'Let her starve to death.'
"I used birds as target practice. Little bluebirds, or finches. They were always quick, but so naive and innocent. It took me years to find them beautiful in their own right; a marvel that a living breathing creature could fly. Amazing to think about, of course we have dragons and hippogriffs and Pegasus even but...I don't know. I think birds with how simple they are, are miracles."
Sirius Black sighed through his nose quietly, leaning back on his chair as he crossed his arms over his chest. "Have you considered writing a book?"
Adrian glanced at him dryly, knees curled to his chest with his arms wrapped protectively around them. His cot squeaked slightly, metal grinding as he shifted his weight.
"I don't think anyone would care to see what I have to say." he dismissed casually, turning his head back to stare at the single blank corner in the room; Adrian tended to stare at the single corner often.
"I'm sure someone would." Sirius tiredly assured. "Everyone has a unique opinion, and I think your perspective would be rather interesting, you know, considering you commanded a basilisk to murder someone without blinking and...and oh yes, can speak to snakes."
Adrian didn't rise to the bait, Sirius felt glum about that.
It was more interesting when the boy had arrived, the first time Sirius had met him and seen the scars- bright red and fresh on his skin.
Adrian had changed a lot, in so many ways Sirius couldn't label them all. He was more volatile in a way too different to only be dark magic addiction.
Although he was dangerous, it was certainly more exciting with Adrian at the headquarters.
But here...here in witness protection (as they had so awkwardly phrased it), Adrian was...Sirius didn't know how to describe it.
Now the boy just made Sirius sad. Something in Adrian's unpredictability had settled, and now Adrian was just...quiet.
(Sirius preferred the once snarky boy, he appreciated and admired the volatile snappishness. He didn't like this, it reminded Sirius too much of his late brother.)
Adrian didn't say anything, he stared at the corner.
"You know," Sirius began dolefully, "I used to walk around big cities in my Animagus form a lot. People always treat you differently, and it's interesting to see how people really are. I met this dog, the sweetest dog in the world. It would bring me food- not that I ate dumpster trash but the dog always shared with me. It didn't wag its tail much, and it always looked a bit worried."
Adrian didn't look like he was responding to Sirius' words, but the man wasn't concerned. He continued quietly, "Whenever anyone moved quick it would flinch. It would always run when someone walked towards it, but it was the nicest dog to me. It was so damn terrified of humans, and because of that strangers thought it was vicious. All it wanted was to be left alone, and one day a muggle animal control came and took it away. I apparated to that muggle pound, wanting to see where that poor dog went. They had put it down, 'too vicious for public safety' or something like that."
Sirius stretched quietly, his joints straining silently and cracking mutedly. Adrian still hadn't looked over.
"What I want to know, is if you view us like that pound. Are you just waiting for us to put you out of your misery? Because from my point of view, we're only trying to help you."
Adrian had a wry smile, subtle and small and looking somewhat pained. The edges of his face were fraying away, and Sirius was afraid of what would be left when it broke completely.
"That was a shite story." Adrian sighed, sounding weary. "That sounded so fake, and poorly done it gave me heartburn."
There was the snark, generally absent and only flaring on rare occasions. Sirius smiled, a small twitch of his lips, "maybe it was."
"You should put more effort into it, it was bloody terrible."
"I don't see you trying!"
Adrian huffed and almost instantaneously the energy drained from him. Adrian shook his head slightly, as if forcibly removing any competitive nature he had left.
"Come on kid, you can't be that exhausted yet."
"The repetitive process of breaking, attempting to fix yourself, and falling apart when you realize you never were fixed is very exhausting, Black."
Adrian glanced at him, turning his head ever so slightly. The light made his pale skin seem sickly, his eyes almost glazed. "At this point in time, I wouldn't argue if you were here to put me out. Wasn't that the point of your story? I'm the dog."
"That's not what we do."
"And who is we, because I'm surer than you are that Albus Dumbledore has killed more people-"
"Only people that deserve it," Sirius snapped back, reflexively. Almost instantaneously he felt revolted with himself; he knew better than to indulge the warped mindset Adrian seemed to express more now than ever before. Only light banter, only the shallow gentle topics Sirius had been told. James often was Sirius' only sanity with how to interact with the kid.
