A/N: This idea has been stuck in my head for a while and I finally decided to write it. This chapter gets fluffy at the end but it will get very smutty by chapter 3. Please let me know what you think!

"Phil?"

"What? Sorry," I said.

"I said, can you pass the butter, please?" Carrie asked.

"Oh, yeah. Sure."

I had been grumpily staring off into space nibbling my piece of toast. It was our first day back from holiday and it just had to start off with double Potions with the Slytherins. I was admittedly pretty good at Potions, but a few of the Slytherins did not appreciate the fact that I outshined them in class. They had done countless things to sabotage my work, the latest of which resulted in my ending up in the hospital wing with boils all over my face and a week of relentless teasing from everyone in their house. Thankfully, Slughorn saw through their pranks and realized that when something went wrong, it usually was not my fault.

Suddenly a loud roar of laughter came from the Slytherin table. If they are telling that story about me again… I thought. But when I looked, I realized they were glancing over at the Gryffindor table, probably having just caused some poor first year's pumpkin juice to explode all over them or something. I saw Charlie, the Head Boy, get up from his seat at the Gryffindor table and walk over to comfort a small girl who looked like she had indeed received a face-full of her drink.

"They are so annoying," Carrie said, rolling her eyes.

"Who's that, love," Alex asked, who had just appeared and took a seat at the breakfast table beside his girlfriend.

"The stupid Slytherins," she responded.

As they started talking, I began daydreaming again. But this time, I was watching the group of Slytherins who had been laughing. I recognized the tall one with the dark hair as Dan. He was one of the few from his house that I did not detest. It was not because he was nicer or that he had ever given me a reason to like him. I was ashamed to admit it, even to myself, but it was because he was so hot. The way he strutted confidently around the castle was just plain sexy. He had good cause for that confidence as well. Not only was he physically attractive, but he was also the seeker of the Slytherin Quiddich team. He was brilliant; they had not lost a single game yet this year. And it was clear that the other Slytherins looked up to him, even ones that were in years ahead of him. He was a year ahead of me so I had never had any classes with him, but I had heard teachers go on and on about how skilled he was with magic. Slughorn would always talk about him during potions, often comparing my work to Dan's. Even McGonagall remarked about him occasionally, and she was not a teacher to praise other students, especially those from Slytherin. In short, he was tall and dark and a powerful wizard. He was one of those people who could get away with anything, short of killing someone, because of his sexiness and natural charm.

As Dan rose from his table, a number of others followed. They clearly wanted everyone to know that they were friends with him. As he walked out of the Great Hall, books in hand, and cloak flowing behind him, I wondered idly if he even knew who I was. I was the keeper on the Hufflepuff Quiddich team so we had played a few games against each other. Well, he played; I mostly watched him play. Whenever we played against Slytherin, my team knew that we stood no chance of winning. They thought it was because they had really good chasers. I knew it was because I spent more time watching Dan fly than I did watching the Quaffle. But despite the time we had spent on the field together, I never got the impression that he had any clue who I was.

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

"Well done, Lester. Well done."

"Thank you, Professor." I cleared my cauldron with a wave of my wand and packed up my things, thankful to have survived the Potions lesson without too much trouble from the Slytherins. Just as I turned to walk out the door with everyone else, I heard Slughorn say my name.

"One moment please?"

I approached his desk. "Yes, Professor?"

"That was quite some potion you brewed today, Mr. Lester. You have come a long way."

I vaguely wondered if he was referring to my Muggle-born status instead of my skill in potions, but I just nodded and said, "Well, I have had a good Potions Professor, Sir."

"Oh, my boy. Always so polite. Now, I don't normally do this, but would you want to do a little project? There's a potion I need to have brewed and I thought it would be a good opportunity to get some of the best and brightest minds together. That would be if you are willing to put in the extra time after class, of course."

"I would love to, Professor," I responded. "What exactly are we brewing, may I ask?"

"All in good time, Mr. Lester. If you would come back here at 6:00 that would be splendid."

"Okay. I will see you later then, Professor."

"There's a good boy."

I left his office excited. I knew I was good at Potions but I had not thought I would ever be asked to help Slughorn with a potion. The rest of the day went by quickly. I spent the time thinking about my appointment with Slughorn and what it could possibly entail. I wonder whom else he meant by 'some of the best and brightest,' I mused. I had considered the fact that Dan might be among those asked by Slughorn to participate, but I quickly pushed the thought out of my head. I did not want to get my hopes up. And I knew that if he were there I might be a little too distracted and lose my reputation with Slughorn.

When I entered the dungeon at 6:00, there was already a girl there chatting with Slughorn. She had flaming red hair and I recognized her as Lily Evans from Gryffindor; I was pretty sure she was a 7th year. Not far behind me came Severus Snape. I shrunk back when I saw him; I detested him for all the cruel things he had done to other students. I saw a look flash across Lily's face that made me think she felt the same way about him that I did.

