Harry Potter and the Seven Split Soul Chapter 21: The Ritual, a harry potter fanfic

Harry Potter and the Seven Split Soul
By: Krystal Lily Potter
Chapter Twenty One: The Ritual
Rating: T
Summary: Now that Dumbledore is gone, the wizarding world has fallen into a place of fear with only one beacon of hope left: Harry Potter. Facing evils that he'd never thought he'd have to endure; Harry sets out with Hermione and Ron to find the four remaining horcruxes. But the demons that Voldemort forces upon Harry are the least of his problems that he must face. Can he bring back light to the wizarding world or will the darkness be too great for even the Boy-Who-Lived to escape? My continuation to the canon Half-Blood Prince.
Warning: There will be physical violence, this does include gory images. There might be some cursing and will be more mature themes like death, angst, and many…depressing inner thoughts and disturbing images later on.

"Can you know something, and never repeat it again?" Lily Evans whispered in a low tone.

The three girls around her all exchanged nervous looks before the one with fiery red hair said, "I'll take the secret to the grave with me."

"Potters stick with their friends," the girl with bronze hair and sapphire eyes agreed. "And never rat one another out."

"You don't have to worry about me Lils," the blond said with a small smile. "I'll probably forget anyways."

"Alright," Lily said. "Aly, Sar, Karmy, I need your help in something. James can't know, no one else can. I've got help on the outside, but it's not enough."

"What are you talking about?" Sarah asked slowly.

Lily pushed her dark red hair out of her eyes, the light bouncing off her engagement ring as she said, "What if I told you, that I knew the key to defeating Voldemort?"

Harry awoke with a startled jump when he heard his door fly open. He rubbed the sleep away from his eyes and went to grab his glasses, before realizing that his vision was clear and that he didn't have any real glasses anymore…he hadn't in months.

It was still dark, but the sun was starting to rise in the distance. He decided not to look at the time, but instead he decided to identify the person who awoke him.

"Alyssa?"

"Shh, the baby is asleep," she shushed him. He nodded, being used to the woman's obsession with the doll, her words didn't faze him a bit.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"I've been seeing things," she whispered. "Seeing your mama and my sisters…"

A few months had passed, and the air started to warm. In those few months the Granger cottage found itself with a new residence, since they had no clue what to do with Alyssa. The cottage had been crowded, but they dare not leave. Every night they put new wards up, and those shattered every morning, but for now it seemed to be the safest place to be, since no one would guess to look there. In those few months it seemed almost as if Alyssa sanity, as well as all of her memories, were slowly returning to her. She would wake Harry up every other odd night, telling him about how she saw his mother and her 'sisters', as she referred to Sarah Prewett and Karmen Potter.

"What did you see?" he asked her with a yawn. Most of the time she simply told him stories about Lily growling James, or when James took him flying and she had jinxed frying pans to randomly attack him during the day.

"Your mama said that she knew a way to destroy Voldemort," Alyssa said with delight. "Isn't that great Harry James?"

Harry stared at her and said slowly, "What exactly happened?"

"Your mama was talking to me, Sar and Karmy," she said seriously. "And told us to keep it a secret. She said she already had someone working on the inside."

Harry got to face and said, "Are you sure?"

"Yes?" she asked him.

He nodded and said, "Ok, you better check on Kaylee."

She leapt to her feet and was out of the room without so much as a glance back at him. Harry rubbed the corners of his eyes as he grabbed some fresh clothes and headed out to use the shower, before everyone else woke up.

As he let the water soak over his body, he thought about everything that had happened. He had known that Regulus and Karmen were somehow involved with the horcruxes, as was his mother, but now it appeared that Sarah and Alyssa were as well. If that were true, while all that was happening, what was his father, Sirius and Remus doing? When he asked Sirius about Karmen mentioning the horcrux he had said no, and Lily hadn't told anyone either.

After finishing his shower and heading out to make breakfast (Alyssa barely paid attention to things such as cooking, saying that she preferred to eat fruites, so it was still only Sirius, Remus and he doing all the cooking, but Ron had been picking it up lately as well), still mulling over his thoughts. He was slowly starting to see that everything was connected, and that if one thing didn't happen nothing else could.

If Regulus hadn't found the horcrux originally, then he would not be dead, and neither would Dumbledore. Or at least they wouldn't have died the way they did. Would Karmen Potter still be alive if she hadn't stolen the chalice?

That left him wondering, why would Regulus, and Karmen write their initials on the notes they left Voldemort? It would have been much safer.

As he flipped the pancakes he was making, another thought came to his mind: what if they were trying to distract Voldemort from the ring leader of the operation?

After making a fairly large stack of pancakes, and putting them in the oven to keep them away from the open air, he sat down and thought more about that possibility.

