Chapter 79 — The Ritual Room
"Draco."
Flitwick looked up when I entered his office. He was alone. Then his gaze shifted to Helena, who drifted in behind me, and he blinked in mild surprise. I could have simply shut the door before her; she was a ghost, after all, but I chose to be a gentleman.
"Professor."
I gave Flitwick a nod and drew a small circle with one finger, indicating the possibility of listening charms.
"You may speak freely."
"Professor, I've found the Basilisk."
"What?!"
He coughed sharply, staring at me with a mixture of shock and profound skepticism.
"It's true, Dean."
Helena nodded, and Flitwick let out a breath and closed his eyes.
"You intend to go down there and kill her?"
"No."
"That will not be necessary."
The second reply came from Helena, and her tone made it clear that she found the very idea deeply objectionable.
"I don't follow."
"It's straightforward enough. As Helena said, Vasilisa is part of the castle's defensive systems. She didn't simply crawl out and attack the cat on a whim. Someone has cursed her, and through that curse they're forcing her to obey."
"You want to lift the curse?"
"Yes. And I'd like you, as a Charms Master, to weave a trap into her den that not even Dumbledore or Voldemort would detect. Something that would stop whoever cursed her from getting close enough to give another order."
"Hm."
Flitwick stroked his beard thoughtfully.
"Sound thinking. And for the curse removal itself, Vasilisa, yes?"
"Yes."
I nodded.
"She's female and has developed enough to project her thoughts directly into someone's mind."
I tapped my temple, and Flitwick coughed again. I understood why: that level of ability belonged only to the very oldest and most powerful magical creatures.
As for the ritual itself, I'll need somewhere between two and four dozen young, strong bulls. Though that shouldn't be a problem: our mothers are buying cattle for rituals that don't require human sacrifice, so I can get them from there. Besides, a dozen or so will go to Vasilisa as food, and she may well be willing to share some venom in exchange.
"Hm. Looking to turn a profit?"
"Very much so."
I nodded eagerly.
"That venom will fetch an enormous sum. Enough to buy more cattle, and a great deal else besides. Money is absolutely essential right now: I'm building our own Muggle-magical quarter."
"Understood. I take it you need access to my Floo?"
"Yes."
A brief wave of his wand, and I understood that I had been granted access. I walked to the fireplace, took a pinch of powder, stepped in, and tossed it at my feet, speaking the address of Grimmauld Place.
In a flash of green flame I appeared inside the house, and my family's faithful house-elf appeared before me at once.
"Hello there, old fellow."
"Young heir."
"Kreacher, fetch one of the mothers. I need their help urgently."
"At once."
He vanished, and thirty seconds later reappeared with Bella, who was holding his thin, dry little hand.
"Draco?"
"I need forty bulls. Young and strong."
"Right."
Mother shrugged, disappeared somewhere, and returned with a trunk. I pushed it into the fireplace and nodded at it, and the powder sent it ahead to Flitwick's office. A minute later I followed.
"So then, Professor, are you ready?"
"Yes."
He sighed, and together, the three of us with Helena, we made our way to Vasilisa's den.
"Vasilisa."
I stepped inside, and she lifted her head from her coils.
"You came back? I did not expect you so soon, and with company."
"This is Professor Flitwick, Head of Ravenclaw. He will set the trap for whoever cursed you, so they cannot do so again."
"Good."
"Now, I need to prepare the ritual circle."
And I set to work.
Four hours.
That was how long it took me to lay out the ritual circle around Vasilisa, who watched my progress with magnificent, languid indifference.
"Vasilisa, forgive me, but this is going to hurt."
"I will endure it."
She swayed her head once and tucked it inside her coils. I began the ritual, sacrificing three bulls at once as the opening act.
Vasilisa's body began to shudder with pain, but there was nothing I could do about that; I was already moving my wand over her, slowly unpicking the curse. It was undeniably complex, but it did not reach the level of the Greengrass curse.
I sacrificed more bulls. Then more. Then more again, until the twentieth fell, and the trembling of Vasilisa's body ceased. Above her a black stain had appeared, still clinging to her, but now only by a handful of threads.
I brought out one more bull and began the careful work of drawing those threads over onto the animal.
"Right. I'm finished."
Flitwick wiped his brow and came to stand beside me, watching my work with quiet attention. Only when I completed the transfer, another two hours, did he give me a light pat on the shoulder.
"Well done. I'd say you're ready to take commissions for mid-level curse-breaking."
"I could."
I agreed with a nod.
"But at the moment there simply isn't time."
I walked forward until I was close to Vasilisa and began stroking her scales.
"It's done. I've moved the curse onto the bull, so you are no longer bound to follow that person's orders. And he does not know the curse no longer holds."
"Good."
"Tell me, what was the one who came to you wearing?"
"Black-and-green robes. The badge of my creator's house. A disgrace."
Vasilisa's head rose above me and swayed slowly from side to side.
"The Savior would never have done such a thing."
