He he, a little earlier than I thought, but I promised myself I could post this when I'd finished the next chapter of Heartfelt Dream, and I did, so it's here!

This one is set during 'Half Blood Prince' after Christmas. I've had a bit of fun with it and I intend to keep it quite humerous, although there will be a bit of angst in it at some point, I can't help it!

Disclaimer: I don't own anything, apart from a car:D but that's got nothing to do with Harry Potter, I'm not pretending I own Harry Potter either...I wish. Anything you recognise isn't mine.

Please read and review :D

Step ;)

Chapter 1

It was cold down in the dungeon. Despite Professor Slughorn's attempts to keep his classroom warm, there was nothing that could stop the draft that just happened to whip around the table, which held the cauldrons of three Gryffindors and one Hufflepuff.

Harry, Hermione and Ron were bent over their cauldrons in their first NEWT Potions lesson of the New Year. The potion they were brewing today was Amortentia, a notorious potion, and a ridiculously fiddly potion that was very hard to brew. Not that Harry was worried, he had the Prince's trusty textbook to look at and this would help him through the lesson.

Hermione was frantically reading and re-reading the instructions to make sure her potion was perfect, and, as she came close to adding her final three ingredients, it was. She was ignoring Ron, who was huffing and puffing as he tried to follow the instructions to the letter. However, he was huffing and puffing for another reason too; Harry had sat himself next to Ernie Macmillan on one side of the table, forcing Ron and Hermione next to each other opposite him. He had received glares from both of them but he didn't care, he was desperate. He hated being stuck in the middle of the two of them. He wasn't sure which he preferred, them arguing and bickering constantly, or totally ignoring each other.

In all honesty Harry's plan wasn't a good one. During lessons Hermione was hardly one to give anything but her work her attention, and in his current mood, Ron was not likely to ask Hermione for help, even if he needed it.

Harry added his neatly cut Forget-Me-Not roots to his potion and he instantly knew something was wrong; the potion hissed and started to bubble. He frantically tried to find the line of the instructions he had just followed and when he did his eyes widened. He had added four whole roots to his potion as opposed to four inches of one root.

'Uh oh!'

His mumblings brought Hermione and Ron from their work and they looked at Harry's cauldron; eyes widening as the bubbling increased and the hissing got louder. As the potion gave a particularly loud hiss Ron grabbed Hermione's arm and pulled her below the table, Harry and Ernie ducked at the same time.

'Oww!' Hermione exclaimed as her head hit the edge of the table. 'Ron that hurt! What did you do that for?'

'Oh I'm sorry for trying to make sure you didn't get hit by exploding potion. I won't bother next time.'

'I think you'll find, Ronald, that nothing has exploded. Now if you don't mind, I'm going to get back to my cauldron!'

Ron let out a grunt in frustration as the two of them stood up.

Harry and Ernie were nervously peering over the edge of the table, seeing if the coast was clear. Cautiously they stood up and Harry peered into his cauldron.

'Well, I think I can safely say I messed this one up. Ah well, I never really suited the position of teacher's pet did I?'

Hermione glared at him over her cauldron. She reached down to her right and took hold of what she thought was going to be her silver knife, but it wasn't; it was Ron's hand. She quickly looked at her hand and then at Ron, he did exactly the same. Before either of them could react, however, Harry swore loudly.

'DUCK!' he shouted.

Ernie and Harry managed to get under the table before the potion erupted volcano like from the cauldron. Ron and Hermione, however, were still in a slight state of shock from their previous encounter and didn't manage to move out of the way. Potion covered them and both of them managed to swallow a mouthful of the bright blue liquid.

'Eurgh!' Ron exclaimed, 'That tasted foul!' He coughed trying to get the fumes out of his lungs.

Hermione shuddered as the full impact of the taste hit her. A wave of nausea flowed over her and she clamped her hands to her mouth. It soon passed though, and she replaced them at her side.

Harry stood up and looked sheepishly around at the scene.

'Er…sorry,' he said quietly.

'Sorry! Sorry!' Hermione screeched. 'I've just swallowed a mouthful of a half made potion, which was not only half finished but has not been left to stand for however long it needs, and all you can say is you're sorry!'

'Now now, dear, there's no need to get hysterical! I'm sure it was an accident,' Slughorn said calmly as he waddled over from the other side of the room. 'This is easily cleaned up,' he waved his wand and the potion disappeared from Hermione and Ron. 'Well now, the lesson was nearly finished and I believe the addition of Mister Potter's potion to yours, Miss Granger has rendered it useless, as it has yours Mister Weasley, the three of you may go.

'I'm sorry Professor,' Harry mumbled.

'Don't mention it m'boy, everyone makes mistakes. Life would be boring if people were perfect wouldn't it?'

'Yes sir it would.'

Harry, Ron and Hermione made their way out of the dungeon, Hermione wearing a scowl and rubbing the bump on her head, and Ron looking very disgruntled.

'The one time I make a potion right and you decide to explode yours in it!' Ron said as they were walking through the school,' he said to Harry.

'I didn't mean to! I just read the instructions wrong, you've done that loads of times!'

'I know! But today was the one time I had managed to do it right without anyone else's help! Bloody typical!'

The two of them fell silent and scowled all the way to the common room.

After the three of them had scrambled through the portrait hole they were welcomed by a screech from the other side of the room.

'Won-Won!'

'Merlin, give me strength!' Hermione mumbled, but only loud enough for Harry to hear. She turned and walked up the stairs to the girl's dormitory.

Harry stepped out of Lavender's way as she made her way towards Ron.

'Ronny! I missed y-, what's that smell?' She pulled back from the hug she was about to give him and screwed up her nose in disgust.

'What? Oh,' Ron pulled his robes up to his nose and sniffed, 'Harry's potion exploded over me, I'll go change, back in a minute.'

'Don't keep me waiting!' Lavender said in a sickly sweet voice.

Ron smiled, Harry thought it was somewhat forced but of course kept his thoughts to himself.

'I won't.'

Harry followed Ron up the stairs to the dormitory. They dumped their bags on the floor, Harry collapsed onto his bed and Ron rummaged in his trunk for his other set of school robes. He changed in a matter of seconds leaving his dirty ones in a heap at the bottom of his bed.

Hermione had done the same as Ron and changed her robes for her clean ones. She spun round to pick her bag off the floor and suddenly felt very dizzy; she grabbed onto her bedpost and swayed dangerously even though she was trying her hardest to steady herself. A second later she had fallen to the ground, her eyes rolling to the back of her head and her body not moving. She was unconscious.

Harry was led on his bed contemplating the homework he had been given that day. He decided he would tackle his Defence Against the Dark Arts essay, as it seemed to be the most interesting of the work he had been set. He was brought back from his decision-making by a loud thud.

'Ron?' he asked.

He sat up and looked at the body of his best friend, crumpled in a heap on the floor.

'Oh crap!'