Round 2
Ilvermorny: Year 5
Theme: Artefact Incidents
This round you will be looking at Magical Artefacts and how they are used or can affect the user or the victim.
2. Dark Magic
3. Revenge
7. Opal Necklace
8. Assasination
Main prompt:1. [Object] Cursed Necklace
4. [Quote] "It's not whether you get knocked down, it's whether you get up" - V Lombardi
8.[Spell] Sectumsempra
Author's note: Canon. I didn't focus on the trio era or Marauders because those happen exactly like in the books. And the spell I invented (sort off) is spelled together.
Words: 3300
With the 10% more. Thank you for this grace.
Betaed by Sarah and Shini. Thank you both so much!
"That's what is incredible about human beings, is the choice to keep going." by Jack Antonoff
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Please, help us there was so much pain. More than one could bear. They were dying, he was taking them, but he could feel everyone's pain. It affected him too. Magic always has a price, he'd warned them; we'll pay it they said. And Death had given in. But he wished he hadn't.
Sectum.
Yes, Master, his lieutenant came forward. She was the cutter of the souls, severing them from their bodies. She contained them in her opal necklace with her own curse spell; magic unknown to the human mind yet. From now on, I want you to teach healers how to cut the pain from dying people and contain it inside the necklaces.
You want to give humans Horcruxes? This is a mistake. They can't handle the power.
Fate approves, Sectum. I will take the souls alone. You make sure people use them well. If not, we'll take them back.
Little did he know, Fate always had a reason to approve and Time wasn't to be on their side.
I will be mortal.
I will take you back. You fall, but you rise again, my friend.
Sectum touched her necklace and made several copies, cursing her own at the same time, so no one would be able to confuse them. So she created multiple necklaces. Horcruxes.
With a sigh she went in search of worthy humans. Remember. Always look at what they cut and contain.
Once upon a time the Wizarding World wasn't as it is today. It was a different magical place—a time when Horcruxes, the darkest and foulest of magics, were something entirely different. Horcruxes in Ancient times were magical artefacts —opal necklaces—used by healers, and others who were properly trained. They served a higher purpose in healing, containing one's pain and suffering just before their death within the boundary of their chains. A special spell, in a language they had yet to know, was required to cut the pain from one's soul. SectumSempre Dolor. And most importantly, one had to know how to cut the chain to make the necklaces unusable afterwards, so the pain couldn't be liberated by dark wizards.
However that was not to be.
The war came and people decided to use the power of the Horcruxes for more than just healing. As weapons, Horcruxes proved to be extremely dangerous, especially in untrained hands. To relate to the modern days, a thousands of Cruciatus curses wouldn't suffice for the pain they caused. The destruction had been more than Death had seen. Sectum, now known as the mystery witch who had created them, had intervened in the war and destroyed most of them and the people with the knowledge to use them. Wizards and witches had fought back, hating her. Mortal since multiplying her artefact, she'd been deadly injured.
In the end, a young healer had saved her using one of his own Horcruxes to dull the pain. As a reward for saving his former lieutenant, Death had let him keep the Horcruxes he had and gifted him another magical artefact. The Archway of death. The necklaces were dangerous if used for long. Herpo, for that was the name of the brave young man who had rescued Sectum from the angry mob, had learnt that he had to empty the pain he took in the Archway and it will pass onwards, just as the soul he had taken it from.
"You fool! If you continue to use them, they will affect you" Sectum would say; but for reason beyond her, Fate would not let her speak more but transformed her into a snake each time. Herpo learnt how to speak with snakes, but he never managed when she was the one he addressed. Sectum cursed Fate and couldn't wait to greet Death once again. What good was there for her to be alive? But she'd learnt long ago, one had to rise after each fall; she couldn't allow herself to wallow in self misery.
Herpo the Fool, as she called him, remained the last remaining healer to have Horcruxes, and the one who had the Archway of Death. He knew they were dangerous, but he hadn't believed, nor realised that they were influencing him and slowly changing him. All magic comes with a price, but magic associated with Death affected one's very soul. Herpo should have quit, but he felt like he owed to all the healers who had fought for the cause to continue. Herpo could feel himself weaken, but he knew he had to get up and do what he must for his patients.
