I believe that I shouldn't start a new story as long as the on-going ones aren't finished yet, however this is an exception because this story is already finished. I've posted it on AO3 but I wanted to share it with you guys as well. It's a short story of eight chapters. Perhaps not as detailed as I usually write (with only eight chapters I'm limited in how much background information I can give you) but hopefully enjoyable nonetheless. I'll be updating this story every Monday.

1

"Tell me again what it is exactly you're doing?" I frown at the red liquid in my friend's cauldron.

While April Redmacher has always had what I deem an unhealthy obsession with potions, it is a rare occurrence to watch her waste her free Sunday brewing a potion in the cold, chilly bowels of the castle. What's even stranger is that I actually followed her down here while we should both be outside right now, joining our friends for ice-skating on the Black Lake.

"I'm brewing a love potion," She sighs, probably annoyed by all the questions I've already asked her. Is it supposed to look like molten lava? Should it smell like sweaty socks? Why does she wear her hair up in such a crazy looking bun? Isn't it annoying that her glasses keep fogging? Important questions.

"Right. Because you've grown tired of Hector?" I hum.

"No," She scoffs, appalled at the mere suggestion that my cousin doesn't have what it takes to keep her interest for longer than the three months they've been dating. "Because Polly asked me to."

"And since when are we friends with Polly Mirtleton?" I frown.

"We're not," April reassures me that I don't have to start being nice to our annoying classmate any time soon.

I don't go around disliking people. I'm actually quite easy-going. There's just something about Polly Mirtleton that makes you want to scratch her eyes out. Don't know what it is. Perhaps it is the perfectly shaped duck face. Or the fact that she calls everyone her subjects. Yep, as though she was a fucking queen. Now, doesn't she sound lovely?

"And yet, here you are, brewing her a love potion," I give her a pointed look.

"She asked me to brew it for her, you know she's shit at potions. I wasn't going to do it but she offered to pay a pretty good amount for it."

"Who needs talent when you can just buy it from other people," I scoff. "Since when are you in need of money anyway?"

"Since it will be Valentine's Day soon and I want to be able to buy my boyfriend something."

"You could make a necklace out of macaroni and Hector would still love it."

He really would. My one-year younger cousin has always had a soft spot for my friend and now that he's finally gotten her to see him as a guy instead of my childish relative, he wouldn't ruin it all over something materialistic as a bad Valentine present. What the hell does Hector care about that kind of stuff anyway?

"Perhaps," She sighs. "But when he pulls out something that costs a fortune, I'd like to be able to return something of equal value."

I have to admit that, knowing Hector, he probably will have something ridiculously extravagant prepared for April. But it's not like he expects her to have as much money as his family does.

"He doesn't care that you can't."

"But I do," She says sharply, closing the discussion.

It's none of my business anyway. I might be their number one fan – they really are so great together – but this is something between the two of them. If she wants to slave over some potion for the number one bitch in this castle, I won't stop her.

"So why does Polly need a love potion anyway? She's not as ugly on the outside as she is on the inside."

As much as I can't stand her, and that sentiment is growing every year since we share a dorm, if she doesn't talk and keeps that frown of her face, the tall blond is actually really pretty. She doesn't have any trouble finding herself a bloke.

"Because we're seventh year now, meaning she only has a couple of months left to make her dream guy fall in love with her."

"Oh," I nod my head in understanding.

For three years, ever since we all hit puberty, Polly has been obsessed – genuinely obsessed, not the way I call April obsessed – with the admittedly very attractive Gryffindor in our year, Sirius Black. Like I said, she's pretty so in fifth year they went out together but Black doesn't do serious relationships (oh, the irony) while Polly was convinced he was going to declare his undying love to her soon. Needless to say, things ended and she was heartbroken. That's actually the one time I felt sympathy for her.

Anyway, even though it's been over for ages, not counting that drunken hook-up in sixth year, Polly has never lost hope that he will one day change his mind and they'll live happily ever after. It's freaking delusional is what it is, but I'm not about to tell Polly to stop the desperate act. I very my like my head attached to my body.

"So she's decided to reach a new level of desperation and force her love onto the bloke?" I frown, kind of appalled at this approach. "And you're agreeing to this?"

"It's harmless, really," April waves away my concern. "The only thing to suffer a blow will most likely be his ego when he professes his undying love for Polly in public."

I can already imagine how mortifying that would be to proud and vain Sirius Black.

"Well, yeah, but," I waver. "Isn't that a bit unnecessarily cruel?"

Sirius Black annoys me from time to time with his arrogance and loud attitude but I'm not sure he deserves this humiliation.

"Unnecessarily cruel is telling a girl you like her and then take someone else to Hogsmeade."

Oh, so it's personal as well.

I'm sure Sirius Black is a decent fellow underneath the bravado but unfortunately he has already proven to be weak to the flesh as well. About two months ago Black got his flirt on with April's younger cousin who was of course extremely flattered by the attention and let her hormones get the best of her. When a new Hogsmeade trip was announced, Emily waited for him to ask her out but instead he took her best friend with him. She was, understandably, quite crushed and it seems April hasn't forgiven the Gryffindor for that. Though I think Emily's a sweet kid, everyone's aware of the skirt-chasing reputation Sirius Black has and perhaps it was a bit naïve to believe the guy on his word when he said he liked her. He likes everyone, it doesn't mean anything.

"And we're sure you're doing this right?" I lean forward to look at the potion. "Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't it supposed to be a white colour?"

Not that I know a lot from Potions since I didn't even bother signing up for NEWT class but the annoyed look on April's face tells me I'm probably right.

