—TWO NIGHTS LATER, ARES RIDDLE WAS STANDING IN FRONT OF THE ROOM OF REQUIREMENT. He closed his eyes and thought of a room filled with books from the restricted section.
The door appeared, making him rush to open it and go into the room.
And when he walked into the room, he closed the door and looked at the many bookshelves. There were books on every shelf. This was exciting.
Ares rushed over to one of the bookshelves and grabbed a book.
'Magick Moste Evile.'
No way. No way is this the first book he found. Oh, he was excited. Very, very excited.
He opened the book and— blank.
Ares frowned and kept flipped the pages, but it was all blank. Not a single word was on the pages.
He went through every single page, and it did not change.
He put the book back down and grabbed another book. Without checking the title, he went through it. It was also blank.
He tried another book. Again, blank.
And another. Blank, again.
He threw his arms up in irritation. He walked out of the room and let the door disappear behind him. That was a fail.
✫ ✫ ✫
Ares did not go back to the common room.
Instead, he decided to go to the Astronomy tower, one of his favorite places in the whole castle. But when he reached there, he saw a boy there as well.
A boy none other than Harry Potter.
Harry Potter looked at the boy when he heard footsteps and frowned in shock. He swallowed and looked away. "I can leave." He stood up.
Ares felt kind of bad. "It's fine. Stay." He said, making the boy turn to him in shock. "I'll leave."
"No," said Harry quickly, "Stay."
Ares frowned, but did not leave and did as Harry asked. He walked over to where Harry was sitting back down and did not sit, but instead looked at the stars while standing.
"Why are you here?" asked Harry in curiosity.
Ares did not turn to look at him. "Same reason as you, I suppose. I didn't want to hang around the common room and just decided to come here instead."
"Oh," nodded Harry in understanding. He looked at the boy.
This boy's father was the reason his parents were dead.
But it was not this boy's fault. Not like everyone else thought.
They all blamed Ares, who hasn't done anything his father did. Not yet, anyway.
Harry looked away. "So, how do you like Hogwarts, so far?"
Ares frowned, but still did not look at the boy. Why was he trying to talk to him? They could just be there with no conversation. "Um, fine, I suppose."
"Only you would call the best place in the world 'fine'." Harry mumbled and stilled when Ares turned to look at him.
Dumbledore had shown Harry pictures of Tom Riddle as a teenager. Merlin, Ares looked almost exactly the same. It terrified Harry a bit, but he had to remind himself that this was not the dark lord. This was his son.
And his son had not done anything bad. Not yet.
Ares didn't reply but was staring at the boy. Once, he and Narcissa had stayed up and looked at pictures from her Hogwarts years. She was in the same year as James Potter, so he did see pictures of him. More specifically, he saw pictures she had taken during a Slytherin VS Gryffindor quidditch match.
And, Merlin, Harry looked almost exactly like his father.
Ares looked at the scar on his forehead. That was his own father's doing. He looked away and started walking towards the staircase.
Harry merely watched as the boy walked down the stairs and left him be.
They could say anything they wanted about Ares Riddle. One thing Harry Potter knew was that the boy was not his father. He was not Tom Riddle.
He did not deserve all the hate.