LOVE'S GAME, Marauder's Era

002. amortentia

Barty's foul mood seemed to have quelled by the time Adela was hurriedly rushing into the Great Hall the next morning, where breakfast was wrapping up. Despite the rather noisy atmosphere filled with both excited and crabby students, he felt her presence and glanced upward as she clambered into the seat next to his.

"You're so late," he said whilst Adela groaned loudly. It was only the first day of term she had overslept. Biting back a smile, Barty handed over a steaming mug of coffee, pouring in a small jar full of cream as he set it down.

"I can't have my double Potions partner falling asleep again, can I?" Barty teased, nudging her slightly. Adela rolled her eyes, taking a long swig of her coffee.

"Barty, I must specify that it was one time."

"Sure, sure it was." He said sarcastically, yelping in pain and immediately apologizing when Adela's fingers flicked the back of his left ear.

As Barty continued to dart away from Adela, who continued chasing him out of the Great Hall, he peeked at his timetable and groaned as he came to a halt.

"We're with the Ravenclaws again, just great." Barty sighed, the flicker of amusement he had earlier stopped dancing in his eyes after the comment, and Adela knew that joking around time was over once they got to the classroom.

"Barty, they're not that bad. That's nowhere near how badly you think of the Marauders."

"Yeah, one more year of living hell. Then they'll finally be gone. The Ravenclaws in your year are alright enough but I cannot stress how annoying the ones in mine are. " He said rather nonchalantly, and Adela nudged him, stifling a small laugh

"Barty, don't say that too loudly."

"Oh come on, have you seen Caldwell? Chang's alright I suppose, but the bloke Caldwell can hardly even string a few sentences together before he starts staring coldly or arbitrarily trails off." Barty said with a slightly annoyed huff.

"Have I seen him? Yes, he's standing not too far from us over there," Adela replied in an amused tone, subtly jerking her head in the general area where Samuel Caldwell was leaning against another section of the wall mere feet away from them, tapping his foot against the ground in boredom. If the tall, hard faced, dark haired Ravenclaw boy had heard Barty's words, he showed no signs of it.

"Can't believe he made the cut." Barty muttered, this time bringing his voice down to a whisper, before Adela once again sternly elbowed his ribs.

"You and I both know he's not academically an idiot." At this, Barty rolled his eyes, clearly not caring about this irritating reminder.

A few minutes later, Slughorn had finally opened the door, where the students filed in. It was a pretty small class compared to before, Adela noted, but she saw several returning students, having scraped either the Exceeds Expectations or Outstanding grade.

Everyone had seemed to settle down at a table of thre with their fellow housemates, so Adela and Barty joined Regulus at the last table, grinning at each other. Each student seemed to be peering curiously at the enourmous cauldron that sat upon the professor's desk. It had to have been erupting with a heavenly smell. Barty inhaled it carefully. He wafted up a sweet scent that seemed identical to his mother's homemade chocolate cauldron cakes. The second being the breath of fresh air that he associated very closely with the Black Lake, which was his ultimate favorite place to spend his free time, oftentimes in the company of Adela or Regulus.

It was the last smell, however, that surprised him. So much so that he even did a noticeable double take, which warranted a raise of an eyebrow from Adela, to which he immediately avoided her eyes, all a bit too quickly. He swore that the last scent didn't make sense at all, it wasn't even something that attracted him at all. Alas, he'd have to think about it later.

"Now I'd like to keep things simple, and go over to one of the potions we didn't brew last year, but that is much simpler than most of the potions we will be making this year in NEWT level, since it is only your first day. I've prepared your instructions which will be on your tables. You will be brewing Amortentia, the most powerful love potion to exist! But don't get any ideas as I've jinxed the cauldron so no Amortentia will be able to get out of them. You'll be in groups of three today, everyone listen carefully for your partners."

Adela felt herself zoning out as Slughorn began to call out names. Despite Potions being her favorite class, and the fact that it was only the first class that day, she found herself wishing more than anything that she was still in her dormitory, sleeping.

"Miss Braun, Miss Chang and Mr Caldwell," Slughorn called out, which snapped Adela right back into reality. She saw Meia Chang, her long black hair tied back into a bun picking up her supplies and walking over to where Adela was seated, giving her a friendly smile, Samuel slowly trudging behind her.

"Did you both have a nice summer?" Meia asked feebly in an attempt to make some sort of conversation, to which Adela nodded and Samuel merely shrugged half-heartedly.

She found herself peering over to stare at the back of Barty's head every so often as he talked with Regulus and Evan Rosier, who was another Slytherin who shared a dorm with Barty and Regulus. Barty seemed to be the leader of their clan, which wasn't surprising as he was one of the best in the class. Regulus and Rosier both listened along and did what they were advised.

Adela tossed the rose thorns that Samuel had crushed with his knife into the cauldron, as Meia began to measure the amount of peppermint oil to be poured. She wanted to take a sniff at the scents once the potion was completed. Of course, she already knew what they were, but just wanted another trial. The warm smell of tomato soup and grilled cheese, coffee, and oddly enough, a soapy apple fragrance was stuck in her mind as she stirred the contents of the trio's cauldron. As interesting as what the potion smelled like to her, she was rather curious of how others had it, especially Barty, who seemed visibly shocked and refused to look her in the eye when she silently questioned if he was alright.

"Shall we go down the line and share our scents?" Meia asked, and Adela registered the three distinct smells coming back to her.

"Doesn't matter." Samuel grumbled, playing with his hands as his gaze was on at the cauldron rather than the two girls. Adela glanced at him from the corner of her eye and cleared her throat.

"Well I smell coffee and tomato soup." She said, and for the first time all hour, Samuel looked up from the table.

"With or without the grilled cheese?" He questioned, and Adela felt a smile tug at her lips as she replied that she preferred the soup with the sandwich, to which he gave her a slightly incredulous look.

"It tastes great together!" She defended, as he continued staring at her with the same expression before speaking.

"It's a ridiculously high sodium intake, and it's a bit hard on the digestive system." He shrugged, his hard expression relaxing ever so slightly, albeit still a bit blank. Adela playfully rolled her eyes, maybe Samuel Caldwell wasn't all so bad. After all, now she could pick a fight with someone about tomato soup anytime she wanted.

Eventually, the bell rang, and Adela jogged to catch up with Barty, who had been the first to burst out of the room, and muttered that he'd see her later before taking off, still barely looking at her.

He ran and ran until he reached the safety of the large gnarled trees by the Black Lake, and sighed, tugging on his dark locks.

He had come to think about what he had encountered with the Amortentia, but how on earth was he supposed to explain that he had smelled coffee.