They told Poppy, Ron and Hermione first.

And all three of them were fucking insufferable.

Ron had snorted and said. "Fred and George owe me ten galleons!"

"What?" Cassia had asked. "You guys were betting on-?"

"Yeah, they guessed seventh year but I said sixth-"

"Oh, shut the fuck u-"

And then there was Hermione, who grinned and said she was so happy for them, but also had an I-knew-it tone of voice.

But the worst by far was Poppy.

She had squealed so loud and high that Cassia thought her ears would implode, and then she'd hugged Cassia and Harry so tight their circulation cut off.

"Ahhhh! I knew it!" She grinned. "Cass, this is amazing! Harry, good luck to you-"

And Harry was laughing and Poppy was grinning and asking who they were going to tell and... it just made Cassia feel worse.

Because she was betraying Poppy, as well. It wasn't just Harry.

However, by the time she and Poppy were walking along the corridor to get to potions, she felt a bit more normal. Harry and Ron didn't take potions, and Hermione was meeting them there, so it was just their little moment.

It felt crazy to Cassia that things like classes could exist. Between Harry and all that, and the stuff with Draco and everything, she hadn't really remembered anything like school.

But it was a welcome break.

And for the first time in five years, she didn't feel sour walking into potions, because she knew Snape wasn't teaching it.

For their first lesson, Slughorn had brewed four different potions, and was just explaining to the class what they were and what their effects were, then he was going to get them to brew a potion of their own.

Looking around the group, Cassia saw that the only two Slytherins there were Draco and Pansy, who weren't dating now, but might as well have been. Apart from them, it was just people of the other three houses, some seventh years thrown in there as well, so it was an alright class.

She sighed, tuning back into Slughorn.

"Attention to detail in the preparation is the prerequisite of all planning-"

He was just explaining how hard it was to prepare one of them when the door opened and in walked-

Cassia was both happy and annoyed.

And confused.

Why were Harry and Ron walking into potions?

"Ah!" Slughorn, however, was not phased. "Harry, m'boy, I was beginning to worry! We've brought someone with us, I see!"

Ron looked a bit confused before saying. "Ron Weasley, sir. But I'm dead awful at potions, a menace, actually, so, I'm probably just gonna-"

He tried to leave but Harry shoved him forward, Cassia smirked slightly (trying to feel like everything was normal).

"Nonsense, we'll sort you out!" Slughorn said quickly. "Any friend of Harry's is a friend of mine!"

Cassia sighed, sharing a look with Poppy before she heard a sigh behind her. She frowned, turning to see Lavender Brown, looking dreamily towards Harry.

She hadn't anticipated how jealous she would be over this. Sure, she knew all the girls at Hogwarts were mooning over Harry now he was The Chosen One but she hadn't thought she'd be so-

"Idiot," Poppy nudged Cassia, whispering in her ear. "She's not staring at your man."

Cassia rolled her eyes as she followed Lavender's eyeline, seeing that she, in fact, was not staring at Harry, and was instead staring at Ron.

Now, this made Cassia amused.

But she didn't have much time to think about that because next second Slughorn said. "Get your books out!"

"Er- the thing is, sorry sir, I haven't actually got my book yet, nor has Ron," Harry explained hesitantly.

"Not to worry, get what you want from the cupboard," Slughorn shrugged, turning back to the class. "Now, as I was saying, I prepared some concoctions this morning. Any ideas what these might be?"

Hermione's hand went straight up.

"Yes, Miss...?"

"Granger, sir," Hermione told him, walking up to the first cauldron. "That one there is veritaserum. It's a truth telling serum."

One that Umbitch used on students last year.

"And that would be polyjuice potion," Hermione said, moving on to the next cauldron. "It allows you to take on the form of someone else, but it's terribly tricky to make."

She went to the last cauldron, saying. "And this is amortentia, the most powerful love potion in the world. It's rumoured to smell differently to each person, according to what attracts them. For example I smell... freshly mown grass and... parchment, and... toothpaste."

She went rather red and stepped back into line, but Cassia stepped forward slightly, wanting a whiff of the potion.

And when she did, she smelled sweat from the quidditch pitch, that aftershave he carelessly applied that she loved, and the scents of both broomstick wax and his hair.

Harry Potter. No question.

But it just made her stomach squirm with more guilt. He was in love with her, and had admitted it. She was in love with him, and couldn't admit it. Because she was betraying him at the same time.

As Harry and Ron joined them, Slughorn continued. "Now, amortentia doesn't create actual love, that would be impossible, but it does create a powerful infatuation, or obsession," a group of girls, Lavender Brown included, stepped forward towards it. And again. "And for that reason... it is probably the most dangerous potion in this room."

He put the lid on it and all the girls seemed to return to their true selves, stepping back quickly.

