The potion's effect had worn off. Lucas was a wizard child again.

Overextending his magic had left him vaguely seasick. He leaned back and rested until the feeling began to ease.

Then he got to his feet, swaying a little, and stood up in the boat.

Lucas couldn't suppress the urge to show off anymore. "Professor, did you see my Patronus?"

Snape let out a cold snort. He'd already known that the moment Lucas came to, this would be the first thing out of his mouth.

Yes, he had seen it.

It was a four-legged creature, and it appeared large, though it was also possible that Lucas simply hadn't been able to fully solidify the form.

In short, Snape hadn't gotten a clear look.

But he wouldn't carelessly hazard a guess at what animal it was, because any wrong guess would give Lucas a hint.

Snape would not let Lucas know that he sometimes thought Lucas resembled a golden retriever.

Lucas didn't wait for an answer and supplied one himself. "It's a cat! I need to look it up when we get back — it looked a bit like a tiger."

That was plausible. A galloping four-legged form at that scale would appear loose and indistinct.

Under the circumstances, Lucas had indeed needed to make the form as large as possible to draw the sea creature's attention.

Lucas watched Snape's reaction. The Potions professor showed no suspicion.

That gave Lucas an opening to bend the truth.

Snape had once seen Eddie drink that particular brew. He had seen that Eddie's animal form was a tiger.

Lucas had to keep his Patronus separate in Snape's mind, he couldn't let Snape make the same connection.

Fortunately, for the time being, his form wouldn't be able to handle a high-intensity spell like that again anyway.

And a Patronus didn't come up in all that many situations.

He could easily find a way to make the animal look smaller next time, tell some vague story about it being a chubby Chinese Li Hua cat, for instance.

Snape said nothing. He assumed Lucas would finish talking soon, and then he could go back to sitting in peace.

Lucas kept his hands busy, rummaging through the small bag and pulling out blankets to spread across the lifeboat, then digging around for everyday supplies.

"Don't make it too conspicuous," Snape reminded him. "We're already quite close to Muggle waters."

Lucas nodded repeatedly, hands still moving, and fished out a nautical chart and a proper compass from the pack.

He got his bearings, then looked ahead. "Professor, when term starts I'll be in third year — can I begin studying the Animagus transformation?"

"I read that a wizard's animal form usually shares similarities with their other forms. Maybe my Animagus would also be a cat?"

Perhaps it was simply the boredom of the open sea. Snape leaned against the side of the lifeboat and listened to Lucas chatter on.

He hadn't intended to join in. He just wanted to see how much Lucas could say on his own.

"Professor, would you look after me while I'm transforming?"

"There's a supplier who says he can get me the freshest Mandrake leaves."

The more specific Lucas got, the more Snape found himself forced to cut in. "Hogwarts does not need two cats."

He refused outright. "I will absolutely not look after you. If you grow cat ears and can't change back, I'll buy you a bag of cat food."

Lucas felt mildly deflated. But he also noticed that Snape's objection wasn't particularly forceful.

Perhaps there was still a chance.

He shifted to rambling about other things.

Lucas dug a folding parasol out of the bag.

"And then there's my partnership with Mr. Malfoy — honestly, I think..." He gradually let his voice drop lower.

With careful, quiet movements, he opened the parasol and pulled over the sheet of plastic that had been shielding him from the sun, draping it over Snape.

Snape drifted off to sleep without realizing it.

As dusk settled in, the cries of seabirds woke him.

He ran a hand over the smooth surface of the inflatable hull, very much wanting to sleep through until the next day.

But he had a young wizard with him, and they were out at sea.

Lucas saw Snape wake and waved the radio at him.

After a burst of static, he tuned past the international news. The station began playing something soft and slow.

The sea breeze had lost the scorching heat of the day. Out on the hazy water, they spotted a small black dot approaching from the distant sky.

Even when it flew close, it still didn't look very large, roughly the size of a fist.

Snape moved aside warily. Just from the flight path alone, he knew this wasn't going to go well.

Sure enough, Lucas, who had stayed exactly where he was, took a direct hit.

The little bird slammed into his arms like a cannonball, hard enough to rattle his bones. It let out a string of small chirps and, having fallen precisely where it landed, simply sprawled there spread-eagled, exposing its soft underbelly to the sky.

But the evening's surprises weren't over yet.

More birds were circling in from the horizon, a whole flock of them, wheeling through the air with practiced ease.

"You can't land, this is an inflatable boat!" Lucas tried to make them understand. Their talons would puncture the hull.

