Myst at Hogwarts Part 12 (Patreon)

Narcissa looked down at Draco. “Let me make sure I have this correct, you managed to insult the scions of House Potter and House Longbottom as well as a complete unknown, whom Mr. Potter was unusually familiar with.”

“She was just a mudblood,” he grumbled under his breath, knowing his mother would allow him to get away with at least that much while he was on enforced bedrest by the school medwitch.

“Which means that she is either going to be his chosen bride or mistress depending on whether he takes after the Potter or Black lines,” she said, not letting his comment pass despite his expectations. “Now, what have I told you about insulting a wizard’s concubine?”

“That to do so is to invite subtle death by poison or intrigue,” Draco admitted paling at the thought that Potter was already intimate with a girl, as that was something he himself didn’t expect to even approach until he was much older himself. ‘How much more advanced than me is he?’ 

“I see by your response you understand how seriously you’ve erred,” she told her son, mistaking the reason for his response. “Continue with your story.”

Draco reluctantly continued, explaining how Potter had insulted him before throwing him out of the car.

“He corrected you in private with just his inner circle present,” she said with a knowing nod.

Draco opened his mouth to argue then realized his mother was right, Potter hadn’t shouted it for all to hear or done anything he would have expected from a Gryffindor or a muggleborn. He went on to explain the further hostilities and the public insult, looking at Potter’s actions with new eyes.

“Of course he’d respond that way, since private correction had no effect,” Narcissa explained, slightly annoyed that her son had ignored her etiquette lessons in favor of listening to Lucius’s drivel.

“I’m not sure what he was playing at during the duel, he stunned me then claimed that I was sick,” Draco complained.

“Draco, he was allowing you to recover your dignity and not disgrace your house, it was very kind of him considering your insults,” Narcissa explained, while thinking about ways she could express her displeasure with Lucius for encouraging Draco’s more annoying traits. “Continue your story.”

“I knew Potter was up to something so I followed him. When I realized he was leaving a potion to simmer, I saw my chance to get revenge, so I waited until they left then sabotaged it.”

“His Black blood is definitely dominant, Potters are far more direct,” Narissa mused. “At least he was kind enough to leave a house elf to insure you would survive. I am going to have to send him an appropriate gift as a thank you.”

“What?!” Draco sputtered.

“How did you know he was leaving a potion to simmer?” Narcissa asked, wondering if she’d have to drag Draco by the hand to the correct answer.

“He said as much,” Draco replied, not sure what the big deal was.

“Which you heard through a closed door?” Narcissa asked with just a hint of sarcasm.

Draco shook his head. “The door was open a crack.”

“What exactly did you hear them saying?” Narcissa asked, curious how much Draco remembered.

“Something about it being time to go to dinner. I moved down the hall, then waited. Potter walked out and said something about everything being fine as long as no one sabotaged their potion which was when I knew I had to act.”

Narcissa winced, this never would have happened if she’d taken more of a hand in her son’s training rather than leaving etiquette training to her husband. “What possessed you to toss something into his potion rather than give it a counterclockwise stir or turn the burner off?”

“I wanted to ruin his potion, not merely damage the quality,” Draco admitted, still not sure what he’d done wrong.

“Not everything needs to be dramatic, a simple counterclockwise stir and turning the burner off would likely have resulted in a ruined or at least compromised the potion without you nearly dying.”

“Next time,” Draco grumbled, already thinking about ways to get Potter back.

Narcissa shook her head as she noticed his stubborn expression. “Enough. You will keep your head down and not embarrass your house or family more than you already have.”

“But father,” Draco complained then gulped as his mother glared at him, something he couldn’t remember her ever doing.

“Won’t be saving you again,” Narcissa snapped. “You cost him his position on the Hogwarts’ board of governors.”

“What?” Draco asked in shock.

“Lucius had to step down rather than see you expelled and charged with various crimes that would have sent you to Azkaban,” Narcissa explained.

“He can get it back, right?” Draco asked hopefully.

“Considering the number of enemies he has made on the board, that is extremely unlikely. He seriously considered not stepping down.”

“He wouldn’t have!” Draco exclaimed shocked.

