Fic: Black Cat Across the Road
Title: Black Cat Across the Road
Author:
mirrored_illusions aka
3am_moonlight
Rating: PG-13.
Fandom: Harry Potter (books)
Timeline: Pre-Hogwarts, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (book 1).
Characters: Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, misc. characters.
Pairing: Harry/Hermione (mostly UST for now since they're children).
WC: 1,700 (chapter one).
Disclaimer: The Potterverse belongs to JKR.
Warnings: Mentions of murder and abuse, but nothing graphic.
Author's notes: Not beta read. Sorry.
Summary: Hadrian Potter thinks back on his life on the day he celebrated his first centennial, and the morning after he wakes up inside the Cupboard Under the Stairs. After finding a newspaper he realizes he has several years to plan his revenge on the Wizarding World, and also to get the education he was denied the first time around.
Chapter 01 - A Reflection in the Mirror: AO3 | DW | FF | LJ |
Hadrian James Potter was standing in front of his bathroom mirror and staring at his own face. Today he had celebrated his first centennial. He had been alive for one hundred years, 89 of which he had spent in and out of the British Magical World. Well, about 91 and a half if he counted the first 15 months which he had spent with his parents, Lily and James Potter before they were killed.
His eyes were still a brilliant, emerald green. His hair was still an inky black that reached his shoulders but was as unruly as it had ever been. Only his face really looked different; it had lost what little baby fat he had been able to gain by the age of eleven, and instead, it had light age lines. It was one of the few signs of his advanced age. As Hermione had once told him: he was lucky to age so gracefully.
Another big difference was his famous scar. Back then it had been an an eye-catching reminder shaped like a lightning bolt which acted like a magnet to the eyes of the wizarding population, but now it was much thinner and faded to the point where people had to almost be nose to nose with him to spot it. The change had been a relief to a then 20-year-old Hadrian.
If people ignored the old look in his eyes then he could easily pass for somewhere between a young 40 and 50, depending on the circumstances and his mood. Hermione had only looked slightly older than him when she had been killed 36 years previously. Over three and a half decades later and he could still not believe who her killer had been.
Forcing his eyes closed and his wandering thoughts back to where they were supposed to be, he re-opened his eyes. Like so many times before he wished that he could go back in time and change his life. Make different decisions, make sure he entered the Wizarding World with the knowledge he should’ve had if Sirius hadn’t been blinded by the shock of his friends deaths and his own need for revenge, and if Dumbledore hadn’t placed him with his magic-hating relatives to make sure he was properly beaten and starved into submission and ready to follow Dumbledore’s manipulations.
After the war was over he had gone back to check if the Dursley’s had been affected by magic somehow, if there were spells or hexes on them or a cursed object in the house. In the end, it had turned out that they really did hate magic that much and the abuse had been their idea. The only part that could be blamed on Dumbledore was a spell which ensured he was fed less than the rest of the family. It had been cast on their wedding bands. Neither of them had regretted their actions, and Dudley’s brief understanding of what had really happened at #4 Privet Drive had been short lived.
Even now the betrayal made him want to torture and kill the old bastard. As far as he and Hermione had been able to tell the old codger hadn’t done it because he wanted power, he certainly had more than enough of that, but rather because he had wanted the Potter wealth. The Black accounts had been viewed as an excellent bonus, and over half of it had been earmarked for the Weasley family.
The set-up had been beautifully staged and in his naive innocence, he had walked straight into the trap and then spent years stupidly fighting to remain there. In the later years, it had been kept up with a liberal use of compulsion charms and love potions.
Ironically his release had come after a drunken night out with Fred and George in the normal world. The three of them had been celebrating the fifth year anniversary of Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes when they had been arrested by the police for being drunk and disorderly. The fact that none of them had been carrying any kind of ID hadn’t helped their case, and neither had the twins’ laughing fit.
They’d been kicked out of the station at 6 am after sleeping off most of the alcohol, and they had walked to a side alley before the Weasley’s had apparated to the flat above their shop and Hadrian had accidentally apparated into Hermione’s apartment outside the magical enclaves instead of number 12 Grimmauld Place. It had turned out to be one of the better mistakes in his life.