"Er, sir," Katie Bell, a seventh year from the quidditch team, pointed out. "You haven't shown us what's in that one."

She was pointing to a tiny tiny vial, sitting in a metal stand, just over from the cauldrons. The vial was a small, cone shape, with a teeny amount of golden liquid inside it.

"Ah, yes," Slughorn smirked, leaning down and taking the vial out the stand. "Now, what you see before you, ladies and gentlemen, is a curious little potion called Felix Felicis. But it is more commonly referred to as-"

"Liquid luck," Hermione cut in.

"Yes, Miss Granger," Slughorn seemed surprised. "Liquid luck. Desperately tricky to make, disastrous should you get it wrong. One sip and you will find your that all of your endeavours succeed. At least until the effects wear off."

He grinned round the class. "So... this is what I offer each of you today. One tiny vial of liquid luck, to the student who, in the hour that remains, manages to brew an acceptable draught of living death, the recipe for which can be found on page ten of your books."

Cassia froze.

Because, unlike most people in this room, she knew what more than one person would want from this bottle.

But she didn't know what Harry would want.

Nor Poppy.

She knew Draco.

And if he got his hands on that bottle... she didn't know what she would do.

"I should point out, however, only once did a student manage to brew a potion of sufficient quality to claim this prize," Slughorn said. "Nevertheless, good luck to you all. Let the brewing commence!"

After getting ingredients and everything, Cassia ended up at a desk with Poppy, Harry, Hermione and Ron. She could almost feel Draco's eyes boring into her, but he couldn't expect her to be fucking attached to his hip, could he?

But Draco vanished from her mind as soon as she started on the potion, soon learning that a draught of living death was very hard to make.

It was a powerful sleeping spell, meant to resemble death but only last a day. However, it included a lot of ingredients and a lot of them were hard to work with. Their books (Advanced Potion Making) were very specific, but it didn't make the tasks any easier.

One of the first things they had to do was cut up a sopophorous bean to release its juice. However, the beans were very jumpy and hard to cut, and by the fifth time her bean jumped away from her, Cassia was sick of it.

"Fuck this!" She growled, slamming her knife down.

Harry, who was next to her, was smirking.

"Stop looking at me like that," Cassia snarled at him, looking down to see his bean pefectly-

"What?" She frowned, seeing his bean sort of- crushed, the juice flowing from it into a small glass that he transferred into his potion.

"You're cute when you're annoyed," Harry murmured. "But even cuter when you're confused."

Fucking butterflies-

"Stop it, how did you do that?" Cassia asked.

Harry smirked wider, sliding his book in between them.

Cassia frowned, leaning forward. Unlike her book, Harry's copy of Advanced Potion Making had been written over, and the sopophorous bean step changed.

𝐜𝐫𝐮𝐬𝐡 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐬𝐢𝐥𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐝𝐚𝐠𝐠𝐞𝐫
𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞𝐬 𝐣𝐮𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧 𝐜𝐮𝐭𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠

Cassia was smirking now, too, looking at Harry and taking her own bean and dagger, crushing it and transferring the juice to her cauldron. Her potion turned a light shade of lilac, the exact shade of Harry's, and the exact shade described in the book.

"Fucking incredible," she muttered. "How-"

"How did you do that?" Hermione, who was standing across from them at the table, asked somewhat angrily. She was getting very hot and bothered by now, wanting to uphold her reputation of being best in the class.

"Crush it, don't cut it," Harry answered.

Hermione scoffed. "No, the instructions specifically say to cut!"

"No, really," Harry was practically grinning by now.

Across the classroom, things didn't go much better. Someone's ladle had been melted out of shape, and Seamus had added something that made his potion blow up, causing his face to go black and his hair to spike up.

Harry and Cassia, however, seemed to be the only two managing.

Cassia was trying not to be as good as Harry, however, and she was doing it deliberately. She didn't want to win the felix felicis, she just needed to keep Draco away from it. And by the way Harry was going, that was as good as done.

And sure enough, by the time Slughorn travelled round everyone's potion with leaves, trying to see if one would make one wither and die, she was feeling quite confident in her boyfriend.

Shit. She was really getting into this, but it just made her absolutely heartbroken. She was betraying him, and she was a fucking terrible person.

The leaf that went into Poppy's potion turned yellow. The one in Ron's stayed the same. The one in Hermione's split in half, but stayed green. The girl was absolutely fuming, her hair even more bushy than usual, her whole entity angry.

Slughorn wasn't expecting much by the time he came to Cassia.

But as he popped the leaf into her potion and it turned brown, shrivelling slightly, he let out a gasp of glee.

"Amazing, Miss-" he whooped, frowning as he looked at her, trying to deduce her name.

"Malfoy, sir," Cassia said. "Cassia Malfoy."

