Not Who You Think

Twelve

The rest of the holidays passed in a blur for Harry and the rest of the Phantoms. His days were a mix of staying behind his mask while around the Chickens, turning back to sneak around so as to not lose his mind and keep working on his few projects – even though they had agreed to cut down on their work over the holidays – and turning back again to attend the Yule Balls as Hadrian with his father. So, all in all, it was a pretty hectic holiday.

The balls had at least been interesting, since he hadn't had a chance to attend any before; Luna had somehow gotten him a variety of dress robes in his house colours that suited him perfectly and also somehow complimented what his father was going to wear. He had spent the nights being the perfect Heir for his father, talking with other Heirs and Lords, finding out the opinions of their houses to work out which houses would align with him and his, dancing, eating, and drinking. The first few balls had seen his entrance as a surprise, since barely anyone in any of the Dark or Grey circles – his father only attended the Dark/Dark-Grey balls – had known of his father having an Heir, and those that had been privy to the information had thought him dead; that wasn't surprising though, since his own father had thought he was dead too. Hadrian had enjoyed the shocked silence at the very first ball upon his entry, as Lord Greengrass always had an announcer.

While he had enjoyed the balls and the time spent talking and gathering information, he very much disliked the dancing that followed the evening meals. He hated dancing, even though Luna and Neville had forced him and the rest of the Phantoms to learn and despite the fact that his Quidditch skills and reflexes made him extremely graceful. But he always had to dance, being the Heir to both Lestrange and Slytherin; he knew that if he had come as Harry rather than Hadrian, he still would have had to dance, being Lord of three houses; sometimes he hated his many titles. And half the problem with dancing was that any girl he asked to dance would almost always take it as an invitation to ask for a betrothal contract; many families wanted their daughters to marry into such a prestigious family, especially marry to the son of the Dark Lord. The problem with this was that he was in no way attracted to any females, or males for that matter; he just didn't find anyone attractive in that way. He was at least thankful that his father had told him that it was in the Slytherin family by-laws that no member of the family could have a betrothal contract. Luckily, he had managed to dance only with those who he knew were already contracted so he didn't have to deal with offers anyway.

A couple of times he had spent time with his father to just get away from the Chickens and to spend some time relaxing during a re-live, rather than working on something or other. During those times, he had toyed with the idea of telling his father who he was, but he always convinced himself not to for one reason or another. The time that he did spend with his father, they often spent in a companionable silence in the library or discussing things to do with the war in his fathers study. His father had also mentioned something about a family reunion but had refused to answer any questions when Hadrian had asked what he meant.

It was with great reluctance that the Phantoms got on the train to go back to Hogwarts. On one hand, being back at the castle meant they had more places to disappear to and it was easier to disappear without anyone questioning it, but on the other hand, it meant they had to be more careful about what they did as there were more eyes around the castle, including the portraits and ghosts. Even though they were under closer watch at Headquarters, with Molly being on them almost 24/7, they had had more freedom to move around and get to the places they needed to get their information, since they didn't need to sneak out of the castle without being noticed.

They all grouped together in one compartment, doing their best to discuss what they had done over the holidays, since they hadn't had the chance to catch up after their Yule celebration, while also keeping their discussions safe enough for the stream of DA members that came in to talk about their holidays. The main topic of discussion was about what they had gotten for their family Yule or Christmas celebration, since they had all celebrated separately at one point, even if that included the separate celebration with others. Harry proudly showed off the gifts his father had given him to his friends between visits, and they all gave their compliments of his new accessories which he was wearing under very heavy glamours, all of them knowing how much they meant to him as connection to his family, something he hadn't really had until the start of that year. Amongst the discussion of gifts, the twins brought up the faux ear pieces they had all been given.