What's Love Got to Do With It
Team: Falmouth Falcons
Position: Chaser #2
Author's Note: I am Chaser #2 for the Falmouth Falcons. This is written for Finals Round 2. My prompt is: First Love Beguiling Bubbles.
Optional Prompts:
# 2 (word) lace
# 6 (quote) "If selling my soul is all it takes to win, I'll give you my whole body, no holds barred." - Yuri Plisetsky, Yuri on Ice
# 13 (word) custard
Word Count: 1,908
Title ~ What's Love Got to Do With It?
Miranda Parkin had loved Frederick Lamont from afar for as long as she could remember. They had been born in the same small village, but she did not have the courage to speak to him. She saw herself as a mousy-looking girl who faded into the background. He was an ordinary boy who did ordinary things, and ordinary boys do not initiate conversations with girls.
They were in the same year at Hogwarts, and both of them had even been sorted into Hufflepuff, yet they never had a conversation. She had discovered in classes that he was funny without being mean, was smart without being brilliant, and was kind to people and animals.
She had despaired of ever getting his attention, until the day that she was in Diagon Alley buying her school supplies and wandered into Weasley's Wizard Wheezes and discovered their WonderWitch line of Love Potions. The pink bottles dazzled in the light, the stopper a clear crystal, a lace bow jauntily tied around the narrow neck. She picked up one tiny bottle that was called First Love Beguiling Bubbles and was surprised that it felt warm. She turned the bottle to read the directions on the back. The print was far too small to read, so she tapped the directions with her finger to enlarge the label. It read:
WonderWitch Love Potions are brewed in small batches with the utmost care. Meant to be used within one month of purchase.
Effect: Causes the Drinker to become infatuated with the Giver of the Potion. A single dose typically lasts up to 24 hours, but the precise duration is dependent on the weight of the Drinker, as well as the attractiveness of the Giver.
IMPORTANT ~ The Giver is not the person who buys the Potion. Rather, the Giver is the person who Activates the Potion.
Dosage: Potion is a liquid that can be mixed with food or drink. One dose is 7 Drops, added while chanting. Do not increase the dosage, as that will cause indigestion.
Activation: The Love Potion is inert in the bottle. The Giver Activates the Potion by adding it to food or drink, as they chant the following:
Let the one who drinks this potion
Shower me with love's devotion
Caution: Love Potions continue to mature, so it is advisable to use within thirty days of purchase.
Miranda looked around and for the first time in her life was glad that she attracted the attention of no one. She watched until the line at the Till was very short and quietly took her place. She slipped her purchase into her book bag, still universally ignored, and left the store to meet up with her parents.
She brought the potion with her to school, and decided to use the potion on a Sunday, a day that was free of classes or most other enforced activities. She took an extra custard from Saturday night's meal and took it to her room. She pulled out the dropper, sucked up the liquid from the bottle, and carefully counted out seven drops that fell onto the custard as she chanted seven times, one chant for each drop,
"Let the one who drinks this potion
Shower me with love's devotion ."
She put the liquid that remained in the dropper back into the potion bottle and carefully replaced the stopper. She put the Love Potion and the dropper into a small green velvet bag and pulled the string at the top tightly to close it. She placed the bag onto her nightstand, along with the custard which she covered with a napkin. She thought she would never fall asleep, her mind churning with the possibilities of the next day, but suddenly, it was morning.
She dressed carefully, having chosen her favorite outfit for the day. She styled her hair, applied a little makeup and lipstick, and grabbing the custard from her nightstand, made her way to the great hall where breakfast was being served.
She didn't dare approach him at the table where he was surrounded by his friends. She waited until he was leaving and then followed him out of the great hall.
"Frederick, oh Frederick," she called out and he stopped and turned to see who had called him. Her heart was pounding so loud she thought it might jump out of her chest, but she forced herself to speak up.
"I made this custard in a cooking class, and I thought that you might like it."
She blushed, but was unaware that blushing looks quite attractive on most girls, putting a rosy glow on their cheeks and a sparkle in their eyes. He looked at her, then at the custard.
"I really appreciate that you made this for me," he said apologetically, "But I'm heading out to Quidditch practice, and I can't eat this until after that."
"Oh, no, I understand completely," Miranda said. "Would it be okay if I watched your practice?"
The smile on his face was so wide and genuine that Miranda almost laughed. "Yes, I would love that, yes, please come to practice."
"All right then, I'm going to grab a sweater and meet you at the pitch."
"Great, I'll look for you there," Frederick said, and Miranda watched him as he ran out of the castle, until she could no longer see him.
Miranda ran to the Hufflepuff common room, and then up to her dorm room, where she was surprised to see a group of girls standing around her bed.
