Ch. 25 - Life is Like...
A week after Kurama had sent his letter, he recieved a reply. Botan's owl swooped in at breakfast with the rest of the owls, a medium-sized package tied to its leg. It landed at Kurama's plate, knocking his (thankfully empty) mug of tea over and pecking at his bacon. Kurama used his knife to push the bacon from his plate, letting the owl have it, and took the package.
It was a box, about the size of a shoebox, though somewhat flatter, and Kurama couldn't figure out why the information he wanted would need to be boxed. He slipped the accompanying letter from under the strings of the parcel, and opened it.
Kurama-san -
I am most delighted to hear from you. Your request was quite intriguing, but the potion takes a full month to brew. It may be presumptuous on my part, but I gathered that you may require it sooner than that, so I took the liberty of including a few doses.
The box contains chocolates. The spheres are fakes; they contain your potion. The large, oblong one in the corner is the seed required for the final step, and is reuseable. Take care to wash all traces of the chocolate from it, or the results will not be pleasant. The remaining chocolates are normal, Muggle chocolates.
The recipe itself is the second page of this letter.
Should you encounter any difficulties, further premade doses cost twenty Makai gaigane each.
Regards,
Suzuki
Kurama raised an eyebrow, unwrapped the parcel, and lifted the lid off the box. An assortment of pretty little chocolates met his eye. And the eyes of the nearest Slytherins at the table.
"What's that?" Draco asked snidely. "Secret admirer?"
"Oh, no," Kurama answered easily. "This is from home. One of my colleagues is a potionsmaker. I beta-test his creations." The lie was almost too easy - the Weasley twins were such GOOD inspiration - but it should keep sneaky little Slytherin hands out of his chocolates, and away from the real potion. Just in case, he plucked a flat one from the box and pretended to consult the second page of the letter. "This one should turn all my joints the opposite direction. Or poison me, but I can neutralize that." He flicked a smile towards Draco. "Care to try it?"
"No!" Draco all but yelped.
Kurama chuckled. "I thought not." He put the chocolate back in the box, and closed it once more. He'd seen what he needed to. Nearly half the box held round balls of chocolate, decorated differently. There should be two or three doses, total, once he'd extracted the liquid from them.
How convenient.
-0-0-0
Harry tickled the painted pear, and the portrait swung open obediently. He stepped into the chaos of the Hogwarts kitchens, slightly worse than usual in the aftermath of breakfast. Thousands of dirty dishes were piled on countertops and tables, awaiting their turn at the House Elves' bath-sized sinks.
A rather harried-looking elf popped up in front of Harry before he'd managed to take more than a couple of steps into the room. It peered up at him, then raised an eyebrow ruefully. "Harry Potter. Is lookings for Dobby, yes?"
Harry smiled a bit sheepishly. He must've been down here a bit too often. "Well, if he's not too busy," he answered.
The elf nodded, then signaled curtly across the room. One, half-buried under a stack of freshly-washed pans, set them aside and popped over to beam up at Harry. Harry bit his lip, trying not to laugh.
Today, Dobby was wearing a tie-dyed Tshirt that came to his knees, five mismatched socks (three on one foot, two on the other), and an oddly shapeless cap, with two holes cut for his ears. He had also evidently discovered belts at some point, and had a gold, jangling lady's belt draped like a sash over one shoulder.
"Harry Potter! How is you today?" Dobby's belt-sash chimed with his happiness, and he glanced behind Harry. "And Harry Potter's Wheezy, and- and Harry Potter's- er, other friend." The belt fell silent as Dobby stilled nervously.
"Hello, Dobby," Harry said. The elf turned his focus back to Harry with a slight bit of relief. "We're all doing well. How are you?"
"Oh, Dobby is doing most well, sir! Dobby is working most hard, and he is buyings many socks and things!" He leaned in close, glancing at the other elves (who were pointedly ignoring the little group). "Dobby is even havings tab at The Three Broomsticks! Mistress Rosmertas is telling Dobby to calls her Rosy!"
Harry grinned. "Sounds like you're doing great." He paused. "Listen, Dobby... we need a favor."
"Anything for Harry Potter!"
"Well... we aren't hungry, but we need some food. Things that keep well and don't need to be cooked... meat would be good."
Dobby nodded happily, his belt jangling. "No problems! Would Harry Potter be likings a basket to carry it in?"
Harry glanced at Ron and Hermione. Hermione nodded. "A bag would be good, actually. I can do a carryall charm, and we can send Crookshanks."
"But-" Harry started. He wanted to see Sirius! He could use the tunnel under the Whomping Willow or the one in the one-eyed witch's statue... and no one could follow him if he used his Invisibility Cloak...
"It's safer, Harry," Hermione said firmly.
