Hadrian Black: The Abandoned Prodigy

The end of the week had arrived, with it came the day in which Uagadou focused on its specialty courses.

Hadrian pushed his way through the congregation of students and made his way into the classroom. Upon entrance, Hadrian was confused due to the lack of chairs, but swiftly found himself a seat on the floor, nevertheless.

The teacher at the front of the class, who had her eyes closed and her feet locked in the sitting yoga position, suddenly stood and greeted the class.

"Welcome! Come in - sit on the floor!", she shouted as the students poured in.

Hadrian caught eyes with the three classmates that cornered him a couple of days ago; they recoiled under Hadrian's sudden glance, before scowling and placing their rear ends at the spaces near the front.

"Do as I do.", the teacher said as she made an effort to show the way in which the students should be sitting.

"Good...good!", she cried out whilst examining the postures of the students she passed.

After thoroughly correcting their stances, the teacher stood at the front and slapped the blackboard, which in turn triggered a projection rune.

The projection rune displayed the teacher's name, which was Professor Kasiwa, accompanied by a spinning projection of the words 'Animagus Training'.

"That's right! The school will begin your Animagus Training...but do not think that it will be easy. I am sure you have learned the dangers of Transfiguration, but even that will seem tame in comparison to the dangers of becoming an Animagus.", she lectured - giving pointed looks at the individual students who seemed not to care about her warnings.

"The first thing you have to do is...?", she asked, waiting for someone to raise their hand.

A small, curly-haired, brown skin girl lifted her hand slowly and answered when Professor Kasiwa gestured at her, "We have to find our Animagus forms."

"Yes! Today you will begin the journey to becoming Animagi, by discovering your forms!", she said as she smiled, which quickly became a frown, "That does not mean you will find your form today! It could even take a year! There is also the fact that your Transfiguration skills have not reached a level in which you should even be thinking about performing self-transfiguration of that level."

The students let out a groan of dejection, except for a few who had already learned about the tedious and convoluted path to becoming an Animagus.

"Alright, to find our animals, we have to look deep within ourselves. Close your eyes...", she waited until the whole class had done as she asked before resuming, "...Now imagine yourself traveling deeper and deeper into the very depths of your soul, and you should hopefully meet your spirit animal. Remember to calm your breathing and focus on being still and keeping your eyes closed."

Hadrian's eyes were firmly shut, he had already learned the basics of meditation, which could be attributed to his Occlumency training. The problem was, Hadrian hadn't been keeping up with his Occlumency training. Ever since he had received the Grimoire, he had neglected it, which had quickly come around to bite him.

Hadrian found it slightly harder to enter within his mind, but eventually managed the task.

He 'walked' through the darkness, spreading his magic as he did so - hoping for a reaction. After a minute of walking, Hadrian's eyes were drawn in by a bright golden light. Hadrian ran towards the light, hoping it was his Animagus Form.

Suddenly, a large barrier materialized in front of Hadrian. Beyond the barrier, the bright light continued shining. Hadrian began to hear the voice of a female, but couldn't make out what she was saying. The incoherent babbling was suddenly overshadowed by a tremendous roar that shook the barrier and forced Hadrian out of his mind.

Hadrian sat up, clutching the floor's carpet as he panted and heaved. He looked around, hoping that the roar he heard had been a cause of external influence, and not a part of his mind.

Unfortunately, all Hadrian saw was a couple of students opening and closing their eyes periodically, instead of keeping them closed throughout the duration of the meditation session. Some had even disregarded the method in which to enter the meditation state, which was calming your breathing and sitting still. Hadrian glanced to his left and saw a bald-headed child tensing his jaw and clenching his fists.

'He doesn't look like he's meditating...He looks as though he's battling constipation, not searching for his Animagus Form.', Hadrian mused.

The loud shrill of the bell rang through the classroom, alerting others that the class was over.

"What?!", Hadrian whispered to himself, "That was barely 10 minutes!".

The students rose slowly, stretching and shaking their bodies tight muscles that had been a result of their hour-long lesson on meditation.

Hadrian listened to the conversation of the students beside him, hoping he could work out what had happened.

"Did you find your form?"

"Nope. I think I fell asleep."

"I tried, but sitting for an hour has got to be one of the most boring things to do."

"Exactly! I thought we were going to transform and stuff..."

Hadrian droned the rest of the conversation as he rose and made his way out of the classroom.

'It was an hour to everyone else...so why did it feel like 10 minutes for me?', Hadrian shook his head in frustration, 'No...that's not even the most important thing. What was that golden light? What was that barrier? How do I get past it? Whose voice did I hear?'

