abcnovels
Chapter 166: Malediction
Chapter 166: Malediction
Chapter 166: Malediction
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I would like to thank my beta, Akisu, for his help in this chapter.
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21st November 1995, Hogwarts Earth 2
(Daphne Greengrass POV)
After the lesson had ended, she gestured to Tracy Davis, her best friend, to leave without her. The girl immediately understood what she would be trying to accomplish, and nodded while giving her a reassuring smile.
The Greengrass Heiress steeled herself and walked to the Professor's desk.
Sayre looked up, with her eyebrows raised, "Is there anything you need, Ms. Greengrass?"
Damn, she was intimidating up close. Remember Daphne, you're doing it for Astoria. The girl nodded, "Yes. Professor Sayre, I need your help."
Again, the professor's face was expressionless, "With what, Ms. Greengrass?"
"I need your help in saving my sister's life."
There, she said it. Hopefully, this wouldn't be a worthless venture.
The professor's face showed that Daphne had her whole attention. Her face was expressionless, but her eyes had a certain intensity, "explain!" she demanded.
The happy go lucky professor was gone and, in her place, there was someone far more powerful and far wiser than anyone Daphne had ever met. The Greengrass heiress didn't know how to put it into words. She could only say that whatever aura Professor Sayre was projecting was intense.
Still, Daphne didn't let that unnerve her too much, "my sister, Astoria, suffers from a blood malediction. It's passed down to every Greengrass. It's been that way for generations. Every time someone becomes head of house, his youngest daughter suffers from the curse. My parents have given up in all but name. We have spoken with the best healers and curse breakers in every continent. No one could even get a hint of the curse. The best they can do is give her a few more years to live by treating the symptoms. Please, she's my little sister. I need your help."
Daphne was barely stopping herself from crying by the end of her little rant and the Professor's face softened slightly, "It's alright, Daphne. Can you tell me what the symptoms are?"
The Greengrass heiress collected herself and nodded, "She's just generally weak. She has a weak body, weak resistance to diseases, even her magic just stops working sometimes. There are days where she could barely get up from bed. I'm always scared that some accident will happen and she would be gone forever."
The Professor looked pensive for a moment before stating, "I can't say anything without seeing her. Blood malediction is just the name given to any type of negative magical effect that is specific to a single bloodline. There doesn't actually have to be a curse. There's this family that tried to make sure that every member would be a snake Animagus. They messed up the ritual and every descendant ended up turning entirely into a snake with no way back by the time they reach adulthood. It was technically considered a blood malediction, but there wasn't an evil family who cursed them or something similar. It was just a mistake. Not everything involving blood magic is a curse, it's just how the magic is channeled. Although, I am quite curious as to how it's only the youngest daughter that suffers. I have never heard of something like this. Not because it's impossible, but because it's so specific."
Daphne looked at the Professor pleadingly, "is there anything you can do?"
The Professor nodded, "Almost certainly. But I won't be able to determine anything without examining her personally. You know what, come to my office with your sister after you're both done with your lessons. I'll examine her and let you know if I can treat her."
Daphne was practically jumping in joy at that answer. This was a chance, a genuine chance of getting her sister back. This was more than she could have ever asked for, "thank you, Professor. I'll bring her after lessons."
The Greengrass heiress was distracted during the rest of the day. She didn't even glare at Malfoy when he kept bragging about something nonsensical, that probably didn't even exist. She almost screwed up her potion twice while brewing. She didn't even tell Tracy what happened with Sayre. Truth be told, until Astoria's visit, she wasn't going to be telling anyone about it.
And then, after what felt like an eternity, classes were finished for the day. Daphne knew that Astoria had finished an hour before her, and was probably waiting for her in the common room for their daily meeting; Daphne liked to check on her sister every day in case something went wrong, where she would immediately take her to Madam Pomphrey and contact their parents.
And Daphne's assumptions were proven correct when she entered the common room and saw her sister laying down on one of the couches around the fireplace, looking cozy under a blanket.
"Astoria."
The younger girl turned around and smiled at her, "Daphne. Are you ok? You look weird."
Daphne didn't say anything, "We have a meeting with Professor Sayre."
"Professor Sayre? What about?"
"It's about your condition, Astoria."
The younger girl looked thunderous, "Again, Daphne. What have I told you about treating me like I'm some sort of piece of glass? I love you, Daph, I really do, but you need to let this go. You need to accept that there's no way out of this. Mum and Dad already tried everything and we got nothing out of it. I don't need you to involve even more people in the vain hope that they'll heal me somehow."
Daphne looked down, "I know that I can be overprotective sometimes, but I'm not going to give up on you. I already told professor Sayre and she told me to come with you after our classes are over. We can't just miss it."
"I don't know"
"Tell you what, if you go with me, I will not go behind your back and tell people about your condition."
Astoria sighed, "Alright. But I'm holding you to your promise. You're not going to go behind my back again."
Both Greengrass siblings walked out of the common room, towards the Defense classroom. They were surprised when they heard spell fire from inside. Daphne slowly opened the door slightly to watch Professor Sayre and Harry Potter of all people dueling. It was far more impressive than she expected from Potter. Sayre was obviously holding back a lot, especially considering she barely looked phased from the duel.
