April 15th, 1993
Harry was currently sweating over a cauldron as he stirred periodically. The goop inside was thick and a dark, pale green almost like a swamp. It looked quite disgusting to be sure but hopefully it would change in a moment.
"Alright now add the liver." Harry ordered to the girl standing off to his side. Daphne immediately moved forward and took a chunk of something resembling meat out of a small box before carefully dropping it into the concoction. Harry immediately began stirring again.
"And this is supposed to help with the purification process?" Hermione asked curiously from his other side. Unlike Daphne, she was simply looking on out of curiosity and not because she was actively helping. Along with her, both Neville and Ron were also in the clubroom working on their own projects, though, they would occasionally come over and look on or ask their own questions. Tracey was the only one not here as she was grabbing something to eat.
Harry nodded at the question.
"That's the hope… We won't know until next week at the earliest." Harry explained.
Ever since the whole Chamber of Secrets debacle, his time had been completely devoted towards continuing the ritual and he and Daphne were actually running ahead of schedule. He had not accounted for the true pace at which Daphne could take in information and use it when properly motivated. After she had finished her portion of research, he had given her several of his notebooks to go through to help get her theoretical knowledge up to a passable standard. He had expected it would take at least a month for her to fully understand everything in the books. Instead, it had taken her only seven days to go through all the books and understand what she had read.
As he had thought, the girl was a verifiable genius in a way that Harry would likely only be able to keep up with when using the ability to continue his work in his sleep. Her theoretical was now at a level where she could at least assist him in coming up with ideas and working out some of the grunt work. It had sped up his work quite a bit.
"You haven't said how we're going to test this yet. In fact, you have been curiously evasive anytime I bring it up." Daphne brought up bluntly. Harry flinched at that. He was hoping not to have to explain himself further until a later time.
"What do you mean?" Hermione asked, curiously looking over at the other girl.
"In order to tell if this works, we would need to test it on something afflicted with a Blood Curse. We, however are planning to test this on an animal first. My question is where he is getting an animal that is also affected by a Blood Curse." Daphne finished. Harry could feel her gaze burning into the side of his head as he continued to silently stir the potion. Hermione tilted her head in thought at that.
"I've never heard of an animal afflicted by a Blood Curse before."
"I can find no recorded instances of it ever happening myself." Daphne added. At that, both girls were now looking at him either curiously or seriously. Harry closed his eyes and tried to pretend they were not there for a moment.
"When he doesn't answer like that, it means he's going to do something dumb." Neville called from his own area at the side of the room.
"Shut up Longbottom." Harry bit back at his friend.
"Bet he's going to curse the animal himself or something." Ron added from his own station. Hermione whipped over to him.
"Ronald! That would be extremely illegal! Harry would never do that. Right Harry?" Hermione said as she looked back at him for confirmation. Harry felt his face tighten and he said nothing to her question.
"Potter…" Daphne prompted firmly. Harry forced himself to look up at her before looking back down at his concoction.
"…We need to test the ritual and there's only one way to do that." Harry muttered.
"Wait, you ARE thinking about putting a Blood Curse on an animal? Harry, have you lost your mind?!" Hermione yelled.
"Harry, while I agree about the testing part, a Blood Curse can run you ten years in Azkaban if someone finds out." Neville added as he made his way over towards the group looking serious. Harry shook his head.
"That's only if I am trying to place it on another wizard. If not, then it's only one year and while technically it does not clearly specify it, it's really only if I do it on another type of sentient." Harry corrected.
"That may be correct but… You could get expelled!" Hermione argued back. Harry again shook his head.
"I have already spoken with Dumbledore about it. As long as I perform the curse in front of him and it isn't too severe… He will allow it, but only once." Harry revealed. At that, the room went silent.
"I don't see the big deal, honestly…" Ron said in an almost bored tone from his station. Hermione whipped around and looked at the redhead furiously.
"Ron, Blood magic is considered Dark Magic!" Hermione yelled at him. Ron shrugged.
"Not all of Blood Magic is Dark, it's just mostly used that way. Harry's already told us that before. Besides, it's not like Harry wants to hurt someone or even really hurt the animal, he's doing this to help others. What kind of curse are you using Harry?" Ron asked looking at him imploringly. Harry was shocked from the boy's speech and attitude but shook himself from his stupor after a moment.
"Ah, well. It's just supposed to curse its bloodline to prevent it from having any children." Harry explained. That seemed to shut up his friends after a moment.
"Wait, so… You're just neutering some animal? That's all it does?" Hermione asked incredulously.
"Well, yeah. After all, I wasn't going to place some curse on it that was going to cause it physical pain, especially if there is no need to." Harry answered.
"The curse would actually be considered extremely Dark if you used it on a human being, especially a noble family." Daphne mentioned quietly. Neville nodded in agreement though he did look conflicted.
"Out of curiosity… How do you know how to cast a Blood Curse in the first place?" Ron chimed up still not seeming concerned with the topic as he continued to scratch in some sort of book.
"There are several in the Potter Grimoire."
"Of course, there is…" Neville said with a snort. Hermione's face screwed up into a look of confusion at hearing that.
"I thought the Potter's were considered a Light family?"
"They are but only because of political stances they have taken in the past. However… Potter's are famous for being quite volatile once you push them too far. They've also technically been on the winning side of any war Magical Britain has been part of in the last millennia. Potters are considered good people because they usually are more progressive leaning with their viewpoints and support equality for all beings and such. Don't let that make you think you should get on the other side of a wand from one." Neville explained.
"I believe I have a family member who challenged a Potter to an honor duel a few centuries." Daphne mentioned easily.
"Osiris Greengrass." Harry supplied. He too had read about such an incident.
"What happened to him?" Hermione asked.
"He got hit with some form of blasting curse so powerful that it vaporized him on hit." Daphne deadpanned. Harry nodded slowly in agreement. He had read about the curse used. It was a custom piece of magic currently in his grimoire meant to not only kill a target but also anything around them while also destroying any evidence of the victims. A messy piece of work.
"And was that really necessary?" Hermione asked looking queasy at the revelation.
"To kill the man or to kill him in such a manner?" Daphne asked.
"Both!"
"Hmm… I suppose it depends who you ask. Osiris was one of the darker members of my house. He ran a criminal organization which Nero Potter dismantled soundly. To add insult to injury, he called Osiris a coward and a criminal publicly which is why Osiris challenged him to an honor duel. Osiris was certainly not a good person. Did he deserve death? Probably. Did he deserve to die in that manner? Maybe not but it worked so…"
"Nero wrote that if you're willing to get your hands sufficiently dirty enough once, you won't have to do it again." Harry added.
"What does that mean?"
"If you crush your enemies harshly enough once, those who come after will be less likely to antagonize you with similar actions." Neville answered. Hermione's face scrunched upon hearing that, clearly not exactly liking or approving of that logic. She then looked over at Ron.
