19 part2

"Has he always taken his job too seriously?" Harry asked, still not convinced. Having just left the man after his rather frustrating attempt at working with Bellatrix with the Auror hanging over his shoulder.

"If you knew how many times he's almost died, you'd at least understand the gruffness," Nymphadora explained in a sing-song voice that didn't even fit in with the topic of conversation. Harry still wasn't wholly convinced, but he would be willing to be less curt with him in the future. So long as he respected boundaries and family.

"So what have you been up to pup?" Sirius asked him.

"I've been reading some of my books and I think I've found something that could help Aunt Bellatrix." Harry said as he turned to Sirius.

"Really?" Sirius exclaimed as he leaned forward onto his knees. Knowing that his son would only say this if he had a good lead on something that really could help. "What did you find?"

"I found an Aztec blood ritual that should work," Harry explained simply, however judging by the wide eyed stares that greeted him, he was going to have a lot of convincing ahead of him. He took a breath before the shouting started and rubbed his forehead.

"A blood ritual? Harry, can't you find something less terrible sounding?" Sirius pleaded as he looked at his son.

"Absolutely not!" Narcissa came sweeping into the conversation like a hurricane. "My sister will not be subjected to an untested ritual performed by some teenager!" She sneered at Harry.

"Oh?" Harry feigned innocence. "Did you find something else then?" Harry overtaxed his hopeful smile as he looked at his Aunt Narcissa. "We can compare notes, if you'd like Aunt Cissy."

Narcissa wanted to argue, but she knew that she had nothing. She didn't want whatever Harry had found to be used on her sister, but had nothing to counter with. She settled on glaring at him ineffectually. Harry knew he was right in this and for this he would not back down to the elder women in his family. He needed to do this, they all needed to do this to help Bellatrix.

"Sirius," Nymphadora broke the tension. "Harry is far more interesting than you gave him credit for." She smiled at Harry once more.

"Him breaking into Hogwarts to abduct me and then capturing our homicidal aunt without breaking a sweat wasn't enough indication for you?" Draco asked his colorful cousin, clearly exasperated with her comments on what kind of trouble Harry could get up to. So far Draco had experienced Harry's tomfoolery and he was determined to remain as far away from it as possible.

"Nope!" She replied with a loud smile as she popped the 'p' on her denial. "Really, who suggests using blood rituals? We're going to get along great, Harry." She laughed when he winked at her. Harry wasn't really sure what to make of Nymphadora, but he was really beginning to like her.

"Is it at least safe?" Andromeda asked Harry timidly or, as he looked at her, tired and resigned.

"There are several accounts of it being used safely," Harry pulled out the book from his bag to open it to the ritual in question. "The blood part of the ritual is only for strengthening the mind of the afflicted."

"But you figured out what was wrong with her?" Andromeda asked with a note of amazed hope in her voice. Neither she nor Narcissa could figure out what had happened to turn Bellatrix into what she was now.

"I conducted some tests and I believe that the main condition is conflicting magic that's tearing her mind apart," Harry gave his partial diagnosis to the family members.

"The main condition?" Nymphadora interjected.

"Bellatrix is a big 'ol melting pot of crazy, so there's no way to tell what else might be wrong until we remove the biggest problem," Harry explained with a shrug. Nymphadora nodded at Harry's explanation.

"What all is necessary for this ritual? I will not consent to hurting her," Narcissa tried to demand, but it just sounded hollow to Harry. He surmised this could be due to the fact that he had a diagnosis and a course of treatment that had eluded the sisters for years.

"Well," Harry took a moment to let out a breath as he formulated his thoughts and explanation as best he could. "The base of the ritual is taking blood from the various family members and drawing the stabilizing runes on her body. Once those are finished, we use the family's fresh blood to strengthen the mind of the afflicted so that the priest," Harry pointed to himself, ''me, can direct a drain and removal of the conflicting magic without causing permanent brain damage or death of the subject"

"That doesn't sound...too...dangerous," Sirius spoke slowly, "for something that you started with 'blood ritual'." Sirius' fingers came up for air quotes as he finished his position.

"Excuse me?" Narcissa turned on her cousin with her hands on her hips. "Permanent brain damage and death sound pretty serious!"

Sirius opened his mouth with a grin on his lips but Harry spoke over him with a glare, "That's why we're using the family blood," Harry explained slowly, pulling Narcissa' attention back to him. "Only with that can we mitigate the potential damage and extend the cleansing over a period of days or even weeks depending on the severity."

The room fell into a somewhat uneasy silence. Nymphadora was all for it while the others were at various degrees of hesitance. Sirius and Andromeda were nearly sold on the idea while it was clear that Draco would do whatever his mother decided to do.

"I'm still not sure about this," Narcissa pleaded with Andromeda to find something to use to argue with. "Trusting a child to run a ritual that we don't even know would work?"

"What other choice do we have? Keep her locked up until she dies?" Andromeda suggested softly as she looked defeated just like her sister.

"Locked up in a cell here, locked up in a cell at Azkaban, or drugged out of her mind at St. Mungo's." Sirius held up his fingers as he counted. "I'm not sure there are any other alternatives here," Yet even his response was said unhappily.

Narcissa clearly wanted to say something, but there was nothing else she could say. Harry had the upper hand, but her pride was not going to let her go down without a fight.

"There has to be something else. Anything else!" Narcissa demanded as part of her impoent frustration.

"Cissy," Andromeda appealed to her sister in a soft tone to bring her frightened and fuming sister to heel. "You know as well as I do there is nothing else. Just look at the Longbottoms. Bellatrix could have been part of that but she was somehow not there when they were captured. She should be in Azkaban already suffering."

An uneasy silence fell over the room as Narcissa looked down in shame. Harry wasn't sure who the Longbottoms were, but whatever had happened to them must have been bad.

"If anything adverse happens to her," Narcissa spoke threateningly as she turned back to Harry. "I will kill you in the most inventive way I can find."

"Sure thing Aunt Cissy!" Harry replied with a thumb up and a bright smile, blunting her threat.

Remus entered the room during the uneasy silence that followed Narcissa's threat so it didn't take his wolf senses to know that something severe had transpired.

"What'd I miss?" He whispered to Sirius as he stood next to the animagus' chair.

"Harry's going to perform an Aztec blood ritual on Bellatrix to fix her mental instability," Sirius explained like he was describing the weather as he reached for a biscuit that was on the plate near them.

"Oh, is that all?" Remsu replied in kind. His fathers had put up with a lot during his childhood, so it was going to take a lot more than this to get to them.

"You two seem rather nonplussed about this whole situation," Andromeda mused as she appreciated the change in topic now that the ritual had been accepted, albeit grudgingly in some cases.

"Look," Remus pulled a chair forward and sat next to Sirius facing the rest of the gathered Black family as he ran a hand stressfully through his graying hair, "a lot of crazy shit always happens around Harry," Remus groused.

"Look at this castle!" Sirius exclaimed, waving his hands around getting into the parental complaining of the unruly child who heaped stress upon them at nearly every opportunity. "Look at the cabinets! How about the Indians in Canada? Or the Monks in China! There's no end!" Sirius, it appeared, was far less composed than Remus.

"It's not my fault," Harry tried to defend himself though the argument was punctuated with a kind of petulant whine rather than the sophisticated evasion it could have been.

