« AMORTENTIA »
Anastasia flushed the moment she stepped inside the Potions classroom with bags under her eyes and a sad smile. When her eyes met with a pair of grey ones, she had her cheeks completely red.
Like the other day, the tension between the pair was palpable. Draco had admired her from the moment she walked past his table and seated in the other side of the room, not glancing up at him.
The previous night, Anastasia had freaked out at the thought of having feelings for the blonde boy. Inside her head, Draco Malfoy was forbidden and she had repeated it to herself from the very moment the Dark Mark was placed in her arm. Maybe because the incoherent idea of blaming him for what was happening to her, but she couldn't tell anyone about that: because a small part of her heart had suspected that he probably told Voldemort how intelligent she was, otherwise how would he know?
Of course Draco was angry at her accusations, and he had the right. For several minutes, he repeated Anastasia he had nothing to do with how the Dark Lord knew about her. But Anastasia didn't listen him once, she was too consumed throwing him insults to even process what he was saying.
Eventually, he got tired and started yelling as well. Both of them gaining a lesson from McGonagall reminding them the Astronomy Tower wasn't for couples to snog and fight. That caused a huge wave of gossip to take over the Great Hall the next morning, but in that time Draco and Anastasia couldn't bring themselves to look at each other without throwing jinxes.
"In this particular day, we are going to learn how to prepare a perfect potion of Amortentia." Slughorn happily exclaimed.
The students groaned at the mention of the love potion but no one was brave enough to tell professor Slughorn they weren't interested in learning that; he was too excited explaining the process that the whole class decided to stay silent.
"This is rubbish." Anastasia placed a few strings of hair behind her ears as she looked down at her potions book.
"What is rubbish?" Ron asked, looking at her with pursed lips.
"This." She said, signaling at the amortentia chapter in their book. "I highly doubt that we are going to use this." Harry laughed quietly, his eyes glued to his book.
"Now, you shall begin." Slughorn said and Anastasia was suddenly freaked out at the thought of not knowing what the professor said.
"Here, I knew you weren't listening so I brought your ingredients." Hermione smiled at her. Anastasia kindly thanked her and began working.
Occasionally, Draco would look up from his cauldron to check on the girl in front of him. He was angry, but that didn't stop him to be worried about the well-being of Anastasia, more now that she had lost practically everything.
Surprisedly, the students started working in silence. The only sound they could hear was the distant whispers of certain group of friends, but Anastasia was thankful that she could work in peace without nothing bothering her and helping her to prepare the potion well. After all, she had her heart broken from the letter her parents sent her the day before.
That morning, it took everything for her to leave her bed. She felt as if the little life she had inside was urging her to keep living until it was too late, but that small voice in her mind reminded her about the events of the other night and how much her parents hated her for what she did.
Of course Harry noticed the quiet girl, she had skipped breakfast and entered the room like a ghost. Little did Harry know what was happening inside her head.
"Ronald! Be careful with that!" Hermione's strict voice zoned Anastasia out of her thoughts. Frowning, she looked at the pair arguing about how Ron was about to knock over the cauldron to the floor.
"Can you please calm down, you lunatic?" He sneered, placing everything in its rightful place after putting the cauldron away from a corner. "See? Nothing happened."
Anastasia laughed quietly, the sound of her laugh echoed inside the classroom. It made Draco look up at the girl who was currently helping the ginger boy to mix the ingredients in his cauldron.
The jealousy took over his body as he watched carefully how relieved she looked being around them. He then thought that maybe she was always sad around him because he reminded her of the task she had to complete. And he completely hated the idea.
To try and discard those dark thoughts from his mind, he walked to the small counter where the ingredients were. Angry with Blaise for not picking the right things to make the potions.
"You forgot to take Moonstone, Ron." She smiled at him. Draco could hear Anastasia's voice coming closer to him, which made his heart start pounding.
As she walked past him, the smell of coconut and her lavender perfume filled his nostrils. Exhaling deeply at the smell, a little smile appeared in his face, he quickly pursed his lips together when he turned around to not look like an idiot.
