September 5th, 1992

"So… What is this exactly Harry?"

"Well, as you know, I recently completed my Healing Ritual."

"Right, and Ron needed it almost immediately after you announced it."

"Hey!"

"Yes, he did… Anyway, I had to learn a lot of medical knowledge about the body and in doing so… I think I'm ready to make a Strengthening Ritual." Harry revealed. Neville's face twitched at that before he suddenly looked contemplative.

"What kind of risk do you think will be associated with this new ritual?" Neville asked right off the bat. He could understand why. Strengthening Rituals were extremely finnicky and even those who knew them rarely used such Rituals because of it.

"Less than ten percent and, if I'm right, that's more due to user error." Harry explained.

"Explain."

"First, I actually don't plan to make one Strengthening Ritual but several, four to be exact. Each one will need to take place at a different age. I'm planning for twelve, fourteen, sixteen, and eighteen for the final. Those are the earliest but technically they can all be done in adulthood if the person wants. This will help reduce the stress on the body while also prepping it for another future ritual use. Second, there will need to be a medical check to make sure that the person going into the ritual is at a certain level of health." Harry explained.

"How hard will this be compared to making the Healing Ritual?"

"Easier since I already had the anatomical and physiological knowledge necessary. Further, most of the focus will be on strengthening the bone structure and muscle density of the body. The rest of the body will have some necessary upgrades as well. The lungs for example to better increase oxygen intake." Harry told him.

"Okay… So, why are you telling me this?" Neville finally asked.

"For two reasons. I would like to propose a joining for this little project. I want you to be the first person to have this ritual done on them. In exchange, this ritual will be considered a Longbottom-Potter shared magic." Harry told his friend. Neville froze and suddenly looked extremely closely at Harry.

"Harry… Do you understand the implications of what you're doing?"

"I do."

The implications Neville was referring to was that exclusive magic shared in such a way, especially at the level they were talking about were usually only done to cement alliances beyond that of simple politics. It would mean Neville and Harry would be allies in both politics, conflict, and possibly even in certain economical ventures. It was an extreme sign of trust.

Neville looked carefully back at him for a moment as if trying to measure the words coming out of Harry to test if they were true. After the moment was over, Neville straightened in front of him.

"House Longbottom graciously accepts this gift from House Potter and shall honor the spirit in which it was given. From this day forward, as heir to House Longbottom, I pledge my house to working with and safeguarding House Potter."

"As heir to House Potter, I graciously accept House Longbottom's pledge and meet it with my own. House Potter shall work and safeguard House Longbottom until my dying breath. So, mote it be." Harry said. At the finishing of his words, a white flash went off between them showing magic recognized their pledge.

"You really shouldn't throw around such generous gifts Harry."

"It's not about being generous. It's about showing my level in trust. If Hermione and Ron were in the same position, I would have also included them in this as well."

"Does someone want to explain what just happened?" Hermione butted in looking extremely confused.

"I'm also lost." Ron muttered back as he looked between Harry and Neville completely lost. Neville smiled at them.

"I guess I can explain. As we have told you in the past, noble houses can make alliances with each other for common goals. You see this most often in a political arena these days but there are other alliances that go deeper. When houses wish to cement an alliance like the one, we just made in which they declare their entire house to the other, it is customary to give a valued gift to show the seriousness of the offer. Exclusive magic which is almost always made into family magic, of the level that Harry is offering could be worth ten's if not hundreds of thousands of galleons." Neville explained.

"Are you serious? Just for a ritual?" Ron questioned.

"Not just for any ritual though. Harry's track record when it comes to completed rituals as well as their overall safety makes them extremely valuable to others. Most rituals have some sort of risk associated with them not even taking into account that if performed incorrectly they can harm the user extremely."

"I have safety protocols built into all my rituals to cut all magical flow if the magic tries to go outside certain bounds or begins building up to non-specified levels." Harry added.

