Inheritance and Healing
Chapter 6
Sirius stood in front of the ritual bowl, the ceremonial knife of goblin wrought silver with his family emblem etched in the handle. He was alone in the room, as there was no current head, and he was the heir.
"Better later than never." He muttered before taking a deep breath and slicing his right palm open, he watched the blood drip into the bowl before tapping the bowl with his wand.
"Invoco magicae familia." As the words left his mouth, silver mist rose from the bowl to form the shape of a silver hooded cobra. The snake regarded him with cool words before hissing at him, indicating he should continue.
Closing his eyes, he spoke the words that had been drilled into him by his grandfather ages ago.
"I, Sirius Orion Black, the descendant of Arcturus Black the third, hereby claim my right to the headship of the Most Ancient and Noble House of Black. I swear to lead the House and all those who ally with the House with justice, I swear loyalty to the house, being just and fair, to protect the house against all and delivering retribution to those who break an oath with the house and shame the house. By blood, by law, by magic have I sworn. By blood, by magic, by law hear my claim. I, Sirius Orion Black am the right heir and claim my birthright. So have I sworn, so mote it be."
The silver cobra hissed before rearing its head back and jumping onto Sirius, the magic circled him, harsh and judging but he stood straight. He was the heir and he would not cower before magic. Finally, the snake hissed its approval before settling over his shoulders and sinking into him.
He let out a breath as the magic in the room settled and a heavyweight formed on his left ring finger, he held up the hand to see the platinum band set with onyx stones, the family motto engraved onto it. How much ever he wanted to resist it, he realized he couldn't, the ring on his finger felt right, the cobra slithering around his core felt right. Harry. He reminded himself. This was to protect Harry and end that half-blood idiot once and for all. Shaking himself off he walked out of the room, seeing all three members of his family waiting for him.
"Well?" Remus asked. He smirked and held out his hand, showing them the gleaming ring.
"Oh, wonderful!" Astrid exclaimed. "Now you can take up all this politicking once you're free!"
"Ugh, can't you continue to do it? I want to spend all my time with my godson." Sirius whined.
Astrid snorted. "No way in hell am I ever putting myself forth as the head of the house, you can spend time with Harry while going to wizengamot meetings and doing whatever it is that you noble lords do." She mocked.
"Whatever" Sirius mumbled as he went and sat beside Harry.
"So will you tell us now why it was important for me to do the inheritance ritual before Harry's cleansing ritual?"
And immediately like that, Astrid had again gone into completely professional mode.
"I don't want to take any chances, unbinding a core is a very hard process especially one that hasn't matured completely, since Harry is your godson and your intended heir if his magic started to fight back then you can call on your family magic to settle him."
Harry shifted nervously beside him.
"Will he be alright?" Remus asked nervously, this procedure had put him on edge, consider the fact that the full moon was just a day away, his nerves were very frayed.
"Of course, don't worry about it, this is just a precaution." Astrid said reassuringly.
"Will you both be there?" Harry blurted out suddenly. He turned red at the slightly embarrassing question.
A smile graced Sirius and Remus's faces, they looked at each other before Sirius replied.
"Of course, all the way."
Harry smiled, a little of his confidence returning. "Alright, when do we do this?" He asked Astrid.
"Now if you're ready." She replied.
Sirius and Remus stood on either side of Harry as he lay on the stone bench, unconscious as Astrid stood behind his head.
She nodded at Sirius and Remus indicating that she was about to start. Her hands traced the runes on the stone, activating the table. The stone walls surrounding the chamber lit up, activated by the runes on the table. One hand held a pure diamond scalpel with a stone handle, the other hand had a cheery wood scalpel with unicorn hair core.
She started speaking the words to the spell, chanting in Latin. Her magic poured out of her into the wand, the movements of the wand channeling the magic into the scar. Harry's breathing picked up. Sweat forming onto his brow. The runes glowed brighter, trying to ease Harry's suffering.
Astrid picked up her chanting, feeling the Horcrux resisting her attacks. She gritted her teeth as she slowly raised the wand, the dark entity raising along with the wand. The entity protested quite a lot, shooting out tendrils to latch onto Harry. Harry's body began thrashing violently as his incoherent mumbles became louder and louder.
"Hold him down!" Astrid exclaimed as she worked faster to detangle the web of tendrils.
The runes glowed brighter, before beginning to dim. Astrid cursed as panic filled her heart, the runes were what were stabilizing him, it wasn't a good sign if they were flickering.
"Sirius! You need to call the family magic to protect him!" She all but yelled.