(The one-time Adrian had seen James, they had been forced to stun the kid. That, or risk James losing an eye or worse.)
Adrian's face tilted slightly into a small scathing grin, directed at the single wall and nothing further. "Sirius, who do you think deserve death?"
Sirius said nothing, he knew that he couldn't ever answer that.
"I presume you'd say, terrible people...killers?" Adrian mused, eyebrows lifting as if he himself were brainstorming something casual. "No, not that simple...dark wizards and witches? But then how would you classify them as dark- people who owned a dark artifact? No, that's too broad...how about…"
The lilting up and down tone, the playful twist of it was driving Sirius furious, "this isn't a joke, Selwyn."
Adrian snapped his head around, staring at Sirius coldly and blankly. There was no warmth left in his face, there was no pleased smirk at instigating a response. "You're the one not dignifying me with a response, Black."
Sirius swallowed thickly, his throat feeling sore with how sharp he was breathing. "O-okay, well. There's laws against it, murder."
Adrian's eyes shifted with something, sparking with some sort of energy that directed the boy's attention to then and now. "I'm listening."
"The Ministry doesn't allow killing people," Sirius started, feeling more comfortable now that he had backing behind his idea, "they say in auror training that you can't kill your target."
"You do," Adrian bluntly countered. "Murder in hunting targeted peoples are permitted in cases where crimes are punishable by the Dementor's kiss."
Sirius flinched, shaking his head, "that's defense. Those people are dangerous- even the worst on this planet don't deserve murder. It's cruel."
"It isn't." Adrian leaned backwards, tilting his head to rest against the wall with his eyes closed. He was becoming bored with the discussion. "Various curses are actually quite peaceful, more effective than a Dementor's kiss."
"It wouldn't ever stop people from doing those crimes- it...you aren't punishing the-"
"You don't consider the loss of your own life, a punishment in itself?
"That isn't what I'm trying to say!" Sirius snapped out, hands clenched into fists. His fingernails dug into the meat of his palm, painful crescents.
"You're trying to argue why murder is never alright." Adrian murmured lowly, "and yet, your side in this war murders people every week."
"That's different." Sirius defended, feeling attacked on a personal level.
"Why?" Adrian asked, voice low as if he was no longer talking to Sirius himself, "because they deserved it? Because they were far too evil to live? Because they were a... a hazard to others? Black, why do you think Skylar stunned me, strapped me to the back of a thestral and sent me to your clutches?"
"Skylar did what he had to, to keep other students safe."
"Do you feel safe now, Black?"
Sirius didn't have anything to say about that.
(Selwyn would leave him feeling sickened more often than not.)
Adrian Selwyn slept a lot.
Sirius had heard about it from Snape's loud complaining, apparently the kid slept so much he used to skip classes and not do homework. But what Sirius considered 'a lot' was drastically underwhelming once he was facing Adrian's intense sixteen hours of sleep a day. Sixteen, every night.
Merlin, how had the child even had decent grades?
Adrian didn't seem exhausted enough to need that amount of sleep, he just...didn't get out of bed. It looked to Sirius like he didn't bother climbing out of the cot unless food had arrived, in which case he scarfed down an unhealthy amount in a short period of time.
Sometimes he'd relocate to different corners of the room, bundling his blanket around him in a light grey cocoon. It didn't look comfortable, the one-time Sirius asked about it Adrian only ended up laughing in a haunting self-deprecating way.
Adrian was like a violent caterpillar, sleeping and eating and sleeping once more.
Adrian was also incredibly chatty, and so far, hadn't failed to talk once. It was mostly about irrelevant things, or dismissive comments that were nonetheless, conversation.
(On the rare occasion, Adrian would muse about abstract concepts, morality and philosophy with such an innate and advanced level of self-reflection, it scared Sirius sometimes.)
(What scared Sirius even more, were the rare moments when Adrian would smile softly and gaze at a wall without seeing.)
"What's your favorite color?" Sirius offered, taking a seat in what had quickly become, his chair.
