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runaway dragon
Disclaimer 1: Draco, his parents and teachers all belong to JKR. (As if you didn't all know that.)
Disclaimer 2: Severus Snape owning a raven belongs to J.L. Matthews. (Go read her story everybody. It's great.) I found a new name for him this time though.
Disclaimer 3: The gang name Sharks is borrowed from the musical West Side Story of course. I don't remember where I found the name Rakers, but I know I read it somewhere.
Disclaimer 4: The idea for Snape having a family comes from Al's fic Time of Trial. (Thanks Al. I always seem to get the best ideas when reading your fics.)
Disclaimer 5: The Glizzard family and Gringolf Glizzard belong to my friend Pega Pony. Thanks for letting me borrow them!
A/N - Well, here it finally is. I'm hoping to return to posting a chapter a week for a while, but I failed that stupid exam and will have to try again in six months. This time there won't be a course though so maybe I'll manage without completely stopping to write.
And R/R Zebee's fics if you haven't yet. You're not going to find out how Sevi met Sarah, if you don't.
Chapter 17: Feather Dusters and Revenge
The next morning the green powder had turned into a greenish blue colour while the upside down glass was filled with white smoke. After breakfast Severus removed the hose that had connected it to the odd glass with the formerly green powder, put a plate under it, lowered the holder a little and ... set the smoke on fire!
Draco stared as white ash dropped onto the plate.
Severus however calmly removed the glass with the now blue powder and poured another liquid on top of that. The whole thing started smoking again, but this time it didn't hiss nor did Severus make any attempt to capture the smoke.
Draco redirected his attention towards the new glass and found that the powder was beginning to dissolve into dark blue liquid.
"What about the smoke?" he asked curiously.
"Just a by-product. Never mind. It's harmless and of no use to us." answered Snape and turned towards another glass filled with liquid that Draco didn't remember seeing before. It had to be the one Sarah had used for the orange water, but now there was no hint of orange left. The liquid looked completely clear and the odd crystals on the bottom were white.
Snape poured the whole thing through the filter once again, then threw something into the liquid that Draco couldn't see. It might have been some powder or capsule, he thought. Definitely not another liquid. The liquid slowly began to darken while Snape added water to the crystals once again and then moved on to the formerly black powder.
The scarlet liquid seemed to have settled at the bottom of the glass while the top now looked yellow. Severus smiled obviously satisfied with the result and poured it into yet another strange contraption. Then before Draco could even take a closer look he touched it lightly with his wand and the whole thing began spinning like a washing machine.
Draco gaped at it. Was that thing a mini washing machine? But it seemed to be powered magically instead of electrically! This Chemistry thing sure was strange.
"You know, in this one I'm actually using Physics, not Chemistry." Severus commented indicating the spinning washing machine like contraption.
"Really?" Draco's eyes grew very wide.
"Yes, the two subjects are closely related."
"But I don't see any cables."
"Not everything in Physics is electrical Draco. Actually electricity is only one very small part of it."
Draco nodded excitedly. "I'll find out everything about it. just as soon as I'm through with that Math book. I just need to find it again."
"In that case I suggest you start washing out these." Severus handed him some of the empty glasses. "I need everything we've used for the separation cleaned perfectly. Treat them as you would potion ingredient jars and be particularly careful with the ones that contained the acid. Once you are done with that you can start dusting and putting back the books and jars."
"What about the glasses you're still using? And how do I know which jar goes where?"
"Just put the jars in according to their requirements. You ought to know which ones need to be kept out of direct light. The ones that need to be kept cool I've already taken care off and those that have to be kept in the dark entirely were all ruined anyway. The other glasses will have to wait till I'm done with them, but I'll be needing some of these here again before then. And wash them in the bathroom. Sarah doesn't need you underfoot in the kitchen!"
Draco nodded obediently and carried as many glasses as he could off into the bathroom. When he returned for the rest he found Snape busy filling the white ash into a jar labelled 'fairy dust'.
"There's our first powder, see." he showed Draco the jar.
It really did look like fairy dust, but how could that be?
