Frigus . Sirius Black (Mortem BOOK 2)

chapter sixty-seven

April 25th, 1980 - Malfoy Manor 

Half a week had passed since Nephera had woken up dazed and disoriented in one of the many rooms of the Manor, and each day she felt more and more at home. There were still some things that made no sense, some things that, no matter what answer Tom had given her, it didn't seem to settle quite right with her, but she figured that was normal when half of her mind had essentially been wiped. 

The Dark Lord himself had kept to his promise, he had helped her figure out how to reverse the obliviation spell, or tried to, at least. There were no books in the Manor on the topic, at all, and while they both had tried to look into blood magic, spiritual spells, and any other subcategory of the Black Arts they thought could provide a solution, they seemed to hit a dead end every time. 

It didn't help that she still couldn't get a minute alone, if she wasn't researching with Tom, one of her friends was next to her, bothering her, mostly Nott or Greengrass, the rest seemed to be far too scared of her to hold a conversation, or her father would show up and request her assistance with something. 

She still felt out of place with her father, sometimes, when he'd raise his wand too suddenly, she tensed up. It was small, unseen by anyone else and she barely felt it herself, but it still bothered her. She shook her head each time, though, and attributed it to her obliviation. 

She was with him right now, after all, and they were in the midst of quite a heated debate, "I don't understand why you won't just give it a shot!" she exclaimed, filling both her and his glass up with more firewhiskey, "Runic magic has been around for-" 

"Centuries, yes, we've been over that," he drawled, rolling his eyes, "And I'm not saying it doesn't work, all I'm saying is it's not as strong as people think it is," 

She rebutted his point easily, "That's because you're not seeing all the possibilities," she stated, her smirk growing, "Sure, you could only focus on runic protection carvings, but combine that with a bit of blood magic... They can be quite deadly," 

Castiel frowned, mulling it over in his head, "If you mean simply drawing the runes in blood-" 

Tom walked into the room, conjuring up his own glass and motioning for Castiel to fill it up, "I believe, my old friend, your daughter is referring to is not only combining the carvings but also the incantations," he explained 

Tom Marvolo Riddle was on cloud nine, as was Castiel Winchester. Leaving aside the strategic advantage having Nephera on their side gave them, and the emotional satisfaction of finally being the ones to pull one over the elusive witch, she had proven to them that she was actually quite an interesting person to be around, now that she wasn't aiming for their heads and their throats. 

Tom was itching to put her to further use apart from the simple questioning tasks he had given her thus far. The possibilities were endless, truly. He had access to Grimmauld Place now, through her, he could send her in to get the Tenebris wand for him, feed her some bullshit story- 

But no, he realized with a frown, he had to keep her away from Black. He was one of the few, alongside her two friends from Hogwarts and the one from Diagon Alley, that he had fully erased from her memory. Love was a powerful force, almost as powerful as fear, and he didn't know what seeing the young wizard could awaken in the witch. 

He turned back into the conversation, watching as the two Winchesters in front of him were deeply engrossed in their debate. He had expressly ordered Castiel not to let any of his misogynistic views show, they had to spoil Nephera as much as possible, the more they inflated her ego, the fewer questions the girl would ask, but it seemed that he didn't need to order Castiel to do so, perhaps the man was finally seeing his daughter for who she was, "But that rune counteracts with the spell, the rune meant to be etched onto an object to curse it and subsequently the person holding it, the spell is meant to do the opposite, it's meant to cleanse one's blood of curses," explained her father