So I didn't manage to finish this before 2015. I'm going to, today. Happy New Year everyone, by the way.
Chapter 48.
/ /
Rasmus let the golden vial drop from his cramped fingers, that remained clenched like hooks around nothing but air, as his eyes widened, round as saucers, his pupils dilating almost all the way while the whites turned dark, dark red.
"What are you waiting for, now, NOW!" Harry yelled, his voice saturated with the fear and horror.
As Rasmus groaned and arched, yet uncannily didn't topple or fall on his knees, as if some unseen power was holding him upright for the entirety of this torture, Harry, Ron and Hermione swiftly signed the Sigils with their wands, starting to chant the spells necessary. Ron and Hermione were flanking Rasmus just outside the circle they had inscribed on the floor of the Room of Requirement, and Harry exactly in front of Rasmus, not daring break eye contact with the struggling teen.
It was hell.
Rasmus was sure that his blood was boiling as his entire organism rebelled at the aggressive, destructive power of the Blood Breaking potion. As the whites of his eyes filled with blood, his vision started blurring and he desperately wanted to shut his eyes to cool them from the feeling of hot coals against his retinas that the air in the room had become- but he couldn't and his eyelids remained mercilessly open.
He was sure he was yelling, the pain was so unbearable, but he couldn't hear anything. In his ears there smashed the waves of the angriest sea, as if Poseidon himself was casting his curse on him.
The older, healed slashes of the Antahiga he'd suffered by Hodd in the courtyard opened up again, and his blood oozed out, hot and almost smoking- and black.
It almost scared Hermione mute, but she managed to keep chanting as she watched, knowing that soon, Rasmus' only hope at surviving this would rest upon Harry's shoulders, and the only hope at Harry surviving, would rest on her and Ron. She couldn't afford to be frightened. She couldn't afford to be weak.
As the black, acidic blood started dripping in sinister drops like hot tar around the struggling, choking Rasmus that wanted to yell and couldn't for all the blood rebelling and breaking out of his vessels, Harry took a deep breath and pulled back his wand.
This was it. This was his chance to show Severus Snape that he would do things different now, now that he knew. This was his chance to be Snape's savior and not the other way around.
Professor, I hope you, not your portrait, can see me now.
"Tin tis psychis alethin syzefxin epikaloumae!" he inundated strongly, confidently, even though the spell was Greek and not Latin, just as he had rehearsed all day and all night before, with Snape's portrait sneering at his accent and is pronunciation the whole way, until he got it right.
He cut his path ahead with his wand that now glowed with a white brilliant essence, and stepped in the circle, in the middle of which Rasmus was arched and dying, without being able to hear, or see, or even collapse- or even breathe.
With his free hand open, he pressed it against Rasmus' chest right over his heart and chanted the same spell again and again, until his hand started drawing the black blood to it like a sponge does black ink. It crept on Harry's fingers like slime, like it had life of its own, and threatened to attack him just as lethally as it was doing Rasmus. Harry groaned.
Goodness, it burnt so much! Was this what Dumbledore felt like?
Rasmus screamed after drawing in a raspy, agonized breath, still in that frozen arched-back angle the potion was holding him bound to. It served to flinch Harry back to focus, with a small hopeful smile. It was working! It was working!
Carefully, grunting, he pulled his hand back, taking the black tar like blood that had coated it almost completely now, with- it was almost impossible to do! He could feel the flesh melting under the resistance of the black blood as he tried to separate it from Rasmus, until Harry was sure his phalanges would be exposed- but he didn't waver. He yanked back in one big heave, and backstepped out of the circle, the black blood like a poisonous kind of plastic drawing thin strands of connection between Harry's hand and Rasmus.
But as soon as Harry stepped out, the black blood hurried to burrow itself within his flesh, in a self conserving effort like that of a wounded wild beast. Harry screamed along with Rasmus now, and yelled for help.
"Ron…! Her…mione!"
/ /
Osiris tumbled off the bed and rose on his feet with a bellow "THIS!... HOW DARE YOU, KHEFA!" as the blood on his pendant, the very blood he had stolen from Rasmus twice, started turning black, like steaming tar.
Isis hurried over, knowing what was going on. "Aello's spawn is trying to break up the bond!" her beautiful face contorted in a hideous expression of pure hate as she gripped Osiris' pendant in her hands and her eyes turned yellow and slitted like the Cobra's.
She chanted, and chanted, as Osiris stayed still, his eyes haunted by the gates of hell hinting their hunger of receiving him, entrapping him, forever. If the pendant broke, and then he perished, it would be forever.
