The following days were hectic and irritating for Ares. When the Aurors had tried to interrogate him about the fight, he just gave them Phial of his memories from the incident. That had satisfied them. Of course, he had warded his voice when he was speaking the spells, so they don't recognise them from the World Cup final. Luckily, both his Ice Hollow Prison and Ice Hail were of a different shape than that on World Cup night. Still, the brighter Aurors like James, Sirius, Francis and Alice Longbottom, Kingsley, Moody and even Madame Bones would suspect it. He didn't worry much as he had the minister in his pockets. Plus he could always claim self-defense.

Albus Dumbledore had also tried to corner him about his abilities and he had given only vague and sarcastic answers in return. He, of course, made sure that Reeta Skeeter had written a sharp article about the incompetence of the headmaster. He had even provided a memory in which Albus was shown to stand and do nothing while others were fighting the Fiendfyre, as revenge on the old meddlesome bastard.

Currently, he was on the second floor near Moaning Mrtyle's bathroom, when he saw Iris Potter headed towards him. Ares was a bit happy, as it would be the perfect opportunity to befriend Iris and help her in the tournament and that would follow it. Though he was sure James and Sirius would already be helping her. Unfortunately, due to Lily joining as a teacher, she was forced to be limited only to advice.

He didn't need to say anything as Iris herself started the conversation with a blush on her face "Hey, I want to say thank you for saving my life that day."

Ares shook his head "Don't mind it. It was the right thing to do. And you were also very brave to fight that death eater even though he was more experienced than you."

Iris blushed a bit harder then grumbled "I don't think so. I put all the students in danger. If it wasn't for you, many would have been injured or worse died."

"Yeah it was a bit reckless, but that doesn't make you any less brave. Though I am sorry about your firebolt." Ares offered.

"Oh, it's alright. The Quidditch games are postponed until January, so I will have enough time to get a new broom." Iris said.

"Oh, good for you. So are you preparing for the Tri-wizard tournament?" Ares asked.

Iris had a scowl on her face for a moment when she heard the name of the event but replied to him "Yeah, the first task is in 7 days. Bagman told us about it at the wand weighing ceremony. I know from research that it will include some kind of magical creature, so I am trying to get information on them."

"Well, I know about the first task. It will be to get past a dragon and retrieve a fake egg from her nest." Ares supplied.

"What!" Iris shrieked in shock. "Are you sure? How do you know?"

"Well, the dragons are transported from the Romanian Dragon Reserve. It belongs to the Flamels." Ares said.

"Oh no! What will I do? How will I fight a dragon?" Iris began panicking.

"If you don't mind, I know spells to get around the dragon. I can help you with it." Area helpfully supplied.

Iris' eyes narrowed "Why would you do that? Do you want anything in return? I mean, I know Slytherin's policy about treating everything as a transaction."

"Hold up Hieress Potter. I don't want anything in return. I just want to help you if that is okay with you. And maybe we can be friends." Ares winced as the last words left his mouth. Real subtle Flamel!

Iris seemed to be both surprised and amused at his response. She thought he was romantically interested in her and was trying to win her favour. 'Well, he is fit and an eye candy to say at least.' Iris thought to herself.

"Hmm never thought the day would come when a Slytherin would not only save my life but also offer me help. I am quite surprised." Iris said.

"Eh sorry for bursting your bubble. But Slytherin House is not exactly what you think it is. Most of the students, even with their belief in Pureblood superiority, do not believe in violence. Others like Daphne Greengrass, Astoria Greengrass, Tracy Davis and Blaise Zabini don't even believe in pure blood superiority. Theodore Nott, who is the grandson of one of the closest Death Eaters of Voldemort, hates all the nonsense and just wants peace. Unfortunately, if they make their opinion known, there could be trouble for them. And with incompetent Headmaster like Dumbledore, they have to just adapt to the situation."

"Oh, I didn't know about that. So, how are you not afraid to make your opinion public?" Iris

asked.

Ares just smirked "It is not easy to harm one who can speak to snakes in the dungeons which are full of magical snake decorations."

