Hollow Thunder, Vital Lightning

Traditions Upheld

Rating: NC-17

Pairing: Harry Potter/Tom Riddle

Genre: Drama, Romance, Fantasy, Action/Adventure

Summary: Life after Voldemort is ideal and perfect for everyone except the one who made it possible. Unbelievably bored and unhappy, Harry performs a spell that will take him to an alternate universe where he can be happiest with Voldemort. Even he hadn't expected the outcomes or how the spell would misinterpret his desires.

Warnings: slash; AU; Slytherin!Harry; Dark!Harry (sorta)...and another one I took out that you will have to figure out for yourself; it's kind of crucial to the plot so I can't tell you!

Spoilers: Compliant with first five books and includes information from six and seven.

Disclaimer: Harry Potter, unfortunately, is not mine, but I do own the plot and (most likely) all the characters and concepts you don't recognize.

.-.

"HTVL" - English, or other human languages

HTVL - Thoughts, Spells, Special Text (titles and such)

"HTVL" - Parseltongue, Incanted Spells, or a language within a language

HTVL - Parselmagic (spells and the language in writing)

Chapter 6: Traditions Upheld

Hadrian's mind was reeling. He could not believe what he had just heard. It was unmistakable what Sebastian and Harrison were discussing.

It couldn't be a mere coincidence that they would bring up a brother of Harrison's whose name was James and was connected to Lily in some way. And, by the way they spoke of them, they were probably already dead.

His heartbeat sped up as all of this ran through his head. Could he really have been Harry Potter before he became Hadrian Black? How did he end up here and why didn't he know anything about it?

Does...does this mean my parents aren't my parents? Hadrian's breath hitched at the thought and he almost choked as his heart practically leaped into his throat.

A burning feeling accompanied his loss of air and, when he tried to identify what it was, he found it to be that sharp stab he associated with betrayal. He had felt it when Ron turned on him during the Triwizard Tournament and even more prominently when Mundungus Fletcher's coward, swine-self gave away vital Order information during the war to Death Eaters who had captured him. Oh, he had enjoyed torturing the man with his own shadow wrapped around him after the rescue mission.

Oh, Merlin. No, no, no, no! They wouldn't do this to me! They just can't! How can they lie to me like that? He was well on his way to a panic attack as he pictured all the worst-case scenarios.

His hurt over the parents he loved to death possibly lying to him about his parentage was completely clouding his logic. Before he could plunge headlong into very depressive thoughts, though, a couple of late stragglers passed him on their way to dinner. They didn't notice him but one of them shivered when he brushed past a stray Shadow. A short stimulating shock went through him at the touch. This happened whenever someone touched his Shadows when he didn't want them to.

Hadrian snapped out of his stupor and slowly got up. Taking a few deep breaths, he tried to calm down and think about this rationally. There had to be a good reason he was the son of Regulus and Adrianna Black. Though he now doubted that he had never been Harry Potter in this universe, something big must have happened to change that and he had to give his parents the benefit of the doubt.