"This circle is enormous," Susan said, shivering. "Where could we have possibly done this indoors, Hermione?"
"I don't know," Hermione admitted. She paused to hit Susan with another warming charm, and Susan let out a sigh of thanks. "I didn't quite do the math beforehand."
"It's good we got two things of blood, then," Harry said, very carefully tracing a circle in Ron's blood on the ground. "We would have been in trouble if we ran out."
Blaise snorted. "We'd have just gone and gotten Weasley, probably. Not worth letting him sleep and delaying us another month."
Hermione nodded. "Agreed."
Her coven, after much discussion and deliberation, had decided to set up their ritual not by the Forbidden Forest or on the general Hogwarts Grounds, but in the Hogwarts rose gardens. It was outdoors, large enough, generally not patrolled by teachers or Filch, and, most importantly – enclosed entirely by the Hogwarts walls.
"If we're summoning a wanted criminal, and the dementors sense him, the last thing we want to do is end up fighting off bloody dementors while Potter takes his revenge," Blaise had pointed out. "It's safer to do this as far away from the dementors as possible."
Hermione and Luna had quickly agreed, with Harry and Susan agreeing as well. None of them liked dementors.
They'd melted a large circle of snow on one of the cobblestoned areas. After the cobblestone was dry (and them feeling slightly faint from repeated Hot Air Charms), they'd put down a large salt circle. Inside of the salt circle was a large star, with candles at each of the points where they touched the outer circle. It was a very, very large circle, and Hermione was glad most of it only required salt – salt was cheap.
The inner part of the star, however, held something different. Two concentric circles drawn in blood sat inside of the middle of the pentacle, with runes of holding and protection also written in blood around it. It was here that Sirius Black would manifest, and they'd had to make sure the circle was large enough to accommodate a fully-grown man – resulting in a circle larger than Hermione had realized would be necessary.
"This is kind of gross," Harry said, making a face as he traced over the lines of the inner circle again, making sure there were no gaps. "Couldn't we have used a paint brush or something?"
"It's not just about the shapes," Luna told him. "It's about the ritual. You're constructing the cage for him with your own hands, shaping it with your magic and intent."
Harry glanced over at her. "Really? We didn't even start the ritual yet, though."
"Have we not?" Luna asked, shrugging. "We're constructing our circle. Is that not the first step to any ritual we do?"
Harry looked somewhat boggled by this, and Hermione hid a smile as they continued to work.
Once the circles and runes were done, each line carefully traced and checked three times for gaps or breaks, they all carefully took their seats, one of them in each fifth of the pentagram, the blood circle before them in the middle.
"This isn't a normal ritual," Hermione began. She paused. "…well, not normal for us, I'd say. This is an old ritual, with the words already set, so there's not really many changes to make, or a need to make them at all."
"Fair enough," Harry said, nodding. "So. What do we do?"
"We need a stone and seam," Hermione said, glancing at Blaise. Blaise's lips twitched, his eyes gleaming.
"Ah," he said softly. "That sort of ritual, is it?"
Harry frowned. "What does that mean?"
"They're roles in a ritual," Hermione explained. "The 'stone' is like the rock of the ritual. They start the ritual and direct the power towards the end purpose. They're like the foundation of the ritual."
"So, you?" Susan quipped, and she grinned. "Right?"
"Possibly," Hermione equivocated. She looked to Harry. "The 'seam' is the person who has the justification to call for the ritual. Their intent and cause 'sew' up everyone's magic and intent with their 'seam', allowing it all to be directed the same way."
"That's me, then," Harry said. "Because it's my blood debt."
"Exactly," Hermione said, nodding. "You have to be the seam, Harry, or the ritual won't work. But theoretically, any of us could be the stone."
She glanced around the circle. Susan and Blaise looked amused, while Luna was just smiling.
"None of us are going to volunteer, Hermione," Luna said, blinking. "You're the one who knows the ritual. You should be stone."
"You're also the strongest," Blaise added, raising an eyebrow. "You'd make the most solid magical foundation."
Hermione looked at Susan, who rolled her eyes.
"I already said it was you, didn't I?" she said. "Come on. What's next?"
