Harry Potter: A Certain Ancient Rune Professor of Hogwarts (TL)

Chapter 660: Blood Pact

“Today is a practical class.”

Felix said as he stood on the podium. With a wave of his hand, hundreds of wooden jars appeared in the air, which floated in mid-air. Then he waved his hand once more and the space in the classroom began to stretch out in all directions, widening in the blink of an eye to the size of half a great hall.

The students exchanged excited looks and whispered to each other.

Then a big, ancient-looking book appeared in Felix’s hand, and he opened the first page, from which a tidal wave of brightly coloured ancient runes poured out, each half an inch in size, tangled and linked together like some kind of tiny flying creature, resembling a long, unfurled scroll or a long, gorgeous carpet -Only instead of being woven out of thread, they were pieced together with ancient runes.

Felix silently looked at the wall-like runes that surrounded them for a moment with the students, and then said.

“Some of these runes are special enough that they don’t blend well with the elements around them, and all you have to do is single them out – a test for both the eye and the hand, since the slightest miscalculation will destroy the nearby structure… … If you successfully pick one off, you will receive one point, and you can use the chestnut jar to hold the runes you collected. A note, the final score will be related to the length of your homework for the day, so let’s begin.”

“Oh, and by the way, no wands are allowed. This will be considered a general rule for future practical classes as well”

One by one, the students came forward to take their preferred jars, while Felix himself sat in a soft chair, reminiscing about the academic conference that had just ended.

There were many people had shown up, from all over the world. As originally planned, the evening party on the first day was a sort of reception, serving to provide an opportunity for networking and meeting, something that could not be avoided as many people’s impressions of each other was limited to the names and contents in academic journals, which did not reflect the real individuals.

Someone had to act as a sort of moderator, and the best person Felix had in mind was naturally Slughorn. The old professor was like a fish in water, and the smile on his face never stopped throughout the evening.

The Tonks couple also came.

They stayed for a long time in front of the huge booth. They didn’t really understand much of what was being discussed, nor could they accurately discern the significance of the rune sequences frozen in front of them by Felix’s magic, but every time the sound of the experts’ awe rang in both their ears, their hearts wavered a little.

The hall on the ground floor of the Sword Castle was overcrowded as they searched for their daughter. Finally, they found her near a spacious pillar, with Lupin beside her, his face looked calm, but he was inwardly excited. He remembered the prophetic remarks Felix had made: that with the invention of the wolfsbane potion, new theories would emerge, and the werewolf situation would change for the better.

In a way, those words had come true. In just two years’ time, an improved formula of Wolfsbane Potion has emerged at a much lower cost, and the Ministry of Magic has passed a law that grants a discount on the purchase of Wolfsbane Potion to all registered werewolves.

For that reason, a significant number of werewolves had chosen to remain neutral during the war.

But none of this was as exciting as what he had heard earlier tonight, and Lupin was already aware of the two solutions Felix had proposed – ancient magic that could control the werewolf’s transformation; and advanced human transfiguration that would transform the body along with its internal structure -both of which he hoped he could do if he studied hard enough, and the latter would even allow him to become a true human for a short time, meaning he could have an extremely healthy child.

God knows how ecstatic he was when he found out about the news.

In fact, werewolf disease is not 100% passed on to offspring, but for Lupin it was akin to waiting for God’s judgment, an uncertainty he could not afford after decades of being a werewolf.

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There was also an episode on the day of the dinner.

Lucius Malfoy made a high-profile appearance with his wife, a couple who were well-dressed to the hilt, and promised a generous donation of 50,000 gold galleons for the good cause. This caused the politically insensitive crowd, who are currently living abroad, to gather around him to hear him talk about his son Draco’s “dream of becoming a healer”.

The effect … was not bad.

“The newspaper reported,” Hermione said as she carefully surveyed the glowing scroll in front of her, which looked like tightly packed bricks, “that over two hundred people were present, all experts in the three fields of potions, healing, and alchemy, as well as officials from different countries’ ministries of magic. ”

She pressed her right hand against the wall made of runes and easily retrieved a glowing ancient rune.

“What a masterstroke.” Harry said with admiration.

“But the strange thing is that the host of the meeting was Professor Slughorn.” Hermione said.

“Not that strange,” Ron chimed in, leaping to his feet as he saw Harry successfully retrieve an ancient rune as well, “We all know that’s what he’s good at, can you think of someone who can deliver a heartfelt, emotional eulogy in front of a giant, hideous spider corpse? Oh, hell nah.”

