Over the next few weeks, Alya and Draco had become closer, but so had Alya and Fred. Alya and Fred had been studying together a lot and things still weren't much clearer for Alya. Mattheo had been quite distant, he wouldn't really talk much to anyone, other than to answer a question or ask if Alya was okay. The rest of the students in the school had barely looked at Alya since the day in the Great Hall, mostly because they knew about her power and were too scared to go near her, which meant that the Slytherin common room was often empty if Alya was there. Alya didn't mind this too much, although she didn't like the fact that the whole school was scared of her.
It was the 30th October, the day before halloween and the day of the quidditch match between Slytherin and Hufflepuff, and everyone in the school was constantly talking about one or the other for the whole week. Alya and her friends sat at their house table in the Great Hall eating breakfast and discussing the Halloween party that they were throwing the next day.
"So Alya, are you dressing up tomorrow?" asked Pansy.
"No need, everyone's already bloody scared of me," Alya laughed.
"That's very true!" laughed Blaise. "I don't know why though, you're not exactly scary are you?"
"Well, I don't think so," said Alya. "But clearly everyone else does,"
"Nah you're not scary," said Theo. "Intimidatingly beautiful, yes. Scary, definitely not,"
"Gosh, thanks Theo," laughed Alya. "Nah, I'll probably just wear a black dress or something,at least it fits with the halloween theme,"
"I guess so," laughed Pansy.
Just then, the owls came with the post and dropped a letter in front of Draco. His face dropped as he read it.
"For god sake!" he said. "My parents want me home tonight after the quidditch match, said it's important family business. Whatever that means. They said it's for a few days so I won't be here for the party tomorrow."
"Oh no. I'm sorry, Dray!" said Alya. "I'll miss you,"
"I'll miss you too, darling," he smiled. "Hopefully it won't take too long,"
They finished their breakfast and headed to their potions class. They sat at their normal desks when they walked in, Alya was next to Pansy, as usual.
"Hello, everyone, take your seats. Quickly now," said Slughorn. "Today we're going to be learning specifically about Amortentia. I'm going to need a few volunteers, actually no. I'll be picking a few people at random to come up and tell me what they smell."
"This should be good," laughed Pansy.
"Mr Riddle, both of you, come up here please," said Slughorn. "Miss Snape-Cortez and Miss Parkinson, you too," they all walked up to the front of the class and stood in a line. Mattheo was first to smell the potion.
"I can't smell anything over your bloody perfume, Alya," said Mattheo.
"I'm not wearing any perfume, Matty," laughed Alya.
"Oh shit..." said Mattheo.
"Mr Riddle, are you saying that you can smell Miss Cortez in the potion?" asked Slughorn.
"No! I just can't smell anything other than her, I thought it was her perfume," said Mattheo.
"Amortentia smells different to each person according to what attracts them, Mr Riddle," said Slughorn, with a grin on his face. "If all you can smell is Miss Cortez, I dare say that you are attracted to her,"
"Whatever," said Mattheo.
"It's not like it's a secret, Matty, you tell me all the time," laughed Alya.
"Oh, shut up," chuckled Mattheo, walking back to his seat. Tom was up next.
"Mattheo was right, Alya. The potion does smell an awful lot like you," said Tom. Pansy laughed at him and looked at Alya.
"We all knew you fancied her, too, Tom," laughed Pansy. Tom blushed and shot her a death stare. Alya giggled and smiled at him. Pansy was next to smell the potion.
"Yep, smells like you, Alya," chuckled Pansy.
"Merlin's beard, Miss Snape-Cortez! Everyone's attracted to you at this rate!" laughed Slughorn. "The question is, what do you smell?"
"Oh god..." said Alya, as she walked over to the potion. She took a long whiff of it and could smell a whole bunch of different things.
"I smell vanilla, cigarettes, green apples, a strong and very familiar cologne, fireworks and...cinnamon?" said Alya. "Oh no,"
"Well... that's a lot," said Slughorn, confused.
"Yep... and I know exactly who they belong to," said Alya, as she walked back to her seat. Mattheo and Draco were both staring at her but she avoided eye contact with each of them. They were told that they had to work in groups of three again, but this time Slughorn chose the groups. He had Mattheo work with Alya and Pansy to make their own version of amortentia. Mattheo walked over to Alya and Pansy's desk.
"I'll go get the ingredients, guys," said Pansy, as she walked to the front of the class.
"So, you smelt vanilla and cigarettes in your amortentia?" said Mattheo. "Sounds a lot like me, don't you think?" he joked.
"And you smelt me in yours, so shush," laughed Alya.
"I know, it makes sense though," said Mattheo.
"Well, yes. I'd say it does, on both parts. Considering what happened in the linen closet at the party, and the fact that you kissed me in my dorm," winked Alya.
"Shut up, you!" chuckled Mattheo.
"You still haven't told me why you did that," said Alya.
"I just... wanted to," said Mattheo.
"Wanted to what?" asked Pansy, as she'd returned with the ingredients for the potion.
"Just... nothing," said Mattheo.
The 3 of them carried on making their potion until the end of the lesson. Once they had finished, Slughorn came over to test it and gave them full marks. The bell rang for the end of the lesson and Alya and her friends went to their common room before heading to lunch.
