HP: TSH — Chapter 315 - Extra: Praeris, Later — Part 3

Extra: Praeris, Later, Part 3

Due to the controversy surrounding the Dumbledore treatment case, both Praeris and Alexander were temporarily suspended from duty until the Wizengamot delivered its final verdict, to avoid disrupting the order at St. Mungo's Hospital.

"You should go stay at Draco Malfoy's place," Winnie offered, speaking from experience. "Convenient for you Slytherins to discuss strategy. Running back and forth every day — be careful the journalists don't catch you."

"You're chasing me out!" Praeris feigned astonishment and called out at full volume. "Mama — look at Winnie!"

Ms. Prim, who was busy working on a new product, smiled helplessly and played along. "Oh dear, how can you chase the child away!"

"That's too much!" Praeris said.

Ms. Prim nodded. "It really is too much!"

Winnie rolled her eyes and collapsed onto the sofa. "Having you two is truly my blessing! Prim, you spoil this child rotten!"

"And you don't?" Ms. Prim asked softly.

"Winnie doesn't love me!" Praeris shook her head with theatrical despair. "Mama — look at Winnie!"

Winnie snapped upright and bolted for the stairs. "Help! There's no room left for me in this house! Mama Prim and her sweet baby are persecuting my innocence!"

Praeris and Ms. Prim dissolved into laughter, and the sweet baby eventually had to remind her dear mama that her shaking hands had added too much water to the mix.

"Too much water, just add more ingredients." Ms. Prim laughed and kept shaking her head. "Make a bigger batch — it's fine."

Teasing Winnie was one thing. In the near term, Praeris really should be staying at Malfoy Manor.

For one thing, the suspension period before the hearing was a deliberate arrangement by the elder Slytherins, something that looked like punishment but was actually breathing room. Praeris's active response to the case and Harry's testimony had both made the papers, and public opinion was starting to turn in her favor. The Slytherins now had the time and space to keep working their angles.

For another, the journalists who materialized out of thin air were simply too much to deal with. Praeris didn't want to affect Ms. Prim's business. She had already closed her doors for her sweet baby for several days running, and though Ms. Prim said it was just because she wanted to develop new products, Praeris wasn't going to play dumb and cheerfully enjoy someone else's sacrifice.

At Malfoy Manor, the walk from the gate to the house alone covered quite a distance. No journalist could crane their neck far enough to see anything. And so, with a handful of Floo Powder, Praeris went straight there.

"This won't be any great problem." Draco Malfoy tilted his chin up and spoke in an unhurried drawl. "Which Slytherin doesn't carry some controversy? It doesn't stop us from holding power and status all the same."

Praeris tapped the table. "This isn't a crisis, Draco. On the contrary, it's a good opportunity. What Slytherin needs most right now is exactly that... This is beautiful."

She was referring to Draco Malfoy's work.

After the Astronomy Tower incident, Draco Malfoy had lost his enthusiasm for object-crafting alchemy. He preferred elemental transmutation, and that hadn't changed even after Dumbledore lived and then lingered in a half-dead state, just as his views on pure-blood supremacy and Voldemort hadn't changed.

After the Book of Secrets, Draco Malfoy had turned to the most expensive branch of Arabian alchemy: gemstone alchemy.

"Arabian alchemy was influenced simultaneously by Chinese alchemy and Egyptian alchemy." Draco Malfoy studied the gemstone before him with focused eyes, their pale color catching the refracted light. "Different magical disciplines are interconnected. Divination links gemstones to the stars above, and from there alchemists discovered the relationship between gemstones and fate. Fate itself is an extraordinary force, and so gemstone alchemy brings together destiny and power."

In Draco Malfoy's hands lay a magnificent gemstone necklace. The chain and all the settings were silver. Oval yellow gemstones and round red gemstones formed the centerpiece, connected below by gold chains suspending two small red gemstone pendants and a butterfly whose body was emerald, with tiny green gems woven throughout as accents. It glittered in the candlelight, rich with beauty.

Draco Malfoy stroked the sapphire. "Ancient Greek wizards believed that butterflies were connected to the soul."

Praeris rested her chin in her hand. Her gaze drifted from the necklace to Draco Malfoy's face. "The soul?"

He was even more magnetic when focused than he was the rest of the time.

"That's right." Draco Malfoy blinked and said softly, "The soul."

"The ultimate destination of gemstone alchemy is still the Philosopher's Stone, the magic capable of elevating the soul and achieving eternal life. But for ordinary alchemists, what we can do is awaken the power that already resides within the gemstones themselves... Praeris, do you like it?"