"Right. That makes them worth a lot. Those risk are the only reason you don't constantly see super wizards just running around all over the place." Neville explained. Ron nodded seeming to understand while Hermione looked at them strange.

"And this is all because Harry incorporated runes into his work? Surely someone would have thought about that by now?" Hermione pushed.

"You give magicals to much credit." Neville chuckled.

"From my research, the Age of Enlightenment never occurred in Magical Europe which causes many of its practices and line of thought to be… outdated." Harry explained. Neville nodded along.

"We're getting better these days but traditionalist have been dragging their feet which causes the process to be slow. So, you basically have an extremely small group of wizards coming up with most of the new items seen in the entire country. Magical Britain, I'm sad to say, is the worse when it comes to this, probably due to our isolation." Neville chimed in.

"There is no official census for magicals but it is estimated that there are about one hundred thousand magicals in the entire continent of Europe. The U.K has around ten thousand of them. Of that one hundred thousand, you have maybe five hundred churning out most of the new items and inventions of the entire continent. Most of those things are not groundbreaking either." Harry finished.

"So… In other words, almost everyone in the magical world is of a sedentary mindset where they see no need to improve further in the world around them being completely content for the most part. The ones that aren't are limited in either skill, drive, or resources. Meaning you basically have to be driven and lucky to achieve change." Hermione summarized.

"Pretty much. It does mean that there's a lot of options when it comes to change. While it may seem I'm a mastermind at this, I shall be the first to tell you that I am not. I know my rituals can be improved upon by either completely eliminating the use of foreign ingredients or by having a ninety-nine percent safety risk. I simply have not been able to figure out how. I'm just doing the best I can."

"I see. I guess there a lot of things that exist like that where it seems obvious and like it should've been figured out before it actually was.

"You also have to remember that Harry and you are both prodigies and most people take years to learn the amount of Arithmancy, Ancient Runes, and Magical Theory you have both accumulated." Neville teased causing Hermione to blush.

"Right. I guess you're right about that too."

"There's also the fact that I have studied and memorized Perenelle's Journal and its basically used as my Holy Bible when it comes to anything Rituals." Harry added.

"Yes, there is also that." Neville agreed.

"So… We can't join the alliance?" Ron asked. Harry and Neville exchanged a glance at that.

"Well… You could, but I didn't offer because it might seem a little… demeaning." Harry explained.

"What do you mean?" Hermione asked.

"Well, as you're both not part of Noble houses, the only way to join would be to enter into vassalage under me or Harry. In the eyes of others, you would be lesser than us." Neville finished.

"Oh." Ron mumbled.

"How do you even become a Noble house?" Hermione asked.

"You basically have to do something to aid the state in a remarkable way. Most recently, that just means you give the government a large sum of money. They also usually require your family to have been part of the magical world for at least a century. They can be waved though if what you did was great enough."

"Hmm." Hermione didn't seem happy about Neville's words but didn't say anything else. The silence didn't last long though as a knock appeared on the door of the clubroom startling all of them.

"Was that someone banging on the wall or an actual knock?" Ron asked the room.

"A knock… I assume that must be our new recruits." Harry answered with a frown. He turned to Hermione, "Can you let them in while I go get the paperwork ready?" Harry asked as he turned and started walking towards the desk.

"Of course." Hermione answered. Harry immediately started organizing his desk and cleaning it before putting most of his research in a drawer which he then locked. The only things left were two packets of parchment which had their sign-up forms as well as the rules and etiquette of the club.

He turned and saw that the two girls were already in the large room. They seemed to be looking around with interest. Neville's corner still had a small Herbology area as well a desk that now had several books and writing on it since he was completing assignments given by either him or Hermione to up his Arithmancy skill.

Ron's area had a similar set up but with a lot more papers scattered messily all over his own desk. Most of it would like gibberish to the casual observer and would still be somewhat confusing with Arithmancy knowledge but without certain understanding of the laws and rules of alchemy.

