Love Potion No. 9

Chapter 2

Silently, but furiously, Hermione added the hair of the demiguise and the scale of a chimera to the bubbling, frothy potion in front of her. She was brooding about having to work with Malfoy. If it wasn't bad enough that Harry didn't notice her, it was equally bad to be paired up with Malfoy to make a love potion. In Hermione's mind, this whole setup had disaster written all over it.

Malfoy was of course no help, but that was no surprise to Hermione. The most he did was add in a beetle shell whenever Snape came sulking by to inspect their work. So far, all Snape had done was make a grunting noise down at their potion and then scurried off to berate Neville for destroying his cauldron, again, for the 5^th time this term.

After adding the last ingredients to the potion, it turned a lovely shade of pink while little bubbles in the shape of hearts came floating serenely up to the surface. Pleased, Hermione looked at Draco, not exactly expecting a thank you for doing his work, but she was expecting some sort of reaction to the perfect potion that she had created.

But no, all Malfoy did was smirk into the cauldron and then frown when he saw the valentine shaped bubbles. He sharply turned to Hermione and leveled her with a glare that was probably seen by the Sultan in India.

"Hah, finally, the perfect Granger has done something wrong. Who thought I would live to see the day..." Malfoy sneered, twirling his wand idly between his fingers.

Hermione's expression turned from disgust to surprise. Something wrong? What can he be talking about? The potion is perfect, I did everything correctly! Mentally, Hermione went over the minute instructions in her head carefully noting the ingredients and the quantities of what was to be in the potion. Unfortunately, Snape had heard Malfoy's rather rude comment and came over to their desk to see what had happened.

"Look Professor! She did it wrong. There aren't supposed to be any heart shaped bubbles floating around. What kind of a pansy would do that to a potion...Or maybe it was just a mudblood," Malfoy said, his gray eyes burning into Hermione's amber ones.

Hermione felt a surge of red hot anger and turned her gaze to Snape who had been watching the exchange with a twitchy sort of smile on his face.

"Now Draco, try not to use that word in class, it upsets the Gryffindor's. But I'm afraid to tell you that Granger's potion is indeed correct, the disgusting little bubbles are supposed to be there. But come now Draco, it was an honest mistake," Snape said, trying to soften the blow on Draco's supposedly hurt feelings.

Draco's mouth opened wide and he resembled a fish for a few moments until he decided that the blowfish look wasn't for him. He snapped his mouth shut and his gray eyes went completely blank as he turned from Hermione. Hermione almost felt sorry for him, well, almost. If he wasn't such a git then maybe she could spare some sympathy.

Suddenly all business as usual, Draco nodded tersely at the professor and began to pack his things as the bell was to ring momentarily. Hermione followed in the same suit, glad that the blasted class was finally over.

"Just a moment Draco, Granger. How about we try out your potion," Snape said silkily.

At that moment, Hermione felt a shiver of ice down the length of her spine. Normally she wasn't a believer in Divination but she knew, at that very moment that something entirely new was going to come from taking this potion and she wasn't entirely sure that she wanted to experience whatever was coming. But being a believer of reality and not dodgy predictions, she shook it off and tilted up her chin, preparing to take the challenge.

Must have been joking. Me, Draco Malfoy, taking a love potion with Hermione Granger, the mudblood, Potty and Weasel's ever faithful sidekick. Nope, sorry, not going to happen. Draco thought smugly as he folded his arms across his chest, leaned against the table and gave Professor Snape a look that only Draco Malfoy would dare to give.

"Come along, to the front of the classroom. I'll need a hair from each of your heads in order for the potion to affect you the correct way," Professor Snape said, walking off to the front of the room, his black robes swishing behind him.

Defiantly, Hermione let her hair loose from the topknot that it was in and let it flow down her back. Staring crossly at Draco the whole time, she pulled a chocolate coloured hair from her head and dropped it into one of the vials sitting on the desk in front of her.

Strangely enough, all Draco could think about was the way her hair flowed silkily in a mass of curls down to the small of her back. Her hair was no longer bushy and frizzy, but soft and curled into perfect little ringlets. The curl suited her face quite nicely, enhancing her long eyelashes and amber coloured eyes. For the first time in his life, Draco was admiring Hermione Granger. Her skin was pale but she had a smattering of freckles across the bridge of her nose. Her lips were perfectly formed but not without the bite marks that were caused by trying to figure out difficult Arithmancy problems. Draco's eyes moved down her body, pausing at her slim neck and her surprisingly ample chest (A/N: Okay come on, we all knew that Hermione would be a looker!). He forced his gaze to keep going down to her flat stomach, the swell of her hips and the curve of her buttocks. And those legs! As the Hogwarts skirts were fairly short and the required knee socks only knee length, Draco got an excellent look at the perfect, mile long, slim legs. Wait! What the hell is going on? Draco screamed in his head. Hermione Mudblood Granger, Hermione Mudblood Granger...just keep saying it over and over again. Hermione Mudblood Granger...