"What's going on," she asked nervously.
The girls turned and looked at Miranda. Sarah Nott put out her hand, and Miranda could see the little pink bottle of Beguiling Bubbles Love Potion resting on her palm.
"Who gave you permission to touch my things?" Miranda stepped forward and went to grab the bottle, but Sarah jerked her hand away before Miranda could stop her.
"Love Potions are forbidden at Hogwarts, don't you know that Miranda?" Maria Prewett said with a sneer. "What are you doing with this?"
"It's none of your business," Miranda replied. "Now please give it back."
"I don't think so," Sarah said. "In fact, Mary Toke is down in the great hall, getting some tarts that we can use for the Love Potion ourselves."
"How dare you," Miranda cried, and again tried to grab the bottle. Again she was unsuccessful.
"Any good friend would be willing to share with her friends, don't you agree?" said Toni Tuft, just as Mary burst through the door with a tray of tarts. The girls began to squeal as Mary set the tray on her bed.
"Oh, all right," Miranda said, shrugging. "Go ahead and use the potion." She sat down on her own bed as the girls crowded around Sarah's bed, looking at the tarts. "Be careful and follow the instructions, though," she said.
Soon every girl had activated the Love Potion on their own tart, chanting as they carefully deposited seven drops of potion onto her tart. Now they were preparing to head down to the pitch, where the Hufflepuff team was practicing.
Toni turned to Miranda and said, "Thank you for sharing this love potion with us. You still have quite a bit left, you know."
"Thank you, Toni, I appreciate that," Miranda said. "I am heading down to the pitch to watch our team practice. Does anyone want to join me?"
Yes, of course all the girls wanted to go to the pitch with Miranda. The girls wrapped their "loaded tarts" in napkins and put them in their pocket for safekeeping. Then they went, en masse, to the pitch.
The captain of the Hufflepuff team was the first person to notice the gaggle of girls who arrived at the pitch. Realizing that the rest of the team would want to stop and talk with the girls, he wisely chose to take a break at that time.
As the boys and girls landed their brooms close to the bleachers, they were astonished to see that a number of the girls stood up and called out a name, gesturing for that player to come over to sit by that brave girl and have a tart.
The captain yelled for silence, and then told the team that they were taking a fifteen minute break, but that's all!
The girls shared their tarts with the boy of their dreams, while Miranda shared her custard with Frederick.
"This is quite tasty," Frederick said. "Thank you for sharing this with me."
"I'm very happy to do so," Miranda said.
There was a momentary lull in the conversation as Frederick chewed his custard. Then Frederick asked why so many girls had come to the practice today.
"I'm not sure," Miranda said. "I guess they wanted to see the practice, and they all brought tarts to share with a player."
The captain yelled for the practice to resume, and the boys jumped on their broomsticks and took to the air.
The second half of practice was nothing like the first half of practice. Rather than running through the drills that the captain had instructed them to do, the boys began making daring mid-air maneuvers as they called out for the girls to "watch me now." They were doing more preening than an entire flock of peacocks, as they became more and more daring.
The team practiced for all of five minutes following their break, at which time the boys deserted the practice and their broomsticks in their mad rush to be at the side of one of the girls on the stands. The girls were squealing in delight, while the boys did not hesitate to push their teammates out of the way in their mad dash up the bleachers. In less time than it takes to say Quidditch practice is over, every boy except the team's captain was paired up with a very happy girl as they quit the pitch to walk around the lake, or walk around the castle grounds, or go any number of places they could be alone with their new girlfriends.
The captain of the team was left to gather up the equipment and the broomsticks, mumbling angrily to himself, as he vowed to "Never again let girls watch their practices."
As dusk approached, most of the girls had to make quite an effort to bring their new beau's into the castle for dinner. Several of the girls looked rather bedraggled, with sweaters that were not buttoned up evenly, or twigs and leaves in their hair or clinging to their clothes. Several of the girls were beaming with pleasure, while several looked as if they wanted only to be left alone.
Following dinner, based on the report of the quidditch team captain, five of the boys on the team were escorted to the infirmary where Madam Pomfrey gave them an all-purpose antidote.
Only one couple, Miranda and Frederick, strolled nonchalantly into the great hall for dinner looking happy and content with their afternoon. They sat and talked and laughed as they ate, and following the meal they retired happily to their common room, where they spent the evening in quiet conversation.
Although several discreet inquiries were made as to the suspected cause of the raucous end to the quidditch practice that fateful Sunday, amazingly not one person spilled the beans. All of the girls, including Miranda, became close friends. A shared experience is like that, making friends of the most unlikely people.
.