Hello everyone.
Yes! I am still alive. My life has been itself adventurous enough to rival Harry's (for a muggle?) living here in Greece, and fighting the good fight. But leaving this story unfinished has been bothering me since I last updated. I plan to finish it now, and give Severus Snape's Legacy closure. I hope all those following this story, are here to read it. Otherwise, eh, at least I'll have finished it!
If you need a recap of the story, there is a quick and clear cut one two Chapters ago (labeled "author's note and a recap") The main things that happened in the following Chapters was that Adeline revealed the hiding spot of the Key of Wind, and Rasmus and the Golden Trio are getting ready for Rasmus' suicidal plan to sever the blood bond he has with Osiris.
Here goes. Chapter 44.
/
With the Key of Wind found, nothing was holding Nikos here, in Hogwarts. He smiled softly, looking upon the silver box. What every single Pythagorian, every single Cultist in Isis' service had been looking for centuries upon centuries, was finally in his hands, within this small silver box lush with serpentine ornaments and assorted such symbols Slytherin had loved during his lifetime.
Nikos could sense the heavy wards and shielding around the box, keeping the Key's magical imprint hidden from the scrying of Arithmancers and Augurors and Seers. They made his palms tingle a little as if he was touching a humming orb resonating with electricity. It would be foolish to try and open the box without proper assistance, and he could think of none other than McGonagall as the perfect assistant.
"Sir, don't forget our deal. I've delivered my end of the bargain."
He'd forgotten Adeline. She was still walking by him, looking at him with anxiety and threat. She wouldn't stand aside and let this deal break, her glare was saying. But Nikos smiled.
"Go pack, Adeline. We will leave tonight. But- speak of this to nobody. Especially not Rasmus."
Her eyebrows shot to her hairline.
"Is he not coming with us? I thought you never left him from your sight," she asked incredulously.
"Up to now, that had been the safest way," Nikos said with a nod. "But now, the safest thing for him, is for me to leave him here, where he'll be safe, while I finish what started way before he was born."
"…what about me?" Adeline frowned. "Will I be in danger?"
"Isis isn't after you, so I expect you will be safe- and if it comes to it, as my ward I will protect you." Nikos grinned a little and nodded. "Go on, get ready. I'll make all arrangements with the Headmistress, and call you when we're ready to depart."
/
"Right, we're ready. Seal the room," Hermione instructed as potion in the cauldron turned a smooth swirling teal-blue hue.
Harry and Ron waved their wands, casting powerful wards of sealing and protection, effectively locking the room from all physical and magical prying. When that was done, everyone, Harry, Ron, Hermione and Rasmus crowded around the steaming cauldron.
Hermione was looking nervous yet focused and precise.
"Right, the primary potion is ready. Now, we need to go on with the spell casting. My theory is that Harry goes first with the positive casts, and then you bind them to the potion, and then Ron and I do the negative casts, and you bind them again. Do you think your Sigils will be strong enough?"
"They have to be," Rasmus said decisively, setting his shoulders as he looked at Harry. In his mind there were a lot of things racing, clamoring to be said, but none formed into words; so Rasmus said nothing. Harry smiled softly at him.
"It'll go well," he said assuredly. "I'll make sure of it."
"That's not much of a relief, Potter; my dad said you were abysmally awful in almost everything," Rasmus smirked, without any bite in his words.
Harry laughed. "Well, that's true, but I was nothing if not lucky."
"The potion can't wait forever," Hermione urged, too nervous to wait for more banter to occur, even if it was to bolster everyone in this endeavour. "Let's start."
"And let's hope the room doesn't blow up," Ron muttered as everyone took out their wands.
For a few moments, even time seemed to stand still. Then Rasmus nodded just a fraction, and Harry nodded back, his eyes light- for as he held Rasmus' gaze, he felt he had far more in common with Snape's son than anything significantly different. He drew back his hand, and as his heart gave a lurch, he yelled powerfully:
"Expecto Patronus!"
The glimmering, starry stag shot out of his wand with force and prowess, and in a few short gallops became a giant as it ran around the young people circling the cauldron- because Harry was putting all of his power in the spell, so that it would serve Rasmus, and protect his life when the time came.
Immediately, Rasmus traced the golden shimmering mystic lines that were sigils, creating an intricate, beautiful knot around himself, like a wreath of swirls hovering around him in the air. And as the stag galloped past, with a flick of his wrist he sent the golden knot around its mighty neck, and pulled.
The stag reared and resisted, and Rasmus groaned, pulling on his wand, hissing the binding spell over and over, putting more and more effort into it, to force the charm under his command even as Harry was still casting it.
