Pearls and Fire whisky | A Harry James Potter love story

014

When Draco and I took our seat at the back of the classroom, Pansy turns around straightaway.

"What the hell happened last night? I've been hearing rumours all morning," she whispers. I groan and let my head rest on the table. I knew there would be some talking, there always was, but not this quickly.

"It was a very rough night," Draco replies. I get up, punch his shoulder and look around to see if anyone had heard him.

"Don't make things worse!" I hiss.

"Well I'm not lying am I? You're the one making it dirty."

I roll my eyes at him, before turning to Pansy.

"He was fighting again with Vincent and Gregory and got absolutely pissed, so I took him to the room of requirement to calm down."

"So what happened to your face? Did those pigs hurt you, because I swear I'll-"

"I hit her," Draco confesses, stoping Pansy mid sentence. She looks at him with utter confusion.

"Accidentally!" I quickly add.

Pansy opens her mouth to say something, but gets interrupted by professor Slughorn who starts speaking. She looks at me one more time and then turns back around to pay attention to what the professor is saying.

~

Today we were finally starting on the draught of living death potion. I had read about the potion during the summer, and had been wanting to make it every since. I've always been passionate about potions, and I feel like this year we were finally doing more advanced things. I could also really use the practice for the potion I was making for Draco, as that was some very high level brewing.

While Draco started warming up the water and setting up the equipment I went over to the cabinets to grab our ingredients. I had grown into the habit of going after the rest of my classmates so I could sometimes slip some extra ingredients needed for our poisonous potion in my pockets. This time however I was disappointed to see the snake venom vials I had been stealing over a course of four lessons didn't get restocked, en thus taking one would be noticeable this time around.

While mumbling a bunch of curse words I try to find the ingredients that were needed for the draught of living death potion. I get on the tips of my toes to desperately try to get a hold of the jar with sopophorous bean's, that someone had conveniently put further back and let out a frustrated groan when I can't reach it.

I feel a presence coming from behind me, an arm reaching out over mine to grab the jar and hand it over to me. I turn around, meeting the green eyes of Potter. His was staring at the mark on my lip, his brows drawing together.

"Thank you," I whisper, both of my hands surrounding the big jar.

"Who did this to you?" Potter asks, bringing the fingers of his right hand up to my face, but pulling back right before he touches me. He takes a step back, scraping his throat. I can see him looking out of the corner of his eyes, looking if someone may have watched.

Part of me was glad that Potter tried to be careful around our classmates, because neither one of us wanted people to know how close we had gotten. While Draco and Pansy sort of knew, I had a feeling Potter's friends didn't. Which I understand. While I may have never bullied anyone myself, my friends had been quite cruel our first few years at Hogwarts, especially to Potter and his friends. Even though they had all matured more now, they could still be very nasty when they wanted to be.

Another part of me was growing frustrated with having to keep our newfound friendship so secretive. We could only exchange small conversations at a time, hidden away between some bookshelves in the library or at empty hallways. Him approaching me in class was a first.

"It was a stupid accident. I can be quite a klutz sometimes," I said with a chuckle, hoping he'd let it go.

He nodded, and I appreciate he didn't pry any further, since it was very clear he didn't believe me at all.

"Do you have any plans Saturday night?" he then asks. I feel a smile forming on my lips, shaking my head.

"We're throwing a party in our common room, and I was wondering if you wanted to come. You can bring your friends," he begins, motioning to the Slytherin side of the classroom. "There are people from Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff invited as well," he adds.

"My friends would love nothing more than to crash a Gryffindor party," I grin, making Potter laugh as well, "good, then I'll see you there."

As he wants to walk away my hand reached out to the bottom of his cardigan, stopping him. He looks back to me, his left eyebrow raised.

"Nothing happened in the room of requirement," I blurt out. I let go of him, my face feeling impossibly hot. I pinch my eyelids close, deeply regretting what I had done and said. I had no clue where the sudden need to expose myself had come from. For all I know he didn't even know what I was talking about.

"Don't worry. I never listen to rumors. I know from experience how untrue they can be."

I open my eyes, calmness flowing through me hearing him speak.

"Oh, good. That's very good," I mumbled.

Before I decide to say something stupid again and making an even bigger fool out of myself I grab a handful of the sopophorous beans, put the jar back on the shelf and walk back to my table, dropping the ingredients on the surface.

"Took you long enough," Draco said in a mocking tone.

"Don't start with me-"

"Should I teach him a lesson for making my fiancé blush?"

"I am not blushing," I hiss, earning a head turn from both Pansy and Blaise. I motion them to look back at their own work with my hands. Draco lets out a loud laugh, once again very amused with himself.

"I have to admit it is rather enjoyable to see you flustered this fast."

"I have to disagree with you."

"I'm going to have so much fun with this," he snickers while taking one of the beans and trying to cut it, his lips remaining curled in an upwards motion. And while I didn't enjoy the teasing, I felt a smile growing as well, because this was the first time in weeks I had seen Draco in such a good mood.