"Pansy!" Draco groaned, covering his face with his hands. They had the best seat in front of the fire, having intimidated several second-years out of their armchairs. "He thinks it was a prank!"

The Slytherin common room was vastly different to the slimy halls outside. It was dry and warm, and had overstuffed armchairs and had fireplaces where green flames flickered. Across one wall was thick glass, giving a view of under the lake. When it was dark like now, not much could be seen but on good days the Ginat Squid and other magical creatures could be seen.

Pansy flicked a page of her Potions book and sighed at Draco. It was late enough that they had the common room more or less to themselves. But that might also be because of the Malfoy and Parkinson reputation.

"So you told him it wasn't a prank right?" Pansy had sat through enough of Draco's complaints about Harry that she was sick of the whole conversation. She wasn't even sure when his spits of 'Potter!' turned to much softer, almost awed exclamations of 'Potter' or, even worse, just 'Harry'

"No!" Draco said, scandalised at the thought. "I just agreed with him!"

Pansy mirrored his groan, being forced to place her book down. "Why didn't you tell him that it wasn't a prank?" she asked slowly, cradling her chin in her hands.

"Because I can't tell him I have a crush on him! He's the Boy Who Lived! He'll hex me."

Pansy took a deep breath. "You know Potter can't muster enough skill to hex you."

Draco stared into the fire, and Pansy inwardly marvelled at the boy who had a reputation feared enough to empty a room, to scare away anyone, to get the best treatment in many shops now pouting in front of her about some crush. He acted like some powerful wizard ready to hex anyone, but he was just some boy terrified of asking his crush out.

She knew it was more than a crush though, having being forced to endure hours of lectures about Potter's hair, what he had done that day, of his skill riding a broomstick.

"That's not even the worst part." Draco said a moment later and Pansy bit her lip hard to stop form groaning again.

"How could this be any worse?" She had several scenarios of how it could be worse but she had been in the lesson (just distracted from Draco and his plight) and at least no one had been attacked.

"Potter got annoyed when we were brewing it and told me to back off because he couldn't tell if the potion was working or not because my cologne stank." He looked at Pansy expectantly. Pansy felt she was missing something.

"So lay off the cologne. Believe me, no one likes cologne."

"Pansy. I ran out of cologne last week. My father is taking forever to send more."

Everything clicked into place for Pansy.

"You're his amortentia. That's great!"

The look on Draco's face told her that this was not great. "He thinks I hate him because I told him it was some childish prank!"

"He thinks you hate him because you laugh at him constantly too." She wasn't usually one to suggest politeness or kindness to others, especially towards Harry Potter, but if Draco really wanted to court Harry mocking him was not the best way.

Draco scowled. "You're not helping Pansy."

Pansy shrugged and picked up her book again, sliding a bookmark between the pages. She would get no studying done tonight. "You've properly stabbed yourself in the back here, Malfoy. I don't think Merlin could help you now."

Draco sighed heavily, shuffling his feet on the hardwood floor. "What do I do, Pans?"

Pansy looked at him with a pitying look. "Is give up on him not an option?"

Draco gave her a distasteful scowl. Then his eyes widened and hardened into a look Pansy knew brought no good. "I could slip some Amortentia into his food. Then I would know for certain if he liked me."

"Draco, that's illegal." She remembered that nothing their families did was strictly legal. "You can't keep the Boy Who Lived under amortentia. Just-" She rubbed the bridge of her nose. All this frowning and worrying was going to wreck her skin and give her unCharmable wrinkles. "Just tell him that you like him and if he doesn't like it, just play it off like you were making another joke."

Draco nodded, as if finally seeing sense. "I'll take a vial of amortentia just in case." he declared and Pansy sighed into her hands. Well, she couldn't win all their arguments.