Neither of them noticed the ceremonial blade as it turned silver in Mandy's hands.
"Oh wot can't be?" He stood up, turning his neck as much as he possibly could to skim quickly with her:
...to lift life's energy from the crop fields... livestock... other Sorcerer's... use them as fuel for sorcery... absorbed and converted into Sorcerer's energy... thereby, salting the Earth everymore... damning it to barrenness..
He noticed the sketches and photos depicted in the margins, one or two of them subtitled along the lines of Banished to the Underworld, the Lord of Mictlan, Mictlantecuhtli; and holding that same dagger in some of them.
He flicked his eyes back to the words, which got worse and worse as he skimmed,
...Sorcerer must consume 3 mouthfuls of its victim in order to obtain its magic... the soul being given to Mictlantecuhtli in the Underworld... sacrifice as a heroic death... the carcass becomes unable to reintegrate into the soil... must be buried deeply to evade the foul odor... lasts for eternity...
The more Mandy read the more intrigued she became. This sounded so foreign unlike anything she had ever heard happening before. Certainly nothing like this was ever taught to her at school. And how did Draco and his family come across these books? Clearly they knew some people.
Human sacrifices? What was the real story of the Aztec people? were they all wizards back then? They what exactly happened to them? Surely they could have easily fought off the diseases that everyone claimed killed them. This was certainly leading her to more questions then answers.
She reread some of the sentances again. This was some powerful magic, and could lead people to be very powerful wizards.
She didn't notice that Draco had looked over at her right away but when she did she looked at him with curious eyes, "Do you really think this is that same knife? Mictlantecuhtli's knife?" She looked down at the sword and saw it was glowing, "Holy shit!" She said and almost dropped it. Thankfully her training kicked in and she just laid it down on its covering.
She looked at Draco, "Do you, do you really think this could be done?"
He saw the now silver dagger. Black, the dagger had lay dormant and appeared otherwise harmless. Now, it was as though it had awoken from a sleep, glowing and intriguing. He felt himself drawn to it, the magic in his body responding to that low thrum even as he still technically heard nothing with his physical ear.
"And I see no reason to believe this isn't the Lord of Mictlan's dagger, he is pictured here with it," he pointed to the page with his gloved finger,
"Besides... This book chose this page."
An eerie breeze came in through that open window; rustling the leaves of a pruned and potted Silver Lime tree which sat just behind him.
Wow. She certainly wasn't expecting Malfoy to say that. She figured he would say that it was impossible and that was something only done a long time ago.
Mandy studied the pictures and the symbols on the dagger to see if all the symbols matched up. She couldn't believe it. They were all the same. If this was really the dagger in these pictures that belonged to a 'god' of the Aztec, it could be a great find for Gringotts.
"If this is really his knife that he used to somehow absorb energy from other things, shouldn't it have been more protected," she looked at him. "I'm pretty sure there weren't many protection spells surrounding it. It was just deep in the gound."
When the wind blew through his window she felt a shiver and wrapped her arms around herself, suddenly feeling chilled. She found herself staring at the knife and her hand reached out and ran a gloved finger back and forth over the knife, not even realizing she was doing it.
"Have you ever heard of anyone doing this before?"
"Heard of worse things than that, my darling," he drawled with his trademark sarcasm, watching her finger at the knife's edge.
"Honestly, would it have needed protecting if it were left deep in the ground? These are archaic people. That treatment probably seemed fine enough," He realized he had reached his hand out and enclosed his left fist around the hilt, taking it in his grasp.
Another chill breeze through the window, as he turned the shining item around in his gaze again.
He could hardly believe this strange feeling that had bubbled up.
"Shall we try it on something?" He glanced about as if looking for something to slash, still standing and with both fists balled up, one on the blade and one at his side.
She stood facing him as he looked around realizing where they were. She realized what he was suggesting. Absorbing energy. But as long as it was something small and simple it wouldn't be any problem right? Besides the more she knew about the knife the more she could report to her supervisior and her team.
