Chapter 18: Guardian Totem
The week passed and while almost the entire castle attended the match (including Quirrel, he secretly checked), Soisen finally found one of Cyrah's hiding places.
He turned out to be behind a painting on the fourth floor where he is painted a homeless man begging and is ignored by two wizards who drink wine from a boot and a hat. All he had to do was pull his wand out of her and trace a coin into her outstretched hand to make her move away from her.
The room closed behind him and he discovered that it contained three items: an intricate magic circle on the floor, a bubbling blue potion, and a golden dagger.
He spent twenty minutes going through everything before finding the related memories in her head and understanding what each thing was used for.
The magic circle was a combination of summoning magic, sacrificial conversion, and rituals used to bind totem guardians.
The potion was an ancient recipe for altering traits such as bloodlines, curses, gifts, and talents to a more desirable or useful alternate version.
And the famous silver objects made by leprechauns? Well, his mother managed to create a version that used gold instead of silver, a feat that the goblins are still unable to replicate. She was sorry that due to the cumbersome process, she only made enough to make a small dagger.
The function of the room was clear: to provide Sosien with a guardian totem for his safety.
As for what he would get? There was only one way to find out.
He approached the gold dagger that rested on a purple silk cushion and after a nasty bite on his own hand, he dropped a few drops of blood to be recognized as his owner. The dagger was an artifact capable of cutting through almost anything, but it couldn't harm its owner even if Soisen held it by the blade instead of the handle.
—Why in all those series and movies does it seem that biting and drawing blood is something easy and painless? Damn scammers.
He moved past the potion and dropped more drops of blood into the marks on the floor as he muttered the magic circle's activation words and with a wave of his good hand, he used a simple spell to heal the little girl. wound.
The markings on the ground writhed like leeches and spread, forming a second ring in which a barrier was generated before the original circle began to glow red light. With a bang reminiscent of the Apparition, something fell into the magic circle.
"A boa constrictor?" No, that shape… it should be a snake.
The snake looked around in confusion, and Soisen had the feeling he had seen the creature before. Which was weird because he wasn't a big fan of snakes.
The zoo snake that Harry released?
No, that was a boa constrictor.
It could be…
"Nagini?" -I ask.
The snake suddenly turned around, and from what Soisen could tell, he wore a surprised expression. It was hard to tell, really, but his sixth sense told him that it must be Voldemort's famous snake, which in the future would become a Horcrux.
Nagini began to hiss frantically, but Soisen had no idea what she was saying.
"I can't speak Parseltongue, but we can try to communicate in a more basic way," Soisen explained through the barrier. "Nod if you understand me."
Nagini nodded.
"Do you have any idea how you ended up here?"
Nagini shook her head.
"Has your curse become permanent?"
Nagini looked at him silently for a moment, asking how he knew about his condition, but he still responded with a nod. Soisen fell silent and thought for a minute before speaking again.
—Okay, this will sound a little crazy to you, but remember that we are in the magical world, okay? —After seeing her nod again, she began to explain— We are in Great Britain, in a hidden room at Hogwarts to be more specific. I found one of my mother's heirlooms in the castle and activated the magic circle where, for whatever reason, you appeared due to summoning magic." He gave her a moment to process the information, then pointed the potion vial to her. his side— If my theory is true, then this potion should remove your maledictus condition and allow you to be human again.
Nagini straightened up further upon hearing that.
"I'm not done, let me say it all before you get excited." The circle you are in is for vesting totem guardians. Do you know what they are?
Nagini shook her head.
—They are something like bodyguards, servants, assistants, etc., I don't know how to express it with a more appropriate term, but the point is that they are tied to a lord for life in exchange for a grace. Not as slaves, but more as an oath of unbreakable loyalty." She looked away from the circle on the ground and back at her. "Now, here's the crux of the matter. For the potion to work, it must be used in combination with the magic circle as a sacrifice to invest a totem ward. You understand?
Nagini tilted her head and shook it. He had retained much of his intelligence in his cursed form, but he couldn't follow the complex intricacies of human thought like before. It was difficult for him.
"In short, you have two options right now," Soisen tried to explain as simply as possible, "First, I can use the magic circle again and it will return you to where you were, as if nothing had happened." Or I can use the ritual with the potion, which will make you human again, but you will be bound as my totem guardian. And I also don't know if there will be any additional side effects. So what do you decide?
Nagini curled up and placed her head on her body, thinking.
Soisen did not rush his decision. In fact, the magic circle could force the summoned party to obey as long as he used the potion as a sacrifice, but if the summoned was willing of his own free will, he would not only receive more benefits but they could have a better relationship.
In other words, a symbiotic choice was more beneficial to all involved than an imposed obligation.
He doesn't know how much time passed, it could have been a minute like twenty, but Nagini seemed to have made up her mind.
"Did you decide?"
Nagini nodded and hissed again.
-Wait wait. Let's do this, nod if you agree to be my totem guardian. Deny if you want me to send you back.
Nagini looked at him and nodded.
"Okay, but I'm warning you, it will only activate the ritual." I don't know if it will hurt or what will be the exact process we will go through, so, anyway, you better get mentalized just in case.
Soisen took the potion and returned to the circle, ready to go when he remembered something else.
"By the way, do you have a thing against squibs?"
Nagini shook her head.
"Okay, let's get started."
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone