Letters and exploring
Voldemort is having a good day. He has managed to restore his looks and his sanity. He is currently in a meeting with his Elite, or what is left of them at least, and discussing how to go about breaking the rest out. In the meeting are Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy, Barty, Corvus Lestrange, Severus Snape and Thaddeus Nott, all people he would, reluctantly, call his friends. Even if he would never admit that out loud. So, yes, he would say he is having a good day. At that moment, he hears a knock on his window and upon closer inspection he sees a falcon trying to get in. With a letter. Suddenly this day might not be so good after all.
Voldemort sighs and opens the window for the bird to get in, which, much to everyones surprise, lands right in front of him, holding its claw out. He stares at it. Who would send him a letter? Him? The Dark Lord? The one the ministry is in denial about? The one everyone outside this room hates? Well, except his followers in azkaban but they can't write him a letter, now can they? Thaddeus clears his throat. "Shouldn't you at least open it?" Voldemort sighs again and takes the letter, opening it, just to find parchment laced with Veritaserum inside. He shiggs again. That already promises a headache, but he beginins reading anyway.
Dear Lord Slytherin,
I am who you know as Harry Potter, and I am writing you in hopes that you will stop attempting to kill me. Now, before you burn this letter, please wait and read what I have to say. I have recently found out that I am your horcrux, as well as your heir through said horcrux. Thus I would like to declare myself neutral in the upcoming war. As of right now I have taken residence in one of my properties otside of Britain and descided to change my choice of schooling, since I would like to avoid the general british population. I shall await your response, as Altair, my falcon, will not leave without one.
With kind regards,
Hadrian Ignotus Potter.
Lord Peverell, Lord Black, Lord Potter
Heir Slytherin, Heir Gaunt
He takes everything back, this is not a good day. In fact, he might go into a crisis.
A Horcrux? And what is with the new name? And the titles? "Pip, bring me a headache reliever."
After taking the potion his house elf brought and calming down somewhat, he reads the letter again. And again. The contents do not change. Shit. He notices his elite looking at him with a mixture of trepidation and concern and sighs.
"Narcissa, I think you might want to send out a last minute invitation to your Lammas ball this year." He definitely is not ignoring the bomb that was just dropped on his head, by talking about the least important matter the letter just brought up. Definitely not. Narcissa looks up in a rare moment of barely hidden surprise. "My Lord?" Voldemort sighs again and hands her the letter. At least everyone in the Elite knows about his horcruxes, so he wont have to worry about that.
"Oh my... I shall send the invitation as soon as possible." At least it seems like he isn't the only one caught off guard by this information. He motions for her to pass the letter onto the others and runs his hand through his hair.
"Due to recent revelations, Po- my heir shall not be harmed, no matter what." "Yes, my Lord" is heard from around the table and Voldemort sighs again. He needs something to drink after this. Something strong. He snaps out of his self pity when the falcon in front of him calls impatiently. Right. The damn bird won't leave without a reply. He groans and glares at the bird, deciding to ignore the faint snickers of his Elite. He takes some parchment and a quill and writes a response.
While Voldemort is busy writing his letter, he doesn't notice the mild crisis one of his followers has. Severus is reeling. Potter really just turned his entire life upside down. The brat is a horcrux. Does Dumbledore know? Probably. The old man knows way too much and never tells anyone anything. But if he knows, then he has been raising the boy like a pig for slaughter, knowing damn well that he made Severus swear to protect the boy. Damn that old coot.
However, it seems like his plan backfired. The brat is now aware of the horcrux and has no desire whatsoever in fighting in this war. He seeks neutrality, of all things. Something Severus is sure the Dark Lord will grant. After all, this takes his "prophesiesed enemy" completely out of the equation. It basically guaranties victory for the dark. Not to mention the Dark Lord will want his horcrux safe, which, in turn, means Severus isn't bound to the light anymore. He can fully serve his Lord once more. And the best thing about it? Dumbledore doesn't suspect a thing.
Snapes internal monologue gets disrupted as Voldemort finishes writing his letter and sends it off with the bird. The meeting continues.
When Hermione goes up into her room after breakfast and notices a letter on her desk, with no owl in sight, she is surprised. She left her window open for some fresh air, which means any bird had easy access but it's still strange for it to leave right after dropping the letter off. She goes over to her desk and picks it up, but it doesn't give any indication as to who it's from. Well, she won't find out if she doesn't read it so she opens it and takes out the parchment.
Hey 'Mione,
I know the way I sent you this letter is unusual but I need you to listen. First of all, I'm fine. I left the Dursleys and moved into one of my properties after a visit to Gringgotts. Nobody knows about this and I need you to keep this a secret. From everyone. Please, it's important. I found out a lot of things, things I cannot tell you over a letter. Just trust me with this for now, okay? Can we meet this afternoon in the Leaky Cauldron? I'll book a private room from 2pm to 3pm under Jameson Evans . I'll be waiting for you, whether or not you'll show up is up to you. Just please don't tell anyone. I promise to explain everything when we meet.
Love you,
Hadrian (Harry).
