Growing up Pureblooded

Down With Tyranny

     Aries sat in his study, Ravenclaw's diadem perched atop his head, as he considered carefully all that had taken place. It was clear by now that each dream showed him a different way things might have turned out. The pool seemed to contain a myriad of diverse possibilities. The Diadem spoke to him of legends that described such things, and Aries could easily see how a pool like that could be of great use to an ambitious wizard such as Salazar Slytherin, though he supposed that Slytherin must have learnt how to control the pool, since floating through an infinite number of possible realities would do little to advance one's understanding of the particular problems one faced in any given situation.

     Aries had just begun to think of ways in which he could manipulate the dreams in order to focus on more specific possibilities when he heard a sudden explosion in the streets. He got out of his armchair and peered out the window, knowing that he was perfectly safe in his study.

     The gates of Buckingham Palace had burst open, and hordes of filthy Muggles – literally so, in this instance – came flooding through. They carried a variety of crude weapons and were shouting an assortment of vulgar insults about Aries's parentage. Aries's first thought was surprise at how very many of them there were. He had never seen so many people – Muggles or wizards – gathered in one place before. And this group were quite...annoyed. For a moment, Aries thought he understood how his Wizarding forebears must have felt when Muggle mobs had come after them. The difference in power between a Muggle and wizard might well be immeasurable, but even an elephant can be overcome by an army of ants.

     Aries reached for his wand, which the Diadem promptly identified for him as the infamous Deathstick, the Wand of Destiny. If he really was the King, it was his duty to deal with the rebels. Perhaps if he heard their demands he might find a way to placate them. If not, then he had to calm them before they hurt someone. Aries wondered briefly how many Muggles one could Stun with a single hex.

     He opened the door to his study and began to leave, only to be physically stopped by Sirius. "Oh, no, you don't," he said firmly as he shoved Harry back into the study and closed the door. "The safest place in the world for you is in here." He held up an amulet that he wore around his neck. "If Draco doesn't manage to quell the rebellion, we can Portkey to one of your secure estates on the Continent. Don't worry, Aries. I won't let anything happen to you." "I need to...,"  Aries began, but Sirius cut him off.

     "We're going to wait to leave until Draco gets here," he said adamantly. "Sentimental Gryffindor that I am, I may never have understood this strange love/hate relationship that you two have, but I'm not going to let you just run off and abandon him." He snorted, and glanced over to the table behind the desk, where the Philosopher's Stone still sat together with the invisibility cloak. "Besides, I'd have thought that a Slytherin like you would have made sure to secure all your treasures before running away."

     Aries was dumbfounded. Sirius thought he wanted to run away? But Aries had never run away from anything. And why did Sirius think he was a Slytherin, anyway? "You don't understand, Dad," Aries protested, struggling against his godfather's powerful grip. "I can't let Draco face that crowd alone. I've got to help him." Sirius looked into Aries's eyes in bewilderment. After a bit, Aries thought he saw a single tear running down his godfather's cheek.

      "You are a Potter after all, aren't you?" he said in a quiet voice. "Ever since I got out of Azkaban to find that you'd been raised by Granddad and Aunt Cassie in Transylvania, I've been looking for some hint of James in you. It's been nearly one hundred and thirty years, and I've never really seen it until now. Merlin, you're practically Pollux Black reborn! I see a good bit of Aunt Cassie in you too, and of my mum, and even of myself, but I've never seen even a spark of James in all this time." He sniffed, and rubbed his eyes. "Don't get me wrong. I love you to death, Aries, and I'll stick with you to the end, no matter what." He paused. "But honestly, I think this is the first time I've ever really been proud of you." He chuckled. "Well, since you learned to talk anyway."

     Aries didn't know how to respond to that. He certainly hoped that he had made his own Sirius proud more often than once in a hundred and fifty years. He gulped hard and bit his lower lip. "Come on, Dad," he said, gesturing for Sirius to follow. "Let's go help Draco." Sirius beamed at him, and the two wizards ran off together. They found Draco standing in the courtyard of the palace, hexing irate Muggles left and right and barely blocking their stones and bullets with his Shield Charms. He grinned when he saw his adoptive family come and stand beside him.

     "A century and a half, and you still surprise me, Aries," Draco said. "The gesture is certainly appreciated, though there really is no help a wizard as pathetic as you could offer Lord Draco the Malevolent." Aries snorted, brandishing the Deathstick and discovering in the process that one can actually Stun a great many Muggles at a single time. "Your feeble parlor tricks are no match for the awesome power of Lord Aries the Black," he taunted. The three of them had nearly subdued the Muggle mob when new reinforcements came to support the rebel cause. Aries and Draco exchanged anxious looks when they saw their armaments: these rebels were carrying wands.

     There was a cackle high above, and an old hag with bushy white hair and a single bucktooth protruding from her lip dived towards them. "Sic semper tyrannis!" she shouted, and a green bolt erupted from her wand and flew towards Draco. Aries leapt in front of him, and the world went black yet again.