"Dobby is gettings it for Harry Potter, then!" Dobby said, darting away. A whirlwind of motion later - still rather pointedly ignored by the rest of the elves - and Dobby offered up a large burlap potato sack to them.
Harry took the sack gratefully. "Thank you, Dobby."
"Anytime, sir!" Dobby chirped.
They left.
-0-0-0
"Mr. Minamino."
Kurama paused in the hallway, glancing over his shoulder as Snape descended upon him. What does he want now? Kurama thought. I'm busy - or will be in a few minutes. "Sir?" he asked politely. Hm... more pale than he should be, no scent of illness like that first day we met, but a slightly-too-deep wrinkling about the eyes and mouth... he's either furious or terrified, and probably both. And I think this isn't his classroom theatrics.
"What is this about recieving experimental potions in the mail?"
"Experi- what, these?" Kurama pulled the box of chocolates from the pocket of his robes, mind racing. Why was he surprised that someone had gone tattling? He hadn't even really intended or threatened to test anything on other students, and the Weasley twins got away with it... oh well. "It's a gift from my mother. They're harmless; I just don't want to share."
Snape frowned. "I'm afraid I can't risk taking your word for it, Minamino. I will have to confiscate that."
If he did that, Kurama would lose his potion AND Snape would get his hands on it. Unacceptable. "No, Professor."
The man's hand twitched closer to his wand. "Must I remind you who is in charge here, Minamino? Give. Me. The. Box."
Kurama pivoted into a run. "Sorry, but no!" he yelled over his shoulder, whipping around a corner before Snape could fully draw his wand on him.
"Accio box!" Snape yelled after him. The box jerked in Kurama's hands, and with hardly a thought, he flipped it open and poured the candies into his pocket. Then he let it go, and it sailed off behind him.
Ooh. He was getting an idea. He ran a hand through his hair, still running, and extracted a seed. He sent his magic into it and shoved the growing vine into his pocket.
"Mobilicorpus!" came from behind him. Kurama dived into a roll, ducking the spell, and slammed through a door: the outer door to his target courtyard. The movement flowed smoothly back into a run, and he darted across the courtyard, towards the Whomping Willow.
The door crashed open behind him. "Minamino!" Snape shouted, his tone snapping from fury to horror in the four syllables. "Stop now, you fool! The tree-!"
A branch smashed into the ground directly before Kurama - just as he'd commanded - and he ran up it as if it was a sidewalk. Snape's yell turned into a strangled choke behind him, as the Willow's branches lifted high off the ground and twisted, cocooning Kurama safely away from the professor.
"Go AWAY, Professor!" Kurama yelled down through a tiny gap between branches.
"Minamino, what-!" Snape sounded almost incoherent with shock. Good. "Immobulus!" Shoot. Bad. The tree couldn't move on its own now. Before Snape could charm the branches to move apart on their own and allow line-of-sight to Kurama, Kurama used his own power to swipe a branch warningly at Snape. Then he got to work on his spur-of-the-moment trick, as Snape began to throw more charms at the tree.
Kurama worked quickly, slicing open the round chocolates with a leaf blade. Inside, he found smaller balls, one per chocolate, made of a substance similar to an eggshell. He carefully placed these in another pocket of his robes. Once he'd emptied all the round candies of their contents, he took the vine from his pocket. It had borne fruit while he was running, and he inserted the sticky Makai berries into the spaces where the egglike capsules had been.
The chocolate-covered seed joined the capsules, and Kurama allowed his attention back to Snape's spellcasting. The professor had made it up to hexes while Kurama was working.
"All RIGHT!" Kurama called out. "Stop attacking the tree! I'll give you the candy, just STOP IT!"
Silence.
After a cautious second, Kurama let the branches open a bit. He took a scarf from his pocket, poured the candies in, and tossed it out.
"Minamino, get out here. Now. You have detention."
Kurama was NOT in a mood to be ordered about. Snape was a damn suspicious bastard and Kurama was quite glad he was the Potions teacher right now, as opposed to someone without the skill to check the candy. "Professor. You attempted to steal a perfectly harmless gift from my mother, then attempted to hex me. You may give me detention if you discover that your suspiscions were correct, but until then - I consider myself to have been acting in self-defense. Don't make me go to the Headmaster."
"Oh, I won't, Minamino." Snape's voice was tight and cold. "I will be bringing the matter to his attention myself."
"Go right ahead," Kurama replied. "I'm sure he'll expect an apology when nothing comes of this." That should be enough to have Snape checking the candies before taking the matter to Dumbledore. When he found nothing, he would keep quiet and nurse his resentment, rather than apologize.
Snape stormed off.
