The Brightest Star Of The Darkest Night

41. Do Not Expect What You Can't Give

Neville and Jim's birthday party pt.1

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With long strides, Marvolo walked into the Heir Chamber of the Slytherin Castle, pausing enough to knock beforehand. "Are you ready to go, Hadrianus?"

The said child, his little Heir, looked up from the sketchbook with huge, eager eyes from where he was sitting on his chair in front of the desk. His room, the Heir Chamber, as usual, was so vastly different from the rest of the Castle that it used to throw him off guard whenever he came here, even though he is getting used to it real fast now.

The room is...what one can call (if they compare it with other parts of the Castle) an organized mess. The midnight sky-colored ceiling is forever shinning and glittering with fairy lights in the shape of miniature stars and different planets of the galaxy, hanging by invisible threads and chasing each other in a chaotic pattern. One corner of the room is practically dedicated to a small zoo of different stuffed animals - both magical, non-magical, and historical - all lined up in a haphazard fashion as Hadrianus tended to cram them after done playing with them. One wall is covered with shelves holding both wixen and muggle children's fiction books and different sketchbooks, magazines, small figurines, and other toys. There is a matching pair of bean bags and rugs with a neatly folded similarly sparkling blanket and coffee table, charmed to be child-friendly and unbreakable, in front of the fireplace, which is layered thickly with protective wards against every kind of accidental magic imaginable, and obviously not connected with Floo to further ensure the safety of the owner of the room. And a bedside table, holding the Nightmare Orchid and the most bizarre-looking Dream Catcher from his equally bizarre friends, as well as different photo frames, as does the soft cream-colored wall behind the queen-sized bed with at least ten pillows.

He would never forget his son's face to discover his room after his mum decorated it for him. Marvolo could literally see the stars, not unlike the ones on the ceiling of his room, in his son's eyes as Hadrianus stared at his mother in shock when she took him here and declared it as his. She is spoiling him, probably, but his excitement to finally have a room of his was worth it. And Marvolo, having spent his early childhood and adolescence days without a home, can understand that feeling completely.

The study desk near the floor-to-ceiling huge window is right now full of his coloring pencils and The Quibbler was laid open near the sketchbook, and it looked like his son was copying a photograph of flower from an article on the said magazine. The only difference is the mysterious-looking six-winged bright orange-colored bird that Hadrianus is sketching, drinking nectar juice from the cheerful yellow flower in the picture. Is his son starting to fantasize about the absurd creatures around them, as the Lovegood girl does? Merlin forbid if he does, Marvolo will be banning Quibbler from the Castle! The last thing he wants is his son catching weirdness from the strange people he likes to surround himself with, even if she is a...Seer!

"What are you sketching this time, Hatchling?" Nagini asked as she entered following him.

Marvolo shot her a look of betrayal. She knew Hadrianus had been fantasizing and sketching non-existent creatures from The Quibbler and didn't even think about stopping her son, or at least, giving him some warning?

Hadrianus turned his head to look at mum, eyes widening when his eyes fall on his beautiful mother in a simple but elegant off-white ball gown with puffy sleeves, "Wow, mummy you look beautiful!" He gushed as he abandoned the coloring pencils to bolt and hug her legs.

"Why thank you, my little one," Nagini preened, ruffling his hair and smiling down at him, "You're not bad yourself," she bent over and peppered his face with kisses, making the child squeal and squirmed, "my handsome, handsome hatchling!"