She was a misfit, he was a git.
Matilda Diggory enters her fifth year of school, ready to remain as under the radar as possible, only there's a catch. She's somehow managed to catch the eye of a particularly annoying redhead, who seems hell-bent on...
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"How would you think to create an antidote to a blended poison?"
Lyall glanced over his shoulder, his hands ushering the sheep into a new paddock through the small gate connecting it to another. "I'm not sure, it's been a while since I had to revise my potions knowledge."
Matilda swung her legs as she sat on the edge of the fence, her potions book perched on her lap. "Well, I would have thought that you would find the antidotes to each of the poisons and allow them to counteract the effects of its respective poison."
"I take it that isn't how it's done," Lyall gruffed, turning back to watch the last, slower sheep approach the gate. "That seemed to be the general consensus of potions. The sensible answer was never correct."
"According to Golpalott's third law, you would need to find that single ingredient which, when added to the blended antidotes, transformed them near-alchemically into a combined whole which would counteract the entire blended poison," she explained, pausing for a moment before adding, "I can't figure out if that means finding the ingredient that already exists within the potion, or finding an unrelated ingredient that would transform them."
Lyall smiled at her, "I'm afraid I'm not the right person to answer that question," he said, closing the gate. "Remus might know, I'm sure he'd be happy to help out."
"I'll have to," Matilda agreed, jumping off the fence. She winced as she landed, her left calf still causing her some grief. She massaged it gently, feeling the deep scar, even through her jeans.
"You alright?" Lyall asked, pausing next to her.
She straightened and began walking towards the house, "Yeah, just a bit tender is all."
He looked her over before falling into step with her. Matilda had enjoyed her past week here on the Lupin farm. She had learned that they lived east of York, which she had assumed by Lyall's thick accent — the way he said 'duck' after speaking to her had been a dead giveaway. After her first few nights, she'd been able to mimic him at dinner, which had made Sirius laugh so hard he clutched his belly.
That had been his last night, as he and Remus had decided it would be best for him to return to the tropics he so dearly missed. They figured it was unsafe for him to remain with them for too long, just in case a Ministry Scout in animagus form happened to fly by on patrol. He'd promised Matilda that he would bring her back a souvenir, to which she had made him pinky swear it.
Remus had been less grouchy after Sirius' departure, often cooking lunch and dinner while she and Lyall worked on the farm. Occasionally he would join them, but he explained to her that his knee pains had been getting worse and opted to stay inside.
Matilda had stayed up after he told her this, going through her potions books to find something that could possibly help. Only a few ingredients had caught her eye, definitely not enough to make a sustained salve or potion — especially considering most of them were highly expensive and rare to come by. She still flagged them in the case that she did get a job as a potioneer one day.
