Before you (Fred Weasley)

CHAPTER 40

"Hey Bella" I smiled at her as she sat on an armchair in the Common room.

"Hey Alice" she returned.

I suddenly remembered that the photograph she had dropped was still in my school bag. I pulled it out, it was a bit crumpled now.

"Here, you had dropped it in the library a few months ago. I forgot to return it to you" I handed it to her.

"Oh I've been looking for this forever! It's my favourite picture of me and my parents" she said, pocketing it and nodding appreciatively.

I bade her goodbye as I had classes to attend. I looked at my timetable to see that I was the only Hufflepuff who had taken potions that year which is why I was grouped with the Gryffindors and Slytherins.

If Slughorn was the new potions master, where did that leave Snape?

I headed to the dungeons to see the jolly old man sitting on a chair behind his desk. He smiled kindly at me as I took a seat and waited for everyone else to arrive.

"You must be Alice Malvolio"

I didn't want to correct him, I stuck with the 'Malvolio' part otherwise I would be bombarded with questions about my father. I made sure that my dark mark was well covered.

"Yes Professor Slughorn"

"I've heard excellent things about you from Snape" he said.

All the students began to file in and Slughorn greeted them all. Then he called us all to the front to show us some potions that he had brewed.

"Can anyone identify this potion?" Slughorn pointed to a pinkish-pearly potion.

I raised my hand as fast as I could and Slughorn called me forward.

I looked into the cauldron, inhaling the scent.

"Amortentia, the strongest love potion in the world. It is distinctive for its mother-of-pearl sheen, and steam rises from the potion in spirals. Amortentia smells different to each person, according to what attracts them" I said.

"For example, I smell.." I inhaled deeply.

"I can smell the air after it rains, the pages in a newly bound book and..and vanilla oak? Or is it tea leaves? One of the two" I said before stepping back.

The last fragrance seemed very familiar but I just couldn't put my finger on it.

"Excellent, excellent"

We were then told to concoct the Draught of Living Death, the person who did it the best would receive a small vial of Felix Felicis.

I quickly set to work on the potion, following the instructions in the book.

I added the infusion of wormwood, the powdered asophodei, and stirred it clockwise twice. It began to take on a light green colour. After adding the sloth brain, I pulled out a few sopophorous beans from a jar and tried to cut them but they kept slipping from underneath the knife.

I looked around to see that everyone was having the same problem. Everyone except Harry, he added the juice in his potion and it turned into a deep purple colour.

"How did you do that?" Hermione huffed, she looked like she was having a hard time concocting her potion which was quite surprising.

"Crush the beans, I guess it releases the juice better" said Harry.

"No, the instructions specifically say to cut" said Hermione sternly.

I decided to follow Harry and crush the beans, the juice released almost instantly and I poured it into the cauldron. The potion began to take a dark colour.

"Alright everyone, time up!" said Slughorn.

He then proceeded to look into everyone's cauldrons. When he reached mine, a smile reached his face.

He plucked a leaf from a plant and dropped it into the potion, it resurfaced after a few seconds looking slightly burnt.

"My, this is almost perfect!" said Slughorn before walking over to Harry's potion.

He did the same and the leaf emerged, displaying the exact results he wanted.

"This potion wins, it is perfect!" said Slughorn, giving Harry the vial of Felix Felicis.

"How on Earth did you manage to do that? You've always been abysmal at potions" Asked Ron as we left the dungeons.

"Just follow the instructions I guess" shrugged Harry.

While we were on our way out Harry walked next to me, Ron and Hermione behind us.

"Alice?"

"Yes?"

"Are you sure that Draco isn't up to anything? He has been acting a bit strange lately" said Harry.

"You two really love each other don't you?" I chuckled. Draco and Harry were always asking about each other, sometimes, I really wondered if they had something going on.

"What? No! Of course not!"

"Then why are you after him? Just let him be, it's Draco we're talking about, when is he not up to something?"

"I don't care about him, it's just, it could have something to do with Voldemort"

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"I think that he's a death eater" said Harry to me, a death eater.

"W-what makes you say that?"

"His father is Lucius Malfoy, I honestly wouldn't be surprised"

"Yea well my father is Cadmus Aster, but I'm not a death eater am I?" I tried to reason. I had to make sure that Harry didn't find out the truth.

"Yea but it's different with you, you don't like the dark side" sighed Harry.

The rest of the day was a blur of classes and homework. When all of it was finally over, I was on my way for dinner when someone grabbed me by the arm and pulled me back into a dark hallway.

"What the actual he-"

"Shut the fuck up, we have to look for The Vanishing Cabinet" whispered Draco.

"Why now? I'm hungry!"

"When are you not hungry" he rolled his eyes.

"Do you have any clue as to where it can be?" I asked.

"Mother said that she would write to me, telling me where it is. Apparently the Dark Lord knows where it is hidden" sighed Draco.

I looked at him, he looked quite tired, I was beginning to worry.

"Draco are you alright?"

"Yea why wouldn't I be?" he said.

"You should take a break maybe"

"Don't be so stupid, I have been given a job to do and I will do it" snapped Draco.

"Oi, who's there? You're supposed to be in the Great Hall!" Said a voice.

I turned around to see Ron standing there with his arms crossed, his eyes widened when he saw me.

"Alice? What are you doing here? And with Malfoy?"

"Shut up Weasley, you have no business being here" yelled Draco.

"I'm a prefect Malfoy, five points off of Slytherin for being in the corridors late at night"

"I'm a prefect too doofus, five points off of Gryffindor for taking points off of Slytherin for no reason" shot Draco.

"Shut up both of you!" I yelled.

They looked at me in anger.

"Five points off of Hufflepuff for yelling at prefects" Draco and Ron said simultaneously.

"I'm a prefect too you dimwits, five points of off Slytherin and Gryffindor for taking points off of each other and Hufflepuff for no valid reason" I spat, turning on my heel and walking away.

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