"So, are you sure you are ready?" Nicholas asked from outside the ritual circle.
They had travelled to Nicholas' Summer house in France, where he had a ritual area built into his garden. He had placed a basalt altar in the middle of the ritual frame, letting just two drops of his blood drip into the basin.
"I am, so long as you are sure it's harmless."
"Of course it's harmless, any complications were accounted for centuries ago." Nicholas assured him. "The only cost is you'll have one less possible bequest."
As Nicholas has explained on the journey over, when a new spell or magic was created, the inventor could bind it to their blood. If left at that, only the founding family could use it, such as Slytherin's lock on Parseltongue. But, there were also a few ways to bequeath the magic onto another wizard.
The most common in modern times was a contract signed in blood, placing a marker upon the individual's blood, allowing them to use the specified magic of another family. This method was preferred over Nicholas' ritual version because terms could be tied into a contract, such as 'Do not use this magic to harm the family'.
Over time, bequests had become something of an elite trade, with some paying an extreme amount of money to gain access to a rare spell. The entire system was only possible with a mutation of the Fidelius Charm, making it impossible to cast a protected spell without the correct marker.
The tricky part came in the details; If the inventor of the Lumos spell had protected it, then even a Charms Master like Professor Flitwick would be unable to cast that specific spell. But, nobody was mad enough to use up a bequest slot with something as simple as a light charm.
Which was the other problem, the limit of how many bequests an individual could claim. For most people, they could only take around 20, which felt like a lot until Harry remembered there were over 10 charms in the first year curriculum alone. It seemed a magical's blood could only hold so many markers before the magic started to collapse into each other.
"Okay, I'm ready."
Nodding, Nicholas held his arm straight up, flicked his wrist to activate a new sigil, then slammed his hand onto the ritual frame. Immediately Nicholas' scarlet magic flowed through the frame, forming the exact same sigil. With a twirl of his hand, the ritual sigil began to spin, picking up speed with every rotation.
Once it had gained enough speed, it then began to rise, creeping up the basalt altar and extracting the blood within. The blood drops were instantly absorbed, causing seven triangles to sprout from the sigil, like petals of a flower. The sigil then focused on Harry, each triangle closing in from all sides.
All seven of the triangles touched him at the same time, causing a brief flash of light then vanished. Blinking away stars, Harry felt no different, disappointing him immensely. He had expected to suddenly gain new knowledge, or perhaps gain some sort of tattoo to mark the occasion.
"Congratulations, you are now a member of a very small list of people that can use sigils." Nicholas announced grandly, with just enough self-deprecating humour to indicate he was not taking himself seriously.
"Is that it? I was expecting something more dramatic." Harry muttered, disappointed.
"You and your need for dramatics. You know, one of these days, you're going to learn that magic spent showing off is magic that could be spent elsewhere." Nicholas reprimanded fondly. In reply, Harry waved his wand in the air and let out some bright blue sparks, causing the older man to chuckle.
"Now, you have a choice, you can either do your own thing for the day, get an early start on using sigils, or take a second ritual. It isn't another bequest, but a ritual to boost your physical capabilities."
"Boost them how?"
"Well, it ties your muscles directly to your magical core, meaning both your endurance and strength is proportional to how much magic you have available. For those strong, such as yourself, that gives you a shortcut to near peak human capabilities.
"Unfortunately, this also means several magical exhaustion will become deadly, with muscles like your heart and lungs shutting down. It also prevents you from increasing your muscle mass using conventional means, so if your magical core decreases, you will become permanently weaker."
"And the benefits are just increased strength?" Harry asked unimpressed.
"Increased strength is a part of it of course, but pretty much everything would be enhanced. Better eyesight and comprehension, longer memory and quicker recall times, stronger immunity and metabolism. It should also lower the chance of body pain, even minimise injuries." Nicholas rattled off.
"Do you think it's worth it for me to take it?"
"Yes, I do." Nicholas stated "To start with, it's possible to reverse the ritual at any time, although it is a time-consuming process. The magical cost for you would be negligible, since the magical cost should mostly be made up by your regular calorie intake. Otherwise, it's the equivalent of casting a fire charm for two hours, a noticeable drain perhaps, but not unmanageable.
"The important thing to note is this; you will still be bound to human limitations. Compared to the average Muggle you'd be stronger, but equal to against professional Athletes. You will have to learn your limits however, since your body will keep working beyond exhaustion, right until you drop dead."
"Do you know anyone who took this ritual?"
