Title What Love Potions Can Do - - - Rating M
Summary Instead of giving Ron Weasley the box of Chocolate Cauldron Cakes in HBP, Harry keeps them for himself. What happens twenty years later when he is stuck in a marriage with Romilda Vane, a marriage that he would not have agreed to had he been in a love potion free mind...
Pairings Harry/Romilda, Harry/Ginny, Ron/Hermione
Warnings Character Death
-What Love Potions Can Do-
Sixth Years Boys Dorms, Gryffindor Tower, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Scotland
1st March 1997
"Happy birthday, Ron," said Harry, when they were woken on the first of March by Seamus and Dean leaving noisily for breakfast.
"Sorry I didn't get you a present, what with your mother not even letting us go to the Alley and the bloody Hogsmeade visits being off."
"No worry mate." Ron said, as he watched Harry open a box of Chocolate Cauldrons cakes that he found in his trunk, it hiding beneath the rolled-up socks in which he was keeping his bottle of lucky potion, Felix Felicis.
"Right," he murmured, taking it back to bed with him, opening the box quietly and murmuring so that Neville, who was passing the foot of his bed at the time, would not hear.
"Nice one, Neville!" said Ron enthusiastically, waving the new pair of Quidditch Keeper's gloves that the third male member of the Ministry Six had given him.
"Seriously good haul this year!" he announced, holding up a heavy gold watch with odd symbols around the edge and tiny moving stars instead of hands. "See what Mum and Dad got me? Blimey, that means that I am of age this year!"
"Cool," muttered Harry, sparing the watch a glance before taking a bit of the Chocolate Cauldrons cakes that he had been given by Ginny, who, unbeknown to Harry, had been under an Imperius Curse that had been cast by Romilda Vane, forcing her to give them him. Turning to Ron, Harry started to realise something different about his feelings, something he had never felt before. "Want one?"
"No thanks," said Ron, looking up from his presents.
As Harry was starting to eat a second Chocolate Cauldrons cake as he slid out of bed to get dressed. "Come on, if you don't hurry up, you'll have to Apparate on an empty stomach."
Ron started looking envious at the box of Chocolate Cauldrons cakes that Harry was offering, then shrugged as the Boy-Who-Lived took it back, shocked that Harry had helped himself to a third. "Ready?"
Ron was halfway to the dormitory door when he realized that Harry had not moved, but was leaning on his bedpost, staring out of the rain-washed window with a strangely unfocused look on his face.
Suddenly Harry got up and legged it out of the room, intent on getting to the Forth Year girls dorms as he wanted to see Romilda Vane and snog the underwear off her.
Little would Ron realise that any efforts that he or Hermione would make to try and give Harry an antidote would not work, especially as by time they found him, he was too far gone, the love potion that was in those Chocolate Cauldrons cakes.
Potter Manor, Castle Donnington, Derbyshire, England
13th February 1997
Harry Potter stood there, a lamp in his hand, his wife on the floor, dead. His wife had just given birth to their twelfth son mere days ago, their fifteenth child over the twenty years of marriage that Harry had been married to Romilda Vane, a marriage which Harry had only found out that he was being administered Love Potion to remain wed.
Heading onto his knees to get down to the fireplace, Harry knew that the person who he had loved before the problems started in his Sixth Year would be the best person to get advice from, a problem which started when he had had eaten those dratted Chocolate Cauldrons cakes, when he had met Romilda in the Common Room and dragged her to the Room of Requirement, when he had sex with her, the subsequent marriage and birth of his first son, nineteen years ago.
The problems didn't stop there, however, as he was thrown in front of Voldemort on what he would have described as a suicide mission, managing to trap the Dark Lord and force him through the Veil of Death.
As he contacted Ginny Weasley, the former star chaser for the Holyhead Harpies, Harry remembered how he would have to contact his eldest son, James, who had left when Harry had accused him of lying about his wife drugging him with Love Potion, along with his children who were at Hogwarts, to tell them that their mother was dead.
As he talked to Ginny, he wished that he could turn back time, turn it back to the times when he was still friends with Ron and Hermione, who he had last heard had got married, but had not invited him to the wedding.
It was only by luck that Harry had found out about the potions. He had been tested as part of the new Health Testing that was introduced a few weeks' prior for members of the Wizengamot, a policy put in place by Susan Bones, who had replaced her Aunt on the Wizengamot following her Aunt's death.
As Harry stepped back, he saw the fire light up and Ginny, along with Ron and Hermione, come through, Ron in his Auror Uniform. It was then that Harry knew that he would end up being in Azkaban, and that his kids would end up in an Orphanage…and his youngest could potentially end up being the next Dark Lord.
It was then that everything went blank for Harry.
Sixth Years Boys Dorms, Gryffindor Tower, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Scotland
1st March 1997
Harry woke up suddenly, heavily sweating, his mind scared of the suspicious article that Ginny had given him earlier that day. 'I should have checked for the Imperius Curse when I had received those bloody Cauldron Cakes. I need to burn them and quickly.'
Suddenly Ron was woken up, woken on the first of March by Seamus and Dean leaving noisily for breakfast.
"Sorry I didn't get you a present, what with your mother not even letting us go to the Alley and the bloody Hogsmeade visits being off."
Ron suddenly saw the box and grabbed them off Harry, annoyed his best friend was about to burn a box of Chocolate Cauldrons, and, as he ripped off the paper, Harry got out of bed, opened his own trunk, and began rummaging in it for the Marauder's Map, which he hid after every use. He turned out half the contents of his trunk before he found it hiding beneath the rolled-up socks in which he was keeping his bottle of lucky potion, Felix Felicis.
"Right," he murmured, taking it back to bed with him, tapping it quietly and murmuring, "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good," so that Neville, who was passing the foot of his bed at the time, would not hear.
"Nice one, Neville!" said Ron enthusiastically, waving the new pair of Quidditch Keeper's gloves that the third male member of the Ministry Six had given him.
"Seriously good haul this year!" he announced, holding up a heavy gold watch with odd symbols around the edge and tiny moving stars instead of hands. "See what Mum and Dad got me? Blimey, that means that I am of age this year!"
Harry would later realise that the Cakes contained Love Potion when Ron started to obsess over Romilda Vane, with a visit to Professor Slughorn being the result for an antidote.
After Harry had heled stabilise Ron, and the subsequent dumping by Ron of Lavender, Harry ended up getting a kiss off Ginny, one packed full of love, meaning that they would get together, and Dean would lose out.
All in all, Harry realised, from that dream, when he had finished kissing Ginny, what love potions can do.
-What Love Potions Can Do-
Disclaimer I don't own the Harry Potter series. Harry Potter is the property of JK Rowling, and are not my intellectual property. There is no financial gain made from this nor will any be sought. This is for entertainment purposes only. Any text used from the Harry Potter series is used under the fair use allowances of various copyright acts
Social Media You can now like "GryffindorTom" on Facebook and Twitter to get all the latest news, bits I'm working on, story updates and much more. You can also discuss this story and much, much more on Reddit - just navigate to r/GryffindorTomOfficial on there. The Official Twitter hashtag for this story is #WhatLovePotionsCanDo
Reviews Please remember to review this story as it helps improve the stories that I write for you guys. It's the only payment, along with adding to community's and favourites that I get for writing these, and I admit I enjoy that payment.
Type One-Shot -
Status Complete
Distribution FFN, AO3, GryffindorTom Online
Story ID 258 - Publish Date 08/01/2017