Sirius concentrated on his core, finding the snake twisting around it, he poured his intentions into it.
The heir to the House of Black is in danger. You need to protect him.
The cobra raised its hooded head, heeding to his demand it slithered out of his core and onto Harry's body, the cobra moved over him, settling just over his heart, its tail disappearing into his heart while it raised its head and struck the tendrils of Voldemort's soul, snapping at them anytime they came near to Harry.
The runes stabilized once again and Astrid worked quickly snipping at the tendrils and sucking them into the diamond scalpel, the iridescent crystal quickly turned dark, the soul fighting to get out but stuck in it. Quickly Astrid removed the whole soul piece before banishing it to the stone safe covered in runes.
"Is he alright?" Sirius asked tensed.
"Perfectly fine." Astrid replied smiling. "I was a little worried in the middle but the family magic stabilized him. "
"Thank god." Remus whispered, still too shaken up to move or do anything.
"Guys, I know that you both are worried, but you need to let go." Astrid said gently.
"What?" Sirius said as his head snapped up to glare at her. Remus too narrowed his eyes at her.
Astrid sighed, this is the problem with overprotective parents. "I need to break the binding, for that, I need you both to let go of his hands so I can create a protective field around him." She explained slowly.
The two marauders looked at each before sighing resignedly and letting go of his hands. The stepped back and watched Astrid as she placed her hands on the stone table, her eyes closed in concentration. Additional runes activated before a soft gold shield materialized, encompassing Harry's body.
Astrid waited for a few more seconds, waiting for the field to stabilize before she touched a rune on the table an projection of Harry's core jumped up with coils of blue magic holding it together. She picked up her wand and delicately guided her magic into Harry, intently watching the projection. She picked up a few small tendrils, snapping them one by one. As she kept snapping, the core's power began being unravelled, but was still contained and seemed to be held back by some sort of warding. After nearly an hour, she was able to remove the smaller bindings and all that was left was the final one. This one was the strongest, though still frayed by time, it still pulsed with power, forming tiny interlocking knots in such a way that if one was broken, it would be absorbed and two beside it would join by this additional power.
Realizing this would take some time, Astrid prodded them softly, watching the way the knots interacted with each other, waiting to see the failsafe. Unless someone used dark magic, there would always be a failsafe, an off switch so that the warding doesn't damage someone's core and drive them insane. And seeing as this had the signature of Albus Dumbledore, she was 80% sure this wasn't the work of dark magic. Now she just had to find the failsafe and overload so that the ward would fall. She sent a few more pulses before she saw the failsafe, the tiny knot was well hidden and unless someone knew what one was looking for, they wouldn't be able to find it. She moved her wand gently, and concentrated in sending a single non-lethal but powerful blast of magic to the knot, for a second the whole binding glowed brilliantly before falling, Harry's unbound core stretching and reaching it's full potential for the first time. A ripple of magic flowed out of him and was absorbed by the shield, protecting those who were standing outside it. Once his core settled back into his body, Astrid deactivated the shield and projection to reveal Harry's pale body. He looked asleep, but still weak.
She ran a few diagnostic spells before summoning a few potions and salves, she worked the potions into his blood, not wanting to wake him up. She worked quietly for a few more minutes ignoring the tense glances of the duo. She applied the salve to his head and heart before applying enchanted bandages.
"Don't worry he's perfectly fine. I just spelled him into a sleep. I'll wake him when his body and core have completely recovered." She said smiling as she watched the tension visibly leave the duo. She turned towards the cupboard behind her before pulling out a piece of parchment.
"Here." She said handing it to Remus.
"This is an enchanted patient safe portkey, one of you will have to be holding him while the other activates it. The activation word is 'home'."
"We're leaving?" Sirius asked startled.
"You didn't want to stay here for the next few days did you?" Astrid asked raising an eyebrow.
"Next few days? What will we do about the Dursley's?" Remus asked worried. Neither he nor Sirius were prepared to let Harry out of their sights right now.
"Don't worry. I'll handle them, you guys just concentrate on Harry okay?" Astrid said.
The two marauders nodded. Sirius took the parchment as Remus picked up Harry. One hand of Sirius's wound around Remus's and the other held the parchment. He nodded to Astrid before activating the portkey.
Astrid watched the three disappear before she shook off her lab coat. She waved her wand over herself transfiguring her features into Violetta and apparated to her house. Time to put the fear of God in those despicable Muggles. Well more like fear of her. She cackled as she walked over to No.4 Privet Drive.