Hermione's own desk was much closer to Harry's in that it was extremely neat and organized with a several paper notebooks instead of parchment that she had been writing in. She had already begun work on her first spell and believed it would be done in a couple of weeks.

Harry's desk looked the most confusing considering how messy he normally kept it. Since guest were coming, he had kept all important documents hidden away for now.

He stood up and walked over to the two girls who Hermione was giving a tour of the room.

"…The center area which is the largest part of the room is usually kept pretty empty as it is where most of our experiments are conducted. You'll both have a desk assigned to you by the next time you come here. Professor Dumbledore should be bringing them in tonight at some point." Hermione informed.

"What about those bookshelves?"

"Ah, those books have to do with some common topics. Most creation of new magic requires an understanding of Arithmancy so we have several texts on it that have been donated. We also have text on Ancient Runes, Charms, as well as Curses and Hexes. There also is a book or two on both Occlumency and Legilimency. If you choose to delve into those, you may ask fellow club members to help you train as we all are competent in both arts." Hermione told them.

"You know Legilimency?" Daphne asked sharply.

"We do. We had to learn some for a certain project we did over the summer… Anyway, if you take a book from the shelf, you must check it out and you will be responsible until its return. You can check out a book for two weeks increments. Then you have to bring it back and allow twenty-four hours to check it out again giving others a chance to use it, then you may take it again. You can still read through it in the clubroom of course during those twenty-four hours. If there is a subject you wish to learn that you do not see, you can request the topic." Hermione told them.

"What if we want to learn a similar topic to someone in the club?" Tracey asked.

"You're allowed to of course but some topics are not included in this because we have no donated text, all texts are privately owned or lent to specific members. You'll notice we do not have any text on Alchemy for example. You can ask a fellow club member but they are allowed to say no." Hermione answered.

"How did Weasley get text on Alchemy?" Daphne questioned.

"He was gifted them." Hermione said simply. Daphne said nothing despite the look of disbelief on her face. Harry figured this was as good as time as any to approach.

"Here are the sign-up forms along with all the basic information about the club. Feel free to look it over and your own convenience." Harry told them as he handed each girl their own parchment. Daphne immediately began looking it over with a critical eye.

"I don't see anything here about when the clubroom closes." Daphne commented.

"It does not close." Harry said back.

"So, you could stay in here past curfew?"

"Yes, but at the point you'd probably want to stay overnight to not get caught after hours wandering the halls." Harry said.

"And we're allowed to do that?"

"Sure. Just don't go through other people's stuff when you do."

"Where would we sleep? There's not that much furniture in here." Tracey pointed out.

"I'm in here more than anyone. If you need a bed, just ask and I shall make you one." Harry told them

"You can conjure a bed?"

"Yes."

Harry simply sat there silently as both of the girls were looking at him with varying degrees of disbelief. He didn't bother to justify his claim though. They could choose for themselves whether or not they wanted to believe it.

"He's serious. Anything that's just basic Transfiguration, Harry can do. He's working on living Transfiguration and Reanimation." Neville defended for him.

"Man, is this just a club of prodigies?"

"I wouldn't say that, though, Harry and Hermione for sure are." Neville joked.

"And me." Ron argued from his assigned desk as he looked over papers.

"Eh… You're alright."

"Prat!"

Hermione giggled behind her hand at the exchange and Tracey joined her adding her own laughter. Daphne stayed stone-faced as usual though that was no longer a surprise to Harry. They waited for the laughter to die down before the girl spoke.

"We will have these back to you by tomorrow. Good day." Daphne said as she and Tracey bid farewell and left the clubroom. Harry watched them go silently. As soon as they left he made his way back to his own desk before calling Neville over.

"What can you tell me about those two?" Harry asked.

"Daphne and Tracey? Not much I suppose. We're not exactly friends, though, we've spoken in the past. They've been friends since they were kids though. Both of them are from neutral houses if that's what you're worried about."