Explaining the ritual didn't take long. This ritual was a very old one, and it required magic, blood, and intent. As they all took several breaths, settling into their magic, Hermione focused on her own magical core, spinning excitedly as it was. As if it knew it was being watched, it slowed down slightly, wobbling a little less, and Hermione felt a flicker of amusement that her magic would react in such a way.
"I'm ready," Harry said, his eyes still closed.
"Ready," Susan echoed.
"Ready," Luna chimed in.
"I'm ready too," Blaise added.
Hermione took a deep breath. "Right." She paused. "We begin."
They all leaned forward, their hands going over a chalk line of the star to press down on the outer ring of blood. Hermione began to hum, and the others joined in, their voices shifting to match her resonance until the garden was filled with an odd, unearthly sound.
Underneath their fingers, the salt lines of the circle and star began to light up with a white light from their magic. Candles at each of the points of the star on the outermost circle spontaneously lit as the light of the lines touched them, and slowly, the dark red blood on the ground before them began to glow a bright, ominous red, casting demonic-looking shadows on each of their faces.
For the first time doing ritual magic, Hermione shivered and flinched. This felt significantly more Dark than anything else she had done, even though she knew it wasn't.
"House Potter has been betrayed," Hermione said formally, "with Harry's parents' location given to Lord Voldemort. We call for the traitor to come and answer for his crimes through our magic and blood. We summon the traitor to face our justice, to atone for the debt he has drawn."
The red of the inner circle flashed once, briefly, before it started to hum on its own, an anticipatory sort of sound.
"House Potter was betrayed, and the betrayal calls for blood," Hermione said. "We reach for the traitor's blood through blood, and we summon the traitor to come and answer for what he has done with our will, with our magic, and with our blood."
There was a sharp pain, and Hermione hissed as her own hands started to bleed. Her blood did not touch Ron's blood, though – instead, it stained the salt under her palms, the stain slowly spreading unnaturally through the lines.
"House Potter was betrayed, and the betrayal calls for blood," Blaise intoned. "We reach for the traitor's blood through blood, and we summon the traitor to come and answer for what he has done with our will, with our magic, and with our blood."
Blaise grit his teeth as the magic of the circle pierced his own palms, his blood staining his own salt lines. As the stain of his blood reached the stain from Hermione's, a long, glowing tendril began to emerge from the junction, made of red light and wiggling up as it grew.
"House Potter was betrayed, and the betrayal calls for blood," Luna said. "We reach for the traitor's blood through blood, and we summon the traitor to come and answer for what he has done with our will, with our magic, and with our blood."
Luna didn't flinch when her palms were pierced, and when the stain of her blood on the salt reached Blaise's, another tendril of magic emerged, both red tendrils now wiggling up further into the air.
"House Potter was betrayed, and the betrayal calls for blood," Susan said firmly. She glanced at Harry while she spoke, each word said with conviction. "We reach for the traitor's blood through blood, and we summon the traitor to come and answer for what he has done with our will, with our magic, and with our blood."
Susan's blood met Luna's and a third tendril began to wiggle up into the air. The red light of the tendrils cast odd tinted shadows across her face, and Hermione shivered but kept still.
"House Potter was betrayed, and the betrayal calls for blood," Harry said, his voice hard. His eyes flashed as he spoke, and Hermione could tell Harry was entirely focused on his cause, on giving the ritual its purpose. "We reach for the traitor's blood through blood, and we summon the traitor to come and answer for what he has done with our will, with our magic, and with our blood."
Harry barely flinched as he bled, and as the stain of his blood on the salt reached Susan's and Hermione's on either side of him, two more tendrils flared up and grew into life, casting red light on either side of Harry.
They continued to pour magic into the circle, the tendrils growing longer, stronger, and Hermione was suddenly struck with how odd this would look to anyone who happened by – five students sitting in a circle around a pentacle, commanding demonic-looking red tentacles made of blood and magic to do their will.
Hermione looked to Harry, and he steadied himself, ready.
"Our cause is just, our will is set, our magic is true," he pronounced. "We reach out, from blood to blood, to pull the traitor through!"
