! chapter twenty !
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"DID YOU HEAR ABOUT Carl Whitneck?" Malory asked at the Dining Hall the next morning as Haven slid onto the bench. She grabbed a biscuit from off one of the plates paced on the middle of the table, and took a bite from it, staring at the other girl with her brows pinched in confusion.
"Who?" Haven replied with a mouthful of food.
"Carl Whitneck," Malory repeated, slower that time, like she was talking to a toddler. "The guy who knocked you off your broom yesterday."
Still confused to where she was going with this, Haven pulled the biscuit out of her mouth to apply jelly onto it. She glanced up at the girl once more. "What about him?" Haven wondered, barely paying her any attention.
"He walked in here with blood dried on his face," Malory informed as Haven swallowed the last bit of her food. She suddenly pointed to one end of the Ravenclaw table, and Haven followed her arm. Her eyes landed on the same boy from yesterday, his face, in fact, dried with blood. "Nurse said his nose is broken, too."
At this, Haven choked on her juice. "Broken nose..." Haven echoed, trailing off as a thought popped into her head. She abruptly pushed herself up once she saw a familiar blonde boy walk out of the room, and she trailed after him, ignoring Malory's calls of confusion. "I can take care of myself, you know," her voice rang out through the empty hallway, and Draco turned around. He fidgeted with his tie nervously, and Haven suspected it wasn't because she was confronting him. She didn't decide to question him on it this time, however.
"No idea what you're talking about."
"Come on, Draco," Haven groaned, annoyed. "I'm not dumb. Broken nose, hello? That is totally your forte. You did it to my brother, remember?"
He sent her a small shrug. "Sorry, Haven. No idea what you're on about. Maybe you should go to the nurse, sounds to me you've got a concussion from that nasty fall yesterday." Draco began to briskly walk away once more, stopping once she said his name again.
"How do you know I fell?"
"Shit," she heard him whisper, and Haven felt a jolt of surprise go through her at his language. She'd never actually heard him swear before. Draco slowly turned around. "Everyone is talking about it."
"No one is talking about it."
"Fine," he huffed angrily. "I was at the Quidditch field yesterday. Not to watch you play, alright? I'm not pining after you because that's simply mental. I happened to be there when I saw that kid knock you off your broom, and I decided to punish him for it. He didn't play fair."
"Oh, because Draco Malfoy is all about playing fair," she commented sarcastically, and he scoffed. "Relax, I'm kidding."
"Whatever, are you done pestering me now? I have better ways to spend my time."
"Like what?"
"Important business matters." She surprised herself with a laugh, and he scowled at her. "Nothing is funny about this conversation."
Still laughing, Haven patted his chest, before turning on her heel to walk back towards the Dining Hall. "Always a pleasure, Malfoy."
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"Today we will be learning about how to make Amortentia," Slughorn explained to them a few days later. Most of the girls in the class went giddy, including Malory, who nudged Haven with excitement, although the brunette didn't share the same feelings. "Now, keep in mind that this is a very tricky potion, I'm sure a lot of you will not get it on your first try. Although, it's never hurt anyone to attempt. So, begin. Try your best! And the recipe is on page thirty."
Sighing, Haven flipped open her book sluggishly. She hadn't gotten much sleep the night before, the reason unknown. She simply just couldn't drift off. Normally, Haven would go up to the roof to clear her mind, but if she were being honest, she was scared to go anywhere alone. She knew Voldemort was after Harry, and she knew he would do anything to get ahold of her brother. She was worried about where that left her. Sure, she knew she was safe at Hogwarts, but Haven couldn't shake the feeling of everlasting doom that seemed to lurk at every corner.
Haven cut off the stem of some fluxweed, and dropped it into her cauldron. Harry seemed to be about five steps ahead of her, and she felt the sudden urge to snatch the book from his grasp and keep it for herself. He basically had a cheat-sheet in his recipe book. He had the highest grade in the class, too. Even higher than both her and Hermione's combined.
Next, Haven measured the powered bicon horn, and poured it into the green liquid after double checking herself. Despite acting like she didn't want to make the potion, she was curious to what it was going to smell like.
Finally, Haven yanked out a strand of her hair, before gently placing it inside. She then began to stir the liquid, and it turned a blue-green. Haven tapped the wooden spoon against the cauldron and put it back down onto the table.
"Very good, Miss Potter," Slughorn commented, coming to stand behind her. "Very good indeed. I hadn't been expecting anyone to get this on their first try. Five points to Ravenclaw for your hard work."
"Thank you, professor," Haven said with a grin.
"Well, go on," Hermione encouraged, leaning closer to her in excitement. "What's it smell like?"
"Yeah," Malory scooted over to her as well. "Tell us."
With an eye roll, Haven leaned forward to take a sniff of the potion she'd just made. She got a sudden whiff of apples—which only confused her. Then, a smell of some sort of shampoo with a somewhat minty tinge, she also didn't know who it belonged to either. Haven held back a gasp at the third smell that took over her senses—a familiar expensive cologne that she'd recognize anywhere. Her head shot up, and she immediately glanced to Draco who was busying himself with his potion. He didn't even look over to her.
"We're waiting..." Hermione reminded her in a teasing tone.
"It kinda didn't really smell like anything, actually," Haven lied. "It smelt like regular water, I guess."
"Oh," Malory pouted. "Bummer. Well, mine is done."
"Go on, then," Haven told her, and the other girl leaned forward to dip her nose closer to the cauldron.
"I smell Quidditch equipment, a tinge of pine wood and...old parchment?"
Haven looked over to Harry, who wasn't paying attention to the girls at all whatsoever. She immediately knew who Malory had been describing since the second she said "pine." Haven used to steal Harry's cologne all the time to spray it on a few of her oversized hoodies. She would pretend they were her father's. Haven would recognize the scent of that cheap pine cologne anywhere. Not to mention, Harry did play Quidditch, and he was holding an old book in his hands.
"So weird," Malory mumbled. "I—I definitely do not like a guy who smells like that. I promise, Haven. I don't."
"Even if you did, it's fine," she assured, wincing. "Although I can't seem to find a reason why. He's just...gross, really."
Hermione's eyes darted between the two of them. "Who are we talking about again?" She asked, and that's all that was needed to be said to make the trio burst out laughing.
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— AUTHORS NOTE
okay so i wanna explain before hinny shippers come at me😭😭 i absolutely loved them in the books but in the movie they were just so...bland??? like that one scene where ginny bends down and ties his shoe PLEAASEE LMFAOOO i just don't like them together in the movies. i'm sorry if you don't like the decision i've made but uh this is my book so😃👍🏼
also i was gonna wait until tomorrow to upload this but i have no patience lmao