Summery: Harry becomes the victim of his own schemes, when a plan to force Hermione and Ron to love each other backfires. He finds himself having feelings for the Ferret-boy(Draco Malfoy), but not exactly the kind of feelings that could be expected. Rated M for violent behaviour, language and adult contents.
Disclaimer: Well, la-dee-da.
All the characters are lent,
And I do not own a single cent,
So just don't sue.
I'm begging you
Chapter One: Making Trouble.
Harry looked at his potions test, where a huge T was written in red ink across the first page.
Next to him, his two best friends were yelling at each other for what might be the third time that week, this time because Hermione thought that Ron was insensitive. And Harry was caught in the middle of one of their arguments again.
"All I'm saying is that you might consider other peoples feelings as well!" Hermione shouted, her hair almost electric from the anger she was emitting.
"You don't think I'm considering your feelings?" Ron shouted back.
"This was about Harry's feelings, not about mine! Wasn't it Harry?"
"Well, let's make it about your feelings then! Do you think I consider your feelings?" Ron looked at her, plain rage in his features.
Hermione on the other hand looked choked. "What are you talking about, Ron?"
"Do you think I am a complete ass?" Ron rephrased, slightly stressing each word, as if wanting to make sure Hermione understood every single one.
"How can you even ask me that, Ronald?" she yelled, suddenly regaining her anger. "I swear, sometimes I'm sure that you haven't got a single clue!" And with that she ran out of the Common Room and left Ron in a complete mess.
"She hates me now!" Ron sulked down in one of the armchairs by the fireplace. "I've done it, and now she really hates me!"
"No, she don't, mate. She's just hurt, because she likes you, and maybe sometimes, when you act a little stupid, she wonders why she likes you." Harry said seating himself opposite Ron.
"How did you get so smart on girls?"
Harry shrugged. "Hermione's kinda rubbed off a bit, I guess."
"I whish she'd rub off on me, so I'd get a clue as to how her brain works, you know?" Harry nodded. He understood exactly how Ron felt. That was how he had felt with Cho last year.
"I am sorry 'bout your Potions test, though." Ron said, looking fairly guilty.
"I know." Harry said, and forced a smile. "You did really well on your Herbology essay, though."
Ron shrugged, saying, "I had a lot of help from Hermione. I'd better go thank her and say sorry."
"Yeah, you'd better." Harry agreed. Ron took a few seconds to gather all his courage, then got up and left the Common Room.
His empty chair was soon after filled by Ginny. "I heard the fight." She said. Harry nodded.
"It was a bad one." He said, picking up the book he had been reading before Hermione and Ron had started fighting. Ginny got up and slid a piece of parchment in on the pages he was reading. Harry looked up at her and then atthe piece of parchment.
"This is a love potion." He said, while letting his eyes wander down the potion ingredients.
Ginny hushed him, then nodded. "It could help."
"With Hermione and Ron?" Harry thought it through. "No, it wouldn't be fair."
"What's fair? Them always yelling at each other, using you as a shield and as an excuse?" Ginny pointed at the parchment. "It was originally Fred and George's idea, and I think it could work."
"Hermione would be really angry." Harry said simply.
"Sure she would. If she found out. But she wouldn't." Ginny said and continued. "Tonks gave it to me, but it's no easy Love Potion, Harry. It's really advanced, and we'll probably need Professor Snape's dungeon."
"The last can be fixed, but that first one poses a problem. I've just failed a Potions test, so I won't be up for making it." Harry scratched his head. "Who do we know who's good at Potions?"
"Malfoy…" Ginny suggested innocently.
"That would be funny. How about your class? Don't you have Potions with the Ravenclaws?"
"Yeah, but I don't really care much for any of them. The way they treat Luna." Ginny said frowning.
"We could really use Hermione!" Harry felt his heart drop at the thought of forcing her to love Ron. What if neither of them wanted to love the other?
"What about that Pansy-girl?" Ginny suggested. "Is she good for anything?"
