Hogwarts Legacy: The Price of Power

The Ritual

"Well," Ominis began. "I'm sure you're both familiar with the Tale of Three Brothers."

"I'm not," Dracaena said.

He nodded. "I'll keep it brief. Three brothers, rumoured to be the Peverells, slipped Death's grasp, and he gave them each a gift. A wand of extraordinary power, supposedly unbeatable, a stone that could raise shades of the dead, and an invisibility cloak. The eldest brother, Antioch, boasted of his wand's power and how it made him invincible. He was slain the next night. Cadmus, the second brother-"

"Your ancestor," Sebastian supplied.

"Thank you," Ominis grumbled. "He used the stone to bring back an old lover, whom he missed. She was unhappy with being caught between death and life, so Cadmus killed himself to be with her. The last brother, Ignotus, wore the cloak until he reached a ripe old age, hiding from Death. People have been assigning meaning to this story since Beedle wrote it, each of them desiring one or more of the items that became known as the Deathly Hallows. Nonsense, in my opinion."

"I wouldn't mind the stone," Sebastian said.

"Not the wand? I can see that being extremely useful," Dracaena replied.

"Well, yeah, but think of all you could learn from people who've passed on."

"Oh, for-" Ominis let out a low hiss, shaking his head. "If you two are quite finished?"

"Sorry, Omi," Dracaena said. "I'm listening."

"How kind," he muttered, but slid his hand into hers again, squeezing gently. "And for the record, the cloak is the most useful of the three. Anyway, that's about as much as I know of them. How much of the story is rooted in fact is something I've never cared to learn."

"You must know more!" Sebastian said. "You're descended from Cadmus, for Merlin's sake! Your family love boasting about their ancestry, surely they'll have mentioned something."

Ominis made a face.

"Well..." he tapped his fingers along his thigh. "Now that you mention it, there is an old legend about the Peverells that they used to talk about. Forgive me that I can't recall it in its entirety, I prefer not to think about them and their ways."

"What is it?" Dracaena asked, leaning forward.

Ominis ran his tongue over his lower lip, and her eyes were drawn to it instantly.

"Only that there is supposed to be great fortune and power to be found in the oldest Peverell line," he said. "As their only surviving descendants that we know of, my family rather believe it's to do with them."

"Like the book said!" Sebastian bounced a little in his seat. "It mentions the oldest Peverell line too!"

Ominis shook his head. "I'm quite convinced it's nothing," he said. "I have no doubt that my family made it up to bolster their own egos, stolen from some other family motto or something."

"But-"

"No more buts, Sebastian," Ominis sank back to the sofa. "Please. We've enough to worry about without adding a nonsensical legend from a Dark book into the mix."

Sebastian made a face, but to Dracaena's surprise, he rose, stuffing the book back on the shelf. Ominis raised a brow, a tiny smile quirking the corner of this mouth.

"Thank you."

.-~*~-.

The week passed in a rushing haze of classwork and homework. As the next week began, all of the Professors seemed to have a meeting and decided to gang up on the seventh-years, piling on the work until they barely had time to sleep, let alone eat, or even think of doing anything remotely nefarious.