Slip Me That Love Potion, I Dare You, George Arthur Weasley

The next day, for some unfathomable reason, seemed to drag on for eternity. I swear I could’ve taken Professor Trelawney’s job, because I was having just a horrible day in general. I was late for breakfast, I probably failed the Charms exam I forgot to study for, and just as expected, George and I were about as awkward as a three-legged Hippogriff. On top of that, we had Potions with the Slytherins. You know that’s always a pleasant experience, especially when you got little to no sleep the previous night and are still suffering from it.
I was late to Potions on account of losing my textbook at last minute, which made my already pissed off mood even worse. I was almost as bad as a werewolf with a serious case of PMS. All morning, the twins had been trying to keep their distance as to not lose any vital organs, but Farrah tried to calm me down a bit. To some extent, it worked, but I still wanted to dozy off and take the longest nap of my life. After lunch, I told them I’d see them in Potions because I needed to find my textbook. We’d gone our separate ways, and I rushed off to find my book before Snape ripped my head off for being late.
Oh, and George hardly said anything to me at all today. It was just the usual ‘’Morning’’ and a small comment on the cold weather, but that was it. Now that I think about it, he didn’t really look at me much, either. All morning, he kept his hands stuffed in the pockets of his robes, his eyes either averted to the ground or staring off into nowhere. I think even Fred was concerned for his brother, who hadn’t laughed at any of his jokes or sarcastic comments since last night.
I felt inadvertently guilty, even though I was fairly sure I hadn’t done anything to upset him recently.
Book in arm and rucksack half hanging off of my shoulder, I opened the door to the Potions classroom slowly, slipping inside as quietly as possible. Snape had his back turned to the class while he wrote instructions in the board, reading them aloud monotonously.
‘’-You will get into your groups as instructed, supplies are in the back. You have one hour.’’
I tiptoed over to where Farrah and the twins sat, trying to make it seem like I’d been there since the beginning of class, but Snape has eyes in the back of his head, I swear.
‘’Miss Marwick, so nice of you to join us,’’ he said, turning around and sitting at his desk, not once looking up at me. I froze. ‘’What could your absence possibly be excused for this time?’’
‘’I’m sorry, sir, but I forgot my textbook,’’ I said confidently, ignoring the sneers from the Slytherins. Snape’s expression didn’t soften an inch. Instead, his dark eyes glared at me from under his black, greasy hair.
‘’Next time, you might want to keep track of your possessions, Miss Marwick, or I might not be so forgiving. Five points from Gryffindor. Now, get to work.’’ I wanted to say something about how he can’t seem to keep track of the shampoo he never uses, but I held my tongue.
I sat next to George, putting my textbook on the table and glaring at Snape from my seat. Farrah came back with the supplies, putting them on the table and flipping through her textbook to find instructions.
‘’What are we making?’’
‘’Wit-Sharpening Potion,’’ she grumbled, finally finding the right page, ‘’I need you to cut up this ginger root,’’ she handed me the brown, curled up root and a short, silver knife. Simple enough.
‘’You guys-‘’ she handed the dynamic duo a square glass jar, filled with what looked like cockroaches, ‘’-will ground up two of these.’’ They looked at the jar and nodded, each picking up these odd grounding tools. Now that I got a closer look, I realized they were Scarab Beetles.
‘’What’s that?’’ I asked, pointing to the rather large vial of grey mush Farrah was examining, her nose scrunched up in disgust.
‘’Armadillo bile,’’ she gagged, pushing the jar away from her to the edge of the table, ‘’that goes in last, thankfully. The ginger goes in first.’’ I nodded in approval; the longer that jar of vomit stayed closed, the happier I’d be. I started chopping the ginger into small pieces, while the twins had already taken out their two beetles. I guess they thought they were already dead, because when the beetles started moving to the edge of the table, George knocked into me and cried, ‘’bloody hell!’’ Fred tried stabbing them with his wand.
Snape seemed to hear George’s outburst from his desk, and he frowned in disgust. ‘’Keep your mouth shut, Mr. Weasley. I will not tolerate yelling in my classroom.’’
‘’Ruddy pumpkin head, he is,’’ George mumbled under his breath. My mouth twitched into a smile, and as I started paying attention to the twins as they tried to crush their new pets, I’d forgotten I still had a knife in my grasp. I had started making stabbing motions with it. When the blade sunk into the top of my hand, I didn’t even realize it was there until Farrah shook my arm.
I turned to her. ‘’What-ow!’’ I hissed, noticing that I did, in fact, have a knife sticking out of my hand. I yanked it out, only to experience more pain compared to when it was still intact. Fred and George stared at my hand with wide eyes.
‘’Merlin’s beard,’’ Fred whispered.
