We're All Family!

Azkaban's market for knowledge soon ran dry.

The first to offer his memories in exchange for food was an old wizard held in the North Tower.

He leaned his forehead against Gavin's wand through the bars.

"My family has a Tongue-Locking Curse. Once it takes hold, your tongue fuses to your lower jaw. Even St. Mungo's has trouble separating them."

But after Gavin finished looking, he took only half a roasted fish tail from the plate.

The old wizard opened his eyes and stared at the half-tail. "Why only half?"

"Have you ever used this curse?"

"Er—my grandfather did."

"Then collect the other half from your grandfather."

"..."

The common curses had long since been repeated, and rare magic was increasingly hard to find.

In the final days, some people began submitting experiments they had botched in their youth. Others tried giving the same spell a new name and submitting it again.

Once Gavin caught them, he handed them all over to the Dementors.

The Dementors had been a little overfed these past two days.

The last few entries came from the West Tower.

A gray-haired Pure-blood wizard pushed a piece of parchment toward Gavin, his expression grave.

"This is the Withered Blood Curse. My family has passed it down in secret for three hundred years. No outsider has ever known of it."

The Book of Ten Thousand Spirits Calculation flipped through several pages. Four almost identical structures appeared on them.

Gavin did not even look up.

"Looks like four other people have inherited it from their ancestors already."

The wizard stood there, his lips moving.

"Our ancestors might have known each other. We were one family years ago."

Gavin pushed the parchment back.

"Don't be so quick to claim kinship. You might all have been fooled by the same