"This is stupid," I deadpanned.
"Impossible, I came up with the idea myself," Glinda corrected, George nodding alongside her.
"Isn't it kind of odd how your description full of lies was pretty similar to how Fred smells you?" George wondered aloud,
"I didn't lie, I was saving my own skin."
"By avoiding telling the boy who clearly smelled you when inhaling a love potion? Hm, yeah sounds like a good plan to me." Glinda rolled her eyes at George's sarcastic response, smiling anyways.
"Just sit down next to him when we get in there, and then he'll smell the flowers and perfume and realize it's you. It's foolproof, you're sure he's going to smell him, right?"
"Well, he'll be sitting right next to him," George shrugged, "Probably."
"I'm going to need better than a probably, Weasley," Glinda snapped, "This needs to work, otherwise Thomas is going to have to tell him directly and that won't happen within the next century."
"Merlin's beard," I mumbled to myself, taking an insecure sniff of my robe.
Glinda had rubbed flower petals all over me for at least ten minutes, and spritzed a tiny bit of her perfume on the back of my neck for good measure.
"Let's get on with it then, don't want the perfume to wear off," Glinda led the way into the library, taking her seat diagonal from Fred and giving him a smile.
"About time you guys got here, a gaggle of Ravenclaws about killed me when I said I was saving seats."
"Ooh, did they give you the speech?" George sat across from Fred, earning him a slightly puzzled look as I took his usual spot.
"Yeah," Fred sighed, probably reliving the spiel Ravenclaws give about 'This is a library, you can't just take up a whole table'.
"Well, we're here now," Glinda chimed in, emptying her bag onto the table and spreading out her textbooks. "Today is D.A.D.A. review for me, what about you guys?"
"Herbology," I responded, Fred glanced at me like he had just remembered I was there.
"Aren't you pretty much an expert in herbology, though?" George asked, winking at me.
"I don't know, I guess," my cheeks warmed at the compliment.
"You don't say," Fred exclaimed, "Help me with this then."
Rather than study, I helped Fred review pretty much the entire study session, which was quite alright with me. I could have done without Glinda and George looking overly pleased with themselves though, that was humiliating.
"Do you guys smell that?" Fred interrupted my explanation of how to convince a fanged geranium to let you harvest some of its fangs.
"Smell what?" Glinda blinked innocently, giving me a smirk as Fred looked away.
"Did a girl walk by just now?" He continued, glancing behind him to check.
"No, it's pretty empty today. Why?" George also played dumb, even putting down his textbook.
"Baker, are you wearing perfume?"
"Not today, I'm not seeing anyone important," she lifted up her robe to take a sniff, shaking her head.
"Ouch," George and Fred said in unison.
"Nevermind then," and just like that the subject was dropped. Glinda and George sullenly went back to their textbooks, sharing looks of disbelief and disappointment.
Fred turned to me with his herbology book propped up, hiding our mouths. "I have an odd question."
"Yeah?" I meekly muttered, expecting us to go back to plants.
"Do you have perfume on?"
"N-No, I'm pretty sure I always smell like this," I lied through my teeth. He looked at me skeptically, I even noticed him taking in a couple deep breaths.
"Hm, alright. So all I have to do is be friendly to it?"
And just like that he was right back to talking about plants, like I wasn't sitting beside him blushing madly while my nose was stuffed with the smell of flowers.
"So it worked?" Glinda triumphantly asked as we stood outside the Ravenclaw common room.
"Yeah, I guess you could say that."
"You guess? It sounds like it worked out amazingly."
"I don't see what this has achieved," I mumbled, shifting my satchel from one shoulder to the other. "All he knows now is that the smell from the amortentia belongs to me."
"Precisely, so he knows that he's attracted to you," Glinda waived her finger in the air, "And teenage boys cannot resist someone they're attracted to."
"I think I've been resisting just fine," I countered. "In fact, I think you're wrong."
"Mm," she weighed her sources as she tilted her head back and forth, "I'll agree to disagree on that one, Soot."
"She's got a point, some guys I know are absolute dogs." George mentioned.
"Maybe you should know different people," I shadily remarked.
"Ladies, stop fighting, target spotted."
"She's kind of scary," George whispered to me as Glinda flagged Fred down.
"I see I'm late, sorry to keep everyone waiting," he politely spoke. "Must've been a crying shame to spend any longer not gazing upon my face."
"We had a good substitute," Glinda dryly joked, gesturing to George.
"Nothing comes close to the real thing," he smirked in response, not even waiting a beat before clapping back.
"Anyways," George butted in, "Is everyone ready for a trip to Hogsmeade?"
The two G's had come up with a terrible plan to sneak out into the town as soon as classes were all done, when nobody would be looking for us. Apparently the twins knew about all these secret tunnels that went through the school.
"They have a charmed map," Glinda had told me excitedly the night before, "Oh it is just so magnificent, I have no idea how they get their hands on these things, but I am jealous."
I had spent the entire night filled with anxiety about two things: going to Hogsmeade with Fred and possibly getting caught by Filch.
"So where's this so-called magical map?" I asked quietly to avoid disturbing the silence.
"Well, we sort of gave it away earlier this year," Fred awkwardly explained, waiving away my question with his hand.
"You what?" Glinda whisper-yelled, the anger in her voice still making its way out.
"Well, a friend needed it a bit more than we did," George sheepishly said, rubbing the back of his neck with his hand.
"But you're sure this will still work?" I asked as we walked down a corridor I didn't recognize.
"Of course," the two answered in unison.
"Why wouldn't it?" George asked, as Fred lead the way, squinting at walls and staring at random stones.
"Who's over there?" Filch's distinct growl echoed from a few hallways over. "Better not be sneaking around over here."
"I can think of a few reasons," I murmured, eyes widening as we came upon a wall.
"Don't tell me its walled up," Glinda whispered.
"No, I don't think so," Fred muttered, brushing his hands over the stones. He faltered as his fingers brushed over a stone close to his hip, and he tapped it with the edge of his wand.
The wall silently broke away, folding into itself and disappearing before our eyes.
"What?" I whispered, desperately wondering how many of these were hidden all over Hogwarts.
"That's what I'm talking about," George shared a high five with Fred, the two rushing ahead without a care for either Glinda or me.
"Have they been having this much fun without us this whole time?" Glinda laughed, running ahead of me to catch up.
"Couldn't have had a crush on someone boring, could I?" I sighed, following after them into the dark tunnel.