"But that's ash. I saw you burn it."
"Yes, and that way it turned back into fairy dust. Don't forget to clean the filters as well and be careful with this. It wouldn't be easy to replace. We'd have to go to London and pay a lot of muggle money for it and you know what the exchange rates at Gringots are like." Severus warned him as he gingerly picked up the strange contraption they'd used to get the fairy dust smoke.
It was a muggle object then? Well, that probably explained the strange looks. Draco carefully carried it back to the bathroom with the rest of the stuff.
Those were quite a lot of glasses. Well, it wasn't much different from doing the dishes. Most likely he was much better at this now than he had been before he'd come to live with the Snapes. At least Uncle Severus had never entrusted him with his own jars back then even during detentions. He'd always cleaned them himself. And that strange contraption seemed to be a lot more valuable to him than common potion ingredient jars.
Draco smiled. He could do this and he would do it well.
Draco returned with the clean glass objects about an hour later to find Snape packing away another freshly isolated potion. For a moment Draco considered asking where that one had come from, but then decided to ignore it. He wouldn't understand this anyway. That Chemistry stuff was too complicated he thought.
Instead he asked where he should put away the glass objects.
"Oh, just set them back on the table. I'll need most of them again after lunch anyway." Snape told him setting the jar onto a very empty looking shelf.
"Okay." he put each of them down separately as carefully as he could with both arms full of them and returned to get the rest.
"So, what do you want me to do next?" he asked once everything was back on the table.
"Dust off the books and put them back on the shelves." Snape answered. Then added looking Draco up and down pointedly. "But first change into some dry clothes."
Draco looked down at himself and decided that Snape had a point there. Washing the bigger glasses had been rather difficult in the small bathroom and Draco had splashed himself thoroughly.
"That's not so bad." he declared after a moment's consideration. "It's so hot today that this is rather comfortable. I won't get sick as long as I don't even feel cold."
"I wouldn't be so sure about that. And I don't want you to get my books wet, so please get dry before you start with them." Severus insisted.
Well, if he put it like this ... Draco sighed and complied. At least he'd found his clothes again after Severs and Sarah had cleaned up all the potion ingredients.
He quickly slipped into his other pair of trousers and his favourite T-shirt with the dragon on. If he wasn't going out anyway, it didn't really matter that he wasn't wearing the gang colours and he really liked that dragon shirt. Might as well have that to cheer him up while he had to do all the cleaning.
Dusting the books didn't turn out to be all that bad either. Snape had already shelved most of the potion ingredients despite his earlier insistence that Draco had to do it all alone and now the room didn't look nearly as bad as it had right after the aurors' visit. The task seemed manageable and Draco even decided to attempt to sort the books by topic. That way he might even find what he was looking for next time.
He started by just collecting all of them in a big pile near the shelf then picked up each individually, dusted it off with Sarah's feather duster and checking their titles to determine their subjects.
He soon realised that it was better to find out first how much room each category would require and started to build a stack for each.
Playing with the feather duster turned out to be fun as well. At Hogwarts he'd only ever watched Filch do it while he himself had had to do the less pleasant work like scrubbing floors or rubbing stains out of furniture. Now he realised why. The duster was fast and didn't require any real effort at all.
Draco experimented a bit and found that it was much more fun to twirl the duster over the book instead of just brushing it off. And the dust clouds drifted off in different patterns according to the movement and speed of the duster. He tried out a few different ways of dusting and tried to predict the patterns.
By the time he finally tired of the game he'd made good progress and only about a dozen books remained still to be dusted and sorted. The only problem he'd encountered were the foreign books he couldn't read. He supposed that most of them were potion books, but since only very few were illustrated he couldn't tell for sure. After putting them aside for a while wondering what to do with them he'd finally decided to simply put them into a category of their own next to the potions books and stacked them according to the writing. He couldn't be entirely sure that everything he'd sorted together was written in the same language, after all English and Latin used the same letters as well, but since they hadn't been sorted at all before the raid, Draco didn't think Severs would really mind if the new order wasn't perfect.