"Don't worry about it Harry. You're doing great," Nymphadora said from behind him, still just as happy. If that was because she was a ray of sunshine or because she was infinitely amused with the chaos that Harry brought to the family? One could only guess.

Harry excused himself to prepare for the ritual and to also get away from Narcissa's murderous glare, which was really starting to irritate him. He wasn't technically family, so he didn't have to help them or Bellatrix. Narcissa could at least be a little grateful he had found something that could help her sister instead of being such a frigid bitch.

He decided to go back through the dungeons to Merlin's study on the other side. He wouldn't have to deal with anyone and their irritating questions while he worked at getting everything together and ready for the ritual for Bellatrix. Bellatrix was still asleep when he walked by and Alastor was seemingly napping in the chair provided to him. Once inside the second study and far away from anything he didn't want to deal with, he set to work preparing.

The ritual he finally decided to split into two parts. The first part involved drawing certain pictographs at certain parts of the afflicted's body using an herb and bone base with the blood of the family mixed in. These pictographs would stabilize the afflicted's mind for as long as they remained on their body. That would allow time for the priest to prepare for the second part of the ritual without needing to worry about the afflicted hurting themselves or receiving backlash from the second part of the ritual. The second part involved putting the affiliated in the center of a protection circle while the family stood around them and added their fresh blood to their forehead while the priest spoke a powerful ritual based cleansing spell to remove the conflict within the afflicted permanently.

Looking at the locations that were drawn on the diagram of a human female, it seemed to line up with the chakra points found in the training manuals from the Monks in China and the books he had seen in India as well. Either they manage to develop a similar system involving energy points within the human body or magic users from different areas of the world have been communicating for a lot longer than most of the world gave credit for. Either was likely.

To make what was loosely translated to 'Calming Potion', he would need to mix certain herbs into pure water. Harry and his bees had already collected all the necessary herbs when he traveled through Central America by chance. He sent an empty flask with a couple of the drones to collect some pure water from the river outside the castle. The water they returned with was slightly magical and Harry was initially worried that the latent magic might throw off the potion, but the recipe accounted for it. The recipe was made with pure water with no magic, but stated that any natural magic within the pure water would only enhance the duration of the potion. A few crushed herbs into the water with a little shock of magic and the potion was ready to give to Bellatrix.

Harry grabbed some other dried herbs that he had stored away that were good for cleaning off any residual magic of clothes and skin as well as some soft washcloths that he picked up in India and put everything in a wash bucket he kept on hand for bathing. The only thing he lacked was something to put the family blood into. All of the Aztec books were very clear to remove and store the blood by magical means to avoid it becoming tainted by anything outside that could taint the quality too much for ritual purposes. The unfortunate truth was that he didn't have anything on hand that could work for this purpose. It would need to be something clean and devoid of outside magic in order to work.

Harry looked around the workshop study he was in and hoped that he would find something that might look. There were books, parchments papers, and strange knick knacks throughout, but not a whole lot else he recognized. A whirring sound caught his attention and he saw a strange looking Gwas sitting on a shelf behind the writing desk. It looked like the other Gwas he had seen, except for a purple eye, it had a bright red one. It placed a delicate paw on a basket sitting on the shelf with it. When Harry went over to see what it was trying to show him, he found that the basket was full of glass vials that looked like pointed ovals. Looking closer, the vials were hollow, completely closed to the outside, and the perfect size for what he needed.

They must have been formed by magical means, but when? Harry looked back at the red eyed Gwas with a raised brow. "Guess you aren't going to be answering any of the many...many questions I have. Hmm?" He sighed at the little cat creature. The Gwas blinked slowly as it made the whirring noise once more, but Harry was unsurprised to not get any kind of an answer from it. He grabbed five vials for the five family members and pulled the magical bamboo ink brush that the Monks in China used for their teachings from his bag and put them both in the bucket.

With everything he needed in the washing bucket, Harry headed back through the dungeon to the tapestry study. He didn't really want to have to face the family again, if only because he would have to face Narcissa and her arctic glare and he just wasn't sure if he was ready for that just yet. But Aunt Bells needed someone to help her and honestly if no one had been able to at this point it would be down to him to do it. Sighing in resignation he steeled his resolve and pushed the door open.

All the same people were still there from before. Narcissa seemed a little bit calmer than she was last time he was in attendance, but that could also be because she was sitting next to Draco and gripping his hand like it was the only thing keeping her alive.

"Ah, pup," Remus greeted Harry as he closed the study door behind him. "What brings you back so soon?"

Harry held up the bucket of supplies he had gathered with a smile. "I'm ready for the blood!"

The room fell silent as Harry was greeted with the wide eyed stares of nearly everyone in the room. Sirius and Remus seemed more exasperated than scared and Nymphadora looked beside herself in absolute glee. Draco paled so much Harry could swear he could have seen Draco's heart beating if he had no shirt on.

"Implications, Harry," Sirius muttered just loud enough for Harry to hear.

Harry looked down at the bucket he was carrying and realized what he had just said. With a deeply amused laugh he shook his head and spoke to the family, "Oh no. I won't need a bucketfull!" He snorted once before he reached in and plucked out one of the pointed oval glass jars and held it up for everyone to see. "One each."

"Alright, hold on a second pup," Remus stood up and approached him. "We were talking while you were gone and it seems like there's still a lot of questions about this ritual." Remus held up a hand when Harry was about to speak up to defend his re-worked ritual. "How about you explain it to me?" He suggested in his typical soft way to avoid Harry's ire.

With a sigh Harry placed the bucket against his hip and turned to face remus. "I used an Ancient Egyptian spell on Bellatrix and found out that she's got a lot of conflicting magic inside her. The Aztec ritual is really just a magical incantation to remove the magical conflict," Harry explained.

Remus nodded as Harry talked and asked the million galleon question, for some people in the room anyway, "And the blood?"

"It's going to protect Bellatrix from the adverse effects of the incantation," Harry saw Narcissa try to say something, but was quickly silenced by Andromeda's hand on her shoulder.

"Is the incantation dangerous?" Remus continued his probing questions. Harry was impressed he didn't have a list on notecards to be honest.

"Not in itself," Harry shrugged slightly. "The danger comes from the amount of conflicting magic that gets removed using the incantation part of this ritual."

"And about how much conflict are we talking about here?" Remus asked as he was genuinely curious as to what kind of affliction could be churning inside Bellatrix.

"It's going to be like removing the black pigment from gray paint," Harry said in a succinct summation of the complications present in the eldest Black witch.

Harry waited as Remus mulled over his brief explanation while the family waited. It was no wonder why Remus had been chosen to be the final word on the ritual. He was an outsider enough that he wasn't immediately affected by the outcome, but close enough to want to make sure the outcome was as good as possible. Not to mention he was well versed in Harry's insanity.

"And you can keep Bellatrix uninjured?" Remus finally asked.

"So long as everyone does what I tell them to do, when I tell them to do it," Harry sighed. "It'll be damn near impossible to ease her affliction if I'm having to fight the family the entire way, or Moody." It took everything in Harry not to turn and glare at Narcissa.

Remus nodded to Harry before turning back to the family. "It all sounds quite reasonable to me."

"You can't be serious!" Narcissa yelled at Remus. "This is too dangerous!"

"Enough Narcissa!" Sirius roared as he rose sharply from his chair. His outburst startled everyone in the room, but especially Narcissa. "What other choice is there?!" Narcissa tried to formulate some kind of a response, but only floundered herself into silence. "Harry isn't the stupid child you want to think he is!" Sirius took a deep breath to calm himself before continuing. Narcissa wisely sat back down and held Draco's hand, now thoroughly chastised. "If it sounds good to Remus, then that is what we're doing."

