October 31st, 1992

Harry blinked as he tried to concentrate on the work in front of him with little success.

Today was Halloween, and as he tried to do last Halloween, he was spending almost his entire time secluded in the clubhouse. This year, Hermione, Neville, and Ron had all decided to go down to the festivities, most likely to avoid any sort of incident like last year. Harry, on the other hand, was fairly confident he didn't have to worry about running into another Mountain Troll anytime soon.

Besides, while he didn't mind his friends for wanting to participate in the festivities, this was still the day his parents died, and he had no plans to celebrate that. If anything, his mood had been almost supernaturally brought down to a low level the entire day.

What's worse, he was currently stressing about Ciri's situation. The convoy she was a part of was attacked and Ciri had been somewhat light on an explanation, likely to get him to not worry much. Unfortunately, her lack of details caused the opposite effect of Harry just worrying even more. Her subdued and somber attitude for nearly a week after it had happened had also not helped. He had been half tempted to just look through the girl's memories and see for himself what happened but held himself back. That might have been a step too far.

"Potter?" He blinked at the call of his name. He turned around as he pulled himself out of his thoughts. He made immediate eye contact with one of his club members. In hindsight, he really should have known who it was before he turned around. There was only one person who referred to him exclusively by his last name.

"Greengrass." he said back politely to the stone face blonde who was simply standing in the middle of the room looking at him.

"What are you doing here?"

"Working. And yourself?"

"I just wished to escape the festivities and figured I might as well do something productive." She answered. He rose an eyebrow at that.

"You left Tracey by herself?"

"Tracey can look out for herself. She doesn't need me watching back all the time." Daphne said back as she moved over to her desk with her schoolbag and began pulling out various papers. Harry decided not to point out that this was the first time he had seen one of them without the other also in their presence. He had a feeling he would just be glared at for that observation.

"So, you don't take any breaks yourself, it would seem."

"Only when I'm forced to by well-meaning friends." Harry answered truthfully. It's not like she hadn't already seen examples of how protective his friends sometimes got when it looked like he was overworking himself.

"Apparently not even for holidays."

"Today is not a day I would ever consider a holiday." Harry said back gravely. Greengrass looked up at him in confusion for a moment before he saw her eyes light up in understanding.

"Ah. Forgive my blunder in not realizing what other significance this day would have to you." Daphne apologized.

"It's fine. It was not on purpose." Harry answered back as he turned back to his work, effectively ending the conversation. Luckily, Daphne seemed to pick up on the hint and did not say anything else to him.

Harry looked back at his ritual plans and still was no further in finding either a runic array or any combination of magical ingredients that would do what he wanted. Purification was essentially just returning something to a previous state. The problem was, returning something to a previous state, exactly the way it used to be was impossible. Even his Healing ritual didn't technically do that. It's not like it could return someone to their prime or anything.

He could find ways to do what he wanted in a sub-par form of course. Perenelle had a basic Purification, after all, that she had shared with him but he wanted something much better than what she offered him, as nice as it was. It needed to be able to purge ALL foreign magic if necessary. Ironically, the thing he wanted to use the ritual for the most was the thing that was causing him the most issue. Blood magic cast on someone integrated deeply into that person and seemed to become almost indistinguishable from a person's magic.

So, the question was first, how would you even identify the curse from the person's magic? Second, even if you could, how do you then basically remove what was essentially part of someone's magic without causing possibly irreparable damage?

He had a few ideas about the second item on that list but the identifying part was the thing currently giving him the most trouble. If only he could directly interact with Ciri's real body. Then he could run diagnostics to at least see if he could help differentiate between her magic and where the curse started. Her mindscape body representation could only be so real after all.

"I hear you are performing some sort of experiment tomorrow." Daphne's voice called out from behind him. He lifted his head and looked over at her. She was staring at him, unyielding. Harry had a mini-debate on how much he should say. In truth, while he didn't want it spreading around the kinds of rituals he could do, he also wasn't really trying to hide this one.

"I am yes. It is one of the first things I created. It'll be my first time using it on a human though." Harry revealed. He didn't bother figuring out how the girl knew what he was doing. She had probably overheard it from Hermione or Neville yesterday. Either that or Tracey did. The rest of his group had gotten much more comfortable with the two girls and concealed less from them these days. Harry was similar in his own way even if he still maintained some distance from them.

