To Live is the Rarest Thing

Chapter 10

Chapter 10

“Wait, wait,” Sirius said, waving his hand while his head was bowed, long black hair obscuring his face. “This is all a little bit…”

“Much?” Harry guessed while he looked at his godfather in concern. Sirius had been dealing with quite a few truth bombs of late, and his mind wasn’t what it used to be after spending about a decade surrounded by dementors.

“You do not have to decide anything right this moment,” Tom said while leaning back in his seat in a relaxed pose, arm hooked over the back of his chair, legs loosely crossed, looking very much like a counsellor trying to calm their upset patient. “The offer is simply on the table. You can take as much time as you need to consider it, and whatever you decide is acceptable to us.”

“All right,” Sirius whispered, face still hidden. “That’s…I’ll do that…”

“I appreciate the offer,” Remus said glancing from Sirius to Tom. “And Merlin knows Regulus died far too young and deserves a second chance as much as anyone, but why him? Why not James and Lily, who were equally too young to die?”

“Because we’ve got Regulus’ body whole and preserved,” Harry answered quickly, thinking he was the better option to address his dead parents than their actual murderer. “With my parents, we’ve got nothing except for some bones in a grave. That’s not enough to make a body out of.”

“In my own case, I had performed multiple rituals throughout my life to prepare for the eventuality I’d ever needed to recreate my body,” Tom added with all the patience in the world. “That’s why it was so advantageous that Harry used the whole of Rosier. That meant the whole of the Dark Mark got used in the ritual, which strengthened it considerably. The Dark Mark was one of the ways I’d anchored by body’s design to this mortal coil.”

“Ah.” Remus frowned and stared down at his hands.

Tom continued, clearly warming to the subject now. “We could, in theory, use recently deceased bodies and summon James and Lily’s souls and add those to the bodies and reanimate them that way…”

“No.” Harry shook his head frantically, cutting Tom off from saying more.

“I know, darling,” Tom said quietly, placing his hand on Harry’s forearm. “I would never do such a thing to your parents. I was merely educating our guests on the different routes one can take with necromancy.”

“Fine,” Harry sighed with a brief nod. “Educate away.”

With an amused snort, Tom turned back to Remus who did look at least somewhat interested in what Tom had to say. “As I was saying, putting deceased souls in new to them dead bodies is possible, but it isn’t advisable. Imagine waking up in a body that’s not your own. It’s very difficult for those souls to accept a new to them body and most reject them and simply pass on again, leaving a dead body behind.”

“I have to confess that I find this subject equal parts fascinating and horrifying,” Remus said with a slightly pained chuckle. “But you have adequately educated me, for which I thank you.”

Sirius finally looked up and stared at Harry with flinty eyes. “How the hell do you even know this stuff? This is seriously dark, Harry.”

“I know.” Harry was tempted to shrug but realized that wouldn’t be an appropriate response to such a severe question. “We’ve lived, as witches and wizards, in countries where these kind of subjects weren’t forbidden to study.”