"Anything else?"

"Not really. Like I said, I don't know them that well."

"So, you have no idea why they'd suddenly want to join our club? No motives or anything?" Harry pushed.

"Well…"

"Well, what?"

"She could be trying to find a way to cure the Greengrass Curse…"

"What's the Greengrass Curse?"

"Greengrass women die unusually young for their age. Usually around forty I think. No one has figured out why but it's been like that for the past century and a half. Furthermore, their line seems to produce mostly girls which doesn't help. Daphne's father married into the line as did her grandfather, I think."

"I see… So you believe she may be hoping this club will help her find a cure for this curse?"

"I don't pretend to understand what's going on in someone like Greengrass's head. I imagine the only one who could say with accuracy what she is thinking is Tracey. Maybe she is but it's also likely she's trying to develop some of her own magic for profit. Her family is big in both imports and exports throughout all of Europe. Maybe hearing what Ron was able to accomplish made her think she could do something similar." Neville suggested.

"Thank you, Neville. I'll have to think further on this."

"No problem Harry. I wouldn't worry about it too much. Greengrass is good at finding out things you don't want her too but I don't think she's the type to steal from you or anything."

"Hmm…"

A Couple of Hours Later

"Are you sure about this Harry?" Albus asked

"I promised her I would allow it. Our time of day seems to be synced for the most part so it should be happening rather soon." Harry said back.

Since Ciri had told her guardians about Harry and the… unique situation she was in, they had been forced to change their approach knowing that Harry was apparently the one in control of Ciri's mind shields. Since they needed his permission to lower them so Ciri wouldn't be assaulted by the presence, they had no choice but to reveal their plans to Ciri, at least to some extent.

As they had thought, the sorceress known as Triss wished to put Ciri in a state where the presence would hopefully be attracted to her and once more take hold. According to Ciri, Triss had confronted her the next day after she had spoken to her guardians about Harry.

It wasn't entirely unexpected; she had been somewhat concerned that Ciri was apparently hearing voices in her when she slept as well as when she was awake on occasion. That concern turned to weariness once Ciri had explained more on the situation.

As Ciri had been gracious enough to show Harry the memory of her meeting with Triss, he believed she was somewhat concerned that Harry did exist but was simply pretending to be a boy around Ciri's age. It wasn't really something he hadn't considered but he had at least been happy that the sorceress seemed genuinely concerned for Ciri's sake. That made her okay in Harry's book.

"I understand but we still don't know of the presence is entirely benign in nature. What if it responds negatively to being summoned in such a way? According to you, the sorceress who has spoken to young Ciri also does not know the answer."

"She does not believe it will have any unnatural consequences and it should hopefully go as expected. Just like Ciri trust me when I tell her your own advice, I have to trust her when she tells me the advice given to her by her own guardians." Harry shot back as he laid out on a couch that he had transfigured in Albus's office.

"I suppose you're right… I see your Transfiguration has gotten better. You even got the pattern on the cushioning correct."

"Once you understand the difference in mass between one object and another, Transfiguration is all concentration and power. Both are things I happen to be very good at." Harry commented.

"True enough, though, not something most have in spades until later on."

"That's not exactly their fault. Most children aren't yet especially driven to put in the concertation necessary without becoming frustrated."

"While true, you still worked for your success, do not be so quick to diminish it." Albus pointed out. Harry shrugged.

"I guess…"

"Do you think you're lack of acceptance on your own success stems from something in particular? Your childhood perhaps?"

"Are you psychoanalyzing me?"

"Just making conversation until your little experiment occurs."

"Hmm… I guess it's possible. I hadn't really thought about it. It could also be that I measure my own success differently than others measure it. My true goal is to develop a magical method to traverse worlds. All my other experiments are more just to broaden both my knowledge and experience in certain necessary areas." Harry decided to answer.

