Her Amorentia
A/N: I own nothing other than the characters that aren't from the book. However, they and the plot line are mine. This is the first in a series of one shots about moments either between or about Harry Potter and Ginny Weasley.
Ginny Weasley entered the potions classroom and fell silent. Looking around, she decided that when the teacher was not a cold, cruel man, the dungeon looked almost normal. The lack of weird objects suspended in a weirder liquid might have helped as well. In her mind, Professor Slughorn was off to a good start.
"Gin, are you listening to me?" her friend Lucy asked.
"Oh, sorry Lucy, what were you saying?" Ginny apologized. They headed towards the front of the classroom and sat down in some vacated desks. Ginny peered curiously into one of four cauldrons nearest her. It was a deep green in color and seemed to smell like fresh cut grass, warm butterbeer, and something deep and musky that made her think of Gryffindor and Quidditch.
"Oh, I give up!" Lucy said, exasperated.
"Attention class!" Professor Slughorn called out as he entered the room. The rest of the class period was spent listening to Slughorn cover the goals for the year and ramble on about the O.W.L.S., so Ginny felt no guilt about mindlessly doodling on a corner of parchment. She was only brought back to reality when Slughorn started talking about what was in the cauldrons, about ten minutes before the end of class.
"Now, class, as you are all fifth years, I do not expect any of you to recognize these," he began, walking over to where the farthest cauldron stood. "This is polyjuice potion. With the right ingredient, it will transform the user into whoever they wish to be." There was a scraping of chairs as people around the room stood to peer at the contents, but Ginny remained seated. She had heard enough about it from Hermione that it held little thrill for her.
"This, class," Slughorn said, moving to the next caudron," is Veritaserum. It is a completely colorless, odorless and tasteless potion that forces the drinker to tell the truth." Inside of the cauldron appeared to be nothing more than boiling water.
"Sir," a Slytherin boy named Erik asked, "is that Felix Felicis?"
"Yes m'boy, it is," Slughorn answered. "Very well spotted. And you are?"
"My name? I'm Erik Abraxas." As he spoke, he puffed his chest out with pride. Ginny rolled her eyes. Unfortunately for her, she would always carry the memories of the two weeks that she and Erik had dated in her second year. He was a prat then and in her mind he still was.
"Are you by any chance related to Mr. Davies Abraxas, the current head for the Department of Misused Magic?" Slughorn asked, looking excited.
"Yes, sir. He is my uncle."
"He was a great student. But alas! Now is not the time for an old man such as myself to be remembering the past! Now, as I'm sure you all heard, this cauldron is indeed full of Felix Felicis, also known as liquid gold, liquid courage or liquid luck. It can be horribly disastrous if brewed wrong, but, if prepared very carefully, as this was, it tends to shift the users luck so that they have a very good and lucky day."
Moving to the last cauldron, Slughorn opened his mouth to begin explaining the contents when the bell rang, signaling the end of the period. Again there was a sound of chairs scraping against the stone floors as people packed their bags and exited the room.
"Gin, you coming?" Lucy asked, her bag already packed. "I'm starving, but I got to stop by the dormitory before dinner to drop my bag.
Ginny had not begun to put her supplies away yet; she has a question for Slughorn, but she really didn't want to ask it in front of anyone. "Yeah, I'll catch up though. I've got a question for Professor Slughorn. Just save me a seat at the table."
"Okay, will do. See you later," Lucy said as she left in a hurry. Ginny laughed to herself. Lucy always seemed to have food on her mind. By this time, the classroom had cleared as the students were in a hurry to get to dinner.
"Professor Slughorn?" Ginny asked as she approached his desk.
"Yes, m'dear?" he replied, looking up from a stack of papers on his desk. "AH, Miss Weasley, how are you dear?"
"I'm fine professor, thanks," she said, trying to cut to the chase. "I was wondering if you could tell me what was in that fourth cauldron, professor."
"Couldn't wait for the next class, could you?" he said, chuckling. "It's Amorentia, a highly dangerous love potion, though it is more of an infatuation potion as real love cannot be created. But it is easily recognized by the mother of pearl sheen and the steam rising in spirals. The only things that vary person to person are the color and the smell. These change to fit whatever attracts the person."
Ginny was both relieved and slightly confused. At least she now knew what it was, but now she was confused as to why she was attracted to any of what she saw or smelled. Certainly Quidditch always thrilled her, and butterbeer was a good drink, but she couldn't see why she would be attracted to any of it. And why the color green?
"Well, thanks professor," she said as she turned to leave.
"Any time Miss Weasley," he answered. "I am always happy to help eager young minds." Ginny had made it to the door of the classroom when he added, "oh, and I'll be having a little gathering soon and would love it if you could make it."
"Oh, sure, I'll try my best," she answered as she left.
The rest of the week passed in a crazy blur of school and homework. Ginny had always thought that everyone exaggerated about how difficult the fifth year was, what with studying for O.W.L.S., but after a few days into the term, she was already swamped with schoolwork.
It came as a great relief to her when she discovered that Quidditch trials were going to be held that Saturday. Quidditch would provide a nice break from studying and school.
Saturday dawned bright and clear, ideal conditions for Quidditch. After quickly getting dressed, Ginny and Lucy headed down to the Great Hall for breakfast.
"I still don't get why you want to play Quidditch," Lucy said for what felt like the hundredth time to Ginny. "I mean, it's a violent and dirty sport."
Ginny rolled her eyes. She and Lucy had many things in common, but Quidditch was not one of them. "Lucy," she said, "Quidditch can be violent and dirty, but it can also be exhilarating and freeing and fun. There is no better feeling than the wind rushing through your hair."
"How about having Harry run his hand through your hair?" Lucy asked as she swallowed a fried egg whole.
Ginny blushed. "It's not like that and you know it Lucy Anne. Harry and I are simply friends." And sadly, it was true. Ginny and Dean had begun dating at the end of the previous year. As far as she was concerned, she would always love Harry, but she could never have him, and so she had long ago settled for being his friend.
"Look, I've got to get down to the pitch," she said, several minutes later. "If I'm lucky, I'll get there before anyone else and do a couple of warm up laps. Are you coming?"
"Yeah, I'm coming," Lucy answered as she stood up. "It's in my job description as best friend. I've got to go and support you, even when I don't understand you."
Unfortunately for Ginny, even though she and Lucy had gone to the Quidditch pitch early, it seemed as though half of the Gryffindor house had showed up, as well as a number of people from Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw.
"So much for your warm up lap," Lucy said, looking at the crowd. "I'll just go and get a seat. Good luck Gin!" she added as she walked away and into the stands.
Ginny walked over to where Harry and Ron stood. "Hi Harry," she said.
"Hey Ginny," he replied, looking down at his clipboard. "Well, it looks as though everyone is here. We should get started."
As he walked past Ginny to better position himself in the middle of the crowd, Ginny caught a wiff of the deep musky scent that she had smelled in the Amorentia. It was Harry! That explained why she associated it with Gryffindor and Quidditch, she thought. She smiled sadly to herself as tryouts began.
A/N: So like I said, this will be a series of one shots. This set will stick with Harry and Ginny, but eventually I might start another story with some of my other favorite pairs. We shall see. So, anyways, I would love to encourage you readers to do two things. 1: Come back and read the next scene when it is posted, and 2: Review please! There is no better way for an author to get better than to have people review. So anyways, thank you very much.
~VAMPIRE_LUVR