Antidote

Chapter 18 - Beater's Build

*** A/N i know it's pretty late in the day but - double update this week! my treat. i hope you guys enjoy.

quick sappy moment: thank you so much for reading, voting, and/or commenting. you guys make my day.

now, onto the chapter(s)

xx Ana

~

"Don't add that!" Jolie snapped as George's hand hovered a vial of flobberworm mucus over their cauldron.

It was the very beginning of their allotted thirty minutes of research time on Monday in Potions and she was determined to finally make some new progress on their antidote.

Yesterday, Daphne and Jolie had spent the day nursing their hangovers and chatting about the events of the night; all while avidly avoiding the event in which George kissed Jolie. She was incredibly grateful to her friend for leaving that bit out of their recollection of the night to Theo. It had just been a silly game, anyway.

Thus far, Jolie had convinced herself of the absurdity of the situation. The rules of the game had been simple: If the card drops, you kiss. Never mind how good said kiss was. It was just a game.

And George was just attractive—she didn't actually have any feelings there. She'd just been drunk and a little stupid.

That was it.

If anything, he'd done her somewhat of a kindness. Savannah had likely either cried herself to sleep that night or was still fuming at this very moment. Or maybe both.

Even better.

George held up the jar of rose thorns and gave it a little shake, silently asking permission.

Jolie nodded and he unscrewed the lid, tossing in four of the thorns into the cauldron.

They listened to their potion hiss at the addition. Then, Jolie threw in four sprigs of knotgrass.

"What are you looking for?" he asked her as the potion began to bubble.

She hummed for a moment in thought. "Well, we know that knotgrass counteracts Ashwinder eggs," she began.

He nodded.

"So, I want to check if it interacts with any more of Amortentia's ingredients," she concluded, giving the potion a stir. "Because, if it does, we can go ahead and rule it out and switch up another ingredient from our first draft. And if it doesn't, then we just have a new counteractive ingredient to add to our next draft."

He raised his eyebrows and nodded. "How efficient of you, Potion Master Carrow."

She scoffed. "Please. Snape's probably watching us and laughing at our naivety."

When she determined the knotgrass had no effect on the rose thorns, she vanished the contents of their cauldron and added fresh water from the tip of her wand. George raised his and heated the bottom of the pewter until the water began to boil. She stirred as she dumped in a heaping teaspoon of pearl dust. He tossed in a few sprigs of the grass in turn.

"So..." he started, and Jolie felt the hairs on her arms bristle at his careful tone. "About the party on Saturday..."

She stood quietly, stirring the potion as she waited for him to go on.

"And I... well we kissed—"

"During a game in which people tend to do that, yes," she clarified.

"Yeah..." he continued. "But I just—"

He cut himself off. She looked up at him to find that he was looking away, his brows furrowed as he thought for a moment.