"You come from a pureblood family too, don't you?"
"Yeah, but we're not that old comparatively so, we don't have noble status. You also need to pay a certain fee first."
"You can pay to get in the Wizengamot?"
"Sort of, but the fee is really to make sure you can afford to actually maintain a Noble house. If they give you such a status, they want some insurance you're not going to die out or disband right away after. It can be problematic." Neville defended.
"It's so strange that they don't teach this at school…" Hermione lamented.
"There have been attempts to get such a class approved, especially recently, but there are always those who oppose such things as it wouldn't be beneficial to them. People like Malfoy Sr. for example." Neville scowled for a moment before schooling his features.
"Alright, it's done." Harry said, interrupting the conversation and bringing back attention towards the cauldron in the middle of the room which had turned a light blue color and had more of a misty appearance than looking like some swamp soup. He removed the stirrer and let it settle before nodding in satisfaction.
"How can you tell when it's done?" Daphne asked. Harry frowned at that.
"Well, I can just feel out when the magic has properly mixed together but for others… I guess it might require some testing. Mark it down for the future that it requires about ten minutes of stirring after adding the final agreement before it's done." Harry told her.
"It didn't take that long."
"I know but just to be sure. You never know if you might stir slower or faster so you should leave some extra time in there." Harry said. Daphne nodded in understanding at that.
"So, what do you do next then?" Hermione asked curiously.
"We bottle these up. It shouldn't take much of the potion for the ritual, maybe fifteen ounces. So, with all the potion we have here… we can make about 42 bottles of this." Harry said.
"Man, you could go the rest of your life without needing that much of the potion." Neville whistled sounding impressed.
"Yes, unfortunately, even with it sealed, the shelf life is probably only around three to five years and given the expense of the potion ingredients… A normal person would likely need a sponsor to use this potion." Harry said as he eyed to potion. With that, he, Daphne, Neville, and Hermione all went over to a cabinet at the side of the room that had was full of empty bottles and vials. Harry eyed the amount for a moment.
"I say we only fill up about twenty bottles. Even if the potion doesn't work that should be enough to experiment later." Harry said as he began picking out the glass cases he wanted.
"How are you so sure that this potion will work? Didn't you say others have tried it already and it didn't?" Hermione questioned.
"Yes, but I have checked the records of their work and I believe the reason it didn't work was because they didn't account for the curse originating in the blood specifically. I believe with the alterations Daphne and I have made, we shall be successful."
"So, you're going to drain the victim of all their blood... but not kill them?" Neville asked with an armful of the glasses. He wasn't holding them carefully but they all had unbreakable charms on them, curtesy of the headmaster so it shouldn't be a problem.
"That's the hope." Harry nodded.
With that, they spent nearly five minutes bringing bottles back and forth after filling them with the potion Harry had created. After that, Harry cast simple cleaning spells on the cauldron to make sure nothing was left in it before putting it up and off to the side of the room as well.
"Well, that's done with. Now, the only thing we have left is to go over all of our notes on the ritual and make sure we can find no mistakes. Daphne, you finished the checklist on what needs to be included correct?" He asked her. The girl nodded in confirmation.
"Yes, it's on my desk."
"Great, then we can…" Harry trailed off as he felt a brush against his mental shields. He blinked for a moment as he processed that and looked around to see all of his friends looking back at him with confusion. He could sense no magic coming from them directed at him. That must mean…
'Ciri, what's going on at your end? I just felt a brush against our shields.' He called out into his own mind. He paid more attention to her end at could feel confusion before apprehension.
'Yennefer has arrived and I am speaking with her right now. She might have been what you have felt… Should I tell her to stop?' Ciri asked. Harry frowned not really sure about it. He could still feel the woman Ciri had mentioned probing but she hadn't tried to physically push through. She, honestly, seemed more curious than anything else.
'She's asking about my shields. What do I say?' Ciri asked before he could respond. Harry thought for a moment.
'If she's asking then that means Geralt nor Triss told her about me which is a little strange. But if Geralt left you alone in her care, then he must trust her with your safety… I say you might as well tell her. Get out of the way early.' Harry finally settled on saying. He could feel Ciri give a feeling of apprehension but compliance before she briefly went silent.
"Harry?" Hermione asked.
"One moment, I'm just dealing with a headache. Give me a moment." Harry said before making his way out of the room so he could deal with this. His friends didn't say anything as he left though they did look rather confused. He exited the room and leaned up against the wall of the corridor he was now in as he waited.
'She wants to speak with you.' Ciri finally said. Harry blinked at that.
'Like through you?' He asked.
'No, like, in person. Face to face.' Ciri corrected. Harry scrunched his brow at hearing that.
'Does she have some way to do that? While I do on my end, it won't exactly work for her." Harry said back.
'She says she has a way.'
'Well… I guess that would be fine. I can't do it right now though, I'm in the middle of my club activities. Can she do it tonight at our usual time?' Harry asked. He waited a few moments for Ciri to respond.
'She said that would be fine.' Ciri answered. Harry breathed out, in either relief or satisfaction. He honestly didn't know himself. Either way, it was a load off not to need to deal with this right now, though, he was nervous to meet another sorcerer/sorceress from Ciri's world. In many ways they were more advanced, in others though… Harry sighed as he pushed off the wall and headed back inside to the clubroom. Everyone was now sitting back at their original areas though they all looked over towards him
"So… Do you want to tell us what that was about?" Daphne asked first. Neville and Hermione said nothing but given their expressions, they likely already knew what the reason he had to step out was, or at least, knew it had to do with Ciri.
"It was just an issue with my Occlumency I needed to address, no real issue." Harry said dismissively. Daphne clearly didn't believe him but likely realized he didn't wish to talk about so dropped it anyway. That didn't stop her from glaring at him in a searching manner.
"Fine. Are you ready to begin the review?" she asked.
"Yes. We'll layout each section one after the other and each write down any changes, we need to make to correct something or perhaps that a part can be rewritten for better efficiency." Harry said.
"That's fine but in the sections using runes I will be less helpful on." Daphne mentioned. Harry nodded.
"Just do your best." Harry told her. She nodded and they got back to work.
That Night
Harry blinked as he looked around his mindscape. He didn't see Ciri anywhere. He wasn't sure if there was some set up required to enter his mindscape for the sorceress that they needed to set up beforehand. He frowned with anxiety before deciding to spruce up the place a little bit.
At his mere thoughts, the room around him disappeared and the space began to shift so quickly that it almost looked violent in nature. What was once a library around him was now what looked to be a sitting room, somewhat reminiscent of a room that existed in Potter Manor. He looked around it and frowned for a moment before changing from simple sitting chairs to a small rectangular dining table made of a sleek dark wood. He then added some simple dining chairs around it that were clearly made for a mix of both comfort and design. The final touch was adding a lit fireplace off to the side of the room to bathe the whole area in a warm glow.
