Love's Potion [Dramione]

Chapter 7

The next morning in the Great Hall, Harry and Ron were unusually giddy, which Hermione found to be quite odd.

"How did detention go last night?" she asked them.

"Bloody wonderful!" Ron exclaimed. Harry nudged him in the ribs and gave him a look that warned him not to sound so happy. But luckily, Hermione figured that Ron was being sarcastic, so she just shrugged it off.

"Well, it serves you two right for cheating." She shook her head. "I have never been more disappointed in you two."

Ron rolled his eyes. "Right. So sorry. So how did your little girls' night go?" He looked over at Ginny and studied her. "Neither of you look made over."

"They were temporary spells, Ronald," Ginny said. She glanced over at Hermione in anticipation. The two girls had not had a chance to talk this morning, because Harry and Ron had been quick to interrupt their discussion. So Hermione had told Ginny they would discuss it later, when and if they found an opportunity to ditch the boys.

"Yeah," Hermione said. "I made Ginny into a blonde. She looked like a more attractive Pansy Parkinson."

Ginny glared at her for that. Hermione responded by grinning at her.

"Well, sounds like you two had about as much fun as me and Ron here," Harry said. "Or perhaps a little more."

"Yeah," Hermione said with a sigh. She glanced over at the Slytherin table and noticed that Draco was already looking at her. When their eyes met, they both blushed and smiled and looked away.

Harry noticed their little moment and grunted. He could not wait to slip her the anti-potion. But when would he be able to do it? Surely he couldn't just pour some into her pumpkin juice right in front of her without her questioning it. And then there was the even harder task of slipping it into Malfoy's drink.

Suddenly, as if to make everything easier for Harry, Hermione stood up and said, "I, um, left something very important in my dorm. I'm going to go retrieve it. I'll meet you two in class." And she was off.

At the same time, Harry noticed that Malfoy had gotten up and was following Hermione out of the Great Hall. "We need to act fast," he whispered to Ron.

Ron nodded and reached over and grabbed Hermione's abandoned goblet full of pumpkin juice. Harry, meanwhile, reached over and retrieved Neville Longbottom's goblet.

"Hey!" Neville cried. "What are you doing? I was going to drink that!"

Without thinking, Harry grabbed Ginny's goblet and placed it in front of Neville. "Here, drink hers."

"Hey!" Ginny cried in protest.

The two boys did not stick around to explain. They grabbed their own goblets and bolted out of the Great Hall as quickly as possible, hoping that Hermione and Malfoy were nowhere in sight. They lucked out – the hallway was completely empty.

"I wonder where they are," Ron mumbled, glancing around.

"One thing at a time, Ron," Harry replied, setting the goblets down on the floor. He muttered a spell and refilled the nearly empty goblets with more pumpkin juice, then took the vial out of his bag and divvied up its contents between the two goblets they were going to give to Hermione and Malfoy. After he was done, he handed them both to Ron and picked up their own goblets himself.

"Okay," he whispered to Ron. "So here's the plan..."
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The "something very important" that Hermione left in her dorm was the ring Draco had given her the previous night. She couldn't believe she had forgotten to put it back on the second she woke up, and she'd almost had a heart attack at breakfast when she realized it was not on her finger.
Of course, when she had come to this realization, she abruptly stood up from the table and told everyone that she had left something in her dorm and that she would meet them in class. She was pretty sure everyone assumed that it was just a book she had left behind, because nobody (not even Ginny) knew about the ring.