Chap. 25: Arrival in New Orleans, Snape in Panama, and the ritual.
Harry, Cyrus, and Gareth arrived by international portkey in New Orleans, and at MACUSA's portkey office in the Wizarding Quarter that took up five square city blocks, which were hidden between the two lanes of Basin Street and Elk Place, and ran from St. Louis Street to Tulane Avenue. It sat just northwest, and next to, the French Quarter. A magical entered the quarter by using one of several statues placed along the median strip, which was similar to how one entered the magical quarter in Paris, France. It was well hidden by many wards and the Fidelius Charm.
The three had booked a room at the Saints Hotel, an all-magical establishment, and inside the Wizarding Quarter. It was a five-star hotel that reminded one of the Ritz-Carlton building just down Canal Street, and if one walked another block southeast from the Ritz, you came to the famous Bourbon Street where they would visit.
The three had actually arrived a month early, as the New Orleans wizards had contacted Gareth and said that it would be better to do the ritual in October, as all through that month, the veil was the thinnest. Starting on the 1st of November was Bacchanalia, which was sex, drinking, and partying. Through October, though, was their Creole death and mourning days, and at the end, Samhain or All Hallows' Eve. Baron Samedi could be easier called then, and it needed to be done to send Tom's soul piece to the other side, which would be easier as well. They had also contacted a young childless African-American couple that would be participating in the rituals, which would be held at a cemetery in the woods across Lake Pontchartrain, and to the northeast at a small town called White Kitchen located in the Louisiana Bayou, which was close to Slidell. The young wife, who was just eighteen, actually worked at the Saints Hotel as a waitress.
Harry, Cyrus, and Gareth were staying on the seventh floor of the hotel in three small suites, as the hotel was nine stories in all. In the US, the ground floor was called the first floor, which was a little confusing for Harry when they entered the lift that the Americans called an elevator.
The three made their way to their room, unshrank their luggage, and then made their way back downstairs to the pub that the Yanks called the bar, which was named Louis', and they had a live jazz band appearing later that night, they found.
While sitting at a table, they were joined by a skinny African-American wizard named Jaxson Johnson, who had set most of this up.
"Well, there, Mr. Potter," Jaxson inquired, "are you ready for the 1st?"
"Yes," Harry said with a nod, and motioned toward his scar, "anything to be rid of this burden."
Just as Harry said this, the waitress had made her way to the table. She was, Harry had to admit, a rather beautiful African-American witch, and she reminded him of an actress he once saw on a movie, Lisa, something, who had a French last name, but he couldn't remember it.
"Why, how's you been, Darla?" Jaxson asked. "This, here, is Mr. Harry Potter, and the other two are Gareth and Cyrus Greengrass from England. You know, they own that export warehouse down by Leake Avenue on the river."
"Hello, ya'll," Darla said with a smile full of white teeth.
When Harry noticed the young witch, he was ashamed to say that he immediately started getting an erection, as she was really hot. She was built like Daphne, though a little taller, and she had long curly black hair down her back, which ended just above her bum, and it was a well-rounded bum at that.
Harry, now embarrassed, held out his hand, which Darla took. "It's good to meet you, Darla."
"It's a pleasure, Mr. Potter," Darla said. "You know, we witches have heard about you, here, too. You're spoken of at Ilvermorny in history class."
"Really?" Harry said, and he could have sworn that he felt a spark of magic when he released her hand. However, he also noticed the simple gold band on her left ring finger as well, though the young witch looked at him as if she knew something he didn't.
"Oh, yes," Darla said. "Now, what can I bring you three wizards to drink?"
Needless to say, Harry, Gareth, and Cyrus were a little tipsy when they walked out of Louis' at seven o'clock to head to the Cajun restaurant in the hotel known as La Salle's. Harry looked over the menu and chose a three-course meal starting with a bowl of gumbo, and then BBQ pork ribs ending in dessert. He had never had gumbo, of course, but he loved it, and he also devoured the ribs, along with a large slice of pecan pie.
When the three made their way to their rooms, they were out in no time, as the time difference affected them all, since, to them, it was now one o'clock instead of eight.
Severus Snape left his cheap hotel room with a scowl, as he was now trying to find his way through Panama City. When he found the address, he had to look up, as it was a skyscraper. Here, he entered and took the lift up to the thirtieth floor. When he stepped out of the lift, he noticed that all the walls were glass and the same as the doors. Only one office out of probably ten was occupied, and he made his way toward it, even though it was the wrong room number, and name.
"Madam," Snape inquired, "I'm looking for Sirius LLC. Would you be able to help me?"
The poor woman looked dumbfounded that he would ask this, but she pointed down the hall.
