AN: Thanks to the people who reviewed. Enjoy Chapter 14!
The Verfortue Potion
Friday, October 27th"Pass the bacon, would ya, Seamus?"
Ron's voice was distinctive above the babble as the plate, loaded with piles of crispy bacon, was obediently passed along the table to rest in front of Ron. The smile Ron gave to said bacon could only be described as predatory as he leaned forward, fork poised.
Beside him, Harry was selecting a pancake from a stack at least a ruler's length in height. Having accomplished this, he absent-mindedly tossed his head to flick his fringe out of his eyes before he began to eat.
It was this seemingly innocent motion that gained him his morning view of Malfoy entering the Great Hall for breakfast, and of course, the obligatory skip in his heart beat due to it.
There wasn't really a way one could go about describing exactly what it was about Malfoy during these moments that made his presence so…commanding. Harry's best guess was that there was just something about the way his cool grey eyes swept the hall with an indifferent arrogance. Or perhaps it was the self-assured way he carried himself as he strode calmly to the Slytherin table. Or perhaps it was even the simple power he had, without even trying, over the members of his house. This much was evident in the pair of third-year Slytherin girls who promptly got up and moved to ensure Malfoy got a good seat. Anyone else might not have noticed, hell, odds were no one else in the other houses cared, but Harry did. Harry noticed the polite nod of acknowledgement and vague gratitude he gave to the girls, and the way they went off down the other end to find new seats, whispering to each other with looks of awe on their faces that didn't go unnoticed by Harry either.
The thing was that Malfoy entering the Great Hall didn't cause a reaction with anyone else the way it did with Harry. No one else seemed to even notice he was arrived. They all carried on with their various discussions, and Harry was left to hear his sped-up heart, feel his flushed face and have no other choice than to see Malfoy when he was right there in front of him.
He was going to have to talk to Malfoy about their topic for the Potions project, he knew. Luckily, they had Potions that day, which meant that luckily, he wouldn't have to track down Malfoy outside of class.
Luckily.
HPDM
"I see that you are all truly the imbeciles I always suspected you were." Snape sneered at them from behind his desk, long fingers twitching in the grip on his chair as though longing to strangle them all. "Need I remind you that as of yesterday you have started your term project, and as such, are expected to be, I don't know, sitting with your project partner, perhaps?" he hissed venomously.
Everyone jumped slightly in their seats in surprise and embarrassment.
"My God." Snape shook his head exasperatedly. "Help us all if this is the next generation of wizards. Move, you fools. Hurry up."
The sound of stools scraping filled the air as students hurried to obey this wish. Harry once again ended up at Malfoy's table down the front, and once again nodded in cool acknowledgement in Malfoy's direction.
"Now." Snape began once everyone was seated and settled. "Today's lesson, and every lesson hereafter until the end of term, will be dedicated to your projects. I trust you have all settled on a topic?"
A few people shifted guiltily, and someone coughed.
Snape's eyes narrowed. "Just…get to work." He spat disgustedly, before drawing his seat out slowly and sitting down, sinking his head into his hands despairingly.
There was a short, uncomfortable silence, which was then broken by an outbreak of soft and angry voices as Gryffindors and Slytherins all over the room began to sneer at/argue with/insult each other.
The only exclusion from this typical reaction between students of those two houses when put together came from the front table. Harry and Draco regarded each other warily.
Draco decided to break the silence first. "Do you have your notes from yesterday here?" he questioned, cautiously.
Harry eyed him for a moment. "Yes. They're in my bag."
Silence. Hellishly awkward silence.
"I'll just get them out." Harry added, and ducked his head to retrieve the necessary sheets of parchment, ink and quill from his bag beneath the table.
Draco took advantage of this action to look at the stretch of smooth, tanned skin at the back of Harry's neck it revealed. He sucked in a breath as Harry straightened and dumped the implements onto the table.
"Well, before we can start anything, we'll need to choose our topic." Draco commented as calmly as he could. He leant over to straighten the parchment on which Harry had written the list Snape gave to them the day before. It was Harry's turn to suck in a breath as suddenly a combination of peach and…lilies, maybe, invaded his nose.
"Well, let's see what we've got here." Draco murmured, running a pale finger down Harry's messily scribbled handwriting. "'Wolfsbane Potion…research component…two scrolls on the history of the potion, the effects and the pros and cons of its use…'" Draco paused, and squinted. "What the hell is that meant to say, Potter?"
"Hm? Wha? Oh…er…" Harry snapped out of his Draco-induced trance and obligingly leaned in to study his own writing.
