The first match of the Quidditch season was soon approaching with it being the one between Slytherin and Gryffindor. Like in normal canon fashion Snape was limping from the nip on his leg that Fluffy gave him during Halloween when the man no doubt went to make sure the troll wasn't a distraction. I knew it was only a minor injury and not a serious attack because he still had his leg. Fluffy might be a bit young as far as Cerberus went but his heads were each the size of a car and his mouths large enough to match.-
Not that it really mattered to me since he was just a big softy so long as you'd been vouched for by Hagrid. I know because I'd went to with the man on one of the days he went to check on the great beast. It was surreal to see the massive creature flop over like a normal dog wanting belly scratches for the man with all three tongue lolling out happily. Once Hagrid vouched for me the big fellow was more or less just a big puppy happy for any attention he got.-
The real annoyance had been the golden trio sniffing around to try and figure out who it was that was there on Halloween. I had a rather good alibi since I was at the common room no less than a minute after all that went down. An impossibility when apparition was forbidden in Hogwarts wards. The distance between the first floor girls bathroom and Ravenclaw tower was simply too far for a short cut to work either. They still kept an eye on me though in case I did anything to give myself away but their "surveillance" couldn't be more obvious to a haki user like me.-
It was the playful raising of his cup to me slightly Dumbledore sent me the following morning that was what almost tipped me off. I wouldn't be surprised if the man was trying to tie me to the trio in some way. Beyond that however I couldn't really say that anything worth mention happened beyond my first shipment of stuff from Guts coming through. It was an exceptionally HEFTY shipment at that. Over two hundred souls from astral entities in a silver and holly soul cage, various bits of hide, bones and organs as well as a single item that made me narrow my eyes slightly, a Behelit.-
The small blue egg looking thing looked so harmless at first glance if rather creepy with it's many closed eyes and open mouths. Thanks to my appraisal skill I learned how the thing worked and had to admit it surprised me. See the thing actually drew in free floating astral energy(spiritual energy) and accumulated it within it until the amount reached whatever was necessary to transform the holder into an apostle. I also learned that apparently Behelits had ranks that determined what sort of apostle one became.-
The lowest and more common was the pawns, which this one fell into. The next up was the knights that were typically more robust and suited for being the fighters of the apostles. The third was the generals that were like the knights but way more powerful. From what I could infer these were the really outrageous apostles like Grumbeld, Zodd and those like them. Finally were the royals of which there were only ever five at a time, the Godhand. As should be pretty obvious from this information the Behelit I now possessed wasn't worth keeping.-
Beyond that less than stellar item the rest of the stuff he sent had mixed results from appraisal. Most of the gore was just useless flesh with a few minorly useful bits tossed in the mix. The real prizes were the hides, blood and bones. These were all heavily infused with magical energy and potential. One of the hides even belonged to the apostle guts had killed that was apparently some sort of fishman. The hide held a high affinity for water based magics and thus would be perfect for that sort of enchantment.-
Finally the saturday came when the Quidditch match was set to take place and I flat out refused to go.
"Aw come on mate it's like the only sport we have!" Terry insisted.
"And I have no interest in it. Never cared much for muggle sports to begin with and Quidditch is no different to me, just uses magic." I said flatly.
"Give it up Terry, I told you he wouldn't go. Some people are just like that, nothing for it." Mike said and Terry looked depressed.
I rolled my eyes "Don't look like I just told you I was dying or some such. We hang out plenty even without some sport to do it. You two go and enjoy the game, I'll probably go practice or study." I said shooing them so they weren't late.
They did leave in the end even if Terry looked heartbroken when they did. I however didn't plan on studying or practicing spells, I had something else in mind. Specifically a ritual I had found. It was a relatively simple one with a flat one to one sacrifice to reward scheme. The ritual was named the "rite of bolstering" and served one purpose, making the power of whatever the object focus used stronger.-
What I planed to use in this case was my wand. For the sacrifice it would be all these magical bits from Gut's kills. Perhaps not the most morally correct path I could take but why would I let something like that stop me? The best part is that this wasn't even a dark magical ritual since these weren't from people, minus the apostle that I didn't even count. I considered using the souls for this but that was definitely dark magic territory and thus best not touched.