NOVEL NEXT Chapter 20: Chapter 20: Aries Black!
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"Aries." Sirius' voice was soft and without Aries' excellent hearing he might not have heard his uncle.
He turned to face Sirius, who now stood staring down at his hands. Sirius took a deep breath and meet Aries' eyes.
"You're right, I turned my back on Reg. And not a day goes by that I don't regret it. Thirteen years I've been haunted by the fact that maybe I could have saved my brother. Then you show up, the son of the only member of my family I ever loved."
"Maybe if I had helped him, Voldemort would've been destroyed before he killed your father. You could've been raised here, and I would've snuck you away for adventures while your father tried to teach you all about being a proper Black."
Sirius looked to be fighting tears. "But that's not meant to be. Regulus is dead, but you're here now. Please let me get to know you, the real you. Let me try to be the uncle I could have been if I hadn't made the biggest mistake of my life. Please Aries."
Sirius' confession rocked Aries, it had been the last thing he had been expecting. Maybe his uncle wasn't so far out of reach after all.
Aries walked calmly over to Sirius, looked him in the eyes, and grazed his uncle's mind. Guilt hit him like a hurricane, and it threatened to drown him.
Only his years of Occlumency helped him keep the neutral look on his face, but guilt was not the only thing he felt.
Rising in that storm was hope, and at that Aries made his decision. He reached out his hand, waiting for Sirius to take it, and shook it.
"I'm Aries Black," he greeted. "It's good to meet you Uncle Sirius." The older man smiled brightly, and Aries ignored the obvious tears that threatened to fall.
"It's good to meet you too cub." Sirius looked away for a second, clearly trying to reign in his emotions, and Aries felt guilt for something else rising in his uncle.
"Look you've got the tournament and all, so I don't want to distract you right now. If you need any help feel free to ask, but there's a Hogsmeade trip the weekend after the First Task. Maybe we could get to know each other over a few butterbeers then?"
"I prefer firewhiskey." Aries replied with a grin. "But yes, that's acceptable."
"I'd tell you that you're underage and all, but that's not something an uncle is supposed to do." Sirius smiled and looked as if he wanted to hug Aries, but decided against it, much to Aries' relief.
….
The rest of the week passed by without any further incident. Surprisingly Viktor had been incredibly busy, whether with preparing the Durmstrang Quidditch team or, for whatever reason, sneaking off to the library, but Aries had finally tracked him down.
It was with much relief that the older boy laughed off his worries, saying that he could now show the English and the French how Quidditch was supposed to be played.
If Aries wasn't practicing or hanging out with his friends or Draco, Daphne Greengrass occupied his time, much to Arianna De Cordova's chargin.
Daphne had been rather cold to his advances, something Draco found rather amusing, but after reluctantly sharing an Ancient Runes text, one he had spent hours looking for in the library and was not about to just give up no matter how beautiful the girl was, she seemed to warm a little.
The girl often asked about Durmstrang and Germany, while providing invaluable information on the current political situation in England.
Her father, Cyrus, sat on the Wizengamot, and kept her up to date on the happenings of the high wizard court of law.
It was after Daphne joined him for one of his practice sessions that she surprised him. Draco had told him a lot about his friends throughout the years, and while Aries had needed to be introduced to them it did not mean he was ignorant of them.
Greengrass, according to Draco, thought much of the blood prejudice was rubbish, and did not hold to the more extreme pureblood beliefs.
Despite all this, Aries did not miss the way her eyes lit up the first time he cast a Dark Arts spell.
It had been days before she built up her courage to approach him, but when Daphne asked if he would teach her some of what he knew of the Dark Arts, he accepted all too happily.
Now the pureblood heiress sat with him at meals often, something he now enjoyed rubbing in Draco's face, and discretely read the Dark Arts book he had given her anytime she invited him to the library.
Arianna was tense as he slipped in beside her in Battle Magics. Aries was more than aware of Arianna's dislike for Daphne Greengrass, but he thought that she was over reacting.
He had never shown any signs of returning the Spanish girl's feelings, and while they had a closer friendship than most boys and girls had, it was nowhere near a relationship.
It was something he would need to address soon, though he pushed it far from his mind as their professor joined them at last.
Professor von Reich had opted to take over an abandoned classroom on the second floor, no doubt to get away from Headmaster Kakaroff.
His lesson was unique, even for Durmstrang's standards and the collective Durmstrang delegation seemed to enjoy the change of pace.
Aries made to leave as von Reich brought their lesson to a close, hoping to catch up with Arianna who had left rather quickly, before his professor asked him to stay.
Their argument had happened over a month ago, and while they had continued their lessons at Durmstrang, they had yet to have one upon their arrival at Hogwarts.
It was still somewhat tense between them, Aries noted, as he took the offered chair in front of von Reich's desk.
He waited patiently as his professor scribbled a note, taking the moment to notice how much different the man had made this room compared to his classroom at Durmstrang.
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