Do You Have Any Dragon Blood?

"Don't kill me, don't kill me! I won't do it again!"

Peeves's shrill laughter turned into sobbing, and his entire body trembled in midair like a tattered rag caught in the wind.

Gerald frowned. What was going on?

Peeves seemed terrified of me. Could it be because I practiced the Divine Firmament Five-Elements Heavenly Thunder Art?

Of course. The power of thunder was a natural bane of ghosts.

"I said, shut up."

Peeves immediately stopped crying and clamped his mouth shut.

Gerald glanced at him and walked past.

"You didn't see me tonight, and I didn't see you. If you can't keep your mouth shut, I promise you'll disappear for good."

"I didn't see you! I didn't see you! I've been wandering around the Trophy Room on the fourth floor all night. I didn't go anywhere else, and I didn't see anything!"

The corridor was so quiet that Gerald could hear only his own footsteps.

After a dozen or so steps, he looked back. Peeves was still rooted to the spot, motionless.

Gerald thought Peeves probably wouldn't dare bother him ever again.

When he returned to the dormitory, Fred, George, and Lee Jordan were gathered around Kenneth's bed, watching him capture Lee Jordan's rook on the Wizard's Chess board.

"You're back. Off reading Advanced Alchemy in the library again today?" George asked with a grin when he saw Gerald.

"Yeah. How's your progress?"

"We should have the Nosebleed Chewing Gum ready tomorrow. You can try it then."

"No thanks. Find someone else to torment. I'm just the investor."

"All right. You're the boss, after all."

George didn't press the issue. Gerald had supplied all their alchemical materials for the past two weeks and more.

On top of the ten Galleons Gerald had given them at the start, that certainly made him their venture's biggest backer. They couldn't afford to offend him.

The two exchanged smiles, then turned their attention to the chessboard.

Kenneth played white, and Lee Jordan played black. The battle on the board had already reached the endgame.

White had only one knight, two rooks, and a few pawns left. Black still had a queen and several bishops, but white's position was very solid.

Kenneth's knight hopped across the board, captured Lee Jordan's last bishop, then returned to its original square.

"Check," Kenneth said.

Lee Jordan stared at the board for a long while, then laid his king down.

"I'm done. Who taught you to play?"

"My dad. He's really good at chess. I've been playing with him since I was little." Kenneth was clearly pleased with his victory.

"You really are good. None of us can beat you. There's another kid in our family who's obsessed with Wizard's Chess. He's two years younger than you. Once he starts school, we'll have him play a couple of games with you," Fred said, rubbing his temples with a grin.

After watching that brief stretch of the game, Gerald set the cloth bag containing the Foundation-Stabilizing Liquid beside his bed and lay down.

Tomorrow, I'll sell these and see if I can buy some dragon blood. Then I can try making talismans.

Besides, after reading so many books on alchemy, it's time I tried making an alchemical item.

Gerald rolled over, pulled the covers up to his chin, and drifted off with a faint smile on his lips.

The next morning, Gerald woke to Fred's alarm.

Fred's alarm was a mechanical rooster that crowed on his bedside table at exactly seven thirty every morning, loudly enough for the entire floor to hear.

Fred himself never heard it.

Gerald sat up and drew back his bed curtains.

This was the first time he had slept so late. Yesterday's fight and pill refining must really have taken a lot out of him.

Gerald got out of bed, walked over to Fred's bedside table, and switched off the mechanical rooster.

After washing up and changing into his school robes, Gerald left four bottles of Foundation-Stabilizing Liquid behind, packed the remaining seventeen into his cloth bag, and headed out.

He had only one class that morning: Transfiguration, at ten.

Gerald planned to visit the Hog's Head after breakfast, sell the Foundation-Stabilizing Liquid, and ask about magical creature blood.

Gerald followed the path along the side of the castle to the abandoned storeroom on the fourth floor, moved the mirror aside, and slipped into the secret passage.

He walked quickly this time, emerging from the rear storeroom of Scrivenshaft's Quill Shop twenty minutes later.

The shops in Hogsmeade were a little busier than on his last visit.

Leaving Scrivenshaft's Quill Shop, Gerald didn't linger on the main street. He turned straight into the narrow alley leading to the Hog's Head.

Aberforth stood behind the bar and nodded when Gerald pushed open the door.

Gerald walked up to the bar, set down his cloth bag, untied it, and lined up the seventeen bottles of Foundation-Stabilizing Liquid on the counter one by one.

"That many?"

"Did you sell out of the last batch?" Gerald asked.

"Of course. Your potion sells even better than you think. Quite a few people have already been asking me for it."

"These seventeen bottles use a new formula. They're better than the last batch. I'll still let you have them for two Galleons a bottle this time, but next time I'll have to raise the price a little."

Aberforth picked up a bottle of Foundation-Stabilizing Liquid, pulled out the cork, and sniffed it. Then he poured a little into a nearby glass and took a sip.

"It is better than the last batch. I won't take advantage of you, either. I sold the last batch for four Galleons a bottle. Five should be no problem for this one."

He paused and glanced at Gerald. Seeing that his expression hadn't changed, he continued.

"How about this? I'll buy this batch for three Galleons a bottle. Whenever you have more, give me first dibs."

"Of course. Thank you."

Gerald wasn't surprised that the Foundation-Stabilizing Liquid could fetch such a high price.

Scarcity drove up value, after all, and the effects of the Foundation-Stabilizing Liquid were exceedingly rare in the Wizarding World.

Aberforth nodded.

He took a wooden box from behind the bar, counted out fifty-one Galleons, put them into a small cloth pouch, and handed it to Gerald.

Gerald accepted the pouch and weighed it in his hand. Fifty-one gold Galleons, plus what he had left, meant he now had over a hundred Galleons.

He had been at school for less than three months and had already earned seventy or eighty Galleons selling Foundation-Stabilizing Liquid. Besides that, he still had half a bottle of acromantula venom.

Ah, if this-

A moment later, Gerald composed himself.

"Mr. Aberforth, I'd like to ask something. Can you get hold of magical creature blood?"

Aberforth's brows drew

together, his shaggy gray-white eyebrows bunching up as he studied the child. He remained silent for several seconds before speaking.

"I don't know much about potions, but as far as I know, most potions that use blood are dangerous. That stuff you sold last time has already caught Snape's attention, and now you want to get into this... What kind of blood do you want?"

"Do you have any dragon blood?"

"Dragon blood? You certainly think big for a little fellow. A small bottle of dragon blood on the Black Market would cost as much as everything you earned from this batch of Foundation-Stabilizing Liquid. Still-"

Aberforth scratched his unruly hair and went into the pub's kitchen.

A moment later, he came back carrying an iron box and slid its lid open in front of Gerald.

There were still some ice cubes inside the box, with three test tubes of blood beneath them.

[Detected: tier-five demonic beast fire-scaled dragon blood.]

Gerald's eyes lit up as the notification appeared on the panel.

"I'll take it. How much?"

Aberforth snorted. "Twenty Galleons per tube."

Gerald hesitated for less than a second before taking a half-full bottle of liquid from his cloth bag and setting it in front of Aberforth.

"What's this?"

Aberforth gave it a sidelong glance, looking unimpressed.

"Acromantula venom."

"Hmm?"