With a sigh he picked up the next book and brushed the feather duster over it quickly determined to get the rest of the dusting over with as soon as possible. If he worked fast he might get the room done before lunch.
One glance at the cover to find the title and ... There was no title on the front. Draco shrugged and tilted the book to check the spine. Nothing.
He turned the book over, but found no title anywhere. That wasn't entirely unusual. He'd already found several others like that, but now that he was almost done it annoyed him. He wanted to get this over with and this book was slowing him down.
With another exasperated sigh he opened it and finally found the title on the first page: 1001 Useless Potions. Ah, another potions book.
Wait a minute! Useless potions? What the hell were useless potions? Who'd want to know useless potions? Well, a potions teacher probably might find anything to do with potions interesting.
Draco put the book on the third potions stack he'd formed when the first and second had gotten so high they'd threatened to fall over and turned to pick up and dust the next book. ... Chemistry. On the Chemistry stack then. This was how it should be, recognisable at first glance, not like that stupid Useless Potions book.
What were useless potions anyway? Draco stacked the Chemistry book and picked up 1001 Useless Potions again. Just a quick look inside to find out what useless potions were and he could go back to work without having to think about it constantly.
He flipped the book open at a random page. 'Anti Ink Potion' it said there. A potion that makes ink disappear. Why would that be considered useless? Oh, there it was: Right at the bottom of the page it said that the writing on any roll of parchment or paper disappeared for five seconds every twenty minutes. Draco tried to imagine a situation where one would want to hide writing at only those precise times, but his imagination failed miserably. This potion was truly useless.
Draco turned a few pages and looked at some of the other potions. There was one that scared off ants, but worked only in uninhabited forests. Another made sand glow underwater. One made mice invisible. And there was one that could make fish grow hair and worked only on dry land.
He was just about to close the book and put it back on it's stack his curiosity satisfied when he noticed one more potion. He read through the description quickly. This one wasn't nearly as funny as the other ones. Disappointed he closed the book. That last one wasn't even really useless. It could be used for a really nasty prank. Draco grinned evilly when he remembered the last line: 'The effects fade after a little over a week. There is no known counter potion or spell.'
Too bad he couldn't try that one out on Potter or Weasley. Here he had noone to do such nasty things to. Nobody here deserved that.
"Wait a minute! The Sharks!" Of course! He still needed to get revenge on the Sharks. And this was absolutely perfect. This prank practically had 'Rakers' written all over it and a potion would almost immediately be connected with Draco. Who else would have a source for unusual potion recipes or ingredients. The Sharks would know exactly whose idea this one had been.
The only problem was to get Professor Snape's permission to brew this.
Then again it had been Severus himself who'd told Draco to come up with a very special revenge. Maybe he would even help him if he told him what he was planning to do?
Draco considered his options while shelving the books. He could tell Snape what he was planning and ask him for help, but risk that he'd say no and forbid him the use of his potions equipment, which would leave Draco without a plan for his revenge again.
Or he could just brew the potion without asking and risk getting caught and being forbidden from even touching the things ever again. That would lead to exactly the same result as the first option and no doubt anger Professor Snape on top of it. He might even send him off to live with Eugene if he got to the conclusion that letting Draco stay in his potions lab was dangerous.
What exactly were the chances that he wouldn't be caught? Draco picked up 1001 Useless Potions once again. Just what page was that potion on?
It took him a while to find the recipe again. The potion had to simmer for 12 hours then be taken off the fire and left to cool without any help from cooling charms. Well, he wasn't allowed to cast a cooling charm during the holidays anyway. But 12 hours and then even more time to cool down? He'd have to leave it overnight and there was practically no chance he could do this while Snape wasn't home. He never stayed out this long and he was sure to check on Draco and his lab sometime during 12 hours.
Could he tell Severus that he was brewing something else?
