Arch Mage, the Path of Magic Chapter 44

Hey friends and fans, Kairomaru is here with another chapter of Arch Mage, the Path of Magic! As the Third Task approaches, Harry and Fleur continue their preparations. There should be very little that can impede their paths through the magical hedge maze that the Ministry of Magic has made. But outside forces are certainly scheming on their own. Different tactics will be necessary this time around as darkness spreads quietly. But for a certain Spellcrafter, such things could be…very interesting.

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So, without further delay, please enjoy.

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Chapter 44 – Rituals and Discoveries

Daphne smiled as she told Harry about her new discovery and spell while sitting at the Ravenclaw Table and enjoying breakfast. “And I just kind of came up with the incantation…but it worked just as I wanted it to.”

Harry nodded with a smile on his face. “Technically speaking, the way that I create spells is MUCH different than how most witches and wizards go about it. What you did is a more common method of creating a counter-spell, by simply reversing the effect of another spell. It’s a much simpler method than working from a vague idea and slowly building up the various Principles and Aspects required to gain the effect that you want.”

Tracy leaned over to Daphne with a playful grin. “So, should we start calling you Daphne the Bone Stealer now?”

“I will hex you.” Daphne said to Tracy with a flat expression.

“You’re proving her point, Daphne.” Astoria giggled at her big sister while picking up some ham with her fork.

Before Daphne could retort, the Great Hall was flooded with owls delivering he morning mail. A barn owl swooped down and landed in front of Daphne, depositing the copy of the Daily Prophet. As Daphne paid the owl, it took a piece of bacon levitated over to it by Luna and then flew off again.

“Well, the papers can certainly change their tune quickly, can’t they?” Daphne remarked as she saw one of the articles on the bottom of the front page. Flipping the paper around to show her friends, she grinned at Hermione. “Your accomplishment has been recognized.”

Another prodigy? Hogwarts Fourth Year Student: Hermione Granger, becomes the youngest Ancient Runes Master in Britain’s history!

The articles came with a moving picture, as always, showing Hermione with her Symbol of Mastery pinned to her robes over her left breast, her framed certificate for earning her Mastery in her left hand facing the camera, while she shook hands with Minister Fudge. The clear ‘photo op’ was fully taken advantage of by Fudge to get his face in the papers again.

Hermione accepted the newspaper from Daphne and she eagerly read over the article about her accomplishment. “They are definitely being a lot more flattering in this article.” She mentioned, comparing it tot Rita Skeeter’s article in Witch Weekly. “They didn’t even point out my blood status…I wonder why?” Hermione asked rhetorically.

“The pompous bigots can’t admit that someone that doesn’t fit their ‘ideal pedigree’ has accomplished something that none of them could.” Fleur sniffed disdainfully at the article that she was able to read by slightly leaning over from beside Hermione. She sipped her café au lait with a small sigh. “I stayed up a bit later than I intended researching.” Fleur mumbled quietly to herself, hoping the coffee would wake her up more.

Luna smiled over at Hermione. “Daddy would definitely give you space in The Quibbler if you ever wanted to do an interview, Hermione.” She offered her friend as she levitated a vaguely bird-shaped creation of scrambled eggs with bacon for wings towards her mouth and ate it.

“Let them be arrogant all they want, even they had to acknowledge what I accomplished.” Hermione said with a bright grin as she handed the newspaper back to Daphne. “Can I clip that article out once you’re done with the paper?”

Daphne nodded easily. “Sure. You could frame it and hang it next to the certificate you got for your Mastery.”

That got a round of chuckles from everyone.

As the friends continued to enjoy their breakfasts, others were working.

-Auror Bullpen ~Department of Magical Law Enforcement-

Tonks and Hestia Jones both looked over the new case that had been handed off to them. It was yet another small case—the kind often dumped onto the youngest Aurors like them—but was rather curious compared to the other cases that they’d handled before.

