The King of Slytherin

Chapter 4

James and Lily Potter were enjoying some lovely tea time by the fireplace, when their world was turned upside down. A brown owl flew into the manor and dropped the Daily Prophet by Lily. As soon as she saw the heading of the newspaper, she stood up in shock. She couldn't believe her eyes. By the time she finished reading the article, Lily was a blubbering mess. "Lily! What's wrong, honey?" James asked gently, very concerned for his wife.

"H-Hadrian. My baby boy," Lily said, tears streaming down her face. She tossed the newspaper at her husband, before collapsing into an armchair. As James continued to read the article, his face grew paler and small tears prickled at his eyes. What had they done?

The Daily Prophet talked about how Hadrian Potter, the hidden and possibly neglected son of the Potters, was chosen for the Triwizard Tournament. It discussed some of his achievements, in both sports and academics. But for Lily and James, it was quite the wake-up all. Forget about raising him, they didn't even think about him.

"James...We are horrible parents."

"No, don't say that. We tried our best, right?"

"No, we didn't try at all. We know nothing about him, nothing!"

"Well, there's still time, right? We can fix our mistakes. The article said that the parents of the champions are invited to stay at the castle. We can use that time to get to know our son."

"I mean...it's better than nothing. Let's see if we can ask Dumbledore to get us a meeting with him."

"Yeah! That's a great idea honey. We got this."

"Sure we do... I just wish things could have been different.."

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While they were going through a midlife crisis, Viktor Krum was busy trying to catch the eye of a certain Hadrian Potter. He had plans to ask him on a date to Hogsmeade, but what if Hadrian didn't return his feelings? What would he do then? "Viktor, grow a back bone. Either he says yes, or he says no. But if you don't ask him at all, you don't have any chance to begin with," his best friend Anton said.

"I guess you're right. But when should I ask him? He might just think I'm a creepy stranger, because we've only just met."

"I mean...I think you should go sooner rather than later. Have you seen how those girls stare at him?"

"That's a good point. I'm gonna do it this weekend."

"There's the spirit!"

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Dumbledore sat thinking in his office. The boy, Henry, was weaker than he had anticipated. Since he was the boy-who-lived, he should have been a very powerful wizard, powerful enough to match Tom. But that wasn't really happening. Henry was at the bottom of most of his classes, and most of the student body already hated him. He would have to do something to make him a hero again.

Hmmm....perhaps he could help Henry for the first task, he mused. He would give the audience a show, prove Henry was still the golden boy, and everyone would love him again. It was the perfect plan.

As for the other Potter boy, he would just have to hope the boy did badly in the tasks. Seeing the so-called 'King of Slytherin' fail the tasks and make a fool of himself, would help reinforce their hatred of the dark side and strengthen Dumbledore's image. Yes, that would work well, he thought to himself.