Harry Potter: The Golden Viper

"The curse seed and the curse itself are completely separated from one another?"

Verrence's face froze in genuine surprise. He stood motionless digesting Viper's strange inquiry. After a moment's contemplation, he tilted his head at a curious angle and stared at the Golden Viper with a slightly odd expression.

"You've encountered trouble?"

"It's not me—" Viper said lightly, but felt a sudden relief in his heart.

Verrence had spent most of his entire life to the trading of curse-bound objects in the underground world. His reputation, while perhaps not spotless in matters of honesty, was flawless when it came to his knowledge of curses. Among the residents of the underground market, he was widely recognized as an expert in this field.

If such an undisputed expert, a man who had spent perhaps decades in the study and trading of cursed objects appeared genuinely unfamiliar with the concept Bryan had just described, then this trip would have been fruitless.

"I have a friend who was cursed while exploring ancient ruins," Viper continued smoothly, "He asked me to inquire about it—"

"Your friend is truly unfortunate—" Verrence clicked his tongue sympathetically. His eyes, however, glittered with unmistakable skepticism. The knowing look that passed across his face made it clear that he believed Viper had 'fabricated a friend out of thin air'.

For a moment, Verrence observed Viper's magical mask, then, like the sun emerging from behind storm clouds, the corners of Verrence's mouth curled up again, his eyes once more gleaming with greed.

"As a great dark wizard like yourself must undoubtedly understand, Mr. Viper," Verrence began with enthusiasm, clasping his gloved hands together, "knowledge is absolutely priceless. Especially when it concerns such... specialized matters."

Clink—

The metallic sound of heavy coins striking against one another interrupted the tense atmosphere before Verrence could launch into what would inevitably have been a long negotiation.

Bryan anticipated his greedy nature and had already produced a purse that appeared in his palm. With a casual gesture, he tossed the clinking pouch directly into Verrence's eagerly outstretched arms.

Having silenced Verrence's impending demands with this preemptive offering, Bryan turned and gazed over the variety of rejected trinkets off the wooden display board as he swept them with a single of his arm.

The cursed artifacts clattered to the floor as Viper sat down himself onto the now-cleared surface and said,

"My money isn't so easily earned, Verrence, I hope what you have to share is valuable enough—"

"Oh, of course, of course!"

Weighing the hefty purse, Verrence's grin nearly split his face to his earlobes. He casually threw the curse artifacts he had been saving into a nearby wooden box as if they were nothing more than trinkets—which, based on Bryan's observation, they likely were. After tucking the purse deep into his sleeve pocket, he sniffled and said with great enthusiasm:

"There are many diverse varieties of curses, Mr. Viper, most common types are similar to those I sell here on my humble stall—curses meticulously bound to physical objects, which prevents the curse from gradually fading away as its magical power naturally dissipates over time.

Ah, of course, directly afflicting enemies with curse spells isn't particularly problematic either. But Mr. Viper, both traditional methods have an obvious weakness. Do you perhaps know what I'm referring to?"

"I'm not here for an academic lecture, Verrence—" Viper's voice now had a dangerous edge.

Verrence's enthusiasm faltered momentarily under Viper's cold gaze, causing him to chuckle awkwardly in embarrassment. He coughed heavily several times into his gloved fist before hastily continuing with his explanation:

"Whether one directly afflicts a target with a curse spell or binds the curse magic to a physical object, there's generally no significant issue regarding potency or effectiveness, However, both conventional methods have one obvious weakness.

If the cursed target doesn't perish immediately upon being afflicted then they inevitably have a chance to use various countermeasures to dispel the curse. That is to say, to exorcise or neutralize the curse they've been afflicted with."

Viper nodded pensively, tapping his fingers on the board and said lightly.

"Go on—"

Recognizing that his words had successfully captured Viper's attention, Verrence excitedly rubbed his hands together, already calculating the additional sum of gold that might soon be his for earning.

"—To overcome this weakness, for countless centuries, wizards with particular interest in this profound art of dark magic have been diligently contemplating and experimenting with innovative countermeasures, Oh, there are many truly ingenious approaches to this problem. For example, one particularly effective method involves implanting the curse seed directly into the targeted wizard's soul."

Verrence's voice dropped to a whisper as he detailed this particularly vicious technique.

"Unless one happens to be an extremely powerful Wizard with exceptional capabilities, generally no practitioner of magic—regardless of their skill—possesses the necessary ability to successfully exorcise a curse that has been embedded within the very essence of their soul."

"Of course," he added with a dismissive wave, "this method imposes extraordinarily strict requirements on the spell-caster's magical abilities and theoretical understanding, so it has never achieved widespread popularity among practitioners of the darker arts—"

Upon hearing this explanation, Viper's thoughts immediately thought of the Blood Curse, a curse he had spent tremendous effort and countless resources to master. The primary reason this curse was so difficult to dispel was precisely because its curse seed use a creature's soul as raw material, and was forcibly implanted into another creature's soul through an extraordinarily complex and demanding casting technique that few wizards could successfully execute.

Moreover, the Blood Curse possessed another horrifying characteristic that made it uniquely devastating, it could use blood relations as a mechanism for propagation and transmission. Once an individual fell victim to this curse, all their descendants would also be unable to escape its effects.