“Disturbed grave?” Hestia cocked an eyebrow at the reported crime. “That’s a bit odd. It’s been an age since the last report of graverobbing.” Her own mentor had made her become familiar with a long history of crimes handled by the Department of Magical Law Enforcement.

“Why give this to Aurors though?” Tonks asked her friend, curious as to why this case wasn’t handed off to the Investigation Department and the Magical Law Enforcement Patrol.

Hestia read over the full crime description and tilted her head slightly. “The disturbed grave was the grave of Evan Rosier.”

Tonks was a bit surprised about that. “The Death Eater?” That could very well be the reason why this case was handed up to the Auror Office. “What could he have been buried with that someone wanted so badly as to dig it up and defile the grave?”

“We’ll have to try and figure that out.” Hestia said as she finished reading the last part of the report. “The person that reported the disturbed grave was James Blishwick, an elderly wizard that was visiting the grave of his wife in the same cemetery.”

“We should get at least a couple members of the Investigation Department to help us out.” Tonks suggested as she put on her red Auror robe. “We’re definitely going to have to exhume the body to find out what was stolen and to look for any clues left behind by the graverobber.”

Hestia agreed with a nod, putting on her own Auror robe. “Yeah, not looking forward to that.” The two headed out of the Auror Bullpen and towards the offices of the Investigation Department to form a small team to go to the crime scene and begin their investigation.

-Voldemort’s Safehouse-

Voldemort looked at the two wrapped bundles that Wormtail and both of the undead Rosiers had brought him. A brief wave of his wand over both bundles gave him the certainty that they were exactly what he’d requested. “Leave me.” He ordered coldly.

The two undead Death Eaters bowed and left without a word, unable to do anything but obey Voldemort. Peter bowed and backed out of the room, closing the door of the room behind him swiftly. With the three gone, Voldemort looked down at the two bundles for a short moment.

“Now that I have these, there is only a bit more to do.” Voldemort said quietly to himself as he picked up both bundles and with a wave of his hand, a bookcase against one wall swung forward like a door, revealing a staircase leading down. Taking the stairs, Voldemort lit up sconces along the wall with flames as he descended them until he reached the hidden chamber that they led to.

The sconces around the room lit up with flames, though the total light remained rather dim. On the stone floor was a large, intricate magical circle, marked with runes, glyphs, and geometric shapes. The lines of the circle looked to be painted in blood, given their dark red color, and the entire chamber was filled with a strange coldness that had nothing to do with its subterranean location.

Voldemort set the two bundles on a wooden table along one wall of the chamber. From the same table he moved a simple wooden box closer to himself and lifted the lid. Within the box was a human skull…one that looked rather pristine, beyond the wear of time since the person’s death. Barty had traveled abroad to find the tomb of the one that this skull had belonged to and steal it, but that had been absolutely necessary for Voldemort to proceed in his plans. Pulling the skull from within the box, Voldemort carried it over to a corner of the room away from the large magic circle and towards a small stone pedestal. The pedestal of stone was surrounded by unlit candles and there were three stone bowls before it, all of them empty at the moment.

“Place the skull…” Voldemort set the skull on the stone pedestal. “Light the candles…” All of the candles around the pedestal flickered to life with flame. “Place the materials…” The bowl on the left was filled with a light, aromatic oil. The bowl on the left was filled with a mixture of dried magical herbs. Voldemort held out his hand, his arm and fingers twitching slightly, making the Dark Lord grimace as his possessed body continued to breakdown. Without a flinch, Voldemort used his wand to slice his palm and filled the middle bowl with blackened blood. “Now the incense…” He placed three sticks—a powerful magical number—all specially made by his own hand following specific steps before the stone pedestal. With everything set correctly, Voldemort stepped back and grabbed a bottle from the wooden table, uncorking it, he knelt down and slowly poured the contents in a circle around the stone pedestal, a potion made from water that had been boiled, filled with salt, and left to simmer beneath the light of the full moon for a night. “Now, everything is ready.”

