Rita & Romilda - Discreet

[potion_failure]

Who : Romilda & Rita
When : Monday evening.
Where : Kitchen.
Rating : G
Summary : Rita and Romilda have a look at the first riddle.

Comments

[poisoned_quill]

Rita was paired with Romilda for the week, which would be interesting, to say the least. But where had the damn girl got to?

After a search of the house, Rita found her in the kitchen, papers strewn all over the table. She stopped behind her and looked over her shoulder at all the calculations on the table.

"Hmm," she murmured. "Do you really think it's a mathematical question? Don't riddles usually... sound like something different to what they are? You know, like the one about the crows in the tree and the killing curses? Where there are twenty and three curses are thrown but all the bords fly away after the first one? Or have you never heard that?"

[potion_failure]

"It's mathematical, I'm sure of it. What else could it be?" Romilda mumbled. "And no, I haven't actually, but I haven't heard a lot of things."

She had noticed Rita come in, but hadn't looked up from the riddle. She frowned. Romilda put her quill to the parchment again and began to scribble.

[poisoned_quill]

Rita peered at the riddle again. "Hm, yes. I don't see anything hidden there, really. Don't see how it's possible to get anything else from it, at any rate. Would we... well. You'd have to figure out the heads first, yes? Or am I...? Bloody hell. I hope there aren't any arithmancers in this house." She leaned down to rest her elbows on the table and picked up Romilda's quill. "Well, for a start, you have to have... one head for every eight legs that belong to a spider, and... wait." Rita's brows furrowed. "Are an acromantula's offspring also acromantula? Or is there only one and the rest are just large spiders?"

She turned her head to look at the girl, wondering if she knew. She was trying to remember the news reports of the battle at Hogwarts. She knew spiders had been involved, but she couldn't remember whether they'd been referred to as acromantula or not.

[potion_failure]

"I took arithmancy." Romilda glanced over at her. "And I was rather good at it, but this is just basic algebra." She frowned. "Hmmm... It can't be that difficult."

"You're making it too hard on yourself..." She took the quill from Rita and started scribbling. "Acromantula's have eight legs, Nogtails have four... Runespoors have three heads, Ashwinders just one... Hmmm... I think this could be a simple exercise of substitution."