Praeris had been gazing, entranced, at his focused face. When her name was called, she startled sharply, it sent her straight back to being called on by Professor Snape.

"I like it." Praeris's sweet words came out without a moment's hesitation. "Everything you make, I like. You, I like you too."

Draco Malfoy suspected Praeris was just stringing him along, but he had no proof, and there was a faint sweetness to it he couldn't help but savor. He genuinely could not understand why Praeris felt no shyness at all when she said things like that, while he, the one hearing them, felt his ears go warm.

"I, ahem, let me put it on for you." Draco Malfoy gave a low cough and reached out to fasten the necklace around Praeris's neck.

The posture of clasping a necklace on someone felt so much like an embrace. The air between them shifted. Draco Malfoy admitted to himself that he had, to some degree, been trying to recapture the feeling of putting the lucky pendant on Praeris all those years ago, which was exactly why he had made it a necklace and not anything else.

He thought Praeris could have more necklaces. She had elegant collarbones and fair skin that made any necklace look more beautiful than it would on its own. Though of course Praeris was already beautiful and needed no necklace to set her off, so really, it was the necklace's honor.

These thoughts could not be shared with Theodore. That lone wolf had single-handedly driven both Pansy and Draco Malfoy to the edge, swearing to banish all lovesick fools from his presence.

"You should get into a relationship, Theo!" Pansy was relentless, goading her childhood friend. "It would do wonders for your temper, help you see the good in the world... Don't push, don't push, I'll see myself out! Be a gentleman, being this wild is exactly why you can't get a girlfriend!"

Draco Malfoy shook Theodore out of his head. He finished fastening the necklace and sat back down, at a loss for what to do with his hands.

"So, what are their powers?" Praeris asked with a smile.

"Ahem. The powers." Draco Malfoy came back to himself, and the corners of his mouth curved upward, radiating a quietly smug energy. "Yes, they have special powers, and I did it myself. It goes back to last time, when you brought me to Ms. Prim's shop and Winnie taught me the magic of mood manifestation."

Draco Malfoy had picked up Praeris's habit of saying "Mama Prim" and "Winnie."

Praeris couldn't help a silent remark to herself: Winnie truly had one trick that worked on everyone. She pulled out that little game of coaxing young witches and wizards on every single person who walked through the door.

"I drew inspiration from that, and thought I could link emotions to gemstone alchemy... You remember, I made an emotion pocket watch once, that part wasn't difficult for me." Speaking about a field he excelled in, Draco Malfoy's manner settled into calm confidence. "This necklace has the ability to subtly influence a person's emotions. The sapphire calms the mind. The ruby brings joy. The yellow gemstone eases tension. And the emerald carries the power to heal the heart, it is also a symbol of love and life."

Influencing the thoughts within a person's heart, and at a deeper level, drawing out the desires inside, it was essentially similar in nature to the power held by the Ravenclaw diadem. Praeris hadn't expected that Draco Malfoy, driven purely by personal interest, had already successfully touched the true threshold of alchemy.

But when it came down to it, Draco Malfoy was making a gemstone necklace for his girlfriend, not crafting a powerful magical artifact. The power of these gemstones was relatively faint, like a bar of soap placed in a room. It could freshen the air, but it couldn't wholly change the scent of a person.

Even so, for an enthusiast who had completed one year of alchemy coursework and spent half a year exploring gemstone alchemy, it was a remarkable achievement.

"You're truly remarkable, Draco!" Praeris rested her chin in one hand, looking at him with eyes curved into a smile. "You've only been studying Arabian alchemy for a short while, haven't you? I don't think anyone has a better feel for it than you do."

A universally recognized potions prodigy, one who met every criterion of a Potions Master except age, was sincerely telling Draco Malfoy he was remarkable. He felt very pleased inside.

Outside of Voldemort's reign, Draco Malfoy was generally highly confident in his own abilities. But Praeris was different. She was never stingy with her praise, and it always came with clear reasoning behind it.

"Interest is what matters most." Draco Malfoy said it with great authority. "This is something I love doing, it is a medium that suits my aesthetic, and it is a gift for someone I... you understand."

"I don't understand." Praeris smiled. "You're welcome to be more specific."

Draco Malfoy knew she was teasing him again. But this time he was not going to let this wicked little witch succeed. He was going to take the initiative, appear perfectly at ease, and make Praeris feel embarrassed for once.

"Then I'll tell you plainly." Draco Malfoy lowered his voice and leaned in close, speaking in a slow, low drawl. "This is a gift for my beloved. Do you hear me clearly? Hmm?"

Praeris raised an eyebrow.

At this distance, if she didn't make her move she'd be letting everyone down.