He groaned and tried to shove the ancient rune he had taken off back in, but it was too late; a dozen of the runes glowed with a dangerous red hue in front of him.

“Bang!”

Ron was submerged in black smoke, and he covered his mouth in a coughing fit as Harry and Hermione rushed to the side, nearly squeezing Neville against the wall. “Sorry, Neville!” Harry said with an apologetic face to Neville who was rubbing his jaw, Neville’s eyes glistened with tears, “It’s okay.”

On the other side of the room, Ernie was completely oblivious to the small mishap and kept muttering to himself, “Justin got six points, I don’t want to lose to him.”

When the smoke cleared, Ron muttered disgruntledly to Harry and Hermione, “That was a hell of a ride, I nearly spat out the mandrake leaf, Hermione, you should have warned me.”

“You chose the right target, but there was a problem with the technique.” Hermione pointed out his mistake, then with a wiggle of her fingers, deftly removed a rune from the wall and raised her hand towards him.

“Like this, use your own magic to stabilize the connections around it. We only need to pick out the ones that seem out of harmony with the other ones, so it’s going to be lot easier.”

“I know.” Ron said with a sigh of resignation, “We shouldn’t be talking about Slughorn when my attention was directed towards it, we might as well be figuring it out-” he paused, gritting his teeth and removing an ancient rune like he was pulling a Lego block.

At the same time, a word came out of Harry’s mouth, “Blood Pact.”

Hermione drew a sharp breath and her fingers shivered as a materialized rune dissolved into pure magic and dispersed like smoke. “Watch out!” She yelled out nervously, and quickly condensing an ancient rune in her fingertip, she shoved it back in, and the three of them stared cautiously at the wall for a while, and only when the red glow on it stopped flickering, they breathed a sigh of relief.

“This game is kinda exciting.” Ron said cockily, in a much better mood.

Hermione looked around twice and the crowd’s attention was drawn to the commotion Cormac McLaggen was making, and she took the opportunity to lower her voice and say, “I think it’s best not to say it out loud, especially when it concerns that person.” She gave an incredulous look as if she might scream out in the next second, but she desperately tried to suppress it.

“It’s incredible, I mean the headmaster and …”

Harry remained silent, as he pulled a glowing rune off the wall. These were the contents he had seen in the Pensieve last week, at that point he couldn’t hide it anymore, he was deep in it and desperately needed someone to talk to, the people he trusted most in the school would undoubtedly be Ron and Hermione.

In the last lesson, Harry saw a new and subversive memory.

Young Albus is preparing for his graduation trip in high spirits, but then a tragedy befalls him in the blink of an eye. His mother tragically dies due to a magical outburst caused by Ariana, and he must return home to look after his younger siblings. Harry witnessed his pain and impatience throughout and for the first time he accused Albus, who was showing impatience. Of course, the memory could not refute it, but the owner of the memory could, it was just that Dumbledore acquiesced to it all.

This caused Harry to feel a little regret. To put it another way, if he had had to stay with the Dursleys even as an adult, he would have gone absolutely mad. But they were Albus’ own family after all, weren’t they? But when he saw Albus forming a friendship with a young man, Harry felt happy for him from the bottom of his heart.

Until he heard the name of that person.

“Hello, my name is Gellert Grindelwald.”

Harry instantly recalled the letter he had read, where his own mother Lily had mentioned in a letter to Sirius that Dumbledore and Grindelwald had once been very close friends, but perhaps due to space limitations, Lily had not mentioned the circumstances leading up to it, let alone the time. That was why Harry seemed completely unguarded when he heard the name through the mouth of the blonde boy in front of him, who was not much older than him.

What followed were large fragments of memory, but enough for Harry to realize that the friendship between the two was progressing at a remarkable pace, and he even read a few passionate letters from the perspective of a spectator, which presented themselves in a sudden and highly uncomfortable manner, the words Muggle, rule, government, army … appearing repeatedly like a sharp thorn right before his own eyes, constantly poking him in the heart.

But none of that compares to the scene that appeared in the barn.

Two men – young, but would-be famous individuals – Dumbledore and Grindelwald, standing face to face, slicing their palms with their wands, then their hands joining together, their blood mixing as a dazzling light illuminated two young, solemn faces.

Harry felt a wave of dizziness. In the end, when the fused, inseparable beads of blood were enveloped in a metallic shell, he asked aloud what it was, and Dumbledore, who was at a loss for words, told Harry in a weak but strong voice, almost forcibly, that it was a ‘blood pact’, a blood oath he and Grindelwald had made.

The lesson ended in a rush, in a way that Harry had least expected.

