Chapter 62, Sectumsempra
Severus temporarily chose to give up on reading the tiny minds of the Gryffindor Gang of Gits in favor of focusing on his true strengths. He was back to simply defending against the gits rather than blackmailing them, simply because he believed he could perfect the cutting curse he'd invented far faster than he could learn to pick their brains for useful information.
Of course he knew other curses, but the gits tended to gang up on him rather than facing him alone. They knew he was far better at cursing and hexing than any of them would ever be. None of them could hope to best him alone and they knew it, so they wisely always refused to try. This meant that while he was cursing one but good, another would do something unpleasant to him in order to distract and ruin the moment. Usually it was just James and Sirius making it a not even two against one while the other two Gryffindor Gits watched on from the figurative wings as it were, but if necessary, Peter would jump in to help.
Lupin rarely did, only interceding if Severus was pressed to become particularly nasty with his hexes. He was passed sick and tired of having to stress over what sort of stupidity they would come up with to distract him when he was defending himself from one of their petty if enraging attacks. Even worse than that, though, he hated the ball of anxiety that rested in his belly at the thought of facing them with Heather and Raislen gone. Due to Lupin's frequent non participation, when his friends were about, Severus had the gits technically outnumbered. While it was four against four, all of Severus's group participated where only three of the Gryffindor gits did most of the time.
When the older Slytherins graduated, Severus and Regulus would be outnumbered all the time, not just when the Gryffindor Gang Of Gits managed to get one of them alone. He needed something he could hit several with at once, and he was sure the cutting curse would do the trick once he got it perfected. When he could actually cut them with a curse, they would no longer benefit from ganging up on him. As a result, they would just have to bloody bugger the hell off!
He would have to slack off a bit in his O.W.L studies, but it could not be helped. The idea of being tormented daily by the Gits next year outweighed any concerns of a lower grade. Besides, he was more than prepared for most of his subjects, Transfiguration not withstanding. Raislen got his Hufflepuff friend to supply Severus with all manner of foods to practice on from fruits and vegetables to breads and cheeses. He'd discovered in Kreacher's kitchen when visiting Regulus last summer, that great sweeping slicing motions of his wand did far too much damage, so he kept the movements small. Somehow there was still too much force behind them, though. After he neatly shredded each eatable item to one degree or other, everyone of course ended up snacking on it all during study breaks.
"Did you see how I stuck bits of the cheese you shredded through the cracks in the bread that you cut the hell out of," Regulus asked laughingly around a full mouth. "So yummy! You know I'm picturing that bread as Sirius's face, right?"
Heather snickered. "You want to eat Sirius's face? That's a bit too twisted even for me.""
Raislen choked on a chunk of pineapple, and Regulus jabbed Heather in the side with an elbow. "Nasty! Bad Heather Toy!"
"Uh-Oh," Severus muttered, knowing what was to come. Calmly Heather finished the wedge of pineapple covered in cheese that she was eating. Regulus visibly relaxed when she did not retaliate at once, but Severus knew better. When Heather's hands were free, she turned to Regulus and calmly slammed him in the stomach with a fist as she used to do nearly thrice weekly to Raislen before they'd begun dating and he'd learned to more closely watch his tongue.
"Not fair! You were nasty," Regulus wheezed indignantly. Severus was mildly impressed that anyone could manage to wheeze indignantly.
"I was responding logically to what you said," Heather replied calmly. "Let that be a life lesson for you."
Raislen spluttered with laughter around a mouthful of cheese bread. "What sort of life lesson, though?"
Heather shrugged dismissively. "That's up to him to sort out. Life lessons, Raislen, well they're each person's personal journey," she said sagely. For some reason Raislen thought this was extremely funny, for he didn't stop laughing for five minutes. Happy to be out of it, Severus continued placidly eating his own cheesy bread with shredded pineapple on the side. The pineapple was what he considered the biggest failure of the bunch today.
Its hard outer shell and softer insides did not present him with the proper medium for his cutting charm, and as a result, the large fruit had gotten far more shredded than he would want any human to end up being if he hexed them. Apples had worked better, allowing the trajectory of his magic more control, and the cheese had worked nicely as well after a few attempts. The first block had ended up too shredded, only providing Regulus with the perfect filler for his bread, but the later two blocks Severus handled far better, only cutting into their surface.