A flick of his index finger lit the three sticks of incense, streams of smoke beginning to rise upwards in the cold air between Voldemort and the skull on the stone pedestal. Another flick of his finger and the fragrant oil in the left bowl was set alight, followed by the dried herbs in the right bowl, both adding scent and their own smoke to the thin smoke of the incense. Voldemort sat before the stone pedestal and the skull, outside of the circle made by the potion, and began to speak a long incantation under his breath, almost like a chant.

The flames of the candles changed from the normal orange-yellow to an eerie purple-blue color as the air within the underground chamber cooled sharply. The empty eye sockets of the skull filled with a faint green light as the smoke from the incense and two of the bowls slowly flowed over the skull, forming a mask-like visage of a person.

“Who calls me from the land of the dead?” A haunting voice spoke as the skull levitated just a handful of centimeters and its jaw moved when the spirit spoke. The fact that Voldemort could even understand the spirit—that seemed to speak some dialect of ancient Latin—was part of the magic of the necromantic séance ritual.

“I am Lord Voldemort.” Voldemort answered the spirit, his red eyes gazing into the smoky visage.

“Are you a descendant of my teachings?” The spirit questioned in a whispery voice that seemed to echo.

Voldemort’s expression and tone didn’t change. “I am making use of your teachings. But parts have been lost to time. You will answer my questions.”

“Heh heh heh…” The spirit cackled lowly, as if under its non-existent breath. “You cannot bind me with the magic that I created, boy.” The temperature of the air fluctuated, growing warmer for an instant before the biting chill returned. “But if you’ve learned enough to use it, why would I stop you?”

“I require the knowledge of the final ingredient needed for the lineage of undeath.” Voldemort said plainly as the last page of the ritual that he’d chosen above all others had been missing, worn away to naught but dust over the ages, along with the last third of the ancient tome.

The smoky visage of the spirit was quiet for a moment, almost as if it was scrutinizing Voldemort. “And what would you do with such knowledge when your own soul is so tattered?” It asked with a mocking echo.

Voldemort tamped down on his anger, knowing that it wouldn’t do to give into taunts from the dead. The circle around the pedestal trapped the spirit so that it couldn’t flee or try and connect with the summoner, but getting angry and reaching into the circle would invalidate such protection. “I will perform the lineage of undeath.” Was his simple answer to the spirit.

“Your borrowed flesh is failing you; it is little surprise that you’d turned to the magic that I created to escape death.” The spirit’s words couldn’t be considered a taunt…but the subtle barb that Voldemort was desperate to avoid the reaching hands of death was still clear. “But I have no reason to prevent you from using the ritual. Your time is running out, so I’ll be brief…”

Voldemort briefly glanced at the three bowls set before the pedestal, seeing that the herbs had burnt down to black ashes with only a tiny flame within the center still producing wispy smoke. Similarly, the aromatic oil in the left bowl was nearly gone. Most of the blackened blood in the center bowl was gone as well, as if it had vanished. Even the three incense sticks had burned down considerably, much faster than they normally should have.

“Gather the bones of generations past, connected directly by blood. Form the circle in human blood and offer up a sacrifice of magical life. The final ingredient to the ritual is the ashes from a phoenix’s burning day.” The spirit listed off the necessary process and ingredients for the ritual known as the lineage of undeath.

“A phoenix? A creature associated with life and light?” Voldemort questioned the spirit with distrust and suspicion.

The spirit’s smoky visage seemed to laugh, its echoing whispery voice confirming it. “The phoenix is life. Its burning day ashes are the death that it casts off. My ritual uses that cast off death as a catalyst to do the same for the one that performs it properly.”

