to all of the classes, but if I were to pick one in particular, I would say Herbology."

After a moment of silence, he looked up to find all three of his classmates staring at him in disbelief.

"Really?" Blaise responded, "You? And…plants?"

"What?" Hadrian responded defensively, "Doesn't the idea of magic, semi-sentient plants intrigue any of you? Living vines that can keep intruders out? Or maybe re-growing trees that give you endless wood? The possibilities are endless."

Blaise shrugged. "I guess, but what's honestly more interesting: a charm that makes you fly, or a vine that wiggles all on its own?"

Hadrian grunted and went back to his food. "Well, I guess we'll find out."

"Well I, for one," Daphne intergected, "am most excited about Transfiguration."

"We're aware, Daphne." Hadrian blandly responded, not bothering to look up. "Its all you've talked about for the past thirty minutes."

Tracey and Blaise chuckled as Daphne practically hopped up and down in her seat. "Ughhh. I know, but can't help it." She responded. "I know you just found out about magic and all, and how this is so exciting for you, but I've lived with magic for eleven years! Watching my parents cast it and now I finally get my chance to learn. The anticipation is killing me!"

Hadrian gave his friend the smallest of smiles but before any of them could have any more fun at Daphne's expense, their head of house, Professor Snape, was looming over them. Looming was the only word for it, Hadrian thought idly. His flowing black cloak really did give him an intimidating aura.

"Your schedules." He said slowly as he handed them each a piece of paper. "A prefect will be waiting for you outside the Great Hall to lead you to your first class. Then after every class after that to lead you to your next class for the first week. After the first week, you will be expected to find you own way. Is that understood?"

"Yes, Professor." The four students intoned at the same time. Snape nodded then walked briskly onward toward the next group of students with a flourish of his cloak. Hadrian noticed that for that entire altercation, Snape hadn't looked him in the eyes once. However, any further thought on the subject was forgotten when he studied his schedule.

MON,WED,FRI: Herbology: 8-9am, Potions: 9:30-10:30am, History: 1-2pm, Defense: 2:30-3:30pm

TUES,THUR: Transfiguration: 8-9:30am, Charms: 1-2:30pm

TUES ONLY: Flying: 4-5pm

THUR ONLY: Astronomy: 8-11pm

Hadrian's eyebrows rose as he looked at his schedule. It didn't seem like much with a lot of free periods, but he was still in first year. He also couldn't help but smile at his first class. His first experience of real magic was going to be Herbology and he couldn't wait.

"Do we all have the same schedules?" He asked suddenly looking at the other occupants at this section of the table.

Daphne nodded while still perusing her own paper. "All the classes are required for the first two years, so our schedules won't differ until third."

That made sense to Hadrian and he went back to enjoying his breakfast, sporadically engaging in the ongoing conversation. Once they were all finished, they followed the rest of the first years toward their first class.

~/~

As the school day drew to close, the door to the common room opened to admit a shambling Daphne followed closely by Tracey and Blaise who promptly made their way over to a few of the armchairs where Hadrian was already seated in front of a fireplace reading their potions textbook and eating an apple.

"Ughhh!" Daphne exclaimed as she collapsed into one of the chairs. "How did you get back here so fast?"

"I walked, Daphne." Hadrian calmly answered which caused the other two to chuckle. "Its not my fault you all got lost on your way back."

"You could have helped!" Daphne replied indignantly. Hadrian responded with a non-committal shrug.

"I thought that's what I did on Saturday. I'm sorry I assumed you could retain basic directions."

This earned more laughs and a glare from Daphne who decided to let it drop in favor of some other things she wanted to bitch about. "Can you believe how much homework we have?" She cried reaching into her bag to pull out her planner. "Two chapters of reading from Sprout," She continued reading off of her list. "Three chapters and an eight inch essay from Snape, three more chapters of reading from Binns and finally two chapters and a six inch essay from Quirrell." She then dropped her planner in exasperation. "We just got here! I thought the first day was supposed to be icebreakers and getting to know each other."

"No Daphne," Hadrian responded, turning the page in his book, "that's what the past two days were for."

Blaise nodded in agreement. "Not to mention, Daphne, the welcoming packet did encourage reading the first few chapters of your text books ahead of time to prepare."

