"Vitam, mortem, irae et amor, sana qui pereunt."
Sirius, who still easily remembered the cruel Latin lessons taught by his mother, lost his breath at the words. He stared down at the runes as the words ran through his head: 'Mother magic, grant me the power to heal that which is broken and lost / life, death, anger, and love, heal who is lost.' The words tugged at his soul, their magic potent and heavy. His eyes glanced back to Harry as the boy began moving. Taking a breath, Harry drew out a purified knife and carefully placed the sharpened edge against his chest. Hearing a sharp breath being draw he quickly looked up and shared a look with Sirius, who was now looking worried. Nodding his head to show he was fine, Harry carefully cut into his skin, breathing through the sharp pain which burned through him as he carefully engraved the runes he needed.
The rune Laguz, for life, memory, and love. To show he accepted who Tom was and forgave him, to show how he was willing to love him despite it all. The rune Mannaz for mental clarity and life, so that Tom would return sane and healed. And finally, the rune Algiz for protection of both mind, body, and, most importantly, soul. Once done, Harry quickly picked up a glass vial and held it to the bleeding runes, allowing his blood to run until the vial was full. His magic was mixing with the runes and his blood, making it swirl with power and almost glitter in the candlelight. Once the vial was full he placed it down and allowed his magic to heal the cuts, although even his magic couldn't stop them from lightly scarring.
"Sanguinem revivesco."
libenter
dedi,
sana
et
Harry uneasily breathed out as the sentence filtered through his head: 'blood willingly given, heal and resurrect.' His magic surged forth to reassure him and Harry could feel himself relax under its pressure, able to continue on.
The final step was the easiest and at the same time the hardest for Harry. Picking up the vial, he allowed exactly seven drops of his blood to fall on the diary. At first nothing seemed to happen. However, the diary soon started to smoke, the shape eventually warping until suddenly an ear shattering and, to Harry, heart wrenching scream was released.
"STOP! STOP IT!" A familiar surprisingly young voice wailed.
but
Suddenly, instead of a diary, the ghostly form of Tom Riddle appeared, looking shockingly small and frightened in the middle of the rune circle. "I'm sorry Tom, but you have to trust me," Harry hissed, Parseltongue sliding on his tongue.
The soul sharp seemed to narrow his wide and frightened eyes.
"You're killing me," he hissed back.
"I promise, you will be fine. You're going to join back with your main soul and eventually you'll be whole. I promise," Harry said, allowing his emotions to shine brightly and clearly through his eyes.
"Why should I trust you?" the young soul shard demanded. Harry noted how it sounded weaker and knew the ritual was working. "I'm your soulmate. I'm going to resurrect you, but I can't do it yet. You need to be whole."
"My soulmate?" Tom whispered in awe.
"Yes," Harry said.
"Then why would you kill me?"
"I'm not killing you, I'm just making you more human." Harry hoped the soul shard understood. Its' consent didn't matter as the ritual would work even without the shard's willingness, but still this was the first time in this life that he was talking to Tom. Harry wanted him to understand. "Humans are weak and disgusting."
"I'm human."
The soul shard silenced then and Harry noted how it was less visible now. "But no... perhaps I was wrong?" it whispered very quietly, making Harry think it didn't mean to be heard.
"I promise, you'll be more powerful when the ritual is completed. You will be whole and we can be together," Harry promised.
"You swear it?"
"I swear." "I always wanted a soulmate, somebody who would be mine," the shard of Tom's soul said, looking at Harry with a level of possessiveness and hunger that made Harry fight to keep from shivering.
Unsure what to say to that, Harry kept silent and after a few more seconds the shard disappeared entirely. With it gone, Harry was left breathing deeply, his magic seemingly draining as the ritual died down. Slumping forward, Harry let out a groan as it finished completely, taking with it a large chunk of his magical reserves.
Sirius, seeing him slump in exhaustion, quickly darted forward, throwing himself to his knees in order to support and catch him. "Are you okay? What happened? What did you say?" he asked, firing the questions off quickly, his hands gripping Harry tightly.
Harry let out a weak chuckle as Sirius gathered him in his arms, happily tucking himself into the man's strong chest. "I'm fine, I'm just tired. It was much more draining than I had originally anticipated."
"But it worked, right?" Remus asked hesitantly. Although he had been present, he still wasn't sure what exactly he had just witnessed.
Harry smiled tiredly, closing his eyes. "Yes," he said, breathing the word out, before letting himself go lax in Sirius' arms.
Sirius was surprised when he felt all the tension in Harry's body give, but quickly stood with the boy in his arms.
"He's asleep," Remus said out loud, more from shock than anything else.
"I'll put him to bed, we can start the Yule celebrations without him in the main parlour. Harry said we couldn't disrupt the rune circle in here until the ritual was finished and Tom was back." Sirius said 'Tom' with a slight bitterness, as, although he was behind and fully supportive of Harry, he still found it hard to accept. However, he would do anything for the boy he saw as his child. Remus followed Sirius as he carefully walked out of the ritual room, wondering if any of this was actually a good idea.
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