"I'm just making sure, since this newly acquired knowledge makes me complicit, that we're not doing anything that's going to disfigure the guy. Or kill him." I lean further in the cauldron to take a sniff. I'm also pretty sure Amortentia is supposed to smell like things you love, not dungbombs.

"I know what I'm doing," She huffs. "And will you please not lean so far into my cauldron? I don't want any of your bodily fluids leaking in."

"What?" I gasp insulted. "Like I'm just sweating and sniffling and spitting all over the place?"

"Well," She smiles teasingly which earns her a hard shove in the side. "Ouch, I'm just making sure you're not accidentally putting your DNA into the potion, that would cause Black to fall in love with you instead of Polly."

I don't even bother suppressing a shiver. I don't want Sirius Black's affections, fake or real. While I can appreciate his sense of humour, I do believe his exact words in sixth year were 'I don't do sloppy seconds'. Yeah, he's a real charmer.

"So, how exactly does Polly think this will help her on her quest for the bloke's heart? As soon as the potion stops working, he'll probably be livid, not enamoured."

"Apparently she thinks he'll realise how great they are together by then," April shrugs.

"That's kind of sad," I frown. "Polly needs to only do her hair sweep thingy and she can have some guy who does want to be with her."

Like I said, she's not unpretty and there are plenty of willing jackasses in this castle to go with a bitch.

"I think maybe this failing as soon as Black's in his right mind again might just be the thing she needs to move on."

"Oh, crap, we are becoming friends with her, aren't we?" I glare at the tender expression on April's face.

"We're simply being kind," She hums.

"By robbing a guy of his free will. Yeah, we're saints," I scoff.

Though I think this is a stupid plan, I am a bit curious to see it all play out in a few days.

On Valentine's Day, I try to squeeze in as much time with April as I can at breakfast because Hector made it pretty clear yesterday that I need to back off for the rest of the day. He makes it sound as if I'm pushy. It just kind of sucks when all my friends, and unfortunately I really do mean all my friends, have Valentine dates. April has Hector, her steady boyfriend. Mackenzie has been seeing a Hufflepuff by the name of Alexander Sheppard for a total of six days now and of course he has a super romantic date planned for his girlfriend of not even a week. And for some reason that date starts by the two of them making out scandalously at the breakfast table, right across from me and successfully robbing me of my appetite with every passing minute. Even Nora has a date today with some sixth year who invited her to Hogsmeade and while she doesn't exactly like the bloke, she's too nice to say no. Meaning all my friends have plans today, which might be the sole reason I dislike Valentine's Day this year. At least last year I had a wonderful boyfriend of my own to be besotted with, even though he would break up with me two months later.

"What are you staring at?" I frown at April who is not giving me the attention this morning that I need to last the entire day by myself. For some reason she keeps looking at the Gryffindor table while she should be looking at me. Nora is reading the Daily Prophet which is a sacred moment of the day and may, under no circumstances, be disrupted. Mac is still making out with her boo so I really need April right now.

"It's Valentine's Day," She simply says.

"I've noticed," I widely gesture towards the Great Hall's tacky decorations with an eye roll.

"This is what Polly wanted the Amortentia for," She glances quickly at me before returning her gaze to the Gryffindors. "I gave it to her on Thursday but I don't know how she intended for him to ingest it."

"And?"

"What if I brewed it wrong?"

"What if you brewed it right?"

I think that's what we should really be worried about. Nobody wants to see Sirius Black profess his undying love to Polly. The make-out session that will inevitably follow can't be pretty either.

"I haven't actually brewed it before," April suddenly confides in me.

"What?" I frown.

"We learned about it in class when I fell ill with mono, remember?"

"Oh, yeah," I smirk.

April caught mono, Hector caught mono but according to her it was all coincidence. Hector was a lot more honest and blatantly told me they had made out during the last Quidditch victory party.

"Well, I missed it," She quickly dismisses whatever I may want to say. "And now I'm not so sure anymore I did it right."

"Then why would Polly ask you? I mean, you're good. But you're not top of the class."

As soon as I say it, I know I shouldn't have.

"Well, she couldn't exactly ask Snape or Evans, could she?!" April snaps at me.

"What are you guys bickering about?" Nora pulls her gaze away from the paper to look at us in suspicion.

"Nothing," I quickly smile because April's a shitty liar. "I was just whining about how I'm going to spend the entire day by myself."

"I could spend the day with you, if you get me out of this date," She smiles hopefully at me.

"If you don't want to go, why did you say yes?" April frowns, finally looking away from Sirius Black eating breakfast.

"He asked so nicely. I didn't know how to say no." She blushes.

"Like this," I turn sideways. "April, would you like to go to Hogsmeade with me even though we've barely spoken two words to each other and I'm over a head shorter than you?"

"I'm really flattered but no, thank you."

"See?" We both turn to Nora again with a 'tadaa' expression on our faces.

"You guys are mean," She pouts.

"Oh, look!" April abruptly pulls on my sleeve and nods her head back in the direction of Sirius Black.

I don't see anything out of the ordinary happening over there. Sure, his gaze seems to be directed at the Ravenclaw table but that's not necessarily unusual since I'm sure he knows several Ravenclaws. When he doesn't seem to find what he's looking for he appears to be getting in an argument with James. Now that never happens. As long as I've known those boys, I've never really seen them fight before, at the very least not in public. Sirius pulls out of James grip and suddenly climbs on the breakfast table.

"What is he doing?" I hear April mutter beside me. "I don't think it's supposed to make him reckless."

"I'M IN LOVE!" Sirius Black shouts through the entire Great Hall, earning every gaze on him.

"Well, there you go," I smile. "It works."

"WITH LENA PELLT!"

What?!