Amortentia

Chapter 10

The next morning when John went down to breakfast, he found the quidditch team all sitting together on the benches. Greg, Sara, and Mike had all beaten him down, and they were among the group. John sat next to Leo, the other beater and started filling his plate.
“What’s going on?” John asked.
“We were discussing tryouts, they’re Monday right?” a girl named Kathrine asked, she was a chaser.
“If all goes well, rain or shine, you guys should probably come out to practice sometimes.” John said.
“We have been, but you haven’t been there the whole time, were have you been?” asked Leo.
“I needed extra potions help.” John said truthfully.
“Every night?”
“Twice, the other night Greg and I got detention.”
“Why would you go twice, Snape must kill you!” a chaser named Al said.
“It’s not Snape, its Holmes.” John said, making Kathrine burst into giggles. The guys all looked at them with confusing, except John of course, when he said the name he felt like he wanted to trap the word in a jar to listen to again and again.
“What’s so funny?” Al asked.
“He’s so cute.” Kathrine admitted. Al looked disgusted.
“You girls are all so annoying, he’s a professor.” Leo exclaimed. John and Greg exchanged amused looks, good luck Kathrine because there was someone else at the beginning of the line.
“Anyway, I’ll try to make it tonight if I can.” John promised.
“You better mate, we need our captain.” Al said. They finished breakfast and headed to their classes, for the seventh years it was transfiguration, their first class this year. McGonagall told them to start with the basics, just turn a small mouse into rubber, but the mice scrambled everywhere and there was an incident when someone turned someone’s finger to rubber, so they were sent to the hospital wing and the rest were sent with homework. Next was Charms, where Flitwick was nice and simple, making them banish cushions into a little box, which John was fine at, landing them in or around most every time. The ones who were good at it didn’t need to practice, so they had no homework to John’s relief. After a quick lunch, they were back down to the dungeons for potions, which made John happy but a little bit nervous. He was going to try to get Greg to do everything right, even though exploding potions was the only way to get into extra help. Snape banged the door open and the class stumbled in. Holmes was at the ingredients counter, which was very close to the desk were John and Greg usually sat. John sat down and got his kit out, looking at the board which was still blank.
“Hello John, Gavin.” Holmes said.
“It’s Greg.” Greg corrected. Holmes nodded, but walked back to his desk with two bottles of something or other in his hands.
“How don’t you remember Greg?” John asked.
“Why doesn’t he forget John?” Greg smiled.
“Today we will be making the draught of living death, a very complicated potion, so you’ll need your books. Extra credit if you manage to make it correctly.” Snape hissed. Extra credit, since when did that happen? But if John managed to do well, he might be able to impress Holmes even more. Greg and he got their books out and flipped to the page Snape had instructed. The potion was very complicated; lots of exact measurements, and John found to his disgust that there had been drawings and side notes in his old book. The writing was neat and cursive, but he could read it fine. It was correcting everything that the book said, instead of chopping the sopophorous bean it said to crush it with the flat side of the knife and squeeze the juices instead. John wondered whether or not to trust the side notes, but it seemed as if he could take the change, it seemed pretty intelligent. When they had gotten their ingredients, John showed Greg what was written.
“Should we follow the instructions?” Greg asked.
“I don’t see why not, I mean, anyone who writes in that neat cursive must know what they’re doing.” John shrugged.
“If you insist.” Greg shrugged. So they made the potion, following the side notes instructions, adding only two inches of Wormwood and four quarters of the sloth brain. In the end they had a silky golden potion brewing pleasantly in their caldron. Everyone else’s was smoking, blowing up, and the sopophorous beans were seemingly un-cuttable, bouncing everywhere and hitting Snape in the forehead, causing ten points from Slytherin. Jim and Irene’s to their delight, had blown up all over everyone, but Snape had cleared it away while Holmes only looked up from his book. The violin was sitting on his desk, as if he was ready to play it at a moment’s notice, and John saw the girls looking up from their disastrous potion to watch him, their eyes flickering on the beautiful instrument. The violin triggered the memory of when Holmes had played it, making his stomach twist and his heart pound. When the class was almost over, Snape swooped around looking at the potions. John and Greg had a lot of hope that theirs was fine, and when Snape passed their caldron he paused and looked down at it.