Adrian was sitting cross legged this time, looking underwhelmingly plain in the light grey clothing they had given him. It was like prison garments much to Sirius' dismay, but James had stressed multiple times that it was only so they could tell quickly if Adrian somehow injured himself.
"I don't have one." Adrian deadpanned, voice dull and lifeless.
"Really? Not even your noble green? I thought you Slytherin's had house pride."
"Silver."
Sirius nearly did a double take. "Pardon?"
"You asked about my favorite color," Adrian sighed, fiddling with the fraying corner of his blanket, "I like silver."
"A bit gaudy," Sirius blinked in surprise, "Never thought you'd fancy that, though I reckon gold is a bit Gryffindor, isn't it? Silver was Ravenclaw though- ah, I guess it is pretty by itself. Not a bad choice."
Adrian fiddled with the blanket further, looking ready to tear it beneath his clipped fingernails.
Sirius nodded slowly, adjusting the topic. "Ah, what's your favorite magical creature then?"
Adrian blinked slowly, an owlish movement that seemed out of place of his once sharp expression, "I don't know."
"You- you don't know?" Sirius balked, "I thought you would have liked thestrals with how much you apparently hung out around them."
Adrian flinched away as if struck, gazing at the wall blankly.
'Shite' Sirius thought quickly, trying to understand what could have set him off this time.
Sirius struggled to think of how he messed up, he didn't think that was a bad topi-
"Oh." Sirius very smartly blurted.
Adrian twitched, and hid his face further.
That whole situation was still a mystery, although one that everyone doubted they'd ever solve. Skylar had given them a rather detailed summary of what had happened, and given how devastated Adrian was days after the incident, they had concluded that he hadn't been involved with the girl's death. It was still a mystery as to how she died- especially since that twice damned monster was under Adrian's control.
(Why Adrian had been so delirious that night was also another mystery Sirius didn't think they'd solve. They had tested him for illicit potions or injected powders, they hadn't found anything.)
The thestrals though...Hagrid had given word that he'd be monitoring the mysterious new foal. Either out of guilt or a sense of duty, Sirius wasn't going to ask.
"Yeah, oh." Adrian snapped, the unpredictable temper rising once more. It was impossible to track, and now a constant hazard of interacting with the boy.
"I- I'm sorry kid. I'll ah, how about a different topic?" Sirius tried pathetically.
Adrian gave a bark of brittle laughter that was akin to ice cracking.
"What topic?" Adrian asked, his voice fragile and furious but with no target, "What could we possibly talk about?"
Sirius's mouth felt dry, "Ah, any topic that interests you?"
Adrian laughed, a high-pitched grieving noise, "You know what the sad reality is with that, Black? The sad truth is I can't think of one thing that will make me happy anymore! There's absolutely nothing now!"
"Hey, don't talk like that-"
"What do you want me to say? Why can't you just- why can't you just bloody call the ministry already and kill me?"
Sirius left the room shaken; he closed the door on the loud noises that was neither laughter or sobbing but something in between.
"Maybe talking about her will make it easier to-"
"She's gone and will never come back and I have to keep living like this, Black."
"Merlin, a bit dramati-"
"Leave me alone."
"Why are you so chatty? You used to never say anything to us."
"I'm lonely."
"What- lonely? You never chatted with any of us before."
"I had Lutain. I had Lu-"
"Maybe I should give it a shot?" James asked, brows scrunching together as they peered through the one-way window on the door. Adrian had made it off his cot, instead he was now hunched in the corner, countless plates of food reduced to crumbs. Lily could count the vertebrae on his back through his shirt.
"The last time you went in there he screamed at you and tried to gut you." Sirius sighed, rubbing his eyes with the palm of his right hand, "We need Moony to come back from Germany."
"We can't contact him until he gets in touch with the packs over there." Lily soothed, looking heartbroken towards the door, "I don't think Remus even heard the news."
Lily looked through the window again, chewing on her lower lip nervously, "Do you think we should give him more food? I have that pie that Molly made yesterday."
"He's ate four times the normal amount, Lil. Any more and his stomach will burst." James grimaced, looking just as worried. "He- shite Sirius he hasn't even showered."
