Shadows of Conquest
Summary: Hidden in the texts of the Millennium Tome is a Ritual which looks like it could end Voldemort once and for all.
Chapter Five
The day before the ritual was hectic, everyone was stressed. They only had one chance performing the ceremony, at least with Harry and Hermione. If they made a mistake, they would have to find another pair willing and able to perform the ritual or find a different method for removing the Horcrux from Harry and Amane. The likes of Seto, Ishizu, Hermione, Severus and Remus hadn't stopped looking even once they had decided on this particular ritual. All of them were heavy readers and researchers, they wouldn't leave any academic path unexplored even while preparing for the ritual. They gathered the materials needed and brought them into the school. They practiced the incarnations in small groups, they couldn't fully practice together due to the risk of setting off the full ritual before the planned date. They made alterations to incorporate two different times of magic that had never been tested together before. Many discussions were held to discuss if what they were planning to do with mixing magic was even viable. The day of the ritual had arrived before they knew it.
The students stared in wonder as Severus Snape walked through the halls in pure white robes, towards the Chamber of Secrets.
"Is that really Professor Snape?" The students whispered. "Has hell frozen over? I never thought I'd see the day where Snape would wear white." They'd mutter. "Is everyone going to die?" Other's panicked.
Harry couldn't stop giggling whenever he saw Severus in the pure white robes. The comments from the students didn't help his fits of giggles.
"You don't look like you in those robes," Harry told his former potions teacher. "It was just like the first time I saw you in muggle clothes all over again."
Hermione was incredibly nervous. She didn't even scold Harry for his comments about Snape's clothes. She fidgeted as she followed her husband and teacher to the chamber. They were the last three to arrive. The first thing they noticed was Ryou sitting with his sister, stroking his fingers through her hair as she slept. Amane had been put to sleep with a potion. They'd decided that was the easiest course of action with her child like mind, to prevent her from wandering from the spot she needed to be in. They also didn't know if the removal of the foreign soul from her body would be painful, and if things went wrong, it was just better that she was asleep.
"Everything is going to turn out okay." Yugi was comforting Ryou. "Amane is going to be fine. You'll see."
Ryou gave his friend a weak smile.
The clothing the wizards wore for their section of ritual to work correctly needed to be white. Only the colour of the clothing had been indicated and was required for the ritual to work. An actual style wasn't indicated or needed. Despite this, the wizards all chose to wear robes of the same design.
The shadow mages, on the other hand, needed to wear the colour represented their magic nature. Seto had gone for white dress pants, white skivvy and a white overcoat since it was rather cool representing his magical nature being light. Amane, who's magic nature, was also light was wearing a white summer dress with a white camisole. Ishizu wore the outfit she wore during Battle City. Representing dark magical nature was Ryou, who was wearing a black button up shirt and black cargo pants and Yugi, who wore his normal leather pants and tank top both representing.
Fleur was giving last minute advice to Hermione. Ryou kissed his sisters forehead as he stood in place.
"Everyone, it is time to stand in place," Remus advised. He was the one who'd been keeping an eye on the time.
The runes had been set. The Horcruxes placed around the room. The four shadow mages and the four wizards stood in different corners of the room. Making two large squares. The shadow mages making one square. The wizards making the other. The overall shape an eight pointed star.
"We can't actually see what you two are doing." Fleur reminded Hermione. "We will be here. The ritual is going to go well. You have nothing to be embarrassed about, what happens here does not leave this room."
Hermione gulped and nodded, Harry was frozen on the spot. Remus gave him a reassuring smile.
They couldn't hear anything from the school outside the Chamber, but at the present moment, the Halloween feast had begun. That was also their sign to start the ritual. Students were in the hall so should be far away from the feast as possible. The rowdiness of the feast should also cover over the strong magic they would be performing that night. If everything went as they hoped no one in the school would know that a powerful ritual was taking place to defeat the Dark Lord feared so much.
The new priests began the ritual. Severus at the top of the wizards square. Fleur to his right, Bill to his left and Remus opposite to him. Seto was the top of the Shadow mages square. Opposite to him was Ishizu. Yugi to his right and Ryou his left. The all began chanting.
Harry and Hermione entered the centre of the room where they couldn't be seen by their friends performing the ritual.
"You both remember what point to start? Ishizu confirmed while everyone else continued chanting.
"Yes," Hermione replied with a shaky voice, trying to be strong, despite how nervous she was.
She repeated back the what point of the chants that she and Harry were to consummate their marriage.
With a nod from Hermione, Ishizu joined everyone in the chanting. The ancient spirits were also chanting though only seen by those who used Shadow Magic. The Shadow mages chanting in the ancient dialect still spoken by the Tomb Keepers clan and the wizards chanting in Latin.
They had chanted for a long hour before anything began to happen. Slowly the room was covered in a purple haze. The shadow realm proceeded to decent upon them, spitting out several fragmented pieces. Those pieces joined into one larger golden ball of light directly above Harry and Hermione.
The objects around the room shone a bright golden colour, the golden light leaving the items and joining the golden ball in the centre of the room. Finally, Amane began to shine brightly. From her left a golden light which also entered the golden ball. The golden light shone brightly, blinding them all for several moments. Slowly the golden light lowered towards Harry and Hermione's position.
The chanting changed and the light shone for several more moments before slowly disappearing. The continued the chanting. Another flash of light was seen, only a short burst. They had been successful. Harry and Hermione didn't emerge until the chanting changed. The small group continued chanting for several more minutes, completing the ritual to ensure a safe pregnancy for Hermione and a healthy baby with a soul.
"It worked." Hermione grinned once the chanting had stopped and the ritual had been released. Both Harry and Hermione looked slightly embarrassed.
Everyone else looked worse for wear, they'd drained a lot of magic performing the ritual.
Ryou ran to his sister while Ishizu and Fleur checked over Hermione and Harry. Amane was already awake by the time Ryou reached her.
"Ryou." She hugged her brother. Her voice didn't have the childish ring to it that it had before.
Seto and Set both slightly missed the childish ring they'd come accustomed to the past year and a half.
"How are you feeling?" Ryou asked.
"Like the fog had lifted and I can see and hear clearly for the first time in a long time," She replied. "I'm really tired."
"Let's get you out of here." Ryou helped his sister stand.
Seto and Yugi followed the Bakura siblings out of the chamber. There part was done and Seto needed to get back to work. Yugi wanted to return to his friends. They had lives to go back to which didn't involve modern magic.
KC
Ishizu, Flure and Severus stayed to check over Hermione. Confirming they could sense the Dark Lords soul. That the soul had been purified, and Hermione and Harry's overall health was better than before.
"You did well Harry," Remus told the young man he considered a son or nephew.
"Thanks, Remus. It's still embarrassing to know that all these people were in the room while Hermione and I..."
"And what happened here today will stay between the people who set up for the ritual, the ones who performed the ritual, Ron and Hermione's parents. No one else will ever know unless you two tell them."
"You forgot that Draco also knows." Harry pointed out.
"And Draco has grown up a lot since your school rivalry days." Severus pointed out. "He won't tell anyone either.
"You're both in good health, as is the child," Severus confirmed. He had the most extensive medical training out of the entire group. "I'll continue to monitor you and the child to confirm there are no ill effects. As far as we are aware this is the first time, the ritual has been performed since the times of Ancient Egyptian dynasties. Now let's go tell the wizardry world you two defeated the Dark Lord."
"Won't people put two and two together about the baby?" Hermione asked.
"It's a celebration baby. We had a lot of those after Lily and James defeated Voldemort. No one will question it too much. You will probably find many couples having babies in nine months time." Severus told the soon to be parents.