Chapter 23.6- Doom Days

XX- 31st December, 1994

The portkey to Geneva was scheduled to leave on the First of January at around noon so I had time to kill. Or better yet, time to fuck around and find out. Various potion ingredients had been purchased and stockpiled in the aftermath of the Ball. With the ministry in a tizzy over what had happened during the Yule Ball and the Aurors generally being sent this way and that so the ministry could be seen doing something, the illegal market in Knockturne was thriving.

I went disguised and was easily able to buy everything I needed. That was what brought me here now. The pentagram drawn with my own blood starkly contrasted with the dark stone of the Chamber of Secrets. The ambient magic of the place along with its privacy meant it was the perfect venue for this ritual.

I had the body of the hellhound- (Fudge hadn’t had any issues processing the rest of the return once I mailed him the request. He hadn’t even replied personally, Dolores Umbridge had done so on his behalf), the bones of the Basilisk, and a dead Acromantula I’d ventured into the forest and killed before dragging it back here. The ritual Rowena Ravenclaw had created and had improved by one of the early Hogwarts Heads was an interesting thing. Assumption would let me assume the best traits of the creatures I had slain and make them strengthen my magic. The basilisk and hellhound alone were powerful enough that I didn’t really expect to gain much from the acromantula, but rituals operated with symbolism.

That was why I was performing this one on the very last day of the year. The night of a full moon as well. Maybe if I had more time, I would have gone looking for a lupine creature to slay for the ritual to really play into the moon’s angle, but that was too difficult to even countenance with present limitations- I breezed in and out of Hogwarts at will, but going all the way to Greece and gallivanting through the forests searching for a direwolf wouldn’t have ended well for anyone involved.

My watch vibrated against my skin twice. That meant the moon was directly overhead. I shrugged off my underrobes and tossed them out of the ritual field with my wand. Even my glasses were put aside as I stood naked in the centre of the pentagram. The time turner was the last thing too leave my body. I unclasped it from my neck and laid it on my clothes very softly, careful not to risk damaging it even though

I shivered as I sat against the cool stone and began to pull at my magic. Rituals were olde magic- with an e for a reason. They didn’t need incantations or wand movements- didn’t need wands at all to be honest. All you needed was your magic and your desire. If you want it bad enough, you have the magic to pull it off, and you assemble the right tools, then there’s little you can’t achieve.