A Wizards Fairytale

Chapter 3

Eleven years later...

Aries Kalgarias stared out of the window of the Beauxbaton carriage. The sky was beautiful and blue, similar to the first time he had been on an airplane with his mother. He tried not to think of that now. He was going to Hogwarts to win the Triwizard Tournament. He couldn't get distracted. Too many things depended on this.

"Aries?" a voice said gently. Aries turned to see his best friend, Gabrielle Delacour, looking at him with concern. "Are you okay?" she asked gently. Aries cursed himself mentally. His emotions must've been showing on his face. He couldn't let that happen at Hogwarts. They would figure out his secret. Aries had to keep his emotions, his hate, locked down while in England.

"I'm fine," he answered curtly, turning back to the window. Gabrielle pursed her lips but said nothing. After almost ten years of friendship, she had learned when to push Aries and when not to, something that became particularly hard after Zana died. It broke her heart to see Aries change into the guy he was now. The smiling dreamer she had befriended as a girl became hard and cynical, rarely letting people see what lied in his heart. But Gabrielle remembered, and she knew, and she wouldn't forget. She knew his secrets.

Aries pulled out some parchment and a quill and began writing a letter to Athena. His favorite cousin had made him promise to send her a letter the minute he stepped foot in England, and he didn't want to face her wrath. He also began a letter to his little sister, who was staying with family friends back in France while he was in England. Lena had been very upset when he told her he was going to compete in the tournament, but he managed to get a smile out of her when he told her she might be able to come watch the tasks if she was a good girl. Lena was the most important thing in Aries's life, and he hated seeing her sad. It definitely didn't help that she looked so much like their mother.

The time seemed to fly as Aries finished his letters and sent them off with his trusty owl, Zeus. Zeus was a spotted owl who had been an eleventh birthday gift from his mother. Zeus nipped at his fingers before leaving. He looked out the window and saw that they were starting to land. Aries gently shook the shoulder of a sleeping Gabrielle. "We're here," he whispered in perfect French. Aries was a master of languages due to the gypsy life he and his mother lead up until he was eight. Whatever new place they moved to, Aries quickly mastered to language.

"Already?" another voice asked. Aries turned around to see Jacques Duparc starting to wake up. Other than Gabrielle, Jacques was probably his best friend. Aries was very popular amongst the students, but he was close to few. Those few he trusted immensely. It was hard for him to trust anyone outside his family.

Aries laughed when he saw how his friend's hair was sticking up. Jacques noticed Aries's laughter and grabbed a mirror, groaning at the bedhead he was now sporting. Gabrielle joined in the teasing, and Jacques glared at them. "We all can't have Veela genes," he complained to Gabrielle, who stopped laughing and stuck out her tongue at him. "Or freakishly good Greek genes," he added, looking over at Aries. He simply shrugged. It was well known that everyone in his family was good looking. Fortunately, Kalgariases only ever married for love so Aries didn't need to worry about his yia yia trying to marry him off.

The carriage landed, and Aries took a deep breath. You can do this, he told himself mentally. You are strong. You are whole. He repeated Henri's mantras to himself, remembering the day he had started training with Henri.

Eleven years ago...

Henri stared at the little boy Zana had brought to him. He was small, too small for his age, but that was nothing nutrition potions couldn't fix. He had numerous scars all over his face and body. The ones on his face went in a zig-zag pattern starting down at his cheek and going all the way up to his forehead. The ones on his body looked more like a web than anything else. The boy had been beaten and bruised, but Henri wasn't worried about the scars. No, the scars could be covered with glamours. What he was worried about was the boy's spirit, his soul. He had been beaten and broken, and that was what Henri needed to fix. He needed to show this boy that he was worth something, that he could stand up and face his monsters.