Unmask My Deception

“Your seats will be permanent for this year,” Snape drawled on, his cold eyes scanning the class. “I will chose the pairs, and I will not have any complaints. And such protest will result in 100 points removed from your house.”

Raleigh rolled her eyes as she glanced across the room at her sister. Ebony, sitting by Draco as always, had a feeling she wouldn’t be blessed with getting Draco as a partner. She shot Raleigh a look to get her sister to stop being over-dramatic as she focused her attention back to the front. Raleigh let out a huff and propped her elbow up on the desk, dropping her head in her hand. Hermione, who was sitting next to her, gave her best friend a sympathetic look.

“Granger and Nott,” Snape called, motioning to the desk in the front of the room. Raleigh muttered “good luck” as Hermione made her way to her new seat.

“Weasley and Parkinson,” Snape continued. Ron queitly groaned as he got up; Raleigh and Harry both made kissy-faces at Ron, and Raleigh wiggled her eyebrows. Ron’s cheeks flamed red as he shot Raleigh a rude gesture.

“Seye and Malfoy,” Snape announced with a smirk. Raleigh dropped her head onto the table. Snape’s smirk grew just a bit. Immediately, from across the room, Malfoy cried,

“No! I can’t work with her!”

“Mr. Malfoy,” Snape said. “Unless you quiet down this instant, you’ll lose your house 100 points.”

“It's better Longbottom or Finnigan,” Ebony glanced unsympathetically at her nails, smirking as Draco grabbed his bag. He gave her a look of pure disbelief that showed he didn’t believe that for the life of him. As Draco made his way to Raleigh, who continued to thunk her head onto the desk. Snape turned to her.

“Is that a complaint, Miss Seye?”

“No sir,” she mumbled, letting her head fall again. “I’m just acknowledging the fact that my life has managed to get a little bit worse.”

“Enough,” Snape ordered, turning back to his list.

“Potter and Seymour.”

Disbelief and anger coursed through Ebony, but being as proper as she was, the only sign of frustration she showed was a quick clench of her fists. Musn't show emotions.

Ebony got to her feet and gracefully made her way to her seat. The desk she and Potter were assigned to was right beside Raleigh’s. The two sisters shared a look of pure hatred.

“Stop complaining!” Raleigh groaned to her sister. “At least you’re not paired with the Devil’s spawn!”

“I beg to differ,” Ebony countered with sniff of disgust as she slid her potions book from her bag.

With a roll of her eyes, Raleigh let her sister be as she turned to Draco.

“Just do what I say and keep your mouth shut, and I think we’ll manage to struggle through the school year. Got it, Malfoy?”

Draco scoffed at Raleigh and hissed, “Keep your voice down! Do you want Snape docking us points?” Raleigh huffed in frustration; he was right. If she got in trouble, she knew Snape would ban her from the first Quidditch game.

“You listen to me, Seye. Not the other way around.”

Raleigh opened her mouth to reply, but shut it when she saw Snape glance towards her. Narrowing her eyes, she yanked out a piece of parchment paper and scrawled out her reply. When Snape turned his back, she shoved it towards Draco; he glanced down and read quickly.

Get this straight, Malfoy. I don’t take orders from anyone, let alone a selfish little prat like yourself. Keep your ego in your pants before I knock your teeth out, you little weasel

With a smirk, Draco lifted his eyes to sneer at Raleigh. His contempt faltered for a moment. Were her eyes always that shade of green? Was that hard gleam always present when she argued?

Draco shook his head; he couldn’t think of Raleigh Seye like that. Grabbing his quill, he wrote back and shoved it over.

You’d better learn quick, then. And is it true that you and Granger share nights with Weaslebee over there? His red hair and hideous looks turn you on, do they?

Raleigh gave a quiet snort of amusement; she loved getting into arguments, especially with someone she despised so much. As she smirked over at Malfoy, she was caught off guard by the way the stream of sunlight caught his face. His pale hair burning with the sun, his eyes reflecting the rays…

No!