-0-0-0
From a window near a side entrance to the castle, Harry, Hermione, and Ron watched Crookshanks run off into the Forest, in the oddly effective 'I'm not doing anything that's any of your business' manner that cats had. The sack Dobby had filled for them was invisible at this distance, shrunk and tied to Crookshanks' collar with a charm that would disappear when Sirius opened the bag.
Harry turned away from the window with a sigh. He still wanted to go...
"It's for the best, Harry," Hermione said gently.
"I know," Harry answered. "Still..." He shrugged. He didn't want to talk about it. He knew the whole sequence: complaint (him), reasonable correcting (Hermione), grumbling (him and Ron), lecture (Hermione), put-upon sighing and head nodding and agreement to get the lecture over with (him and Ron), change of subject.
They were getting very predictable.
The side door slammed open, and Snape stormed in, nearly bowling the three over in a swirl of robes. "Watch where you're going, Potter," he snapped distractedly, not bothering to stop. "And two points from Gryffindor for being in the way!"
The three stared after him in shock. That was... weird.
"What's got his knickers in a twist?" Ron asked.
"It was outside," Hermione said, stepping over to the door and peering curiously past it. "I don't see anybody..."
Harry looked over her shoulder. "There's nothing out here but the Willow."
They stared for a moment more. A single brown leaf skittered across the empty path, its faint, dry rustle almost loud in the empty courtyard. Finally, they shrugged, backed away, and closed the door.
-0-0-0
The three students shut the door, and Kurama relaxed. He turned to the vine in his hand, reaching through it with his power. He dialed up the sensitivity on one particular lens, and oddly stark shapes appeared on the leaf monitor of his spyeye. The view panned over hundreds upon hundreds of jars, most holding unidentifiable shadows of something - the light in Snape's office wasn't enough to make anything but the jars and their labels clearly visible, even at the maximum light sensitivity of a spyeye. But Kurama didn't need to see the actual contents.
A gentle nudging with his magic, and the view zoomed in and began panning methodically across the shelves. Kurama's translation charm provided kanji for the strange words on the labels.
Doppelg (two-something; the word wasn't complete enough to provide more kanji, and Kurama couldn't compromise his spyeye to turn the jar), Doppler (weather-next-see), Doxycide (faerie-kill)... these were completed potions, not ingredients. Kurama was looking in the wrong part of the room. He flipped the view to the other side of the room, and found the ingredients section.
His reciepe listed "two-horn antler powder" and "tree-snake skin" (Dispholidus typus, this item alone written carefully in roman lettering)... and neither was under the "T" section. Kurama checked the D's for the snake skin, and found it absent as well. He sighed, and panned back to the A's to work through the ingredient shelves the long way. Translation problems again - Snape didn't use Muggle scientific names, and Suzuka's kanji didn't include English pronunciations.
Abyssinian shrivelfig (shrink-fruit), aconite/wolfsbane (wolf-ban), A. eggshell; Ashwinder egg, frozen (fire-snake-egg, ice); asphodel (taste-lily); beetles: black, common, dung, Japanese, and scarab; belladonna/deadly nightshade (beauty-lady/die-night-dark-plant), bezoar (goat-stone), bicorn horn (two-horn antler)...
"There's one," Kurama murmured to himself. Odd word, 'bicorn'. The view continued, Kurama's charm providing more kanji. Bile: armadillo, bat, frog, goat, oppossum, quolla, rat, snake; billywig stings; boomslang skin (tree-snake-skin). "And the other," Kurama finished with satisfaction, pulling his power back in. Snape had both ingredients in stock.
But Kurama wouldn't take them today. No. He had more groundwork to do first, to pull off a proper theft.
He was so glad Snape was going to be the victim.
-0-0-0
"I think that's enough for the night, Malfoy," Yukina said softly, fairly late on Monday evening.
Draco frowned at his crystal, the hexagonal pillar slightly off from straight and the color not quite perfectly clear. "I can do this," he grumbled.
Yukina lifted her own crystal - ice, not rock - from the table and stood. "You're doing quite well as it is," she told him, as she took it to a charmed icebox on the wall and set it inside with the rest. "There's no need for perfection at this stage." Behind her back, Draco sneered and mouthed the next words with her. "We're just building up your strength."
Merlin, if he'd heard that once he'd heard it a hundred times over the past couple of weeks. When were they going to get past stupid cheap-glass cubes and spheres and pillars, and get to the real stuff? Draco's dreams of costly gems and diamond blades - and the occasional spell component, if necessary - were not being realized.
Yukina continued to move around the room, putting out the candles one by one. "Please read the next chapter each of Crystals and Crystalline Gems, and To The Core: A Discussion of Deeper Magicks. Also, if you would, please do three cubic - um - inches of quartz per day, any of the basic shapes, and a one-inch sphere of amethyst on Thursday and Friday." She doused the last candle, except for the one on the table, and bowed to him. "And I will see you next week."
"Whatever."