Chapter Text
There were whispers on the wind in Diagon Alley. Little pinpricks of memories dotted around the place. Dead green eyes watched a hazy young boy with come out of the emporium with a snowy owl once known as Hedwig in a cage in his arm. A giant lumbered out there was a glowing smile on the boys face, muted laughter was surrounded by the golden glow of summer before it all faded into a dark evening night in the alley.
The man blinked slowly and snow covered his lashes before the iris moved to focus on Ollivanders boarded up shop. It dilated and a boy appeared, holding a wand with such joy and reverence little else had mattered in that moment. The boy was illuminated by a golden glow and Ollivander grinned while Hagrid once again smile and laughed. The man watched them both leave the shop, pushing through a throng of people and once again the alley was empty, littered with snow and broken beams and burnt out husks of what had once been Diagon Alley.
There was only one set of footprints, of which were his own.
Eyes slowly swept the alley, skin pale and dark bags beneath his eyes. His chin was tucked into a high collared jacket and he just stood there, as his shoulders grew heavier with the weight of the snow drifting through the alley. Wind stirred the snow beneath his feet, making it seem like the spirits of the dead were dancing in the road. For they twists and raised before they fell, like a pirouette and then a spin-
The man kept walking, palming a broken wand in his pocket. The wooden splinters hurt his thumb but his hands were too numb for him to really care. He could feel the hollows in the wood, smoothness of it, the crack that hadn't been caused by him on two halves of the wood.
He heard whispers and they made him stop. He looks to Gringotts and watches the boy and the giant walk out the steps- moments later a dragon climbed out of the roof, fading into the distance and the azure blue sky returned to the depths of the inky darkness.
His shoulder is suddenly shoved and he watched the Weasley family walking up the road behind him, laughing and there's the boy again, older and getting his hair ruffled by a dead twin. There's a girl this time too, laughing beside him, books clutched to her chest.
He watches them disappear around a corner before the hairs on his arm raise and he looks in front of him, a boy beaten and bloodied, holding the resurrection stone was staring at him. One of the lenses of his glasses were broken and he looked roughly eighteen.
This was no longer a memory, but he looked away from the haunting figure and when he risked a look back, there was nothing there. No footprints in the snow- only...
His boots crunch on the snow as he walks towards where Harry Potter had been and knelt, reaching for the resurrection stone. It hummed in his hands and-
"Can we go get ice cream?" A child asks and the man looks up to an alley full of life, smiles and gossip.
"Fifteen percent-off books at Flourish and Blotts!" A voice calls out and he turns to see a young witch standing at the door, handkerchief in hand, waving it to gain attention.
"Expedition to see the Welsh Green leaves in ten!" A voice hollered. The alley was brimming with life and he looks around. People walked into Gringotts stiffly, people avoided Knockturn, not even acknowledging its existence or walking down it with black capes. There were animals fluttering about as animals broke free from the menagerie, causing a rampage-
"You shouldn't be back here." He turns around and looks at one Draco Malfoy. The lighting is off though, he looks pale, and blue and there are shadows all over him, as if it were night-
He puts the resurrection stone in his pocket and all the noise fades to nothing and the alley goes back to looking neglected and empty, broken and abused.
Draco Malfoy stood there in a black hood, unimpressed but also worried. Though he'd never admit it and Hadrian did his best to ignore it.
"I can be wherever I want," Hadrian responds stiffly, fixing the cuffs of his robes.
"Not without being sent to Azkaban, this place could have been crawling with Aurors," Draco said. "Or worse, Unspeakable's." Hadrian rolls his eyes.
"They don't exist." Draco shakes his head and walks past him. Hadrian looks over his shoulder at the lonely silhouette that was his faithful friend and walks after him, if slowly and he looks over the damage. "Are you here to tell me where the Ministry has gotten?" Draco narrows his eyes, looking over his shoulder.
"Hadrian they're still after you-"
"Not me, Delphini." Draco stops and with a loud sigh, turns and says,
"There is no Delphini, Hadrian. It's a delusion, it's schizophrenia, as Granger likes to put it." Hadrian clenched his jaw and growled,
"Delphini is real-"
"Hadrian!" Draco shouts, eyes full of angry tears. "The daughter of Voldemort and Bellatrix does not exist. It's disgusting to think about, disgusting to obsess about and the extent you have gone to-" Draco runs a hand through his hair in frustration but doesn't continue nor raise his voice any higher.