"Um…it says, 'Practical component: Concoct a successful Wolfsbane potion.'"
Draco raised an eyebrow, sceptical. "Does it, now? It's amazing you can read your writing, Potter, even with your glasses, because I certainly can't."
Harry immediately jerked away from him, eyes flashing indignantly. Draco winced inwardly – he just always had to open his big mouth – but Harry had already turned back to the parchment.
"I think," Harry said, and when he spoke his voice was cool, 'that particular one is a bit difficult to do."
Draco hastened to agree. "Yes, you're right on that one, Potter." he said, mentally kicking himself with a reminder that he was meant to be trying to accomplish civil conversation with Harry.
They went through the list, Draco reading each section aloud but not daring to question Harry's handwriting again. The project topics ranged from invisibility potions (which had a research component minimum of 4 scrolls, something that effectively caused the boys to skip to the next topic) to Polyjuice Potion ("Far too easy." Draco commented, somewhat disappointing Harry as that was probably the one potion he knew something about.)
After they had gone over and dismissed a total of 15 possible topics, they reached the very bottom of the list.
"Alright, the Verfortue Potion. Second to last on the list." Draco reminded Harry, who nodded as Draco re-located the information at the bottom of the parchment.
"The Verfortue Potion. Research component involves 2 scrolls of information…history, the theory behind how it works, and reasons why it's used, plus a comparison to Veritaserum. The practical component is to concoct it successfully."
Harry nodded again, having momentarily forgotten to try and act hostile towards Malfoy in the wake of choosing a topic. "It doesn't sound that bad..." He said cautiously. "What is it, though?"
Draco frowned speculatively. "I may have seen its name mentioned in one or two of those Potions texts Severus gave me…"
Draco distractedly re-read the information before becoming aware that Harry was very still beside him. Reluctantly, he glanced up to see Harry looking at him with a mixture of surprise, amusement and incredulity on his face.
"Snape gives you extra Potions readings?" Harry questioned.
Draco shrugged. "Yeah." he said. "A birthday present from him. He is my godfather, after all."
Gone was the amusement and surprise, pure incredulity now graced Harry's features as he stared open-mouthed at Draco.
"Snape's your GODFATHER?"
Draco noted that Harry's raised voice had attracted the attention of Snape himself, who had glanced up from what he was doing to glare in Harry's general direction. Draco hurriedly turned back to Harry.
"Yes, he is. He and my parents were close friends when they were here, so when I was born my parents named him my godfather." Draco said.
Harry merely gaped at him. "Well, that's fair enough I guess, but…you actually do Potions outside of class that isn't homework?"
"Yes. It happens to be my favourite subject, and when there's something you like doing, you usually want to do it as much as you can."
Harry was silent. "Oh."
Draco tried not to smile. That, he believed, was what normal people called civilized conversation, and he had just partook in it with his supposed 'arch rival.'
He flicked his fringe out of his eye. "So, do you want to do the Verfortue potion?"
Harry seemed to come back to reality, as he blinked several times before running a hand absently through his hair. "Yeah, I guess." he conceded.
Draco felt his stomach dip pleasantly from Harry's seemingly innocent actions. Dammit, but this boy could stir him up like no one else.
"Alright." Draco said. He checked his watch (made of pure silver and probably worth the Weasleys' entire house, thank you very much) and saw they only had 5 minutes left to the end of the period. It seemed like the time had absolutely flown by, but it hadn't been a double period. Even then, though…
Draco glanced back up to find big green eyes looking at him confusedly, and he smiled to himself. It was probably because he had been with Harry.
Realising that Harry was waiting for him to speak, Draco hurried on, "I think we should get a move on with this thing, I mean, I know we have the rest of term to complete it, but who knows how long it might take to get everything done. Plus, we wouldn't want to leave it too long and risk Severus's fury."
Harry nodded in agreement. Cheered by this, Draco continued, "So, maybe we could meet in the library tonight, to get some basic information down? Are you free after dinner?"
Harry's head spun. Alone with Draco…in the library…more time spent in close proximity with the blonde…quickly, he mentally checked whether he had anything happening that night, like Quidditch practise. The fortunate answer was no, so Harry very shyly smiled at Draco. "Yeah, I'm free. That'd be good."
Draco's heart stopped completely at the sight of that smile that he had loved and treasured and watched for so long being aimed at him. Harry was really, truly, uniquely beautiful, but he was made even more so when he smiled. It was the kind of smile that sent most of the girls in the school's hearts fluttering, and Draco found out he was no exception.
