The first ritual

// THIS IS AN OLD CHAPTER. THE NEW CHAPTERS ARE IN VOLUME 2. YOU CAN READ THESE CHAPTERS IF YOU WANT SOME INSIGHT ON WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN LATER BUT SOME EVENTS CAN BE DIFFERENT BETWEEN THE OLD AND NEW CHAPTERS.

Time flies at Hogwarts without anything special happening. Apart from Valentine's Day when I almost died under a bombardment of chocolate, we cannot say that the year was rich in emotion.

I started to develop a new means of transport as well as new letterboxes to replace the owls, the teleport door and the instant mailbox.

The teleportation door is a simple arch with an indicator light and a keypad, by entering the number of the arrival door we can cross our arch and appear as if we had crossed the arrival door. The indicator light indicates when it is safe to cross so as not to end up merging with a person crossing at the same time.

The instant mailbox works on the same principle, you put the mail you want to send inside, and you type the number of the receiver. The light may turn orange to indicate that mail has arrived.

So far it works in theory, in practice all the letters that go through the box end up on the other side in thousands of small pieces. And I don't even dare to think back about the state in which the chicks who passed through the door arrived.

I've finished polishing the Magic Essence Absorbing Ritual and I'm ready to start a test phase. For this one I'm going to merge a Bowtruckle with the essence of a Hinkypunk.

The Bowtruckle is a small plant being that protects the tree it lives in, and the Hinkypunk is a kind of swamp spirit that draws people into the water. It has the particularity of overriding all detection spells.

Everything is already ready in the room on demand, I have traced the rune circle on the ground, install concealment charms, containment spells are ready to be deployed the second something goes wrong and in the worst-case scenario I managed to find a flask of Fiendfyre to vaporize everything.

I start by tracing the symbol of mental domination on the Bowtruckle with my blood. Normally I should do the same with the Hinkypunk but it's incorporeal, I'll just have to use the spell without the blood connection.

I place the Bowtruckle in the center of the circle and the Hinkypunk on an improvised altar next to it. I recheck one last time that everything is in place and everything is working. Everything is ready, launch of phase 1, the extraction of the essence of the Hinkypunk.

The first level of the circle animates with a red light when I plant my wand in the ground to activate it. This red light wraps around the Hinkypunk, gently tearing away the very essence of it, its magic, its memories, its body. Everything that makes him a Hinkypunk is decomposed and gathered in a golden sphere that floats above the Bowtruckle. I feel the Hinkypunk resist, struggle, trying to break the hold of the spell of domination. He will struggle until the last second but in vain.

The essence of the Hinkypunk now floats surrounded by the red aura which prevents it from dissipating. We can begin phase 2 of the ritual, the absorption phase. The goal is to bring the essence of the Hinkypunk back into the Bowtruckle without it dying. The second level of the circle is activated, and a green light materializes and pierces the Bowtruckle in order to connect it to the essence of the Hinkypunk. The Bowtruckle absolutely cannot move or think but I can feel the excruciating pain in the equivalent of a nervous system that he possesses. Note, drink a pain-relieving potion.

Once phase 2 is over and the essence is completely transferred, the last phase which is also the most critical, the fusion. Two essences now co-exist in the Bowtruckle but if I wait too long, one of them will try to destroy the other which would mean the death of the latter. To prevent his death, it is now necessary to diffuse the essence of the Hinkypunk in every part of the Bowtruckle in order to grant him his powers.

It is also the step that requires the most concentration, each cell of the Bowtruckle is reduced to nothing and I have to repair them one by one. Note, add a regeneration spell to the ritual to make it easier.

After this long and tedious step, I can finally appreciate the result. A new species of Bowtruckle has emerged before my eyes. This one is about ten centimeters taller and has a yellow aura that escapes from it, similar to that of the Hinkypunk.

I consider that despite the few improvements that will be necessary, the ritual is a success. We must now see if the Bowtruckle has obtained the ability of the Hinkypunk to ignore detection spells.

I use my dominate spell to make the Hinkypunk walk towards several detection spells I have placed and none of them trigger. The ritual is definitely a success, but there is still a lot of testing to be done.