Voldemort considered that, knowing that this ritual he was using to converse with the spirit would let him know if the called forth spirit was lying to him, and since he didn’t get that feeling, he knew the spirit was telling the truth. The use of any kind of phoenix material in a necromantic ritual practically spat in the face of the Dark Arts, but Voldemort could see the spirit’s genuine knowledge to use the burning day ashes as a catalyst. ‘My own understanding of the Dark Arts is far greater than any others.’ He mentally praised himself for choosing this specific ritual over all the others he’d researched. “I will call on you again once I’ve successfully performed the lineage of undeath.” Voldemort told the spirit of the ancient necromancer, wanting to know what the last third of the ancient and decayed tome had contained.

“I’m sure that I’ll see you soon enough, boy.” The spirit said as the smoky visage gave Voldemort an unsettling grin. The smoke thinned and the spirit uttered something that Voldemort couldn’t make out. The faint green light within the empty eye sockets vanished and the skull fell back to the stone pedestal. The incense burned out, as did the aromatic oil and the herbs. The blood in the center bowl had completely vanished as well.

Sssss

Voldemort narrowed his eyes at the faint sound only to watch as the skull of the ancient necromancer fell apart into fine, sand-like powder. “Damn you!” Voldemort lashed out with his magic, destroying the séance area in his rage at the loss of the medium required to call forth the spirit of the necromancer. It was clear that the spirit hadn’t been untruthful during their conversation, even about being unable to be bound by the magic that it had created. Even as a conjured spirit, the necromancer had managed to enact magic to destroy its own remains to prevent Voldemort from contacting them again.

Calming himself down, Voldemort stood up and walked towards the stairs. Now that he knew the final ingredient that he’d been missing to complete the lineage of undeath, it was only a matter of time before he could complete the ritual and grant himself an undying body that no longer had to fear the passage of time. He just needed Barty to acquired the ashes from a phoenix’s burning day now. A rare item, to be certain, but not one that was impossible to get if you knew where to look.

-Hogwarts ~ June, 10th-

It was a normal Saturday for Hogwarts, aside from the Fifth and Seventh Years taking their O.W.L.s and N.E.W.T.s while the rest of the students eagerly looked forward to the Third Task coming up in just two weeks. But for the three Champions, this became a time to buckle down even further in their practice and research to overcome the final Task.

Harry sat upon a cleared out circle of dirt. The grass that had previously been here was removed by his magic so that nothing would separate him from the earth. Placing his hands on the dirt, Harry focused his magic and filled the dirt with it before pulling upward, removing a section of the ground. Moving his hands to the bottom of the clump of soil, he looked it over and then activated his Mage Sight spell. “That’s about right.” Harry muttered to himself as he saw the few small magical insects within the soil, while the rest of the mass was normal…having only the slightly heightened amount of magic that being on the same land as Hogwarts provided it. “Now…how to find your essence?”

Primal Fire was created by removing the normally short-lived existence of combustion from time through the Aspect of Agelessness. By burning time and magic as fuel, it produced a diffused magic as a result of that mystical combustion, the essence of fire. But earth was NOT fire, it existed for ages stably and parts of it, like certain types of stone, barely changed at all over centuries. So, to find a way to produce its essence, one needed to understand it and how it interacted with the natural world and with magic.

“Principle Time… Aspect is Age…” Harry went with a similar method to create Primal Fire, though reversed the process by adding age to the non-magical material. The large clump of soil in Harry’s hand dried out before his eyes, the tiny creatures living within it doing their best to flee from the suddenly inhospitable dirt. Focusing on the center of the mass, Harry pressed further with his magic, as the rest of the soil fell from his hands as sandy dust. “Hmm…” Harry stared at the tiny clump of stone in his hands with his Mage Sight spell. “Strange…there’s no diffused magic. Is time not the method to access the essence of earth?” He tossed the stone away from himself and picked up the Dwarf Magic book that he’d gotten back in his second year. Flipping through the pages until he was near the back, Harry read over what the Dwarves knew of the ‘essence of earth’ again.

While Harry reread the book on Dwarf Magic, Fleur was on the other side of the Hogwarts grounds doing her own practice.

