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 195: The Ritual Part 2
"What are you doing?!" Daphne asked nervously.
Harry threw his robes to one side and glanced back at Daphne with his usual calm expression. "See the inner circle?"
She hurried to move her eyes away from him and stared at the large drawing on the floor. On closer inspection, she noticed there were two distinct circles, one on the inside and another one on the outside, and they were connected by some lines.
"I do… what about it?"
"Nothing with magic can enter that circle, except for myself and the exact ingredients at the precise moment. Anything else has the risk of interfering with the ritual."
"I understand then… the robes have magical enchantments, as well as the wand, and… wait, you are not going to take off all your clothes, right?"
"Normally, you would have to take them all off, but… I will keep my underwear. I already made sure there is nothing there that could cause trouble."
Daphne looked a bit relieved to hear that. She didn't know how to act if he were to…
"So… what do I do exactly?"
After being done undressing, Harry walked to the center of the circle and sat down. "Take a good look at the ingredients displayed there. I will need you to place them in one of the small spaces around the big circle. When I request an ingredient, you will place it. Do not delay and do not stop to ask questions."
Daphne nodded. She didn't know much about rituals, but she at least understood that if something went wrong, Harry would be in danger. The fact that he entrusted her with this task meant he had a lot of confidence in her. This made her very happy, but she did her best to keep her impassive expression.
Harry then went into a detailed explanation about all the ingredients being used and their order.
Daphne got goosebumps when she saw some of them. There were things like basilisk blood, venom, and even its eyes, along with some other nasty things.
"I'm ready." She told him once the explanation was over.
"Let us begin then…" Harry put his right hand on the inner circle. "First ingredient, dragon heart."
Daphne followed his instructions and continued to pick ingredients and place them at the correct spots on the large circle.
These rare and expensive ingredients would then dissolve and fuse into the magical circle that Harry was sitting on top of.
Some visible changes started to occur in Harry as more ingredients were processed.
Daphne saw his body shake, and his muscles became more defined.
She still kept her full focus on the ritual. 'Three more ingredients…' She thought after emptying a vial containing several phoenix tears.
That ingredient alone was worth more than half her wardrobe. 'Where did he get the money for all of this?' She could already guess that neither of his parents knew about what he was doing right now. They would never have approved of Harry doing something so dangerous.
'Two more ingredients.' Daphne thought.
Harry finally called the last ingredient… basilisk venom.
Daphne was well aware that she could not ask any questions right now, so she trusted that Harry knew what he was doing, and then… very carefully, she emptied the vial containing one of the most deadly substances into the magical circle.
All that was left now was to wait.
The inner circle gained a soft glow, and after that… everything went very quiet for several unnerving minutes.
Harry had his eyes closed and appeared to be completely focused on something.
Daphne did not dare to speak now for fear of distracting him and causing him harm. Instead, she directed her eyes to Harry's left shoulder… she recalled the markings that appeared on that day at her house when Harry came to save her sister.
Those strange marks were still there, and she could swear they looked bigger now. They were completely black like ink and covered his shoulder and most of his left arm. 'What is that?...'
Over the next ten minutes, Harry's muscles contracted and grew, becoming more defined. He even appeared to become slightly taller.
Then… he opened his eyes. "It's done…" He said in a tired voice. The process was very exhausting.
"Did it work? Are you okay?" Daphne asked with concern.
He gave her a warm smile. "Never felt better." He moved his arms a bit.
"I feel much stronger. The ritual should have also made my bones more resilient and increased the speed at which my body heals itself."
"That's amazing…" Daphne's eyes scanned his naked torso until she took notice of what she was doing and hurried to look away with a light blush on her cheeks.
"It is…" He remained concentrated on examining the results. "We will take a short rest and then we can perform the second ritual."
"Ah… right." She almost forgot there was still another one.
Harry took notice of the concern on her face.
"The next one will be faster, Daphne. It will also require fewer ingredients." He tried to ease her worries a bit.
"That's good… you are not planning on doing more of these in the future, right?" She decided to ask.
Harry shook his head. "Of course not. Trying to do too many rituals on yourself can lead to catastrophic results. I don't plan to… ugh!" Harry put a hand on his chest and leaned forward.
"Harry?" Daphne heard his painful grunt and grew concerned.
"Is nothing… I just felt a bit of pain in my chest," Harry said with a frown.
"Is that normal?" She asked.
'No… it's not…' He thought.
"It's okay, I just need to… ugh!" This time it was much worse and it almost made him fall on his face.
'Did something go wrong during the ritual?' He mentally went over the entire process but could not find any issues or mistakes.
"Harry!" Daphne was now starting to panic.
He was about to say something when he felt the sudden urge to vomit.
Daphne screamed when she saw Harry vomit a mouthful of blood on the floor.
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