Chapter 8

Hermione put down the cologne bottle with shaking hands and walked out of the bathroom. She took a deep breath to calm herself down and walked out of her dorm towards Ginny and Harry's dorm. She knocked and burst in without waiting for them to open the door.

Harry looked up at her in shock and opened his mouth to speak. "Mione-" "Where's Ginny?" Hermione cut him off. "Uh, kitchen," he said, taken aback by her sudden abruptness. "Ginny!" called Hermione.

Ginny walked out of the kitchen with curiosity. "Oh, Mione, hey!" she said as she looked at her. "I need to talk to you. Alone," she said, glancing at Harry. Harry blinked and gave a small chuckle. "Woah. Never expected that my best friend would steal my girlfriend," he said as he got up. Noticing the glares on both the girl's faces, he walked out of the dorm without another word.

"What happened? Are you okay?" Ginny asked anxiously sitting on the couch and patting the seat next to her. "Um, I don't know how to tell you this," Hermione said, her head in her hands. "You know you can tell me anything, right Hermione?" Ginny asked, grabbing her hands and pulling them down from her head.

"Okay, I can do this," Hermione began with a shuddering breath. "In our sixth year's first potion's class, Professor Slughorn had us identify 4 potions. They were Veritaserum, Polyjuice Potion, Felix Felicis, and Amortentia."

Ginny nodded and told her to continue. "That day, I smelled freshly moan grass, new parchment, and..." she trailed off, too nervous to speak. "What did you smell Mione?" Ginny urged. "Ron's hair, okay? I smelled Ron's hair," she said, frustrated.

Ginny looked at her, clearly confused. "Okay, and what's wrong with that? You liked him then, right?" she asked. "I did, but the thing is, I didn't smell his hair anymore," Hermione explained. "Well, obviously! You don't like him anymore, so you didn't smell his hair. What did you smell?" Ginny asked.

"I smelled cologne. Mahogany Teakwood cologne." Hermione said, blushing. "Mahogany Teakwood? Who wears that?" Ginny asked thinking about all the possibilities. "I didn't know. But, I found out. And now that I did, I wish I hadn't found out." Hermione replied, dreading what she had to say next.

"Okay, are you going to tell me who it is, or are you going to keep talking in riddles?" Ginny asked, irritated. "Malfoy," Hermione mumbled looking away.

"Who?"

"Malfoy," Hermione said a little clearer.

"Y-you smelled Malfoy's cologne? Malfoy?"Ginny asked, looking amused. Hermione turned to look at her and saw her smiling. "Why are you smiling? I smelled Malfoy, of all people, and you're smiling?" Hermine whisper-yelled at her. "Because you got engaged the day-before-yesterday, and now, you are smelling him in Amortentia," she explained.

"Gin, this is not funny. At all. This person bullied me for seven years! And now, suddenly, he is supposed to be the thing that I am supposed to be most attracted to?" Hermione asked her in a pained voice. "I don't know Mione! You're the smart one!" Ginny exclaimed.

"Wait. Maybe-maybe it's not Malfoy you are attracted to!" she suddenly whispered. Hermione turned around at once. "What are you implying? Do you know anyone else who wears Mahogany Teakwood cologne? Because I certainly don't," she said, hopefully.

"No, I don't know anyone who wears that cologne, but maybe there is! Or maybe, you're just attracted to the smell of the cologne. As in, you only like the cologne and not the person who wears it," Ginny explained, smiling slightly at her own intelligence.

Hermione stayed silent for a while, contemplating Ginny's point of view and then nodded slowly. "Yeah. Yeah, maybe you are right, Ginny. I was just overthinking it, right?" she said, convincing herself. She got up and smiled slightly. "Thanks, Gin. I really needed to talk to someone about this." Ginny got up and hugged Hermione. "Well, now that that's over, do you wanna eat?" Ginny asked her. Hermione nodded and said, "Yeah, I'll grab my robe".

Shoutout to Scrappy8: Thank you for your constant support!

rooske01: Thank you! I'll try updating as frequently as possible.

GinnyPotter6891: That's kinda the point. I'm not You-Know-WHo, and I can never be her. So I don't try to write like her, and I never even want to try. I am my own person, and I sure as hell do not want to try and be anyone else. That's why I used the term "Golden Trio". They became Golden Trio after the War. At least, that's what I think. And if I offended you by saying "Golden Trio", or if you didn't like it, then I am sorry

Karen the Karen: Thank you for sticking up for me, it made me feel incredible that someone likes my story to that extent. And about the Goblet of Fire, I read quite a lot of Marriage Law fanfics, and most of them had spells, or like, question papers, and I just didn't think that a simple spell can determine your life. I know that that is actually what is happening with the Goblet too, but I just think that it is a really old Magical Artifact, like the Sorting Hat, and its decision would be more accurate. And I don't think that it would probably not be tampered with as they didn't put their names in the Goblet in advance and wait for it to make a decision.

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