LABYRINTH of HEARTS (DRARRY Romance)

MEMORY VIAL 7: SPINNING BOTTLES & CUPID'S CAULDRON (YEAR 3)

It was the first weekend in December, and certain students from the four Houses had gathered in various places throughout the school to catch up on their social lives and idle about. Harry, Hermione, and Ron had joined a group of other second- and third-year students in an empty lecture hall on the first floor.

Draco and his gang, having picked up on the boisterous commotion coming from the other side of the classroom door, stalled on their way up to the Great Hall for lunch.

"Let's see what's going on in here," Malfoy said nosily while swaggering up to the oak door. He pushed it open a crack, giving himself, Pansy, Blaise, Crabbe, and Goyle just enough space to look in.

There were various students huddled in a wide circle demarcated by chalk on the floor behind them. A small black cauldron stood bubbling between Ron and Hermione, emitting cottony purple clouds of smoke like Fizzlefluff candy. At the center of the circle stood an empty Butterbeer bottle that someone had apparently smuggled from Hogsmeade during the year's first scheduled trip.

Harry was sitting among several Gryffindors, Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs. A handful of them appeared to be reassuring an anxious Neville Longbottom, whose entire face resembled a plump ripe tomato.

Intrigued, Malfoy shoved the door wide open to announce his arrival and paraded his four friends into the room. Pansy hung from his arm as usual, while Crabbe, Goyle, and Blaise lumbered imperiously behind them. They strolled up to the circle, and everyone paused from the discussion about Neville to look apprehensively at the intruding brood of Slytherins.

Lisa Turpin from Ravenclaw appeared to be directing the game. Upon noticing them, she exuberantly motioned for them to join in, whispering to a distraught Hermione that the Slytherins' participation would add even more "juiciness" to an already nerve-racking game.

"More like more venom," Hermione commented indignantly.

Malfoy came to a halt as his friends fanned out on either side of him. He quietly said, "Not interested in playing, Turpin, but I am curious to see what the hell you stupid lot are up to."

Harry was sitting cross-legged in front of him at ten o'clock, and Draco glared down at him, infuriated that he failed to notice him at all.

Harry didn't look up even once when Lisa announced that Slytherin had volunteered a handful of fascinatingly grotesque specimens to the game, at which point everyone groaned, including Seamus Finnigan who complained, "But they'll ruin everything! They always do!"

Malfoy briefly considered joining in, if for no other reason than to get Harry to acknowledge he was there.

He took another step closer as the current players scooted reluctantly aside at Lisa's command to make more room for the five dour-faced newcomers. After deciding he would not be playing after all—whatever this game was—he chose not to sit down with the other students.

"Go on, Neville! Give it a spin!" Hermione encouraged in her sweetest voice, ignoring the fact that the person she hated most after the Buckbeak incident was now casting his tall shadow over an otherwise perfectly fun game.

Wiping sweat from his forehead, Neville stretched a shaky hand out with his wand and gave it a flick, which sent the amber bottle into a grinding spin.

Glancing around, Malfoy noticed several of the girls clinching their eyes shut and muttering silent prayers to themselves. Smirking, Malfoy looked once more at Harry who seemed lost in concentration and was whispering something in Hermione's ear.

The bottle's neck eventually came to a stop. It was pointing at a curly-haired Ravenclaw girl, who hid her face behind her fingers and whimpered, "No..."