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Jhoanna have always noticed Aiah, the beautiful Slytherin that sometimes glances her way during Transfiguration.
Yes, she'll admit it to herself-ever since she saw Aiah in their first year, she'd had a minor crush.
However, she'd been too terrified to even consider approaching the Slytherin. The girl seemed to radiate hostility towards those around her and Jhoanna was altogether just too intimidated by her.
And so, it wasn't until their fourth year that Jhoanna had an interaction with Aiah that didn't consist of sideways glances across the classroom.
It was straight after breakfast in the Great Hall, and Aiah was walking with her Gryffindor friend Gwen, her attention divided between Gwen and a cupcake she was eating when bam she crashed into a cool embrace.
"I'm...I'm really sorry..." She looked up and saw to her horror that it was her, Aiah freaking Arceta.
To her surprise, Aiah did not immediately give her an earful. Rather she giggled, blushed and muttered "Hi cupcake" before walking away, almost crashing into a wall.
Jhoanna turned to Gwen, utterly shocked. She had never seen Aiah be anything but utterly cool and collected.
"Did Aiah Arceta just giggle?"
It only got weirder from there.
On returning to the Hufflepuff common room later that day, Jhoanna found Aiah waiting for her outside the barrels, a goofy smile on her face.
Thoroughly confused Jhoanna tried to bypass her, but Aiah grabbed her arm in a sudden motion.
An electric current raced through Jhoanna where their skin made contact and she looked up at Aiah. Surely she felt it too?
Well it certainly seemed that Aiah felt something, because she smiled at Jhoanna dreamily. Jhoanna could not believe that she was using a dreamy to describe Aiah's smile, but it was accurate nonetheless.
What the hell was going on? First Aiah giggled and now she was smiling?
"Hey Jh-Jhoanna..."
Aiah stuttered out, pulling Jhoanna slightly closer.
Jhoanna looked around, trying to see hidden cameras (she knew that they didn't work at Hogwarts, but being a muggleborn she couldn't help but suspect that she was on some sort of Wizarding Prank show.)
Finding none, she turned back to Aiah.
"Hey Aiah, um, sorry did you want something? Only I was trying to get back to my common room..."
Jhoanna trailed off, because Aiah was staring at her, making her tingle all over. However, she could not shake the feeling that something was off. After all, this was Aiah Arceta, intimidating queen of the night- not one to act like a schoolgirl with a crush.
"I just really like you Jhoanna...and you should come to the Slytherin common room with me, and we can..."
Jhoanna's confusion only grew. This was too out of character for Aiah. In Transfiguration, she was notorious for her sarcastic remarks and snide comments directed towards her fellow students. She was unpleasant, spikey, apathetic and entirely too good looking.
But she certainly wasn't giggly, infatuated and love-sick for God's sake.
Was Aiah drunk? On drugs?
"Um...sorry Aiah...I have homework...but, umm I'll see you in class or something..."
Jhoanna almost pushed Aiah aside, who let of Jhoanna's arm and leant on the wall, watching as Jhoanna tapped out the rhythm Helga Hufflepuff onto the barrels and escaped into the safety of her house.
(She could feel Aiah's eyes boring into her as she walked through the door into the common room.)
Something isn't quite right...
"You did WHAT?"
"Relax Jho, it'll wear off after a day or so. Aiah so had it coming. C'mon, what's the harm in it?" Stacey brushed her long hair off her face and smiled winningly at Jhoanna.
However Jhoanna was a tiny ball of rage at this point and so could barely look at Stacey.
She managed to choke out "Do you know...how...horrible it is, to manipulate someone's feelings like that? How do you think Aiah is going to feel when she recovers and finds out that you...that..."
"Spiked her morning pumpkin juice with a cheap love potion so that she'd behave like an infatuated idiot?"
"Yes! Exactly!"
Jhoanna tried to focus on being mad at Stacey, tried to ignore the hollow feeling echoing inside of her, because none of it was real. When she'd smiled at Jhoanna, flirted, Jhoanna had allowed herself to feel the tiniest bit of hope, that perhaps, just perhaps Aiah liked her too.
And now...to find out that it was nothing but a stupid Gryffindor prank...
"Jho...c'mon, she hit me with the Bat-Bogey Hex in class the other day. I was sneezing up tiny, fury little mammals for the next three days. We were supposed to be practicing the freaking shield charm. I needed revenge."
Jhoanna sighed, because she wished that Stacey revenge didn't have to involve her and her stupid, stupid crush.
"Well, at least she hasn't done anything too embarrassing..."
Jhoanna shouldn't have said a word. Honestly, she must have jinxed herself because at that very moment a Howler came flying through the air and landed right in her pumpkin juice.
Stacey and Jhoanna exchanged a look of dread, and Stacey began to mouth an apology when Aiah projected voice rang across the Great Hall.
