Days passed in the castle, and her sixth year classes had started. One afternoon when she was walking down to the dungeons for her advanced potions class with Hermione she saw him, the pale boy alongside Blaise Zabini. She looked at him for a moment as time stopped, but he only looked at the ground.
Professor Snape was no longer teaching potions, seeing as he had taken over as the defense against the dark arts teacher after Umbridge's downfall. Professor Slughorn, a short man with a old face and companionable voice, was the new potions teacher.
They were just about to start as Harry and Ron dropped in, looking displeased to be in the classroom in the dungeons. Professor Slughorn however seemed more than happy to have them join his class, and they grabbed books before they sat down behind her and Hermione.
"What are you two doing here?" Hermione turned around to ask them "neither of you are qualified for advanced potions"
"Oh we know" Ron sighed, glancing at Harry.
"Professor McGonagall made us come" Harry informed Hermione and she nodded her head, respecting that professor McGonagall probably knew what she was doing.
The class began, and as professor Slughorn talked about a new potion, the amortentia potion, she glanced over at Draco. He was sat at a wooden desk to the left beside Blaise Zabini, keeping his head hung low.
"Can someone please tell me what the amortentia potion is?" the old professor asked and Hermione raised her hand quickly "ah yes miss..."
"Granger professor, the amortentia potion is an extremely powerful love potion, however it does not actually produce love, only infatuation and possibly obsession"
"Correct miss Granger, five points to Gryffindor"
Draco rolled his eyes as Hermione got the question right, and she couldn't help but sigh at his ignorance.
"Today you will learn how to brew amortentia" professor Slughorn said as he looked out onto the class sat before him "however be aware will you, as you all are maturing to the stage where love occurs, the potion's use is limited as miss Granger pointed out, amortentia doesn't create actual love as it's impossible to manufacture or imitate love, it is only a mean of infatuation, now can anyone tell me what amortentia smells like?"
Hermione's hand shot right up in the air once more and professor Slughorn nodded his head towards her.
"Yes miss Granger"
"Amortentia smells different to each person, depending on what attracts them professor"
"Correct miss Granger" professor Slughorn said "now open your books to page twelve where you will find the instructions on how to brew the potion, go on and get started everyone"
She got her cauldron up on the wooden table as she got started on her potion, adding ashwinder eggs, rose thorns, peppermint, powdered moonstone, pearl dust and rose petals. It took the entirety of the potions lesson to brew the potion, and when it was done it asserted itself with a mother of pearl like sheen and a spiralling steam.
"Everyone done?" professor Slughorn asked as he walked along the desks "very well, everyone has done it, now smell your potions"
Everyone bowed their heads down, sniffing the liquid inside their cauldrons.
"Mr Potter, what do you smell?" professor Slughorn asked, eyeing Harry.
"Oh uhm treacle tart professor, and a woody scent much like a broomstick handle and a... uhm something flowery that I might have uhm smelled at the Burrow"
"Excellent mr Potter" professor Slughorn said before he turned to the table where her and Hermione was sat "miss Granger, what does your potion smell of?"
Hermione took another whiff of her pearly like potion before she sat up and spoke, her voice trembling slightly.
"Freshly mown grass, new parchment and uhm Ro... m-minty toothpaste professor"
"Magificent" he said turning to the other side of the classroom "you, mr..."
"Malfoy professor"
"Yes yes mr Malfoy, what do you smell?"
She turned her head towards the left at the mention of his name, and she saw the pale boy swallow hard as he looked away for a moment before he answered professor Slughorn's question, his voice low and stern.
"Spring flowers, wool, sweet chocolate and something faint, vanilla mixed with wood like an old book"
"Very well mr Malfoy" professor Slughorn spoke before he turned around and walked to the front of the classroom to write something on the board.
"Wonder who that is? That Malfoy smells I mean" Ron leaned forward and whispered "I would've imagined him to smell blood, the colour black, dirt and like I don't know pure evilness, not wool and old books"
Harry muffled a laugh and Hermione smiled, shaking her head.
"I don't think evil and the colour black has a scent Ron"
She sat still, staring down at her hands. Spring flowers, wool, sweet chocolate and something faint, vanilla mixed with wood like an old book.
