Work Text:
Looking back, Elizabeth realized 3 things;
- Potions isn’t anything like cooking at all and she hates it. With a passion.
- Making muggleborns attend Hogwarts at the ripe age of 16 and just throw them into the curriculum is a bad, bad idea.
- She despises Draco and his very kissable lips. Damn him.
How it began:
Elizabeth Fenwick Freesia wasn’t like other girls. Ever since she was little, she didn't really fit in. She had the tendency to say the wrong thing at the wrong time. So she kept to herself and counted the days until she was allowed to go to her new school. Only two weeks left before she could leave this hellhole behind. 2 weeks, and she would get a fresh start and learn all these exciting new skills. For you see, Elizabeth was not an ordinary girl. She was a witch. Something she - embarrassingly enough - only found out a few months ago after showing some impressive accidental magic. Her nemesis Taylor had yelled something about Elizabeth being a freak and how she was a burden to the whole world. Something inside Elizabeth just snapped, and without realizing it she had set Taylor’s hair on fire.
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So now Elizabeth was in 6th year of Hogwarts, waiting for her first Potion class with the Slytherins to begin. It was weird, transferring to a new school while term had already started. She didn’t know anyone and was still getting used to the idea of magic being real. But she was Elizabeth motherfucking Freesia and she was determined to make it work.
She was rudely interrupted from her pondering by the jovial voice of Slughorn, their potions teacher. “I’d like to give a warm welcome to a new student in our midst; miss Elizabeth Freesia!” A few students clapped politely. “I have a very fun and special assignment for you all today. You’ll be working on a potion called Regerminating Potion, which Hagrid uses to grow his special Halloween pumpkins. The pair that brews the best potion, wins this vial of Laughing Potion.” Slughorn held up tiny vial with a silvery liquid. Instructions for the potion can be found on page 271 of your textbook. Elizabeth, I’m pairing you up with Mr Draco Malfoy over here” - a whiteblonde boy groaned loudly at that - “since he’s the top of this class and you have some catching up to do. You have one hour to complete the potion. May the best pair win!”
Elizabeth steadied herself, took a deep breath, pushed a strand of her green dyed hair out of her eyes and walked over to the handsome boy. I can do this, she thought to herself. It’s just like cooking, right? Just follow the recipe and it should be fine. Draco rolled his eyes at her and shoved a knive in her hands. “You just cut up these shrivelfigs. In tiny, tiny pieces. Don’t talk to me and don’t touch anything else but the figs.” Draco said in a sneering tone. “Right”, Elizabeth answered, “and should I just stop breathing while I’m at it?”. He glared at her and looked away, trying to hide his smirk from her behind a curtain of blonde hair.
They worked in silence. Elizabeth chopped up the shrivelfigs and tried to focus on the task, but she kept getting distracted by the movements of his hands. The way his long, pale fingers glided across the page and how they handled the sharp knife with skill made her wish he touched her like that. She didn’t notice how her own hand went to the wrong pile of ingredients on her chopping board. Without looking, she grabbed a fistful of dried newt spleens instead of shrivelfigs and cut them. Draco skillfully crushed some beetles and put them in the cauldron, his fingers gently gliding over the blade of his knife.
Elizabeth knew she was staring, but she couldn’t look away. Draco cleared his throat loudly and she looked up, feeling the blood rushing to her cheeks. “You can put in the figs now. But be careful, don’t spill anything.” She tilted the cutting board so the figs could slide into the cauldron. But her hands were shaking, and not only the figs (and sliced spleens) fell into the potion, but also 3 whole doxy eggs. Suddenly, everything seemed to happen in slow motion. Draco’s strong hands going for the Doxy eggs while Elizabeth tried to save her moonstone knive from falling into the cauldron. Their hands touched the cauldron at the same time and there was a whitehot flash, blinding everyone in class.
The present:
The second her feet touched the ground, she knew something was terribly wrong. They weren’t in Potion’s class anymore. That cauldron-portal was horrifying. A vast shimmering vortex of storms and lightning and after hitting solid ground again, Elizabeth only saw blackness and the air felt heavy. But her vision slowly returns and she senses movement. Draco! Thank god, he’s okay. “Where in the name of Salazar’s wrinkled ball sack are we?!” Draco breathed, while getting on his feet again, regaining his composure. Suddenly, he grabs her arm. “There are people standing over there, look!” He’s right, Elizabeth realizes while she tries to ignore the heat of his touch. There are four dark figures standing across the room, murmuring softly to each other.
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Remus Lupin sighs. He lost all sense of space and time by now. All he knows is that he’s stuck in this awful place with the worst company imaginable. Voldemort was even more cruel than anyone could have ever thought. Not only had the bastard cursed the DADA position, he had even made sure that everyone who tried to be a Defense teacher went to this weird place. Dead or alive, at the end of their year they all ended in this twisted alternate universe. It was some warped, dark version of their DADA classroom where he now was stuck with the former professors, including Lockhart and Crouch jr. Remus kept thinking how he would rather drown himself in the Black lake than spend a second longer in this company. He was just listing ways to slowly torture Crouch in his head when they saw a flash, and two students appeared in their mirrored and dark classroom.
____
That’s how Elizabeth found herself stuck in DADA limbo with a boy she hates to be attracted to and three ex-Defense teachers explaining to them where they are. “Does this like, happen often with magic and potions?” Elizabeth asks. Draco just looks at her, blinking. “Sure. Very normal for a cauldron to just change into a portkey and take us to another dimension. Happens on a daily basis”, he deadpans. “Right, not normal. Got it.” She rolls her eyes at him and turns her attention to the man standing closest to her. “Sir? Ehm, how on earth do we get out of here?” The shabby but handsome man huffs out a humorless laugh. “Well, we figured out that the only way to get out of this place is by True Love’s Kiss. And Barty and Gilderoy over here have already tried it”, he waves a hand at two of the other men. “But apparently the room cannot be fooled.” A blonde man in dazzling purple robes looks at her with wide eyes. “It was awful”, he whispers, shuddering at the thought. “And Remus over here doesn’t even want to give it a go, he keeps bringing up his soulmate waiting for him on the other side”. Gilderoy bats his eyes at Remus before returning his attention to Elizabeth and Draco. His mouth drops. “But… that’s it! You guys HAVE to try it. Maybe you are meant to be together and you’ll be able to get us out of this terrible place! Kiss, quick!”
Elizabth looks at Draco, shocked. She doesn’t know what to say. He has a bored expression on his face, but there’s a spark of hope in his voice when he says “Scared, Elizabeth?” to her. And no, Elizabeth may be many things, but she’s NOT a coward. So she takes a deep breath and takes a step closer to him. They’re now so close together, she can feel his body heat. Behind her, Gilderoy squeals and claps his hands excitedly as she takes Draco’s face between her hands and looks him straight in the eye. “Never” she says confidently, but her heart is racing. Draco smirks at her and closes the last gap between them. His lips are warm and soft. They part slightly, allowing her tongue to slip inside. What she feels isn't a spark, but a freakin’ wildfire. And as their tongues go to war in their locked mouth, battling for dominance, there is another whitehot flash, accompanied by a loud crack. She is pressed very hard against Draco and everything goes black just before her feet hit the ground again.
Magic, she thinks, is the best thing that ever happened to her.
THE END