“Hah…” Fleur exhaled slowly as she maintained her Veela Fire in a ring around her. Said ring of flame was burning in the air with only Fleur’s magic as fuel. As Fleur opened her eyes, she focused on her Veela Fire separately from what she was about to attempt. Her expression changed, becoming bright and warm, as she fueled her magic with her emotion.

The air in front of Fleur wavered and the scenery changed slightly, looking brighter and softer, before it faded away and her Veela Fire flickered and sputtered, nearly going out. Changing her emotion quickly, Fleur calmed herself and her flames stabilized, the ring continuing to burn around her.

“Merde…” Fleur sighed as she maintained her Veela Fire. “Splitting my focus between effects is difficult. If I understood wandless magic better, perhaps I’d figure out how to improve a bit more.” Pulling out her wand, Fleur maintained her ring of fire and with a slash of her wand and a fierce expression on her face, the air whistled as a powerful cutting force split it for dozens of meters in front of her. “I can do it with my wand, at least.” But that wasn’t good enough, in Fleur’s opinion. Seeing Harry’s wandless magic made Fleur want to reach the same heights. She could use her interpretation of magic as emotion to utilize it through her spells, but she was still lacking the wisdom and understanding required to fully use her magic in whatever way that she wished without a Focus.

Gathering her Veela Fire into a sphere, Fleur poured her emotion into it, this time love, and watched as the purple-tinted flames swirled into a brilliant, soft cloud of fire that was warm like sitting in front of a fireplace on a cold winter day. With a swift shift in her emotion, Fleur went to sadness, recalling the passing of her grandfather years ago. The Veela Fire infused with the emotion dimmed and shrank considerably, the fire becoming a darker purple with only a bit of yellow-orange within it. The flames didn’t crackle or make any sound at all…they burned as if in a morose silence. Fleur felt as though these altered flames carried greater ‘weight’ to them, even as she let a tear fall from her eye while shaping the sad flames into her fiery bow and arrow. Taking aim at a large stone sticking up from the ground, Fleur released her arrow and watched it fly through the air until it hit the rock.

“Hm?” Fleur’s expression changed, her sadness disappearing in the wake of curiosity as her flames didn’t appear to have left a mark on the stone. “That was still Veela Fire…there should be a mark.” She jogged over to the rock and looked it over where her flames had hit it. There was no blackened stone, no cracks, and the rock didn’t even feel warm to the touch. “Do the flames completely change their properties through my interpretation of magic?” That would certainly be different from what she’d unleashed in her anger during the Second Task after pulling Gabby from the Black Lake.

Holding her right hand palm up in front of her, Fleur conjured her Veela Fire normally. The purple-tinted flames burned atop her palm as normal. Letting off little pops occasionally as the flames danced about in the air. Fleur’s expression changed as she focused on a memory that always made her embarrassed—the one time when she’d first started ‘exploring her body’ as puberty took effect and her father had knocked on her bedroom door—it was the memory of trying to talk normally to her father after what she’d been doing, only for both of them to be awkward as to her father, Marius, it was rather obvious what his daughter had been up to before he’d knocked. Her embarrassment applied to her Veela Fire made the flames waver and thin out, a heat haze coming off of them that made Fleur swear her hand had vanished as she looked at it.

“What if?” Fleur replayed the memory in her head one more time, the awkward way her father hadn’t looked directly at her, her own mortification at practically being caught. The Veela Fire maintained its thin and hazy state as Fleur poured more magic into it and then waved her hand around her opposite arm.

To her surprise, the Veela Fire circling the limb was nearly invisible at this point, but at the same time, she also couldn’t see her hand and arm within it.

“Disillusionment?” Fleur blinked, noticing the similarities between the Disillusionment Charm and how her Veela Fire was reacting. “Because of my embarrassment?” She’d certainly wanted to hide back then…and had for basically the rest of the day. “Casting through my fire?” Fleur considered the possibility, not recalling any Veela she knew mentioning such a thing before.