‘’Holy…does anyone know how to fix this?’’ George looked around worriedly. Blood was starting to gush from the wound to the point where it was dripping onto my robes. The rest of us shook our heads. The only thing I could think about was how my hand felt like it was on fire. That, and the fact that George was actually panicking about me.
It is a rare thing to see either of the twins panic over something. They’re usually calm compared to the rest of their huge family.
Farrah raised her hand high in the air, waving it around. ‘’Professor Snape?’’
He looked up from the papers on his desk, that always unpleasant look plastered on his face. ‘’What is it, Miss Jenks?’’
‘’Naomi had a bit of an…er…accident with the knife…’’ She held up my hand for him to see. Some of the class laughed, while others looked grossed out. A Gryffindor named Fignius Swelky fainted out of his seat. I wrapped the sleeve of my robe around it to attempt to stop the bleeding, but the wound must’ve been deeper than we thought because it bled right through.
Snape looked agitated (then again, when didn’t he look agitated?). He was quiet for a second before he let out a sigh. ‘’Very well. Mr. Weasley, please accompany the attention hoarder to Madam Pomfrey. If you do not return, I will make it so you spend detention here every night this week. Do I make myself clear?’’
Wait, which Weasley was he talking about? The twins looked at each other.
‘’George Weasley,’’ Snape said, even more agitation in his voice if possible, ‘’now go, before I change my mind.’’
I got up from my seat, grabbed my rucksack and textbook and hurried out of the classroom after George. Closing the heavy wooden door behind us, I let out a long awaited scream of pain, hunching over and clutching at my throbbing hand.
George rubbed my back soothingly. Taking out his wand, he asked me quietly, ‘’let me see it.’’
I stood up straight again and pulled back my sopping wet sleeve. It looked as if the cut had extended a bit, and my entire hand and forearm was covered in blood.
He pointed his wand at the blood that was beginning to dry up. ‘’Tergeo.’’
The blood started to slither off of my skin and towards the tip of his wand. It absorbed the thick, red liquid like a straw, leaving the deep gash in my hand clean.
‘’Thanks,’’ I said, giving him a smile. He returned it before continuing down the hall.
‘’No problem. You might as well go to the infirmary anyway, make sure it doesn’t get infected or something.’’ I nodded in agreement, walking briskly until I caught up to him.
Talk about awkward. Half of the walk to the infirmary was filled with this haunting silence. I was thrilled we didn’t come across Filch, the ragged, cranky old caretaker, but I still wished George would act normal around me.
‘’Can I ask you something?’’ I finally said after five minutes of walking silently.
He looked over at me and nodded, stuffing his hands into his pockets. ‘’Sure, go right ahead.’’
I stopped walking, looked up at him with all the seriousness I could muster up, and asked, ‘’have you been experiencing any unusual cramping lately?’’
He looked at me as if I’d begun sprouting numerous heads out of my ears. ‘’Um…what?’’
‘’What about any major mood swings? Severe eating urges?’’
‘’I think you might be suffering some trauma due to…blood loss…’’ The serious look on my face scared him a bit. He put his hand to my forehead. ‘’Yep, definitely batty.’’
‘’I haven’t gone batty,’’ I laughed, shaking my head and continuing down the hall, ‘’I’m merely suggesting the fact that you might’ve gotten…you know…’’
George still looked clueless as ever. He trailed behind me cautiously. ‘’No, I don’t know. What is it I’ve got?’’
‘’I have concluded that you, George Arthur Weasley, have finally gotten your period.’’ He stared at me wide-eyed, like a frightened house elf. ‘’Aw, don’t be shy!’’ I cooed, pinching one of his cheeks with my good hand, ‘’it happens to every female at some point. Although, I must admit, you got yours way past the average girl.’’ You have no idea how hard I had to restrain myself from laughing.
‘’Oh yeah, you’ve definitely gone mental,’’ George chuckled, wrapping an arm around my shoulders as we walked down a series of staircases. I smacked his chest, crossing my arms but being careful of my hand. The bleeding had stopped for the moment.
‘’I was just trying to help lighten the mood,’’ I grumbled, adjusting the rucksack on my back. I looked up at him from the corner of my eye. ‘’You’ve been acting odd all morning-’’ I could see him tense up a little bit, ‘’-and I’m not going to bug you into telling me what it is, but you know you can always tell my when something’s bothering you, right?’’ He nodded silently, waiting for the staircases to stop changing.
The rest of the walk to the infirmary was filled with that awkward silence that I’ve always dreaded. The gash in my hand no longer burned, but itched like mad. I’d started scratching at it out of nervousness, only I ended up opening up the blood flow again. I didn’t bother telling George.