Five days of his best friends detox, which she had genuinely believed to simply consist of alcohol, and some overpowered Finite Incantatem ’s later, for what she thought had only been some drunken magical jokes, and suddenly he had been thinking more clearly than he had in nearly a decade.
Most of the time had been spent flushing potions out of his body, and then on his knees throwing up. As his mind cleared he convinced her to go through it as well. Neither of them had been happy when it was over, and the last day had been spent planning their revenge.
Hadrian smirked at his reflection. Payback is a bitch and the two youngest Weasley’s had spent the next 50 years on their knees, literally, paying for theirs. The money had been given to various non-magical charities on Hermione’s insistence as she had refused point blank to take the money or allow Hadrian to take it.
After their “sentence” was over Hadrian had completely obliviated the last 60 years from their memories and then dropped them off a ten-minute walk from the remains of the Burrow. Not that there had been much left for them to come home to, but since they now thought they were 7 and 8 it would’ve been cruel to leave them elsewhere.
The rest of the Weasley’s hadn’t fared much better. Mrs. Weasley had been introduced to a group of dementors and Mr. Weasley had been forced to watch before he had been given his own introduction. The married couple had then been left on Azkaban Island before Hadrian and Hermione had taken the boat back to the mainland.
Hermione had found a hex which made people both delusional and paranoid, and best of all it was nearly undetectable and strengthened over time. It would start with something small and then build from there. Having a Ministry worker inform him that his parents had been found on Azkaban Island lacking their souls had jump-started it. The disappearance of Ron and Ginny hadn’t helped either.
She’d hidden under the Peverell’s Invisibility Cloak and waited for Percy to leave the Ministry for the day before she had hit him with a compulsion charm. It had caused him to decide that a trip down a dark normal alley would be a marvelous idea. Being the pompous git he was he hadn’t noticed anything wrong. Two apparitions, some illegally obtained veritaserum, a hex, and an obliviation later and he had been left outside his flat in Diagon Alley.
Fred and George had been a much trickier project. Their questioning of Percy hadn’t revealed any guilt on their part, but it had implicated that they at the very least had known about the love potions. With that in mind, they’d adopted a wait-and-see approach and then moved on to Charlie who had rushed home from Romania to help out with their parents and missing siblings.
Hadrian had placed several compulsion charms on him so he would be acting more upset than he really had been, and then made sure that the last charm would ensure he would “accidentally” walk into a dragon’s fire when he returned to Romania.
Bill and Fleur had been the only ones to escape their wrath. They had questioned Percy, Fred, George, Ron, and Ginny using Veritaserum and none of the Weasley’s had said he was involved or even implicated in potioning or casting illegal spells on Hadrian and Hermione.
They’d discussed using the truth serum on the married couple but in the end, they had decided that it was too big a risk between Bill’s status as a Gringotts Curse Breaker and Fleur being part Veela. In the end, they went back to Egypt where they’d been working for the last 11 months.
The interrogations had revealed so much of the betrayal and backstabbing which had been going on behind their backs that it had been overwhelming at some points. But being who they were, or at least Hadrian being the Boy-Who-Lived, they had access to most of the witches and wizards they needed to get the full story.
Over the next 40 years or so they’d killed thousands of magical people up and down the country. Many of them had been Death Eaters, others had been supporters or people who were willing to do just about anything for money, fame, or power.
The irony hadn’t been lost on either one of them; between the two of them, they had killed more people than the last five or six dark lords in Britain combined. At the same time, they were hailed as Leaders of the Light. Hadrian had wondered more than once if he used some of the same things to justify their actions as Dumbledore had used to justify his own.
He looked up at the thin scar on his forehead again. What would’ve happened if Dumbledore hadn’t allowed and encouraged the public persona/myth of the Boy-Who-Lived? Would he still have been seen as a hero? Would he have been forgotten as so many other orphaned children had been?
Why had Dumbledore created a myth around him? It still made no sense. Research into the books and Harry Potter merchandise had soon revealed that not only didn’t he get a knut of the proceeds, but 30% were going straight into Albus Dumbledore’s personal account. The yearly payout was enough that he could’ve lived very comfortably without doing anything else.
Hadrian smirked at his reflection as he imagined telling the reporters that he and Hermione were responsible for more deaths in the last 80 years than they could possibly imagine.