"Yeah. Making trouble."
Ginny laughed, then she caught sight of something behind Harry and got up quickly, while trying to look innocent. Ron was heading their way.
"Look, I'll ask Dean and Seamus." Ginny whispered. "They're not half bad at potions, right? Dean gets really good marks usually." Harry nodded. "Right. I'll talk to you later." Harry watched Ginny walk away and greeted Ron, who sat down in the chair Ginny had just abandoned.
"Hermione and I are speaking again. As long as it'll last anyway." Ron sulked back into his chair, looking absolutely miserable. Harry smiled and suddenly felt that what they were about to do made sense.
Harry made his way down to the Great hall the next morning, running into Ginny at the house table.
"Did you talk to them?" he asked without looking at her.
"They're in!" Ginny wisped and sat down next to Harry.
Dean and Seamus had just entered the Great Hall. They sat down opposite Harry and Ginny. "We read it through." Dean said and winked at them.
"We were just wondering why you didn't find a more complicated potion." Seamus said sarcastically. The two boys smiled and suddenly resembled the Weasley twins.
Harry just shrugged. "Nothing comes the easy way, mates. Not even house peace."
"Well, I've talked to Peeves." Ginny announced to the three boys great surprise.
"Whoa…?" Harry tried to close his mouth, but for some reason unknown to him self, his mouth felt more comfortable ajar.
"About what, honey?" Dean finally asked.
"Well, we wanted a distraction, right? To get into Snape's office, right?" she said without blushing. Harry was suddenly very sure that Fred and George had left their mark at Hogwarts, in more ways than anyone had imagined. "Anyway, I talked to Peeves and he said he'd help." Ginny finished.
"He would?"
"Yeah. He said that he'd learned more tricks from Fred and George than from any other students. Said he'd do it for me, 'cause he owed them. And also he said I had potential."
"Great! We'll just meet up after dinner then." Harry whispered conspiring, and the four Gyffindors split up and went to classes.
Ginny and Peeves had set the plan in motion right after dinner. After a sign form Ginny Peeves came swooping down on Professor Snape yelling swear words after him and chucking Dung Bombs at him once in a while.
Ginny told the rest that Peeves had planned to knock over the statue of Salvador the Bold after about half an hour and then he would proceed down to the kitchens, where he would play catch-the-House-Elf with himself, which should bye them at least two hours.
After Dean had added the Dogwood Slug Slime and Seamus had stopped Harry from adding the Nettle Root before the Adders Fork, Ginny proclaimed that the Love Potion now had the right pink colour. "Now it just needs one hair from the maker. Who's the maker?"
"That might as well be me." Seamus said pulling out one of his own sandy hairs and adding it to the bubbling potion.
"'The two lovers will seek this person if in doubt or peril.' Oh damn." Ginny finished off after reading the last few lines of the instructions. "I guess it should have been your hair then Harry."
"I'll live, Ginny. Those two have been coming to me with their problems for almost six years now. Perhaps I can have a break now, ay?"
"It also says here that the hair will bind the potion, so that only the two people who drink the potion whit this very hair in will fall in love with each other." Ginny continued.
"That makes sense. It would have been fun though, if every one who had taken a love potion fell in love with each other."
"Actually, Tonks said that that was what happened in the 1960'. People forgot to put in the hair, and everybody loved everybody."
Seamus frowned. "It would have made more sense if they had to drink a cup with the other person's hair in it."
"No. That wouldn't work, believe me." Harry said warningly, remembering Hermione's try with Polyjuice Potion. "It's just too easy to mix up the hairs or get the wrong hairs. And we wouldn't want Ron to fancy Crookshanks forever!"
"Good point!" Seamus laughed. "It would have been quite fun though."
"How are we goin to get them to drink it at all?" Dean wondered out loud.
"Oh well, it's quite simple really. We're going to do it during the Yule dinner. There will be less students, and it will be easy to slip a few splashes of Love Potion into – say, their cherry-yogurt milkshakes."