"Why are you trying to sound like you're the Lord of our House?" Andromeda asked playfully to diffuse the tense air.

"Nothing will ever get decided if someone doesn't step up," Sirius sat back down roughly. "We've been going around in circles all day and I'm absolutely sick of it." He huffed not unlike a teenager.

"So…" Andromeda drawled. "Is Lord Black making an official decision?" She teased Sirius with a smirk.

"The Lord Black is dead," Sirius groused. "Sirius Black is fucking sick of the pointless discusions we've been having for the last few hours."

Andromeda turned back to Harry with a soft plea in her eyes. "Harry has permission from the House of Black to perform the ritual on Bellatrix."

"I'm grateful to finally have permission, but I feel like I'm missing something here," Harry replied somewhat hesitantly.

"Pureblood rules. Just go with it," Remus offered as he pulled a book to his hand and found his saved page.

Harry nodded to Andromeda and noticed that Sirius refused to meet anyone's eyes. Just stared downward while everyone talked around him. Harry made a mental note to ask Remus for an in depth explanation later.

Harry walked over to where the family was sitting and placed the bucket of supplies on the floor. He chose to start with Sirius, since he was well versed in Harry's magic. He grabbed one of the glass vials and Sirius' wrist, then used his magic to gently move the blood from the large vein in his wrist through the pores of his skin and protect it until he got it through the glass material.

Sirius smiled up at Harry once he was finished. "Good job, pup! I didn't feel a thing."

"That's wicked!" Nymphadora exclaimed. "How'd you learn how to do that?! And without a wand!"

"Pretty easily since I've never had a wand. Dad didn't fight my magic either so that helps," Harry shrugged as he gently placed the blood filled back in the bucket after he marked it with a charcoal 'S' and grabbed a new one. "No one in my mothers' tribe uses a wand either."

"He's speaking of the native peoples we spent several years with in Canada," Remus explained without looking up from his book. "They teach their children wandless magic from a very young age. As they get older, they learn how to manipulate the raw magic of nature wandlessly."

"Raw magic?" Nymphadora exclaimed again as Harry moved on to Andromeda. She watched him close, yet curiously. "How is such a thing possible?"

"There's a lot of magic in the world," He said absently. Looking at Andromeda he spoke, "don't fight my manipulation of your blood or we'll have some complication and I'd rather do this without cutting open skin or trying to draw blood like an needle," Harry knelt and brought the vial and near her wrist he maneuvered Andromeda's blood through her skin. He continued his explanation to Nymphadora, "Different people use magic in different ways." He smiled as he showed the vial of blood to Andromeda as he marked the vial with an 'A'.

"You were right, Sirius," Andromeda looked amazed. "It didn't hurt at all!"

"Told you Harry was a lot more capable than you lot gave him credit for," Sirius spoke of Harry proudly. He did so often, but it felt different this time. Perhaps it was because he knew these people well and was defending Harry more fiercely than he usually did.

Harry moved on to Draco and performed the same action on him, though this time with Narcissa hovering closely. Draco smiled at his mother once Harry finished. Narcissa was tense the whole time Harry worked on her, but said nothing to him even after he finished. Not that he was really expecting anything from her.

"My turn! My turn!" Nymphadora was bouncing in her seat and presented Harry with her hand.

"I really need you to calm down. It's hard enough to perform this spell while the subject is still," Harry sighed as he smiled at her anyway. Nymphadora smiled at him sheepishly once she was able to control herself. Harry performed the spell easily and showed the filled vial of blood to Nymphadora, which she quickly snatched from his hand.

"That's so cool!" She exclaimed as she turned the vial in her hands. Narcissa rolled her eyes dramatically while everyone else simply smiled at her joy.

"What's next, pup?" Sirius asked.

"Now I need to mix some dried herbs into the blood to protect it and amplify it," He snatched the vial of blood out of Nymphadora's hands. "Then I'll be painting the Aztec wards on her body in pictographs, which will provide the main part of the protection of her mind." Harry placed the last vial in the bucket and stood up. "Once I'm done with that, I'm going to take a break. The incantation will require my full attention, so I must be fresh to make sure Bellatrix isn't harmed."

It was clear Narcissa wanted to say something, but the filthy look Sirius shot her was enough for her to hold her tongue. Remus patted him on the head as he passed him with his supplies in hand. There was something happening with Sirius and his extended family, but Harry chose not to think about it right now. Bellatrix needed his full attention. Alastor was standing near the door of Bellatrix's cell while she was sitting on her bed looking upset.

"What happened?" Harry asked somewhat annoyed.

"Nothing. She's just been mouthy with me," Alastor shrugged as he continued to watch the witch in her cell.

"And what did you say back?" Harry set his supplies down on the floor near the cell door as he glared at the Auror.

"Nothing. Just stood here. Part of the reason why she got so upset," Alastor chuckled. Harry couldn't really be angry with Alastor here. He may have known it would antagonize Bellatrix to remain quiet, but there was nothing Harry could criticize the over zealous Auror for, so he left it.

"Alright. Can you please go stand back in your quarters while I begin? Honestly Auror Moody I can't be interrupted with this delicate stage," Harry ordered the auror as he took out the potion. Alastor took a few steps away from Harry, giving him the room he required, yet remaining close enough to control the situation if things got out of hand. Harry turned to the Auror and raised an eyebrow as he waited. After a moment Moody grumbled but made his way back to the other cell and shifted his chair to the doorway and sat down to watch. Harry shook his head and huffed before turning his attention back to the person who needed it the most. "Alright, Bellatrix. I need you to drink this potion." Harry offered her the potion.

"Why would I drink anything from you?" Bellatrix sneered at him from her bed.

"Because I'm asking nicely?" Harry sassed her. He was getting real tired of finding nothing but resistance when all he wanted to do was help these ungrateful bastards. "I don't want to force you Bellatrix, but I will do whatever is necessary to help you."

"Force ime/i?" She sneered at him before her face shifted and she laughed in his face. "You really think you can force me to do anything other than laugh?"

"Well, you're in a cell with a magic blocking collar on while I am free and have all my magical capabilities," Harry explained to her cooly. "I'd say I have the upper hand here, Bella."

Alastor snorted back a laugh while Bellatrix looked like she was ready to commit murder.

"Take this collar off and let's see who the more powerful wizard is, boy!" Bellatrix growled at him like a wild beast.

"Maybe some other time," Harry replied and immediately hit her with a powerful calming spell.

The spell was from his mother's tribe and was normally used to calm angry bears, but he figured it would work well enough in this situation. It had the desired effect since Bellatrix immediately lost all her bluster and flopped into a boneless pile on her bed.

"Wow. That was really effective," Alastor muttered, clearly amazed at the wandless magic and the effect it had on the normally volatile witch.

"It's a spell for bears, so I'm surprised it actually worked on her," Harry shrugged and made a mental note to tell his mothers and grandmother about this when his crow got back.

"Bears, huh?" Alastor nodded to himself. "Might have to teach me that one later."

"So long as you behave," Harry muttered pointedly at the Auror, making him grin.

Harry entered the cell while Alastor stood and stepped up to guard the open door. Bellatrix was still incredibly boneless, but she was conscious, so that was a good sign.

