CHAPTER TWO
( amortentia: the most powerful
love potion in the world ! )
❝ WELL, NO NEED TO SOUND
SO DEFENSIVE ABOUT IT ❞
( * ˚ ˑ༄ؘ ✦ )
IT WAS A LITTLE AFTER MIDNIGHT WHEN AURORA GOT a text from ray saying to meet him at the man cave. she was confused as to why, especially at this hour, but she went regardless. it's not like she was doing anything anyways. she was just up watching some stupid movie on tv. she arrived at the same time as charlotte and henry did. twenty minutes has passed and still no sign of ray. now, they were pacing around anxiously.
"why would he want us here after midnight on a thursday?" henry asks.
"i don't know, but if it's because he had a bad dream again, i am not gonna sing him a lullaby this time,"charlotte says.
"maybe it's an emergency," aurora suggests. "like maybe he—"
she was cut off by the elevator opening and jasper coming out of it with his american flag onesie and curlers in his hair, "i'm here!" aurora, charlotte, and henry stare at him.
"that's," henry points at jasper, "an emergency."
"are you... why would... curlers?!" charlotte exclaims as she walks toward jasper.
"what, you thought my hair was naturally curly?"
"my trust issues just got worse," aurora comments.
the alarm beeps and the tube shot down. they all stare as ray appeared, "heyyy," he greets with a huge smile. "hello, friends. welcome," he grabs aurora's shoulders, "welcome!"
"uh, sure."
"yeah."
"alright."
"yeah, hey."
"and now... i want to introduce you guys to someone very special," the alarm beeps again and a woman appears from the tube.
aurora leans to her friends, "who's that?"
"i don't know," henry whispers back, "it looks like a woman."
"yeah," jasper nods. aurora and charlotte look at each other and rolled their eyes at the two.
"everyone," ray began, "this is gwen." he wraps his arms around her waist as she wraps hers around his shoulders, "hi guys," she greets.
"uh, hi."
"hey."
"what's up, gwen."
"hello."
"hey. ray, can i talk to you for a second?" henry asks as he pulls ray to the side.
"hold on, i'd really rather—"
"just a sec, so sorry, i'm so sorry," henry apologizes to gwen.
"isn't she great? so pretty—"
"are you crazy?!"
gwen walks to stand by aurora, charlotte, and jasper. she gave them a smile and they awkwardly smiled back. "what is going on?" aurora whispers to charlotte and jasper as they both shrugged at the girl.
"hey, honey?"
"yes?" gwen turns to look at ray.
ray puts his arm around henry's shoulder as he ruffles his hair, "i'll bet you'll never guess who this lovable knucklehead really is."
aurora, charlotte, jasper, and henry shook their heads, trying to stop ray from saying anything.
"ray, don't."
"not a good idea."
"i wouldn't."
"stop."
"kid danger!" he laughs.
"dude!" the four teenagers shouted.
"it's okay," ray reassures them, "gwen even knows that i'm captain man."
"oh my god!"
"what are you doing?!"
"ray!"
"yo!"
"and guess what else," ray takes gwen hand into his, "gwen and i... we're getting married." the four teens have never looked more baffled in their lives. poor ray has absolutely lost his mind.
the secret door opens and schwoz came into the room, "heyyy. what's the... happening?"
"rays getting married to a woman he met three hours ago," henry informs.
"whaaaaaaaat?!"
"and—" schwoz turns to jasper, "why does jasper have those things on his head?"
"because his hair's not naturally curly," aurora answers.
"whaaaaaaaat?!"
"i know right!"
────
THE NEXT MORNING AURORA ARRIVED TO JUNK N' STUFF and was met by the sight of henry pacing around (that seems to be occurring quite often) and jasper with a watering pot. after the whole insane situation last night, they all went home and decided to talk more about it in the morning. "hey hey hey," she greets as she enters the store.
jasper waves, "hi, aurora."
"hey, rory," henry says, not looking up from the floor. he was lost in his thoughts. i mean, who can blame him? finding out your boss is getting married to a woman who he has only known for less than a day is just completely absurd.
aurora walks behind the counter and took a seat as she watches jasper trying to water omar. omar made a noise at jasper's attempt which caused jasper to jump back, "henry..."
"yeah?"
"this plants intimidating me."