Draco almost laughed at his own idea. As if Snape the potions master could be fooled like that by a normal fifteen year old student! He'd probably recognise that wasn't the potion Draco was claiming to brew the moment he first laid eyes on it. Of course there was a chance that he wouldn't look too closely, if Draco picked a potion that was very similar to the one he was actually brewing, but the description in the book was hardly enough to tell what exactly it would look like during all stages of it's production and Draco doubted he'd have known a suitable potion even if it had been. No, Snape knew his stuff too well to be fooled like this.
What Draco really needed was an open permission to use Severus' equipment without informing his teacher what exactly he was doing. But how could he get that?
He was done with the books by the time he reached that conclusion and turned to pick up whatever other objects were still strewn about the room. There weren't many left except for the mysterious Chemistry stuff on the table which Snape had told him was still needed there for now.
Draco smiled. He was almost done with the first room. Only the living room and the bedroom to go. For once he was happy that the Snapes' flat was so small. The living room was in much better shape than the lab had been since Sarah had had to clean up the worst of the mess to do her cooking. He hadn't seen what condition the bedroom was in yet, but he supposed that Sarah and Severus must have at least picked up their clothes and most of Billy's toys already so it wouldn't be as bad as Draco remembered it from right after the raid either.
Severus came to call him to lunch before he was completely done, but he knew he'd have the last few items returned to their proper places within minutes when he returned.
Severus seemed to realise that as well. He gave Draco a pleased look. "Looks like I can introduce you to another electrical toy after we eat." he commented.
"Something electrical! What's it called? Can I see it now?" Draco asked excitedly.
"After lunch, Draco. You'll even get to use it then."
"Use it? What does it do?"
"Clean floors and certain furniture."
Draco stared at the table during most of lunch wondering what kind of electrical object might be used to clean it. He'd forgotten all about his revenge project for the time.
When he picked up the empty dishes after lunch Severus looked up from his game of 'Find the Squishy Toy' with Billy and calmly told him: "Just put those in the sink and leave them for later. I want you to finish the lab first. I'm almost done with the separation of the potion ingredients and it'll be nice to have at least one room back to normal."
Draco nodded excitedly. "What about that electrical thing you were talking about then?"
"First pick up whatever's left on the floor and try not to overlook any small objects or they'll be gone afterwards. I want to check on my powders first. Maybe another one is ready to be put back into its jar."
While Draco quickly checked the lab for any last forgotten objects Snape picked up the glass with the dark blue liquid, held it against the light obviously checking for something and then poured it through the freshly cleaned filter into the strange contraption that had been so hard to wash. Draco sighed. He could guess who'd have to clean all this again afterwards. Small gray crystals remained behind in the filter.
"I'll just have to pulverise those." Severus explained to Draco. "Almost done with it all."
He put the crystals aside for now though and took a glass filled with scarlet liquid instead, poured that into a small cauldron and put it on the burner. Draco stared at the glass with yellow liquid that was standing right beside where the scarlet one had been. Were those the same two liquids Severus had put into that miniature washing machine in the morning? How had he gotten those two to separate?
"That's it. Now I'll show you that electrical toy." Severus promised ignoring the yellow liquid completely.
He led Draco to a small cupboard in the living room and pulled out a strange rectangular object that was obviously a lot heavier than it looked. It had the usual cable and plug that Draco already knew from other electrical gadgets and a strange long hose on the other end that continued in a metal pipe and then ended in a strange plastic something that looked almost like a brush though the hairs were too short.
"This," Snape explained as he dragged the thing over into the lab. "Is a vacuum cleaner. It sucks up small particles of dust, but also all objects small enough to fit in so you have to be careful where you point it."
Draco regarded the vacuum cleaner curiously. As with all the electrical things he'd seen so far he found nothing that gave him a clue on how it worked, but it still looked very interesting.
Snape plugged it in which didn't surprise Draco anymore. He'd seen that before. Almost all electrical things appeared to have plugs somewhere. He'd thought for a while that the refrigerator didn't, but Sarah had proven him wrong when she'd shown him the hidden cable that led away from behind it. Only the light switches and Sammie's gameboy appeared to be plugless, but Professor Snape had said that whatever made the switches work was hidden inside the wall so maybe that was where the plugs were hidden as well. The gameboy however wasn't connected to anything at all. Draco decided to ask Sammie about that sometime.
