25 The bewitcher
"Parseltongue"
"Normal talk"
'Thoughts/Soul channel'
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"Can Dumbledore use Phoenix Flash now that you've broken your bond with him?"
'Don't you remember Salazar Slytherin's instructions on your ritual?' Fawkes inquired tiredly, making Harry slow down.
He was running circles in the Hogwarts grounds.
Staying cooped up inside the chamber all day had become both painful, as it constantly reminded him of his time spent with Sal, and lonely…
Apparently, his snake familiar and the phoenix weren't the greatest company.
'So, I'm a bad company huh?' the phoenix asked and dived into Harry's hair.
Harry wasn't impressed as the bird made itself comfortable upon his head.
'You know, your hair could act as a pretty good nest,' the avian snarked.
Mostly unbothered by the ancient creature's antics, Harry picked up his pace and contemplated on his words.
His mind drifted to the letter for the ritual.
.
Having in mind that you wish for 'the most potential and destruction', I've designed this ritual.
My initial idea was to create a ritual similar to the one I underwent, granting you the ability to speak in the dragon tongue. However, I quickly shot the idea down. I concluded that as you are able to speak in parseltongue and the fact that the ritual won't utilize the most of the sacrifices you'll make, it'd be wiser to aim for something else.
And that's how the idea of my magnum opus was born.
Think.
Imagine.
What's the best way to connect all of the sacrifices that you are willing to offer?
The basilisk venom and the phoenix tears are neutral, they could be used with the same effectiveness for most things.
If you are reading this letter then you also have a dragon's body, slain by you and claimed with magic. Need I inform you of all the wonderful abilities that the said dragon had?
You then have an imitation of Ash's magical sense and lastly, a dark lord's horcrux.
I should note that any ability you get from a familiar is permanent, that's why you can use it in the ritual. It's also one of the reasons that familiars don't usually break the bonds with their masters as they suffer heavy backlashes because of that.
Sadly, bonding with Fawkes didn't appear to cause you any physiological changes that we could take advantage of.
Considering all that, I've come up with this.
I'll make you an Abyssal Reaver, and to be precise, the Abyssal Reaver.
Now, hear me out, I've not gone mental just yet.
You've slain the last of the dragon's kind, erasing it from the face of the earth, and magic is probably not happy with that.
You wanted power and potential right?
Why not go all the way then?
The ritual will use an animagus rite variation as a base, followed by my own creation in the end.
You'll start the animagus ritual on the waking of the winter and conclude it on the twenty-first day of December, after three sets of seven days. The magic build-up, bundled with the winter solstice should be just enough for the ritual according to my arithmancy calculations.
You may wonder, will you be able to talk in dragon tongue then?
The answer is yes and no.
As you'll be part dragon, you'll of course be able to speak the tongue. However, unlike parseltongue, you won't have the innate ability to do so fluently.
You'll need practice, decades of practice…
I digress though.
While being able to turn into a fire-breathing monster would no doubt be useful, that won't be enough to slay the likes of the dark lord.
A big and strong target is not what you require, no.
You need finesse, power and skill.
That's why I tweaked the animagus ritual so you can share most of your other side's abilities while in human form, specifically your senses.
And that's where your other sacrifices come into play.
The venom, empowered by the phoenix tears both in your system and whatever Fawkes would manage to shed while you are chanting and declaring your offers, will be used to push your innate ability as a wizard to sense magic as well as the one granted to you by Ash.
The Horcrux, offered to Death, will strengthen your soul, deepening your connection with the world and magic.
The goal of the ritual will be to make you as intimate with magic as possible, granting you an unparalleled control and sense of magic.
Now about the finer details…
.
"So Dumbledore can still flash around, that's not very nice. What about the backlash thing? Did you have one after breaking your bond with Dumbledore?" the young man asked.
'Of course I did, but I'm a phoenix. There's nothing I can't heal from,' Fawkes answered from its comfy bird nest.
'I'm surrounded by narcissists…' Harry thought behind his occlumency shields, lest the two creatures catch him.
'So was that why Your Majesty didn't stay after delivering this poor peasant to the chamber?' Harry asked seriously.
'Sigh. That was one of the reasons, yes,' mumbled the fiery avian, getting two laughs in the soul channel.
'Ash, are we good?' Harry asked.
'Yes. Dumbledore is sitting in his office. No, wait… He started walking back and forth,' Ash supplied from inside the chamber.
He was curled in front of the fireplace with the marauders map laying open in front of him.
That's how Harry was able to safely walk around Hogwarts, without the chance of stumbling on any professor, particularly the demented headmaster.
Needless to say, he also had his invisibility cloak within arm's reach.
'Probably trying to come up with another dubious plan for me. I wonder what is it this time?'
None of his companions chose to answer, not feeling as amused as he himself did.
'You are nearing the Veela,' suddenly came Ash's voice in his mind.
That was another surprising bundle of information…
After the task, Harry continuously probed Ash about the weird feeling he was getting from the girl.
Eventually, the snake broke and very reluctantly informed Harry about Fleur's nature.
'The wench used her charm and mesmerised me,' Harry thought, not for the first time, getting low hisses as Ash was trying to compose himself in the chamber, and an amused trill from his head.
Harry couldn't understand what was so funny about the situation.
'Personally, I think it's despicable and kinda scary. I don't get why you guys laugh every time I mention it…' he said, getting even stronger reactions in response.
Annoyed, Harry continued his jog, trying to find the girl.
'Am I getting there?'
'Yeah, she's just ahead of you,' Ash managed to wheeze out amidst his laughter.
Harry vigorously moved past the trees and bushes that were in his way until he spotted the girl.
She was sitting on a big white towel with an open basket on her feet.
She was having a damn picnic!
She was also turning her head towards him…
Deep blue eyes met sparkling green.
Harry's heart may have missed a beat.
"Just the bewitcher I was searching for," Harry half shouted prompting the girl to tilt her head in confusion, dissolving her previously set up bun and making her silver hair sway with the wind.
Despite the unmistakable anger that seeped in his voice, Harry couldn't help but marvel at her serene scene, which only made him more annoyed.
'Are my occlumency shields not existent or what?'
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Someone come and save me from my math test, statistics & probabilities, on Friday :]
I hope that after this week, I'll be able to write more consistently for some time...!
A quick shoutout to these legends for subbing on you-know-what: Meruem Astro, Noname, Kartik Dogra, jarrod dembitz and NotableRonin.
[https://www.patreon.com/Mr_0ne] -> "Chapter 27 - A monster" & I'm going to post 3 more chaps on Saturday.
[https://discord.com/invite/NJ3WV9RVgR] -> Don't know what's happening there.
