Lord of time (chapter 41-107)

80

Hadrian ventured slowly into the Astronomy tower, Orion was sitting there, a pensive look upon his face, which became guarded the second he realized he wasn't alone. Orion had barely spoken to him this past few weeks, and Hadrian actually missed their usual banter. He'd known the Black heir would be upset, but this upset? Honestly, why did these pureblood's assume women were so weak? Especially after seeing the girls win the majority of the duels they had with the others, they'd proven how good they were. Just as Hadrian had known they would, they wanted to show the world what they could do, and they were definitely going to set out to do it. Perhaps even open the gateway to allowing women to have careers and families.

"Alright, let it rip, I won't hold anything against you," Hadrian said, knowing Orion probably wanted to call him all the names under the sun.

"How could you let them participate?" Orion asked, his tone calm - much to Hadrian's surprise - as he turned to stare at Hadrian with an accusing look upon his face.

"First tell me why...why you're truly against them coming with us," Hadrian counter questioned.

"It's my job to keep them safe," Orion pressed out through gritted teeth, it had been drummed into him from childhood, protect them, keep them safe, don't let anyone take advantage of them.

"That's a lot to put on someone's shoulders, especially considering they're the same age as you," Hadrian said, if that was something demanded of the heirs no wonder Sirius had found it too much. He could only imagine how difficult it was to try and look after Narcissa, Andromeda and Bellatrix for Merlin's sake. "Do you want to see them happy?"

"Of course I do!" Orion protested, "They need to be alive to be happy!"

Hadrian sighed, "So you honestly believe they cannot hold their own? If they cannot none of you can, should I just call this whole thing off and go alone with Tom?"

"Merlin, no," Orion objected, the others would kill him if he let something like that happen, they were all up for this battle, fired up and raring to go. In truth he had been as well, still was, but it was shadowed by the fact his sister, intended and cousin were all being pulled into this - potentially of course - there was no guarantee they'd be chosen. "Please, please just don't choose them when we get there,"

"Orion...do you even know what the girls were planning to do?" Hadrian enquired, leaning his legs over the railing, letting them dangle around. "To try and get attention on themselves other than the witches who would bring more alliances to the Black family?"

Orion stiffened, understanding the implication behind those words immediately, perhaps Hadrian hadn't done this to solely piss him off. "What do you mean?" wishing to know more. It was his job to know everything about them, how could Hadrian know something he didn't? Unless, the girls had been very careful not to arouse suspicion, which if Hadrian was truthful, they had most definitely done.

"You don't want to know, this way it can be accomplished in a safe manner, with everyone there to protect them. They want to be seen as more than just witches, more than just potential mothers to future heirs, and honestly I can't blame them. You know Britain doesn't accept witches into the Auror forces, but America does, they're more progressive." They work twice as hard just to prove themselves too, and didn't get as half as many chances as the wizards to demonstrate it either. Hell in the end, they're too proud to ask for help, instead endured because its what was expected of them, like Eileen Prince. He wanted to make changes, and this was the start of those changes. He refused to let witches be treated as lesser beings because they were born girls. He didn't know how many witches he'd treated for suspicious injuries, Merlin help him but he couldn't let it continue.

Orion should have guessed Hadrian had more than just one reason behind what he did. He always, always worked that way, even if he didn't approve...he was still going out of his way to protect the people in his life that he loved. Whatever the girls were up to...they could have ended up hurt or worse killed under his watch. It was true enough, they could watch over them, make sure nothing happened. Hadrian had always gone out of his way to be kind to them, to include them somewhat, never to this extent though.