The Thing About Lust
Moire walked into her Herbology double-period with Gryffindor half a second before the bell rang.
"Miss McLeoch, just on time," Professor Longbottom commented.
"My apologies, Professor Longbottom. Professor Khan's third year class was a bit held up and I lost track of time. I have a note if needed."
"No need. Just take your spot. Wait… No, I put Weasley there for today. Go next to Potter instead."
Moire cursed her bad luck and Erin threw her an apologetic glance, misinterpreting her expression, while Fred Weasley was trying to balance his wand on his nose.
She had been avoiding Potter like the plague since she had found out that she could smell him in Amortentia the week prior. How did that even happen? Biting down on a curse that would've resulted in a week's worth of detention, she gingerly walked towards Potter, doing her best to not inhale too deeply. As he ruffled his hair next to her, her second-year self very audibly sighed in the back of her mind. Her present self sternly reprimanded her. Again, how did this even happen? She raked her mind, trying to piece everything together.
There was second year, of course, but the year after her shameful crush on the kid, and she shuddered remembering that she had ever been a bumbling blushing idiot every time she saw him, Albus had entered Hogwarts. She had taken pity on the scrawny and scared first-year whose whole family had been in Gryffindor until that point and the strong sense of loyalty and of right versus wrong drilled into her mind by the Laird had all come rushing to her. Moire had then taken upon her to go up to the young boy and his blond counterpart – whom he seemed to cling onto for dear life – and reassure them by showing them around the Slytherin common room. Contrary to popular belief, the Slytherin house was a rather tight knit one, and always had been. It had started in the olden days, when Slytherin still had a bad reputation and its members would be ostracized from the tender age of eleven just for being in it. Stories of terrified first years crying after being booed and glared at by the vast majority of the school were still told to that day to remind themselves that, in times of isolation, all they had was each other, and those same stories were what helped keep them united. Thus, first years were always reassured by at least one older member of the house, and for Albus Potter, it was Moire McLeoch. He had then introduced her to his entire family, from his older cousin Victoire, who was Head Girl on top of being stunningly beautiful, and eventually his adopted brother and Vic's boyfriend Teddy when he came to visit, all the way to his brother. Of course, at the time, though her crush had mostly subsided over summer, Moire still had a few butterflies in her stomach when he was involved, but then he opened his big, arrogant, annoying mouth and the argument that ensued after that was one that Hogwarts still remembered. After that, her interactions with James Sirius Potter had been snarky exchanges and sarcastic riposte. Until this summer.
Of course, she had spent time with the Weasleys and the Potters before, but it was only a couple of days at a time as she did not want to intrude. But she had been practically begged by Lily, who had said the entire family was expecting her at the annual Potter-Weasley get together, and if she did not come, Albus and Scorpius had sworn to get her themselves. Finally convinced that she would not, in fact, be a burden to the family, she sent her trunk to the Burrow the day before and Flooed over on the day agreed upon at eleven in the morning sharp (because, as the Laird had made it quite clear when she was growing up, arriving late was a way of saying that one's own time was more valuable that that of the person who waited for them), carrying a box of Fiona McLeoch's famous shortbread.
Though she had resumed her usual arguments with James under the amused glances of the rest of his family, they had become more playful and less vicious than they had previously been. Plus, they formed a wicked Quidditch team when playing two on two against the rest of the Weasley cousins. After the two weeks were over, she had gone over to her aunt's in Moscow and had met Aleksei. He was a rather sweet bloke, and quite handsome at that, but she had ended it within a few days, and hadn't thought about it twice. Sure, she should've felt bad, but then her cousin had shyly asked a couple of days later if it was alright for her to go on a date with him. Moire had shrugged, but Natalya had seemed so happy when she came back from said date that the redhead had smiled herself to sleep that night and had woken up with painful cheeks. The cousins wrote to each other often, and apparently the two lovebirds were getting along pretty good.
Moire jumped a bit as James elbowed her lightly and sent him a Ginny-Potter-approved death glare. He seemed a bit unnerved but otherwise quite unimpressed and cocked an eyebrow.
"What?" She whispered furiously.
"When you're back from whatever planet you were on, we have about ten minutes to extract the grains from the mean looking plant over here."
Looking at the Venomous Tentacula, Moire raised an eyebrow. The deep red flower was snapping its teeth in their general direction. People around them were already starting to curse as the plant attacked them.
"Tickle it," she simply said.
"Pardon?" He looked like she had just told him McGonagall enjoyed spitting from the top of the Astronomy Tower to see where it landed. "But Professor Longbottom said to –"
Sighing, Moire put her thick gloves on and tickled the plant under its mouth, right where the chin of a human would be. Immediately, the plant started to pant like a happy dog, its tong hanging from its teeth, and the Slytherin reached inside its mouth to gently remove three seeds. She got her hand out just in time before the plant started snapping again.
"Beautiful, you two! Ten points to both Slytherin and Gryffindor! Though I did say to hold the mouth open and press on the correct tentacle."
"I know Professor, but it would have taken too long, plus the risk of biting is increased. My mother said that most of the plants that bite can be calmed down with a tickle."
Neville laughed good-naturedly.
"Fiona has always had quite the green thumb. If you weren't so set on potions, Miss McLeoch, you'd be a brilliant Herbologist."
