The Sealed One

"I," Oleandra began writing, before she faltered. Hang on, why had she just been considering telling her life story to a boy she didn't know? Actually, why had she even picked up such a suspicious artefact in the first place? There were loads of stories about cursed books, so how could she even think about trusting one?

Her mental defences flared back to life, the runes in her mind world buzzing and flashing angrily.

Just as she was about to close the book and hand it over to Professor Lockhart for safekeeping, the diary somehow guessing her intentions, quickly wrote something that drew her attention.

"You've only recently gained your magic, haven't you? Like say, around one year ago? It has something to do with rune magic, doesn't it?"

Oleandra slammed the diary shut and leaned over to her sister.

"Daphne, I want you to promise me something. If I start acting strangely, or if anything happens to me in the next few days, you'll go straight to Professor Snape and tell him I told you to say that, got it?"

"You're not serious, are you?" Daphne replied, looking at her sister worriedly. "My goodness, you really are. Very well, you have my word. I'll keep an eye on you. Does it have anything to do with that book you've been playing with?"

Oleandra nodded, then she opened the diary again.

"Convince me, or I turn you over to a teacher, and I tell them you're a dark magic artefact," she scribbled quickly. "Go."

"I knew you were in your second year, because my previous owner wrote quite a lot about you. I guessed you had only recently gained your magic, because you have the magical power of a one-year-old, but it's not as chaotic as a baby's. As for the rune magic, well, the first thing you tried to do to scout me out was to use a rune."

So far, Tom Riddle's explanation was perfectly rational. Maybe she had jumped to conclusions a little too fast, but Oleandra still wasn't about to let her guard down.

"There's also another thing. Not to toot my own horn, but I was quite the gifted student, even back when I recorded my memories into my diary. I was especially interested in the study of souls, which is quite an esoteric domain of magic."

"Get to the point."

"I'm sorry to be the one to tell you this, but you've been cursed, and probably while you were still in the womb. I doubt anyone other than me could recognize it, since it's from an incredibly rare branch of curses. In the far east, where they have very accomplished exorcists, they would call this a yin-yang seal, since it incorporates both white and dark magic to seal a target's power at a key point: the soul. Over there, they have quite a problem with Ayakashi, some of which are impossible to kill. That being the case, they do the next best thing, which is to seal away their power. Your soul has been cursed with a very similar spell, your family must have some very powerful and cruel enemies for them to employ such means."

"I'll freely admit I took a peek at your soul, but I swear it was only to satisfy my curiosity. Somehow, you've managed to engrave all twenty-four Ancient Runes into your soul, bypassing the curse's restrictions and giving you back access to your magic. Can you tell me how you've done this?"

Oleandra's world had just been turned upside down. Just when she had finally reconciliated with the fact that she really was a Witch and that nothing could ever take that away from her, she learned that she had actually been a Squib for most of her life. Not only that, someone had intentionally cursed her to be that way. Who could have done such a thing? Who would have done such a thing? Why do such a thing? Her mind still reeled with the implications; there was no way Tom Riddle could be lying to her with such a detailed analysis of her deepest secrets.

If it had been an enemy of the family, then why only curse her? Why not both twins? It would certainly have caused the family to suffer more, to have both its heirs be Squibs. Why her in particular? Did it have anything to do with her being the Lady of the Stars? Oleandra couldn't make any sense out of any of this!

"Is there a way to remove this curse?" Oleandra wrote, her hand trembling.

"I'm afraid not. The light expels the dark, and yet the dark feeds on the light. You might think that such contradictory magic would cease functioning by itself, but it's actually self-sustaining. Each side is in perfect balance, and as such it is impossible for anyone to unravel it, save for its caster. But there's no need to worry, your magic will keep growing; therefore, you'll only be eleven years behind your peers. The rate at which a wizard's power grows increases exponentially from their teenage years to age seventeen, when they come of age. After that, it slows back down, but a wizard's power never ceases to grow. You'll catch up to the average adult wizard's level by the time you're forty-three, if I'm not mistaken."

First-year to second-year level magic was by no means tiresome or complicated for a wizard. If it weren't for the fact that a child's magic was quite wild and uncontrollable, proper magic would be taught even earlier than at the age of eleven. However, as the student went up in grades, they would be asked to use increasingly difficult magic, which would prove to be difficult, if not impossible, if Oleandra could only mobilize as much power as a baby!

"There has to be something that can be done, anything. I don't believe there's nothing that can be done."

"You might be able to speed up this process by simply doing just what you've been doing. To cast spells, a wizard needs three things; a focused mind, a wizard's body, and a sound soul. Your mind is doing just fine, and you solved your soul problem. A wizard captures natural magic from outside the body and channels it within it using their magic circuits. Yours are atrophied, but you should be able to increase their load capacity by forcing yourself to use higher tier magic. No need to worry about pulling a magical muscle, magical circuits are illusory constructs; they can be repaired as many times as it is needed."

Oleandra's mind raced; a certain runeword came to mind. And then, it hit her: wouldn't she also be able to create artificial magic circuits by drawing runes on her skin? If she had more magic circuits than others, wouldn't that mean she would be more powerful? She thought back to when she had devised the rules to her star magic; hadn't she thought of tattoos of runes, back then? And why limit herself to her own person? If she could manifest a runic array wherever she fought, wouldn't she be invincible? It's too bad she sucked at Transfiguration, though…

"If it's not too much to ask, may I ask if you could do me a favour? I wish to be reunited with my owner; they need my help with their homework, and they are relentlessly bullied. Those bullies are probably the ones to have stolen me and hidden me in the girl's bathroom. You seem like a resourceful woman; would you kindly drop me off at the Gryffindor common room?"