amortentia ϟ [drarry]

one

Harry hated being late. It meant all his classmates staring at him as he stumbled into the room. It also gave his arch enemy, Draco Malfoy, a reason to be an absolute git in front of everybody. To make matters worse, this particular lesson that Harry happened to be late to was taught by none other than his least favourite teacher, Professor Snape. How Harry had managed to sleep in on the first day of school after an uneventful summer left him baffled. Just the night before he had been conversing with his two best friends, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, about how excited they were for school to start up again. Except all his excitement from the previous night had come crashing down, so he was just left feeling mortified.  

Harry ran down the empty corridors, tripping over his feet and racing to get to his potions lesson. He caught a few disapproving stares from teachers passing him as he rounded the corner leading to the classroom. Slowing the pace of his running, but not his heart, Harry hesitantly crept up to the old wooden door and gently opened it ajar.

His suspicions were correct, as he saw the lesson in full effect. His fellow students were cutting, stirring and crushing ingredients then proceeding to mix them into large cauldrons. Professor Snape was patrolling the classroom as per usual, critiquing and criticising students on silly mistakes. Harry decided that whatever hell was surely to come, he might as well get it over with now.

Managing to take a deep breath, Harry pushed the door open fully and took about two steps before Snape spun around and locked his eyes with him. There was nothing kind about the gaze, his eyes were cold and full of anger. Harry stood frozen, unable to move to a workstation in fear that one small motion would bring him complete and utter destruction. From somewhere at the back of the classroom he heard a muffled laugh.

"It would seem that Mr Potter thinks he has the luxury to miss half of a very important lesson, while everyone else manages to get here on time. Care to explain yourself?" said Snape in a menacing tone. Harry swore he could feel a pair of particular silver eyes studying the scene, finding joy in his obvious discomfort. With a sigh, he shook his head.

"No sir, there is no reason. I'm sorry, it will not happen again," Harry said while trying his best not show any signs of weakness and fear of the professor.

"I doubt that very much, Mr Potter. Be sure that it never happens again, otherwise I will be forced to send you to see Mrs McGonagall. Take 10 points from Gryffindor." Harry decided it was best to keep his mouth shut if he wanted to avoid a detention. His feet scuffed along the floor as he made his way to where Ron, Hermione and Neville were working. The previous silence was filled with the chatter of students. Harry was glad that the confrontation was over and done with.

Ron gave him a sympathetic look. "It's alright, mate. Even if you had broken your leg or something, he still wouldn't have given a damn. I swear, he's always out to make our life miserable," Ron huffed while folding his arms over his chest. Hermione nodded her head in agreement.

"Ron's right. No matter what you do, he's always going to have something to say about it. Let's just not dwell on it, okay?" she stated.

Neville chimed in, "Have you people ever heard of frog spawn soap? My gran got me a bar for my birthday. Quite handy, it is. Not that I use it, of course. That would be gross. Which is precisely why Snape could do with some of it, don't you think?

"Yes, Neville," commented Ron. "Sounds like a great idea. Maybe later though, yeah?"

Neville looked pleased with himself then started daydreaming out the window, presumably thinking about what kind of reaction Snape would have to using frog infested soap.

"So Hermione, what're we doing?" asked Harry.

Just as she about to begin explaining what they were making, a familiar white-blonde boy with a massive smirk and his two cupcake loving minions appeared next to their bench.

"Nice going Potter. You know, I'm honestly not surprised. Think you're better than us just because you're famous? Well if you ask me, I happen to think that just because your mummy and daddy got themselves killed by some dark wizard, doesn't mean you're all high and mighty. You're quite pathetic actually," Draco sneered. There was a glint in his eye that was full of cold-hard cruelness and perhaps a flicker of mischief.

"I don't care what you think, Malfoy, and I didn't ask you. Why do you always have to be such an obnoxious prat?"

Draco looked taken aback. His pride had been wounded. "Is that the best you can do, Potter?

"Well it's true. Like, for example, your disgustingly strong cologne is stuffing up the whole room! You think everyone wants to get a whiff of that crap?" Harry sighed in annoyance and crossed his arms, waiting for the usual smart-ass comeback. It never came.

Instead, his friends and enemy had all fallen into an awkward silence.

The smirk fell from Draco's face. "What did you say, Potter? Think this is funny do you? I'm not even wearing cologne."

Harry furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. "What's going on? Can someone please explain to me why this git is so offended?

Hermione and Ron exchanged a worried glance. She cleared her throat and bit her lip as she looked Harry dead in the eye. "It's...It's just you Harry..."

"What are you talking about?"

She put a hand on his shoulder. "I was about to explain to you before Draco so kindly interrupted." Hermione gave him a disapproving stare. "We're making Amortentia. It's supposed to be a love potion that smells differently to everyone according to what attracts them."

Harry's face turned bright red. He could feel the burn start to creep up his neck and ears. "I don't know what you're on about, but if you're implying I fancy Malfoy, then you must be out of your damn mind."

"Harry, I'm only telling you what I read and if you had been here at the beginning of the lesson, you would have known exactly what the potion does," snapped Hermione.

"Well, you're wrong," Harry mumbled.

Draco's words had failed him and he seemed to be staring at a blank space in the distance, when suddenly the famous smirk made a reappearance.

"Hey everyone! Guess what! Our friend Potter here fancies me!" yelled Draco as his classmates turned and watched the scenario playing out. Harry heard laughter from all around the room. It was only his friends that stayed respectfully silent.

"He's joking! There's no way-."

Suddenly a booming voice cut Harry off. "Potter! What do you think you're doing interrupting my class? AGAIN," said a furious Professor Snape. "This is the second time today, and I've warned you. Get out of my classroom and go see Mrs McGonagall. Oh, and another ten points from Gryffindor!"

Draco and Harry made split second eye contact, but for once there didn't seem to be anything menacing behind it. In fact, there was almost a softness. Something Harry hadn't experienced or expected from Draco before. It caught him by surprise, which caused him to blush a deep shade of red. To avoid any more embarrassment, Harry swept up his things and hurried to the door.

Just as he was leaving the classroom, he swore he heard Ron say, "Neville, got any of that frog spawn soap you were talking about?"