He had tried passing on the skill to his three apprentices, three sons of one of his former healer friends, but Sectum refused to teach them the spell and without her agreement he couldn't do it by himself. He couldn't say the words out loud. SectumSempre Dolor. The skill would die with him.
If only you could live forever. He shuddered. No one can live forever.
The voices at the Archway were more persistent each time he would go to empty the Horcruxes. He was struggling, but he couldn't stop. He was one of the old healers. If he died or succumbed, what was to be of the three children? Their parents had died in the war.
"Master Herpo, is everything alright?" Ignotus—the youngest— asked one night. He and his brothers had become increasingly worried for their Master Healer. Each time he relieved one of the Horcruxes of the pain to the Veil—the children's name for the Archway— it was as if he had brought the pain onto himself.
"I'm alright. Mind your business!" he'd snapped at the child and left for his study. Antioch, the oldest, had come running into the run at the shout and stared at the closed door in shock.
"Something is wrong with him," said his brother.
"He'd never raised his voice at us before," said Cadmus appearing in the doorway." Yesterday he yelled at me for looking at one of the Horcruxes. He said it's dangerous, but he always wanted us to know about them."
Antioch couldn't help but agree. Being the eldest, he remembered Sectum's warnings about how power corrupted and how Horcruxes were incredible powerful artefacts. The woman had stopped trying to make their Master see it, but Antioch feared she'd need to try once more before it wasn't too late. Their mentor had changed, but they had been the only one to actively see it. He'd snapped once or twice at his patients, but he had always been caring enough so people wouldn't notice.
The next day, while Herpo was in the Veil Chamber, the three children sneaked in and took some of his Horcruxes to bring them to the Archway as soon as he left. They didn't know that the artefacts could talk.
"What do you think you are doing!"
So scared they were of their mentor, that they dropped all the necklaces. Herpo looked angrier than they had ever seen him. But he seemed...absent. He pushed past them and picked up a necklace, while holding the ones he already had with the other.
Then he started talking.
We told you, Herpo. They want the power to continue your legacy.
"No, it's too dangerous. Sectum said so."
"We know, Master. That's why we were here, actually."
But he didn't hear them.
"He's not talking to us," Antioch realised, panging in his heart. Was it already too late? Was their master gone?
"Who is he talking to then?" Ignotus asked, all wondering the same thing.
But Herpo, it's ancient magic. People need to feel at peace when they die. What will be off you when you die?
"I can't. No one can live forever."
What if they can? You have to use the Horcrux.
"The necklace? How can I use it?"
With starting realisation, the three brothers exclaimed at the same time.
"The Horcruxes! The Veil! The Necklaces!"
You have to cut your soul and keep it there, away from the Archway. And you'll live forever.
"What do we do?" the children felt helpless hearing just one side of the conversation.
"We have to get Sectum. She is the guardian of these necklaces. She always watches what he cuts and puts inside," said Antioch.
"How do I cut my soul?"
You have to really want it, but first, stop the kids. They do not understand.
If anything, the question sent the kids running, but without looking, Herpo blasted them into the wall and left.
The kids picked themselves up and ran after him, forgetting about calling anyone. But it was too late. They found him in the hospital, wand above patients and a necklace in the other. Everyone was dead.
He turned and grinned at them.
"No need to worry kids, everything will be alright. I will be here now, forever."
In the beginning, he seemed to be okay, so Sectum, who'd they told later that night what they heard, had let it be. Though that had been more for the refusal to believe the sweet young man who'd fought in a war and saved her could have killed all those people just so he could live.
Soon enough, they saw that he was just a shallow shadow of the man he had once been; the man who would heal people or ease their pains.
In the end, it killed him. Whoever Herpo was now, he was no longer the kind man he'd been; he'd turned foul and angry at the world. He stopped healing and started killing. Saying if he killed the bad fellows, people wouldn't be hurt.
