Disclaimer: All I own is this one-shot, J.K. Rowling owns the rest. No copyright intended!
Author's note: A Harry/Sally-Anne main pairing and Neville/Hermione secondary pairing story. This is an AU sixth year, where Hermione doesn't realize what Romilda's plans for Harry are. Natural Romilda bashing, implied Ginny bashing, neutral Dumbledore and neutral Snape. Rated T. No Voldemort, no horcruxes, no pensieves, and no start of the second wizarding war.
Returning The Favour
Fanfic by Brockster550
It was seven days before Professor Slughorn's Christmas Party and sixteen-year-old Gryffindor student Harry Potter couldn't decide who to invite as his date. He couldn't go with Hermione because she mentioned that she was already asked by someone else. Harry knew he couldn't go with Ginny because she was 'dating' Dean Thomas, one of Harry's roommates. Harry had an intuition that Ginny was only with Dean in a futile attempt to get Harry to notice her (thus she was too delusional to accept that Harry would never be interested in her). Harry thought about asking Luna Lovegood (a Ravenclaw student in her fifth year), but she always seemed to turn up in the least expected moments. As he sat out in the courtyard, Harry saw one of his least favourite girls walking up to him with some kind of smug grin on her face. It was Romilda Vane, one of the Chosen One fanatics and it was making Harry groan inwardly.
"May I help you?" asked Harry coolly.
"Just thought you'd like some chocolates," said Romilda in a sweet-talk voice. "Just to bury the hatchet from that encounter on the train!"
She handed the box of chocolates to Harry. Seeing nothing wrong with that, he accepted and ate one of the chocolates in the box. All of a sudden, Harry fell into some mindless trance. Harry found himself having been given a love potion, and he was able to figure it out. Romilda was looking smug once more, her plan nearly succeeding. Harry easily resisted the effects of the love potion that was in the chocolates, but he pretended that it was overtaking him in an attempt to throw Romilda off track.
'Yeeessssss!' thought Romilda triumphantly.
"You know, Romilda, I've got something wonderful to tell you!" said Harry in a false dreamy-like voice. Then he glared at Romilda, who was getting confused by Harry's sudden change in reaction. Harry sternly asked, "Did you honestly think that a love potion would work on me?"
"Uhhhhh!" Romilda responded, clearly baffled and rendered speechless.
"You remember how fast news travels throughout the castle?" asked Harry angrily, with Romilda nodding her head uneasily. "If you remember a couple of years ago when the fake Moody taught us the Unforgivable Curses, he even demonstrated the Imperius Curse on me and I was able to easily resist them. That means that love potions and such won't work with me!"
"But… But…" Romilda replied with utter fear in her voice.
"Don't give me any excuses, Vane!" growled Harry. "It was bad enough to insult my true friends, but to give me chocolates spiked with love potions is unforgivable!"
"Love potions?!" exclaimed an unexpected voice.
Turning toward the direction of the voice, Harry and Romilda saw a girl with golden-blonde hair in a pull through braided ponytail. Romilda had no idea who the girl was, but Harry sort of recognized her as Sally-Anne Perks, a Hufflepuff student in Harry's year (the yellow trimmings on her robes being a clear sign). Harry was taken aback by Sally's abrupt presence and she didn't seem to be be too happy with Romilda, given by how intense her glare was.
"What're you doing here?" Romilda barked at Sally-Anne.
"You should be ashamed of yourself, whoever you are," snapped Sally. "Thinking that trying to win Harry's 'affections' with a love potion would work!"
"What's all this about love potions?" asked Professor McGonagall as soon as she strolled by.
"Well, professor," stated Sally as she pointed to Romilda. "This girl appeared to have tried to sneak a love potion to Harry."
"I don't see any vials of love potions, Miss Perks!" said Professor McGonagall.
"It was hidden inside these chocolates, professor." Harry clarified, handing the box of chocolates to his head of house.
"I see, but it'll need to be tested in order for it to be confirmed." stated Professor McGonagall as she took the box of chocolates from Harry. Then the head of Gryffindor House turned her attention Romilda (who was sweating profusely, scared). "Miss Vane, you'd better follow me to the headmaster's office at once."
Romilda nodded her head stiffly and began following her head of house. Romilda kept wondering how her plan could've gone wrong, even though Harry already said why. She also couldn't understand why Harry didn't seem to be enjoying the attention of being the Chosen One. After Romilda and Professor McGonagall left, Sally turned her attention to Harry.
"Are you okay, Harry?" asked Sally with concern.
"Uh huh," Harry responded. "I just couldn't believe that Romilda would resort to sneaky means with a love potion! She never paid any attention to the fact that I hate the attention I get just because I'm known as the Boy-Who-Lived or the more recent Chosen One title!"
"Yeah, she didn't take into account that she would've only gotten a puppet." said Sally in agreement. "I'm surprised that you managed to resist the effects of the potion!"
"It does make sense," stated Harry. "If I can resist the effects of the Imperius Curse, then that makes me pretty much uncontrollable."
"That Romilda, her reputation will go down the drain once everyone gets wind of what she tried doing to you," said Sally. "Since she should've known how fast news travels throughout the school."
