Adrian woke up the next day before sunrise, having slept poorly despite his exhaustion. His dreams had been troubled and fragmentary. He lay in bed for several minutes, staring at the ceiling of his quarters, before finally forcing himself to rise and face the day ahead.
Adrian dressed, his hands were moving through the familiar routine while his mind raced ahead to the preparations he still needed to make.
After a quick breakfast of toast and tea in his quarters, he wasn't in the mood for the crowded noise of the Great Hall—he gathered his teaching materials for the day's classes.
Tuesday mornings meant third-year Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs, followed by a free period, then fifth-year students in the afternoon. A normal day, on the surface. But beneath that normalcy, Adrian felt the constant pressure of the ticking clock counting down to an unknown confrontation.
The third-year class went smoothly enough.
They were studying Bowtruckles today, and Adrian had arranged for several of the small tree-guardian creatures to be present for observation.
The students were delighted by the twig-like beings, though several girls squealed when the Bowtruckles' sharp fingers came a bit too close during feeding time.
Adrian found himself going through the motions of teaching—explaining the creatures' habitat requirements, their symbiotic relationship with wand-trees, their surprising ferocity when defending their homes but part of his mind remained distant.
"Professor Westeros?" A tentative voice broke through his thoughts. "Are you feeling alright?"
Adrian blinked and focused on the student who had spoken, a small Hufflepuff girl named Emma whose name he had to consciously recall. "Yes, Miss Watson, I'm fine. Why do you ask?"
"It's just... you've been staring at that Bowtruckle for almost a full minute without saying anything," she pointed out, looking concerned.
Adrian glanced down and realized she was right. He'd been holding one of the creatures in his palm, completely lost in thought, while the class waited patiently for him to continue the lesson.
The Bowtruckle was looking up at him with what might have been annoyance in its tiny brown eyes.
"My apologies," Adrian said, carefully setting the creature back on its branch. "I was simply admiring the details of its construction. Notice how each 'twig' of its body is actually articulated at multiple points, allowing for an impressive range of movement despite appearing to be rigid wood."
He managed to finish the lesson without any more lapses in attention, but as the students went out toward their next class, Adrian remained behind in the cleared area near the greenhouses, his mind was immediately returning to his concerns.
During his free period, Adrian headed to his office.
He pulled out his enchanted suitcase from where he'd left it hidden behind some old furniture. The case was ordinary-looking but its interior had been expanded with powerful extension charms to create a space roughly the size of a large room.
More importantly, it contained one of his portal doors, providing quick access to his plantation without the need to travel all the way to his shop in the Muggle neighborhood.
He opened the case and climbed inside without hesitation, his body was compressing slightly to fit through the opening before expanding again once he was fully within the enchanted space.
The interior of the suitcase was organized like a small laboratory and storage area combined.
Workbenches were on two walls, covered in potion-making equipment that gleamed in the soft light from enchanted crystals in the ceiling. Shelves held ingredients in labeled jars, arranged alphabetically for easy access. Reference books were stacked neatly in one corner.
And at the far end of the space, standing like a doorway to another world, was the portal door, a simple wooden frame with runes lighting up into its surface when used.
Adrian crossed to the portal in quick strides and stepped through.
The transition was instantaneous and always slightly disorienting—one moment he stood in the interior of his suitcase laboratory, the next he stood in dazzling sunlight on rich, dark soil.
The plantation was stretched out before him.
This place was Adrian's greatest achievement and his most closely guarded secret.
The plantation existed in as a pocket dimension—not entirely separate from the regular world, but folded away from it, accessible only through the specific portal doors he'd created.
The sky overhead was a perfect blue unmarred by clouds, the sun warm and constant regardless of the weather in the outside world.
Time passed here at the same rate as everywhere else, but the seasons remained eternally pleasant, locked in a perpetual late spring that provided ideal growing conditions year-round.
The plantation stretched for nearly two acres, divided into distinct zones.
Closest to where the portal door stood were the seven greenhouses. These weren't the rickety glass structures common to most wizarding gardens, but rather buildings constructed from enchanted crystal that filtered and focused sunlight in specific wavelengths.
Each greenhouse maintained its own microclimate, carefully calibrated for the particular species growing within.
And at the center of it all, dominating the landscape like a living monument, stood the Tree of Wisdom. Its massive trunk rose from the earth, branches were spreading wide over to create a canopy that dappled the ground below with patterns of light and shadow.
Even from a distance, Adrian could feel its presence.
"Adrian, Sir!" Dobby's voice called out, and he came hurrying around the nearest greenhouse, his colorful scarf was flapping behind him. "Dobby is glad you've come! Dobby was worried!"
"What's wrong?" Adrian asked immediately, his alert senses were already scanning the plantation for signs of intrusion or damage.
