Hey everyone,
Well, I know I made a promise to try and have a new chapter written for most of my stories for Christmas. And by this point To Read Into The Universe has a part of its chapter written and A Soul's Future is written and now I am going to work on this one. That's 3 – out of 22.
Wish me luck,
Venquine1990
Chapter 11
Love And Darkness
24th of June 1995
Great Hall, Hogwarts
Bill's POV
"Hey wait, what about the Time Spell?"
Someone asks right as Harry and I get up. Chirithy flies up and tells them to look out the windows. We all turn to the windows that are built into the upper half of the side walls. It takes a few more minutes, but then someone from the Hufflepuff table shouts:
"There are owls flying!
The spell must have been broken."
Chirithy shakes his head and says: "Not so much broken. It's just in stasis and will remain that way for three days. So we will all have 2 days to ourselves and then, after breakfast, the spell will start again and we will resume reading."
"What about the Death Eater?"
A few heads turn to look at the man as Snape checks and confirms him to still be out cold. Those that had stared at the man sigh in relief as Chirithy speaks up:
"He can face justice. It's one of the goals of these books. To expose those whose crimes would otherwise remain secretive or go unpunished.
We just need to be sure to invite someone new to come over by the end of the day after tomorrow at the latest. Otherwise, someone will be brought in by the magic of the spell and they might not know anything, either about our current events or the world they're in."
The young Bones Heiress instantly shouts that that's her cue as she rushes for the antechamber, obviously to call on her aunt and to make the appointments mentioned during the reading.
I turn to Harry and say: "We might as well follow her in there, Harry. But before we do, I'm going to have to ask you to pick two other people who will accompany us, together with Sirius."
Instantly the boy answers:
"My mates."
Everyone smiles at him.
The five of us, followed by Fudge, head into the Antechamber as well. The Minister heads for the fireplace in the right wall near the back of the room. Susan herself is crouched in front of the green-colored flames and the sight of her head in the flames seems to really intrigue Lea.
I quickly explain Floo Powder to him and how it works to either talk with people or travel to other locations. Just as I finish explaining, the girl pulls her head out of the flames and Fudge asks her to step aside so that he can head for the Ministry himself.
Under the intrigued gaze of the young world-traveler – and after thanking Harry for giving us all this incredible chance – the man disappears into the roaring green flames.
While this all happens I gently move a few trophy stands out of the way and summon a large king-size bed to appear in the empty space.
Harry's face turns a light shade of red and I smile at him as I say: "You don't have to do anything you don't want to, Harry. The bed is just to make sure that you're as comfortable as possible. This is going to hurt, after all."
Harry nods and yet he still takes his robe off, along with Cedric and Sirius. This makes Lea and me smile, as the look in Harry's eyes proves that he did this as a sign of his trust in us. And considering what happened earlier this morning, I can definitely understand the significance behind Harry's need to trust in people.
Then I decide to help the boy feel better and help him focus on something else first, at least for a little while.
"Okay Harry, before we get rid of the stuff in your scar, I first need you to speak Parseltongue, so I can take a recording of it with me to the Chamber and get the Basilisk poison."
Harry rubs the back of his neck and tells me that he can only speak Parseltongue when he is face to face with a snake.
I shrug at this and conjure a simple looking book with a snake on the front and a lock wrapped around the side of the book.
"Will this work?" Harry nods at me with a grateful smile and I quickly cast a recording charm. Harry stares at the snake and I can almost see him imagining it to be alive.
Then suddenly, as he opens his mouth, I notice two things that sincerely worry me. The skin under his scar turns red, as if a vein that lies under the skin there is suddenly filling up with extra blood. And what's worse, Harry's green eyes suddenly – for only a second – turn to look red – bloodred.
These signs worry me so much, I hardly even notice the weird hissing and spitting sounds that come out of the boy's throat as he stares at the book in my hands.
"I can't let him do that again. If he speaks Parseltongue too much, he could end up – possessed. No, I am going to get that thing out of his scar. And I'm going to tell Dumbledore exactly what I saw and what I think of him not looking into how to fix this sooner."
As I think this, I gently instruct the boy to go lie on the bed and instruct Sirius to go sit at his head. I instruct Lea and Cedric to sit on either side of the boy and tell them:
"Now that that's done, let's move on and fix you up, Harry. The most I need you to do is keep Harry distracted and happy. The happier he feels, the less chance of things going wrong. I'll explain what I mean once I'm done."
My words concern the others, yet they nod regardless and the two take their seats. I quickly check my pockets, in which I decided to store most of my Curse Breaker equipment and pull one of the pockets of my equipment belt out of my robe pocket.
From it, after some more searching, I pull a simple round ball made of stone with a single flat side. The ball itself is about the size of what Muggles call a golf ball, yet the ball in my hand is made of stone and has no indents on it whatsoever.
I move over to sit between Harry and Cedric and explain to him: "Okay Harry, I'm going to put the flat side of this ball on your scar. I'll then cast a spell, though in order for the spell to work, I'll have to speak the spell in Ancient Egyptian tongue.
Once I cast this enchantment, you'll feel incredible amounts of pain. I'm really sorry, but it's just how it is. What's worse is that, if I'm right – and I'm almost 100% positive that I am – then that thing – is sentient and will try to fight me as I try to absorb it into this here rock.
