A/N: Thank you for the lovely reviews! Loved reading them! This chapter is rather short, but I've got a lot going on at the moment (tests, tests and even more tests... I think my head is going to explode if I have to study much longer, if I never update again, you at least know why ;) )

This chapter, the sorting hat has to do its duty. Anybody wanna guess where Aries will end up? I will call the original Harry Aries from now on. Otherwise things would get too confusing. You'll see why in a minute.

Chapter 4

September 1st Aries Sirius Black boarded the Hogwarts express, dressed in rich clothes, seen off by Adriana. He noticed some people shooting him odd looks, nobody knew him and he was obviously way too old to be a first year. He had to supress a smile. Some of the parents even seemed to recognise his "mother" but nobody dared to approach them. Adriana was obviously amused.

"Ah, I bet they just don't know what to do with me. Haven't heard of me in years and today I am here waving my teenage son goodbye. You will have to update me on Hogwarts' latest gossip during your winter holidays! I just love to cause a stir every once in a while."

Two kisses on his cheeks and light hug later he was alone, levitating his trunk onto the train... where he nearly choked on his own tongue. Right in front of him was he himself, as in Harry Potter, smiling at Ron while dragging Hermione into an empty compartment. Aries was more than a little alarmed. This was certainly not his golem. He had felt it when their link snapped the night it disintegrated. This new imposter obviously also didn't know who he was, as he hadn't even spared him a second glance. That was one good thing at least.

Aries settled down in a compartment of first years. He needed time to think before he was ready to meet his old classmates while pretending to never have seen them before. During his correspondence with Dumbledore the man never mentioned creating a golem, but it could only be Dumbledore, the headmaster was the only person who knew of his disappearance.

Oh he had been anything but happy, trying to get Harry to return. If he didn't have to jeopardize his new identity on the way, he probably would have followed Dumbledore's wishes after the second letter. He felt like a huge disappointment to the headmaster every time he read a new letter. But the man did not know what he was up to, he couldn't really judge from afar.

Aries decided to keep an eye on the imposter until they entered Hogwarts. If Dumbledore showed no sign of surprise upon his appearance then it was safe to assume the new Harry Potter was his doing on no danger to any of his friends.

A few hours and an extremely bothersome boat ride later Aries was standing amidst a group of flustered first years. According to McGonagall he was to be sorted last. He could only hope the hat would sort him a second time without causing trouble. But it couldn't tell what it saw inside the heads of the students anyway. Even if it refused to sort him he could make up some story, like that it told him he was too old… or some such rot. Oh god, he really had to stop thinking about this. It wouldn't help him now anyway. Finally after the last first year had been sorted and more and more students started to whisper, pointing at him, McGonagall called his name.

"Black, Aries."

He strode forth, holding his head high and shoulders square, trying to ignore the whispers around him.

He sat down on the unsteady stool and the professor put the old tattered hat on his head. This time, there was no conversation. As soon as McGonagall let go, the hat called out his house, loud and clear:

SLYTHERIN!

McGonagall took the hat back and Aries got up, walking towards the Slytherin table all the way fighting to keep his face impassive. He could not let his horror show, not when he had to live with these overly perceptive people for at least the next few months. He sat down next to the first years at the end of the table, stealing himself for the conversations he would for sure have to endure down in the Slytherin common room. Dumbledore announced their new Defence professor, a young man Aries had never before heard of and reminded them, like every year, to stay away from the forbidden forest.

Two fifth year prefects led the new students down to their common room. Aries in the meanwhile had come to the conclusion that the best course of action was to keep his hostile feelings to himself until he had had enough time to mull over this new situation.

The Slytherin common room looked exactly as dark and gloomy as it had during his second year. Even though he had already seen it, Aries pretended to look around in interest. Snape's welcome speech was surprisingly … welcoming. He talked about house pride, his expectation for all of them to perform to the best of their abilities in classes as well as extra-curricular activities and even told them that they were allowed to come to him with their problems.

He didn't spare Aries on glance and the boy in question sighed inwardly. Even in his new identity Snape would probably hate him, the grudge he held against Sirius was legendary.

After Snape had left he felt all eyes zoom in on him. He really wanted to leave for the dorm room, but if Slytherin was anything like he imagined it to be, than showing a weakness like this was the worst idea. He turned in the direction of Draco Malfoy and the other upper years, delicately raising an eyebrow, arms crossed. Draco smirked back. Obviously this was an acceptable approach.

"So," the blond Slytherin drawled, "you are definitely no firstie. A bit late to join the fun, don't you think?"