Snape left the office and made his way down to office seven, but nothing was in it. It was just an empty glass shell. When he turned back around to make his way back to the young woman at the desk, she was no longer there.
"What in the bloody hell is going on here?" If he kept this up, he would go broke, and be asking for someone to send funds.
Next, he stormed out of the tall building and made his way to the Panamanian government's records, where he found that Sirius LLC was owned by a company in Bridgetown, Barbados, called Red Stag Partners LLC, which meant another portkey trip. Severus was about to blow his top, but he needed a strong drink and a cheap one at that!
On the morning of the 1st, Harry dressed in jeans and a loose football jersey, and he took a light jacket with him since the ritual would be done that night.
He met up with Gareth and Cyrus, where they had breakfast, and then made their way to Bourbon Street. Gareth wanted to stop by Marie Laveau's House Of Voodoo, which was for muggle tourists downstairs, but magicals upstairs. The old woman who run it was a witch that was also named Marie, and she had an uncanny knack for reading people's futures. The shop was a little over six blocks up Bourbon Street from Canal Street.
When they arrived, Harry noticed a three-foot-high ceramic statue of Marie Laveau in the window, along with a skeleton draped in talismans and several herb pots.
Inside, the place had everything imaginable, especially pre-made and sewn poppets, as well as bags of different herbs hanging on the wall. At the rear of the shop was a Skeleton wearing a top hat, which Gareth told him represented Baron Samedi.
Upstairs, they met the old witch, where Gareth and Cyrus bought several packages of rare herbs that they didn't have, and asked her to ship them to England via transnational owl post. Harry noticed the shrunken heads, and a Hand of Glory was on a shelf behind the counter. Everything for voodoo was there.
Finally, the old witch beckoned Harry over.
"Come here, child," Marie said in a raspy voice.
Harry stepped forward while noticing that the old witch was missing several teeth and that she had cataracts in her eyes.
Once Harry was in reach, she placed her hand on his forehead, and closed her eyes. In about a minute, they suddenly snapped open, which startled Harry.
"You shall be cured, tonight, young mage. However, your wand..." Here, she made a "tcht - tcht" sound with her tongue. "Follow your guide faithfully, Harry Potter, and you will be well in the morning."
"Guide?" Harry asked, but the old witch had disapparated without a sound.
"It's time to go, Harry," Cyrus said.
"What did she mean by a guide, though?" Harry asked as they took the stairs down.
"Mr. Jaxson, I'd imagine," Gareth said. "Let's go find lunch, shall we?"
The three left the shop, and turned down Bourbon Street five blocks to Willie's Chicken Shack, which was very close to Bienville Street, and two blocks away from Canal Street.
Harry ordered the three-piece Cajun Catfish Platter with a biscuit and fries, along with a bowl of Jambalaya, whereas Gareth and Cyrus ordered a three-piece Cajun Tender chicken meal, with a biscuit and fries, and they all drank a cold beer. Harry was told to eat up, as he would need his strength.
Finally, they made their way back to the Wizarding Quarter but headed to a bar known as Jake's, where they met up with Jaxson and those that were to do the ritual. When they walked in, Harry noticed it was packed with people wearing dress clothes, and there was a brass marching jazz band having drinks as well.
Jaxson bought Harry a Rum and Coke, which he drank, while Cyrus and Gareth drank a Whiskey Sour. When Harry was through, Jaxson ordered him another, but nobody noticed the bartender empty a small potion's phial into his drink.
When Harry was about halfway through his drink, his head swam, and he slumped in his seat.
"Harry!" Cyrus exclaimed.
"It's all right, brother, this is part of it," Gareth said just as a rear door opened, where six people carried a pine coffin in, which they sat on the floor.
Jaxson levitated Harry into the coffin, whose head was lolling about, and shut the lid, though they all noticed a crack around it so he could breathe.
Immediately, the band left for the street, and a group of professional mourners stood and made their way in front of the coffin, just when they noticed a Thestral-drawn hearse pull up outside, and a black carriage for them.
When Jaxson gave the cue, the four women began balling their eyes out with great wails, and wiping their foreheads with their handkerchiefs, while eight pallbearers picked Harry up, and slowly made their way outside, and in step with the now playing band, who was playing the funeral dirge, Just a Closer Walk With Thee. Cyrus noted that the hearse's driver was in a black tuxedo, was wearing a top hat, and that the Thestrals had long and black feathers sticking up from between their ears.
Worse, two men were wearing sashes with a lady gathered at the front, and they were doing some sort of very slow long-stepping dance. The men were wearing black tuxes and top hats as well, and the lady, dressed in a black dress, had a black parasol umbrella with white frilly trim.
