March 13th, 1890 — Empty Classroom, Hogwarts

The only thing worse than mindless homework was boredom, which is why Holly had taken it upon herself to find something to do that didn't involve scouring the library for book she'd never find. Nowadays Madam Sykes was one of Holly's only friends, but the matron was rarely available midday with the older students needed escorting to and from their classes. She had frowned when passing the away notice on her office, but carried on without a second thought.

There was one other person who had a history of entertaining Holly during downtime: Seneca Lestrange. Holly would not consider them good friends, but they knew each other well enough and shared interests.

"Have you learned something worth demonstrating recently?" she asked dully, leaning against the wooden desk that sat along the others. "I feel like Professor Sleptov is never going to get to the fun stuff. The best we've done is boggarts, and it's been a whole three years now." Now that Seneca was a sixth year, Holly hardly had a chance against her in any type of duel; but still, there was always something to be learned.

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— set by MJ <3 —

Seneca had noticed a pattern of Miss Scrimgeour coming to her whenever she didn't have anything better to do. She figured that was the case because the younger Slytherin rarely had anything important to tell her whenever she did that. It would usually be some kind of complaint, like the one about Professor Sleptov's class, or a piece of gossip for someone.

"Oh, did you see what Miss X was wearing at breakfast?"

"Professor Sleptov is obliged to teach us certain things," Seneca replied maturely. "I am sure he is just as bored as you to be teaching the same things over and over, year after year. I'm sure he'd much rather teach us some of the dirty spells he used as an Auror." The whole point of their friendship group was to share knowledge on things that weren't taught in a Hogwarts classroom. Besides, didn't Holly have any relatives willing to teach her things, as Seneca did with her Papa and Tiberius and sometimes Auntie Mariana?

She had an idea.

"Do you want me to teach you a curse my cousin taught me?" Seneca said in a hushed tone. "We'll have to find some privacy first, though."

  

Holly didn't care what Professor Sleptov wanted, but she would not voice that much to Seneca when she seemed so concerned for their teacher. Wasn't he there to help them increase their knowledge of defensive magic? Why then did they spend a whole unit on dark creatures that her chance of coming in contact with was near zero? There were better things to learn!

The suggestion of a curse—a curse they'd have to go into private to learn about—was enough to pull Holly from her negativity, though. She took a step forward and, smiling, replied, "There's a hidden classroom on this floor only accessible through a gargoyle. We should go there."

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— set by MJ <3 —

Seneca nodded and soon the two Slytherins were in that classroom.

"There might be a problem, though, Miss Scrimgeour," Seneca told the younger girl once they made themselves comfortable in the room. "I'll need to demonstrate it on you -- don't worry! I practiced it on a maid at home and I can assure you that it will not kill you. You will just feel like you're not fully yourself. You'll feel possessed."

It was an ancient Polynesian curse her cousin Tiberius had discovered in a text he had translated. The incantation was a call for a demon to come and possess the body of your 'victim'. The victim would then experience the effects of what muggles believed to be ghost sickness. The victim would feel as if their psyche was torn in half, they would hear many voices in their head, which would urge them to do this thing or that thing, they would be forced to speak whatever the demon that had possessed wanted them to say. If the curse was left inside them for long enough, they would even take their own lives or, rather, the demon would force them to do so.

Seneca had to bribe a maid in order to practice the curse, since Tiberius didn't feel like showing her how the curse worked. He had only given her his notes on the curse and concealed his unwillingness to "play" with his younger cousin by telling her something vaguely motivational about doing things herself now that she was an adult. So Seneca did.

She followed his instructions to the T and left the effects of the spell for fifteen minutes before breaking it. during that time, the maid had grown progressively more distressed, she appeared to be hearing voices and when she had tried to murder Seneca's cat, the young Slytherin had broken the curse.

  

Holly never shied away from experimentation, but had grown more cautious since beginning her OWL-level classes. She may not have yet learned all the horrible spells that could be used on her, but she knew what could happen if they did—and nothing would annoy Holly more than being another Céleste Benet.

"Possessed by what?" she asked with an air of suspicion. She didn't want to really be possessed; that sounded much too like the Imperius curse (and Holly was very fond of her self-control). "What's its purpose? What do people use it for?" she asked, in the back of her mind wondering if this was some ancient magic Seneca had taken from a page in her father's library. Or worse.

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— set by MJ <3 —

It was smart of Holly to inquire about the curse. Seneca wouldn't have much respect for her if she had blindly agreed to being her subject.

"It is an ancient Polynesian curse. People there believe in ghost sickness. What muggles didn't know is that this sickness was caused by someone, a wizard, who summoned this demon to possess the person. When someone has ghost sickness, they don't feel like themselves for they are possessed by a demon. I saw the effects on my maid -- she was hearing voices which were forcing her to do harm."

She omitted the part about the curse driving people to suicide.

"As for its uses, I suppose it can be used to defame an enemy."

  

The explanation both unnerved and intrigued Holly. Moreover, why would Seneca wish to use it on her? Did she think herself mindlessly loyal? Or naive? "You speak of demons as if they're real," she said calmly, unconcernedly. "Papa always said it was the way muggles explained magic—dark magic, specifically." Holly had never thought Seneca would so easily persuaded by muggle myths... unless she'd been into one of those conspiracy-type books.

"And 'defame an enemy'... Do you mean by making them act ridiculous? It seems like a more ancient form of the imperius curse, if I'm honest," she continued, her brows furrowed in mixed concern and amusement.

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— set by MJ <3 —

Holly Scrimgeour's commentary was making Seneca impatient and annoyed. The younger Slytherin spoke to her as though she was doubting Seneca's intelligence. It was Seneca's fault, for offering to entertain the brat. She fought off the urge to make a sarcastic comment about Holly's father's comment, which Holly had presented as though it wasn't common knowledge.

"My my, Miss Scrimgeour, you are so dark, knowing of such things such as the Imperius Curse at the innocent age of thirteen!" Seneca commented in a kindly manner, in her usual 'polite insult' way. To be honest, Seneca had been through Miss Scrimgeour's phase. A fourteen year old who had read in a book about the Unforgivable Curses and felt like a dark magic specialist because of that.

"Perhaps you should be showing me magic since you seem to believe that I believe in curses written about in muggle mystery novels." She faked a kind smile and leaned on a desk with her arms crossed in front of her chest.

  

This time Holly didn't stop herself from rolling her eyes, which might have rolled back into her head if she would have allowed. Holly knew Seneca had dark interests, and Seneca knew Holly had dark interests; and on top of that, they shared a magical journal with four or five other people who also had dark interests.

"Fourteen," she corrected, sort of offhandedly, because she knew Seneca didn't care how old she was or what year she was in, but she also had no intention of being infatalized by the sixth year. "And the last time I checked, it wasn't a crime to read books. Forgive me for being concerned for my safety when a literal child wants to perform ancient magic on me. I shouldn't worry; I'm sure your maid turned out just fine," she deadpanned, crossing her own arms across her chest.

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— set by MJ <3 —

Miss Scrimgeour had some nerve talking to her like that!

"If you do not trust my knowledge or my abilities, then I do not see a point of us sharing our intellectual pursuits. Let me remind you, Miss Scrimgeour, that it was you who approached me, complaining about how boring you find Professor Sleptov's teachings!"

She wasn't going to beg Miss Scrimgeour to learn from her. Seneca went for the door.