It only leaves Hadrian feeling cold.
"Draco-"
"No," Draco says, breathing heavily. "I'm the Head Auror now Hadrian, I can't keep doing this. I am going to give you one more chance but the next time we see each other-" Draco was breathing heavily, "I will arrest you. And I will take you straight to Azkaban myself." Hadrian huffs and looks away, working his jaw. Then he reaches for a ring on his left hand and Draco's eyes widened. "Wait- Hadrian-"
Hadrian threw the Malfoy Alliance ring on the ground and stared Draco down.
He thought Draco's silhouette was the lonely one when in reality- Draco could go home, to a family and a warm fire with fire whiskey to drown it all. Hadrian only had the snow and the broken Wizarding World around him. In Draco's eyes he was a shadow of the figure he used to be, haunted but fitter than ever- darker than ever, Hadrian was a threat- but still a friend. An old friend.
"I guess I won't be needing this then," Hadrian says coldly, staring Draco down. "One day you'll realise Malfoy-" Draco flinched, quartz eyes alight with grief and horror, "-but when you do I pity you." Hadrian kicked the ring towards Draco. "You won't be able to find me again. I'll find you." The threat hung in the air and Draco was staring at him.
"Hadrian-" Hadrian flickered with the wind and then he was gone. No crack, no apparition. No portkey. It was what Draco had meant. 'and the extent you have gone to-'. Dabbling in dark magic? It was much worse than what everyone thought.
Hadrian walked towards an abandoned Grimmauld Place and walked up the stairs. "Kreacher!" The elf glares at him and he glares back. "Pack everything in the house." Kreacher stepped back in horror.
"Master cannot be thinking-"
"Now," he growled and the old elf disappeared. He stood there until it was finished and then when everything was in a pile in the foyer, he sent it to his base. Kreacher screamed at him as he burns the house down.
Walburga screams too, the wards scream, cursed items scream, they all scream and Kreacher tries to kill him- before trying to kill himself as a bad elf. Hadrian doesn't stop him. He leaves it all to burn before he disappears in all but a shadowy ring left upon the floor.
~Fourteen years later~
Draco ran as hard as his feet would allow, a wound staining his hair red and obscuring his sight in his right eye. He didn't even know where he was- or where he was going. He'd just apparated and he'd run, to lose any pursuers-
Merlin how had it come to this? Merlin Harry-Hadrian had been right- this whole time Hadrian had been right. Fuck all those years ago why hadn't he just listened? Hadrian never did anything if he didn't truly believe some part of it. Fuck Draco knew this- he'd known this! Even when Hadrian had been Harry, no matter how stupid Harry was, he always ended up being right because he knew certain random pieces of information that pulled together to make the truth! Like knowing Voldemort was back- how Arthur Weasley had almost died- how he'd known something wasn't right with Draco and tried to kill him in fifth form because y'know, everyone does that.
Yes he still held a grudge- but it was a smidge of nothing compared to the grief he felt. His wife had been killed and his son was dead- thanks to that bitch Delphini- the Minister was dead and he's not sure what's really happening- he'd been tossed outside the Ministry and his magic had spasmed, taking him across such a long distance to render him almost dead on his feet with magic fatigue and loss.
He gasps and stumbles to his knees and hits- cobblestone. He looks beneath him as sweeps aside vines and moss frantically to see a pathway. He gasps for breath as he looks up through the dark foliage.
He'd left Hadrian on a night not unlike this- fuck he'd broken up with the man that night- just not with those specific words. They'd never spoken or seen each other again. There were newspapers of his whereabouts and actions but he'd gone MIA years ago. People just said he was dead and was usually accompanied by a, 'Poor boy', or 'good riddance'.
Draco stumbled to his feet, leaning on a boulder before he made his way to an overgrown gate, slightly ajar and he stumbled through, slamming it shut and then turning to the mist ridden area behind him.