"May I ask what it does or is it private?" She asked. Harry knew the girl was suspicious of him to some extent. Mainly because he seemed to have an extraordinary amount of knowledge of rituals and he never had revealed why.

That being said, in two months, Harry had gotten a certain read on Greengrass and didn't believe she was in this club to steal anybody's work. He couldn't be sure if she was actually pursuing some cure as Neville had suggested once but he did know she was extremely studious and was extremely willing to put in the effort into things she viewed as worth her time.

"It is not private. It Is a ritual that has the potential to grant Mundanes an artificial core that would allow them to perform magic. I have already tested it on several animals which were all successful." Harry mentioned as he scribbled down some simple formulas on the paper on his desk.

"… Are you serious?"

"Yes. Why?"

"You found an actual way to just make anyone magical? And you don't see how crazy that sounds?" She asked him rhetorically showing disbelief on her normally blank face. He idly noticed that he seemed to be the best out of breaking her out of such emotionlessness.

"It was easier than you would think. Imbuing something with magic via ritual was already known, tweaking that to apply to living creatures, while not exactly simple, was less difficult than you would think. You just need to take into account that to perform magic, a person needs two things. First, they need a magical core, and second, they need a magical body. The artificial core is the hard part because you basically need to make a heavily dense magical point in a person's body to the point it can maintain its own shape. After that, you just need to anchor it to the body which isn't too hard either.

"How do you just make a highly dense point of magic?"

"I have several power sources all putting magic in the same designated place then I put a magical boundary around that spot to not allow it to escape outward." Harry explained.

"And that works?"

"As long as you anchor the magic to the person in time, yes. Magic is just energy so it doesn't really occupy space the same way physical matter does. That being the case, it's not like it hurts the person to have the core, though, I expect they might feel a sort of tingling sensation throughout their body for a while." Harry clarified.

"I see… So, you're working on Rituals too then?" She asked what had been bothering her since the beginning.

"Something like that, yes." He answered back. He had already revealed enough, for now, he didn't want to go into his Runic Rituals yet. Baby steps, as it were.

"Which is how you know so much about them… I assume Dumbledore taught you about them?"

"Dumbledore knows OF rituals but when it comes to performing and creating them, he is quite lacking." Harry answered with a snort.

"That's surprising to hear."

"For most I suppose… Dumbledore is an extremely intelligent man but if you spend enough time with him, you realize he is just a man. He makes mistakes and he certainly doesn't know everything. Still, I would argue he is a good starting point on most subjects." Harry continued easily.

"So, how did you learn so much about rituals then?"

"Someone helped me with them and gifted me with some knowledge on the subject as thanks for a favor I did for them."

"Apparently?"

"Apparently." Harry reiterated not going into detail about what happened last year and why the Flamels had initially felt they owed him.

"Hmm… And would it be too much then to ask with your expertise on my work?" Daphne probed.

"That would depend on what you are working on."

"I assume you already have an idea. Given your attitude towards Tracey and me. I bet you have asked Longbottom what he knows about us so I am sure you have heard of my family's situation." Daphne answered coldly. Harry blinked, taken aback by the bluntness of the girl directly calling him out. He schooled his features quickly though as he looked at her.

"So, the curse is true then… Is it as bad as I have heard?" Harry asked.

"Yes." She answered seriously. Harry closed his eyes in thought. His first instinct was to shut her out. His ritual was basically the same as what she needed to make which meant she would find out more about his specific methods by working with him.

On the other hand, if what Neville said was true, then Greengrass's mom was in the later stages of her affliction. This was a possibly rare opportunity that had just dropped into his lap. He had an actual person who had what was likely a blood curse attacking their system which should make it the best opportunity to observe one. In essence, it was a trade-off. That being said, Greengrass was also reaching out in trust to him with something delicate and he wasn't so dumb to not notice how hard that must've been for her. It was likely a testament to how much she cared about her family that she was willing to put her faith in someone she hardly knew if it meant having a chance to cure their affliction.

"Very well. You shall help me with my next project then." Harry decided after a deep breath. Even though he knew it was unneeded, he still felt like he just took a leap of faith that he wasn't ready for. Then again, he likely never would be, something he was very well aware of about himself.

"I think you misunderstood. I wanted your help on what I was working on." Greengrass stated with a frown.

