Chapter 11: You-Know-Who!

If you want to read ahead by some chapters from here you can visit my Patre-on.

[P] [A] [T] [R] [E] [O] [N]

https://www.patreon.com/Yggdrasil_Loki

-----------

"In my lifetime I have only known three wands with the tail feather of a phoenix. The first was thirteen and half inches and yew."

"That one was the wand of You-Know-Who. He did great things, terrible yes, but great. The second was its brother, you know it as the one I gave to you rather reluctantly. Eleven inches and holly."

"I truly believe that the Boy-Who-Lived, Thomas Potter, will wield it seeing as its brother gave him the scar. And then now there is yours. A different phoenix yes, but a phoenix none the less, and with both yew and holly."

"Thomas and He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named have already accomplished great things, and I cannot help but be curious, Aries Black, of what great things you will do."

Aries had fell asleep hours ago, the Dreamless Sleep Potion had worked its wonders and Cassiopeia had no fear that he would wake to find her gone.

Hades, the wonderful phoenix that had saved Aries' life the day of the accident, bonding them together, had answered her call, though rather reluctantly.

There was no known magic to detect a phoenix and she only hoped that the magical creature's magic would extend to her tonight as they flashed into Albus Dumbledore's office.

She knew her fear of the old man was irrational.

The potion was perfect, he would never discover Aries' identity and yet that fear lingered, a shameful part of the warmth the young boy had brought into her life.

It was that irrational fear that had made her decide long ago that Aries would not attend Hogwarts, at least not until she deemed him ready.

Cassi walked with careful steps toward the magic book. It contained the list of every magical born being.

She flipped hastily towards H and sighed with relief at seeing Harry's name still crossed out before flipping towards A and her heart stopped. Aries Orion Black. There it was.

Cassi doubted that the old man ever looked through this book other than to look at Harry Potter's name, but she could not risk it.

A strong confundus charm would do, and she smiled in satisfaction as the name disappeared.

Victoriously she reached for Hades and flashed back to her home in Germany.

A proud smile on her face knowing that the future of the Most Ancient and Most Noble House of Black was safe. At least for tonight.

….

Durmstrang was a large castle, but no where near the size of Hogwarts, Aries noted.

It was something he had noticed the evening of the first of September every year for the past four years, this year being the fifth.

The castle was cold, again unlike Hogwarts, and fires were only lit for magical purposes, never for comfort. One had to find ways to keep warm to survive, and that was perhaps the main thing taught at Durmstrang: survival.

The fifteen-year-old Black could write a novel on the differences between the school he attended and the school of his father, but it would be a depressing write.

Aries had fought tirelessly at the age of eleven to convince his aunt to send him to Hogwarts, but no amount of flattery, bribery, or even blackmail could change the Black woman's mind.

That French school had been out of the question and he knew exactly why Durmstrang had been chosen: The Dark Arts.

Cassiopeia had never shied away from teaching him the darkest of magic and had passed along to him the idea that was no such thing as dark and light, only power and the intent behind it.

Aries had known far more magic than any normal eleven-year-old, and had no problem staying at the top of his class four years straight.

That hardly meant he got to coast however. His aunt had been displeased with the staff, especially the Headmaster, and had used her influence to replace three different teachers and left a not so well veiled threat to the Headmaster himself that she expected the standards to be raised, or else.

The result was that every teacher took it upon themselves to push him further and further, some even adjusting his work personally, so it could challenge him.

Battle Magics was, of course, his favorite class, and where some of the more aggressive Dark Magic was learned.

Aries had always found the chaos of battle rather calming, and when he was dueling everything seemed to be clearer to him, but it was only when he dueled privately with Professor von Reich that he was able to enjoy himself.

Since the first day at Durmstrang, von Reich had taken it as his personal mission to push Aries as far as he could, forcing him to unleash as much of his power as possible.

It wasn't until his third year that he truly outpowered the professor, but his age and lack of experience caused him to be bested often.

Now being bested by a world renown duelist wasn't the worst thing in the world, but Aries wanted to be extraordinary after all, and he hoped that this would be the year that he'd finally best the old man.

Professor von Reich had become a mentor, and in many ways a father figure he had never had, and that only motivated Aries even more.

Aries was brought out of his musings by one of his best friends, Arianna De Cordova, as she sat down beside him.

He had followed in the footsteps of his aunt, and from the first day at Durmstrang began seeking out powerful friends, though it had not taken long.

The girl from Spain happened to be the daughter of the Ambassador to Germany for the Spanish Ministry of Magic.

But that was not where his associates ended. Next came the first friend he had made at the school, Haydn Muller, son of the German Ministry of Magic's Chancellor.

They had known each other casually, since Aunt Cassiopeia had often brought him along to the German Ministry while she played her Game, but a friendship had never really formed, until a rather nasty duel between the two in the first class of Battle Magics.

Everyone had thought they'd found their first class rivalry, but instead they both laughed it off and became friends.

-----------

If you want to read ahead by some chapters from here you can visit my Patre-on.

[P] [A] [T] [R] [E] [O] [N]

https://www.patreon.com/Yggdrasil_Loki