I'm so sorry this took so long to post! I've been busy with school stuff since the end of the year is coming up soon. I really hope you like this chapter because I loved writing it and the last scene was something I have been waiting to write for so long so I really hope you like it! Please review!
Chapter 14
The following morning at breakfast, Ayla slipped away from the table to talk to Miranda.
"Hey!" she exclaimed as she sat down. "How was your date?"
"It was amazing, Sheldon is so sweet!"
"Nice!" Ayla exclaimed.
"I think he was actually really into me too! We're going out again on Friday."
"I'm so happy for you!" Ayla said sincerely, relief flooding through her that the love potion had not worked. "I've got to go finish breakfast before class, but I'm really glad you guys hit it off!" She returned to her table, grinning at her friends, who were all watching her. "He really liked her," she said, beaming. James' and Al's faces erupted into grins.
"Yes!" they exclaimed, smacking each other's shoulders in victory.
Bradley came in late, as usual, and sat down next to them.
"What's going on?" he asked, pushing up his sleeves.
"How did your date go?" Ayla asked eagerly.
"Amazing," Brad enthused, grinning. A cocky smirk spread across his face. "I may or may not have kissed her."
James gave him a high-five and Ayla laughed.
"So, when do we get to meet her?" she asked, feeling strangely happy today despite her bout of anger the night before.
"Not yet," Brad told them, winking. "You'll be like the embarrassing parents that I never want to introduce my girlfriend to."
Liam laughed, leaning forward. "Oh, you can be sure of that," he said, earning a loud laugh from Ayla.
"We should probably head to class," Ayla said, picking up her Potions books. Albus and James waved as Ayla, Liam, Hugo, and Lily left. They entered the potions classroom and sat down under Slughorn's gaze.
"Today you'll be making an antidote to many common poisons. This is a very useful potion because it is an antidote to many common poisons."
"You don't say," Liam muttered under his breath and Ayla giggled. Slughorn shot him a glare and Liam looked away.
"You may begin," Slughorn continued, ignoring the interruption. "The potion has a cooking time, so during this break you can do pages 112 through 117 in the textbook."
Ayla lifted her cauldron onto the table and flipped open to the recipe. Following the instructions, she crushed a bezoar and added 4 measures of it into the cauldron, then tossed in 2 measures of standard ingredient. After heating the potion and waving her wand, she sat down and flipped open to page 112 and took out a piece of parchment.
Liam, who was still crushing his bezoar, gaped at her. "How did you finish that fast?" he demanded. She stood back up, stepping toward his mortar. She took the pestle from his hand.
"You have to crush it like this, and twist it to grind up the bezoar. Just smashing it won't get you anywhere." She held it out and he took it, setting it back on the table.
By the time Ayla finished the textbook work, the potion was done brewing and it was time for her to continue the making of it. She added a bit of unicorn horns, stirred it twice, added mistletoe berries, stirred it another 2 times in the opposite direction, and waved her wand again to finish it off.
Liam glanced at her bubbling potion, then looked at his own, which looked strangely like mud. He glanced around for Slughorn, then turned back to Ayla.
"Hey!" he hissed. "Can you pour some of that into my cauldron?"
"No!" she exclaimed, swatting his hand away.
"C'mon, even if Sluggy finds out, he loves you! He's not gonna care! But he hates me, so if I don't finish the potion, I'll be dead meat."
"Sluggy?" Ayla repeated, fighting a grin. "Alright, I'll help you. But you don't need my potion." She looked around before stepping in front of him to reach his potion. "Keep an eye out for Slughorn," she said, waving her wand to turn the sludge into a perfect bubbly potion."
"Where did you learn that?" Liam demanded in awe.
"I read," she said simply, stepping aside as Slughorn re-entered the room.
"Excellent as always, Miss Torres," he said, and his eyes popped when he caught sight of Liam's potion. "Mr. Taylor, I am shocked! This is incredible!"
"What can I say, Professor? I aim to please," he said casually and Ayla snorted.
"Very impressive, Mr. Taylor," Slughorn said, continuing to pace the classroom. Liam smirked and flopped down in his seat.
"Hey, did you hear that McGonagall isn't here?" Liam asked.
"Yeah, I heard, but she's in the building. She's feeling sick so she stayed in bed."
"Dinner is going to suck, then," said Liam glumly. "You know, 'cause she won't be there to zap all the food onto the table."