This was Draco Malfoy she was thinking about. Draco’s hair didn’t burn with the sun…

With a shake of her head, she scribbled back and then shoved the note to the side, leaning back as she fumed.

Better than that love triangle between you, Pansy, and Flint, isn’t it? At least I stick with the opposite gender. I’m pretty sure Pansy isn’t even a girl.

To Raleigh’s surprise, Draco let out a snort of amusement; he crumpled up the paper and stuffed it in his bag as he turned his attention back to the front of the room.

“The task is to create a love potion,” Snape informed them. “Nothing as powerful as Amortentia, but potent enough to cause several minutes worth of infatuation. And, you are all to test your partner’s potions. I highly suggest you brew carefully.”

Ebony glanced over at her sister and Draco; disbelief coursing through her when she saw the pair of them break out into identical smirks. They were both going to intentionally brew their potions wrong just to see how badly they could poison each other.

The class fell into concentrated silence as the students went to work on their potions. As she brewed, Raleigh snuck glances at Malfoy. The way he worked, his brow furrowed, his lips pressed together as he concentrated…

Draco felt someone watching him; he glanced up, and was surprised to see Raleigh’s eyes on him. Quickly, she looked back down at her book. His lip twitched into a smile for half a second.

The first group to test the potions was Ron and Pansy. The second Pansy took a sip, painful boils erupted over her skin. She let out a pained and terrified shriek as she sprinted out of the room.

Giving Raleigh, Hermione, and Harry a worried glance, Ron tipped his head back and drank the potion. Immediately, he jumped to his feet, climbed onto the table, and cried in a heavy Irish accent,

“Oim in luff! I luff her! So much I do love-“

Without warning, Ron collapsed off of the table and landed squarely on top of professor Snape. Raleigh and Harry burst out laughing; Hermione let out a gasp of surprise and hurried forward to help him. Harry was laughing so hard he couldn’t breathe; Raleigh looked as if she was having a seizure.

Even Draco, still angered by his partner, hid his face as he chuckled softly. As a Hufflepuff boy helped a still unconscious Ron up off the floor and out of the room, Professor Snape got to his feet, and leveled his icy glare landed on Raleigh and Draco.

The pair immediately choked down their laughter; Raleigh discretely wiped the tears from her eyes and cleared her throat. Snape narrowed his eyes.

“Seye, test it,” the professor ordered, nodding at Draco’s potion. Now all the humor disappeared from her face; she gave the potion a distrustful glance. With a deep breath, Raleigh lifted the vial to her lips, shut her eyes, and took a sip.

Warmth spread throughout her body; slowly, her eyes opened, and she turned to stare at Draco.

“Oh Draco,” she breathed, reaching out for him. “My sweet, sweet Draco! How long I’ve wished for your love to join mine!”

Draco’s face flushed bright red as he stared at the Slytherin girl. She grabbed a hold of him and crawled forward, practically kneeling on his lap. Draco sat there, completely still, too stunned to say anything.

“Oh Draco, tell me you love me! Every night I think of you, every single night you cross my mind! I love you, Draco Malfoy, I always have! Now kiss me, Draco! Kiss me!”

Before Draco could do anything, Raleigh surged forward and pressed her lips to his. Draco was so startled that he only sat, stunned as the female kissed him. He felt the way her soft lips warmed his; the way her curls brushed his face. Her perfume wreathed around him, sending shivers down his spine.

The warmth began to drain from Raleigh’s body; as the potion finally wore off, she opened her eyes and was met with Draco’s gaze only a few inches from her face. Her eyes widened and she toppled backwards off Draco’s lap, landing hard on the concrete floor.

Harry was having a fit; he was laughing so hard he couldn’t breathe. The rest of the class was laughing uproariously. Even Ebony hid a smile behind her perfect mask of composure.