"Bellatrix? I need you to drink this," Harry handed her the potion and she drank it without hesitation.

Harry got her into a sitting position and began to undo her clothes carefully so nothing accidentally slipped out. She wore a black lace bra that covered her modesty well enough so he felt comfortable enough moving her shirt down to her waist. Bellatrix roused as Harry was bringing the bucket back to her cell to mix the dried herbs into.

"What are you doing to me?" She asked groggily as she looked up at him with a barely coherent focus.

"There's something wrong inside of you. I'm here to fix it," He explained to her softly.

"Oh, ok," She replied airily as she allowed Harry to maneuver her into a sitting position. "Will it hurt?"

"No. Not yet, anyway," Harry disliked lying when pain or health was on line. "For right now, I'm just giving you a special bath and then draw on you a bit," Harry smiled at her and it seemed to relax her, a bath did sound good right now. She giggled thinking about playing with the bubbles like when she was a little girl.

Harry removed the calming spell from Bellatrix as he waited for the dried herbs to mix into the water. Once the dried herbs had soaked into the water for a few minutes, Harry used the cloth to wash her skin carefully. The water would now remove any residual magic that was on her skin that could interfere with the pictographs Harry was about to draw on her. She helped him wash her upper body by moving her bra out of the way and allowed him under her skirt to wash her legs and feet. Harry peered over his shoulder several times during the bath and was pleased to find that Alastor had turned his back to them in effort to give them some amount of privacy.

Harry decided to start with her legs since he knew she was still under the influence of the calming spell and didn't want her to become afraid if she came more to herself. Harry followed the instructions closely and drew to pictographs in her body as instructed. One family member's blood per limb should be enough for the ritual, but Harry wasn't willing to bet Bellatrix's life on that assumption, so he was going to use all of the available family members and hope for the best outcome.

Bellatrix watched him quietly as he used his magical bamboo ink brush to paint the pictographs in the blood from Nymphadora onto one of her thighs. Harry cleaned his brush and decided to use Draco's blood on her other leg. The process was tedious, but he knew it was necessary to take his time. When he had finished with Draco's pictographs, he took a short break to stretch out his back.

"How many more of those runes do you have to do?" Bellatrix asked him calmly as she looked over the red pictures he had painted onto her. "There's so many." She spoke softly to herself as she touched some of the pictographs. They didn't smudge or flake.

Harry took a moment to appreciate his work so far. The pictographs were smaller, so they looked like an elegant design that traveled down her legs from a distance.

"Yeah, there needs to be a lot of pictographs to protect you later," Harry explained to her gently. He wasn't sure how much of this she understood or would even remember later.

"Protect me? From what?" She looked up at him with big eyes that glittered with hope and a little fear.

"There's a tangle of magic within you. We've got to try and untangle it, so this is to make sure you don't get hurt while we do it," Harry said as he cleaned the brush from Draco's blood and rolled his neck and shoulder.

"Ok. That's good," Bellatrix nodded to Harry. She looked at Harry for a moment before asking, "who's we?"

Her behavior just reinforced his assumption that she wasn't fully aware, so he decided to work to finish the rest of the pictographs and allow her to rest. He quickly flicked the brush clean of excess water and had to think on who to put on her chest, since that blood needed to have a stronger connection to her in order to get the full effect. He decided that Narcissa's blood would be best for her chest and heart anchor. As he picked up Sirius' vial and tied it magically to the brush he answered her earlier question, "Your sisters are upstairs and will be able to help untangle the magic that's knotted inside you. Their kids, you know Draco and Nymphadora, are here too."

Painting Sirius' blood on her left arm continued to be tedious and his back was incredibly sore by the time he finished Andromeda's blood on her other arm. At least Bellatrix seemed like she was calm enough during this whole process. Harry looked forward to getting this over with, if only that he could go take a nap outside in the sun. It felt like days since he had last felt the warmth against his skin.

They were finally at the part Harry was concerned about. He needed her to remove her bra so that he could paint Narcissa's blood on her chest, but he wasn't really sure how to achieve this and protect her modesty. Bellatrix noticed he was looking at her chest and following what he intended reached up to remove her bra and Harry quickly averted his eyes before he saw anything she might not want him to see. When she stopped moving, he chanced a glance up and saw that she had removed her bra, but held her hands over her breasts but apart so that he could paint over her heart in the cleft between her breasts. That would work. Harry was still working to paint on the needed pictograms between Bellatrix's breasts and over her heart when the noise of someone entering the dungeons began to echo off the stone walls.

"Harry! Got a minute?" Sirius announced before fully entering the dungeons. "I need to iwhatthehellareyoudoing?/i" He shrieked from behind Harry.

"I'm painting the pictographs on Bellatrix's body, Dadfoot. Like I explained to you earlier," Harry replied without stopping his work. His explanation came across like he was explaining something to a particularly dim child.

"She's topless!" Sirius hissed. Harry knew that tone. He would no doubt have a sharp grimace on his face.

"Relax Sirius. I'm family," Bellatrix dreamily explained like it was just so obvious.

There was a silence that followed Bellatrix's comment. It took everything in Harry not to laugh at all, even as he knew Sirius' mind would be screeching to a halt as it tried to think of something. Anything.

"That's not better," Sirius mumbled as he rubbed his eyes and turned around. "Oh Merlin. I am not fucking dealing with this right now," Sirius sighed under his breath. "Come find me when you get done. We've got family things to discuss," He replied sharply before turning and leaving them alone.

Harry shook his head as he continued his work. Thankfully it didn't take too much longer to finish the last of the pictographs on Bellatrix's chest. Harry quickly helped her get dressed again, which was made difficult to do with his eyes closed.

"What now?" Bellatrix asked softly. Harry was sure that for Moody to hear Bellatrix like this was a shock and likely was shattering some of the Auror's perceptions about the criminals that he rounded up. Harry just smiled at Bellatrix and the memory of his mothers flitted across his mind. Harry gently brushed some of the hair from her face where she lay on her bed that Harry was sitting on next to her but smiled at her.

"Now? I'm going to take a break and probably take a nap," Harry stood up and stretched out his back again, feeling several loud pops. "Relax now, Bella. Sleep, if you can. The ritual will be draining on you, so you need your strength."

Bellatrix nodded and curled into the bed and when her eyes closed she sighed and fell asleep, the potion taking her quickly and gently in sleep that she would need. Harry left the cell and made sure the door was secured behind him. He nodded to Alastor and made his way up the stairs to relax himself. He knew Sirius wanted to talk to him, but he didn't want to deal with Sirius or his infuriating family right now. He quickly stripped off his jacket and shirt while walking down the hall to his room thinking about taking a nice warm bath when he looked up and stopped hard.

There was a group of young girls not far from him down the hallway talking amongst themselves that had not yet seen him. Harry quickly put his jacket and shirt back on and chided himself for forgetting about the children that have been at the castle for...however long he had been busy for. Harry couldn't rightly tell how long it had been since he stole Draco away the night that Hogwarts was evacuated. He needed to find Draco and regain his bearings.

Harry passed the girls talking in a group and chose not to react even as their conversation died and he felt their eyes follow him as he passed. There were other small groups of children milling about in the hallways, though few paid him much attention. The amount of magical signatures from these kids was making it hard to follow Draco's magic, but he was able to find it emanating from outside the courtyard doors and once he was outside and looking Harry was able to find Draco easily by his white blond hair and the strange tight clothes he wore. He was standing near some of the benches not far from the doors and it appeared that he was having an unpleasant conversation with some lanky red haired boy. Many of the other teenagers were standing around them, paying attention to the argument without getting involved.