Harry knew for a fact that his mother had, somehow, started to suspect that Voldemort used horcruxes when she was only young, and the more he thought about it, the more he realized that she hadn't informed Dumbledore of her findings. She had pinpointed where the item of Ravenclaw had been at one point of time, and from the look of the house Dumbledore had obviously not been there before. And if he was right about her being in league with Regulus and Karmen, then she knew the horcrux were both removed but had not informed the former Headmaster of Hogwarts.

Hermione was the next one awake. She gave him a warm smile as she sat down to eat, reading the translated book. Harry and Ron had taken their tries at reading it, but the information was very complex, and Hermione had jokingly said that she would make a 'guide for dummies' for them. They had thought it was purely a joke at first until they found her rewriting Lily's direct translation of it.

"Hermione?" he asked after a moment of silent eating.

"Hmm?" she muttered, her eyes not leaving the book. She had been reading it for a few months already and was not yet done.

"You know how we agreed that Regulus and Karmen were working together, because they left pretty much the same note with a fake horcrux?"

"Yes?" her eyes snapped up to his face.

"I think they might have been working for someone."

"Why would you say that?" Hermione asked curiously.

They turned as, surprisingly, Ron entered the room. He appeared well rested and had a large smile on his face. Without greeting them he sat down, helping himself to the pancakes that were in the oven. He looked from Harry, to Hermione and said, with mild surprise, "You have no idea?"

This intrigued both Harry and Hermione. She stared at Ron and asked, "Pardon?"

"I see where Harry's coming from. Why would Karmen and Regulus sign their names, well their initials to the letters? It would be easy to track them down…that is a really bad strategy, if they were trying to save themselves. If, however, they were trying to distract Voldemort from the brains of the operation…that seems like a pretty good move to me."

"Exactly what I was thinking," Harry said with a nod. "And this morning, Alyssa woke me up with a dream. She said that this one was about my mom and her friends. My mother said that she knew the key to defeating Voldemort."

"You think you're mother was at the top of the operation?" Hermione asked.

"Well it would make sense. She knew about the horcrux, or at least suspected it since she was young, and I'm nearly positive she didn't go into details with Dumbledore either."

"And Alyssa can't remember anything relevant to it?" Ron questioned with a frown.

"She wasn't the only one there," Harry said after a moment. "Alyssa wasn't the only one who my mother told, Karmen was there and so was…Sarah."

"Yes, she was mentioned in your mother's journal," Hermione said. "Sarah Prewett, right?"

Ron made an odd sound, causing both of them to look at him. His blue eyes were wide and his face was pale. Harry and Hermione shared a worried look before Harry suddenly realized why Ron acted that way.

"Sorry, I forgot that she was your aunt," he said apologetically.

"No, that's ok, it's not like I met her before," Ron said with a deep sigh. "My mum didn't think much of her, but I spoke to my uncles about Sarah and they said that she was a very free spirit, and a very loyal friend. So if she did know about the horcrux, she would have gone to the grave to protect your mother, if Lily was the one in charge."

"So in theory Lily, Alyssa, Karmen and Sarah were all involved with the hunt; that makes sense because they're all friends. But Lily was married to James, and Alyssa was dating Sirius, so where were they in all of this? And where does Regulus come in?" Hermione asked. "I imagine none of them got a good impression of him because of Sirius."

Ron stared at Hermione for a second before saying, "There's nothing that can show us?"

"What?" Harry asked with a slightly amused tone at his friend's vague question.

"No, I'm serious, is there a spell that can show us the past? I mean, I'm as sketched out as the next person of Divination, but looking into the past must be different," he said.

"Aside from looking into memories or using a time turner, I've never actually heard of looking into the past, at least not the way you're implying," Hermione replied.

Ron sighed again and slumped down into his chair. He really had thought he was onto something. From what little that he had read of the ancient book, and from the even smaller amount that he had understood, there were spells in it that no one had thought of in thousands of years. He wasn't sure how old it was, but it was old enough to be lost in time, one of a kind.

As he stared at the book, for a moment, Ron wondered how Lily Potter had obtained it. He knew for a fact that she was some type of Unspeakable working in the ministry, particularly with history, whatever that section did. There must have been plenty of opportunities for her to find it, as she had mentioned traveling in part of her diary.

Harry had given Ron the opportunity to read the writings of Lily Potter, just to see if there was anything he or Hermione had missed.

Ron suddenly jolted up in his chair, eyes wide with shock. There was something they had missed, something in the very beginning of the diary that hadn't seemed important at first, but stuck out like a neon light, how that Ron thought about it.

"She got that book when she was younger," he blurted out. "Your mother Harry, she had that book before she started the horcrux search. I remember reading about a book of runes in her diary…I had thought it was ancient runes, but thinking back it couldn't have been…she mentioned all her other class books in full detail! Don't ask how I remember this, I just do."