"dude, we got way bigger problems right now, than plant... thirst."
"hey," aurora speaks, "plants need to stay hydrated, too."
henry ignores her, "it doesn't make sense. why would ray wanna marry a lady he's only known for three hours?"
"maybe she has a trampoline," jasper suggests.
aurora sighs, "jasper."
"yeah?"
"shush."
omar made another noise, causing jasper to flinch away. after about five minutes mentally preparing himself, he walks up to the plant cautiously, "come on... smile for me," he pets the plant, but omar opened his mouth and spat on his face, "ahhh! he globbered me!" aurora laughs as she took a picture.
henry walks up to him, "alright, alright, it's not that bad," he grabbed a towel and started whipping the spit off his face.
the door to the store opens and gwen came in holding blue container, "henry. jasper. aurora."
"hey, gwen."
"hi, gwen."
"uh, jasper.. why don't you go to the bathroom?" henry instructs.
"cause i'm empty?"
"then go to the bathroom, and use your phone to listen to your celine dion playlist."
jasper's eyes lit up, "done!" and he ran out of the room.
henry turns to aurora and gave her a look. she got the hint, "i'll leave, too. i don't wanna see this train wreck," she bids farewell before going into the back room and making her way down to the man cave.
"hey gu— what are you doing?" aurora stops in her tracks and she witnesses schwoz put a weird looking device on ray's (unconscious) head.
"i'm connecting this device to ray's brain, and converting this cerebral memory impulses into audio and video images, so we can see his memories from yesterday, when he first met the lah-day."
"when he first met the lah-day," charlotte mocks.
aurora laughs and gave her a high five as they walk to the machine where the results of the device will show up on screen. schwoz pulls on the handle and the machine started showing off ray's memory about gwen.
"hey! you, there."
"me?"
"what are you doing with that glowing blob?"
"uh... nothing."
"that's a lie. i think you're a criminal."
"are you... hungry?" she pulls out a blue container and showed him the muffins inside.
"uhhh... okay, maybe just one," he took a muffin and began to eat it.
"mmmm, yeah, that's really good. that's a good muffin..."
"captain man?"
"yeah?"
"may i kiss you?"
"uhhh... wuhhh..." gwen leaned in and gave him a kiss. schwoz covers aurora and charlotte's eyes but they slapped his hand away.
"now, captain man, is there something you wanna tell me?"
"y-yeah, i... i love you."
"that's right. and you always will."
schwoz stops the memory and shuts off the device.
"the muffin!" charlotte shouts.
"yes! what?" schwoz asks.
"gwen did something to the muffin! like she must've added some sort of chemical or something, and it made ray fall in love with her when she kissed him." charlotte explains.
"oh, like a love potion," schwoz notes.
"a love potion?" aurora raises a brow, "what is this? harry potter? did she buy amortentia from the weasley twins?"
both charlotte and schwoz had a perplexed look on their faces. aurora sighs, "no one gets my references."
the secret door opens and jasper walks in dancing with his headphones in, "dee, da, do. ah!" he sang.
"jasper?" charlotte says while walking up to him.
he took off his headphones, "hey, what's up?"
"i thought you were upstairs in junk n' stuff with henry," charlotte explains.
"oh, i was, but henry wanted to talk to gwen, so i went to the—"
"oh my god, gwen!" aurora exclaims, "she has the same blue container from last night when she gave ray that muffin!"
"ah jeez."
"c'mon!" they ran to the elevator.
"wait! i'm running too!"
as soon as the elevator reached the store, they quickly got off. unfortunately, they were already too late because henry was already eating one of gwen's muffins.
"henry!" aurora ran up to him, "don't swallow that muffin!" she demands as she tries getting the muffin out of his mouth.
"w-w-what— stop— ah!"
"henry, it's dangerous. i'm trying to save you. stop resisting!"
"use the soap duster!" schwoz hands it to aurora. she took it as henry's eyes widened, "wait— what! wha—"
aurora turns on the duster before shoving it in his mouth, "okay, out of your mouth! henry!"
gwen pulls henry away from aurora, "hey! let him eat the muffin!"
aurora hands the soap duster to schwoz. "hop off, lady!" she shot back as she pulled henry away from gwen. now they were playing tug a war with him, but they soon lost their grip. henry fell and hit the table. the statue from the table fell and knocked him out cold.