Slughorn let them go, and they walked up the stairs from the dungeons towards professor McGonagall's transfiguration class. She could not seem to stop thinking about what Draco had said during potions class, the scents he had spoken about lingered inside her head, making her feel dizzy until she finally figured it out.
The school day ended and she parted ways from her friends. Harry, Ron and Hermione were headed down to Hagrid's hut and they had offered her to come with them, but she politely declined as she told them she needed to head to the library. It was a lie however, she was going to find him. And so she did, she walked along the stone hallways searching for him and she even snuck down to the dungeons to hide outside of his common room. It took her almost two hours to find him, and she saw him on the seventh floor of the castle, walking towards the staircase alone.
"Malfoy!" she called out, and he turned around quickly, meeting her eyes with his bright ones.
"Ember"
He stopped and looked at her with his hands in his pockets, and she hurried up to him.
"What did you smell in potions class?"
"I can't really remember" he shrugged, looking away.
"Yes you can, spring flowers, wool, sweet chocolate and something faint, vanilla mixed with wood like..."
"an old book" he said, finishing her sentence as he looked back at her "I know"
"That's me" she breathed "I mean it is right? My wool coat, my love for wizochoc..."
"Your pretty nose always being in one of those old books" he added with a laugh, looking away "yes of course it's you Ellie, who else would it be? It's you, because no one else makes sense"
She stopped for a moment, parting her lips but finding words hard to speak. He was stood before her, and just like all those times before he seemed to be glowing.
"You're still... still attracted to me?" she whispered.
"Of course" he said sternly, looking back at her with something so soft in his eyes "I think about you constantly, nobody could ever replace you"
"Oh" she breathed, looking down at her hands.
He stood still for a moment, his eyes dancing over her. The light that flooded through the tall windows near them casted a angelic like glow on the both of them.
"Ellie" he spoke, taking a step closer to her "I've been keeping out of your way because I know that it's what you want but..."
"That's not what I want Draco" she interrupted him, shaking her head "not at all, I don't want you to ignore me, I want you to tell me the truth"
He drew a deep breath, and his bottom lip quivered.
"I can't Ellie, I wish I could tell you everything but it's too dangerous"
"Then I suppose we don't have anything else to talk about, good evening Draco" she said, walking past him.
"Wait Ellie"
His words made her stop and turn around to face him once more, and he looked at her with despair in his grey eyes.
"What Draco?"
"Why did you go looking for me? You told me to come to you when I was ready to tell you the truth remember? So why did you come and look for me? You already knew that those scents that I smelled during class belonged to you, so why are you here?"
She didn't know what to say, she didn't know what he wanted to hear, so she just stood there with her lips parted and her eyes wandering around the corridor.
"I-I don't know" she mumbled, looking at him "I don't know Draco"
"Your heart brought you here"
"No" she said, shaking her head.
"You have a piece of my heart Ellie, and I have a piece of yours remember?"
"No Draco no" she said, fighting back the tears "no you don't get to say that, you kissed me, you held me, you told me that I have this special place in your heart and that you're falling in love with me, you promised me that you would write but you lied, you led me on, and for what reason? Just to hurt me, hah how funny, you get the last laugh, my heart is broken"
"Ellie I'm so sorry"
"No Draco" she said, turning around to walk away "that doesn't cut it"
"Ellie!" he shouted loudly after her "Ellie look at me! What did your amortentia smell like?"
She stopped once again, taking a deep breath. She wanted to walk away, she felt stupid for going to him in the first place. He walked up to her and laid his hand on her arm, spinning her around.
"What did your amortentia smell like?" he asked again, his voice calmer and softer.
"Peppermint, expensive musky cologne, leather, birchwood and green apples"
"Me?" he asked, looking at her.
"You" she said, nodding her head "but it doesn't matter, you don't want anything to do with me"
"That's not true Ellie, I-I... I don't know what to do"
"Well" she sighed, pulling her arm from his grip "then you need to figure that out Draco"
She walked off, leaving the pale boy standing in the seventh floor corridor alone as she hurried down the stairs, fighting off the urge to cry. She had no clue what was going on with him, but she just couldn't let him break her in half.