Wednesday, November 30, 2005
Chapter 9
Love Potion No. 9
Lodina could feel that someone was watching her. True enough, she met Draco's gaze but quickly turned away. Why was he watching her? Perhaps it was one of those usual staring competitions Draco had with every Gryffindor. Even then, Lodina didn't manage to convince herself and she still had that uneasy feeling. She excused herself from the discussion that Seamus, Dean and Ginny were having. "Get a hold of yourself Lodina! He's not gonna follow you to the restroom. All you need to do is to calm down and regain composure." Lodina thought to herself as she splashed some water on her face. She looked at the decorations all around in the girl's restroom, which was just outside of the The Great Hall. Lodina chuckled to herself as she saw the Jack 'O Lantern beside her on the sink. It reminded her so much of home. Both her father, Sirius, and her used to line thier house in Grimmauld Place with Jack 'O lanterns every Halloween. She looked at herself in the mirror. She did look a lot like her father, and with a smile, she set off for the Great Hall once again. As she stepped out of the restroom just behind the portrait of Viola the harpist, she got cut off by none other than...
"Draco Malfoy... What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be off dancing with that pom-pom-puff girlfriend of yours, Pansy?" Lodina spat at him. Why was he here? Was he following her? Now Lodina felt really uneasy as his gaze was transfixed upon her. "Hmm. pom-pom-puff indeed. In fact she's a slutty ol' 'wanna-be' who goes around sticking to whoever's got the money to sustain her girl-ish fantasies. I'm trying to get away from her myself! Tut, tut... not up to the usual Gryffindor standard. I expected more from you Lodina." Draco finished with a smirk. he was tall and looked dashing in his Armani suit, though Lodina hated to admit that fact. He was now drawing closer to her. She had to take a step backward everytime he inched forward, until she finally hit the wall behind her. "W-what are you doing?" Lodina squeaked as Draco put his arm on the wall just beside her head. "Shh. You'd ruin the moment." Draco said as he drew closer and closer to her until he could almost feel her eyelashes on his skin. "Get off me! What are you trying to do?! If you haven't noticed, I'm a Gryffindor and you're a Slytherin. This will NOT work!" Lodina pushed him away. "You mean if I were to be in a different House it would have worked out otherwise? Come on Lodina. Now that's cheap, even for a Gryffindor! Besides, you've got to admit. We'd make one hell of a good-looking couple here in Hogwarts. Don't try to kid yourself Lodina. I know you want to be with me too." Draco said as he tried to get closer to her. "No! You don't get it do you? You're a Malfoy! It won't work Draco. You'd be better off with a pure-blood Slytherin like yourself." Lodina pushed Draco aside and started off on a run towards The Great Hall, but Draco caught her hand. "Don't do this Lodina. I really like you, and blaming this on my family is only going to make things worse for the both of us." Draco said as he slowly let go of Lodina's hand. Lodina met Draco's gaze once more and she could see a glimmer in his eyes. It was the first time she had seen Draco look so downcast. Was he really serious about her? She wasn't really sure because she let go of his hand and quickly spun away to The Great Hall.
A million things were rushing through her mind. Was Draco really sincere? He did look really honest when he was expressing how he felt about her. But still, he's a Malfoy and she couldn't possibly be his girlfriend! The Malfoys and the Blacks share a rich family history together. However, she knew it would be a lost cause anyway; how was she supposed to convince her father? "Wait... What am I thinking?! I'm acting as if I'm already in love with him and I'm trying to make it all work!" Lodina's head was bursting with questions that needed answering desperately. She couldn't possibly be in love with him, could she? Back in the Great Hall, Lodina found Ginny by the desert table getting more fruit punch. She went over to her. Ginny could sense something was wrong and asked "Are you alright? You look as if you saw a Banshee or something!" "Erm...yea...I'm fine. I was just jogging back from the restroom. Don't wanna miss the Weird Sisters perform. Do they rock or do they rock?" Lodina managed to swerve Ginny's attention and both of them headed back to their seats where Dean and Seamus were. Lodina had no mood to sit through the entire ball, at least not after what had happened. She looked over at Pansy's table and saw that Draco had not returned. Pansy had taken the opportunity to go flirting around with Iman Eanderthal; the pair of them were really fit for each other, both as slimy as the other. As the Weird Sisters finished another one of their spectacular songs, Lodina approached Seamus and told him that she had a headache and needed to get back to the Gryffindor Common Room immediately. "Do you want me to come with you?" Seamus asked out of concern. "No it's alright. You carry on and enjoy the ball. I'll be fine. I just need a lil' rest that's all." Lodina smiled back at Seamus as he gave a kiss on top of her head and sent her off. She rushed back through the Fat Lady's potrait hole and up to her dorm room. That night she lay on top of her bed. Pondering on the possibility of Draco being her knight in shining armour...