She felt this swell of desire fill up inside her. Her desire for knowledge was overcoming her rational thinking as it had several times in his life. She bit her lip and look around his room.
She looked up at him and smirked. She grabbed his hand that wasn't holding onto the dagger and pulled him towards his tree, "This could work right? I mean it's something small, not likely to cause any real harm?" She looked up at him with a twinkle in her eyes.
He had seen this tree many mornings and although he had no sentimental attachment to it, it was a handsome rare tree that he found his desire to kill to be equally overwhelming as it was odd. It was the first time ever seeing that tree for its newly obtainable magical property, instead of as a decoration. Silver lime trees were among the small group of special wand making trees, known to possess a potency of Legilimency specific magic. Lucius had put this tree here as a status symbol.
Draco wasn't sure at first how to do it.
Do I just... stab it? He thought wildly to himself.
He was suddenly taken by a calm, and remembered something he had read in the book. Sinking onto one knee, he drove the dagger into the soil of the potted plant. Nothing happened. He was about to make a snide comment about the soil being a cold fish, but then he remembered something else.
He stood quickly. He grabbed 2 leaves from the plant, and one small bundle of flowers, and he shoved them one by one into his mouth, scrunching up his face at the not so lovely taste as he swallowed each, separately.
There was nothing at first, so he went to retrieve the blade from the dirt.
"Tastes awfu-", he'd began, but stopped himself as his hand wrapped around the hilt again.
His discarded tea cup from this morning began to rattle on the desk; left in the corner so that naturally it was flying over the side, and it quickly cracked on the ground. That low thrum just barely came to their audible hearing now, as the tree in front of them made a funny wheezing sound, as if the steam was coming out of it.
Draco felt his feet sink into the sole of his shoes as he seemed to for a moment, become heavier. He felt powerful, like he was going to burst with extra energy: magical energy. It was like having a very big meal and not enough room to carry it all in.
It was a bit like being high on Dust.
A vibrating from the dagger, before the sound of a vaccuum, and then quiet.
Mandy stood back a bit behind him and watched him try to get it to work. She felt a bit disappointed that nothing worked. She was ready to tell him to give up and maybe it wasn't worth it when he reached out and picked off some leaves and flowers off. She watched him eat it and looked for any symptoms.
She sighed and bit her lip bummed that nothing happened when all of a sudden she whipped her head around to look at the teacup as it crashed to the floor. Okay now something had for sure happened. She heard the thrum and looked at him trying to see any signs of anything different for him. He didn't look any different.
Once it became quiet she looked him up and down, "Draco?"
Mandy was so glad that Draco felt aight. She would have felt horrible if something had happened. It would have been all her fault and people would certainly be aware if something major had happened to Draco Malfoy.
She walked up to him and touched him on his face, his cheat, and then his arm. "You don't look or feel any different. You wouldn't know anything had happened to you," she said with an analytical tone. She was making dozen of mental notes in her head.
She then walked over to the plant, the smell gettin worse by the second. "Well obviously something happened. This is what the book described, barren earth and all that. It will never decay and must be buried deep in the ground." She crouched down to get a better look before looking over her shoulder at him, "how do we know what it did to you?"
Mandy nodded, that thing really had to go. They didn't need it to stink up the whole Manor and leave a permanent odor on the furniture. "Can we bury it in your garden?"
While they made their way to the garden with the plant, her mind was racing. Should she give it a try? Nothing happened to Draco, he's still perfectly fine. And think of the research information it could provide if she tried it. Should could write papers! She could give seminars! Just by eating a few leaves. Surely she could manage that.
When they got outside she looked around, "Where should we bury it?"
Draco had a suitable spot in his front yard gardens, the farthest spot from his door or the gate that he could manage.
Something odd had happened as, walking through the gardens with the Silver Lime floating behind them, Draco experienced a vision:
Luna was standing under the great Cherry tree located near the center of these gardens, laughing airily and reaching out her hand to him. When he took her hand, they walked out into the sun from the shade, the light of the sun becoming brighter and brighter until the entire scene faded into white, and then faded in favor of reality.
