"The first thing that we are going to need from you, Mr Potter," said Croaker, who did not seem to feel it necessary to introduce his co-workers "is for you to add several drops of your blood to each rune on each rune stone." At Harry's nod of understanding Croaker produced a knife and used it to place a cut onto the palm of Harry's hand.
Madam Bones shifted slightly but said nothing. Strictly speaking the use of blood in magic was forbidden by the Ministry, but the Unspeakables were exempt from many of the usual rules. And if it was going to help them to get one step closer to ridding the world of Lord Voldemort once and for all, then who was she to stand in the way?
Croaker led Harry to each rune stone in turn and allowed three drops of Harry's blood to drip onto each rune. Each rune stone contained ten runes engraved upon it.
Once every rune on each rune stone had received enough blood, the rune stone in question would glow an eerie red colour for a moment before reverting back to normal.
Once all five rune stones had been made to glow in this manner, Croaker used his wand to heal the cut on Harry's palm.
One of the other Unspeakables approached, holding a tray upon which sat two small bottles of clear liquid, and a small white cloth that appeared to be made from the fur of a puffskein.
"Next," said Croaker "we will need to expose the scar to two of the purest substances known to exist, the tears of a unicorn and the tears of a phoenix. This should help reduce the hold the soul fragment has."
He took the cloth and wetted it with the unicorn tears. He then wiped the wet patch of the cloth in several small circles over the point on Harry's forehead when the scar resided.
Harry felt the area begin to tingle pleasantly, and the pain being emitted from the scar lessened even more than it had as a result of taking Sarah's potion.
Croaker turned the cloth in his hand and wetted another part of it with phoenix tears. He then performed the same actions as before, gently rubbing the tears into the area of the scar. Harry found the pain coming from the scar to be lessening still.
Croaker set the cloth back on the tray and the Unspeakable holding it stepped away and set the tray down on top of a small table which was standing in the corner of the room.
"Now then, Mr Potter," said Croaker "if you could please set yourself down in the middle of the pentagon on the floor…"
Harry walked over to the middle of the pentagon and sat down facing the group.
"Now lie back with your head pointed in the direction of the topmost point of the star," said Croaker "and then extend your arms and legs towards the other points."
Harry laid back and stretched himself out as asked "Like this?"
"Nearly," said Croaker, stepping forwards. He adjusted Harry's right leg a little, and then turned Harry's head ever so slightly before stepping back out of the pentagon.
"What exactly is going to happen?" asked Cyrus.
"The ritual is in two parts," replied Croaker "The first is to push Harry's conscious back into himself. In doing so we will allow the fragment of Voldemort to come forwards. Once that has happened we aim to extract that fragment from the body then, without an anchor, it will pass on into the afterlife. Then we will return Mr Potter to his normal state, if extracting Voldemort has not done so already by that point."
Everyone nodded in understanding
"Right," said Croaker "Mr Potter, all we need from you now is to lie there and relax. My colleagues will shortly begin chanting the necessary incantations whilst I will be using spells to monitor your situation. If we require you to act in any way, we will ask. Understand?"
"I understand," replied Harry, doing his level best to relax, something that was surprisingly difficult to do when you knew that seven other people were currently watching you with interest.
Harry tried to make his mind go blank, to ignore the chanting that began to fill the air from the three Unspeakables.
"Liberte haec anima ab atrum labe. Tenebris custodia liberare animum istum in pace. Auferat mala liberabit de corpore sinit…"
The voices continued to repeat those words, but soon they became nothing more than a dull drone to Harry.
Around him a golden glow began to emanate from each rune on each rune stone, glowing brighter until each rune stone began to shine like the sun. The light began to spread from each of the rune stones. Like a liquid it travelled along the lines carved into the floor, causing the shape of the pentagon and the star within it to shine brightly.
The light then spread inwards from the lines, filling the entire shape with colour.
The floor beneath Harry was now shining brightly, but he barely noticed. The chanting of the Unspeakables was barely audible to him now.
The world seemed to be getting further and further away from him. A darkness had started to come in at the edges of his vision. The darkness grew more and more, but the light never faded. It was more like it was retreating. Soon he was surrounded in darkness, and the light existed as two small dots standing side by side somewhere above him.
Harry thought that it was almost as if his conscious self had withdrawn and shrunken back, almost as if it had stepped away from the controls of his body, and those two small dots of light represented where his eyes were.
In actual fact, he was not too far wrong with that thought.
It was actually quite pleasant. He felt as though he was floating in nothingness, with no ache or pain to annoy him.
There was no sign at all of the orbs that represented his memories. But then, he was not in his mind. His mind was with him, having pulled back as well.
It was so relaxing here. And so peaceful as well. He felt as though nothing could harm him.
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