Blood Magic
Hermione was smiling at Sirius.
“I’m so happy that you treated her right.”
Sirius glanced back at her.
“Dixie? She was one of my closest friends growing up.”
Minerva, who had gotten pale while the elf had been talking, now turned to Sirius.
“I have heard about Corvin Tripe. Before I became an animagi, I researched it and came across a mention about him. There wasn’t much, but what I could find was terrifying.”
Everyone looked between her and Sirius. The man smiled.
“I know. To be honest, it really freaked me out. But I had to stay calm. You heard him. If you hesitate during the first transformation, you’ll die. That’s the problem with dark magic. It loves sacrifices. Blood. Lives. I knew the risks and had to accept them in order to be able to go through with this.”
Snape hesitated slightly, before addressing Sirius.
“How did you know about blood magic when you were eleven? Even I didn’t know about it back then.”
Orion rolled his eyes.
“And what would a half-blood know about the darkest parts of magic?”
Sirius gave him an odd look, and then turned to Snape.
“Blood magic is part of the learning every Black is going through before they are allowed to go to Hogwarts.”
He looked around.
“Any more questions?”
Arthur nodded.
“Um… How many people knew that you are a dark animagi?”
Sirius frowned.
“James, Marlene, my father. I think uncle Alphard knew, but he never said anything.”
And, seeing that no one else had anything to say, he waved his hand at the wall, the next memory starting.
Sirius was sitting on his bed, reading a parchment. His forehead was wrinkled and he looked troubled. After a few seconds, he stood up and walked out of the room. He walked down to the library, where his father was sitting in an armchair and reading. Hearing the boy enter, Orion looked up.
“Yes?”
Sirius hesitated for a moment, before walking closer to him.
“I’m going to do the ritual now, father.”
“And?”
His voice was still uninterested, and Sirius seemed lost.
“I… I thought that…”
Orion interrupted him calmly.
“I do not want to have anything to do with this, Sirius.”
The boy’s eyes widened, before he nodded.
“I understand, father. I apologize for disturbing you.”
He turned around and quickly walked out, heading down to the basement with determined steps. As soon as he was inside, he closed the door and locked it with a wave of his hand.
“Dixie.”
The elf appeared next to him a second later.
“You’re going to do it?”
He nodded.
“Yes. And I need you to help me out. Stand outside the door and don’t let anyone inside. And, most importantly, whatever happens, don’t come inside. Do you understand?”
The elf looked at him with big eyes, but still nodded. Sirius gave her a small smile and she disappeared. Very slowly, the boy walked over to one of the walls, took a deep breath and took out a knife from his pocket. He made a long cut down his arm and, after dipping his fingers in the wound, started painting symbols with his own blood. He moved slowly, calmly, almost as if he wasn’t feeling the pain the cut caused. When the blood flow slowed down, he made another one. Seven cuts later, the walls were full of symbols and Sirius was white as a sheet. He took a deep breath and started painting on the ground. Ten symbols and three cuts later, he was visibly having trouble staying upright. He looked around at the symbols and smiled. Sluggishly, he moved to the middle of the basement and painted one last symbol, before sitting down in the middle of it. He cut lines across both his palms and put them on the ground, letting the blood seep into the stone. Closing his eyes, he started chanting in latin. After almost two minutes, he suddenly screamed in pain and fell over, several wounds appearing on his body. Blood started seeping through his clothes and he kept screaming as he writhed on the ground.
The memory ended and the only three people who could keep their calm were Sirius, Orion and Snape. Although the last man looked slightly paler than usual. Molly turned to Sirius, her eyes wide open.
“What happened next?”
The man shrugged.
“I’m not sure. The pain I could deal with but I blacked out from the blood loss. When I woke up, I was in my own bed, and could shift into a dog. I don’t know how that happened.”
On his painting, Orion sighed.
“I’ll show you what happened. I’m already dead, so I guess it doesn’t matter what you know about.”
Everyone turned back to the screen where the memory had gone back to Orion in the library.
The man was sitting in the library, when Sirius’ screams started sounding through the house. He listened to them for a few seconds, before standing up and hurrying down to the basement. Dixie was standing outside the door, looking very distressed. She looked up when she saw him and started pulling on her ears. Orion quickly grabbed her arms and squeezed them.
“Go back to your mistress and don’t breathe a word about this to anyone, or I’ll personally kill you and mount your head on the wall. Do you understand?”
The elf nodded her head quickly and disappeared. Orion unlocked and opened the door with one hand movement, but stopped in shock when he saw the symbols in blood. His shock intensified when he saw Sirius’ motionless body on the ground. Moving quickly, he kneeled down next to the boy and started muttering charms over him, the boy’s wounds closing and the color returning to his face. But he still didn’t wake up. Orion frowned and looked over the symbols, but couldn’t find anything wrong with them. With shocking gentleness, he lifted the boy’s head and placed it in his lap. Just seconds later, Sirius’ body started shaking again, small whimpers escaping his mouth. Orion made sure that he stayed on the ground, the boy’s head cushioned by his knees. Sirius tried to get away from his grip, but didn’t manage to. After a few more minutes, he stilled completely and Orion looked at him with worry. The boy’s features started shifting and disfiguring. After a moment, Orion had his lap full of black dog. He frowned, before amusement appeared on his face.
“Why am I not surprised?”
He put his hand on the dog’s head and said a few words. The animal changed back into Sirius and Orion just looked at him for a moment, before standing up. He waved his hand and Sirius’ clothes all got cleaned. Very gently, he lifted the boy up and carried him through the house, to Sirius’ bedroom. He put him on the bed and left without another look at the boy.
Once again, almost everyone was shocked. Sirius turned to Orion, his mouth slightly open.
“You helped me?”