©Sunrisepainter: Because of Snape

First Meeting And A Ferret

So the first meeting of Hope and Fred was on Monday. Both of them dreaded it but there was no way to avoid it. None of them dared to back down. They were much to proud as to let Snape and especially the other crow over them.

"Did you already think about a good prank to play on Shycates?", George asked his brother on the Sunday evening as they were getting ready for bed.

"I decided to leave her alone this time and just concentrate on the potion."

"What?"

Literally George's jaw dropped on his chest. Fred just shrugged:

"It wouldn't do me any favor. I'm really bad at Potions. My grades suck. It would be really foolish of me to ruin my chances fot getting a good grade for once."

"Who are you and what did you do to my twin brother?", George could not believe what he just heard. Never, never ever in his life, Fred did actually care about his grades.

"We're now on the way of becoming responsible adults", he sounded almost a little melancholy. Fred sighed theatrically.

"Yeah, seems like it. What a pity", George already lay on his bed and crossed his arms behind his head, "but you're right. If we want our shop to be successful we need to learn about the basics at least. In the end our joke articles won't produce themselves on its own."

"However I think that we'll lose our humor, even if we're old as the hills and hex our dentures to bite our caretakers at the hospital."

George laughed. That idea did not sound that bad.

"It's good that we'll stay here for one more year. Without us this school would already be just a grey hulk. Especially with Umbridge."
"Don't bring her up, now! I'll get nightmares!", Fred groaned and sat down on his bed.

"Although I'd like to keep this conversation I alive, I guess that even pranksters like us need some sleep. Good night, Fred."

He yawned.

"Night, George and sweet dreams about Hermione", as soon as Fred vocalized this sentence he was hit by a pillow.

"Another damn word and I'll lock you up with Shycates in a broom closet.", George threatened.

His brother only laughed:

"Then she'll scratch out your eyes."

"It would be worth it."

"Crap", Fred cursed and hastened his steps. At seven o'clock he had to meet Hope in the library and it was already eight. She had to fume by now.

When he entered the library she was sitting at a table with crossed arms and sending death glares his way as he walked towards her. He gulped. Go in and win, Fred Weasley!

"Hey, Shycates! I'm sorry, I forgot to watch the time", that was a big lie. In reality he made a detour to the Honeydukes and did not had the motivation to work on such a beautiful day. Only with a heavy heart he was able to leave Licorice Wandsand Chocolate Frogs behind. Of course he could not tell her about the secret passage behind the statue of the one-eyed witch. She was the kind of girl that immediately would inform McGonagall.

Patiently he waited for the flood of scoldings and sermons about punctuality and responsibility. But it was not like this.

"Oh, I don't mind. I had nothing better to do anyway as to sit here and twirl my thumbs", she smiled sweetly. Fred thought he misheard and stared at her dumbfounded.

"What's wrong, Weasley? Did you expect me to hex you? Believe me, that's exactly what I'd love to do, but I don't want to risk being sent to Azkaban because of murder." Fred could not himself but to smirk:
"No, that's not something I want to take responsibility for. The next time I'll be here half an hour earlier. I promise."

"Well, that sounds reasonable", she nodded in satisfaction.

"So, where do we start?", he fell down on the chair next to her.

"We're in a library, so at first it would be logical to look for some books, don't you think?" He grimaced:

"Does it mean we have to read?"
"No, we'll eat them, Weasley!", she said tauntingly.

He deliberately ignored her remark and looked around. In what section should he begin?

Hope already disappeared between the book shelves. Her anger was as soon gone as she saw the closed rows of huge tomes and a smile formed on her lips. That was her empire. She looked for the capital "L" and stroke with her fingertips over the back of the books.

"Legilimens, leprechaun gold...", she whispered, "There it it! Love potions!"

She pulled the book from the shelf. Its cover was ruby red and the title was written in golden, rolling letters: "To Love And To Let Love by Geraldine Mitchell"

A young woman with blond curls and blue eyes on a photo smiled at her. Every time she swung her wand a blue heart flashed up. Like a firework.

She scanned the table of content. "Amourosis: page 79"
She flipped on the right page and started reading:

"Amourosis is one of the three legendary potions that also include the death potion Ilamort and the sleeping potion Dormiron. It was classified with an A, that means that there's a great danger while taking this potion...", she frowned. Danger?

She was about to go on when a voice whispered in her ear:
"So, found anything?" Surprised she let the book drop on the floor and jerked around.

Two blue eyes glanced at her in amusement.

"Weasley!", she hissed. He just smirked.

"How dare you scare me like that!", she nagged as she picked up the book.

Then she went back to the table ignoring him completely. She slammed the book on the wooden desk top which brought her an evil eye from Madame Pince, the librarian.

"I ask you to be more careful, Miss. These books are very precious!"

"Excuse me!", Hope mumbled ashamed of her own anger and opened the book a lot more carefully. Suddenly Fred bend his face over her shoulder to read along.

"...even the brewage demands a lot of patience, because it may take about five month ("Five month? Snape has gone mad!", Fred huffed.) and the purchase of the ingredients is quite intricate. The person taking the potion might be placed into some kind of coma and wakes up depending on the dosage. It's common for love potions that the person taking it falls deeply in love with the first creature he/she sees. So, in case you want to administer this poison to your love interest, you have to make sure to be the first thing he/she sees after being awakened. The effect will occur immediately and quite strongly. The person will thinking of you as the love of his/her life and will be dreaming of you night and day. It is like an addiction that can not be cured. But beware, if the love is not mutual, it may happen that the person, who consumed the potion, suffer of some kind of depression up to committing suicide.