Sectum had tried to take him to the Archway, but he'd become more powerful than her. The Archway had fed off his purity, just as he had absorbed its magic. The necklaces had corrupted his mind.
"We have lost him,"she had said, but the three children vowed to help him find peace, because he had used to be theirs.
They needed to bring him to the Veil so he could pass over and do the spell that was draining all the necklaces inside it. They had to be powerful enough to put him to rest.
Sectum and the brothers took to study the Archway, until they realised it had started influencing them too.
"We have to find my former Master." Sectum put the quill down, looking at the three boys. They didn't deserve any of this and she wished more than anything she would have had the power to stop Herpo earlier, before his change. But she'd always had a soft spot for the man who had saved her life.
Sectum scowled. One thing about being mortal meant she had feelings. She detested feelings. Especially love. If she hadn't loved, nothing would have happened.
"Your former Master?" Cadmus was puzzled. She'd never heard Sectum talk about anyone but their mentor while growing up.
"Death." she said simply, the boys' eyes becoming big and scared. She lifted her hand in peace.
"I won't hurt you."
"But…" Ignotus stopped his older brothers from speaking." Sectum raised us along with Herpo. If she wanted us dead, we would have been long gone."
"Always the smart one dear. You are correct. Please listen." The boys nodded.
"Death feels the pain of the souls he takes. And I did too. Wizards and Mundanes alike begged for help to ease the pain of...dying. He granted it, after Fate nudged him. I was his lieutenant. I cut the souls from the body and stored them in my necklace. I cursed my own necklace denying its power and made more copies to be used in healing for those who knew that death was to be soon upon them. Death is the only one who could help us defeat him. He's basically done a part of what I used to do. This is no mortal business. His heart and soul are tainted."
"We have to give him to the Archway, don't we?"
Sectum nodded. How serious it was, Cadmus hadn't called it 'Veil'.
So they searched for Death to make a bargain. And he accepted, pained at what had become of his gift.
"I'm giving you three gifts, but you must return them to me." The boys nodded in grim acceptance.
"We don't want other artefacts to rule us as they rule Master Herpo."
"Wise boys." Death gave Antioch a wand to be able to fight Herpo, Cadmus a stone, to protect them from the Archway's whispering and to locate their former mentor and to Ignotus a cloak, to help them sneak around if needed.
One of the greatest fights occurred. They were just boys but they held their own. They managed to send Herpo through the Archway but Sectum fell with him, taking her cursed necklace with her. Her soul wouldn't be joining Death for a long time.
"We get out of here," Antioch spoke in the end. "The stone helps, but we have to destroy the rest of the necklaces. Nobody can know what a Horcrux does."
The other two nodded tears in their eyes. They've lived so long thanks to Herpo's magic. He'd tied them to him, eight hundred ten years since he'd taken them in his care and they were all still under eighteen; eight hundred years since they've been searching for ways to stop him. Now they were orphans again.
"We're the only ones left. We have to do it."
And they started their work. The three boys, men, destroyed all the Horcruxes, but one.
"We should keep one," Antioch said, voice trembling.
"Keep one? Look what happened to Master Herpo!" Cadmus exploded in anger. "I don't want to have to kill anyone ever again."
Antioch shook his head. "What I mean is, this is a piece of history. They're all identical to Sectum's own necklace. We just keep it and hide it. Never use it. Only one of us will know and the others will know something else. We split the knowledge between us."
So they did. Ignotus hid the necklace, Cadmus hid the last of Herpo's books and Antioch knew that if any of his brothers started feeling angry for no reason, he should reverse a memory spell on himself. And they obliviated their actions from their minds.
What they didn't expect was for Death to not only take the gifts, but erase their memory as well. The children who were no longer children had long outlived their lives. Ancient Greece was nothing but the mere past. Their mourning in the Archway Chamber and Herpo's house had been centuries and not minutes. Time had decided so. A new chance for them.
But Fate had other plans. Death realised too late that one Horcrux remained. He could not give their memories back, but he made so to at least try.