"Perhaps you're right. I still believe you should take in what you're doing more often and realize how truly amazing it is. You have developed an entire new branch of magic."

"A sub-branch at best. Let's not stroke my ego too much now." Harry chuckled a little.

"How close are you do you think then to your own version of success?"

"Far. The more I learn on the subject, the more I see how far out I am. I'm basically trying to manipulate or even alter the laws of time and space. The only reference of people doing so that I can find basically say that they did it by accident. Expansion charms and the like are a good example. Did you know we're still not exactly sure how they work? Magic makes it happen and that's about all we know. They were made completely by accident." Harry pointed out.

"I did know that actually. Still, I hope you aren't giving up hope."

"Of course not, it will just require me to do a lot of the footwork myself. Up to this point, I have been rather reliant on previously known knowledge that I alter or base my own work on. At some point though, it will be entirely new territory. I think I'm really going to push this year to finalize all I know on previous topics and then next year I'm going to start really push into an entirely new area."

"Interesting. Very interesting. Well, I shall look forward to seeing what you come up with then."

"Assuming I can come up with anything."

"I have confidence that you will." Albus said with a tone of finality. Harry decided not to push the issue and simply stay quiet as he closed his eyes and simply waited patiently. He wasn't really sure what the holdup was at this point. Maybe they were just trying to give him extra time to make sure he didn't randomly pass out somewhere.

His thoughts were suddenly interrupted as he felt a now familiar presence descend on him almost as if summoned by his skeptical thoughts. He rolled his eyes and waited at this point. It paused for a moment then dove in his mind. He felt the usual numbness as his head went blank and his world went completely black.

Unknown Amount of Time Later

Harry blinked back to consciousness, though something wasn't quite right. He was no longer in Albus's office as he should have been when he woke up once more. Instead, he was back in his mindscape, laying on one of the couches he left permanently there. He sat up and looked around in confusion for a moment.

This was the first time where after he had not simply woken up on the outside world when the presence was finished with him. He wondered what was different about it this time.

"Harry."

He immediately whipped his head around and saw Ciri standing over by one of the bookshelves that was meant to contain some of his memories. He was about to answer her but frowned as he noticed she was almost partially hiding behind the bookshelf. She looked frazzled and was rapidly motioning for him to come over to her. He scrunched his brow but stood up and made his was calmly over to her.

"What's wrong? Why are we whispering?" Harry asked. Ciri looked behind him and simply pointed. Harry looked over to where she was pointing and saw… something.

He had no idea what it was from first glance, but it was standing over by Ciri's bookshelves and seemed to be some sort of shadow, or maybe a silhouette. It seemed to have a dark purple aura around it that rolled down and dissipated away once it reached the floor. Though the most concerning thing was simply how it stood there, menacingly.

"What is that?" Harry asked.

"You think I know?"

"… Good point. Has it done anything?"

"No, it's just standing there." Ciri whispered back never taking her eyes off the apparition. Harry, instead of focusing on what he could see, tried to instead focus on what he could feel. As he reached out into the magic around him, he felt his own magic near the beings. He made sure it did not touch it to not accidently set it off.

His first conclusion was that whatever this being was, it was at least somewhat related to the presence that would occasionally enter Ciri's mind. He came to this conclusion based on the fact that it's magic felt exactly like it.

"I… I think it's a visual representation of the presence within our mindscape. It's possible that due to the way you were knocked out and basically summoned it, instead of knocking us out, it essentially just put us in the backseat while it's driving."

"What does that mean?"

"It means it just switched out positions with us being in the mind and it being out and present. I don't think it's really here with us… Hold on. I'm going to get a closer look." Harry said as he moved from behind the shelf and slowly made his way over.

"Be careful." Ciri hissed from behind him. He nodded but kept moving forward slowly. It took him almost a whole minute to finally get over to the point where he was standing next to the presence. It still hadn't made a move since it had arrived and it also hadn't acknowledged him in anyway.

