Thank you to all that put my story between their favorites and alerts. It's really great to see so many people like what I'm writing.. I mean.. 200 Followers! I can't believe my eyes! XD
Severus appareted in front of the Burrow and he could already hear the noise coming from within. He massaged his temples invoking Salazar to give him patience to deal with those morons.
Inside it was even worse than he expected. The younger weasels and the know-it-all were there too, probably the old coot wanted them to attend the meeting trying to gather information about where Harry could be from their years of spying on the young man.
He was really disgusted with the three of them. Those backstabbing greedy idiots did not deserve the friendship of such a kind heart like Aries.
He should be the last to talk about that but after seeing the boy without the memory of James Potter in the way to obscure his mind and alter his judgment, even if he had to pinch himself quite a lot to stop the automatic responses and nasty comments towards his honorary godson, he was ready to admit that he was a really smart child with a gentle heart.
A child that had been led through dangerous adventures because the damned old coot wanted to test him, a child that had been thrust into the wizarding world without any kind of knowledge and who did not know how to deal with his fame.
More often than not, he was sure that Harry acted like people expected him to, and not how he wanted to. He really hoped he would be able to redeem himself of all the bad things he said to the boy and start a new relationship. Selena would have wanted them to be like uncle and nephew after all, and he did not want to disappoint her.
"Good morning, Severus. Come sit and eat a little, you're always so thin" insufferable woman she was. Molly was always trying to shove food down someone's throat, it was not her business if he ate or decided to starve himself. He went to seat as far away as possible from the mass of idiots refusing to touch the greasy food. Had they never heard of healthy food?
Soon Dumbledore and the few missing members came.
"Thank you for coming here, my friends. Unfortunately our headquarters are still unavailable due to a prank played by the twins with Remus and Sirius I fear. You have to be understandable though, young Sirius still need time to adjust to the life outside of Azkaban"
Severus snorted at the thought, the mutt was perfectly fine, maybe a bit crazier than before, but he had nothing to adjust to.
"And Remus for his part, he is so happy to have back one of his childhood friends that he is giving him too much leeway with his pranks. And we all know how careless the twins can be.."
He clenched his hands. The bastard could tell all he wanted on the mutt and the wolf, they were grown men able to take care of themselves, but he could not say anything like that about his twins.
Oh Merlin. He just referred at them as his twins. He was doomed, now that he admitted it to himself that he thought of the boys like sons he had no choice but find a way to keep them with him or he would be obsessed with that for the rest of his life.
"So, Thank you to Arthur and Molly for lending us their house for our meetings." he clapped his hands, not followed by the others too interested in the food on the table.
"The reason we are all here is because Harry Potter is missing as you all know by now and it is of the utmost importance that we find him as soon as possible. It would be a huge blow to the light side if he was found and captured by a death eater.."
Merlin, the man loved to hear himself talk. Severus rolled his eyes at all the useless talk of the man, why he didn't get to the point already?
"Do any of you have any information to share with us? Severus?"
He was not surprised to be the first to be interrogated by their leader. He looked around at all the expectant eyes glued to him.
"Nothing. The dark lord retired to a secret location to recover his magic from the ritual during the third task. There was no meeting yet." he informed them with a monotone voice. He would much rather be in his potion lab at the moment, instead of being surrounded by those people with the intelligence of an hamster.
And really! Did anyone teach the weasel boy some manners at the table? He was disgusting to see.
"I see. But on the bright side, they don't have Harry otherwise Voldemort would have called a meeting right away. He is insane after all. Any of you can report hearing or seeing Harry somewhere? No? Such a pity." and here it was the grandfatherly persona showing them his disappointment.
"Ronald, Hermione. This year, after we find young Harry I want you to stay with him all the time and report to me everything you hear. He could have some problems, wanting to leave his family and all, and I'm sure I will be able to help him and give him proper guidance" weasel and know-it-all seemed so smug at being given the task of spying on their supposed friend.
"And Ginevra, you should really show Harry your feelings dear, he would be happy knowing about it"
Sure, Aries would be ecstatic knowing a gold digger little bitch would be stalking him once back at Hogwarts.
"Albus! What about the letters from them?" Molly was surely talking about the goblins and her lack of money, she was panicked he was glad to see but her shrill voice was hurting his ears.
