Sorry for such a late update! Last week got super chaotic, but I'm back to writing. As always thank you for the favorites, follows, lovely reviews, and anyone who is reading 3
Groaning, she peeled her face from the pages that had long returned to their blank state. Locating the wand, she ran it back over them, determined to continue reading the secrets the white sheets held.
The second property is the ability to transform metals such as iron, zinc, tin, nickel, lead, and copper into silver and gold. Contrary to most wizarding views, this kind of alchemy is deeply rooted in Muggle science. They have previously discovered ways to forge gold and silver in the absence of these elements, however, it is a long and tedious process. One we determined had the potential to be expedited with magic. We invented a spell for this purpose after a year's worth of trial and error. In order for this spell to work, the words 'metallum ordinatio' are required to be spoken. This spell does not have the ability to be a silent or wandless incantation. You must move your wand in a clockwise motion once. Once at a 45˚ angle to your left. Once, perpendicular and 180˚ from your center. And once at a 45˚ angle to your right.
As Narcissa's eyes finished reading the sentence, she squinted her eyes as two blank lines appeared after the prior text. After them, the text flowed like normal. Confused at the sudden break, she ran the wand over the blank section, but the nothingness stared back at her. Too enthralled to be perturbed, she continued as if nothing was amiss.
Much how the magic of our world is trapped within a core, this spell must be embedded into the stone itself. After the caster releases the spell into the universe, they must capture it in a longevity chamber that preserves the quality of the spell while allowing its properties to present themselves. However, merely having this singular spell is not enough. It will need to be combined with the
Another blank line appeared. Furrowing her brow, Narcissa flipped the paper over and held it up to the light. She pointed her own wand at the paper and muttered, "Revealo". Once again, nothing changed.
Will utilize the neurological signals from the holder's mind to indicate what metal is desired. Once the metal has been determined, the metallum ordinatio spell will dominate the stone's attributes and rearrange the molecular structure of the element, effectively turning it into whatever metal is desired.
More unwritten sections.
…for who does not want to live forever. This final attribute should be handled with care. Living forever will always come with a price. Those who possess the stone or those who are attempting to create the stone do not need to harness this power if they so do not choose. The other two sections will work in perfect unison with the absence of this trait. As it is so coined the 'Elixir' of life, this is not a spell, but rather, a nearly impossible three part potion. This potion is impossible to make in the muggle world as it is partially reliant on our magical core. The muggle scientists were on the right track when they spoke of regenerating perfect replicas of a person's dead cells to revitalize and rejuvenate a person to stay young and healthy forever, however, there is too much unknown for that to be plausible. They do not take into account the organisms in the surroundings of the cell nor the surroundings of the body as a whole. Our magic simplifies this for us, and thus, this creation can be used to help both muggles and wizards alike. The first part of the portion is a perfectly brewed draught of living death, The second portion contains a perfectly brewed felix felicis. The third part…
But the words ran invisible.
"Seriously?!" Narcissa huffed aloud.
She turned the last page over, hoping her exasperation would breathe words into the blank page. Deciding to start with what she deemed the easiest portion, she grabbed a platinum goblet from a nearby shelf. It was an ancient heirloom from many generations of Black's ago. Narcissa used to know. She, in fact, used to know their entire family tree as her mother insisted it was important to keep the memory of every pureblood alive. Bellatrix thought that was a load of hogwash and never failed to voice that opinion despite Druella's many reprimands. Andromeda, at first, thought it was fascinating, but after attending Hogwarts for a couple of years, expressed it disgusted she was with the whole lot of them, going as far to say that the circle of life was not meant to be applied to a family tree. Seeing her sisters rebel against the idea rallied Narcissa to go against the tedious task of learning, but the thought of someone being completely erased from history because no one had a memory of them saddened her deeply. So she spent many hours of many days coughing in response to the dust emitted from the molded and browned pages of the record books. She drew her own pedigree as Druella had taught her and after months of laborious writing and a semi-permanent stiff hand, she, with an enormous smile on her face, presented her project to her mother, who glanced over the top of her Witch Weekly for a brief moment before returning to her evening tea. As her smile dropped, she rolled up the parchment, slowly making her way to her room. Narcissa set the goblet down on the wooden table and mimicked the motions of the wand outlined in the manuscript. After completing the final clockwise motion on her right side, the goblet burst into flames, melting into a gooey, silver pile, bubbling furiously.