Hesitantly, Draco managed to smile back. "Excellent."
The wonderfully shy and awkward moment that could've existed was promptly interrupted by the sound of raised voices in the back of the classroom. Eye contact between the two boys was broken as they swivelled around on their stools to see what was happening.
In the back rows of the classroom, a commotion was being caused as Ron and Blaise Zabini stood at opposite ends of their table, firing heated insults back and forth, each looking more and more infuriated as time passed. Hermione had left her place at her table with Pansy to stand behind Ron and try and make sure he didn't kill Zabini, while Theodore Nott had come over from his table to do likewise for his new boyfriend.
An instant later, or so it seemed, Snape had left his desk out the front and swooped between the rows to the back of the classroom and the source of the disturbance in his class.
"And just what is going on here?" he sneered, looking back and forth between the two wild-eyed students.
Ron's blue eyes were alive with fury – he turned to Snape, knowing it was probably futile but determined to speak his side of the story first.
"That…that bloody…" he paused, glaring heatedly at Zabini, "…Slytherin was insulting my family, sir."
Snape raised a sardonic eyebrow. "Oh really?" he drawled. "And surely in the years that you have been here, Mr Weasley, you would know by now that you should tell your professor should any hostility arise between yourself and another student, rather than retaliate? I assume that is what he did?" he drawled questioningly, glancing over to Zabini.
Zabini absently smoothed his hair down. Except for the malicious light burning in his dark eyes, you wouldn't be able to tell he had just been fighting. "Yes, sir." he said smoothly, smirking at Ron. "He retaliated by insulting my mother."
Snape turned back to Ron, eyebrow raised once more. "Is that true, Mr Weasley?" he questioned.
Ron glared daggers at the dark-skinned boy. "Yes, sir." he said through gritted teeth.
"Well well, perhaps you should learn to control your tempers. The both of you." he added, black eyes flickering between the pair. "I think this warrants, let me see…5 points from Slytherin."
The mouths of every Slytherin student in the room fell open in horror.
Snape smirked. "And 15 points from Gryffindor."
"WHAT?!"
The general noises of outrage and protest that swept through the Gryffindors were drowned out by Ron's shriek of fury.
"And you will both serve detentions with me, tonight, after dinner. There are few things I will not tolerate, and they are stupidity, an inability to control yourself, and disruptions in my class. You have unfortunately exhibited all three." Snape sneered with malice. Even as he finished speaking, Ron began to protest the unfairness of the number of points being taken off Gryffindor.
"Do not make things worse for yourself, Mr Weasley." Snape said silkily, "Or I will make it 25 points. Are we clear?"
Ron opened his mouth, but shut it again at a nudge from Hermione. "Yes, sir." he said sullenly.
"Good." Snape smirked as the bell rang, signalling the start of lunch. "Class dismissed."
Everyone in the class immediately grabbed their things and headed for the door, eager to get to the Great Hall. Harry didn't even glance at Malfoy as he gathered his things in an effort to get to where Ron was simmering furiously as the others tried to calm him down.
"Don't worry about it Ron, everyone knows that wasn't your fault." Hermione was saying soothingly as Harry arrived.
"Yeah, mate, it was all bloody Zabini's fault." Dean added.
Ron growled low in his throat. "I know, it's just…argh!" he looked angry and very upset.
"Let's just head to lunch." Neville reasoned, "before all the good seats are taken."
Wordlessly Ron began to move to the doorway. Harry and his friends followed, and Harry was nearly out the door when he heard his name spoken behind him.
"Potter?"
Harry turned.
"Library, after dinner?"
Harry smiled shyly again. "Library, after dinner." he confirmed, before turning back and hurrying to catch up with his friends, leaving a goofily smiling blonde Slytherin behind him.
HPDM
Lunchtime was mainly spent furiously bad-mouthing Snape and Zabini, as well as discussing what topics everyone was doing for the project.
It turned out Hermione and Pansy had decided to go with the Wolfsbane potion, while Neville and Nott had selected the Polyjuice potion. Ron (after muttering darkly under his breath) informed the others he and Zabini had chosen to do a potion that changed your mood every minute after drinking it, while Seamus said through a mouthful of potato that he and Crabbe had opted for the invisibility potions. Dean explained that he and Goyle were going to research a potion to induce extreme euphoria.
Harry finished off by telling the others about his and Malfoy's chosen potion.
"It's called Verfor…fortue? I think. I can't really remember." Harry shrugged.
