"No problems, Sugar."
"WHAT?!?" The Patil girls squeaked.
"Is no big deal." Shampoo hauled out a bottle of barbecue sauce.
"Put that away Shampoo, we're going to eat its magic powers." Cologne smiled fondly.
"Now just so you all know," Nodoka began. "This ritual is classified by most as terribly dark, not just a little dark but very. But before you turn me down I believe you should know some of my thinking. The Ministry classifies spells or rituals or devices as dark for several reasons, let me explain them to do. The one most obvious is that they use unpleasant or revolting components, things like rituals that must be performed in a graveyard at midnight, require a severed hand from a thief, or so on. I say nothing in defense of them. They are terribly ugly and do I condone their use. However, some of their milder effects I have been able to duplicate without resorting to grotesque ingredients. Regardless, the Ministry has decreed those sorts of dark objects are illegal to create, but shops still run a brisk business in selling items they claim to have gotten from other folk who had them from their grandfather's time, while still trying to hide fresh cut marks. Idiocy on the part of the Ministry, and if any of you see an item of such a sort in anyone's possession, suspect them immediately. They are most likely very dark, but those who really are that way are not above planting a few items on an innocent victim a time or two to cast doubt on their opponents and create an excuse to hide behind. Should they get caught they'll claim to have had those items planted on them. Still, they create those items to use them, so look carefully into anyone who has them, as they are probably very evil."
"The next sort," Nodoka went on, toying with her loose hair. "Are those that require the baser sorts of feelings to use, or inspire the same, things like amulets of rage that turn those who wear them into berserk warriors able to fight on in spite of deadly injuries. Those are all classified as dark for very good reason, no good has yet come of them. But again, they are all very common among those who thirst after power, as they think only that it gives them advantages that other, nobler sorts of wizards don't have."
Ms. Malfoy sat down to look out over the faces of her daughter, friends, and new recruits. In her face was concern for their opinion of her as she anxiously went on. "The last sort is also obvious to you, those that injure or kill directly. The Killing Curse and all things like it. It is here that I want to pose a question for you to consider, namely: We all agree that to injure a good person is an evil act, but couldn't it also be a good one to hurt an evil man? You'd have to make very sure of what you were doing, of course, but nobody considered it a crime when a one year old boy used a killing curse on Voldemort. We all celebrated, even in Japan and other places. During the last war the Ministry even allowed the Unforgivables to be used on suspected Death Eaters by their Aurors and Hit Wizards. So really, I think what you injure is the measure of how dark one of the spells is. I think the ultimate question is: Are you trying to destroy or prevent destruction?"
She favored the young ones with a concerned gaze. "Do you agree? Because that's really what this is." She waved a hand indicating the suspended serpent. "This animal is a tool of Voldemort's. He has used it many times to inflict death on innocents and enemies alike. We first sought it out because, as its master's familiar, it holds a tiny portion of his power. When Cologne and I had captured it we discovered that it was far more. Voldemort had hidden a severed portion of his own horrible soul in the beast. That made it a tool far more deadly than anyone believed, and explained how it was so hard to capture."
"We used a Brain Burn spell upon the beast, causing all the contents of its mind to fall out of its ears. That is what is in that basin in the other room, all of Voldemort's memories, skills and personality as of the time he'd stored a portion of himself in his snake. Having that could be a powerful advantage to the Light Side, as we hope to be able to convert those to a less dangerous form and use them to track Voldemort's history and predict his future actions, if not destroy him outright. Plus, and this must not be overlooked, we reduced the snake to a moronic level with no apparent intelligence, only autonomous functions. Though for the sake of caution we have also paralyzed, blinded and deafened it."
Nodoka's gaze had steadied somewhat, though it still yearned for support from their faces. "We used a horrible spell, one that has been banned by every country of the International Confederation of Wizards. And the results of what we did were to destroy a tool of evil and make it possible for Light to potentially destroy the worst dark lord in a century. Was what we did bad? We'd never do it casually, yet this creature's past more than warranted death."