The hospital wing wasn’t full at all. Madam Pomfrey was busy tending to a boy with a broken foot when we entered. I explained the situation, much to my embarrassment, but she didn’t ask any questions. George was forced to leave, but I told him I’d be at their Quidditch practice later. He nodded and waved, his gingery hair curtaining his face slightly before he turned and walked out.
Not much needed to be done to my hand. The rest of the blood was cleaned off, and some gauze wrap was wound around it. By the time I left the infirmary, Gryffindor’s Quidditch practice had already started. Their next game was in two weeks against Ravenclaw. I sat down by myself on the bleachers, pulling my robes tighter to fight the icy cold wind. It was only the beginning of November, but to put it plain and simple, I was literally freezing my arse off. I didn’t even want to think about winter yet.
I looked around for Farrah, thinking that she’d probably be here, but the bleachers were nearly deserted. A few fifth years sat a couple of rows below me, along with a younger Ravenclaw girl a few feet over, which I found a little odd, but Fred’s lover or whatever you’d like to call her was nowhere to be seen.
I watched as the twins flew around in their gear, Beater bats in hand as they zoomed through the Quidditch pitch. Anyone who knew the twins were well aware of the fact that they’re probably two of the best Beaters Hogwarts has had in years. ‘’The Unbeatable Beaters’’ is what their old team captain, Oliver Wood, used to call them, and the name was definitely suiting. Give those two each a bat and I’d love to see you try and get a fly past them.
I was completely transfixed on watching Fred and George do a victory dance on their brooms, that when I heard someone next to me say ‘’psst,’’ I nearly flew out of my skin.
It was the Ravenclaw girl.
‘’I have the money,’’ she said excitedly, opening her hand to reveal five gold, gleaming galleons.
I looked at them in confusion. ‘’Why are you…’’ It hit me; this was the girl who wanted that love potion a few weeks back. She looked at me expectantly.
‘’Um…I don’t have any on me at the moment…how about you come find us as dinner and we’ll give it to you?’’ I suggested awkwardly. I still didn’t know why a second year needed a love potion.
She grinned and nodded in agreement, placing the galleons in my hand. ‘’Perfect. I’m Lucinda, by the way. Lucinda Griffith.’’
‘’Naomi Marwick.’’
‘’I know,’’ she smiled, watching the practice, ‘’you and the Weasley twins have grown quite popular, believe it or not. Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes is becoming pretty huge.’’
I blinked in surprise at her response. ‘’Oh…well, thank you. But Fred and George are the masterminds behind everything, I’m sort of just their…assistant?’’
‘’Mm, they are rather brilliant, aren’t they?’’ she said dreamily, resting her chin on her hand as she watched two of my best friends race to hit an oncoming bludger. I looked at her a little suspiciously, but I passed it off as her being a fan of their practical jokes.
‘’Right, I have some homework to do…’’ I said quietly, going through my rucksack and pulling out my Charms homework. I wasn’t exactly planning on doing it there, but I really didn’t feel like conversing with a star-struck twelve year old.
Thankfully, Lucinda left me alone for the rest of practice, but it didn’t mean she was quiet. She kept cheering and clapping her hands wildly. It made me consider using the Full Body-Bind Curse.
When practice was over, I stuffed my homework back into my bag and hurried off the bleachers. The twins met me off to the side of the field, looking windswept and generally exhausted. I smiled, wrapping my arms around their shoulders to the best of my ability and walking with them back to the castle.
‘’You guys did great today.’’
‘’Ah, but when aren’t we doing great?’’ they said big-headedly. I rolled my eyes.
‘’You seem to have acquired a fan,’’ I said quietly, nodding my head in the direction of Lucinda, still seated on the bleachers. She waved.
‘’A fan, eh?’’ George asked. They both waved back.
I hit them on the back of their heads.
‘’Don’t wave!’’ I hissed, walking a little faster, ‘’the girl’s practically a groupie. She gave me the money for that love potion she wanted from us. I wouldn’t be surprised if it were for you two.’’
The twins, to my disgust, looked almost flattered.
‘’Really? Sweet.’’
‘’No one’s ever tried that on us before.’’
That earned them each another smack.
‘’You,’’ I said to Fred, ‘’have a girlfriend…sort of. A very nice one at that!’’ His face flushed a bit.
‘’And you-’’ I looked at George, realizing that I had no idea what to say to him, ‘’just, don’t be daft, alright? I don’t have a good feeling about her.’’ I pulled the five galleons out of my pocket and showed them.
They were quiet for a minute. We’d reached the entrance to the school.
‘’Do you really think she’d try anything on us?’’ George asked curiously, staring down at the shiny gold coins. I just shrugged.
‘’Who knows, but that girl wouldn’t stop screeching for anything when you guys were practicing.’’ I cringed. ‘’If only she were less peppy and had bat wings, then she could pass for Snape in his natural habitat.’’