Let's Do It Right This Time, Chapter 9: Magical Blocks
Aurelius was woken by a flood of butter-colored light, spilling in through the window of his new tower. For a moment, he lay in bed, unable to figure out where he was. Then everything came rushing back, and he realized that he was about to be late for a meeting with Murdock.
Jumping up hastily, Aurelius ran for the front room, where he'd left the portkey the goblins had given him; his new tower didn't have a floo connection yet, and while he could apparate, he would likely get a letter from the ministry for underage magic. Quickly, he picked up the portkey, muttered the password (Dragon Fodder; goblins had a slightly unnerving brand of humor) and reappeared in the Gringotts portkey terminal. Murdock was waiting for him.
"Greetings, Lord Gaunt, may your line be blessed and your enemies bleeding." She said in gobbledygook, ignoring the startled looks of the other wizards arriving.
Aurelius grinned at the creative greeting. A wizard would just have said hello. "Greetings, Healer Murdock, may your patience and your vaults be without limit," he replied in the same language, and using the traditional Healers' greeting. Murdock looked very pleased as she took him four levels down to the goblin hospital.
Once there, however, she was all no nonsense again. "I trust you haven't eaten anything yet?"
"No, esteemed Healer."
"Oh, just call me Murdock," the goblin returned. "No one's watching." She blinked. "I'm taking you to a private room. I'm only going to remove two blocks on you today, for your own safety, and depending on how it goes we'll write up a schedule for the rest of the week. I have your potion list and diet with me today; I warn you it will be very strict for the first two weeks. I and Mugwart are working through the arithmetic equations for the soul anchor ritual, and we're having some progress; we think that it'll be all ironed out by the end of the summer. But right now, I'm removing the block on mental magic, as it is the weakest."
"And after that?"
"The block on self-transfigurative magics." Murdock politely turned her back as Aurelius stripped, then helped him into a bed, covering him with a loose blanket. "I'm sorry, but this will hurt a lot."
"Oh, I can probably handle- aaaaarg!" Aurelius broke off, clutching at his head, which felt as though a few blast-ended skrewts were having a fight in his skull, without regard to his brain. And then everything went black.
Aurelius woke up feeling a little light-headed, but great. Partly because Murdock was bathing his forehead with a wet cloth, almost exactly where his scar was. Damn, that goblin was hot.
"How long was I out?" He asked her hoarsely.
"Six hours, give or take. You're getting bed rest and shots of coconut water with potions to help stabilize your regained magic, and then in about four hours we will take off the block on self-transfigurative magic, which shouldn't hurt so much. I would have taken off the block on your healing magic first, but that one is really strong and deeply ingrained." She winced. "I have to say, anyone who does that to a child- even a perceived child..." she added hastily at Aurelius's cough.
"Whoever did it is going to get shafted after this war is over," commented Sculdig, who had just come in. "I'd do it sooner, but Manager Ragnok thinks that whoever it is is on the so-called Light side, and that they'll still be needed until the war is over."
"You're probably right," muttered Aurelius at the same time that Murdock exclaimed "Light side my arse, that's evil!"
Aurelius couldn't have agreed more.
After five hours of being rather babied by Murdock, in between Sculdig popping in to teach him a bit of goblin cursebreaking- theory only- and discuss future plans, Aurelius was finally judged ready for the second round. This time, when Murdock cast the spell to remove the block, it didn't hurt, only there was a sense of something releasing deep within him, and his skin crawled all over. Then his hair began to turn colors of an unseemly bright hue, Tonks- don't call me Nymphadora- style, as the goblins laughed.
Aurelius simply grinned uncontrollably, before slumping back and sleeping for nine hours straight.
The next morning he had to start on his potion regimen: nutrient potions, antibiotic potions, bone correcters, painkillers, and anti-inflammatories, along with a light breakfast of fruit. He rested all day, (Murdock wouldn't let him talk finances with Sculdig, not even a little bit, or study; after she threatened to hex him senseless, he compromised by reading a bit of Arabian poetry, which, while educational, was also fun.) That evening, he took more potions, and then had an early night (also at Murdock's insistence.)
The day after was when they reached their first snag. Murdock had taken off his blocks on accidental magic and natural healing power, which weren't a problem, and she'd decided after an eleven hour wait to release the last block, the one on his magical core.
She had not planned enough. Oh, to be sure, she knew that his power was going to surge, but she accounted for only a fraction of his potential. When the block was released, the resulting surge knocked her senseless against the wall, filling the air with a smell of burning ozone and cinnamon, and Aurelius himself was nearly fried with the influx of out-of-control magic.
It took fully a month, and a team of goblin healers and therapists to help Aurelius to fully control his new power, and another two weeks of potions, medical spells, diet, and exercise before Aurelius could really be considered in good shape. But at last, he was healed physically, and ready for the next step.
By the end of the summer, Murdock and Mugwart had checked and rechecked their equations, and had collected all the ingredients for the potions necessary for the horcrux ritual. In late October, the goblin Healer and the cursebreaker reserved one of Gringotts' warded ritual rooms, and began to prepare it for what was to come.
It took seven days to prepare, and then they had to brew the potions and wait for the new moon, while Aurelius was kept to a stringent vegetarian diet. The night before, Murdock bathed a furiously blushing Aurelius in the ritual cistern, "I'm a Healer, it's not like a haven't see human bits before; calm down!" and rubbed him with olive oil, phœnix tears, and palm wine as required.
The day of, Aurelius was kept in a drugged sleep until just before the sun was setting, and then was led into the ritual chamber, barefoot, clothed in white robes and unadorned by anything else. Everyone left the room except Murdock, Mugwart, and an apprentice, and they began.
Aurelius knelt in the center of a runic ring, still rather woosy from the dreamless sleep potion, and watched as four bowls were placed at the four points of the circle, one filled with sand, one dew, one with a little incense fire, and one containing nothing but air.
Murdock approached silently, holding a finger to her lips, and before Aurelius realized what she was doing she slit his scar with an athame and began to drip a steady stream of some kind of potion into it, as Aurelius writhed and tried desperately not to cry out. Then Mugwart was chanting a modified exorcism incantation as Aurelius foamed and fought, and then it was over, and Aurelius was dimly aware of Murdock's soft hands propping his head up and pouring a grainy liquid down his throat, murmuring apologetically. His last thought as the world flickered in and out was "God, she's beautiful."
He would only later find out that he'd spoken aloud.