Chapter 14
"The Life and Lies of Albus Dumbledore? What the hell is this?" Harry asked the pale man a shelf over.
"That would be Skeeter's newest rag, though it's significantly larger than her pieces for the Prophet. I assisted her with finding certain sources, so apparently, she felt I deserved a copy." Lucius sounded about as disinterested in the book as Ron would have been reading 'Hogwarts, a History'.
"Is any of it factual?" Harry asked skeptically. He wouldn't deny his interest in the book, but he had no intention of perusing Rita Skeeter's usual trash.
"Going by the critics, its uncertain. Some lifelong friends of the headmaster have remained mysteriously silent on the text, so I'd wager there is far more truth than fiction. Take it with you, though keep it from your wife." At this last sentence, Lucius peaked into the aisle Harry was perusing. "You know how she feels about him."
Harry nodded, shrinking the book down and placing it in his pocket before continuing to look through the first shelf of the Manor's hidden library. The first shelf held Lucius's most recent acquisitions, things he had yet to sort through to determine whether they should remain hidden or go with the rest of the manors books. The senior Malfoy was going through far darker tomes elsewhere.
"Thanks for the help, Lucius."
Harry couldn't see the man, but he could imagine the posh smug look that likely accompanied the man's next words.
"Helping you, helps my Lord. And helping her, helps myself and my family. No need for thanks."
Harry had not gone into great detail about what he was looking for. It didn't help that he still didn't know what he even needed. Trying to control the future was futile. If anything, he already knew that it was the future that controlled the present. He had told Lucius that he was in search of arcane and ritualistic magic and the man said he had a few things related to them.
Harry's knowledge of these branches of magic were limited. At one point in their past, Emily had expressed her desire to perform rituals on his body, to make it stronger. However, after hearing some of the unpleasant side effects, he gave her a hard no. Even when the effect was extremely mild, Harry just didn't like the idea of altering his body.
As the hours passed however, Harry became far more dispirited. Nothing here seemed to be what he needed. He didn't need a magic circle to destroy a city block, and he certainly didn't need a blood rite to summon a wraith. The detailed instructions on how to hatch a basilisk did require a couple readings, but other than that, he found nothing. Harry moved away from the shelves and just as he was about to tell Lucius he was abandoning the search, he froze.
At the end of the room was a large glass sphere. Harry was drawn to the transparent orb instantly and he almost ran towards it.
"Hello. Who are you?"
Inside of the ornate glass was a massive, green snake. It had to be over ten feet long, but the most curious part of the creature was the connection Harry felt as soon as he laid his eyes on it. Something about this snake called to some part of him, though he had no idea what it could be.
"My name is Nagini. Leave me to my slumber."
Harry was immediately dismissed, and he could not, for the life of him, understand the torrent of disappointment that flooded him at her words. As he continued to gaze at her in silence, he was struck with a sudden memory. One that had been buried in his subconcious for years. Suddenly his dream of the murder of Frank Bryce played vividly in his head, and Harry knew who the snake was. Of course, Emily had told him that she had befriended a snake when she told him of her past, but she had not given him many details. He knew that the snake's venom had helped her gain a physcial form and gave her strength, but that had been the last she had mentioned it.
"You're Emily's friend, aren't you?" This, he assumed had to be what he felt. Emily had told him that the serpent had been the only friend she ever had, but seeing as Nagini was a snake, Harry didn't put forth much of an effort to remember it. Emily claimed she was beautiful and described her to him once. Of course, her description involved less of her physical attributes and delved more into the numerous ways that Nagini could kill someone.
The snake stopped feigning slumber at Harry's words and for a moment he believed that he had successfully grabbed her interest. Then she lunged at his face. With a garbled gasp, Harry stumbled backwards, foolishly believing that the glass cage would hold the snake back. This hope died as soon as her head soundlessly moved straight through the sphere and she slithered towards him with a speed that astounded Harry. He had only barely grasped his wand before her fangs sunk into the flesh of his hand and with an agonized cry, Harry lost hold of his only means of defense.
The burning sensation of his hand slowly began spreading through his body and the snake was by no means done with him. It was already wrapping itself around him, squeezing him hard enough for his bones to pop. His training with Emily finally kicked in and he pushed his magic out from his body similar to an electric shock and Nagini quickly retreated.
