The Rise of Harry Potter

When Adrian entered the Great Hall for breakfast the next day, the first thing he saw was Draco Malfoy entertaining a large group of Slytherins with a story. As Adrian walked closer, he could see Draco imitate a swooning fit to cause a roar of laughter.

"Hey! Potter!" Adrian flinched before realizing Pansy's cry was directed over his shoulder.

Skylar Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger all scowled at Pansy.

"Potter! The dementors are coming, Potter! Wooo!" Draco imitated, once more drawing laughter from the crowd.

Adrian instead walked to the table to receive his schedule for his classes. He pulled off an excellent job ignoring everyone, although it may have been from how terrible he looked. Dark bags hung from his eyes, his normally pristine hair was in disarray and he found himself jumping at all sounds.

"You okay there?" Theo asked, sliding closer to lower his voice under the level anyone else would be able to hear."You didn't sleep last night-"

"I'm fine." Adrian snapped, snatching his schedule before quickly reading it over. Hagrid was the new Care of Magical Creature's teacher? He must have missed it being announced the night before.

His schedule was custom-fitted to accommodate his strange request for Care, along with Runes and not Arithmancy or Divination. This meant that his first class would be the following day, generally the first day was a free day to walk your schedules and to find all of your classes before you were on a time constraint.

Adrian had something better to do.

There was an Animagus Transformation Potion he needed to take.

The Chamber of Secrets didn't smell, that was the first warning.

It looked identical to how Adrian and Riddle had left it. The massive snakeskin was still there, shifted to one side but still in perfect condition. It just emphasized the oddity of having a complete skeleton nestled nearest the clawed up bits of skin.

For some reason, seeing a skeleton was easier than seeing a corpse.

"I thought bodies took longer to rot." Adrian spoke, feeling as if he was hearing the words spoken by another person.

"It is wet and air," Lutain offered, uncoiling and sliding down to finally stretch and slither off into the darkness of the chamber.

No- in the tomb.

It was now a tomb.

Adrian approached the corpse, trying not to heave at the sight of the hair, dampened by grime and wet and rot, but still fiery red, and the pristine teeth still stuck by the roots.

The snake skin had suspicious marks on it, like rodents had been gnawing at it, or something, something else-

Adrian turned and vomited violently on the floor. His breakfast was expelled in an acidic slosh of juices and half digested pastries.

"Master?" Lutain slithered over alarmed, "Is threat near? No smell, do you?"

"Lutain what-" Adrian choked off at another dry heave as his stomach gurgled angrily. "What are you talking about?"

Lutain seemed confused, but even he could recognize that vomiting was a bad sign.

Adrian couldn't look at Gi- at the corpse. The corpse. He couldn't even think of how she probably was so tired, so exhausted to even try to eat the remains of a Basilisk's shed skin for food.

No. No. no, no, no, no…

He heaved with a contracting wave of pain, his stomach cramping against the movement. Stumbling onwards, he hurried into the main chamber to try and get away from the stench of bile and the sight of red hair.

His legs shook, threatening to pitch him onto the slimey ground. He nearly fell, already twisting his body in the pathetic movements to crawl away.

Adalonda was sleeping, as Adrian requested. He would awaken her but for now...

He needed something to block it out. He needed to forget.

No, no, no, no

He could see her staring at him. Lying prone and limp with lips painted in blood.

How she would lift herself up on bruised forearms, reaching out to trace his jaw gently with fingertips tinged in gore.

"You killed me," She whispered, and the soft fingertips suddenly felt like dull bone.

He sunk to his knees, the sound clicking loudly in the large dimly lit chamber. He hunkered and heaved, wet sounds from his tongue as he coughed pathetically and greenish bile dripped onto the ground.

"Lumos." He croaked out, lighting his wand as Lutain curled restlessly around where he kneeled.

"Master is this good idea?" Lutain fretted, "You smelled threat so no food-"

"No," He coughed, gagging, "It- It's a human thing."

"Oh," Lutain sighed, scenting worriedly, "I will check for threat."

Adrian exhaustedly smiled, "Thank you."

The crystal potions vial was cold in his hand, and almost certainly terribly to take, especially on an empty stomach. It grounded him, bringing slight clarity through the vicious trembling of his body.

It couldn't possibly be worse than Bellatrix's curses, and it would keep his mind focused, away from- away.

The potion was only supposed to sink him back into his mind, so far intoxicated that he would barely feel when his magic would wrap his body for the first change. From there he would have to teach his own magic how to trigger it on command. Essentially, he would fall unconscious and he would transform into his animagus form. Trapped so far from his body, pushed back in his mind to where he wouldn't be able to see the skeleton...

He fished for the crystal vial, holding it up in the light his lumos cast. It was slightly golden, nearly transparent, and it didn't smell when he removed the stopper- very high quality

"Bottoms up," He muttered with barely any attempt at humor, hoping it wouldn't taste as bad as the bile which still permeated his throat.

It tasted like honeysuckle and ginger.

But it burned like Fiendfyre.

Adrian woke up with his head pounding and his limbs feeling like jello. They tingled with a painful pins and needle sensation, taking several tries to flex and move properly.

"Lutain?" Adrian hissed, blinking in the dark for his companion. He belatedly noticed he was speaking parseltongue.

He found his wand, a short distance away from where he had put it, and lit lumos once again.

"Master?" Lutain quizzically asked, a safe distance and coiled loosely around himself, "Are you back?"

"Back?" Adrian asked, rolling his shoulder painfully, "What happened?"

"You are!" Lutain hissed enthusiastically, slithering over tentatively, "You are of noble kind!"

"Noble kind?" Adrian echoed with a hoarse snort, "You've been hanging around Nagini too much."

"Never," Lutain retorted. "A serpent of blackened scale with green eyes."

Huh. That was... useful.

"How did I know it would be a snake?" Adrian sighed, smile curling at his lips.

The best thing was, if he was a snake, there was no excuse why he couldn't travel with his father on raids.

He would be useful. He would find a way.

And he would forget about ginger hair and gasping sobs. He. Would.

....

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