"Seems like it's finally that time," I mused quietly, looking at the letter Harry had sent me. He wanted to know if I knew anything about ol' Nicholas Flamel. A bit late compared to what I remember about the story. Or was it? It'd been so long… I would have to refresh my Occlumency later and step up my training in it. It wouldn't do to forget such important little facts like dates again.
Returning to the matter at hand, I wrote a quick summary of what I knew of the man, including a reference to the Philosopher's Stone. I also made sure to let him know he was famous in both worlds. Then, I tied my response to Hedwig's leg, gave her an owl treat, and let her return to Hogwarts. She gave a nod of her head at me then flew off back to her owner.
Thinking about Harry and his investigations into the Philosopher's Stone made me turn my thoughts to alchemy, and how my own studies of it were progressing. Poorly, sad to say. I was so busy with so many things lately I'd barely had time to do more than skim the book mother had gotten me last year, let alone test or experiment with anything too complex.
It had given me plenty to think about, namely rituals after I'd read a section in the book about a ritual that would let me transmute my bodily fluids into any liquid substance I could conceive of. Best of all, the ritual was designed to make the user immune to their detrimental effects of their own transmuted fluids, so I could make my blood into acid and I wouldn't die from it. I'd still benefit from it, of course. I could harvest my own sweat and blood for potion ingredients, or make someone have a bad day if they bit or cut me.
There were drawbacks, of course, such as not being able to make magical fluids or anything too complex, like I wasn't able to bleed pre-made potions or soda pop but I could cry tears made of wine or olive oil. And the other downsides were pretty minor compared to some rituals. Out of all the rituals I'd learned of, that one was quite tempting, more so than any others.
I had not delved too deeply into rituals during my studies on the different types of magic I could and could not do as a Squib. Most rituals were extremely unsafe to do if you were still growing and developing. The mind and body could be violently twisted otherwise. Stories of people who aged in body but retained the mind of a child due to performing a ritual in their youth was one of the more common ones in the magical world. Plus, as a Squib, I could only do three rituals in my entire life.
Now technically, when you got right down to it, everything magical that wasn't accidental magic was a form of ritual. After all, a ritual was, 'a ceremony consisting of a series of actions performed according to a prescribed order.' At least, that was the dictionary definition.
The movements of a wand combined with the spell incantation? A ritual. The stirring motions as well as the ingredients added to a potion? Another type of ritual.
However, what the magical world considered to be 'true' rituals was different, and more closely aligned with what the mundane world viewed them as; a bunch of geometric shapes drawn onto the floor along with reagents and catalyst materials (mundane and magical) carefully arranged during a specific time of day to do something extremely difficult to accomplish with pure wand or 'foci' magic alone.
Rituals were heavily regulated by the Ministry of Magic, if not outright banned. There were some good reasons for it. A lot of the old rituals involved blood and sacrifice, and were as Dark as you could get. But there were some, like the Mind Booster or the Body Strengthening ritual, that'd been banned because the Ministry didn't want its citizens having access to superior minds or bodies.
The major – and I suspect real – reason so many rituals were banned and erased by the various magical governments? Anybody could use them. Yes, even Muggles! So long as everything was done properly, the rituals were powered by the world's own magical energy and needed no connections to the user's magic.
There were drawbacks. A person could only perform a certain number of rituals in their life. Didn't matter if they weren't the recipient of the ritual's effect, if they'd participated in one, like say provided blood or magical power, they technically counted as having done a ritual.
The average wizard could perform seven without burdening themselves. A Squib could only do three at most. Mundane, non-magical people were capable of doing only a single ritual without risking harm to themselves.
These numbers were also important. Seven was a mystical number, while three was the number of balance. If I decided to use a ritual for myself, I'd only be able to do one, or three. I could never do just two, as the imbalance in my magic would eventually tear me to shreds. Or worse.
So why was I even bothering with researching rituals if they were so limited? Well, the answer was simple. They could still be useful for me. Having superior regeneration if wounded or sick could be a game changer! Same with super strength or magically enhanced reflexes!
'If I'd had that last Christmas, I'd have been able to deal with those human traffickers much easier,' I thought to myself.
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