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Harry glared at the empty parchment in front of him. As if glaring was going to fill up 10 inches on Antipodean Opayele scale. It was times like this when he questioned what on earth he was thinking when he decided to come back for 8th year. He had been offered a position in the aurors right away but he wasn't sure if he wanted to become an auror.
He was clueless. Completely utterly clueless. Even back in 5th year, he told professor Mcgonagall he wanted to be an auror because Ron had said so. But after being on the run for almost an year and being hunted, he wasn't sure if he was cut out for auror work.
Ron had been pretty enthusiastic about joining the aurors with him and being partnered up, but Hermione, bless her, had convinced him to give NEWTs first. It doesn't matter if you pass or fail, you'll have your seat either way. It's important for you to learn the coursework. You never know when you'll need it she had said. It had saved Harry a very very awkward conversation.
He had to finish the essay by tonight. Slughorn's patience with him had been growing thinner by the day. Without Snape's book helping him, he was as worse as Seamus, and that was a very very low bar. And thus, there he was in the library, between classes trying to find out why the scales were excellent stabilizers in volatile potions.
His wand started buzzing as it fell down the table. He had set a tempus to remind him to go to potions. He scrambled to get his wand, casting a wandless finite, stuffed his parchment into his bag and ran towards the dungeons. He almost ran into a wall,straining his neck as he saw a flash of blond hair go up the stairs, which did not lead to the dungeons. Was Malfoy really missing out on classes? Especially potions? As much as he hated the git, he had to admit Malfoy was the best at potions in their year. He was almost as good as Harry in 6th year.
Harry had been expecting Malfoy to taunt him and pick fights, but the prat had been suspiciously quiet. Not that Harry thought he was upto something. He knew Malfoy wasn't upto shit, he definitely hadn't stalked Malfoy. Nope. So Harry had tried to rile him up about a month ago, which had gone horribly right. Right because Malfoy acted like Malfoy again and horribly because Harry ended up with a broken nose. But it was completely worth it and had left Harry in quite a happy mood for the rest of the week. He was quite satisfied that he had managed to break the ridiculous facade Malfoy had kept up.
But after that incident he had hardly seen Malfoy. He tried to point it out to Ron and Hermione, but those traitors had shared a look and asked him why he was so 'obsessed' with Malfoy. Harry wasn't obsessed per say, he was cautious. Those two clearly didn't know the difference. Wasn't there a saying about keeping your enemies close? That is what Harry was doing. Completely justified if you asked him. A commotion in the middle of the hallway stopped him. It looked like a gryffindor and a slytherin fighting.
"You slimy bast-"
"Of fuck off just because I'm a slythe-"
"I know you took-"
"I don't even know what your talking abo-"
They reminded him of him and Malfoy at that age. Only difference was that him and Malfoy fought way harder. Harry had half a mind to cheer the gryffindor on but then he realised he should go get an adult to break them apart. Then he realised that he was the adult. He was about to go forward when Headmistress McGonagall's sharp voice cut through,
"STOP FIGHTING. THIS INSTANT. DETENTION MR CORNWORTH AND MR WARRINGTON. 20 POINTS FROM SLYTHERIN AND GRYFFINDOR"
She dragged them away muttering about stupid rivalries and interhouse unity. And then he saw Malfoy. How the fuck had the git gone from going up the castle to the dungeons in two minutes? Was there a secret passage the map didn't have? Harry would definitely check it out tonight. He went in the class and plopped down next to Hermione.
"Harry! Where were you? We tried to find you but you had the map." Hermione asked him.
"Probably following Malfoy." Ron chuckled.
"Ronald!"
"Excuse me!?"
"I'm joking, I'm joking." Ron raised his hands as if surrendering. He heard ron whisper mostly under his breath but he chose to ignore that.
"So while we're on the topic of Malfoy-"
"No" ,Ron groaned and hit his head on the table. Harry was spared from replying as Slughorn began to speak.
"Good morning 8th years! Today we are going to brew-" he waited for a dramatic pause, "- Amortentia!"
A few gasps sounded around the room, the closed space of the lab making them echo.
"But professor, isn't brewing Amortentia illegal?" Parwati asked.
" Yes yes my dear. 5 points to gryffindor! The potion we are brewing today is a modified version. You will only be able to smell the scent of what you desire. Intake of the potion will be completely harmless. We wouldn't want a repeat of 6th year would we Mr Weasley?"
Ron went bright red at that, muttering obscenities about Romilda.
"You will be working in pairs of three as this is a complex potion to brew. Begin! You have an hour to complete brewing."
"Both of you go and get the ingredients, I'll set up the cauldron." Hermione told them.
They were the first ones to reach the store room. Since it was small, there was room for two, not more.
"Harry you know we love you no matter what, yes? And that we'll never judge you? You know you can tell us anything right?"
" ... Yes? Where's this coming from?"
"Oh nothing, just making sure you know", Ron gave him a small smile and went back to geting the gruddy roots. Weird.
"Ron chop the Asphodel roots and Harry start crushing the Leary stems-"
Harry mostly zoned out during the whole thing, only doing what Hermione asked him to do. He knew he was going to regret not paying attention but he could always get Hermione to explain it to him.
