Peter let out a cry of agony and pain after being knocked on the ground. His teeth were shattered and he opened his mouth to let out the shattered teeth mixed with his own blood.
He forced his body as he tried to move and seat on the ground. Even before he could do much manoeuvring, he felt a sharp pain from his right leg as he screamed miserably.
Harry had stomped his boot on Peter's leg and had crushed the bones inside the leg.
"Harrryy… please… forgive me," Peter tried to beg for mercy but it only fell on Harry's deaf ears.
With another stomp of his feet, Harry crushed Peter's second leg as the rat screamed and wriggled on the ground miserably.
Harry pointed his finger towards the rat and a greyish spell left Harry's index finger and struck Peter on the chest. The rat animagus slumped on the ground unconscious.
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With this Harry turned towards Bertha who till now had recovered from fear and the shock of sudden arrival of Harry Potter.
Harry Potter was a legend in the wizarding world and even a forgetful person like Bertha Jorkins was able to recognise him in a moment.
"Miss Jorkins," smiled Harry. "Hopefully, I was on time and saved you from any discomfort."
Maybe it was Harry's too polite words or maybe it was her own nature, Bertha Jorkins stepped back in fear. A fearful expression formed on her face and her eyes turned anxious.
She took few moments before she composed herself.
"Nooo…" she stammered. "Thank you for saving me."
"How did you know about this, Mr. Potter?" she asked with a lot of courage. "What are you doing here… in Albania?"
"I have my ways," he said mysteriously.
"Or maybe it was pure coincidence," he added with a chuckle.
"But is it really important?" Harry asked after a moment of pause.
"The important thing is… now what?" Harry said. "I hope that you understand the significance of my act."
Bertha kept quiet for a moment but ultimately sighed in defeat, "I owe you a life debt… and I accept it."
As these words left Bertha's lips, a white magical light flashed momentarily around both her and Harry's body. The white flash of light denoted the acceptance of the life debt by Bertha Jorkins.
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Life debt was a very unique and vague concept in the magical world. As the name suggested, when one person saved the life of another person, a magical debt was formed between the two.
But was it really so simple? NO… Why? Because who could classify if the act performed by the first person was really life saving or not? For instance, the second person may simply refuse to accept the debt and say the he would anyhow kept himself safe… or the incident or the accident from which he was saved was not really life threatening.
So, in scenarios involving life debt, until the second person explicitly accepted the debt it remained non confirmed.
But then why would anyone accept the debt and bear its consequences? Because denying a life debt was not as easy as merely saying it. Two major factors affected if one could deny the debt or not.
The first and the more important factor was the severity of the act. If the first person performed an act, say blocking a killing curse, which was certainly life saving denying the debt would be harder compared to a less severe act, say, saving someone falling from a broom.
The second factor was the magical capability of the person who owes the debt. Of the same incident, denying a debt would be easier for a powerful wizard compared to a less powerful wizard.
Now the question arises what are the consequences of life debt? It was not like surrendering one's life to the other person. It would not mean turning one self into a slave of other.
At the basic level, the person owing the life debt could not harm the person in any manner whom he owed the debt in any way.
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Bertha Jorkins was not sure of what awaited for her in future and what would she have to do to clear the debt? She might have a chance of refusing the debt as Harry did not save her directly but her magical capabilities to bear the backlash was not enough. To deny a debt was like a taboo and the magic itself would punish you for it and she was not powerful enough to shrug the unknown punishment.
A frown formed on her face as her mind was running through these thoughts.
Seeing her expression of anxiety and defeat, Harry chuckled, "Worry not, Miss. Jorkins. It is not as if I am going to make a slave out of you."
"I promise that your life will definitely be better of what it was in the past if you follow my advices," he added afterwards.
"But first, I need to deal with this rat as someone is waiting for him," Harry said as he pointed towards Peter Pettigrew.
Now that her thought was free from other things, she wanted to question how was this person alive? Why did he wanted to kill her? And judging by Harry's behaviour, it seemed to her that he knew it all.
Even so she decided to keep quiet and wait for the correct opportunity to ask these questions.
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