“Holmes!” He yelled, making the whole class jump. Sherlock looked up from his book with confusion.
“Yes?” He asked.
“Come here.” Snape demanded. Holmes set his book down and got up, walking calmly over to the caldron and looking in suspiciously.
“Amazing, a perfect potion, good job.” Sherlock said to John and Greg, making John’s heart swell with the praise.
“Exactly, a perfect potion, which is impossible because these two are complete idiots, so what have you done?” Snape asked suspiciously. Sherlock looked surprised, but not guilty.
“I haven’t done anything; obviously they messed up for the better.”
“Sherlock didn’t do anything.” John assured. Snape sneered, but looked down at John with suspicion.
“Sherlock?  Did you just call him Sherlock? Class dismissed the three of you in my office, immediately!” Snape yelled his face red with anger. John wanted to run with the rest of the class, who were getting out of the class as fast as humanly possible. Holmes looked calm for someone about to be practically murdered by Snape. When the class was empty, John and Greg, shaking with fear, followed Snape and Holmes into the small office through a door on the other side of the room. Snape slammed the door and looked at the three of them furiously.
“Tell me right now what is going on!” Snape demanded, looking at John with uttermost hate in his eyes.
“I, um, well; Professor Holmes said during the potions help that he couldn’t stand being called Professor, so he told me to call him Sherlock.” John explained, cowering slightly away from Snape’s rage.
“That’s a miserable excuse, Holmes makes sure everyone calls him Professor, even me, now tell me now why he told you his name!”
“I swear that’s all, that’s all he told me!” John cried.
“Professor, if I may, that is what I told him, that’s the reason too, I don’t like friends calling me Professor.” Holmes said, making John suddenly forget about his fear to look at Sherlock, who was blushing slightly under his pale skin.
“Friends! Watson is a student, and you are not allowed to be friends with a student, this is exactly why you shouldn’t be a professor so young, they’re taking advantage of you, and it’s obviously working, because you helped them make the potion!” Snape hissed, looking up at Holmes, who was slightly taller.
“I didn’t help them make the potion.” Holmes said calmly.
“Don’t you dare lie to me Holmes!”
“Professor Holmes.” Sherlock corrected with a sarcastic smile. Snape lost it, pulling his wand out and pointing at Sherlock’s neck.
“DON’T YOU DARE CALL YOURSELF PROFESSOR! YOU’RE A MISERABLE, CHILDISH STUDENT!”
“Miserable, childish students don’t teach at Hogwarts.” Holmes said even though Snape’s wand was pressing deeper into his neck.
“Stop, please stop!” John pleaded. Greg was staring with his mouth hanging open slightly, standing with his hand on the door handle. Snape, breathing deeply, backed away from Sherlock, who still looked too clam to be normal. “Professor Holmes didn’t help with the potion, he helped me get better at making potions during the help after dinner, I was just following the instructions and that’s all!” John demanded.
“Professor Holmes didn’t even leave his desk.” Greg assured. “You were there, you saw him, and just because we finally did something right doesn’t mean it was him trying to cheat.” Holmes nodded, looking down at Snape, who still looked furious.
“Get out; we have a class coming up.” Snape said in a normal tone. John and Greg just stood there.
“I said OUT!” Snape demanded, and the two ran out of the room, grabbing their bags and everything and racing out the door and up to their next class, Astronomy. Once safely out of the wing, they stopped and caught their breath, gasping for air.
“What was that?” Greg managed.
“I have no idea.” John admitted, leaning on the banister.
“Terrifying, absolutely terrifying, I’ve never seen Snape that angry, he attacked Professor Holmes!”
“It’s my entire fault; he could lose his job because of that.” John said, extremely guilty.
“He’ll be fine, he didn’t do anything wrong, but he admitted that you were his friend.” Greg pointed out. “That doesn’t mean anything.”
“He was so trying to impress you though, he didn’t even look nervous.”
“You think?”
“Positive, just make a move, he’ll totally go with it.” Greg said.
“Maybe.” John shrugged. They had to hurry to astronomy, already very late, but they explained that Snape wanted to talk to them so they were allowed to jump into class without much trouble. They were just making star charts again, something they always did, and it was so horrifically boring. Everyone mobbed them as soon as they sat down.
“What happened?”