With that done, Harry looked around and made sure the illusion properly hid the memories within their mindscape. He didn't know how well Ciri trusted this woman, but he still wasn't exactly sure about her regardless if Ciri's guardian trusted her. He would need to make sure to keep his guard up around her. He was also curious if she would be able to detect the illusion around them. None of his friends could on the times they had entered his mind but the illusions in his mind were harder to detect since magicals can actively alter their mindscape, making it hard to tell the difference between his illusions versus just him changing his mindscape.
With that, he sat down at one of end of the table and just waited patiently. It only took a moment before he started to fidget and drum his fingers on the table. As the time continued to pass, he grew more and more nervous. Luckily, he had to only wait for a few more moments before the silence were broken.
Ciri materialized into view near the faux entrance of the room before seemingly 'waking up' as it were and officially joining him in the mindscape. She opened her mouth to say something before closing it as she looked around in confusion. She eyed the new room curiously for a moment before looking back at him clearly asking for an explanation. Harry shrugged at the look.
"I thought it best if we didn't have her in the normal memory library. It's a little too easy to access things we may not want her to have access to. This seemed a little more neutral while, hopefully, also still being welcoming… What do you think?"
"It's… nice. Feel's warm and welcoming, I guess… What's this room based off of?" She asked. Harry always tried to relate things he created to real life things he had seen or experienced to aid in the realism as much as possible.
"The room itself it based on a sitting room I have at my home. I made some changes to it though. I swapped the sitting chairs of the room and put a small dining table in instead so we could sit and discuss in a slightly more formal setting. There are also a few bookshelves in my home in this room for casual reading but I didn't bother conjuring those. The paintings on the wall are just random ones I have in my home that I thought would add to the ambiance." Harry pointed out each thing one at a time. Ciri nodded along easily as she took a seat at one of the sides of the table instead of at the other end across from him.
"Guess I didn't really consider it. She should be here pretty soon; she has to cast some spell or another and I guess you'll feel it when she enters. The spell allows her entry but you still have to allow her in. It also won't really let her go digging beyond possible surface thoughts, though, I don't think she will manage that either to be honest." Ciri explained. Harry furrowed his brow in confusion at that.
"Why?"
"I don't know, just the way she described her own mindscape and others didn't really sound like ours. It sounded more… chaotic I guess?" She tried to find the right words to explain though Harry thought he understood.
"It sounds like the mind techniques they use focus more on defense than organization while the ones in my world try to balance both. I assume they lack in their recall abilities then." Harry hummed in thought.
"Meaning?"
"Well… You know how our mind automatically organizes the thoughts of each day into a book which then gets added to the Infinity Library. It then allows us to look back on the memory with little change? They probably can't do that. If that's the case, their mindscape is like a giant space surrounded by walls that probably has the memories drifting around and thoughts being produced at the moment they are had." Harry tried to explain.
"Sounds annoying." Ciri stated.
"True, though most people probably only spend a fraction of the time we do in their own mindscapes, even in my world where such things are more developed." Harry tried to rationale.
"I didn't say it didn't make sense, I said it sounded annoying." Ciri smirked. Harry smiled back and nodded.
"That's fair."
Harry didn't say anything further as he watched a light appear near the door where Ciri herself had formed at. Harry immediately stood up and prepared to meet this new person. He stood patiently and watched as the light expanded before morphing its shape until it began to look like a silhouette of a person. The light then began to fade as a woman began to form out of the silhouette.
Harry idly noticed that the amount of time it took for Yennefer to appear was much longer compared to how long it took both Ciri and him. It must have been due to the technique she was using because his friends didn't take nearly as long to fully appear in the mindscape. That being said, if she had a spell that could accomplish such a thing instead of the Runic Ritual he had to write out when he wanted to do it, that was a plus that might overshadow the longer appearance time.
As it took her a longer time to appear, Harry was able to take in the woman's appearance more clearly. The first thing his young teenaged brain latched onto was that she was attractive. She had white, extremely soft looking skin that was slightly see through at the moment though his eyes didn't seem to mind. Along with that, she had black hair that draped down just passed her shoulders and almost seemed to curl in on itself at the edges.
Of course, as bad as it felt to admit, the most eye-catching part of her was her attire which looked like some sort of mix of a black shirt or dress that had been either been modified to be shorter or longer depending on which item of clothing it had been originally. It stopped just past her knees and she was clearly wearing stockings and boots under it. The striking part of the ensemble was the top of course which had straps around her arms instead of shoulders allowing the showing of a large amount of cleavage.
Had his head not been assaulted at that moment jarring him out of his thoughts, he probably would have continued to stare at the woman until someone stopped him. She was certainly the most beautiful woman he had seen in his admittedly short life. The smack though did cause him to wince in pain and he looked over at Ciri as he rubbed the back of his head.
"Ow…" He muttered.
"Don't do it again or I'll hit you harder. Keep your eyes above her neckline." Ciri hissed at him. He shuddered at the tone before straightening and nodded.
"Sorry, I just wasn't expecting her to look so…"
"Harry!"
"Right. I'll just be quiet."
As soon as the words left his mouth, the light and fading seemed to be complete and the woman opened her eyes for the first time. Harry had to stop himself from raising his eyebrows in surprise at the color of them. He had never seen someone with violet eyes before.
"Where am I?" She asked. Her voice was sharp and somewhat demanding but not exactly unfriendly, at least, not yet.
"Hello, I am Harry Potter. It is nice to meet you. You are in Ciri and I's shared mindscape. She told me that it sounded like you had different experiences with mindscape then what ours is like." Harry said as he stepped forward and held out his hand. She eyed him but gave him her hand nonetheless. He took it and placed a gentle kiss on the back of it before letting it go, perhaps a little too quickly. It may have come off as a little rude but he didn't want to take the chance of pissing Ciri off even more at the moment.
"Yennefer of Vengerburg." She introduced holding her head up high. Harry nodded.
"A pleasure to meet you Yennefer. I understand Ciri will be in your care for the foreseeable future. I hope you will do your best to look out for her." Harry told her growing more serious as the sentence went on. He felt a light pinch on his arm and saw Ciri frowning at him.
"I don't NEED someone to look out for me." Ciri snipped at him. Harry scowled slightly at that.
"I can't tell if you're joking or not but you absolutely do. I couldn't count the number of times you've been in mortal danger since we've met with both hands. You're thirteen!" Harry stated firmly at her. She glared at him but he could see a blush on her face from that.
"That's…"
"A ridiculous amount? You're absolutely right. Since it's clear you're likely going to continue to be in such situations in the future, and I cannot yet do anything to aid you, I have to trust others to do it in my stead." Harry interrupted as he turned back to Yennefer and his expression softened. The woman was looking at him with a raised eyebrow, almost like she was amused.
