12 Act II: Chapter 2

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I stood in the dueling room of the Ancient and Noble House of Black, alone and staring at a shape on the ground. Harry was studying in the library, trying to get his magical knowledge to match his enemies.

'He won't succeed as he is, but neither would I have, a year ago.' I told myself as I continued my train of thought.

Before the 'merge', I was useless, and a bad friend. Now? Well now I'm without a doubt the most powerful and knowledgeable student in Hogwarts, and I'm a much better friend. That leads me to my next thought.

'Harry needs the rituals, maybe more than I do.'

I have known this for a while now, ever since the start of our studying and training together. He just can't keep up, he takes to magic like I did ...before the ritual. The motivation for us is similar, but my abilities outstrip his by a mile. He can memorize the material just like I did, maybe better than I did, but I understand and learn the material faster, so much faster.

It's the reason why I wasn't only focusing on the curriculum of Hogwarts anymore. I was already on the seventh year material, and it still isn't a true challenge. A lot of my time is focused on refining my dueling, and teaching Harry.

That is the reason that I stood in front of a Heptagon drawn by ritual chalk, with the same ingredients placed at the exact same location as the first ritual I performed almost a year ago. The lunar cycle is the exact same as that day also, just like the book requires.

'Now all I need is a willing body.'

I thought about my most recent memory of Fleur's lips on mine. I grabbed the emotion and brought it to the front of my mind, basking in the happiness. Then my wand moved.

"Expecto Patronum." I spoke quietly. Light burst from the tip of my wand as I willed the spell into existence, my happiness as the fuel. The light coalesced into a form most would see as menacing, to me it was beautiful.

At first glance, one might mistake the shape of light for a leopard, but they would be wrong. In the wizarding world, there is a breed of feline that is feared universally. It has spots like a leopard, but a mane of what looks to be spikes wrapped around it's head. A nundu stalked around the room, one of the most dangerous creatures in the world, a wizard killer, but now it's purpose is to pass a message a few floors below me. It shot out of the room and down the stairs.

'Still can't believe my patronus is a nundu. It makes sense I suppose. If Dumbledore is a phoenix, and Voldemort is a basilisk, I can take on the role of a nundu.' My mind supplied as I stood in the room, waiting for Harry to come distract me from my thoughts.

Once you can cast a corporeal patronus, it's just a shift in the mind to have it send a particular message to who you want. That is not to say that is was an easy task to perfect the ancient piece of magic. In fact, it is the most difficult spell I have ever encountered.

I have grown accustomed to casting spells on the first or second try, very rarely do I need a third. In fact, it only takes me an hour at most to master most spells soundlessly.

It took me two weeks to perfect the patronus charm. I could get a silver mist of light within the first day, but the corporeal form didn't come to me until yesterday. Luckily, my mind grasped the requirements afterwards and I find it easier and easier to draw out the necessary emotion to cast it. No doubt, Occlumency helped in that area.

'Speaking of, I wonder if the book would judge me worthy of the mind palace yet.' I thought to myself just as Harry walked in the room.

"You're lucky I just gott back to the library, or your mother would have seen your little display of magic outside of school." Harry started immediately as he crossed the threshold and closed the door. "But a corporeal nundu as a patronus? That's wicked mate."

'Shit! I forgot about being underage. Oh well.' I thought as I notice something different in the way Harry walked. He walked with his chin up, chest out, proud, and more confident in his abilities. 'Dueling with him almost everyday has done wonders for him.' His new robes fit his form perfectly, as mine do, courtesy of Sirius loving us like his children.

The summer months have been kind to us both, if you don't count my family shunning me for almost the whole duration. Harry hasn't cut his hair in preparation for fifth year like in the movies, instead he keeps it just long enough to tie up into a man bun, proudly showing off the scar that made him the boy-who-lived. I'm pretty sure Sirius had a lot to do with this also but we haven't spoken about who taught him how to spell his hair that way, so I really can't say for sure.

As for me, well I decided I didn't like the long hair. Now my ginger red hair sits in a faux hawk that won't be popular in the wizarding world for another forty years probably, but I don't care, Fleur approves. My robes now consist of colors that work well with my ginger genetics, greens, purples, blues, and of course, reds, mostly reds.

In short, Sirius has turned us into complete tools, and strangely enough, neither of us have complained.

"What's this?" Harry asks as he notices the ritual array on the ground.

"This is what I called you up here for." I told him as I sat down at the desk in the corner of the room. "I have some things to admit." I continued.

He just stood there looking at me, waiting for me to explain.

"Last year, the room revealed so much to me, it changed everything. I was looking for ways to better myself, thinking really, like I always do." I paused as he walked over to me and sat down across the table, he could sense that it would be a long conversation.

"I was sitting down like this when it dropped a book out of thin air. It was written by Rowena Ravenclaw." He leaned onto the table at this, way more interested. "Sometime in her life she began collecting rituals, to change the body and mind, really for anything. There are hundreds of them in the book."

Harry continued to stare at me, as if he was trying to unlock a puzzle with only his eyes.