The lead bird had some magical creature blood in it. It was clever. It let out a displeased cry in Lucas's direction.

Lucas rubbed the spot where he'd been hit, struck by how strangely familiar the scene felt.

Then the birds began dropping things down onto the boat.

Both wizards raised their wands, slowing the falling objects before they could hit.

When the things from high above came close enough to see, they made out soil-dusted herbs, a pure-silver navigational conch, and some beautiful pieces of coloured mineral stone.

"Chirp, chirp, " The little bird rubbed its face against Lucas. Lucas instinctively scratched the chubby base of its wing.

The grey bird went absolutely still with bliss. It turned toward him in excitement and, following his fingers, went looking for more.

"Are these... for us?" Lucas took the chance to check the bird's wound. There was no trace of the injury left at all.

In just a few days apart, its feathers had grown noticeably brighter.

The large bird called out twice from above, sounding displeased.

The little grey bird rolled over and tried to pretend it hadn't heard.

But Lucas knew. It was time to say goodbye.

He cupped the small bird in his hands and let it take off on its own.

The bird stood on Lucas's fingertips, testing them carefully, feeling for the moment to launch.

The sea was calm. The wind was light. Under the eyes of everyone present, the little bird spread its wings, and stepped off into nothing, dropping straight down.

Lucas instinctively reached for a gust of wind, but his magic hadn't recovered enough for wandless spells to come easily.

He lunged to catch the falling bird.

He caught only a gentle whirlwind.

It lifted the little bird upward, and once it reached enough height, the bird rediscovered what flight felt like.

Lucas turned in surprise and caught Snape just as he slipped his wand behind his back.

Snape gestured for him to look up.

They watched the flock circle above them for a long while, turning slow loops in the last light of the setting sun, before they finally flew off toward the horizon.

This was the final gift of the journey. The sea is unfathomable, it holds the fury of storms and the chance of bonds beyond explanation.

The two wizards rode the sea wind. For the rest of the way, they didn't encounter anything else.

Their lifeboat came up against an artificial beach. The waves carried them all the way to shore, right up beside two workers folding beach chairs.

Watched by two Muggles, Snape and Lucas, both in short sleeves, stepped off the lifeboat with perfect composure.

They walked toward a seaside convenience store, just like any other vacationers.

The ritual was complete.

➤ Next: A Souvenir Gift

Chapter 279 - A Souvenir Gift

In the second month of the summer holiday, Lucas's Felix Felicis was finally complete.

A potion with a normal brewing cycle of six months, he had ultimately spent close to a year before he could call it a success.

The finished product was carefully decanted into custom teardrop-shaped glass vials, then nestled into a display gift box lined with velvet padding.

Snape regarded Lucas's habit of arranging things like a shop window with contempt.

Lucas took a quiet moment to mark the occasion. He did have some ideas about how to use the Felix Felicis.

But the most important thing right now was this: he had already set a new cauldron going, starting the brew from scratch.

"This won't take time away from my research on other potions." Lucas worked through the ingredients with practiced ease, a notebook open beside him recording every mistake and observation he had accumulated since first beginning the Felix Felicis. "But I think repetition helps in fully mastering a potion like this."

He carefully added the first batch of ingredients.

Snape made no comment.

He picked a letter off the dining table. Any correspondence delivered to his home had already passed magical screening.

The letter was from the Italian Ministry of Magic, its contents considerately written in English.

The Ministry was writing to urge the return of the boat. The deadline had arrived, they noted, and they asked that Mr. Snape not tarnish the distinction of the Order of Merlin. It was the Order of Merlin, after all, that had allowed him to borrow a magical vessel from the Ministry so easily in the first place.

Snape snorted and dropped the letter directly into the rubbish bin.

This was the second letter he had received from the Ministry this month.

At the first opportunity after the voyage ended, he had sent them an updated nautical chart. Their planned route passed through two consecutive dangerous stretches of sea, and it was best that other wizards be warned off. But the letter Snape had sent received no reply.

Every Ministry of Magic was the same.

"We are visiting Malfoy this evening." Snape finished reading the next letter, embossed in gold, full of elaborate winding phrasing, and picked out the key time, location, and purpose.

"He says he has found a partnership opportunity for your little toy with Honeydukes." Snape gave a quick summary. "He will tell you the details in person."

Lucas was weighing ingredients on a set of scales.

His expectations for the partnership were not high, but he said all the same: "I've prepared gifts for them."

Lucas always made an equal effort to look after everyone whenever he went out. He had purchased a great many travel souvenirs on the wizarding islands. He had also specifically asked whether Snape wanted a gift prepared on his behalf to give to others.