"You have no right to be here!" The red haired boy yelled in Draco's face. Harry rolled his eyes and briskly made his way over to his cousin.

"I'm allowed to be with my family, Weasley!" Draco snapped back back, though not quite as viciously as the other boy.

"Go back to Hogwarts where you belong, iPureblood/i!" The boy shoved Draco sharply as he stepped forward and stepped on part of the robes that Draco wore, nearly causing the blonde boy to fall over.

"Excuse me!" Harry put himself between the two boys before the argument could continue to escalate. "What is going on here?" Harry asked the red haired boy with an icy glare.

"I want to know what ihe's/i doing here!" He pointed angrily to Draco.

"I brought my cousin here to be safe. Just like the rest of you." Harry explained calmly as he carefully eyed the boy and the surrounding teenagers. Harry idly wondered if this was going to devolve into an all out brawl or something worse.

"Oh, so you're one of his kind, huh?" The Weasley snarled at Harry. "A pretty little Pureblood prince or just a Halfblood pretending to be a dirty snake?"

"Why are you so angry?" Harry asked, clearly confused. The anger was practically rolling off of this boy in thick enough waves that you could taste it on every breath. Harry didn't want him to hurt anyone when he inevitably exploded in a ball of rage.

"Why wouldn't I be angry!" Weasley demanded angrily. "Inbred Purebloods think they're better than everyone else!"

Draco sneered at the Weasley and stepped up next to Harry and glared at the red haired instigator, "Careful Weasley, lest you forget you're a Pureblood too and say something truly embarrassing about yourself in a fit of pique."

The boy stared down Draco next to Harry's shoulder without moving closer. "Go back and fuck your mother! I know that's what you're into!"

There were some scattered gasps from the other teenagers and some of the younger ones were ushered back into the castle by the older ones. Harry, though, was finally beginning to get angry. This boy was hurt and lashing out like a wolf caught in a snare, but that gave him no right to attack Draco's mother. Harry's body momentarily tightened before he took a deep breath to settle his mind and be ready for the inevitable conclusion to this discussion. The Weasley was lashing out and for the red haired boy there could be no compromise.

"You need to calm down or I will put you down myself," Harry threatened the boy lightly. He didn't want to fight someone that was not thinking clearly, but he would not allow his rage to continue unabated. The other teeangers had taken notice and had moved away from the boys slightly. They knew Weasley and knew what would be coming but they didn't know the strange black haired youth.

The boy shoved Harry sharply, like he did with Draco, but Harry was prepared and barely moved. That seemed to anger the Weasley boy more. "His father is in the middle of everything! And he's his heir!" He pointed sharply to Draco, who looked like he was trying not to leap across distance and throttle the Weasley boy. Harry gently touched his cousin with his elbow in a small act of solidarity. "Go back where you came from, 'ickle Lucius."

"Calm. Down," Harry demanded of the Weasley firmly, hoping the boy would get the hint, but he only shoved Harry again, harder this time, though Harry still did not move much.

"Why would I listen to some fucker in league with the scum of our society?!" The boy roared at Harry once again.

"I don't want to fight you," Harry kept his tone soft but his eyes narrowed as he watched the Weasley boy fume as he wasn't able to get a physical response from Harry. "But I will if that's what you need."

"What I need?" The boy sneered again, nearly shouting in incredulous fury.

Harry turned his head towards Draco, but kept his magical attention on the angry boy. "Draco? You should go…" Harry had started to say, but got cut off when the Weasley tried to hit him in the back of the head with a sucker punch.

Harry was able to quickly step to the side of the terrible punch and diverted the momentum with his forearm guiding the punch and body past him. Then he was able to use the boy's momentum with an added push from behind and a foot out to hook one of the boy's feet, the Weasley found himself sputtering in the grass, earning some snickers from the teens around them. Draco clicked his tongue but nodded and quickly brushed past the teens in a circle around them and ran into the castle and Harry could guess he was going to find the family. The Weasley boy got up from the ground in a flailing tangle of limbs and fury and attempted to hit Harry again. Weasley swung his right arm around for a haymaker trying to knock Harry out with a single hit. Harry calmly moved the same action and sent the boy to the ground again, earning even more snickers from the gathered crowd. It looked like the noise enraged the boy further.

"You think you're hot shite, huh?" Weasley growled at Harry. As he spat at Harry's feet and tore the tie from his neck and pulled a few buttons loose so he could breathe unrestricted.

The boy reached into his pocket and pulled out a wand. Harry knew from his father's that a wand was necessary for nearly all British to perform magic. Harry also knew that this situation could be incredibly dangerous now that a wand was in the hands of someone not in complete control of themselves being this close to noncombatants. Harry gathered his magic in his legs and thrust himself forward using his magic and easily closed to the distance to appear in front of him. The boy looked surprised and was unable to react as Harry brought his hand palm forward between Weasley's guard and landed a direct blow to the middle of Weasley's chest. Harry used his magic to banish through his arm and palm sending Weasley flying over the gathered teens and across the courtyard and away from the group. Weasley tumbled and rolled across the stones and grass before he slid to a stop before Harry could hear his cursing. The watching teens, to their credit, remained silent except for a few gasps as they stepped back to allow Harry to walk through the now open circle and towards Weasley..

The boy rolled to his hands and knees before he squeezed his wand and looked around for his opponent. Getting up to his feet he pointed his wand at Harry and his anger finally boiled over, "What, what! What was that?!" He yelled across the distance separating them.

Harry didn't have a chance to respond before the boy sent a small, brightly colored ball of magic streaking across the courtyard at him. There was more than enough time for Harry to submerge himself in his training with the monks and Harry's hands came up with his ring and pinky fingers curled into his palm. Dragon style was what Harry had excelled at during his tenure with the monks in China and Harry easily fell into established patterns with it. Harry stepped forward and cupped the magic orb in his hand and pushed it to the side. The orb detonated when it hit the grass and kicked up a rain of dirt and grass. There were some shrieks of fear and even more gasps and murmurs in the crowd behind him as the teens watched Harry divert the magic with his hands and even Weasley looked shocked. Harry took the moment to step around the crater the explosion left and continue his movement to circle Weasley. Harry stopped and faced Weasley fully when he was sure there was only a courtyard wall behind him, no collateral damage to other lives.

Weasley's rage built as he slowly watched Harry circle him but noticed that the black haired boy hadn't pulled a wand. Weasley sneered and shouted, "Lucky move ponce! Should have pulled your wand!" Weasley punctuated his words by flashing his wand forward and shouting cutting and piercing hexes with blasting and bludgeoning curses mixed in. Weasley snarled in fury as Harry seemed to dance and move through the maelstrom of spells. Harry brushed spells away from him, batted aside another, used the momentum from one bat to spin out of the way of another. Harry sprung over a two cutter and bludgeoning trio meant to pen him in and get a hit. Weasley, furious with his inability to land anything on Harry, tried to infuriate his opponent with words to distract him, "Go back to suckling on your mother's teat you..." Weasley used each and every word to send a cutter at Harry, "...Mother! Fucking! Gobeshite!"

