Bellatrix hummed, pressing her wand to her skull and pulling out a thin strand of something from her temple. Adrian watched in fascination as the man pulled out a single needle apparatus with an open vial at the top. The silvery liquid slid into the needle, and the porcupine tapped the side.
"Right," He coughed, "How big?"
Bellatrix grinned and held her fingers two inches apart, "This is it's head."
The man's eyes bulged, gasping and staring at Adrian who already was silently removing his shirt.
"Are you bonkers! The boy is a birch tree!" Porcupine argued, "It'd be as long as his leg!"
"That's why you're going to give it a physical interaction and movement!" Bellatrix snapped, pointing the wand at the man.
The man gulped, and slowly casted something under his breath on the hollow needle. He casted a few more spells, continuing until the very tip of the metal changed to the silver colour itself.
Without any other words, he leant forward and pressed it into Adrian's skin.
It hurt, only like an annoying tingle under his skin. It spread from the needle point, glowing silver across his chest and over one shoulder, looping low and across his ribs before its tail continued down his thigh out of sight.
It slowly faded, and from the fading scales began to rise, pressing outwards and filling like Nagini herself was rising from his bones. It blinked awake, flickering its tongue and peering outwards attentively towards Bellatrix.
"There," The Porcupine swallowed, shifting and pulling out a shrunken canvas. He enlarged it, before pressing the needle against the fabric and tinting the material black. "And here's your portrait."
Bellatrix accepted the canvas, and looked at Adrian expectantly.
Adrian looked down at his chest where Nagini was slithering up and investigating his collarbone, "Nagini, go to the picture."
The porcupine man gasped and spluttered in growing horror. The snake turned, looking as if it was somehow going underwater. Its picture warped and gradually vanished, until its tail slid inside the ripple and it was entirely gone from Adrian's skin.
It slithered into view in the portrait, peering around once more, and giving a loud hiss towards Porcupine.
Bellatrix smiled, and Adrian quietly slid his shirt back on.
"Thank you!" Bellatrix chimed, jumping upright without offering any sort of payment to the man, Adrian didn't think that he would expect it anyways.
Once outside, Bellatrix passed him a few galleons, more than enough to replace the one book, and apparated him to the entrance of Diagon Alley.
"I'll be back in an hour," Bellatrix waved, before she vanished from sight with a jarring crack.
Adrian stepped into the crowded streets, finding the situation very similar to last year. He wished that he had brought Lutain, but his familiar had eaten a rather large breakfast and was unable to move quickly for the rest of the day.
He moved towards the bookstore, almost immediately feeling that something was wrong with the building.
It was unsettling, he leant to the side, one hand holding him balanced as he stared off and tried to pinpoint what it was that was making him so uneasy.
"Adrian!"
Adrian snapped his head around, looking at the rather baffled but uncomfortably smiling face of Hermione.
Adrian started over towards her, not quite comprehending still the situation.
"Pleasure seeing you once more," Adrian nodded, looking over her shoulder to see why she was so anxious-
-right as a younger girl's cauldron flew across the floor and an elder red haired man tackled Lucius Malfoy into a bookshelf.
Dozens of heavy spell books came falling down on their heads; there was a collective yell of, "Get him, Dad!" from two twins Adrian's elders; assumedly his wife shrieking, "No, Arthur, no!"; the crowd stampeded backwards and knocked more shelves to the ground.
"Break it up, here, gents, break it up-"
Now it was a large man, Hogwart's Groundkeeper if Adrian recalled correctly, waded inwards through the sea of collapsed books and in an instant, managed to pull Lucius Malfoy and who he assumed as Mr. Weasley, apart.
Mr. Weasley had a cut lip and Lucius was starting to develop a dark spot on his forehead.
He was still holding a Transfiguration book; he thrust it out at the younger red haired girl and spat "Here, girl- take your book- it's the best your father can give you-"
He turned and with as much dignity as he could spare he beckoned for Draco, who was rather humiliated as default, and they left the shop.
"Yeh should've ignored him, Arthur," The gamekeeper grumbled, shaking his head morosely, "Rotten ter the core, the whole family, every-one knows that- no Malfoy's worth listenin' ter- bad blood, that's what it is- slimy Slytherins ter all-"
Adrian cleared his throat, drawing attention from the gamekeeper who looked curious.
Hermione gasped in alarm and flushed quickly, "I'm sure Hagrid didn't mean that, Adrian! Not all Slytherins are bad! I mean, you-" She cut off quickly, thoroughly embarrassed.
"You're that Slytherin-"
"-the broker-"
"-can you give us a deal?" The two twins spun, looking at Adrian interestedly, while their mother scolded them loudly.
"Possibly," Adrian started slowly, "Although terms will have to be set later."
The two twins beamed and grinned wickedly. Adrian gave a polite smile and looked back at Hermione who was comforting two adults who looked rather spooked.
"Adrian! These are my parents!" She hurried to introduce, "They're new to this magic thing!"
"Muggles?" Adrian tested, trying not to wince or think on all experiences he'd suffered due to muggles, "A pleasure to meet you."
They smiled and thanked him, exchanging utter nonsense with him before the group realized they were to meet someone else outside of Gringotts.
They hurried out, filing around and the manager of the store looked like he wanted to stop them. It was thoroughly amusing.
"Do I know yeh?" Hagrid suddenly rumbled, squinting down at Adrian with a confused expression.
"I don't think so," Adrian blinked, "Was the Cerberus from last year yours? I heard he had a beautiful pelt."
The man's face lit up instantly and he seemed embarrassed, "Yeh, Fluffy jus' 'ad a couple Hornworms e'ery week!"
Adrian nodded, "Wonderful to hear that your Cerberus was well taken care of. I have a familiar, he's fairly picky with his food, do you perhaps have a good supply of mice or rats? The ones from Diagon over Owl Delivery are sometimes," Adrian grimaced, "Picked over."
Hagrid nodded solemnly, "Aye, ruddy job they do, 'ead down to my 'ut and we'll talk!" He beamed and waded out of the store through the books.
Arian paused- the strange sensation had vanished.
And he still needed the replacement book Bella destroyed.
....
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