read full story inpatreon
ilham20
"Clang."
Lucien tapped his wand against the heavy door. It swung open with a deep metallic groan.
The Patronus walked in beside him.
Nagini had grown used to Lucien's visits. But the moment the door opened, the giant green snake coiled in the corner snapped her head up.
Those vertical pupils still burned with cold light. Her body tightened, scales flaring slightly—still locked in full defensive mode.
Even after countless visits. Even though Lucien had never once shown aggression. She kept her distance, watching him with those empty, emotionless eyes.
Lucien took a few steps forward and stopped. The faceless silver Patronus kept moving toward the corner.
Nagini's reaction was instant and extreme.
She coiled tighter, head pulled back, neck arched, venomous fangs gleaming in her half-open mouth. Classic strike posture. Ready to launch and tear into anything that came too close.
The Patronus didn't slow down.
It stepped right up to the massive snake and extended its right hand.
Silver fingers moved closer.
Nagini exploded upward in a blur of green. Her jaws gaped wide, fangs flashing as she struck straight for the outstretched palm.
The bite passed straight through.
No resistance. No impact. Like sinking her teeth into empty air.
Her body kept going, sliding through the arm, through the chest, through the entire silver figure as if it were nothing but smoke.
"Thud—"
Nagini landed on the steel floor behind the Patronus, scales scraping with a harsh rasp.
Then she didn't move.
No readjusting. No angry hiss. No attempt to strike again.
She just lay there, rigid and motionless, like someone had hit her with a full-body Petrificus.
Those cold snake eyes now held something almost human.
Confusion.
…
The instant Nagini passed through the Patronus, Lucien felt it too.
A strange, cold sensation washed over him.
Icy. Flowing.
Like a freezing stream running through his fingertips.
It wasn't ordinary touch. It was something deeper. A spiritual resonance.
Soul contact?
Given everything else his Patronus had already shown, Lucien was starting to believe it could reach straight into someone's soul. Not just pull up happy memories—actually interact with the soul itself.
And the connection wasn't one-way. Whoever the Patronus touched got affected… but so did he. Information flowed back through some invisible thread straight into his mind.
His grip on soul magic had just gotten stronger.
Nagini's body and magic-circuit curse were already being treated step by step. The soul, though—that had been the real nightmare. Even with a general direction, the details kept tripping him up.
Now his Patronus had given him something new. Something that actually touched the soul directly.
Hope flared hotter in his chest.
If he could heal Nagini's blood curse—the nastiest, most stubborn kind—then the other two blood curses he still needed to fix for the loan would be much easier.
Lucien took a slow breath and steadied himself. His gaze settled on the motionless snake on the floor.
When he summoned the full Patronus, he also gained a clearer, deeper view straight into the soul.
Right now Nagini no longer looked like a giant green snake.
She was a dense, layered cloud of gray-black mist, tightly wrapped around something fragile at its core.
But after the Patronus had touched her, a faint glow had appeared deep inside that mist.
Weak, but steady. Like the very first thread of dawn breaking on the horizon.
The curse threads coiled around her soul had also gone still.
They had been constantly eating away, constantly spreading. Now they looked… paused. Like someone had hit a temporary stop button after the silver light brushed past them.
Just for a moment. But it had stopped.
Lucien turned to the faceless Patronus.
His voice was quiet.
"I'm counting on you."