Disclaimer: Harry Potter and all HP characters, not mine.

A/N: written in response to the Hideaway drabble contest for August in which a love potion backfires.

"Just slip this into her drink."

"And it'll do the trick," Fred said.

"Who was this for again?" George asked.

"I didn't say," the buyer said. He paid the galleon with a smirk and pocketed the potion.

---

"Hermione, looking as lovely as ever," Cormac McCleggan said as he passed her at the Gryffindor table.

"Go away, McCleggan," Hermione said with a frown. She turned back to Ginny. "As I was saying before I was so grossly interrupted, Snape's really coming down hard. You'd think he truly enjoys torturing us."

"You're telling me. He actually made Luna cry yesterday when she insisted the wrackspurts were interfering with her wandless spell," Ginny said.

Hermione gave a sympathetic look to her friend and lifted her goblet of pumpkin juice to her mouth. It crackled in her face. Hermione set the goblet down. "Cormac McCleggan, you are in so much trouble."

The outburst gained the attention of the head table. Dumbledore nudged Snape who dramatically swooped upon the Gryffindor table.

"Miss Granger, there better be a good reason for this interruption. There are those of us who enjoy breakfasting in relative silence."

Hermione shoved the goblet in his face. "Is that good enough?"

The potion crackled louder. "Detention, Granger. And you, Mr. McCleggan, can report to Filch for use of a banned substance. I'm sure he'll have plenty for you to do during a week's worth of detentions." McCleggan paled under Snape's gaze.

Snape proceeded to pull out his wand to neutralize the substance when it exploded in his face. If everyone hadn't been watching before, they were then.

Once the dust settled he was looking at Hermione and not with contempt. "You, with me now," he said as he pulled Hermione behind him. McCleggan turned a lighter shade of pale as he watched her being dragged away. He also knew everyone's eyes were on him.

"Is everything all right, Severus," McGonagall asked as Snape passed her.

"Miss Granger and I need a word. You'd be better off attending to your house troublemakers, Minerva. Except this one. She's well in hand with me."

McGonagall watched with a baffled look on her face as Snape dragged Hermione away. "Well, I say." She turned to McCleggan who was trying his best to sneak out without interruption. "Get going, boy. It's your mess to clean up."

---

"So, what happened?" Ginny asked after Hermione finally came back from detention later that night.

Hermione smiled from ear to ear. "The things that man does with his hands are extraordinary,"

"On second thought, don't tell me."