{15th July 1991}
{Rigel's POV}
I sat very still and focused on slow breaths to maintain my calm. The wait was likely going to be longer than before. I looked around again but gave up halfway since I had a halfway descent plan for now. While it wasn't entirely selfless, as I know Harry would force someone like Dumbledore to make sure I remain unschatched, I never thought I would prioritize someone else over myself.
'I guess they are starting to affect me a little bit after all.' I thought. A year of living among people who should not exist has well torn down any barriers that I once had about them being characters from a novel.
'Let's not think about stupid things for now,' I thought as I closed my eyes, expanding my senses as I calmed myself down and thought about what had given me a chance to escape.
'Was there a reason that the imperios didn't work on me? Maybe it's because my mind is protected by the system itself?' The thought remained unanswered as time passed. I had practiced Occlumency, and although it is said that high-level users of the mind arts were immune to it I surely hadn't reached that level yet.
My struggles to move my mana were in vain. No matter how gently I called to it, the result stayed the same. My only weapon was my Mana sense, and my ability to judge emotional fluctuations by the frequency of one's mana core, an ability I'd spent the last year learning to feel.
When the wall to my right shivered, I felt it before I saw it: a ripple. The stone suddenly turned clear, like liquid, then glass itself. Nalini stood on the other side of the room, leaning her head a fraction toward me. She nodded in my direction, accepting the terms I had laid out.
She turned away from me and pointed her wand at Sirius. For a second I felt a hint of fear, but it quickly faded when I sensed the spell she was channeling.
The spell she cast matched the frequency of the stinging hex. Sirius flinched, shoulders tightening against the back of his chair. The blindfold led to panic as he tried in vain to search for an attacker. Sirius went from still to lively in a heartbeat. He shouted, my name, I think, or 'show yourself '—and the room around him woke abuzz. Harry's mana spiked, followed by everyone else's as their heads swiveled around.
Nalini flicked her wand without looking at them. I couldn't hear what they were talking about, and I didn't have much skill at lip reading. But I was able to sense their emotions shift when I tried to focus. Nalini raised her wand again, and I felt her channel something like a Silencing Charm. That spell worked quite quickly when I saw Sirius stop shouting at her, realizing it was moot.
Then she began speaking. I could not hear the words, but I sensed their emotions change. Relief first—an easing in Harry's shoulders, an exhale unbound in Ginny's chest, she likely told them I was okay. Then something quickly mixed in, it took me a few seconds to figure it out: fear. It felt different from the sharp spike of immediate threat, more like a slow, inevitable descent. Nalini didn't speak much as she didn't need to.
Ginny shouted something. It looked like "no." She leaned forward as if she was going to fight Nalini for it. The red bolt caught her square in the chest, and she folded as if a string had been cut, head lolling down. I never want to see that posture again.
My fist clenched so hard that the chain protested against my sudden movement. I forced myself to breathe, calming down, knowing that while it was a dangerous piece of magic, it was still harmless as long as she didn't get hit by another one.
A stunner is not an elegant piece of magic, and too much exposure could indeed lead to concussion and maybe even more severe effects. It suppressed most of her mana from reaching her head, knocking her out.
'One should be fine, anymore and it would be trouble.' I concluded as I tracked her mana for a moment before I monitored as everyone else got the same treatment regardless of their protests.
Nalini moved down the line. Harry was next, jaw set, as he glared through the blindfold at the sound's source. The jet of red struck him in the shoulder, and he sagged. Ron cursed with his whole body before the spell put him under. The twins followed quickly after. Sirius was last, and he had just been staring at Nalini's supposed location until the last minute.
Nalini stood for a moment, surveying her handiwork. I expected her to cancel the charm on the wall, but she didn't. Maybe she was planning this view to make sure I go through with what I had proposed. Giving one more nod in my direction as he moved around.
I stared at everyone falling over their chairs, letting the tremor in my hand finish itself, I hadn't noticed that my hands were clenched so tight. I let it go as I suppressed the feeling. I took a few deep breaths to focus on what would happen next. I returned to my mindscape, modeled after the Hogwarts library, and pulled blank paper from a nonexistent drawer, then wrote down the terms I needed to bring to the table: the clauses to make sure everything worked as intended.
...
The door opened, and I woke up from the slight trance. Nalini stepped in first. Her husband, Mr. Patil, his potbelly more noticeable now that he was nervous, followed with a roll of parchment and a feather. He carried them as if they were fragile, as he tried to suppress his emotions.
Nalini did not bother conjuring a chair for herself this time. She drew her wand in a neat arc, and a table appeared out of thin air. It had no special design, as she had only chosen it for its functionality this time around.
She said nothing and waved her wand at my hands, freeing them from their confines. The chains unknit and vanished without clatter, dematerializing mid-fall. I had not realized how much I had been leaning into restraint until I wasn't. My shoulders pitched forward. My back tried to reassert itself and flailed for a moment.
I caught myself on my forearms and then sat with the gracelessness of a man who had been bound for too long. Pride is unnecessary, and I didn't bother to keep up and act as I rubbed my wrists, trying to ease some of the sting. The skin there was angry red, but it wasn't broken through.
'My magic is back,' I thought, though that didn't exactly help without my wand. I mean, I had my staff in my inventory, but let's not kid anyone. I can only use it as a bludgeon and nothing more.
Mr. Patil placed the parchment on the table and, with a little flourish as if to reassure himself he could still do magic and I couldn't, at least I can't fight both of them without a wand.
'Normally I place my wand in my wand holster on my forearm, so they must have gotten to it when they bound me.' I thought as Mr. Patil moved his wand.
He conjured an inkwell as he grabbed a quill, ready to write down what was going to be discussed. I shifted my attention to Nalini. She was not smiling. She looked like a woman about to pay for something expensive and necessary as her mana rippled with reluctance.
"So," she said, voice even, "shall we go over the terms of the contract?"
...
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AN: Moving to wrap up the summer arc in the next 10 chapters.
P.S- 60+ advanced chapters on p,atreon: p,atreon.com/Light_novel_addict