Chapter 15: UNREQUITED LOVE

Natalie felt like she had awaken from a bad dream. Her heart raced as she looked at Michael. She felt a mixture of embarrassment and disbelief as she wondered what had come over her.

She had no idea she had been under the influence of a love potion and was now coming down from it.

As she looked at Michael again she saw that he looked nervous. She thought he was nervous with excitement, at the thought of finally being with the girl he loved, a dream he surely must have had for along time now. But in reality, he was nervous about whether or not the antidote had actually worked.

Natalie took a moment. It was in that moment she realised that she was half naked and standing right in front of him.

A changing wall now appeared in the room, and Natalie wasted no time going behind it and changing back into her school robes.

When she emerged she knew she had to say something; a reason for why she had done the things she had done, but she had none. From her perspective she had suddenly found Michael irresistible and now all of a sudden she did not. How was she going to explain this to him? She hated the idea of having to break his heart all over again.

But before she found the courage to speak however, Michael spoke first.

"It's ok. I understand. You weren't yourself."

Natalie was stunned. This was not what she expected Michael to say. she approach Michael and said.

"Michael, I'm sorry"

"I said it was ok." replied Michael understandably. "You were under the influence of a love potion."

"A LOVE POTION!" said Natalie in shock and disbelief.

Her blood suddenly turn cold. She felt violated. How could this have happened? She needed to sit down. So she sat down in one of the arm chairs that the room had provided, and Michael sat down in the one next to her.

For a long time neither of them spoke, and although the silence was awkward, Natalie couldn't help but feel a certain comfort in having Michael sit next to her. She now realised that the potion he had given her was an antidote, and that he'd done the right thing, when he could have easily taken advantage of her. She felt grateful to have someone like him in her life, someone who knew she wasn't herself and helped her.

After a while Natalie turned in her arm chair and spoke.

"Michael." she said rather timidly .

"Yes?" said Michael in response.

"You could have taken advantage of me, why didn't you?"

Michael paused for a moment, like he didn't understand the question, then answer by saying.

"Do you really believe that you mean so little to me that I would do such a thing."

Natalie was so moved by Michael's answer that a single tear rolled from her eye. She knew that whatever happened now, she couldn't remove Michael from her life again. She needed him as a friend.

"Now." said Michael, changing the subject. "We have to figure out who gave you that love potion and why. Did you drink anything in the past few hours that might have tasted funny?"

Natalie's blood turned cold once again, as a sudden revelation came over her. She hadn't drunk anything in the past few hours, but she had eaten something.

"It was, Paul." she said in a whisper.

"Paul?" said Michael in disbelief. "Are you sure?"

"Absolutely," said Natalie. "he gave me a mince pie just before the Hogwarts Express arrived. He said that they were the last two left. He must have dosed the one he gave me."

"But why would he do such a thing?" said Michael trying to make sense of all of this.

"I don't know, he's your friend, you tell me." replied Natalie.

Michael had nothing. He couldn't believe Paul would do that.

Not wanting to discuss the matter anymore, the two friends changed the subject, and throughout the remainder of the day they repaired their broken friendship.

The next morning Michael found Paul walking alone in the fourth floor corridor. He knew he had to talk with him, convince himself that Paul had nothing to do with Natalie being drugged. As he approached, Paul greeted him with a smile and said.

"Hey, Michael. What happened between you and Natalie yesterday?"

Michael snapped. He grabbed Paul by the collar with both hands and through him into the nearest classroom. Paul crashed into several desks.

"What the hell man!" He shouted, pulling himself up.

Michael pointed his wand at the door and muttered "Colloportus."

The door locked and Michael approached Paul once again.

Paul fumbled in his pocket for his wand to defend himself, but once he drew it out, Michael had already raised his own and shouted "Expelliarmus."

Paul's wand flew across the room. Michael then pocketed his own wand and pinned Paul against the wall.

"Why did you do it?"

"Do what?"

"You know perfectly well what I mean. You weren't at Hogsmeade station yesterday. So you couldn't have seen Natalie kiss me. The only way you could have known something happen between us yesterday, is if you were the one who slipped Natalie a love potion."

"The whole school saw that kiss man." Said Paul defensively. "Gossip travels fast around here, I figured something must have happened between you two."

For a moment Michael considered this, and he began to loosened his grip on Paul. But he then realised Paul hadn't been surprised when he mention that Natalie had been given a love potion, and resumed his grip.

"You're lying. Why did you do it?"

"For you man!" said Paul, finally admitting to what he had done. "I saw how badly you were doing at Quidditch because she didn't love you. I figured if she loved you, you'd be like your old self again, maybe even better."

Michael felt sick and let go of Paul. Paul hadn't done this for him, he had done it for himself. He had done this so Michael would stop sucking at Quidditch. He had done this to increase Hufflepuff's chance of winning the Quidditch House Cup.

Michael looked at Paul and knew their friendship was over. He then left the room and went to see his head of house Professor Sprout, to explain that a fellow Hufflepuff student had used a love potion on another student.

NEXT CHAPTER: HERMIONE'S CHOICE