"oh my god!"
"aurora, give him mouth to mouth resuscitation!" jasper shouts.
"what?!"
"you took a class for it!"
"yeah, only because i was forced to take one for p.e.!"
"just do it!" charlotte commands.
"okay, fine!" aurora kneels beside henry.
gwen tries pulling aurora away from him, "i need to kiss him!"
"he's underage, you perv!" aurora grimace, pushing gwen back before giving henry mouth to mouth resuscitation. after doing so, henry woke up and started coughing. aurora helps him get up, "hen, are you okay?"
henry looks at her in awe and she swear she actually saw his pupils form little hearts, "i... i love you."
"alright," aurora turns to her friends bewildered, "what the hell is he on about?"
"the muffin, remember? you technically kissed him when you gave him mouth to mouth resuscitation and he fell in love with you because of it," charlotte elucidates. aurora's heart skipped a beat. 'holy shit.' she looks at charlotte and she can see the small smirk she's trying to hide.
"i love you," henry smiles as he starts hugging aurora. she tried to move away from his hug but he was way stronger than her, "hen— henry this isn't— this isn't a good time for hugs."
"awe, you have such a pretty face," he compliments.
"thank you?"
"great, see what you did?" gwen points to aurora accusingly.
"what i did?!" aurora exclaims.
"yeah!"
"hey, i'm not the one who's been going around and giving people bewitched amortentia potion muffins!"
"what?" aurora looks around the room to see their puzzled faces, "seriously people, read a book!"
"shhh. aurora, you're too pretty to yell," henry hugs her tighter from behind, head rested on her shoulder.
"oh my god, this is gonna be a long day."
ray came into the room and looked around until his eyes landed on gwen, "gwen!"
she held her arms out, motioning him to come to her, "i was just dreaming about the first time we met," he admits as he walked up to her and grabbed her hands.
"hello, my sweet man."
"ray, no!"
"okay, henry enough," aurora says sternly when she finally got away from his hug.
"awe, i can never get enough of you," he smiles as he hugs her again.
"ray!" charlotte pulls him away from gwen, "you don't really love her!" ray ignores her and went back to holding gwen.
"ray," schwoz gets in between him and gwen, "she gave you a bad muffin that—" he words became muffled when ray hugged gwen, sandwiching schwoz between them.
"she tricked you!"
"yah," schwoz concurs as he managed to get out from the hug, "and she tried to do it to henry, too!"
"except henry fell in love with aurora by mistake!" jasper adds.
"aw, my baby's so smart," ray praises while admiring gwen. schwoz and charlotte threw their hands up in frustration.
"could you please make all these people leave so we could be alone?" asks gwen.
"alright, everybody out!" ray declares, "come on, let's go," he begins pushing them to the entrance.
"what?!
"wait, wait!"
"no, no, no!"
"but—"
"ooo, but you gotta go. okay!" he shoves them out of the store. "bye guys!"
"you're gonna regret that, manchester!"
────
AFTER RUDELY GETTING KICKED OUT OF THE STORE, THEY all walked to henry's house to come up with a plan. while they were walking to his house, henry would not let go of aurora. when she would push him away, he would try holding onto her harder. she gave up after five minutes. nothing's gonna stop this love sick man from holding onto the person he, accidently, fell in love with. they finally arrived at henry's house and as aurora went to go open the door, henry came up to hug her... again.
"no, nope, stop it."
"i love you."
she manages to open the door, which was easy cause it was unlocked, and aurora quickly went to sit on the couch. charlotte came in after telling schwoz to stay outside on the porch, "okay," jasper began, "tell me why gwen would use tainted muffins to make ray fall in love with her?"
"cause, think about it. if captain man and kid danger are so in love that they can't fight crime, then they can't stop gwen from doing whatever evil things she wants to do!" charlotte clarifies.
"yeah, so we need to figure out how—" aurora felt henry messaging her shoulders from behind the couch, "how— woah that feels... nice... oh hey!" she turns around to look at him, "you got rid of the knot on my back!" she smiles at him excitedly.
"aurora!!!" piper shouts at the top of her lungs as she stomps down the stairs.
"hey, pips—"
"did you take my charger?!" piper demands angrily.