"How old are you?" She asked.
"Twelve for another three months." Harry answered easily.
"You seem very mature for your age, are you sure?" She asked. He blinked at the question, not really sure if the woman was serious or not.
"Am I sure that I'm twelve? I believe so." He answered slowly. She eyed him for a few moments before looking back around the room.
"So, where exactly is this. You said it was your mindscape but I have never heard of such a control of a mindscape to physically shape it to one's will in such a manner." Yennefer asked.
"Right. I believe that is a difference in technique from your world and mine. Our mind techniques are split into two common categories. The first is Occlumency which is the organization and defense of the mind. It is possible the techniques your world uses focuses more on the defense aspect compared to the organization part. At least, that is my guess. When organization and control has reached a certain level, you can start altering the mindscape at will and organizing it however you see fit." Harry said, repeating much of what he had already told Cir just a few minutes before Yennefer had arrived.
"Interesting. Your shields certainly didn't seem to suffer. They were among the stronger one's I have encountered." Yennefer pointed out. Harry nodded.
"Yes, well since Ciri does not have any real magical capabilities herself, the control and maintaining of our mindscape and shields are completely up to me. I have had to develop them quite a bit to properly protect us both. Even compared to mind defenders of my world, I am considered extremely advanced. I am not yet of master status but I'm probably one level under that."
"That's extremely impressive. You mentioned another common mind art?"
"Ah, yes. The counterpart to Occlumency in my world is known as Legilimency which is the art of invading another's mind and taking it apart to gain information. There is a spell for it though master's in my world do not need them, they can pick up surface thoughts with anyone without shields with nothing more than eye contact." Harry explained.
"Hmm, so in your world I would be considered a master in said art already. Though I am somewhat limited if I wish to go deeper. This spell allows me to project myself into another's mind but I can't force my way in to anyone who has shields." Yennefer admitted.
"Interesting… Well, shall we sit down?" Harry asked gesturing to the table.
"Of course." She agreed. With that, Harry returned to his seat and Ciri returned to hers. Yennefer decided to take the seat directly across from Harry's own. When they were properly settled, they began to speak once more.
"So… You claim to be from another world." Yennefer prompted. Harry didn't bother rising towards the underline disbelief she had, instead, he just nodded in confirmation.
"That is correct. Over the years, Ciri and I have spoken at length and have determined that your world has none of the same continents that mine does nor do any of your countries and kingdoms have any recognizable names to my own worlds. That being said, we have noticed some similarities with certain cultures and religions such as your Skelligan Islanders that are remarkably similar in lifestyle and a nearly identical belief system to a people known as Vikings in my own world. Of course, the greatest difference is the time difference."
"Time difference?"
"Yes. Your world advancement wise is nearly a thousand years behind my own world. You live in an age my world commonly refers to as the Medieval period. It's hard to tell where you are magic wise. Somethings you're better at and somethings your worse. I would say overall, we have more refined methods but it's hard to tell with my knowledge of your world being so limited." Harry finished. Yennefer didn't say anything immediately at that though she did look contemplative.
"I see… And how exactly did you come to be sharing a mindscape with someone on a different world?"
"We have no idea." Ciri muttered. Harry nodded.
"She's right. Even looking back at it now, I still have no idea how it ended up happening. Even more, the mindscape itself seemed to form on its own when we seemed to merge. It certainly saved us time in creating our own but… the whole thing was quite strange." Harry admitted.
"It worked out in the end though. Harrys helped me get through a lot of tough spots so far." Ciri said happily. Harry felt his cheeks warm at her words. Not to be outdone, Harry turned his words around.
"It goes both ways of course. Ciri rescued me from an extremely dark place and it was with her help that I have become the person I am today. Without her, I likely wouldn't even have had half the drive to go forward in life. I owe her all that I am." Harry said passionately back. It was Ciri's turn to have her face light up in embarrassment.
"Harry! Don't say such embarrassing stuff in front of people." Ciri almost yelled. Harry shook his head.
"It's not to me… it is my goal to find or develop a way to cross worlds and come to your world eventually. It is currently my life goal." Harry told Yennefer.
"Hmm. Crossing worlds is… difficult. There are only a certain few who know who to do it successfully and actually go somewhere where they mean too." Yennefer pointed out. Harry's eyes lit up at that.
"Just hearing that and knowing it is possible… That's all I need. I WILL find a way to do it. Though it's rather difficult and I haven't had much luck. I also have other major projects that take up a lot of my time. "
"Like what?"
"I am currently working on a high-level purification ritual. I am hoping it can cure the Blood Curse on Ciri and her bloodline."
"Curses on bloodlines are notoriously difficult to get rid of." Yennefer said looking somewhat apprehensive.
"They are here as well, but I've had lots of progress and I believe I will have the solution very soon." Harry insisted seriously. Yennefer didn't comment but he could tell by her expression that she wasn't sure if she believed him.
"Well… Either way I wish you luck. I guess there's not much more I wished to see about, at least for now. I trust if I have something I wish to ask, Ciri will relay your answers to me?"
"That'll be fine. I am glad we could alleviate some of your worries with this meeting. Please let me know if you wish to do it again. I have schooling during the day so I can't meet until night like this time but…"
"That's fine, thank you… Ciri, I shall see you in the morning." Yennefer said as she stood up to leave.
"Uh, yes. Okay. Bye…" Ciri responded somewhat awkwardly. With that, he watched her move over towards the door. She took one last look around the room analytically before reaching for the handle. As soon as her hand made contact, her body dissolved away. A moment later, Harry could feel her presence leave their mind. He couldn't he a sigh of relief from exiting him at her disappearance.
"So, what do you think of her?" Ciri immediately asked once she was sure the woman was gone. Harry thought about the question before answering.
"She seems trustworthy, at least in the case of wanting to protect you. She's smart and somewhat secretive, that much was clear. Everything I spoke of, even without being able to read my mind, she picked up with a practiced ease and I wouldn't doubt that she also picked up more subtle information I wasn't aware I was giving her… She's dangerous for certain. Something about the way she moved and looked around in our mindscape, too certain of her security in such a new situation." Harry rambled a bit.
"You could tell all of that just from the one meeting?"
"Well, I like to observe people because I don't always understand them and their motives. She honestly has certain traits I've seen in others. Of course, it's not a perfect observation. I have no doubt there is much about her I still don't know. She also clearly does not trust me yet. I could see that too. I assume she didn't press anything because of how close we seemed but I wouldn't be surprised if she made a comment here or there to try and get you to put some distance between us."
"Why would she do that?"
"I am still an unknown to her. If I was in her position, I would probably do the same. Our story does not sound believable no matter which world you hear it on. We have been lucky on how accepting people we have told have been so far." Harry explained. Ciri frowned but he couldn't tell if she was actually unhappy or not.
