Hadrian's True Potential

Year Three: Chapter Fifteen

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, J.K. Rowling does.

Hadrian boarded the Hogwarts Express and found a compartment with Draco and Blaise. He promised to sit with them on the train, so she had already said goodbye to Ron and Hermione.
The boys spent the train ride eating sweets and talking about different topics they found interesting.
When they finally got to Kings Cross Station Draco and Hadrian said goodbye to Blaise, and Blaise went to find his mother. Hadrian and Draco wandered around until they spotted Draco's mother and father waiting with Hadrian's father. They all decided to have dinner together, as the boys wouldn't see each other until Hadrian's birthday, because the Malfoy's were leaving for France tomorrow afternoon.
When they arrived at the restaurant they were quickly seated and ordered their drinks. They had decided on a high end muggle restaurant as they felt it was better to not have to deal with the wizarding world.
Dinner passed with the boys telling Lucius and Narcissa about their year, and how they felt they did on the exams. When the evening came to a close the boys pulled each other into a firm embrace, before pulling away and saying goodbye.
When Hadrian returned home with his dad that night they both settled in the living room, and read their books in comfortable silence. When the clock chimed ten, Hadrian stood up and hugged his dad and wished him a goodnight before going to bed.

The first week of summer passed quickly, and Hadrian finished all his summer assignments, and owled his friends. He was excited though, as today was his first dueling club meeting. He and Severus had bought him a set of dueling robes earlier in the week, and he was really looking forward to dueling with some kids his age.
He arrived a little early and talked with the man who ran the club named John Mason and his partner Alice. John had a dueling mastery and was happy to teach the kids. Alice had a mastery in Defense and Charms, and was a great dueler. John and Alice had designed the club so kids could either learn to duel, or reinforce their dueling skills. As well, nearing the end of the summer, multiple clubs across Britain came together to have a tournament to find the best dueler.
Hadrian had a great time at his first meeting and ended up being placed with the older kids, due to his skill. He also made a couple friends who were a little older than him from Durmstrang, named Nick Lee, and Blake Sands. They were going into their sixth year next year, and had been dueling since they were little. Hadrian only barely managed to beat them, as they were really good. He decided he definitely liked Nick and Blake, and was happy he would get to see them again when the dueling club met up again. The club met up for two hours, twice a week, every week for the entire summer, something Hadrian was grateful for, as he would have been very bored otherwise.
Hadrian started his hand to hand combat the week after and was really happy about what he was learning. His instructor Matthew Grant, a 27 year old muggleborn from Spain, had grown up taking martial arts, and after Hogwarts poured a lot of his time into learning hand to hand combat. Hadrian was very sore after his lesson, but felt like he had made some progress, he was very thankful they practiced on mats or he was sure he would be in a lot more pain.

That evening Hadrian was sitting in the living room, with his dad on the couch across from him. They both had a book out, but Hadrian wasn't reading. He was trying to think of a way to tell his dad he was gay, without making a big deal out of it, because to him, it really wasn't. "Dad?" he asked. His dad hummed and looked up at him. "How did you know that you liked blokes?"
His dad put his book on the table beside him and patted the spot beside him on the couch. Hadrian went and sat down, with his side resting against his father. "When I was about fifteen there was a bloke about two years older than me, his name was Ryan. He was a Ravenclaw, and had a good eye for potions, so we often studied together in the library, and the more I got to know him the more I realized I liked him. I freaked out a little because my father had always told me that liking the same gender was horrible, but I realized after talking to Lucius that there was nothing wrong with me liking a bloke. Of course my little crush on Ryan never went anywhere, but it did make me realize I didn't just like girls.
"Now, may I ask why you brought this up?" Severus asked.
"Well, I don't like girls, like at all." Hadrian said, "And there might be a guy that I like that made me realize that blokes are more appealing than girls."
"Ah. Care to share who the lucky bloke is then." Severus said with a grin.
"Not particularly, they will never like me back anyways. They're straight, and I don't want to ruin my friendship with them." Hadrian said with a sigh as he rested his head on his father's shoulder.
"Alright, I just want you to know that I'm always here if you want to talk to me. I'm really proud of you for telling me too, I remember how hard it was to tell my mum that I liked blokes." Severus said as he wrapped his arm around Hadrian and pulled him into a hug.
Hadrian sighed contently into the hug and wrapped his arms around his dad, enjoying the comfort. Hadrian eventually pulled away and went back to leaning against his dad, so he could just enjoy the contact. It wasn't long afterwards that Hadrian drifted off to sleep as his father carded his fingers through his hair.

The weeks passed by quickly for Hadrian. Most evenings he spent talking or reading with his father, and during the day he either went to dueling club or was trained in hand to hand combat. Leaving him exhausted, and more often than not falling asleep before nine o'clock.
His father and him had also started to discuss their ideas for the war, particularly in creating a third side. Both knew that neither Dumbledore or Voldemort had the right ideals, so they started to write down what they thought should change in the wizarding world. It became a long list, but the most important ones were creating magical orphanages so that magical children wouldn't have to grow up with muggles, equal rights for werewolves and vampires, and having muggleborns brought into their world earlier so they could learn about wizarding etiquette and their traditions. These were easy goals to achieve, they just needed to figure out a way to put them into action.
Both Hadrian and his dad were sure that Hadrian had the power to turn people away from Dumbledore if he explained his ideas and showed them what Dumbledore did to him. Placing him with abusive muggles and blocking his magical core would turn many people away from Dumbledore, but they needed more. So over the next few weeks they began to talk to people who were neutral in the last war, and explained their ideas to them. Many agreed that their ideals were good, but were worried about werewolves and vampires having equal rights.
Hadrian explained to them that werewolves were only dangerous if they didn't have access to wolfsbane potion, and due to the potion being so expensive most werewolves couldn't afford it because no one would employ them. If people employed them, they would be fine. As for vampires, they aren't dangerous at all, unless they don't have access to blood. Vampires can buy blood from the ministry, but if they aren't employed it becomes harder for them to get blood. Hadrian also wanted to have a fund to make wolfsbane potion and blood available for free at the ministry, as it was essential for werewolves and vampires. And if they had access to it, they wouldn't be a danger to anyone.
Many people after hearing his explanation agreed with him, and said they supported him. Hadrian and his father took this as a win. If they could get enough support they could take their cases to the ministry and start to have regulations changed.
They still had a lot of planning to do if they wanted to change the wizarding world, but it was a start. The first thing they needed to do was turn people against Dumbledore's ideals, and hopefully get someone who supported their ideals to run for Minister. Then they could try and persuade some of Voldemort's followers that killing Muggles and Muggleborns wasn't going to help, but immersing the muggleborns into their culture would. Voldemort had some right ideas, but he went about everything the wrong way. If they could get a large portion of Voldemort's followers to follow their ideals instead, he wouldn't be able to gain the power he needed to take over the wizarding world. Which would lead to less deaths, and a more peaceful change for the wizarding world.
The most helpful thing was that Lucius was high up in the Ministry and he would be able to help, and run for Minister when the time came. As well, with him being a follower of Voldermort himself, other followers would follow his lead. All Hadrian and Severus needed to do now, was enjoy their summer, and worry about fixing the wizarding world in the fall.