"Better late than never," Aries replied nonchalantly.

Draco seemed amused and offered his hand. "Draco Malfoy."

Promptly Aries felt reminded of the first time Draco had extended his hand, back when they were eleven at the Hogwarts express, only this time, things had to be handled differently. He knew more about wizarding customs now, knew that accepting Draco's hand was no promise of friendship, only a sign that he accepted Draco as an equal.

By refusing to shake his hand as a first year he had basically told the blond he thought the boy beneath himself. No wonder Draco had turned extremely hostile afterwards, it probably never even crossed his mind that somebody couldn't know what this simple gesture implied.

So this time, he shook Draco's hand. "Aries Black."

Draco introduced him to the rest of the sixth and some seventh years and invited him to sit down with them.

Theodore Nott, whom he had never talked to before, eyed him curiously: "I take it you are a relation to the House of Black? You certainly have the looks."

"Yes. From my father's side."

He felt Draco's attention increase immediately. "Who is your father? Are you from a side line? I didn't know any of them carried the name."

Aries had to try really hard to supress a smirk. This was just too good. "I don't think so either. My father was Sirius Black."

Now he again had all eyes on him.

"Sirius Black? Like the Sirius Black who broke out of Azkaban?"

"Didn't he die just this summer?"

"The one who betrayed the Potters?"

Aries decided to focus on Draco, who seemed to contemplate his next words carefully. "This would imply that you are the Black heir."

Aries only smiled and nodded. He could basically see Draco's mind working furiously.

"How come we have never heard of you? My mother is your father's cousin, she never mentioned he had son."

Aries decided to get it over with and offer them an explanation. If they didn't think he hid anything they had no reason to investigate. "My mother left the country when she was pregnant during the first war, she didn't feel it was save to raise a child here at the time. My father was sent to Azkaban when it ended and she didn't want me to grow up around people who blamed my father for betraying the parents of their saviour. Hence we have been living in different countries ever since, my mother is an insatiable traveller… but I felt like staying at one place while preparing for my N.E.W.T.s thus my attendance at Hogwarts."

Most of the Slytherins seemed satisfied with this explanation, only Draco and Blaise Zabini still looked wary, but before they could ask any more questions Daphne Greengrass decided to enter the conversation.

"The woman with you back at King's Cross, she's your mother?"

Adriana would be pleased with the interest the Slytherins were taking.

"Yes, she is."

Daphne seemed enthusiastic, like Hermione when she was talking about a new book. "That's amazing. I have of course heard so much about her. One time she hexed all the Gryffindor girls shampoo to die their hair green. Nobody knows how she got into their common room and it took the Gryffindors nearly two months to find the cause of their new hair colour."

Pansy Parkinson nodded furiously, obviously his "mother" was well known to the Slytherin girls.

"Who's your mother, Black?" one boys, a member of the Quiditch team, asked.

"Adriana Aaric."

Again Dracos head napped up and he looked at him incredulously. "You are related to the Lestanges as well?"

And there was one of his new family connections he would prefer not to be reminded of.

"Obviously," he replied icily. He had enough of this game of questions and answers. He wanted to be alone and think about how he should proceed. He hadn't changed his whole life to socialize with nosy Slytherins.

"I think I will retire for the night. It's been a long day for me."

The others murmured good night but nobody followed him. It was obvious that they wanted to discuss this new addition to their house in private.

In peace behind the closed curtains of his bed Aries decided to remain on friendly terms with the Slytherins for the time being. His new house probably meant he wouldn't be welcomed by the Order of Phoenix with open arms, no matter who his father was. Sirius Black after all, had at least been a Gryffindor to outweigh his heritage. He, on the other side, now was the Slytherin offspring of two openly dark families. As Harry he wouldn't have trusted Aries anymore than Draco. Just perfect.

During the feast he had made peace with the hat's decision. Honestly, what else could someone who lied about their whole identity in order to gain the upper hand on their enemy expect? He would just concentrate on his studies for the time being and try not to give his old friends even more reasons to distrust the new him.

()

Remaining on neutral standing with his former friends was more demanding than anticipated. Ron's hatred for everything Slytherin ran deeper than Aries had known. While they were waiting in front of the Defence classroom Ron and Draco had one of their usual squabbles when Ron suddenly decided to shift his attention to the latest member of the house of snakes.

"Ah and here is the newest Death Eater in training. Probably can't wait to step in your family's footsteps, can you? Just know that we will be watching you." With that, Ron turned around, dragging a slightly apologetic looking Hermione behind him. The Potter imposter was already inside.