"A few people, most you'd be unfamiliar with. The Crabbe family is rumoured to have tied a similar ritual into their bloodline, giving all of them enhanced strength at the cost of diminished magic. Indeed, one of Grindelwald's main generals was SS-Oberst-Gruppenführer Waldemar Crabbe, a man who was famed for wrestling with giants and trolls.
"In terms of this specific ritual, Albus took it when he was my apprentice. I believe he hoped it would help him in the war, which did end up helping him defeat Waldemar. As far as I know, he hasn't reversed it."
"Well that settles it, if Dumbledore took it, then I can too." Harry announced resolutely.
"I won't stop you, I've already said I think you should take it, but I would advise you against doing it solely because Albus did. You are your own person, with skills different to Albus… Well, we'll need to get a few ingredients from my stores, then we can begin!"
Harry was amazed when Nicholas led him into the house's cellar, which had numerous storerooms jutting out of it. Each room was far bigger than the Hogwarts storeroom, with potion ingredients filling it from floor to ceiling.
"The result of nine centuries of collecting ingredients. I have the biggest privately owned collection of ingredients, both Magical and Muggle. There are a few ingredients missing from my stores, mainly those that don't last even under stasis charms, but I can order them when needed." Nicholas told him proudly.
After collecting the required ingredients, they then went back to the ritual area. Harry was tasked with drawing circles around the ingredients Nicholas was laying out, trying to keep them equal size even though the giant's sinew was far larger than the three drops of Re'em blood.
With all the ingredients laid out and runes drawn, Harry then took a strength boosting solution and stepped into the ritual frame. Instantly everything lit up, with the sole exception of the ingredient circles.
Nodding at Harry, Nicholas began a long Norse chant, tapping his wand against the ritual frame in regular intervals. With each tap, an ingredient was absorbed and it's circle lit up. When the final ingredient vanished, each circle erupted into a cloud of purple dust.
Each cloud of dust then started swirling around Harry, before the entire cloud stopped and Harry was completely coated in purple dust. Resisting the urge to sneeze, Harry watched as Nicholas tapped the circle for the final time, causing his own circle to erupt.
While he didn't move, Harry could feel the magic rushing past him, lifting the dust as it went. As the flow started to let up, Harry started to believe it was finished, right as the flow suddenly changed direction and crashed back into him. The strength of the magic was enough to force him to his knees, right as the dust reached him.
Rather than cascade down his back, the dust somehow fell through him, permeating every part of his body. While it didn't hurt, it did itch, irritatingly so as he felt particles phase through his muscles.
It lasted for just a few seconds, then the final particle touched the ground and the entire ritual blinked out of existence. With a big grin, Nicholas then waved his wand and caused streams of blue sparks to shower the area.
"That was uncomfortable." Harry grumbled as he got to his feet, shaking his limbs out and trying to see if he felt any stronger.
"I suspect it was, but the worst isn't over yet. This ritual is slow to take effect, sometimes taking a few months to finish. You'll probably go through growing pains when that happens, considering your muscles will practically be rebuilding themselves every night."
"Why can't it just do it in one go?"
"Well, to start with, that would hurt a lot, while also paralysing you as it happened. Secondly, the cost required would be much higher for a quicker turnaround. The last thing you'd want when tying your magic to your muscles, is to use up all your magic powering the ritual."
"What's up Harry, I trust you understood the lesson?" Bathsheda asked when Harry approached her after their lesson.
"Oh, yeah. I'm pretty confident with atmospheric arrays. Actually, I was wondering if you could help me with magically linking two runestones together?"
"That's an interesting idea… Why do you want them linked?"
"Well, I want to swap the air around one stone with the air around another, preferably quite quickly. It must also be able to move over a very long distance, without getting slower… Oh, it must also be able to travel through water."
"Ah. Well, I have a few ideas, but you do know I can't help you with the tournament, right?" She asked regretfully.
"You aren't allowed to tell me anything about the task, offer me solutions or do the work for me. But, you are allowed to instruct me and give your opinion on my own solutions. Plus, I am entitled to use any study resource offered by my school, which includes getting help from the teachers."
"If you're sure, I trust you to be honest with something like this. Well, my first thought is to use a protean charm, which will make the runestones act as if they are physically connected. That would deal with most of the linking issues you were worried about.
"The charm can work across continents, so distance won't be a problem. Not too sure about the water, but I don't think the charm is affected like most magical links. But, when it comes to breathing with runes, you are basically in uncharted territory… It would make a great OWL project though, so make sure you make plenty of notes."
