Better - The Marauders

THIRTY-TWO

- Chapter Thirty-Two -
"Hargreeves and Avery."

"So it should be...green?"

Regulus and Elladora were the only two Slytherins sat in the Slytherin Common room, resting their backs against the green sofa in front of the roaring fire with books spread open in front of them. The boy was struggling massively in lots of his lessons at the moment and he has to keep his grades up if he wants to stay on the Quidditch team.

Much like Sirius, Quidditch is practically Regulus' life, he has about 12 copies of 'Quidditch through the ages' all annotated with different notes on how to ride the broom properly. If possible, it seemed as though he liked it more than Sirius, his passion for it was something that Elladora had never seen in his eyes before, but it definitely made him happy.

The subject they were working on now was Potions, the Strengthening Solution to be exact. It was bound to be in his practical exam and he really wanted to stay on the team, so they made sure to get straight to it the day after they came back from the holidays.

"No, it should be turquoise." Elladora told him, scribbling something in his notebook and drawing a circle around it.

"They're not the same thing?" Regulus asked whilst rubbing his eyes, they had been studying for hours, but every time the girl asked him if he wanted to go to bed, he would refuse.

"No, turquoise is more of an opaque, blue-to-green mineral that is a hydrated phosphate of copper and aluminium, with the chemical formula CuAl₆(PO₄)₄(OH)₈·4H₂O." She explained and looked over to Regulus, who had his eyebrows furrowed together in confusion with his mouth agape. "But don't worry about that, it's Muggle science."

"You know muggle science?" He asked in amazement, sitting up slightly.

"Of course I do, I had a lot of free time the past couple of years." She smiled half-heartedly and he nodded his head, running his fingers through his hair before turning to face her.

"Can you teach me?"

"Maybe next year," She rubbed his shoulder comfortingly. "Muggle Science is a very very confusing thing and it's three in one so I think that we should just focus on your O.W.L subjects for now, yeah?"

"Okay." He shrugged and picked up his book again. "So it should be a turquoise colour, which is like a bluey-sort of-green thing. Um, it takes seven days to mature and it includes salamander blood as well as a powdered Griffin claw."

"Brilliant." Elladora praised and took the book from his lap, closing it shut in her instead whilst sitting up to face him. "Again, without the book."

He grinned slightly and pushed himself up so he was mirroring her position. "It's a turquoise colour, which is kind of green and kind of blue..."

"Yep."

"Uh, a week to mature."

"Mhm."

"Contains salamander blood and...a Griffin claw?"