That suggestion was flatly rejected.

Snape had only brought a few small items back for colleagues he saw regularly, deliberately buying nothing for Dumbledore, and nothing for Lucius Malfoy either.

Lucas sometimes felt that Snape deliberately avoided forming any real connections with people. He absolutely had to make everyone regard him as the villain before he could sleep soundly at night.

But Snape never stopped Lucas from giving gifts to others.

Snape knew perfectly well how a proper Slytherin was supposed to conduct themselves.

"Mr. Malfoy." At dinner, Lucas paid compliments to the Malfoy family of three.

Draco Malfoy looked noticeably bigger than before, a bib around the neck, dressed in soft little clothes trimmed with ruffles and lace, looking altogether round and squeezable.

"How was the trip? Severus made the sea voyage sound so dreadfully dull — surely something interesting must have happened?" Lucius Malfoy had not seen Lucas in quite some time and thought the young wizard had grown considerably taller.

Had nobody noticed that this was not a normal wizard? That rate of growth was frankly a little too fast.

One could only say: when suspicion had already taken root, everything seemed strange.

Lucius had been about to compliment Lucas on the height. And the features had softened as well; the exaggerated proportions from before were less striking now. At first glance, a boy of reasonably refined bearing, only rather lean.

A pity that Lucius Malfoy had a guilty conscience of his own.

As far as he was concerned, Lucas, even if not a skeleton draped in human skin, was not far off.

The Dark Mark had flared with a sudden sharp pain half an hour after he had sent the letter. Almost precisely the moment Lucas would have received it.

Lucius watched Snape, who remained entirely unaware. His junior, not long after joining the Dark Lord's ranks, had already become this impenetrable.

But Snape had never previously been the type to bring a young wizard along everywhere, the two of them moving in and out together as a pair.

Had he already returned to the Dark Lord's side, or had he...

"Little Dragon, let me help you open it..." Narcissa Malfoy moved her wand gently nearby, voice soft.

Lucius surfaced from his thoughts.

In truth, this had only been a brief moment at the dinner table. The conversation had moved on to Lucas bringing Draco a special gift.

Lucas patiently coaxed Draco along, then turned to explain to Narcissa Malfoy: "We came across a very amusing fairy-tale book on the wizarding islands. The professor has already checked it — perfectly safe. That gift has been handed to the House-elf."

"But I also picked up a funny little thing on the island. I think Draco will like it."

Lucas said to Draco: "That means Draco gets two presents!"

Entirely in the mode of cajoling a small child, and Draco was thoroughly taken with it. The chubby little face flushed pink, though the tiny palm-sized gift box refused to come open no matter what.

Narcissa raised her wand with elegant ease from her seat. The ribbon unwound itself automatically, revealing the glass bottle inside.

"Pretty! Look!" Draco was still at an age where speech came out slurred. Draco clutched the small glass bottle close, a jellyfish drifting inside, languid and unfurling.

Snape glanced sideways.

One Sickle's worth of jellyfish, transferred into a bottle from a potions supplier, wrapped in leftover Christmas ribbon, paired with a half-true, half-invented travel story.

Snape took a sip of red wine and listened as Lucas said: "The witch who sold it to me called it an immortal jellyfish."

"Oh. Immortal." Lucius repeated it without thinking.

Lucius had failed to stop Narcissa from opening the gift in time, but fortunately that person had no intention of harming Draco. The jellyfish did look rather pretty, lit up by the crystal chandelier, it glittered.

"Can this thing truly live forever?" Lucius caught himself losing composure, steadied his expression, and adopted an air of polite interest.

"I don't know." Lucas didn't play along as expected. He spread his hands openly. "Honestly, I'm rather doubtful of that witch's claim. I think immortality is a false premise."

He was mainly addressing Narcissa Malfoy: "Just change the seawater once every two weeks or so."

Then he turned back to Lucius. "Immortality can't be proven — but if it dies, then we'll know it wasn't."

Cunning little wizard.

Snape let out a quiet, derisive laugh. He could see the whole one-Sickle trick for what it was. Lucas was already laying the groundwork for the day this disposable jellyfish turned up dead.

And Lucius Malfoy had been completely taken in.

Because what Lucius heard was something else entirely.

It was as though Lucas had leaned across the table and asked: Would you care to make a wager? The immortal Dark Lord, or just a mortal man who must eventually die?

Lucius Malfoy did not take up the thread.

➤ Next: A Price Marked in the Dark