I do not own anything, except my plot :)...alright now with that out of the way. This is my story of Hermione and Harry, their battle with love potions, jealous Weasleys, and a helpful potions professor. I have not made my mind up just yet on who all will be alive andwho all won't. The war happened during their 6th year when Draco let the death eaters into Hogwarts. Now with that said I hope you enjoy the story. There will most likely be smut in later chapters.
Chapter 1; Freedom. (Harry Potter's POV)
Love potions. We knew they were using them on us but we didn't know what they were putting them in or when. All we knew was that like clockwork, at the beginning of every month Hermione was madly in love with Ron and I was madly in love with Ginny. However towards the end of every month the potion would start to wear off and we would sometimes get one to two days with our real feelings before we were drugged again. We had finally come to the conclusion that it had to stop. That is why, instead of being at dinner right now with our 'partners' we were standing in front of the potions door, about to ask our potions professor for help.
Knock knock. The sound echoed thoughout the dungeon as I knocked on the dungeon door.
"Come in." We looked at each other before I pushed open the heavy door. "Potter, Granger, what do you want?" He sneered.
"Professor," she started, "I know Harry and I are probably two of your least favorite students but we really need your help." Snape's eyes got wide as the student he dubbed know-it-all asked for his help.
"Alright Miss Granger, what is it? A homework assignment that is too difficult?" He said looking smug, thinking he had finally assigned something she didn't know. Hermione and I just shook our heads.
"No Professor, for the past six months Harry and I have been receiving love potions. I have looked in every book I could possibly get my hands on and cannot find a counter spell or potion. Since we don't know what they are slipping the potion into, and since we cannot check every single thing we put in our mouths, we figured we would come to you to see if there is anything we can do to prevent falling under the potions charm. We are both tired of being forced to love people we do not love. Please Professor, can you help us?"
Professor Snape sat behind his desk with his eyes wide and his mouth open, apparently he didn't think Ron and Ginny were capable of love potions.
"Six months you said Miss Granger?"
"Yes Professor."
"Why is anyone just now hearing about this?"
Hermione opened her mouth to answer but I cut her off.
"Actually Professor, it could be longer than six months that we have been receiving them, we only know for certain six months. I know you're probably thinking that we are very stupid for not recognizing this sooner, but we never had a reason to suspect them of anything like this, we thought we were really in love with them."
Snape shook his head.
"No Potter I do not think you are stupid for not knowing how long you have been under the effects of a love potion, there have been cases of witchs/wizards who have gone most of their lives under the effects of a love potion and have never had a clue they were under one. I am surprised that you two have waited so long to come to someone about this."
"Well at first we weren't sure." Hermione said. "Towards the end of the month we would start falling out of love with them but then be back in love so we were both just brushing it off like they were bad days, but then one day we both discussed it and came to the conclusion that this is what was happening. That is when I started looking for a cure. Plus they have always been good friends to us, and while we don't know why they are doing this we don't want them in trouble. And yes I know telling you will undoubtedly get them in trouble, you are the best professor to come to with a potions problem so we had no choice, even though you are harder on Gryffindors."
"So Professor, will you help us?"
"Yes Potter I will help. Follow me into my office; I will get you everything you need to reverse this."
Meanwhile at dinner.
"Ron, where is Harry?" The little redheaded girl asked her older brother, as she sat down across the table from him.
"He is with Hermione. They went to Professor Snape to ask him a question about the homework he assigned today." Ron said before taking a drink of his pumpkin juice. Anger flashed across Ginny's eyes for a brief moment.
"Why didn't you go with them, Ron?" She asked. If anyone was paying attention to the conversation they would think that Ginny was simply caring about her brother's education, but that was not the case. Ron looked at his sister. He knew she absolutely hated when Harry was alone with Hermione. Harry was hers and she saw everyone, including the bushy-haired bookworm as a threat. Not that he blames Ginny for being a bit possessive over Harry especially when it came to Hermione. Since they made Head Boy and Girl they spent most of their time together and had practically became inseparable, something that they had foreseen. That is why at the beginning of the summer back in June they started to give the two love potions. It was now the end of February and they had no intention of stopping.
"I didn't go because I blew up my cauldron this morning in potions and while Snape didn't give me a detention then I don't need to remind him of the incident, plus Hermione will help me out when I have trouble with the assignment. Don't fret Ginny, they will be here soon, and then you can snog Harry senseless for all I care." He said as he watched the youngest Weasley calm down a bit. The snogging thing was how Ginny 'marked her territory' so to speak. She would snog him in public anytime she caught another girl staring at him with that dreamy stare. In the beginning it made Ron's stomach turn over, but he got used to it after a while.
Soon the double doors opened to reveal the subject of their conversation along with Hermione. Ron and Ginny watched as Hermione and I made our way down the Gryffindor Table towards them. Hermione sat down and gave Ron a kiss on the cheek as she ran her hand through his hair. Once she sat down she said a brief hello to Ginny.
