obliviate // potterlock

c h a p t e r 1 4

Molly frowns and sighs aloud in frustration. Sherlock has been away with the fairies throughout the entire herbology lesson, and has left Molly to do all of the work by herself. Considering the lesson was used to research venomous tentacular which is highly poisonous and can even kill students, Molly's stress was through the roof!

"Sherlock! Hello? Can you please concentrate, or do you want me to get killed?" Molly curses, slapping him on the arm. Sherlock jumps about half a foot into the air, almost directly into the venomous tentacular, but luckily he dodges the vines that reach out to grab him.

"Apologies Molly. I was miles away."

"I know! Look, I really need to get a good grade here, so can you please just lend a hand?" Molly sighs in frustration, pointing to the dangerous plant.

Sherlock does as he's told, and with the help of Molly, he manages to extract the juice from the plant with ease. Molly frowns, obviously annoyed that the ravenclaw did the assignment so quickly and without hardship. Sherlock doesn't catch what Molly mumbles under her breath, but he deduces that it wasn't anything friendly.

"What's on your mind anyway? And don't tell me it's kitty Riley because you need to give yourself a break!" Molly asks curiously. Sherlock has been cooped up in the library researching what could be wrong with kitty and Carl, and even though he'd deny it, he's exhausted.

"Okay."

"...so? What's been on your mind?"

"You told me not to tell you." Sherlock states matter of factly, a smug smirk on his face. Molly slaps his arm again, clenching her teeth.

"You're an idiot Sherlock Holmes. You should focus on other stuff for the moment, since professor Stapleton is back and is going to sort it all out in a giffy anyway."

"Like what?" Sherlock asks hesitantly, extracting more juice into a vile.

"Like the lesson? Or the fact that winter break is next week? Or.. The Yule Ball?" Molly suggests hesitantly. She's been quietly hoping that Sherlock would ask her to go, even though it's a long shot, but she feels like ever since hogsmead that they've gotten closer.

"Winter break is a bore! Being stuck in a house with my common parents and insufferable brother is not something to look forward to. And I don't even know if I'm going to go to the ball - it's not exactly something I'd enjoy."

"That's a lie!" Molly states firmly, and Sherlock raises his eyebrows in surprise. "I've seen you dance Sherlock. You love to show off those moves of yours." Molly can't suppress the blush that spreads on her cheeks. She's always enjoyed Sherlock's dancing. "And you have Greg coming around for Christmas this year so it's not going to be as bad as you think."

Sherlock agreed to host Christmas for Greg, not wanting his friend to spend his Christmas at hogwarts alone. His parents were more than happy to meet one of his magical friends finally, after so many years of asking. Sherlock often hid his parents from his friends when shopping in diagon alley before the start of the school year, unable to handle the embarrassment of how ordinary they are.

"I do believe Christmas will be more... tolerable with Greg there, but you haven't convinced me to go to the ball. Besides, John and Greg haven't said they're going."

"If they were going, would you consider it?" Molly asks sheepishly, wondering if her hint is too obvious. Sherlock bites his lip and considers for a moment. But that's when his attention is caught again, and to Molly's surprise, it's by a dark haired Slytherin who cackles loudly.

Across the greenhouse, James is on the verge of crying with laughter as he watches Sebastian getting grabbed by the venomous tentacular; it's vines grabbing onto his jumper. Sebastian screams in horror. The professor tells him to calm down, but he only screams louder. James looks like he's about to collapse with the force he's laughing with.