Chapter 86: Hosting The Slytherin Three, and Wormtail (1/2)
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The link is also in the synopsis.
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[The chapter is edited by my Editor: Alan_Loo/AlanL]
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The thing about the ambiance of the A.I.D office was that the room was designed to make the people who came in feel comfortable. The entire room was set up to create a comforting and inviting environment.
It had a lot of elbow room to make the clients feel that the room was spacious and not stuffy. At the same time, the number of knick-knacks, decor, and paintings gave the illusion of being in a small space that made the room feel cozy and safe.
The walls were painted in a light blue to make the clients more agreeable and relaxed. The plants placed in the room were carefully chosen to provide a fresh aspect to the ambiance, making the room feel more organic.
The room's entire purpose was to make the person who came in feel comfortable enough to open up about their troubles. To provide a safe space that put them at ease. And the things that tied it everything in the room were the main focus in the room; the host, the person who owned and operated the place.
And currently, that host was totally focused on maximizing the comfort level of the people sitting in front of him.
”Please make yourselves comfortable,” stated Quinn with a calm smile on his face. ”Do you girls want something to drink? I have butterbeer, gillywater, soda, or milkshakes. I have lots of fruits that you can choose from.”
The eyes of two of the three girls sitting in front of Quinn shined. They spoke up.
”I want a butterbeer,” asked Tracy with a shine in her eyes and joy in her voice. She had some butterbeer for the first time at Hogsmeade and enjoyed it very much. So when Quinn offered, she jumped at it.
”Gillywater, please,” replied Astoria from her chair, looking at the various knick-knacks and paintings.
The third girl sighed at her two companions before replying.
”Nothing, thank you.”
Quinn stood up from behind his desk and walked to his workshop. When he came out with a bottle each of butterbeer and gillywater.
”Daphne, are you sure you don't want anything,” asked Quinn as he put down the chilled bottles on the coasters on the table in front of Tracy and Astoria. ”I can brew a pot of tea if you don't want something cold. I have a variety of tea leaves that you can pick from.”
”I would like to know what were you doing in the Great Lake” asked Daphne, making clear eye contact with Quinn.
”... Straight to business. I can respect that,” said Quinn sitting back down on his barstool.
”Ahem, what I was doing in the Great Lake? Well, I was swimming,” replied Quinn after clearing his throat, hoping that this would clear every doubt. But Quinn knew that he was kidding himself.
”In late January?” persisted the blonde Greengrass, with a tone laced with skepticism. She didn't believe Quinn would go for a simple swim in the icy waters.
Quinn matched eyes with Daphne and answered with a straight face. ”... Yes, one warming charm, and I was all set for a nice swim.”
”What about the gills beneath your ears? Why were you using magic that isn't taught until the sixth year?” asked Daphne, pushing for more information when she heard the short answer from Quinn.
Quinn snorted and scoffed at those words. He bragged with self-confidence laced in his tone, ”I'm the smartest student at Hogwarts. Year restrictions have never stopped me and never will. I wanted to go deep diving, so I gave myself a pair of gills, nothing complex.”
He took out his fake wand with his right hand and waved it to perform magic on his left hand. The digits of his left hand twitched, lengthened a bit, and gained another joint.
Flexing his fingers, Quinn showed the girls his fingers with three interphalangeal joints and a thumb with two joints.
”I have enough mastery over magic to perform partial human transfiguration over limited parts of my body,” boasted Quinn.
Even if he was boasting, Quinn was still holding back what he was capable of. He was more advanced than what he was letting on.
'Now that I think about that. I need to improve on that thing,' thought Quinn. He needed to make certain changes before he went back for another confrontation with the Kraken.
The younger Greengrass was holding the bottle of gillywater with both her hands and was looking at the bottle's label when she asked.
”Then why did you crash into the glass?”
All three girls remembered the shocked expression on his face when he was pressed against the glass. Quinn was clearly not expecting to be there nor wanted them to see him, so something had happened when he was swimming, and with Astoria's question, all three stared at Quinn, expecting an answer.
'The little one knows how to talk. Of course, that would turn in the other direction,' thought Quinn with a straight face before speaking.