However, the three of them were very different without their teacher. He hadn't expect them to trap him on the bridge forcing him to give them gifts. Antioch had asked for the powerful wand, so Death had yet again given it to him. Cadmus wanted a resurrection stone, so he changed the spells from the original one and Ignotus got the cloak in the end. Saddened by the older brothers' current personalities he soon claimed their souls. As they died they remembered. Unfortunately Ignotus didn't die on Death's terms. The cloak protected him.
So Death decided to release Sectum back into the world to search for the last Horcrux. Her cursed necklace was to be her anchor. A beautiful opal necklace dropped in a shop, Always, written on the chain. Fate's handy work for sure.
Time passed quickly afterwards, or so it seemed to Death. But then he always preferred his brother over his sister. She was far too manipulative for her own good.
Ignotus died as a very old man, many many years later and when he died, he couldn't remember much. Unlike his brothers who hadn't gotten much time with their gifts, the cloak had influenced him and his old memories had become 'invisible'—gone for good.
However, Sectum had managed to find and destroy the last of her creations. But when she asked to go back, she discovered she couldn't.
"I'm sorry, I cannot return you on my own. Someone else has to do it. Fate won't tell me. But you're needed here, Sectum. It's something to do with the word on your necklace. I think you need souls to guide or something."
Sectum could only conform. But she longed to return to her place as his lieutenant.
"At least remove my curse on the necklace. I don't want anyone to get hurt."
"You know I can't. You did it so no one could use it as a Horcrux. I will take you one day. Remember that you belong with me. Always. One falls and one rises back up"
In a funny twist of fate,Tobias Snape bought the necklace for his pregnant wife. And unfortunately for them, even if it wasn't a Horcrux, the artefact still influenced them both. Sectum suffered and cried, but there was nothing she could do.
She cursed faith in millions of ways when Severus Snape created his signature spell Sectumsempra. I always cut. That was what she was good for, wasn't she? The poor boy didn't even know the spell had existed before his era, just with different words. For his Sectumsempra was almost identical with one of the spells she had taught healers to cut pain and contain it in Horcruxes.
She knew if she wouldn't have been a mortal human once she wouldn't have cared, but she had been and she did. Sectum did everything that the powers that be allowed to save Severus. She owed it to him after cursing his entire life with her cuts. Names had power and her name just happened to be one of the most powerful to ever be.
Sectum had been Death's lieutenant, and she had been the Horcrux creator, despite whatever the world thought about Herpo. The Horcruxes were not even only necklaces now, and her stomach would have spilled itself if she could eat. Nowadays, Horcruxes were the foulest of magics and she knew it was her fault. If only she would have stopped Herpo in time. If only.
In the end, Harry Potter had fulfilled his fate. When he died, and after he met Albus Dumbledore, she met with him and explained everything. The poor boy had been very confused, but kind. He'd promised he'd free her. And he did. After the battle—which he won—he took her necklace from Severus and he went to the Archway, in the now Department of Mysteries—Sectum never understood why they had moved it from Greece to England— and gave it back.
She'd been freed to be reunited with the three brothers and Herpo. And most importantly—her Master. She was at peace.
Harry Potter kept his word, never telling anyone the real purpose of the Horcruxes, nor the supposed Deathly Hallows. He knew that working with such powerful artefacts affected one's soul, so he summoned Death and gave the stone and wand back.
"Could you make me forget?" the boy asked, trembling. He didn't want to break his promise to Sectum to keep quiet. He didn't want other wars over the Hallows or people to know about Horcruxes. Before summoning Death, he'd taken upon himself to remove all the history he could find on both Horcruxes and Herpo the Foul.
"Yes, Mister Potter, if you're sure. You have proven worthy. As your ancestors before you."
The green eyed wizard nodded. With a flick of Death's wrist, Harry forgot.
Instinctively he didn't use the cloak much, living his life peacefully. When he died, Sectum cut his soul and brought it to Death. And Harry smiled, remembering.
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"It's not whether you get knocked down, it's whether you get up" by Vince Lombardi