Anastasia smelled his strong cologne when she quickly walked behind him, she hoped for him to not notice her. As she scanned the counter for the Moonstone. A strong smell of Apple filled her nostrils, causing her to turn around and find a bored Draco eating a green apple and looking at Blaise doing all the work by himself.
"Can you please hurry up, Annie?" Ron exclaimed, calling her for the nickname the trio assigned her.
"I'm coming, I'm coming." She quietly laughed, hurriedly walking to his side and pouring the Moonstones in the unfinished potion. "I'm starting to think you really are a menace in potions, Ron." She teased him with a smirk.
"I'm trying, Annie!" Hermione laughed at his reaction. "Hermione, help us!" He quickly took a few steps closer to the girl, which caused him to accidentally knock over the cauldron.
"Ronald!" Anastasia angrily exclaimed, looking at the floor full of red liquid. "Oh my—" But she quickly interrupted herself when the smell filled her nostrils.
Green apple. Cologne. Roses.
"Oi, Anastasia! Did you use your whole bottle of perfume today?" Draco exclaimed, clearly not aware of the potion sprawled in the floor. "Now the whole classroom smells of you."
The whole room stayed silent.
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The silence between Draco and Anastasia was beyond uncomfortable, only for her. Apparently Draco didn't know he yelled his feelings for the girl in the middle of the class, but she knew. And that made her feel more confused about her feelings.
"Draco?" She quietly called for him. He turned around, facing her with a frown.
"What are you feeling right now?" That question caught him out of guard, and Anastasia noticed it.
"What?" He questioned, the confusion taking over his words as he wandered around the cabinet. "Why are you asking me this?"
Anastasia only shrugged, looking directly at his grey eyes, "I'm just curious."
"Well, I don't know." He answered, loosening his green tie and taking a seat next to her in the cold floor. "Desperation. Anger. Fear. Just to name a few." He deeply exhaled. "How are you feeling today?" He looked at her.
"A little better, I guess." She replied, playing with her hair. "I want to write them back, but I don't have enough courage to do it."
"I was thinking," Draco began, putting his wand next to him in the floor. "Maybe you can spend Christmas in the manor. So you're not alone here."
"You don't have to worry about me, Draco." Anastasia was now sitting straight. "I don't mind staying here for the holidays."
"Think about it, alright?" He said, half-smiling at the girl in front of him.
Another silence embraced the pair, but this time it was a nice, comfortable silence. One they both enjoyed as their eyes looked directly at the cabinet in front of them.
"I didn't tell You-Know-Who anything, Rosie. I swear." Draco whispered. "I honestly don't know who told him about you, but I didn't." But Anastasia didn't say anything, she didn't even blink. "You don't believe me." He stated, sighing.
"I believe you." She said, after a long pause. "I think I was so disoriented that I couldn't think straight." Another sigh left her chewed lips. "I'm sorry."
"Do you think we'll be able to fix it?" Draco asked, looking at the brown cabinet in front of them.
"I don't know." She followed his gaze and stood up. "I hope we do." Her hand took the wand and pointed at the cabinet.
"If we do it at the same time? It could work." He stood up and took his wand as well.
Draco watched her take an apple from his robes' pocket and place it inside, silently closing the doors and steeping back with her wand pointing at the old piece of furniture.
"Harmonia Nectere Passus." The pair whispered, then they heard a crack inside it and looked at each other.
The girl slowly walked to the cabinet and hesitantly opened the doors, revealing them that the apple had disappeared. Draco prayed for the spell to work again when Anastasia closed the doors again and stepped back again.
"Harmonia Nectere Passus." One more time, they whispered and the cabinet cracked.
This time, Draco shoved his wand in his pocket and walked to the cabinet. He opened the doors, letting him see an untouched apple in front of him. Anastasia then joined him with wide eyes.
"It worked?" She questioned, looking in between the tall boy and the apple in his hand.
"No." He replied, turning the apple to reveal a small hole in it.