Work Text:
"Garreth Weasley!" A voice booms down the Great Hall.
Garreth freezes in his seat, his eyes narrowing when he recognizes the source of that voice. The Great Hall was where he’s been choosing to do his schoolwork in the evenings, when he’s not practicing on the field with the rest of his Quidditch team. Here, he’d have the freedom of sitting anywhere, and there were just enough students who also lingered here after supper to cure his lonely heart. Matter of fact, just a few tables down sat Adelaide and Nerida, who also happened to glance up from their immersive tarot reading, when a girl began shrieking at him.
He slowly sets down his books to scan the dining hall for her , his nemesis ever since he began brewing potions outside of Sharp’s classroom. She’s stomping towards him with her fists balled up, and her face twisted in an expression of pure disgust, like a child throwing a tantrum. “Not the first time someone’s yelled at me down the hall,” He mutters under his breath, “What do you want, Sacharissa…”
His fuschia-haired nemesis doesn’t say a word. Instead, she yanks him by his tie and drags him out of the hall, leaving Garreth only a sparing moment to Accio his books into his satchel. "Blimey, loosen the grip will ya!"
"You stupid, blubbering, oaf," She spits, not even sparing him a glance as he's stumbling down the stairs towards the Viaduct Courtyard, "I was promised the storage closet below the Potions Classroom on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays. You even get it for more days than I do."
“You conveniently fail to remember that the reason I have the storage closet more often, is because you claimed the Clock Tower loo for the remainder of the week - which, by the way, are much bigger and safer quarters away from prying eyes,” He says, attempting to keep his footing as she nearly yanks him off the railing.
Garreth stumbles as his tie is pulled too tight, and he struggles to remain upright. "Tugwood," He finally snaps. "Let go of me. The room is yours today, and I’m clearly not in it, so I fail to see the problem here," He tries to loosen her grip, but Sacharissa tightens her hand on his tie and continues to drag him through Central Hall, and into the Potions corridors.
Out of the corner of his eye, he swears he sees Sebastian Sallow slip into the Bell Tower hallway, hand in tow with a figure donned in Slytherin robes that certainly did not belong to her. He’d spent too many nights and days acquainting himself with her to mistake her for anyone else but his former love.
And he swears she catches a glimpse of him too, being whisked away to the other side of Central Hall with Sacharissa, who he’d rather cast an Unforgivable on, than be caught sneaking around with.
“The problem is that you have some explaining to do,” She grumbles, “Regarding the conditions you left the room in.”
“Wha -” Garreth scoffs. He looks back at Central Hall once last time, feeling his stomach churn. There is no doubt that Sacharissa has caught him staring longer than he should be, at his ex.
Her sudden appearance at that precise moment cannot be a coincidence.
"Right," He says, trying to keep his voice from wavering as the two of them skitter down the stairwell next to the Potions classroom. "Let's see.. What condition was that again?"
“See for yourself,” The Hufflepuff swings the door open with a loud smack, which will surely alert the ghosts lingering nearby. Garreth peers inside, already mentally preparing his lousy excuse for whatever he forgot to clean up yesterday, only to be face-to-face with...
Nothing?
He glances around, and sees a spotless storage closet. The only thing out of the ordinary is how tidy everything is. Nothing is askew. There are no crumbs to be found, no bottles spilled, and the scrolls and textbooks were neatly stacked on the shelves. There was nothing else that could be construed as 'messy.'
"Er, what exactly did you want me to see?' He asks, furrowing his eyebrows back at her.
Sacharissa frantically waves her hands all over the room. "Do you not smell that?"
Garreth looks at her, visibly confused. "What?" he asks, looking between her and the room in a daze. He sniffs the air, and does not detect any notable scents, until the faint aroma of Honeydukes, mallowsweet leaves, and firewood wafts up his nose. “Smells quite nice.”
“Are you bloody joking? Has your mind finally been poisoned by your failed brews? It smells like the Potions classroom after you've stupidly blown up another one of your experiments. That, and the smell of something burning, like someone just cast Confringo onto a pile of wood."
“Now I think you’re the crazy one,” He retaliates, “Aside from the smell of burning firewood we can both agree on, the room smells fine.”
"Well, what were you brewing yesterday?" Sacharissa asks, cross-armed.
Garreth ponders for a second, and as his memory dawns on him, his face flushes as pink as his classmate’s hair. “...Amortentia.”
“Oh.”
A silence falls upon them, realizing they both accidentally confessed the not-so-subtle hints of fragrance that lingers around their persons of interest. Do not ask him what gave it away (aside from his natural intelligence), but Garreth has a strong intuition that the person Sacharissa is fawning over may be in their Advanced Potions class.
“Why?” Sacharissa whispers.
“Hm?”
“Why were you brewing Amortentia? Surely not to give it to someone, no?”
“Goodness, no,” He replies, quite embarrassed. "I- I just wanted to see if mine still smelled the same after…"
The Hufflepuff girl nodded, aware of where he was trailing off to without mentioning a word. “After the two of you parted ways.”
“Correct.”
Sacharissa flutters her eyes up at him, the anger in her slowly turning into pity. She slowly closes the door behind her, so it's just the two of them, bottles of questionable liquids, and the god-awful smell of the trauma of Potions class with Garreth. “So, does it?”