"I guess you have to know your plants before putting them in your cauldron," she answered with a smirk.
James threw an annoyed glare at her as Longbottom went to the next table.
"Is there anything, you're not good at?"
I'm quite average at Transfiguration. Borderline shite, actually.
"No, I'm amazing at everything."
He rolled his eyes and she replied with a smug raise of her eyebrows.
oOo
Leah and Kenzie looked at each other when they saw their roommate hiding behind a corner and looking suspiciously at the corridor it led to. They reached Moire but after a few seconds of them standing behind her and her not indicating that she had realize they were there, they decided to make their presence known.
"Are you alright?" Leah asked, making her jump.
"Are you insane?" She exclaimed, clutching her heart.
"Why in Merlin's lace knickers are you hiding?"
"I'm not hiding!"
The pointed looks she received told her she wasn't fooling anyone.
"Okay, yeah, I'm hiding."
"And what exactly are you avoiding?"
"Errrr… The Ravenclaw dude I was making out with last time? Presley?"
"Okay, first of all, his name is Paul. Second of all, your nostrils flared up."
"Fine, I was avoiding James Potter!"
"What for?"
"Wouldn't you like to know."
"C'mon, you tell us everything, usually!"
"I can't, this one is embarrassing!"
"Can't be that bad."
"Yeah, it's not like you had a sex dream about the bloke, right?"
Her silence was everything they needed to know.
"You had a WHAT?"
"Will you both shut the hell up? I am NEVER living it down if he hears!"
"Forget him, you'll never live it down when Emma hears."
"What do you mean 'when'? You are not telling her!"
"C'mon, and break her little heart? She's been rooting for you two since second year!"
"You guys are dicks…"
"All the arguing turning you on?"
"Shut up, will you?"
oOo
Emma had effectively lost her mind. She had been jumping around the common room, running around, and screaming "I bloody knew it!" for about ten minutes now, and people were looking. Moire had buried her head in her hands, her neck and ears redder than Gryffindor's beard. Erin was laughing her absolute arse off, to which Moire put a mental reminder to smother her in her sleep, and the other two traitors were watching, amused.
"I knew you still fancied him!" She finally said, concluding her little dance.
"Shush!" Moire hissed at her. "And I do not fancy him! He's a good-looking bloke I guess, but nothing more! And will you lower your voice, I don't want the rumors to start spreading!"
"Then why did you dream you two shagged?"
"Because I don't know if yae have noticed or not, Emma, but I havnae gotten much action, lately!" Her roommate answered, her cheeks scarlet and her accent coming out slightly.
She was done for. By the end of the week, all of Hogwarts would know she had literally dreamt of shagging Potter and she could already see her reputation and pride go up in smoke.
"Ooh, who are you talking about?" His smaller, only slightly less annoying version asked, plopping himself on the couch next to the armchair she was currently trying to disappear into.
"None of your business, Albus," A perfect chorus of five answered him.
"Shite, you guys are rude!"
"So, what's your excuse?" Emma asked.
Thankfully, she had spoken at a normal volume and decided to not name drop since Albus was there.
"Did you not hear me say…?"
"Oh, I heard your bullshit explanation. But you're not lacking options, so it's not that."
Moire sighed.
"I'll tell you later. We're in the middle of the common room."
She had hoped that Emma would have forgotten by the time the girls would go up to their dorm and go to bed. But she had not. And if she was fully honest with herself, Erin, the eternal arsehole, would have reminded her.
"So! What's going on with Potter."
"Nothing is going on with Potter," she answered, putting on an old t-shirt way too large for her with some muggle band on it she must have stolen from one of her old boyfriends. Come to think of it, she could not remember who she had gotten it from.
"So why are you dreaming of shagging him? You know what I say about dreams…"
"Oh, will you shut up. I don't secretly want to shag him. My subconscious is not sending me a message."
"I'm enjoying this so much," Leah whispered to McKenzie, earning her a pillow viciously thrown to her face.
"There must be a reason you're dreaming of him now if it was random. Why not the past few years? Why does it ha-," she insisted before being cut off in the middle of her sentence by a very annoyed Moire.
"I smelled him in Amortentia, are you fucking happy?"
There was a deafening silence before…
"I KNEW YOU SMELLED SOMEONE! CINNAMON, MY ARSE!" Kenzie yelled, shooting up from where she was sitting on the bed, scaring her very white, very fluffy cat in the process.
"Does that mean you fancy him?"
"Don't be ridiculous Leah. All this means is that he smells good."
"Sure, we're going with that."
"It's not like I fancy the bloke. Sure, he's not so bad when you get to know him, and he's decent looking, but it doesn't go past that."
"What about the sex dream?"
"Like I said, he's decent looking. That's the thing about lust, it's rather shallow, nothing too deep. So, drop it, Em."
To make her point, Moire strode to the bathroom and slammed the door behind her, scaring the cat again, and soon after, the four other girls in the dorm heard the shower turn on.
"Whatever. I'll remind her of this at her wedding with Potter in five years."
"I HEARD THAT!" Came from behind the door.
The plot thickens! As usual, let me know if you liked this chapter in the reviews, and I'll see you in the next chapter!