The others nodded, looking vaguely confused, but Hermione's brown eyes widened as she gasped.
"Something wrong, 'Mione?" Ron questioned, glancing at her, puzzled.
Hermione was thinking fast. Unlike Harry and the others, she was genuinely interested in Potions and had spent time doing background reading on it (as she did for every other subject, anyway.) She knew perfectly well what the potion Harry and Malfoy would be studying was, and she knew what its effects were.
It would be best if Harry found out for himself.
"Oh, nothing." Hermione lied, busying herself with her food. "I thought you meant another potion. I was mistaken. Don't worry about it."
The others raised their eyebrows at each other, before shrugging and turning back to the matter at hand – Ron's detention that night with Snape and Zabini.
"I'll bloody kill that slimy git." Ron sulked. "Actually, just Slytherins in general. They're all lying, arrogant, slimy gits."
He punctuated this by stabbing his roast beef - hard.
"Well, I don't know about that, Ron." Hermione pointed out. "Malfoy hasn't really done anything to us since the truce."
"Yeah, but still." Ron was now glowering at the meat on the end of his fork. "It's probably just because he's scared Harry will retaliate if he tries anything. Stupid, stinking, cowardly Slytherins…"
Harry flushed a light pink at this. Yeah, he probably would end up retaliating if Malfoy tried anything…just maybe not in the way Ron envisioned.
"Right, Harry?"
Harry swallowed. "Yeah. Sure, Ron."
…awkward.
HPDM
The rest of their classes that day passed in a blur of anxiety and anticipation for Harry. All he could think of was that in a matter of hours he would be alone, truly alone, with Malfoy. In the library, yes, but still alone.
Harry was sure he had never felt this excited or this terrified in his life.
As a result, dinner found him sitting at the Gryffindor table, flanked by his friends, and shaking so badly anyone would think winter had arrived early.
"Harry, what's gotten into ya, mate?" Seamus questioned as they all watched him try to cut up his chicken with shaking hands.
Hermione gave Seamus a Look of her very own, and then extended it to include the other three boys, who immediately looked away from Harry and busied themselves with their food.
Distantly, Harry was extremely grateful that he and Ron had battled that troll in first year and ended up friends with Hermione, whose intuition had saved him many a time. But, it of course meant that she knew what he was shaking about, so thus he couldn't bring himself to thank her more than shooting her a grateful, albeit shaky, smile.
Hermione smiled back. When the others were suitably occupied with their own conversations, she leaned over and murmured to Harry. "It has something to do with Malfoy, doesn't it?"
Harry froze, and then slowly swivelled his head to murmur back, "N-no, 'Mione, what makes you think that?"
Hermione grinned. Woman's intuition triumphs again. She murmured, "What happened, Harry?"
"Um…nothing. I'm just meeting him in the library after this to get a start on the Potions project. He didn't do anything." Harry added quickly, carefully avoiding her gaze.
"Whatever you say, Harry." Hermione said with a hint of amusement in her voice, before straightening up again.
Denial was probably one of the more amusing things in this world.
Ron's laughter cut through her thoughts and she glanced over to see his face alight with merriment as he laughed at something Dean had said.
Hermione felt her cheeks warm.
Except when it was your own denial, of course.
HPDM
At approximately 8:00 that night, Harry was to be found approaching the library. Dinner had finished half an hour ago, but Harry had left early and hurried to Gryffindor Tower, with the goal of attempting to look halfway presentable in mind. He wasn't entirely sure he'd succeeded, but he was wearing the smallest pair of jeans he had, and an emerald green t-shirt that he guessed matched his eyes fairly well. His hair, of course, hadn't obeyed him and now looked even more wild and messy than usual, but he didn't really think about that.
He pushed open the doors of the library and moved in past Madame Pince's desk, scanning the tables and rows of book anxiously for the familiar head of blonde hair.
Spotting the person he was looking for over in the corner, he hurried over to the table, his beat up joggers barely making a sound on the faded carpet.
Harry arrived at the table just as Malfoy looked up from what he was doing.
'Oh my god, he looks gorgeous.' Draco's mind screamed, as he eyed Harry's outfit and hair, before it occurred to him he should say something.
"Hey, Potter." Draco greeted as calmly as he could. He swept his arm in a grand gesture towards the other chair at the table.
Harry sat, and cleared his throat nervously. "Hey, Malfoy."
"So," Draco began, "I brought my potions texts down, and they both mention the Verfortue potion, so I thought we could start with the basic information about it. That OK?"