"They already did a dozen tests on him, they can't find anything wrong with him. No disease and his body's working fine. Even Albus can't figure it out." Sirius admitted sourly, feeling like it was a personal slight. He felt like it was his own failing, as if he had done something wrong. "I don't know what to do, mate."
"You're trying, Padfoot. That's all we can ask." James smiled, although the shadows under his eyes made it hard to take genuine. "I feel terrible over this. He's just a kid."
"A kid who apparently knows his philosophical arguments. How's Sky?"
Lily and James looked just as somber, "He's doing...better than expecting. They're with Molly right now, I don't know how long we can shelter them. Skylar especially, he...he's more determined than ever."
"That bloody prophecy." Sirius cursed sourly, with a pain of exhaustion. "He's still trying to sneak out?"
Lily shook her head, "No, not since the first time. He's absolutely taken with that s-"
Sirius cut her off quickly, shaking his head and jerking his thumb towards the door. Lily froze before she nodded sadly. They still hadn't determined just how far Adrian could hear, how heightened his senses were along with how controlled his accidental magic.
"Can I bring him anything?" Lily asked, looking on the verge of tears, "there has to be something."
"When is Albus coming by?" James murmured quietly, very aware of Adrian, despite the wards.
"Whenever he's back from wherever he was going. The- that cave thing. He thinks he found something very important." Sirius muttered back, shifting on his feet, "I hope soon. I don't think Selwyn is getting any better."
Lily looked alarmed, "You- you think that he's getting sick?"
"Sky mentioned that Adrian was sick from something, I think he's just getting worse."
"Sirius?"
"Yeah kid?"
"Where-" Where did they take her body. Where can I see her again?
"Adrian?"
"Never mind." Where are you, Luna?
"Have you ever tried knitting?" Sirius awkwardly asked.
Adrian scoffed quietly, curled small in a ball on his cot. Lily had brought a softer blanket, baby blue. "You'd give me needles?"
Yeah no, maybe not knitting.
"What about ah, drawing. Arts and crafts and all. You seem like an artsy person."
Adrian shrugged his shoulders, fiddling with the light blue blanket, "I've never tried. Outside of classes I mean. I drew a decent Bowtruckle."
Sirius shifted on his chair, "Yeah I never was one for drawing. What about reading? I thought Lily brought some books on herbology a few days ago?"
Adrian was stiff with his movements, trying not to show how unsettled he was by the prospect. "I don't- not much of a reader."
Sirius raised his eyebrows in shock, "Wait really?"
"It's- It's difficult. To focus."
Sirius licked his lips, shifting once more on his chair. He wished he had something to fiddle with, "That doesn't sound good. Recently?"
Adrian's mouth opened before he closed it wordlessly. He didn't answer and didn't look like he was going to at all.
Sirius tried a new approach, "Well, I mean I'm in here all day so I don't mind chatting about whatever. It must get lonely in here."
Adrian gave a quiet bark of sardonic laughter, "It doesn't anymore."
Sirius frowned and leant forward, "What do you mean?"
Adrian tilted his head back, looking dreadfully blank but somehow wickedly amused, the acidic green and yellow eyes were unnerving to Sirius, "I have plenty of voices to listen to."
Sirius felt a chill run down his spine, "You hear voices?"
'I deserve it, don't I? It's all my fault, isn't it?'
Adrian's delight slowly faded into something crippled. He hunched lower, tilting his body away from Sirius, "I want to be alone now."
Sirius opened his mouth to argue, before he closed it with a sigh and stood. His chair squeaked on the floor, and the door closed a bit louder than he meant to.
The idea that Adrian was hearing voices wasn't good. The idea of hearing things that weren't there always accompanied madness. Bellatrix Lestrange was the best example of that.
Sirius had thought that Adrian's belongings had been dropped off as well, likely stored in a broom cupboard somewhere. Adrian was meticulous, or Sirius remembered Adrian being meticulous way back before whatever horrific event had transpired and warped him this much. Hell, Sirius had grudgingly liked the kid; he had a breathless exuberance when he was dive bombing Mundungus with that gyrfalcon of his, or when explaining the properties of some strange magical monster.