"LUCIUS!" Deciding that help would be most appropriate Harry shouted for the older man and heard quickly approaching footsteps. Harry wandlessly summoned his wand and fired off a banishing hex at the serpent that was still gathering its wits. Harry aimed it well, and the snake soared through the air, back into its bubble.
"What's wrong?!" Lucius made a timely appearance and Harry yelled at him.
"Seal that thing in there!" Harry clearly motioned to the cage with his bloody hand and Lucius flicked his wand not even a moment later. The glass turned opaque and Harry let out a sigh of relief. That entire situation escalated far too quickly. He hadn't expected his wife's only friend to attack him like that. Before he could even begin to question Lucius however, he found his body being levitated in the air.
"What are you doing?"
Lucius began running through the manor with Harry floating behind him. "You've been bitten. Her venom is lethal, but we have the antidote here. You have time, but I'd rather not push our luck."
Harry nodded, taking note of the fact that he was still bleeding profusely out of the holes in his hand. With the size of her fangs, Harry was more shocked that she hadn't bitten straight through. It only took Lucius a moment to have the antidote administered to Harry and he felt right as rain a few minutes later.
"Care to tell me why my wife's pet snake is in that cage? Or better yet, why have I never met it before? Even better still, why the hell did it attack me like that?"
Lucius scratched his head carefully. How should he go about answering this line of questioning? The truth would be best, but would the Dark Lord be okay with that. After a moment of silence, Lucius made up his mind.
"Your wife placed Nagini here the day after she resurrected."
Harry nodded, following along. "Okay, why?"
"She didn't wish for the interference." Harry sent the man a shrewd look but the more he thought about it, the more sense it made. Emily had figured out her obsession with him the day of her resurrection. She realized what she desired more than anything else in the world. So she had discarded her only other friend, and chased after him with abandon.
"So she attacked me, because she blames me for Emily leaving her here."
Lucius shook his head. "No. Nagini knows who you are, but she no longer has that depth of emotion within her. Nagini was a witch who suffers from a blood curse that has permanently transfigured her into a snake. She has lost most, if not all, of her human emotions. The only things she feels at all are devotion to the Dark Lord and hunger. She attacked you because you were not the Dark Lord, and you did not bring her food. Therefore, you were food. As far as she was concerned anyway."
Harry nodded. "So you just leave her there and feed her every now and then?"
"Yes, and she will remain here until her death, or until the Dark Lord breaks her curse."
Harry was shocked to hear this, not knowing Emily was even attempting to do so. Lucius, noticing his expression only offered him a smile. "There are many things your wife deems too unimportant to tell you about. Surely you can't be surprised when a few come to light."
"Fair point, but its more the fact that she is trying to help someone. That's the real shocking bit. Is there anything I can do to help?"
Lucius shrugged, and didn't comment. Clearly he had no idea how far along Emily was with her investigation on Nagini's curse. Deciding to delicately ask Emily about the snake from her past, he rose from his seat and thanked Lucius again for his help. He'd have to be careful when he broached the subject with her, as he didn't want her knowing what he had been up to.
Lucius watched as the young man left the room and didn't turn around when a voice spoke from behind him.
"So he found the snake, huh?"
"Indeed he did. Though it would've been more shocking had he actually ignored the thing. Being a parseltongue like his wife, it's only natural that the first thing he would do is speak to it."
Draco stepped away from the shadows in the room's corner. "Are you certain the Dark Lord won't learn of the fact that you intentionally let him be attacked by Nagini?"
"He doesn't even suspect it himself, and as he met us here without her knowledge. I am reasonably certain we are in the clear. Its important to foster trust between our families, and since his wife is too shrewd to fall for my tricks, I can only make use of him."
"She won't be happy about you using Potter like that."
Lucius shrugged his shoulders at his son. "I would have intervened had any real danger been present. He handled himself nicely and as far as he is concerned, I saved his life, again. It really was a win on all sides. The Dark Lord knows my motives, but she also trusts me enough to keep him alive. His trust in me is considerably weaker, but as long as I play my cards right, it will grow."