”I kind of got flicked by the giant squid when I was running away from a flurry of grindylows. The giant squid took me by surprise, so I ended up casting a spell at it, and then it flung me away with its tentacle because of that spell...”
To keep his story believable, Quinn decided to stick to the facts that he had experienced. He regularly met grindylows while he practiced his water magic and ran away from them to practice his speed, and the Kraken did push him away because of the ice magic.
By spinning his actual experiences into fake explanations, Quinn was making sure to establish a believable story, plus it allowed him to present it believably and confidently.
”... And since this could be seen as dangerous, I asked you three not to tell anyone,” finished Quinn, rolling his eyes as he air-quoted the word dangerous.
Quinn was handing the girls the initiative, but anything that followed was under control. He waited for any question because that allowed him to answer questions they bothered to ask and not anything extra that he might speak about if he took the lead.
”Can we also go swimming? That would be fun,” suggested Tracy, thinking about playing in the water, having fun.
Quinn grabbed the opportunity when he saw it and steered the conversation in the presented direction.
”Sure, I can teach you a simple bubble-head charm that would allow you to breathe underwater, but whether you're able to learn it, it is up to you. And if you guys do learn it, let's do this when the weather gets warmer; I don't want you guys to get sick.”
”Eh~, but you went for a swim in the cold, why not us?” whined Tracy, slightly frowning towards Quinn.
”It will take you a lot of time to learn the bubble-head charm if you are able to learn it; the spell is a sixth-year charm,” reasoned Quinn ignoring the glare from Daphne.
He knew the glare was because he had just said that year restrictions didn't hinder him, and now he was saying that they wouldn't learn it because it was a higher-year spell.
”If you want to go for a swim at the surface, that doesn't warrant the bubble-head charm. The water is freezing, you know, even with the warming charm, you still feel the cold against the skin. Believe me, most people don't like it; I didn't mind it, but I'm not sure if you'd like it.”
Quinn wasn't lying about the cold against the skin. He felt the bitter chill against his skin the entire time he was inside the lake. Quinn didn't heat the water envelope around him to make himself comfortable because he just didn't mind the cold and was used to it, but not all could stay in that cold.
While saying that, the workshop's door pushed open, and Luna came skipping out with a large sheet of old parchment in her hands.
”I did it!” she exclaimed, looking at Quinn, unrolling the parchment and showing a detailed map drawn on the parchment. ”It was mud rue-based ink! It reacted with pidecory and efameg tarring potion.”
Luna giggled as she pushed the parchment near Quinn, showing it to Quinn. The blonde Ravenclaw wasn't even looking at the three Slytherin girls.
Quinn took the map parchment from her and gave it a look over. From Luna's excited reaction, Quinn knew that she had gotten the correct potions and herbs. He still observed the parchment to judge the quality of her brew, as he wanted to determine her progress in potion brewing, and he was pleased to see that she had done a more than decent brew for her first time brewing the potion.
”Good job, Luna,” praised Quinn, smiling at the parchment before smiling at his friend/junior/assistant. ”And you are right, it was pidecory and efameg tarring potion.”
”It was in the riddle. It was so clear when I finally noticed. You hid it so cleverly,” beamed Luna, swinging with joy in her spot. She was so happy that she couldn't contain herself.
Quinn handed the map parchment back to Luna and spoke, ”How about you go and explore with the map. Revealing the map was only step one; you still have to find the treasure.”
”Really!” exclaimed Luna, but then she looked back at the workshop and spoke. Her voice didn't have as much excitement as before, ”But I still have to clean up the equipment I used.”
Quinn chuckled and responded, ”I will clean it. You go and have fun.”
Luna squeed and gave Quinn a tight hug before turning to the office entrance. She was about to rush out when she saw that Quinn had company.
”Hi!” greeted Luna when she saw the three girls, immediately following the greeting with: ”Bye!”
And with that, she rushed to the door.
”Don't run in the hallways!” shouted Quinn just before she exited.
”Okay!” was all Luna said before she was gone.
Daphne, who had turned her head to look at Luna, who had rushed out, turned it back towards Quinn and inquired, ”She was in there the entire time?”