Cologne broke in before anyone could answer. "I have found it helpful to say, inside myself when questions like this arose, that I would not harm those that meant no harm to me, and that I would do no more to them than they'd do to me. It leads to fewer mistakes. Sorry, Ranko-chan, my meddling was always for what I'd thought was your own good. But going back to the matter under discussion, Nodoka attempted to stay out of Voldemort's way and yet he would not let her. She nearly fell prey to a horrible fate for nothing she'd done to earn or deserve such a fate. That removed any 'live and let live' possibility, proved no one could stay neutral and made him an adversary. Then we look at this man's methods, and they are of the blackest sort, favoring murder above all others, and torture for pleasure."
"We don't desire to emulate the man or his followers," Nodoka added. "But surely you can see protecting ourselves from him is going to be as difficult as it is necessary, and doing hurt to him or his many followers is hardly a crime. Destroying his tools is going to be necessary toward defeating, or even evading, him, which is all that I aim to do."
"Why didn't you just kill it? After you'd gotten the memories and stuff, I mean." Ukyo asked.
"We are going to kill it, Ukyo-chan. It's just that we plan on killing it a very special way, one that gains an advantage for us rather than merely hurts our adversary. That is what this whole little get together tonight is about, and why we are warning you beforehand of matters of which you ought to be aware. We'd never planned on leaving it this way." Nodoka touched her sternum in innocent shock.
"So, this 'special way' is some sort of dark ritual? What does it do?" The pretty brown haired chef pressed while her companions listened.
Nodoka's hands went to her lap and clasped together while her head drooped. "The spell is reputed to steal some portion, we cannot tell how much unfortunately, of Voldemort's potential to do magic and add it to our own. The Ministry labeled that ritual a forbidden dark art the same year it was invented, usually there is a ten to twenty year gap even for very dark spells to get a bad enough reputation to be forbidden. But what I really think it does is to compare the innate magic potentials of the caster and victim, giving your soul a chance to adopt whichever magic pattern is higher, along with a slight boost from having seen more than one way of doing things so kinks can be fixed. I can't really explain it well, I'm afraid."
"Often there's some kinda major risk of personality infection," Ranko leaned back in her chair to say, revealing that she'd been in on this for some period of time longer than the rest of them. "That's why mom Brain Burned the thing twelve times. One shoulda been enough but she wanted ta be sure an get everything. Then she Obliviated the crap outta it. She put a week inta building an Occlumancy barrier inta these walls before she started, so the snake don't reinfect from the original er nuthin. There ain't nuthin left o that but life force and magic."
Her mother nodded. "I plan to be the filter for the rest of you. If there is any harm in this the inscriptions should terminate the spell immediately, and automatically Obliviate me of the experience to remove the taint. If things go well with me and the Dark Arts detectors don't sound an infection alarm then the rest of this hideously complicated diagram should echo the benefit I receive into the rest of you. I drank a whole cauldron full of potion nicknamed 'Liquid Luck' this evening to prepare for this experience and I don't feel any inclination against going through with it. And I'd tested this batch by going and doing some very risky things under a dose of it. They all turned out fine. I feel this will too."
"You can only do this sort of ritual once," Cologne informed them all. "And you don't exactly get many opportunities like this one. Victims always die, for one, and there aren't that many people who need killing. Then they've got to be so helpless they don't even think to resist - not a problem with this rag doll snake, of course. And there are other problems, but we've solved all of those. This will work, if you are willing. And what we stand to gain is magical potential equal to one of the most powerful mages of this century. It may just be a fragment of soul, but each fragment bears the pattern for the whole thing, so for us the gain should be as great as if we'd gotten Voldemort himself in there."
"He's undoubtedly done this same ritual himself, that man enjoys murder. And whatever he gained from that ritual we won't get a part of. It's all based on the inborn talent of the soul, not whatever boosters they've gotten, and we feel certain he's collected several additions to his native potential, just as we are certain he held great inborn talent to start with." Nodoka felt compelled to add.
"You won't get another chance like this one." Cologne summarized.
"I'm up for it." Ranko stayed almost criminally relaxed.
"Yah, count me in too, Sugar."
"Shampoo too."
Eyes swiveled to the Patil twins.
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(Posted Thu, 04 Aug 2005 19:41)
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