Chapter 25: Part Two
The woman wrapped up the tree and Osanna forked over a good deal of money for it then met Ivy outside the store, she was sneezing loudly, the dust inside obviously setting her allergies off.
"Where to now?" Osanna asked.
Ivy shrugged. "Have to get you a present, and Draco something, let's say we meet back here in a hour?"
Osanna nodded and they went off in different directions.
An hour later they met back, both carrying several packages, Ivy however looked dejected.
"What's wrong?" Osanna asked curiously.
Ivy sighed and shrugged. "Couldn�t find a single thing for Draco.... nothing..."
Osanna tried not to giggle. "Being picky about a gift for your little Malfoy are you? How about you give him yourself, wrapped in a bow and nothing el..."
Ivy shot Osanna a look and she promptly shut up. "Well perhaps while we finish up at the ministry you can think of something, and we can pick it up before we go home."
Ivy nodded, not looking very convinced however and with two loud "Pops" the women disappeared and re-appeared inside the Ministry.
Back at Hogwart's Draco was busying himself preparing his gifts to Ivy and Osanna, even if they were not going to be here for Christmas, he could get their gifts to them as soon as they returned, and he wanted them to be perfect, especially Ivy's. He chuckled to himself recalling how he had taken the three gifts from his father's "Forbidden room" when he had gone home to ask for the Firebolt, not that anyone had paid attention to his request, but at least he had been able to "Procure" these gifts for Ivy and Osanna.
He had managed to steal the perfect gifts. The first for Osanna, which he was in the process of trying to wrap. Perhaps wrapping it wasn�t the best idea, but he did want the element of surprise.
The object in question he was trying to wrap was bright, metallic gold in color, about as large as a pumpkin, shaped like an egg. In fact, an egg was exactly what it was, a very rare egg, inside, just waiting for the care of the right person before it hatched was a baby sphinx. Sphinxes were rare enough, but their eggs were worth a king's ransom, and to actually obtain one capable of hatching, well that was utterly unheard of. Osanna would love it, of that he was sure.
He struggled with the slippery egg, he finally managed to tie a ribbon on it and get it into a box and wrapped. He then moved on to Ivy's first gift. It was rather unassuming looking at first glance, a silver goblet, it had been rusted and dented with age, but Draco had lovingly shined it back to it's former state, meticulously cleaning the emeralds that shimmered on the rim. It looked like your average goblet, when in all reality it was nothing of the sort. The goblet was in fact, the very same goblet Socrates had drank poison from rather than face trial and be executed, therefore, due to it's macabre history, any liquid poured into the goblet became poison, without altering it's appearance, taste or odor.
He wrapped it in silver tissue paper and tied it with a black ribbon and sat it aside. He then began on her next gift. This one was a bit stranger in appearance. It was a large lump of gold, however on close inspection one could clearly and obviously make out the vague form of a serpent entrapped within. It looked as if it were some sort of crude decoration when in fact, this was the Asp that had killed Cleopatra, back in those times, a member of the Malfoy family tree had been the Court Wizard under the female pharaoh�s rule, and had encased the creature in gold after it killed her, it had been handed down ever since. Draco shook it experimentally and lifted it to his ear, it was said the snake still lived inside, and could be awakened, and released, but whoever had known how to do so had either died and took that secret with them, or didn�t care to tell. Hearing nothing he shrugged and wrapped it in the same paper then placed it in a box and tied a ribbon around it.
Now for the star. Draco looked at it, the small, shimmering ball of light sat on the chair in the common room. How to wrap it, or present it? He sighed and glanced around the room, this was going to take some thought...he was going to have to find the right kind of bottle somewhere.