"Should I watch out for her then?"
"No. She is fine, like I said, I have a feeling if she does approach you, it'll just be out of caution. I won't take it personally and you shouldn't either." Harry instructed. Ciri sighed before nodding.
"Well, I guess that's it then… How was your day?"
"Fine. I did what I had planned. What about yours? How is the Temple?" Harry asked.
A couple of weeks ago, Ciri had finally reached her destination at the Temple of Melitele where Geralt and Triss had left her. He hadn't approved at that decision one bit but he hadn't exactly had a say in the matter so… Ciri had been left to her own devices until Yennefer showed up. It hadn't taken that long it seemed.
"It's boring. I do the same thing every single day. Hopefully that ends today and something interesting will happen now that Yennefer is here." Ciri said regaining some excitement. Harry flinched at her words though.
"Please don't jinx yourself. If you go looking for excitement, with your luck, you will find it." Harry warned. Ciri rolled her eyes.
"Or… Maybe something good will happen."
"Why would something good happen? When was the last time something good happened?"
"When I met Geralt. And before that, when I met you." Ciri said pointedly. Harry groaned at that and said nothing further.
April 22, 1993
It was finally happening; the waiting period was over and it was time to finally try the Purification Ritual. Harry wouldn't lie, he was extremely nervous. Compared to his other projects, this one was absolutely massive. If he added up the complexities and work of all the other projects, he had done it still wouldn't come close to how massive this one had been.
So many more things than he expected needed to be accounted for and if even one of those things went wrong, the ritual would not only fail, but it would kill the being it was being used on. Both Harry and Daphne had tried to create failsafes within the ritual but beyond the beginning, there was nothing really that could be done, at least, nothing they had found.
Harry was confident in his work though. He was confident that the missing key to such a Ritual having success was adding the Runic element he was so fond of. Targeting certain things in the body at certain times would allow a precision he was sure had never been matched before. The number of runic arrays he had created were massive and combining them correctly had been timing consuming. Harry had future proofed it though. Instead of writing them in chalk, he had carved them into a large stone slab so it could hopefully be reused later. It took much longer too do but the time it would hopefully save in the future would make it worth it.
"Are you ready?"
Harry looked over and saw Daphne now standing next to him with her arms crossed and a serious expression on her face. He wasn't really sure how to answer that to be honest.
"As ready as I ever will be. Though, I will admit to being nervous." Harry told her quietly. He looked around the room which had the slab already placed in the middle of the room with the runes. On the floor were several symbols liked together to form a ring around the slab on the floor. These were written in chalk.
"We've triple checked everything at this point. There's nothing else we can do. You said you were confident in the design." Daphne reminded.
"And I am, but these are Rituals and you never know what random element may cause a reaction you would never expect… I don't know, I guess I just really want this to work." Harry confessed. Daphne nodded.
"I understand, believe me. But we are still ahead of schedule, even if this does go wrong, which hopefully it won't, we may still have enough time to alter and change it."
"Yes…" Harry answered though he was less confident. In truth, if this didn't work, unless the fix was an obvious one, he would have no idea what he would need to change to fix the ritual. As far as he had seen, most of his work was damn near perfect and made sense. It SHOULD work…
Harry heard a knock at the door and frowned as he looked over at it before calling whoever was on the other side to enter. All his club members were already in the room milling about until they got this started. Neville and Hermione were off to the side having a casual discussion it looked like on some spell or another, Ron and Tracey were talking about something to do with Alchemy he was pretty sure.
Too his slight surprise, it was Albus who opened the door looking like his usual inquisitive self. What was more surprising however was the two guests that he seemed to have brought with him. They were an elderly couple it looked like. The man had a full set of white hair accompanied by a well shaved moustache and beard that gave him a somewhat experienced look. The woman looked slightly younger and her hair was still mostly brown though it did have a striking gray streak going through it. She had wrinkles from age but she had clearly been rather attractive at one point and still somewhat held onto it despite her age. The both had a palpable warmth coming from them that only intensified when he made eye contact. He was almost startled by how worn yet lively they looked.
"Ah, hello Harry. I am glad I caught you before you began. I was hoping I and a few guests could join you in watching the Ritual take place?" Albus asked as he walked over with the couple who were looking around and talking quietly yet quite animated with each other at everything that laid within their vision. The man seemed to linger on the forms of Ron and Tracey for a moment before travelling to Harry.
Harry frowned at the words. While he didn't mind Albus joining them, the man was both his guardian and someone he trusted, he didn't know the other two and he wasn't sure if simply being friends with Albus was enough for him to want them there.
"Well…" He started uncertainly. Albus's eyes lit up.
"Ah, where are my manners, allow me to introduce my two guests…"
"I think we're quite capable of introducing ourselves Albus. Allow us to initiate some of our own pleasantries!" The man scolded playfully as he approached quickly and held out his hand for Harry to shake. Harry was a little startled at the quick motion before returning the gesture by grabbing the hand and shaking it.
"Hello, I have heard so much about you. Nicholas Flamel, at your service." The man introduced. Harry froze at the words, and he was quite sure the rest of the club room had as well. He could feel his brain physically freezing before beginning to reboot with this new information.
"Er, Harry Potter. You're Nicholas Flamel, but then that means…" He drifted as his eyes immediately drifted to the woman that had arrived with him who was looking at him with uncontrolled amusement. Nicholas immediately laughed causing Harry to blush as he realized he had somewhat brushed the man off.
"That's the first time that's happened in quite a few decades…"
"Centuries more like." The woman snipped back playfully.
"Indeed, indeed. You have a good eye my boy, to recognize which of us is the true talent so quickly." Nicholas praised. Harry blushed deeper.
"…Sorry." He tried to say to the man who just laughed harder. At this point, the rest of his friends and come closer and closer until they crowded around him and the newcomers.
"It's quite alright, why don't you introduce yourselves while I go see these other whippersnappers you have here." Nicholas said before patting him once more and continuing to the others, allowing Harry to move towards Perenelle with probably a little too much excitement. He immediately stuck his hand out.
"Mrs. Flamel, it's a real honor to meet you for the first time. I'm sorry for the mess, had I known you were coming, I would have made sure to look a little more presentable." Harry tried suddenly becoming very aware of his current frazzled appearance and room. The woman giggled at his words causing him to relax a little.
"It's quite fine, the fun part about a surprise visit is that it is a surprise! It is good to finally put a face to letters I have received." Perenelle said back. Harry nodded feeling utter delight at finally being able to meet the woman who had done so much to skyrocket his knowledge in the field of Rituals. She had saved him possibly years of work by lending him her own records and allowing him to write to her.
"I feel the same. I can't believe you're really here! It's almost like a dream. I have so many questions to ask yet I can't even begin to think on what I want to say first." Harry blathered away before clamming up a bit at the realization of what he was doing.