"uh, yeah sorry my phone was about to die and—"
"hey!" henry interjects, "don't you yell at my rory."
"she took my charger!" piper argues. she leans forward to pull aurora's hair.
"ow!" aurora got up from the couch, "she pulled off a piece of my hair!" she exclaims as she held onto her head.
"piper! you just hurt someone i love!"
"yeah, and i'm just getting started!" she charges to aurora.
"wait what is that— ow!" piper started pulling her hair even more, "ow! wow, you have really bad anger issues for someone your age— ow!"
"piper, stop! piper quit that! no!" henry shouts.
"don't take my charger!" piper yells at aurora.
"noted! jesus chri— ow, piper!"
"no!" henry screams.
"okay— okay, that's enou— okay, that's enough!" aurora pushes piper off of her. piper glares at her before running upstairs, "pulling hair in a fight is a weak move!" aurora shouts.
"henry!"
"are you okay?!"
aurora turns around to see charlotte and jasper helping henry off the floor, "you okay?"
"ah, yeah." he replies, "yeah, i think so." aurora walks up to them. henry looks at her, "oh, rory—"
she puts her hands out in front of her to stop him from walking any closer, "hen, please i'm getting really tired of you trying to hug me all the time."
"hug you? what are you talking about?"
"wait, wait, wait," jasper stops, "aren't you in love with aurora?"
"in love with— what? n—no? no! no!"
charlotte raises her brow.
"well, no need to sound so defensive about it," aurora mutters as she crosses her arms.
"no, i'm not defen— i mean i don't—"
"yeah, yeah save me the pity," aurora waves him off.
"wait, okay, guys this is awesome!" charlotte yells.
"what is? how come henry doesn't love aurora anymore?" jasper asks sadly.
"i think cause when piper was harassing aurora, it made henry feel really angry."
"so?" henry questions.
"so... when you feel strong emotions, your body releases chemicals into your brain." charlotte explains.
"ohh, okay... so like, when henry felt anger, it drove out his feelings of love?" jasper inquires.
"yeah, i think that's what happened."
"okay, okay so now, all i gotta do is make ray like, insanely mad, so he'll fall outta love with gwen." henry proclaims.
"but how are you gonna get him mad enough?" aurora questions.
"you could pick a fight with him!" jasper blurts out.
"yes!" henry agrees.
"what? no! ray could kill you!" aurora says.
"you can't pick a fight with ray," charlotte objects.
"well one of us is gonna have to do it."
"not it!"
"not it!"
"not it!" aurora, charlott, and jasper said in unison as they raised their hands.
"really?"
"well it's obviously not gonna be one of us," aurora scoffs as charlotte and jasper nod in agreement.
henry threw his hands up in disbelief.
"it's sad you're not in love with aurora anymore," jasper remarks, "i was gonna make henrora tshirts."
"who's henrora?" henry questions.
"your guys' ship name."
aurora raises a brow, "we have a ship name?"
"yep," jasper nods in pridefully.
aurora turns to look at charlotte, knowing all too well she was the one who created the ship name. charlotte looks away from her while scratching the back of her head trying to look innocent.
aurora shrugs, "well i like more than the other ship name i had with chase: chasora," she snorts, "that relationship was doomed from the start. i don't know what we were thinking, honestly."
"wait," henry spoke, "you had a relationship with your friend chase?"
"yeah, but that was so long ago. we only dated for, like, two months. the whole long distance wasn't really working out. well, it wasn't really long distance considering that i can geo—" she stops when she realized what she was about to say. charlotte, jasper, and henry urge her to continue. "—graph! geograph our... longitude and latitude...?"
"what?" charlotte blinks.
"i don't know! i don't know anything about geography! i'm getting worked up here. let's just back and save ray from marrying that awful woman," she begins walking toward the front door, her friends giving each other confused looks before following behind. she opens the door and they walk out to see three kids trying to take schwoz.
"hey, hey, hey."
"get outta here. pick on someone your own size."
"delinquents."
"stupid children."
schwoz got up from the ground, "jerks!" he throws a stick towards the kids' direction.
"c'mon, let's get to the man cave," henry says before him and jasper walked away.
"i told you not to leave me alone!" schwoz scolds.
charlotte shrugs, "well, who knew?"
