27 Discoveries and Deliberations

Hermione was waiting outside for him, her back hunched over due to the number of books in her bag. She was looking strangely at Harry, eyes narrowed in suspension.

"How did you manage to complete the assignment?" she asked, her voice bland.

"By writing runes onto the box, how else?"

"I saw your rune clusters earlier; they were all wrong, nothing like what was shown in the books." noted Hermione.

"Like I said earlier, maybe people are just looking at it the wrong way." said Harry, the two friends hopping off a staircase that had suddenly begun to move.

"You mean the authors of a ministry-approved text?" asked Hermione, disbelievingly.

"I guess. Either way, I did it differently and it worked, right? So no harm done."

Hermione shook her head disapprovingly, but said nothing. The two of them soon arrived outside Professor McGonagall's class, where the rest of the Gryffindors were already waiting for them. Ron, who had been talking to Dean, Seamus, and Neville, turned to Harry.

"Harry!" exclaimed the youngest Weasley, "Regret your change yet?"

"Actually, I was one of the only five students who was able to complete their assignments." said Harry. Ron paused in shock, clearly not expecting the given answer.

"Although I am impressed with your supposed achievement," came a stern voice from behind, "I must ask you to refrain from speaking of other subjects when in my class."

Harry turned around, nodding quickly at what Professor McGonagall had said. He could have sworn she had sent him a quick smile as he entered the classroom. It had been small, yes, but it was better than any of the smiles he had ever seen her send another student, even Hermione.

Unfortunately, Harry was not capable of replicating the perfect success he had achieved earlier. Unlike runes, he had not yet received any special teaching from a certain portrait. He did, however, do much better than he normally did, though Harry suspected that might have been because he actually tried for once. He was beaten only by Hermione and Ernie Macmillan.

Harry was more than fine with the results. He had realized that actually concentrating was especially important in the magical art of transfiguration. Visualizing what he was attempting to do also helped. It was slightly comforting to know that when he tried, he was actually quite talented.

Harry would work especially hard at Transfiguration, if only to wipe the smug smile of Ernie's face. Ernie Macmillan had been one of the Hufflepuffs that had made Harry's second year so horrible by spreading false rumours throughout the school.

After an hour had passed in the Transfiguration classroom, the students were sent off to lunch. The fourth year Gryffindors were led by an eager Ron, arriving much sooner than anyone else. The redhead hurriedly sat down on the table, stuffing his mouth with chicken.

As the rest of the students joined the table, Harry pulled a book that Salazar had told him to read earlier. It was a very old book entitled 'Rituals: An Obscure Art', although if anyone else took a look at it, the title would appear to be 'Advanced Defensive Magic'. That was thanks to a spell Salazar had shown him before leaving the chamber, which created an illusion for everyone other than the caster.

Salazar had told Harry that reading the introduction of the book might be able to persuade him that rituals weren't evil or dark. Harry was beginning to agree with the portrait. While the branch of magic was given a bad reputation, it seemed fairly interesting, and very useful, as shown by the first few paragraphs of the book's foreword.

'Normal Rituals are a combination of Ancient Runes and magical absorption. Essentially, the user of the ritual is to absorb the magic from a given object, using runes to smoothen the process. The magic absorbed combined with certain rune clusters will give the user permanent abilities.

As an example, if a witch or wizard was to absorb Dragon Scales, Gryphon Claws, and/or a few other body parts belonging to especially tough creatures, they may themselves gain tougher skin (this is if the rune cluster used matches the aforementioned ability). If someone was to use magical components that are flexible, they might find themselves to be flexible as well.

There are near infinite rituals that can be created, though only 1 in 1000 Normal Rituals typically succeed (due to a lack of knowledge). As of the creation to date, there are only 42 published rituals (specifically normal rituals), all of which are very complex. It should be noted that a ritual can vary in strength, depending on the amount or potency of the magical components sacrificed.

Besides magical components (body parts or objects), rituals also require time and pain. Many rituals take a certain amount of time to take effect, and are typically very painful. Many see it to be a fair trade, as many rituals last for life, unless another ritual is used to remove the given attribute.

There are two other variants of ritualistic magic, hence why the ritual type previously mentioned have been referred to as Normal Rituals. The remaining two ritual forms are known as Blood Rituals and Soul Rituals. This is because they center around the concept mentioned within their names, and work differently than Normal Rituals.

Blood Rituals are based on sacrifice, and are linked via blood (rather than with typical runic magic). One must sacrifice something of near equal value of what they wish to gain, and create a series of runes with their blood.

Soul Rituals are the least understood of the trio. They require no sacrifice, runes, or absorption of any kind. Merely a potent level of intent. They center around the soul, affecting it in some way (perhaps to damage or mend a soul, or to connect two souls as they do during Phoenix Soul Bonds and Ancient Marriage Rituals).'

Harry could definitely see the appeal in such an art. It might be fairly interesting to develop more rituals, potentially giving him more benefits. He would have to make sure he paid attention to anything and everything Salazar said on the subject; he wasn't interested in permanently transforming himself into some unsightly human hybrid, or something equally peculiar.

Besides, from what Harry could tell there were some fairly decent rituals in existence. While he did not truly understand what Soul Rituals were (as the book said they required nothing but direct desire or intent), he could not see how something that brought two people together could be a bad thing.

Salazar had told Harry not to worry about either of the latter two ritual types at the moment. Soul Rituals were mainly used to form bonds with others, something Harry had no need for at the moment.

As for Blood Rituals, Salazar said that while they would likely be capable of accomplishing certain things normal ritual could not, they were still not something for Harry to concern himself with just yet. Regardless of how impressive the few Blood Rituals that apparently existed were, they were very few in number, and were typically only used for immensely important occasions.

....

Salazar had also mentioned a hypothesis he had formed as to how Harry survived being struck with the killing curse all those years ago, one that revolved around rituals. The portrait had initially believed Harry's survival had been due to a Soul Ritual (which would only require potent intent), but eventually decided against it, stating that Soul Rituals could only be used to break, mend, or form bond between souls.

He had therefore changed his hypothesis into a Blood Ritual, and had now firmly stuck to it. Blood Rituals would require a sacrifice, something which could likely have been provided by the deaths of Harry's mother and father.

Salazar was unsure of what that meant for Harry, as he claimed it was unlikely such a powerful protection would linger for much longer. Considering that the protection was seemingly against the killing curse, Salazar had advised Harry against putting it to the test.

And when I said I wasn't that stupid, he says you can never tell with a Gryffindor. He's really milking this for what it's worth.

The hypothesis did, however, rely on Lily Potter having knowledge on Blood Magic. There was simply no other way she could have hoped to accomplish what she had, according to Salazar. Harry had known his mother was a prodigy of sorts, but not to that extent; he had always thought the professors had been playing it up, lost in nostalgia.

Hearing that Blood Magic was likely the only possible way Harry could have survived, however, did make Harry much more willing to delve into the study of rituals. If his mother deemed it safe enough to learn, he would as well.

Harry closed his book gently twenty minutes later; the Gryffindors' next class, Charms, would be starting shortly. Hermione was reprimanding the other Gryffindor boys again; he would have to remind Ron to refrain from talking about Veela around her.

.....

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