"Hello?" He called out cautiously to it.

"Harry!" Ciri hissed from her position in warning. There didn't seem to be a need though, nothing happened when he spoke to it.

"I think it's fine. It doesn't seem to be registering that we're here." Harry said back as he became a little more comfortable and started moving around the… thing. He examined it closely and could almost make out…

"I think it has a face." Harry called back to Ciri.

"What?" Ciri asked as she tentatively left the safety of the bookshelves and slowly made her way over. Harry pointed up near the top of the silhouette as he look back and squinted at it.

"It's hard to tell but I feel like when I look really hard at it, I can almost make out some features. Can you see what I mean?" Harry asked as his friend finally joined him over by the figure.

"… Sort of. It almost looks like a woman maybe?"

"Hmm, I think you're right. Does that mean this presence is a person invading your mind then?" Harry muttered mostly to himself as he began examining the magic of the silhouette more closely.

"It feels strange… Almost wrong." Harry continued.

"How do you mean?"

"It's somewhat hard to explain… You know that feeling you get when you're alone but the hairs on the back of your neck stand up and you feel kind of like you're being watched?"

"Yes."

"It's almost kind of like the magical equivalent of that. It's like I can tell something is off but I can't quite put my finger on it. All I can tell you is that this… whatever this is, it's wrong. Almost like it shouldn't exist."

"Wait, if it's in our mind then doesn't that mean you can go into its mind?"

"Well… it doesn't seem to have barriers but if it finds me snooping around, it may react negatively and try and hurt us." Harry pointed out.

"Right, but it could also tell us what it wants. Will it even notice while its apparently possessing me?" She asked. Harry thought about that. Technically, Ciri was right. If it was possessing Ciri, that should make it vulnerable to mind attacks itself. Of course, that was just how it worked in more normal possession situations; this didn't exactly follow the rules on that.

"Well… I guess I could try. Maybe if I'm careful, I can lower the chances of it noticing my intrusion." Harry mumbled as he prepared himself.

He took a step back and pointed his finger at the silhouette. He then called the spell out loud for good measure.

"Legilimens." He whispered as a soft white light appeared from the tip of his finger and then collided into the apparition.

As soon as it did, Harry knew he had made a mistake. His mind was pulled into… something. It certainly wasn't another mind. He didn't know what it was, all he saw were flashes of images before his body suddenly doubled over and he fell to the ground. So many images seared themselves into his mind that he couldn't even take time to process them. If that was not bad enough, his entire body felt like it decided to activate every pain receptor it had. Given the lack of options, he did the only thing he could do in this moment. He screamed.

He didn't know how long he had been screaming or when the pain images stopped, all he knew was that when his mind could finally process what was happening around him again, he was curled up in a ball on the ground shaking violently while Ciri held him tightly asking him panic clear in her tone to calm down.

"Harry please!"

"Ci-Ciri?" He asked barely keeping the shivers and convulsing he was going through under control enough for him to get out her name.

"Harry? Are you okay? Oh my god! This is all my fault; I should have never pushed you into doing that." Ciri cried as she held him closer to her chest. Harry took several deep breaths as he looked down at himself and noticed there didn't appear to be anything physically wrong with him.

"Ho-How l-long wa-as I out?" He stuttered through grit teeth.

"You were screaming for several minutes before you went silent and just started shaking." Ciri informed still refusing to relinquish her tight hold on him. Not that he minded at this moment. He didn't respond to that he just continued to lay there as he tried to get his body back under control. His body was no longer in pain but is still felt… raw.

Harry thought about what he saw now that he was finally able to put some actual thought into it and wasn't distracted by crazy amounts of pain.

"It was-sn't a-a per-rson." He said managing to keep his voice a little more even and under control after a few minutes.

"What?"

"The pres-sence… It-t wasn't-t a person." Harry informed.