Harry nodded. "Sure. That's fine." He noted with amusement that Malfoy seemed to be scarily similar to Hermione where enthusiasm levels relating to schoolwork were concerned. Malfoy passed him one of the books. Harry glanced at it – it was very thick and heavy, covered with Slytherin-green leather. On the spine, in thin, elegant silver writing, was written the title: 'Practically Every Potion In Existence: A Guide.'
Harry snorted in amusement and flipped to the page Malfoy had marked out for him. Pages 394 and 395 were completely dedicated to the Verfortue potion.
Malfoy scooted his chair closer, so they could both see the book. Harry's face flushed a light pink again; something Draco was quick to notice. He smirked to himself as he leaned in close under the pretext of seeing the writing better.
"The Verfortue Potion is also known as the 'Accidental Truth' potion. Moderate in difficulty to brew, it has the effect on the drinker of making them blurt out a truth about themselves at random for exactly 12 hours after taking it."
Draco cleared his throat and glanced at Harry. "Straightforward so far, Potter?"
"Yeah." Harry answered, beginning to see the reasoning behind Hermione's gasp during lunchtime when she had heard the name of the potion.
Draco continued, "Drinkers of the potion have described, after taking it, a sensation of being out of control, also stating that before they spoke the truth, they experienced a definite feeling or compelling to say something."
"It is often mistaken for the Veritaserum, but the two potions are in fact very different. While Veritaserum causes the drinker to reveal information about themselves only when prompted, Verfortue causes the drinker to reveal information about themselves at random. The nature of this information depends on several factors, including any feelings or sights relevant to the drinker, which act as a trigger."
"And so on." Draco concluded, eyes skimming through the next paragraphs. "I think we should write some basic points down, so we have a basis to work from when the work gets more complex."
Harry nodded. It was a good idea. "OK. How about you cover history and the theory behind it, and I'll do reasons behind its use and the comparison between it and Veritaserum?"
Draco nodded as well, very pleased with how this was going. Harry was being polite, civil. It was a huge step up from their rivalry of the past, not to mention the tense and confused emotions between them over the last fortnight.
They got to work, the only sound soft scratching of their quills as they wrote, and the sound of their breathing.
Draco decided as he wrote that he rather liked this Potions project, if it meant he could be sitting this close to Harry and talking to Harry and just being with Harry.
Harry, meanwhile, was finding it very hard to concentrate, even as he determinedly jotted down points from the book. Malfoy was barely 30 centimetres away from him, he could feel the warmth radiating from him…hell, if he moved his left hand just a bit, it could be touching Malfoy's right hand…
Actually, that was odd, he wasn't writing with his right hand. "You're a lefty, Malfoy?" he queried.
Draco looked up from his writing. "Yeah, Potter, so?" he shot back. "I'll have you know plenty of famous people in history have been left handed."
Harry grinned, despite himself. "Oh really? Name one."
Thrilled at the sight of the smile, Draco found himself momentarily lost for words. "Um…"
Harry laughed. "There you go." he said cheerfully, returning to his work.
Draco vaguely wondered if he should search the library floor for his stomach, as the bottom of it seemed to have parted with his body upon hearing Harry laugh at something he, Draco Malfoy, had done.
Maybe not.
He was just about to start writing again when he realised something.
"Hey, Potter?"
"Mmm?"
"What date is it today?"
Harry looked up at him, green eyes puzzled. "Um…it's the 27th October. Why?"
"I knew it." Draco absently tapped his quill on his parchment. "It's been two weeks since you called that truce with me."
"Oh." Harry was momentarily quiet.
"Is that…a good thing?"
Draco pretended to consider. "Yes. Yes, I think it is."
"Oh. Good." Harry said. "It's…it's been a good thing for me, as well." He ducked his head, blushing in spite of himself.
"Oh?"
"Well, like, it's been good not having to worry about you provoking me or my friends all the time…like, just leaving me free to concentrate on other things." 'Like you.' he added silently.
Draco nodded, tactfully deciding not to bring up the kiss they had shared just over a week ago. "Well, that's good then. I'm glad you called it, you know, Potter."
Harry blushed some more. "I'm glad I did too."
They went back to work. Draco reflected as he moved on to the theory behind the potion that he hadn't felt so at peace at the world since…
…well, ever.
And it was all because of the currently blushing Gryffindor who was scratching away with his quill beside him.
TBC
AN: Whoa. This chapter ended up longer than I originally intended. Hope you enjoyed it, nonetheless.
Thanks so much for reading, and please review!
bleedingxheart