Harry stumbled through the portrait hole of the Gryffindor Common Room and onto the staircase, eyes wide and chest heaving. He risked a glance behind him and felt relief flow through him when no one followed. He had managed to slip out without being seen. He hurried down the staircase, mind racing with hundreds of thoughts, each one overlapping the other before the former one could finish. He slipped past a group of First Year girls, who were all circled around a tall brunette. He caught snatches of their frantic conversation. The girls whispered,
"He's just the dreamiest."
"I just simply have to ask him out!"
He stumbled through a shortcut, wincing as he knocked over a vase to his right and backed out, bumping straight into someone. He felt his heart stop as he turned in dread, shoulders tensed. He met murky brown eyes and took a step back.
"Hullo Harry!" Neville. Harry gave the boy a brief wave before attempting to slip away to the right. "Hey, I was wondering, did you want to go to Hogsmeade-"
"Sorry, Neville; can't!" Harry shouted as he slipped away, heart banging against his ribs as he tripped down another flight of stairs. He had nowhere to go. Nowhere was safe. Someone had cursed the entire school so they would be in love with Harry for an entire day. Classes had been cancelled due to the student's lack in concentration, and so far, Harry had been cornered by hundreds of students, both girls and boys. And it was only ten in the morning!
He trod up to the seventh floor, turning the corner and facing the wall opposite Barnabas the Barmy. He paced and felt relief flood through him as the door appeared before him. He pushed it open and took a step inside. The Room of Hidden things was as cluttered as ever but it comforted him to know that besides the hundreds of hidden objects lying around, he was the only one in here. Or so he thought.
He had only taken a few steps inside when he heard something clutter to the left. He spun, wand ready, forever on guard.
"Constant vigilance." Moody's voice echoed in his head. A blond-haired boy stumbled out from behind a pile of tables and chairs and turned to meet Harry's gaze. Fuck.
It was Draco Malfoy. Oh god this was going to be terrible. Harry felt his face begin to burn in anticipation for the compliments and adoration as the blond opened his mouth.
"Potter! What are you doing here?" Harry stopped short. He gaped, eyes wide as his wand dropped. What was going on? The whole of Hogwarts had been cursed. "Hello, Scarhead? I know that I'm fabulous, but are you really going to stand there gawking forever? Or do I need to hex you?" Harry blinked and took a step back. He heard Malfoy mutter,
"Honestly."
"M-Malfoy, what's going on? Everyone was-" Harry stuttered his words out, watching as the blond's pale face began to grow a slight tint of pink.
"Potter, you're atrocious!" The blond then turned, neck and ears red and walked out of the room without another comment, toppling a pile of books behind him for effect.
"But-" Harry blinked as the door swung shut behind him.
—
"And then he just walked away, Hermione! I don't know how it's possible!" Harry sat in the corner of the now significantly more peaceful common room later that night, seated in one of the warmest arm chairs across from Ron and Hermione. The curse had finally worn off, but the culprit had yet to be caught.
"Can't believe it." Ron had muttered, ears as red as his hair when he had regained consciousness once again and realised that he had been crushing on his best mate.
"Harry," Hermione started slowly, eyes a little glassy as she, too, was still recovering from the day's events. "No one can evade a Verum Diligitis curse. It says right here-" She tapped a finger on a paragraph in the book she had perched on her lap, titled Love Potions and Curses, and How to Counter Them. "It's impossible. There isn't even a known counter-curse."
Harry shook his head and grimaced.
"But Hermione, he didn't even say anything different! He just walked away!" Hermione heaved a deep sigh and shut her book.
"Harry, have you stopped to consider that maybe Malfoy actually fancies you? You saw how Ginny acted exactly the same that time Fred and George slipped her that love potion for you last year! Maybe he's not acting different because he didn't feel any different to usual." Harry heard Ron retch beside him and couldn't help but agree with the red head's assertiveness.
"Mione', trust me. He doesn't fancy me. He's a git!" Hermione sighed, standing and wincing as Crookshanks gave an angry hiss and jumped off her lap.
"Harry, just think about it, okay? Maybe ask him how he feels?" Harry shook his head in arrogance.
"It's not possible." He heard Ron mutter besides him and Harry nodded in agreement. "Mione', I think maybe that curse messed up your thinking skills. Isn't there any other answer?"
Hermione scowled at Ron before slamming her book down on the table and turning towards the girl's dormitories, climbing the staircase and leaving the two boys to wonder why she was so suddenly angry.
"Must be the curse." Ron concluded, before standing and going to join a chess game happening by the fire.
Harry stared at the page that the book had landed open on and grimaced.
Those who already posses feelings of attraction towards the victim of the potion or curse will fail to be controlled by said magical assault, and continue to act in the same way as they did prior to the application, therefore proving the only known antidote to any attempt at forced love.
At the same moment, on the other side of the castle, in the dungeons, Pansy Parkinson was cackling with deranged laughter.