Notes: For Tumblr's DigiOTPweek Day 4 - Alternate Universes.
Summary: Hogwarts!AU. Miyako is preparing an advanced potion, and Ken is distracted by the smell of her perfume.
Warning: This won't make any sense if you haven't read the Harry Potter books.
Perfume
Ken was walking back to his common room, when he heard noise in one of the dungeons. He cursed his duties as a prefect; it would be wrong of him not to check. And he was prepared for the worst - students making out, students carrying out secret experiments…
It was a grateful surprise to find Miyako preparing a potion. The room felt hazy. She held a book open in one hand, and with the other she stirred the contents of the cauldron, whose steam rose in spirals. Her hair was tied up in a careless bun; she'd stuck her wand there somehow to hold it in place. Her glasses seemed a bit foggy. Her Ravenclaw tie was loose, and as a whole, she had a disheveled sort of air that made his heart skip a beat.
He couldn't help it. They'd met the previous year and became good friends doing their prefect rounds together. They often competed on who could give the best comebacks to misbehaving students or, as Miyako eloquently put it, who could better unleash their inner McGonagall. Ken chuckled. She was definitely fun; too much fun, even. She was a refreshing change from all of those who treated him either as a ticking bomb or a lost puppy, just because he was in Slytherin.
Ken breathed deep to let out a sigh, but he caught his breath when he noticed that the smell of her perfume was floating in the air. She'd probably showered before going there, he reasoned. It was an odd hour, but he had no right to question the Head Girl. She would prepare potions for fun, while he only took the subject because he wanted to be an Auror. Oh well.
"What are you preparing?" he asked anyway.
"Hey there." Miyako grinned, putting her book and spoon aside. "I am not telling. Slughorn is having me prepare this for your lesson tomorrow, and I'm not giving Slytherin the free points. I'm basically in detention."
"Good job, Head Girl."
"Oi, it was nothing much. It looked like an accident, too… I may have made someone's cauldron explode." Miyako noticed his disapproving look and added, "She was trash-talking Daisuke and I was not going to allow that. Of course Slughorn saw the chance and seized it."
"Does Motomiya know you…?"
"I'll feed you to the Giant Squid if you tell him. He won't let me live it down."
"Fair enough." Ken looked at the potion, which was gaining a certain iridescence. "I'm really curious. What is this?"
"Doesn't the smell give you a clue?"
The smell? He couldn't smell anything particular. Sure, there was a leathery scent in the air, kind of like a Quaffle, and he perceived some of the humidity from the dungeon walls. The only thing out of place…
"I don't mean to be rude, but I can only smell your perfume."
Miyako just regarded him, her eyes narrowing. And then, she threw her head back in laughter, her face taking a sweet shade of pink.
What is so funny?
"Five points from Slytherin," she said. "Tomorrow you'll have them back, so hush. I just can't believe Hogwarts's genius boy can't figure out for himself that I'm brewing Amortentia."
Oh.
Oh.
Blood rushed to his face, while his body felt weak all of a sudden. His heart was pounding mercilessly, and he could only hope to retain a small shred of dignity by letting Miyako see exactly none of it.
"That's not fair."
"What's not fair is that you've just declared yourself when I'm entirely unprepared." Miyako crossed her arms. "Whenever I pictured this moment, I imagined I'd be looking pretty and I'd be somewhere nice, not detention in the dungeons looking like… this. And you… well, you always look good. You know that. I never imagined anything particular there."
How could she say that with a straight face?
"So you knew."
Miyako breathed deep. Ken wondered for a second which scents her nose was picking. But before he could ask, she shook her head with a soft smile.
"I didn't know. I just hoped."