“The only reason your father decided that tossing you to the dragons wasn’t a good idea was that Dumbledore would have used his callous disregard as a reason to petition the other board members to remove him, which means he would have lost it anyway. As you can imagine, he is quite upset with you.”

“What am I to do?” Draco asked nervously, feeling like his world was coming apart even more than Snape snapping at him.

“You’re to keep your head down and act like a respectable wizard.”

“How am I supposed to do that when I’m in the infirmary because of Potter?”

“You’re in the infirmary and not the morgue because of Potter, you’re in the infirmary because you were acting like a Gryfindor, you heard what you wanted to and you rushed in like a fool,” Narcissa explained.

“Fine, what would you have done?” Draco asked, doing his best to ignore the idea that Potter had saved him.

“I would have taken a few minutes to review what I knew about Mr. Potter.”

“No one knows anything other than the stupid stories,” Draco complained.

Narcissa raised an eyebrow. “Try again, you know who his parents were, yes?”

“James and Lily Potter, his father married a muggleborn,” Draco said with distaste.

“I’ll remind you that Albus Dumbledore’s mother was a muggleborn, do you hear anyone sneering at him for being a halfblood?”

Draco shivered as he thought about the man that even Voldemort was afraid of. “That’s different.”

“Regardless, you should have realized that there was a decent chance that insulting muggleborns would mean insulting his dead mother. Do I have to explain in detail why insulting someone’s mother is a stupid idea if you’re trying to build some type of positive relationship?”

“No,” Draco admitted with a sigh, hating to admit he was at fault but seeing it all to clearly now that his mother had outlined it. “How do I fix things?”

“Your reputation or Potter?” Narcissa asked.

“Both?” Draco asked, unsure which was the right answer.

“As for reputation, Mr. Potter has already graciously provided an excuse, you were under the weather. That excuse only works if you don’t brag or make claims that you could have beaten him.”

“What do you mean?” Draco asked in confusion. “He got lucky.”

“Not according to Severus. Either way, you lost a duel to Harry Potter, a wizard from an ancient line who comes from a powerful family, take the loss gracefully. Acknowledge that you were under the weather, but don’t make any claims that you would have won. That leaves you free to spend your time researching dueling spells and practicing without people thinking less of you.”

“And let people think he won?” Draco asked in disbelief.

“You do remember why Mr. Potter is famous, yes?” Narcissa asked dryly.

“He… oh, right,” Draco replied with a shiver as he thought about Voldemort’s death.

“Yes, that. Not to mention that you’re eleven, there is no shame in losing a duel, only in showing poor manners.”

“What do you mean?” Draco asked, thinking about his father’s demand that he win, so that he didn’t dishonor himself.

“What would you have done if you’d won the duel?”

“Told everyone of course, it would prove that my blood is better,” Draco replied proudly.

“No, it would simply mean that you’d practiced more or that you’d gotten lucky. The Potters are an ancient bloodline and Harry’s mother was a fearsome witch from all accounts.”

“But father…” Draco trailed off as he noticed his mother’s less than amused expression.

“Has delusions that blood and gold matter more than magical power.” Narcissa noticed the door to Madam Pomfrey’s office open. “Keep your head down and practice, I expect to hear a glowing report from Severus or else you won’t get anything for the holidays and I’ll cut off your spending money.”

“That isn’t fair,” Draco complained.

“At least you learned something from this conversation,” Narcissa said then turned and nodded toward Madam Pomfrey. “Thank you for the chance to have a word with my son.”

“Of course, he should be good to leave in the morning,” Madam Pomfrey assured her.

“Good,” Narcissa replied then turned and headed for the fireplace, already making plans on how to reward Potter for saving Draco from himself.

0o0o0

Remus blinked as a house elf in a dress walked into the shop carrying a furry snuff box and a rolled up piece of parchment. “Can I help you?”

“I have a letter for a Mr. Lupin, do you know where I can find him?” Nana asked, fairly sure the man with the horrible mustache was the man she was looking for.

“I’m Remus Lupin,” Remus replied, wondering why someone hadn’t just owled the letter.

