Safe With Me ~ Fred Weasley

Black's Break in

He took a seat behind his desk again, ignoring Hermione's hand for what felt like minutes before uttering her name without a glance in our direction.

"Amortentia is supposed to be the most powerful love potion in the world, although it can't produce real love, simply an obsession with the person for a matter of time. The potion is said to smell differently to each person who smells it depending on what attracts them." She trailed off, finishing her sentence softly.

"Indeed." Snape started. "As usual, you'll find your ingredients in the cabinets, and I must impress upon you the difficulty and importance of this potion and warn you to read the instructions and warnings before you begin."

Hermione and I knew the drill by now, although even I was unsure if she had read this far in the book yet. On second thought, I was sure she had finished the entire thing. We sat reading our instructions and then Hermione went to gather our supplies while I started the fire beneath our cauldron.

She returned, spilling rose thorns, ashwinder eggs and pearls along our desk and I hurried to catch the eggs and pearls before they dropped to the floor.

"I doubt we'll need this many pearls..." I scanned the first page of the chapter.

"I know but... they're so pretty." She muttered, taking one in her hand for a second before slipping it into the pocket of her robes.

We waited for the water we had poured into our shared cauldron to boil before Hermione picked up the eggs and cracked them one by one into the pot, discarding the shells in a pile at the edge of our desk. We crumbled the thorns into a powder resembling the drawing in the book and shook it on top of the potion giving it a stir and waiting for three minutes like we were told.

While we waited, Hermione pulled over the measuring cup and placed it between the two of us, handing me a tool resembling a cheese grater and a pearl from her collection. I had felt guilty even reading the instructions to sand down the pearls edges until you had a full cup of dust, but it was even worse actually doing it. They were so beautiful, even the dust sparkled. Once we had a full cup and our pearls were nearly the size of a fingernail, we shook the dust out evenly on the surface of our potion and dropped the pearls in, watching the liquid bubble up and change color immediately. The bright red from the rose thorns was now replaced by a white so shimmery and nearly pink that it looked like we had boiled down and liquified a pearl on it's own.

"What do you smell?" Hermione asked and I shook my head as I watched her take a deep whiff.

"I don't believe that it can change smells based on-"

"Times up." Snape growled from his desk, stepping over to the front desks. "I see a decent number of you got your potions to white, well done. Some of yours are still red, so clearly rubbing a stone on a pearl is too difficult for you to handle, as I should have suspected." He shot a look towards the back row at Neville's flaming red potion. "Mr. Finnigan, can you tell the class what you smell in your Amortentia?"

I turned to face the Gryffindor boy in the middle of the room. He rolled his eyes slightly and leaned towards his cauldron for only a moment.

"I smell peppermint and..." He took another sniff. "And cigarettes." He flashed a smirk at his partner next to him as a few girls laughed with him.

"That's quite enough." Snape turned to our side of the room and I let out a silent prayer. He would have to pick Harry, he always did.

"Miss Olsen?" I looked up, careful not to stare directly into his eyes, but still seem respectful. "Your potion?"

I really hated talking in front of the class, especially this class, and especially about something this personal. I leaned in and shut my eyes, trying to place the scent from my potion. Because I had smelled it before.

My eyes shot open immediately.

"Miss Olsen, we're waiting." Snape snapped me back and I blinked quickly, leaning back from the potion.

"I smell... fresh coffee and vanilla and..." I snuck a look at Ron nervously. "Fireworks." I muttered, making a point to not look back at the ginger again.

"And dare I ask, Potter?" Snape finally turned to his favorite prey, thankfully taking the rest of the classes eyes with him.

"Er... I smell..." He faltered, sounding nervous, although that's how everyone feels when Snape is nearby. "Pumpkin bread and oranges, and new books?" A few of the girls snickered at his final answer, but I shot him a warm smile. I knew exactly what new book smell he was referring to.

When Snape finally released us for the day, Hermione and I shot from the room ahead of the boys.

"What did you smell, since only I  had to be humiliated in front of the entire class?" I whined as we marched up the steps slowly, allowing the boys time to catch up.

"Fresh grass, brand new parchment, and..." She shot a glance at the boys behind us and shrugged. "That's all."

"Ron?" I asked, turning towards the two boys trailing behind on the staircase.

"Smelled like home, mums cooking, I dunno? I just know I'm hungry now."

"Me too, come on let's grab a snack before dinner." Harry pulled Ron's arm, nearly yanking it free from his body and they were gone in less than a second.

"Well what I think is curious is how Harry, who rarely opens his books, would smell them in his amortentia... And what was it again? Oh right. Oranges." She shot me a glare as we arrived back at the Gryffindor common room where Hermione and I were supposed to be working on our Defense Against the Dark Arts assignment for tomorrow.

"What are you talking about?" I felt my eyebrows furrow as I followed her through the portrait hole and up towards her dorm room.

"I can smell your hair from here, Cassidy!"

"My hair? I... oh..." I pulled my hair through my fingers and breathed in the familiar scent, so familiar in fact that I would have completely forgotten I use a citrus shampoo. "That doesn't mean anything!"

"Why? You don't like Harry?" She asked, pushing the door open to reveal a thankfully empty dormitory.

"What? No, I mean, not no... I don't think about him like that, or boys at all, I don't..."

"Oh, right, because the fireworks in your love potion were your own, yeah?" She smirked, crossing her legs on her bed and staring into my eyes, obviously not going to let up on this conversation.

"We don't know if that potion actually changes scent for any reason, it could be totally random!"

"Which Weasley twin are you secretly in love with, and why won't you admit it?" She began pulling books from her bag, but never losing my eye contact.

"Hermione!" I glared, very conscious that we were in fact in Gryffindor tower, surrounded by the twins closest friends.

"I'm going to figure it out, you know it, I know it. Might as well save me some time, you know I'm taking a good amount of classes, I really can't afford to spend time wondering about-"

"Oh my God..." I sank down on the bed next to hers.

"Give me a hint, at least. They both flirt with you, so I can't tell-"

"They don't." I shook my head violently. "They don't, they're just like that, you know that."

"Alright, Cassidy. Whatever you say." She said, dropping a load of books and parchment on the bed in front of us, and thankfully, the conversation was dropped.