There had to be something in his personal artifacts. Of course, he and Prongs had scoured through everything once, just to make sure that they weren't smuggling in a magical artifact. They went so far as to remove Adrian's wand from the building, it was currently in Tonk's possession (who had let it slip that Remus would be visiting her first).
Of course, there weren't that many cupboards in the little cottage Sirius had holed himself up at.
He and James had come to the same decision that keeping Adrian in the Order headquarters was too big a risk, especially since they didn't have all the relevant information yet as to how dangerous the boy was. With Remus and Albus gone on missions, they had quickly jumped on one of the Black's distant cottages, fit with enough rooms to transform one into a quiet panic room. A few well-placed charms (courtesy of Lily, the charm champion) and they had a glorified prison cell until they could have Albus take a look.
Adrian's gyrfalcon had been sent away and was currently in the care of Hermione, the snake sent away similarly. It wouldn't do to have a snake around a parselmouth, and the cottage was off in Ireland so there wasn't any wildlife that Adrian could interact with if he did manage to escape.
Adrian Selwyn was Sirius' prisoner, no matter how cushy he tried to make it.
And now his prisoner was hearing voices.
"Merlin, I shouldn't have quit being an auror." Sirius bemoaned, searching yet another cupboard for the massive trunk and other belongings of Selwyn. It felt odd to talk out loud with nobody nearby, so he refrained from it.
He eventually did find the trunk, and after a few seconds of lugging the behemoth out into the hallway, he popped the lid open and peered inside. It was magically expanded of course, mostly to accommodate the large stack of textbooks and other oddities. The kid had a complete set of combat potions; he and James' had many of the same ones in case of injury on the job.
Not only that, he had hoarded a strange assortment of magical artifacts that weren't dangerous but certainly weren't common. Hides and horns, claws and other strange bits. Letter openers that hadn't ever been used but looked interesting. A few of the things Sirius recognized from his old house, when Remus had combed through Adrian's collection allowing a portion to reside with the younger boy. Nothing looked malicious or evil, in fact it was all rather innocent.
(A part of Sirius had hoped that he would find something incriminating, at least then they knew what they were dealing with.)
Sirius had been sorting through all the books for an hour, flipping through cover to cover in case any pages were hollowed. Instead, it seemed Selwyn had a hobby of writing in the margins, correcting information on magical creatures wherever it was applicable. It was endearing, something snarky which made Sirius smile.
(Adrian had written more than a dozen snarky comments in a potion book, likely ignoring Snape in favor of doodling.)
Sirius came across a leather-bound journal, high quality too. Flipping through at first Sirius thought it was an antique business ledger, or stolen from a store in Hogsmeade. It took a closer examination and a few names for it to clue in that it was Adrian's business ledger.
Sirius had heard that Adrian had been dealing potions or other illegal objects to underage students. Merlin knows he and James both had smuggled enough firewhiskey into Hogwarts to get expelled, but the details in the book were excruciating.
It had dates, names, precise details on what was exchanged, and then listed if the debt was ever repaid. It was- it was an empire. An entire system to keep him in safety- bloody hell the boy had deals with seventh years.
"Merlin's beard." Sirius gaped, flipping through the high-quality parchment to see even more tiny print, more and more details in tiny writing that wasn't magical at all. Every little letter was done painstakingly by hand; hours and hours of work turned to rubbish.
But...if Adrian was this meticulous he wouldn't have just...stopped.
Sirius had never leapt on the journaling train, but he knew first hand from Lily that once you start journaling or writing, it's very tricky to stop. Old habits die hard after all.
Sirius leapt into the trunk once more, hypothetical tail wagging in his search.
Now he knew what to look for. Anything bound by soft leather, nothing made of cardstock or other woody materials. There were a few other leather books, but most were just for notes taken in classes. All of them were old, the detail and ambition dried up towards the later part of his Hogwarts years.
(It hurt to think about; it pained Sirius to imagine Adrian withdrawing more and more, until even the thought of writing exhausted him. Something he loved turned to bitter ash, as white as Adrian's skin.)
Sirius found something- a leather bound book but rather shoddy quality. He couldn't even imagine Selwyn using something that looked like it came from a second-hand store and felt like swede.