"I heard you correctly the first time. The current project I am working towards is a high-level Purification Ritual." Harry explained. Daphne frowned as she processed that information.

"So, you knew I was going to ask you this then." She commented not looking happy about that for some reason. Harry didn't bother thinking about it though since it was incorrect.

"No, I have my reasons for wanting to create such a ritual. I've been thinking about doing it for months now but really started in August after some things ended up happening… Either way, it's just a happy coincidence or unfortunate circumstances that have led us to be working on the same project at the same time." Harry told to her. If he wasn't quite ready to speak on Runic Rituals with her, then there was no way that he could tell her about Ciri.

"I see…" Daphne said looking searchingly at him. He shrugged and looked down at his papers again. He frowned as soon as he did remembering his predicament. Should he simply explain his predicament and simply hope she would volunteer to ask her mother? That seemed a bit insensitive. Furthermore, he was a little nervous about going to meet this girl's family. He didn't know her that well after all.

He was once more drawn from what he was thinking and doing when he heard a scrapping noise next to him. He snapped his neck to his left and saw that Daphne was now sitting on the side of his desk with a chair she had brought over from her desk. It also looked like she had brought over several papers and books as well. He eyed her for a moment as she settled in and then looked at him. She gave a raised eyebrow at his continued silence.

"What? You said you wished to work together." She justified. Harry didn't know what to say to that.

"I guess I did… Alright then, hold on one moment. Harry said as he reached into his desk and pulled out a book. It was small and bound together with a leather strap. He eyed it for a moment as he thought of what he was about to do. He sighed as he then handed it to her.

"Here." He said as he handed her the book. She took it and looked it over curiously.

"What is this for?"

"You've learned about properties by now, it's time to learn more on the actual ritual side. Within that book, you'll find most of the common knowledge when it comes to different symbols and their magical effects on rituals. It also goes into certain symbolic gestures used in rituals as well as their importance." Harry told her as she took it and looked at it with a new interest.

"I've never heard of such a book. Who wrote it?"

"I did. It was one of my first journals when I started on rituals. It's a condensed form of a lot of the knowledge I found scattered in other books and sources. Some of it is things I added from my own experience though." Harry told her.

"You already have this much knowledge? How many rituals have you made?"

"Three, though I make rituals for specific reasons, not just because I can. I know how to make lots of rituals already if I wanted to. I guess you will eventually know how to as well. Oh, and here." He said reaching into his drawer and pulling out another book before handing it to her.

"What's this one?"

"It's all the Don'ts of creating rituals. Rituals, are like potions, if you mess them up the results can be… bad. You can't account for everything of course but there are some things you can account for to lower the risk. Familiarize yourself with that book as much as possible… Also, I hope I don't need to say this but please do not deface my books. I will want them back at some point." Harry told her blandly. She shot him a small glare but nodded.

"Obviously."

"Good. Try to have them both done by next week and then you should be able to help offer some insight." Harry told her. The books weren't too long each, just several hundred pages total. Harry had no doubt she could be done with it tomorrow if she wanted to. Confirming his thoughts, she continued nodding with no other complaint.

"I shall get started now then. Do you believe there are any other prerequisites necessary to aid in this endeavor?"

"How's your arithmancy?" Harry asked.

"I believe I have fourth years comprehensive understanding." She responded.

"Hmm, I would boost that a bit if you could. There's a book on the shelf over there that I can recommend. Along with that, I will write down some formulas that I have found to be helpful working with rituals." Harry explained to her. Rituals had less of a base in math than normal spell creation, but once runes were added into the twist, having a base in the subject was helpful. Although he wasn't ready to go into everything with her right now, he was sure at some point, he'd have to.

"You seem to already have a solid base in this yourself. Are you sure you've only made three rituals?"

"Yes, though, as I have said, I am capable of making more, I simply choose not to… Well, it is getting pretty late, I suppose I should head back to my dorm." Harry muttered as he looked at the coin tied to a chain in his pocket that displayed the time.

"I'm surprised. This will be the first time I have actually seen you leave this room." Daphne commented. He couldn't quite tell if she was teasing him or not, her voice gave nothing away.

"Yes, well, I'd rather get some extra sleep tonight." Harry explained. Despite his speaking with her, Harry still felt the overall tone of the day to be a somber one and would prefer to simply retreat to his mindscape.