The atmosphere crackled, and thunder was heard as the stag was gradually pulled, dragging and bucking and rearing, to the cauldron, until Rasmus forced it to hover over the teal potion, and pushed it down into it. The stag dissolved into bright light, until the potion absorbed it, gradually shifting tint to a bright, optimistic orange as it swirled by itself, without anyone stirring it.
Harry stopped the spell, gasping. He was surprised how much effort and energy was taken from him in this spell- almost frightened that part of him was torn off, and absorbed in the swirling orange concoction. Rasmus' eyes were gleaming with the gold tint of the Sigil he had used-
And then Hermione and Ron were casting.
They chanted heavy, dark words, and the light itself seemed to dim in the room where they were making the potion- if it was a potion at all, and not just liquid power.
In tandem, Hermione and Rom made violent, circling movements with their wands over their heads, and their voices sounded harsh as they kept intoning: perdere animam sanguinis conterat! perdere animam sanguinis conterat! perdere animam sanguinis conterat!
Harry almost couldn't bear to hear them, for it felt like his own heartbeat could shatter to that cadence- the crackling energy snaked around both Hermione's and Ron's wands like sinister blue lightning, licking at their knuckles and arching over the cauldron to connect the two tips. It was clear that it was agony to wait, to hold the spell between them and wait while Rasmus recreated the same sigil, made with painstaking care by Snape's son, and as fast as he could dare create it.
But then, it was ready, and at one go, Hermione and Ron unleashed the curse towards the cauldron, and the golden net of binding magic Rasmus had spread over its surface.
It smashed through, it seemed, and the potion reared, while the cauldron turned red with the heat, threatening to melt as it shot upwards. Rasmus yelped, grasping onto his wand, not daring to let go and break the sigil.
Harry and Hermione cast to hold him down, each by one ankle, and that gave Rasmus the chance to bolster his control over the sigil, and complete the binding, bringing the curse into containment, until that too, was absorbed by the potion, and the cauldron returned to its original golden colour as it landed softly back on its base.
The potion turned a steamy colour of black-red lava and finally stopped swirling. Rasmus' Blood Breaking potion, as he had named it, was done.
Everyone looked at each other, as the magic still made the air electric around them. Everyone was panting. But Rasmus grinned as he looked at them all and said,
"Don't tell me this wasn't bloody awesome."
/
Meanwhile, Nikos and Headmistress McGonagall looked upon the charmed box. Nikos had, very much like his nephew, cast extra shields and charms so that upon opening the box, Isis wouldn't immediately detect that the Key of Wind had been found. Nikos wanted to reveal that in his own good time and place.
Now, they stood, with the silver box on her desk and all the portraits looking on with interest. Salazar had given the unlocking charms- mercifully not in parseltongue. So Nikos looked at Minerva with that casual smile of his and said:
"Well then, Headmistress. Shall we open it? I always wanted to see what the Key of Wind looks like."
"I do believe it's what we're here to do, Professor Galanos," Minerva said primly, and then together they swished their wands for the charms to unlock.
The silver box opened smoothly, and from inside lifted a small dagger- only it was no dagger, because it immediately enlarged to its proper size: a magnificent, sleek, silvery leaf-shaped sword with a hilt shaped like four wings- two to form the guards, spreading gloriously, and two folded over the base of the blade to protect and secure it.
Minerva breathed in.
"Merlin! This is the Fragarach! The Sword of Winds. Oh, I imagine Salazar would have been only too glad to have this one to keep."
"It is beautiful," Nikos intoned, admiring it as it hovered between them, beckoning either of the two to take it. But neither the witch nor the wizard touched it. It would be foolish to do within a closed space, and risk all of the winds to be unleashed within it.
Minerva was the first one to break the trance of awe they both seemed to have entered, by clearing her throat.
"Well, Professor Galanos… I think it's time it went back in the box, and in your care as Pythagorian."
Nikos glanced at her, and nodded.
"Of course, you're right, you're right."
When the sword was shrunk back in the box, and the box sealed again, Nikos looked at the Headmistress with sadness.
"I will need to break my contract," he said softly. Minerva nodded.
"I understand. Defeating Isis takes precedent. Though I was hoping that you would stay, and teach our youth. We rarely have remarkable wizards in the Defense Against the Dark Arts position- and lately, all the good ones perish."
Nikos smiled a little rackishly.
"I've no intention of perishing, I can promise you that."
Minerva picked up the silver box, and put it in Nikos' hands.
"I'd feel more at ease if you promised me that you'd return to your godson in one piece, Professor."
But to that, Nikos made no promise.
And that's that for chapter 44. Things are set up- and we have about 4 chapters to go. I have made a promise to myself that I'll finish them before Christmas, or on Christmas Day at the latest. So stick around for the end of the ride!
Also, thanks to everyone asking over the years that I finish this. Here I am finishing it after all this time.