Chapter 4
"A love potion?" he repeated, eyebrows furrowing in deepened confusion.
She sighed, her breathing still uneven, and nodded slowly, unsure of how he would react.
"Severus and Rolanda," she explained, feeling a renewed sense of anger, "they thought it would help... Though how, I do not know," she added bitterly.
"I don't understand."
"They gave you tea to drink, and it had love potion in it."
Albus frowned as he shifted uncomfortably on the bed.
"Minerva, I haven't drank any tea today."
She shook her head in a feeble attempt to clear her foggy mind.
"They must have told you the tea was from me, if you chose me to fall in love with," she rambled on, beginning to pace back and forth once more as she wrung her trembling hands together to relieve built-up tension.
"Have a seat, my dear. You're making me nervous, and you're going to wear a hole in your nice rug."
She gritted her teeth together as his continued use of the words "my dear" stung her. She paused only momentarily from her pacing before continuing to march back and forth, this time even faster and more frantically than before.
"I assure you, I haven't drank any tea, not today or any time recently," he reiterated calmly.
"But you must have," she exclaimed, stopping in her tracks before she turned back to him once more. "I heard them discussing it, and you're very clearly under the effects of a love potion. How else could you... would you..."
Albus smiled softly as he rose from the bed.
"If I am under a love spell," he told her earnestly, "then I have been for at least fifty years now."
"Then you – they –"
"Perhaps you misunderstood what you heard from them," he suggested.
He began walking towards her, but this time she did make an effort to move away.
"No, I heard them quite perfectly," she insisted as dangerous flashes of lightening returned to her eyes.
She broke into nearly a run as she headed for the door.
"I'll be back," she said, answering the question written on his face and making it clear that she was not escaping from him again. "But in the meantime, you might want to look into finding Hogwarts a new Flying Instructor and Potions Master."
To be continued...