Harry Potter: A Tale of Revenge

Harry bit his bottom lip. He made as though to speak, then hesitated. He did so again, and again stopped. Eventually, he spoke. "Daphne… if I tell you this, I'd like both of us to perform an unbreakable vow to never perform the magic I'm about to tell you about."

Daphne gasped. You could only make one unbreakable vow. Apparently, this was a different level of bad. But she still wanted to know. She nodded, slowly. "I promise."

"Okay. We'll bring Hermione in on this later and do it then." Harry took a deep breath. "There is a ritual. I'm not going to tell you what it's called. The ICW is so determined to eradicate this ritual from human knowledge that the name is under taboo. So are the exact words required to perform the ritual." He paused and looked around before continuing. "Let's call it the unforgivable ritual."

The trunk suddenly felt colder. The carved pumpkins lining the walls took on a more sinister look, creepy grins staring down at them from all around. Daphne shivered. "I would have thought that would be… horcruxes."

Harry waved his hand dismissively. "Horcruxes are bad, certainly, but more for what they accomplish than the methods used to create them." He grimaced. "After all, there are people in this world who would happily commit murder for a few knuts in someone's back pocket, let alone immortality."

Daphne shivered again.

"And of course, the fact that Death himself takes such an interest in Horcruxes that he personally intervenes to eradicate them."

"But the… unforgivable ritual?"

Harry looked her straight in the eyes. "The 'unforgivable ritual' grants one immense power. It doubles the flow of magic between the core and the body, grants immunity to magical toxins and allows the caster to force the almost total submission of any wand to themselves."

Daphne's eyes widened. Her voice became a whisper. "Merlin."

"Yeah. And Voldemort was already a powerful wizard to start with."

She slumped back in her chair. Everyone knew the Dark Lord was above normal wizards, but by such an amount? She looked back up. "And… the cost?" Every ritual had a cost.

Harry stared back, stony faced. "The cost is two fold. The ritual requires you to swear yourself to a cause, a cause you feel strongly for. If you don't feel strongly about it, the ritual won't work. The first cost is a sliver of your rationality about the cause you swear yourself to. You become a little bit mad about it. A little bit insane."

Daphne's eyes widened. "And the Dark Lord…"

"Swore himself to the eradication of muggle influences in the wizarding world."

She let out a long, deep breath. "That… explains so much."

Harry nodded. "It does, doesn't it?"

"Is that why he never uses muggle guns even though he knows about them?"

Harry made a partial hand movement. "In part, yes. He actually adopted a policy of second strike escalation."

"Meaning?"

"Meaning he wouldn't use muggle weaponry until someone else did. Then it was fair game."

"… Ah." She hesitated. "Is that why you're not going to have us use them either?"

Harry nodded.

Daphne chewed on her bottom lip. "And that was the first cost?… what's the second?"

Harry sighed. "The second cost is… the life of the one true love… forcibly taken."

Daphne's heart froze. Her breathing stopped. She looked into Harry's eyes, saw the seriousness in them, felt the beating in her chest and the sweat on her hands. Her lip trembled. A twinge of fear pinched her. "I… I see now why the unbreakable vows."

Harry nodded, once. It looked to be a very tired nod.

...

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