Love Potion

Thanks to Black Roses, Divine Darkness and Becca, who have been reviewing all the way through this story! This chapter is dedicated solely to you! Love you guys!

"Hermoine, what do you want?" Harry asked nervously, last night's conversation still lurking in his mind.

"I just came to give you a drink, Harry. You look like you need it!"

Hermoine said happily.

"And you better drink it too. I had to nick some of the ingredients from Snape's store," she thought to herself

"Uh, Hermoine, I'm not really thirsty, thanks all the same." Harry squirmed, trying to dislodge her. But she was stuck tight.

"Oh, come on. I made it especially for you!"

Harry looked decidedly unhappy about this. He kept wriggling, trying to get Hermoine off him. His movements seemed to have quite the opposite effect. Finally, he just shoved her off him and leapt to his feet with a sigh.

Hermoine looked like she was about to cry.

"He just rejected me, just like that! I'm a girl, how come he's not being nice to me?"

Harry glared at her and left, marching up to the boys' dormitory and locking the door.

Hermoine slammed the mug down hard on the closest table, some of the potion sloshing onto her hand.

"That's IT! I am NOT stupid, nerdy, Miss-Know-It-All Hermoine Granger any more. I am Hermoine Granger, a female, who is going to get the guy she wants, even if that guy is Harry Potter!"

With that, Hermoine too marched up to her dorm, intent on her plan.

Ron walled into the common room from breakfast not too long after and was surprised to see neither Harry nor Hermoine there.

"I'm surprised she's not here doing homework. I guess she's at the library," he thought.

He trudged further into the room, still sleepy, and filled the chair Harry had recently vacated. He slumped as far down into the chair as he could, before something caught his eye. Hermoine's favourite mug was sitting on the table, liquid dripping from it onto the floor. Ron was suspicious straight away.

"No one ever drinks out of that cup except her, she got it from her parents, and she would never leave it just lying around!"

He leant over to the cup and looked inside. The fire light wasn't bright enough that he could tell the colour of the drink, but he could smell the cinnamon.

"A love potion! Oh no, what if Harry's had some?"

He looked closer. There was too much still left in the cup for someone to have had much and that added to the puddle forming on the carpet, it was unlikely Harry had drunk any.

Suddenly, Ron grinned.

"This is going to be so much fun. She's going to regret trying to fool Harry!"

Ron, like his friends, left the common room quickly, though in a much better mood. He grinned again as he stepped through the portrait hole, being careful to not spill any potion in his hands.

Fred, being Fred, knew immediately that something was wrong with George.

"Mate, what's up? Did I embarrass Harry?" He looked at his twin and wriggled his eyebrows.

"You idiot Fred! What the hell were you trying to do? You can't go saying things like that in public!" George whispered fiercely at his brother as he sat down.

"Whoa, hold it. What are you talking about? It was hardly public. It was you, me and Harry. It didn't seem like it would be news to any of us!"

Fred looked surprised at his brother's outburst and was honestly upset that he didn't know what he had done wrong.

"Fred, I was serious when I said that he hurt his foot. It wasn't just some excuse!" George groaned loudly as he filled his plate. If he ate a lot now, he could hide even longer up in his dorm.

"Oh. Gee, I'm sorry, mate. I thought you were just embarrassed about me walking into it," Fred apologised.

"That's ok, I didn't mean to go off," George sighed. He knew that it wasn't Fred's fault, he was just tense.

They sat in silence for a while, listening to the other conversations going on around them. Fred stood up and looked down at George.

"I'm just gonna go upstairs, I have homework to do. If I get ahead now, the professors will be so shocked that I've done anything that they won't notice what I've put on their chairs."

George looked at Fred for a moment, before sighing.

"Good luck," he said.

"I don't need luck, I'll just use my brains!" Fred replied.

George looked up at his twin. "You know what I mean," he growled.

"You know me too well," Fred answered with a grin. He walked away from the table, and at the doors, turned.

"I'll take your luck!" He yelled as he went looking for Hermoine.

Just as Fred left the Hall, Ron came hurrying in. He spotted George and ran to him.

"You'll never guess what I found!" George nodded distractedly.

"A love potion," Ron persisted. George's head snapped up.

"What?" He asked.

"A love potion," Ron repeated.

"For who?" George asked.

Ron leaned forward. "I don't know who it was for, but who it came from is in the potion," he whispered.

"Oh, it's one of those ones? The type where you put hair or something n it? So whoever drinks it loves the person they're meant to, not just the first person they see?" Ron nodded, impressed by his brother's knowledge.

"So who is it from?" George asked quietly, now curious.

"I-I don't know, I just found it," Ron lied.

George, suddenly pulled from his self-pity, came back to normal. The prankster in him awoke.

He whooped.

"This is gonna be great! Oh, we can have so much fun with this!" He lapsed in to silence, his mind ticking over. Ron stayed quiet, cradling the mug, understanding that genius was at work.

"Where did you find it?" George asked finally.

"In the Gryffindor common room," Ron answered quickly. It seemed to be what George wanted to hear, because his face spilt with a grin. He grabbed Ron by the front of his shirt and pulled him across the table.

"If you weren't my brother, I would kiss you right now!"

Ron flinched.

George ignored him and shot to his feet.

"Come my young accomplice, we have work to do," George said wickedly, a glint in his eye.