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"Why was Lodina acting so weirdly?" Ginny thought as she sipped more of her fruit punch. Dean and Seamus were busy talking about the quidditch world cup and their favourite moments from the tournament, when Ginny drifted off. Her mind wandered from Lodina to Harry as she spotted Harry trying to dance with Parvati Patil but to no avail as he kept stepping on Parvati's foot. Ginny giggled softly. She had had a crush on him ever since her first year at Hogwarts but she had learnt to hide her feelings for him so well that he didn't affect her as much whenever he was nearby. His bottle-green dressrobes really brought out the colour of his eyes as they sparkled underneath the light of the chandelier. Harry had this mysterious charm which drove Ginny nuts. His mysterious yet shy character was what made him so special. Being brought up in a family with six elder brothers, Ginny was used to being ignored and neglected; but Harry made her feel different somehow. She felt wanted when she was with him. She loved her brothers very much. But Harry, made her feel important, eventhough he was a celebrity himself. For a brief moment, Ginny thought she saw Harry catch her gaze; but thought otherwise. She would have gone to the ball with Harry if Dean Thomas hadn't asked her out first. But it was already the eve of the ball and even then, Harry showed no signs of asking her to go with him. That was the only reason for her accepting Dean's proposal in the first place. If only she had known that he'd approach her later on that day! "The Irish team were pretty good eh, Ginny? How was it like sitting in the Box Seats? You must have had such a great view of the game!" Dean turned to Ginny in a bid to include her into the deep Quidditch conversation both Dean and Seamus were having. "Oh.. yea.. it was great. Really exhilarating!" Ginny replied with a huge smile on her face as the boys continued with their Quidditch-talk while she wandered off again in thought, thinking how elated she would have been as Harry's date instead.
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Harry felt really stupid bumping into Parvati and stepping on her feet everytime they tried to dance. "Parvati? Maybe we should take a break. I'm exhausted trying to keep up with you. You're really light on your feet!" Harry exclaimed as Parvati thanked him for the compliment. "Well ok then. Lets go sit with Lavender and Ron. Oh look! They have drinks for us too!" Parvati squealed as she pulled Harry towards the table. Harry sat next to Ron and Parvati took her place beside Lavender. Both of the girls were chatting and giggling at every Durmstrang boy who walked by their table. "Blimey Harry! Are all girls like this? I can't believe how fickle they are!" Ron said in a disapproving voice as Harry chuckled to himself. "And I still can't believe Hermione's date is Oliver Wood! I mean, who would have known that she had the hots for him!" Ron started. "Or him having the hots for HER, Ron. We don't know for sure how it all started." Harry said amusingly. "Well, are you gonna ask us to dance?" asked Lavender as she and Parvati rose from their seats. "We're really tired. You girls go on ahead then." Ron snapped. Seeing that they clearly weren't 'wanted', Parvati and Lavender scooted off with a couple of Durmstrang boys and started dancing to the Weird Sisters' next number. "Ron, I think I've had enough for one night. I think I'll retire to bed. You coming? We've got double Potions with the Slytherins first thing tomorrow morning. I need all the rest i can get!" Harry said with a long yawn. "Oh no. Do you see Snape anywhere in this Hall Harry?" Ron asked exasperatedly. "Err. No. Why?" Harry eyed Ron suspiciously. "Oh sod it! Snape didn't get a date for the Ball. I reckon he'd be in a righ' state tomorrow morning. He'd be grumpier than usual, and that's saying something!" Ron exclaimed. Both of them laughed as they made their way back to the Common Room for a good night's rest. If Ron's theory was right, they'd need all the rest they could get.
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Double Potions turned out to be exactly the way Ron had predicted it to be the previous night. Snape was in a foul mood and didn't hesitate to take points off from Gryffindor. In fact he took off points for the sillyest reasons! Harry and Ron grabbed a seat each beside Hermione and waited for Snape to start his lesson. "Today, we shall learn the art of making a Love Potion." Snape started off, when a few of the Gryffindor girls started giggling right in the front row. "There's nothing funny about a Love Potion Miss Brown. Ten points from Gryffindor" Snape snapped. He gave a sly smirk as he began to give out instructions for the preparation of the Love Potion. "This potion is commonly asked in the O.W.L.s. Thus, I'll be expecting proper work from all of you. Tardiness will not be entertained. The ingredients are up on the board. So is the method for brewing this Potion. You have one hour, your time starts ... NOW!" Snape had a sort of finality in his tone and the entire classroom fell silent. The students scurried to get their ingredients so that they could start to brew their own Love Potion. Ron was practically asking Hermione for help at every stage and Hermione was helping him discreetly. Harry looked at his own ingredients and started crush the scarab beetles into powder, when he caught a glimpse of Malfoy. He had the strangest expression of amusement on his face. At that moment, Malfoy sensed Harry staring at him. He turned towards Harry and grimmaced at him, before getting back to his love potion. Maybe he was day-dreaming. Harry thought it best to leave Malfoy to his own business.
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"A Love Potion eh? This maybe what I need afterall. I do have these rare ingredients in my trunk anyway. What if I whip up a Love Potion and 'accidentally' spill some of it into Lodina's orange juice in the morning?" Draco thought with a grin on his face. Just then, he saw Harry Potter looking in his direction. Did he know what was going on? Nah! Potter's head's as big as a toilet bowl. He wouldn't suspect a thing. But Draco really did want Lodina to like him and he knew that though a Love Potion might work now, in the long run, she would eventually find out the truth about him and would despise his very existence. Not like she didn't despise his existence now, but things would certainly get a lot worse. Still, the Love Potion could come in very handy. Draco decided to nick a bit of the potion into a vial before Snape came around collecting the samples. Afterall, the Love Potion idea was very tempting...
[Tonks was grooving to Eminem's Ass like that | 
~ skeptical]
~Nymphadora~
~ skeptical]