Arithmancy
by: Faithful Wheezy
Disclaimer: See Chapter One
Fourteen: I'm drawn to you
Cormac McLaggen sat on his four-poster bed, staring at the Arithmancy book Ron had given him. There was something about the flawless cover and the scratched-out handwriting that was on every other page, with the occasional deciphered 'on' and a heart or two.
Suddenly, it came back to him.
This was the Arithmancy book Ron had sent Hermione through owl-post last week! That was the last time he and Hermione had really talked to each other.
Snickering, he flipped a few pages in the Arithmancy book until he reached a specific page with a considerable amount of writing and calculations. Peering closely at the handwriting, he started to try deciphering it.
"On… damn, she can't be writing Ron's name on all the pages? Oh good, she's not, it's an oh-are-en—Ornyquartus… what? Is that some sort of spell? Hmmm… this could be good. Maybe I can use it to bring me and Hermione together. Yes—I'll try it."
McLaggen stood up and held his wand out before him, ignoring the other 7th year Gryffindor boys who were staring at him in confusion. "Ornyquartus!"
After an awkward silence, which McLaggen used to notice the slightly interested faces of his roommates, who had quieted down to see what McLaggen would do.
Suddenly—
"AHHH!" McLaggen started speeding out the door, but not of his own accord. To McLaggen, it felt as though something was pushing him. Or something was pulling him? It vaguely reminded him of the time he was confunded—to this day, he still didn't know who confunded him... but that wasn't the point.
The weird force kept McLaggen running full-speed into the Great Hall—past the startled teachers (poor Professor Flitwick flew a good 6-feet into the air as he sped past), and collided right into an annoyed Hermione, who was having a very interesting conversation with Neville about Muggle toe socks and squirrels.
"AHHH!" Hermione screamed. Neville stared blankly at what was happening. Hermione was on the floor, with McLaggen stirring feebly next to her.
"Cormac!" she said shrilly. "What are you doing!"
McLaggen glared at her. "I didn't do it on purpose," he said testily. He got up to leave, but before he reached the door of the Great Hall, he couldn't move. The more he tried to fight against whatever weird force was acting on him, Hermione, who was behind him on the floor, inched toward the door as though tugged by her own invisible force.
Hermione looked at her feet, which seemed to be pulled on every other second, and gasped. "Cormac!" she said. "Did you use the Magnetic Love Curse?"
McLaggen turned around. "What?"
"The incantation is 'Ornyquartus.'"
McLaggen turned around, gaping. "Er..."
Hermione closed her eyes and tried to compose herself.
McLaggen stalked towards her and shook Hermione by the shoulders. "What does the curse do?"
"The Magnetic Love Curse binds the caster magnetically to the object of his attraction," Hermione said robotically. "The caster and his attraction will be magnetically bound together, not being able to exceed more than six to seven feet from each other."
"So that means that we're stuck together?" asked McLaggen in alarm.
"Well, not stuck together, per se," said Hermione, matter-of-factly. "But—"
"How do we get unstuck?" asked McLaggen. He did like Hermione a bit. Okay, a lot, but figuring out that being stuck together wasn't the best thing. Imagine being in the library 24/7! He'd rather not.
"The caster has to stop liking the person he or she is stuck to," said Hermione, kneading her fingers.
McLaggen looked at Hermione. There was a slight flush to her cheeks, making her flawless face even more beautiful. Her wild, bushy hair, as she liked to refer to it, hung around her face in beautiful curls. He couldn't fall out of love with her. It was practically impossible.
He didn't even get started on her intelligence.
Hermione turned around to see where Neville had gotten to, but found he disappeared.
-x-
When Neville found out what curse McLaggen had used and what it did, he ran full speed into the Common Room, once again, looking for Harry, Seamus, Dean, Bill, and Charlie.
"Harry!" he yelled. Taking care not to get Harry stuck in the nearby pile of smelly Quidditch Robes, he skidded neatly next to him, panting, "Harry, Seamus, Dean, Bill, Charlie—something bad's happened…"
And of course, Neville couldn't skid 'neatly' beside Harry without tripping.
While Dean and Seamus helped Neville up, Bill and Charlie looked concerned. "Something bad's happened?" they asked. "Like what?"
Neville got to his feet and said, "Have you ever heard of the Magnetic Love Curse?"
"Yeah," said Charlie proudly. "Me and Bill invented that little beauty. We taught it to the twins as a prank, to see if they'd use it. Why?"
"McLaggen used it!" said Neville, his eyes bugging out slightly. "Now Hermione and him are stuck together!"
"Well, they're not stuck together, per se," Charlie started to say.
"What?" Bill interrupted. "McLaggen and Hermione are stuck together?"
Harry, Seamus, and Dean looked annoyed. "Why does that idiot have to ruin all of our perfect plans?"
"You mean the plans we plan that we plan for you to act out." Corrected Bill.
"Trifles," said Harry, waving an airy hand. "Well, what does this Magnetic Love Curse do?"
Bill and Charlie told them.
"And—didn't you say Hermione has McLaggen stuck to her?" Dean asked Neville.
"Yeah," Neville muttered.
"That means that McLaggen really did like Hermione more than we thought!" said Harry, Seamus, Dean, Bill, and Charlie all together.
"It's going to be harder than we thought to get Ron and Hermione together before term ends, brother," said Charlie to Bill.
"We always weasel our way out of it, eh?" Bill said, laughing. Everyone laughed.
After a few moments of laughter, some angry voices could be heard outside the portrait hole. "Well, I didn't ask you to cast the curse, now did I!"
"Well, why did you have that written in your book!"
"Why did you have my book?"
Bill looked at Charlie. "Showtime, bro."
"You got it," said Charlie, smirking.
finite