Chapter 13: Partner by the Cauldron, the Young Lady's Flustered Heart (Patreon)

The air in the dungeon classroom soon filled with the faintly bitter smell of roasting dried nettles and the white steam rising from boiling distilled water.

Two lab tables that had originally stood side by side had been pushed together. Raven laid out his obsidian tools with calm, unhurried movements, and with a casual flick of his wand, the faint blue flame beneath the cauldron settled into a steady low simmer, obedient as a tamed sprite.

Across from him, Draconia bit her lip lightly, her slender white fingers gripping the small silver knife engraved with the Malfoy twin-serpent crest.

A faint pink still lingered at the tips of the young lady's ears from being called on by her godfather earlier, but facing Raven now, she quickly composed herself and put her haughty, aloof air back on.

"Listen, Capet."

She lifted her pointed little chin, her voice crisp but deliberately distant. "Even though you're in charge of the stirring in the second half, the initial sorting and cutting of the ingredients has to be done by me. I've handled hundreds of fresh venomous slugs in the greenhouses at Malfoy Manor. I don't need you getting in the way!"

Raven folded his arms and stepped back half a pace, a faint smile playing at the corner of his lips. "Be my guest, Miss Malfoy. I'm all ears for your expert opinion."

Seeing that calm, breezy, as-if-he-saw-through-everything look on Raven's face, Draconia felt her stubborn temper flare up again with a whoosh.

Why was he always so maddeningly sure of himself?

It was the same at the wand shop. The same on the train. The same just now, when he'd answered her godfather's questions!

This young lady was going to show him today that the elite education a Malfoy had received since the age of six was nothing a lone survivor of a fallen house could hope to match!

The young lady took a deep breath, picked up a slick venomous slug, glistening with dark green mucus, with a pair of silver tweezers, and pressed it steadily onto the sandalwood chopping board. She gripped the silver knife, her expression intensely focused.

But whether it was because the chill of the dungeon had stiffened her fingertips, or because Raven's deep, dark gaze was resting on her without the slightest attempt at concealment, Draconia felt her heart racing unusually fast.

Her fingers tightened on the knife just slightly, and the angle of the blade strayed half a millimeter off the vein without her noticing!

Worse still, she had moved too hurriedly. The instant the tip severed the slug's venom gland, the mucus that should have acted as a slow-release agent was slashed across instead, and a thin stream of pale green bubbles swelled beneath its skin!

"Damn it..."

Draconia's breath caught, and a flicker of panic crossed her pale gray-blue eyes.

It was the sign of a spoiled ingredient!

If a slug carrying such violently irritating, volatile toxins were thrown straight into boiling water, the whole cauldron would blow up into a mass of acrid sludge within three seconds!

She hurriedly reached for the crushed snake fangs beside her, hoping to neutralize the mutation with the strong acidic powder, but her mind was in such disarray that she knocked over a small jar of dried nettles as well!

"Don't move."

Just as the young lady was fumbling in a frenzy, nearly grinding her teeth to dust, a low, gentle voice rang out suddenly right beside her.

Along with a clean scent, like cedar mingled with cold morning mist, Raven had somehow already come to stand at her side.

Before Draconia could react, a long, dry hand with a warm touch had settled quite naturally over the back of her slightly chilled hand from behind.

Boom! Draconia froze as though struck by lightning!

The boy's warm, firm palm pressed against the delicate back of her hand. With a slight application of force, he corrected her disordered, trembling grip on the knife.

He was all but circling her shoulders, the two of them so close that the young lady could clearly feel the steady, powerful heartbeat of the boy behind her, and the tingling warmth of his low breath brushing against the ends of her hair.

"Relax, Miss Malfoy."

Raven's voice was as calm as a deep, ancient well, carrying a strange power to soothe frayed nerves. "Potions is the art of timing. A hurried mind only brews a muddy draught."

His fingers tightened gently, guiding her trembling wrist into a slight turn with an arc almost as precise as a scalpel's. The silver knife slid along the slug's lateral grain in one silky curve.

Pff.

There was an almost inaudible sound. The swollen green venom sac was peeled away intact on the outside of the blade, while the plump flesh of the slug split into seven thin, regular slices of identical thickness and slid neatly across the blade into the scale tray.

Not a hair's breadth off. Exactly five grams.

Draconia stared blankly at the nearly perfect ingredients in the tray, and her whole delicate, snow-white face flushed bright red all the way to her ears, visibly fast!

The scalding heat spread downward, tinting even the swan-like neck half hidden beneath her white lace collar with a tempting rosy glow.

"You... let go right now!"

Like a kitten whose tail had been stepped on, the young lady yanked her hand back in a panic and stumbled half a step away, her chest heaving.

She bit down hard on her flushed lower lip, a film of mist rising in her pale gray-blue eyes, caught between indignation at being so presumed upon and a flustered confusion she had never felt before. "You insolent boy! Who gave you permission... who said you could touch this young lady's hand?!"

Raven withdrew his hand calmly, his breathing not changing in the slightest.

He picked up a clean handkerchief nearby and wiped his fingertips, saying lightly, "If I hadn't held your hand just now, in three seconds your silver knife would have had a chunk eaten away by acid, and Slytherin would have lost two points for improper handling."

Raven tilted his head and looked at the red-faced young lady, who was all bluster and no bite, with something close to a smile. "Or would you rather, Miss Malfoy, blow up this brand-new cauldron in front of Professor Snape than save the potion?"

"You...!"

Draconia stamped her foot in fury, yet could not find a single word to refute him. She knew better than anyone that without Raven's uncannily precise cut just now, this entire batch of potion would have been completely ruined.

"Boom—crash!!"

Just as the two of them were locked in their low-voiced standoff, a dull explosion and a shrill scream suddenly erupted from the back left of the classroom!