Draco could only gaze at his father in wary fascination. Only Lucius Malfoy would be brazen enough to entertain such a dangerous game with the Dark Lord's favorite and most valuable plaything. Draco knew that he wouldn't have the stones to go through with such a crazy plan.
"As long as you're certain. I'm heading back to Hogwarts. Even though I'm a seventh year Prefect, I don't have the leisure to stay out all night. Best of luck, father." Draco walked out of the room as his father softly chuckled to himself.
When Harry returned to his home, he sat himself the guest room and began to immerse himself in his old headmaster's biography. He knew that should Emily apparate to the house, the last room she would pick would be this one. At least he'd have enough time to hide the book before she could discover what he was up to.
From the very beginning of the book, Rita littered the narrative with her own theories and ideas. He knew that he could have easily fallen into believing that his headmaster was a magical supremacist if he wanted to. The details of the headmaster's early life were riddled with grey and sometimes even dark moments. However, he was well aware of the mistakes of youth. Had he not made the decision to run off with the most powerful dark lord in history? He wouldn't have done it any different, of course, but that didn't change the fact that the choice he made had been a terrible one.
It was a punch to the gut, however, when he came to the relationship between his old headmaster and Gellert Grindlewald. Of course, Grindlewald hadn't hid the relationship from him. Far from it, but he didn't go to the depths that Rita did. Harry had no idea as to how much was factual and how much was the horrid woman's imagination, but he found himself once again drawing similiarities between himself and Dumbledore.
Rita emphasized heavily that Dumbledore had been seduced by Grindlewald. That Grindlewald had spared no effort to romance the man. The situation was painfully similar to Emily's and his own romance. The only difference between truth and her narrative that Harry knew who held the power in the relationship. Rita Skeeter was adamant that Grindlewald was more powerful than Dumbledore, even up to the very end at their climactic duel during the war. Harry knew better, as even Grindlewald told Harry that Dumbledore's power was greater than any he had ever seen before. It was, in part, Dumbledore's power that had attracted him.
At the end of the day, Grindlewald chased the sun and he was quickly set ablaze. Though it took many years he eventually faded to ash. But Harry was pursued by the sun, and the sun's heat did not consume him. However, all the other celestial bodies in her orbit seemed to veer towards him, all set on a collision course.
Harry read late into the night, awaiting his wife's return, but soon enough sleep came for him. His dream was vivid. He found himself sitting next to a young woman in a decadent room he'd never been in before. The woman was rather pretty, with black hair and porcelain features. When she spoke to him, however, his heart gave a lurch.
"Why are you here?"
To date, Harry had never spoken parseltongue to another human other than his wife. Whom this woman clearly was not. However, when he attempted to question her, he found he had no control over his body. Still, whatever force did have control, spoke for him.
"I have some questions... about your curse. How did it happen?"
His voice came out in English and Harry watched as she sneered at him and looked away. The man, who Harry had come to realize was not himself, waited patiently for her answer.
"A man as knowledgeable as you should know that my curse was inherited from my mother, as it has been passed down through our line."
"I was more interested in who cursed your family, and what was your transgression."
"You ask of an incident that happened centuries ago. From what my mother told me, an ancestor of mine had insulted the imperial court and his wife was cursed for his sins. For many generations my foremothers attempted to end the curse by refusing a husband, but the emperor forced her to bear a child. I don't think I need to explain the process."
The man nodded."I'm aware of the muggles propensity for rape. You needn't bother. Has the curse always transformed your family into snakes?"
Harry now understood that the woman before him was Nagini. Even curiouser, he found the man's voice awfully familiar as Nagini replied, "Yes"
"And was your family informed of a way to break the curse?"
Harry watched as Nagini shook her head. "No. My family has tried many things, but blood curses are varied and unique. My curse is simple, it only affects the body. But there are far worse fates. Curses that can even bar the gates of heaven. At least I can live peacefully and die peacefully, even if I must perform the latter as a beast."
The man nodded and rose from his seat. "I see. This was a waste of time, but I suppose I will thank you for answering my questions."The man gazed into a nearby mirror and began adjusting his hair, and Harry was shocked at seeing a young and handsome Gellert Grindlewald. As he turned to leave, Nagini rose up behind him and hissed threateningly.
"Our deal, Gellert. I answered your questions. Now, you will leave Credence alone."