"Vasilisa, if I may, could I ask you for some venom? Your venom is worth an extraordinary amount, and it will help prepare for the difficult times ahead. And in exchange..."
The remaining bulls stepped out of the trunk.
"...these fine fellows are yours regardless."
"Ssssss."
She loomed over the first bull, opened her jaws, and took careful aim, but then stopped before swallowing.
"The horns are in the way."
"Easily fixed."
Flitwick shook his head and removed every horn in the room with a single spell. The first bull vanished whole. Then the second. Then the third. She stopped at the fifth.
"Good."
Her tone was thoroughly satisfied.
"Where do you want the venom?"
A wave of my wand conjured a large three-liter jar, which Flitwick immediately reinforced with a hardening charm. Vasilisa filled it with nearly two liters of venom, a truly extraordinary quantity.
"Is that everything you need? Only thing is, the Savior used to collect my shed skin as well."
Vasilisa tilted her head towards one wall, then pressed a mechanism with the tip of her tail. It opened, and we found ourselves looking at a very large quantity of Basilisk skin. Though shed skin loses a little compared with skin taken from a dead Basilisk, it still surpasses Dragon hide considerably.
"And the remaining bulls?"
"No, not now. Come back in a month and I could manage another meal, but two or three bulls will be enough then. I'll be hunting those lovely spiders in the forest in any case."
"In that case, fresh bulls next month. And for now, I'll take four skins."
A spell transferred four skins into a separate compartment of the trunk. The surviving bulls followed. I herded the cursed bull into a corner and shut it behind a grating, which Flitwick secured with locking charms.
"Vasilisa, please don't touch that bull. We need whoever cursed you to come here himself, completely unsuspecting. Agreed?"
"Mm. Go on then. I want to sleep."
Vasilisa yawned, baring an impressive set of fangs, but her voice was so incongruously endearing that I couldn't help myself. I stepped forward and gave her nose a gentle pat.
"Sweet dreams."
"Mm."
And we left Vasilisa's den and made our way back to Flitwick's office. I glanced at the clock and saw that I had already missed breakfast and the first lesson was about to begin. I wasted no time getting to the fireplace.
"Kreacher!"
He appeared before I had even finished saying his name.
"Fetch the mothers, right now! Urgent. Everything else can wait."
Kreacher blinked his great eyes and vanished with a crack. He reappeared with Bella first, who was still in her dressing gown, and then with Cissy, who was in trousers and a brassiere, which suggested she had been in the middle of getting dressed.
"Draco?"
"No time."
I shook my head.
"I have a lesson to get to. Your task, urgently, is to purchase the correct containers for storing extremely potent venom. I'll say it again: extremely potent. I found Vasilisa. She is Salazar's Basilisk, and she has given me two liters of venom."
Both mothers' eyes simultaneously widened to roughly the size of Sickles.
"You what..."
"That's all for now. I'll come and explain everything this evening. For the moment, just accept what I've told you, source the right containers, and transfer the venom. It's currently in a hastily conjured three-liter jar that Flitwick reinforced. There are also four shed skins in there. I want at least one complete set of clothing made from those skins for each of you, for Flitwick, for the elder Delacours, and for Penny's parents."
"Draco, perhaps it would be better to..."
"No, it would be pointless for me. I'm still growing, and no one is going to re-tailor a Basilisk-skin garment. So set my skin aside for when I've stopped growing, and when the others are done growing too, and have the clothing made then. As for the venom, you may sell some of it, but not all. Sell a liter; keep the rest at home as a reserve."
"Understood."
"One more thing. I need a trunk that can hold roughly a hundred bulls in stasis. I intend to supply the market with Basilisk venom on a regular basis, which means feeding Vasilisa regularly as well."
"I'd advise against that."
Bella shook her head.
"The price will drop and..."
"I don't care."
I looked at her steadily.
"A great many genuinely useful potions can be brewed with this venom. So I will insist on this: if a representative of a magical clinic approaches our intermediary, they receive the venom at half price."
"Draco, that is very noble, but..."
"You can take payment in potions containing Basilisk venom. There are very few potioneers capable of working with this ingredient, very few indeed, so having finished potions on hand is better anyway. Payment in high-quality healing potions, antidotes, that sort of thing. Mother..."
I looked at Cissy.
"You know better than I do which high-quality potions are easiest for hospitals to produce."
"Yes. I'll draw up a list. We'll also need to purchase a few stasis cabinets with spatial expansion."
"Buy them."
I shrugged as if to say there was nothing complicated about that, glanced at the clock, and shook my head.
"Right, I have to run. And rather than just bulls, you could pick up all sorts of animals: pigs, goats, antelope, bears, anything really. I'll come for them in a week. Now I really must go—my first lesson today is about to start."
"Run along then."
Bella sighed and waved me off. I stepped into the Floo, appeared in Flitwick's office, and sprinted for my own classroom, outside which the students should already have gathered.
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