"That was not correct," she mumbled, flicking her wand to repair the goblet. Thinking her angles were the cause of that catastrophe, she retrieved a protractor from a nearby cabinet. Bewitching it to hover next to her, she perfectly aligned her arm to the proper degrees. Completing the final circle and saying the spell, the goblet grew chrome legs and hobbled out the door as Narcissa flicked her wand, dragging it back to the table.
"Alright, what am I missing?" she said, twisting her hair up into a loose bun, and reading back over the papers. "Oh right, there are lines missing. I wonder what those could have been. I am assuming the way to complete this spell." Slamming the papers onto the table top, she paced back and forth, twirling her wand between her fingers as she attempted to decipher what this spell was currently designed to do and what needed to continue to be done. Summoning a black board, she drew the motions with her wand. One circle she sketched to the left with a line at a 45˚ angle. She sketched a circle down the middle with a line running 90˚. And finally, she drew the same circle as she did on the left, only the line ran at a positive slope at a 45˚ angle instead of a negative. Stepping back, she squinted her eyes as though narrowly seeing it would provide her with the solution she needed. After staring until she felt a strain on her eye, she decided to owl Ignatia Zabini. As she sat in a chair by the window, rereading the pages, her snowy owl landed on its perch beside her with a letter attached to its leg.
Narcissa,
Open your floo. I'll be over soon!
Ignatia
Flicking her wrist, the shield charm over her study's fireplace removed itself, leaving free reign. The flames turned green and Ignatia emerged, elegantly as ever. She had her butterfly braids pulled up into a ponytail with the golden hair rings reflecting the light of the sun that was permitted entrance through the massive window in the study.
"Cissy, it's been too long. I was disappointed when you and Lucius vanished so quickly from the platform," she smirked as she said the last part.
"Don't start," Narcissa said, pointing a finger at her, "I had potions to brew."
"Whatever you say, Cissy," she said, raising an eyebrow and walking around, "so what do I owe the pleasure then? Is this your idea of tea?" she motioned around at the scattered books, the smoking goblet, the blackboard, and Narcissa's squawking owl.
"Absolutely. You can use that," she motioned towards the goblet as she sarcastically rolled her eyes, "I was actually in need of your help."
"My, my, hell must have just reached zero degrees celsius if Narcissa Malfoy is asking for my help."
"Enough!" Narcissa let out an exasperated laugh, "I rescind my invitation."
"Too late," Ignatia brushed past her, "spellwork?"
"Yes, but it's incomplete. Which is why I owled you."
"Ah, I should have known you would never have the hot gossip. Making me go to Garla and Valencia is a cruel and unusual punishment, you know."
"Give me time. I work for the ministry after all."
"So you should already have something by now. Come on. Spill or I'm not helping you."
"There's not–"
"I guess you don't need my help."
"Okay, merlin," Narcissa widened her eyes before speaking, "there's a rumor going around that Cornelius Fudge requested multiple doses of a light love potion. I don't know why, but the head researcher for my department was complaining that we are not a window shop to select from."
"Oooo, did he give a hint on who he might be using it on?!"
"No, but it will likely be easy to narrow down after we give it to him. It will be the only person that can stand being around him longer than 5 minutes."
"I take back what I said. This is so much more interesting. Do you have anything else?"
"Nothing so far, but I will be sure you are the first to know when I find something out. But don't tell anyone, understand?"
"Yeah, yeah," she replied, flourishing her wrist back and forth in an undaunted motion as Narcissa moved in front of the black board.
"What does this look like to you?"
"A terrible drawing."
"Close. See, it was actually three different angles of an arrow going through your skull," Narcissa responded with a hint of frustration, "Seriously, what could this be making?"
"Hm," Ignatia pondered, walking closer to the rough sketch. Removing her own wand, the drawing peeled itself off the board and floated in the air, "why these specific angles?"
"I'm not sure. That's what the instructions said."
Ignatia flicked her wand upwards and the three sketches combined to form a sphere with the six lines jutting out at various places.
"I can't believe I didn't see that before."
"What?" Narcissa said, interested.
"It's a fat ant."
"Ugh," Narcissa groaned as Ignatia laughed, but abruptly stopped.
"I'm going to be serious this time, Cissy."
"I'm sure," she responded with doubt in her voice.
"No, listen, this is something I've seen in old alchemy textbooks. This right here is what I think they call an s orbital. What is this for again?"
"Personal research."
"Come now, you can tell me."
"You are going to laugh."
"I will not!"
"I'm trying to create another philosopher's stone."
"You're joking? Or have you actually gone mental?"
"I'm not joking."