Isis' voice became throaty and serpentine as she switched to parseltongue, and finally the pendant seemed to stall. She stayed there, grasping it for a few paces before her eyes shifted back to normal and she said:
"We have no time. We must go to Hogwarts, and stop the Blood Breaking Ritual."
/ /
Nikos followed the Director, Eleni, to the Sacred Spring.
It was deep in the bowels of the Rock of the Acropolis, far below and actually feeding the one that the non wizarding Greeks had known since the Mycenaean times and named Empedo after the nymph their fable said bathed there. The Sacred Spring was the core of magic on which the entire Athenian School of Magick based itself- and whenever strong magic took place, the waters from Empedo receded and disappeared, giving the non-wizarding Greeks their own taste of magic, making them worship there for that purpose, certain of their brush with their gods in ancient times, and other superstitions later on.
Magic was strongest, if performed by or in the Sacred Spring- and therefore Eleni was right to want to perform the ritual there… but in the same time there was risk, because the Spring would strengthen the Prime Wizards they would be setting up the trap for.
So as they exited the back of the Hypate House, towards the river Adeline had seen just hints of, with Eleni carrying a silver box with the Keys they possessed in hand, Nikos voiced his worry. Eleni smiled placidly at him.
"They will be stronger, but so will you; and you have always been stronger than them with your Knot spells and Sigils, Nikos. They have never bested my Auguror."
Nikos frowned, though the praise did make him smile a little.
"Eleni… why is Isis still alive?" he asked gently. Eleni's eyebrow twitched.
"You didn't cast your charts over that?" she said a little more rigidly.
"I never had enough time to do, or a secure enough place," Nikos looked at the dark blue waters of the narrow river. They would follow it upstream, to the Sacred Spring. Already, he could feel the rush of invigoration coursing through his veins far more than any potion Erna Frideswide had given him.
"Well… when this is over, she won't have any more or a reprieve," Eleni asserted with a frown, and Nikos didn't press her further. It wouldn't do to dwell on a failure when they were going to battle.
/ /
"It is time. They're here! Go. NOW!" Severus yelled at Erna, slamming his hands against the canvas like that would attract her attention faster. Erna startled, falling off the chair at her office, where she had fallen asleep practicing the sigils.
"N-Now!? I… now? Where's m'wand… m'coffee…" she adlibbed as she picked herself up, and fumbled for her glasses in a daze.
"Accio them all, you incompetent excuse of a witch! You have no time, they are almost out of the Chamber!" Severus seethed helplessly, needing to wait for her to do what he clearly thought he would do better and faster.
The sleep receding though, Erna summoned her wand and ran out, without even pausing to give Severus a tongue lashing of her own. Rasmus' life was at stake here, and possibly all of the wizarding world's.
She ran to the ancient corridor that was the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets, and which the Prime Wizards had used before and quickly, her wand hand wavering for only a moment, she started performing the Sigil spell that Nikos had left for her in his notebook of Sigils. As the golden thread of the spell started tracing itself to the path of her wand through the air, she sent a little prayer. Please, let this work.
/ /
This time, Isis had no time to savour the murmur of the earth and stone as she made it part for her, leading the way with Osiris in tow. His stitches were beginning to show signs of coming apart, though her counter attack through the yet-active blood bond had stalled the process Rasmus had begun somewhat.
But she knew it wouldn't hold forever. They had only minutes, maybe less, to go where the Bond Breaking was happening and stop it.
"Now, Ausar, you must prove yourself. The moment the Chamber lets us in the castle, nobody must be able to stand in your way. Kill them, and feed on them until the blood bond is secure again," she ordered once more.
"With pleasure, my Usat," Osiris asserted. He was feeling the cold fingers of death clutching at his innards. He was decided not to let himself be taken at any cost.
But when they entered the ancient corridor, there was nobody there, as Isis would have expected, now that the entrance wasn't secret. No guards, no wards. Nothing. It should be expected from decadent wizardlings, she thought as she sneered.
"Let us hurry, Usat," Osiris said in a deep raspy voice.
"Come," Isis said, and, golden sheaths on her fingers, made the mistake of running.
Up to then invisible, the Sigils grabbed at her like an unseen net, and as she ran through, stole a part of her energy, a part of her vitality- and so did from Osiris as well.
"What…! That khefa left for Greece! He can't be here," she growled as she wordlessly cast against the Sigil- it broke more easily than any of Nikos' ever had. The caster wasn't as experienced… but Isis knew they were going to have to either crawl through a minefield at snail speed, and lose the Blood Bond, or rush through it, and pay for it in energy.
