Fatal Attraction | D.M. (Soft Rewrite)

Chapter Fifty-Four - Cornered

'You tease!' Millicent crooned wickedly.

'I wasn't going to kiss him. You know that,' Ophelia rushed to clarify. Her complexion flushing pink, as she tied her hair in a ponytail, so it wasn't a distraction.

'Whatever... He definitely wanted to-'

'-You weren't even there!'

'Regardless, I've seen how he acts around you... Not to mention his stalker tendencies.'

'He's not a stalker!' Ophelia defended him, immediately, 'he only wanted my schedule to know where-'

'-Stalker!' Millicent interrupted, before squealing as Ophelia retaliated and began swatting her arm.

'Behave, girls!' Slughorn called from the front of the room, 'we don't want an accident today.'

'Yes Professor,' they answered, as one. Bowing their heads and focusing on their ingredients, until Ophelia broke the ice and harshly whispered, 'he only wanted to talk.'

Yet her effort to correct Millicent's impression of Dean, didn't work.

'Sounds like a stalker to me,' Millicent mouthed back, with a triumphant grin. Delighting in the knowledge that Ophelia couldn't protest much, since they were already on Slughorn's radar.

'I bloody wish I'd gotten past the second task. That stupid, delicious smelling peach melba knocked me for six! There was no way I was going to guess amortentia.'

'I almost made that mistake,' Ophelia replied absently. Too focused on draining the juice from her handful of sopophorous beans.

'No need to rub it in,' Millicent whined.

'I didn't mean to. And anyway, I thought you said you had a great time with Esme?'

'True,' Millicent chirped, while weighing more powdered root of asphodel. 'Until the hallucinations started and I thought all the vines in the greenhouse were trying to strangle me.'

'Yeah - uh, not great,' Ophelia concluded, past a muffled giggle.

'I wonder how the Ravenclaws got their hands on so much amortentia.'

'Stole it? Brewed it? Bought it? Either way, I'd love my own supply,' Ophelia rambled, half-dazed.

'What did it smell like to you?' Millicent probed in a low voice, bumping Ophelia's side with her own.

Intermittent chatter and hushed incantations surrounded them. Knives scraping chopping boards and simmering potions spluttering, with each new ingredient that hit the surface.

Altogether, the din could cover their conversation from vigilant ears, on the other side of the room. But Millicent was never good at maintaining a quiet volume and she was in a particularly spiteful mood.

'I can't remember,' Ophelia lied, waving away her friend so she could reach the cauldron in time to conduct two clockwise turns. Stirring a current from the tip of her wand, while Millicent looked sceptical after her evasive answer. 'Are you going to help or not?'

'Yes Miss,' she snarked back. Playfully snatching the blade to enthusiastically pierce the rest of the tricky sopophorous beans that leapt into the air. Jumping away and slipping through her fingers, until Ophelia showed her how to squash them with the flat edge of her knife. 'Smart girl,' she hummed, approvingly, 'where'd you learn that?'

'Not sure,' Ophelia muttered, dumbly. Staring at her work, while pretending that someones hard stare and arrogant smirk weren't turned her way. Busying her hands with trimming the next ingredient, to avoid throwing each weapon within arms-reach straight for his heart. Just to hear him yelp in surprise for underestimating her temper.