Tracey grumbled as she yanked the History book out of her bag. "Yeah well, I'm in Daphne's boat on this one and didn't actually think they were serious."

Hadrian smirked slightly at his classmates plight before stretching his mind out to Kegen. The Familiar Bond had been slowly strengthening over the past few days and, as such, they could now communicate from just a little farther away, like from the common room to his bedroom for instance. Somehow the room he shared with Blaise had been furnished with a window. He wasn't sure how, since they were in a dungeon, and he wasn't sure why, unless the castle itself knew that he needed it, because he hadn't told anyone about Kegen before his arrival. However, brushing off magic as, just that, magic, Hadrian was simply glad that he, and consequently Kegen, had it, as he told his familiar to meet him outside. Then snapping his book shut, Hadrian made to rise from his chair.

Ever the nosey one, Daphne eyed him as he did, "Where are you going?" she asked.

"I only have the essays left," Hadrian responded, packing his bag, "and since it is still such a beautiful day out, I thought I would take a walk."

Daphne grumbled at her over-achieving friend before angrily burying her nose back in her book, which only caused Hadrian to smile the brighter as he walked from the common room.

~/~

Outside, it seemed that other students had had the same idea, as a number of them could be seen milling about the courtyard or lounged under the archways doing their reading, but Hadrian paid them no attention as he walked further out into the vast yard around the castle. He hadn't gone far when he heard a whoosh of air over his head and felt a familiar weight land on his shoulders.

"Evening, My Lord" Kegen said as he ruffled his feathers lightly. "Did you enjoy your…tree class this morning?"

Hadrian sighed lightly. "I really don't understand the comments you all have, but yes, I did, Kegen. I enjoyed all of my classes today. Even Defense, which was, admittedly, very difficult to enjoy."

Kegen cocked his head slightly at that. "I thought you were looking forward to defense, My Lord? Did something change?"

"I was looking forward to it, and I still am!" Hadrian groaned in response, "Its just Quirrell can't stop stuttering long enough to get a sentence out! I swear we could have covered twice the material if only we had a decent professor."

"And Merlin knows you need all the help you can get, My Lord." Kegen responded, his voice dripping with condescension, "Just a month ago I had to tell you which end of the wand to hold."

"You know," Hadrian growled back with a glower over his shoulder, "one of these days I'm going to find out I can cause pain to you with a thought through the bond. That will shut you up."

"There is no such thing, My Lord." Kegen sniffed. At least as well as one can through telepathic thought.

"There might be." Hadrian said hopefully.

"There really can't."

"You never know."

"I rather think I would. I am a familiar after all."

"Bah, You are almost as new to all this as I am." Hadrian huffed as he continued to walk down to the lake. "You're just taking advantage of our small difference in experience to make it seem like you are some all knowing fount of knowledge. But soon, I'm going to catch up and then you won't be able to pretend anymore."

"Whatever helps you sleep at night, My Lord."

~/~

Meanwhile, back in a particularly dark office in bowels of the castle, one Severus Snape was deep in thought. He had just had young Harry(Hadrian, he had to keep reminding himself) that morning for the first potions class, and the boy was…not what he had been expecting. Of course, only a small part of him had been expecting, hoping really, that Hadrian would just be a copy of his father, what he had truly expected was either a small, timid boy jumping at shadows much like young Neville, or a wide-eyed innocent like young Hermione. However, what he had found was a quiet, confident, intelligent boy with a passion for learning and a subtle demeanor that almost gave the word 'slytherin' a whole new meaning. As was his usual, Snape had quizzed the students lightly first thing at the start of the class to see who had done the reading, and although, he never raised his hand, Hadrian had answered correctly each time he was called upon. On top of that, he had done so with just enough detail to show that he had an understanding of the subject, but briefly enough to avoid the critical and jealous eyes of his classmates, which was more than could be said for a certain bushy-haired girl. All in all, Snape was torn. To his shame, he realized that not only did he want to, but desperately needed to hate this boy. All of the guilt and anger he had felt all those years ago had never really gone away. They had just stewed in the back of his mind, waiting for this. But now that it came to it, he wasn't sure that he could hate him, and he was confused whether he should be trying to or not. The bottle of Fire-Whiskey dipped lower with the sun as he mused until late in the night. What to do about Hadrian Potter?