"How are you…where are you…how…how?" she finally settled on.
"I got the papers from my department. Some of the steps are missing and this is one of them. But please, continue."
"Um…well I didn't realize I was helping to design immortality. You have a habit of leaving out the most exciting details. I'm not going to go in depth on what that orbital is, mostly because I don't really understand it myself. But, I mean, you understand basic chemistry and alchemy right?" Narcissa nodded.
"So you know how there are valence electrons? The s orbital harbors some of them. As you go down that table, I forget what they call it, the s orbital expands because more orbitals are added. What is this spell?"
"It is supposed to turn any metal into gold or silver, but so far, I have only managed to change the state from solid to liquid and given it a pair of legs."
"Amazing," Ignatia said sarcastically, "so you made the orbital. Do you have any idea what the rest of the spell might be?"
"Not a clue. Do you?"
"I will have to think this over, but I need to be off. I am meeting with a member of the wizengamot. They just had a closed trial, and I am simply dying to know the details. But I'll keep thinking about this, I can promise you that. If I come up with anything, I'll let you know."
"Okay. Thank you," Narcissa added the last part as Ignatia waved goodbye and stepped into the flames.
Leaving the sphere to rotate in the air, Narcissa grabbed her traveling robe from a hook near the door before exiting the manor. Once she was an adequate distance away near the edge of the garden, she disapperated and landed in Diagon Alley. The streets held very few people as the holidays remained another two weeks away. She had no trouble locating the apothecary shop with its olive green sign or the enormous fly traps outside with tentacle-like roots flapping about. As she strolled in, a few bowtruckles scampled from her path back into their tree. Retrieving her wand from her purse, she flicked it at a few vials, her most expensive ingredient being phoenix tears. She descended the steps and made her way to check out when she heard the familiar stutter of Professor Quirrell arguing with the owner. Narcissa only caught bits and pieces as she hung back, but it was something about unicorn blood and the price being outrageously high. Quirrell was about to storm out in a fury when he bumped into her, causing a vial of juice of squill bulb to shatter and spill all over the floorboards.
"I'm terr-rr-rribly sorry, Mrs. Malfoy. Ev-very time we run into each oth-ther, it is always me r-r-running into you."
"Not to worry, Mrs. Malfoy. I'll clean that up and summon you a new one," the owner glared at Quirrell as he flourished his wand. Narcissa placed the remaining vials on the counter and pulled out a sack of galleons.
"Would you per-r-rhaps care to grab a drink from the Lea-ea-ky Cauldron? As an ap-ap-apology."
"Maybe another time," Narcissa offered a quick smile as she looked over the total and attempted to retrieve the appropriate amount.
"Of cour-ourse. You must be very busy. Howev-ev-ever, I have to say, you must be very proud of your son."
"I am," she stated coolly, not sure why he was making a comment on Draco.
"Did he men-en-mention that he sur-urvived a mountain troll? I have seen even great wiz-za-zards per-rish."
"What did you say?" Narcissa said, turning her body to face him.
"Didn't he wr-rite home ab-b-bout it? Quite the feat."
"He failed to mention it," Narcissa replied, maintaining her cool demeanor.
"I could t-t-tell you about it."
"Fine. The Leaky Cauldron?"
"That s-s-sounds good."
Narcissa grabbed the bag with all of her new ingredients and placed them carefully in her purse. She also snagged a few galleons before placing the sack next to the potion supplies. The pair walked along the cobblestone not saying too much. She continuously shot glances over at Quirrell because for the life of her, there was something off about that man, but she couldn't say what. It startsed to lightly sprinkle rain as Narcissa and Quirrell jogs a little to inside the Leaky Cauldron. Tom, the bartender, greeted them as though they were his most valued friends although Narcissa questioned how he could see anything with how dimly lit the place was.
"What w-w-would you like?"
"Just a Gillywater."
"Alri-ri-right, a gillywater and a butterb-b-beer, Tom." They waited at the bar as Tom placed their orders in front of them. Picking up their respective drinks, Quirrell led them to a spot in the corner of the room.
"Is this okay?"
"Yes," Narcissa said although she was taken aback at the shredded faux leather, the deep cloud of smoke that pervaded the air, the unswept floors, and her glass that looked like it hadn't been washed in at least a decade. Sitting as far on the edge of the seat as she could, she set her drink down and had no inclination to pick it back up.
"S-s-so, your s-s-on."
"What was a mountain troll doing at Hogwarts?"