They didn't have any more lessons for the rest of the day, so after lunch, they all went to the quidditch pitch so that the boys could practise before the match. As usual, Alya,Pansy and Tom went to sit in the seats around the stadium together and spoke.
"So guys, I have some stuff to tell you!" said Alya, once the 3 of them had sat down. "But again, you need to promise me that you won't repeat it,"
"We promise," said Pansy.
"Of course," said Tom.
"Well for a start, Draco told me that he's in love with me," she said.
"HE WHAT?!" shouted Pansy.
"SHHHHHH Pans!" said Alya.
"Sorry I just... Draco is in love?" whispered Pansy. "I bloody told you, didn't I?!"
"Yes, you did," laughed Alya.
"Well what did you say?" asked Tom.
"I told him that I'm falling for him but there's also someone else... although now i think there may be 2 someone else's,"said Alya, putting her head in her hand.
"So you like 3 people?" asked Pansy.
"I don't know, Pans. My head is so scrambled at the moment, but i smelt 3 different people in my amortentia,"
"Oh my god, Alya!" exclaimed Pansy.
"I know... and the second thing is the most confusing," said Alya. "Mattheo kissed me in my dorm a few weeks ago. Perfectly sober, just kissed me,"
"Is this a joke?" asked Tom.
"Nope, it was the day Trelawney told me that 5 people were in love with me in divination class. The same day you made your predictions, Pans. Which also happened to be the same day Draco told me he loves me!"
"This is so crazy. Why would he kiss you like that?" said Pansy.
"That's what I've been trying to figure out. He said he just wanted to but that doesn't really make much sense, does it?" said Alya.
"I think I was right, Alya. He's in love with you," said Pansy.
"I agree," said Tom.
"What? No way guys, that's ridiculous," said Alya.
"He's so different around you, Ally. He's been acting so weird recently too, ever since your party, and then he kisses you, sober?" said Pansy.
"That doesn't mean that he's in love with me though, does it?" said Alya.
"My brother, he's had girlfriends before but he's never loved any of them. If he just wanted you to be his girlfriend or just wanted to sleep with you, he would've told you by now and gone about it in a different way. But we know that he's attracted to you, he kisses you in dares, he did whatever you two did in the linen closet and he's super over protective of you, and now he's kissing you randomly? He misses you when you're gone for too long, over reacts to people telling him he's in love and hates the thought of you being with other people? That isn't Mattheo, that's a completely different version of him! I'm his twin. Although we're not identical twins, I know how he thinks and in my personal opinion, i think that he loves you so much that he doesn't know what to do with himself,"
"Holy..." said Alya. "Well I'm not going to assume anything until he tells me,"
"Fair enough," said Tom.
"Anyway, this is going to be my first night without Draco," said Alya. "I don't know how i'm going to feel being on my own, it's going to be so weird,"
"Well, if you get lonely you can always come and share with me, babe," smiled Pansy.
"You probably wouldn't want to, but you can share with me too if you wanted," said Tom.
"Aw, thank you guys," smiled Alya.
"Those truth or dare games you love so much at our parties are dangerous, Pans!" laughed Alya. "but they're just so fun,"
"I know, I love it," laughed Pansy.
A couple hours later, the boys finished their quidditch practice and met up with Alya, Pansy and Tom and made their way back up to the castle for dinner. The whole school was extremely excited for the match and it was all anyone could talk about. Everyone ate their dinner extremely quickly and they all headed straight back down to the stadium.
"You're going to do great, boys, I know you are," said Alya, giving them each a hug and a kiss on the cheek before they went out to the stadium.
Draco was a seeker, Theo and Blaise were beaters and Mattheo was a keeper. Everytime Mattheo stopped the opposing teams quaffle from going in the hoop, he'd shoot Alya a smile, wink or he'd make a love heart with his hand. Alya was blushing profusely and cheering him and the others on throughout the whole of the match. After 2 long hours, Draco caught the snitch and won the match for the slytherin team. He looked over at Alya and blew her a kiss with his hands before being bundled in triumph by the rest of the team.
"You boys did so well!" exclaimed Alya, hugging all of the boys as they flew off of the pitch.
"Your good luck kiss did wonders, love. You should do that every time," laughed Draco. "I really wish I could stay and celebrate, but my father is already rushing me to get going,"
"Okay, meet me back here when you're changed so we can say goodbye properly," said Alya, as Draco nodded and walked into the changing rooms.
"He's right, love, we only won because of you," smiled Mattheo.
"Oh stop, you know I had nothing to do with it," laughed Alya.
Mattheo chuckled and he went with the rest of the boys to get changed. After around 5 minutes, Draco was the first to appear.
"I need to go now, love. If you need me, just send me an owl, okay? I'll be back as soon as I can," he said, pulling her into a hug "I love you," he whispered into her ear and gave her a kiss on the forehead before saying goodbye to the others and walking away. Pansy was watching with her mouth open.
"Oh my god! He's so in love with you!" said Pansy, once Draco had walked away.
"I know," smiled Alya.
A few minutes later, the rest of the boys came out from the locker room and they all walked up to the castle together.
They sat in the common room for a while discussing the match and everyone was in an amazing mood. Shortly after, everyone decided to go to bed as it was getting quite late.