Death is but the Next Great Adventure

Dancing is the First Sign of Insanity

AUTHOR'S NOTE:// I wanted to take a moment to tell you all that Maya_0196 has begun the insane task of translating this fic into Spanish I believe, so if English isn't your first language, or if you're just curious, go and check it out!

Link: https://www.wattpad.com/story/116206799

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Fading evening light swept through the tall windows and stretched their tired fingers out toward the impossibly tall book cases that occupied the library. An insidious chill carried on the back of a draft drifted around like a phantom and chased away most of the lingering students who wished to get a head start on their winter break course work. One student in particular, though, didn't seem to even notice the cold as he sat at a small table pushed up close to a large window. He worried his bottom lip between his stark white teeth and rubbed absently at the glossy black bristles on the feather end of his quill while his eyes raked over the crowded page of the plain school journal he'd been pouring over for months now.

It held all of his notes, plans, and work for the ritual that was meant to bring back Tom Riddle. He had all the ingredients and supplies ready to go in that little expanded pouch he carried on him at all times, the only thing he had left to work on was the arithmancy and rune work. Unfortunately, as helpful and informative as the Book of the Dead was to Harry, there was no set spell or ritual for exactly what he needed. Since Horcruxes were not an actual form of proper necromancy, there was no way to reverse the damage completely—at least, not yet.

So, Harry has to build his own ritual essentially from scratch—and spell creation was incredibly difficult, it involved an extensive knowledge of the practical and mathematical side of magic. And, as with any form of science and discovery, it took a whole lot of trial and error to gain such an intimate knowledge of the different runes and how they interacted with each other to make sure that there wouldn't be any disastrous results from using them together.

He'd spent months secretly working it out in his free time and recording it all in that notebook to ensure he could look back on his notes if there were any issues. Now, he had every rune carefully planned out for the circle he would have to draw and it would get the job done, but there was something missing. Adding too many runes would make any circle more unstable—which it was already turning out to be—but Harry also had an issue with the strength of the runes. They simply weren't powerful enough as is to hold out long enough for Tom's new body to fully form and be capable of magic. Harry's worried it might weaken and stutter out halfway—which was certainly a problem.

It was teasing his mind and remained just out of reach, he couldn't quite reach it. . .

Harry sniffed and absently rubbed his nose with his hand as the dry scent of parchment irritated his nose and broke his intense concentration for a moment. Harry was about to curse under his breath in frustration at not being able to think properly when his eyes caught on something on his page and he zeroed in on it. He relinquished his swollen lip as a disbelieving smile tugged at his lips and he grabbed the note book as his eyes flitted excitedly over the page. 'Yes! That's it!' He thought as he quickly jumped into the calculations that suddenly seemed so simple now that he was looking at it.

It wasn't really simple, it was actually only by chance that Harry had remembered reading some short passage from a book he'd found while exploring the Black library. It had been a book on the more experimental theories of runes and spell creation, and though they weren't entirely proven, the evidence was all there and reliable enough for Harry to trust it and implement it in his ritual.

Harry sat back with a breathless laugh, not really seeing the writing in the notebook anymore so he shifted his gaze to the dying light outside the window as he felt something tight inside loosen for the first time since taking up the challenge of helping Voldemort.