Immediately there was a whoosh of air, and the center of the circle fell away, replaced by a blackness so black it looked impossible, and they all gasped. It was as if a black hole had manifested in the center of their inner blood circle, the cobblestone fallen away, but it was so dark it looked aberrant to Hermione, like it ought not to exist.
Heedless of their astonishment, the red tendrils of blood and magic surged forward into the blackness, seeking out their target, and Hermione immediately felt dizzy, her head beginning to spin as her eyes rolled back.
She could feel the magic searching, searching, reaching out through the nothingness to find the target of their cause and blood. There was a feeling of a small pause, as if the tentacles had examined someone before dismissing them, before there was a strong surge of satisfaction and justice as their magic found their culprit, and they began to reel the traitor back.
Hermione, dizzy as she was, could vaguely feel the traitor as he squirmed in the tentacles, trying to escape. It didn't feel like a man, but the blood debt within the tendrils was insistent, so Hermione held her will. Their magic held true, and slowly, Hermione found her sense of balance returning as the tendrils reeled themselves back into the circle once more, reemerging from the black pit of nothingness, and suddenly the ground was cobblestone again, with their prize lying on the ground.
Hermione was panting for air, trying to steady herself. She hadn't realized that as stone, she would be the one 'directing' the power of the ritual, while all the others did was feed her power. It had left her a little dizzy, and Blaise steadied her with a hand on her arm as she took deep breaths.
Though the echoes of the tendrils' and tentacles' satisfaction lingered in her mind, judging by the faces Susan, Luna, and Harry were making, something had gone wrong.
"Err," Susan said, meeting Hermione's eyes once she had settled. "That's not Sirius Black."
Blinking, Hermione looked down.
Within the blood containment circle was a large rat. The rat was squeaking madly, running around in circles and trying to escape, but each time it hit the side of one of the circles, red light flared up into a solid wall of magic, and the rat bounced off like it had hit the side of a glass tank. The rat eventually stopped trying to escape and sat in the center of the circle, squeaking madly, its eyes darting around rapidly as its tail whipped around in fear.
"That's Scabbers," Harry said in astonishment.
Hermione blinked. "Ron's pet rat?"
"Yeah," Harry said.
They all stared at the rat.
The rat shuddered in the middle of the circle, trembling.
"Well," Blaise said finally, breaking the awkward silence. "That's definitely a rat."
"And not Sirius Black," Luna added helpfully.
Hermione bit her lip. "Apparently so."
Harry glanced at Hermione. "Err—do you figure it's because we used Ron's blood?"
"Probably?" Susan ventured uneasily. "I mean – we all felt the magic, and the magic felt certain, but maybe that was because Ron's blood had tainted it?"
"If Ron's blood wasn't virgin blood and had been used in a ritual before, it's possible," Luna said, frowning. "But… I don't think Ron was lying to us."
"But it's Scabbers," Harry said flatly. "Scabbers the rat is not Sirius Black."
The rat began squeaking again madly, running in circles inside the blood circle, trying to escape.
"Well," Hermione said, watching the rat curiously. "Let's go through the possibilities. Either we did the ritual wrong, and Ron's blood tainted it…"
"Very possible," Susan commented.
"…or we did the ritual right, and Scabbers the rat is responsible for the death of your parents," Hermione finished, her eyes on Harry.
Harry looked at her like she was crazy. "Are you mad?"
"Scabbers reacted to the name Sirius Black," Hermione commented, nodding down at the rodent. "The blood debt also felt certain, Harry. It was certain Scabbers was the traitor when we pulled him through."
"So a rat betrayed my family?" Harry said incredulously. "What, it ran through the Fidelius Barrier and gave them away?"
"I don't know," Hermione said patiently. "It's very possible that we messed something up. We won't be able to try again with someone else's virgin blood until next month's new moon. But just in case we didn't mess up, and Scabbers is actually a Death Eater cursed to be a rat until true love's kiss or whatever, I think we should keep him locked up."
Harry stared at her. Blaise began to laugh.
"You want to keep Weasley's rat locked up?" he said, laughing. "Don't you have a cat?"
