167 The Runed Shield

Sitting down next to Hermione I give her an odd look as she eats lunch as if nothing happened. Turning to me she gives me a smile before going back to her food.

"What was the slap about?"

She shrugs as if it isn't a big deal, "I told him to let me hit him and I'd acknowledge his sincerity. I didn't think he'd actually do it."

She pauses as she looks at Theo and Daphne who are staring, "So, how did you do it? Get him to apologize. I still don't fully forgive him by the way."

With a small smirk, I side-eye Hermione, "Like I told Theo, secret."

She rolls her eyes as she peels the skin off the turkey; splitting it in half she holds them out to my scarf. Gilg and Enki slowly creep out each taking half.

This time I roll my eyes, "I already spoil them enough don't I?"

She smiles patting their small heads, "There is no such thing as too much, besides, the skin is unhealthy for me anyway."

"We should bring Ron and Harry to the shop when it opens. I would love to see their reactions to seeing Draco at one of the shops." Theo says leaning back a bit giving me a smirk.

Daphne nods at his words but Luna looks confused, "Do they not like him?"

"That's putting it mildly," I say finishing off my mini ham sandwich.

"They've had a few… spats," Hermione says with scrunched brows.

"So when do you guys want to look for the vault?" I ask looking down the table.

"How about tomorrow?" Theo asks looking between Daphne and Hermione.

They both nod while Luna turns her head curiously, "You mean the cursed vaults? Father says they are quite tricky, he says the final vault is a mystery to even Dumbledore."

"That's true, I asked him myself," I say giving her a small smile.

"What do you think is in it?" Hermione asks looking between Luna and me.

I shrug along with Luna, "From what I've heard about the other vaults something valuable."

After finishing my food I stand up, "I have some stuff to do today so I won't be able to hang out with you guys."

Daphne looks up before I walk away "What are you doing?"

"Illegal things," I say with a smile before walking away.

Heading back to the dorms I prepare a mandrake leaf using a McGonagall approved adhesive I attach it to the roof of my mouth. In a month I will call Quatre, the dementor who watches over Draco, to bring the crystal phial to the tree that overlooks Darkness Falls. Then I can finally get my true animagus form.

Once I have the leaf fastened to the roof of my mouth I take out the shield and head out to the forbidden forest. I am eager to test out this "Reaper's Rune", I have already looked into how to activate it and it seems simple enough.

The shield itself is massive, slightly larger than my body, which makes it a nuisance to carry around; that being said my body is insanely strong and I can partially shift to dementor form if need be.

Covering myself in my cloak I head out towards the deeper section of the forest near where the trolls and acromantula stay. Once the trees lined with webs begin to appear I set down the shield and poke my finger with my wand.

Painlessly a tiny cut appears on the tip of my finger and blood slowly drips down it. With a steady hand, I trace the runes along the shield.

Blue light slowly flows along with the blood seemingly igniting in a bluish-red flame. Normally you must read out the rune in its native language to activate it properly but I obviously can't speak Sumerian so this will have to do.

Once I finish tracing the runes the blue light fades and the fire vanishes replaced by a subtle black glow.

Nodding I drop the cloak hiding me and pick up the shield once again. If it works it should automatically react when used to block an attack.

Without much concern, I walk into the acromantula nest stopping when I grab the attention of some in the trees. With a heft, I slam the shield into the ground in front of me driving it a bit into the leafy dirt. With creepy skittering noises the three closest dog-sized spiders rush at me while I peer past my shield.

The first one jumps at my face but I simply slide the shield a bit to the side to cover me.

*THUD THUD THUD*

Bracing against the shield I hear three thuds and I can see the shield is glowing a bit more than before. Moving it out of my way I see the spiders on the ground screeching as they are consumed by black flame-like magic.

I forgot that acromantula could make noise so it is a bit unsettling but I still watch curiously for the results. Flopping onto their backs their legs furl in and their abdomens shrivel like a fruit that has been dried of all liquid.

Pulling out my wand I point it at some spiders who watched but have not rushed at me, "Arania Exumai," a ray of light projects from my wand scorching the ground and trees a bit tossing the spiders away.

They quickly get back up and rush at me full of fury, just like last time I block them as they jump at me. With three more thuds and flashes of light, I peer past the shield to see the exact same results; three spiders rolling on the ground screeching as their life is drained and burned away.

Repeating this process quite a few more times I cull exactly seventy-two spiders. On the seventy-third spider, I don't see a flash of light and I don't hear any screeching.

Peering past the shield I see an angry spider skittering at me. This time I thrust out the shield smacking it, again no flash. Seeing the spider perfectly fine once again I sigh seeing that without the chant the rune doesn't have regenerative uses.

Raising a hand towards the spider I create a tendril under it spearing it and raising it into the air. With a mental command, the tendril expands quickly causing the spider to explode raining down spider goop all over the area.

My cloak keeps anything from falling on me and I decide that is enough testing for today. Putting the shield away I head back to the school to go check the library for more useful information on runes.

For the rest of the night, I spend my time grabbing books and marking ones I think will be useful. Checking into the restricted section I make more notes on the rare Sumerian books I find. None mention the language and most are written in Latin but luckily Ms. Pince has a Rosetta for me to borrow.

Though I have learned a bit of Latin through magic, actually reading it is an entirely different thing.