Alex looked at her sharply. "And what does go on in the shop with the snake skin nailed to the—" But Luna had already moved ahead, and by the time Alex caught up with her, they were right up against the lighthouse's door.
"Banishing spells on three?" Alex whispered.
Luna nodded.
"One, two, three."
BOOM! The door flew off its hinges and sailed through the lighthouse's living space taking some of the furniture with it. There was an alarmed shout from the above floors and moments later, the would be dark wizard rapist, wearing only a dressing gown and a floppy nightcap, hastily descended the steep lighthouse stairs, wand in hand, took one look at her and Luna in their robes and masks, fingers already aglow, made a little squeaking noise, and apparated out with a loud crack.
"Go!" Luna shouted.
Alex made a beeline for the stairs and charged into the bedroom.
"Hi, pervert ghost." She reached into her bag.
"Oooo it's the curvy fuck toys, back again!" The ghost cackled and rubbed his hands together, "and what can I do for the curvy—"
Alex drew out a knife and a silver pendant in the shape of the deathly hallows that Luna's dad had leant them.
The ghost stopped in mid cackle.
Alex slashed a gash in her hand and flung some of the resultant blood at the shocked ghost. "Death who takes all, through the power of the deathly hallows, hear your humble servant."
"What are you doing?!" the ghost shouted. It made as thought to move, but Alex knew it now couldn't — not until she was finished.
"Death who takes all, bind this spirit to your servant's person, that they may serve your—" There was a small explosion from downstairs that shook the room. "—servant as your servant serves you." Heart pounding, she held up the deathly hallows to the still protesting ghost, and channelled her magic straight into the pendant. The pendant glowed silver and ethereal chains leapt from the pendant, wrapping themselves around the ghost.
Alex's heart leapt. It worked! And through the ageing potion too! She turned and ran back down the stairs, unceremoniously dragging the shouting and cursing ghost behind her.
Luna turned to her from the middle of a small pile of rubble that used to make up a bit of one of the walls. "I have a stone."
"I have a ghost!"
"Then let us be away from here."
And be away from here they did, all the way back down the path to where they'd stashed a pair of broomsticks, up into the air, and across the country side as fast as they could, all the way back to the Rookery, one very unhappy ghost trailing behind them like a small silvery comet.
"Well, this is all very interesting," said Lord Lovegood, currently wearing a mask as blue as Luna's. "I don't think I've ever interrogated an evil dark wizard before, especially a dead one."
Lady Lovegood nodded from under her equally blue mask. "Indeed, just be sure you two girls don't spend all day in here and come up if you want any of the pie I've baked."
The now inexplicably purple tinted ghost looked up groggily from where it hovered unsteadily in the middle of the Lovegood's ritual room — not that it knew that. "Pie?" Alex sent another pulse of magic into the deathly hallow painted on the floor and the ghost flinched back.
Luna hummed cheerfully, "Thanks, Mum!"
The two adult Lovegoods nodded and left them.
In the last few weeks, she and Luna had tried binding, rebinding, unbinding, controlling, forcing to speak truthfully, seeing through the ghost's eyes, making the ghost solid, conjuring ghost like objects for a ghost's use, forcing it to speak only ancient Greek, changing its colour, and now causing controlled pain. They'd gotten the binding, rebinding, unbinding, and colour change rituals to work, but the other rituals, except for the pain ritual, were missing something.
The
old
ghost
had
been
unbearable, constantly spewing out stuff that Alex was certain young witches shouldn't be hearing, and some of the stories he told them of his life made her want to hurl.
Luna moved to stand beside her. "I think he's been about as much use as we can expect, Black Mask."
Alex nodded. "Soo… we try the final ritual then, Blue Mask?"
"Yes."
The ghost looked up. "F-Final ritual? Fuck Toys?"
Alex and Luna set the room up the exact same way they would for an inferi ritual, the major difference from the last time being they now wore their specially bought, non magical clothes. No way beyond the veil were they going to strip down in front of this thing.
Alex stepped forward and sent a pulse of magic into the deathly hallow on the floor. "Death who takes all, through the power of wand, stone, and cloak, hear your humble servant."
The deathly hallow started to glow red.
The ghost tried to speak, but all that came out was a strangled choke.
"Death who takes all, I grant you that which has been trapped on the in-between. The soul of a wanderer, held back from your embrace, now to return to the eternal river that lies beyond the veil."
Her magic swirled around her. The room got noticeably colder.
The ghost opened its mouth in a silent scream — the deathly hallow glowed brighter than Alex had ever seen — and the ghost evaporated in a swirl of ephemeral mist.
The room was quiet.
Luna brushed her hands on her robes. "Thank Merlin. If I had to hear him say, the F-T word one more time…"
Alex turned to face her. "Yes?"
"…Then I'd be forced to hate myself when I finally start saying, 'fuck toy,' and that would be horrible."
"So, let me get this straight." Portrait Orion Black leaned back in his painted high-back chair. "Lord Slytherin has heard word that my son is planning to destroy most of the Black Library?" Alexandra nodded.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Do you enjoy reading? Visit my site on Tiendup! There you will find the advanced chapter in PDF format, ready for your convenience.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
https://fictiontopia.tiendup.com/