"JHOANNA ROBLES IS THE MOST BEAUTIFUL GIRL IN THE WHOLE OF HOGWARTS AND I REALLY LOVE HER SOFT SMILE. HER EYES ARE THE COLOUR OF CHESTNUTS. SHE HAS A NICE BUTT. LOVE FROM AIAH ARCETA!"
Laughter and wolf whistles erupted around the Great Hall as Jhoanna sunk progressively lower into her seat. Stacey tried to clap her heartily on the back, having the decency to look guilty.
Jhoanna looked around for Aiah but found her nowhere in sight. This did nothing to reassure her, merely made her worry what the Slytherin could be planning next.
Once the laughter and the chatter died down a bit, Jhoanna pulled herself up her chair to face Stacey once more.
"Can I just ask you one thing?"
"Sure, go ahead."
Jhoanna takes a deep breath.
"Why did you have to use me in this stupid game of yours? I mean, I thought we were friends!"
Stacey looked increasingly guilty, and shifted in her seat awkwardly.
"Look Jho...I just thought it would be funny...I mean you guys are always staring at each other like Edward and Bella from Twilight...I just...God I'm really sorry Jho! It was stupid...It'll wear off in about twenty minutes I think...I'm sorry..."
What was Stacey talking about? Edward and Bella?
Jhoanna smiled at Stacey then. She could never hold grudges for too long, even though she still could not quite believe that the cheerful Gryffindor would play such a cruel prank.
"Apology accepted Staks...although...next Hogsmeade weekend you are getting me everything sugar-related in Honeydukes. And I mean everything."
Jhoanna is so distracted by the thought of Honeydukes sugar that she crashed into Aiah for the second time that day, once again as she left the Great Hall.
"Oh no..." She desperately tried to go around Aiah, but could not quite manage it in the crowded hallway.
"Did you like my note, Jhoaaannnaa?" Aiah drawled out and Jhoanna mentally chastised herself for not realising that Aiah had been given a love potion sooner.
Jhoanna avoided eye-contact, and once more tried to get around her. In doing so she briefly brushed against Aiah and froze up, because a wave of feeling had flooded through her, aninfinity of fire, of passion.
She turned and looked at Aiah and before she could stop herself, she leaned closer, and closer and everything felt so right, and Aiah was everywhere and she was going to burn up, she was burnin-
Their lips were an inch from connecting when Jhoanna forced herself to pull back, remembering Stacey's goddarn love potion.
Aiah has a hurt, confused expression on her face as she grabbed Jhoanna's hand.
"Cutie don't you like m-"
Suddenly, Aiah dropped Jhoanna's hand like it was on fire (to Jhoanna, it certainly felt like it was a few moments ago) and stepped away slightly, a look of horror and disgust spreading across her aristocratic features.
Hurt flooded through Jhoanna, before she told herself repeatedly it was just a stupid potion, just a stupid lovepotionjustastupidlovepotion....
"Oh my God."
Aiah turned away from Jhoanna abruptly. She could barely even look at Jhoanna and Jhoanna choked back tears.
"Hey Aiah...It was just a stupi-"
"A stupid love potion? Yeah I know. Probably that Sevilleja freak. Oh my God."
Her voice was tight with fury as she continued to avoid eye-contact, her expression one of utter contempt.
(Jhoanna winced at her expression, because it felt like her heart was being ripped from her chest.)
Aiah began to run her fingers through her hair, her voice rising steadily. A couple of Ravenclaws shot them curious glances as they passed by.
One smirked, pointed at Aiah and whispered to his friend behind his hand. Aiah glared back at him and the expression was so terrifying that the Ravenclaws beat a hasty retreat.
"Oh God...oh my God I sent you a freaking Howler? And I wrote you a sonnet? Jesus Christ..."
A sonnet?
Jhoanna tried to lay a comforting arm on Aiah, but was quickly shrugged off. Jhoanna could feel Aiah slipping away from her, and that hollow feeling returned once more. She was so stupid, to think that Aiah could...
And then Aiah turned back to her, words flying from her mouth like angry wasps.
"It's just...I cannot believe a stupid love potion is what made you find out how much I like you."
Jhoanna felt a jolt rush through her at Aiah's words. Surely...surely Aiah couldn't...no...
"Wait so...you liked me even without the love potion?"
"Cupcake, I've had a crush on you ever since you tripped going up to the Sorting Hat in first year. Trust me, I did not need a love poti-"
But Aiah's words were cut off as Jhoanna practically tackled her, smothering her in a kiss.
Aiah began to kiss Jhoanna back with enthusiasm, for she had been waiting four years for this moment. The kiss was so soft and so right and Aiah pulled Jhoanna in closer, wrapping her hand securely around Jhoanna's elbow, cupping her face with the other.
They kissed outside the Great Hall and it was timeless moment, more perfect than either could ever have dreamed it.
Maybe it wasn't such a stupid prank after all...