Antithesis

Chapter 54: Foal

'I'm not weak. I don't know why some things are so difficult, I know they shouldn't be. I'm strong, I'm powerful. I'm not weak, I'm not weak. I'm NOT WEAK.'

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February concluded without any problems. That was the unspoken surprise.

The paranoia had grown to such a degree, everyone spoke with whispers and bated breaths.

Restrictions increased almost daily, and soon every child felt as if they were shackled every second outside the dorms.

Eyes were fixed on the Weasley Twins, who much to the surprise of everyone, hung back and were model students.

The calm before the storm, and never had anyone wished more than now that the storm would just arrive. 

The pranks were gone, the playful charms in the corridors were absent, the hallways were silent with the sound of stomping feet.

No fires were lit, and the snow melted away.

Headmistress Umbridge was happier, content with her rule as she paraded around with a few select Slytherin students, gifted with authority to freely assign detentions. Daphne Greengrass, Draco Malfoy, a few other arrogant pricks that nobody bothered to recognize. Filch had never been happier.

Adrian hadn't let Lutain out of his sight, constantly checking that he was there by tracing the smooth black scales with the pad of his thumb. Even Lutain was forced to hide, normally hidden under a quick glamour, or tucked close to Adrian's heart during the day.

Adrian was forced to do his assignments, completing them ahead of schedule to avoid Snape's wrath or Umbridge's attention. With deadlines drawing close, and the lack of freedom for any sort of enjoyable activity, Adrian had nothing better to do. Adrian didn't attend the Great Hall meals, finding them far too militaristic for his taste.

(And everyone always just looked at him, like the unspoken begging would cause him to snap, to cause Umbridge's robes to burn.)

The piping that he and Lutain utilized to move around the castle also connected to the school kitchens; the house elves were horrified and alarmed the first time the two had wandered through. After interrogating one helpful elf on the student confidentiality protection rules set in place decades ago, Adrian haunted the counter tops often. The elves always fed him stacks of food when he appeared naturally, otherwise they ignored Lutain or Adrian's snake form whenever they appeared.

The elves were incredibly curious as to Adrian's face, obviously never having seen him before around the castle. Although initially incredibly startled, they warmed up rather quickly. That was a relief, the huge owl eyes and wrinkly skin had startled him a fair bit the first time an elf jumped him.

"So strange," Lutain mused, sitting on one of the wooden tables that the house elves had summoned the instance they saw the two emerge from a pipe near the sinks.

Adrian shrugged, tapping his fingers on the table as he reached for the chalice of grape juice.

"They're nice." Adrian replied simply, ignoring the way the nearest elf nearly squealed when it heard that.