"Now, Usat! We don't need full strength to beat anyone here!" he urged, and brushing past Isis, he started running, his lapis lazuli wand out, ready to kill. He didn't care about the Sigils that weakened him as he run through them again and again, more and more. He'd feed on the whole of Hogwarts if he had to- after securing his Anchor to this life.
/ /
It was worse than Crucio. Harry had never felt this kind of pain, this kind of invasion ever before in his life- and he had never felt this kind of fear that he did now as the tar like blood burrowed hungrily under his skin, looking for his arteries, making the flesh ripple and shiver and heave so much that Harry almost turned his wand on himself to sever his own arm. But he knew he shouldn't, even through the fogginess of the fear and torture. He knew he had to endure this harder type of death that wasn't quick and clean like Avada Kedavra, but slow and messy and terrible, if Rasmus were to live free.
Hermione would save him.
"Aaaaauuugh RON! HERMIONE! HELP ME, HELP!" he cried out, just as strongly as Rasmus was screaming with undoubtedly the same kind of pain.
Ron's forehead and temples were wet with sweat, his red hair clamped to his face as he looked at Hermione helplessly, not daring to stop chanting, and yet pleading at her with his eyes to answer Harry's plea.
But Hermione was shaking her head, even as she was crying, continuing the chant. It's not yet time.
The tarlike blood kept leaving Rasmus' body under the pressure of the cleansing and protective spell Ron and Hermione were casting in the circle, now that the Blood Breaking potion had severed it from what was flesh of Galanos, not only flesh of Snape, seeking to hurry into a new host, and serve its master from within a powerful body that wasn't under the crippling power of the potion Rasmus had consumed.
And though Harry was begging for release, because the pain was so great, and because the fear of death this time was far harder to grapple with, Hermione knew that he would never forgive her if she turned her wand to him too soon. And so together with Ron's pleading desperate glance she endured watching this torture of her best friend, until the tarlike black blood left the circle altogether, and Rasmus collapsed on the ground, finally silent.
"NOW!" Hermione yelled as Harry's body arched in the was Rasmus' had, and his own pleadings stopped as the blood bond was starting to happen in his veins. God, not again. Don't let me be an anchor for evil again, kill me first.
"Malum Eliciunt Comminuet Autemus!"
Ron and Hermione pointed their wands with an aggressive swish and stab at Harry at the same time, and twin dark blue lightning bolts sprung from the tips, hitting Harry right in the chest, throwing him off his feet and jarring him from the arched pose.
He landed on his back unceremoniously like a sack of potatoes… and around him seeping through his skin, oozed the tarlike blood, still steaming, but slower, and like a regular viscous liquid.
It formed a pool of blackness around the still form of Harry, and Ron said with deep disgust and hatred in his voice:
"Let's finish it."
"Let's," Hermione agreed, and together, they chanted the curse once again- and the lightning bolts hit the puddle this time.
It froze, its blackness dulling, its steam quenching. Then it shattered angrily into innumerable tiny fragments, and was gone.
The blood bond that had endured for centuries upon centuries, was no more.
/ /
Osiris yelled a great big cry, falling on his knees as they ran. He had to steady himself on his hands as he panted, and his skin started to look dehydrated.
Isis stopped and turned to look at him, her eyes alive with anger and frustration, her hands balled into fists.
"It has happened," she stated. Her voice was filled with disdain. How could he be so weak already?
"Usat…" he pleaded. "I need… to feed."
"Then hunt," Isis said, her beautiful mouth pressed into a thin line. "There are bigger things at stake here than just you."
"But… you know my time is running out now, I'll die! Your Ausar will die… help me feed, and I will serve you," Osiris looked up at her.
Isis sneered.
"Then die, if you can't find it in you to live," she said. "I have wasted enough time on you. Isis will not be bogged down by a corpse…"
"You love me," a spark of anger lit up Osiris' quickly fading eyes.
"I love the god of death… not the one that threatens to lose me the absolute power over the world." Isis turned to walk back towards the Chamber of Secrets, leaving Osiris where he was in the edge of the corridor.
"You… will not fool ME!" Osiris roared, and gathering up the last of his strength, turned to attack Isis as she was retreating.
But he had never been a match for her, even during his strength.
Isis turned around almost lazily, and spoke a soft word as her gold-sheathed fingers weaved the air, and Osiris' wand broke in two. Isis approached then, her eyes turning serpentine again as she said,
"Just for that… I will take back the energy I invested on you."
Osiris' cries were heard throughout Hogwarts… but only for a little while.
And in their portraits, Salazar Slytherin and Severus Snape smugly smiled.
