Prompt: you are already dating someone else, and during our love potion unit, you get asked to explain what you smell, and of course you're gonna be smelling things that describe your partner right? uhm, but then why are you explicitly describing me…?
Jane couldn't help scowling as she watched Maura walk past her compartment on the Hogwarts Express, holding hands with Cormac McLaggen.
"Don't pay him any mind," said George, noticing Jane's gaze following the couple. "He's nothing but a sleazy git."
"Maura's not stupid, though, she wouldn't get with a total sleazeball if that's all he was," Jane mumbled, sitting all the way back once the couple was out of sight. "How'd they even get close?"
"I don't mean to say I told you so, but you should've taken us up on our offer and stayed with us over the summer," said Fred. "You lose out when you go all the way back stateside for the off-season."
"That wouldn't have helped; their families both spent the summer at Maison Magique," said Angelina, naming an elite wizarding getaway in southern France. "My dad took me there to visit my grandparents in July. Mostly Beauxbatons kids, I met some cool blokes. Maura and McLaggen stuck together, though. They were nose-to-nose by the time I got there."
The Weasley twins whistled and shook their heads in sympathy. Jane stayed silent, restlessly twirling her wand.
"I…know you mentioned liking her before last term ended," Angelina said, which Jane had to laugh at because it was such a kind way of referring to the cartwheels Jane had done around their room while shouting "I'm in love, I'm in love, and I don't care who knows it!" "Did you ever actually tell her?"
"No," Jane sighed. "We just…we had some moments, you know? And I thought they meant we were on the same page, but I guess we weren't."
"You must've written to her, yeah?" asked Fred.
Jane sighed again. "Yeah, but not a ton. I still don't understand how owl post is the most common form of communication for underage wizards; it's so slow! If Maura had a damn cellphone-"
"Not this again," George mumbled.
"-maybe that would've been different! There's more of an immediacy with stuff like texting. What was I gonna do, write her a love letter? When we hadn't even actually, I don't know, confirmed anything?"
Over the summer it had felt way too vulnerable to put down any of her feelings on paper. There were some conversations she felt ought to happen in person, or at least ought to happen with a quick exchange possible, which owl post could not provide. She and Maura had exchanged a few letters at the beginning of the summer, but it must've been before she'd gone to France because she'd made no mention of the trip and certainly no mention of Cormac McLaggen. Now what if it was too late? Maybe it had been stupid not to write more, not to be forthcoming about her feelings. She hadn't thought there'd be any risk, but that was stupid - of course a girl as pretty as Maura Isles would attract attention.
"If you want her to choose you, she's got to know you're an option," Angelina said, putting her arm around Jane's shoulders.
"What good's that advice?" asked George. "The choice has already been made, hasn't it? We don't want her forcing her way in there like a jerk. Jane, why don't you let us fill in Ginny? She's a master at the bat-bogey hex and could turn Cormac's-"
"Right, that's not what a jerk would do," Angelina cut him off, rolling her eyes.
"Well if it was coming from a different source-!"
Jane decided to let them argue about it, trying to distract herself by playing a game of exploding snap with Lee. Her spirits were getting a little higher until the trolley cart came through, and there were no pumpkin pasties left. They had been Jane's favorite wizarding treat since her first ride on the Hogwarts Express and sadly also seemed to be the only one that didn't transport well when she asked her friends to send them overseas. Buying one for the ride to school was something she looked forward to all summer, and when the trolley witch apologetically offered her a licorice wand instead, the compartment fell silent as if one of Jane's best friends had died.
Fred bought his usual box of Bertie Botts for everyone to gross each other out with, but Jane didn't feel like playing. "I'm gonna hit up the ole water closet," she muttered, moving to the door.
"Uncanny!" cried George. "I'm pretty sure I just ate a toilet water-flavored bean."
Jane was determined to look straight ahead rather than scan the windows for Maura. Her heart seemed to fly up into her throat when Maura leapt out of a compartment in front of her.
"Jane!"
"Maura, hi! H-hello. Hi."
"How was the end of your summer?"
"Good, good, it was good. How about yours?" She couldn't help glancing into the compartment where McLaggen was unbuttoning his shirt. "Uh… d'you realize your boyfriend is disrobing?"
Maura's eyes flicked over to McLaggen, and Jane frowned as they lingered on an objectively attractive body. Jane did her best to retain a polite smile when Maura looked back at her.
"I was helping him revise an essay for Binns and he spilled some ink on his shirt," Maura explained. "I guess he's choosing to get into his school robes now."