"I found one, that she claimed to have performed herself, her along with the founders and countless other prominent wizards and witches through time."

"This is the ritual?" Harry interrupted me before I could continue.

"Yes."

"What does it do?"

"Well, all of the ingredients around the heptagon are common in a lot of potions regarding the mind, the wit-sharpening, memory potion, and others." I said pointing to the array.

"So it makes you smarter? More intelligent?" He pieced together.

"I don't think so, for me it was like unlocking my mind. Suddenly I could remember, I could learn, and I could use information faster than ever. It's almost impossible to explain." I told him trying to gather some sort of explanation from my mind. "It just enhances your mental performance. It won't make you a genius but if you put in the work it will guide you along the path of genius'." I finally finished.

"So this is how you've gotten so much better, more powerful?" Harry asked me with a hunger in his eyes.

"No, I worked my ass off to get this far, but this certainly speeds up the process." I answered truthfully. It wouldn't give you the key to greatness, but it would show you the door.

"So when do I get to do it?" Harry asked suddenly, not even taking time to think.

I blanked at his fast response. "Uhhhh…. Don't you want to think about it?" I responded with a question quickly.

"Why? You're proof it works yeah?"

"Yes, it has helped me wonders." I told him honestly.

"So let's do it." Harry said standing up and walking over to the array on the ground.

"How does it work, do I just walk in?" He asked staring at it.

"First, take all your clothes and jewelry off." I said seriously.

He stared at me for a second. 'He must think I'm fucking with him.'

Harry looked like he was in a daze, or a flashback, for a second before he started moving. First the shirt, then the pants, then the socks, and finally his pasty pale ass shined out in front of me. I looked away and refused to make eye contact. With my peripherals, I could see that he was covering himself up with his arms as much as he could.

He was about to step in when I caught him. "Jewelry, hair tie, wand holster; any magical items can interfere with the ritual, and we don't want that."

"Right, sorry." He said as he took all of the things I listed for him off.

"Good, now the next bit is simple. Step into the circle, prepare yourself for a smidge of pain, and channel magic, the rest happens naturally. Oh and focus on bettering yourself mentally." I listed the next steps off for him.

He stood there for a moment, still staring at the chalk and, in typical Gryffindor fashion, stepped inside without a word. He looked extremely nervous.

'Or maybe he is just cold?' I thought getting distracted by Harry's shivering.

He locked eyes with me inside the circle. I winked at him and he had the smarts to sit down before starting the ritual. We broke eye contact when he closed his eyes, after he gained all of his courage.

And then it started.

There was no warning, no outside signs of the ritual beginning beside Harry going completely still. It was hard to tell if he was still breathing or not. Eventually the chalk began to slowly turn black as it rotated around the heptagon.

My eyes found his scar and I got a bad feeling in my gut, the feeling you get when you know something is about to go horribly wrong. I couldn't place why I felt this way, everytime I tried to grab the knowledge, it pulled away from me.

Just as the ritual was about to end, it happened. The chalk suddenly stopped an inch from finishing. Overwhelming heat filled the air, emanating from the ritual, and my wand found its way into my hand but I didn't cast anything at Harry.

'My gut was right.' I thought as I noticed the divergence from my own ritual.

Harry's head twitched and his hair moved to reveal his scar. It was raw, open even, but no blood ran out. His mouth slowly opened and I knew that if he had control over his vocal cords, he would be screaming.

I reacted and cast a silencing charm, in case he decided to cry out, followed by a variant of the locking charm on the door. My mind grasped the wards of the house, courtesy of Sirius, and willed them to not let anyone in or let anyone hear what was happening.

I cancelled my original silencing charm and looked back towards the ritual.

His mouth was closed this time and a bright red light mixed with black shined out from his scar. It looked like the black was looking to escape the scar and the red was holding back somehow. The wisps of color swirled around each other until the red finally got a hold of the black and they were both absorbed back into the scar. The chalk on the ground finally completed the heptagon and turned black.

Harry toppled from his upright position and fell to the floor breathing harder than I had ever seen him. His eyes looked around frantically as he scrambled out of the ritual chalk. He looked like an animal backed into a corner.

"Harry?!" I shouted to get his attention and moved towards him. The only reason I hadn't beforehand was fear of interrupting the ritual even more. I reached down and grabbed him by the neck, ignoring his state of undress.

He recognized me easily once I did that, our eyes meeting. He took a few calming deep breaths before he spoke.

"You said a smidge of pain." He whispered quietly as I let him go now that he had his bearings.

"It was uncomfortable, but it wasn't ...whatever the fuck that was!" I exclaimed, pointing to him and the remains of the ritual chalk.

"That was comparable to the cruciatus curse, Ron." He breathed out again.

That's got to be an exaggeration. I thought, looking at him. He was still heaving air into his lungs.

I reached down and touched his scar, feeling it for a fever, like Molly used to do us when we were little.

'Nothing. Nothing to indicate that red and black light even happened.' I deduced feeling his head. 'Do I say something about it? That has to be why it was so painful.'

