Bab 37: Chapter 37: Ball!
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"If I had realized my ancestor was such an ass maybe I'd have burned your non-moving portrait when I came here eight years ago." Aries replied with anger but then stopped, suddenly curious. "The last one?"
"Ha! An Heir with a back bone! Now that's more like it. And yes, Tom Riddle. He was here. . . Well I'm not exactly sure when. Portraits can't exactly tell time you know. Not when they're stuck underground."
"Riddle?" Aries repeated. "That isn't a pureblood name."
"No but the Gaunts are and he claimed to be related to him." Now that was interesting.
Two Heirs of Slytherin that did not bear the name Gaunt or Slytherin. Riddle was not an ancient or noble family and the Blacks did not have a drop of blood in them.
It was a riddle, he thought with a chuckle, that he intended to solve. "No doubt you're King of Slytherin by now. Fifth year right I assume?"
"Well I'm a fifth year," Aries started. "But I'm not exactly in Slytherin." Salazar looked at him like he had a third eye and several awkward moments passed.
"NOT IN SLYTHERIN?!" Salazar screamed, his anger causing him to hiss in Parseltongue.
"Merlin tell me you are in Ravenclaw at least because if you're in Godric's House I'll leap out of this portrait and end my line myself."
"Actually, I'm not even a Hogwarts student. I attend Durmstrang Institute."
"Oh, thank Merlin you aren't in Gryffindor. And what the hell is a Durmstrang?"
"It's a school," Aries drawled with a roll of his eyes. "Cold. Teaches the Dark Arts. You know, much more open minded than what your school has become."
"Never heard of it. And just what has my school become?" Salazar asked dangerously.
"A school controlled by someone that views anything harmful as dark or evil."
"Is that what this place has become? Magic isn't light and dark, it's all about intent! Goodness even Godric knew that despite his high horse morals." Salazar paused for a moment, looking Aries over. "If you aren't a Hogwarts student then why are you here?"
"The Tri-Wizard Tournament is being held here." Aries answered. "I was selected champion for my school."
"The what?" Salazar asked, annoyed about being so clueless. Aries explained it to him, answering all the ancient wizards' annoying questions.
The old portrait was far more sarcastic than he had ever thought he would be, and he wondered if Cassiopeia would disapprove of how Slytherin talked.
They conversed for hours and Aries learned far more about the history of Hogwarts than any book could have given him.
The portrait had pointed him to certain books of the library he hadn't retrieved last time and when they moved onto his goals for his life, Salazar listened intensely.
Salazar left him with a piece of advice before he left.
"Your plans are noble Aries." Salazar began. "Hear me now though.
Tom Riddle was an inspired boy, but one filled with revenge, and what he eventually became was nothing like the boy I knew when he was here.
Many of his plans were noble too, but along the way he lost something inside him on his path to immortality.
I can sense some of the same desires in you. You have ambition, cunning, and a will to succeed. All things that make you my Heir, and a true Slytherin.
Find something, find someone that makes you whole, that keeps you tied to something other than your drive to complete and perfect my noble work.
Perhaps you can be what Tom never could. You're so different from him, and yet in so many ways you're just the same.
"What did Tom Riddle become?" But Aries already knew the answer.
"A monster."
….
The announcement of the Yule Ball on Christmas Eve had added some drama to the lull between tasks of the Tri-Wizard Tournament.
Aries was unsure how everyone had not already known about it; the ball had been a tradition of the tournament for centuries.
Haydn and Ivan already had their dates who just so happened to be their dates from the Hogsmeade weekend.
Ivan's date had caused him to recalculate a few things as he had been positive the Bulgarian was gay, not that he had any issue with that unlike some wizards.
You loved who you loved, and it was often something you could not help. So why judge someone over it?
Aries had always planned on taking one of the Hogwarts students to the ball, but he was pretty sure that Daphne had made it entirely clear that he was off limits and he had seen many girls cower away from him under her icy glare.
He'd have to actually ask the girl at some point, but it wasn't a priority just yet. Arianna had been giving him hopeful glances since the announcement, and he supposed it was finally time for that conversation.
He'd rather deal with her response in private rather than deal with her after she found out he was taking someone else to the ball.
The Spanish girl was right where he hoped, in her cabin and thankfully alone as the Mayer girl had joined Ivan in the library.
Arianna's bright smile was far too hopeful, and Aries' had to muster far more courage than he'd like to admit.
"Arianna, we need to talk." He chose Spanish for this conversation, as she would most likely have switched to it at some point anyway.
"What's up Aries?" There was a nervousness in her smile, but the hope was still in her eyes.
"I know you want me to take you to the ball." Her smile widened. "But I can't."
"What?" Aries could see it clear as day, the hurt in her eyes and his passive Legilimency picked up something that clearly felt like betrayal.
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