Some hero he was.
Author:
mirrored_illusions aka
3am_moonlight
Rating: PG-13.
Fandom: Harry Potter (books)
Timeline: Pre-Hogwarts, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (book 1).
Characters: Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, misc. characters.
Pairing: Harry/Hermione (mostly UST for now since they're children).
WC: 1,700 (chapter one).
Disclaimer: The Potterverse belongs to JKR.
Warnings: Mentions of murder and abuse, but nothing graphic.
Author's notes: Not beta read. Sorry.
Summary: Hadrian Potter thinks back on his life on the day he celebrated his first centennial, and the morning after he wakes up inside the Cupboard Under the Stairs. After finding a newspaper he realizes he has several years to plan his revenge on the Wizarding World, and also to get the education he was denied the first time around.
Chapter 01 - A Reflection in the Mirror: AO3 | DW | FF | LJ |
Hadrian James Potter was standing in front of his bathroom mirror and staring at his own face. Today he had celebrated his first centennial. He had been alive for one hundred years, 89 of which he had spent in and out of the British Magical World. Well, about 91 and a half if he counted the first 15 months which he had spent with his parents, Lily and James Potter before they were killed.
His eyes were still a brilliant, emerald green. His hair was still an inky black that reached his shoulders but was as unruly as it had ever been. Only his face really looked different; it had lost what little baby fat he had been able to gain by the age of eleven, and instead, it had light age lines. It was one of the few signs of his advanced age. As Hermione had once told him: he was lucky to age so gracefully.
Another big difference was his famous scar. Back then it had been an an eye-catching reminder shaped like a lightning bolt which acted like a magnet to the eyes of the wizarding population, but now it was much thinner and faded to the point where people had to almost be nose to nose with him to spot it. The change had been a relief to a then 20-year-old Hadrian.
If people ignored the old look in his eyes then he could easily pass for somewhere between a young 40 and 50, depending on the circumstances and his mood. Hermione had only looked slightly older than him when she had been killed 36 years previously. Over three and a half decades later and he could still not believe who her killer had been.
Forcing his eyes closed and his wandering thoughts back to where they were supposed to be, he re-opened his eyes. Like so many times before he wished that he could go back in time and change his life. Make different decisions, make sure he entered the Wizarding World with the knowledge he should’ve had if Sirius hadn’t been blinded by the shock of his friends deaths and his own need for revenge, and if Dumbledore hadn’t placed him with his magic-hating relatives to make sure he was properly beaten and starved into submission and ready to follow Dumbledore’s manipulations.
After the war was over he had gone back to check if the Dursley’s had been affected by magic somehow, if there were spells or hexes on them or a cursed object in the house. In the end, it had turned out that they really did hate magic that much and the abuse had been their idea. The only part that could be blamed on Dumbledore was a spell which ensured he was fed less than the rest of the family. It had been cast on their wedding bands. Neither of them had regretted their actions, and Dudley’s brief understanding of what had really happened at #4 Privet Drive had been short lived.
Even now the betrayal made him want to torture and kill the old bastard. As far as he and Hermione had been able to tell the old codger hadn’t done it because he wanted power, he certainly had more than enough of that, but rather because he had wanted the Potter wealth. The Black accounts had been viewed as an excellent bonus, and over half of it had been earmarked for the Weasley family.
The set-up had been beautifully staged and in his naive innocence, he had walked straight into the trap and then spent years stupidly fighting to remain there. In the later years, it had been kept up with a liberal use of compulsion charms and love potions.
Ironically his release had come after a drunken night out with Fred and George in the normal world. The three of them had been celebrating the fifth year anniversary of Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes when they had been arrested by the police for being drunk and disorderly. The fact that none of them had been carrying any kind of ID hadn’t helped their case, and neither had the twins’ laughing fit.
They’d been kicked out of the station at 6 am after sleeping off most of the alcohol, and they had walked to a side alley before the Weasley’s had apparated to the flat above their shop and Hadrian had accidentally apparated into Hermione’s apartment outside the magical enclaves instead of number 12 Grimmauld Place. It had turned out to be one of the better mistakes in his life.
