Once all these have been placed you shall take your dead subject and place it in the centre of the hallows. You shall then channel your magics into the blood painted deathly hallow and speak thusly:
'Death who takes all, through the power of wand, stone, and cloak, hear your humble servant.'
You shall then wait for the deathly hallow to glow with the magics of death.
You shall then take your sickle or scythe and plunge it into the corpse of your subject, and channel your magic through the reaper's tool into it, at which point you shall recite the following passage:
'Death who takes all, I offer you back that which the three brothers took. To raise this container of a soul that you now possess. To bind its magic back to the aether, and to your humble servant.'
You shall then step out of the deathly hallow, wait for the magics to finish and begin your efforts to subjugate your newly raised inferius to your will.
Ah, yes. This bit had caused her quite a bit of headache. It had taken all week to track down a book that explained exactly how she was supposed to actually do that last part. Apparently, it was all about overwhelming the target's magic with your own, at least for long enough to cement the bond, which is presumably why the book said the ritual took a 'most powerful wizzard'. In any case, she was glad she'd listened to Luna and learned the basics of wandless magic or this bit would've been impossible without a wand.
Alex pointed to a large tin next to the pebble on the table. Mrs Skower's All Purpose Magical Mess Remover? Check. Scrubbing brush and broom? Check. Hand sickle? Check. And finally — she pointed to the last item on the desk, an unbreakable jar in which a furious doxy pounded the glass with all four arms and made occasional evil finger gestures at her. She narrowed her eyes. One disgustingly obnoxious magical creature? Check.
And now all she had to do was follow the instructions.
Ten minutes later, a completely naked Alex channelled her magic into the macabre blood symbol on the floor, in the middle of which lay one now very dead doxy, and spoke the first words of the ritual.
The hallow started to glow deep red.
Alex's heart leapt. She thrust her sickle into the doxy's still warm body, let out another pulse of magic, chanted the ritual words, stepped back out of the ritual space, and waited.
Moments later, the cloak, dowel, and stone all started to glow as well.
Alex felt her heart beat in her chest.
Finally, the doxy started to glow. Magic swirled around the room, rushing past her and sending tingles all through her body. A grin spread across her face. She leant forward…
…And the deceased doxy exploded, sending blue gunk all over the room in general and all over her in particular.
Alex stared. Damn. She frowned. That… wasn't supposed to happen.
She straightened, wiped away as much of the entrails from her person as she could, and chewed her lip. She must have done something wrong.
She cast her gaze to a nearby shelf where several other doxies watched her, furiously chattering and chittering and banging their enraged tiny fists on the walls of their glass prisons.
It looked like there would plenty more library time for her in the near future.
A few days later, Alex was feeling very silly and very stupid.
Grimmauld place was a magical house. The magics that swirled in the very air were far greater than the paltry enchantments she'd been worried her clothes might contain.
A few years ago, she'd done a ritual to give herself the strength of the male she could have been at the cost of her ability to taste sweetness. That the house hadn't affected that ritual was a minor miracle. She shuddered to think of what could have happened to her if it hadn't gone well, given what happened to the doxy in the ritual she'd just failed to complete.
Her latest trawl through the library yielded the depressingly basic titbit that traditional magic houses usually contained a ritual room — a space built so the inherent magic of the wards were suppressed while still being inaccessible to the outside world. It had been the work of a moment to walk into the Black magic section of the Black Library and find a floor plan of the house, which, lo and behold, showed her where the ritual room was.
Which is how Alex now found herself, naked and shivering, in the basement of Grimmauld place, surrounded by old stone walls covered in complex runic arrays, and standing on a perfectly flat slate floor, ideal for chalk and paint and, well, blood — glowing blood glowing red like an angry red star.
She stabbed the second dead doxy with her wickedly sharp sickle, sent a pulse of raw intent through the curved blade, chanted the second ancient set of ritual words, stepped back out of the deathly hallow, and watched.
The deathly hallow glowed red.
Alex narrowed her eyes.
The dowel, stone and cloak all glowed.
The doxy glowed… and then exploded.
Alex groaned and wiped more doxy bits off her pale skin. Back to the library again.
It was the weekend, and Lord Black was at work.
Alex stood in a dark corner of the Black Library, flipping through Ritual Troubleshooting - What to do When it All Goes Wrong, and waiting for Luna to finish lunch at the Rookery so they could do stuff together.
And if you are still experiencing problems, you might consider using a virgin as the ritual performer, as the act of intercourse subtly alters a witch or wizard's magic in ways that can adversely affect some rituals.
Alex felt her cheeks warm up. That… wasn't an issue for her.
Some rituals are affected by the phases of the moon, and can only be done at full, or new moon. The prevalence of this consideration is mostly restricted to fertility and life rituals.
So, again, not relevant.
Make sure to double check and triple check yourself for any and all possible external magic that you may be carrying with you into the ritual. Sometimes there are things that we carry around with us all the time that we forget about. The most common types of magic accidentally brought into rituals are small items of clothing, potions taken earlier in the day, charms still lingering on one's person, and magical jewellery such as hair ornaments, necklaces, and rings.
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