"Why are you looking at me?"
The query was met with a scowl from the Slytherin girl.
"Looking at you?" She asked, dumbfounded. "Even if we accept your ridiculous premise, how would you know I'm looking at you unless you were looking at me?"
Anyone with operable eyeballs and the capacity to recognize patterns would know that she had been taking furtive glances at him ever since class started. She was remarkably adept in the magic arts, but her attempt at subterfuge was executed with all the grace and subtlety of a herd of stampeding trolls.
"How are you making out with the assignment?" He changed the subject. Merula would deny the accusation under threat of death.
Yet again, he immediately regretted asking as soon as the words left his mouth; any inquiry that even vaguely questioned her ability as a witch would incur her vitriolic wrath.
"I can certainly handle a potion like this, and I don't need someone as stupid as you leering over me all the time."
He leaned over slightly to get a better look at their current project, failing to notice her reflexively leaning away from him. Professor Snape had given them a fairly straight-forward assignment: a love potion designed to resemble a smell appealing to the target. Not exactly something that would strain either of their intellects, but it, as with all things under the scrutiny of Professor Snape, required a certain degree of focus and precision, which is why he felt like a brick had been placed in his stomach: the potion was a light blue, not dark blue.
"It's light blue," He observed. "It's not supposed to be light blue, it's supposed to dark blue. It would only be light blue if you used three lizard tails instead of two!" He was whispering to avoid the wrath of their professor.
Merula's cheeks partially inflamed because of the brief tirade and her partner's uncomfortably close proximity to her face. "I know that! I'm still working on it, and I can't fix it if I have an ogre breathing down my neck every secon-"
The attempt at reconciliation was cut short by the sudden but not entirely unexpected arrival of Snape. "Is there a problem?" His dull monotone asked.
"No, Professor." He opted to take the lead, seeing as Merula was still obviously flustered.
Snape considered the two and their potion for several agonizing moments. "I partnered the two of you together because you've both proven to be competent students. Do not make me question my judgment."
Despite all the tedious obstacles, Merula managed to correct the minor mistake and complete the project on time and according to Snape's standards; he even deigned to call their work 'adequate'.
It had been a fairly uneventful day. She once again gave an exemplary performance and left her partner after making one final snarky dig at his intelligence and lack of social skills. So far, so standard, but something happened towards the end of class that deeply troubled the witch and stayed with her even after she laid herself down in the Slytherin Commons for a well-deserved night of rest. Tossing and turning, she remained in bed, unable to keep the knowledge down.
The love potion smelled like him.
Initially, she hoped she was simply mistaken or completely losing it. In the name of research, once she was certain no one could discover her, she remade the potion as before. There was absolutely no denying it: it smelled exactly like him. Not that she spent a great deal of time smelling him or thinking about him, or whatever, but it was disconcerting for a variety of reasons.
The first prospect, and the one she could easily dismissed, was that she carried some sort of affection for the boy. A patently insane notion. She'd sooner crawl through a mile of broken glass than ever concede to feeling anything but dispassionate loathing for that oaf.
The second and far more likely idea was that he discreetly utilized some incantation to make her subconscious mind find him appealing, yet another slight against her. That would obviously necessitate retaliation, which she was more than happy to deliver. Ever since she arrived at Hogwarts, he had been a constant thorn under her finger nail she simply couldn't shake. All the duels, all the sarcastic quips, just the thought of him drove her up a wall.
And yet, he persistently found his way into her mind at seemingly random intervals, like a storm cloud.
Perhaps there was nothing wrong with admitting that he possessed some positive qualities, fleeting as they were. Despite her repeated cracks about his lack of a brain, he was more than capable as a wizard and a reliable partner in academic endeavors. He was a generally amicable person, certainly well-liked among the preening air-heads in his social circle.
And, worst of all, he was objectively good-looking. She felt like punching herself in the stomach for even thinking it, but she'd have to be completely senseless to not notice his symmetrical face, dashing eyes, and infectious grin. She hadn't done a lot of research into that sort of thing, but he seemed to match up with what could be called 'attractive'. Objectively, of course.
Regardless, he once again did something to flummox her. Unable to tolerate anymore of his prattle, she vowed to bring him down, once and for all. This was nothing as meager and childish as vengeance, this would be destruction on an unprecedented scale. Nothing short of his complete and utter degradation would satisfy her. And when Merula Snyde set her mind to a task, no force on Earth would be able stop her.
It may not have seemed that way to outsiders, but Merula could be extremely patient when she truly felt it was needed. If she was going to truly destroy that pretty boy in the most extreme sense of the word, there would have to be witnesses. To that end, she decided to strike on a weekend when he, certain as a sunrise, could be found in one of Hogwarts' many great halls. The entire student body would see her ultimate triumph. He would probably have to abandon the school for the sake of his reputation.