Mostly to entertain the thought, Sirius undid the loose binding and flicked through a few pages.
He nearly dropped it when he spotted handwriting- not too much, but used.
"What the…" Sirius mumbled to himself, flipping to the first page where it was dated on the top corner. It was…. the date was...a long while back actually. Selwyn's fourth year, just before the third task for Skylar.
Sirius traced his finger under the writing, the font unusually neat and tidy on the paper; the ink had smudged slightly from the cheap quality paper.
''It was one of the most disgusting things I've ever experienced. Adalonda says it was blood. Whatever it was, good thing it came in a black bottle. I'd have lost my nerve if I had to see it."
That was it.
That was it.
"What." Sirius balked, confused beyond words.
He flipped to the next page, peering at the words with morbid curiosity, 'Rancid. Painful for days afterwards, headache and sensitivity to light.;
Sirius frowned, none of this was making any sense. Was this some sort of- some sort of log? What for?
The next page held only slightly more detail, just a little bit more on the type of headache or where it was located. Abdominal cramps and pain, then diaphragm pains. Sounded more like a bad bout of food poisoning.
They continued, slowly starting to branch outwards as the date went longer. The first log that wasn't about status but instead was more of a journal was…. almost exactly a year ago.
'It's strange. It's like there is a small gap, a pause between my brain and body. A second where I don't move, although I'm stepping forward. I'm treading through water that nobody can see.'
"What in the blazes?" Sirius asked himself in alarm, already flipping rapidly to the next page which cryptically didn't give any more detail but resonating a similar thought.
The dates slowly began to be longer, distant apart until Sirius recalled that it was right around when Adrian was being held at headquarters. When they were cleaning up all the rooms and keeping Adrian slightly apart due to his volatile nature.
'I have potions. I'm not sure why. They go down cold, and I can feel them sit heavy. Remus says that he can smell something wrong with me. Nobody else seems to be sure, or they can't tell. I'm starting to think that he's right.'
Sirius had a very very bad feeling about it.
He turned the page, alarmed when there wasn't an entry until the date before everyone had left for next term.
'Sometimes I feel like there's nothing. Inside my body, where my lungs and stomach are. Just an empty cavern where potions go and slosh around. And I'm always so hungry.'
Hungry.
Since last year.
Sirius shakily stumbled to his feet, nearly tripping over the mess of textbooks he left scattered throughout the hallway. If the way the book was progressing was accurate, the next entry would be after the train incident. The famous incident here Adrian had seemingly accidentally set an entire compartment on fire.
'I didn't mean to. I think that's the worst bit. I honestly didn't mean for that to happen, it's like trying to keep sand from falling between your fingers. It's too much, it's always too much. The worst bit, the worst bit is that I know nobody believes that either.'
Sirius desperately flipped through the pages; they didn't get any better.
'I'm confused. I don't know what's going on, I feel antsy and on edge. Like I need to shed my skin, like It doesn't fit me right anymore. But instead of growing larger, I feel like I'm shriveling inwards.'
'I can figure this out on my own. I know I can. I wanted to be useful, well, now I am. Now I'm useful- and, and now I'm second guessing it? This is what I wanted.'
'I know I'm stronger. I can see it, I can feel it. There's proof, there's so much proof and somehow...I don't know. I don't feel stronger. I feel terrible.'
'I can cast anything, I know I can. I mean, I mean I can. I'm not struggling in classes, I mean I can do the spellwork. I can do it. I can cast anything. I can do it.'
'I can appar- I can do magic. I have...I've done magic that's advanced. Very advanced. I'm strong, I- I know I'm strong. I can- Moody said this was going to make me useful. I'm useful. I'm useful.'
Moody. It said Moody.
But- this was during the fifth year, the dates started in fourth so this- this was the impostor. This was for Barty Crouch Jr.
This was not good. This was very very not good.
Sirius felt nauseous, and very slowly slid his thumb in on the most recent, and last entry. It would have been the one night before the- before the one girl had-
Sirius turned the pages, staring at the page a few moments to try and comprehend the chaotic disjointed writing on the page, nothing like the careful font from before.
"No, no." Sirius shook his head, turning pages back just to make sure he hadn't skipped anything. It wasn't any better.
