19 November, 2017
09:32 PM
Disclaimer: I own NOTHING.
AN: I want to give special thanks to those reviewers who always encourage me and give me hope that I'm not entirely awful at writing. That said I hope everyone enjoys this chapter. I hav000000000000000000e been having problems with my muse and once again apologies for how slow this has started to go.
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Necromancy is truly an interesting and multifaceted subject. Before trying any form of Necromancy the practitioner should have mid level Occlumancy shields to both protect your mind and to maintain a clear focus. Necromancy deals with both the body and the soul, more importantly how they interacted with each other. To summon ghost, ghouls, and souls from the beyond, your own soul must first be whole. Secondly it must be pure. Third one's soul must be protected. There was always a chance if you were exorcising a spirit or if you summoned one particularly strong, they might fight you and attempt to take over your own body. I say attempt because if you've followed steps one through three that shouldn't be able to happen regardless of the practitioner screwing up any later steps.
Dealing with the perversion of bodies on the other hand will taint your own body and soul. That means every time you make an Inferius you the practitioner are infecting yourself with a virus that causes among other things, insanity, shortened life spans, and death. To prevent that you must follow steps one through three before you work on bodies, and most importantly after you have worked on them. Just slightly out of order when you are doing it after your work. You should start then with step two, making sure your body is pure. There are several purification rituals that can be done, none of which will purify both body and soul. It is therefor recommended that the practitioner use a chain of purification rituals switching quickly between those to clean your soul than body than back again for good measure. Afterward you should check on your soul to make sure it is still whole and holey yours. That is to say that nothing has attached itself to you. Once you are sure your soul is healthy the third can than be followed as protection spells should be renewed.
Aurora shut the book in frustration and moved onto the next. Her instructor had insinuated in class yesterday that someone in class had clearly gotten ahead of themselves already. He'd been condescending about it and she was sure he'd meant her. While she'd never practiced the craft before something about her had made a real practitioner thank otherwise. She'd searched all her school books followed every diagnostic she could find. They'd all come up clean. Wouldn't you know it, the one book in her own collection she could find that mentioned the possible problem. That something had attached itself to her, didn't tell you how to check for it or what to do about it. She'd not been this frustrated in she didn't know how long. Not even flying had helped and now she had to get ready for her dinner party.
She'd decided to have dragon steak as the main course. She had a enough dragon she could probably eat it every day for the next ten years and not run out. Grandma Mel had ordered it four times a year for these huge fancy parties she'd thrown for England's elite families. She'd changed venues and stopped inviting her own husband when he'd signed the contract for Charis. Arcturus had thought she'd canceled them and since she'd never invited her daughter in law in the first place no one had thought to tell him otherwise.
So when Melania had passed away no one had realized they'd needed to cancel her standing order. The company had her file as Black Family rather than just her name so they'd kept sending the dragon meat because no one had told them not too. The accountants were used to the charge and no one had told them to stop paying it so they didn't. The result being that up until the house-elf had told Aurora and Aurora told Orion they'd been receiving large shipments of dragon meat four times a year with nobody using it for the last twenty two years. When she'd told Maggie the girl had laughed herself silly. She'd told her if worst came to worst they could start their own food stall and just sell off all food that she'd liberated from Grimauld Place.
For her dinner she'd had Winky help her prepare exotic fruit salads to start off with served with sweet bread rolls. Sweet potato casserole, pickled veggies including onions (Aurora's favorite) which tasted fantastic on the dragon meat were being served as sides. She'd made a double chocolate with caramel sauce cheesecake for after's. In addition to Juice and water, She'd dug out some vintage low alcohol content red wine. So it tasted great, but no one was going to get drunk on it.
Dinner was slightly awkward at first, Aurora answered the door and welcomed everyone as they showed up. Letting them in and inviting them to sit where they liked until everyone had arrived. Introducing everyone once they were all there. Draco came alone as did Caellum, everyone else at least brought a friend. Aurora invited Seraphina who shared many of her classes. They'd started talking in Charms theory one day and got along quite well. Arcturus brought his current girlfriend Alana. Virgo brought hers, Sakura. Caster and Leo each brought their best male friends Matt and Alex. Libra brought her favorite gossip buddy, Hailey. Maggie had met a boy were-bear named Skyler, who she'd made friends with enough to invite over.