Needing to test her new theory out, Fleur took a steadying breath as she let her Veela Fire fade away. Focusing on an emotion that she thought might work, Fleur wreathed her feet in Veela Fire and a smile crossed her face as joy bloomed within her as she recalled seeing her Gabby for the first time shortly after her little sister had been born. Feeling like she was floating, Fleur kicked off the ground and took a step…and then another.

“Ahahaha!” Fleur laughed beautifully as she stood in the air, supported by the Veela Fire around her feet. It wasn’t quite flight, but she floated their without issue as her joy multiplied and her Veela Fire shifted to warm, not quite pastel, colors as she stepped through the air for a distance until her emotions faltered a bit and she nearly crashed onto the ground. “Casting my emotion through my flames!” Fleur giggled as she hopped back to her feet. “What an epiphany!” It opened up a new avenue to explore her interpretation of magic through and she had discovered it on her own. “Won’t Harry be surprised during the Third Task.” Fleur laughed softly to herself as she went over what she’d just done and what other effects that her interpretation of magic might yield in conjunction with her Veela Fire.

Harry perked up as he felt something through his contact with the earth. It was faint, like someone calling to him from very far away, but he knew that he’d felt something. “What was that?” Closing his eyes, Harry pushed more of his magic into the soil and spread it out thin and wide, hoping to figure out what it was that he’d felt. Slight awareness came through his magic that he’d spread through the earth, little reverberations in the dirt from the critters that lived within it, a tiny thrumming that he thought might be all the movement within Hogwarts and across the grounds as he continued to spread his magic out further and further, even as he made it thinner. “I know I felt something…”

A faint echo touched the edge of Harry’s widespread magic and he focused on it. The feeling didn’t react to him like a living thing would, but Harry felt it and wondered what it was, pushing his magic to interact with it. A sensation reached Harry, a faint bout of joy and elation, along with warmth.

“What?” Harry hadn’t experienced anything like this before while trying to understand and access the essence of earth. “Maybe with Magic Manipulation?” He found the faint echo of the sensation through the earth again as he stretched out his magic towards the same spot, and thins time he tried to pull it a little closer through his magic.

Laughter, warmth, joy, and the felling that someone smiled brushed across Harrys’ Occlumency and he blinked his eyes open suddenly while pulling his hands away from the ground. Looking down at them with his Mage Sight spell, he saw a faint magic covering them, like fine dust that one wouldn’t normally notice.

“No…not magic.” Harry grinned at what he was seeing. “Diffused magic…” He used Magic Manipulation on it and watched the faint trace of magic move under his will for a moment before it faded away completely. “Essence of the earth!” Harry laughed brightly, nearly throwing his head back as it finally clicked as to what he’d not considered. “It’s not time or change that connects to the essence of earth…it’s memory! The land that is crawled through, walked upon, sat on, and every sound, emotion, and event that takes place on it leaves a faint echo in its essence!” Harry quickly conjured a notebook and a pencil to write down his new discovery, chuckling to himself in both amazement and new understanding. Once he was done writing his notes, his first question came to mind. “But why didn’t I feel anything until now?”

He'd been spreading his magic out through the earth and soil for a good long while now, but he’d never even gotten a hint of the faint echo that had led him to the essence of earth before. There had to be something that caused it, a change of some kind. With that thought in mind, Harry flew into the air and over Hogwarts to check the space his magic had connected to.

“Fleur?” Harry was surprised to see his girlfriend as he flew downward sand then floated in the air until his feet lightly touched the grassy ground. The way that Fleur was laughing brightly brought a smile to Harry’s face. ‘Joy and elation…’ Harry realized the emotions on display and swiftly looked back the way he’d come from, then estimated the straight path compared to where his magic had reached out until it found the faint echo of sensation. “It was Fleur’s emotions?” Considering how Fleur interpreted magic as emotion, her spells would be full of it. ‘And if her magic was touching the ground at the same time that mine was connected to it…’

“Harry?” Fleur had spotted Harry as she turned around, but could only stare at her boyfriend that had such a focused expression on his face. “Harry?” She called his name a bit louder as she approached him. “Were you trying to spy on my practice, mon chéri?”