"Yes, well when Albus spoke of what you were doing today, I simple insisted that we come and be able to watch. A Purification Ritual that can even cure a Blood Curse… that's never been done before you know." Perenelle said. Harry nodded quickly.
"Of course, but there have been many attempts some of which we have taken inspiration from to create this one. I am, of course, using runes to hopefully add more precision and control as I did with my previous Rituals. Though, I must admit, I am quite nervous about the results…" Harry told the woman somewhat embarrassed. She nodded.
"Of course, as is normal with any major undertaking. However, if you have done everything you can then even if it doesn't go according to plan, you can take pride in that. It may not mean much now but such things will when you are older, that I promise." She told him. He nodded, completely believing her even if he didn't necessarily feel it right now.
"… -arkable! And within only your first year? You must have some true talent!" Harry was stopped from continuing when he heard Nicholas yelling behind him. He turned and saw the man holding up one of the artificial Wardstones that Ron had created. He had made more things since but they were more mundane in nature, though still impressive in Harry's mind. Ron himself was blushing down to his roots at the man's words.
"Thank you, sir. Though if I am honest, I actually made it on accident. I was actually trying to make something else entirely and it just kind of…" Ron tried but Nicholas started laughing hard as if he had just been told with a great joke. When he finally settled down, he wrapped his arm around Ron's shoulder.
"Let me let you in on a little secret, The Philosopher Stone I created was also originally created on accident. I was just trying to figure out a way to make mundane materials into higher materials. The gold and the elixir were by complete surprise." Nicholas told him, something Harry had already known since Perenelle had said it in one of their letters while making fun of her husband.
"Right… Right." Ron nodded rapidly in agreement, looking much less embarrassed.
"It's amazing to meet you Mr. Flamel but what are you doing here if we might ask?" Hermione asked curiously. The man smiled.
"Yes well, Albus hinted that my wife's favorite little protégé was doing something rather big today and she INSISTED we come down and see for ourselves. And, of course, I couldn't say no even if I wanted to." The man said with an airy tone as if being swept away sensually. Perenelle rolled her eyes from next to Harry.
"Oh, shut up you. You wished to come as well as soon as Albus mentioned young Mr. Weasley over here." Perenelle snorted in amusement at her husbands' antics.
"Well, of course, in this day and age, Alchemy is a dying art! And to see such potential at such a young age, you know I just had to meet the boy. Who knows, if he keeps going, I might even offer another apprenticeship in a few years." Nicholas said as he leaned down and gave Ron a conspiratorial wink. That might have been too much for Ron considering it looked like his friend had stopped breathing completely at that. It almost looked like he had passed out standing up.
"Mrs. Flamel, I also wanted to introduce you to my current partner in the matter of Rituals, Daphne Greengrass." Harry said gesturing towards Daphne. She looked slightly ruffled still but bowed nonetheless towards the older woman before shaking her hand.
"Wonderful to meet you darling. I must admit, I was surprised when Harry had mentioned he was working with someone." Perenelle said curiously at the girl.
"Yes, it definitely took him some time to get used to Tracey and I, not that I am one to talk. I also take some time to trust others so it's not like I can hold it against him. Further, he has aided in helping me learn so much that would not have been possible without him."
"She gives me too much credit. Much of what I had taught her are things I learned from you; I just passed it along. Further, Daphne, unlike myself, is a certified genius. I have no doubt that she will not only catch up to me in the art but completely surpass me in it. You know, she took only a week to read through the journal you originally sent me while also having a comprehensive knowledge of the inside. It took me a month to do the same." Harry told her. He didn't mention it had taken him a month even with the help of the extra time he used in his mindscape at night. That being said, he had re-read the book several times within that month to make sure he had a better understanding initially.
"He's exaggerating, I am competent at best but I couldn't really accomplish nearly as much as Harry has in such a small amount of time." Daphne tried. Harry noticed her blushing as she tried to explain away her progress and it oddly reminded him of Ciri. She was quite boastful about her abilities until you actually started recognizing them and pointing them out yourself.
"Hmm, I don't know Harry to be one to gush unnecessarily. I have a hard time believing he would do so if you did not live up to his words. Besides, while you may not have any experience, the fact that this is your first project and you are already able to aid so much in it is very telling." Perenelle complimented with a small smirk on her face.
"True enough. How many students in school are making Rituals at our age? Of them, how many are making a ground breaking Ritual as their first one?" Harry agreed with a nod.
"Shut it, Potter." Daphne bit out with her face growing even redder, closing in quite quickly to a matching color of Ron's. Harry rose his brow line in amusement at the girl. It was so rare to see Daphne so flustered. Tracey was currently right behind the girl looking like a cat who caught the canary at her friend.
"Daphne, you got a little something on your face. Right about here." Tracey said repeatedly poking her friends' cheeks. Daphne turned to her and looked like she was about to strangle the girl.
"Tracey…" Daphne growled. The girl just laughed in the face of the obvious danger she was in. Harry watched Daphne begin to draw her wand and decided that was probably the best place to stop it.
"Well, if you came to see the ritual, shall we get back to it?" Harry asked loud enough to get the attention of everyone in the room. It immediately went quite at the reminder of what they were about to do.
"Yes, please. I'm quite eager to see how this plays out. Albus said you applied a Blood Curse to an animal for testing?" She asked curiously, with much less then judgment than he expected. He nodded in confirmation.
"That is correct, an End of Line, type curse to be specific."
"You neutered an animal?" Perenelle repeated the same question that Hermione had asked just the previous week though with a certain amount of amusement coloring her tone. Harry blushed a bit but nodded.
"I suppose so."
"Hmm, I suppose when not on a human being, it seems much better… Well, where would you like Nicholas and I to stand while you do this?" She asked. He pointed to a section of the room that had been prepared with a wall and glass window in it to hopefully offer some protection if the ritual went astray, magically protected of course.
"Right behind there would be best, I think. There should be no outside backlash but you never know." Harry answered.
"Of course, Nicholas, come." Perenelle commanded as she turned and made her way over.
"Yes, dear." Nicholas smiled before following after his wife. With that, his friends save for Daphne went to go join the Flamel couple. Albus was still standing next to him though. In truth, he had forgotten the man had been there once he had introduced the couple. The man was looking at him with a warm look.
"Did you enjoy that?"
"I did… thank you."
"Of course… So, this is it. I'll leave you to finish your preparations. Good luck, Harry." Albus said before heading over. He said nothing as he watched the man's back for a moment before turning back and looking back at Daphne. He took a deep breathe.
"Are you ready?" He asked.
"As much as I shall ever be."
"Good. Then let's finish the preparations. I'll get the animal; you get the potion."
"Alright."