She got several compliments on her décor and Sakura spotted the Kneazles, which led to everyone trying to coax them into the open to pet them. Only Caster actually managed to temp one of the kittens to him. He was quite proud of himself until he realized it was using him as a scratch post and didn't know how to get it to stop. Once every one had stopped laughing at his predicament; Aurora grabbed up the kitten and scratched his head until she reached the kitty door, where she deposited the little fluff ball.
She led the way to the dinning room using a wandless charm she opened the door for them all. The huge Windsor table already set up for everyone. There were no prearranged seating everyone just sat where they wanted, and started talking. Winky served the food unseen of course.
"So how exactly did you persuade your parents to buy you a nine-tailed Kneazle?" Seraphina asked, her voice curious but not unkind.
"I didn't" Aurora told her. Orion always said the best lie had a grain of truth. "I was walking behind one of our properties and heard the most awful noises." She paused for effect "Of course Uncle Orion always did say I was too nosey for my own good" She let them laugh a little "Too my absolute shock I found a bunch of caged animals and a man." Her audience gasped "I couldn't just leave the poor souls there so I let all the animals go. The kittens were too small to survive on their own I brought them home with me. My Aithon followed as well instead of leaving so I patched him up and did all the paper work for them."
"Kittens?" Hailey asked "How many did you find?"
"Nine." Aurora told her stunned audience "Two bonded with Maggie over here, and the other seven decided they liked me enough to keep me."
"Oh, Wow!" Hailey gaped "I can't imagine owning that many kittens let own Kneazles."
"They are a hand full, but the little terrors have really grown on me." Aurora told her. "What about you do you have any pets?" What followed was half a one up man ship contest of 'well I own this' and half pet parents bragging on their genuinely beloved familiars.
Of course it was Draco who brought up the expensive diner. "I can't believe you've actually served dragon steak, my mother would kill me if I spent so much money on just us."
"Well technically speaking I'm not the one who spent all the money." Aurora told them with a laugh. "My mother had enough magic to get her OWL's, and not much more. My grandfather Arcturus Phineas Black the third was horrified, but my grandma didn't much care. After all mama was still a witch and there are all sorts of spells that can be done that don't require a lot of power. Every day spells I mean. Grandfather however decided he'd rather be rid of her and sold her in an auction as a concubine." Aurora preceded to tell them about her grandmother Melania's revenge.
They mostly spoke about their families after that and where they had been raised. The question of how and why Orion had gotten custody of Caellum and Aurora eventually came up. They were prepared of course and so smoothly talked out the chaos that was the war. The chaos that is the British ministries children's placement and protection program. It was notoriously awful at keeping track of the children that came through its office. Every time they had to place a child they used a spell that generated a sort of tracking charm meant to locate the three closest living relatives. Both Azkaban and the ministry holding cells had wards that would stop the spell from tracking anyone in them. The tracker was then placed on a standard 'you have a relative here' notice attached to a guardianship application form. After that they handed the kid over to the first one to fill out all the forms and pay the fees. Not that they actually kept the paperwork forms. If no one came they shipped the child off to an orphanage. Little did they know it they weren't the only ones discussing that particular topic.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o
Narcissa sat with quill in hand wondering how she should word one of the hardest letters she'd ever attempted to write. She knew she'd sworn to stay out of the war, but this wasn't fighting, this was family. When the Dark Lord had fallen back in eighty one she'd been in a reel bind. Bellatrix had openly proclaimed her support of him and Lucius had been known to have the mark. He'd immediately began to tell every one that he'd been under the imperious but he'd still been arrested and investigated. Narcissa herself despite not having the mark and being a new mom had been arrested with him, baby and all.
She hadn't trusted her sweet Draco to the ministries care, what if they lost him? So she'd screamed right in the middle of the auror offices for her house elf, and ordered it to bring Andromeda to her right away. As it happened the little idiot had done exactly as she'd ordered. It had grabbed her sister right out of the bath brought her straight there. Andi had been fighting mad, but Narcissa had all but thrown her precious dragon at her. Andi had taken Draco threatened to hex the next auror whose eyes forgot where her face was and marched out of the cubicles to the floo access and left for home.
