"We choked on street tap water, well I'm gonna have to try the real thing. I took your laugh by the collar and it knew not to swing."
***
ALICE STOOD to the side of the corridor laughing about Cara's joke about one of the first years, before she was interrupted by Professor McGonagall.
Standing tall in front of the teacher, Alice put on her perfect student facade.
"Might I suggest that instead of wasting a period, you take potions? Professor Slughorn is very welcoming to top students, and with your O.W.L. scores, I'm sure you will easily do well."
Alice nodded thanking the professor for her advice, even though she was agitated that she would have to study more.
"And Alice, dear, take Cara with you... Merlin knows she can't be left alone." Alice nodded laughing as she grabbed the ginger's hand, heading towards the potions classroom.
When they walked into the room everyone turned to them including, Draco, to Alice's surprise. She had missed breakfast and didn't have a chance to ask him about his schedule.
"Very well, there are some books in the cupboard," Professor Slughorn told the girls as they grabbed a copy, walking towards the rest of the class.
Draco nudged Alice, grabbing her free hand with his own. The feeling of his rough fingers against her soft ones, for some reason, always gave the young witch comfort.
"Now as I was saying," Professor Slughorn began talking about love potions, but Alice was too enchanted by the mix of smells like vanilla, ivory, and mint to pay attention.
She looked towards Draco, discreetly smelling his scent, and furrowed her brows. He smelled like a carbon copy of the love potion.
-
At dinner, Alice was still enchanted by the love potion she had been around hours before. But at the same time she thought it was because Draco was sitting directly beside her, whose cologne still lingered.
Draco turned to the girl after putting his goblet down, "Looking lost, Alice, what're you thinking about?"
She placed her fork down on the table, moving to face him. "That love potion in Slughorn's class this morning, it- it smelled exactly like you."
Draco's eyebrows were quickly raised, scratching at the back of his neck, he shrugged.
Alice wasn't uncomfortable telling him the information, she thought, maybe he had very strong cologne that got mixed with the fumes.
"It's stupid, forget it," She waved it off beginning to eat her mashed potatoes.
Draco didn't know what to say, he knew that they'd said 'I love you,' but it was never in a romantic way or so she thought. Deep down Draco knew he was in love with Alice, but with all that was going on, he knew he shouldn't be mixing love with friendship.
As time went on, Draco discreetly nudged Alice, bringing his mouth to her ear to whisper, "Should we go to the Room of Requirement before bed? Go find the cabinet?"
Alice looked around making sure nobody was watching them before nodding.
Draco stood, holding his hand out for Alice as she took it in her own, walking out of the Great Hall.
The two teens had never been inside of the room of requirement, Draco had briefly seen it, but they had never actually discovered what was inside.
When they got to the seventh floor and the room revealed itself to them, they wandered in, making sure to shut the door behind them.
"There's so much stuff here," Alice mused as she walked down the aisle of tables and chairs.
They walked around the room for a while, until Draco came across the cabinet. It stood under a large covering, filled with dust. Draco placed the covering in the ground before looking at the cabinet up close, they didn't know how it was broken but they would figure it out.
Alice was to be the one to fix the cabinet, but Draco reassured her she wouldn't be doing it on her own.
"I'm glad I have you to help me," Alice broke the silence as Draco turned back to look at her.
He nodded, "The feeling is mutual, Rowle."
They stood in silence for a few moments just staring at one another.
"Kiss me," Alice ordered as Draco felt his face go red.
"Pardon?"
Alice rolled her eyes, "Kiss me, you git."
Draco nodded standing closer to her, holding his hand up to her face he ran his thumb over her cheek. Alice closed her eyes as their lips touched, she had never been kissed before, it was wet. But Draco's lips tasted of mint from his lip balm and she was okay with that.
Five minutes went by and they were still kissing, figuring out one another until Alice pulled away, cheeks flushed.
"We better get back, curfew is soon I'm sure."
Alice was flustered, beginning to walk away Draco gripped her hand pulling her back.
He rose his eyebrows, "or we could snog for a bit more?"