"Do you feel any different? Mentally?" I asked him as I stood back up and walked towards his clothes, determined to get him dressed and in bed.

"Yes, the ritual worked for sure." Harry answered, looking a thousand times better than ten seconds ago. "You were right, it's like I was underwater and moved so slowly, and now I can zip around on my firebolt in the air. "

'Odd way of putting it.' I thought to myself. Harry was grinning ear to ear, the pain of the ritual forgotten.

I was more worried than ever.

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Hermione arrived the next day, and distracted Harry and I from our studies, thankfully. I am still worried about any side effects of the ritual. I'm even more worried about the nagging feeling in the back of my skull that told me I am forgetting something every time I think about it.

'All I can do is wait and hope he is ok.'

I caught a glimpse of red in the kitchen. Bill.

I excused myself as I got up from the table and walked towards the direction of the kitchen.

Bill met me in the hall, he only went to grab a snack apparently.

"Little brother." He said nodding to me as he walked by.

"Bill." I called out to get his attention. He stopped at the stairs and looked back at me. "I was wondering if you could do me a favor?"

"Depends on the favor, troublemaker." He said rhyming horribly.

"I was wondering if I could tag along next time you deal with any wards at work, or elsewhere." I added that last part hinting at the order.

"And why should I? It's terribly dangerous work you know." Bill responded taking a bit out of his sandwich.

"Because you care for his safety and the best way to learn how to break or crack wards ...is hands on experience." I responded honestly, telling him of my desire to learn.

His playful attitude dropped for a moment as he looked me over, I swear his eyes seemed more sad than anything. "Why would you need to learn that?" He finally asked me.

"Because I may need to get out of a tough spot one day." I said vaguely knowing that I would be in countless 'tough spots'.

He turned his back to me and started up the stairs again. "I'll think about it."

'That could have gone better.' I thought as I too turned around and walked towards the kitchen, his idea of a snack appealing to me.

I walked in and immediately broke into a silencing charm, sound greeted me.

"It's gone on long enough." Molly said to my father in a corner of the kitchen. Neither of them noticed me and I didn't announce my presence.

"He betrayed our trust." Arthur said back with just as much hostility.

"He only did it because he knew we would say no!" Mom replied to Arthur before quieting. "He only wanted to help."

"Well that's true enough." I said loud enough for both of them to hear, tired of eavesdropping.

Both of their heads snapped my direction and they each had different reactions. Molly's face softened, almost happy I heard them. Arthur's broke eye contact and hung his head, looking down in shame or anger I couldn't tell.

"What are you hoping to accomplish with all of this father?" I asked genuinely curious as to what he wanted.

"To teach you a lesson in life." He responded after rubbing his eyes a little.

"And what lesson is that?"

"Money isn't everything in life Ron." He answered quietly.

"I know that already." I said truthfully.

"Really? Because the boy I raised was taught not to take advantage of his friends, merlin, you practically stole that money from Harry." Arthur said quickly, he had been thinking about this for a while apparently.

"I didn't steal anything, Harry was going to throw it away, he mentioned burning it down to ash. Imagine all of those resources, things that we could learn from such a beast, maybe a cure for the poison gets developed now, maybe we learn a little more about magical resistance because of its hide, maybe your son gets a little financial stability for a few years, would that be so bad?" I responded by taking a rational approach to the argument.

"And we had just as much of a right to the basilisk as Harry, Ginny is the one who opened the Chamber of Secrets. I just capitalized on the opportunity. You may be content with a simple life, but I am not!" I told him as my voice raised slightly, emotions getting the better of me.

I looked away and my proficiency in occlumency helped me in calming down before he spoke again.

"I just don't want you to lose sight of what's important in life son." Arthur told me and then gestured to himself and Molly. "Family."

'You have no idea who I am doing all of this for, do you?' I thought to myself. All the months training, and studying so that I can protect the ones I love, so that I don't have to bury a brother and watch another wither away in grief. 'Of course I can't say all of that to him, because Fred will not die in a few years unless its by accident trying to invent a new prank.'

Arthur took my silence as acceptance apparently because he spoke before I could. "You can have this victory Ron, I just want my family back."

'Well that is a complete one-eighty from where we were just at.'

"I would like to have a normal conversation with my dad sometimes too. There is a war coming, and ...well." I didn't have the heart to imply I might die in the coming conflict so instead I just trailed off.

"Yea, I know son. Just promise me you won't go spending all that money until you're an adult, yeah?" He asked me.

"Of course, it was a one time thing." I lied. I only felt slightly guilty since I could be considered an adult if you tilted your head and squinted.

"Good. You hungry?"

"Starving."

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A/N: Not gonna lie, I was going to write another scene but I felt like this needed to end here. It's a fairly short chapter but we're wrapping up the summer break and soon we'll hit the ground running. I think you all are going to like what fifth year brings.

Harry's ritual? What do we think? It's fairly easy to guess what the red and black lights coming from his scar are but I won't spoil anything.

Remember, Ron doesn't remember anything about Horcruxes.

Let's talk in the reviews!