"I understand, I suppose I shall leave as well. It would seem I have a lot of homework all of a sudden." She commented as she picked up the several books he had given her, including the one he had pointed out on the shelf for her to take.

"Sorry?"

"It's fine. Shall we?"

"Did you want me to walk you to your common room?" Harry asked curiously. He didn't see why they needed to leave at the same time.

"No, but we're both heading in the direction of the stairs, might as well go there together." Daphne pointed out. Harry shrugged not seeing an issue with the logic.

"Very well."

With that, Harry finished packing up his desk and began heading to the door where Greengrass was waiting. He gave her a brief nod signaling he was ready to go and she returned it before they opened the door and headed out into the open hallway. When they had both exited, Harry shut the door behind him and it disappeared into the wall.

"I'll never get used to that?"

"What?"

"The way the door just disappears once you close it. It's rather an impressive bit of magic, even if it does seem a bit overkill."

"If you say so. They're dangerous things in the room, especially at Ron's desk. He tends to leave things out and by now, you know how Alchemy goes." Harry said as they headed down the hall.

"I didn't know things even exploded in Alchemy."

"Neither did Ron until two weeks ago. At least he learned his lesson though. He seems to have a bad habit of using too much magic in his experiments. He'll smooth out as he gets more experience in the art." Harry said referencing an incident that had happened several weeks ago, with Ron as he worked on a new experiment.

"I see..." Daphne said, not seeming convinced. Harry didn't say anything further though as they walked away. As they approached another corridor, Harry heard a loud clattering noise from another corridor they were approaching.

Harry felt his brow furrowing as he looked at Daphne and saw she too looked tense suddenly at the noise. Harry turned back and moved to the corner so he could glance around it. As he did so, he idly remembered last Halloween when he got attacked by a Troll while protecting his friends. He doubted something like that would be happening again but given the similarities of the night so far… He couldn't help but be a little nervous about it.

As Harry looked around the corner, he luckily didn't see a Troll waiting for him. His eyes did immediately go to the end of the hall where he saw a figure quickly disappear at the other end. He frowned as he took in the rest of the hall and saw that there was a tipped-over bucket in the middle of the floor which must have been the noise that they had heard.

"What is it?"

"I'm not sure. There's a tipped-over bucket in the middle of the hall and someone just ran off."

"Did you see who?"

"No, they were already rounding the corner when I checked. It's also dark so I couldn't make out anything really about them. I think it might have been a girl though."

"Why?"

"The hair looked like it was longer and past their shoulders. I don't think there are any males with hair that long currently attending Hogwarts." Harry pointed out.

"Alright, that's fair. Let's go see what they were doing." Daphne said.

"Or… or, we could turn around and get someone else to deal with this. I don't want to stick my nose in something that's going to possibly chop it off." Harry said back as he didn't move a step closer.

"The bucket… You think the bucket is going to hurt you?"

"Not necessarily. I don't know what might possibly try to hurt me, but I'd rather not risk it."

Daphne gave him a look that he assumed was the way someone would look at an ant crawling up their arm. Unfortunately, he didn't really care about receiving such a look so he simply stared back at her.

"Fine, I shall do it myself." Daphne said as she brushed past him. Harry frowned at the action as he watched her back get closer and closer to the bucket. He gave a brief sigh and soon followed after her. Was he a bad person because he had a strong sense of self-preservation? He didn't think so. He had a lot of dangerous, life-threatening things happen in his short life.

"Finally decided to man up?" Daphne commented as he joined her by the tipped-over bucket.

"Shut up…" Harry said as he eyed the liquid spilling over the stone that made up the ground.

"Do you think that's paint?" Daphne asked quietly. Harry didn't immediately answer, instead, he pulled out his wand and cast a spell over the liquid. It was a simply diagnostic spell used by healers. Harry waited for the results to be fed into his mind.

"It's blood…" Harry revealed as he took in the information. Daphne stiffened at that revelation as she crouched down on the floor to get a closer look.

"Human?" She asked seeming somewhat nervous.

"No, an animal. A bird though the spell doesn't tell me which one." Harry answered as he looked at the bucket before looking down the hall at where the culprit had sprinted down curiously. Why would someone be carrying around a bucket of animal blood?

"Could it be… For magic?" she asked. Harry frowned as he considered her words.