Harry was unaffected by the vulgar words as far as the fight was concerned but had certainly had more than enough of the Weasley and his disrespect for women and the gall he had to speak about anyone's mother. Harry leapt and instead of completely vaulting the cutters he used the first as a springboard to leap higher over the remaining two. Weasley was stunned again and that was when Harry struck.

Harry used one of the techniques taught by the Monks about folding magic through the elements around them to defend villages from invaders and bandits. Harry landed and rolled before he stood up and took a moment to focus his intent before he stomped a foot on the ground. The effect was instant, a pillar of earth launched Weasley up into the air with a smaller pillar of earth the size of a fist was thrust forward and drove out Weasley's breath as it contacted and twisted into the red head's stomach. Gasps were heard near the teens and one indignant 'WHAT!?' ran out in the moment of silence as Weasley began to reach the height of his brief flight.

Harry wasn't finished however, he connected to the water in the fountain and threaded his magic and intent through it. Harry reached his right hand up into the air and closed his hand in a fist. Immediately an orb of water launched out from the fountain and trapped Weasley. The water trail that tethered the orb to the fountain went taunt and Harry pulled. The water orb yanked and brought Weasley rocketing down into the fountain, the water having been forced away from the point of impact. Harry brought his left hand down in a fist and slapped his knuckles into the now open palm of his right hand. At Weasley's point of impact in the fountain a second after the sound of Harry's slap of flesh on flesh a massive current of wind slammed down on the fountain and cracked a few of the stones. The water was expelled from the fountain and rained down on the courtyard, startling some of the watching teens who shrieked or screamed as the sensation brought them from the stupor they were in as they watched the fight. Harry gestured with a 'come here' of his right hand and the remaining water in the fountain none too gently plopped Weasley's unconscious body over the side of the fountain so that as the water flowed back in he wouldn't drown.

The children off to the side of Harry were deathly silent again, though Harry could assume it was because his magic was so different from their own. Or fear he mused. His fathers' had always told him as much and showed him their type of magic on numerous occasions. Harry glanced to the side to where the rest of the teens were to make sure that none of the stray spells had been errantly deflected by Harry, but he found that they were just fine. Twin boys that looked very similar to the one he had just fought seemed to be giving money to a darker skinned boy. Another brown haired girl was staring at Harry with a look he couldn't discern at the distance but he was sure that he'd be meeting with her sooner or later.

Harry walked to the Weasley boy, who was still laying over the fountain's edge. Harry none-to-gently patted the boy's cheeks and prodded the boy back to consciousness. "How are you doing?" Harry asked while looking him over for any obvious injuries.

The boy grimaced as he sucked a shallow breath in, "Where the hell did you go to school?"

"Here and there," Harry said noncommittally, down to the body as he stood. It was clear all of Weasley's fight was gone. "Anything broken?"

"I have no bloody idea," The boy grimaced again. "Maybe you got some other Kung Fu to check?" Weasley added hopefully as his chest burned in agony.

"The Martial Arts are used for Offense and Defense only. Not Healing," Harry snarked at the boy lightly as he reached out to Weasley's left side where he held his ribs.

Harry placed his right hand on Weasley's side to see how badly he was injured. A few cracked ribs would cause the symptoms the boy was exhibiting, but was easy enough to fix. The ribs made a sickening cracking sound when Harry's magic fused them back together. Harry hated that he had lost control enough that he hurt someone in a fight. Being tired had made him sloppy. He needed to watch himself better in the future. Granted he wasn't just able to walk away from this confrontation at the time but, well...

Weasley pushed himself up from the fountain and climbed over the edge and then sat with his back to the fountain. Bracing himself with his against the stonework he rolled his head back to look at Harry and tried to evaluate the black haired youth, "The fuck was that?"

"Healing magic. Most people say thank you," Harry replied dryly. As he folded his arms and tapped his fingers against his upper arm.

"Oh, yeah. Sorry. Um, and Thank you," Weasley said, unsure of what had happened and what he was supposed to do now. Harry helped the boy up as many of the teens that had been watching their fight made their way over to them. Harry stopped the boy with a firm finger in his chest.

"That. Was a warning," Harry utter low enough to be heard only by Weasley as the other teens got close. "Understood?"

The boy nodded his head in a jerky motion as the observers finally made it to them.

"That was wicked!" The red haired twins announced in unison. Harry couldn't remember the Patil twins ever doing that.

"What kind of magic was that?" The brown bushy haired girl asked with a scowl. "That was far from any proper magic."

"Proper?" Harry asked incredulously as he passed Weasley off to the red haired twins. "As long as you don't blow yourself up, the magic is proper."

"None of my books have magic like that in them," She replied no longer shouting but no less expecting answers.

"I'm far from surprised that the books used to teach in a backwater country like yours don't have more kinds of magic in them," Harry sneered at the girl. He disliked being so rude to any woman, especially one he didn't know, but between the fight he was just in and her insinuation that his magic wasn't 'proper', he was really worn down emotionally. Not to mention that his mother and grandmother taught him for years and he was good at it. Noone could argue with the monks either. Grandmaster Yi had mentioned he took to the dragon style very well and was quite well learned in the manipulation of spirit and magic they taught at the monastery. Proper magic indeed.

"This isn't a backwater country!" She appealed to him forcefully as he crossed her arms and scowled at him.

"Aren't you here because the government decided you weren't born right?" Harry asked her somewhat snidely.

The girl looked down in shock and disgust, though Harry couldn't be sure if they were directed at him or her situation. Harry chided himself for letting his temper get the better of him.

"He's not wrong, you know," Weasley spoke unkindly from between his brothers who dropped him as Harry turned on the boy again.

"Anda a Cagar, Pendejo!" Harry hissed at the red haired creten.

The boy flinched hard and, despite clearly not knowing what Harry had said, did the first wise thing all day and quietly left the crowd to go back to the castle. Remus was already at the doorway waiting for the boy with his arms crossed. Harry was sure he was going to get a lecture about this later, but he really couldn't muster up the gumption to care about that right now.

"I'm going to assume that was something vulgar," A girl with long red hair spoke smoothly and with a small smirk.

"Yeah. I'd appreciate it if you didn't mention that to either of my fathers," Harry appealed pathetically as he found himself surrounded by people.

"The two guys that we didn't recognize, right?" One of the red haired twins spoke up loudly.

"Yeah! Professor McGonagal and Professor Snape both knew them though!" The other one twin added excitedly.

"Yes, them," Harry replied tiredly as he closed his eyes and wondered why he was here again.

He was already tired when he came out to find Draco and the fight took what little strength he had left. The last thing he needed right now was to talk with a bunch of over-excitable and judgemental teenagers.

"What kind of magic was that? I've never seen anything like it!" The only dark skinned boy in the group asked in a rush since he was obviously waiting to get the question out.

"A little of this and a little of that," Harry put up his hand before any of the children could continue their barrage of questions. "I know you all must have a lot of questions, but I am very tired. Come find me later. We can introduce ourselves then and continue talking about magic and what's proper then," He appealed to the other teens.

They all nodded eagerly, except for the bushy haired girl. She nodded more hesitantly and wouldn't make eye contact with him. Harry made a note to be nicer to her in the future. The small group that had come over to barrage him with questions escorted Harry back to the courtyard doors where Remus was still waiting for him. Draco was there as well having joined Remus at some point.

"I hear you had some fun, pup," Remus greeted him neutrally.

"Fun? Right. Wasn't my idea dad," Harry sighed as he came to stand in front of Remus.

