Connection with the Maledictus Curse

Kenneth was in his room sitting behind his desk, in front of him, there was a small sphere of blood in the size of a ping pong ball floating on top of his desk. It was Astoria's blood sample, one of the reasons he pushed the curing to a later date was because of the pull he felt towards Astoria, Kenneth could only compare Astoria and Nagini and conclude that the common factor was the curse. Since Nagini was completely "cured", Kenneth could not make any deduction on how he made the connection with her and what turned her snake form into the mythical creature that it now was.

Now that he had Astoria's blood sample, he could do a few experiments and get a few answers. Even though the blood sample was small, it did not matter, with his soul eye and perfect memory. He could observe the same experiment as many times as he wanted.

Waving his hand, Kenneth split the single blood sphere into three parts. He placed two parts of it into different vials and stored it for later use. The first thing he did was simply observe curse's interaction with Astoria's blood with his soul eye. After a long time observing, Kenneth found that when the curse tried to infiltrate the blood, most of the time the result would be in the destruction of the blood cell. However, ones every 1000 cells or so, the blood would undergo a transformation and magic would flood into the cell.

Next, he expanded the sphere into a blood mist and summoned his white and black flames. He then engulfed the blood mist with the two flames. He did not give any intent to the flames, he just let it do its thing while he observed the changed. He picked up few clues to what went on, when the flames died down, Kenneth placed the remaining blood into a different vial, then closed his eye and dived into his mind scape.

After going through the memory a few times, he was extremely surprised to what went on in a cellular level. The flames simply ignored the curse as thought there was nothing wrong with it. Instead, the flames destroyed and reconstructed Astoria's blood, when the blood went through multiple process of destruction and reconstruction, the curse easily moved into the cells and transformed it, making the surrounding magic flood into the transformed cells.

From his perspective the curse was not a curse but some sort of a blessing, it's just that normal human wizards and witches could not support the blessing and ended up either dead or get transformed into something that barely supported the blessing. He recalled Voldemort saying, "Compared to magical creatures, wizard and witches could barely considered magical."

"The lunatic who placed this curse knew what they were doing, they were probably like Voldemort as well. Wanting to create or awaken the wizards and witches who had the mythical bloodline running through their veins. Even though they knew they might hurt the individual witch or wizard, they did it for the betterment of the wizarding community. Just like Voldemort, no, not Voldemort, he is just a psychopath without empathy and love, this is more like Grindelwald, mad but genius," thought Kenneth.

He started observing the transformed blood and he found out that it was giving out the same magical frequency as the Raiju in his mind scape. "So, is this what Astoria would transform into if I went with curing her? And she would specialise in time magic?" thought Kenneth.

He thought for a few minutes and realised what a huge headache he landed himself into. For one, Astoria was only 6 years old, was he going ask her to pinkie promise not to tell her parents? And an unbreakable vow is simply out of the question, if she accidentally breaks it, it would mean her death. Although he did not know how he made the connection with Nagini, he had a feeling he would make a connection with Astoria as well, and he could influence her through it. However, he disliked controlling people in such a way. Even for Nagini, he only ever used it as a communication tool. Secondly, the destruction and construction of the body was extremely painful, it took Nagini three full days to complete the transformation, it might not take as long since Astoria had a smaller body, but Kenneth had no idea the extent of the psychological damage it would do by subjecting a 6-year-old to such pain. Thirdly, he was not strong enough to share the mythical bloodlines with others yet, Nagini was an exception. He had to find a different way to deal with the curse.

He took out the remaining two vial of blood and started experiment with them, unfortunately, they were all failures. For example, he used his intent and black flame to destroy the curse, he even tried to separate the blood from the curse, but no matter what he did, the curse would manifest itself in the blood after gathering magic. He only succeeded when he destroyed the curse with his black flames and then immediately isolated the blood from interacting with magic. He could do this for Astoria but that would mean she would never be able to learn magic. Kenneth believed that Astoria would rather live with the curse than give up magic.

"Well, it seems I have to use the first option. Hmm, I could always not cure her and back out of the deal but that would curb my own magical growth, so not an option," thought Kenneth.