He let out a small whimper as he walked on a broken ankle. Quartz eyes strained in the dark and flittered fearfully from side to side, blown wide but one eye was slightly contracted, showing a mild concussion.
Still the man keeps stumbling along, a groan of agony escaping him every so often. There's a slick moss underneath his fingertips every so often when he leans against the trees. He's leaving unmistakable traces but he's hyperventilating and trembling because of the pure agony he's in- so when he sees an abandoned manor ahead, he feels strong relief-
Until a window is lit up by a fame and a figure is staring out at him.
Draco tries to hid, pushing into the foliage, his grey auror robes in shambles and stained with blood and dirt. He presses a hand to an injury on his side and pushes deeper into a bush as he hears a key unlock the door and there's a shrill bird cry. But he can't regain control of his breathing and he stares as a shadow appears in front of him-
He sees the shadow of a wand in front of his face and he can't think-
"Lumos," Draco is blinded and agony races through his eyes and he can't see who the person is- but the voice sounds vaguely familiar. There's a long silence and the wand is removed from his face- he's dragged upright suddenly and towards the mansion.
"Let- let go of me," Draco gasps but the grip only becomes rougher and he watches as he's dragged up the stairs, his kidnapper behind him- before the doors slam closed on him and fear consumes his chest.
Young wixen are taught never to enter mansions alone, especially in the dead of night as older, ancient wixen might steal them away-
He's dumped on the floor and the shadow moved towards a table and a flame leapt to life, illuminating features and-
Draco's heart stops dead in his chest for a moment when he catches a flash of red eyes- and images of the shadow and Voldemort overlap-
Before fingers snap in front of his face, accompanied by a voice, "Malfoy snap out of it." He blinks and focuses again and the eyes are emerald green, the skin is tanner than it should be and he's looking neater than ever- sporting a trimmed black beard that isn't very long at all. Black hair is pushed back and he looks in his mid forties or so.
"Had-Hadrian?" Draco asks in disbelief. "Wait- wait-" Hadrian rolls his eyes and opens a cupboard filled with things. He looks around and noticed that the interior is in pristine condition-
"The exterior is a glamour," Hadrian murmurs, pouring something into a vial before stalking over and if Draco didn't trust Hadrian- he'd be terrified. Shitting his pants level terrified. Because Hadrian's expression was dark, his eyes held nor reflected no light and he roughly grabbed Draco's chin and forced something down his throat and pinched his nose to force him to swallow.
And if that wasn't something kidnappers did- Draco would have still trusted Hadrian.
"What- the fuck was that?" Draco sputtered. Hadrian didn't bother looking at him but soon the tremors stopped, but Draco still clenched his injury. In fear of what Hadrian had just done as his body began to feel sluggish. Hadrian knelt by his feet and then slowly sat down, staring Draco down.
"A relaxant. It'll stop you hyperventilating, slow your heart rate and it'll speed up your recovery process. It'll also numb the pain but its extremely sludgy so you would have spat it out. Take it from experience." Draco stared at Hadrian who jerked his head towards his hair, "You look like Weasley if he had a bit more... red." Draco laughs, which is good he supposes. His lungs weren't damaged.
"Fuck I've missed you you bastard." Hadrian didn't smile though, merely said flatly,
"Did you?" He stared at Hadrian and said slowly,
"Hadrian look-" Hadrian held up a hand, not interested.
"It doesn't matter now Draco. Nothing you say will make me forgive you. What you did forced me to go through unimaginable things by Delphini. Do not go there. For even a moment or I'll leave you here to die out on my floor." Draco goes cold with Hadrians heartless statement. "Now let me see the wound." Draco pulls up his shirt where the curse had obliterated his skin and cut deep. Hadrian wordlessly begins healing and Draco says nothing.
He also fixes his ankle but that was a painful process- not that Hadrian was fazed. In fact he seemed mildly irritated- which hurt.
"You got married," Hadrian says instead, distracting him, rather effectively. Draco licked his lips and looked away.