"i knew! schwoz knew," he growled before walking away angrily.
aurora looks at charlotte, "uh what is he—"
"i'll tell you later. just like how you're gonna tell me about this whole situation with henry and your old relationship with chase," charlotte smirks as crosses her arms.
aurora blinks, "oh, uh— huh, what was that?" she cups her ear with her hand while looking forward to the direction schwoz walked away, "yeah, okay i'll be there in a minute!" aurora ran to catch up with henry, jasper, and schwoz.
charlotte stayed on the porch, hands still crossed. "i know you're not talking to anyone!"
────
THEY ARRIVED AT JUNK N' STUFF AND QUICKLY SNUCK into the man cave without being seen from either ray or gwen. henry hid by the tubes, charlotte behind the drawer by the elevator, aurora and jasper behind the couch, and schwoz by the monitors. right now, ray was talking to gwen about something that aurora didn't really care about. everything they were saying was going in one ear and out the other. her attention was immediately grabbed, however, when gwen said she was gonna rob the swellview bank. when she went through the sprocket, henry jumped out from his hiding place.
"so... charlotte."
charlotte stood up from her spot, "yeah, henry?"
"who do you think should win the most attractive guy in swellview?"
"most attractive guy in swellview?" charlotte repeats.
"yeah."
"uh..."
"hey," jasper shot up from behind the couch, "what about your dad?"
"yah," schwoz stood up, "your dad is hot."
aurora got up, "yeah, he's hotter than matthew gray gubler," she leans to rays side and whispers in his ear, "and matthew gray gubler is very hot."
"well, yeah."
"that's true."
"that's an interesting way of looking at it."
"yeah."
"wait, wait, wait a second, you guys." ray interjects.
"yeah?"
"what's up, buddy?"
"just a," ray got up from the couch, "friendly reminder, i've won most attractive guy in swellview for the past twelve years, so... it's kinda in the bag."
"well, yeah, but..." henry walks up to him, "you're kinda old now."
rays face drops, "i'm old?" he chuckles in disbelief.
"yeah, i mean, what are you like... over fifty?"
"fif—?! did you just use the f word?"
"hey, look, i'm just saying..."
ray grabs henry's shoulders, "i'm thirty five, henry, you know that." he lets go of him and turns to schwoz, laughing.
henry turns to aurora, charlotte, and jasper who were pointing at their hair. he turns back to face ray, "well, you're starting to lose your hair a little bit."
ray looks at him, "what did you just say to me?!"
"hey, where's gwen?" henry asks.
"gwen happens to be getting ready to go rob a bank."
"or... maybe she's not goin to rob a bank. maybe she's goin to meet some other guy." henry says as he sat down on the chair by the monitors.
"she's going to rob a bank," ray corrects.
"or, maybe... she's goin to meet some guy named rob... banks."
"that's stupid. that's not a guys name."
"yeah, it is," henry got up from the chair and walks up to ray, "just face it, ray. gwen doesn't want you. she wants robert j. banks. y'know why? i bet he's way better lookin than you."
"not possible!"
"yep. he's probably in his early thirties."
ray points to henry, "that's enough."
henry pushes, "yeah, i bet he's gonna kiss her so goooood," he puts his hands in front of his face to make it seem like he's kissing someone, "oh, gwen, you kiss like a princess. mmm, your lips feel like hot pie."
ray began to yell as he lunges at henry. henry yelps as ray grabs him and threw him across the room. henry starting getting up from the floor as ray sped walk towards him. henry continues to get him angrier, "it's not my fault that she likes younger guys!"
ray grab him by the shirt but henry pushes his arms away and started ruffling his hair, "oh, is that some grey hair?"
"get off of me!"
"is that some grey hair?!" ray pushes henry to the floor. aurora got down in front of him, "you gotta make him angrier. keep going."
"yeah, i'm workin on tha—" he got cut off by ray pulling him away by his legs. he grabs him and slid henry across the floor.
"come on," henry urges as he struggled to get up, "you ain't so bad," ray ran up to him and threw a punch but henry dodged it in time and pushed him down on the monitors and got on top of him. ray got up which caused henry to get thrown by the couch. jasper grabs him, "this is so cool to watch!"
"i'm glad you're having a good time," henry says sarcastically.
