Lys was currently in the Room of Requirement working on Drew present for some muggle he supposedly had saved sometimes prior and now wanted to gift with a present. Their recent conversation had left her feeling a bit... out of sorts. She didn't like what he had said to her, or that he had something of a point. Not much of one, he'd blown it all out of proportion. She liked muggles just fine.
Not that she actually knew any...
She frowned as she started to work fine silver links together using transfiguration, a much simpler process than if she had been forced to use tools. The necklace would be made out of True Silver, or Goblin Silver. She sneered quietly to herself at the arrogance of that putrid race. It had been the only recipe that they had been able to steal from the dwarves, though it hadn't happened during the decimation of their race. They had managed to torture the knowledge out of an apprentice a couple of centuries before the fall of their home.
It wasn't like she had many opportunities to meet muggles. Or a reason to.
Lys ran her finger along the chain, feeling for imperfections. She could feel the heat of the Ember, infused by her determination, under her fingers. It made the metal stronger, and it would never tarnish. It was a lesser art. The goblins infused the metal with the greed that exemplified their race, that grasping need for more that could never be sated. It was what gave their greatest weapons the ability to take on traits of things they came into contact with. The thought that other emotions created other effects had never occurred to the gluttonous little creatures.
That wasn't her fault. it wasn't like she lived near any muggle towns either.
She'd decided to make the setting for the ectotite a bit different than was traditional for a necklace, it was roughly egg-shaped and was made of what looked like fine silver filigree that was made to open like a locket. Inside was a piece of ectotite that she had shaped into a perfect sphere and filled with Ember. That had been interesting. It was not possible to infuse gems with the Ember in the normal manner since heat and gems were not a good combination. To manage it you needed to use Alchemy and its ability to transfer properties between objects.
How would she even go about meeting a muggle? Let alone making friends with one?
The earrings were just a pair of fairly plain studs, she had affixed a pair of small diamonds on each stud to give it some glitter, nothing fancy but it would do for a friendly gift. She held one of the studs up against the light to inspect it. She had to admit, the ectotite didn't look half bad as a stone. Emerald would have looked better, but that's what Drew wanted so he would get it.
What would she even talk to them about?
With the main pieces done Lys set about fashioning a display box for them to rest in. She considered what to make it off for a few moments before deciding that she would make it out of steel and then electroplate it using silver nitrate. She'd cover the inside with green velvet, which should go well with both the ectotite and the silver. Maybe she should do some simple engraving on the box as well, make it look a bit fancy. She wished she'd asked the name of the girl before she started. Nothing for it now.
Muggles did have all those fancy gadgets, there had to be people that specialized in making them. Maybe she could find some of them to talk to?
It took her two hours to get the box how she wanted it, in the end, she did decide to do some light engraving along the sides of the lid. It was just some vines and flowers that she used some gold leaf to fill in to make them pop a bit. She did a quick inspection to look for any flaws she might have missed before fetching the pieces she made earlier and placing them in the box. She'd had the necklace resting on the foot of a small platform on which the earings were displayed. Quite tasteful, she decided.
How would she find them though? Were there groups? Clubs? People with similar interests did tend to congregate. Muggles couldn't be any different, right?
Satisfied that she was done she went in search of Drew. At this time of day, he would likely be in his room, though he might also be in the library since he had relatively few projects going at the moment. That boy really needed to learn how to focus. You finished one thing before you started another, you didn't just start something and then drop it to start on something else just because you had an idea. It wasn't proper. She walked into the library and walked up to the librarian and inquired if she had seen Drew.
Maybe her father or Drew would know where to find people like that. She'd ask her father, she didn't want to bring the subject up with Drew right now.
The librarian hadn't seen him so she tanked her and set off for Drew's room. When she got there she didn't bother knocking, he could do with a scare considering how often he tried to startle her, the bastard... She stopped and stared as she entered.
Drew wasn't there.
There was a dwarf there, however.
And he was doing magic!
Lys mind blanked for a moment as she tried to make sense of what she was seeing. It was definitely a dwarf, there was no mistaking that. Male, brown hair and beard shot through with gray, but his face was youthful and unmarred by time. Lys estimated that he was about her age despite the gray in his hair. He was dressed in a standard Hogwarts wizarding robe. The unfamiliar dwarf was standing in front of an ordinary-looking candle with an unusual flame. It was too bright. The flame was the regular size for a candle flame but it was radiating the light of ten candles.
Nothing of that made any real sense, at all.
If there had been other dwarves that could do magic she would have heard about it... actually, her dad would have heard about it, but he would have told her. Lys frowned suspiciously. Unless he thought it would be funny not to. He would definitely do that. But! but, he would tell her mom, who would not find it funny, and would inform Lys of her dad's stupid joke.
Lys once more considered the male in front of her. He was wearing a Hogwarts robe and looked her age. But there was no other dwarf on the student body, and again, she would likely have heard if another dwarf were to transfer in. Not that she had ever heard of anyone transferring in.