Hadrian shook his head and growled with discontent, "Ugh! I need to go to the library."

"Hey!-", Hadrian heard someone shout aloud, but disregarded it as someone greeting a friend.

"I'm talking to you, Hadrian!", Koni shouted as she quickly caught up to Hadrian and grabbed his wrist and turned him to face her.

"Oh. Hello, Koni. I'm actually really busy right now, can we talk lat-", Hadrian started, turning to leave before he was interrupted by Koni.

"Wait!", she shouted.

"Fine, but make it quick.", Hadrian replied.

Koni looked bashfully at the ground, shooting Hadrian quick glances as she rubbed the side of her arm in embarrassment, "Well...tomorrows our day off, and we're all allowed to go to the city..."

"Um, yes. I don't understand what you're getting at.", Hadrian asked as he tilted his head in confusion.

"I just thought that you know...if you wanted to - It's not like you have to say yes, j-just-", she said, babbling her way through her explanation.

"Koni!", Hadrian snapped, slightly annoyed by her antics.

Koni had been helping Hadrian tremendously with integrating into the school by telling him the things that the others were told during the induction ceremony. She'd also helped Hadrian find an older student to transfigure his room into a bigger size. All in all, Koni had been really helpful, especially after she realized she was in the wrong for not helping Hadrian when she vowed to do so.

"Yeah, sorry.", Koni breathed out her next sentence very quickly, "Gooutwithme!"

Hadrian stood still, processing what he had just heard, "You want me to... go out with you."

"Yes!...No! I mean to the City! I can show you around...is what I meant.", Koni fumbled out.

Hadrian pondered on it for a few seconds before saying, "Alright, I'll see you tomorrow then."

He swiftly turned on his heels and made his way to the library, leaving a shocked Koni standing aimlessly in the corridor.

The Uagadou library did not have a 'restricted area'. All the books that are in the library were there for the student's consumption, and the contents of said library were very extensive.

Hadrian zeroed in on the books on Animagi, hoping to find a reason for his weird experience. He picked up a couple before he sat himself down in the corner.

For a while, Hadrian's eyes did nothing except dancing side-to-side as he flicked pages very quickly. Eventually, Hadrian found the extract that explained his experience.

'There are plenty of reasons as to why someone may struggle with finding their Animagus forms. One of which being, they have a unique ability called Metamorphasis. Whilst being an extremely rare skill to have, Metamorphmagus' are unfortunately not able to become Animagi. This might also hold true for Partial-Metamorphmagus', but those are even rarer, so it is unlikely you would find one that wanted to go through the difficult self-transfiguration method and resort themselves to being studied during the Animagus Training.'

"I could be a Metamorphmagus?", Hadrian spoke aloud, 'Nope, I can't change my hair color whenever I want. So... Partial-Metamorph?'

Hadrian filed that for later, as he continued reading the extract.

'Another reason may be, that the person may be a Half-Creature. Examples of this would be, Werewolves or Veelas, who already possess the ability to transform. It is because they already have a transformation, that they can not become Animagi. The only form they would find within themselves would be the Creature that lives within them. It is these reasons and others that could be entirely personal to the person attempting to become an Animagus, that they would find it near-impossible to become Animagi. Instead, they might be met with a barrier (Metamorphmagus), or the spirit of the Creature within them.'

'That's...fantastic.', Hadrian g.r.o.a.n.e.d internally, 'I'm either not able to transform due to being Dragonlord, or because of my being a possible Partial-Metamorphmagus.'

Hadrian ranted in his mind for the rest of the day, even during his Astronomy lessons.

Unfortunately, Hadrian couldn't begin his practical Alchemy lessons until next year. Alchemy was deemed to be too challenging and difficult for their first-year students to attempt. Instead, they were prepped with introductory theoretical lessons on the different components of Alchemy. Alchemy was an extremely diverse subject which was an amalgamation of Potions, Transfiguration, Blood Magic, and Ritual Magic.

Hadrian found it amusing to think that if he were to tell others in the British Wizarding community that he was learning Blood Magic and Ritual Magic, they would not be able to throw him in jail - even though they were classified as 'Dark' and 'Illegal' branches of magic.

One of the only positives Hadrian had garnered from this day was the fact that he would be having company as he wandered around the city. After the incident with the boys who cornered Hadrian, Koni apologized and vowed to be a proper friend - something she had been successfully upholding.

Since it was his day off tomorrow, Hadrian decided it would be the best time for him to Mirror Call his friends, Daphne and Theo. He missed them.