Ginny smiled at the older witch as I sat down next to her.
"So how was dealing with that old snake?" She asked as I draped my arm across her shoulders. She looked up at me and smiled brightly before looking back at Hermione and waiting for her to answer.
"Positively horrid!" She replied. "He acted like we were completely stupid and not the respected Heads of the school."
Ron laughed. "I told you not to bother him 'Mione. I mean since when does he help Gryffindors?"
"You're right mate; we should have listened to you." I smiled; it was sad how easy it was to act like everything was fine and dandy with them.
Hermione huffed. "You didn't have to come, Harry, but you know I take my studies very seriously, and with N.E.W.T.s coming up I can't afford to fail a homework assignment." The conversation ended there as we all ate our meals. Soon Ginny stood up and kissed me on the cheek and I fought the urge to pull away.
"Well I have to run. I still have detention for making Filtch's cat bright pink." She said before leaving the Great Hall.
"Hey mate," Neville said leaned in looking at Ron, "want to go back to the common room and play a couple games of wizards chess?" I saw Ron's eyes light up before he sadly shook his head.
"Sorry Neville, I can't. I promised Hermione I would…"
"Oh Ron it's ok, we can reschedule. I wanted to get started on the assignment anyways. Go play and have fun, just don't forget your own assignment because I won't do it for you!" She said sternly but with a smile on her face. Ron smiled and kissed her on the cheek before turning to me.
"Harry, want to come? You could play winner."
"No thanks mate. I need to do the assignment tonight or I'll forget what Snape said when we asked for help. Plus I want to get it done so we can party after the scrimmage tomorrow. Sorry you didn't make it mate." I added when I saw his face fall a bit.
"Eh it's nothing, I'll be there cheering you on and we'll get piss drunk tomorrow night." He said with a smile. He then left with Neville and the other Gryffindor boys.
I looked across the table at Hermione who already had her bag on her shoulder, and was getting ready to get up.
"Did you get it?" She asked looking me in the eyes.
"Yep, did you?"
"Yes. Let's go make this potion." She said standing up. Together we made our way out of the Great Hall and up to the third floor to the painting of a Princess in a red dress and a knight in shining armor. Hermione quickly said the password and I held the portrait open for her to walk through.
As I walked over to my favorite chair I saw Hermione make the table in front of the couch disappear and her cauldron appear. She then reached into her bag and pulled out the instructions that Snape gave her along with all the ingredients.
"After we mix everything, it has to simmer for two hours before we can add the hairs we took to it and drink it. So we can actually do our assignment, which works for us in the long run." She smiled.
"Anything I can do to help?"I asked, but Hermione just shook her head.
"No, just work on your assignment. I wouldn't want you to miss your game tomorrow, or the after party." I nodded but did not start on the potions assignment. Instead I watched Hermione work on the potion that would let us be free from Ginny and Ron forever. I always loved watching Hermione work on a potion, her eyebrows would burrow and she would narrow her eyes and bite her bottom lip while she concentrated. It was always a cute site, one of my favorites.
After about thirty minutes of adding ingredients and stirring at random intervals, Hermione looked down at her watch.
"10:30." She said tapping her watch with her wand setting the alarm. She then looked over at me and narrowed her eyes.
"Harry James Potter, why are you not working on your assignment?"
"Sorry 'Mione." I said lowering my head like a five year old that got caught with his hand in the cookie jar.
"Please Harry, don't call me that. I absolutely hate that nickname." She said pulling out her parchment, quill, and ink bottle from her bag. I got up from my chair and walked over to one of the desks we had in the common room. I set my bag down on top of the desk before pulling my parchment, quill, and ink bottle out of it. Along with my Potions book and the reference book I checked out of the library after class. The assignment that Snape assigned this morning was going to be fairly easy for most in the class, well Ron excluded. I sat down and spread out my things as Hermione conjured up a table next to her cauldron so she could keep an eye on the potion.
The two hours went by silently; the scratching of quills and flipping of pages were the only sound until Hermione's watch started beeping.
"Perfect timing." I heard her say. I glanced over to see her adding the final touches to her assignment. I still had half a roll of parchment to complete but I would be done with that soon enough so I turned my complete attention to Hermione who had conjured up two glasses and was currently filling them with our potion.
"All you need to do is add a piece of Ginny's hair and then drink up." She said as she handed me the glass. We added the stray hairs we collected during dinner and then we made eye contact.
"To our freedom." I said raising my glass towards hers.
"Our freedom." She smiled before clinking our glasses together and downing the potion.
I raised my glass to my lips and downed my potion; relieved when I felt all love related feelings for Ginny disappear my mind and heart.
I looked back at Hermione and saw her smiling and I knew it must have worked for her too.
We were finally free.
Okey dokey, that is the end of the first chapter. I would love to know what you think, even if you hate it. This story isn't a fully developed story, so if you have any suggestions please feel free to put them out there, if I use them I will of course give you credit :)