"Quite the clever girlfriend you've got there Dean." Seamus said. Dean just beamed.
The Christmas holidays swooped around and both Hermione and Ron had consented in staying at Hogwarts over Christmas. Seamus and Dean had both gone home, leaving Harry and Ginny alone to do their evil deeds. Harry, Hermione, Ginny and Ron arrived a little late for the Yule dinner and seated themselves opposite Pansy Parkinson and Malfoy, who looked his usual angered self. It was widely known that Lucius Malfoy had fled after breaking out of jail, leaving his wife and son, forcing them to live with Lucius' cousin Lady Vance-Malfoy, who apparently loathed Voldemort, because she thought he was a big prat.
Lady Vance had, according to Nott, told Malfoy to get his childish act together or otherwise get the stinking hell out of her house. That was why Malfoy had chosen to stay at Hogwarts over Christmas instead of going back to the Vance-Malfoy manor.
Besides a handful of Slytherins, there were a couple of Hufflepuffs, a few Ravenclaws and a small amount of Gryffindors left during the holidays. Ginny and Harry sat on each their side of Hermione and Ron, so that Harry was seated next to Hermione. Ginny kept a perfect face, looking quite bored and when they had finished their roast beef and their Shepherd's pie, the plates were cleaned and desert appeared on the table instead.
Harry signalled to Ginny and when an outsized bull frog appeared in Pansy's lemon pudding on the opposite side of the table, the two used the stir to uncork their hip flashes and they added the right amount of Love Potion into Ron's and Hermione's Cherry-Yogurt milkshakes, and tried to look (perhaps a bit too) innocent, while sipping their own milkshakes.
Hermione seemed quite unflustered, but when Harry weren't looking, she swished her own cup with Harry's. Ginny tried to catch his attention, but failed.
However, Hermione only allowed Harry to take a single sip before she turned to him and smirked. "Tell me now, Harry. What did you put in my milkshake? Because what ever it is, you've just taken a sip of it."
Harry spat most of the mouthful out over the table, but the damage was done; he had swallowed some. He didn't know how much you actually needed to drink for the potion to take an effect, but at least Ron hadn't had any of his milkshake yet and Ginny was smart enough to tell her brother to put his cup down.
"It was a sort of… friendship-truce kinda potion." Ginny lied.
"You two made us a love potion?" Hermione shrieked. "But you're both horrible at potions. It could have gone really wrong!"
"Well, Dean and Seamus sort of helped… a little. Or a lot." Ginny whispered.
"They sort of made it, not us. But it was our idea, don't hold them responsible. It was meant as a ceasefire arrangement. You know, because it would be nice if you'd stop yelling at each other once in a while." Harry said blushing. "I guess I was just kinda sick of you two always using me as a halfway-point for your arguments."
Ron, who apparently had only just now understood what was going on, frowned and sent his full cup flying across the table. "You tried to poison us?"
"It was just a silly Love Potion, Ron." Ginny tried to explain. "Wasn't even that strong." But their argument was cut of, because Malfoy was gagging in a hysterical fit across the table. He was covered in Ron's tossed-away milkshake, and he was spitting violently, trying to get as much as the pink milkshake out of his mouth as possible. "You stupid, useless muggle-loving idiot!" he yelled, and the entire table was looking at them now. "Why the hell did you do that, you bastard?"
Harry felt a strange sensation welling up in his stomach, as he started to realize, that how ever a tiny amount of Milkshake the Slytherin had swallowed, Malfoy would undoubtedly had taken in some of the potion, and so had Harry.
Eamon: Okay. Now I've read this chappy through and corrected whatever spelling and grammar mistakes I could find. I don't have a beta, so I'm doing my best here.
Copyright© Eamon Maydon
Odi et amo by Catullus:
Odi et amo. Quare id faciam, fortasse requiris.
nescio, sed fieri sentio et excrucior
Meaning:
I hate and I love. You ask me why it is so, but I do not know.
But I feel it and I am pained by it.