"I can keep a rat locked away in a cage out of reach of Crookshanks, thank you very much," Hermione said primly. "Besides. It's not like Harry could keep him – Ron would find out and demand to know why Harry had his rat."
"Ron is going to be so upset," Harry groaned, clutching his face. "Scabbers has already been sick since they went to Egypt, and if he can't find him…"
Susan looked torn.
"The magic was certain, Harry," she said. She hesitated. "I know it's odd… but…"
"A rat betrayed my parents?" he demanded. "My parents are dead because of a rat?"
"Well, if you consider what we know, someone did rat them out to Voldemort," Luna pointed out. "Maybe there was a rebounding curse, and Scabbers is actually a person, trapped in the form of a rat from a retaliatory revenge curse."
Harry stopped his groaning to consider, his eyes slowly widening.
"That's… that's not that crazy, actually," he said, staring at Scabbers, who was curled up in a shuddering huddle inside the blood circles. "Ron said over the summer that he was old… they've had him for at least twelve years, and the Menagerie lady said they generally only live three to four…"
"Maybe Sirius Black had an accomplice," Blaise said, shrugging. "No one really knows. And we're just students. If Sirius Black has protective enchantments on him to stop him from being found, maybe our magic latched onto the next biggest traitor of your parents."
"Unless we know otherwise, Harry," Hermione said apologetically, "I think we should keep him in a cage. We can investigate in the library, look up if there are any curses to turn rats into literal rats."
Harry heaved a big sigh.
"I guess so," he conceded. He glanced around. "What do we keep him in?"
Hermione stayed sitting, holding the blood magic in place while the others got up to look for something appropriate. Susan was trying to transfigure twigs into iron, while Harry and Blaise ran off into the night. Luna was looking at the rat with a quizzical eye, Scabbers looking back at her warily.
"This is not how I expected tonight would go," Luna said slowly. "Still, though – it feels like we accomplished what we were meant to."
Hermione shrugged helplessly. "Don't look at me. I really thought we were going to capture Sirius Black tonight."
Blaise and Harry came hurrying back, carrying a surprisingly sturdy looking iron cage, complete with a door and padlock.
"Nicked it from Hagrid's," Harry said, breathless. "Had to let out a niffler to get it, but nifflers aren't going to do much harm, are they?"
"Worth it, anyway," Blaise said. "C'mon. Careful."
Hermione held the blood magic in place while Blaise and Harry carefully wrestled with Scabbers, trying to catch him without smearing any of the blood or runes that had been put in place. Scabbers was not being cooperative at all, and it took several minutes for both of the boys to finally trap him between their hands and scoop him into the cage, which Blaise promptly slammed shut and locked.
"Gotcha!" Blaise said. He fixed the rat with a nasty smile. "Bet you wish you weren't so nasty to me now, don't you?"
"Do you have the key for that lock?" Hermione worried, looking at the cage. "How are we going to get him back out?"
Blaise slowly looked at Hermione sideways.
"I figured an Alohomora would work," he said. "It worked well enough for getting the niffler out."
Hermione flushed a dark red. "…oh."
Blaise started to snicker. "Yeah. Oh."
"Let's clean up and get out of here," Susan said, taking out her wand. "It's getting really late, and I don't want to push our luck."
"Do we need to get a hose, Hermione, to wash the blood off the stones?" Blaise teased her. "Or will a water-summoning spell suffice?"
"How do you know what a hose is?" Hermione shot back hotly as Harry laughed.
"I'm in Muggle Studies, aren't I?" Blaise said, raising an eyebrow. He grinned.
"Leave off," Harry said, though it was in good humor. "Hermione's allowed to forget she's a witch sometimes."
Blaise laughed and rolled his eyes. "It's not that she forgets she's a witch. She just forgets all the tools available to her sometimes."
The five of them blew away the stained salt, washed the cobblestones clean of blood, and packed up the candles. Once they were ready to go, Hermione hefted the iron cage, looking in it at Scabbers.
"You need to behave," she informed him, "or Crookshanks will try to eat you for lunch."
Scabbers shuddered and squeaked, and Hermione felt smug. Despite not knowing how to speak 'rat', she was somehow sure he could understand.