Grindlewald shrugged. "I will not reach out to him, but should he come to me... well, that is another matter,"
Harry found himself jolting awake by the crack of apparition. His mind was scrambling to recall every piece of his dream, of his glimpse into the past. Disregarding everything that he couldn't understand, he smiled. After all, the most important takeaway was the simplest bit of information that Nagini spoke of.
"A curse that can bar the gates of heaven? Sounds like just what I need." Casting a tempus charm and finding it was still before midnight, he rushed downstairs. Brushing by his wife, he gave her a quick peck on the cheek.
"Harry, what are you still doing up?"
"Light reading, be right back."
Harry entered the basement of the home and cast a simple ward on the staircase. Emily was impossibly nosy. Once upon a time, this had been the place where she had wanted to keep people locked up. Harry had vetoed that idea immediately and suggested they use it for storage. Emily had not been happy, but she accepted that their home was not a place to hold anyone prisoner. After a few moment, he found what he was looking for, a leather bound diary. Opening it, he cast the spell to communicate with his friend.
Ron, he knew, wouldn't have the diary on him. But Hermione wouldn't leave it far away, just in case. Sure enough, ink began to spill out from the spine and the image of her face appeared.
"Harry, why on earth are you calling so late? Its soon to be midnight and I have an important test tomorrow."
Harry grinned sheepishly at her. He probably could have waited until morning. "I was hoping to ask your help with developing a spell."
"Well, there's little chance of me finishing it tonight, is there?"
Harry nodded. "True, but I wanted to run the basic idea across you. Give you an idea of what we're trying to do."
"Very well, what is our spell going to be?"
"A blood curse."
Hermione's face, which was only black and white, stilled. Harry knew that she wasn't going to be happy with the nature of the magic, but her follow up question threw him by surprise.
"And who are you planning on casting a blood curse Harry? You know they pass down through a person's lineage, right?"
"Yes, and I was thinking... myself."
Hermione's expression turned stern immediately. "I don't know what kind of fight you and Emily got into Harry. But cursing your children is not the way to go about it."
Before she even finished speaking, Harry was already shaking his head. "Emily and I aren't fighting, Hermione. And if you cast the curse, you can remove it too. I just need a bit of help."
"What kind of help could you possibly need that would involve blood magic, Harry. These are dangerous spells. Not only could it kill you, your wife and your children, it could even have effects on your soul. Thats why every single country in Europe has had it outlawed for a millenium. Even China made blood magic illegal three centuries ago."
"Well, seeing as your brought up the soul bit, I was hoping for something to... bind my soul to something else."
"Impossible." Her response was immediate.
"Completely, or just mostly?"
Hermione sighed, "Do you not understand the meaning of impossible Harry. Completely. Especially for you, someone who doesn't have any direct relatives alive anymore."
"You said especially for me, so what if it weren't me? Could it be done for someone else?"
"Perhaps. With a blood relative. Blood curses affect blood so a father could possibly bind his soul to his son, or a mother could bind her soul to her daughter."
"Could I bind my soul to my daughter's?"
Hermione's sigh this time was far more violent. "Harry, you don't have a daughter." Hermione's voice got firmer as well. "And I know Emily isn't pregnant, otherwise you'd have told me already."
"Lets stay in the realm of theory for a bit longer, Hermione. If I did have access to my, let's say, theoretically seventeen year old daughter, could it be done?"
"Maybe. Look its late, but I really need to explain some advanced arithmancy to you, so listen up. Blood magic is an extant branch of soul magic. Soul magic never really developed due to the inherent danger of every single spell derived from its use. Blood magic, dabbles in elements of the soul but is safe enough that people can use them without wiping themselves from existence most of the time."
Initially, Harry was dismayed. Clearly what he was searching for was actually a weaker version of a horcrux. Which he didn't exactly have to worry about, as he already had one. Still, there had to be a reason his eye's had shown him that image of the past. If it was even real. A nagging thought in his brain came flooding out of his mouth before he could think of what to say next.
"What if my soul was bonded to someone? Could I use blood magic to bind to them or their soul?"
Hermione shrugged. "I suppose, Harry. But wedding vows don't bind souls. They wrap them together, but they are still separate entities. Yours and Emily's bond isn't deep enough for what you're talking about."