Although he felt bad, Aries couldn't help the laugh that escaped him. Ron accusing him – him of all people – of wanting to be a Death Eater was just too much. And sadly his red face and the empty threat hadn't really helped matters. Still laughing he turned to look at Draco, he was probably expected to show a reaction to Ron's antics.

"Was he… was he serious?"

Draco smiled tightly. "I'm afraid so. That was Weasley, Potter's best friend and menace extraordinaire."

Aries chuckled. "I would just like to see him try to 'watch me'," he murmured more to himself, but Draco had obviously heard him as he was now laughing quietly as well.

The new Defence teacher, Professor Smith, turned out to be surprisingly capable, which was nice for the students but didn't ease Aries' worries in the least. Considering that their last capable teacher had been a Death Eater in disguise, he thought is wariness was well founded.

()

Before Aries realized it, the first week had gone by. His situation was weird. Yes, he was back at Hogwarts, but it just wasn't the same. His old friends regarded him with mistrust, while his old enemies accepted him in their midst.

Getting to know Malfoy from "the inside" was strange. He had always imagined Malfoy and his goons to sit around all day slandering muggles and muggleborns. In reality though, Malfoy saved most of his anti-muggle slurs for when Ron and the fake-Harry were in hearing range. With time Aries got the distinct feeling that Malfoy just wanted to provoke the Gryffindors and was far too amused by their scandalized reactions.

Of course this didn't change Malfoy's and most of the other pureblood's view on the issue. They used the term mudblood so naturally that Aries had to give up being appalled on behalf of all muggleborns within the first week.

They obviously neither liked nor accepted them, but that – surprisingly – didn't hinder them from accepting the muggleborn's skills. The evening after their first potions class Zabini praised Hermiones intelligence in passing – of course followed by some comment on her desire to rub it into everyone's face. Even though Aries would never say it out loud, Zabini's statement was not entirely wrong. He loved her dearly, but Hermione's bossiness and undeniable know-it-all attitude didn't sit well with everybody even in Gryffindor.

After one week in Slytherin he felt that the biggest difference between his old and new house was, that Gryffindors were more unassuming and carefree. In Slytherin even though most were on friendly terms with each other, everybody always fought for themselves. They were more ambitious and disciplined when it came to schooling and future goals. Favours were not freely given but traded. If you wanted someone to help you with your charms essay you had to be prepared to offer something in return. To allow oneself to get indebted without defining any rules concerning the payment was referred to as something totally Gryffindor, which in Slytherin translated to stupid and thoughtless.

Aries was still getting used to all the unspoken rules in his new house, but he didn't spend too much time with the others anyway. Although he now knew another side to them, he couldn't really bring himself to totally disregard their past or overlook their political views. Twice he had joined games of exploding snap as to not immediately declare himself as a total pariah, but most of his time he spent studying runes (by himself, Dumbledore didn't allow a private tutor as it was not fair to other students) and for his classes.

He had had two more run-ins with an overly aggressive Ron but tried to rein his temper in and not antagonize the redhead even more. He knew if he wanted Ron to look past his seemingly dark heritage, he would have to get to know him again and show him that he was not just another dark wizard. Sadly he couldn't allow himself to get close to Ron and Hermione as they would probably figure him out over time. Because of all this, Harry had decided to just keep his head down whenever Ron and Hermione where close by. If he wanted to join the Order of Phoenix at some point, he couldn't allow them to view him in a negative light.

Little did he know that already the next day would put a strain on his resolve. He and Malfoy left the Defence classroom right after the three Gryffindors. Both groups were headed for the Great Hall. Hermione was enthusiastically talking to Harry and Ron about her "Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare" telling them that she had taken up knitting clothes for the elves again, hiding them in the Gryffindor common room. Aries, who had only recently read about the houseelves origin really wanted to grab and talk some sense into her. Houseelves were a magical breed created to feel the happiest when working for 'their family'. They took joy and pride in their work. Telling them that everything that defined them was wrong was an insult to their race. How could someone as intelligent and well-read as Hermione not know that?

Malfoy looked solemn as well. "I take it you didn't get in contact with many of her sort when you were home schooled? I dread to think what would happen to our world if mudbloods and bloodtraitors stayed in power. So much ignorance should be a crime."

And at least with the last sentence Aries silently agreed.

Yes, Aries is in Slytherin, with all the other wannabe Dark Lords. Shocker. What do you think? I didn't bash Ron, did I? I think he would treat a Black like he treats a Malfoy, and he didn't like Malfoy from the beginning. Share your thoughts in a review!

Next Chapter Dark Magic awaits us.