"Bet that's not all he'd like to get into," Jane mumbled under her breath.
"Hm?"
"Nothing." Jane had hoped Maura would correct her on the "boyfriend" label. "You guys, you two are…"
Maura folded her arms, looking a little uncomfortable but trying to sound chipper. "We spent a lot of time together this summer. He's quite a fascinating boy."
"Mm. Okay."
A short and painful silence passed before Maura said, "I was going to write you about him, but… you hadn't answered my previous letter and I didn't want to be a bother."
"What?" Jane asked, more sharply than she'd intended. "I answered your last letter! I remember because you mentioned these sisters who lived across the street from you and they reminded me of the witches in Hocus Pocus and I wrote out this long plot description and I thought maybe you didn't write me back because I talked too much about my mom's obsession with Bette Midler-"
"What's a Bette Midler?" Maura asked, looking confused.
"You didn't get that letter? Didn't Bass come back?"
Bass was Maura's owl. Jane didn't have one of her own; her parents didn't think it was worth the money or the mess when Jane could borrow one at school and use her friends' at home - which meant communication depended on them to start.
"He did, and he wasn't injured or anything, so I don't believed he was attacked in transit."
"Has he ever lost mail before? It happens to muggle postal workers now and then."
"He would never!"
McLaggen opened the compartment door, tired of waiting for the conversation to wind up. "There a party going on out here? Can I join?"
"Thanks, I was just on my way to the restroom," Jane said, shooting him a scowl. "Your girlfriend here ambushed me."
He smiled at the term, and Jane tried not to read too much into the flicker of discomfort (?) in Maura's expression. She composed herself as Jane was about to walk away and said, "Wait, I wanted to give you this!" She handed Jane a small orange box. "The trolley witch was short on pumpkin pasties, and she said I bought the last one. I remembered you really liked them, and I didn't want you to have to go without…"
Jane was touched by the gesture, and couldn't help a small smile as she took the box. "Thanks, Maura. That's really nice of you."
"No problem," said Maura, looking happy that Jane was pleased. "See you later?"
"Sure, yeah, see you around…"
On the night of sorting first years, students were encouraged to sit at their own house tables. Jane's eyes were on McLaggen most of the evening, and she almost gave herself a headache twisting (as subtly as she could) to see Maura's reactions when he winked or waved or puckered up. Once the dessert course arrived, he finally got up to go sit by her.
"Cheer up, mate," said George, flipping a spoonful of chocolate pudding at Jane. She made no indication that she was aware it'd landed on her cheek. "There's plenty of other fish in the black lake."
"My life is a black lake," Jane mumbled.
Angelina frowned, cleaning the pudding off Jane's cheek. "Don't be thick, you'll be all right."
"Yeah, I hear McLaggen's gotten almost as many death predictions from Trelawney as Harry Potter," said Fred. "Maybe that'll turn out to be one of the old bat's accurate ones! I'm sure she's due; it must've been decades from her last one."
The three of them spent the rest of the night attempting to cheer Jane up, and she was grateful for the effort. She even managed to laugh a few times.
What really got her spirits up, though, was watching Maura and McLaggen throughout the week. At first they had been very touchy-feely, cuddly even, but by mid-week Jane thought she detected a change in Maura's attitude. She excitedly shared her observations with Angelina - Maura looked a little more somber with him; she didn't seem to like his arm around her as much - but Angelina warned her not to get her hopes up. Maura was a serious person most of the time, she reminded her, and maybe she'd found that PDA really wasn't her thing.
On Friday, the Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs had their first Potions class together. Jane had barely managed to score high enough on her OWLs to meet Snape's standards, and several of her classmates were shocked to see her there. This included McLaggen, who watched with unflattering surprise as Jane and Angelina sat down at the table next to his and Maura's.
"What are you doing here?" he asked. "Haven't you lost Gryffindor enough points in this room?"
"Nothing we haven't earned back tenfold with our Quidditch matches," Angelina said, blindly giving Jane a high-five. "Fancy trying out again this year and losing another spot to a second year, McLaggen?"
"Jane wants to be an Auror," Maura said, preventing McLaggen from responding to Angelina's bait. "Potions is a required course for that career path. She'll do great."
Jane was heartened by Maura's warm tone. "I probably only did so well on my OWLS because of your help. Thanks for being so patient with me."
"It was my pleasure."
Snape swept into the room just then, instantly silencing the group. He narrowed his eyes at Jane as he walked by, but made no comment about her presence. He instead drew everyone's attention to the cauldrons positioned in the middle of the classroom.