"Blood magic, as far as I know, doesn't really make use of animal blood, and this isn't even a magic animal… Perhaps a ritual but there are very few that use mundane animals as ingredients. They're… inefficient." Harry thought out loud.

"Well, if it was a student, maybe the person was limited on the parts they could get."

"Possibly… Still, rituals are a rare magic most don't know or utilize beyond hearing from word of mouth. The chances of THREE students working on rituals at the same time at Hogwarts is unlikely." Harry responded.

"Then what do you think they were using this for?"

"I have no idea…" Harry admitted as he looked up in thought. As he did so, the moon which had been hiding behind some cloud cover, broke through it and illuminated the hallway where they were standing in. Harry found his gaze now filled with a sight that he hadn't been able to see a moment ago.

"Daphne…"

"What?"

"Look up."

Daphne looked up from the strange mystery bucket and although he was still staring at the wall, he could see her standing next to him before freezing at the image in front of her. For a moment, they did nothing but gaze at the wall together, almost as if they were both afraid to break the stunned silence.

"Daphne. Go get Dumbledore, now!" Harry ordered seriously. It was a testament to how serious she took the situation as she didn't even question or snap at him for ordering her around. She immediately turned and immediately started jogging away. As she did so, Harry looked and the words written in blood on the wall.

The Chamber of Secrets is Open! Enemies of the Heir Beware

Two Hours Later

"I have already taken Ms. Greengrass's account. Thank you for having her bring this incident to me directly. I have asked her to keep it quiet for now" Albus informed him from behind his desk looking at Harry seriously. Harry, on his part, was not sitting across from him but pacing back in forth as he tended to do when nervous. By this point, Harry had a couple of hours to think and nothing he was coming up with was good.

"Are you alright, Harry?"

"Alright? Really? No, I'm not alright… Let's think about this for a moment. The last declared Heir of Slytherin was Lord Voldemort. Now, hopefully, this is an isolated incident that's just a poor prank by a student. However, given what happened last year, we both know there's a real possibility that… HE is involved with this. Do you agree?"

"Harry…"

"Do. You. Agree?" Harry glared feeling too anxious to be polite at the moment and as much as he liked the man, this wasn't a time for Dumbledore to be hiding things from him.

"There is a possibility yes. But we should not jump to conclusions just yet. From what you have told me, the person fleeing from the scene was another student."

"Yes, but we know he has the ability to possess people." Harry pointed out.

"I haven't seen any of our students wearing hats and turbans this year." Dumbledore commented with a small smile of amusement. Harry glared in response.

"Please take this seriously."

"Harry, we have more than a hundred students and the only thing you can tell me about this person who may not have even been involved is that they were female."

"They also weren't at the feast, or at least weren't there the whole time. That has to limit it."

"Maybe, but if we start enquiring and you're right, we may tip our hand too early and alert the very person we are trying to investigate. If it is possession, Lord Voldemort may choose to leave the person and that can be detrimental to the student." Dumbledore answered. Harry frowned at that but couldn't say anything to it. He didn't want Voldemort on the loose but he didn't want someone to die because they weren't careful.

"Besides, I do not genuinely believe this is Lord Voldemort himself. At most, I believe this may be someone acting for him." Albus confided in him. Harry looked at the man as he stopped pacing.

"Why?"

"It's too soon. Even worse, it's a little too high profile to announce it like this. It's a little too amateur." Albus told him.

"…Perhaps you're right. I suppose you would know best… Still, I hope you keep an eye on the situation. I don't want to have a repeat of last year." Harry told him pointedly. Albus nodded looking somewhat embarrassed.

"I will endeavor to not let it go as far as last year. I do hope you will tell me of anything suspicious you may see."

"Of course."

"Good. Well, I believe we should call it there for the night. It's late and you have a rather big day tomorrow."

"Well… I wouldn't say that. The day is probably more impactful to Filch than it is to me." Harry admitted. He was already confident everything would go well on that front so he wasn't really nervous about it. In truth, Harry was more just concerned with making sure there was no issue when applying his second ritual to a human rather than an animal.

"It still amazes me that you were able to come up with such. You are truly gifted; I hope you always remember that."

"I'll be inclined to agree when my goals have been met. Though, I'm willing to admit that I understand that what I do and have accomplished seems amazing to an outsider observer." Harry acquiesced. Albus simply smiled at him. Harry idly noticed that some of the tension he had been feeling had dissipated. It had probably been on purpose by the old man.