"I c-c-can't tell you th-that, but I have a f-f-feeling you ma-may already know."
"And why is that?"
"Be-be-because you work for the d-de-department of myster-r-ries, correct?"
"We don't have a magical creatures sect, so I would not have the slightest idea."
"I must be mist-st-staken. But your son was va-va-very brave. He di-di-didn't pan-ni-nic at all."
"Was he hurt?"
"No, we got the sit-it-itutat-ation under contr-r-roll."
"Fantastic," Narcissa stated plainly, swatting at a bug that flew near her face. It was as though the place wanted to brag to her about how disgusting it was.
"B-but tell me, h-h-how is working for the de-de-department of my-my-mysteries? You must see such fasci-i-i-inating things!"
"It's fine," Narcissa replied, suddenly suspicious at the change of topics, especially at the rate with which it changed. She intertwined her hands together and set them in her lap.
"What do you do?"
"If I told you, I would die."
"I'm sure it's not th-th-that bad."
"I mean I will die," she emphasized, "I made an Unbreakable Vow."
"How fas-s-scinating. That has to go ag-g-gainst some wiz-z-zarding law. Comple-e-etly unethical."
"I suppose," Narcissa said, looking around for her exit.
"B-b-but you can t-talk about the t-t-topic of you re-re-research, surely?"
"I cannot," Narcissa simply responded, sitting up straighter and bringing her shoulders back. Quirrell and her eyes met and behind the both of them seemed to be an underlying frustration and a brewing hatred that was in the early stages of boiling.
"How is L-L-Lucius?"
"What?"
"H-h-how is your hus-s-sband? Being accu-cu-cused of being a Death Eater can't be pl-pl-pleasant," he reached his hand across the table to grasp hers momentarily.
"No," Narcissa drawed out, attempting to read Quirrell's mind, but immediately hitting a mental block.
"He is doing well th-th-then?"
"Well as can be expected," she replied, pulling her hand away from him.
"Then he wa-wa-wasn't a death eater."
"How was your sabbatical in Albania?" she said, momentarily closing her eyes and trying to regain control of the conversation.
"Q-q-quite well. I encoun-n-ntered a vamp-p-pire who nearly killed me. You m-m-must forgive me for ask-sk-sking about Lucius, but one c-c-can never be too car-r-reful these days."
"I understand," Narcissa said curtly in a deep tone that did not match her usual higher pitch, "if that was all about Draco, I really must be going."
"S-s-so soon?"
"Yes, I have other business to attend to." Standing up, she went to retrieve her purse, but Quirrell blocked her path out.
"Do be careful, Mrs. Ma-Ma-Malfoy. M-m-many wizards w-would kill to lear-lear-learn the secrets of the department of my-my-mysteries." Glaring at him, she shoved past and stomped out of the pub, Tom's cheerful farewell falling on deaf ears.
Once in the streets, she disapparated into the grounds of Malfoy Manor where she spotted Lucius sitting on the terrace watching his albino peacocks. Waving to him, she hiked up to the house. She slipped off her boots and traded them for a pair of black house slippers as Dobby stumbled beside her, fervently asking if she would be needing anything.
Declining, she walked to where Lucius was sitting, embracing him from behind and whispering in his ear, "I'm not feeling well, love. I'm going to go take a nap, but wake me up for supper." Lucius hastily spun around and scanned her face for any sign of pallor.
"Are you getting back from work?"
"No. I was picking up potion ingredients in Diagon Alley. You understand how draining that can be. All of those people," she jokingly placed the back of her hand on her forehead as Lucius laughed at her small spectacle.
"Of course. Hopefully it is nothing serious." She floated away and up the stairs. As her head hit the pillow, sleep greeted her like a warm embrace. She was awoken some time after by Lucius shaking her with a look of fury on his face. This was not an expression she was used to from him, but backed away regardless.
"Lucius?" she questions, looking around and realized how dark it had gotten. He had, of course, forgotten to wake her up for dinner, however that was far from what was important right now.
"What is this, Narcissa?" he said evenly, flinging something in her direction. She turned over to yank the lamp on. As the light illuminated, she saw he had flung an evening copy of the Daily Prophet at her. Her eyes glazed over as she read the headline, and her grip crumpled the edges of the paper, shaking it with fury. In bold letters on the front page, the headline read:
Dark Arts and Dark Hearts: Malfoy's wife caught having affair with renowned Hogwarts' defense against the dark arts professor Quirinus Quirrell
and below was a black and white moving photo of his hand covering hers as the pair conversed.