"So we were told. The young Mr. Weasley was quite forthcoming about what happened," Remus wasn't exactly thrilled about what had been forced under his watch, but he didn't seem upset either. "I'll be writing a letter to his father, Arthur, so he knows what his youngest son has been getting up to."

"Weasley?" Harry's mind finally caught up now that he wasn't fighting the ponce. "Is he related to Bill we metin Egypt?"

"Yes, in fact he is. As well as the twins," Remus motioned behind Harry. The red haired twins waved happily at him when he turned to look.

"Figured that they were related at least. Why am I suddenly reminded of the Dongchuan Red Land in China?" Harry joked lightly. Remus was the only other one to laugh, probably because he was the only one there that knew where Harry was talking about. "Are you alright?" Harry asked Draco, who was at least looking better.

"I'm fine. Thanks for taking charge of that, I didn't really want to have to get into an altercation," Draco bowed his head to Harry in thanks.

"Don't mention it," Harry waved off his formal thanks. It made him uncomfortable. "I was actually coming out to find you to ask how long I've been down in the dungeons."

"About four days," Draco replied. "Aunt Andy was quite worried about you and will be fussing over you for a bit I'm sure."

"Me too," Remus added. "I was about to go down there myself, but Sirius said something about a 'delicate situation', so I decided to wait a bit longer. Honestly you took two days to bring us a plan, another day to build the ritual, and the last to get the supplies together and start the prep work. When was the last time you slept?"

Andromeda did end up fussing over Harry once Remus and Draco escorted him back into the castle. She forced him to eat a good meal and put Nymphadora in charge of making sure he bathed and put on clean clothes. A job she was almost too happy to perform. Andromeda reappeared once he was dried and dressed to put him to bed. While he wanted to be a little miffed that she was treating him like an infant, he could admit that it felt nice to be fussed over by a mother again. Last time something like this was the Patil twins mother and aunts back in India.

It was nearly a full day before Harry woke up again. He was incredibly sore from sleeping for so long, but he felt much better than he did the day before. Draco was kind enough to bring him something for breakfast but it was incredibly sweet. Harry almost couldn't eat more than the first bite, afterward Draco took him to the rest of the family.

"How are you feeling, Harry?" Andromeda asked him as soon as Harry and Draco entered the room.

"Hard. Stiff. I'm not sure I moved much," Harry sat between Sirius and Remus and rubbed his shoulder.

"You didn't," Sirius explained. "I came in to check on you and you were dead to the world."

Harry slumped against his dad and closed his eyes, still not quite awake. "Feel dead still…" Sirius playfully pulled his pup in and ruffled his hair making them laugh as Harry swatted at his dad's hands.

"I hate to break the pleasant air, but we'd like to know how long until the next step for Bellatrix," Narcissa asked Harry far more pleasantly than Harry was expecting.

"We can move on to the next step today," Harry was a little sceptical of Narcissa's sharp change in attitude. "Any particular reason you're asking?"

Narcissa dipped her head in shame she would only show with her family. "I went to visit Bellatrix yesterday while you were asleep," She grimaced like she was trying not to cry. "She was my sister again," She quickly composed herself with a slight cough and a brief swipe at her eyes. "I would like to formally apologize for my behavior before. I was wrong to protest your ritual so zealously. I can only beg for your forgiveness," She bowed her head to Harry.

Harry didn't really know what to do with these Purebloods and their strange ways. A simple 'I'm sorry' would suffice, but they had to be weird about it.

"It's fine Aunt Cissy," Harry tried to soothe her. "Water under the bridge."

Narcissa gave him a sweet smile and she grabbed her tea and smiled into her cup. Sirius gave Harry a firm pat on his shoulder, meaning that he had done something right with Narcissa and the whole strange situation. Remus made a motion that Harry understood meant that he needed to continue with the information of the ritual.

"Oh, right," Harry pulled out the ritual book from his bag. "The next part of the ritual is pretty straight forward. I'll draw a pentagram on the floor and put Bellatrix inside of it. The family will stand at each point of the pentagram and will individually place fresh blood on her forehead to strengthen the previously painted pictographs. After we get the fresh blood on her I will be the focus point to perform the spell for removal of the magic," Harry explained.

Remus was looking over his shoulder at the various pictures of orientations of the ritual that were recorded. "Pup. These people have been drawn naked," He stated his question.

"I am not performing a ritual with my mother naked!" Draco announced immediately.

"Ah, come on now, Draco. Live a little!" Nymphadora teased him.

"You don't have to be naked. You can wear your ritual robes," Harry explained without looking up as he pointed out other parts of the ritual to his dad.

"Ritual robes?" Andromeda asked with some confusion.

"Or whatever you call the robes that have been made magically inert," He made a waving motion motion with his hand as he was frustrated with the fact that he didn't have the correct jargon for the family to understand what he was saying.

"Well," Sirius drew out his word as he thought back on the small hitch in the plan, "our robes are still with the motorcycle, so we'll need to make some more for myself and Remus," Sirius sighed over Harry to Remus.

"We don't have robes like that, Harry," Andromeda spoke up.

"What?" Harry finally looked up and stared at Andromeda and then Narcissa with disbelief, "What do you mean you don't have robes like that? How do you perform your rituals?"

"Most people don't really perform rituals like that here, Pup. If they do they probably do them naked," Remus explained while rubbing the bridge of his nose. "British magic is quite...standardized as compared to what you are used to."

"Nice and boring," Sirius added with a smirk.

"You mean I gotta make seven ritual robes?" Harry groaned. "I'm a priest, not a seamstress!"

Harry did end up making five ritual robes for the family, though he did so angrily. Sirius and Remus stitched the robes for Sirius and then began working on a replacement pair for Remus so Harry only had to make some for the rest of the family. It took about four hours for him to make all of the robes, make them inert, and draw the necessary pentagram on the floor of one of the neighboring cells of Bellatrix's cell. Draco had been kind enough to help him with preparations as much as he could, which honestly was being a second pair of eyes to make sure the ritual circle and any runes used were drawn correctly. He had no idea what needed to be done, but took direction well. Everyone except for Sirius, and Remus but he wasn't part of the family, were clearly unsure about this whole process and maybe even a little scared as they took their places at each of the points, but did so without speaking. Remus stood towards the back of the dungeon with Alastor, both of them keeping a close watch in case something bad happened. Harry didn't think it was necessary, but it did seem to put the family at ease, so he didn't say anything about it. Harry had asked that Remus keep Alastor back unless Harry specifically asked for help or passed out.

Once the family was gathered around Bellatrix with their ritual robes on and had a small knife, Harry felt like they were ready to begin.

"Alright. I'm going to begin the incarnation as a chant. The rest of you will cut your finger and drip fresh blood onto Bellatrix's forehead. One at at time, starting with Sirius then moving clockwise around the circle. The next family member will not move," Harry took a moment to glare at each and every person as he clarified, "until the previous member has returned to the anchor point in the ritual circle. Just nod your head to the next family member once you've retaken your place, I won't be able to guide you. Also, don't let her screams distract you."