"If you have done your assigned reading for the summer, you will be able to identify the extremely advanced potions before you," he said. "Regrettably the use of many is restricted for students, but Professor Dumbledore is of the opinion that it would still benefit you to be able to recognize them lest someone's hand …slips. McLaggen."
"Sir?"
"Come forward and identify the first potion."
Few things gave Snape more pleasure than putting Gryffindors on the spot - especially jocks. He knew McLaggen was a capable, even good student once the year really got started, but his first few weeks back were abysmal as he readjusted from summer mode. He was a proud boy, and Snape smirked as he swaggered up to the cauldron and frowned. McLaggen leaned over it, giving it a stir and trying to smell it.
"Um…liquid luck?"
"We use proper names in this course, Mr. McLaggen, and furthermore you are wildly incorrect. This is not Felix Felicious; return to your seat. Who next?" he asked, his dark eyes scanning the room to see who looked the most nervous. "Rizzoli. This one should be simple enough, even for you."
Jane got up and McLaggen bumped her on his way back to his seat. She refrained from retaliating only because she didn't want to prove his point and risk losing them house points today. Clearing her throat, she leaned over the cauldron and almost laughed. "Unless I'm much mistaken-"
"Which is entirely possible."
"-that is a love potion. I mean, amortentia."
While this might've earned her a few points from a teacher who didn't harbor genuine loathing towards their students, Snape merely sent her back to her desk by saying, "Congratulations on meeting the minimum standard for competency on your first day of class."
"My parents will be so proud!"
His eyes narrowed again as Angelina laughed. "It is essential to use as many of your senses as possible aside from taste to identify potentially harmful potions such as these."
"A love potion, harmful?" McLaggen scoffed.
"I know stories about the effects of this potion that would curl your hair, McLaggen."
"But his hair's already curly, sir," Jane pointed out.
"It's…an expression," Snape said through his teeth, his lips barely moving. "Miss Isles."
"Yes, sir?"
"Come share with the class your observations of this potion," he said, gesturing again to the first cauldron. This was always a sure fire way to embarrass a student, and a sensitive intelligent type like Maura was perfect. "What can you tell us about it?"
"I know it's scent is unique to everyone who smells it."
"How so?"
"Well, it smells like whoever the person is attracted to. For example, I smell lavender and pumpkin pasties, and…"
She came to an abrupt halt, her cheeks starting to redden.
"What an abominable sounding combination of scents," Snape said flatly. "You may return to your seat."
Jane tried not to stare at her, then jumped when she realized Angelina was leaning indecently close to her. "Dude! What the hell?" she whispered.
"Just checking to see if you wore your lavender perfume today."
Jane stole furtive glances at Maura throughout the rest of the class. Her expression belied nothing but intense concentration on the coursework. Jane was barely able to concentrate; her heart was pounding so hard she almost worried it might lead to an attack.
When class ended, Maura leapt of her seat, cleaning her space with a sweep of her wand and all but running from the dungeon. Snape smirked as he watched McLaggen hurry after her, followed closely by Jane.
McLaggen headed towards the Hufflepuff dormitory, but Jane tried her luck in the nearest girls bathroom. Maura was indeed standing by one of the sinks, and as they stared at each other, Jane realized she had no idea what she actually wanted to say. She barely knew what to feel, let alone knew what Maura might be feeling.
Angelina's words came back to her: "if you want her to choose you, you've got to let her know you're an option."
Jane had finally caught her breath from running to catch up, but her breathing was still a little shallow and her voice shaky when she said, "Look, I don't know what just happened back there- and I mean for all I know, McLaggen grows lavender and really likes pumpkin pasties but …in case he doesn't, I j-just wanted to tell you that I… I really like you. I like you and I kind of wish I'd asked you out last year. But I also really like being your friend," she hurried to add. "I really, really do, and I don't want you to think I'm not interested in friendship. But you didn't seem as sold on you and McLaggen as he does, so in case you weren't and in case that stuff in class just now was about me, I wanted you to know that I… I am definitely interested."
There had been no change in Maura's expression during this entire speech. Her countenance was guarded, like she was fighting not to emote, and Jane wasn't quite sure how to interpret that. Silence loomed between them, becoming more awkward as it stretched on.
"Okay," Jane whispered. "Um, that was kind of a lot, so I'm gonna … unless you wanna talk about it, I'm gonna leave. Let you think about all that, and um…you go ahead and uh, you can ignore everything I just said if you want to. But come find me any time if you want to talk."
