Harry Potter and the Wondrous Blood Ri

Chapter Two

Harry sat on a comfortable chair in the Black Family Library. He knew that he was in Hermione Granger Heaven. Normally, Harry wasn't a reader, but he had some problems and the books in this library – though dark looked like they might have some solutions. Of an immediate concern were the nightmares he was having every night. They seemed to be connected to the scar on his forehead. He needed to figure out what was causing that pain. The Dark magic that was all over the books in the room gave him a good idea that he could find some answers in here.

He had just figured out that the scar on his forehead was there because of dark mark magic. So, he had been reading through a book in the Black library Magick Moste Evile

some dark magic rituals. And this book had a name for it. There was a ritual called, the Horcrux ritual. The Horcrux ritual used the death of someone you killed to tear a piece of your soul outside of yourself and place it into something else. When Harry thought of it, that sounded just like Tom Riddle's diary. He had also found a locket in one of the bedrooms upstairs. It had the same dark feeling that Tom Riddle's diary did. His forehead felt just like the diary had and this locket felt. They were Horcruxes. If there were three that Harry had come into contact with, then, there likely were more.

Harry was about to put the book away and look for a book on how to destroy Horcruxes, but idly turned the page in his book. The title on the next page struck him: Identity Change Ritual.

The Identity Change Ritual is a ritual that completely changes the identity of one person and puts them into the family tree legally of another such person.

Harry was intrigued. He had several problems. He had been gone from the Dursleys for over a week now. He didn't know if anyone had told Dumbledore that he was gone, but he wasn't sure if that would fly. Dumbledore had been clear. He was safest at the Dursley house. But he didn't see the big deal. This house was unplottable. According to Griphook it was also under the Fidelius Charm. There was no safer place to be. Even if people knew where he was, they couldn't get in unless the secret keeper – himself – would tell them.

The Dark Magic ritual listed in this book was very involved. It had to be done on a day that had great meaning to the person who was changing identity. July 31 was the perfect day. October 31 would have worked as well, but July 31 was closer. The spell could do change him into anyone he wanted to be as long as he marked the ritual circle correctly.

"Kreacher – " Harry called.

"Dirty Master calls." He said.

Harry smirked, "Call me whatever you want," he told the elf. "But would you please get me these ingredients?"

Harry handed Kreacher the list of ingredients. Kreacher took a long look and then looked at Harry contemplatively.

"Perhaps Kreacher has misunderstood, smart Master," he said.

"You are very kind, Kreacher." Harry said with another smirk. "Is this going to be a problem?"

"No, Master," Kreacher said. Then, with a pop, he was gone.

Harry didn't quite understand what the reason for the change was but he figured if it would make things easier at home then it was a good thing.

+ + + +

Harry was sitting in the ritual room at Number 12 Grimmauld Place, marking the circle carefully. Above him, the portrait of Walburga Black was watching him like a hawk. Apparently, the woman that Sirius had considered vile might be ugly and stern, but she was helpful enough for Harry. When Harry had explained what it was he intended to do, she had approved, whole-heartedly. She had also provided some invaluable assistance to what Harry was planning.

Walburga had helped Harry figure out which family from the sacred twenty-eight he would take the characteristics of. She had helped him figure out which people in the family tree to choose. She pointed out things that no one had ever taught Harry even at Hogwarts. He didn't know why it was so important before, but he started to understand now.

The Fawley family had some recent tragedy and he could fit in as one of their children who were thought dead in a magical fire. It would kill off Harry Potter true. But Harry with Walburga's help and then Griphooks, had been able to set up the identity that would work.

Harry was excited for the next day when he would perform the Identity change ritual. From everything he had read, it would allow him to get rid of his scar which was continuing to give him some terrible headaches. No more visions from the blasted Dark Lord. No more Boy who lived and all its ridiculous expectations. No more Daily Prophet attention at every mistake or perceived mistake.

He looked at the circle lined out in chalk. He would begin at midnight. He would say goodbye to Harry Potter and say hello to a new life.

Harry stripped of his clothes and turned the knob of the shower in his attached bathroom upstairs. He let the water drip down his body. The ritual needed him to cleanse himself of any oils that might have lingered on his body this day. Unfortunately for Harry, it had to be a cold shower. It made for a quick shower however. With his body sufficiently cold and wet, he stepped out and used his towel to dry himself. He was tempted to cast a drying spell but remembered Walburga's reminder: "There can be no extra magic as you prepare for the ritual."

Harry walked naked and cold down the stairs from his bedroom to the ritual room. Harry entered the room and looked at the knife just outside the circle. Harry knelt in the middle of the circle, took the dagger in both hands and pointed it up and brought it to his forehead and his scar. With practiced cut – practice that he had been doing with a dull plastic rod, he cut exactly along the scar. Walburga had told him in this containment field the pain that this normally caused would not be there. She was right. So, when the scar was completely cut open, he bent over a bowl next to him and let his blood drip into the bowl. Once, there was enough blood, he dipped a brush in the bowl and began to trace runes around the circle just as he had practiced for days.

With the circle nearly finished, he painted the symbol of a circle with a cross at the bottom. He stood up in the middle of the circle, activating it. At this point, Kreacher brought forward a Muggle girl, a virgin who was about to sell herself for her first prostitution. The elf pushed her into the circle with Harry. Harry took his dagger and cut the same scar on her forehead so that it matched up with his own. When that gruesome act was done, he reached down and touched her, scar to scar. Suddenly, blood poured from her and from him. Leaves and petals from flowers scattered over the ritual circle and leapt into the air. The leaves, blood and petals mixed together and streamed down around the two in the circle and soon covered over the two as a brilliant purple light began to glow around them. After a few seconds breathing stopped for both Harry and the girl and then the light exploded, and a small still form fell to the ground.

+ + + +

Alarms were going off everywhere in the office of Headmaster Albus Dumbledore. It was midnight and he had been having the first good night sleep in nearly a month when the alarms had woken him. Nothing had gone right in the eyes of the Grandfatherly beloved Headmaster of Hogwarts.

It had started with that horrible day that Harry had won the Triwizard Tournament, been taken by portkey to a terrible graveyard, and brought back Voldemort from the dead. Cornelius Fudge, the Minister of Magic had rejected the idea of a resurrected Lord Voldemort. Harry had been very upset with the death of his Godfather and with what happened in the Graveyard. Harry had emphatically not wanted to return to the Dursleys, not understanding that it was for his good.

But things had gone worse. One day after Harry had returned to the Dursleys, he had run away, no longer calling the house his home. The wards had fallen and thanks to insiders in the Ministry, the Death Eaters had discovered the home. They had attacked it and burned it, leaving the Death Mark in the sky. But still the knick knacks that beeped and buzzed and twirled, showing that Harry was alive were okay. But when the Headmaster walked into his office and looked at his knick knacks, connected to Harry Potter's life. Now, they were still and silent.

Albus silenced them, and then slowly sat down on his chair behind the desk. Had he overthought how he dealt with the boy? Did he isolate him too much? Did he overestimate Harry's desire to leave an abusive situation? It appeared that he had. He didn't sleep for a long time – the largest headache in the history of Hogwarts was coming on.