Iris' eyes widened. She had forgotten about him being able to use parseltongue completely. Unconsciously she also slipped into the tongue of snake "I forgot about that. It's amazing that someone else, who is not a dark lord, could speak it you know. I always thought that for me, parseltongue was like English but listening to you is a bit different than listening it from snakes."

"So, do you agree to let me help you with the task?" Ares asked slipping back into English.

"I guess so. Thank you again for helping me." Iris smiled gratefully.

"Let's go then!" Ares said and he placed his hand on her shoulder. A bit later, a beautiful black phoenix settled on his shoulder with a trill and in a woosh of black flames, they left.

Iris was amazed. Magical transport, other than brooms didn't agree with her. But Flame travel was smooth. She didn't feel the twisting sensation of apparition, squeezing sensation of Portkey, propelling sensation of Floo-travel or the bumpy ride of Knight Bus.

She looked around and gasped "The chamber of secrets?" She pointed towards Basilisk's corpse preserved in ice "Did you do that?"

"Yeah, I needed some private place to train myself. I heard about the chamber from rumour within Slytherins. After some research, I confirmed it. Reaching here was quite simple. I just have to ask the snake in the Slytherin emblem, from the wall of the common room. When I arrived, it wasn't the best place you know. The Basilisk was rotting away. I preserved it as the fangs, poison and eyestrings could be useful. Of course, you have a complete say in what to do with it as you are the one who killed it. Then I scourgified the chamber and vanished the rubbish. It is quite a private place seeing only two of us could access the place."

"Woah! You did a great job. I mean it was very dirty with skeletons, rubble and skins littered everywhere. It was disgusting to be here." Iris concluded "And as for the Basilisk, I don't mind if you keep it. I don't want anything from it."

"I was going to make a secondary wand with it. I mean it is always great to have an additional wand with you, in case you are disarmed. I guess I will make one for you. After all, you slayed it and it will suit you just fine." Ares supplied.

"Do you know how to craft a wand? I was always fascinated by the wand lore but Olivander said it was something that could be only passed through apprentice." Iris looked excited.

"Hmm... You know what, we could always train from tomorrow. How about we craft our wands for now? It only takes 2 hours or so to prepare one." Ares proposed.

Iris responded with an excited 'Yes!' and a huge grin on her face.

Ares again called Hedge, who teleported both Iris and him into the middle of the forbidden forest.

"We are in the centre of the Forbidden Forest. I had heard an old Elder tree is located here. Elder Wood is the most powerful among wand woods. Since none of the wizards or witches were able to match their compatibility, the wand crafter stopped using it since 100 years ago." Ares informed.

"Then how will it work for us? Won't it be better to get Holly for me as I already have my wand made up of it?" Iris questioned curiously.

"Well, I have a hunch that it will fit perfectly. And even if it doesn't, I have a way to make it so. Although blood magic is declared illegal by the ministry. I hope you don't mind." Area took a gamble to see if he could trust her with these things.

Iris looked more amused than anything. "My mother is a member of the Department of Mysteries." She said as if it explained everything.

Ares nodded in understanding and continued.

"Let's take those four branches from the right side," Ares pointed and Iris nodded in acceptance.

She was about to take out her wand when Ares stopped her.

"You don't want to irritate the bowtruckeles. They are easy to deal with but are irritating. So no magic."

"But how will we reach that?" Iris protested.

He smirked and took out his shrunk broke from his pocket and then enlarged it. She grumbled at his smug expression and watched as he flew up and separated the 4 selected branches from the tree.

"You want to use it?" Ares said pointing at his broom.

"Are you sure?" Iris answered with a question of her own.

"Of course, Hop on," Ares said before scooting backwards making space for her.

A blush seemed to form on her face as she found the gesture quite romantic, of course, unknown to Ares.

She jumped onto the broom and they began flying all over the forbidden forest. They encountered many magical creatures like rainbow eagles, flesh-eating bats and even saw a harpy. She didn't get to do some tricks she would have liked as it was difficult with Ares sitting on the broom with her, but she enjoyed the ride very much. As soon as the school became visible, Ares called Hedge to flame them back to the chamber of secret.

"That was fun!" Iris exclaimed as she got down the broom.