It seemed to take forever to load Harry into the hearse, which Jaxson caught for a ride, and when the rear door was shut, the music changed to a faster number called, Down By the Riverside. Here, everyone began dancing and following the hearse, as well as their Thestral-drawn carriage from behind.
As they slowly made their way down the street, Gareth removed two pints of rum that he had in his jacket and enlarged them with a tap of his wand. Next, he handed one to Cyrus before he broke the seal, removed the cap, and took a long drag from it.
"Might as well enjoy it, brother," Gareth remarked, "as this goes with it, and believe me, you'll need the courage."
Cyrus looked at his brother skeptically for a moment before taking a long pull from his bottle as well, where he sat back to listen to the band. He noticed that when they made it about one and one-half blocks, the music changed to a tune known as, "When the Saints Go Marching In." Everyone outside the carriage was dancing around now, drinking, and laughing as they marched along. He even noticed Gareth tapping his foot and humming along to the tune!
When three blocks rolled up, though, the band stopped, and the carriages made a lurch, where they quickly went airborne. In no time they were flying over St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 where Marie Laveau's white marble tomb was located, and then out over Lake Pontchartrain, where they were heading northeast to White Kitchen.
When they arrived, they landed on a tarmac road, and nothing was around but Cypress trees and shrubs. They were now in the bayou.
It wasn't long that the hearse and carriage rolled to a stop in front of an old Baptist church, where they noticed the band and mourners standing outside. Here, the band stayed to the side, but the mourners waited until they unloaded Harry before they started wailing out again, and wiping their eyes while the band played a very slow Just A Closer Walk With Thee, where they took Harry inside the church and placed the coffin on a stand in front of the podium.
Once the coffin was in place, the band stopped and left. The mourners quit their wailing as well.
A pastor came up and said a few words over Harry about healing one's soul, and then, he stepped away. After that, Jaxson levitated Harry from the coffin, and two others wrapped him loosely in a white sheet, where they proceeded out of the church, and followed a dirt path deep into the woods.
Gareth and Cyrus followed, now pretty pissed, and found themselves in a clearing that was a cemetery full of old headstones, though one with a tomb was in the center, and they lay Harry on top of it, where they pulled the sheet off him, leaving him exposed. Both Gareth and Cyrus noticed Harry's head rolling side to side with half-open eyes, but he couldn't lift a finger, nor speak.
Finally, Jaxson showed the two wizards to a small wooden gazebo with white peeling paint, but the benches were in good shape. Just to their right was a swamp, and they noticed an Alligator quickly slide off the bank and swim away.
Next, two wizards dressed in white were holding a large bag of salt, and it was leaking out of one corner onto the ground, though this was intentional, where they began to walk around the cemetery, and draw a large salt circle around Harry. Once done, drums started beating, and several witches, who were wearing thin cotton blouses, and long tan skirts, started dancing about in a rather lewd way.
A voodoo priest, an oungan, stepped into the circle with several others and made his way to an altar, where he kneeled down, poured some rum in a skull cup, and then started to pray after lighting some candles. What happened next was quite revolting.
The dancing witches were passed a fifth of rum that had Scotch Bonnet peppers in it. They would pour some out in the palm of their hand, lift their skirt, and wash their private area with it with a loud cackle. Afterward, they went back to dancing with a hunch while rubbing themselves between their legs.
The Greengrass brothers noticed one wizard douse two black chickens in rum, and set them alight, where he threw them to the ground and the fireballs ran off, and another held a white chicken up, and slit its throat with a straight razor. Here, he let its blood pour over one of the dancing witches, who they noticed was the waitress from the hotel.
Several men were now laying down on the ground, and the witches were now straddling them and dancing with a hunching dance as they rubbed their breasts with their heads thrown back in pure ecstasy.
Harry was witnessing some of this, himself, when he could turn his head, and stop his vision from spinning. Finally, he noticed the waitress, Darla, from the hotel dancing her way toward him, as she rubbed her crotch.
Cyrus was looking at Gareth in shock, but that didn't stop what was taking place, while the voodoo priest continued to pray.
Finally, there was a flash of lightning and a loud crack of thunder. Gareth and Cyrus noticed a twister of dirt raise from one of the graves, and when it stopped, a corpse was standing there with a white face, and a large erection, and it was cackling out while speaking foully in Haitian Creole.
"Pote gwo rad fout mwen ak chapo!" The Lich exclaimed in a nasally voice. "Ki moun ki pare pou fout?" (Bring my fucking robes and hat! Who is ready to fuck?)
"Is that a Lich?" Cyrus asked.
"Yes," Gareth muttered, "and possessed by the Baron Samedi."
