Jen almost had to drag Liz from the Ravenclaw common room the next morning to get her to go down to breakfast. Although Jen didn't know all the reasons for Liz's behaviour, she figured it probably had something to do with Harry and just left it at that.
How was she supposed to know that Liz was freaked out about learning the true identity of her Owl Pal? For goodness sake, Jen didn't even know Liz had devised a plan of how to find out!
"Stop pulling against me!" Jen snapped as she pulled Liz down a corridor towards the Great Hall.
"You don't understand! Please, I can't go to breakfast this morning!" Liz begged, still pulling in the opposite direction and trying to make Jen let go of her.
"Would you relax? Even if you admitted you liked him and he didn't like you back, he'd probably be really nice about it."
"Don't say that! I don't want to think about it!" Liz whined, biting her lip.
"Sorry, thought it might help." Jen shrugged. The open doors to the Great Hall loomed up ahead and Jen started fighting harder to get Liz through them. Hopefully once they had gotten that far Liz would accept her fate and go with it.
Liz found herself suddenly hyperventilating. What would she do if her Owl Pal was someone really unattractive? How would she be able to write letters to Cotton knowing what he looked like? She definitely wouldn't want to tell him she knew who he was if he wasn't good-looking.
Liz groaned, knowing that sounded really mean.
"Here we go." Jen said triumphantly as she pulled Liz through the doors.
Thankfully Liz calmed down and allowed Jen to pull her over to the Gryffindor table without fighting any more, just as Jen had hoped would happen. They sat down across from Hermione and Ron and Liz stiffened when she realised she was sitting next to Harry.
For a strange reason which Liz didn't know, Harry had stiffened as well. His hands were clenched into fists and he was obviously clenching his jaw extremely tightly.
Taking a deep breath, Liz leant over to Jen.
"Do I smell bad?" she whispered.
"No, why?" Jen whispered back.
"Look at Harry." Liz wispered.
Jen innocently looked past Liz to Harry and frowned. Why was he acting so strange? Her thoughts would have continued but they were interrupted as Hermione spoke.
"Liz, could I swap seats with you?" Hermione asked.
Liz shot a desperate look at Jen, who just shrugged helplessly.
"Don't." Harry said suddenly, his voice sounding much deeper and strained.
"Harry." Hermione said warningly.
"I can't-" Harry swallowed. "I can't fight it any more."
"Harry you have to!" Hermione pleaded. "Think about something else, anything!"
"What's going on?" Jen asked, her eyebrows furrowed in confusion.
"I think someone slipped Harry a love potion as a joke." Hermione admitted sadly. "He's been acting dreamy all morning."
Liz choked horribly on her breath of air after Hermione spoke, gasping as she stared at Harry.
"No way!" she burst out. "It can't be you!"
Harry turned to look at her, his eyes immediately glazing over and a smile pulling his lips up. He started to lean towards her and Liz found herself frozen in shock, her eyes wide as she stared at him and watched his green eyes get closer and closer to her each moment.
"Harry!" Hermione exclaimed, horrified.
Harry ignored her, his entire mind focussed on one thing and one thing only. He gently put a hand on the side of Liz's face and then proceeded to snog her face off.
Liz quickly put her own arms around his neck and kissed him back, happiness swelling up inside of her. She couldn't believe it. Cotton was Harry! If she wasn't currently in the middle of an amazing kiss she could have laughed at how ironic it was.
"Blimey, Harry." Ron muttered in shock.
"Well, that definitely went well." Jen said, turning to the table and grabbing some food to eat. Ron and Hermione couldn't understand how she could be so calm while her best friend snogged Harry in plain view, but they didn't spend too long thinking about it.
When Liz pushed away to catch her breath, Harry moved his lips to her neck.
"Ah, stop." Liz giggled, attempting to push him further away again. He growled as she pushed and then grabbed her hands to make her stop.
"I'm going to get Professor Slughorn." Hermione announced, standing and making her way towards the Professor's table at the front of the room.
"No!" Liz said, but Hermione was already halfway there. "This is so embarrassing."
"This bacon is really good." Jen commented after swallowing some of the said food.