After all no one could accuse her of having the mark now. They'd seen all places she had to hide one. Two weeks later Narcissa was released from custody and allowed to have her baby back. She'd also discovered to her recently released husbands delight that she couldn't leave the manor with out her clothes disappearing. Lucius had kept trying to get her to meet him in the rose garden, the lecher. She'd had to quill a lengthy letter of apology to her sister complete with bribe to get it to stop.
Now, she was facing a new dilemma Bellatrix was nuts, but once upon a time she'd been a loving mother, and devoted wife. The Dark Lord too had been a decent father. If not exactly loving, the man had made sure all his kids were healthy, well fed, and had all the items they'd need for a good education and toys to play. They both deserved to know that their missing children were alive. If she could tell Charis she would but her aunt had locked herself away behind a fidelius and told no one not even family how to contact her. No matter what they had become now, those kids still had parents that Narcissa could contact. So she penned three letters, To Rodolphus, Bellatrix, and to Lord Voldemort. Though the last two were probably together. Narcissa stomach twisted in knots at the betrayal they were both committing, Rodolphus and Charis deserved better. She wrote everything she knew and everything she suspected, than sent off all three copies.
O0O0O0O0O0O0O0O
Bellatrix moved out of bed feeling pleasantly sore, her Lord had been in a good mood recently. Dumbledore had been in trouble with the Ministry and the ICW, both of whom were scrambling unable to deal with both Dumbledore's sycophants and the Dark Lord Voldemort's own men. Both, Potter and Longbottom had disappeared, though at first they had expected Dumbledore had merely been hiding the boys from them; it later became apparent that something else was going on. Her sisters great eagle owl was taping on the window and Bella let it in.
She hoped Narcissa had something good to say her insubordination lately had made their lord angry. She should have just complied, now she'd be punished and the Dark Lord would have to make an example of her. Maybe if she was begging for forgiveness or had vital information or both, he might be able to go easy on her. With those thoughts in mind she picked up the letters. She rose her eyebrow at finding one addressed to her husband. She pulled on her robe and moved out. She found Both her husband and the Dark Lord in the den talking about plans to neutralize the Auror force. She handed over their letters before opening hers. The men kept talking setting aside the letters for now.
Bella unfolded hers and began to read. Each word came more confusing than the last Bella reread the letter a second time, than a third, and a fourth. She didn't realize she was making any noise but she clearly was because now everyone was gathered around her asking what was wrong. She looked up through tear filled eyes to her husband and pointed to his letter. He and the Dark Lord both opened their own and began to read. Rodolphus began to laugh and cry.
"Is she sure?" He asked hoarsely "She's really found him? Our son is alive?"
"She had better be sure." Their Lord yelled, before storming out of the room. He locked himself up in his study for the rest of the night.
Tom Riddle poured himself a glass of scotch as he contemplated the news his niece by marriage Narcissa Malfoy had just sent him. His beautiful Charis had been a true if unexpected joy. She'd been so smart and fiery and loyal, all things he had not expected from a concubine. He'd taught her magic and rituals to strengthen her core bringing her power levels much closer to the average than she'd ever imagined she could be. He had enjoyed her spirit, and dedication to bettering herself. She'd shared his goals and dreams and than she'd given him the most amazing gift ever. Charis had birthed him an amazing baby boy. He'd not known what to do with a child let alone expected to love him so much.
He'd been little and pink and looked so much like him. Charis had been in an accident that caused a miscarriage eight months later when they hadn't even known she was pregnant. It had been heartbreaking for the both of them and he'd held her while she'd cried. However life moved on and so had they. They had had a second son followed quickly, just nine months and two weeks later, by a little girl. Irish twins he thought they called it. If he thought his sons had stolen his heart and captivated him it was nothing compared to his very first and only girl. She was sweet and so much easier to deal with than her mischievous brothers. Little Aurora had slept through the night after the first week, she'd rarely cried. Had always been so happy to be held laying her little head on his shoulder and breathing into his neck.
He'd adored his children, done everything he could to protect them only his oldest most devoted followers, friends and her family had known about his marriage to Charis and the children she had lovingly given him. Then his little family had been shattered. Charis had gone to their niece Bellatrix and aurors had attacked. It had made no sense, neither of the Lestranges had followed him at that time. Supported yes but they weren't donating him money or fighting for him. The aurors had taken the children and attacked both women. Charis had been traumatized by what she'd witnessed and had begged him to find their daughter. He'd tried and failed. Failed his sweet little child.