Finally came the moment he was waiting for since leaving Slytherin manor. Minerva came running from the floo clutching the newspaper in her hand.
What followed was really hilarious. The old coot went white, then red and back to white with a green tinge to it. He looked like he was going to puke at the end.
As for the rest of the order they were divided. Some were disgusted at his actions, and others just could not believe the paper would write such things about the great Dumbledore.
The meeting for the joke shop went splendidly. The owner, a kind old man, gave them the building for very little since he wanted to leave England as soon as possible to be reunited with his daughter. The place would be quite big after a few renovations, there were a work room for the inventing part of the job and a large storeroom in the back. The best thing was that it came with a flat above the shop where the twins could decide to live in the future or it could be their study of sorts.
The twins could be seen already talking of works to do, things to sell and people to employ. Aries was happy that after the not so good morning for them, they were back to their cheerful selves.
And most of all he could not wait to work with them, it was already made clear that he would be a co-owner of the shop and the twins were not going to change idea. He did not mind since it was his intention from the beginning to invest in the project and maybe help a little with pranks ideas and development.
He didn't have much chances to play pranks at school, with the fact that he was viewed as a savior with all the shit that came with that, and having for friends a know-it- all obsessed with rules and an idiot who thought only with his stomach made it impossible for him. He would have liked to work with the twins on something but Ron was always trying to monopolize his attention, making it difficult to make other friends too.
They decided to go together to the new restaurant that opened in one of the side alleys to have lunch and celebrate the beginning of what would be the realization of a dream for the twins.
Sirius was a bit annoyed that he had to play the part of the dog and eat in a bowl instead of drinking a good firewhiskey and join the party, but anything was better than being locked in Grimmauld Place with those idiots.
Once inside they noticed Neville sitting with Luna at one of the more secluded tables. They seemed to be talking about something serious if the dark expression on their faces was anything to go by.
"Maybe they read the prophet" supposed Remus. The twins decided to go straight for the two.
"Hello!" "How are you" "This fine morning?" they greeted them grinning at their luck.
Now they didn't have to send letters but could talk directly to them. Aries still didn't know of their plan to recruit more people but it didn't matter. Nev e Luna considered Aries a real important friend and would side with him either way once they found out all the truth.
"Hello Fred, George" that was taken by them as an invite to sit at the table, dragging there all the others too. "Um. Good morning professor Lupin."
"Neville, you can just call me Remus. I'm not your professor anymore" the kind man smiled seeing the boy, he looked much like Frank at his age, still a little chubby before he gained muscles growing up.
"Hello, the nargles told me you would be there today. Is King Basilisk treating you well?" he didn't know how, but Luna seemed to know everything. Maybe she had seer blood and hid the thing acting loony.
"Yes Lu, he's treating me well. But how do you know who I am?" asking would not hurt, even if the chances of having an answer that made sense were quite slim. Neville seated at her side was curious too, mostly because he had no idea of whom the two strangers were and was too polite to ask right away.
"Because I have eyes to see of course." she replied with a mysterious smile on her face. He did expect nothing less by her but she hinted of possibly being a seer.
Taking pity of Neville who still looked clueless he spoke "Nev, It's me, Harry.." the boy's eyes widened noticeably, but he waited for him to continue before asking questions "my real name is Aries Riddle, I've only been adopted by the Potters." he stopped looking at Kieran asking silently to cast a silencing bubble before he revealed more.
He told them everything, they were few of the people who never turned their backs on him during his years at Hogwarts and always being good friends, he just regretted not spending more time with them because of the not so good friends.
Luna listened to everything calmly, probably already knowing everything or quite, while petting the panther cub that was napping on her lap.
Neville for his part looked furious and ready to hex the old coot for good. "How dared that manipulative bastard to do something like that? To one of the old blood too!? I hope he will rot in Azkaban.." well, it seemed that he had quite a backbone, he just needed a little nudge to show it.
"Calm down, Nev. He's gonna pay, of that you can be sure. He's done messing with my life, and my father too went wild when I told him of all the things the headmaster had done to me during school. What is shocking is that even Malfoy, both of them actually, and Snape got furious." confessed Aries, still not believing the men reactions.