Throughout the rest of the day, Jane kept waffling on wishing she had a cellphone. The immediacy of it was something she craved, but on the flipside, she was sure it would be stressful holding onto one and waiting all day for Maura to text her. She asked Angelina not to tell the Weasley twins what'd happened in class; she was sure Maura was embarrassed enough without bringing anyone else in. Jane loved Fred and George, but they could be relentless when it came to teasing, and she wasn't sure Maura would handle it well.
When Maura didn't show up for dinner, Jane told Angelina in whispers about their conversation in the bathroom. She was just as befuddled by Maura's lack of reaction as Jane had been. It was a small comfort that McLaggen didn't look too pleased himself.
After dinner, Jane and Angelina had started their Charms reading in the Gryffindor common room. About half an hour into it, Jane heard a tapping sound at the nearest window. Even in the semi-darkness she could recognize that it was Maura's owl, Bass, and she rushed to get him. He deposited a small piece of parchment into her hand and took off right away.
Jane unrolled the scroll, detecting a light trace of lavender: "meet me by the Transfiguration classroom."
Without offering an explanation to her friends, Jane sprinted for the portrait hole and hurried off to the classroom. Her heart felt like it was creeping into her throat as she ran, and the feeling was exaggerated when she turned the corner and saw Maura standing there. She tried to act like she wasn't totally out of breath, leaning against the wall a few feet away from Maura and exuding the most casual air she could.
"So what's up?"
"I found out why I never got your last letter," Maura said in a small voice. "It seems Bass brought it in while I was at brunch one day, and Cormac took it upon himself to discard it."
"Son of a witch! Are you serious?"
"That's what he told me."
"How'd you even get him to 'fess up? Did you slip him some of the veritaserum Snape had on that table?" That prompted another thought, and Jane concernedly asked, "He never gave you a love potion, did he?"
"Not to my knowledge," Maura said. "He was quite charming over the summer, and really attentive in a sincere way. I'm not used to much positive attention outside of academia. Outside of you. And I worried when you didn't write back that I'd put you off. I kept waiting, and then I thought maybe I'd waited too long and it would be awkward to write you again, so I …I didn't. Anyway, Cormac talked to me after Potions today - after you did - he was waiting by my dormitory. He has no idea what lavender smells like and he hates pumpkin pasties, but he knows you like them so …so he asked if I liked you."
"What'd you say?" Jane whispered.
Maura continued as though she hadn't heard: "I didn't say anything and he got more upset, and he said he shouldn't have even bothered taking your letter. He's different here, Jane."
"He didn't steal my letter here."
"I guess that's true," Maura conceded. "But I mean, he comes off much more pompous here. He's cocky. He was polite to the Beauxbatons students we met in passing in France, but for the most part we were just focused on each other. Here, he's always trying to act tough. Thinks it makes him cool or something, I guess. That is so unattractive to me."
Jane waited for more, but Maura had fallen silent. "Did you like him?"
Maura sighed and shrugged. "I liked spending time with him. I don't anymore. And I'm furious with him for intervening in our letters."
Jane was already plotting ways to get back at him for that one.
"There are a lot of things about that that I find upsetting," Maura went on, "but one of the most frustrating is that he robbed me of time."
"Hm?"
"Time I could've spent writing to you, telling you how I was feeling. I write excellent letters, Jane."
She had to smile at Maura's never-faltering honesty. "I know, you're really good at it."
"No, I mean…" Maura stepped closer, fidgeting while trying to look seductive at the same time. "I write really good romantic letters."
Jane's eyebrows shot up and her throat went dry. "Oh?"
Maura nodded. "I'd started to think about what I wanted to say in my next note to you. I was trying to psych myself up to say I was really developing a crush on you, but then…"
"Then Cormac stole my letter and swept in, all tall and hunky and there in person."
"He was a distraction."
"So…so you still like me?"
"Amortentia doesn't lie," Maura said. "But I'd have known that without its help. I was going to tell Cormac tonight that I didn't want to see him anymore, but he beat me to the punch."
"I'll beat him with a punch," Jane growled.
"Jane."
"Sorry, too violent?"
Maura laughed, taking gentle hold of Jane's hand. "No, just inefficient. You could curse him and that way wouldn't risk breaking the bones in your hand on his thick head."
"Wouldn't be as satisfying, though," Jane murmured, forming her hand into a fist.
Maura brought Jane's hand to her lips. "Jane?"
"Yeah?"
"Can I kiss you?"
"R-really?"
"Yes," Maura chuckled. "I'd like to, if you'd like to."
She didn't need to ask twice.