With that, Harry moved over to his desk were a box shape was covered by a large cloth. He reached out and pulled the cloth away to look at the kneazle he had cursed just yesterday. Blood curses worked truthfully at their best on magical beings, proven by the fact that the one on Ciri did not work properly. A kneazle, while basically just being a cat, was magical for certain. It had a small core and magical body which qualified it. The kneazle was currently knocked out for its own safety.
He had almost not managed to curse it honestly. Blood magic, besides the use of blood, also required some form emotion to be involved. Curses required darker emotions which Harry didn't often feel if he were honest. He had been forced to use the memories of the Dursleys to manage a strong enough curse to actually stick. He had tested it afterward in the same way he had done with Daphne's mother months ago to confirm it.
He dragged himself out of his thoughts, lifted the cage up, and walked over to the large stone slab in the middle of the room where the Ritual would take place. When he got to it, he set the cage down before gently taking the kneazle out of it and placing it on the slab. The creature didn't stir for a moment ant the movement, as expected. He then took the cage and moved it to the side of the room.
With that, he went to his position looking over the slab where Daphne joined him and handed him the potion. He took it and looked at it carefully. It still looked exactly as it did when they had finished it a week ago. He nodded in satisfaction.
"Alright, good. Everything appears to be ready. Remember to write everything down, even the smallest detail you notice."
"I will. You've said it enough times." Daphne gave him a deadpan stare causing him to wince.
"Sorry, it's just…"
"I know, it's fine… Alright, let's do this."
"Yes, let's." Harry agreed before turning back and looking at the slab with a knocked-out animal on it. He took a deep breath before he began.
"With the parts of the horned horse, the liondragon, and the bird of the storm, I beseech you to return to us what once was to what is." Harry called out before uncorking the bottle and pouring the contents all over the both the kneazle and slab covered in runes. As Harry researched more and more about Rituals, he grew to understand the importance of the words uttered during them. It may seem like a minor part to others but it aided in declaring intentions not only to oneself but to Magic itself. Harry had planned out what he was going to say for close to a month now and he was hoping he had made the right choice.
As soon as the last drop seemed to hit the slab, the Rune's covering seemed to pulse for a moment in a beautiful turquoise before dying down. For a moment, he felt his heart skip a beat as the light died. Did he mess up with the works, or perhaps had his words caused some issue with the ritual?
He debated only a second longer before the symbols under the slab and written on the floor of the room roared to life in a scarlet red that was so bright it bathed the whole room in its light. Only a moment later the runes on the slab once more lit up and matched the brightness of the symbols they were on top of except they were still blue. The mixing of the lights almost caused a purple light to seemingly appear as well. It was beautiful, and if Harry hadn't been in the middle of such an important ritual, he might have stopped to admire it more.
The lights, instead of spreading all over the room as they had done initially seemed to concentrate above the slab light a spotlight forming a wall of light around the ritual. It took another moment before seeming to stabilize. Once it did that, the singular light pillar began to seemingly pulse softly in two second increments, as if it were waiting for something. It was time for the next part.
"What is Dark shall return to the Dark. What is Light must return to the Light. What is Dead must return to death. What is Alive must come back to life. I ask for nothing more or less than a return from what was to what is!" Harry yelled out towards the ritual.
The response was immediate. Instead of the soft pulses, the Ritual unleashed a large pulse. It was so strong that Harry was forced to hold his arms in front of his face and brace himself to make sure he didn't get knocked over. The ritual was suddenly making a thrumming noise that was seemingly growing louder and louder with every second. That wasn't something he had seen coming. The large pulses continued continually almost knocking him over forcing him to continue bracing himself. He glanced over to Daphne to see her taking cover behind the desk. Despite that, she caught his eye and looked over to him. A silent communication seemed to pass between them before her face hardened and she nodded at him. He nodded back understanding she was giving him permission to continue.
He stepped forward and fought against the large pulses that were now closer to air explosions that continued going off. Along with that, the thrumming noise from the Ritual had gotten louder and louder. It sounded almost like the engine of a plane but almost… deeper in nature. Hearing it caused the hair on Harry's neck to stand up as if warning him.
Despite this, Harry forced his way through the blasts until he was once more at the slab. Reaching into his back pocket, he pulled out a small object revealing itself to be a pocket knife. He unfolded it and brought it up to his hand. He sliced it open with a grimace before reaching down and letting his blood leak onto the slab for a moment. This would be part of the final step and the part that would push the Ritual into something powerful enough to take on even the most stubborn of magic.
"I give my essence and ask for the essence to be returned to this one as well! Let my blood give what was taken and take anything that was given!" He yelled against the roar. As soon as the words left his mouth, the roar stopped as did the pulses. For a moment, everything was completely quiet, not just from the Ritual but from everything. It was so quiet he could hear his own heartbeat.
Just as quickly as it had arrived, the silence was shattered. An explosion from the ritual was unleashed so strong that Harry could not physically brace against it. Instead, he was launched off his feet and backwards violently away from the Ritual, also knocking the air right out of him.
He landed heavily on the stone floor some distance away feeling not a small amount of pain from his shoulder. He bit down hard gritting his teeth as he looked over towards the ritual. Unfortunately, it seemed this was quite impossible considering the room was now being consumed in a bright white light centering from the middle of the room where the Ritual was taking place and it was continuing to get brighter.
It was strange though, for a moment, he could've sworn he saw some sort of dark strand of mist in the middle but a second later, it was gone. The next second, Harry had to close his eyes and look away as the light felt like it was starting to rival the Sun itself. The roar coming from the Ritual was now at a level where he was worried it would damage his ears and he tried covering them to hopefully help. It did a little but the noise was still loud.
After what felt like hours, Harry finally noticed the sound was beginning to grow quieter and the light trying to break through his eyelids seemed to be growing dimmer and dimmer. He waited for a few moments before peeking at looking at the direction of the Ritual. All the light seemed to have gone and the Ritual itself looked inert once more. He sighed in relief as he tried to sit up. He immediately winced as he remembered the pain in his shoulder.
He looked down at it and grimaced see his arm lying limp next to his body and blood leaking slowly out of it from a long gash that went almost all the way up his arm. His robe had been ripped. He must've scrapped across the floor when he had been flung by the explosion.
"Harry!"
He looked up and saw Dumbledore standing over him before he immediately came down to his knees and whipped out his wand and began casting on Harry.
"I cannot move my arm." Harry added lightly, trying not to betray the true amount of pain he was in. He didn't think he was successful as he suddenly found himself surrounded on all sides by his friends and the Flamels. Daphne came and kneeled on the other side of him looking at him with concern. He looked her over for a moment and she seemed fine. She had probably taken cover behind the desk. They were magically stuck to the floor after all. That was good at least.
"Oh Merlin! Harry, are you okay?" Hermione asked looking at his arm with a queasy expression. Harry nodded.
"I will be. The damage wasn't done with magic so I assume it can probably be fixed pretty easily, correct?" Harry asked looking at Dumbledore who frowned.
