MARA WILLIAMS

  "He'll be fine." She promised. "You think too much, just don't worry about it and at least try to have fun."

  There it was again, don't worry. It sounded so simple, but that was never the reality. I bit my lip knowing full well he was all I would be able to think about today, "Okay..."

  "I'll see you later, and I'll keep an eye out for him too, he won't have gone far..." Parvati gave me one last reassuring squeeze before she left me alone in the hallway outside potions, I could already hear that the class inside was silent and the professor had already begun to teach.

  I was so late I had missed Defence Against the Dark Arts entirely, I had spent the whole morning turning the dorms and common room upside down with Parvati and Harry. Percy had managed to escape his cage last night, the little bastard had chewed through the bars and in the morning he was nowhere to be found.

  Parvati said he couldn't have gone far, but part of me wondered if Ron had been right and Christmas had come early for Crookshanks last night...
  Either way I had already missed my first lesson, I couldn't miss potions too, good first impressions and all that, although I was probably already far behind that point.

  I walked into the darkened classroom, scanning for a vacant seat to sit as soon as possible to draw the least amount of attention.
  Only one empty seat remained, and I took it as quickly as I could, not even daring to look up at my peers as I silently pulled my things from my things from my bag.

  My skin began tingle, that strange feeling arising again and causing the fine hairs on the back of my neck to stand on end. Something was wasn't right...
  —It was just the air, I told myself, the dank, dirty, fume-filled dungeon air.

  "You're late..." A slow, nasally voice drawled from the front of the class, causing the few students who weren't already staring at me to turn around. Great.
  "You must be Miss Williams."

  "Umm, yes?" It wasn't a question but I didn't know what to say. A few sniggers came from a table of Ravenclaw girls to my right and I shot them a silencing glare.

  "Well Miss Williams, are you familiar with Amortentia?"

  My skin prickled with a renewed wave of electricity.
  —And then it clicked. He was in here, the boy. Professor Snaps cleared his throat loudly, "Have you?"

  Stammering I quickly blurted out, "Yes, sorry. Yes I have, it's a love potion."

  "Wrong." He snapped, pacing before a steaming cauldron of violently pink liquid. "Amortentia is not just any love potion, the most powerful love potion in the world... Care for a demonstration Miss Williams?"
  He beckoned me to the front class and I followed dumbly, where he held out a thin rose coloured vile that I took carefully between my palms.

  "...The affects of Amortentia are not to be taken lightly." The professor droned. "Anyone found acting inappropriately will be spending every break for the rest of the month with me... Collecting Acromantula venom."

  If the feeling I had before was just a light buzz, now I was burning up all over again, or maybe it was just the embarrassment at being pulled before the class.
  He was here, but still I didn't dare look up, my eyes trained on the pink potion. Even if I did see him,
  What would I do?.. What could I do?

  "Miss Williams, Amortentia is rumoured to smell differently to each individual, care to provide us with an example?" Professor Snaps pressured, raising an eyebrow when he noticed my hesitation. "—It was not a request..."

  Actually, it was, I thought angrily as I cautiously removed the cork from the top, careful not to drop or spill any. Instantly I was attacked by a barrage of the most beautiful scents. I closed my eyes savouring it for a moment.

   "It smells like... Fresh laundry..." I paused before taking another deep inhalation. "Rain, and..."
  My heart leaped into my throat as I looked up and instantly found what I was looking for. Ghostly Grey eyes stared back at me. "Smoke."

  "Interesting." He said as if it wasn't even remotely interesting at all. "Amortentia is the oldest and strongest love potion known to man, during the sixteenth century it was rumoured that Queen Elizabeth..."
Snape's dull voice faded into the background, I could hardly hear anything over the hammering of my own heart. Everything seemed to fade to black, except him.
  It was as if we were the only two in the room, each daring the other to be the first to look away but neither would. "...What you smell, is what attracts you most."

  In the end I was the one to break the contact, but it didn't do much to quell the vicious burning in my cheeks as I made my way back to my seat.

  —Three meters. That was the exact distance that separated us. Less than ten feet, that was all that stood between us. I didn't have to look up to feel his eyes on me.