Finally, Harry knew he had struck gold. Harry had bonded his soul with Emily's or rather she had bound her soul to his. He had a piece of her inside of himself, though the reverse was not true. "Crazy idea, but hear me out. Say I have bonded with a fraction of someone's soul in my body. Truly bound, can't be removed, except by force. Could we tie my soul to that person?"
"No. It would have to be the other way around. If they had a piece of your soul, we could bind it."
Defeated, Harry sighed in regret. It really was the standard horcrux, then. No way around it.
Hermione continued. "Though binding your soul to it is impossible, I suppose we could make a connection. If the original idea would be to create a chain to tie one's soul to this plane, then the connection we could make would be a thread. A thin one. It wouldn't keep your soul from moving on, Harry, but it could, possibly delay it. But that's the extent of what magic will allow, Harry. There would be nothing that could be done afterwards."
Harry pondered the idea. If he understood Hermione's basic information, horcruxes were simple. Emily oringially had 100% of her soul. She then split off 1% of it and bound them to objects. It was her soul, completely, so the connection would hold. If his soul was comprised of 99% himself and 1% of Emily, then forging a connection to her would only have one hundredth the strength of a normal horcrux. Even less, considering the horcrux in him was accidental and probably not as large as a normal horcrux. Of course, his numbers were guesses, but the fact remained that his connection would pale in comparison to a true horcrux.
"So when do you think you could cast this spell?"
Hermione's eyes closed in defeat. "A couple weeks, maybe. But Harry its not going to work. I know your terrified of leaving your wife alone, but Emily would never let Voldemort get you. You don't have to be so paranoid about this. Ron and I wouldn't let her close to you either."
Harry gave his best friend a smile. "I know that, Hermione. But I want to cover every base that I can. I can't leave Emily alone, Hermione. I know that you don't underst- well, I know you think you do. But, trust me, I can't leave her alone. I really can't. So any chance, even the slimmest, is one that I'm willing to take."
"And its one that I won't think about until later today. Its late and I will start researching tomorrow. I have a lot of work on my plate, Harry. Being Head Girl on top all my classes and other responsibilities, the only reason I am agreeing to help you with this, is because soul magic arithmancy is as easy as it gets. God knows, had you contacted me through the floo, this conversation never would have happened. The ministry would already have aurors at your house for just mentioning blood magic."
Harry understood exactly what she meant. "What if the spell fails? What's going to happen to me?"
Hermione gave him a sardonic look. "It will probably fail. But nothing will happen, I can make certain of that. Blood magic is safer than soul magic for a reason, after all."
The two wrapped up their conversation quickly and Harry bid his friend a good night. He made his way upstairs only to find his wife standing just outside of his ward, waiting for him.
"So... what was that about?"
Harry shrugged, nonchalantly. "Just had a question for Hermione. Nothing serious."
She moved through his ward and Harry felt his magic give a pull. She stood before him and looked up into his eyes, pursing her lips. "You're friend is intelligent, but I don't know why you wouldn't come to me first."
Harry smirked at her. "Don't tell me you're jealous of Hermione, Emily."
She pouted. "Not hardly, and I can see you trying to steer this conversation. What are you hiding from me?"
"A surprise, you'll like it when you see what it can do."
Emily shrewdly looked at him. Harry worded his response carefully, but remained truthful. Emily had a knack for picking up on falsehoods and it wasn't only due to her skill in legilimency. But the way he said it unsettled her. He could tell from her narrowed eyes.
Suddenly, she turned and made her way to their bedroom. "I'd better," was the only response he got from her, Letting out a short breath, Harry broke out into a small smile. It had been a nagging thought in the back of his head that he wouldn't survive the final confrontation with Voldemort. He hadn't acknowledged the thought, wanted to deny it completely. But for some odd reason, he felt that the plan he made with Hermione was going to end up being exactly what he needed. Grindlewald had told him that the sight was the power he needed to protect Emily. To alter her path to her destiny. His inner eye lead to his vision of the past and the only useful thing he had learned there was the information on blood curses.
Shoving his thoughts to the side, Harry went to join his wife in their room. Though he had just woken up, he felt far more tired than he had before drifting off.