“Well done, Mr. Malfoy,” Snape drawled. “Fifty points to Slytherin.”

Draco smirked smugly down at Raleigh, asking,

“So you’ve always loved me, have you?”

“Watch yourself, Malfoy,” she snarled, getting to her feet.

“Your turn, Mr. Malfoy,” Snape said, motioning to Raleigh’s potion. Malfoy’s smirk fell off his face as he glowered at Snape. With a sigh, Draco took a hold of the vial. With a cringe, he shut his eyes and took a sip.

Draco’s eyes flew open. His head snapped back and forth, looking around the room. Raleigh’s eyes widened as his pale skin begin to take on a green tint.

“Who are you?!” He shrieked, backing away from the class. “What the hell are you people doing in my room?”

With a sigh of frustration at Raleigh’s badly brewed concoction, Snape began to move forward to calm Malfoy.

“GET AWAY FROM ME!” Draco shrieked, spinning around and sprinting out of the room. “MUMMY! THERE’S A PEDOPHILE IN MY ROOM!”

Irritably, Snape motioned for two Ravenclaw boys to go fetch the delusional Slytherin.

“Well done, Miss Seye, you’ve managed to fry Mr. Malfoy’s brain. Ten points from Slytherin.”

Raleigh was laughing too hard to hear him. From over Raleigh’s laughter, Snape deadpanned, “Miss Seymour, your turn.”

It was no secret that Harry was abysmal at potions, and Ebony cursed this fact as Snape stood by and waited. She was pretty sure she would die from this potion, and undoubtedly in a lot of pain. As she picked up the vial, she glanced at Raleigh.

Come to my funeral, she mouthed to her sister; Raleigh just chuckled and rolled her eyes.

“What are you more afraid of,” Harry asked quietly. “Having the potion brewed right and having to confess your true feelings for me, or having the potion brewed wrong and potentially dying?”

Having ignored Harry for the entire class up to that moment, Ebony only glanced at him briefly.

“I have no feelings for you,” she said in a low undertone. “And I happen to know you’re dreadful at potions regardless.”

With that, Ebony took a tiny sip from the vial; not even a second later, she doubled over and threw up in her cauldron.

At least she’s still alive, Harry muttered to himself, having honestly believed his potion could have killed her. But as he watched her, his eyes widened as her long, dark hair began to turn green. Uh oh…

Snape was dumbfounded; he had honest never seen such a badly brewed potion in all his life. Raleigh shared a grimace with Hermione as she watched the effects of her potion develop on her sister.

“Uh, professor, I think she needs help,” Raleigh said, wincing as Ebony’s skin began to take on a rather vicious green hue to match her hair. “Oh bloody hell,” Raleigh exclaimed, rushing forward to try and help her sister.

“You should not be allowed to brew potions by yourself!” she exclaimed to Harry. Ebony’s perfectly manicured nails went from white to purple in a shocking amount of time, and a second later her lips turned dark blue. Without warning, the young girl’s eyes fluttered shut and she collapsed right onto Harry.

Shocked, Harry just barely managed to catch her. Being unprepared, Harry lost his balance and they both toppled to the ground, Harry luckily breaking her fall.

With a disgusted grimace, Snape waved his hand and ordered, “Get her to the hospital wing. The rest of you, out of my sight.”

As other students scurried past them, Raleigh said, “We’d better get her to the hospital wing. And it won’t hurt to check on Ron either.”

Harry just nodded, getting to his knees. Gently, he scooped Ebony up and then hurried out of the room, with Raleigh trailing behind them. As they wound through the halls, Raleigh shook her head.

She figured that some of the potion from Draco was still lingering. There was no other reason that she would want to check on Draco as well. But as they got to the hospital wing, and Raleigh saw Draco dozing peacefully on one of the cots, her anxiety eased a bit.

Though she would never admit it to another soul, she had been worried about Draco Malfoy. This could not bode well.