Chapter 197: Rituals and their Consequences

Disclaimer:

"Harry Potter" and all of its characters belong to J.K. Rowling. I own nothing but the original characters I create.

"Dialogue"

'Thoughts'

- Author notes -

Chapter 197: Rituals and their Consequences

Daphne watched the woman work with rapt attention.

She had seen healers of all kinds work on her sister, but never one like her.

The woman had left Harry lying in the middle of her shop and then used her own blood to draw some symbols on Harry's chest and then started to chant in a language she had never heard before.

She could do nothing but watch now. Not wanting to speak... in fear of interrupting the process, even though she had so many questions.

The first one being… who is this woman, what is this strange shop? or why did she get so angry when Harry mentioned that name… 'Morgana'.

The woman stopped chanting, stood up, and walked to another shelf.

The rectangular shop was completely surrounded by shelves that go from near the floor up to the ceiling. There must be thousands upon thousands of objects stored on those shelves.

"Mmm… let's see…. where did I put that…" The woman muttered as she went through some shelves.

Daphne was not surprised she was unable to find something… none of the flasks, vials, boxes, or other different objects had any labels on them.

'How is she supposed to remember what is where?...'

"Is… is Harry going to be okay?" Daphne decided to take this chance and ask.

"He might… if he survives what comes next." The woman said.

"What?! ...What comes next?" 

"Ah!, here it is!" She took a large box out of the shelf. It didn't look that big at first, but as she pulled it, the box grew in size until it almost hid her entire upper body as she was holding it.

She then walked back to Harry's side and placed the box down.

"Your foolish boyfriend performed a ritual that conflicted with a previous one. Now he has two sources of magic inside his body, fighting a war, and killing him in the process."

"Two?, but… wait no, he is not my boyfriend!" Daphne shouted at the older woman.

The woman laughed. "Young love… how adorable."

Daphne's cheeks became completely red. "I don't… I mean… I… ahh!" She screamed and fell on her butt when she saw what was inside the box.

"You are very loud, little one…" The older witch said before placing what looked like a dead human baby on the floor.

"W-what…. what are you doing…. with…" Daphne pointed at the baby.

"Oh, this? We need to remove all the magic this boy added to his body. Now, ritual magic is… how can I describe it?... sticky perhaps?"

"Sticky?" Daphne had no idea what this odd woman was talking about.

"Indeed. The moment we remove it from him, it will try to attach to someone else. And so… we need a container for that."

"A dead human baby?..." Daphne frowned.

The witch grinned. "You are wrong in two things…"

She used her own thumbnail to make a small cut on her finger and then rested it against the baby's forehead, leaving a bloody mark.

All of a sudden, the baby's eyes opened, and started to flail his little arms and legs around, but did not cry or make any sounds.

Daphne's eyes opened wide at seeing this bizarre spectacle. "He is alive?!"

"It is… kind of. But as you can imagine by now. This thing is not human."

Daphne noticed that this baby was extremely weird. "What is it then?"

"A homunculus… an artificial living thing. Created by alchemy. I got it from an old friend for a good price."

"Homunculus…." Daphne repeated. She looked at the baby with disbelief. There was an uncanny feeling while staring at it. Just one look was enough to know that something was very off with this baby.

"I better begin… the sooner we start, the better for him." She took out her staff and started to chant again.

The blood circle on Harry's chest started to make noises.

It was sizzling as if the blood was boiling.

Then, some red smoke started to come out of Harry's body and converged above the circle. The smoke then turned into a thick liquid as the witch continued to chant.

"It's all out." Several beads of sweat covered her forehead.

The red liquid hovered gently over Harry's stomach for several seconds before it started to move on its own.

"Is that the magic from the ritual?... why is it moving so much?" Daphne asked. That liquid gave her a terrible feeling.

"I told you it was sticky. It will now try to attach itself to someone else…"

The thick liquid started to grow in size. Small tentacles appeared on its surface and moved around.

"Let's get you a new home." She gave her staff a flick, and the bead of liquid went toward the homunculus's body.

As soon as it landed on the baby's face, it moved around and entered through its mouth and nose.

They both stared at the homunculus baby in silence for a few seconds.

Daphne looked horrified at the spectacle while the witch just appeared to be mildly interested.

"That thing was inside Harry's body?!" Daphne asked.

"Nasty huh? That's ritual magic for you… and this one appeared to be special…" The witch pointed at the baby. This one thrashed around with violence as its body started to decay.

Less than ten seconds later… it stopped moving.

"Is it… dead?" Daphne stared at the unmoving little body.

The witch gave her staff another flick, and the box from before came flying and pulled the small body inside.

"It is… that ritual was particularly nasty. Even if nothing had gone wrong…" The witch glanced at Harry. "The boy would not have lived more than a few years."

"What?!" Daphne exclaimed with shock.

'Did Harry not know this?... but he made that ritual… and he was going to do another one on top of that?' She did not understand why he would do something like that.

"Your boyfriend should be fine now." The witch told Daphne before moving her eyes to the pool of Harry's blood beneath him.

"Go check on him."

Daphne did not need to be told twice.

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