"Nothing is wrong exactly," Dobby explained, wringing his scarf anxiously. "But many plants have been acting strange since last night. The Chomping Cabbages especially—they keep trying to uproot themselves and move toward the northern boundary, like they sense something out there."
Adrian felt a chill despite the warm sunlight.
The Chomping Cabbages were one of his more successful mutations and many of them had mutation characteristic Malice Detection which was similar to the mutation like his Devil's Snare which detected dark magic, and the fact that they were agitated enough to try moving toward a potential threat was very concerning.
"Show me," Adrian said.
Dobby led him to Greenhouse Three, which housed most of the more lively aggressive plant mutations. The interior was warm and humid, filled with the earthy smell of rich soil and growing things. But beneath that familiar scent, Adrian detected something else, like the smell of decay barely masked by fresh growth.
Some of the Chomping Cabbages were indeed agitated and the agitated ones were all cabbages that had mutated in the direction of malice detection. They sat in their oversized pots, their leafy bodies were trembling and rustling despite the lack of wind.
Several had grown to nearly double their usual size, their outer leaves were pulled tight like a creature hunching its shoulders in preparation for a fight.
As Adrian approached, one of them actually lunged toward him, snapping its leaves together with an audible crunch that would have been quite painful if it had connected with flesh.
"Easy," Adrian said softly, extending his hand slowly and letting his magic flow gently out.
The Chomping Cabbage settled slightly, though it remained tense.
He moved deeper into the greenhouse, checking on the other mutations.
The Dittany plants with detection characteristics were also showing signs of distress. Their usually vibrant green leaves had taken on a grayish tinge.
"They're all reacting to something," Adrian murmured, more to himself than to Dobby.
He knelt down and pressed his hand against the soil in one of the planting beds, reaching out with his magical senses. The earth here in his plantation was normally rich with life and magic, practically humming with vital energy.
But now, beneath that healthy pulse, he detected a faint weirdness—a corruption that felt like darkness trying to seep up from somewhere deep below, or perhaps seeping in from beyond the boundaries.
Adrian stood quickly, brushing dirt from his robes. "Dobby, I need you to be extra vigilant. Whatever was out there last night—it's been circling the plantation, testing the defenses. The wards held, but the residual magic is affecting the plants."
"Should Dobby move the plants somewhere safer?" Dobby asked worriedly.
"No, they're safer here behind the wards than anywhere else," Adrian said. "But I want you to check on them every few hours. If any of them start to actually wither or show signs of being poisoned by the magic, let me know immediately."
He moved through the other greenhouses quickly, checking on his various cultivated species.
The Firewood he'd created sat in stacked cords in Greenhouse Five, showing no obvious signs of contamination. But even here, Adrian could feel that faint wrongness in the air, like a distant sour note in an otherwise harmonious melody.
After finishing his inspection of the greenhouses, Adrian walked to the Tree of Wisdom itself. He placed his hand against its massive trunk, feeling the rough bark beneath his palm, and reached out through their connection.
"I'm going to add more protections," Adrian told Eldra. "And I need to warn Bart and the others in the Forest. If this threat comes for you, it might try to use the Treants against us, or might attack them to weaken our defenses."
The Tree of Wisdom sent back response in agreement.
Adrian spent the next hour carefully reinforcing and expanding the plantation's protective wards. He wove detection spells that would alert him not just to intruders crossing the boundary, but to any significant magical activity within a quarter mile of the plantation's borders.
He added illusions designed to confuse anyone trying to map the area, making the spatial boundaries appear different from their actual locations.
By the time he finished, Adrian was sweating despite the mild temperature, his magical reserves were noticeably depleted from the sustained casting. But the plantation was now better defended than it had ever been.
"Dobby," Adrian said, finding him tending to some of the less aggressive plants in Greenhouse Two, "I need you to stay here for the next two days. Don't leave the plantation for any reason unless I specifically call you. Can you do that?"
Dobby's enormous eyes went even wider. "Dobby will stay! Dobby will protect Sir's plants!" He paused, his ears were drooping slightly. "Is Boss expecting an attack?"
"Yes," Adrian confirmed, seeing no point in lying. "Within the next two few days, something very dangerous may try to breach these wards. The defenses should hold, but I need you ready to alert me immediately if anything goes wrong. You still have that emergency signal charm I gave you?"
Dobby patted his chest where the small enchanted charm hung on a chain beneath his scarf. "Dobby has it always, Master. Right here, safe and sound."
"Good. If you activate it, I'll come immediately, no matter where I am or what I'm doing."
After giving Dobby several more specific instructions about what to watch for and how to respond to various scenarios, Adrian reluctantly returned through the portal to his suitcase. He had afternoon classes to teach afterall.
But before returning to Hogwarts proper, he had one more crucial task.
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