It was not a memory, he had not had that moment with Luna. It was not an image he had concocted or conceived, either, as he was focused on his current tasks.
Because it concerned Luna, he did not mention it to Mandy, although it near certainly concerned that dagger.
After blasting a few hexes into the ground, it had moved enough dirt to place the tree deeply. He called Keeley over to finish off the job, and they regrouped just beside of the elf's work.
"Well? I think it's your turn."
A garden gnome ran from one bush to another, giggling to itself.
Mandy watched him make the hold in teh groud as her mind began to race. What exaclty did the Aztecs do with this power? And how come they didn't take over the world with it? She shivered at the thought of everythign they could have done if they had used their powers to their maximum.
After the tree was buried she looked over at Draco. Right of course it was her turn. She wasn't going to let him be the only one who had the experience when she was the one who brought the knife to him was she?
She extended her hand her hand, "Hand it over." Once the dagger was in her hand she felt stronger, more ready to take this task on. She started looking around at the other plants in his garden to see what would be something he wouldn't miss.
Without thinking she flicked her wand and stupified the gnome that was running around his garden. It was being just a nuissance. Then it seemed the power of the dagger consumed her. She looked at the gnome and then smirked and looked at Draco, "DO you think it would work?"
"Its worth a try," he reasoned, also seeing the garden gnome for the first time as more than just a pest, but rather a container for the magic within, something rather easily broken open to steal with this new item of her's.
He too was still feeling the effects of the weapon's less than subtle magic, and he didn't realize how strange his line of thinking had become; even welcoming it in order to push aside his bizarre vision of Luna.
"Gernumbli magic is supposed to be rather creative, artistic. Can't hurt. I haven't had a Jarvey in here for quite some time to degnome, and it certainly wouldn't be missed."
If Mandy hadn't been so consumed with her hunger for knowledge and experience she would have slapped herself for even thinking of killing this knome to absorb his powers, She would have been throughly disgusted about the fact that she was going to have to eat 3 chucks of this creature.
However she wasn't in a normal mindset. Her Ravenclaw and Slytherin personalities were combining in the worst sense that she was sure her parents had alwasy worried about. Right now she wanted to try it out, to be equal to Draco, to feel what he was being see. She wanted him to view her as an equal and not like a little Ravenclaw who was never good enough to be in Slytherin and always harbored a little crush on him.
She walked over to the gnome, "So I just stab it?"
Neither of them noticed the ceremonial blade as it turned silver in Mandy's hands.
"Oh wot can't be?" He stood up, turning his neck as much as he possibly could to skim quickly with her:
...to lift life's energy from the crop fields... livestock... other Sorcerer's... use them as fuel for sorcery... absorbed and converted into Sorcerer's energy... thereby, salting the Earth everymore... damning it to barrenness..
He noticed the sketches and photos depicted in the margins, one or two of them subtitled along the lines of Banished to the Underworld, the Lord of Mictlan, Mictlantecuhtli; and holding that same dagger in some of them.
He flicked his eyes back to the words, which got worse and worse as he skimmed,
...Sorcerer must consume 3 mouthfuls of its victim in order to obtain its magic... the soul being given to Mictlantecuhtli in the Underworld... sacrifice as a heroic death... the carcass becomes unable to reintegrate into the soil... must be buried deeply to evade the foul odor... lasts for eternity...
Draco glanced up to catch her eye.
Reply
Human sacrifices? What was the real story of the Aztec people? were they all wizards back then? They what exactly happened to them? Surely they could have easily fought off the diseases that everyone claimed killed them. This was certainly leading her to more questions then answers.
She reread some of the sentances again. This was some powerful magic, and could lead people to be very powerful wizards.
