Harry potter and the descent into darkness

Chapter 11

Harry set his bag down gently on the hard stone floor and bent down to rummage inside it for his bound notebook and the book on containment wards he'd taken from his trunk. He made sure that the glass jar was still wrapped up I the black robes at the bottom of the bag.

He opened his notebook and flipped through the pages to the section where he had made notes on the some of the spells he intended to make use of. The first one was the Homorphus charm that would force dear Rita back into her human form and prevent her from turning back for about an hour as long as he put enough power and intent into the spell.

He set the notebook, still open, to the side and then turned to the wards book. He had marked the page with the spell he wanted to use, so he was able to get to it right away. It would create a solid magical field around a space he designated, and no one would be able to leave or enter it until he canceled the spell. He didn't think that it was terribly likely that Rita would be getting away from him, but he figured the added precaution was wise, and it took very little effort to cast and maintain, so he saw no reason not to.

He reread the passage quickly and then began walking around the chamber, swishing his wand in the shape of the described runes as he went and muttering a chant under his breath.

Once he had walked the perimeter – which only took a minute since he wasn't warding a very large space – he returned to the center and forced out a focused wave of his magic to complete the spell.

He could feel the magical walls that now surrounded him, as they resonated with his magic. He had no idea how talented Rita was with detecting magical auras or signatures, so he wouldn't know if she would be able to sense the barriers or not. He supposed he would find out if and when she was unfortunate enough to walk into one.

He snickered.

Satisfied that the cell was now in place, he set the warding book back into his bag and picked his notebook back up.

He read over the list of spells that he had been itching to try. He wanted to see what they were really like. What it felt like to really cast them. His heart was racing in sick anticipation and he was possessed with a sadistic glee at the prospect of finally having a living human target to try them out on.

A giant snake corpse was fine and dandy for target practice and absorbing some of the magical impact, but it didn't provide nearly as satisfying a target. Nor did it actually work for a large number of spells.

He ran his fingers over the surface of the bound parchment with a strange reverence as a giddy urge to giggle began to bubble up from his stomach. He was getting excited. So very excited.

A small voice in the back of his mind was protesting weakly. It was one thing to attack the corpse of a snake, but he was about to use these spells on a real, live, human being. A person.

A person who would not be leaving this room alive.

That was a fact that he needed to come to terms with, for sure, before starting. Because once he began, there was no going back. No changing his mind. He didn't intend to use the instantly lethal spells simply because he wanted to draw this out and practice as much as he could manage on the woman before she could no longer take any more. But in the end, he would kill her.

It wasn't even really anything personal. She was just convenient. Sure, he hated her. But he wasn't going to kill her because she had written those articles about him. He was going to kill her because she was there, and no one would be able to link her death to him.

He looked at the list one more time and felt his magic flaring up with eager anticipation.

He was set. There was no going back. He... he wanted this. Needed it. His skin was crawling with the raw need to feel her life slipping away by his hands. He wanted to see if he could really do it. He could feel himself being consumed with the intense hunger for death and pain that the dark magic left in him. He felt starved for it.