Love Potion Number Five

Disclaimer: Not mine, don’t sue. Kay thanks.

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Harry yawned and pushed back the bed hangings, swinging his legs over the side and
down into his slippers. Yawning, he pulled on a pair of jeans over his knickers and
made his way down the stairs and through the shortcut portrait in the common room to
the Prefects bathroom, to which he’d been granted access in his sixth year when he’d
been made Gryffindor quidditch team captain.

After finishing up a quick shower, Harry tossed the used, sopping wet towel over one
shoulder, waved to Sascha Barton, the new fifth year Gryffindor prefect, and made his
way back to his room.

Seeing that Dean, Neville, and Seamus were already up, Harry took the liberty of
tossing his soaking towel onto Ron’s face, yanking off the thick covers at the same
time. “Oi, term starts today you lazy git, and we’re going to miss breakfast!”

“Who? Wha? Gerroff me!” Ron began swinging his fists, batting at the cold, wet towel
that covered his head. The red-headed boy heard Harry’s laughter, and finally calmed
down enough to pull the towel off his head, and shoot a glare at his best friend. Harry
winked, and motioned for Ron to hurry up.

“Like I said, we’ll be late! The owls should be delivering our schedules at half past,
and if we don’t get down there, we’ll have to go to McGonagall; you remember what
she did last time we were late, don’t you?”

“Yeah, the old bat actually made good on her threat to transfigure me into a bloody
pocket watch!” Ron hopped to his feet, flinging on his school robes and shoes. “Don’t
want that, let’s go!”

Harry hid his grin behind a hand as Ron went running down the stairs, starkers under
the robe and shoes. He grabbed up a pair of socks, clean knickers, pants, shirt, and
tie, and crossed his arms over his chest, counting slowly to ten. A bare moment after
the last number had left Harry’s lips, Ron came hurtling back through the door,
flushed red with embarrassment. Harry handed him the cloths, and shook his head.

“I’ll wait for you outside the portrait hole.”

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Hermione and Ginny met Harry just outside the portrait hole. Ginny bent down,
pretending to lace up one shoe while she waited for the flush in her cheeks to fade. She
heard Hermione ask where Ron was, and walked up in time to hear Harry mumbling
something about “moving so fast, his cloths just fell off behind him!” Ginny nodded to
him, and settled her book bag on her shoulder, while Hermione tapped one foot, and
glanced repeatedly at her watch.

Finally, Ron came huffing through the portrait hole, and the four set off toward the Great
Hall, stomachs rumbling. When they got to the Gryffindor table, each settled eagerly into
a seat, and began helping themselves to eggs, kippers, and cool pumpkin juice or water.
After most of the students had gotten a chance to fill their hungry stomachs, the whoosh
of flapping wings filled the hall as, over head, hundreds of owls began converging on the
four main tables, dropping forgotten items, letters, packages, and their term schedules
into their laps or, in Neville’s case, into his half-finished bowl of cereal.

As Longbottom fished out his soggy schedule, Harry opened his own, and groaned,
passing it over to Ron.

“Oh no, not double potions, first thing! It’s bad enough having it at all on Monday, but this
is just bloody awful! And Divination following? And we didn’t even get Firenze, either. Of all
the bloody luck! What are they trying to do, kill us? That must be a twenty minute hike
from Snape’s dungeon to Trelawny’s tower!”

Just as she had each year since fourth year, Hermione spoke smugly to each boy.
“Should’ve let it go then, shouldn’t you, like I did? You could’ve done muggle studies, or
arithmancy, or even ancient runes! Why, even astronomy is better than divination!”

“Oh shut up, Hermione!”

Ginny giggled as both her brother and Harry loudly told Hermione where she could shove
her ancient runes, and smiled sympathetically as Harry, Ron, and Hermione gathered their
things and prepared to head down to the dungeons for their most hated of courses.
Peeking at her own schedule, she saw she had Muggle Studies first thing. Picked up her bag,
Ginny made a mental note to remember to send home her notes from the course for her
father, and left the Great Hall.

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Harry, Ron, and Hermione filed into the Potions Dungeon, and took their seats on the
opposite side of the room from the several slytherins that had decided to continue the course.
Because of how few students were continuing with NEWT level potions, all the NEWT students
were combined into one class, and Harry nodded to Padma Patil, Justin Finchfletchy, and
Hannah Abbot as they too made their way into the classroom.

