The Slytherin prince

Chapter 39: Love potion

As the weeks flew by, our classes became more and more advanced and I was less and less interested in them. "Sorry professor for being late." I tippy-toed towards the cauldrons and joined the class, that had already began.

"Ah, no worries miss Blackburn." Professor Slughorn answered me. I was about to sit next to Anna when he stopped me in my tracs. "Why don't you join mister Malfoy for today? He is a true potion master." He pointed towards the still empty seat next to him. I saw him freeze at his spot. Nice. Was this on purpose or what? We hadn't spoken for weeks, we weren't exactly on good terms.

"I think I can handle it." I tried to sound as polite as I could.

"Don't be grumpy about it, join him." He insisted. With a huge frown on my face I took place next to the Slytherin prince. During the whole class we kept quiet and didn't move an inch. "Now! Time for action." The professor shouted, snapping me back to reality. So I was forced to actually work with him too? This is going to be a disaster. "Does anybody know what is sitting in this cauldron? Yes miss Granger."

"Amortentia sir, the strongest love potion in the world. It smells different to everybody, according to what attracts you." She answered in one fluent sentence. I looked over at Anna, who was gazing at the thing. Draco, who was standing beside me, had an even more unpleasant expression on his face than before.

"Take place behind a cauldron in pairs and take a whiff." If this is the only thing we were asked to do today, I was okay with that. I walked towards a cauldron and took of the lid. Draco followed me without saying a word. I smelled some kind of fruit, maybe apple? But it was more specific than just an apple. I took another whiff. I definitely smelled green apple with cinnamon. After that came a new scent, something fresh. Peppermint like. But then, The most familiar, delicious scent ever burned inside my nose. I flinched away from it when I recognized it. I looked at my partner in distress.

"What? Smelled shit or something?" Draco scrunched his nose. If he only knew what, or better who, I smelled. Shit wasn't a bad representation.

"Something like that, your turn." I took a step backwards and let him smell it. He only needed a couple of seconds to identify the scent. He looked at me sideways.

"So what did you smell?" I asked him casually.

"You first, it took you forever." His answer was short.

"I didn't smell anything, actually." I lied.

"Bullshit. Not ashamed are you?" He said in a teasing tone.

"I don't have to talk to you." I snapped back.

"I heard that it is supposed to smell sour in a way." He distanced himself without taking his eyes off me.

"I didn't smell anything sour." I answered in a reflex.

"Ahh, so you did smell anything?" This was a trap and I had walked right into it. "I am certainly that you smelled someone."

"None of your business." I answered. Luckily for me, this class was over. I freed myself from his presence as fast as I could. On my way towards the common room, I stumbled across Harry. "Hey, Harry!" I shouted behind him. He turned around, confused. We weren't that close. "Are you good? Saw you coming in with blood all over your face a couple weeks ago."

"Hi, uh yea. Just clumsy sometimes." He tripped over his own words. I nodded at him, not sure why I called on him in the first place. "I am actually heading towards The Three Broomsticks with Hermione and Ron, do you want to join us?" He was so polite, how could I refuse. I hesitated for a second.

"Yea, sure! Why not." I smiled back at him, a bit uncomfortable.

"Brilliant." I was happy to be away from the Slytherins for a while. My close relationships became so difficult after everything I had found out. It felt nice to be in a lightweight conversation for once. Once in the pub, they were not surprised to see me. I greeted everybody and ordered a butterbeer just like the rest did.

"You are close with Draco, right?" Harry asked me out of nowhere.

"Why do you think that?" My mood fell 2 levels down.

"Just saw you together a couple of times." He took another sip of his butterbeer. The vibes on the table had definitely shifted. They wanted to know something.

"Not anymore no." I drank my cup empty.

"What happened?" Harry tried to sound casual, but I could see the curiosity burning inside his eyes. Hermione stiffened.

"That is none of our business, Harry!" Hermione called out on Harry. Thank God she is here.

"You are right, am sorry." He looked at me and gave me a small disappointed smile. I only nodded when the door swung open. The Weasley twins walked in, bumping each other and smiling from ear to ear. When Fred saw me he stopped in his tracks, giving me a small smile. I smiled back and gestured towards the free seats besides us on our table. They gladly joined. I never realised how much I had missed these boys, this feeling. Just talking with some friends, nothing too heavy or difficult. It was so easy to talk to Fred, so easy to get lost in the cloud of fun that hang around them. We were singing loudly at the music and drinking one beer after the other.

"You are so much better as friends." Ron commented, when I and Fred were having a rather deep conversation. His eyes sparkled at his brothers comment and smiled widely at me.

"Don't know what I saw in you." He bumped my shoulder and winked. We had a great evening. A little after diner time, we all entered the hall and took seat at our normal places. Anna was already filling her plate. I sat myself down and in a reflex I looked at the seat on the end of the table. My nerves chocked when I saw a pair of very angry eyes staring at me. Draco seemed to be eating like a steam train, not actually chewing on his food. I had to say, he looked very unhealthy. I was happy to see him eating for once, even when it was in a speed tempo. He had dark circles under his eyes and his cheeks seemed fallen in. Did he lose weight? Right after his plate was finished he took off without waiting for his friends. This became a ritual for every meal. Him eating as fast as he could and just disappearing. At first, he was really eating. After a while, he just sat there waiting for a good moment to vanish. When some time passed, he wasn't even showing up to diner anymore. Even though I would never show it, I was getting very worried about his mental and physical health.

"Is Draco going through some stuff?" I asked Anna when we were walking towards diner, weeks later.

"I have seen a change too, he won't talk about it. So I don't really know. He will get over it." She said while taking a seat. I was shocked to see him actually sit at the table today. He looked even worse than the last time I had seen him. It was like he could sense my thoughts, because he stood up and left the room. This was an opportunity I couldn't let fly by.

"I will be right back." I said to Anna without looking at her.