'I'll KILL YOU I;LL KILL you.'
'Illkill you crouch I'll KILL YOU,'
'Idon't I dont what did youdoto me CrOUch.'
This looked bad. This looked horrendous in any way he looked at it. They were without question, Adrian's handwriting. He had written diligently over the course of a year, maybe even further. It was personal obviously, originally some sort of...of log, but towards the end perhaps Adrian had somehow forgotten its original purpose.
The log reminded Sirius of old historical records of magical experiments, before they had found a safer way to test. The implications- that Adrian would for some reason be tracking something not well known.
And Crouch- or rather the impostor. Somehow Adrian had been in contact with the impostor, somehow this was… (no, Sirius wasn't positive, he didn't have enough evidence) ...this could have been due to the man. This was bad, this meant that whatever ailment Adrian had likely was purposeful.
(It also proved that there was something wrong with the boy.)
He needed to get in contact with Dumbledore now.
Skylar Potter had the weight of the world on his shoulders, and then some.
In this instance, the 'then some' was a gigantic snake which had no respect for personal boundaries.
"Seriously, stop squirming!" Skylar hissed under his breath, using the flat palm of his hand to gently push the inquiring black head further down under the collar of his cloak.
The snake squirmed a few more seconds as if to spite him before going docile. It was creepy how intelligent the thing was.
Skylar rushed out of the room he was sharing, peering down the stairwell to where Mrs. Weasley had been calling for him.
"I'm here!" He shouted down, smiling strained as she looked relieved.
"Oh, good heavens, there you are." Molly sighed, wiping a pot dry with a worn dishtowel, "the twins have been asking me all day about you!"
Skylar gave a single wave down the stairs, "Sorry! I'll be down in a few seconds!"
He spun around back into his room, closing the door and making sure it was shut before he pulled the snake off his neck. It moved obligingly, slithering nearly silently until it somehow maneuvered onto the bed, staring at him blankly.
"Okay okay fine." Skylar sighed, leaning against the door exhaustively, "Look, I know I told you I'd help but the thing is I don't know how."
The snake's tongue flickered in the air twice.
"And I don't speak snake!" Skylar hissed in a loud whisper, "I don't know what you're saying!"
Its tail thrashed twice. It gave the impression of being distinctly ticked.
"Okay, okay look." Skylar sighed, running his hands through his hair causing it to stand upright, "He- Adrian is with Sirius at one of the Black Cottages but I don't know the exact location. I think they're trying to help with- with ah, his head."
Lutain the snake paused, before very clearly nodded.
Skylar took a step back and slammed himself into the doorknob accidentally, he hissed and nearly crumbled to the floor.
"Merlin," he wheezed, closing his eyes briefly as his right kidney recovered, "Okay, okay okay. So, you're really smart."
The snake's tongue flickered in the air, a bland movement that somehow conveyed much more when Skylar knew that it was intelligence.
"I…" Skylar's mouth felt dry as he thought quickly, "He- you ah, you talked to him a lot. Didn't you? Like, you were- you were Adrian's best friend. He must have told you everything."
The snake paused, its body expanding and contracting with its breaths.
"He- do you know who Luna is- was." Skylar painfully corrected, flinching at his slip, "She, ah, she looked-"
The snake cut him off with a nod. Right, it was intelligent.
"She told me that she was ah, worried over Adrian. That he was sick, or something was seriously wrong with him. Do you have any idea what it could be?"
The snake suddenly seemed much more alert, rising and undulating as it struggled to convey something.
A flash, a burn and Skylar flinched away with a hiss. He pressed one hand against his eyes, warning off the sting of an impending migraine. The snake's mouth opened, a low hiss that...that didn't sound like a hiss. It started, but somewhere along the way it shifted slightly into a more echoing noise, like a geyser or a slew of water.
Skylar flinched and opened his eyes, looking at the snake as his head hurt, "what- what are you…"
"The knife…" Something- something was talking. Around him, through him, in Skylar's head. It wasn't the snake, it wasn't the strange whispers and emotions that Skylar could barely scrape together. This one... the 'voice' was different. This one was almost feminine, grumbling and raspy like what he imagined an ancient witch would sound like. Deep, with strong bass and an accent Skylar couldn't place.
