Jordan, what do you think of a ybtm (ibty) au but with Hadrian? Like, Voldemort and Dumbledore are fighting, and Hadrian gets caught between them and ends up being hit by a spell that kills him — and he goes to Nathan’s universe and body? No other Harry or Harriet, just Hadrian in another universe with a young version of Riddle and baby Death Eaters that he only knows about because of Lily’s teaching? Better yet, if it doesn’t get too complicated in writing, Raina goes with him too? And I only want to include her because I love her dearly and I think it’s a crime not to include her in all of Hadrian’s shenanigans 😂
Like, in YBTM (IBTY), Death says that millions of years passed and Harry’s universe was very much dead, along with everyone he ever loved. But in this AU, would Riddle find a way to follow Hadrian? Or would it just be Raina and Hadrian having to rebuild their lives from scratch in a completely different world? And how do you think his relationship with Death would be, compared to the one Death has with Harry? And what about Raina, if she does follow Hadrian?
oh god no one would survive.
okay okay so i could see it being:
‘master of death’ is a fluid title and regardless of him never having touched a deathly hallow in this life, hadrian is and was always going to be the master of death. it was destiny. fate. and not even death could resist.
so, hadrian dies in the duel between voldemort and dumbledore and wakes up in nathan ciro’s body a few eons later. he is, understandably, not pleased.
but he plays along until he can figure out what’s going on.
cue a few familiar beats - hadrian learning simon is a worm, hadrian going to hogwarts, hadrian meeting orion and augustus and tom (and oh boy, is it distressing to be around a riddle that doesn’t want to jump his bones. hadrian is upset)
but hadrian isn’t harry, and he has a whole boatload of theoretical knowledge and rituals and runes at his disposal, so he figures out a way to summon death and they have their little spat. only death is slightly less antagonistic because while hadrian has a shit ton of issues, he doesn’t hate himself quite as much as harry did, so death is more salty and bitter than outright hateful.
it’s still a mess though, and hadrian is reeling from the revelations.
the only good thing is death gives him raina, as well as a body for her to inhabit.
despite him looking different, raina recognises him at a glance, and hadrian isn’t ashamed to say he bursts into tears the first time she sits up and asks him what the fuck is going on.
they sob. they hug. they tell each other everything.
hadrian gives her the run down on all the chaos he’s in the middle of. raina tells him what life was like after he died, and how both she and riddle seemed to just…break without him. it paints a depressing picture, but raina (even with decades more life) is just glad to see her best friend again.
cue more insanity as they plan to ditch hogwarts and go live somewhere just the two of them.
raina questions him on this younger riddle, and the face hadrian makes stops her from asking again.
that night, nathan ciro vanishes from hogwarts, and it causes yet another scandal that nearly cripples the school.
(what they’ll never know was that aurors crawling over hogwarts to search for nathan is the only reason the acolytes don’t go ahead with their attack on hogsmeade)
years pass, benedict and cynthia mourn their son and simon continues to crumble from within.
orion black is in france, nominally to help his father coordinate a business deal, but in actuality it’s to meet a potential bride. he’s bored out of his mind at this soirée when he catches sight of someone he long thought dead.
nathan ciro is dressed to the nines and spinning across the dance floor with a beautiful witch, the two of them grinning like they are all that exists in the other’s eyes. the whole hall is watching them, and orion is taken aback by the indulgent fondness everyone seems to hold for the two youths.
he asks around, subtly, and finds out the pair are hadrian and raina evans, a young married couple that have lived abroad and only recently settled in paris. hadrian is a muggleborn, and raina a halfblood, but the pair are some of the most talented magic users france’s high society have seen in a long time - and despite what the two claim, there are rumours that they are not quite what they seem.
but this is a world where grindelwald’s influence is slowly spreading, and with a muggle war still waging, no one is willing to look too closely at a witch and wizard clearly fleeing something.
approaching them wasn’t a part of the plan, but orion had always been better at improvising.
he’s a little insulted that ciro takes more than three seconds to remember him, but that’s nothing compared to how…unbothered the boy seems to be at having been found.
orion isn’t quite sure what to do with this information. something about ciro’s blasé attitude and raina’s sharp smile left him feeling wrong-footed and deeply intrigued.