She didn't notice that Draco had looked over at her right away but when she did she looked at him with curious eyes, "Do you really think this is that same knife? Mictlantecuhtli's knife?" She looked down at the sword and saw it was glowing, "Holy shit!" She said and almost dropped it. Thankfully her training kicked in and she just laid it down on its covering.
She looked at Draco, "Do you, do you really think this could be done?"
Reply
"This could certainly be done."
He saw the now silver dagger. Black, the dagger had lay dormant and appeared otherwise harmless. Now, it was as though it had awoken from a sleep, glowing and intriguing. He felt himself drawn to it, the magic in his body responding to that low thrum even as he still technically heard nothing with his physical ear.
"And I see no reason to believe this isn't the Lord of Mictlan's dagger, he is pictured here with it," he pointed to the page with his gloved finger,
"Besides... This book chose this page."
An eerie breeze came in through that open window; rustling the leaves of a pruned and potted Silver Lime tree which sat just behind him.
Reply
Mandy studied the pictures and the symbols on the dagger to see if all the symbols matched up. She couldn't believe it. They were all the same. If this was really the dagger in these pictures that belonged to a 'god' of the Aztec, it could be a great find for Gringotts.
"If this is really his knife that he used to somehow absorb energy from other things, shouldn't it have been more protected," she looked at him. "I'm pretty sure there weren't many protection spells surrounding it. It was just deep in the gound."
When the wind blew through his window she felt a shiver and wrapped her arms around herself, suddenly feeling chilled. She found herself staring at the knife and her hand reached out and ran a gloved finger back and forth over the knife, not even realizing she was doing it.
"Have you ever heard of anyone doing this before?"
Reply
"Honestly, would it have needed protecting if it were left deep in the ground? These are archaic people. That treatment probably seemed fine enough," He realized he had reached his hand out and enclosed his left fist around the hilt, taking it in his grasp.
Another chill breeze through the window, as he turned the shining item around in his gaze again.
He could hardly believe this strange feeling that had bubbled up.
"Shall we try it on something?" He glanced about as if looking for something to slash, still standing and with both fists balled up, one on the blade and one at his side.
Reply
She felt this swell of desire fill up inside her. Her desire for knowledge was overcoming her rational thinking as it had several times in his life. She bit her lip and look around his room.
She looked up at him and smirked. She grabbed his hand that wasn't holding onto the dagger and pulled him towards his tree, "This could work right? I mean it's something small, not likely to cause any real harm?" She looked up at him with a twinkle in her eyes.
Reply
He had seen this tree many mornings and although he had no sentimental attachment to it, it was a handsome rare tree that he found his desire to kill to be equally overwhelming as it was odd. It was the first time ever seeing that tree for its newly obtainable magical property, instead of as a decoration.
Silver lime trees were among the small group of special wand making trees, known to possess a potency of Legilimency specific magic.
Lucius had put this tree here as a status symbol.
Draco wasn't sure at first how to do it.
Do I just... stab it?
He thought wildly to himself.
He was suddenly taken by a calm, and remembered something he had read in the book.
Sinking onto one knee, he drove the dagger into the soil of the potted plant.
Nothing happened.
He was about to make a snide comment about the soil being a cold fish, but then he remembered something else.
He stood quickly.
He grabbed 2 leaves from the plant, and one small bundle of flowers, and he shoved them one by one into his mouth, scrunching up his face at the not so lovely taste as he swallowed each, separately.
There was nothing at first, so he went to retrieve the blade from the dirt.
"Tastes awfu-", he'd began, but stopped himself as his hand wrapped around the hilt again.
His discarded tea cup from this morning began to rattle on the desk; left in the corner so that naturally it was flying over the side, and it quickly cracked on the ground.
That low thrum just barely came to their audible hearing now, as the tree in front of them made a funny wheezing sound, as if the steam was coming out of it.
Draco felt his feet sink into the sole of his shoes as he seemed to for a moment, become heavier.
He felt powerful, like he was going to burst with extra energy: magical energy. It was like having a very big meal and not enough room to carry it all in.
It was a bit like being high on Dust.