Well that isn't reassuring at all. In fact, this raises a bunch of questions. Why did he leave the Dursleys? Don't get her wrong, she's glad he finally left, but why now? Since when does he have properties? On that note, properties? Plural? Why does nobody else know about this? Why can't she tell anyone? What on earth did he find out that he can't tell her over letter? And what's with the new name? That letter raised a lot of red flags and she doesn't quite know what to do with it. But she trusts Harry. Hes like a little brother to her and she knows he feels the same.
She sighs and sits down on her bed, letter still in hand, to gather her thoughts. She reads the letter again and tries to find some kind of clue about what on earth is going on.
Something obviously happened at Gringgotts, something that makes him question who to trust. Considering he couldn't just tell her over letter and didn't want an answer, he thinks it could get intercepted. The fact he wants to meet her this soon means it's important and urgent, so either it concerns her, involves her, he thinks it involves her or he desperatly needs to talk with someone about it. Or all of the above. She has a very bad feeling about this.
Hermione sighs again. It's no use further thinking about this, she'll just overthink it. All she can do now is meet him this afternoon and find out what happened then. That idiot better have a good explanation for worrying her so much.
When Hadrian wakes up he is confused. His bed has never been this comfortable, it feels like he's on clouds instead of in his bed. Then his memories from the previous night come back and he sits up.
He looks around the extremely big room. Really, the entire ground floor of number four, privet drive could fit in here. The first thing he notices is that there are a lot of floating mist like strings everywhere, both killing curse green and a very deep black. Remembering that he now has magic sight, he decides to ignore it, pushing it into the back of his mind. The color scheme fits the rest of the house, or what he saw of it untill now. A mixture of light green, mint green, silver and jade with elegant ebony furniture.
He gets up and walks into the middle of the room to get a better look. There are three doors, one leading into a hall outside, one leading into a big, albait empty, walk in closet and one leading into a bathroom. The door leading outside is on the wall opposite of the bed, the other two are on the wall next to it. Between the two doors is a shelf, which is also empty.
On the other side of the bed is a short wall, separating the sleeping area from a study area. On the side of the bed there is another shelf against said wall, on the side of the study area there is a bookshelf, both empty. Next to the bookshelf is a big desk wit a chair. In front of the study area is a seating area consisting of a couch, an armchair and a coffee table in front of a fireplace.
The last wall is entirely made of glass and leads to a balcony with a beautiful view of the island. Next to the couch is the reptile enclosure with a sleeping Apophis inside. Next to the shelf of the bed and next to the desk are the two perches for his birds. In short, the room is absolutely beautiful and Hadrian makes a mental note to go shopping and fill both the closet and the shelves soon.
He casts a tempus and notes two things. One, his wand doesn't really seem to be working like it should be, because that was way more difficult then needed and two, it 's eleven in the morning, which means he has three hours untill he needs to be at the leaky cauldron. That's enough time to get ready and explore the manor.
Hadrian goes into the bathroom and stops for a moment to admire it's beauty. The room is entirely made out of black marble. In front of the door is a huge bathtub built into the floor next to it in the other corner is a big rain shower. Between the shower and the bathtub is the toilet and the sink is on the wall across the shower. On the wall above the sink is a shelf whose doors are made out of mirrors.
Hadrian takes a shower and gets dressed again, in the same clothes he wore before, since he has nothing else. He really needs to go shopping. After he's done he calls for Tarus and asks the elf to lead him to the family dining room again, deciding to let Apophis sleap some more. Once there, he has an amazing breakfast consisting of some waffles, bacon and a fruit salad, plus his not so amazing tasting nutrition potion.
After breakfast he casts another Tempus. 12 am. So he has about two hours to tour his new home. "Tarus." The little elf pops up in front of him. "Yes, Master?" "I have about two hours. Can you show me around the manor in that time?" The elf nodded, though he looked like he wanted to beam at him instead. "I can do that."
They first went into the second floor of the Family wing. "There are the Lord quaters, but you already know them, next to them are the Heir quaters." Hadrian goes inside and found they look much like his own, just a tad bit smaller. "There are five other rooms for family members." Hadrian decided not to look at those, he was on a time schedule after all and they probably look quite similar.
After that they went down to the first floor, where Tarus first pointed of the location of the family dining room. Next to the dining room is the portraitroom, then the family sitting room and after that the Lord study. Hadrian, decided to go into both the portraitroom and the Lord study another time, lest he looses track of time talking to the portraits. A very real possibility.
Thus, he goes into the sitting room. The colour scheme is the same as the rest of the Manor. Hadrian finds it oddly calming and comfortable. The sitting room has two mint green couches and four black armchairs. There is a fireplace made out of black marmor on the wall, and an ebony coffee table in the middle. On the floor is a light green plushrug, in fact there are extremely soft looking plush blankets and pillows on the couches and in the armchairs, too. In other words, it looks extremely comfortable and he knows he will spend a lot of time here.
After they left the sitting room, Tarus leads him to the main part of the manor. Here are the flooroom, the formal dining room, the formal sitting room and the library. The formal dining room and the formal sitting room look much like their counterpart in the family wing, just bigger and less personal. This means no plush blankets or fluffy pillows. Pity.