“Harry, Harry?” Ron called out, “We’re already falling behind, and I don’t want to get two inches more on my homework today.”

“Got it.” Harry muttered and became busy, but his mind was already made up.

Before the class ended, the students lined up for an inspection.

“Susan Bones, 52, well done, homework – one foot; Anthony Goldstein, 47, one foot two inches; Millicent Bulstrode, 29, well, you need more practice, or you won’t be able to keep up with the next stage – -homework length of a foot and a half.”

Felix commented casually, and the long queue dwindled.

Harry, who was purposefully lined up at the back, clutched the chestnut jar and waited for Ron and Hermione to move away and walk up to him.

“Harry Potter, let’s see – 59, ranked fairly top, very good, seven inches for homework.”

Harry racked his brain to ask two questions and mentally waited anxiously for the other students to finish packing their bags and walk out of the classroom, Ron and Hermione knew what he intended to do and waved at him, leaving first. Felix looked at him thoughtfully.

“It seems your real problem can’t be heard by anyone else.”

“Well, yes … Professor, I wanted to ask what is a blood pact?”

Felix showed an expression of surprise.

He thought for a few seconds in his mind-

“Many pacts exist in the magical world, from verbal agreements with little binding effect, to magical pacts; the most solemn and carefully crafted type of pact has to be treated with utmost importance, and once signed, it cannot be broken. For the price of breaking it is too great.”

“Death?” Harry asked softly.

“… Yes, like the Unbreakable Vow, and of course, there is the Blood Pact. Only the latter has even more harsh conditions and exists only in legend.”

“Why? Don’t they have similar effects?” Harry asked with confusion, “Apart from the difference in terms of people it can be made, and unbreakable vow requiring a witness.”

“I could name numerous differences, such as – and finally like you said, an unbreakable vow requires three people.” Felix finished, and Harry flushed, feeling a little stupid for not spotting the ‘many differences’ that the Professor had mentioned.

“But the most important thing is the content of the pact. An unbreakable vow is more flexible; I can swear that I’ll never eat a chocolate frog in my life, or that I’ll never walk through the door with my right foot again …, in any case, there are no specific requirements. But a blood pact is different, it has its own magical core and there is no need to specify a pact to be kept, and that poses a serious problem, can you spot that, Harry?”

Harry tried to think outside the box, no need to swear … what did that mean? No need to waste words? No, not that by any chance … wait, no need for words … then no restrictions …

“The Blood Pact will not be deceived by lies?” He blurted out.

Felix smiled and nodded.

“An unbreakable vow is closer to the word ‘contract’, so the content of the vow must be defined in words, and words … can be toyed with, there are always loopholes to be exploited, as long as the ultimate requirements are met. In other words, it controls what you do and has a certain degree of lag.”

“In extreme cases, a person with a determination to die can sign any unbreakable, ‘false’ vow at will.”

“But a blood pact is not like that,” Harry said excitedly, “it has fixed elements, which makes it impossible to be deceived by fancy words, and two people must be absolutely sincere, to even think about breaking the oath – ” he looked at Felix as if looking for confirmation.

“You guessed correctly, the Blood Pact binds the heart, and any thought that arises in an attempt to violate it invites an instant backlash.”

“And what’s it all about?” Harry asked impatiently.

Felix hesitated for a moment.

“As far as I know, it’s not to harm each other.”

“Can it be destroyed? I mean, the relic formed by the Blood Pact?” Harry continued to pursue the question.

Felix glanced at him, “Did I mention the relic?”

“Oh, uh-”

“Maybe it could be destroyed.” Rather than pursue the loophole in Harry’s words, Felix said bluntly, “I’ve never signed such a pact and don’t know the exact consequences.”

In fact, all the pacts he had signed had one feature in common: he could tear them up and twist them at any time. But of those that he is not that certain of breaking – whether it be an unbreakable vow or a blood pact – he has no half-hearted interest in touching it. There is also an extremely limited scope of knowledge.

Harry left, with a heavy heart.

Felix stayed where he was, watching him disappear, then suddenly lifted his head to stare at the ceiling, his eyes seeming to penetrate the walls. He stared thoughtfully at the tower of the Headmaster’s office.

Perhaps Harry himself didn’t realize that the aim of his question was actually quite obvious.

“Blood pact … Dumbledore and who? Evenly matched – yes, only Grindelwald.”

The past trivial information continuously pulled from his memory as Felix began to try and piece together a complete picture of the situation. The first thing that came to his mind was the secret that Newt had inadvertently mentioned that he couldn’t reveal more saying that involved Dumbledore.

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