"Are you alright?" Remus asked quietly, directing Adrian's attention away from the parental scolding Skylar was receiving, "We haven't had an incident with Skylar's scar, but it's possible it reacted to your own."
Adrian knew that wasn't the case.
"I'm fine," Adrian shrugged, curling his shoulders inwards as he locked his jaw, "I didn't like the way he looked at me."
"Unfortunately," Remus smiled dryly, the expression tugging on the disfiguration of his cheek, "People tend to stare."
Remus stood slowly, rising from his half kneeling position. He offered one hand to Adrian, weathered and calloused.
"Come along," He smiled gently, "We'll see what my kitchen has for food."
"I don't suppose you have house elves?" Adrian asked, accepting the hand and pulling himself to his feet, hunking slightly under James Potter's cautious look.
Remus chuckled lightheartedly, "None of that here. Anything we're eating we're making with our own hands- or paws." He winked playfully.
"Remus," James spoke cautiously, giving a pointed look at Adrian, "Is that really the best..."
"He knows, James." Remus sternly stated, "He's a rather intelligent boy, he figured it out on his own. A genius with magic creatures, it baffles me how he apparently performed so poorly when you taught."
"I didn't," Adrian interjected monotonously, "He just never liked me."
James flushed and had the decency to look embarrassed.
"It's true though!" Skylar defended, "Hermione says he's a textbook! And that came from Hermione!"
James Potter crossed his arms and shifted his weight, "Well, in that case, I owe you an apology, Mr. Selwyn."
Adrian tilted his chin slightly in a polite nod.
"Well then," Remus cleared the air, "Perhaps sandwiches for lunch?"
Remus was a decent cook, although there wasn't that much involved with creating simple sandwiches. Nonetheless, Skylar and his father gorged themselves on sliced meat and cheese layered between rye bread. Adrian's father hated rye.
He did notice large amounts of meat in Remus' food keeper, which amused him a great deal.
"Where's your snake?" Skylar blurted, holding the uneaten crusts in his hand, "The uh, the big one."
Adrian tensed and gently set his sandwich down on his plate. "I only have one snake, Potter."
"Hey, play nice." James frowned, pointing between the two, "He was just curious. I didn't know you had a pet."
"Oh..." Remus breathed softly, clinking his elbow on the table as he rubbed his eyes and forehead with his hand, "Oh, I am so sorry, Adrian."
Adrian looked at his fingers and tore the bread apart.
"What?" James paused, "What is it Moony?"
"Adrian is a rather gifted child in that he has a familiar," Remus' voice was strained.
Skylar jolted in surprise, "Isn't that rare? Isn't that like, impossible, dad?"
James blinked in alarm, and looked at Remus sternly, "Unless he's been tested..."
"James," Remus sounded tired.
Adrian didn't look up as the torn bits of bread were clumped into a ball and rendered inedible.
"Moony-" James struggled before he lowered his voice to a rushed hiss, "If he isn't tested then it can't be a confirmed familiar! They only occur after the age of..."
"Look at the exceptions!" Moony growled back, his voice deep and uncharacteristically fierce, "Look at all notable cases in which prepubescent familiar's have been recorded-"
"You can't assume that is applicable in this situation! Just because he was abused doesn't mean-"
"Abused?" A small confused voice asked, causing the table to become awfully quiet.
The unsettling wad of rye bread was now being molded into a flattened rock.
"That's not true, right dad?" Skylar asked in horror, turning and looking at James with some sort of longing, "Right dad? That's not true? Right?"
His voice broke, crackling awkwardly in sure sign of distress and teenage adolescence.
"Sky," James Potter sunk, realizing his guilt now at having said such a private thing in front of his son, "Sometimes bad things happen to good people-"
Adrian snorted, loudly. He stood forcefully, seething with an ugly scowl pulling the edges of his scars.
"Are you serious?" He growled slowly, hands curling into fists as something desperately raw tore inside him, "Are you bloody serious?"
"Adrian-" Remus started, sliding his chair back and standing slowly to not set the younger boy off.