Nana handed him the scroll. “Mr. Harry wanted to know if you would be available for contract work?”

“Contract work?” Remus asked unrolled the letter, curious what Harry needed help with.

‘Dear Remus, it has come to my attention that I have no method of identifying enchanted objects. As I need some objects identified, I was curious about your rates.’ Remus said, “My rates are reasonable, what does he need identified?”

Nana handed him the furry box. “Gloves and three rings. He included notes on how he created the rings.”

“I’ll take care of it,” Remus agreed, curious what charm Harry had used.

Sirius blinked as he walked back into the garage with a butterbeer and saw a house elf vanish. He glanced at the furry box in Remus’s hands. “Where did you get the box? Looks like something we made in first year.”

“Harry sent it, his idea of a practical joke,” Remus replied as he opened it.

“He made it?” Sirius asked as he walked over to study the box. “That’s not bad for the start of first year.”

“He can do better, this is just him messing with me, he practiced that spell until he had it down perfectly. Gloves and three rings we need to test.” Remus pulled out the notes, immediately noticing that they were in much nicer handwriting than Harry’s now familiar scrawl. 

“Anything interesting?” Sirius asked.

Remus stared at the notes. “He managed to create three foci, one of which actually works for what it was supposed to.”

“Why would he do that?” Sirius asked, before considering the matter and realizing that having alternate foci for casting spells was immensely useful and wondering why they hadn’t made something like that themselves back in their Hogwarts days. “Why the hell didn’t we?”

“No idea but he included notes,” Remus said as he handed Sirius the box as he looked over the notes. “They used a potion and a spell.”

Sirius pulled out his wand and waved it over the box, checking to see if the gloves and rings were actually magic. “Yeah, everything is magic.”

“Apparently, you use a potion, soak the rings, then use a spell to set them. The blue ring creates a stream of liquid that might be water while the green ring creates bubble like objects, neither of which was the desired effect.”

“What about the third ring?” Sirius asked eagerly as he took the rings out of the box to look at them.

“The silver ring is supposed to allow you to wordlessly conjure a shield, would be really useful for dueling.”

“That would have come in really handy during the war,” Sirius pointed out as he picked up the third ring and slipped it on. He pushed magic through the ring, conjuring a shimmering blue shield. “That’s… I can barely feel the draw and it looks as strong as any protego I’ve ever cast. ”

“I’m a bit surprised that a first year managed to pull this off,” Remus admitted, “and that’s even with knowing how talented he is.”

“You said you trained him and he is Lily and James’s son,” Sirius reminded him as he slipped the green ring on the index finger of his other hand then pointed it at the wall and pushed magic through it. He grinned as several dozen bubbles poured out of the ring. “Huh, that’s the mistake?”

“Apparently,” Remus agreed as he looked at the bubbles that looked like tiny spherical protego shields.

Sirius grinned as he created a cascade of gobstone sized bubbles on the floor. He smirked as he stepped on one of them, finding it squished a little and sort of rolled without popping. “This could be fun.”

Remus shook his head. “Sometimes we discover more by failing than by succeeding.”

“True,” Sirius agreed as he walked over to the counter and set the box down then drew his wand. “Standard run through for detection spells?”

“That would be a good start,” Remus agreed as he drew his wand. “Use the shield again.” He waited until Sirius created the shield then cast a detection charm on the shield. “It’s a variation of the protego charm, not a large surprise there.”

“Not really,” Sirius agreed as he dropped the shield and created more bubbles.

Remus cast his detection spell at the bouncing bubbles. “They’re also protego charms or at least that’s what the detection spell is telling me.”

“That doesn’t explain why they’re spheres,” Sirius argued as he reached down and picked one of the bubbles up and looked at it.

“No idea,” Remus replied as he looked at the ring. “Set the green ring on the counter please.”

Sirius slipped both rings off and set them on the counter a foot apart. “Yeah, I’d rather not have to regrow a finger.”

“Exactly,” Remus agreed as he tapped the green ring with his wand and cast a spell that would check the metal content. “Yeah, that’s not actually silver or at least not enough to matter.”

