Amortentia (a Scorose Fanfiction)

Chapter Eighteen

          As much as a new light had been shed over Charlie Chester, Rose still found her patience tested when she was working with him in Potions class.  Albeit, he had been very helpful with their antidote assignment — which they were now trying to execute in the double period that Professor Dobbs had selected for the class to do so — but Charlie was, overall... terrible at Potions.

          At the beginning of the class, Rose had had hope that they would make it through the task with minimal problems.  After, approximately, a mere ten minutes, Rose realised that it would be a miracle if they made it through with a pass. 

          "Charlie!" She groaned as he began trying to cut through the bean.  "I told you to crush it!"

          Charlie shot her a look of irritation and dropped the small knife onto the table.  "Sorry, okay? I have a bad memory!"

          "I said it two seconds ago," Rose muttered as she moved into place to take over the task.  "Do you think you could stir the potion? Or is that too difficult for you?"

          Charlie pulled a face at her.  "No!" He denied.  "I'm not stupid, Weasley! I can stir a bloody potion!" 

          "Could've fooled me."

          Charlie made the wise decision of not reacting to her last comment.  Once Rose had successfully crushed the juice out of the bean and poured it into their bubbling potion, she breathed a sigh of relief. 

          "Okay," she said, mostly to herself.  "That's the last of the ingredients.  Now we just have to let it simmer for fifteen minutes."

          "Does that mean I can sit down?" Charlie asked, eyes wide with hope.

          Rose bit the inside of her cheek, but nodded, reluctantly.

          "Oh, Hallelujah!" He exclaimed, dropping his grip on the metal spatula he had been stirring with.  It clanged off the side of the cauldron. 

          Rose rolled her eyes but, nevertheless, followed Charlie's lead and collapsed onto her seat.  She had never experienced a more stressful Potions lesson.  Even concocting Draught of Living Death had been easier than that.  Rose suspected, however, that it had much to do with the capabilities of her partner and not the process of making the potion.  Once again, she wished she had been given a different partner. 

          Instinctively, her mind thought of Scorpius.  She looked over to where he was stationed, with Marie Merryweather. 

          He had been released from the Hospital Wing the night before, a full day after Rose had been to visit.  He told her that Madam Sutton kept him in just to be sure that he wouldn't spread the bug, but that he had felt better since the night she had kept him company.  Rose couldn't help but feel a sense of giddiness thinking that she might have played a part in helping him feel better.

          However, she felt her stomach churn as she watched Marie smile at him as she stirred their potion.  Scorpius was poured over his copy of Advanced Potions Making as he read something to her, holding a small incision knife in one hand and some kind of black stone in the other. 

          Rose couldn't understand what he was reading from their textbook that was making Marie giggle away like she was.  She was sure that it wasn't even funny. 

          Rose had decided that she didn't like Marie Merryweather.  As much as she and Scorpius got along, Rose thought there was just something off about her.