Hadrian Romanoff and the Beginning

Chapter 22

Staring down at the letter in his hand, Lucius Malfoy felt the great and sudden need to drink from his oldest bottle of firewhiskey. Draco had once again written home, though the letter was less of a correspondence between a son who had left home for the first time and his father, and more of a list of complaints and grievances.

After the fifth or sixth they had become quite repetitive and Lucius had taken to reading them while half distracted with his breakfast. The mudblood in Slytherin, the two mudbloods besting him in their shared classes, only three of his year mates following his lead, numerous arguments with the blood traitor, general complaints about Gryffindors being idiotic and loud.

The only true breaks from the norm was in the letter he received two days after Halloween, where his son seemed almost hesitant about something and instead of explaining had tried to call attention away from it by describing the Halloween feast in nauseating detail and the short missive he had been sent by Severus explaining Draco's membership of the newly founded defence club.

Reading his son's letters had become quite tedious, but he continued to do it so as not to cause unnecessary annoyance should either his wife or son find out about said neglect. The letters did also allow him to keep an eye on anything that Draco might write that would help Lucius' crusade within the Board of Governors. His son may not understand the significance of the matter, but Lucius was adept enough in reading between the lines.

Unfortunately, he had still not gleaned much from the weekly letters other than his son's almost unhealthy obsession in a mudblood's daily movements and activities.

Lucius, of course, had heard the rumors of a muggle entering the school, but had dismissed them with the sneer and disgusted scoff they deserved. It was bad enough all sorts of breeds were allowed to roam the halls, but to spread tale of a muggle doing so as well was against Merlin.

Then came the information that the filthy muggle had been none other than the mother of the mudblood who'd circumvented his son's place in the hierarchy. An associate of his had received word from his own son, a fifth year prefect, of an undisclosed attack on the mudblood that brought the muggle to Hogwarts alongside an unknown wizard capable of wandless and non-verbal magic.

The question of what just was going within the school was raised, as well as the question of why Draco hadn't seen it fit to inform him of the event.

Lucius knew that the mudblood boy was an American, that much he'd managed to detangle from his son's ranting of the child, and that his last name was Romanoff. Those two things alone would help him in tracking down any information on them at the Ministry.

If the rumors and stories proved to be true then it would stand to reason that there was something more to the alleged mudblood and his family. And Lucius intended on finding out just what.

Hadrian would never admit it but when he stepped into the family penthouse in Stark Tower his eyes filled with tears.

It was one thing to be able to see his families through the mirror almost whenever he wanted, which was more than his schoolmates could do, it was another to be in his home where he could reach out to touch his family if he felt the need to. Even including his mother and Loki's impromptu visit, the months since had been the longest he had gone without seeing anyone from his family. The closest had been a botched mission that had his mother and Clint stuck in Barbados for five weeks, but even then he had the others always around him.

His mother's hand on his shoulder helped t steady him and he tilted his head up to give her a grateful smile.

"Ri-Ri!" All the reflex training in the world couldn't have prepared Hadrian to dodge out of the way of Darcy's grasp. He was hefted up and pulled in tightly to her chest as she gushed about how much she missed him and asking about the presents he had surely brought her.