"Jen! How can you be thinking of food?" Liz asked, slightly panicky as Harry began bringing his lips back up to hers.
"Quite easily." Jen shrugged.
"Food is amazing." Ron agreed, nodding.
"It is, isn't it?" Jen smiled. "I mean, if we didn't have food we'd die. So it's great!"
"Very true! But I can never get Hermione to understand that." Ron sighed. Jen grinned and pulled her bottle of love potion from her pocket, handing it over to him quickly.
"This is a love potion. Use it on Hermione." she whispered.
Just then, Hermione and Professor Slughorn appeared at the table.
"Ah, I see the problem." Slughorn said, seeing Harry and Liz still snogging. "Easily fixed, though." he added.
"Do you have an antidote with you, Professor?" Hermione asked.
"No, but I have some in my office. Ahem, Harry! Miss Teppett!" Slughorn tried to get their attention. "Could you two please come with me? You can kiss as we walk."
Liz somehow managed to stand up and dragged Harry along with her as she followed Professor Slughorn. As amazing at kissing Harry was, she really wanted the love potion to wear off so that they could talk normally.
It wasn't long before they reached Slughorn's office – although it felt like an eternity to Liz because Harry hadn't stopped kissing her the entire way.
"Alright, here we go. Who's the one affected by the love potion?" Slughorn asked as he picked up a bottle of antidote and turned back to them.
Liz quickly freed one of her hands so that she could point frantically at Harry.
"Well, you're going to have to get him to drink this." Slughorn said, frowning slightly. "I'm not sure how you'll be able to distract him though."
Liz felt horrible about what she was planning on doing, but she was going to do it nevertheless. So, with her lips still locked with Harry's, she kneed him in the groin.
A groan escape Harry's lips and he pulled back to catch his breath, a pained expression on his face.
"Harry," Liz said quickly, grabbing the antidote from Slughorn and pulling off the lid. "Drink this and the pain will be gone and we'll be able to keep kissing."
Instantly Harry grabbed the bottle and downed it in one gulp. He then stood there breathing heavily for a few moments before frowning in confusion and looking around.
"What- what am I doing here? What happened?" he asked. Liz went bright red as she realised he wasn't going to remember anything that had happened while he was under the influence of the love potion.
"Someone gave you a love potion, but it's okay because you've had the antidote now." Liz explained. "Come on, let's go back to the Great Hall. Thank you so much Professor."
Taking his arm, Liz led Harry from the room and began taking him back to the Great Hall. Her lips felt slightly bruised from all the kissing she had been doing and she wondered whether Harry would be feeling that as well.
"Liz..." Harry said quietly and cautiously.
"Yeah?" Liz asked, hoping she sounded innocent.
"Did I-" Harry gulped and momentarily closed his eyes. "Did I kiss you?"
Involuntarily licking her lips, Liz wondered what to say. Swallowing nervously, she managed to nod her head and cleared her throat before saying, "Yeah."
"I am so sorry!" Harry said, the regret in his face making Liz want to hug him to let him know it was okay.
"Harry, it's my fault." she said instead.
"What do you mean?" Harry asked, frowning.
Liz took a deep breath. "I gave you the love potion. I'm Spark."
Harry stopped walking to stare at her. He opened his mouth to say something but shut it again, apparently not being able to think of the proper words. He did this again and again before finally just turning away and shaking his head in confusion.
"It was a love potion?" he finally managed to ask.
"Yeah," Liz nodded. "It worked I guess; now we know we're Owl Pals."
Harry nodded thoughtfully, staring at the ground.
"Can I tell you something?" he asked nervously.
"Sure." Liz nodded.
"I-" Harry turned to look at her, a blush colouring his cheeks attractively and making Liz smiled gently. "I like you."
"I like you too." Liz replied, her smile widening.
"I wish I could remember kissing you." Harry said quietly, going redder once he said it. Liz stepped closer to him and put a hand on his chin.
"As I recall," she murmured, bringing her face close to his. "It went something like this."
She then smashed her lips up against his and kissed him with everything she had, again twisting her arms behind his neck and smiling into the kiss when he put his arms around her waist.
When they parted to breathe, Harry smiled at her.
"That was definitely better than a memory."