"I suppose, that there is nothing left to discuss then?"

"There is one thing… I would like for you to place more protections around my room in Ravenclaw tower. I still sleep there half the time. And if HE has something to do with this, I would rather he not be able to get me there." Harry requested.

"Of course, I shall make sure to place the protections on it tonight. Will you be sleeping there tonight?"

"…No, I don't think so. I would feel more comfortable within the club room, I think." Harry admitted looking away from the man in thought. It was probably one of the most secure rooms in the castle outside the Headmasters office.

"Very well… Do you wish for me to walk you there?"

"Sure, why not."

The Next Day

Harry blinked the tiredness out of his eyes. He hadn't felt like his body had gained much rest last night and that was likely because even in his mindscape, he had stressed almost the entire night away. What's worse, Ciri was still acting strange and quiet so she hadn't helped him much though, in fairness, he hadn't told her about his issues.

On top of that, he had awoken early and immediately began to prep the ritual that Filch would be undergoing, Harry had very few run-ins with the man given he spent most of his time outside of classrooms within this room. Students didn't like him but Harry imagined the man was more bitter about the fact that he worked at a magic school while being the only person in it who couldn't perform any. He couldn't exactly hold that against him. Besides, Albus said he was trustworthy so that's all there was to it.

Harry heard the door open as he was kneeling on the ground and writing with chalk. He saw that it was Greengrass which was surprising. She usually didn't come in this early, and again, she was not with Tracey.

"Greengrass." He greeted.

"Potter." She said back easily. He stared at her for a moment. Despite last night's affair, she didn't seem to have any issue looking well-rested. Although, perhaps she was wearing makeup, not that he could see any on her.

"I'm afraid I shall be taking up most of the space today, I believe I mentioned it last night."

"Yes, I remember. I was hoping to ask if I could watch the ritual go off." She told him. He rose an eyebrow at that.

"I see… Well, as long as you agree not to replicate it in any way. I don't suppose I have to remind you that this ritual is listed under family magic." Harry said gazing at her sternly. She seemed unperturbed though.

"Of course. I expected nothing less." She replied as she went to go sit at her desk and attempted to keep herself busy for now. Harry nodded as he watched her for a moment before continuing his work. After another ten minutes, he was finished with it.

He pulled his Time Coin out of his pocket and saw he still had another five minutes until Albus and Filch were supposed to show up, though, given his guardian's penchant for showing up early, the man could arrive any…

A knock interrupted his thoughts causing Harry to roll his eyes in amusement before waiting for a moment as Albus opened it and smiled in greeting.

"Good morning, Harry… Ah, and to you as well Ms. Greengrass. I hadn't been aware you would be joining us this morning." Albus commented as his eyes easily slid from Harry to the girl sitting at her desk.

"Yes, Potter permitted me to observe the Ritual performed today. I hope that's not an issue." She said back a little stiffly. Harry glanced at her as she spoke to his guardian. He had noticed that anytime she spoke to him, she became a little… guarded. He wondered why that was but doubted they were close enough for him to question her on it.

"Of course! I was simply curious was all. It's good to see another young person so interested in looking into lesser-known magic. Though I am surprised Mr. Potter allowed it, usually he's so against allowing others in. Good for you Harry." Albus congratulated. Harry frowned and furrowed his brow at the man's words, unsure if he was being teased or not.

"Hmph… Enough about that. Will Mr. Filch be joining us soon?"

"Of course, he's right outside, I simply wished to come in first and see if you needed more time to set up. I do believe we are a bit early after all."

"How considerate… No, I am finished, you can bring him in." Harry told him. Albus nodded and exited the room momentarily.

"Are these Runes?"

Harry spun and saw that Greengrass was no longer sitting at her desk but standing behind him and looking at the ritual he had drawn on the floor. He had cursed himself for forgetting that this ritual utilized them and that he had been not trying to reveal that to her. It was because he had been caught off guard by her presence in the first place today.

His mind raced as he tried to figure out what to say to run damage control. He wasn't exactly sure what he could do at this point. He couldn't lie since even though she had posed it as a question, she knew those were Runes in his ritual. Unless he could make it so she didn't remember what his ritual looked like, he doubted he could go through with that. As he came to an unwanted conclusion, he made a decision he wasn't going to like. It would seem he was going to have to take another Leap of faith.