  "We do not possess enough Digweed for you to make one each, so you will have to group into pairs with the person next to you. Get out your books and you may begin." Did every word the man spoke have to be so painfully slow?

  Turning to the dark haired Slytherin boy besides me, we both agreed that I would read out the ingredients and he would prepare them. "I'm Blaise, by the way." He gave me a cheeky wink before he left to collect a cauldron.

  Out of the corner of my eye I noticed Blaise exchange a side wards glance with the blonde haired boy.
  I couldn't even look at him, I didn't dare. I kept my head down, buried in the book as one by one I read out the ingredients and Blaise dropped them into the boiling broth.

  "So..." Blaise began cooly after a while of silence, "Whats the deal with you and Malfoy then?"

  "Who?"

  "Don't play dumb," He smirked, cocking his head as he skinned and added a rabbits foot to the cauldron.
  "I've seen the way he looks at you...Like he wants to rip your clothes off."

  "Who the hell are you talking about?"

  I had a strong feeling I already knew exactly who...
  —But I wanted to hear him say it first, just to feel the small sense of satisfaction at knowing I wasn't entirely mad.

  Blaise's face fell, "Do you seriously not know?" I looked at him with a blank expression, clearly indicating that no, I did not.

  "Draco Malfoy..." He dipped his head in the direction of the boy and I turned around to follow his gaze. He had his head bowed down as he poured over the pages of the book, his pale hair falling over his face, casting a menacing shadow in the dank room light that did nothing to soften the already hellish lines of his strong features.

  A strange feeling settled in the pit of my stomach, like a weight anchoring me to my seat. I didn't even realise I was staring until he looked up. I must've looked like a deer in the headlights.

  I quickly looked away when I saw the vicious scowl that marred his handsome face. Had I done something to upset him? At least now I had a name to the face. Malfoy, Draco Malfoy.

  "Hello?" Anyone home?" Blaise chuckled as he waved a hand infront of my face. "Are you even listening to me?"

  Chewing the inside of my cheek absentmindedly I replied. "Yeah of course."

  "Liar." The dark skinned boy sneered, "—Listen, Malfoy's my friend and all, but you should really stay away from him. Trust me, he's bad news..."

  "What made you think I was planning on going anywhere near him in the first place?" I laughed at the ridiculousness of it all. I hadn't even spoken to the boy and already Blaise was warning me to steer clear. Could he really be that bad? I shrugged,
  "Besides he's not my type anyways..."

  "Shit." Blaise grunted, dipping his head to hide behind me. "I think he heard us."

  I braved throwing a quick glance over my shoulder and instantly made direct eye contact with Malfoy.  
  Only this time the scowl had fallen from his face and was instead replaced by a foreign emotion I couldn't quite decipher. The only thing that came to mind was that he just seemed... Dejected, almost as if we were at war within himself.

  Turning back around I tried my best to brush it off and forget the boy with the gunmetal eyes. A small nagging feeling tugged at my chest, something akin to guilt.
  The lesson ended not long after with each pair handing in a sample of their Amortentia to Snape who eyed the dark blue vile with disgust before drawling, "Most disappointing Miss Williams."

I made it halfway down the hall before I realised I'd left my quill on the desk. Ordinarily I wouldn't have cared and I would have left it there as the next persons gain, but this one was special... It was my mother's, and it was one of the last things I had to remember her by.
My father had burned the rest of her keepsakes before he left...

Turning back I was just about to renter the class, my finger tips resting on the silver serpent carved doorknob when I heard the Professor's familiar drawl. "Well Draco, you will just have to find a way to cope. Dumbledore will no longer allow students to change classes after last year."

"...I can't stand her," Hissed a voice that made my heart plummet. "Just the thought of her makes my skin crawl..."

I knew I shouldn't listen in, but at the same time I couldn't stop myself, part of me wanted to know who this boy could despise so deeply.

"How can you be so sure after one lesson, it's her first day." Snape said disinterested, brushing Malfoy off. "You may one day grow to like her."

"You don't understand." Hissed voice that made my heart drop. "—Shes insufferable."

A sick feeling rose in my throat and I swallowed the bitter taste down.
—It was me... They were talking about me.

***
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