Chương 279: Ch269- Blood Curse and Talents

Astoria Greengrass stopped outside Professor Rosier's door, her hand hovering a few inches from the wood, was about to knock when she heard something from within. When she'd been summoned, she thought it would be the usual. That meant another check. Blood. Pulse. That strange, careful magic he and Professor Babbling used that never hurt but always left her tired afterwards. All with their parents' permission of course.

Daphne was normally there for those, hovering like she could shoulder the curse for her if it tried anything clever. Daphne wasn't here tonight. Astoria shifted her weight and lifted her hand again. Before she could knock, a voice burst through the door.

"Got it!" Astoria blinked.

"You want me to sing," Luna Lovegood added brightly, muffled by oak and wards.

"Want me to lure the Nargles away." Astoria tried to bite back a laugh. It slipped out anyway. From inside, Professor Rosier sighed. Resigned.

"No, Miss Lovegood. I do not want you to sing," he said.

"I want you to check something when Miss Greengrass arrives." Astoria smiled, nerves easing a notch. He sounded like himself. Not like someone about to tell her the curse had changed again. She raised her hand.

"Greengrass? Ah, Astoria... Well, if she's who you are waiting, she's here already," Luna said as if it were common knowledge. Astoria froze. Her hand dropped back to her side. How could she...? Footsteps crossed the room. The door opened. Professor Rosier stood there, looking down at her with the same flicker of surprise she felt herself. For half a second, neither of them spoke. Then they both looked past each other. Luna stood several steps behind him, finger lifted, tracing a slow shape in the air.

She wasn't looking at either of them. Her head was tipped slightly, listening to something no one else could hear.

"Oh," Luna said, pleased.

"You do stand differently when you're thinking." Astoria cleared her throat.

"I... sorry. I did not mean to listen." Professor Rosier stepped aside at once.

"Come in." She did. His office smelled faintly of tea and parchment, as usual. The door shut behind her with a soft click. Luna finished the shape she had been drawing. Then turned to look at her.

"There," she said.

"It is quieter now." Astoria glanced between them.

"What is?" Luna smiled at her.

"The buzzing." Astoria opened her mouth, then closed it again. She didn't hear anything buzzing, but didn't comment on it either. Professor Rosier watched her carefully.

"Sit," he said, gesturing to the chair near his desk.

"Both of you." Astoria sat. Luna perched on the arm of the chair instead, feet swinging. He pinched the bridge of his nose and let out a breath.

"Right," he said.

"Miss Greengrass. I invited Miss Lovegood because I think she might be useful with your... situation." He didn't spell it out. Not that it's needed to. Half the school already knew.

"But if you'd rather keep things quiet, that's fine too." Astoria shook her head.

"It's fine. Thanks for helping, Luna." Luna beamed.

"Of course. This'll be my first time studying a Thesrallure up close." Astoria blinked.

"A what?"

"They're very rare," Luna said, eyebrows raised.

"Bloodborne. Mostly harmless if they stay dormant, but when they get fidgety, they whisper bad things." Professor Rosier rubbed a hand over his face.

"I told you not to name it." Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel. Luna tilted her head.

"I didn't name it. That's what it's called."

"Still," he muttered.

"It'll get ideas." Astoria looked between them.

"Wait... what? I thought it was a blood curse." He gave a nod and flicked his wand. Three mugs floated in and landed on the table, tea for him, hot chocolate for the girls. Luna snatched hers like she hadn't seen chocolate in a month.

"Chocolate!" she sang. Cassian ignored that entirely.

"I recently discovered something. No... not discovered. Remembered, really." Astoria blinked.

"Right."

"That magic's... well. Magical." Luna's eyes went wide. She looked at him like he'd just found Atlantis. Astoria glanced at her, then back at him, brows raised.

"Yes? That's kind of the definition." He sipped his tea, not looking even remotely embarrassed.

"No, I mean properly magical. Unfair. Unstable. Bigger on the inside. Occasionally rude. Half the things we treat like rules are more like suggestions. We measure it by wandwork and spellcraft, but that's only a slice. The rest," He waggled a hand in the air.

"runs on mood swings and chaos. What I'm trying to say is, there's so much in magic we still can't explain. Calling something impossible, absurd, or false is about the stupidest thing a Magick can do." Luna sipped her hot chocolate with both hands and nodded solemnly. Cassian went on.

"I've always given Miss Lovegood the benefit of the doubt. Thought she was clever, strange, probably ahead of her year, all that. But I wasn't really listening. Last year, I decided to fix that." Luna stuck out her tongue.

"That's because you lost your magic and got bored." His eye twitched.

"Still counts." Astoria stared at them both.

"So... you mean to say Nargles, Wrackspurts, the Snorkack... those are real?" He shrugged.

"Real's relative. They're not physical, not in the way dragons are. You won't catch one in a net. They're not things. More like... interpretations." Her forehead creased.

"Interpretations of what?"