"Always remember to hold on to this end when switching it on and point it at the floor. If you let go of it while it's running, it'll twist around and you can't control what it sucks up."
"Isn't there a way to get those things back?" Draco asked feeling a little worried. How could a non magical thing make something disappear?
"Of course there is, but it's very messy and you'll be cleaning for hours if you do that. It's better not to risk it swallowing up anything it's not supposed to in the first place."
Draco nodded obediently to that and watched carefully as Snape demonstrated the use of the vacuum cleaner. The humming of the motor quickly attracted Billy who wandered in through the open door, gave a happy yelp and cuddled up beside the vacuum cleaner one ear pressed tightly against it's rectangular body.
"And be careful when you move it. Billy likes to lie on it. He appears to like the humming." Snape added calmly.
So Draco vacuumed the lab floor and his couch bed very slowly to avoid startling Billy while Severus crushed the gray crystals to powder, put them into a jar and labelled them.
That reminded Draco of his plan.
"Uncle Severus?" he ventured cautiously. "Could I use some of your ingredients for a little brewing of my own? I'd really like to try and see, if I can manage simple potions without any help."
Snape regarded him sternly for a moment and Draco tried to look as innocently interested as possible. He had the strange feeling that Severus saw right through him.
"Didn't you find the Math book while cleaning up in here?"
"Oh, sure, but I also found all those Potions books and ingredients and I'd just like to try. I promise not to use up anything valuable. I just want to try one or two simple little potions on my own."
"Well, just remember not to use any ingredients you're not familiar with and don't experiment. Use a recipe and stick to it exactly. Potions can be very dangerous, if you don't know exactly what you're doing and you're not ready to predict the outcome of new combinations. Remember that some ingredients tend to blow up or produce poisonous smoke when combined with others."
Draco nodded. "Don't worry. I'm not going to do anything that special. I'll just look up some harmless simple potions in one of your books and see if I can get one of those to work."
"All right, but remember to call for me the moment your cauldron does anything unusual."
"I will." Draco promised grinning happily. Obstacle one to his revenge on the Sharks had been a lot less difficult than expected. He was surprised that Severus hadn't insisted that he told him what potions exactly he intended to brew or what ingredients he was going to use for it. Did Snape guess what he was planing? There was no way to know except to ask him and he couldn't do that.
"What are you doing with the liquid in the cauldron?" he asked instead.
"Just boiling it to get rid of all the water. That'll leave the powder alone in the cauldron. I could just let it stand around and wait for the water to dry, but that would take days. This way is faster."
"But won't that burn the powder?" Draco asked alarmed.
"Not if you know exactly the right moment to take it off the fire. I can't let it out of my eyes until I do though."
"And what about those?" Draco pointed at the two glasses still left untouched on the table.
"The same." Snape said with a shrug. "They'll just have to wait until I'm done with this one, since I have only one burner.
"Oh." Well, that was a really boring explanation. "What about the one in that dripping contraption?"
"That'll be done tomorrow. We'll have a powder and a gas then and turning the gas into powder is a matter of minutes. You'll be able to use the burner this evening if you want to though. I won't need it much longer."
"Well, I'd better go do the dishes now and get started on cleaning up the living room." Draco said hastily before Snape could start asking about his potions experiment again.
Severus smiled knowingly as the boy dashed out. What a cute little rascal Draco was even though he was already fifteen. Well, Severus himself hadn't looked his age at fifteen either and it had never been a problem.
Draco spent the rest of the day cleaning the living room and by the time he retreated into the lab to start brewing his revenge felt quite confident that he'd be able to finish his punishment the next day. He found the right page much faster this time and checked the list of ingredients. There were only six of them which by now seemed almost ridiculously few to Draco.
