Consuming Shadows

Chapter 2

It was busier than normal this morning, the foyer of the Ministry filled almost to burst with harried witches and wizards scuttling about. Hadrian was hardly surprised at the number of people. On a normal day there could be hundreds moving through this part of the building, but on the last day of the closed council meetings everyone and their dog wanted to be here.

Not that he had any room to judge them, he was waiting for the exact same thing after all. Today would be the day the decision regarding the Triwizard Tournament would be made.

Hadrian let his head fall back to rest against the marble pillar he had claimed as his own hours before, and closed his eyes. He let the flashes of speech he could hear wash over him, until it was an unintelligible garble of French, English and several other languages he could barely pick out.

He still had not spoken to his mother yet. She was often gone from their home by the time he woke, leaving him nothing more than a short note explaining where she was and what she expected him to get done throughout the day. When she did return she locked herself away in her laboratory to waste the hours away making potions.

It hurt. That his mother had resorted to this. He thinks he would much prefer involuntary neglect then this purposeful avoidance. It had only been a handful of days and already he wanted to be back at Beauxbatons – at least there he had people to entertain him. At home it had always been the two of them, their little sanctuary, and now it felt cold and suffocating.

He just wanted to break down her laboratory door and force her to listen to his apology.

"You look like someone's died." Jacob said cheerfully as he slid up next to him and leaned against the pillar as well. Hadrian ignore the twinkling brown eyes watching at him and stared out at the mass of bodies in front of him.

"Where's your father?"

"Still in session with the other council members, they're scheduled to have a break soon. Are you hungry?"

Jacob merely grinned when Hadrian gave him an exasperated glance. "Trying another method to get into my pants Korin?" he asked half-heartedly.

"Is it working?" Jacob stepped closer to him, grin becoming a touch leery. Hadrian snorted softly and shoved the other away from him.

"Down boy, we're in public. You need to think with your other head."

"It's hardly my fault I get them confused when I'm around you."

He was unable to completely stop the chuckle from escaping him this time and Jacob leaned back, apparently satisfied. "Your flirting is atrocious Jacob, it's a wonder anyone has sex with you."

"You can't judge Hadrian, when you've sampled the goods yourself. It was your idea initially."

"Yes, can't image what I was thinking. It's almost like I was drunk at the time."

They shared a grin, but their fun was interrupted when the large council doors opened and the members trickled out. Hadrian quickly scanned their faces for any sign of their moods, but they gave nothing away. Instead, he moved his gaze around until he landed on Jacob's father.

Éric Korin cut an impressive figure as he strode away from the other councillors. He was tall, broad-shouldered and carried an aura of competency that could only come from years of experience in the political battling arena. He was also the source of his son's handsomeness. Even though he was brushing his fifties, Éric still retained much of his youthful features; so much so, that if you put Jacob and Éric side-by-side they would resemble brothers far more than father and son.

Hadrian was already moving to intercept the man, Jacob trailing after at a more sedate pace.

Éric caught sight of them just as he was making his way to his office and patiently waited for the boys to meet him just before the boundary. He smiled at Hadrian and nodded a greeting to his son when he spotted him.