"Times up! Bottle your potions in a vial and submit it to me with your names on it. I want 7 inches on how many different scents you recognise and what ingredients makes it possible to do so."
He could see people bending over the cauldron, closing their eyes and trying to place the scents. Some of their faces lit in recognition while some in sorrow. He vaguely wondered what Malfoy smelled in his amortentia, he didn't even sniff the amortentia. Who wouldn't want to know how who they desired? Perhaps Malfoy already knew. He and Parkinson looked real close. A pang of jealousy flared through him. He ignored it entirely.
Ron and Hermione were both done recording the scents and were waiting for him. He knew he wasn't going to smell Ginny's flowery perfum again so he was curious as to what he would smell this time. As far as he knew, he wasn't attracted to or in love with anyone.
Harry bent over the cauldron and took a sniff. The first two were the same as last time. Broomstick polish and treacle tart. The rest though- green apples and something like vanilla? What the fuck?
The rest of his day went in a haze. He didn't tell Ron and Hermione about the scents but judging by the looks they were giving him, they knew something was up. Harry was desperate to find out who he 'desired'. But he couldn't exactly go and smell people. They would probably lock him up if he did that.
For once in his life, luck was on his side. McGonagall had called a meeting for the 8th years. They would probably be standing close, all huddled up. Maybe he would find her.
McGonagall cleared her throat. "You may have seen children fighting all over Hogwarts, most of them targeting the Slytherin. Hogwarts is meant to be a safe haven for them, not a ground to beat each other up. That is why I believe there is a need to demonstrate interhouse unity. You will exchange your house robes with a student of another house of my choosing and will wear those robes for a month. You are leading examples to those children, do not, under any circumstance, fight in front of them."
She deliberately looked at him and Malfoy at the last sentence. Rude.
"I will hang the list your common room, make sure to follow it or there will be consequences."
She walked away with a flourish of her robes fluttering behind her. Harry wished he had atleast a fourth of whatever grace she had.
He saw his classmates go to their assigned person,but not before giving him pitying looks. He went up to see who McGonagall had paired him up with- no.
No no no no no. This wasn't happening. Why was his luck this rotten? No. He could fix this. He ran towards her office and muttered the password to the gargoyly. She had given it to him in case there was an emergency. This was an emergency. A huge fucking one. No way in fuck she paired him up with Malfoy of all people.
"Profess-"
"No Potter"
"But-"
"Potter you and Malfoy and the leading example the children have. Watching you and him fight like dogs has inspired many others to do so. A second year Slytherin was hexed because apparently all Slytherins are evil. A second year Potter. They need to see if you and Mr Malfoy can sort everything out, so can they."
Harry felt the guilt creep in. He hadn't thought about it that way.
"Yes professor"
Harry got up to leave but- " Mister Potter, stay for a biscuit will you?"
Harry grinned, " Of course,how can I say no to biscuits?" Atleast one good thing came out of the day.
He spoke to soon. Malfoy was waiting for him in the common room. He trust a bundle into Harry's hands and said, "If you get a drop of dirt or food on my robes, I will kill you. If you rip as much as a tread, I will kill you, if you stain them, I will kill you. Make sure you keep your robes beside my bed before class or I shall definitely kill you. Good night Potter."
Just when he thought his day couldn't get any worse, it did. It got much, much worse. Possible the worst day of his life.This could not be happening. This was so much worse than his predicament with Voldemort. Malfoy's clothes had a very familiar scent on them. The very scent he had been trying to find the whole day. The one in his amortentia.
There had to be a logical explaination for this. Maybe Ron and Hermione decided to play a prank by adding Malfoy's cologne or lotion in the potion. Did Malfoy wear lotion? He probably did, the prat had smooth skin. Not that Harry noticed, it was just... Visible. Yes that was the correct explanation. Maybe he would wake up and realise that it was a nightmare. He was feeling sleepy, maybe he hallucinated the whole thing. He decided to sleep things off. Maybe then things would start to make sense.
They did not. He was woken up with cold water splashed on his face. Cold water for fucks sake. Couldn't his assailant atleast use warm water? His assistant also turned out to be prat supremo Draco malfoy, yelling at him to give him his ugly, disgusting gryffindor robes . Then he'd caught himself staring at Malfoy's arse a second too long during breakfast. Which lead him to concluding that maybe, just maybe, he had a little crush on Malfoy. This did explain a lot though. Especially Cedric. Merlin how had Harry not noticed this before? And what the fuck was he going to do about the Malfoy situation???? He could deal with that later. For now all he had to do was not go crazy with Malfoys stupid cologne all over him. He killed voldemort, surely he could survive this.
He tried to get through the classes without losing his mind. In potions though, it was a whole other story. Neville, Dean and Seamus had not managed to brew a proper potion yesterday, so they brewed one today. But Neville had broken a vial and the room was filled with Vapours of amortentia. Harry was losing his fucking mind. The only bearable part was that Malfoy was running late, or wasn't going to come. Harry hoped for the latter.
Malfoy took that exact moment to announce his presence in the class by saying, "What the fuck? Don't wear so much cologne Potter. Let there be air for us to breathe merlin. I've been in this room for a minute and I'm already getting a headache."
The whole class went silent. Harry felt his jaw drop. Oh Harry was going to have so much fun with this.