He checked the shelves to find that all of them were indeed available and set them on the table in the correct order, just like he'd learned to do with potions with long lists of ingredients. It wasn't really necessary in this case of course, but he didn't want to make any mistakes here. It really was the very first time he was going to brew something without adult supervision and he even intended to actually use the potion afterwards. He might be planing to take revenge on the Sharks, but killing them or even hurting them seriously wasn't an option. The potion had to be exactly what it was supposed to be and he wouldn't get a chance to test it first.
Draco carefully prepared the cauldron and set water to boil. Then he rechecked his recipe. No, none of the ingredients were to be added before the water was boiling. Nothing to do except wait.
But he could start planning the execution of his revenge while he waited. Luckily the potion didn't need to be drunk. It would suffice to just make the Sharks touch it so splashing them with it should work. But how to prevent the Rakers from getting in touch with it as well?
It would have to be an ambush. They had to throw the potion at the Sharks from a safe distance and that meant they'd have to use water bombs. Where could Draco get water bombs before Saturday, if he wasn't allowed out of the flat? He'd have to ask Mike to get them. But that meant he had to get a message to Mike.
By the time he had reached that conclusion the water was finally boiling and he could start adding the ingredients.
It took him almost two hours to stir in everything correctly, but finally it was done and the potion matched the description the book gave of this stage. Now all Draco had to do was to turn down the burner and let it simmer for 12 hours, then take it off the burner. That proved to be more difficult than Daco had imagined from watching Severus do it. It took him a few minutes to figure out how to turn down the burner without turning it off and even after that he had to constantly guard and readjust it until he finally found the exactly right size for the flame. How did Severus manage to get it right with what looked like just one casual touch of the burner?
In between the watching and readjusting the burner Draco had managed to write a quick note to Mike roughly outlining his plan and asking for some small balloons that could be turned into water bombs. After a moment of hesitation he added a quick ps asking Mike to try and get Jack's permission to execute the plan. It probably wouldn't look good to set something this big in motion without at least informing the gang leader and Draco wanted to keep the hesitant peace with Jack.
Now his only problem was to get the message to Mike. If only he had an owl! Instead he opened the lab door a crack, got out his Math book and started to do some exercises even though by now he was feeling rather tired and really just wanted to go to bed.
Indeed the open door soon attracted Munin's attention and the curious raven fluttered in to see what was going on. Oh, it was just the boy writing those odd symbols again. Nothing out of the ordinary.
"Why hello, Munin." Draco grinned. "Say, do you want to deliver a letter for me?"
Munin hopped onto the table. Deliver a letter for the boy? This was new. This was interesting. "Write!" he cawed happily. "Fly!"
Draco took that to mean: 'Oh yes, I'd love to. Write fast!'
"Oh, it's already written. All you have to do is take this over to Mike and bring back his answer."
"Caw?" That sounded a little disappointed.
"The trick is that you can't let anyone see you except for Mike. Can you do that? Can you deliver a letter without letting Uncle Severus know about it?"
"Caw! Fly!" Munin sounded happy again.
Or was that just Draco's imagination? How much could the bird really understand?
"Okay, here it is." he tied the letter to Munin's leg. "Don't show anyone except Mike! Okay?"
Munin was about to fly off, but turned back to Draco on hearing the last sentence. "Hide?"
Hide? Was that the command for one of the raven's tricks? If so, what did it mean?
"Yes, hide!" Draco decided to risk it. Whatever it meant, it didn't sound like it included showing the letter to a lot of people. "Hide and take this to Mike." If those were opposing commands Draco hoped that the raven would know to execute one after the other.
Munin flew directly out the window upon hearing the instructions and Draco hoped that was a good sign.
Less than a minute later Severus entered the room. "Is Munin with you?"
"No, he was here earlier, but flew off again." Draco answered truthfully. He wasn't sure how well he could lie to Severus. He'd been good at lying to servants, other kids and some of his other teachers, but Snape had that way of looking at you like he could see your very thoughts. "He said something about hide though. Does that mean anything?"
"Hide?" Severus asked surprised. "Hide is the command to perform a mission unseen. Did you tell him to do anything?"
"Well, I talked to him. I don't know all of his commands. You don't think I sent him to do something stupid, do you?" Draco asked grinning inwardly. The command to perform a mission unseen. That was exactly what he'd meant to do!