"Hello Lester, Snape," Slughorn greeted us. "We're just waiting on one more, but perhaps I could begin to tell you why you are here while we wait. Please gather around." He indicated a single cauldron sitting on a desk that had an open potions book next to it. We went stood around it somewhat awkwardly. "Shall we begin with brief introductions for the benefit of Mr. Lester? I know that you two already know each other," he said, indicating Snape and Evans.

Slughorn turned expectantly to Snape who kept his eyes on the cauldron and said, "I'm Severus Snape. Seventh year. Slytherin."

"You're also one of the best students in Potions I have ever had the pleasure to teach," added Slughron. "But of course, you are all here because you are brilliant in this wondrous subject."

"Mr. Lester?"

"I'm Phil," I began. "I'm a fifth year. I'm in Hufflepuff and I play keeper."

"That's right!" said Lily. "I've seen you play; you're very good. I'm Lily by the way. I'm also a seventh year, but I'm in Griffindor.

"Fantastic!" exclaimed Slughorn, clapping his hands together excitedly. "Now that we all know each other, lets begin, shall we? I have been asked to create a Wiggenweld Potion. Do any of you know its uses?"

"It's a healing potion," muttered Snape, sounding bored. "It has the power to awaken a person from a magically induced sleep."

"Very good. And I'm assuming none of you have brewed it before?" He looked around, and seeing that no one had attempted it said, "Well then, this should make for a good learning experience. I have for you the instructions in this book and I have gathered the ingredients in my store cupboard. You will have to be very careful as many of them are rare and were very tricky to obtain. Now—"

The door to the dungeon banged open. "Sorry I'm late, Professor." I turned around to see Dan hurriedly striding over to the table. I was momentarily frozen in place. I felt heat rise to my cheeks and I hoped no one noticed. He quickly weaved his way through the dungeon and came to stand between Snape and me, for which I was grateful. They nodded at each other in recognition and Dan began to explain himself. "As I was leaving my dormitory, my bag— "

He was cut off by a scream. Four heads whipped around to see Lily who had collapsed on the floor and was obviously in pain. Slughorn rushed over to her side and knelt down as best he could given his girth. "Oh dear, it seems as though she touched the leaves of the Wolfsbane. It poisonous and can cause you to feel as though you are in great pain, though I'm sure Lily is in no immediate danger. Snape, could you please escort Ms. Evans to the hospital wing immediately. Madam Pomfrey will be able to sort her out if you go straight away."

"It's fine, Professor. I can go by myself," Lily managed to say.

"No, I insist. Snape, go help Evans."

Snape walked over to her. I saw her glair at him as he picked her up and carried her out of the room.

Now it was just Dan and I.

"Well now, that's a little inconvenient," said Slughorn nonchalantly.

Dan and I glanced at each other. I could tell he was as shocked as I was that Slughorn was taking that incident as lightly as he was. But I trusted that he knew what he was talking about.

"Phil, right?" asked Dan. "You're the Hufflepuff keeper."

"Yeah," was all I managed to respond, shocked that he knew my name, let alone recognized me.

"I'm Dan," he said, extending his hand. "I don't think we have ever properly met."

I took his outstretched hand and shook it. "It's nice to meet you." When he retracted he hand, he ran it through his immaculately straight hair, fluffing it up a bit. I wondered if he used a potion to keep his hair straight. With all the fumes in the dungeon it was impossible to keep your hair straight without magical help. Mine often got a little frizzy after an hour in the classroom, even with the help of my hair-straightening potion. His on the other hand was always perfect; I would have to ask him how he made his potion.

"Now as I was saying before we were interrupted," Slughorn continued, winking at Dan, "we will be brewing the Wiggenweld Potion. There are instructions in this book here, but this potion allows for a lot more flexibility in ingredients and timing than most. So it is your job to experiment and brew the most potent potion possible. I'm going to let you two work on it alone so I can't interrupt your brilliant creativity in any way. Any questions?"

Yeah, how am I supposed to work with this heartstoppingly hot guy next to me, I thought to myself.

"Can we use anything we like from your supplies, Sir?" Dan asked.

"You are welcome to use anything you can find," he responded. "I'll be in my office if you have any further questions or if something explodes." Slughorn sauntered off into his office and closed the door behind him, leaving Dan and I alone together.

"Shall we start?" I asked, not looking at Dan, but pulling the book over between us so we could read through the instructions. We both leaned in over the table and began to read. His arm was no more than two inches from mine—I mentally slapped myself. Focus, Phil. Potions was my thing and if there was any way I was going to impress Dan it was through my ability to understand potion making.

