PRANKSTER [1] ↝ C. DIGGORY

nine

"Alright, Cece, here you go." Fred said, reaching across the table in the Great Hall and handing his twin sister a tiny corked vial filled with a pink liquid. "Drink up."

"What the bloody hell is that?" she asked him suspiciously, her eyes settling on the two boys sitting across from her and Vasantha.

"That, dear sister, is our love potion." George explained. "Which you so lovingly agreed to test out for us, in exchange for the Sugar Quills we bought last week."

"You two are insane," Clary said with a sigh, uncorking the vial and raising it to eye level, studying the pink liquid resting inside. It was a lighter color, and it seemed to bubble a bit inside the tiny clear glass vial.

"Are you mad?" Vas asked, her eyes widening. "What if you get poisoned?"

Clary shrugged. "Well, I won't have to worry about Sirius Black showing up and murdering me then, will I?"

Tipping her head back, Clary shut her eyes tight and swallowed the pink potion, noticing it tasted rather sweet. Opening her eyes back up, she noticed the three of them staring at her, eager to see how it worked, though everything seemed to stay pretty normal.

Clary shrugged, turning back to her lunch. "Maybe it didn't work." she said, taking another bite of her sandwich.

"That's impossible," George said, still watching her closely. "we followed the directions exactly."

She shook her head. "You guys are craz-"

"Oi!" Newt yelled, cutting her off. "There you guys are, thought we'd missed you!"

Clary turned around, catching sight of Newt and Cedric walking toward the group, her eyes meeting Newt's, causing them to widen.

Did he always look that... dashing? she wondered.

"Hi, Newt," Clary said, a wide smile crossing her face.

"Hey, Clary," he said, his eyes narrowing in confusion. "you seem rather happy today."

"Oh no," Vasantha said, snorting and holding her hands over her mouth to conceal her laughter as the two boys sat down on the other side of Clary, causing her to blush slightly as Newt's arm brushed against hers, Fred and George bursting into laughter.

"What's wrong?" Cedric asked from the other side of Newt, but Clary merely ignored him, propping her fist up under her chin as she continued to watch the boy next to her. "Why is she..?"

"What's that?" Newt asked, gesturing down to the empty vial  on the plate in front of her before looking back up toward her brothers. "What did she drink?"

"She agreed to be our test subject for a love potion." Fred agreed.

"And well..." George trailed off. "You were the first one to look her in the eyes after."

"Oh, blimey," Newt said, Clary's eyes widening.

Why was Newt so upset? Clary wondered. Did he not feel the same way?

"What's wrong, Darling?" she asked, furrowing her eyebrows in confusion as she placed a calming hand on his shoulder. "Can I help?"

"Oh, no," Newt insisted, chuckling to himself and patting her on the back, causing her to feel as if her skin were on fire under his touch, and she blushed harder. "everything's just fine, Clary."

The bell rang, signaling the end of the lunch period and the beginning of Herbology, which, thankfully, Gryffindor shared with Hufflepuff. Clary quickly jumped up, following the group and never straying far from Newt, her eyes lingering on the boy, even as she bumped into several other students in the corridor.

"Clarissa!" Vasantha scolded with a chuckle. "Watch where you're going!"

Clary giggled, shrugging and turning back to Newt, who sighed with a grin before wrapping an arm around her shoulders to guide her down the hall. Clary smiled, blushing and following him down the corridor.

This just made sense, didn't it? she wondered. She'd known Newt for five years now, and things just finally seemed to fall into place. Besides, how could one not fancy him? The hair, the eyes, plus he was incredibly kind. She was only surprised it took her so long to realize it.

During Herbology, Professor Sprout scolded her for nearly cutting off Vasantha's finger while trimming the leaves of their self-fertilizing shrub, Vas glaring at her before Clary turned her attention back to Newt, who kept glancing in her direction to see if she was still paying attention to him, giving her a small wave and sending her into a fit of giggles.

"Merlin's beard, Clary," Vas said in disbelief, shaking her head before taking the shears from her hands. "I'll take over for today. Fred and George so owe me one for this."

Clary spent the rest of the day following after Newt and Cedric, sitting with the two boys at dinner. She kept one of her arms wrapped around Newt's, smiling as he mentioned something about nifflers, Fred, George and Vasantha sitting on the other side, all watching the couple incredulously.

"I mean, hey," Newt said, shrugging. "I must look pretty cool with her chasing after me all day."

"Of course you look cool, Darling." Clary said, her hazy smile never once fading.

"Alright, I'm finished and I see Cho's heading out, so I'm going to go catch up with her." Cedric said, quickly standing up and bidding the group goodbye. "Newt, I'll see you back at the dorm. See the rest of you later."

"Bye Cedric," everyone chorused as he went chasing after Cho.

"Someone's jealous," George snickered.

"Why?" Newt asked, taking a sip of his pumpkin juice.

"Because someone is giving you all of her attention today instead of him." Fred said with a laugh.

"You can't deny it, Newt." Vasantha insisted, and her brother shrugged.

All of a sudden, Clary's smile started to fade, eyes widening as she realized she was sitting right next to Newt, leaning against the boy and staring at him. She slowly peeled herself away from his body, scooting away a couple inches and looking around at the others in confusion.

"Hi there," Newt said with a chuckle as she kept looking around suspiciously.

"What's going on here?" Clary asked, gesturing between her and Newt. "Why were we..?"

"Yep, she's back," George said, laughing. "welcome back, Mrs. Scamander."

"Mrs. WHAT?!"