Ares returned her smile and shrank it. He then took the branches he brought and gestured to Iris. He then waved his wand as an altar popped up on the place, along with two stone chairs. When Iris sat on one, she was astonished to find it soft like the muggle furniture she had at home.

"First we need to separate it," He then transformed his wand into a blade and separated the four branches. He then took out a branch and placed it between Iris and him.

"Alright, first we will be preparing the wand structure. Since I don't have family magics of the wand crafters, I will need to engrave runes on the branch. But before that, I need to make the surface as smooth as I can."

Iris watched with interest, as Ares flicked his wand and the elder branch smoothed out only leaving berry-like internodes. He then took out a rune carving set and proceeded to carve runes for 'binding', 'strength' and 'magic' on the branch which appeared like a wand now.

"Do you want to try?" Area asked.

"N-No, I am better watching for now. I have enough experience with rune sets but I don't think I am ready for anything like this now." Iris declined.

"Ok, now we will prepare the other wands. Like this."

"Wait, isn't the length of each wand different?" Iris asked.

"All branches are 17 inches when they are crafted into structure wands. After the cores are added, they may shrink up to 8 inches, or sometimes just an inch so that they can accommodate the cores." Ares explained with a smile.

She watched curiously as it took 2 hours until he was able to finish crafting all 4 wands. They were quite similar in structure.

"Ok Iris, now a bit magizoological part. I am going to extract the eye string from both of its eyes."

"Uh, how do you even know about extracting it and wouldn't it be so gross?" Iris questioned.

"We are not going to take it out surgically. I am going to use one of the 'dark' curses to do it. Have you ever heard of organ expelling curse?" Ares asked.

Iris' face was grossed out at the question.

"Yeah, not a pretty thing. What I am going to do is hit its eye with it. We are actually in luck that Fawkes didn't damage the eye string while pecking its eye out. The difference between the Organ-expelling curse and mine will be that of intent. I will be thinking of just ejecting its eye string rather than whole organs."

Iris watched in amazement as Ares used the curse. As soon as they were ejected, Ares placed them into a large phial containing some kind of liquid.

"Let's make your wand first. Choose any of those and put a drop of your blood into the wand through the open space."

Iris made a small incision on her finger and dropped her blood into it. The runes started to glow. Ares immediately took out one of the eye-string and stuffed it through the same space where she had dropped her blood. He then sealed the wood completely followed by waving his wand and chanting in parseltongue. After 10 minutes or so, the wand let out sparks before shrinking down to nearly 12 inches.

Ares had a proud look on his face and looked at her "Your wand, Hieress Potter. Elder Wood, 12 and a quarter inches, the core comes from an eye string of a thousand-year-old Basilisk." He spoke with his best imitation of Garick Olivander's voice which had a sense of accomplishment in it.

Iris tentatively took the wand and gave it a swish. Powerful Green sparks came out of it, as it accepted Iris as its master. The wand which was Dark brown till now, had a darker tint to it.

Happiness surged inside her, quite like when she got her Holly and Phoenix feather wand. She took in a deep breath and channelled her magic through the wand "Expecto Patronum!"

A large bright beautiful corporeal doe, which was just a tad bit different from her mother's patronus, leapt out of her wand which made her gasp. The last time she cast her patronus, it was a majestic stag, like the animagus form of her father and his own Patronus. She knew Patrous can change its form when a person goes through a major change in life, but she didn't think she went through something like that.

Ares didn't know what promoted him but he took his Phoenix wand and then cast the spell "Expecto Patronum!"

A majestic corporeal stag leapt out of his wand and joined Iris' doe in playing with it. Iris' eyes widened as she completely understood the reason for her Patronus change, but she clamped it down not wanting to freak out her newest friend.

Of course, Ares didn't know what was going through her head as he thought that in this world her Patronus must have been a Doe I read of a stag.

After that, they conversed as Ares created the secondary wand for himself. It was 13 inches long and held a greenish tint to it. The sparks ejected were also a combination of green and black, unlike Iris' only green sparks.

"What are you going to do with them?" Iris asked as she pointed towards the two wands that were without cores.

"Well I have a Phoenix so if she ever gave me a feather, I will be creating a wand out of it." Area explained.

After a bit more exploration, Iris and Ares returned to their dorms.