Play the Game ✔️

Mixing It Up

"Don't bother," she said. "I'll get what we need."

"But you didn't write anything down," he protested.

"I don't need to. The book has a basic recipe, I know several variations. Maybe I better ask and see if that's exactly what he wants, first. I'll be right back."

She walked up to Slughorn who was  going over his notes for the upper classmen's period. "Professor, may I ask you something?"

"Of course Miss Rhodes, what is it?"

"Do you want a basic recipe, or are we allowed to brew a variation?"

He smiled. "You may brew a variation for extra credit, providing you produce an ingredients listing as well as any indications and possible side effects. Have you something in mind?"

She smiled and nodded. "I was thinking of an eucalyptus version. Something with antibiotic properties.  Should help to clear the chest of mucous and fight the bug itself."

"I'm sure Madam Pomfrey will be delighted to receive it," he said as he nodded.

She smiled and nodded. "Thanks Professor," she said.

She walked back to her seat and turned to Regulus. "So you want extra credit or what?"

"Extra credit is good," he replied. "But if you mess this up for us, I won't speak to you for the rest of the year and then it'll be you who is on your own."

"Oh now that would be a shame, wouldn't it?" She rolled her eyes. "Come on. I can't carry it all by myself." She led him toward the herbs and grabbed the jars that she needed while the other students were waiting to retrieve the ingredients for the basic recipe.

When they returned to their seats, she wrote down the recipe for him and she wrote down the indications, possible side effects as well as what they were putting into the cauldron. "Be sure you don't put more eucalyptus than what I've said, or we'll have to brew more of it. It doesn't take much. Also, I've brought a grater, just in case." She removed a half-cylindrical piece of metal, the surface perforated with small rasped holes from her book bag and handed it to him. "For the cinnamon."

"Why cinnamon," he asked curling his lip.

"It has antibiotic properties. So does the honey. That's going in there too."

"Are you training to be a healer?"

She looked at him, then looked away at her parchment. "I dunno? I haven't thought about it."

"Perhaps you ought to. You're obviously quite prepared for this class." He shifted in his seat and stood up to light the fuel beneath their cauldron. "I'm quite pleasantly surprised by it, honestly. No one is as good as I am in this class. Perhaps that's why he paired you with me?"

As she watched him place the ingredients into the cauldron, she wrote down the exact amounts. When Regulus placed the powdered eucalyptus into the cauldron, his eyes began to water from the steam. She was going to tell him, but at the last second, she decided not to. He cut his eyes at her and she produced a tissue from her bag and grinned.

"You knew that was going to happen, didn't you?"

She nodded. "Mmhmm. Happened to me the first time too. I'm a bitch, I know."

"Well, you won't get any argument from me there," he replied.

She giggled as she stood and looked into the cauldron, but she hadn't taken a large enough breath and had yet to speak to him. "Good. Stir in the honey and let it rest." She inhaled deeply and coughed up mucous that she didn't know was there. She grimaced and stuck out her tongue. "Gross."