"The knife, Cerestes."
What- no, who was talking. Somehow without a doubt, it was the snake's doing- the indescribable hiss of escaping gas was unmistakable. The snake was frozen with its jaws unhinged like a statue. Like a magical artifact speaking someone else's voice directly into Skylar's brain.
Then, Skylar collapsed to the ground, hands pressed over his ears as he heard a gut-wrenching scream. The noise was horrible; loud and piercing and full of unfiltered pain.
"Stop it!" Skylar shouted, he could barely hear his own voice over the animalistic screaming. It was...it was how he imagined it sounded to be burned alive. Terror, agony, it rang loud enough his eyes hurt.
"Give it to Lutain." The voice, the strange feminine voice.
What was- he...Skylar couldn't understand…
"Lutain." a single hoarse voice whispered out, torn and ruined. Destroyed from screaming, vocal cord snapped and withered and welded together anew. The snake's name was broken with a wet sob, a small pause before it began anew.
The voice gurgled, a rancid vomiting noise followed with pain filled whimpers of something dying.
Lutain snake stopped hissing, and its jaws finally snapped shut with an audible snap.
Skylar felt numb, unable to think.
The room was dead silent. There hadn't been a single noise in it all along.
What Skylar had heard- it was in his head.
(Rattling and screaming and burning and burning-)
"What…" Skylar whispered, letters barely distinguishable to himself.
The snake's tongue flickered through the air and somehow- by some sort of magical means, the snake's voice (that's all it could be) whispered.
His heart, it somehow said, impressions yet distinct words that pressed against Skylar's brain like a wax seal. Is mine.
"I don't understand." Skylar felt tears slide over the side of his face, "I- what did you do? How? I can't- how are you doing this?"
The snake lowered itself, curling itself into a sinewy mass of black scales. Its yellow belly was hidden, it became shapeless from where it's body ended.
"This- I'm hallucinating." Skylar whimpered, whining as he kept crying. He couldn't get the screams out of his head.
The snake hissed, a very snake-sound instead of the strange noise from earlier.
"Are- are you saying that this...this woman, it...she made him sick?"
The snake hesitated, wavering as if in thought.
"I don't understand. I want to help him." Skylar stressed, "I don't- what did he do? How do- how do you have his heart?"
The snake's tongue kissed the air. Its gaze could kill a man.
Half. It clarified with broken whispers. Split.
"Okay," Skylar breathed shakily, ignoring the fact he was talking to a snake, "And the screaming? Who was the woman?"
Merlin, Lutain wasn't an Animagus or a familiar, he was something else. Something unholy and demonic, but nonetheless something new.
The snake paused, gathering its words. Adalonda.
That was the name of the Basilisk. The giant, murderous basilisk. The name Adrian argued against, delirious and stumbling in the forest.
"Do…" Skylar's voice was wavering, "Do...do you think that...was she persuading him?"
Lutain's tail spasmed in fury. Unspoken but easily interpreted rage.
"Do...do you think that...that it was wrong?"
'Are you upset with the basilisk? With whatever it gave him?' Skylar wanted to ask, but was fearful for his own voice.
The snake gave a subtle nod. Skylar felt his heart pounding, racing harder and fast enough he could hear it in his ears. He felt like static, as if his fingertips and toes were not there at all.
The snake was angry with the basilisk, the basilisk somehow had...had hurt Adrian.
What would this creature ask of Skylar? What could it possibly want in some sort of...of restitution?
'An eye for an eye' Skylar thought to himself, mouth moving to feel the words on his lips. That sounded… That sounded like a strain of justice Adrian Selwyn would indulge in.
And if Skylar was sure of anything, it was how linked the boy was to his familiar.
"Do you think that...do you want me to...to get rid of the basilisk?" Skylar asked, leaning forward to look at the snake with as much seriousness as he could muster.
'Do you want me to kill Adalonda?' Skylar thought to himself with a certainty that no longer permitted it to be a question. 'An eye for an eye?'
Lutain opened his mouth with a savage hiss. Yes.