"So, now we're on the dark side I presume.." mused the usually shy boy, waiting for Aires to confirm. "Don't look at me like that. We're friends and there's more. The Potter and the Longbottom families have been allies for centuries. You may not be a Potter by birth, but I'm gonna stay at you side either way." by the tone of his voice he could tell that Neville was not going to be convinced otherwise.
"If you say it like that.. I'm happy to have you at my side guys." smiled Aries relieved to know that some of his friends really cared about him, and not only his money and fame.
They ate together and talked of various things, deciding to get together in the week end to define the twins idea of recruiting more people in a more suitable place.
After that they made a quick stop at Gringotts to register their business recognizing the three of them as owners of the joke shop and apply for all the permits needed to start and made some renovations in the building, it would take much less time than going to the ministry.
They found out that they did not need any permission for the works since a lot of the land where Diagon Alley and Knockturn Alley were located was owned by the Potters, the first, and the Dragonov the second. The ministry dealt with the authorizations for starting a business, but anything else went to the Lords of the families to approve.
Upon leaving the bank they decided to split. The twins went to the apothecary for potions ingredients since they were getting short on some things most used for their pranks; Remus wanted to take a look at the bookstore along with Kieran while Aries, after much convincing armed with puppy eyes, was allowed to go run an errand on his own on condition he took Padfoot with him. He left Yoru with Kieran and run away before they could change idea.
Grinning evilly he made his way over the office of the Daily Prophet, with a barking dog trailing behind. Sirius should have known Aries was up to something, he was his godson after all.
Stopping briefly in a shadowed corned he applied a glamour in himself to appear like the old Harry Potter "Did it work Paddy? I've never done it before.." Sirius barked and nodded his head, surprised the boy could perform such a good spell since it was above fifth year material.
They entered the offices heading straight to the secretary in the reception hall. "Good morning. I would like to speak with Miss Havery" the girl stopped polishing her nails to look at him, probably ready to send him away but stopping with her mouth wide open.
Before she could scream at the entire alley he was there he continued "I wish to remain unseen. I trust I can count on your discretion, miss? It would be a real pity sending a formal complain to the owner of the paper.." now she looked angry and ready to use her claws "oh, wait. I don't need that since I own the 60% of that trash you call paper." humiliated and ready to cry she pointed towards the office he needed. It was at the end of the corridor so they took their time to get there.
"Hey Paddy.. remind me to write Gringotts and have them fire that useless witch and send a letter to the rest of the staff. Things are gonna change in here" Sirius wagged his tail, happy with the news. It was high time that the piece of trash started to write like a newspaper should.
Aries knocked on the office door and entered without waiting for someone to answer. "I apologize for the rudeness but I did not want to be seen by that hideous woman that goes by the name of Skeeter" he said adding a charming smile while looking at the woman studying her.
Christiane Havery was a good looking witch, not too tall with long reddish brown hair, gentle features and intelligent eyes. He had no doubt that she was a slytherin at school, you could sense ambition and cunning all around her.
"That is not a problem Mr. Potter. Please make yourself comfortable" she greeted him motioning for an armchair in front of her desk "Is there something I can do for you?"
"As a matter of fact yes. I read your articles in this morning paper. I'm quite .. pleased about that" for a moment the girl looked nervous, but at his revelation she felt proud of herself. "I have many information for your articles. If you are interested, that is."
Christiane's eyes sparkled at the proposition "Of course I'm interested!" she could not refrain from exclaiming feeling embarrassed soon after.
Aries chuckled "It's nice to see so much enthusiasm. You see Christiane, can I call you that?" at her nod he continued "I have many plans for this newspaper, since I just found out I own it, and for the articles you could write. I have every intention of making you the main reporter of this business." at these words he knew the woman would do anything he asked of her. He quite liked this power he could wield to make people do to what he wanted.
"What do you have in mind for those articles?" she asked eager to get to work.
"A set of interviews" she did not seemed surprised at that but changed expression as he continued to talk "with myself, Sirius Black, and other people I know. You will have also written material to prove my statements."
"This.. this is.. ehm.. when would you like to start Mr. Potter?" she felt like fainting at the thought of interviewing not only the savior but also Black. Today was definitely her lucky day. Rita would be green with envy when she'll find out.