“Quite, despite the fact it’s been months ,” The ginger-haired boy rubs the back of his neck, about to lean against one of the shelves until he remembered what room he is in. “Is it…pitiful that I miss her? I never thought I’d ever smell smoke in a cramped closet, yet here we are.” He hesitated for one second. “Wait - why do you smell it? And why do you smell me in Potions?”
“I -” Sacharissa cheeks turn bright red, avoiding any eye contact with the boy who towered over her, “Don’t change the subject. You’re the one making Amortentia.”
“If the scent of my poorly brewed potions is what you smell in the love potion, that’s surely a cause for concern.”
“I assure you, it’s really not.”
“Well you’re hiding something, that’s for sure.”
“Shut up.”
“Am I sensing a secret admirer, Tugwood?”
“No, seriously, shut up!” Before he could do anything about it, Sacharissa slaps her hand over Garreth’s mouth, and it takes him all his might not to lick her palm. “Shut up. There’s someone outside.”
He tries to mumble “We’re in a locked closet, it’s fine,” but is met with a firmer grip on his face. Time (and movement) seems to stop between the two of them, and the person on the other side of the door. Not a single sound is made.
The doorknob jiggles. “Hello? Is someone in there?” A muffled voice echoes. The rivals slowly turn their heads to each other with bated breath, eyes widening by the second.
"Shit, ” Sacharissa mutters under her breath, finally releasing her hand off Garreth. “What if it’s Professor Sharp? Or a prefect? It’s past curfew now, is it not?”
He nods. There are several reasons he cannot be caught in the storage closet below the Potions classroom. For starters, he’d end up even lower on Professor Sharp’s list of favourite students than he already was (not that he even made it on the list to begin with). Second, he has no doubt that Aunt Matilda would not hesitate to stack his detention on top of one another, for not completing his Astrology assignment two weeks ago. But who could blame him?
And last but not least, and shamefully the most important reason on Garreth’s list: He didn’t want word going back to his ex-girlfriend. Going from declaring his love for her, to rumours of being in “an entanglement” with his short Hufflepuff nemesis, of all people, would tarnish her impression of the gentleman he is. And a tiny sliver of his heart still had hope that the universe would be kind to him once more, and give them a second chance later in their lives. But that would certainly not happen if his reputation is ruined.
But as time freezes into slow motion, and they watch the lock get magically whisked away with a simple incantation of Alohomora , Garreth needs to set his priorities straight. He’s getting caught either way, so there’s no saving their reputations. Peeves, who adores wandering these halls, would certainly talk, even if the person currently unlocking the door wouldn’t. Alas, the one thing he could save themselves from was trouble.
“What do we do?” She hisses in a panicked frenzy.
Swiftly, he swishes his wand at the cauldrons that inconspicuously sat in the corner of the room, and transfigures it into a short stool. “Kiss me,” He orders her.
“What?” She snaps in a whisper. “Are you bloody mad?”
Just like she did with her tie, he grabs her face with no hesitation. “Yes.” And just like that, he smashes his lips into hers.
Sacharissa’s brain immediately goes hazy. Oh my god. What. The. Bloody. Fuck.
She is kissing Garreth Weasley.
And he felt really good.
She wishes she could savour the moment: How firm and large his hands feel palmed against her cheeks, how the stubble on his upper lip tickled her nose, how they both parted their lips open to deepen the kiss - if one didn’t know them any better, they’d think they are actually lusting over one another in this dimly lit closet.
But alas, the door finally creaks open, followed by a squeak that startles them both. Garreth slowly peels away from their short snogging session and turns towards the source of this uncanny noise, only to come head-to-head with one of the last students he’d expect to cast an unlocking charm on school grounds.
“Amit? What are you doing here now of all hours?”
Their Ravenclaw classmate waves his hands around, unsure of what to do, astounded by the sight before his very own eyes. “I wanted to take leech juice for our next assignment because I’m too afraid to get bitten from the ones outside! I thought someone was trapped in here! This is so humiliating for me, please don’t tell anyone!”
"Humiliating for you? Amit, you caught us -"
Slam!
And there they were, locked up all alone inside the storage closet once again, with nothing between them except their own lingering silence and a few layers of clothes.
Sacharissa slowly turns her head back to the man she just snogged for the most utterly rubbish reason. “Garreth?”
“Hm?”
“You can take your hands off me now.”
“Oh, right.” He dusts himself off, pretending to be occupied with anything else besides the awkward tension between the two of them. “I’ll stop making Amortentia,” He mutters as he reaches for the doorknob, “It’s probably not helping me - from getting over her, that is.”
Sacharissa is at a loss for words, wishing she could share her own opinion on the matters, but how could she? She’s never been in love, the way Garreth has, at least. But, Merlin, curse her heart, for she swears she’ll regret saying what she’s about to offer, as a last ditch attempt to sympathize. “Per-perhaps if you can get a hold of the stink bombs your inventions brew up, we could share the room in the Clock Tower loo? So both of us can worry less about being caught.”
Garreth’s head lowers, trying to the hide the smirk growing on him. “Fair. But I can’t control what you smell in my Amortentia, Tugwood.”
And with that, he closes the door behind him, and heads back to Gryffindor Tower for the night, leaving her still stunned in Sharp’s storage closet.
He’d never tell her, but for his first heat-of-the-moment snog since his breakup, what he and Sacharissa shared was not bad.
Not bad at all.