As I looked over the page I realized that the potion was quite complex as it was. It was far more advanced than anything we had done in class and I struggled over how it could possibly be changed to make it better. Maybe replacing the Horklump juice with Bulbadox juice; I knew they had similar properties and Bulbadox tended to be more potent. As I reached up to flip the page, Dan was doing the same and our hands met before either of us could stop our reach.

"Sorry," I said quickly, glancing up at him and retracting my hand.

"Its okay," he said, meeting my gaze.

I blushed and quickly looked back down at the book and continued reading.

"So what do you think we should do," Dan asked after we finished reading. "I was thinking that fairy wings might work better than the Chizpurfle fangs. But we would have to use a lot and they tend to shrink the potion."

"Yeah, I think that could work. Or maybe a Graphorn horn? I don't know if Slughorn will have any but I think it might be worth a try. And I was thinking that Bulbadox juice could replace the Horklump juice."

"Oh, yeah. I hadn't thought of that. That's a really good idea." We continued on like this for a while, making notes in the margins of the book about ideas for what we could replace or tweak to make it different. When we had finished brainstorming, I went to go get the first ingredients from the store cupboard. When I returned, Dan had lit the fire under the cauldron and was waiting patiently.

"Its salamander blood first, right?" I asked, putting the ingredients down on the table.

"Yeah."

I began to add it to the cauldron, waiting for it to take on the distinct red color described by the book. Once it looked right, Dan immediately started stirring slowly counterclockwise. He had some stirring technique where he added an extra little twist and flick in his wrist that seemed to be working more efficiently than normal stirring. I got myself to stop staring at him and began to prepare the other ingredients.

As we continued to work, I couldn't help but notice how perfect Dan really was. I had really only seen him before at a distance, but now, working side by side on this potion, I was beginning to notice more little things. His face was perfectly proportioned. His heavy eyelids covered perfect, deep brown eyes and his full lips looked like they would have the texture of rose petals. His tan skin seemed to glow in the light of the fire under the cauldron. It turned out that he was actually a very nice person as well. Unlike the other Slytherin's, he never made fun of me or spoke condescendingly. He valued my opinion and treated me as an equal. And he was just as brilliant as all of the professors made him out to be. I could see his mind whirling as he reread parts of the instructions, looking for other options with ingredients and timing for the potion.

Because the table was small, we naturally bumped into each other a few times. Dan seemed unfazed by it, but each time, I felt an electric shock pulse through my body. Not much time had passed but I felt as though I had already fallen under his spell. I tried hard to push away what I was feeling, however. I knew I had no chance, not only because I was a Hufflepuff and he was a Slytherin, but also because I highly doubted that he was gay as well.

"Good call with the Bulbadox juice," Dan said half an hour later when the potion almost immediately turned the desired color after adding the ingredient. "You're pretty good at this."

"Thanks. So are you. Adding an extra Moondew drop was brilliant," I said as I stirred the potion. I stiffened as Dan reached around behind me to grab an ingredient that was sitting on my other side. His proximity made a chill run down my spine. "How were you doing that stirring thing earlier? It looked more effective."

"What?"

"Like this." I attempted to do the twist-flick thing that he had been doing. It resembled it somewhat but was nowhere near as graceful.

"Oh, yeah. That's something my dad taught me. Here, let me show you."

I went to hand him the spoon but to my surprise, he grabbed my hand in one of his and put his other hand on my wrist. He slowly guided me through the motion, putting pressure on various parts of my hand to push it in the right pattern. His hands were soft but his grip was firm; the way they moved over my hand was almost sensual to say the least.

"You try by yourself," he said, taking his hands away.

"Like this?" I looked up at him, unleashing the full power of my bright blue eyes. If I had the slightest chance of being with Dan, I knew I had to take advantage of the time I had with him here.

"Perfect," he said, looking directly back at me. I don't know whether it was just a second or an hour that we stood there staring into each other's eyes, but Dan eventually looked away and gave his head a quick shake. "Um, I guess we should, um, add more salamander blood now."

"Right," I said. I continued to stir while Dan added the blood. I thought it could have been my imagination, but I could have sworn that I saw Dan's hand shaking as he poured it in. Disbelievingly, I wondered if we had really just had a connection. Did I really have the same effect on him that he had on me? I gained confidence at the thought.

We continued to work but the atmosphere had tangibly changed. I could tell that Dan was taking extreme care not to touch me again, but he stayed close leaving no more than a few inches between us. There were a few times when we made eye contact that I thought I noticed him blush.

"Do you think Snape is going to come back?" I asked as we waited for the potion to change color.

"Doubt it. No offence, but I doubt he would want to work on a potion with a fifth year. He thinks he's so much better than everyone else. I have to give him credit though. He really is outstanding at potions."