"What's it saying?" Cyrus wondered, but then took a huge drink of rum.
"It's Haitian Creole," Gareth whispered, "and it's very rude talk. You don't want to know, brother."
Someone dressed the Lich in a black robe, which was lined with a purple silk lining, and they placed a tall top hat on its head, which had an embroidered cross and coffin on it. Next, it walked over to the fire where Darla was dancing by herself and was frantically rubbing herself between her legs with one hand, and pinching a nipple with another.
"Yu menm, bouzen san valè, ale fout li kounye a!" The Baron exclaimed and pointed toward Harry. (You worthless whore, go fuck him now!)
Here, she danced her way to the tomb and crawled up on top of it, where she straddled Harry and started rubbing herself between her legs as she frantically hunched with her head thrown back in pure lust.
Harry saw this through his half-lidded and swimming eyes, but he couldn't speak. He did, however, pass out cold.
Here, the young witch ripped off her already open shirt, and pulled up her linen skirt, where she sat across Harry's legs, and began unbuttoning his jeans, which she pulled down with his boxers. He was erect, which she greedily grabbed, and began to massage it before she straddled him, and impaled herself on him. As the drums seemed to beat louder, the Lich cackled out while commanding the other women to have sex with the men lying on the ground.
Finally, the Baron strolled over to Harry and took a large drink of Rum from a bottle that was handed to him. Here, he cackled out, again, and raised his hand. Harry's hands stopped the witch from riding him, and he sat up with his head rolled to one side, and his eyes closed. Finally, he positioned the witch in a kneeling position upon the sheet and mounted her from behind, where he started violently thrusting into her, making her cry out.
This didn't stop Harry, though, who was under the Baron's spell, and the potion. No, he plowed on, until he had climaxed seven times into the witch, making her finally fall to her belly after he released her, with her hips still somewhat up in the air.
Harry just stayed there, though, on his knees and still, with his head rolled over, and with his eyes closed; his arms hanging limply at his sides.
Here, Darla's husband rushed over, and he began stuffing freshly picked cotton into her vagina, before he levitated the spent witch off the tomb, and quickly left with her in his arms.
The Baron raised his hand, again, and Harry lie back down and was still. Here, the Lich raked its fingernail over Harry's scar, and a dark liquid began oozing out, as well as a black mist.
"Vin isit la, fout," the Baron said, as he seemed to be able to grasp the black mist, which tried to struggle against him. (Come here, you fucker.)
The Baron raised his arm up high, and his rotten hand seemed to be clutching the black mist over his head, which had started to turn into the shape of Voldemort. The mist started to scream, but the Baron didn't let up.
Next, the black mist seemed to catch fire, and Voldemort let out loud wails of horrible tormented agony and lashed about, but the Baron only cackled out as he made his way to the fire burning at the center of the salt circle, where he used his left hand to rip open the fabric of reality, itself!
Gareth and Cyrus watched on with awe and pure fear as the Baron tossed the burning mist into the deep black void, where it was engulfed and disappeared before the rip sealed itself. Here, the Baron cackled out, loudly, again, as he watched all the couples around him having sex.
Finally, he made his way back over to Harry, where he simply waved his right hand over Harry's forehead. The gash sealed itself shut, the scar disappeared, and the blood disappeared.
"Ou geri, pitit gason Peverell, epi ou fè sakrifis! Koulye a, lòt kado mwen ba ou. (You heal, son of Peverell, and you sacrifice! Now, my other gift to you.)
Here, the Baron held up his hand, and a long straight stick of swamp mayhaw wood that was tapered appeared in it. Next, he allowed this to float in the air beside him where he summoned a White River Monster to him, and he tore out its spine, throwing its body to the ground. He allowed this to float beside the wood, while he summoned a handful of hair, which had been pulled from the back of a Rougarou.
Gareth and Cyrus watched as the hair braided itself along the spine, from one end to the other, and then the Baron seemed to shove both into the large end of the wooden branch.
Last, they watched the Baron summon a handful of earth from the grave that the Lich had risen from, and he compressed it in his palm, forming a small, round, stone. Once done, he placed both on Harry's chest, said, "Ou ka sèvi ak li yon fwa, Peverell," and walked back toward the fire, where he, himself, turned back into dust and disappeared. (You can use it once, Peverell)
A/N: Baron Samedi is a very foul-mouthed spirit, and he has no scruples. "He is noted for disruption, obscenity, debauchery, and having a particular fondness for tobacco and rum. Additionally, he is the loa of resurrection, and in the latter capacity he is often called upon for healing by those near or approaching death, as it is only the Baron that can accept an individual into the realm of the dead." He is the same as the Lord of the Dead.