“He looked so mad!”
“How’d you survive?”
“What did Professor Holmes do?” John and Greg told them the general story, that Snape had thought they were cheating and they explained that they weren’t, leaving out the fact that he almost attacked Holmes. They seemed disappointed; the story didn’t fulfill the wild imaginaries they undoubtedly had dreamed up. Professor Sinistra shushed them all away to complete their charts, and they reluctantly went back to their desks. When they left for dinner and sat down, the whole team flooded them, making a huge circle.
“What happened, for real this time?” Al begged.
“Well, Snape thought Professor Holmes had helped us to make the Draught of Living Death, so he took us into his office and started yelling, so we explained what had really happened. Then he called Professor Holmes, Holmes, and he reminded him of the Professor part, and Snape lost it, he put his wand up to his throat.” John started.
“And then we managed to calm it down and Snape made us leave.” Greg finished.
“He must have been so brave.” Katie sighed. All of the boys rolled their eyes, but all the girls giggled. Once they cleared out, John looked up to the staff table where Snape sat, but no Holmes. This wasn’t unusual, he didn’t eat dinner, but Snape still looked pretty mad.
“What are you guys going to do?” Mike asked.
“What are we supposed to do?” 
“Well, maybe checking that he still has a job, apologizing for getting him in trouble.” Sara suggested.
“I don’t know, I have, stuff you know, homework.” Greg sighed.
“I have homework too…” John started.
“No you don’t, we’ll do it for you.” Greg said quickly. Sara and Mike nodded, but less enthusiastically.
“Well what am I supposed to do?” John asked.
“Make your move.” Greg said obviously.
“That’s so easy ya.” John groaned.
“Maybe you won’t have to.” Mike said.
“Finish your dinner, come on, we have to get you ready!” Sara said happily. Without waiting for an answer, they jumped from the table and grabbed John, forcing him to abandon his chicken and follow, bumping his knees on the table. They ran up to the Gryffindor common room, which was deserted.
“Okay, put on your best clothes okay?” Sara said. She ran up to her dormitory for some reason, and Greg and Mike followed John, who was extremely nervous about what they were doing.  As much as he wanted to agree, to go along with it, he was way too nervous to actually go.
“What if Snape shows up?” John pointed out.
“We’ll stand guard, pretending we have questions.” Mike assured. Greg was digging around in John’s closet, pulling out tan slacks, a white button down shirt with a black sweater over, plus a gold and red tie. John put them on very carefully; making sure every little detail was perfect. His heart was pounding and his legs felt like jelly, apparently he was supposed to ask Holmes out or something, but he wasn’t prepared to do something like that, especially so soon. He would feel better if Greg had asked Holmes out for him.
“What am I supposed to do, ask him to the quidditch match?”
“No, I just looked, there’s a Hogsmeade trip coming up, ask him to that.” Sara said.
“When is that?”
“Two weeks from now.” 
“Why so soon?”
“I have no idea, but it’s pretty convenient.” Mike said. Sara and Greg were fussing with his hair, making sure every strand was perfect. John looked in the mirror; he looked very good, smiling at his reflection.
“Hold your breath.” Greg said, and squirted cologne all over him, making him gag with the strong odor.
“Okay, he’ll know something’s up if I smell like a walking perfume section.” John pointed out.
“You’ll do great, now hurry up, we’ll be at the end of the hall if Snape comes.” Greg assured, and just as they dragged him in, they dragged him out. The halls were deserted, everyone was still at dinner. When the walked to the dungeons John was shaking with nervousness.
“Please don’t make me do this.” John begged.
“You should’ve seen the look on your face when you saw him playing that violin, you’re in love mate, and you can totally do this.” Greg assured. John took a deep breath, seeing the wooden dungeon door ahead in the torch lit stone hallway. It looked a millennia away, behind that door was Sherlock Holmes, probably expecting him to come. Mike pushed him forward slightly, making him stumble down the hall. He took one step and then another, and before he knew it he was standing in front of the door. Should he walk in, should he knock? He tapped the wood lightly with his knuckles. To his terror and relief, he could hear violin music from the wood, probably meaning Snape was absent and Sherlock was lost in his music. He was about to turn back, but Greg was looking at him with determination, so he opened the door slightly and poked his head in.