/ /
The Sacred Spring was stunningly beautiful. The water-licked cave was smooth and glistening with moisture, and with a magical light that seemed to come from everywhere, as the crystal clear, and icy cold water sprung merrily and chuckled and rolled down the rock in its narrow groove, towards the river.
There was a marble semi circle there, reserved for the most powerful, most ancient or most dangerous of magic feats and attempts. Eleni unclasped her tunic, letting it drop at the entrance to the cave, and entered respectfully, carrying the silver box with the keys. Nikos followed her in the same manner.
"I will take down the ward enough for them to break it," she said. "And then, we shall begin. When the Keys are activated, you bring forth the Key of Wind, so that we will be ready when Isis and Osiris arrive."
"Yes, Eleni," Nikos said with a smile. Being in this place always invigorated and soothed him. It would be all right. Everything was positive and powerful in here. It would serve them well.
The Director swished her wand accordingly, and Nikos felt the wards around the spring falter just enough. His heart skipped beats. Then she opened the silver box and took out the Omphalos first. The large egg shaped stone glistened a deep marble green within its golden net- it was the main Key to holding together the strongest artifact ever created.
Eleni placed it on the semi circle, then with her wand moving in soft weaving movements, the golden net activated and glowed, sending powerful waves of magic in rapid concentric circles. Nikos felt the Key of Wind against his chest warm up rapidly, answering the call of the Omphalos.
"Get ready…" Eleni said as she took out the Key of Fire next- a dark red stone that flew out of her hand the moment she waved her wand towards it, and orbited around the Omphalos, igniting into a fireball in the process, and making the magic waves even stronger, and the rush Nikos was feeling irresistible.
He reached behind his neck and undid the chain- and he didn't need to transfigure the Key back in its original form. It did so spontaneously by itself, the sword growing at its normal size and flying to hover over the Omphalos, spinning around its own axis-
The Greek wizards stood then, side by side, wands at the ready, waiting for Isis to come, waiting for her to bring the remaining Keys with her, and so that they would be able to destroy her and the weapon in one go.
They didn't need to wait long.
Minutes only passed before the ward was down, and Isis apparated in the cave of the Secret Spring.
Nikos shot his strongest curse at her, but Isis deflected it, as the remaining keys flew from her ornate chest and head pieces, transfiguring themselves to their normal shapes- a wide ring of jade that hovered around the Omphalos, Sword and Fireball, representing Earth's element, and a diamond that turned into an orb of water, encasing it all- and as the Sword was spinning, they looked to be assembling more, being absorbed in its blade, to form the ultimate weapon.
"Cursed khefa! " Isis swore at him over the din of the transformations, "you cost me my Usat! I will cull you!"
But Nikos didn't respond- instead he used the time she was cursing at him, to throw a strong binding spell. He knew that Isis would break it, but it would buy them time.
"Now, Eleni! Destroy the weapon first!" he said hurriedly, and Eleni nodded, drawing back her wand together with him. Nikos breathed in to say the words, but he never managed- Eleni's curse caught him completely off guard and threw him right against the Spring, dazing him.
"You idiot! Only YOU will be destroyed!" Eleni snarled as she cast a counter spell to let Isis out of the Knot spell.
Nikos' horror and surprise was so intense, he didn't feel any pain from the curse or the impact. His mind reeled. How could this be possible? She was Rasmus' godmother. She was the trusted one. She was—feel it later. React now.
His sister's voice in his head propelled him into motion, even as his eyes were smarting in angry tears of betrayal, and summoning the strongest destruction spell he knew, he cast it at the weapon, making the Keys disconnect, scattering all around the cave.
Isis growled.
"You dare to face your death!"
Her golden sheathed fingers shot forward as her serpentine eyes looked at the Sword, and it careened with deadly speed towards Nikos.
He stood no chance.
It sank into the Auguror to the hilt, running him throw and the propulsion from the force of Isis' spell and ire yanked him off his feet again, pinning him against the Spring. Nikos dropped his wand with a weak groan, and his fingers shakily gripped at the hilt of the sword that was pinning him on the cave's stone.
Eleni bowed to Isis.
"Everything was done to your bidding, goddess. Your High Priestess awaits your praise."
/ /
And that ends the story.
What?
Oh, I did mention there was a wrap-up chapter coming up too, didn't I? So you have that to look forward to :)
Duj: she is, but tantalizingly away from the action just yet.
Fifiotoole: thank you!
Jake Crepeau: Here's a long chapter for you then! Glad you are enjoying this.
Guest: Thank you very much! One Epilogue left to write. And I call it "epilogue" because there isn't any plot to be resolved anymore, all the answers have been given. We just see what ends up happening/having happened to everyone ;)