A vibrating from the dagger, before the sound of a vaccuum, and then quiet.
Reply
She sighed and bit her lip bummed that nothing happened when all of a sudden she whipped her head around to look at the teacup as it crashed to the floor. Okay now something had for sure happened. She heard the thrum and looked at him trying to see any signs of anything different for him. He didn't look any different.
Once it became quiet she looked him up and down, "Draco?"
Reply
"Mandy," he spoke in reply, showing her that he was alright.
"In fact, I feel good but, I don't feel that much different. Good show, but where is the difference?"
He turned out around in the spot, nothing out of sort.
Until he saw the tree in the soil; a black and withered corpse of what it used to be.
A faint, negative smell started to emit from it.
Reply
She walked up to him and touched him on his face, his cheat, and then his arm. "You don't look or feel any different. You wouldn't know anything had happened to you," she said with an analytical tone. She was making dozen of mental notes in her head.
She then walked over to the plant, the smell gettin worse by the second. "Well obviously something happened. This is what the book described, barren earth and all that. It will never decay and must be buried deep in the ground." She crouched down to get a better look before looking over her shoulder at him, "how do we know what it did to you?"
Reply
"Perhaps you should try it?" He offered it to her, honestly a bit puzzled himself. He shot a look at the gross black tree.
"And perhaps we should go outside with this thing... bury it."
His nose scrunched up at the odor of it.
Reply
While they made their way to the garden with the plant, her mind was racing. Should she give it a try? Nothing happened to Draco, he's still perfectly fine. And think of the research information it could provide if she tried it. Should could write papers! She could give seminars! Just by eating a few leaves. Surely she could manage that.
When they got outside she looked around, "Where should we bury it?"
Reply
Draco had a suitable spot in his front yard gardens, the farthest spot from his door or the gate that he could manage.
Something odd had happened as, walking through the gardens with the Silver Lime floating behind them, Draco experienced a vision:
Luna was standing under the great Cherry tree located near the center of these gardens, laughing airily and reaching out her hand to him. When he took her hand, they walked out into the sun from the shade, the light of the sun becoming brighter and brighter until the entire scene faded into white, and then faded in favor of reality.
It was not a memory, he had not had that moment with Luna.
It was not an image he had concocted or conceived, either, as he was focused on his current tasks.
Because it concerned Luna, he did not mention it to Mandy, although it near certainly concerned that dagger.
After blasting a few hexes into the ground, it had moved enough dirt to place the tree deeply. He called Keeley over to finish off the job, and they regrouped just beside of the elf's work.
"Well? I think it's your turn."
A garden gnome ran from one bush to another, giggling to itself.
Reply
After the tree was buried she looked over at Draco. Right of course it was her turn. She wasn't going to let him be the only one who had the experience when she was the one who brought the knife to him was she?
She extended her hand her hand, "Hand it over." Once the dagger was in her hand she felt stronger, more ready to take this task on. She started looking around at the other plants in his garden to see what would be something he wouldn't miss.
Without thinking she flicked her wand and stupified the gnome that was running around his garden. It was being just a nuissance. Then it seemed the power of the dagger consumed her. She looked at the gnome and then smirked and looked at Draco, "DO you think it would work?"
Reply
He too was still feeling the effects of the weapon's less than subtle magic, and he didn't realize how strange his line of thinking had become; even welcoming it in order to push aside his bizarre vision of Luna.
"Gernumbli magic is supposed to be rather creative, artistic. Can't hurt. I haven't had a Jarvey in here for quite some time to degnome, and it certainly wouldn't be missed."
Reply
However she wasn't in a normal mindset. Her Ravenclaw and Slytherin personalities were combining in the worst sense that she was sure her parents had alwasy worried about. Right now she wanted to try it out, to be equal to Draco, to feel what he was being see. She wanted him to view her as an equal and not like a little Ravenclaw who was never good enough to be in Slytherin and always harbored a little crush on him.
She walked over to the gnome, "So I just stab it?"
Reply
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