𝕋𝕙𝕖 𝕆𝕣𝕕𝕖𝕣 𝕠𝕗 𝕊𝕙𝕒𝕕𝕠𝕨𝕤 [𝔸 ℍ𝕒𝕣𝕣𝕪 ℙ𝕠𝕥𝕥𝕖𝕣 𝔽𝕒𝕟𝕗𝕚𝕔]

Chapter 5 | The Minister's Lapdog

"Ah! Miss Neera!"

Neera looked up from her papers and sighed when she saw two familiar boys entering her office with identical smirks.

"That's Professor Fox to you Weasleys." She set her quill aside and summoned two chairs for the boys to sit on. "What brings you to my office? You don't have a lesson until tonight."

The boys turned to each other and smirked. George pulled out a box and placed it on Neera's desk, allowing her to read the label on the top.

"Weasley and Weasley," she muttered. She turned to the two seventh years. "What's this for?"

Fred smirked, "Would you allow us to demonstrate?"

Neera rolled her eyes and leaned back in her chair, gesturing for the boys to go ahead with their demonstration. Most likely this would be entertaining in the least, though Neera doubted if they actually had anything of value to show her. She could remember from her days at Hogwarts that they were quite successful in the prankster community of Hogwarts. A stark contrast to their elder brother who always acted like a stick in the mud.

"Skiving Snackboxes," Neera asked as the boys started to open up their display. It seemed that they had been experimenting quite a bit with sweets as of late. Nougat, fudge, and jelly beans appeared in the multi-tiered box, and though Neera had quite a sweet tooth, she knew better than to blindly reach for a treat.

"These are sweets that make you ill," Fred explained, picking up a piece of fudge. He held a piece out to the professor and gestured for her to take it. She rolled her eyes and picked up the piece. When the boys offered no more explanation as to what the little candy did, she quirked an eyebrow.

"And what is this?"

The boys smirked at each other. "Fever Fudge. The red side gives you a fever while the blue side takes it away."

"And you want me to test this, right?"

The boys nodded and Neera rolled her eyes, but complied and took a small bite from the red end. Almost immediately Neera felt a strange sense of dizziness come over her and she slumped back in her chair, her eyes feeling heavy as she tried to stay awake. She quickly bit the other end, and as soon as the blue chocolate touched her tongue, she felt perfect once again.

"I am not testing your sweets anymore," she said with a laugh. She would have liked to finish the rest but didn't wish to experience another fever, so she dumped it into the waste basket. "Is there anything else you need from me, Weasley and Weasley?"

The boys got to their feet and shook their heads.

George suddenly whispered something to Fred, who nodded and walked out without his brother. George sat back down and turned to the teacher.

"Professor," George asked. Neera noticed him wringing his hands out of sight.

"What is it, George?"

"Do you remember a girl named Anamaria from when you were here?"

"Anamaria Sloane?"

George nodded. "Yeah. Her... um... she recently told me that..." he paused and glanced toward the door.

"There's a silencing charm on my room, George," Neera said. "No one can hear us."

George seemed a little bit more at ease and nodded. "She's cursed. She told me that she was cursed never to feel love for anyone or anything."

Neera smirked. "You fancy her, don't you?"

George couldn't hold back his blush and nodded, a rosy hue dusting his cheeks. "There's a book in the restricted section about breaking curses and I was wondering if you could give me permission to take it out." He pulled out a small piece of paper and handed it to Neera, who read over the title. It was a book that she read during her seventh year when she was studying ancient curses as an elective.