"Yes, they are." Harry confirmed.

"I've never heard of Runes being used in Rituals before. Where did you get the idea?"

"As far as I know, they haven't. Symbols are the closest thing to Runes you would normally find in Rituals. They act rather similarly though and in some ways are more complex but don't have the building ability."

"So where did you get the idea?"

Harry hesitated again, not out of wanting to keep it secret, but more out of figuring out the best way to explain it.

"Rituals are… complex, even more so than potions. There are often so many unknown factors that go into it which limits people's understanding of them. In truth, I didn't want to speak with you about this until I was surer I could trust you but it seems I had a lapse in judgment…"

"You do not have to tell me if you do not wish to…" Daphne told him with a frown. Harry shook his head.

"Somehow, I doubt not telling you would stop you from figuring these things out anyway. You haven't done anything concerning since joining this club but I am a naturally untrusting person and you are hard to read which makes me naturally… Well, I believe you see where I am going with this. After I do this ritual, we can talk further about it." Harry told her. She looked at him for a moment with a sort of evaluating look before nodding in agreement.

"Very well."

With that done, it only took another moment before Albus reappeared, this time with Mr. Filch who looked apprehensive and, dare he say nervous? As they came in, Daphne retreated a bit away from Harry and made sure to stand off to the side. Harry approached the man and held out his hand to shake.

"Hello, Mr. Filch. I hope you are doing well today." Harry greeted politely. The man frowned though it looked more out of unease than dislike.

"Yes, fine." He answered curtly.

"Good. Well, the Ritual is all set up, do you have any questions before we begin? I know, Headmaster Dumbledore already explained the basics of what is going to happen today but if you wish to know anything else feel free to ask."

"Professor Dumbledore said this would be safe." Filch brought up looking at the prepared ritual. Harry nodded.

"It should be. The Ritual has only been performed on animals up to this point but I originally designed it with humans in mind. As far as we are aware, there should be no negative side effects. Nevertheless, we shall be monitoring you the whole time and if it looks like something is going wrong at any point, we have failsafes ready to stop the ritual." Harry assured calmly. Filch seemed to calm at that a little.

"And after this… I can do magic?" The man asked quietly almost as if he couldn't believe it. Harry nodded.

"You will still have to learn it like anyone else but yes, you should be able to perform magic. You already have a magical core so we just need to adapt you're body a bit to handle it and we should be fine. The core is actually the most dangerous part of the full Ritual since that's where most of the magic comes in. You're doing the least risk-associated part." Harry explained. Filch nodded looking at the ritual on the floor with longing now.

"Do I need to do anything to prepare then?" The man asked. Harry shook his head.

"No, just stand in the middle when you're ready and we can get started. Professor Dumbledore will be observing as well as Ms. Greengrass who also holds an interest in Rituals." Harry told him. Filch nodded as he slowly made his way to the center of the Ritual without another word. Harry pulled out his wand and immediately cast a diagnostic spell on the man before attaching the spell to some parchment where things would be written down to keep Harry informed on his condition. Albus cast his own spells but did so silently meaning Harry had no idea what he had cast.

"Spells won't affect the Ritual?" Daphne asked.

"Good question. Usually yes, certain spells can affect a Ritual so you need to exercise caution. Luckily, the ritual is not going through the second part that affects his core which is where the danger would be present. Still, not all spells affect a Ritual the same way so it's always a good idea to check beforehand… Alright, you seem to be fine. Are you ready Mr. Filch?" Harry asked the man. He nodded trying to seem braver than he felt, clearly.

"Good, then let's begin." Harry said as he cast the activation spell. Immediately the Ritual responded and Harry could feel the power build-up begin. Immediately magic was pulled from the two pixie hearts used in the Ritual. Usually, it was five for the whole Ritual.

A small hum of power seemed to enter the air as the writings and designs under Filch began to glow blue. The man himself looked down and seemed to get nervous again before looking over at them. Harry gave him a thumbs up to show it was all still going according to plan. He could feel the magic in the air with his sixth sense as it seemed to coil around Filch.

"This is the part where the magic seeps into him. Once it all seeps into his body, it will disburse throughout his entire body before crafting the pathways necessary for magic to flow properly." Harry informed Daphne since she couldn't likely feel magic the way he could. The girl looked on with interest as she nodded at his words.