"Why aren't you like the other Slytherins?" The question had tumbled out of my mouth before I had a chance to think about it.

"What do you mean?"

"Well," I said, regretting asking, "you're nice, for one thing."

Dan laughed. "We aren't all terrible people like everyone thinks we are. I mean, sure there are some of us who don't play well with others and make everyone else look bad, but the majority of us are just in the house because we aren't afraid to go after what we want."

"What about whoever made that poor Griffindor girl's drink end up all over her face this morning? That might have seemed like harmless fun, but she's probably scarred for life."

"Yeah, well, the twins, Jack and Finn, aren't exactly some of the nicer Slytherins. I'm only friends with most of them because I know that if I weren't, I would be obliterated by the few who actually care about things like blood and power. And no one in any other house wants to talk to me because they are either afraid of everyone in my house or automatically think I'm a jerk because I am a Slytherin"

"That's unfortunate. Most people don't want to talk to me just because I am a Hufflepuff. You would be surprised how many people actually believe that everyone in my house is good for nothing."

"Well that's obviously not true. Look at the potion we've made together. It's at least fifty percent your work and I would say its turning out perfectly at the moment." He smiled at me.

"Thanks," I said, returning his smile.

"Do you mind?" Dan asked, indicating the spoon I was holding. I handed it to him, but this time instead of avoiding contact at all costs, he let his fingertips brush over my hand. He came and stood next to me at the table. As he stirred, he slowly moved closer and closer to me, his arm eventually making contact with mine. I held my ground to see if he would recoil; when he didn't, I smiled to myself. We stayed there, arms gently touching, as Dan made the required 30 stirs clockwise. The consistency of the potion was such that I could clearly see his reflection in the surface. After staring at it for the first ten stirs, I realized that it was staring back at me. I did not break eye contact but adjusted my body so that we were generally closer, but not touching any more than we were before. It was though there was an electric charge running between the small gap of space between us and I could see in his eyes that he felt it too.

He reached the 30th stir and I pulled away, breaking the spell. "Now should we try the fairy wings?" I asked, taking a pinch from the jar and reaching up to add them into the cauldron.

"Wait just a second," said Dan reaching up and grabbing my hand before I could add them. He hadn't moved, but had remained staring into the cauldron. Now he looked directly at me; I could see his expression change from one of contemplation to one of uncertainty. "Let's let it boil a little longer. Besides, there's something I wanted to try." He did not release my hand, but instead used it to pull me around so my back was against the table and I was facing him. I stood there looking up at Dan who was mere inches away from me, wondering what he could possibly be thinking. He leaned in and gently placed his hands on either side of me on the table. I was trapped; I couldn't have moved even if I wanted to. But at this point, I had to admit to myself that I had absolutely no desire to move.

He leaned in even closer and my blue eyes were locked with his brown ones. Stopping three inches from my face, he whispered, "You really are brilliant at potions. And your eyes. They are so stunning." He reached up and delicately brushed my hair out of my face.

I could sense his hesitation. He was barely breathing and his hands were definitely shaking this time. Seeing the effect I had on him gave me courage. I leaned in slightly, gauging his reaction. Seeing that he did not pull back, I closed the rest of the distance and kissed him.

I felt his shock at what I had done and this time he almost pulled away. But as I reached up and tangled my hands in his hair, pulling his face closer to mine, I felt his hesitation slip away and his kiss become more passionate. He brought his arms slowly up my body and wrapped them gingerly around me. The thought occurred to me that he had probably never kissed another boy before, and that this might possibly have been the first time he had even considered it.

The image of the dungeon and the sound of the potion brewing behind me melted from my awareness. All I could think about was the feel of his mouth on mine. His full lips were soft and he moved them delicately but skillfully. His tongue gently asked for entry into my mouth and I granted it, marveling at how sweet he tasted. As he gained confidence, his tongue became more eager and I fervently matched his enthusiasm with my own. His mouth consumed mine and I felt as though I was enveloped in heat. It could have been from the proximity of the fire under the cauldron behind me or from the fact that there was now no space between Dan's and my bodies. Our hearts were pounding in rapid synchrony, beating out a rhythm that our tongues danced to.

Eventually we broke apart, gasping for air.

"Wow. That was…. Wow," said Dan once he had regained his breath. His eyes were wide with what looked like a combination of shock and exhilaration.

I grinned and looked up at him, placing one more delicate kiss on his perfect lips.

Suddenly there was a loud sizzling and popping noise that came from behind me. I spun around to see our potion bubbling over. It was beginning to become clumpy and looked like it was about to explode.

"Oh, shit," said Dan.

I quickly pulled out my want and made the potion vanish before it could inflict any damage. "That would have been awkward to explain to Slughorn," I said, still grinning.