Hermione found her eyes straying over the rest of the members of the class, noting Blaise
Zabini, Pansy Parkinson, and of course, Draco Malfoy on the far end of the room. There was
one other cauldron set up, and she wondered who else would be a part of such a high-level
course. Zabini had been a given – he was amazing at potions and knew it. So had Draco,
though Pansy was a bit of a surprise. She hadn’t thought the girl had the brains of a
flobberworm, the way she trailed after Draco like a lovesick puppy. However, Pansy didn’t
seem so enthusiastically attached to Malfoy’s hip today, and was in fact currently engaged at
what appeared to be an emergency removal of Zabini’s tonsils, with her own tongue.

Gagging slightly, she turned and her eyes widened at the sight of Luna “Loony” Lovegood as
the sixth year took the final seat in the dungeons. As per usual, Luna had a copy of the
Quibbler, the tabloid-esque magazine for which her father was the Editor.

Luna waved the magazine in Hermione’s direction, and nodded hello to Harry and Ron, who
ignored her. Ron was making kissing faces, to which Harry was responding with exaggerated
retching motions, both laughing. Hermione rose to her feet and made her way to the
ingredients cupboard, hearing Justin whispering to her two best friends.

“I’d rather eat slugs with rotted fish jelly than have to kiss that!” All three boys erupted into
laughter.

“That, Mr. Finchfletchy, can be arranged. Five points from Hufflepuff. Ms. Granger, I suggest
you take your seat. Ms. Parkinson, remove your tongue from Mr. Zabini’s throat, this is not
an anatomy lesson.”

Severus Snape strode through the aisle of tables to the front of the classroom, swishing his
black robes about him like it was a living cloak. Oily black hair framed his face, and he
glowered at the students sitting on their stools. “Some of you are hear because,
though I don’t know how, you managed to scrape an “O” on your potions OWL your fifth
year.” Snape turned unblinking eyes to Harry, “While certain others are here yet again
at the behest of the headmaster. For some of you, this is your final year at Hogwarts, and you
will be taking your NEWTS this June. I suggest you,” Snape whirled about, this time turning his
glare to Pansy, who was busy running her tongue down Zabini’s neck, “PAY ATTENTION!”

Folding his arms in front of him, the professor continued to glare at Pansy and Blaise. “Five
points from Slytherin, Ms. Parkinson,” All three Slytherins turned wide eyes to their Head of
House. “Yes, from my own house. If you wish to remain in this class, you will pay attention to
what is being said, or you may find yourself another place to be!”

Snape began to pace in front of the class. “Your NEWT level potions are nothing to be laughed
at. I will teach you to brew the Sleeping Death,” Several gasps floated around the room, while
he continued, “and to bottle the most powerful lust spell known to the wizarding world. If you
have a misshap in this class, make no mistake. An error could cost not only your grade,”
Hermione gasped, “A limb,” Pansy gulped, “Or even… your life.” Briefly, Snape locked eyes with
each student in the classroom. “If you can think of anything more important you need to be
doing than paying attention in my class, you may get out. Now.”

Nobody moved.

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Author’s Notes: Hope you all liked that chapter. I had to get Snape in here a bit,
seeing as I absolutly, disgustingly love his character. Anyway, sorry for the delay in updating.

I got myself two betas... and both are pretty busy right now, so they haven\'t gotten a chance
to check out the chapter. So, I kind of waited to hear back from them... and now I\'ve just sort
decided to put it up anyway. Anyway, my roomie is succeeding to bring me to cackles with her
sheer goofyness, so I\'m going to go, so she\'ll get off my bed, and we can go watch movies
and eat dinner.

Chapter 6 is mostly written, so you wont have long to wait, hopefully. Though I won\'t make
any promises.. seeing as I have a sick furkid to attend to. My Spatzy boy is going into
surgery on Monday, August 8th at about 9am, to have the tumors on his adrenal gland
removed, and to see if there\'s something that needs to be removed from his pancreas,
as there\'s the possibility of insulinoma.

So, if you don\'t mind, any good thoughts sent his way are welcome. Anyway, thanks
guys, and thanks for reading and reviewing!

Ta!