Arguably Pretentious

ch 6

The first month of the school year had gone very positively, but disturbingly normal. Elias was thrilled to be back in classes and it seemed that even Snape had been treating him with a decent amount of respect in reference to other students. Other than Malfoy of course. That knobhead couldn't do anything wrong in Professor Snape's dead, empty eyes.

It wasn't until they reached October that things started getting more interesting. Even though interesting typically meant life-threateningly dangerous at Hogwarts, Elias usually didn't mind it. Kept him on his toes. As they neared Halloween, all anyone could talk about was which three students would possibly be named Tri Wizard Champions.

Elias was sat in a window nook in the Slytherin common room doing some experimental work in potions. That had become his go-to time passer when he couldn't hang out with his Gryffindor friends or Gregory was too busy being knocked around by Malfoy to have short, but pleasant, casual conversations with him.

The young potions master in the making had just come across a draught of peace and an everlasting elixir. Both intrigued him greatly. As the name implied, the draught of peace was supposed to offer its user a sense of tranquility. It could be used to treat extreme anxiety. However, if it was brewed incorrectly or taken in excess, it would put its user to sleep forever. But if a witch or wizard were to take the potion regularly like a prescription, it lost efficacy over time. Then, there were two different classes of everlasting elixirs. Ones that you could never run out of, and a one-time use potion with permanent affects. These led Elias to ponder how he could perhaps enhance the already both very advanced potions and combine them whilst attempting to curb any devastating outcomes. That would be his goal for the year. Could be brilliant or a complete fail. No in-between.

"You can call me Dr. Eldridge," he mumbled to himself in amusement.

"What was that? Talking to yourself, you loon?" Draco had passed him on the way to the leather couches being followed by Blaise, going completely unnoticed by Elias until he spoke.

"Uh, yeah," he shrugged.

Draco looked irked at his unsuccessful attempt to taunt him. He and Blaise sat on opposite couches and he leaned back, propping his ankle up on his knee.

"Forget being a doctor. You're going to need one," Blaise shot him a small glare.

"At least I do well in my classes because I'm actually sharp instead of having to bank on my daddy being buddies with my professors. Does Snape attend Lucius' holiday parties? Participate in secret santa?" Elias let his leg hang over the side and bookmarked the page he was on in the advanced potions book he had littered with notes and annotations in the margins.

Draco simply laughed at him and looked at Blaise. "Do you know what the hell secret santa is? Is that some other stupid thing muggles came up with for the holidays? Your lot are so simple." He was practically spitting out each word, but Elias was unfazed.

"Oh, damn. Sorry, mate I just remembered I was supposed to meet up with these two Ravenclaw girls and a couple of guys from Durmstrang. I'll be back... sometime, I dunno-... Wish me luck." Blaise had stood abruptly and left Malfoy in his dust, giving him two solid smacks on his shoulder with a cheeky grin.

Elias rolled his eyes and went back to analyzing the ingredient variations he could take a stab at whilst he worked on his concoction. Out of pure boredom, he asked, "So, Grand Master Draco, holy art thou. What do you and you pish-posh family do for holiday? See which one of you can get a house elf to clean up your mess after opening all 138 of your gifts the fastest? Whoever wins gets a gluten-free, organic, sugar-free pumpkin pasty?"

Elias' family most certainly wasn't poor either, but at least he wasn't a prat about it.

When Draco didn't answer, he flicked his eyes up to look at him and the fair-skinned, lanky boy was only about a meter away with his arms crossed, glaring down at him. His grey eyes glinted with resentment.