Severus thought about that for a moment then shook his head. "You couldn't make him do anything he doesn't want to. Ravens obey only one master usually. He'd take your commands as suggestions, not orders. The worst you could have done is probably send him to steal something."
"Steal?" Draco said honestly shocked even though he knew that wasn't what he'd done.
"Yes, that one is usually combined with hide so it would make sense for him to suggest it. Did you tell him to seek anything?"
"Seek?"
"Yes, that would be the command to bring you something."
"I doubt it. We weren't talking about Quiddich as far as I remember."
"Seeker doesn't work. It has to be seek and the name of an object."
"So if I'd said Hide and Seek that would mean to steal something?" Draco giggled.
"Well you'd have to add what you want stolen. Hide and seek letter for example would mean to steal some parchment."
"Wouldn't he just pick a roll from your desk then? How do you tell him which parchment exactly you want?" Draco asked curiously.
Snape regarded him for a moment. "I think I'd better not answer this one. I have the strange feeling Potter's homework might pick up a habit of disappearing during the next school year if I did."
"Okay, but what if I did send him to steal something? Or what if I sent him somewhere far away or something?"
"He'll be back in time for breakfast. He wouldn't follow a suggestion, if that would cause him to miss a meal. And if he returns bringing you some object, just give him a treat, tell him well done and make him put it back."
"Put it back? How?"
"Hide and back." Snape smiled. "He'll remember exactly where he took it from even a day after he brought it to you."
"What if he doesn't feel like taking it back?"
"Wait till after breakfast to give the command again or if it can't wait, tell me. He will obey me without question."
"What if he gets caught?"
"Gets caught? That raven once stole a letter from Voldemort right out of one of your father's pockets without getting caught."
"I didn't know my father ever lost a letter from him!" Draco exclaimed shocked. If Voldemort ever found out about that incident Lucius would be in big trouble. Then he remembered that Lucius was in Azkaban. It wasn't likely at all that the dark lord would go through all the trouble to get to him there just to kill him for losing a piece of parchment.
"See?" grinned Severus. "That's because your father doesn't know either."
"Doesn't know? How could he not know?"
"Hide and back. And Munin once again didn't get caught."
Draco was beginning to feel a new respect for birds. Up until now he'd thought Munin was just a fancy pet with a lot of cool party tricks to show off. Now it turned out he was as much a spy as his master. And when the raven silently and elegantly glided in through the window with Mike's answer the moment Severus had left the room and closed the door behind him Draco's mind was made up. Someday he would have his own raven. He just hoped Uncle Severus would agree to teach him how to train one.
He quickly fished a large caterpillar out of one of the potion ingredient jars and offered it to Munin in the hope that it qualified as a treat. Munin took it without hesitation and rubbed his head against Daco's hand. Obviously the caterpillar was very tasty.
Draco gently stroked the raven's feathers while he read Mike's response, then put it away and offered his arm to the raven who climbed on immediately. He walked out into the living room hoping that he looked innocent enough.
"Uncle Severus, Munin's back. He didn't steal anything and looks just fine."
Severus looked up from the book he'd been reading and snapped his fingers. Munin immediately flung himself off Draco's arm and flew to his master's shoulder.
Draco just stood there in the door and watched them for a while, Severus sitting there reading his book and absentmindedly stroking the raven's feathers now and then and Munin perched on his shoulder eyes half closed looking perfectly happy. Yes, Draco definitely wanted his own raven someday.
He finally returned to the lab to check on his potion, but it seemed he'd really finally gotten the size of the flame right. Everything looked to be perfectly in order. He glanced over at the Math book again, but felt much too tired to continue his studying. After one last glance at his cauldron to make sure everything was really okay he packed away the book and went to bed.
A/N: What is Draco brewing? Will Jack approve his plan? And does Severus know what he's up to? Please R/R!
In the next chapter: Draco finally finishes his punishment and his potion and maybe we'll also see him execute his revenge. (Depends on if I manage to fit in one day or two.)
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