"Oh Skylar, I am so sorry for the terrible burden you have as the Chosen One." Adrian's voice shook, "It must be simply horrid to have so many dark witches and wizards constantly almost killing you. And all that wretched fame and glory, it must be simply too much."
"Adrian," Remus tried again, trying to stop the tide of words.
Adrian didn't stop.
"Do you cry when Witch Weekly catches a photo of you with your shirt untucked? Do you have to sign autographs every time you wander freely in Diagon?"
Skylar was paling, his complexion turning nearly sickly and his eyes glassy. Adrian's throat burned and his breaths weren't satisfying his need for air.
"What a terrible weight you have to carry alone, you wouldn't wish something as awful as your life on anyone."
Adrian was spun by a warm hand between his shoulder blades. He didn't think, he reacted and ducked his face into the soft brown robes with a fraying edge and missing button.
He couldn't hear, he only gasped for breaths as his breathing hitched and his throat created the most unbecoming sounds.
"You should go," Remus spoke softly, his words vibrating through his chest and against Adrian's shaking form.
Adrian didn't look to see if they left, he only clung on and shook with the rising panic and anxiety of the situation.
What was happening? Generally Lutain was near or he would circle around with cold scales and reassure-
He struggled to find his occlumency barriers and drag them upwards, dispelling the dangerous riptide of his loathing into temperamental mist.
He was sitting on a couch, tucked under the thick warmth and weight of a woolen blanket, hand knit and beginning to unravel on certain stitches.
Remus appeared, balancing a vial of something soft blue and two steaming mugs of likely tea. Adrian didn't drink tea.
"Here..." Remus shuffled, placing one mug on a nearby table and balancing the other as he fished for the vial, "I have access to a supply of calming draughts- yours I mean. I have to regulate them since you're under aged and St. Mungo's is very strict with those rules."
"Right," Adrian blinked, dazed at how he had suddenly appeared on a couch of all places, "Calming draught." His stomach was still churning and threatening a reappearance of the sandwiches.
"I brought along tea as well," Remus offered, "And warmed cider, I wasn't sure which you would prefer."
Adrian fumbled with the stopper for the calming draught, picking at the seal with broken fingernails.
"Why?" He asked quietly, voice hoarse and rough, "Why are you being nice?"
"Why wouldn't I be?" Remus countered, stifling a sigh as he settled into a deep chair across the room, nursing his cup of tea with both hands.
"Why me? Why are you being nice to me of all people?"
"Well," Remus started calmly, "I see no difference between you, or your classmates, or even a stranger."
"I was raised by Bellatrix," Adrian stressed, the name sounded hollow. His hands trembled and he inhaled wetly, "I could have been raised to kill you."
Remus took a sip of his tea and nodded.
"I could have been raised to kill Potter." Adrian tried again, desperate in his attempt to scare the man.
"You could have been," Remus agreed, with the faintest glimmer of sympathy, "And if you were, I would give you freedom to live away from expectations or requirements. I would give you an opportunity to follow what you want to do, and not what you were raised to do."
"No," Adrian argued, his voice cracked entirely as the beginning gathering of tears formed, "You shouldn't- you shouldn't be nice to me then-"
"Adrian," Remus started, placing his mug aside so he could lean forward with his elbows on his knees, "You told me you were adopted, by Bellatrix."
He was, he had told him that. It was true...
"It wasn't your fault." He spoke softly, "That you were left there. That you were abandoned by your birth parents- it wasn't your fault."
Adrian's heart stopped.
"I don't know anything about them, and I don't want to even think about the unspeakable mistake they made," Remus continued, voice firm and somehow, his words shone like a lighthouse in the middle of a raging storm, "but Adrian, know that it wasn't your fault. There isn't anything wrong with you, it wasn't your fault."
"No." Adrian shook his head, why couldn't Remus see? He should- Adrian was dangerous, he shouldn't be- "No, no...no..."
"It wasn't your fault Adrian," He repeated carefully, "and I'll tell you that every day for however long it takes for you to realize that. You weren't abandoned because of who you are. It wasn't your fault."
Adrian shattered.
....
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