Harry suddenly looked up at Fleur with a bright smile as he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her into a hug while spinning them both around. “A complete coincidence, but thank you for the help, Fleur! You’re brilliant!”

Fleur, now fully confused, hugged Harry back until he set her back onto her feet. “Not that I mind the compliment, Harry; but what are you talking about?”

“You know how I mentioned that I’d been trying to figure out how to access other essences besides the essence of fire?” Harry asked Fleur with a grin, his excitement nearly pouring off of him. Once Fleur nodded, he quickly explained his new discovery. “I was pushing my magic through the ground, testing out various methods to try and uncover the essence of earth, when I felt a faint echo of emotion. It wasn’t like anything I’d ever felt before, so I focused on it and when I used Magic Manipulation there was joy, warmth, and laughter brushing against my Occlumency! I pulled my hands away from the ground, because I was confused, but when I looked at them with my Mage Sight spell, there was this faint diffused magic on them! It was the essence of earth! So, I followed the path by flying over the castle and I spotted you here in the same area! I felt your emotions through the earth and by touching that faint echo of such recent powerful emotion, the magic diffused into essence!” Harry was nearly babbling in his excitement at finally making progress after two years.

“I’m happy for you?” Fleur blinked, having barely managed to process everything with how fast Harry was speaking. “You told me the essence of fire diffuses from the mystical combustion of Primal Fire as it burns magic. But essence of earth is diffused through the ground by…”

“Memories!” Harry nodded with a beaming smile. “The faint echo I felt was your recent emotions, because they were so strong! They left an imprint on the magic that’s in the earth. I think most of those sensations are too minute to be felt, which is why even the Dwarf Magic book only describes the essence of earth, but doesn’t have any solid confirmation of what it does or if anything can be done with it!”

Fleur, not wanting Harry to go off on a tangent, leaned forward and kissed him. Harry instantly stopped talking and returned the kiss as he wrapped his arms around Fleur’s waist. The two held their kiss for a long moment before pulling away from each other and looking into each other’s eyes.

“Better?” Fleur asked with a grin.

“Yeah…” Harry nodded with a smile. “Sorry, I can babble when I get excited about something new.”

Fleur giggled at Harry and gave him a soft peck on the lips. “I know, I find it rather cute.”

Harry grinned at Fleur and then looked at her curiously. “What were you doing over here that left enough of an emotional imprint on the earth for me to stumble across?”

“That would be telling~” Fleur said with teasing little smirk.

“But I’m curious…” Harry leaned in with a smile, only for Fleur to shimmy her way out of his arms.

Fleur nearly skipped away from Harry a few paces as she laughed. “Good! Then it’ll be four to one on our little competition.” She teased him playfully by keeping track still.

“I’m pretty sure it was two to three in your favor, not one to three…” Harry narrowed his eyes at Fleur, though the grin on his face made it lack any intensity.

As Fleur and Harry got closer again, their eyes locked on each other while they leaned forward, a sudden surprise startled them both.

“Hi Harry! Hi Fleur!” Luna called out as she drifted down from the air, riding on a much larger version of ‘Leafy’, her normally small Kooni. “Look what Leafy and I can do!” She beamed at both of them, clearly not realizing that she’d just interrupted something.

Harry, never one to be upset with Luna, smiled at her while looking at the large, round Kooni that she was sitting on. “That’s definitely new, Luna. How’re you keeping its shape the same while making Leafy bigger? All of my shikigami get bigger AND more humanoid when I give them more magic.” Even his ‘Spirit of Fire’ was just a gigantic fire Kooni that became more humanoid as it took in more magic and more of its element.