He took out a parchment from the drawer and place it on the table, then he took out a quill and started writing a letter to the Greengrass family.

Dear Mr./Mrs. Greengrass,

I bring both good and bad news to you. I have spoken to that person, he agreed to helping your family. However, he does not wish to meet you and asked me to continue to be his middle man. He has his own troubles and asked both of you to show some understanding.

Of course, this would also mean you don't need to wipe your memories out as you won't be meeting him. That person does have a condition for you in exchange for his help, he wishes to obtain a complete copy of your family library, you can only withhold information on your family history. Unfortunately, you will have to swear an oath on the honesty of the exchange.

The other thing is that it took Nagini three days to show results, since Astoria has a smaller frame, he predicts the process would probably last shorter time. However, that would mean that you would have to trust your daughter with him for a few days. That person said this is also a test for your family to see how much you are willing to trust him and how desperately you wanted to help your daughter.

If it brings you some comfort, I can personally swear that that person does not and will not harm Astoria in anyway. Please write back after making your decision, then you can drop Astoria at our store when the time is set by both parties.

Kind regards,

Jason Kenneth Webb.

Kenneth wrote the address given to him by Oscar Greengrass and sent the letter by Hoots the owl that belonged to Nagini. Few days later, he received a letter of reply from the Greengrass family, agreeing to the terms Kenneth had put forward. He replied and arranged the meeting to happen in a week's time. He still needed to figure out how to make the process painless and make sure Astoria did not spill the beans accidentally.

A week quickly passed and Kenneth ironed out his plan, he had to buy a few mice in order to make sure what he was about to do was safe. He did not like experimenting on the animals but it was better than trying things out of a 6-year-old girl. Luckily, due to Kenneth's soul eye and affinity with magic, the process he theorised succeeded in one go without the mice experiencing pain.

"Mr. and Mrs. Greengrass, good day, please come this way to the workshop so we can get things started, Jennet dear, please arrange some refreshments for the guests," greeted Kenneth as the family of four had walked into the store.

After they chatted for a while in the seating area in the workshop, Oscar said, "Mr. Webb, we have the copy of all the book." He waved his hand and a small mountain of books piled on the floor. Kenneth waved his hand and place all the books in his ring and said, "Thanks, let's talk about the oaths we will make and get it over with."

They wrote the oaths they would be making and each gave a copy to the other, after confirming the content of the oath had no loopholes, they made the oath, Oscar promising they handed a copy of all the books except their family history, while Kenneth making one that said Astoria will be safe during the time, she stayed with him.

Astoria cried when it was time to part with the family. While she was hugging her parents, the 7-year-old Daphne walked up to Kenneth and put on a big girl and big sister on her duty face and said to Kenneth, "Mr. Webb, I hope you will take care of my sister or else… or else…," only then she realised she did not have anything to threaten Kenneth with, so she blurted with her hand on her waist, "I won't let you off!"

Kenneth chuckled on the inside while putting a complete serious face and told her, "Don't worry Miss. Greengrass, I definitely, absolutely don't want to be on your bad side. I will take care of you sister very well."

Daphne nodded with satisfaction and re-joined her family. Kenneth said to the mother and the father, "Mr. and Mrs. Greengrass, I should tell you from my experience with Nagini. The bloodline curse does allow a witch to turn into an animal, this will be true for Astoria as well. When the healing process is complete, she will become a normal Animagus, also I should tell you, just as how Animagus will have traits of the animal they turn into, for example, a cat Animagus will take a liking to high places or fish. Astoria will develop such habits as well. Furthermore, since the bloodline curse is different there might be small physical appearance changed as well. It was like so for Nagini, of course the changes were for the better."

The two adults looked at each other and nodded to Kenneth, Charlotte then said, "Well then Mr. Webb. We will leave Astoria in your care. Please be careful. Astoria dear, remember to listen to Mr. Webb. We will see you in a few days." Astoria nodded tearfully and Kenneth assured them that everything would be alright. He then stood next to the doorway of the store with Astoria waving good bye at her leaving parents.