I'm realizing that this kind of sucks but I'm going to keep going anyways, because it's fun and keeps me from eating all the food in the house.

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That had been when I realized I was endlessly, hopelessly in love with Harry James Potter. And he had just walked into the Great Hall without even glancing in my direction. He sat down between Ron and Hermione, who had of course saved him a seat. A few moments later, they both turned and glared at me. I immediately turned away and looked down at my plate so that they wouldn't see the tears in my eyes. I felt awful for what I did to Harry, almost desperate enough to go back up to the balcony out of guilt. I was sure he wouldn't try to stop me this time. Instead I just focused on my breakfast, as I couldn't go and off myself on my first day of school. Afterwards, I headed off to Potions, only to see Potter himself when I walked in. He barely glanced at me before looking away down at his books.

"Well, what have we here?" chortled Slughorn. "Didn't you break his nose and leave him for dead yesterday on the train? What a shame I'm pairing you two up for the first assignment." Slughorn stood up straight and made his way over to his desk. "Alright everyone, our first assignment is working on a brand new potion! It's called amortentia. You'll be working in pairs. However," he added as Harry and Ron looked at each excitedly. "I have preselected who you will each be working with. And these pairs will last the full year."

My heart skipped a beat. Potter wasn't going to be happy about this. I glanced nervously at him, swallowing, feeling it catch in my throat when he turned toward me, glaring daggers when he met my eye. I could only hope that he wouldn't hex me as soon as he found out we were partners. He would have every right to of course, but still. It would be nice to work with him for even a day.

"Pairs will be Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger, Draco Malfoy and Harry Potter…" Slughorn's voice trailed away as the blood roared in my ears as I met Potter's venom-filled gaze.

"Professor Slughorn?" interrupted Harry. "You must have made a mistake. Malfoy left me for dead on the train yesterday. I can't possibly work with him."

"Sorry Harry, but this class is going to bring you all a lot closer together." I held back a snort as Ron and Hermione looked at each other in confusion and shifted awkwardly.

I started and quickly looked down as Harry dropped his books on the table next to me. I tried to keep the apology from leaping from my mouth as he said, "As long as you don't try to kill me again, we won't have a problem."

"Potter, I'm sorry about that, okay?" I said, at which Potter only snorted. He got up and grabbed a small cauldron of amortentia. As he brought it closer, the smell of wind and wood flooded my nostrils, paired with a smell of what seemed like… well the only thing I could think of was that it smelled violently green.

"So, we have to tell each other what it smells like to us. To me, it smells like apple tarts and the sharp air cutting across my face when I'm on a broom. And it kind of smells like it does when I settle down by the common room fire on a chair under a warm blanket reading a book." Harry blushed and looked down. "Don't try to use what I love as some sort of leverage against me. I don't even really like apple tarts that much. I prefer treacle tarts."

"Right, because there's plenty I could do with the knowledge that you love Quidditch. Like I didn't already know that. And I can't get in your common room, how could I hurt you in there?" Harry opened his mouth to deliver a retort, but before he could, I barged on. "Mine smells like Quidditch too," I said quietly. "And…" There was no way I was about to tell him that I smelled something that reminded me of the same shade of green as his eyes. "And of treacle tarts. Which I love. More than apple tarts." Which was, of course, a lie, but he smelled my favourite snack, so I would smell his too.

"Look, Potter, I can explain yesterday. If you would just let me. If you would just meet me at the balcony, I'll explain everything. Please."

"You left me for dead. There's no amount of bullshit that can explain that away. Besides, there's a lot of balconies at Hogwarts. You'd have to be more specific. Now, we have to take note of the ingredients of amortentia."

The self-control it took for me to not tell him I loved him then and there just proved that I was a lot stronger than anyone thought. It only became harder as he leaned over his parchment and began writing, his dark, messy hair falling in front of his dazzling eyes, fell in curls around his face. "It" refers to multiple things of course, because keeping my mouth closed wasn't the only thing that was getting harder by the second. I looked at the curve of his spine, the way his robes pressed into his back, the way you could tell that these robes would need replaced soon, because his were tight around his torso right now.

I tore my attention away from the beautiful boy in front of me and began writing the ingredients down. I quickly grew distracted when I recall my dream from the night before. The image of Harry bleeding in front of me reminded me of what I had to do. I knew killing Dumbledore would be difficult, but torturing Harry would be impossible. He was the boy I had fallen in love with halfway through fifth year. After he had saved me, I had defended myself against my father's rebukes. Admittedly, that was what had resulted in me finishing last year with a dozen more permanent scars than I been ready to end life with. I also defended Harry on occasion when my father spoke poorly of him. That was the reason I had returned to school with burns all across my back.

Thinking of them brought a fresh wave of pain as I shifted, and I hissed quietly. Not quietly enough however, as Harry looked at me, at the expression of agony written across my face, and immediately reached his hand over toward my, before pausing. When I made no move to stop him, he ran his hand stealthily into my shirt, running dancing fingers along my side, moving to my stomach, then around to back. As soon as he touched the burns, every muscle in my body tensed. His cool hands relieved the heat I constantly felt a little, but at the same time, it hurt so fucking bad. I looked up to see pity written all over his face. I tried to work up the venom for an insult, but couldn't find the strength to.

"I'll meet you at our balcony at midnight," he whispered. The coolness of his hand disappeared and the next moment I felt him pressing something into my hand. Looking down, I widened my eyes in surprise.

"Potter, this is your invisibility cloak. You'll need it to sneak out." Harry smirked at me, a gleam in his eyes. It was the hottest thing I had seen yet that week.

"Don't worry about it. I have something else to get me there." I tilted my head in confusion, but he just turned back to his work. I didn't particularly think much more of it, all I knew was that I couldn't wait until midnight.

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