Before the thought had fully formed, Praeris tilted her head slightly, found the right angle, and kissed him.

Lips to lips, less than a second. Just the lightest peck before she pulled back. And then a peculiar thought surfaced: the curve of an upper lip, the curve of a lower lip, didn't each one look like half a butterfly? When one person kissed another, two upper lips and two lower lips pressed together would make two complete butterflies.

Did they really? She wasn't sure.

In matters of love, a person's imagination tends to run rather rich.

Praeris was lost in her own thoughts. Draco Malfoy had gone completely still. His right hand raised helplessly to cover his mouth.

She kissed him. She actually kissed him. She really, truly kissed him.

"What's the matter, isn't a beloved someone you kiss?" Praeris looked up at him with a bright smile. "If you're not satisfied, I'll let you kiss me back. I'm very easy to reason with."

The pale face of Draco Malfoy flooded with red and pink, but his mouth stayed just as stubborn. "Not satisfied... I, of course I'm not satisfied! It should have been me kissing you first!"

"Then go ahead." Praeris said.

"I wasn't ready!" Draco Malfoy protested. "Next time — next time!"

After everything he had been through, Draco Malfoy's spirit had grown much stronger. But faced with Praeris he was still all bluster and nothing underneath, one little tease and he would puff up and bare his tiny claws, adorable as a red panda.

Honestly, Praeris had been quite surprised. She had expected the Draco Malfoy she saw after the war to be badly shaken. But when she found him clinging to his parents, he hadn't seemed flustered at all. It was Narcissa who still wore the haunted expression of someone not quite over what she'd survived.

Praeris settled in to watch Draco Malfoy's research from the sidelines.

Draco Malfoy was not going to let his girlfriend just sit there watching idly. He handed her a collection of stones in all kinds of bizarre shapes to play with, to give her something to do.

Some looked like fish, with eye sockets already hollowed out. Some were roughly cone-shaped and resembled the Sorting Hat. And some looked remarkably like Russian nesting dolls, one even had a rounded bump on its blunt edge with a circular pattern that looked exactly like a nesting doll's face.

Praeris placed the "Sorting Hat" stone on top of the "Russian nesting doll" and muttered under her breath: "Slytherin!"

Draco Malfoy couldn't help a sideways glance. "What are you doing?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Praeris said. "Sorting."

"Has anyone ever been Sorted that quickly?"

"You have!" Praeris said. "The Sorting Hat hadn't even touched your head and it was already 'Slytherin'!"

Draco Malfoy stared at the "Russian nesting doll" in surprise. "So... that's supposed to be me?"

"Uh —" Praeris's eyes shifted. "I heard Stella was Sorted very quickly too!"

Draco Malfoy proved surprisingly hard to fool. "Did you actually witness her Sorting?"

Following Draco Malfoy's firm protest, the "Russian nesting doll" was officially reassigned as Stella and placed by itself on the bookshelf. Since she was a senior student, it wouldn't really do to put her through the alchemy process, would it?

Praeris had "Stella" and the "Sorting Hat" confiscated, and finally settled in to look at Draco Malfoy's research properly. She was surprised to discover that pearls also fell within the domain of gemstone alchemy, and with quite a wide range of applications at that.

"How strange." Praeris rummaged through the pearls in the box. "I always assumed gemstones were mineral ores you dug up from underground!"

"There are also 'living gemstones.'" Draco Malfoy replied without looking up. "Besides pearls, there's amber too... you know, pearls are grown by living shellfish, and amber comes from tree resin."

Praeris's admiration was clearly running thick. "Draco, if you were ever a teacher, you would certainly be a wonderful one."

Just look at how patient he was when explaining things to her.

He even used language she could actually follow.

Draco Malfoy had a rather clear-eyed view of himself on this point. "Then you'd be guessing wrong. Perhaps... it's because the student is you that I'm willing to be a good teacher."

What student could expect that kind of treatment?

To get the same from him as Praeris received, just keep dreaming.

The daily alchemy session came to an end. Draco Malfoy and Praeris went up together to the second-floor balcony.

Draco Malfoy drew the bow and played a gentle, spring-soaked rendition of "The Lark Ascending."

"Muggle music?" Praeris asked. "Haven't Narcissa and Lucius had a word with you about that?"

"They're not particularly interested in music." Draco Malfoy said with his eyes closed. "My ancestors did business with Muggles, that's how this manor came to exist in the first place... You've already had me reading Muggle books and poetry. Isn't it a bit late to be asking now?"

Praeris lay back and covered her face with the book, and lazily, shamelessly let herself enjoy the music.

➤ Next: Extra: Praeris — Later Times 4