Ayla raised her eyebrows. "I'm pretty sure that any other Professor here is probably capable of doing that."
"Oh, yeah," Liam said awkwardly, looking down. He bit his lip and looked back up at Ayla. "Hey, why don't we ditch the dinner and eat on the astronomy tower? James showed me how to sneak into the kitchen to get food and we could eat it up there instead. Just, you know, it's really loud in the Great Hall and the teachers are there and all that…what do you think?"
"Uh, yeah, sounds great," Ayla said kindly, slightly surprised.
"Cool," he said with a grin. "I'll see you later," he added as the bell rang.
"You're not coming to Defense against the Dark Arts?" she asked as they walked toward the common room.
"Nah," he said casually. "I think I'm gonna sleep instead.
Ayla laughed. "Sweet dreams," she joked as they entered the common room and he stepped into his dormitory.
She nearly bumped into James as she headed to her dormitory to exchange her books.
"Oh, hey, James!" she exclaimed.
"Hey," he said with a grin. "What class are you going to?"
"Dark Arts," she replied. "I have to switch out my books, but I'll be right back." She walked into her dormitory, shoved her Potions books in her drawer and grabbed her Dark Arts books, then headed back into the common room where James was patiently waiting.
"Back," she announced, sitting down next to him and keeping an eye on the clock to make sure she wasn't late for her next class.
"What's up?" he asked and Ayla shrugged simply.
"Another Potions class," she told him. "Not much to say about it."
"Ah, no bird pecking out anyone's eyes?" he asked, earning a laugh from her.
"Not this time!"
"What a shame," he said sarcastically.
"So, what class do you have next?"
"History of Magic," he said grumpily. "Worst class ever."
"Oh, looking forward to it," she said with a grimace. "Well, I should probably head to Dark Arts."
"Tell the old Ass-bomb I said hello."
"I will," Ayla said through her laughter as she left the common room.
James gazed after her, waiting for the smile to fade from his face.
X
After all of her classes were finished for the day and Ayla had finished her homework at the library, she returned to her dormitory to put all of her books away. She looked in the mirror as she brushed her hair, then left the dormitory to head to the astronomy tower. As she cut through the common room, she heard a voice call her name.
"Hey, Ayla!" she turned to see Albus and she smiled at him. "Hey, save me a seat in the Great Hall," he said, walking over to her.
"Oh, I, uh—I'm not going to the Great Hall tonight. Liam and I are picnicking on the astronomy tower."
"O—oh. Y-yeah," Al said awkwardly. "I have—I have plans anyway. I told some buddies I would sit with them, so it's all good."
"Oh, that's fun!" Ayla said kindly at his obvious lie. "Well, I've gotta go; I'll see you later."
"Yeah, later," he said quietly, but she was already gone. As the door closed behind her, Al collapsed onto the armchair behind him, a hollow pain in the left side of his chest.
X
Albus still sat in this position, flopped down with his head tilted back, feet up on the table, when James saw him.
"Hey, man," James said, sitting down next to his brother. When Albus didn't respond, he looked at him, concerned. "You okay?"
Al shrugged and James frowned.
"How come you weren't at dinner?"
He shrugged again.
"Were you with Ayla? She wasn't there either."
He shook his head. "Ayla went to dinner with Liam," he said dully and James sat back slowly. Once Albus had told his brother this, he couldn't stop the rant that followed. "I shouldn't be surprised," he said sadly. "I mean, why would she want to go out with me? She's only eleven and for some reason I thought she would ever even think of dating someone who's two years older than her. What the hell is wrong with me, James?" he dropped his head into his hands. "I'll never have a chance with her. Not in this lifetime."
James suddenly leapt off his chair, causing Albus to lift his head from his hands.
"You think you have it tough, Al?" he bellowed. "Ayla is three years younger than me and you have ten times more of a chance than I ever will!"
Albus stared at him deadly. "You're in love with Ayla," he stated dully and James sighed, sitting down next to him and shaking his head at the situation.
"I don't think I knew it until now," he admitted. "And you?"
"I knew it all along," he said. "But it really hit me tonight when I found out that she was with Liam."
James put his arm around Albus bracingly. "What are we gonna do about it, bro?"
Al shook his head and shrugged. "I don't know. I really don't know, man."
Ahhh let me know what you think please!