The family seemed disturbed by his words, but nodded regardless. Bellatrix looked a mix of disturbed and hopeful. Harry waited for the first bit of blood to be dripped onto Bellatrix before he began his chant. Bellatrix began screaming almost immediately, startling the family. It was clear that Narcissa wanted to do or say something, but she held her tongue and held her place, interrupting a mid-process ritual was bad for everyone involved. She had agreed to it after all. Harry motioned with a nod for the family to add more blood during a slight pause in his chant. Bellatrix was now clawing and kicking about in the center of the ritual pentagram but Harry held her head still between his thighs with his hands touching her temples and framing her forehead. Thankfully, the chant was not a long one and he motioned for the family to add one last bit of blood from the family as he neared the end of the incanting. Once he finished, Bellatrix's limbs fell limply to the ground and Harry released his hold on her.

"And we're done," Harry announced as he closed the ritual book.

Narcissa fell to her knees and pulled Bellatrix to her chest, cradling her like a child. "Will she be alright?" She pleaded to Harry.

"She'll be fine. The ritual's magic took a lot out of her and I will continue to monitor her until I'm sure she's regained enough fortitude to begin moving outside the cell and be with us in the room and the study. She'll sleep for a few days, no doubt."

Draco knelt down next to his mother and wrapped a comforting arm around her shoulders. Andromeda and Nymphadora left the cell and were joined by Remus and Alastor. Everyone looked a little shaken by the ritual. Draco helped his mother move Bellatrix back to her bed and make sure she was comfortable before taking their leave with the rest of the family. Remus patted Harry's shoulder before leaving them. Alastor sat back in his chair and remained quiet.

That left Harry to watch over Bellatrix. It was quiet, so he didn't mind the extra work. He used his magic to gather his clothes from his bag, but chose to leave Bellatrix in the ritual robes, since it would allow him to keep an eye on the pictographs easier, he adjusted the ties on her chest so that the robes opened down to her naval which allowed him view of the pictographs on her chest without completely exposing her. All that was left for Harry to do now was to make sure Bellatrix's physical health remained high so that her magic could completely focus on unraveling the knots and ties inside itself.

Sirius came back down to the dungeons sometime later, though Harry couldn't tell how long it had been. Harry spend his time meditating so he was resting but still able to monitor Bellatrix and his food was brought from either a Gwas or some of Queenie's drones.

"Hey pup. How's everything going on down here?" He asked through the bars of Bellatrix's cell.

"Fine so far," Harry used his magic to create a bridge between him and Bellatrix. It was easier to fortify her body this way and magic this way by allowing some of her magic to tap his as it needed. "Why? What's up?" Harry asked as he faced his father.

"I'll be heading out for a bit today. Narcissa needs an errand run, so I'll be taking Moody and Tonks with me." Sirius explained.

It was only then that Harry realized that Alastor was gone from his perch. "Fine by me. Have fun storming the castle!" Harry waved to his father playfully. Sirius waved back with the same laughter before leaving Harry alone once again.

Time had passed and Harry was beginning to think about getting some rest and so he settled on the bed next to her and readied himself to meditate for a few hours. Bellatrix had been doing well enough without too much of his magic that he felt like he could. He looked over to Bellatrix and took in the pictographs once more to make sure nothing had changed. Nothing looked amiss at first. It wasn't until he thought he saw something move as he looked away that he looked back to her quickly. The pictographs on Bellatrix's chest that had been drawn in Narcissa's blood looked like they were cracking. Small bits of the blood were letting go of Bellatrix's skin and floating upward a bit before turning to motes of dust in the air

"Oh hell," Harry said as the panic set in. Harry's heart lurched once he realized what was happening. He dove into his bag and pulled out the ritual book. Flipping through it frantically, he found the page that explained what to do if something went wrong with the ritual. Oheo popped off his shoulder and nuzzled his jaw, no doubt being roused by his panic.

There was a section that talked about what to do if the pictographs began coming off. It stated that the pictographs could be quickly replaced by the blood of another family member without damage to the individual. That wasn't really an option since Harry had used all the family he had access to. There was a note at the bottom that explained that the blood of an incredibly powerful magical creature could be substituted for the family blood. It looked like the blood of a magical creature could be used to seal the family blood to the afflicted and retain the family magic within the blood acting as an insulator and catalyst. The text listed the animals used in the ritual that had been found to work. Chimera, Quetacoatl, and a breed of bee Harry was not familiar with were listed. Harry's heart stuttered as he didn't have any of those creatures close enough to be of use here. Oheo nudged his jaw roughly before hopping down to his right hand and nipping him sharply. Harry wanted to be upset with her, but the way she looked up at him made him pause.

"Do you think we can use your blood?" He asked her softly. Oheo chirped at him and wagged her tail gently against his neck with as much comfort as she could. "Thank you beautiful, you're a lifesaver."

Harry grabbed out his ink brush and performed a spell to take the blood directly from Oheo instead of putting it in a vial first. More of the pictographs were flaking off and he needed every second he could spare. Oheo remained perched on his right hand as she watched him closely as he went over the pictographs as quickly as he could while still maintaining the quality.

It wasn't until he was finished that he felt like he could breathe again. He quickly checked Bellatrix over and found that she had remained unchanged during the ordeal, which he could not be more pleased about. Harry realized that the drain on his magic had increased during the moments he noticed the flaking. He guessed that Bellatrix had been pulling more and more on his magic to maintain the balance. Harry Drew out a long breath at his luck in bridging their magic during his observation. Oheo rubbed against Harry's jaw once and purred at him lethargically before hiding in his skin once more. She was as affected by the magical drain and blood loss as Harry was considering the bond they shared.

Sleep was now the furthest thing from Harry's mind as he left Bellatrix in her cell and headed upstairs. He went to the study first, since that was the room that the family had decided to use for their meetings and hiding from the children of Hogwarts when Sirius and Remus we're babysitting or supervising self study with the prefects. He looked down to the courtyard doors and out to the sky beyond as he opened the study and noticed that it was well into the beginning of dawn now. Sirius was leaning over Alastor, who was sitting in front of the fire twisted so that Sirius could check a wound on his side, and Remus was pacing like he did when he was upset.

"Father. What happened?" Harry asked once he shut the door behind him.

"How do you know something happened?" Sirius asked as he straightened. "We were planning on getting you once we got news or in the morning," Sirius looked over to Remus, who had stopped pacing.

"News of what?" Harry questioned perhaps a bit too harshly, but he was a bit worked up over the threat to Bellatrix's condition.

Before Sirius could answer, the door behind Harry opened to reveal Severus. Harry walked over to Remus ignoring the Hogwarts professor and focused on his fathers so he could get some answers. Remus however reached out and then pushed Harry behind him slightly. A defensive action, but Harry wasn't sure why. He hadn't done this when Severus was around before.

"Snape," Sirius growled, obviously stressed. "Now is not the time!"

Severus did not respond to Sirius' implied threat. Instead, he bowed his upper body forward and dropped his right knee to the floor and his right hand knuckles gently settled on the ground and his left forearm rested on his left knee. He tilted his head forward and stared down at his fingers as he took a breath.

"I am here to speak with Lord Black," Severus spoke loudly. Alastor muttered something under his breath and turned away from Severus. Sirius let out a shuddering breath before he steeled himself and walked to the kneeling Severus Snape.

Sirius took a moment before he stopped a few paces from the kneeling man and spoke, "As the Lord of House Black I acknowledge you as messenger. Speak your words to the Lord of House Black Potion Master Snape."

Severus raised his head to look up at Sirius eyes devoid of feeling and carefully blank as Harry watched he noticed the small nervous swallow of the man's throat as he took a breath, "I have information about Narcissa, Lord Black."