"Magic," he said, already halfway through his tea.

"Or thoughts. Or places. Some things aren't creatures in the way textbooks want them to be. They're a language created by a young, brilliant mind to shape understanding into something truly rare and magical." Astoria didn't know what to say to that. Luna piped up.

"Mum used to say magic has moods." Cassian pointed his spoon at her.

"Exactly. People think if it's not listed in a Ministry field guide, it doesn't count. But old magic doesn't care if you believe in it." Astoria didn't get it. She still nodded, tried to act like she was following, but her fingers curled slightly at the edge of her sleeve. The words made sense on their own, but together they left her standing in the middle of a sentence she'd clearly missed the beginning of. Cassian must've noticed. He set his mug down, glanced at Luna, then back at Astoria.

"Right," he said.

"Miss Lovegood, tell me what Miss Greengrass is thinking." Luna tilted her head like a curious owl. She stared at Astoria for a beat, then smiled faintly.

"She thinks you've lost the plot." Astoria's cheeks burned.

"I didn't say that- I didn't mean... It's the dumbfoundedness that's on my face." He waved a hand.

"You're fine. Not offended. You'd be surprised how often that's the first reaction." She glanced at Luna, still sitting as if this were perfectly ordinary.

"So you... read people's thoughts?"

"No," he said.

"She read their magic." Astoria frowned.

"That's not Legilimency?"

"Not even close," Cassian said.

"What she does, what her mum probably did too, is... something else. Harder to describe. She doesn't pull thoughts. She feels the shape your magic makes when it brushes the world." Astoria stared.

"That doesn't even make sense." Cassian sighed and leaned back slightly.

"I'll be honest. I'm still not convinced Nargles and all that are real. They're probably Miss Lovegood's way of working around her ability. Which is reading magic." He reached for his mug, taking another sip. She didn't even notice when it filled itself.

"Her father passed me her mum's notes. And some of his memories. Her mum didn't use Nargles or Wrackspurts. She didn't call it anything, really. Just... knew. Picked up on things people didn't notice. But Miss Lovegood..."

"She got stories instead," Luna said brightly.

"He told me all about them when I was little. And then they became real." Cassian nodded.

"When we experience something we can't explain, we usually build something that can. She didn't understand what she was feeling, so her brain dug around for the closest story that fit." Astoria stared at Luna, blinked, then slowly looked back at Cassian. The logic clicked... finally, that strange thing he said earlier about magic being unfair made sense. Magic really was magical. She glanced at Luna.

"You're alright with it? I mean, knowing it's not exactly... real?" Luna nodded without a pause.

"I was surprised too, last year. But I'm alright now. I'm glad, actually. Mum saw things like this. I do too." That made her smile. She reached out, took Luna's hand, gave it a squeeze.

"Thanks." Cassian smiled, then sat straight.

"Now. Back to your blood curse.

"Here's the problem," he said.

"It's magic, and it's inside your magic. That makes it nearly impossible to separate or track cleanly. If it was just a curse, we'd have snapped it already. But this one interacts. It grows, shifts, reacts to your magic like a second skin." He tapped the desk with his finger.

"But now we've got Miss Lovegood. She doesn't look at spell structures or residue. She sees what your magic's doing underneath. The shape it makes. How it breathes." Luna was still holding her hand.

"It's like a song that's gone flat in one part," she said.

"Yours is bright, mostly. But there's a patch in the middle that doesn't move." Astoria felt her mouth go dry.

"Is it... getting worse?"

"Not today," Luna said.

"It's been quiet lately. A bit... sulky. But still." That was a strange comfort. Cassian leaned back slightly.

"We'll monitor it. But with Miss Lovegood's help, we might start seeing the outlines. Even if we can't pull it apart yet, we'll know where it begins. That's something." He stood, grabbed a folder from the side of the desk, and passed it to her.

"Start keeping notes," he said.

"Dreams, odd spells, anything. Doesn't matter how stupid it feels. If your magic sneezes wrong, I want it in writing." Astoria opened it. The parchment inside had been charmed, each page shimmered faintly, charmed to resist tampering, probably. Or to cross-reference.

"This'll help?" He nodded.

"At worst, it gives us a pattern. At best... we catch it shifting." She held it to her chest. Luna peered inside.

"It's orange."

"That's normal," he said.

"If it turns blue, run." Astoria blinked.

"What?"

"Joke," Cassian said.

"Mostly." She didn't laugh. But it was easier to breathe again. She looked at Luna.

"You'll really help?" Luna nodded.

"I want to." Cassian clapped his hands.

"Right. You're both dismissed. Go, eat, commit minor mischief. Whatever teenagers your age do." She smiled. The door opened behind them. Luna gave her hand another squeeze before drifting out, humming something tuneless. Astoria lingered a second longer.

"Thank you," she said. Cassian only waved her off.

"Go on. You're not cursed. You're complicated." She laughed but that stayed with her the whole walk back.