Antidote

Chapter 21 - Cordial Invitations

*** DOUBLE UPDATE ***

i hope you guys enjoy <3

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On Monday morning at breakfast, Jolie sipped her tea heavily in an effort to ignore Theo's not-so-subtle innuendos about her and George.

"Do you think green and red pair well together? How merry it sounds—"

"They're complementary colours, I hear—"

"In the wild, who do you reckon is the predator? The lion or the snake?"

"Sounds like a power struggle to me—"

"A coldblooded reptile and a warm-blooded mammal—opposites attract, you know—"

Oh, that was enough.

"Theodore, please," Jolie groaned, clinking the porcelain of her teacup against its saucer. "You have made yourself quite clear."

He gave her wicked grin and Jolie heard Daphne stifle a giggle.

"Have I?" he asked. "Because, despite my efforts, you still haven't mentioned what happened on Saturday—"

"We kissed!" Jolie threw her hands up, exasperated. "Big deal. It was a dare—"

"If that's how passionate you are when given a dare, I should have dared you to be my girlfriend last term—"

"Please shut up."

Theo barked a laugh. "Only joking, love—kind of. But I've well and gotten over you now."

"Thank Merlin." Jolie rolled her eyes.

Daphne held out her hand and Theo wordlessly passed her the apricot jam for her toast.

"Truly. Who knew I'd been competing against a Weasley!" he taunted. "I didn't realise your standards were so low—"

"You weren't competing," Jolie cut him off. "I didn't like him then—and I still don't. And my standards are not low—"

"You still don't like him?" Daphne sputtered, stilling her knife from spreading the jam against her toast.

Jolie shook her head. "Not like that. He's—an all right potions partner, I suppose."

"'All right'?" Theo echoed. "If I had a potions partner that snogged me like that, I'd be wanking myself raw—"

Jolie felt her face glow red, her cheeks burning with shame. She ducked her head as she took another gulp from her tea, hiding her face.

She was deftly reminding herself that her act of... self-pleasure on Saturday night absolutely and positively did not have anything to do with her and George's kiss. She had just simply been under the influence of liquor and Invigoration Draught, making her feel a little more imaginative and... stimulated.

That was all.

Daphne scrunched her button nose, giving Theo an odd look. "Isn't Pans your potions partner?"

Theo matched her grimace. "I didn't mean her." He cocked his head. "Well—I mean, if she snogged me like that..."

"Theo!" Daphne cried, her own cheeks glowing pink. "You're lucky she's having a lie in. She'd be disgusted with you."

Theo shrugged. "Probably. Luckier for me that Draco's with his goons."

The three turned their heads to peer down the table. Draco sat next to Blaise, shaking his platinum blonde head at something Crabbe was saying. Goyle barked a laugh, a piece of sausage falling out of his open mouth.