{Hogwart's Express, Unplottable}
{1st Sep 1991}
"...My hobby is exploring runic schemes and Ritual Magic and I'm looking forward to what the Library of Hogwarts has to offer..." Daphne replied.
Rigel nodded at her introduction and turned to Tracy. The girl took a deep breath to compose herself as she introduced herself, "My name is Tracy Elaina Davis, heir apparent to the Ancient and Noble House of Davis. I like flying and playing quidditch."
"It's nice to meet you heiress Davis," Rigel responded politely before he turned to Daphne and asked, "Why did you introduce yourself as the heir apparent, I did read some books on pureblood customs but this wasn't in there?"
"Yes, it is an old custom that is normally handed down. Until you wear the heir ring during the winter solstice, you aren't actually the heir, just the heir apparent. This was to make sure that the quality of the family didn't decline as you could get stripped of your heirship title by the current Lord. If Father decides that Astoria would become a better heir then he could hand over the heir ring to her instead of me." Daphne explained.
"So when's the full moon this winter?" Rigel asked.
"The Ritual should take place on 24th Dec," Daphne replied. "If you want I could tell you more about that later." She offered.
"Certainly," Rigel responded, the official talks were getting to him a little bit. If Daphne doesn't loosen up, then conversing with her would become boring very quickly.
"What about Rituals, the prerequisite to study them required at least some knowledge of runes and arithmancy. I did try to catch up but I focused more on the wanded magical arts during the past months." Rigel asked, since Daphne was willing to share, it would be a good idea to get an inkling of how Rituals worked.
"I know they had to do with sacrifices and equal balance but I don't know much," Rigel admitted.
"That's a very basic way of looking at it." Daphne retorted as she frowned. "Rituals are quite probably one of the oldest magical branches that wizards figured out. Even before Runes were discovered to channel the mediums, Ritual existed since wizards became aware of magic." Daphne spoke.
Seeing that Rigel was genuinely curious she explained further, "There are no records as to how those ancient rituals were created. But Rituals are one of the only three ways to channel the power of wild mana that populates our world back during those times. Wild Mana is naturally occurring and is present in almost all forms of life. Wizards and Witches purify this wild mana naturally at our core and use the purified magic to perform most spells."
"The other ways to channel Wild mana are through Potions, Runes, and some esoteric magic that also scale up depending on the wild mana in the surroundings. Rituals use the wild mana that normally increases around celestial events to transfer boons. Like you could theoretically get the ability of a magical creature if you could design a Ritual around it." Daphne finished her long explanation.
"So Ritual uses the effect of celestial events on the mana that surround us to facilitate some form of change. If they are that beneficial then why are they not more commonly used?" Rigel asked, this was one of the things that had been bugging him.
"If I could increase my speed or reflexes by sacrificing some magical creature then why shouldn't I?" Rigel asked, he noticed that Tracy shifted slightly at the casual cruelty toward magical creatures in his voice but Daphne smiled instead.
"Because most of the actually benefiting Rituals are self-sacrificing in nature." Daphne smiled.
"Wands were not that dominant in our history with spells and using other channeling objects coming quite late into our world. Before that swords and shields were used as channeling medium because they could be used to not only perform spells but also help in other combat instances. The Rituals during that time were designed so that Wizards and witches sacrifice a portion of their own mana reserves to enhance their physical prowess." Daphne spoke, her eyes shining a little as she talked about the ancient Rituals.
"Since casting magic wasn't a priority, most of the wizards relied on using these physical enchantments. Now though with the versatility of spells, no one would be dumb enough to sacrifice their reserves to be faster when someone could disarm or even kill you from 20-30 feet away. So slowly all families placed aggressive bans on performing these rituals from being used and the Wizarding world focused on spell casting itself."
...
'Okay, so are rituals bad? I kinda wanted to see if I could increase my speed or reflexes beyond the ordinary.' Rigel thought.
"Do all Rituals have to be self-sacrificing? I mean surely after years of research we could have diminished its effects, somewhat no?" Rigel asked.
"That they did. See, when wizards started making more spells, and all their research focused in that direction. Someone came up with Arithmancy to understand the more delicate art of spell crafting. People began noticing that it could be applied to almost all magic. Arithmancy broke down magic into nifty little formulae and equations, although it didn't work that well with Wild mana because of its unpredictable nature. It was able to streamline more runic schemes and thus make it possible for researchers to mitigate the side effects of rituals into something else."
"But..." Rigel added for her and she gave him an annoyed look, he held up his hands to display his innocence as she continued, "But, the advancement was quite slow and most of the ancient Rituals that were banned were forgotten with time. Some families had parts of these rituals but due to the aggressive bans placed on them the amount of knowledge that remained was just a fraction of what we once knew." Daphne finished.
Rigel nodded in her direction as he leaned back in contemplation, the situation made sense. With the advantages of spells and wands, the families placed aggressive bans to stop their family members from performing Rituals and damaging their own mana capabilities.
'Most of the knowledge would have been purged from their Libraries but I refuse to believe that they wouldn't have any backups just in case.' Rigel thought.
"But surely some rituals would have remained right, like the heirship ritual during the winter solstice?" Rigel asked.
"Of course, they remained, but they remained locked in the libraries of older families. With researchers not having access to them, all advances into Ritual magic remained stunned as wands and spells became more prominent. In a couple of generations, ritual magic was forgotten." Daphne replied.
"But surely an old family like the Greengrass should have access to some of the Rituals right?" Rigel asked and Daphne's face returned to stoic once again.
He gave her a puzzled look so she sighed and explained, "We don't talk about family magic, it is considered taboo. When you gain access to the Black heirship you would probably find some of the Ritual sets locked in your Family vault."
...
'Ah, so Rituals became obsolete for the newer families, older families still enjoy their advantages but at the same time they want to push forward the agenda that Ritual magic is extinct...'
"Thanks." Rigel nodded toward Daphne as he settled down in his seat, the impromptu History lesson cleared some of his doubts that some of the books weren't able to.
'Most of the more useful and older books should be locked in the family vault as well... I need to make sure I get access to those heir rings before Christmas.'
...
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AN - I went with a more streamlined approach to magic's evolution. I hope it all made sense, it was a lot of continuous conversation!
I was traveling yesterday so a double release today?