And last, but not least, he was standing around in Drews's room.
Conclusion?
"Drew..." She sighed exasperatedly and pushed down the slight feeling of disappointment. It would have been nice to have had another dwarf around.
The dwarf turned his attention to her for a moment, confirming her guess, and smiled at her, "Heyo, Shortstack. How's it kicking?"
"Drew, what are ye doing?" She asked, complained really, as she gestured to him.
Drew seemed to misunderstand though as he turned to look at the candle he'd been observing when she had come on. "Yeah, pretty cool, isn't it? I found the charm today when I was browsing the library. Lux Magna, the light enhancement charm. It works kinda like the Engorgement Charm, but for light!"
"I was talking about you being a dwarf!" Lys snapped irritably, "Why are you a dwarf. Are you playing around with the Polyjuice potion again? Do you want a repeat of the Pixie incident?"
Drew looked a bit embarrassed at the reminder but quickly rallied. "The chance of that happening again is minuscule. Besides, it's too early for their migration and you know the house-eves are forbidden to make any more chili." He justified before continuing, "And it's not Polyjuice potion, its human transfiguration."
"You can't use transfiguration to transform into other people." Lys shot back.
Dwarf-Drew gave her a very smug Drew smirk. She didn't like that smirk on a dwarf. it made her want to smack him. Actually, that was pretty normal actually, but she felt a bit guilty about it. She didn't like that last part.
"But I'm not transfiguring myself to look like another person, I'm transfiguring me to look like dwarf-me." Drew explained excitedly.
Lys felt a headache coming on, this was also normal when dealing with Drew for any length of time. Couldn't he just be normal? Just a little bit, or at least a bit less headache-inducing. "Canna ya make some sense, just this once?"
Drew rolled his eyes, "I always make sense, I'm all about sense! I'm probably the most sensible person in the whole of the wizarding world! It's you guys that are high on magic crack or something. You think bending the laws of nature and reality to your whims is normal!"
Lys just looked at the dwafified human tiredly, "Is anything yer saying having anything to do with yer being a dwarf?"
"No, I just wanted to set the record straight," Drew answered prissily.
"Why are you a dwarf?" Lys asked again.
Drew shrugged, "I wanted to see if I was right, and it looks like I was."
Lys considered strangeling the annoying human. Sometimes getting a straight answer out of Drew was like pulling teeth, "About what?"
"Well, I've been reading up on human transfiguration and it struck me; if I can turn my head into a shark, or turn someone into a weasel, why shouldn't I be able to turn myself into another race?" He explained shortly. "I looked it up, well, I tried to look it up, but as it turns out no one has ever tried to turn into a dwarf before. Or any other race as far as I was able to find. So I thought I would try."
"Yeh though ye'd try? Just like dat?" Lys asked incredulously.
Drew shrugged again, "I turned Janus into a girl, this was way easier."
"Yer unbelievable!" Lys exclaimed in exasperation.
"You know, you keep saying that. It's almost like a running gag." Drew felt the need to point out.
Lys slapped him on the back of the head. Hard.
"Focus, Drew."
"You know, it's kinda unfair that you can slap me but I can't slap you. That's sexist." Drew said, apparently not having learned his lesson.
Lys made to give him another reminder but he ducked and spun away from her with a smug smirk, waggling his eyebrows at her.
"Too slow, Shortstack." He said and made a pair of finger guns at her.
"Will you ever grow up?" She asked plaintively.
"Well, as rumor has it, girls never think guys ever grow up." He informed her conspiratorially, "So I thought; why bother? I can just be me, and be free." He told her happily.
Lys groaned, "Ask a stupid question..."
"Get a stupid answer." Drew finished for her.
"Can ye not be aggravating?" Lys asked.
"Think of it as anger management training. You know you have a temper." He suggested brightly.
Lys gave him a flat glare for the suggestion, "Ye don't think ye being the cause for a lot of that temper would hamper the 'training'?"
Drew gave her a smug grin, "What I think is that if you can keep a lid on it around me you can handle anyone."
Lys rolled her eyes, she couldn't exactly disagree with that. Drew could certainly be the most aggravating, annoying, downright pesky person she had ever had the misfortune to run into. if he wasn't so damn useful, and occasionally interesting to be around she would just have tossed him in the lake and been done with him. She considered the last part for a moment. Tossing Drew in the lake had a certain appeal to it. She should check into the feasibility of accomplishing that. It might wipe that smug look off his face for a while.
Later. She would think on that later. Right now she'd had her fill of Drew for the day. She held up the box she'd brought with her. Drews eyes immediately zeroed in on it.
"That's the stuff?" he asked curiously.
Lys flipped the lid open so he could see and Drew let out an impressed whistle. He lifted the necklace out of the box and held it up to inspect it closer, letting the light play across the silver.
"Oh, this will work just fine I think." He decided.
"Ye might not even get slapped," Lys said with a smirk.
"Oh, hah hah."
Lys smirked as she made plans to contact her father. If he didn't know where to go he'd find out.