A/N

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The next morning saw Antares rise once again at the crack of dawn. But what was unique about this morning was that it was with great reluctance that Antares rose from his bed.

Today would mark the begging of the two-month long Courting ceremony between himself and Helena Greengrass.

It wasn't this alone that made him want to crawl under his duvet and never come out. It was the fact that today would be the day that everyone would find out about his betrothal contract with Helena. Not only would all of his friends, peers and professors know about his betrothal, but also the entirety of the Wizarding World.

Antares couldn't care about the opinion of those he didn't know, but those he did was a different story altogether. He was especially worried about how Sophia was going to react to this particular piece of news. Not kindly, was Antares's first thought.

His friends had re-acted fairly well last night when he had told them that he couldn't tell them the reason that he had received his detention. They were his friends and they trusted his opinion. However, he didn't believe that the news about his marriage contract would blow over as easily as that had done. They would rather hear it from him than from another source, which was why he was planning on telling them all about it at breakfast before the morning news arrived.

Knowing that he was only delaying the inevitable, Antares slowly rose from his bed.

Grabbing his wand from his bedside table, Antares quickly changed into his workout clothes with the flick of the wrist. Making sure he had everything he needed for the upcoming courting, he grabbed his book bag from the end of his bed, donned his favourite cloak and exited his dormitory.

After silently walking through the dark and desolate common room and out passed the portrait of Salazar Slytherin, where he then proceeded to make his way down to the Quidditch pitch for his morning exercise.

Outside was the usual weather for this time of the morning in Scotland, mostly wet and cold with the sun hiding safely behind the various mountains that surrounded Hogwarts.

Placing his bag on one of the seats, he took off his cloak and placed it on top of his bag. Antares took a few moments to stretch before he took off at a brisk pace around the frosted field.

An hour and a half passed as he continued to run laps around the Quidditch pitch, pushing his body to the absolute limit as he tried to forget about his day ahead. By the time he was finished he was gasping for breath and drenched from head-to-toe in sweat.

"Tempus" cast Antares after picking up his wand from within his robe.

When his spell revealed that it was already quarter to eight, Antares quickly chucked on his robe, put his wand in his inner pocket and slung his bag over his should. He then set off at a brisk pace, but not in the direction of the castle. His next destination was the Owlery.

It didn't take long before Antares had crossed the grounds from the Quidditch pitch towards the west tower of Hogwarts, where the Owlery was located.

The Hogwarts Owlery was a large circular tower that was made out roughly carved stone. A rough dirt footpath led to up to the base of the tower. It had windows with no glass in them so that the owls could come and go freely and played home to over 400 owls.

Walking up the dirt path, Antares stood at the base of the Owlery. There was no door to the building so he just entered and began to climb the circular stairs to the top. Walls upon walls of owls could be seen as he made his way towards the top. Barn Owls, Eagle Owls, Grey Owls, Tawny Owls and Brown Owls of all shapes and size lined the walls of the circular building.

When he got to the top he had to place a hand over his face to stop the intense smell of owl shit from making him gag. The floor was covered in what looked like three inches of owl shit, dried grass and the carcasses of various dead animals.

Withdrawing his wand, he quickly cast a banishing charm on the excrement and other foul smelling things in the room. He then cast an airfreshening charm that made the whole room smell like vanilla.

Seeing as that problem was solved, he looked around the large circular room to find his personal owl. Not seeing him anywhere amongst the several dozen that where located at the top of the tower, he put his fingers in his mouth and whistled a specific tune very loudly.

Within moments a large black owl came soaring through one of the open windows, circling the room a few times before landing on Antares' outstretched arm.

"It's been too long, Aquila" murmured Antares as he stroked his owl's feathers.

Aquila had been a gift from his family when he had received is Hogwarts letter. He was a completely black eagle owl that had piercing gold eyes and a very sharp curved beak. A chain hung around his neck with two metal tags on it, one with his name and registration number, and the other was the black family crest.

Putting his free hand in his robe pocket, Antares pulled out a black envelope and a magically shrunken package.

"I've got a task for you old friend. I need you to bring this to the great hall in about 30 minutes. Can you do that for me?" asked Antares of his faithful companion.

Aquila nodded his head in the affirmative, nipping his owners finger affectionately.

"Looks like somebody's getting extra mice tomorrow" said Antares as he tied the packages to Aquila's outstretched leg.

Once everything was done, he walked Aquila to an empty perch on the wall and placed him upon it.

Giving his faithful pet one last scratch behind the ears, Antares began to descend the stairs. 'Breakfast is going to be an interesting affair' thought Antares as he made his way to the bottom of the stairs and set off towards the castle.

Sorry for the short chapter guys. More parts of chapter 9 to come soon. There is a lot to happen in this chapter and this was just the intro into the good stuff. Please Review :)