Fleur touched the much larger, but still round and cute Kooni, its light body feeling almost like a balloon. “It feels the same as when it’s small.” She smiled at Luna, wondering how the younger girl had pulled this little transformation off.

Luna smiled at Harry and Fleur. “Leafy just needed to be bigger, so I helped it be bigger.” She explained without going int any real detail. “It’s still soft this way and it can lift me too!” Luna said excitedly, demonstrating as ‘Leafy’ floated upwards into the air until both Fleur and Harry had to crane their necks upwards to keep looking at Luna and the big shikigami.

“Magic is what it is and what it wants to be.” Harry repeated Luna’s interpretation of magic as he smiled up at his little sister. “So it wanted to keep its form and shape, but increase its size?”

“Yep!” Luna chirped, clearly happy as she and ‘Leafy’ descended back towards the ground. “Leafy and I are friends, so we help each other!” She patted the large Kooni with a smile on her face.

Fleur giggled softly at how cute Luna was, even though she was only a year younger than Harry. “You’ve made a new discovery too, Luna.”

Luna nodded as she slid off the side of ‘Leafy’ and the shikigami shrank down to its almost baseball-sized standard shape before landing on Luna’s shoulder. “Did you two make a discovery today?” She asked, happy for both of them if that was the case.

“I figured out how to access the essence of earth today thanks to Fleur!” Harry told Luna, his previous excitement returning as he got to explain his thoughts and first hypotheses to his little sister.

‘Looks like I’ll be able to keep my secret until the Third Task.’ Fleur thought to herself with a little grin as Harry eagerly told Luna about what he’d discovered in regards to the essence of earth. She had many things to practice in the next two weeks and Hary might figure out ways around them if she let him see. “Hm?” Fleur blinked as she felt a gentle tug on her hand.

Luna smiled at Fleur, her left hand extended and clearly using wandless magic to gently pull Fleur towards her and Harry. “Come on, Fleur! We’re going to get dinner!”

Fleur couldn’t help but smile as she let Luna’s wandless magic pull her along until she was walking hand-in-hand with the younger witch, who also had Harry’s hand in her other hand, walking between them with a bright smile on her face.

Just two weeks to go until the Third Task and two of the three Champions were feeling good about their chances of winning.

No one knew what would happen, come the final night of the Triwizard Tournament.

-End Chapter-

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Voldemort finally got the information he needed for his chosen ritual…

FUCK!!!

What kind of ritual is this ‘lineage of death’? Will Voldemort be even stronger than he was before after it?

Will he even be human?

But his grave robbing hasn’t gone unnoticed!

Tonks and Hestia Jones are on the case to figure out who disturbed Evan Rosier’s grave. Will that lead to a hint of what’s happening with only two weeks left before the Third Task? Will anyone believe that the dead are up and walking about again?

Given who currently runs the Ministry… Probably not.

Meanwhile, our favorite group of witches and wizards are making their own discoveries! Fleur has found that while she doesn’t yet understand wandless magic enough to make full use of her interpretation of magic without her wand, her Veela Fire is wandless and as a part of her magic she can cast her emotions through it to change its effects! That’s new!

Harry, thanks to a lucky coincidence from Fleur’s own discovery, finally figured out how to reach the essence of earth! It was WAY different than the essence of fire! That old saying ‘the land remembers’ might not be inaccurate when it comes to magic. Even if the essence of earth is diffused through memories…it seems to require strong memories to imprint emotion upon the land for someone like Harry to find and ‘access’ through Magic Manipulation.

Luna has discovered a new way to use her Kooni ‘Leafy’ through her own interpretation of magic! Her friend remains its normal, soft, nearly spherical self, but gets MUCH bigger! Luna can even ride around on it as it floats through the air like a leaf! Adorable!

Even Harry didn’t know it was possible to make a Kooni bigger without it becoming more humanoid in shape. Go Luna! Kek!

What will happen at during the Third Task of the Triwizard Tournament?

Keep reading to find out!

Until I get your reviews, later!