They remained intact as whole blocks to be fully sliced when it was time to eat them. He only wished the idea of practicing on an actual human wasn't so terrifying. It was simply that he knew if he erred that he could literally potentially harm someone grievously or worse. The worse was the true concern. He did not plan to go to Azkaban for accidentally shredding any of the Gryffindor Gits even if they did richly deserve it. "My sides hurt," Raislen moaned breathlessly. "I have to stop laughing!"
"I could always hit you in the stomach," Heather offered casually. "You've never laughed before when I did that, after all."
"I said my sides hurt," Raislen stressed. "Do you think I fancy adding more pain to the mix?"
Heather shrugged. "It was just an offer."
"Is it weird to think that raspberries would go great with this sort of bread and cheese," Regulus wondered. He'd recovered and returned to eating during Raislen's laughing fit.
"Yes," Severus said firmly just as Heather replied, "Not at all."
Raislen began laughing again. "Oh no! I'll die!"
"It's a decent way to go at least, if a painful one." Regulus snickered. Idly Severus wondered if he and Regulus would laugh nearly as much with Heather and Raislen gone next year. The four didn't end up going to dinner due to having filled up on all the food Severus had experimented on. Instead they studied, or rather Raislen, Heather and Severus did while Regulus went to write Kreacher.
Over the next few weeks, the four rarely ate dinner in the Great Hall due to filling up on Severus's practice food. At last, he had come up with a name for his cutting curse. He'd chosen to call it Sectumsempra. As words had power, he had taken his time choosing the proper words. Often a name was among the first things one wanted when constructing a spell, as a name gave the spell clear definition and intent. Severus knew his intent, though, and with this particular curse being so dangerous, he hadn't been in a hurry to give it even more power and focus until he could control it.
Finally he was close enough to that point to feel that words to direct the intent would be helpful. In Latin Sectumsempra meant to cut always. Over the years, each time that Regulus expressed how much he hated Sirius and the other Gryffindor Gits, Severus would respond in solidarity by saying 'Always,' and when Severus said how he hated them, Regulus would say the same. Severus felt it made the wording even more suitably personal. As such, this connected the spell all the more to his feelings, ensuring that the results would be more powerful.
That night, he carefully wrote the components for the spell down along with its new name in the N.E.W.T. -level Potions textbook his mum had given him several years before he started at Hogwarts. He had all of her text books. This gave him quite the advantage in his education save for when it came to bloody Transfiguration. Having little else to do as a child, he'd enjoyed studying, feeling himself to be quite the grownup because his mum allowed him to learn advanced magic. This meant that when he actually had the classes at Hogwarts, he was already familiar with their subject matter.
Eileen having kept these text books definitely saved some money when it came to the need to buy new ones as well. The only ones he had to buy were those newer text books that were being used after Eileen's time at Hogwarts. These necessary purchases were few and far between, though, for little changed in wizarding education over time. The next morning at breakfast, Severus asked Raislen to get an entire cooked chicken for him to practice on of the sort Kreacher had let him work with when he began construction of the curse last year.
Raislen's Hufflepuff friend was able to get it within two days of the specific request. Idly Severus wondered if the elves who Raislen's friend claimed ran the Hogwarts kitchens liked Hufflepuffs best or if it was just that the Hufflepuffs were the only ones who talked to them. After classes were over, the four gathered in the Slytherin common room, surrounding the chicken reverently. It sat in an arm chair on its silver platter looking quite delicious. Raislen, Heather and Regulus looked as excited and nervous as Severus felt as he drew in a deep breath and aimed his wand at the roast chicken.
"Sectumsempra!" And again! "Sectumsempra!" At last the spell was his, properly responding to his will! Severus cut into it perfectly and only as deeply as he wanted. Small cutting wand motions kept the lacerations slight and shallow, while longer more sweeping cutting motions deepened and lengthened them. The chicken did not explode or shred. At last the curse was ready to use on the Gryffindor Gang Of Gits! The words combined with the practice of power released finally hit the magic sweet spot, and he was confident in his control over the spell.
