*Btw . . . this chapter's rated M for sexual content 😉
~o~O~o~
Hermione apparated back to Potter Manor immediately, frantically digging through her little purple purse. It had taken her many weeks before she stopped feeling the need to carry it around with her at all times. But now, the small reticule felt like it weighed a ton, despite the charms on it. Her hands shook as she dug through long-buried books for the copy of the one she'd almost burned. Even with her reverence for the written word, there were certain evils not meant to exist in the world.
The heavy, black tome lay in her hands, taunting her with its centuries-old magic and power.
Why in the world were she and Sirius bonded from a ritual in this book? Had someone done it to them- as a punishment? In her haste to rediscover the ritual, she'd completely forgotten to ask Severus how they were bonded, to begin with.
She flipped through the book, her nimble fingers stuttering to a halt as she found it.
The Coniunctus Ritual.
If performed both ways, the Coniunctus Ritual is a sacred magical bond, irrevocably tying the magical cores of two very powerful wizards. Both must survive the test of the bond, for if one is too weak they both shall die. But in success, the pair shall be untouched for neither can die while the other lives.
They become each other's strength, and in tandem can cast magic to surpass even Merlin himself.
Hermione nearly dropped the book.
Neither can die while the other survives? That sounded like a human version of a Horcrux, she realized with bile rising to her throat.
She flipped through the pages rapidly, skimming over the words, each page making her less and less hopeful. The bond allowed the pair the pick up on each other's emotions, allowing them to communicate vaguely without the need for legilimency. That would explain why she could feel Sirius when his emotions were most rampant. Bonded pairs could draw strength from one another's cores in times of injury or strain, to the point where one could pull another back from the brink of death. She paled. So that's why she recovered so quickly from Dolohov's curse. Sirius.
But the hardest hit of all was when she got to the section about how to perform the bonding ritual. She only read two sentences in, realizing it was magic that could only be done by one of the pair.
The realization hit her like a ton of bricks.
Sirius had done this.
He'd bonded them.
With dark magic.
"Hermione!" A concerned voice called for her. "Hermione where are you?"
The voice was a mere buzz in Hermione's ear, and she was barely aware of Lily bursting into her room with James right on her heels.
"Hermione!" Lily exclaimed in relief. "We were so worried, you just disappeared without a trace!"
She looked up at the pair numbly, the book now abandoned on the floor as it slipped through her fingers.
"What's wrong?" Lily asked in concern.
"How could you keep this from me?" Hermione whispered, horrified.
"Keep what from you?" James raised an eyebrow.
Hermione's eyes narrowed in growing anger.
"The bond. Sirius," she bit out.
YOU ARE READING
Promise to the Past | 🐾 ᴍᴀʀᴀᴜᴅᴇʀs ✓
FanfictionShe'd expected to possibly give her life to this war, she'd even prepared for the reality that they might lose the war. But the one thing Hermione Granger never prepared for was to be thrown back in time just before the fateful night of the Potters'...