"Fisrt of all, I'm Aries Riddle. No questions." he raised his hand to stop the flow that she sure was to ask "I will explain that part later in time. For now you can work on that, my friends are waiting for me and I really can't stay." he left some papers on the desk and went away after biding her a good day.
They stopped in the same corner as before so Aries could dispel the glamour before going back to the others.
In a shadowed office the white haired woman was waiting patiently while making plans in her mind for the following days. She had so much to do and so little time. A knock at the door stopped her musings, it was the same bulky man she called for the night before.
"Madam, the guardians are there waiting for you" he informed her. She nodded to him gesturing to make them enter.
A group of people came in one by one getting in line before her desk. They were clad in black uniforms, composed by combat trousers, a tight shirt, combat boots, long dragon hide trench coat and masks to hide their faces, they all had dangerous looking weapons on their persons ready for use.
The one at the head of the line made a step forward before addressing the woman "Madam. What do you require of us?"
"I have a mission for you, Wolf. It is of the utmost importance and urgency" she started "the name of the second heir just appeared on the book." the guardians made no visible move at that but were really surprised at the revelation.
"Your mission" she continued "is finding the second heir and bring him there, so he can be prepared for what is to come" she took a good look around seeing that someone was missing. She did not like disrespect and even less irresponsible people. Still, it was not like him to miss a summon. "Where is Dragon? He is the leader and he did not come? Why?" she demanded. He better have a good excuse for that. The mission affected him the most.
"Madam" another one stepped forward from the line "Dragon is currently abroad. We did not have any contact with him since he left. And he did not answer our calls."
"Do you think he is in trouble?" inquired the woman. That was the last thing they needed now, the plan was too important.
"No, Madam. We would have known if he was in danger" a female replied.
"Fine. That is the location of the second heir. My eagle is already on the way with a missive. If you meet Dragon, bring him up to date. Now go and don't fail." she ordered with a powerful voice.
The guardian disappeared in a cloud of smoke ready for a new mission.
Once back home Aries had his first lessons with Snape. All in all it was a good experience, Severus was incredibly strict but with such a dangerous subject he did not expect anything less, and he was not worse than Kieran luckily. Once he had an interested student in front of him, the potion master revealed himself to be a really good teacher, he answered any question Aries had and gave him advices here and there.
For his part, Severus too was surprised. The child was better than he thought. There were two possible reasons for that, or Kieran was damn good at potions and gave Aries a perfect tutoring, or Aries was good on his own and did not show it during class because of flying ingredients and an easily upset know-it-all if anyone was better than her. He assumed it was a bit of both at the end.
Aries, upon finishing their lesson was happy to realize that maybe with a little time he could come to see the man like the uncle he would have been if he grew up with his father. His mom would be pleased to hear that.
After that it was arithmancy with Lucius, the man wanted him to use his name and he found it was a good idea, it felt more familiar and did not remind him of their past encounters.
Aries never took the subject at school, he was not even sure to know what it was exactly, so it would be more difficult than the other lessons but he would work hard. He did not want to disappoint his father, or Kieran or any of the others really.
"Arithmancy is a magical discipline that studies the magical properties of numbers" Lucius started explaining, assuming the boy did not take the class following instead the weasel to an easy O like divination "that includes predicting the future with numbers and numerology. It is also used in the process of creating new spells, but that is really advanced material. "
It sounded interesting, surely more than reading tea cups or glass balls. And spell crafting? Brilliant.
The hour passed fast so after a quick bite from the kitchens he went to find Key.
The young man was in the training room practicing some martial arts. Aries did not mind seeing his boyfriend shirtless while working his muscles, but he would feel incredibly uncomfortable staring at him, even if he was sure Key wouldn't mind.
He decided to summon a book from his room and read while waiting for the other to finish. He opted for the occlumency manual Kieran gave him the night before.
Upon opening it he saw the name of the author and couldn't believe his eyes.
It was an original book written by Rowena Ravenclaw!
All her works were thought lost since the line died and no one could gain access to her vault at the bank, much less to her manor. How did Kieran get his hands on such a priceless artifact? He also gave it to him, now he would be afraid to ruin it every time he touched the book.