"I did it!" Throwing his arms wide, he let out an exalted laugh. Never had he had to work so hard on something, but at last the curse was perfect! It would be the thing that made the Gits finally leave him alone. Though he would hate not having Heather and Raislen about during his final two years at Hogwarts, he did not feel as much dread at what the gits would put him and Regulus through as a result of their absence.
"Ooh, beautiful," Regulus breathed. "I can imagine those precise little paper cuts all over Sirius's stupid face. I can imagine his self-satisfied smirk fading to a look of terror! I want to learn it. Say the word again, Severus!"
"Sectumsempra," Severus repeated obediently.
Regulus aimed his wand. "Sectumsempra," he said excitedly. More paper cut looking lesions spread across the surface of the roast chicken.
"That was perfect on the first attempt," Severus said indignantly. Well he couldn't help feeling a bit of resentment after he'd had to perfect the curse for over a bloody year.
"He didn't have nearly as much hate to battle as you did, though, Kid," Raislen pointed out. "You always did it well, just, you know too well."
"As in I would have killed someone with it," Severus muttered. "Which is why I never used it on the gits until I was certain I could control it."
"I hate Sirius plenty, though," Regulus objected mildly. "I'm just not angry at present, not to mention he's gone from my home forever and I am the heir to it all, which truly is as it should be. He doesn't appreciate a thing about our family, so why should he have any part of it?"
"True, true," Heather agreed distractedly. "You aren't angry right now, which helps a great deal, I am sure. And Severus had four gits to be angry at when you only had one really."
"I don't like the other three either, but I take your point," Regulus said. "The rest are more personal with Severus, and they leave me alone for the most part unless I happen to get the best of Sirius and one of them needs to jump in because gods forbid he ever gets what he deserves." He laughed. "I'm getting angry now, so I better not try it again."
"Trying it again is actually exactly what you should do," Heather objected. "If you plan to use it against the gits, you will be angry when it happens."
"True," Regulus said, aiming his wand at the chicken again and making the slicing motion with his hand. "Sectumsempra." The cuts that appeared over the surface of the chicken were a little deeper, but not enough to cause a gitish Sirius injury.
"Five, though," Raislen said. "The Kid had five people to be angry at. Don't forget old man Prince."
"True," Heather agreed and Regulus nodded.
"See Severus? You have far more rage than I do. You got it under control, though."
Severus knew this was true. He literally felt himself reigning in his emotions when casting this particular curse. Perhaps this skill could also be useful during his personal lessons with Dumbledore next year. Being too emotional about mind reading or blocking one's own mind surely would not yield the results he wanted either.
"I think you both need to practice on roast chickens or hams or something a bit longer before using this lovely curse on those gits, though," Raislen said. "Just to make certain you have it down perfectly and that no accidents happen. While one of you takes your turn, the other could remind him of all the reasons he has to be angry. Because as Heather said, when you use it for real, you will be angry."
"Good idea," Severus said, trying not to sound disappointed, because it was a good idea. Did he want to rush right out and try it out on one of the gits now? Yes. He wouldn't even have to start the fight. If Sirius or James saw him, they'd start all on their own. They always did. Raislen was correct, though. If he used too much force and killed one of them, ending up in Azkaban would be the end result, and those gits weren't taking his life from him.
He and Regulus spent the rest of the evening practicing the curse on the chicken. Because they kept their cuts small, the chicken lasted. Reminding one another of rubbish things that Sirius or James had done put both in a foul mood, though. Severus only slipped up once in spite of this, and Regulus not at all. Thanks to Raislen's reminders of how he had far more people to be angry at, this didn't vex Severus too deeply. When they were heading to bed, Raislen stopped Severus with a hand on his shoulder.
"There was something I couldn't risk saying in front of Regulus, Kid. Something else you should remember," he said quietly. "You have one more person to be angry at, for taking someone from you, and we all know it. This anger will be there when you hurt anyone as well, so keep that in mind." Raislen was carefully mentioning Voldemort without mentioning Voldemort. Severus appreciated his tact, and the fact he hadn't mentioned him in front of Regulus. He nodded, knowing that Raislen was right.
"I will always remember."