Blood Debt Ritual

## Overview & Background

A Ritual to call a blood debt to account.

Blood

### Circle Design

A large salt circle. Inside of the salt circle was a large star, with candles at each of the points where they touched the outer circle.

The inner part of the star, held two concentric circles drawn in blood sat inside of the middle of the pentacle, with runes of holding and protection also written in blood around it.

It was here that the person who owed the debt would manifest.

## Play by Play

"We begin."

They all leaned forward, their hands going over a chalk line of the star to press down on the outer ring of blood. Hermione began to hum, and the others joined in, their voices shifting to match her resonance until the garden was filled with an odd, unearthly sound.

Underneath their fingers, the salt lines of the circle and star began to light up with a white light from their magic. Candles at each of the points of the star on the outermost circle spontaneously lit as the light of the lines touched them, and slowly, the dark red blood on the ground before them began to glow a bright, ominous red, casting demonic-looking shadows on each of their faces.

For the first time doing ritual magic, Hermione shivered and flinched. This felt significantly more Dark than anything else she had done, even though she knew it wasn't.

"House Potter has been betrayed," Hermione said formally, "with Harry's parents' location given to Lord Voldemort. We call for the traitor to come and answer for his crimes through our magic and blood. We summon the traitor to face our justice, to atone for the debt he has drawn."

The red of the inner circle flashed once, briefly, before it started to hum on its own, an anticipatory sort of sound.

"House Potter was betrayed, and the betrayal calls for blood," Hermione said. "We reach for the traitor's blood through blood, and we summon the traitor to come and answer for what he has done with our will, with our magic, and with our blood."

There was a sharp pain, and Hermione hissed as her own hands started to bleed. Her blood did not touch Ron's blood, though – instead, it stained the salt under her palms, the stain slowly spreading unnaturally through the lines.

"House Potter was betrayed, and the betrayal calls for blood," Blaise intoned. "We reach for the traitor's blood through blood, and we summon the traitor to come and answer for what he has done with our will, with our magic, and with our blood."

Blaise grit his teeth as the magic of the circle pierced his own palms, his blood staining his own salt lines. As the stain of his blood reached the stain from Hermione's, a long, glowing tendril began to emerge from the junction, made of red light and wiggling up as it grew.

"House Potter was betrayed, and the betrayal calls for blood," Luna said. "We reach for the traitor's blood through blood, and we summon the traitor to come and answer for what he has done with our will, with our magic, and with our blood."

Luna didn't flinch when her palms were pierced, and when the stain of her blood on the salt reached Blaise's, another tendril of magic emerged, both red tendrils now wiggling up further into the air.

"House Potter was betrayed, and the betrayal calls for blood," Susan said firmly. She glanced at Harry while she spoke, each word said with conviction. "We reach for the traitor's blood through blood, and we summon the traitor to come and answer for what he has done with our will, with our magic, and with our blood."

Susan's blood met Luna's and a third tendril began to wiggle up into the air. The red light of the tendrils cast odd tinted shadows across her face, and Hermione shivered but kept still.

"House Potter was betrayed, and the betrayal calls for blood," Harry said, his voice hard. His eyes flashed as he spoke, and Hermione could tell Harry was entirely focused on his cause, on giving the ritual its purpose. "We reach for the traitor's blood through blood, and we summon the traitor to come and answer for what he has done with our will, with our magic, and with our blood."

Harry barely flinched as he bled, and as the stain of his blood on the salt reached Susan's and Hermione's on either side of him, two more tendrils flared up and grew into life, casting red light on either side of Harry.

They continued to pour magic into the circle, the tendrils growing longer, stronger, and Hermione was suddenly struck with how odd this would look to anyone who happened by – five students sitting in a circle around a pentacle, commanding demonic-looking red tentacles made of blood and magic to do their will.

Hermione looked to Harry, and he steadied himself, ready.

"Our cause is just, our will is set, our magic is true," he pronounced. "We reach out, from blood to blood, to pull the traitor through!"

Immediately there was a *whoosh* of air, and the center of the circle fell away, replaced by a blackness so black it looked impossible, and they all gasped. It was as if a black hole had manifested in the center of their inner blood circle, the cobblestone fallen away, but it was so dark it looked aberrant to Hermione, like it ought not to exist.

Heedless of their astonishment, the red tendrils of blood and magic surged forward into the blackness, seeking out their target, and Hermione immediately felt dizzy, her head beginning to spin as her eyes rolled back.

She could feel the magic searching, searching, reaching out through the nothingness to find the target of their cause and blood. There was a feeling of a small pause, as if the tentacles had examined someone before dismissing them, before there was a strong surge of satisfaction and justice as their magic found their culprit, and they began to reel the traitor back.

Hermione, dizzy as she was, could vaguely feel the traitor as he squirmed in the tentacles, trying to escape. It didn't *feel* like a man, but the blood debt within the tendrils was insistent, so Hermione held her will. Their magic held true, and slowly, Hermione found her sense of balance returning as the tendrils reeled themselves back into the circle once more, reemerging from the black pit of nothingness, and suddenly the ground was cobblestone again, with their prize lying on the ground.

Hermione was panting for air, trying to steady herself. She hadn't realized that as stone, *she* would be the one 'directing' the power of the ritual, while all the others did was feed her power. It had left her a little dizzy, and Blaise steadied her with a hand on her arm as she took deep breaths.

Though the echoes of the tendrils' and tentacles' satisfaction lingered in her mind, judging by the faces Susan, Luna, and Harry were making, something had gone wrong.

"Err," Susan said, meeting Hermione's eyes once she had settled. "That's not Sirius Black."

Blinking, Hermione looked down.

Within the blood containment circle was a large rat. The rat was squeaking madly, running around in circles and trying to escape, but each time it hit the side of one of the circles, red light flared up into a solid wall of magic, and the rat bounced off like it had hit the side of a glass tank. The rat eventually stopped trying to escape and sat in the center of the circle, squeaking madly, its eyes darting around rapidly as its tail whipped around in fear.

> Chapter 291: The Story of Sirius Black
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> Chapter 314: The Blood Debt Ritual
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