If there are any side effects, please notify the Mediwitch of your trust or the Department of Flubbed Charms and Hexes in the Ministry of Magic."

"Sounds like some hot stuff", Fred said when they finished reading.

"It's strange that Snape gave us such a dangerous task", she wondered. He still leaned over her shoulder which made her very nervous.

"What do we need for brewing?", he asked and she shuddered when his breath softly caressed her ear. She quickly eyed the list of ingredients.

"Well, most of the things could be find in the student's storage room, but some other things will be harder to get. Do you by any chance know about Cytrillkraut?"

"No idea", he sat down on one of the chairs and looked at the picture next to the list of ingredients. It showed a wizard lovingly watching a witch who triumphantly waved the potion. Hope sighed deeply:

"So, we have to ask Professor Sprout about it. Our next lesson of Herbology will on Wednesday. I hope until that time we'll have all of the other ingredients so that we can start on Friday."

"Does this mean we're done for today?"

"I think so. We can't start brewing without ingredients, can we? So, see you tomorrow, I guess", she grabbed her bag and stuffed the book between all the others.

Suddenly Fred realized with relief that they actually made it through the first meeting without killing each other. And they did not argue as much as before.

"Oh, and don't forget to come half an hour earlier next time", she reminded him and dashed out off the library. She still needed to do some homework.

Fred still did not even move an inch but only watched her leaving with a smile on his face. It was the first time she actually laughed in his presence. And it had been an earnest laughter. Why did she not try to keep this up? Her laugh was very bright and beautiful

Immidiately he shook this thought out of his head. Frederick Weasley, since when do you want Hope Shycate to laugh!?

"Shame on you", he scolded himself,

After Hope has left the library, she fiercely shook her head. She actually had been too nice to him, although she did not like him at all. But she could not help herself after she saw the guilty expression on his face when he was too late. Something was not quite right with her. Maybe she was a little stressed out recently.

"Please, give me back my books, I beg of you!", a dreamy voice pulled her out of her thoughts.

She looked up and saw Luna Lovegood, a girl from Ravenclaw, who she recognized because of the strange way she dressed and spoke. She was tiptoeing and reaching out for a book that a boy with bleached blond hair held up over his head.

Hope recognized him as well. He was Dracon Malfoy from Slytherin and the biggest jerk that she ever saw.

"Hey Loony, is this you're diary or why do you try so hard to get it back? Maybe you even wrote all your paranoid and crazy thoughts down?"

"Please, Malfoy!"

But he only laughed at her. Hope decided that it was time to do something. She liked Luna Lovegood, because she was always herself and did not hide her real face behind a false mask.

"Draco Malfoy!", she stood with her hands on her hips and glared at him furiously, "if you don#t give her back the book right now, I'll curse you with a Full Body Bind and take you forcefully to Professor McGonagall with my own hands!"

"Just stay out of it, bitch! It doesn't concern you at all!", he hissed.

"Of course it does! It's my duty to help younger students that are bullied by their seniors!"

Without hesitation she easily snatched the book from his hands. It was a great help that she was about ten centimeters taller than him.

"Here you go, Luna."

"Thanks!", the blond girl smiled at her and left happily. Only Hope and Draco remained in the empty corridor.

"I'm gonna make you regret meddling!", he pulled out his want and directed it at her.

Immediately she looked for hers, but- "No!", she whispered, because it was not in her bag anymore. Malfoy smirked:

"Would you look at that! The dutiful little prefect is unarmed."

"I warn you, Malfoy! You're also a prefect, so don't do something stupid or you'll lose you're precious position!", she tried to turn the situation around but in reality she knew that it was useless. She was trapped. Malfoy laughed:

"Do you really think I care about that?"

She swallowed hard and shook her head. She faced him with her hands made into fists. She would not run away. She would take whatever awaited her.

"You're such a coward, Malfoy!", she whispered, "you only dare to bully younger students and now yo even threaten me, because I'm defenseless right now."

"A Malfoy isn't a coward!", he hissed furiously. She only looked at him in disdain:

"You're a hateful person and a coward!"

Angrily he waved his want:
"Levicorpus!"

Hope closed her eyes. She waited for the curse to take effect on her but it never came. Instead she just heard an earsplitting bang.

Carefully she opened her eyes. Somebody had pulled Malfoys arm upwards so that the curse only crashed into the high ceiling.

"Just look for someone your age to play with, Malfoy!", Fred hissed.

"What the hell you're doing, Weasley? Get out of my way!"

But Fred did no longer take notice of him and instead just worriedly looked at his classmate:

"Are you okay?"

She just nodded. She was too astonished by his sudden intervention. He smirked and passed her want to her:

"You left it in the library. Very brave. This sneaky ferret nearly got you there."

Relieved she caught her want and mumbled her thanks.

"And now to you, pal. If I'll ever catch you again bullying innocent girls, our next trick on you will be even more evil than the last one!", Fred threatened. Malfoy paled and immediately took leave.

"Thanks Weasley, but I could've handled him on my own!"

"As if!"

"Really, I don't need your damn help", she turned around and stalked away leaving a confused Fred behind. He just wanted to help her. Angrily he shook his head. She still was a stuck – up goose!

End of Chapter Six.