"It was what my mother wanted." Hadrian bandages up his head quickly and effectively- as if he didn't want to touch him longer than necessary. "Do you have information on Delphini I can take back- to fight back?" Hadrian glares at Draco and he backs up- "I didn't mean that you haven't been fighting- bloody Merlin Hadrian I have no idea wha you've been doing these past years. You just disappeared-"
"I was sustaining," Hadrian responds stiffly. His brow furrows and suddenly Draco is floating in the air and he grunts as his injuries pull.
"Give me some warning next time," he grumbles but he's sat down in a fancy kitchen soon enough and he spots a new house elf that pops in, looking at Draco cautiously and darkly.
"He's safe," Hadrian says but Draco isn't sure who he's talking to because the house elf ignores him.
He would ask where Kreacher was, but he knows that Hadrian burnt down Grimmauld Place, Kreacher probably burned with it. Draco doesn't even know where to begin so he asks,
"Sustaining?" Hadrian doesn't reply for a long while before he softly says,
"Under torture." Draco jerks, staring at Hadrian as he makes tea of sort.
"Had-Hadrian what do you mean?"
"It doesn't matter." But as Draco paid attention, he noticed Hadrians trembling hands, scars criss crossing over his fingers and as he strained upright, noticed hints of scars starting just at the collar of his shirt. "I'm sorry for you loss." Draco glared at Hadrian and clenched his fists.
Right, Scorpius is dead- so is Astoria.
"Scorpius seemed like a bright kid." Draco stared at his back as he brought over an English breakfast tea. Draco stared at Hadrian who now avoided his gaze.
"How do you know his name?"
"Just because you never saw me doesn't mean I wasn't there," Hadrian replies, taking out the tea bag and adding sugar to his.
"Wait- so what were you there for?"
"Your wedding to Astoria, Lucius's funeral, Scorpius's first birthday and his fifth, but after that I let you all be. The last time I saw Scorpius was when we happened to run into each other at the Ministry, you were showing your family your office. I was going to the Department of Mysteries."
"So you were around," Draco says quietly. "How did we not-" he pauses and actually looks at Hadrian, putting his old appearance up against this one- and he looks different. Really different. Finer- less... muggle? Hadrian raised a brow.
"Finally noticed?"
"A blood adoption- to- to who?"
"Sirius left me a twenty-first birthday gift." He stared at Hadrian and that explained the longer black hair, it explained the finer features because even if Draco loathed to admit it- Sirius had been a handsome wizard, only after he fixed up his life though.
"I'm not even surprised," Draco said quietly. "But you didn't-"
"I didn't take it till later, no." Draco didn't have anything to say, except he was unpleasantly aware of the scars now and he stared at Hadrians hands that toyed with the handle of the tea cup.
"Hadrian?"
"Hmm?"
"Why am I here?" Hadrian paused, lips to the rim of the cup and green eyes stare him down before they avoid him entirely.
"You would have died if I hadn't interfered. You had no magic left you moron."
"I-" Draco pauses but it makes sense. He hadn't expected to get anywhere. "Why here?"
"Because you would have bled out or they would have just followed you. There's wards around here."
"Where is here?" Draco looks out the window and Hadrian looks up and says,
"The Gaunt Family Manor." Draco physically jerks and screeches,
"WHAT?" Hadrian merely raises an unimpressed brow.
"What, it's a major fuck you to Delphini that I know her ancestral home and she doesn't. It's in my possession not hers. Which is amusing given the fact I was in her possession." Draco stares at Hadrian and sees a dark smirk marking his lips and he sinks into his chair a bit.
He used to make fun of the Gryffindor boy- but now he dearly missed him. That boy had died on a bridge, or perhaps in the forest. Either way, Harry Potter was dead and only Hadrian remained. The distance between them wasn't more than a metre but it felt like whole oceans.
"Remind me not to get on your bad side," Draco muttered. Hadrian stares at him and looks like he wants to say something- which Draco has a vague idea of but it only makes him feel worse. Luckily he doesn't say it and returns to sipping on his tea. "Hadrian- I'm-"
But he never gets to say it as something cold enters his chest and Hadrian drops the cup, standing up and pulling out a wand that should have been destroyed.
Draco made the mistake of looking down, at an antique sword pressed through his body and in mere moments, found himself on the floor. A flash of green and-
Draco Malfoy died on the floors of the Gaunt Family Manor.