"That'll be too good to miss!" said Harry gleefully. Then he continued on in a grateful voice. "Thank you for defending my honour, Sally!"
"You're welcome, Harry!" said Sally with a smile on her face.
"W-Would you like to go to Professor Slughorn's Christmas p-party as m-my date?" Harry offered, feeling that it could be a nice reward for Sally.
"Yes, I'd love to, Harry!" said Sally joyfully, with another smile on her face.
Meanwhile in Professor Dumbledore's office, Romilda was sitting on a chair in front of the headmaster's desk. She kept fidgeting due to the fright of not only seeing her plan backfire and witnessing Harry's anger, but that their head of house found out. Professor McGonagall kept giving Romilda a stern look while Professor Snape was just finishing up on testing the chocolates for traces of the love potion. The detection spell used revealed that the results were positive, resulting in Romilda receiving a glare not only from Professor McGonagall, but also from Professors Snape and Dumbledore.
"Miss Vane," scolded the headmaster. "What have you got to say for yourself?"
Romilda's head was downcast, too ashamed to look Dumbledore in the eye. Snape and McGonagall didn't feel any sympathy for Romilda's actions.
"Miss Vane, what were your motives for sneaking Mr. Potter chocolates laced with love potions?" Professor McGonagall demanded.
"Well, I heard about Professor Slughorn's Christmas party," Romilda explained in a fearful voice. "I was hopeful that if I did that, he'd notice me and ask me to be h-h-his date!"
"You would've gotten a puppet had you succeeded, Miss Vane," said Professor Snape sternly. "Anybody who knows the real Mr. Potter would easily tell that he wouldn't appreciate sneaky methods like giving him love potion spiked chocolates. Would you like it if some other student tried that on you, Miss Vane?" Romilda shook her head frantically as a response.
"Under normal circumstances, you would've been expelled for something like that, Miss Vane," Professor Dumbledore explained. "But since the potion's effects weren't successful in working, I can give you a less severe form of punishment. You're lucky that you haven't been expelled and subsequently have your wand snapped. You'll be having detention with Professor Snape every Saturday and Sunday nights for the rest of the school year. Furthermore, you will not be allowed within five feet of Harry, is that clear?"
"Yes sir!" said Romilda fearfully.
"I will also be informing your parents of what you've done, too," said Dumbledore sternly. "They won't be too happy with you, either!"
Romilda nodded her head stiffly, then she was dismissed from the office. As she continued wandering the corridors, Romilda knew that word about what she tried would inevitably leak out. She also realized that she was bound to be at the mercy of her parents once they found out. It was the next morning at breakfast when Romilda saw her family owl flying to her and dropping a red envelope in front of her, making her gasp in horror since it was a howler. Knowing that delaying the inevitable in that case was pointless, Romilda opened her howler. Both of her parents' voices took turns shouting about her actions and what her punishment from them would be once she returned home. The majority of the student body began laughing, forcing Romilda (with her friends in tow) into running out of the Great Hall.
(Scene break)
The night of Professor Slughorn's Christmas Party arrived. Harry spent quite of time before that getting to know Sally better. Harry and Neville finished getting changed into their dress robes. Hermione was waiting in the common room and walked up to Neville once he and Harry entered. Harry realized that Neville had asked Hermione to be his date.
"Harry, who's your date for the party?" asked Hermione.
"Sally-Anne Perks!" Harry revealed.
"Wow, I never knew that you befriended her!" said Hermione in a surprised voice.
"Well, she did defend my honour in telling that Romilda off for the love potion fiasco," stated Harry. "So I figured that asking her to be my date would've been a nice reward! Plus, she's just nice and fun to be around!"
"I am curious to know if you thought about asking Luna first." said Neville.
"I did," Harry admitted. "But she always seems to turn up in the least expected moments."
"I see," said Neville. "Yeah, Luna tends to stay well outta the way, which is mainly because of her earlier days here at Hogwarts where she's been bullied and shunned."
So the three Gryffindors left the tower, with Neville and Hermione immediately making a beeline for Professor Slughorn's classroom. Harry walked over to the Hufflepuff common room entrance to wait for Sally. As soon as Sally stepped out of her house common room, Harry felt his jaw drop when he got a good look at her. She was wearing magenta dress robes and her hair was in a braided bun. Harry held an arm out and Sally linked one of her's into it. Then Harry started escorting her and himself to Slughorn's classroom. Professor Slughorn was keeping watch outside his classroom, to ensure that no uninvited student would try to sneak in.
"Ah, Harry," said Professor Slughorn as soon as he spotted Harry with his date. "I'm glad you made it! Enjoy the party, you two!"
"We will, professor." assured Harry and Sally.
They walked into the classroom and spotted Neville and Hermione dancing out in the middle of the floor. They both nodded their heads in approval at Harry and Sally, and they went to join the dance. Harry was enjoying his time with Sally, and she also enjoyed her time with Harry. They were becoming hesitant to quit dancing with each other, that was how much fun they were having. Harry also found himself enjoying looking into Sally's hazel eyes. Sally sure loved looking into Harry's green eyes. This night was certainly becoming one heck of a night, one that neither of the two teens would forget.
The End!