The Signature

Again and again Harry Potter wrote the words on the parchment in what he soon came to realise was not ink, but his own blood. And, again and again, the words were cut into the back of his hand.

One day, however, he learned a trick, and began to insinuate (between the words, between the word itself as it divides itself in two) a delicate, barely visible stem, an almost imperceptible cold lever, scalpel or stylus, so as to enervate, then dilapidate, enormous discourses that always end, though more or less denying it, in attributing an author's rights.