He'd thought her dead or forever lost to him until tonight. Narcissa had better be right about this, not that he would kill one of Charis's nieces she loved all three of them so. He'd never allowed anyone to harm Andromeda despite her defiance because of her connection to his family, likewise he'd tried not to kill Sirius. That did not mean however that he wouldn't torture her until she wished he'd killed her if she was wrong. He finished his bottle of scotch and quilled a letter to Narcissa in response demanding her memory of his child. He would not send word to Charis until he was sure it was really her. No need to raise his wife's hopes only to see them crushed later.
O0O0O0O0O00O0
Aurora should have known that her family would realize something was wrong with her. As soon they were alone both Caellum and Maggie had confronted her. She had finally confided her problem, only for Caellum to immediately give her the next steps she needed to take.
"You know, we have library cards to the biggest library in the known world." Caellum told her. "They are bound to have something on souls, and bits that can be attached to it. I'm sure we can look it up. After all most of your papers on healing focused on the soul. No one would think it weird if you were researching in that area."
They had gone to the library the next free moment they had. The Library of Alexandrea was a seven story monstrosity. It had been expanded several times in its life and had four sub basements below the main basement. It was sorted first by the century it was released than by category. They had to go down three basement levels to get to a 'recent' time frame. Eight corridors later they finally found soul magic in a dusty rarely used part of the Library. It had taken them three hours to search that entire section before Aurora found something that might be of use to her. It would scan her body for soul particles giving herself a reading of her own soul and anything that might be attached to her that shouldn't be. She copied down the required parts and moved on to see if the others had found anything useful. Caellum had found a reference about moving or removing soul pieces in one of the books. It pointed them to a book written in two hundred B.C. They had climbed up all of those stairs to level four. Had to take a break to rest and grab a drink before any of them collapsed. How on earth did the mastery students in the Musaeum do this everyday?
It was midnight before they found the books they needed and copied down the relevant information. They all ported back to the school around one in the morning and collapsed in Aurora's rooms to sleep. The following day was Sunday thankfully none of them had any classes that day and they looked through all the information they'd found to form a plan.
They had all three of them gathered the necessary diagnostic tools that would be useful. They decided it was save to do the diagnostic ritual at any time. Aurora had immediately gone about trying it with Maggie and Caellum there to help her. While Maggie and Caellum stared at the results in confusion, Aurora was horrified. She had a horcrux in her forehead. It was in the soft tissue in her scar, but still a part of her. It was also still connect to her father. It explained the visions, the head aches, and Dumbledore's obsession with killing her.
Aurora swore Maggie and Caellum to secret and told them what she knew about the horcrux magic her father had used. They had been shocked and Caellum was very torn but in the end he agreed he would help her with out endangering the soul piece.
Aurora had the first Race of the season coming up and Samhain the magical new year also known as Halloween to the muggles was fast approaching. Magical's began celebrating on the twenty ninth and continued onto the first of November. Parades, magical rituals, and group celebrations were not only common but rampant during this time. Her contract with D' Lancret racing required her to make an appearance for the public party they were hosting. To take pictures with some of the fans at certain games. After which she would be free to either go home or party with the rest so long as she did nothing to damage her pristine reputation.
On the twenty ninth the dark lord's daughter gathered with her closest friends and the three of them began the rituals and spells needed to pull the horcrux out of her scar and place it in a small loose emerald she had found in jewelry box. She would than place the stone into the setting of a plain bracelet she had picked out just for this purpose. First though she had to clean her face of the make up and wax she used to cover her scar.
At three a.m. one the thirtieth they began. Aurora had never felt so much pain and discomfort in her head before it was all she could do to keep chanting the spells. Finally twenty minutes later the horcrux was pulled out of her and she panting managed to pick herself up off the floor. With difficulty, she picked herself up enough to start the next part; shoving the soul piece which had been perfectly unwilling to leave her into a gem it was perfectly unwilling to inhabit. It took all three of the to do it. Exhausted they all swore they'd never be willing to do this again and the dark idiot could clean up his own soul from now on. Who in their right mind went around leaving bits of themselves laying around for every one to find?