~Ten years later~
Water drops from black eyelashes and dulled green eyes could have been black as they gaze out of a graveyard. The rain seemed to pick up speed and slow at the same time. He blinks slowly as he tries to ground himself before looking down at a white marble gravestone.
Here lies Draco Malfoy,
Who fought until the end
Delphini stands beside him, talking but Hadrian couldn't get any words out. The Imperius was too strong and he'd wanted to scream and shout at Draco when he'd arrived that he had to run. But his body hadn't belonged to him. Delphini shrugs and he just stares at the gravestone.
He can hear a bird crying in the distance somewhere and pulls out his phone in his pocket to check the time.
20:15
They should have moved on by now. But her voice seemed to slide past his ears and he couldn't understand a thing. He saw gravestone shaped moss sculptures. This place hadn't been touched in centuries and it pained him not to be able to bury Draco's body with the rest of his family. It felt so out of place- so wrong. He wasn't buried beside Lucius- he didn't know his mother had died mere moments before him, he wasn't buried beside his wife or his son-
"Come," Delphini says as they walked towards a black car and Gods for the life of him he can't fight back. He's tried- and failed. The person they're speaking too is an obscure old fashioned wizard who keeps looking at him like he's a prize to be won. He wonders if that's what it is about. If Delphini is finally tired of him and suspect that is the case.
They rule the world already why would they need Hadrian to continue that? He might have been part of the brains and some of the brawn, but in the end his face was just the face used by Delphini to signify her rule. He sits in the passenger seat beside the driver, a loyal Death Eater known as Augustus Rockwood. He's older now but it doesn't matter, he's as loyal to Delphini as he was to her father.
It's partially why Delphini has hung onto him for so long. There was a part of her father he couldn't part with, a piece of the Locket. The Locket was that pocket in time where Riddle was powerful- but not insane. Where he still had some humanity left.
It was not as easy to part with him like all else in his life so he says nothing.
"You want his bones?" Delphini asks in surprise and the wizard laughs.
"His animagus bones, if you would please. They're quite precious." Hadrian stares impassively out the front seat while a finger brushes the nape of his neck.
"How precious?" Delphini purrs behind him. Hadrian felt the Wizards gaze drill into the side of his head.
"Well so long as you haven't messed with them- his bones may have the ability to turn back time." Silence reigned and Delphini says sharply,
"You tell lies."
"I do not Your Grace. I tell the truth, he is the Master of Death. He has untold fates awaiting him. We can kill him, take his bones and you will become Master of Death, while I take the bones." More silence and Hadrian felt resigned to death then and there.
"Pull over Augustus." He did so in a grove and Delphini snapped, "Get out Potter." So Hadrian opened the door and stepped out of the car- and the control slackened as Delphini got out, clearly distracted as the wizard held her a ritual knife- something on that knife was interfering and the wizard made eye contact with him- and he's reminded of something Death once told him.
All Ancient beings of magic- Old Witches and Wizards- those who practice the Olde Ways, respect Eldritch beings such as myself and therefore our Masters. None of them would dare to harm you while I still roam the earth for they know I will claim them no matter which lifetime they are in. I will torture them for all eternity if I wish or I will consign them to oblivion.
How kind of you.
I'm aware of my kindness Master.
Delphini makes eye contact with him and steps forward. "This won't hurt a bit Potter." The longer she held it the weaker the connection grew but for some reason she seemed unaware- and when she got close enough, she whispered in his ear- "No hard feelings yeah? If it fails I'm sure you'll come back anyway and the hunt will begin all over again anyway."
He merely gives her a cold smile and her eyes widen as a green glow envelops them and he's gone.
Hadrian Black stood in the Great Hall of Hogwarts- staring over a crowd and Minerva McGonagall stared at him from her seat at the high table-
Kids screamed but he was nothing but relieved and he gave McGonagall a smile small of apology-
His eyes flashed red and he knew it was the end. He stared at the magical sky of Hogwarts and his skin cracked- his body finally breaking under the torture he'd endured of magic and Hadrian Black ceased to exist in the year of 2038. Aged 57. In the Great Hall of Hogwarts, his home and lifeblood.