"That's great! I assume this protean charm can be tied into a holding rune? I'd then need to like it with a transport rune… then feed the switching spell into that." Harry mused.
"I'd suggest some sort of timer and dispelling rune too, otherwise you'd just have the same air bouncing between the two stones." Bathsheda added.
"I wouldn't want too long a timer… possibly have it expel the air, wait for one second, then suck in new air and feed it over, repeating the cycle on the other side."
"You could, but it might make sense to have both stones expel and inhale at the same time, so the switching spell is always swapping the new and old air in one go."
"Okay. Let me draw a scheme quickly, see if I can get something to work."
Breathing carefully, Harry finished stirring his potion and let it lie. As it slowed, the colour finally settled into a shiny silver, lazily exuding bright blue smoke.
When no further reaction happened, such as a violent explosion, Harry looked up at Snape. The professor was feigning obliviousness, busy marking a student's work.
"Err, professor? I think I've finished." Harry announced nervously. Rather than reply, Snape merely hummed questioningly.
"Well, it's stopped brewing… and it looks right, with the smoke and colour."
Nodding, Snape wrote a single letter at the top of the homework, a letter Harry was fairly sure was a 'P'. Only then did he put his quill down and stand up. Silently, he glided over to Harry's potion and nodded approvingly.
Reaching into his robes, he withdrew a Hipworth potions test and dipped it into Harry's potion. As it dried, he then started casting numerous diagnostic charms on the potion. Eventually, Snape nodded satisfactorily, letting out a rare, genuine smile.
"Well Potter, it seems congratulations are in order. You have just become eligible to become the youngest ever potion's master."
"What? But I just made the potion following the instructions, how does that make me a potion's master?" Harry asked, stunned.
"You followed the instructions that you wrote, using the Wolfsbane potion as the basis and improving it with your own ideas. Then, using those instructions, you were able to flawlessly make your potion, in half the time it would take to make the standard Wolfsbane." Snape replied sarcastically.
"But you helped me!" Harry protested, "I wasn't my own work."
"Show me a potion master who earned their degree through entirely their own work, and I'll show you a dozen that didn't. And, as you well know, I provided minimal help when writing the instructions, no more than would be expected from a journeyman's tutor.
"Of course, you aren't there yet. I would highly recommend using this to get a Master's award, even if you have no wish of using it. I will exempt you from my class next year, on the condition that you spend the time writing up your thesis."
"My thesis?"
"Indeed. You will need to explain, in detail, your potion. For this, you'll need to start with the root potion, including all the research you did into it and how you started to come up with your ideas. Then you'll lead the reader through your efforts to create your new potion, finishing up with your observations of the finished product.
"With your consent, I will send a vial of this potion to the Potion Guild, asking them to send an examiner to review it next year during exam season. You will need to brew a new batch under test conditions, meaning you will be supervised the entire time, with the entire memory sent alongside your sample."
"But, I didn't do it for a mastery, I just wanted to improve the potion and make it easier for werewolves to get it!"
"I am aware, however, that is no reason for you to not profit from it now. At minimum, you would enjoy the discount on materials and potions offered to a master potioneer. It would also look exceptionally good on both your record, and my own."
"Okay, if you insist. I just… didn't expect this at all."
"I'm sure you'll manage… However, it does mean there is little I can teach you, certainly not enough to warrant weekly sessions. You simply need more experience brewing if you want to get better. So, we can either drop these sessions and stick to our biweekly sessions with Ms. Greengrass, or focus on something else."
"Actually, would it be possible for you to teach me Legilimency?" Harry asked cautiously.
"And why would you want to learn that skill, Mr. Potter?" Snape returned sardonically.
"Aside from the fact it sounds generally useful? I think it would help a lot in the upcoming task, since I heard you can achieve some sort of telepathy with Legilimency, something I'd probably find useful underwater."
"Indeed? I had assumed you had been gripped by a desire to see into the minds of your classmates, in which case I'd have to firmly deny your request."
Flushing, Harry shook his head vehemently. "No, I have no wish to see what they are thinking, it's bad enough hearing about it. But it should be useful for some of my future experiments, or duelling. For stuff like Metamorphmagi and Animagi, a lot of the process is mental, so I need to be able to see into their head to be able to replicate it."