Potter kept yelling out spell after spell at the woman who expertly shielded against them. She then redirected one of his exploding curses back at him. The young Gryffindor who was in the middle of another spell chain, barely had enough time to stop and shield himself, even then, it was a partial shield, so the impact of the spell sent him flying back.
"Always keep your eyes on your opponent, Mr. Potter. And don't go where the enemy leads you," the Defense Professor casually commented.
Potter got up in a hurry, ready to resume the duel. Sayre graciously let him get up, but instead of casting immediately, he asked, "why were you so hard on Hermione today?"
The Defense Professor sighed, "look, kiddo, I teach Defense, not Transfiguration, not Magical Theory, just the practical applications of magic. Sometimes, I like to use theory to make sure that you have a better understanding of magic, but I choose to focus on the practical aspect of the class. Granger's questions aren't bad, but they're entirely irrelevant to the curriculum, especially considering how much we have to make up and that she's asking me about laws that you'll only start to see in your sixth year Transfiguration class. Now, you're not here to complain to me, you're here to learn how to fight. Let's go again."
The Boy-Who-Lived started by sending a fireball at the Professor who returned it with a gust of wind. Seeing his spell sent back at him, he created an elemental shield that stops fire and then sent a disarming charm at his opponent. The Professor visibly sighed before sending some sort of blue beam at it. Somehow, it created a battle between the two beams of light, one red, and one blue. The blue light immediately enveloped the red one and hit Potter as if the red beam wasn't even there. Potter was once again thrown back to the obviously charmed wall, probably a cushioning charm.
The Professor was starting to get exasperated, "For the last time, Kiddo, I know that you like that spell because it held up against Riddle, but stop using it in every conflict. It's childish and pretty much useless against anyone who can wandlessly summon their own wand, something that isn't that difficult to learn."
"But you said"
"I remember saying that the disarming charm was a good choice if you're desperate against an unknown spell, or if you're trying to equalize a fight in a battle of wills. It's not supposed to be your finishing move, or your most powerful weapon. You need to learn how to choose your spells correctly."
Potter looked ready to protest again, but the Professor raised her hand, "I'm afraid that our lesson is over, Mr. Potter. I have a prior arrangement."
"With who?"
"With the two young ladies sneakily watching us."
Daphne jumped when the door opened on its own. Her sister would probably have done the same but she jumped up and down, "That was so cool, I didn't think Potter was this good at dueling"
She kept on babbling showing a little bit of the hero worship she had for Harry Potter when she was a lot younger. The boy in question looked embarrassed at the praise, and Daphne thought that it did look cute on him.
Still, this wasn't the time for any of this and the Greengrass heiress was very grateful when Professor Sayre dismissed Potter. Immediately after, she took a closer look at Astoria who was instructed to lie down.
"Alright, I'm gonna cast a diagnostic spell, alright?"
Astoria nodded and the Defense Professor, to Daphne's surprise, put aside her wand and just tapped her chest with her palm. Immediately, glowing orange symbols started to hover over the young Slytherin, and Daphne didn't understand what in Merlin's name those represented.
They looked like runes but they weren't any of the runes that the Greengrass heiress had ever seen, and she was second in her runes class, after that stupid Granger.
Somehow, the Professor seemed to understand them, and kept mumbling 'interesting', and 'fascinating'
Finally, after a good ten minutes the woman stopped looking at the symbols. Daphne asked her, "So, what did you find out?"
The young Professor smiled at her reassuringly, "I can see why curse breakers couldn't find anything; this isn't a curse at all. It's one of the biggest mess-ups I've seen in a while, and with blood magic, they tend to be big. Healers wouldn't have found anything either, since it's not an actual medical issue. It's a magical contract, a messed up one that's for sure."
Daphne gasped in surprise, "How?"
The Professor shrugged, "I don't know the exact timeline or reason, but your family swore fealty to another magical family. As proof of that alliance, the youngest daughter of the Greengrass lord would serve under that family. Without the other family, I can't be sure of the specifics. Anyway, there's supposed to be some kind of bond between them. I don't know if the contract was created with malicious intent, like using the daughters as hostages for perpetuity, and it doesn't matter too much. What does matter is the fact that the family that the ancient Greengrass's swore fealty to, are extinct. They have no descendant, and that wasn't taken into account in the blood contract that your ancestor signed. So, with no target, the youngest Greengrass daughter is still affected but the bond is one sided. She's leaking magic; a bond includes a small exchange of magic, but with no reciprocation, her body keeps sending magic and lifeforce at it, trying to reach something that doesn't exist, which explains the symptoms pretty well."
Daphne and Astoria were gaping at her, "Does this mean that you can stop it, you can reverse it?"
The woman nodded, "the bond leak, almost immediately, but the blood contract is going to take a couple of weeks for me to be prepared for both of you. With the two of you, free of the contract, as long as your parents don't have any more children, the Greengrass curse will vanish, freeing any descendant from suffering from it."
Astoria leapt and hugged her Professor. Daphne didn't even care if this was unprofessional and discourteous, especially for someone of their station, she just ran and joined the two of them.
After all, this has been Daphne's deepest desire. Her baby sister was free at last.