"—The most commonplace solution, however, is self-replication—"

Sensing Viper's attention refocusing sharply on him, Verrence hurried to continue his explanation:

"To prevent the curse from being readily dispelled by conventional counter-magic, certain specialized curse seeds have the remarkable ability to replicate themselves. Such a curse will systematically infect all living beings that approach the primary cursed target by utilizing their own life energy as fuel for reproduction. This elegant mechanism ensures that if anyone attempts to provide assistance to the cursed individual, they will also suffer misfortune!"

Viper nodded inwardly with a calm expression. Virulent cursed plagues like the infamous Black Death that had devastated magical and non-magical communities during the medieval period had almost certainly used this precise method of self-propagation.

This particular category of curse was unable to replicate itself infinitely. Each replicated curse seed maintained a mysterious, unbreakable connection to the original source. After the number of carriers reached a certain threshold, the entire network would rapidly weaken until it eventually collapsed under its own theoretical weight.

No one had conclusively determined why this phenomenon occurred. Perhaps, Bryan guessed that this was one of magic's most fundamental secrets—a built-in limitation designed to prevent catastrophic magical events from destroying the entire world.

Magic itself was widely acknowledged to be one of the fundamental principles governing the universe's operation. This necessarily meant it would also be subject to the universe's system of checks and balances.

"As for curses where the curse seed is deliberately separated from the curse itself," Verrence continued, his voice rising with excitement, "oh, you may be somewhat displeased by my assessment, but please allow me to speak frankly, Mr. Viper. This particular approach represents a genuinely ingenious innovation in curse-craft—"

He explained excitedly

"This category of curse begins by storing the primary curse seed within a carefully prepared object. That itself isn't unusual. But what follows is very different. The curse-crafting master will use secret techniques to separate, or perhaps more accurately, to replicate the curse while maintaining its connection to the original seed, storing this secondary manifestation in an entirely different object.

The two curse-bearing objects share a single unified curse seed. When cursing someone, the curser only needs to ensure that the intended victim makes physical contact with the second object."

Verrence's eyes widened dramatically as he continued. "Oh, the beauty of this method is that once afflicted, the victim will discover they can never dispel or destroy the curse. It will endlessly regenerate inside their body, feeding on their magical essence, resisting all attempts at removal!"

"Never any way to break such a curse?" Viper asked in a deep voice.

"Yes, never any way!" Verrence said with blunt certainty, "Because the true core of the curse—its heart—remains untouched and protected elsewhere. Unless the afflicted can somehow locate and neutralize the first object containing the original curse seed, they are doomed to suffer eternally."

He shook his head slowly. "But successfully tracking down such an object is extremely difficult—"

It wasn't hard to understand why Verrence would say it was extremely difficult.

If someone planned to curse another, and went to great lengths to prevent others from saving their target, then they would certainly hide the first curse seed-bearing object in the most remote corner of the world. This was actually the same idea as Voldemort's horcruxes.

But the crux of the problem was that he was facing a complete stranger. He couldn't peel back the layers like Dumbledore investigating Voldemort. Moreover, he also didn't have enough time.

"It does indeed sound like an elegant art—" Viper said with a nod. "But the European magical world has been declining for generations. In my opinion, wizards possessing this particular specialized skill in the modern era should be rare, wouldn't you agree? Tell me honestly, Verrence, do you personally have this ability?"

"Oh!"

Verrence hurriedly waved his hands in a gesture of frantic denial, clearly terrified that Viper would misunderstand.

"Only true masters have this power, Mr. Viper. I don't have this skill. And yes, you're right. There really aren't many people with this ability now—"

Verrence raised his head slightly, his lips pursing into an oddly shy smile that appeared strange on his face.

"Don't give me that disgusting grin, Verrence—"

The shadows cast by the emerald green torches in midair slowly climbed up Verrence's ugly face. Viper stood up, looking down at Verrence from on high. He knew this cunning old man had already guessed what he was going to ask, but this was an unavoidable matter.

"You know precisely what I'm going to ask next, Verrence—" Viper said coldly, "State your price clearly. I'll accept your extortion, just this once—"

"Those true masters of this particular art all guard their identities, Mr. Viper," Verrence replied with a dramatic sigh, "Much like powerful wizards such as yourself, they value their privacy above all else. They do not appreciate being disturbed—"

"If I were to provide you with their information," He continued, his voice dropping to a whisper, "then I would inevitably be risking offending them. Mr. Viper, this is an extremely lethal risk for a humble shopkeeper such as myself. Surely you understand that each one of these individuals could effortlessly extinguish my life with less effort than it takes to swat an annoying insect!"

"Name your price—" Viper repeated calmly, cutting through Verrence's dramatic scene of concern.

"Two hundred Galleons. Each."

Verrence's voice had suddenly transformed, the persuading tone replaced by flat, businesslike precision.

"I am prepared to swear a binding magical oath that the information I provide regarding these masters is entirely accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge!" He added, attempting to justify the fee.

Ten minutes later, Viper took the sheepskin parchment Verrence handed over and scanned it. After rummaging in his cloak for a bit, he handed back a purse containing one thousand four hundred gold Galleons.

"Good luck in your endeavors, Mr. Viper—"

Verrence waved cheerfully as the magical curtain surrounding his stall lifted, dissolving into wisps of shadow that dissipated into the marketplace's hazy atmosphere. An inexplicable, knowing smile appeared across his ugly, scarred cheeks as he watched his most profitable customer of the year prepare to leave.

"If there's any problem with the accuracy of this list, Verrence, rest assured I'll return to find you—"

Viper glanced at the shop owner, then strode away amidst his fawning smile.

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