Antithesis

Chapter 44: Incapable

Albus Dumbledore sat at his desk, head in his hands. For the first time in years he felt completely at a loss.

He had been so sure, he had his faith in Skylar Potter and with all his careful work with the Order as well as Skylar's own education, he felt that they had a chance.

But the child...revealed something to him he hadn't ever considered before. Something horrifying that left him feeling as if wraiths were squeezing his heart from its place in his chest.

The child Adrian Selwyn was something which brought him much pain.

He had heard things about the boy, of course, although his numerous duties kept him from meeting him over the summer or when Remus had told him he took the boy on himself. He had heard and seen the child in passing, discussing with a few medi wizards and curse breakers the probability of healing the poor child of such disfigurements.

He hadn't ever met with Adrian Selwyn before, even when numerous teachers came forward with concerns for the child. Of course, rumors of illegal activity had circulated widely around the child but Albus had dismissed them simply as rumors. Now with the knowledge that somehow this child was able to obtain illegal goods for other students left him deeply concerned.

How was he getting the goods? Of course, a case of firewhiskey wouldn't be too difficult for a seventh year to smuggle into the castle, or the Weasley Twins knowing their knack at somehow managing outrageous feats. But a fourth year?

Albus immediately wondered if the child had an external supplier sending him parcels in the mail, although the wards would search and reject illegal objects even if sent to the Owlery. Adrian Selwyn must have discovered some way to sneak in and out of the castle grounds, or perhaps found a loophole in the wards themselves. That meant he had connections outside the castle with less reputable sources, perhaps even with Bellatrix who was rumored to be the child's mother.

He hadn't believed the stories, but after the encounter he had no doubt that the child had interacted with the witch. He couldn't possibly fathom Bellatrix being permitted to rear or even give birth to a child given her position- he couldn't imagine Tom permitting it.

He had never known Tom to let something important to him slip out from between his fingers; he would have kept a closer eye on the child if he truly was what he than that, if Tom had accepted the child to be raised, he would have found some form of use for the child. He wouldn't have permitted such harm to occur to the boy if he was as vital as he seemed to even live.

Unless... unless the horrific damage to the boy was on purpose.

"Oh Tom," Dumbledore sighed, rubbing his temple as once again he was overwhelmed by the horrors of his old student.

Adrian Selwyn had to be removed and relocated to a safer place immediately, before he could be disposed of like a pawn in Voldemort's savage path of damnation. The boy had to be rescued, or at the least, guarded. He couldn't allow this sort of… this atrocity to continue.

Yet he had never considered his old student to actively seek the tactic of using children, especially with the time and investment required to raise a child from birth.

Yet Adrian showed significant trauma and abuse both mentally and magically. No child should have such tight, restrained, control over accidental magic, even as impulsive and explosive as it was. Adrian Selwyn had experienced nothing of a normal childhood, which left Albus with an unsettling train of thought.