Artificial Love (Dramione)

Chapter 1 - The Potion

Everyone was already seated and stuffing their faces in the Great Hall, so quite a few heads turned as the doors opened to reveal the two latecomers. Draco simply stuck up his nose and made his way to his seat, which of course had been saved for him. No one ever dared take Draco Malfoy's seat. Even the older students tried to steer clear of the proud Slytherin whenever they could.

Blaise followed behind, chest puffed out. Most people had turned away as soon as they had seen who had entered but, of course, Blaise had noticed the Hufflepuff veela's gaze still on them. Luckily enough, there was a seat saved for him as well, right across from Draco.

The girl, whose name was actually Janelle and not Julia or Jessica as Blaise had first introduced her, turned away as soon as they sat down, turning back to talk to her friends at her own table.

"Did you see that, mate? She had her eyes on me!" Blaise laughed, "This is almost too easy. I might not even need  that potion in the end!"

"What potion?" Pansy Parkinson, who had been eavesdropping from a few seats away, asked. "I sure hope you aren't going to drug some poor girl without telling me first." She grinned a wicked smile, sipping at her pumpkin juice.

"None of your business, Parkinson," Blaise spat out, blushing a bit. It would be ridiculous for people to find out he was so hooked on one of the air-headed Hufflepuffs that he would actually go to the lengths of giving her a love potion.

"He's hooked on that Janelle girl in Hufflepuff," Draco said simply.

"Bro! You know how big of a mouth Pansy has! Now everyone will know within the next twenty-four hours!"

"I suppose I can keep this one to myself; if Draco wants me to." Pansy fluttered her eyelashes, but Draco only smirked in response.

"You had better keep it to yourself, Parkinson, or else you'll be the next one with a drop of potion in your cup, and it sure won't be a love potion!" Blaise huffed with annoyance.

After the Great Hall had nearly emptied out, Draco left with Blaise to check on the potion that was still floating in the center of their dormitory.

It seemed finished when they arrived. It was a creamy brown, almost like chocolate icing. It was still warm, but once Draco extinguished the fire beneath it, it cooled down considerably quickly. Blaise used his wand to transfer some of it into the two spherical chocolate shells, which were hollow on the inside. Once both were filled, he flicked his wand and they wrapped themselves up in some decorative foil.

Blaise took one and put it in his pocket. He offered the second one out to Draco, "Thanks for your help, mate. Couldn't have done it without you."

"I'm not interested. Just let me know how it goes with you." Draco walked back over to his bed, picking his book up again.

"Well, maybe you'll need it later. I'll just put it here in case you want to use it for some reason. I'll only need the one if everything works out right." Blaise placed the chocolate into the pocket of the robes hanging from Draco's bed post.

Draco just shook his head, "I won't use it."

"Not even for a prank? If you slipped it to some girl in a serious relationship and she started to fall for you because of it, that would be funny, right?"

"I tend not to interfere in matters of the heart," Draco replied, smirking slightly.

"You just helped me interfere with what's-her-name's 'matter of the heart' so don't go all regal and chivalrous on me." Blaise threw himself onto his bed before remembering the cauldron still floating in the center of the room. With a wave of his wand, it collapsed and folded itself into his trunk at the foot of his bed.

Draco simply grinned, a real grin that he would only ever show to the people closest to him, and laughed sharply, "Go do your homework, idiot."

"You do your homework!"

"For your information, I finished it all ahead of time. You, however, have been procrastinating on that three-foot potions essay. Maybe now that you've morphed a couple of potions on your own, you may have become an expert overnight."

Blaise groaned, letting his head fall back onto his pillow, "I'm tired of potions! I've been working on that love potion for the entire day!"

"Then do the Transfiguration essay you left in your dormitory last class. Nice excuse, by the way, it's not like McGonagall hasn't heard it a million times already anyway," Draco said sarcastically.

"You know I'm no good at covering my tracks. You're the cool and collected one!"

"And what would that make you?"

"Er- the handsome one? The one who's got his life together? The one that will eventually be famous for something other than having a rich and influential family?" Blaise smirked over in the direction of Draco's bed. The blond hadn't put down his book, and his eyes still scanned the pages as his friend jabbered on.

"And I'm just the cool and collected one?" He flipped his page, acting bored even though the conversation was actually enjoyable for him.

"Eh, you're the smarter of us as well. At least you've got that going for you."

"Go do an essay, Zabini. I don't care which one, just do something so that you don't lose more house points for forgetting homework."