That is why you need Sirius, Lea and Cedric. You need to focus on them and how happy they make you feel. Your happiness will literally start to hurt that thing once I start trying to drain it from your scar. The happier you feel, the quicker I can get that thing out of you."
Harry nods, while the others look deeply worried and concerned. Yet I also noticed Lea's eyes fleetingly switching between me and Cedric during my explanation.
I turn to Sirius and say: "Remember, your job is to keep him calm and on the bed. And to keep him from reaching up or trying to grab me." Sirius' grimace proves that he desperately wishes that there was another way to fix this, yet he nods at me.
I lie the stone on Harry's scar, the flat-side against his skin.
I twist it to the northeast and hiss: "'iitlaq sarah!"
Please note, this was the Arabic translation by Google Translate for the word "release". If this is false, please let me know.
And as much as it pains me, Harry starts to scream in pain as soon as my tool starts to glow with power as the spell to pull the dark magic out of his scar gets activated.
The others all start to move, yet I glare at them to keep them in place. Then, with my free hand, I tap each of them on either their hand (Sirius), arm (Cedric) or leg (Lea). And as I tap them, I repeat the same spell, again in the same language, three times:
"rieayat haqiqia"
Again, this is the Google Translation for "True Care", again in Arabic. If this is wrong, please let me know. I do NOT want to insult anyone speaking a language that I don't know or speak.
I turn my focus back on Harry, his scar and my tool as I remind Lea and Cedric to focus on how much they care about Harry. And only a glance at a tear-faced Sirius is enough to remind the man of his own responsibility; to keep Harry's head stable.
I want to remind Harry of the same, but the sound of his screaming and begging makes me know that he is in too much pain to think clearly, focus or maybe even hear me. Instead I decide to focus on just getting my job done and try later down the line.
The man grimaces as he desperately clamps his godson's head stuck between his thighs and hands, while Harry cries out and even begs both of us to stop and to leave him alone.
And I really can't blame either the crying godfather or his screaming godson. The sound of a 14 year old boy screaming his lungs out like this would tear even at Snape's cold heart.
Then finally my secondary spell takes effect. Harry's screaming lessens somewhat and I quickly remind the others to focus harder.
And then Lea proves me that I had indeed seen him checking out Cedric earlier. He tells Harry to look at him and then calls out Cedric's name.
And when the slightly younger adult turns to the oldest of the trio, Lea releases Harry's leg with one of his hands and puts it behind Cedric's head.
And in front of all our shocked eyes, the redhead pulls Cedric towards him and kisses him, straight on the lips.
Instantly the same aura that flared up around the three of them at the start of the reading rears up again. And instantly I silently bless the redhead for his brilliant idea as this incredibly positive magic gives my spell a huge boost and weakens the parasite that has been trying to fight my spell.
And while it felt as if I was trying to keep the parasite from possessing the boy in my need to get it out of Harry's scar, the power of the aura flaring up between the three young men is so powerful, I almost feel as if the parasite got more than half its power taken from it.
I shout the release spell once again, while also tapping the trio of helpers and casting the care spell silently, and the recasting of this combination of spells does the job.
Yet again the power of the parasite weakens considerably, thanks to the True Care spell mixing and empowering the aura, which seems to grow in strength around Harry's head the longer the kiss between Lea and Cedric lasts.
And while Sirius is now laughing and crying and has a huge grin on his face, he watches as I pull my tool up from his godson's scar.
And while the ball had been made of stone when I first pulled it out of my pocket, it is now changed into a metal that, while I don't know where it came from or what it actually is, I know is near indestructible and unable to be broken from the inside.
It will hold the parasite, no matter what.
I put my tool in my pocket and pull my wand out instead, instantly casting every healing spell that I know need to be cast – as this is unfortunately not the first time that I've had to commit this procedure on another person.
Harry is still crying, yet thankfully he hasn't screamed his throat to smithereens as he is just softly whimpering. And yet noises of relief escape his throat as he feels my magic take hold and heal his exhausted form.
And while some might think that he was only hurt in his forehead or head, I know this isn't the case. The magic of that parasite and its painful sensation has been rushing through Harry's whole form the entire time.
And so I focus on healing all of that.
Cedric's POV
I have never felt more conflicted in my entire life.
When I heard Harry screaming and begging, I felt sure that he was going through the same excruciating pain as his book-counterpart in the graveyard.
And to be a witness to such a horrific experience is as different to hearing about it from a book or rumors as that monster is to Dumbledore.
Yet while it probably wasn't his intent, Lea utterly distracted me from all this when he suddenly kissed me square on the lips.
The feeling of that fiery redhead kissing me just like that, and with such passion, makes me feel deeply loved and giddy for more.
I had felt my magic respond to his own and to Harry's and throughout the whole kiss I had tried, even if only somewhat subconsciously, to focus my magic on Harry and his need to be healed, to feel loved. And thankfully Harry's had responded to this and to Lea's actions as well.
I feel quite out of breath as Lea had tried to keep the kiss going the entire time Bill was busy healing our third soul mate.
Yet oxygen had proven a must and so we had parted. But Lea hadn't stopped his need to show me that he was growing to love me as he had kept softly pecking at my lips and the sides of my lips as well.
It makes me genuinely curious in what other ways this lovable redhead is going to show his affections as our relationship develops.
I can't wait to find out.
This is going to be fun,
And I will admit, the ending of this chapter might sound a little corny. But considering the season that we're in, I think you guys can let that corniness slide, right guys?
Happy holidays,
Venquine1990