Love Potion Number Nine
Chapter 3: Love Potion Number One
Disclaimer: I forgot to do this at first, but just in case someone gets their panties all up in a bunch about it, here's the deal: All characters, setting, events, etc., from the Harry Potter series belong to J.K. Rowling and her associates. All other characters, plots, etc., belong to me. Thank you and have a nice day.
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As Hermione had predicted, the love potion took a little over a week to prepare. Daphne, Hermione, and Ginny pooled their allowance money to buy potion ingredients from various places in Hogsmeade as discreetly as possible. They were very careful not to arouse suspicion. If anyone found out that they were conjuring a love potion, they would most definitely be expelled, and Hermione would murder them. (She always said she was kidding about that, but Daphne and Ginny weren't so sure.)
Finally, one Sunday evening, the three girls were gathered around a toilet in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, with a bubbling cauldron sitting on the toilet, just as Harry, Ron, and Hermione had done in their second year to brew the Polyjuice Potion. As they observed, the potion turned from murky orange to bright, almost neon, pink in a matter of seconds after Hermione added the last few ingredients.
"Just give it another minute for full potency," Hermione whispered. They were silent until Hermione quenched the magical fire beneath the cauldron. The excitement and tension in the air was palpable as all three girls, but especially Ginny, wondered if the potion would work.
"So it's ready?" Ginny said.
"It would certainly seem that way," Hermione replied, consulting the spell book. "Yes, bright pink and rather thick... I think it's ready."
"So what now? Does Draco have to drink it?" Daphne asked.
As always, Ginny examined Daphne's face closely when the name "Draco" was mentioned. The tall blonde never seemed fazed by her complete and total isolation from her family, which absolutely mystified Ginny. Of course, Daphne did tend to change the subject as quickly as possible whenever Harry and/or Ron and/or other Gryffindors were discussing how horrible Draco was. It made Ginny wonder whether Daphne still felt some sort of allegiance to the Malfoy clan, despite the fact that they had excommunicated her from the family and refused to acknowledge her existence.
"No, Ginny has to drink it. But she has to be wearing an article of Draco's clothes... that will be tricky... and the potion is only good for twenty-four hours. We have to hurry," Hermione answered, scooping some potion into a clear glass bottle and corking it tightly. She made the rest of the potion vanish and the three girls filed out of the bathroom.
"I think I know how to get his clothes. He always gives his laundry to the house-elves to do, so all we have to do is ask Dobby to get us a scarf or his socks. Something small that he won't notice is missing," Ginny suggested.
"How do you know what he does with his laundry?" Daphne asked curiously.
Ginny blushed and admitted, "When I said I have a crush on him, what I meant was. . . I'm rather obsessed."
Hermione laughed. "Understandable. I've memorized Harry's schedule every week since we started dating so I can find him after the classes we don't have together."
Daphne and Ginny laughed.
The next afternoon, Ginny had acquired a pair of socks, thanks to Dobby. As Hermione had instructed, she lit 12 candles, four red, four pink, and four white, and placed them in a circle around her. She put Draco's socks on (which weren't gross at all, proving that he was perfect in nearly every way) and held the potion before her.
"Let sparks fly between Draco Malfoy and me, Virginia Weasely," she whispered, as was also required.
Closing her eyes, Ginny wiggled her toes, which were being kept toasty by Draco's rather large socks, and downed the entire bottle of love potion. It tasted like Muggle Valentine candies, the little conversation hearts with messages on them. It burned her throat going down, and once it settled in her stomach she felt quite warm all over. Looking in the mirror, she saw that her cheeks were tinted pink, as if she was blushing innocently.
Ginny looked in the spell book to see how long she had to wait before the potion took effect. "'Once the potion has been consumed, the effects should begin immediately after the object of desire sees the person who has consumed the potion, assuming that everything was done correctly,' " she read to herself.
Ginny knew that Draco tended to eat an early breakfast and then take a walk around the grounds, with his oafish companions, Crabbe and Goyle, panting along with him. She would try to get close to him during his walk the next morning, or preferably, when he was going in to breakfast.
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The next morning, Ginny woke up early and got dressed quietly so as not to awaken any of the other girls, then crept down to the Great Hall to try to catch a glimpse of Draco. Unfortunately, he was just on his way out as she was headed in, and a rather large fifth year Hufflepuff blocked Ginny from his sight.
Ginny ate a quick breakfast so her stalking wouldn't seem so obvious. She only managed a few nibbles of toast before her patience ran out. Rushing out to the grounds, Ginny saw Draco and his two minions walking towards the greenhouses. She hurried to catch up.
Suddenly, a thought stopped her in her tracks. What am I supposed to do, just jump in front of him and ask if he's in love with me? If it the potion doesn't work, he'll think I belong in St. Mungo's! She considered going back inside to reformulate her plan, but she worried that the potion might wear off before she had a chance to see him again.
Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle were now headed back towards the castle, and from their path Ginny guessed that they were going back to the Slytherin dungeons. This was her only chance. The young girl quickly jogged towards them and conveniently "tripped" right in front of Draco.
Yes, it was desperate, but it was the only thing Ginny could think of on such short notice. Unbeknownst to her, her robe was pulled up a few inches when she fell, revealing her shoes and socks.
"Merlin's Beard! Ginny!" Draco exclaimed, kneeling down next to Ginny.
"Yes, Draco?" Ginny asked hopefully, batting her eyelashes in what she hoped was an attractive and flirtatious way.
"Ginny... your socks! They are so amazing! Look at them, so perfectly formed and exquisitely stitched! They... why, they're beautiful! Gorgeous! They are most certainly the most stunning socks I've ever seen in my entire life!" Draco gushed, cradling one foot in his hand as if it were a precious artifact.
Ginny's first thoughts were, "He has to be joking." But when Draco leaned down to snog her socks, she knew that Love Potion Attempt Number One had failed. Miserably.
But she recovered from her disappointment quickly enough to redeem herself. "Malfoy, what the hell do you think you're doing? You freak! Keep your tongue away from my socks!"
A large crowd had assembled and was now laughing uproariously. A few students showed Malfoy their socks, taunting him and offering him a chance to kiss their socks.
"I. . . I don't know what came over me. . . I just. . . Weasely, what the hell is this? Some sick joke?" Draco demanded.
"You tell me, Malfoy! First your bodyguard here trips me, and all of a sudden you're trying to mate with my socks! I knew you were weird, but I draw the line at this! You keep your slimy hands and mouth and your nasty tongue away from my clothes!" Ginny yelled, feigning anger.
A few students began to call out in Ginny's support. "You tell him, Ginny!" "Yeah, Malfoy, that's just nasty." "I'd say that's sexual harassment right there." "That weirdo oughta be locked up."
Some Slytherins called out to, erm, defend Malfoy. "Yeah, Malfoy, way to seduce a Weasel!" "Way to go, Malfoy!" "What, you've had your way with all the decent girls, now you're settling for anyone with good socks?"
Draco, blushing like someone who has just suffered the most mortifying moment of his life, slunk away amongst the snickering and teasing, with Crabbe and Goyle trailing behind him, who were still trying to figure out what was going on.
Meanwhile, Ginny was trying to make her escape, but her peers were hampering her progress. Every few feet, someone would stop her to try to analyze what had happened, crack a joke about Malfoy, or, in the case of the Slytherins, insult her. She smiled and nodded politely, but as soon as she could she bolted to the Great Hall to find Daphne and Hermione.
Luckily for her, they were both sitting at the Gryffindor table enjoying breakfast. Hermione was giggling about something with Harry, while Daphne was flirting with Rex, who was sitting next to her even though he was a Ravenclaw and wasn't supposed to be at that table.
As soon as the two girls saw Ginny's furious face, they quickly excused themselves and followed her outside to a secluded hallway.
"I have never been more embarrassed in my whole entire life! I will never live this down! Until the day I die, I will be known as the girl whose socks were snogged by Draco Malfoy! This will be all over school in about five minutes! Do you know how embarrassing it was? First of all, I purposely tripped right in front of Malfoy, hoping that, I dunno, he would help me up and look deep into my eyes and brush my hair out of my face and fall madly in love with me and kiss me and it would be perfect. Something like that. But no. Instead, he fell in love with my socks!" Ginny ranted, all in one breath and so quickly that Daphne had trouble deciphering the words. Hermione caught the gist of it, though.
"What? Malfoy fell in love with your socks?" Hermione cried. "Oh, damn. The potion must have backfired. Well, we are in quite the quagmire now. I think there's a counter spell, I'll have to check."
"Don't feel so bad about it, Ginny, there's always next time," Daphne said comfortingly.
"Next time? NEXT TIME?" Ginny screeched. "You think after this I'm going to let you two interfere in my love life ever again? Hah!"
"Now, now, Ginny, let's just calm down, okay? Just breathe deep, your face is turning purple. Let's think about this logically. This was only our first attempt at a love potion. Okay, we made a mistake, so what? What great wizard hasn't gone through a few trial-and-errors before making it right?" Hermione pointed out.
"We just have to keep trying until it works," Daphne added.
Ginny sighed huffily. "Well, so long as the next one doesn't make Malfoy or me look like such buffoons."
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A/N: Siobhan- Thank you so much for reviewing!
I hope you liked this chapter. Perhaps I should mention that I am American, so if my British slang is a little off, please forgive me and feel free to correct me.