Five days of his best friends detox, which she had genuinely believed to simply consist of alcohol, and some overpowered Finite Incantatem ’s later, for what she thought had only been some drunken magical jokes, and suddenly he had been thinking more clearly than he had in nearly a decade.
Most of the time had been spent flushing potions out of his body, and then on his knees throwing up. As his mind cleared he convinced her to go through it as well. Neither of them had been happy when it was over, and the last day had been spent planning their revenge.
Hadrian smirked at his reflection. Payback is a bitch and the two youngest Weasley’s had spent the next 50 years on their knees, literally, paying for theirs. The money had been given to various non-magical charities on Hermione’s insistence as she had refused point blank to take the money or allow Hadrian to take it.
After their “sentence” was over Hadrian had completely obliviated the last 60 years from their memories and then dropped them off a ten-minute walk from the remains of the Burrow. Not that there had been much left for them to come home to, but since they now thought they were 7 and 8 it would’ve been cruel to leave them elsewhere.
The rest of the Weasley’s hadn’t fared much better. Mrs. Weasley had been introduced to a group of dementors and Mr. Weasley had been forced to watch before he had been given his own introduction. The married couple had then been left on Azkaban Island before Hadrian and Hermione had taken the boat back to the mainland.
Hermione had found a hex which made people both delusional and paranoid, and best of all it was nearly undetectable and strengthened over time. It would start with something small and then build from there. Having a Ministry worker inform him that his parents had been found on Azkaban Island lacking their souls had jump-started it. The disappearance of Ron and Ginny hadn’t helped either.
She’d hidden under the Peverell’s Invisibility Cloak and waited for Percy to leave the Ministry for the day before she had hit him with a compulsion charm. It had caused him to decide that a trip down a dark normal alley would be a marvelous idea. Being the pompous git he was he hadn’t noticed anything wrong. Two apparitions, some illegally obtained veritaserum, a hex, and an obliviation later and he had been left outside his flat in Diagon Alley.
Fred and George had been a much trickier project. Their questioning of Percy hadn’t revealed any guilt on their part, but it had implicated that they at the very least had known about the love potions. With that in mind, they’d adopted a wait-and-see approach and then moved on to Charlie who had rushed home from Romania to help out with their parents and missing siblings.
Hadrian had placed several compulsion charms on him so he would be acting more upset than he really had been, and then made sure that the last charm would ensure he would “accidentally” walk into a dragon’s fire when he returned to Romania.
Bill and Fleur had been the only ones to escape their wrath. They had questioned Percy, Fred, George, Ron, and Ginny using Veritaserum and none of the Weasley’s had said he was involved or even implicated in potioning or casting illegal spells on Hadrian and Hermione.
They’d discussed using the truth serum on the married couple but in the end, they had decided that it was too big a risk between Bill’s status as a Gringotts Curse Breaker and Fleur being part Veela. In the end, they went back to Egypt where they’d been working for the last 11 months.
The interrogations had revealed so much of the betrayal and backstabbing which had been going on behind their backs that it had been overwhelming at some points. But being who they were, or at least Hadrian being the Boy-Who-Lived, they had access to most of the witches and wizards they needed to get the full story.
Over the next 40 years or so they’d killed thousands of magical people up and down the country. Many of them had been Death Eaters, others had been supporters or people who were willing to do just about anything for money, fame, or power.
The irony hadn’t been lost on either one of them; between the two of them, they had killed more people than the last five or six dark lords in Britain combined. At the same time, they were hailed as Leaders of the Light. Hadrian had wondered more than once if he used some of the same things to justify their actions as Dumbledore had used to justify his own.
He looked up at the thin scar on his forehead again. What would’ve happened if Dumbledore hadn’t allowed and encouraged the public persona/myth of the Boy-Who-Lived? Would he still have been seen as a hero? Would he have been forgotten as so many other orphaned children had been?
Why had Dumbledore created a myth around him? It still made no sense. Research into the books and Harry Potter merchandise had soon revealed that not only didn’t he get a knut of the proceeds, but 30% were going straight into Albus Dumbledore’s personal account. The yearly payout was enough that he could’ve lived very comfortably without doing anything else.
Hadrian smirked at his reflection as he imagined telling the reporters that he and Hermione were responsible for more deaths in the last 80 years than they could possibly imagine.
Some hero he was.