"Harry, you don't have to…"

"No! if we don't talk, then It'll have been for nothing. I want to go over it. All of it." Harry demanded after finally getting the stutter completely gone from his voice. He felt Ciri's hand's ball up his shirt at that.

"Okay… Explain. It wasn't a person. What was it?"

"I don't know. It felt like a person but it wasn't."

"A person that's not a person?"

"I… Like a person but not a whole person. Almost like a fragment of a person."

"A fragment of a person, is that possible?"

"I'm not really sure. I've never encountered anything like that before. There was rage too. So much of it that I couldn't even process it all. It just felt like it washed over and paralyzed me. Then there was the fire…"

"Fire?"

"Fire everywhere… It burned into me, it seeped into my skin and scorched my insides till I could feel nothing else but the licking flames. And when I was being consumed right before my voice went hoarse, I called out something… It was like I was both experiencing and watching at the same time." Harry muttered.

"I don't even know what that could mean."

"…it doesn't make sense. It had no mind; it was nothing but emotion and pain and… And magic. All of that rolled up into one thing." Harry said as he started to feel himself start to understand.

"Harry?"

"It's a curse… That's why it completely made of magic and has no mind but still has fragments of emotions. It's the emotions and memories that are fueling it."

"A curse? You're saying someone tried to curse me? Why? And why wouldn't it hurt me then? Other than the knock out any time it comes around, it doesn't do anything else to me. Triss checked me last time."

"I don't think it's a normal curse. From the fragments I saw, I believe it to be a certain kind of a curse, a Blood Curse to be specific."

"Didn't you mention that to me at one point?"

"Yes, about Blood Magic. Blood Magic is powerful magic usually created an anchored with some form of sacrifice. This can be anything from a cut on the hand to a full-blown death. The flashes I saw make me believe this is the full-blown death kind."

"Okay… So, if you're right, how bad is that?"

"Bad. Possibly the worse situation this could possibly be type bad." Harry said gravely causing Ciri to frown in worry.

"… So where do we go from here?" Ciri asked.

"I… I'm not sure. Blood Curse's especially at this level are almost never broken. The kind of power they wield is not one that can be matched by normal magical means. Normal curses are already an annoyance to deal with, usually requiring knowledge of the counter-curse to dispel. There are no counter-curses to Blood Magic. The only way you can get rid of it is figuring out how to sever the magic from the host. You would need a powerful Purifying ritual for that…" Harry was left muttering by the end of his explanation.

He had been working on a Purifying ritual himself but it was still having some trouble with it. Even worse, even if he completed it, he would need to find a way that it could be used on Ciri which meant not only making it but making it in a way that it could be replicated in a different world that used a different system of magic and many different magical creatures. In other words… he was screwed.

"Harry?" He looked up at his name and saw Ciri staring down at him in concern. As he looked back at her, he swallowed the doubt he was feeling and gained a serious look.

"Ciri. You trust me, right?"

"Yes?"

"Then trust me when I say that one way or another, we're going to find a way to get rid of this curse. I promise you." He told her. She blinked as she seemed to process those words before smiling down at him looking as if she didn't have a care in the world.

"I know you will Harry." She said softly as she ran her fingers in a comforting motion through his hair. Harry closed his eyes for a moment as he just enjoyed the sensation for a moment. They descended into silence as Harry continued to regain control of himself as well as starting to bring their mind shields back up to full strength.

"Should I tell what we've learned to Triss?"

"If you wish. She may have more knowledge than me about how you gained the curse and may even have a way to get rid of it that I do not yet know of. If not, if she has ANY information, it could be useful for us to learn."

"Should I mention… What happened to you?" She asked tentatively. Harry thought for a moment before shrugging.

"It does not bother me if you do. I shall trust whatever decision you make. Again, maybe it will help her better figure out the situation that I cannot see."

"Alright… Shall we move to the couch?"

"I think that'll be more comfortable. I don't think I shall be in the mood for any studying tonight."

"I couldn't agree more."