"Alright," Harry said slowly. "Let's say you're right and my mother had this when she was younger. What does that have to do with anything?"

"How did she find out about the horcruxes in the first place? From the sounds of it, Dumbledore didn't even really know if they existed until Voldemort attacked you, yet your mother and her friends had located and even removed several of them. You know how you always say to follow your gut, Harry? (Harry nodded to him, curiosity evident in his expression) Well I think that I'm right, and she translated that book, found a spell to look in the past, and probably saw Voldemort making the horcrux! It would make perfect sense!"

Hermione's mouth opened for a moment in shock before she said, "That does make sense. If the spell she used was in this book, then Dumbledore wouldn't have known about it and he wouldn't have been able to see what she saw."

"Strategically I think it would make sense to find out more about horcrux first, especially if it was the first time Lily had heard of them," Ron said thoughtfully. "So she must have gone to Dumbledore, and he must have gotten the idea from her!"

Harry stared at Ron and said, "That does make sense…a lot more sense then most things do. Hermione try to find something to do with time in there."

She nodded and started skimming over the book, making sure to catch the important parts of ever sentence but not really paying attention to it at the same time.

Ron smiled slightly and was glad that he had been able to help. Harry always said to go with your gut, something that he had never done, but Ron was glad that he was doing it now. It made him realize how much stronger of a person he was becoming.

There was an Order meeting that night, and Remus, Tonks and Sirius had gone, leaving Harry, Ron and Hermione alone in the house. They all sat in Harry's room, none of them speaking.

Hermione's eyes flickered nervously from Harry to Ron, before saying, "I found it."

"You found it?" both boys asked with surprise.

"The spell, you were right Ron, there was a spell. There's a warning by this though, one written by your mother Harry. She says that it's extremely dangerous, and the people performing it should trust each other entirely. She also wrote that this spell will only allow you to watch the past, but not be able to touch it."

"Like in a pensive?" Harry asked.

"Yes," she replied. "From the looks of it, this spell was the original version of that. Here's the good part though, you don't actually need a memory to go back to watch. There is a downside, unfortunately unlike a pensive, which he relatively harmless to use, this spell is very dangerous. It's more of a ritual of sorts."

"What do we have to do?" Ron said while staring at her.

Once again the nervous flicker appeared on her face before she said, "According to this book it's water, not blood, that is important for the rituals because all life needs water to live, and even if dirty, there is more water on the earth than anything else. This is important because most of these spells and rituals have to do with water in one way or another. This one happens to be a bad one though."

"Keep going," Harry urged her.

Hesitantly she looked up from the book to him and said, "The person receiving the vision has to be completely submerged in outdoor water, and no magic is allowed to be used on them to allow them to breathe because it will cancel out the ritual."

They fell silence before Ron said, "What do we have to do?"

"Three people are needed for this to work," Hermione said. "One to see the past, one to perform the actual magic, and the third is needed to hold down the one receiving the vision so that they don't come back above water. The third person is also a link that pulls the visionary's mind back to the present once the ritual is over."

"There are three of us," Harry said.

"A perfect number," Ron agreed.

"I can't," Hermione said, shaking her head viciously. "I can't…please Harry…"

"What's wrong?" Potter asked with confusion. "You can perform the spell and Ron can hold me down, it's as simple as that."

"No it's not, Harry. Not at all! It's specified very clearly that the person holding you down must be of the opposite gender."

"Why?" Ron blurted out.

"Natural attraction," Harry said. "The male mind is centered around the female."

Hermione laughed slightly and said, "I don't think that's it, but that's how the ritual goes. I don't think I can do that to you Harry."

She looked down at her feet, and felt a bright red flush appear on her face as Harry gently grabbed her chin and tilted her head up so that she was looking at him. He gave her a serious stare before saying, "If this will help clear everything up, I want to do it. Please Hermione?"

Tears welded up in her eyes, but she nodded her head. Harry smiled before stepping back from her and turning to face Ron. "Think you're up to doing this mate?"

Ron took the book from Hermione and stared at the incantation before saying, "Yeah, as long as I can keep the book with me to help with some of these words I'll be fine. Where are we going to do this?"

"There's an ocean right out there," Harry said. "The book says it has to be outdoor water so might as well make good of what we've got."

"That water's freezing," Hermione quietly warned.

"I know, but all water will be this time of year," he replied grimly. "Let's do this."

"There's one last thing," the sole female said, causing both males to pause and stare at her again. "We can only do this once. That was a warning from Lily as well. It takes a lot of power and is only advised to be used once by a person, and once only. That includes all three jobs for this."

"So we have to get it right and see what we want this time," Ron said. "No pressure then."

Harry chuckled at his friend's dry resort, whereas Hermione didn't look nearly as amused.