The flooroom consisted, obviously, of a big fireplace connected to the floonetwork, a few black armchairs, an ebony coffee table and some moving portraits of thestrals on the walls . A bit intimidating for a first impression, but then again, this is Peverell Manor, it's probably a statement or something.
They leave the room and go to the library. Hadrian freezes at the entrance. The library is huge. The room was obviously expanded multiple times because he is sure the entire family wing would fit in here. Twice. "The Peverell library is the biggest in Britain, Master. Nowadays the other pureblood families forgot about it but back when the Peverells were still around they were greately envied for this library. There is a door in the back that can only be opened by the Lordship or Heirship ring. It is where all of the dangerous books and those about the family are. That includes family history, family magics, grimoirs, diarys and biographys. In the middle of the library is a high desk. You only need to lay your hand on top of it and say what you want, author, title, topic, genre or a specific word, and it shall come, Master."
Well that is useful, especially since he does not want to search anything here. He takes another look around the library in awe. The room is full of bookshelves reaching from the floor to the cealing, which is impressive considering it's about two or three floors high. There are some silver floating platforms which Tarus told him he can actually get on in order to get to books too high for him to reach. All in all, it's amazing, it's magical and it's everything the Hogwarts library should be. Except legal. Because, apparently, more then three quarter of the books here are illegal in Britain and about one quarter is illegal or lost to time in the rest of the world, too.
Their loss. This is his island and according to Tarus it doesn't belong to any country or state, which means he makes the rules. And he says the books are legal. So they are. Glad that's settled.
After leaving the library, he will definitely be back soon (gosh, he sounds like Hermione), they go down to the ground floor. They skipped the guest wing because Tarus told him there are only guest rooms there, 15 in total (who needs 15 guest rooms?) and Hadrian isn't very interested in seeing them. The only rooms here are the entrance hall he arrived in last night, the kitchen, the sunroom and the ballroom.
Desciding to visit the kitchen at a later date, because, again, he is on a tight schedule and this isn't going to be quick, he goes into the sunroom first.
It looks much like the sitting room in the family wing, just lighter. There is a light green couch and two equally light green armchairs, a black marmor fireplace, an ebony coffee table and a bunch of plush blankets and pillows. However instead of portraits this room is also full of plants. It's beautiful.
After leaving the sunroom they go to the ballroom. The entrance are two big black dubble doors inlaid with crystals forming the family crest. The inside is just as beautiful as the door. There are stairs going slightly down, made of black marmor. The floor, too, is made of black marmor and the walls are painted in Jade green and inlaid wit emeralds and silver in the form of vines. The ceiling is enchanted to look like you're under a lake, with sunrays shining through, creating a beautiful green-blue light. No wonder all purebloods wanted to come here back in the day.
Now the only thing left to tour is the basement. Tarus leads him down another flight of chairs, to a corridor, and stops at a metal door directly opposite the stairs." This is the entrance to the Peverell dungeons.They are currently empty, Master." Hadrian sighs, of course the Pererells had dungeons, this doesn't surprise him at all. At least they are empty. Deciding to ignore them for now, he nods to Tarus and they go down the corridor. "The only places here are the ritual room, the potions laboratory and the house elf quaters, Master." Hadrian nods.
Aware that houseelves don't really like humans seeing their quarters he turns to Tarus. "Are the quarters to your satisfaction? Is there anything that needs improving or anything you want?" "No, Master, we don't need anything, everything is perfect." Hadrian nods at that, satisfied.
He decides to go into the ritual chamber first, curius what it looks like. The inside is more or less empty. The room looks like it was broken out of stone, like the inside of a cave. Only the floor is smooth, and has a basic ritual circle drawn on. The most interesting however is the magic. It feels incredible, like static prickling on his skin, like it's everywhere around him, he can feel it in the back of his mind even. Slightly urging him to do a ritual here. But it's not heavy, not a urge that he feels like he needs to comply with, more like a suggestion that he could just as easily walk away from. It feels freeing in a sense.
Now the only room left is the potions lab. They go in and Hadrian notices the walls, floor and ceiling are from the same material as the ritual chamber, but here every wall is smooth. The walls are covered with shelves full of different potion ingredients, cauldrons and potions books that look to be ancient but in fairly good condition. Not that he can say much about it, he sucks at potions. However the lab does look like something Snape would be jealous of, and that's enough for Hadrian.
"Thank you for the tour, Tarus. You may return to whatever you did before." "Your welcome, Master!" Tarus gives a quick bow and pops away. Now alone, Hadrian leaves the potions lab and returns to the main floor.
Casting another Tempus (and seriously what's wrong with his wand? It seems to fight him everytime he casts), he notes it's 1:45 pm. Perfect timing. He returns to his room to pick up Apophis, who promptly drapes over his shoulder to continue sleeping. He asks the snake to turn invisible, in order to not frighten anyone in Diagon half to death, and they make their way into the floo room. It's time to meet his sister in all but blood.
He casts a slight glamour over himself, turning his eyes blue and his hair blonde, grabs a handful of floopowder and steps into the fireplace. He throws the powder to the floor "The Leaky Cauldron!" and disappears in a bout of green flames.