He started to read, holding it with reverence. The first step was give his mindscape the appearance he like most, it could be a house, a castle, a library, anything he wanted.
He thought about it. Weeks ago he would have chosen Hogwarts without a doubt, but now he was not so sure. In the end he decided for Slytherin Manor, he felt safe there and it was his home now.
Picturing it in his mind he started to apply the image to his mindscape, adding every little detail he could think of, from the little carvings on the doors and furniture to the flowers in each garden. He did quite a good job, but he soon found it was a tiring work and parts of the manor were missing since he didn't explore everything yet.
Opening his eyes he found himself seated between Kieran legs, with the man arms wrapped around his middle. He would have to remember that while meditating or in his mindscape he was vulnerable.
"How is it going?" Key asked from behind him while resting his head on Aries shoulder.
"Quite good, but it's tiring" admitted the younger wizard a little put out he was not able to do more.
"I assure you that you're dong incredibly good, Emerald. You can ask anyone and they will tell you that they were not able to change their mindscape before at least a month of meditating, that is after finding their magical cores" Kieran was not only praising him to make him happy, but he was telling the truth, it was time Aries recognized his talents without underestimating himself at every minute thinking what he did was not enough.
Aries blushed, not only because not used to being praised, but also because it was Kieran specifically doing it. The heat that the gray eyed man emanated from behind him contributed too.
Without warning said man shadowed them to a little secluded place in the gardens of the manor. They stayed there just kissing, reveling in the presence of the other, for a few hours before going back inside to the library and read something snuggled together on the couch with Yoru and Ebony sitting near them begging to be petted by their bonded wizards.
Hope you liked the chapter! Let me know what you think and what you would like to see in this story =)
Also, from now on I'm probably going to update once a week.
Yana5 : anyone could be the twins' guardian in theory, but they don't know or trust them either.
Stefanialilly : mi fa piacere leggere che la mia storia ti piace. La scena con Voldemort è stata un suggerimento di un lettore e sono felice di averlo aggiunto, non ci avevo pensato inizialmente. Non succede spesso di vederlo nelle vesti di padre protettivo e affettuoso ed è un peccato
(I'm happy to know you like my story. The scene with Voldemort was a reader's suggestion and I'm glad I wrote it, I didn't think about it in the beginning. It's not often that you can see him as a protective and affectionate father and it's a pity.
Vladimir Mithrander : you're right, writing in a second language it's not always easy, though I find it easier than speaking (being shy sucks .). My english isn't perfect yet, but writing this story is helping me improve I think =). The weather is.. Cold. And I hate the cold almost as much as I hate the summer heat. And it isn't even snowing yet =(
Saturnblue: first of all, thank you for the review. I think every story needs a little mystery, otherwise they wouldn't be as interesting. I like an Harry who isn't naive and doesn't let himself be manipulated, or at least that figures it out at a certain point. Lucius is the one person who I thought would see past the golden boy persona and knock some sense into Severus and Draco, he is a politician and a calculating man after all, and he values family above all.. it would have been stupid if he let them be with the risk of ruining not only his relationship with his godson but his place beside the Dark Lord in jeopardy. Aries will have the support of a select few in all houses, but like in the books the student body believes what is written and like a bunch of sheep they don't know how to think with their own heads. The teaching stuff failed big time with him, maybe they will learn from their mistakes, maybe not.. Aries and Kieran relationship will grow slowly, I never understood the stories when the couple barely gets together and they immediately jump in the bed.
Siriusblackkay: I .. Wow.. Thank you so much =D. I think I read your review four times and I still can't stop smiling. It makes me really happy knowing that people like my story and that I'm doing a good job writing it. I swear, it's my first attempt at writing a story, and me being me, I couldn't do it in italian but skipped directly to english XD I understand what you mean, more than once I started reading a ff, thinking the plot was good and then it was so horribly written that I had to stop and leave. What's worse it's that they were writing in their own language. Makes me even more confident in my english writing skills,ahahha. Anyway, hope you liked the new chapter.
AngelicReaper0012: Thank you very much =). For your idea, I already have plans for original characters, but the "bosom hug of death" sounds perfect for someone else that will show later on XP.
Katsy17 , The Founder, Supernatural Believer, Lupinesence: thank you for your reviews, I hope you liked the last chapter =)