"go!" jasper pushes henry to ray. he throws him by the stairs and lunges at him. henry kicks him away with his foot. he got up, "she probably makes muffins for lots of guys."
"she only makes muffins for me!" ray ran to grab henry and threw him on the floor.
"henry!" aurora shouts as she, charlotte, jasper, and schwoz went to go help him up.
ray grabs a weapon from the machine schwoz used to look at ray's memory from earlier and points it to henry.
"uh oh."
"ray, stop!"
"don't!"
he started reacting the same way henry did when the love potion wore off cause of his anger, "i think you did it! it's working!" charlotte acknowledges. ray then fell down. charlotte, jasper, and schwoz ran up to him while aurora stood by henry and helped him walk over to them, "ray! ray."
"can you hear us?!" they grabbed him and sat him down on the chair.
"what happened?" he asks, "i was in love... with a woman, uh... gwen!"
"she gave you a love muffin!" schwoz tells ray.
"yeah, and then i had to make you really mad so your feelings of rage and anger would overpower your muffin-induced feelings of love," henry explains.
"that makes sense," ray concludes.
"i can't believe you got mad when henry said you weren't good looking," aurora chuckles, "wow, you're more egotistical than my friends' dad mr. davenport... actually, no you both are equally egotistical."
"oh, c'mon," henry looks at her, "no one is as egotistical as ray."
"mr. davenport puts his name and face on everything, named himself employe of the month to his own company, and has a room full of mirrors just so he could look at himself."
"so... ray?"
aurora nods, "but richer."
the sprocket started to open and ray was the one to notice, "guys, quick, go hide!" they all ran to hide in their same spots from before. except henry hid behind the couch with aurora and jasper this time.
"okay, ray," gwen starts as she walks down the stairs, "i'm about to leave... it should take me about, hmm... twenty minutes to rob the bank."
"aw, that sounds great."
"oh, hey," she stops and turns around to face him, "how do you like my ponytail?"
ray walks up to her, "i love it. i mean, it's uh really cute and just so—" he pulls off her ponytail and gwen opens her mouth in pain, "ow!! you just ripped my ponytail off my head!"
her eyes widened in realization, "you're... you're not in love with me anymore."
aurora, henry, and jasper got up from behind the couch, "yeah, he's not," henry confirms.
"sorry, gwen," charlotte crosses her arms.
aurora smirks, "guess your little play date's over."
"how you like dem muffins?" jasper retorts as him and aurora fist bump.
"and now, gwen, i'd be honored to escort you to prison," ray goes to grab her arm, but she pulls out her phone.
"look out!" charlotte yells.
"she's got a phone!" jasper warns.
"so?"
"who cares?"
"you better care," says gwen, "because if i tap right here, it's gonna send a post out telling the whole world that ray manchester is captain man, and that henry hart is kid danger," she backs away to the tubes.
jasper raises his hand, "anything about me?" aurora rolls her eyes as she pulls his hand down.
"you let me go, and i'll keep you secret. deal?"
ray and henry began to whisper, "do we have a deal or don't we?"
"yeah, we've got a deal— for now."
"but someday," henry starts, "you're going to jail."
"i doubt it," the tube shot down around her, "buh bye, boys and girls!" she looks up, obviously expecting the tube to take her up. when it doesn't, she clears her throat, "off i go!" she looks up again, but still nothing.
"oh, this is just embarrassing," aurora comments.
"okay, what words do i have to say to activate the tube suckage?" gwen asks.
"oh, yeah, just yell, diamonds, rubies, lift me... tubies," henry tells her.
"thank you. diamonds, rubies, lift me, tubies."
they all began to laugh at how she fell for something stupid like that. gwen gave them an irritated look, "i will tap this button, i swear i'll tap it," she threatened.
they all stopped laughing, "just say, up the tube," informs aurora.
"up the tube!" gwen repeats before the tube sucked her up.
"whew. this whole thing was insane," charlotte remarks.
"yeah, no kidding."
"well, at least we all learned something valuable," schwoz says.
"what did we learn?" jasper asks.
"we all learned that no matter how strong love is... anger is stronger."
"that's true."
"that's a good point."
"yep."
"you're right."
aurora nods, "that explains my parents relationship problems."
( * ˚ ˑ༄ؘ ✦ )