Potter's Girl / Butterfly Effect.

78. Amortentia

CHAPTER SEVENTY-EIGHT;

AMORTENTIA

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

"Professor, I think I've done it wrong," Cassie said, her hand lowering and a disappointed frown taking over her lips as Slughorn waddled over to inspect her work.

"Oh, dear me," said the Professor, peering into her cauldron with a distressed look. He referred to the textbook sitting open on her desk for a moment, eyes glancing between it and the potion bubbling in the cauldron, before he hummed. "You're only off a stir or two. The pink sheen appears in the blink of an eye, so you needn't worry. Needn't worry at all, Miss Black." He pat her on the shoulder and left to supervise Dean and Seamus throwing ingredients at each other on the other side of the room.

Cassie nodded in understanding, doing as instructed and watching as the bubbling liquid shifted to a pearly color instantly, as if a switch had been flipped. She let out a soft hum of satisfaction, her eyes flicking to the cauldron next to hers for a fraction of a second. Nott still hadn't even managed to get the swirly steam bubbles evaporating from the surface of his Amortentia, so he was much too far behind for her to even think of him as competition.

"Looking good," he complimented, though his eyes remained on his own cauldron and made it difficult to tell whether he was referring to her potion or something else. "Ever wondered how Amortentia gets its scent?"

"Never."

"Well, I have," he continued airily, lazily flicking his ladle around the perimeter of the cauldron, "and it turns out, it's 'cause we're magic. Crazy, innit?"

"Mind-blowing," she agreed, side-eying him curiously. He had not said anything about Malfoy since that day in the hallway, and it felt like the longer she went without answers, the more questions built up inside Cassie. She had attempted to get some information from him by subtly weaving her questions into casual banter, but, as it turned out, Theodore Nott was smarter than he let on. He almost always figured out her plans before she could even execute the first step.

"Care to share with your eager partner as to what your Amortentia smells like?" Nott wiggled his eyebrows and leaned in, nudging her shoulder. Cassie took a step to the side and busied herself with flicking through the pages of her textbook. Nott scoffed. "Come on. That embarrassed of what you're attracted to?"

"Shove off, Nott," said a voice from Cassie's left.

Both Theo and Cassie turned to the side to see Harry and Ron glaring at the Slytherin. Ron had not managed the pearly sheen of Amortentia nor the swirling steam particles, whilst Harry had clearly enlisted the help of the Half-Blood Prince to get his potion to exactly where it was supposed to be.

"Ooh, not very friendly, Weasel," said Nott, his hazel eyes sweeping the redhead challengingly. "Not getting jealous of our new..." He covered Cassie's ears with his hands, though she could still hear him say, "lover, are we?"

Ron clenched his fists and Harry narrowed his eyes. "You shut your mouth," said Ron. "I was drugged."

   "Ah, right. With the very potion that sits before us now," said Nott, theatrically spreading his arm over the bubbling cauldron. "Enlighten us, Weasley. What do you smell in the Amortentia? Not a certain someone's perfume?"

Ron scrunched up his face and jabbed a finger at Nott. "For your information," he inhaled a big whiff of Cassie's Amortentia, "I smell spearmint. And– and... parchment."