As her dimwitted peers bustled about, Merula waded through the proverbial soup bowl to her target. He was roaming the halls with a vague look of purpose on his face. Before he could leave her line of sight, she intercepted him with a bump on the shoulder as she passed him.
"Hey!" She almost shouted.
His face almost seemed to brighten upon seeing her. "Merula, I was looking for you."
Merula reached into her robe for her wand, preparing to strike at a moment's notice. "You're gonna regret that, because I was also looking for you."
The slight smirk of his that drove her up a wall didn't falter despite the obvious hostility. "I was wondering if you wanted to study with me."
As if on cue, Merula's brain went blank. Attempting to think was like trying to decipher some ancient scroll while severely inebriated, and her desire for vengeance dissipated. She stood before him, utterly dumbfounded, mouth partially agape. Did he just ask if she wanted to study with her? As in...the two of them? Together? Sitting across from one another for an extended period of time? Or sitting next to each other? Certainly, this had to be some sort of deception, and there was absolutely no way this loser would be able to get one over on her.
"What do you mean?" She asked with far less intensity than earlier.
He still had that damn smirk on his face. "I could use some help studying for Defense against the Dark Arts, and the professor says you're the best student in the class. I figured we could study for a few hours, unless you don't want to." His smile wavered slightly when he concluded.
"I..." She had quite a bit to consider. On the one hand, she obviously didn't want him to fail the course and risk his further attending Hogwarts, but since when did he have trouble with any class? She joked about it, to be sure, but there was no denying he had exceptional grades, and almost all of their professors positively adored him
"Fine, I'll help you," She at last said, not wanting the painfully awkward silence to continue any further. "But don't think that I'm doing this because I like you, or anything ridiculous like that," Merula added, sticking her index finger in his face as his smile grew wider. "I'm helping you to prove that I am the superior wizard and that you're completely hopeless without me."
He was practically beaming at her acceptance. "Alright. Let's go."
Given that they weren't in close proximity to a midterm and it was the day most students were free to do as they wished, the library was largely abandoned, save for the professor watching over it and the occasional student buried deep in a book. Merula firmly declared they would take a table far away from prying eyes, adjacent to a window with a picturesque view of the surrounding landscape; if any of his friends saw them together, she would never hear the end of it. It didn't take much effort for her to carefully assemble her notes.
"Look at you," She said, examining the scattershot mess across the table. "It's a damn mess! But I can't worry about that now; you need my help or you're gonna fail Defense against the Dark Arts. I'll start you off with an easy one: give me the most basic defense spell you can think of."
He propped up his head on his fist and contemplated the thought for a moment. "Periculum?" It was more of a question than a statement of fact.
"Periculum!" What was wrong with him? Did his brain vanish into the ether when she wasn't looking? Where had all the quick and decisive decision making gone? The boy she considered her greatest foe didn't even know the most basic defense spell! What if he got in a fight with some psychotic miscreant?
"Alright, I have a lot to do, but I refuse to let you fail under my watch."
Merula was pleased to see that, despite the deep, cavernous hole she found herself in from the outset, her subject had proven to be an attentive listener and a considerate student; so much so, in fact, that she predicted he would easily pass any test or exam the professor could hypothetically throw at them. It was a remarkable transition, not that she would inform him of such, or anything.
"Well, I suppose that's all we've covered for now," She said, piling her notes together. "I think you'll pass the class. Barely, but you'll pass."
"Well, I appreciate your help," He responded. "You're a very good teacher, and I'm very happy we spent so much time together."
Even though she knew it was another one of his obvious attempts to fluster her, she felt her cheeks heat up. "We did not," She caught herself after a cursory glance outside revealed their study session must've eclipsed several hours; the land was cloaked in darkness and the library was almost abandoned. Were Merula to guess, she would've been certain they'd only been there for an hour. "Just be grateful I was kind enough to help you. If you tell any of your stupid friends about this, I'll jinx you so hard that your..." She was far too disturbed by her present predicament to find the right acerbic insult. What was happening to her?
He could only smile at her anxiety. "I promise I won't, and I'll see you around," With that, he turned around and began to make his way out of the library before turning around a few seconds later. "Say, do you think you could help study for the upcoming potions test? Snape's tests are always ridiculously difficult."
That hopeful little grin of his whenever he asked her something made her like her knees were turned into jelly, but she held her ground.
"What are you talking about? The test is in three days, and Snape says your the second best student in the entire class!" She said, although she immediately regretted almost letting another opportunity slip away. "Fine, fine, we can do this again, just don't get ideas. We're not dating, or anything like that, loser."
The little hopeful grin instantly matured. "Great. I'll see you around." He turned and walked away at a faster pace. Merula waited until she was surely far away before she exited the library; she didn't want him to see the face wide smile that adorned her face from that point until she was sound asleep.