章節 254: The Bloodline Atavism Potion Reborn

Oleandra sat on the stone steps and watched the other students, both Gryffindor and Slytherin, having fun following their Nifflers around. The adorable little creatures dived and swam around in the dirt as easily as Sandsharks in the desert sand, searching for Professor Hagrid's buried treasure.

After some time, Hermione finally showed up to class with heavily bandaged hands, and she sat next to Oleandra, as she couldn't participate considering the state of her hands.

"You too?" said Oleandra, examining Hermione's comically over-wrapped hands. "I got lucky; Daphne opened the Bubotuber pus letter, and she's immune to it."

"It's all that Skeeter woman's fault," Hermione hissed. "I don't know how she keeps listening in on my private conversations, but I swear I'll get back at her if it's the last thing I do!"

The two of them then sat there in silence, watching the class unfold. The Nifflers gave Oleandra a wide berth; she supposed it was Cloak the Lethifold's fault that they were so scared of her. The Unicorns from the previous classes hadn't reacted to the Lethifold hidden in her clothes, but it seemed like the Nifflers' senses were much sharper than theirs.

In any case, there was no way that Professor Hagrid had the financial means or that Hogwarts had enough spare funds to use real Galleons for a treasure hunt, so Oleandra supposed he was using Leprechaun gold or some other substitute. Unfortunately, their magic was too weak and they were buried too deeply for her Mystic Eyes to perceive, so Oleandra couldn't verify her hypothesis. Or cheat, and play the game without Nifflers.

In the end, Ron's Niffler found the most gold pieces out of them all, so he won Professor Hagrid's prize: a huge slab of Honeydukes's chocolate. Perhaps feeling a bit sorry for those who couldn't participate, he then snapped off a few squares and handed them to Oleandra and Hermione.

"Thanks," said Oleandra, popping a piece of chocolate in her mouth. What nice guy he was!

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Oleandra and Hermione continued to receive angry letters over the following week, but Oleandra would just directly throw hers into the fireplace before they hexed her or started screaming by themselves. She also replied to her mother's letter, assuring her that no, she wasn't two or even three-timing anyone, and that she would pay attention to her image while out in public.

In her free time, she also attempted to divine the location and identity of the person who had sent her the tainted letter, but to no avail. Since that particular letter had also been written using newspaper cuttings, she kept divining the location of the Daily Prophet's offices, which was completely useless when it came to identifying the actual culprit (and everyone already knew where their offices were, anyway).

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On Friday evening after classes, Oleandra and Daphne finally completed the Ovid's Tincture; from there, only a few things needed to be added in order to complete the Bloodline Atavism Potion, including the ingredient specific to the noble family's bloodline. This potion needed to be tailored to its drinker's bloodline, and in the Greengrass family's case, the specific ingredient required was Wood Nymph hairs.

Unlike the Roman Wizards' original potion which granted a Muggle the bloodline abilities of a Fantastic Beast, the Bloodline Atavism Potion removed anything from a Wizard's blood that wasn't human or that wasn't related to that specific ingredient. It was a return to one's main bloodline origin, cleansing the polluted genome that resulted from crossing incompatible species together (for example, the fiery nature of Dragon blood did NOT pair well with the sap of Wood Nymphs).

And so, Oleandra went to the entrance of the Gryffindor common room to fetch Astoria. Unfortunately, she didn't know what password to give to the portrait of the Fat Lady, which concealed the location of the Gryffindor common room, so she had to wait there until someone came in or out. Technically, students weren't even supposed to know where the entrances to the other Houses' common rooms were hidden, but the locations of the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw entrances were hardly secret, as students of those Houses weren't especially discreet.

Incidentally, anybody could enter the Ravenclaw common room if they were clever enough to answer their eagle guardian statue's questions. However, nobody would, since as a general rule, Ravenclaws were snobby, and the eagle statue liked to make things difficult for non-Ravenclaws.

After a while, a few Gryffindors emerged from behind the Fat Lady's portrait, and Oleandra sheepishly asked them to fetch Astoria for her. They were, of course, displeased at having a Slytherin hanging around their 'secret entrance,' but they eventually, albeit reluctantly, agreed to pass on her message to Astoria.

"Ollie!" Astoria squealed, jumping out from the hole behind the portrait and into Oleandra's arms to hug her.

"Please don't call me that," said Oleandra, cringing at the nickname Astoria had just come up with. "Come on, we've just finished the potion; are you ready?"

Astoria had been plagued with bad health from birth due to her Bloodline Malediction. Her illness originated from conflicting dominant genes; neither Oleandra nor Daphne had ever had such problems, so it could be said that Astoria was particularly unlucky in that respect.

Oleandra led Astoria up the seventh floor of the Astronomy Tower, to the Room of Requirement, where Daphne was waiting for them, standing in front of a cauldron. The Tincture looked exactly like it had the first time they had made it; effervescent slime that shone with all the resplendent colours of a rainbow.

"We made enough for two people, this time!" said Daphne happily. "Soon, we'll all look like sisters again!"

Daphne hummed contentedly as she separated the Tincture into two separate cauldrons; since Oleandra and Astoria weren't the same size, she needed to make their potions separately; to slightly alter the proportions of the last ingredients for each of them.

She made Astoria's portion first, throwing the ingredients one at a time into the Tincture: Dragon's blood, essence of Moonlight, fruit of the Lotus, Ashwinder eggs, hairs of a Wood Nymph… and some cinnamon for taste.

The potion reduced in volume to only a few mouthfuls' worth, before turning a deep green colour.

"There you go, Astoria," said Daphne, carefully pouring the completed potion in a small mug. "Drink up!"

Oleandra followed the mug with hungry eyes. It was as if the potion was calling to her, and her blood was singing to it in response. She needed to drink it badly. She needed it. Needed it. Needed it!