"I hope you will still remain just as careful of mundane damage in the future even if the damage may not be permanent. As for the wound, you shall be fine. The bad news is that while I can heal your arm here, it is dislocated and spell snaps it back correctly. It will hurt. Alternatively, we can go to Madame Pom-…"
"No. Do it here! There is still work to be done. We haven't come so far just to not know what has happened until right now." Harry demanded seriously. Albus frowned looking as if he wasn't sure he actually wanted to listen to Harry but he sighed after a moment and nodded.
"Very well, brace yourself, this will hurt." Albus warned him. He nodded and did just that. The man waved his wand and with an audible snap, he felt his arm go back into place causing a white-hot flash of pain to go through his right side. He barely stopped himself from screaming but he couldn't stop himself from whimpering and falling on his left side a bit before Albus caught him to prevent him from hitting the floor.
"Are you alright?" Albus asked him. Harry took a few deep breathes before trying to move his arm. It didn't feel good but he could do it again at least. He nodded.
"I guess so… Can you heal, the gash? It doesn't look that deep." Harry asked. Albus nodded and got to work. While the man began his work Harry looked at Daphne.
"Alright, while he's doing that, let's discuss. Right off the bat, we now know, we'll need to put some wards up around the Ritual if we do it again. Both light, sound, and force need to be accounted for. That's, at minimum, three different types of wards we shall need to put up." He said to her. She sighed and looked down for a moment while shaking her head. She then looked back at him in a very signature 'you're an idiot' look but she answered.
"Agreed. The sound and force shall be easy enough but I don't know anything for light, or at least not for limiting how much light exits out of an area. Do you?" She asked. Harry shook his head at that. He could probably make one eventually but that would take a while.
"I know of such a ward. I'll have to look it up though, it's a rarer one." Nicholas added from above them. Harry looked up at the man who seemed less jovial after the whole procedure but still seemed in somewhat good spirits.
"Would you be willing to give it to us? I'd be willing to compensate for the knowledge if it's rare." Harry suggested but was immediately waved off by Perenelle.
"It's rare because there's not many who would need such a ward not because it's some ancient magic. We shall give it to you freely as we've done with all other knowledge, we've given to you." Perenelle assured. Nicholas nodded along in agreement.
"Of course."
"Thank you, both… Well, what else? Did you see anything from your angle, Daphne?" He asked her. She looked to be thinking it over for a moment.
"The reaction was a lot stronger than we anticipated. A LOT stronger. Do you have any idea why?"
"It must have been the words. I had expected them to have a more directing role within the Ritual but it appeared to have also have quite the enhancing ability as well. We had already had such planned for in the potion so it doubled it perhaps?"
"Was this your first-time using words in a Ritual?" Perenelle asked.
"Second but that was just more to try it out. That Ritual was a lot less complicated though." Harry answered easily.
"You do need to be careful with that. Not all words spoken will have an enhancing effect so usually you can add or detract from what you say to try and fix that, though there is no guarantee it'll help, especially with this kind of Ritual." Perenelle warned. Harry nodded slowly as he made sure to file that away for the future.
"Done." Albus said interrupting their talk. Harry looked down and saw that his arm was back to normal with not a speck of blood left visible. He flexed his muscles and hand a few times and besides the dull pain he felt from the injury, it appeared as good as new.
"Thank you, Albus." He told the man sincerely.
"Don't thank me just yet. When Madame Pomfrey finds out about this, she will have both our hides. You will likely wish you still had that injury if it meant escaping her wrath." Albus warned with an amused smirk. Harry shivered as he thought of that before shaking it off and making to stand. Immediately, the people around him moved a step back to give him some room. Once he was up, he looked around.
"Right… I suppose there's no reason to delay. Let's go see the results of this." Harry tried to say lightly to hide his nervousness.
"I suppose we should." Daphne said quietly as she too looked over at where the Ritual had taken place. With that, they parted so Harry and her could walk over to it. He felt his anxiety grow as he grow closer and closer. When he finally reached the slab and looked down at the kneazle which was still asleep on the slab.
"Did it go through any changes during the Ritual?" Harry asked. It should have, at least, they predicted it would. Despite its current appearance, all of the blood in its body should have been purged and replaced to help counter the Blood Curse it was holding.
"Yes, at one point, it almost looked emaciated but that was before the explosion and the bright light. It would seem it has returned to normal after the light faded and the Ritual ended." Daphne informed him. He nodded at that. He brought out his wand and immediately cast some diagnostic spells on it. He waited for a moment to get the results. As he looked it over, he sighed in relief.
"It's vitals all look good. Heart rate is normal and brain activity seems to be within an acceptable range as well." Harry announced. Causing Daphne to sigh in relief as well. A big concern of both of theirs was that the creature would die for some reason they could not account for when they had drained it. Luckily, they seemed to have accounted for everything, or enough that it was fine afterward.
"That's great… We will need to watch it for at least a week, though, to see if there are any side effects." Daphne reminded. He nodded in agreement. That was pretty common procedure in these instances.
"With all that confirmed, it's time for the moment of truth, has the curse been lifted from it…" Harry muttered as he put his wand away and touched the Kneazle with his bare hand. As soon as he could feel its fur, he began to reach out into it with his magic. He began the synchronization process as he learned to do beforehand. Since he had first done this, Harry had refined the process. Since he knew the curse was within the blood, he purposely directed his magic to the blood itself and began searching inside of it, which had taken quite a bit of practice to do. Once inside, he began the process of looking around. He made sure to be as thorough as possible.
"… Well? Is it there?" Daphne asked after a few minutes seemingly running out of patience. Harry hadn't even noticed that he had closed his eyes as he got lost in his searching. After another a moment, he sighed and removed his hand before removing his hand a retracting his magic tendril. He opened his eyes and looked at Daphne blankly.
"… I'm not a bloody mind reader Potter, just… be honest. Did it work?" She asked. Her voice broke near the end and he could see her eyes starting to water. He looked at her for a moment longer blankly. Then, he could contain it no longer, he grinned.
"All signs of the Blood Curse have disappeared. High Level Purification Ritual… success." He said with a large smile on his face.
Immediately the cheering and shouting started from joy. Though there was only nine of them in room, it could have been an entire Quidditch stadium for how much noise they were making. For all the cheering though, Harry watched tears drop freely from Daphne's eyes and sob erupt from her. He blinked and he was suddenly being pressed against. He realized Daphne had wrapped her arms around him and hugging him tightly as she sobbed freely.
Despite the surprise from the uncharacteristic action from the girl, after a moment, he gently wrapped his arms back around her and she hugged him tighter in response. He could feel her literally shaking in his arms as she continued to cry. He smiled into her hair after a moment.
"It's going to be okay Daphne… SHE'S going to be okay."