Hermione, who had been watching Draco watch her with keen interest, felt a blush spread up her cheeks, when his gaze fixated pointedly on her chest. She tried to turn away, but she couldn't, she actually let the slimy git keep checking her out like she was a piece of meat from the produce section at the Muggle Tesco's in London. After he was done cross examining her body, she silently gave him the vial that held the strand of her hair. He accepted it and did the same and they both went up to the front of the classroom to fetch their potion from Professor Snape.

Snape dumped about two tablespoons of the potion each into their vials. He handed the potion to the students and nodded at them. Hermione, daring Malfoy to do anything less, put a determined look on her face, threw her head back and swallowed the whole of the potion in one gulp.

Draco, not to be outdone by a Mudblood, and even so, a Mudblood girl, copied her movements. Tears began to leak out of his eyes as the potion ran through his body, leaving a path of fire down his throat and into his stomach. Suddenly, he felt the bile rise up in his throat and sank to his knees, even though he had vowed to take the potion like a man. Out of the corner of his wet eyes, he noticed Hermione with a slender hand on her neck and her eyes rimmed red with tears. Oddly, he wanted to comfort her and make the pain go away, and was about to, when he blacked out.

Hermione was looking at Draco through a film of tears when she saw him collapse onto the ground, unconscious. Horrified, she knew what was coming and thankfully, the pain sort of floated away when she too passed out on the cold dungeon floor.

All of the students watching the demonstration were out of their seats, craning for a look at their Head Boy and Head Girl. What they saw were the two lying prostrate on the floor. Harry gave a mangled yell and leaped over his desk in order to get to Hermione as Ron followed suit mere seconds later.

"Wait! Don't anyone say either of their names. If you do, they will wake up and fall completely in love with you," Snape said.

Harry noticed how strange it was to hear these words coming out of Snape's mouth, but he brushed the eddy of thought aside as he knelt next to Hermione. He grabbed her hand and brushed a curl from her face. Then he looked up to pierce Professor Snape with a glare like no other.

"How could you let her got through with that? You knew it was going to hurt her but you made her do it! Everyone knows how neurotic Hermione is about her grade, especially in this class!" Harry yelled.

Everyone in the class let out a collective gasp. Harry Potter had just said Hermione's name. Sleepily, Hermione's eyes fluttered open and at once she set her eyes on Harry. Harry winced slightly when he noticed how red her eyes were. He remembered the look of pain that was in them just mere moments ago.

"Well, is that it? What's going on? No Harry, you didn't say my name did you, you dolt? Honestly Harry! Have you learnt nothing at all?" Hermione chastised harshly, blowing a few strands of hair off of her face.

"Apparently, I did. But it doesn't seem any different. Are you sure that you did the potion right Hermione?" Harry asked, pushing his glasses up his nose in confusion.

"What? Of course I made the potion correctly! But, oh dear," Hermione said and flushed a brilliant shade of pink.

Hermione had just figured out exactly why she felt no different after being affected by the love potion. If you already were in love with the person, the love potion didn't count. If you were already in love with the person who said your name after you took the love potion, nothing happened and the next person who was to say the afflicted persons name out loud was the "chosen one", so to put it.

Hermione quickly turned to Draco who was sprawled out on the floor, a pale hand tucked under his chin, defying the bad boy attitude that everyone knew so well. Hermione sat up and walked over to him on her knees. Forcefully, she shook his shoulder, hissing for him to wake up. But he wouldn't, not unless someone said his name aloud. And nobody was willing to do this, except for Pansy Parkinson, who was just about to suggest this when Hermione turned to Harry.

"Harry, what do we do? Draco won't wake up!" Hermione then clapped a hand over her mouth. She had meant to speak in a whisper so that the sleeping Draco couldn't hear, but unfortunately, she heard him stirring.

Immediately, his sliver eyes found Hermione's brown ones and Draco felt a shiver go through his body. Like a jolt of electricity was passed through his body, and left him feeling slightly sick. When Draco finally realized what was going on, he felt like vomiting and cheering at the same time.

"Oh Good Lord Granger. You didn't say my name did you?" Draco said, slightly panicky. Of course she did you prat. That would be the only reason that you feel like snogging her and smacking her across the face at the same time.

Draco then let out a groan. No he just didn't do that. Maybe it wouldn't work. Of course, she was already awake, that means someone else had already said her name. But he was wrong. Hermione's face had a look of surprise as she felt the same electrical jolt pass through her body, and then the same feeling like she was going to vomit.

"No!" Hermione screamed and then promptly fainted dead away for the second time that day.