"The magic is being pulled from the Pixie hearts? Do they have much magic in them?"

"More than you would expect though a lot of the magic is pulled from the ambient magic within the air as well. Almost all my Rituals do this as a way to cut down on necessary ingredients." Harry informed.

"Is that what the Runes are for?"

"Partially. They have several functions so that's one of them." Harry answered. After that, they went silent as the Ritual continued. He watched quietly and saw nothing out of place as it continued. The diagnostic spell didn't show anything wrong except Filch's elevated heartbeat. At this point, the man was glowing from the magic being pumped in and throughout his body.

After a few minutes, the glow on the man finally died down as well as the one on the writings all over the floor which showed the ritual coming to an end. Harry waited for it to completely power off before looking at the parchment in front of him. Unlike when they began, there was a new measurement on it.

"Well? Did it work?" Filch asked looking down at himself confused. Harry smiled as he held out the parchment in the direction of the man.

"Come see for yourself. It's at the bottom." Harry replied. The man came over and took the parchment carefully before reading through it. He watched his eyes as they traced the page in front of him before coming to a stop at one particular line. Likely the one Harry had told him.

"Magical flow is labeled as steady. It's a simple measurement not used much in healing as it simply shows if the flow of the magic in the body has been disturbed. It's mostly used in childhood though to determine whether a child is a squib. No measurement appears for them. Of course, this means…" He trailed off as he looked up at the man and noticed tears streaking down his face. Harry was concerned for a moment before realizing that they were not tears of sadness. Albus approached and put a hand on the man's shoulder.

"I believe congratulations are in order Argus." Albus told him warmly. Filch immediately turned and hugged the older man.

"Albus… I-… I can't believe it." Argus sobbed quietly. Albus hugged the man back and smiled as he patted him on the back comfortingly.

"I am happy for you my friend." Harry took a few steps away to give the man his moment. Instead, he went over to the ritual and made sure there were no issues. He noticed that the magic had already left it which was good.

"That was… something." Daphne said from next to him. It seemed she had come over to join him rather than be near the two men having their moment.

"It was. Did you enjoy seeing it take place?" Harry asked calmly.

"Very much. I never thought I would see something like that before. In truth, the real reason I came down was to see if you were actually as knowledgeable as you claimed to be. I needed to be sure you could do what you said. You did not disappoint. I am glad." Daphne said back. Harry nodded slowly as he took in her words. It didn't bother him, in fact, he would have probably felt the same way.

"Good. You asked me about Runes earlier. Runes aren't easy to incorporate into Rituals unless you get born lucky. I have a high sensitivity to magic. I can feel it around me at all times and even how it moves. It's much of the reason I have such a high understanding of it compared to others our age. Runes are structured and rigid but I can often craft arrays easier than others because I feel what the runes are doing and how they interact with other runes while they work. Further, I can feel how they interact in Rituals. This allows me to add some much-needed structure, efficiency, and power to my Rituals." Harry explained quietly so only she could hear.

"That's… amazing."

"It is, and it could revolutionize how Rituals are made which is why I am hesitant to speak on it to anyone."

"I can see why now that you have explained it. Though there still is the problem of needing a high sensitivity for it. In reality, only like one percent of wizards have such a sensitivity, if that."

"True but that's more than you might think. Only one to two percent of the world has natural red hair. How many people in this castle alone have you seen with it?"

"Several I suppose… I see your point. Still rare but not as much I would assume. Either way, I wouldn't worry too much about it. I, unfortunately, do not have such sensitivity. I have a little higher than average I believe but not likely anywhere near where you are."

"I wasn't lying when I told you how clever I believe you are. I do not doubt that even with such a barrier, you could overcome it and still learn how to manage." Harry told her seriously. Although it sounded like a compliment, it wasn't meant to be one. He was just stating that he was aware of her intellectual talents.

"Hmm, perhaps…"

With that, they devolved into silence as they waited for Argus and Dumbledore to finish their moment. As Harry watched it from afar, he couldn't help but wonder how long it would be before he would be able to perform said ritual on Ciri to help allow her to have magical abilities. Of course, he would still need to get rid of her Blood curse first.

He sighed tiredly; it would seem there was still a lot to do for him.