Sirius winced as Remus reached out and touched the green ring. “You’re crazy, you know that right?”

“Relax, it doesn’t have enough silver to be dangerous,” Remus replied as he put the green ring on then pushed magic through it, creating a stream of bubbles. “Seems like you can influence the creation of the bubbles which is nice.”

Sirius set the blue ring on the counter. “Care to check it?”

Remus tapped the ring after casting the detection spell on it. “It has slightly more silver but not enough to be dangerous, maybe a rash if I wore it too long.” He checked the notes. “It creates a clear liquid.”

“Water?” Sirius asked with amusement as he put the blue ring on. He sent a small amount of liquid onto the floor. “Yep, looks like water.”

Remus snorted then cast a couple spells on the liquid. “Yeah, it’s harmless…” he brought his ring up and conjured a flood of bubbles to protect himself against Sirius’s sneak attack.

Sirius stared at the bubbles as they cascaded and flowed over the ground around them, surprised that the bubbles had blocked his sneak attack. “Huh, that’s useful.”

“Don’t get the notes wet,” Remus said as he cast as metal detection spell on the shield ring. “That one is nearly pure silver.” He reached out and quickly touched the shield ring with his finger. “Yep…” he trailed off as he yanked his finger back and noticed that he hadn’t felt anything. “Hmm no, that’s not right.”

Sirius blinked. “Don’t do that.”

Remus snorted as he reached out and touched the ring. “Relax, it doesn’t hurt.”

Sirius cast his own metal detection spell on the silver ring, fairly sure that Remus hadn’t screwed up the spell he’d been casting since just after he’d started Hogwarts but wanting to be sure. “Yeah, it certainly should have hurt. Do you think the potion and spell denatured the silver?” 

“It’s possible,” Remus agreed as he looked through the notes Harry had given them. “I’m not seeing anything that should have caused this so maybe a combination of the potion and the spell they used to create the foci?”

“Lily was the potions savant,” Sirius replied. “I’ll have to check some books.”

“What about the water ring?” Remus asked, fairly sure the gem had twisted the spell or possibly the potion.

“If I had to guess, I’d say the gem changed the magic either because of a weird reaction to the potion or because of a reaction to the spell and the fact that it wasn’t pure silver. It might be a difference in metal. This is probably going to require some testing.”

“We’ll need a lab,” Sirius mused as he looked around the garage.

Remus shook his head. “I don’t have room, I need the basement for the full moon and the backroom for the metalworking gear. I’d expand a closet, but I’m already pushing things considering we’re in a muggle area.”

“Fine, we can probably set a tent up out back,” Sirius said as he cast a couple more complicated spells on the rings to make sure he wasn’t missing anything.

“Anything?” Remus asked absently as he looked through the notes to see if he’d missed anything.

“They’re stable, if I had to guess, I’d say the magic went a little sideways on the bubble ring and tried to turn on itself but the protective nature of the spell limited the possible results.” Sirius grinned as he thought about the shield ring. “We should figure out how to copy the shield ring and probably the bubble ring or maybe combine them,” he mused, thinking about the uses he could put a general shield focus.

“We don’t want to widen the focus too much, but I could see some uses,” Remus agreed, seeing the possibilities.

Sirius took off the water ring then set it on the counter. “What did he say about the gloves?”

“Just that they were magic and that he wanted them checked before putting them on,” Remus replied as he set the notes on the counter. 

“In that case, might as well see what we get,” Sirius said as he grabbed the gloves and set them on the counter. He waved his wand and cast a spell that should give him a basic idea what the gloves did then blinked as the spell came up with more spells than curse breakers usually found in an entire tomb in Egypt. “That can’t be right.” He stared at the multiple unfamiliar magical auras floating over the gloves. “Yeah, we’re going to need more precise spells and maybe a curse breaker... or three.”

Remus shook his head. “It can’t be that complex.”

“Take a look,” Sirius replied as he cancelled his spell and took a step back.

Remus cast the detection spell then blinked. “We’re going to need to ask him where he found the gloves.”

“No shit,” Sirius muttered, realizing that he was going to have to raid the family library for better spells, which meant dealing with Number Twelve.