"I see… Well, to start with, it is important you know it is highly illegal to use Legilimency on an unconsenting witch or wizard. Mental privacy is one of the Wizengamot's highest concerns, meaning not even you with your fame will get off lightly.
"Secondly, the mind is not a book, to be opened at will and examined at leisure. Thoughts are not etched on the inside of skulls, to be perused by any invader. The mind is a complex and many-layered thing, Potter. Your biggest issue will be that you can only observe that which you comprehend.
"That is to say, if your volunteer is imagining a concept you do not understand, then you will be unable to interact with it. Even the most powerful Legilimencer cannot overcome a failing of their own mind. I do not know of anyone who has attempted to use Legilimency in the way you desire, perhaps because none can comprehend as you can."
"So, you aren't saying it's impossible, just difficult?" Harry pressed.
"In a manner of speaking. The truth is, I am unwilling to say it can't be done, simply because I cannot. I fear that if I were to convince you it was impossible, then your mind would internalise that belief."
"And if my mind believes it's impossible, then I won't be able to comprehend it if it's real?" Harry finished. "Do you think my mithrilium will help me there?"
"I cannot say for sure. I do not believe your mithrilium will give you any sort of boost in your Legilimency, since it seems to only affect your own mental defences, while observing another's mind is purely strength of will. But, it may be that your mithrilium will allow you a comprehension beyond that of untouched minds."
"Does that mean you'll teach me?" Harry asked excitedly.
"Yes, although there will be caveats. Until I consider you competent, I will require your promise that you will not attempt Legilimency outside of our lessons. An untrained Legilimencer is like using a power whisk for surgery, you will learn nothing and potentially cause irreparable damage." Snape said pointedly, causing Harry to wince.
"If it's so dangerous, how can I learn without harming someone? Because I refuse to sacrifice people just to learn this." Causing Snape to quirk an eyebrow.
"While I do not disagree with your sentiment, you'll be pleased to know I had no plans of sacrifice. But, you will only enter a volunteer's mind with me accompanying you, which will allow me to guide you and prevent any damage.
"Furthermore, the volunteer will also need to be a competent occlumencer, to further protect against damage. Our problem will be to find such a volunteer, who would willingly open their defences for us."
"Hey, Daphne, you know how I said I'd need to learn Legilimency before we could work on you becoming an Animagus? Well, Snape said he'd teach me, but we need a volunteer with good occlumency, fancy volunteering?"
"Um, what?" She asked in confusion, having just been let into Harry's workshop. Harry wasted no time in filling her in on what Snape had told him, leaving her no less confused.
"So, I need to volunteer to have you read my mind, just so you can learn Legilimency, so that you can help me become an Animagus?"
"Err, yeah, basically. But, if it's any help, Snape says we won't be going anywhere near memories for a long time. Just emotions and getting used to entering another's mind. Plus, obviously if I do use Legilimency on you while you work on being an Animagus, I'd need to look pretty deep into your mind anyway."
"I'll think about it… I'm not too sure how I feel about having you in my head. Now, let's get to work on those runestones so you don't drown, which I feel would make it difficult for you to learn anything."
Things I think need explaining:
- Bequests: Magical version of copyright. Obviously it has weaknesses and loopholes, which I did sort of leave intentionally. There are also different 'scales', which is why the entirety of Parseltongue and Sigils can be protected, but also an individual spell like a Lumos can also be done. As Harry explores Sigils in later chapters, I will reveal why that is.
- Strength Ritual: I might change how it works as the story progresses, but it basically already expands a concept already in play here; Where a wizard's magic works to keep the body healthy, so someone could eat incredibly unhealthily with no exercise and still look healthy, but they would be wasting a lot of magic.
This ritual basically just removes the need to be healthy, while giving the energy that would be going directly into the body to the magic. In theory, this would work as a buffer, meaning it doesn't matter where you get the calories from. If anyone knows more about nutritional science than the 5 minute google search I took, then please correct me if I'm wrong!
- Harry's Potion: It was something vaguely mentioned a while ago, but never anything solid. It's something I realised as I was writing this chapter. I could lie and say something like 'It's to show Harry didn't consider it important', but that's not true.
The simple truth is, I needed something to lead into Snape teaching legilimency, and anything I could've written would've always struggled from the same problem; that I didn't write anything to pay it off. In a normal novel, I'd go back to previous chapters and wedge a few potion scenes in.
But I probably won't, mainly as a reminder to myself about planning and including appropriate foreshadowing. So, if you read that and felt Harry's achievement was unsatisfying, then you aren't alone.