441 Serious conversation

"We need to know exactly what we are dealing with before we can make any preparations." Snape said seriously and everyone was in agreement. "You have ears in the ministry , what hasn't been mentioned in the news?" Nick asked the old man seriously and Dumbledore thought about it for a moment. "According to Dawlish there were a few ritual circles drawn in blood in the cells near the one belonging to Bellatrix." he said honestly. Nicks eyes narrowed as he remembered a ritual he had seen in a book in the forbidden section.-

"How many ritual circles exactly?" he asked hoping that it wasn't what he thought it was. "Seven in total but the one in Bellatrix's cell was different than the others though similar." Dumbledore said and Nick loudly cursed. "Sorry for the outburst , I'd need to see the circles myself to be sure but I am pretty sure that I know what happened as well as what left that prison." Nick said with a huge headache coming on. "I need a book from the forbidden section of the library to explain my guess though it's called {War magics and Combat curses} and has a faded black leather binding." Nick said seriously.-

"Give me a moment to summon the tome to this office." Dumbledore said as he clapped his hands and a house elf appeared. He then told it to bring the book in question and the elf vanished for a few minutes before reappearing whilst holding the book. Nick wasted no time grabbing it and rapidly flipping through it's pages until he found what he was after. Placing the book on the desk flat and open for all to see he spoke again. "This is they ritual of unification and despite it's benign sounding name it is anything but."-

"The ritual uses the weakening of the barrier to the spirit realm on this day to tie the magic of seven wizards together thus allowing them to effectively create a mage of extreme power. For example if there were seven wizards of professor Snapes level of power and they did this ritual then any one of them could in theory have seven times as much power than before the ritual." Nick said seriously and everyone looked horrified at the implications that had but Dumbledore figured out the discrepancy from what happened on Azkaban.-

"Only one person seemed to escape though , the rest of the cells were still locked securely." he said and Nick nodded. "That is because of this." he said as he turned the page and pointed at a passage that described what happened if one of the mages got greedy without understanding the ritual thoroughly. As the people in the office read through the passage their expressions turned to horror and disbelief. "You don't think?" Mcgonagall whispered the question in horror but everyone heard it. "I do , it explains why nothing was left alive in the prison."-

"If it is one of these things then it will keep devouring all forms of magic around it until it either gets destroyed or collapses in on itself from too much power being in a body not designed to hold it. Neither of which are easy to accomplish." Nick said seriously. "Does the book say anything about how they were dealt with in the past?" Flitwick asked seriously but Nick shook his head. "That passage is all the detail we have on this thing as whoever wrote this book changed the topic after it and I haven't seen any description of it in any other book though I might be wrong , I tried to avoid the books on dark magic after all." Nick said honestly.-

"A wise decision , the corruptive ability of dark magic is greatly underestimated." Snape said seriously. "Severus can I trust you to search the forbidden sections dark magic books for any mention of this creature?" Dumbledore asked seriously "I will see to it." Snape said just as seriously. "While Severus is looking for information I want you to see if you can come up with an enchantment of some kind to contain this creature at least until we can figure out how to safely destroy it. " Dumbledore told Nick firmly. -

"I don't know if it is even possible to be honest with you , any magic near this thing will get eaten and empower it further and no muggle object can contain it for long. I will try though." Nick said with a sigh. Dumbledore nodded "That is all anyone can ask of you , should you need assistance in any way please let us know so we can hopefully overcome this situation." he said and everyone dispersed worried but hopeful for a miracle.