Chapter - 80 : Revival Part - 3
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It took a lot of being yelled at and another dive into the parchment pit to prove that no, he wasn't insane and yes, this had been done before. In all fairness to Madam Marchbanks, inviting a Ministry official to your legally-grey ritual and demanding a reward for its successful completion was not a typical day at the office.
Without it, however, the Ministry might well end up extraditing him through the Veil – as Madam Bones once casually threatened – so Harry didn't back down and eventually the ancient woman caved. He left the Ministry with a spring in his step, having achieved all he came for and the future looking much brighter than before.
His good mood lasted until he reached the castle, at which point he practically moved into the Room of Requirement because now he had a little under three weeks to prepare. And while a Seeker's Soothsaying was probably the best way to get his hands on that much-needed Divination Permit, it was anything but risk-free.
Because a Seeker's Soothsaying was a Divination-based ritual. And rituals were Dangerous.
Frowned upon in general and outright outlawed in most cases, everyday wizards and witches went their whole lives without ever even witnessing one. Wand magic was versatile, powerful and above all safe. Practically everything was attainable through a flick of the wrist of a stir in the cauldron. For the everyday witch and wizard that was more than enough.
Rituals were versatile and powerful as well, but from a collection of thousands the Ministry recognised exactly two that were safe for the general populace to use as long as they didn't deviate from the instructions. The first was Blood Adoption, because Merlin forbid anybody get to interfere with propagating pureblood lines. The second was Familiar Bonding, because having a powerful familiar was a mark of status and while everyone would claim the bond formed naturally, giving up the chance to bind a phoenix or unicorn or dragon and show it off to all and sundry was not a chance the Wizengamot members were willing to take. Even that would not have been enough to prevent banning the Familiar Bonding ritual, except that a botched execution inevitably rebounded on the animal instead of the caster and was thus deemed 'safe', for a certain definition of that term.
And make no mistake, rebounding was one of the major problems with rituals. It typically resulted in an incredible mess of blood and viscera.
If one ignored the dangers, however, rituals were incredibly versatile and fortunately even somewhat predictable if one stuck to the script. Sadly their great power came at a price. Rituals were all about Sacrifice, which by their very nature made them not wholly beneficial. Tinged with darkness. Perhaps most worryingly, terribly easy to corrupt.
Despite the drawbacks the Wizengamot had been unwilling to relinquish their heritage completely and had consequently hesitated in their decision to outlaw rituals outright. Ultimately, they had chosen the more murky path of setting bounds on the sacrifices they were powered by. Because for all the chanting and drawing and magical paraphernalia involved, rituals were always dependent on a sacrifice and it was here that the Seeker's Soothsaying fell in the lighter spectrum of the legal grey area that had Madam Marchbanks yell at him, yet not call for the Aurors.
First of all, it was a rather weak ritual and little gain had only a small price. The Seeker's Soothsaying's purpose was to focus several Divining readings on a single goal. If done correctly, they would build upon one another thereby moderately improving the result. It was nothing that couldn't be achieved through diligent practise, merely a shortcut. Rather fittingly, aside from needing a hefty amount of power, the major sacrifice was time. After performing the ritual, one couldn't repeat it for a number of months, enough to make up for the deficiency in knowledge rendering repetition of the ritual obsolete. Secondly, while the ritual would help one focus on a goal, the nature of that goal was rather limited. World peace was out of reach, as was long-term good fortune or even something as volatile as winning lottery numbers. Finally and most tellingly, the Wizengamot hadn't deemed it all that dangerous because it was a ritual centred around Divination and who took that seriously anyway?
That didn't change the fact that Harry would be completing a ritual and rituals were Dangerous. This one was well-documented and many had successfully completed it before, but that didn't change the nature of the beast. Merely copying the drawings from a book and simply following instructions was akin to having the blueprint of a gun and building a model from a nearby tree before filling it with explosive material and bullets and pulling the trigger. It might go right, but most likely his next area of study – if he retained the ability to read – would be prosthetics for the arms he had blown off.
Thus, the rest of August was spent studying rituals in general and the Seeker's Soothsaying in particular. Harry practised Ancient Greek to leave no doubt what the phrases should mean, what they really meant and their pronunciation; he drew the patterns again and again until his finger moved through the air in his sleep and he memorised the script until he could recite it backwards and forwards without even a hiccup. Most of the time, however, was spent practising Divining, because while the ritual would help the elements reinforce each other, if they were crap to begin with it would still get him nowhere.
Between eating, sleeping and making sure he would not blow himself up he had very little free time. Tonks owled him once, tentatively asking him to join her for lunch, but he ignored her, the hurt still too fresh and his intentions towards her still too unsure to commit to anything. His only contact was with Iris, who was still locked up at Privet Prison and as such spent her days writing long rambling letters that he made sure to answer with similarly sized responses.
When the Daily Prophet triumphantly announced the foiling of a dozen attacks and the capture of no less than thirty seven Death Eaters, however, Harry sat up and took notice.
In the photo of the press-conference where the successes were revealed the Minister veritably glowed as he presented the good news to a host of inquisitive reporters. It was Madam Bones' words, however, that had Harry's heart swell and think that maybe the country was not as bad off as it appeared.
"The DMLE has been able to foil a dozen attacks over the past month, saving hundreds of people from kidnapping, torture and death at the hands of these dangerous criminals. Each of them will stand trial as soon as the Ministry can accommodate them, facing years in Azkaban and putting a sizeable dent in You-Know-Who's forces. These successes serve as proof that the Aurors are more than up to the task of defending our country. We're not quite there yet, but you can bet the Dark Lord's getting worried."
The article was full of praise, even if they did lambaste the Ministry for keeping the population in suspense and not sharing their success earlier. Apparently that the first capture was made 30 days ago, the maximum period the DMLE could hold someone in a time of war without formally and publicly charging them or be forced to set them free. Madam Bones' time was up and while she would probably prefer not to mess with a good thing, the law required that she come clean.
It was a major coup and barring a few barbs at how Iris Potter was still sitting on her laurels the Ministry appeared to be doing something and succeeding for the first time since Voldemort returned.
Which was why the blow hit twice as hard when Voldemort broke the lot of them out the next day.
Details were sketchy, but at one moment the DMLE holding cells were filled almost to capacity and the next they were empty, barring a mocking message from the Dark Lord, thanking the good Ministry workers for gathering all his followers in one place, making it easy for him to rescue them.
The despondent silence emanating from Ministry as they staggered from the blow sowed panic among the people, culminating in a riot in Diagon Alley where fear turned to violence as people desperately begged for someone to save them from the unstoppable monster.
Iris' next letter was noticeably less than cheerful as she was forced to confront the fact that people were literally fighting in the streets without needing Death Eater involvement and more and more of them demanded that she fulfil 'her duty'. Harry wrote back not to listen to those that didn't deserve her help and to remember that despite not being able to hold on to their captures the Aurors did save more than a hundred people. There was hope and nobody had the right to demand she deliver it personally. If these were wise people they would not be fighting in the streets in the first place.
Thus August passed rapidly until suddenly Harry woke up to the end of the month and he was out of time.
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If you're eager to delve deeper into the story, consider joining my Patreon for exclusive content and early access to new chapters
50+Advanced Chapters there.
(P).(A).(T).(R).(E).(O).(N)
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