Shadows of our Past (Hogwarts Legacy)

Chapter 16

Merlin's flaming pants, could silence be any more awkward?
My gaze wandered back and forth between Sebastian and Ominis sitting at the kitchen table, thoroughly ignoring one another.
And here I thought they had made such good progress yesterday.
Ah, well... priorities first; if we didn't deal with Thompson and the mess at the Auror Office we might not even live to see the end of the unspoken problems simmering between the three of us.
I had always been the dreamer, but right now we needed to devise a plan and we had to act, soon. Anything else would be solved eventually; one way or another.
Seeing that neither of them made a move to come up with a plan I realised that I needed to take charge.

This should be good...

"You two listen closely now because I'd hate to repeat myself." I began, using the most decisive voice I could muster up. Ominis looked as though I had slapped him, whereas Sebastian's gaze told me he sort of wanted to slap me.

"The three of us are stuck together until we solve that mess, we have gotten ourselves into, so we need to stop reminiscing and start acting. Agreed?" I asked.

They were staring at me for a moment before nodding.
"So, tell us about that ritual Thompson wants to conduct on me."

Sebastian sighed, summoning a tome into his hand. One so old that it looked like it would crumble to dust if you only thought about turning a page. Its binding was unusual and appeared to be made out of reptile skin.

When he opened it showing it to me it was...

"What's that gibberish supposed to mean?" I queried, furrowing my brows.

Sebastian let out a breath, "Pity, I had hoped you could make some sense out of it; that there were some traces of ancient magic written on it," he imparted.

"Give that to me," Ominis said, reaching for the book Sebastian was handing him. "Do you also hear that hissing voice?" He asked running his fingers along the leather binding.

"No... Cornelius is asleep in the nab-sack, He needed some peace and quiet, " I said, patting the little purse sitting on the table.

"It's not him. It's the book," Ominis muttered, listening intently to something neither Sebastian nor I could hear.

"This is, unsurprisingly, Dark Magic. Where did Thompson get this from?" Ominis inquired.

"Raczidian's tomb..." Sebastian grimaced.

Well, that was... unfortunate.
If I remembered my lessons inHistory of Magic correctly, Raczidian had been a dark wizard who lived with a colony of dementors, and once attacked a village with a dementor army he commanded.
Living with a colony of dementors... that fact alone should be enough for a sane person to stay away from anything that man had written or even touched.
Emphasis on sane person...

My eyes caught Sebastian's gaze.

"Let me guess, it was you who found that tomb and that book in the first place," Ominis posed the question, which was already on my mind.

"Yes..."

"And that ritual is somehow written within this gibberish? Has Thompson already deciphered it and knows how to conduct it?" I asked.

Sebastian stared back at me in disbelief.
"Blazing dugbogs... how can you be so damned calm about this, Ryna? That man wants to kill you to take your powers! Do you not realise the danger you're in?"

"Sebastian," I said, pinching the back of my nose, "I've been in danger since my fifteenth birthday, more or less. I'm sort of used to it by now."

This left him speechless, allowing me to make use of the silence.
"I'm assuming he doesn't yet know how to conduct that ritual. Although you already told me that he recruited dementors, so he appears to have some idea of what he's doing," I pondered out loud.