"The water's freezing," Harry said as he took his first steps into the waves.

"I told you it would be," Hermione said as she followed him into the water. "We have to be deep enough for me to completely submerge you, so we need to go about waist deep into the water."

Ron stepped into the shallow water, wincing at the bitter cold water that assaulted his ankles. The book was held tightly in his arms, but there was a waterproof charm just in case he dropped it into the ocean.

"What are you doing?" Harry asked him with amusement.

"I have to be in the water too apparently," Ron said while reading the book. "So that I can make a connection with you. I only need to be in the shallows though. Hermione has to be touching you. And remember, you have to be concentrating on what you want to see."

Harry nodded from the waste deep water before looking at Hermione and asking, "Ready?"

"No," she replied with a tiny sob. Harry put a comforting hand on her shoulder before letting himself float in the water. With a confident look at Hermione he motioned for her to push him down.

She put one hand over his chest, the other on his legs, and pushed him under the water. Just before he was completely submerged he took a great breath of air. Both of them closed their eyes like the book had instructed.

Ron held his hand out and began to recite the incantation:

"Thgimru oylae ver efilfo sre taw. Eesot deen ewta hwwohs, tsa peh tote noneso hcru oekat. Egdel wonk gnir blliw emit fosre taw eht, surev ohsa wlli wemi tfo sret aw eht. Suot tsape htgnirb, tsapeh totsu ekat. Rewop ruoyht rofgn irbe filfo sretaw."

Harry thought of his mother, he thought of the horcrux, he thought of the book. He wanted to know how Lily, Regulus, Karmen, Sarah and Alyssa were all connected. His lungs were starting to burn, and he had a desire to start kicking to get to the surface, or to open it eyes at the very least. He managed to keep himself calm.

Thgimru oylae ver efilfo sre taw. Eesot deen ewta hwwohs, tsa peh tote noneso hcru oekat. Egdel wonk gnir blliw emit fosre taw eht, surev ohsa wlli wemi tfo sret aw eht. Suot tsape htgnirb, tsapeh totsu ekat. Rewop ruoyht rofgn irbe filfo sretaw

He suddenly felt his body jerk as it tried to get above the water, but Hermione's hands kept him pressed down. His body was trying to get up, but his mind was praising Hermione for keeping him down.

Ron watched Harry struggle to get above the water, and he watched the tears streaking out of Hermione's closed eyes. He recitied the words over and over again, just like the book told him to.

A glowing, red aura was starting to appear around Ron, but he didn't notice. He was worried that the ritual wasn't working. He had thought he was ready to do this, but maybe he wasn't as strong as he thought he was.

Hermione sobbed as she kept her eyes closed tightly, not seeing the green aura that surrounded her. She hated what she was doing, but she could feel Harry's rational side trying to ease her pain, but it was no use. She was drowning her best friend. She knew that if she pulled him up, not only would he be angry with her, but he might be harmed from all of the magic that was surrounding them. Terror passed over her body when she felt him stop struggling, but she couldn't open her eyes, not yet.

Harry finally let out the air he had been holding in, and he felt his whole body jerk from lack of oxygen. It was painful, but he didn't open his eyes just like Hermione. He didn't see the blue glow around his body. Slowly he faded from consciousness, losing all feeling in his body.

Author's Note

…I just made Hermione drown Harry! Haha I'm twisted! Next chapter…well I'm not telling you! That'll ruin the surprise.

Those words, the ritual ones, they are random sentences involving water, showing the past, and so on, written DaVinci style (right to left and backwards), but I think I might have accidentally deleted some letters in the backwards typing process so it might not completely make sense. Plus I moved letters around. It's really not important though.

In the story, just so everyone's on the same page as me, a couple months have gone by since the last chapter. The last one took place in late January, early February and this one takes place in mid April. There hasn't really been anything interesting happening in that time, just intense training. When I go back and edit this after it's all written I'll probably add a chapter or two just going through all of that, but for now there are certain things I want to get around to…and those things have to happen in certain time frames.

You all know what this means of course! We're getting down to the final chapters pretty soon. Unfortunately I can't tell you how many chapters are in this story because the numbers keep changing. I've added at least five extra chapters then originally planned because of random ideas that just pop into my head while I'm writing, and take a chapter on their own!

Points from Reviews:
-I will be getting around to why Harry survived, but I can promise you that in THIS story, it wasn't simply Lily's sacrifice that did it.

-Yes this is dark, but what can you expect in the middle of a war that they appear to be losing?
-Yes some things lack realism, I'm not gonna lie, but so do the Harry Potter books in general

-Alyssa's sanity is long gone

Thanks to everyone who reviewed! FreedomStar, Demonically Angelic Neko88, pupadawg66, holimontski and JDZ. I really appreciate the feedback!

Krystal Lily Potter