Chapter 14: Surprise!
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Anger filled Aries' again and it took everything in his power not to unleash the storm like he wanted. But he couldn't.
Once he did, once he really let it go it was like a raging torrent, one that he had to wrestle and dominate into his control.
He had no issues with harming people if needed, and he had done so often in his time at Durmstrang, but when he lost control there was no telling what would happen, it was like the darkest of his thoughts took over and it was so sweet he never wanted to let go. It was intoxicating.
No, he would not succumb to that temptation.
"Am I dimissed master?" The formality of his apprenticeship was something they often avoided.
It was easy when the man had spent Yule with them two years in a row, and most likely a third this year.
But Aries' was too angry to acknowledge that closeness with his mentor, and it did not go unnoticed.
"No," was the stony reply. "Complete forms one through six, then you may go."
....
His friends noticed the distance between the teacher and pupil but made no comment, it was none of their concern after all.
The next two weeks passed quicker now, as Aries threw himself into training for the upcoming competition.
A desire burned in him, a desire to prove his master wrong. He spent hours in the library reading up on new and more powerful spells, some so dark it would probably even surprise his aunt.
If he wasn't there then he was in an abandoned classroom practicing, while his friends often watched on.
At last the first of October arrived and the thirty students that would make up the Durmstrang delegation boarded the sixteenth century Spanish galleon, its sails flowing in the wind.
Aries gave a curt nod to Professor von Reich, who would be joining them along with their Magical Theory professor, as he made his way to his cabin.
He would share it with Haydn, who had already made himself comfy on the top bunk. They passed their time with cards, gambling being Haydn's guilty pleasure, once Arianna and Ivan showed up.
The fifth member of the fifth-year delegation was another girl named Clarissa Mayer.
Aries did not know her personally, but he was aware of the existing friendship between Arianna and the girl, so he would tolerate her for now.
Despite the game of cards, and the distracting way Arianna seemed to want to play with her hair, Aries impatiently waited for their arrival at Hogwarts.
Not just for the tournament however, there was someone there he was looking forward to dealing with after all.
It was near dinner time when they reached Hogwarts. Kakaroff had refused to allow any of them lunch, saying that it would be disrespectful to show up and not be able to accept their hospitality.
Ironic since Aries knew the man had had a luxurious meal himself, the whole ship could smell it.
The former Death Eater had spent the entire ride in his cabin, forcing the students to steer the ship.
Well most of them, Aries of the Most Ancient and Most Noble House of Black was not about to steer this ship when so many others were capable, and no one seemed to want to tell him otherwise.
Slowly, magnificently, the ship rose out of the water, gleaming in the moonlight. It had a strangely skeletal look about it, as though it were a resurrected wreck, and the dim, misty lights shimmering at its portholes looked like ghostly eyes.
Finally, with a great sloshing noise, the ship emerged entirely, bobbing on the turbulent water, and began to glide toward the bank.1
Aries' eyes locked onto Albus Dumbledore as he greeted Igor Kakaroff.
He had seen the Headmaster of Hogwarts many times in some of Cassiopeia's memories throughout his childhood and in the Daily Prophet that they received every morning, but this was the first time he had seen him in person.
Aries turned his eyes, not wanting to be noticed by the old man just yet, to the crowd of Hogwarts students as Kakaroff began to lead them inside.
The delegation from Beauxbatons had already arrived and few mingled with the Hogwarts students.
A flash of blonde hair on what looked like a fifth year Hogwarts student caught his eye, and he immediately made his way towards him.
He fixed an angry look on his face as he grabbed the boy by the arm and ripped him around, hazel and green flecked eyes meeting grey.
They locked eyes for a moment, and the few students around them tensed, before the two broke into a smile, hugging one another fiercely.
"Aries!" The blonde boy said happily. "You didn't tell me you were coming too!"
"I didn't know until the first of September," Aries replied with a laugh. "Figured I'd let it be a surprise. You don't mind if my friends sit with us, do you?"
"Of course not, follow us. Can't let you end up with those Gryffindors." Aries let out an amused snort at that. Draco and Aries had been introduced when they were five-years-old after his mother's pleas to reunite with her family were finally granted by Cassiopeia.
When they showed up at the door of Malfoy manor after Lucius invited them, Aries had been quite a shock for the Malfoy. Draco had other friends, but none grew as close to him as Aries.
They quickly became thick as thieves, causing all sorts of trouble whenever they were together.
Draco had been another reason Aries had begged to go to Hogwarts, but instead he was forced to hear all about the blonde boy's dealing with the annoying Gryffindors, and not to mention Pansy Parkinson.
No one else knew about him in England besides the Malfoys, Cassiopeia had forced them into an Unbreakable Vow to never tell anyone of his existence until he became public knowledge and seeing as he was now at Hogwarts, that vow was null and void.
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