What you know- two door cinema club
“Pass me the arrowroot, Potter.” Regulus demanded and James found himself blindly reaching for the ingredient, mesmerised by the look of concentration on Regulus’s face. Watching Regulus work was like watching a well-oiled machine, at least fifty different things happening all at once and Regulus managing every one of them while James was relegated to following whatever instructions the French boy deigned to give him.
“Shit.” James hissed, pulling his hand back to observe the cut from the razor-sharp arrowroot. It wasn’t deep but it was bleeding and it stung like all manner of things. Regulus let out an exasperated sigh,
“Would you like me to kiss it better for you Potter?”
“I mean, if you’re offering?” James smirked as Reg tsked at him.
They had been paired up for about six weeks now and this was the first time Slughorn had allowed them to brew anything. It was a simple draught, something to cause uninhibited confidence if James remembered correctly. He had heard Lily and Marlene joke that he must have some sort of intravenous drip of it constantly leaking into his veins. For some reason that thought had stirred something unpleasant in him. The little creeping sensation of annoyance, of hurt swirled for a few seconds before James had squashed it.
He turned his attention back to Regulus who was haphazardly reaching for ingredients strewn across the bench. James smacked his hand lightly,
“Just ask for my help. Stop being so stubborn.” He reprimanded and Regulus scoffed,
“You’d love that wouldn’t you Potter.”
“Actually, I would.” James grinned, snatching up a mortar and pestle and set to work grinding the lily bulbs.
“Can anyone tell me why lily bulbs are safe to consume within this potion despite being poisonous naturally.” Slughorn queried the class and out of habit James’s eyes flickered over to Lily, whether because of the nature of the question or just because she was always the first to answer the professor. James knew the answer, but he rather enjoyed watching the proud look spread across her face as she answered. Which was why he was shocked to hear a voice beside him pipe up before Lily’s hand could even shoot into the air.
“There are actually a number of poisonous ingredients in this draught sir. However, they are all counteracted by the small portion of powdered bezoar required to activate the potion. As I’m sure this class knows, a bezoar is a known cure-all found in the gullet of a goat.” Regulus concluded and James turned stunned eyes on him.
His delicate lips were pulled together in a smirk, accenting his smug expression with a touch of elegance. He was staring across the room with challenge in his eyes and as James followed his line of sight, he found Lily turned in her seat to look at him, rather horror stricken, mouth slightly agape. A frown marred her brow like the fact someone else had beat her to an answer offended her somewhat.
Behind her Marlene was chuckling at something Dorcas was writing on a piece of parchment. James found out what a moment later as the crumpled ball of paper collided with Regulus’s head. Regulus snatched it up and spread it on the desk, flattening out the crinkles.
Show off.
You should have seen Potter’s face lmao. He looked like he was in l-
Regulus smited the paper with a quick igniting spell before James got any further through reading the note.
“Come onnnn…” James whined to no avail. Regulus merely ignored him, shot a glare at Dorcas and went back to stirring the crushed lily bulbs into the potion which began to bubble and gained a silvery sheen.
James heard Marlene say something about how it would make a nice shade of eyeshadow.
“You know that’s basically what it is at this point Marls? It isn’t actually considered drinkable until it turns gold, but a lot of witches use it as an eyeshadow at this point. Just stick it in a small jar and leave it to cool into a balm kinda texture.” James shared and Marlene blew him a kiss.
“I always knew you were the smarter brother.” She grinned, “Sirius is too busy being good looking to bother with books.”
“Oi! I’m just as good looking.”
“Sure, you are Jamie, that’s why I dated Sirius but not you.” Marlene laughed and James found it infectious. Before you could blink twice, the red and gold half of the class was near tears in laughter and quite a few silver and green robed shoulder shook with concealed chuckles. Slughorn watched in a defeated acceptance of the fact he wouldn’t succeed in quieting the class.
It was easy to miss Regulus who sat quietly, stirring his potion. Leaning away from the rowdy Gryffindor boy beside him. No one noticed the quiet tear that slipped down his cheek at the reminder that Sirius had a new brother now.