Slughorn let out another gasp. "It's amazing! You're the closest yet, Miss Malfoy! And it's just Harry here to go!"

Harry's, however, surpassed them all. The leaf in his turned a dull grey, closing right up and sinking to the bottom.

"Merlin's beard! It's perfect!" Slughorn raved. "So perfect I daresay one drop would kill us all! I'm sorry, Miss Malfoy, but Harry is the clear winner here!"

"That's fine, sir," Cassia said, a careful smile on her face.

She didn't look at Draco. But, as previously mentioned, she could feel his eyes on her. And she could guess what emotion he was feeling.

However, she couldn't help but smirk slightly as she stood next to Poppy at the end of class, watching Harry get his prize.

"So here we are then, as promised," Slughorn said, handing Harry the lucky potion. "One vial of Felix Felicis, congratulations! Use it well."

Cassia was smiling gently as everyone clapped, making sure she was out of sight of Draco. Harry held it up, grinning straight at her as he faced the class, his copy of Advanced Potion Making (and all its helpful tips) hid safely behind his back.

❦︎❦︎❦︎

That afternoon, Harry and Cassia were sitting side by side on the sofa before the fire in the packed Gryffindor common room, their intertwined hands hidden carefully. Ron, Hermione and Poppy were all in the library, but Harry and Cassia had decided to just cut homework and do it later.

They were just talking about everything and nothing, but it was a fun experience nonetheless.

"Hermione was mad as hell today," Cassia giggled slightly. "Just cause your book was helpful."

"Yeah," Harry grinned. "Did I tell you? In the front of it it said 'this book is property of the Half Blood Prince'."

"Oh, yeah? That your new title, Potter?" Cassia raised her eyebrows, smirking. "Is being the Chosen One not enough for y-?"

"Hey!" Harry said, using his spare hand to poke her in the side. "And no, funnily enough, it's written into the book in the same handwriting that all the other tips are in."

Cassia shrugged, smiling. "Whatever works. So, what? You're trying to figure out who the Half Blood Prince is? They'll be long gone from Hogwarts by now."

"Yeah, but... it'd be nice to know who he was," Harry shrugged. "Just- ouch!"

Cassia had cuffed him over the head. "Don't think I didn't notice that!" She told him. "You're assuming they're a man, aren't you?"

"It says prince, Cass," Harry told her.

"Yeah, but Prince could've been her last name," Cassia told him. "What matters is, you don't know anything about them."

Harry rolled his eyes. "Yeah, but I-"

"Harry?"

A small, timid voice had sounded, making Cassia quickly disconnect her hand from Harry's as Nigel, a small fourth year who'd been in the DA last year, came hurrying up to them.

"Hey, Nigel," Cassia smiled at him.

"Um- I was asked to give you this," Nigel said awkwardly to Harry, handing him a small envelope. "Hi, Cassia."

"You alright?" Cassia asked, watching Harry open his letter.

"Yeah, doing good," Nigel smiled. "I have to go and see someone, though, so I have to go."

"See ya!" Cassia smiled, waving him off. As soon as he was out of earshot, Cassia turned to Harry. "I swear to fucking god if that's a love note-"

"Jealous, Cass?" Harry smirked up at her.

"No, I feel sorry for them," Cassia rolled her eyes, muttering under her breath. "They don't know how bad snogging you is..."

Harry gasped, laughing his head off. "You're kidding, right? We haven't-"

"I said 'snogging', you weirdo!" Cassia snapped. "Not 'shagging'!"

Harry grinned, opening the letter. When Cassia tried to peek at it, he said. "It's not a love note, by the way. It's from Dumbledore."

"Oh," Cassia frowned. "Why is Dumbledore sending you letters?"

"Did I not tell you?" Harry frowned. "I'm having private lessons with Dumbledore this year, he told me during the summer."

"What?" Cassia scoffed. "What's he teaching you?"

"I don't know, and I don't know who I'll be allowed to tell, either," Harry said. "He only mentioned Ron and Hermione..."

In a flash, Cassia was pulled back down to earth.

It had been nice, spending time and hanging out with Harry as though they were normal, and that she wasn't a traitor. But now, Cassia was remembering everything, including how she couldn't know what happened in these meetings because she couldn't let her family know.

"You shouldn't tell me," she said. "I'm happy to be kept in the dark."

Harry frowned. "But I don't want to keep you there, Cass. You're-"

"No, I'm fine," Cassia said, nodding towards the letter. "What's it say?"

"He wants to meet next week, Saturday," Harry answered. "Day before quidditch trials."

"Oh yeah, you're captain, aren't you?" Cassia grinned, teasing him. "Gonna give me my spot back?"

"I don't know, you'll have to earn it," shrugged Harry. "Convince me you deserve it."

"Shut up," Cassia said, giggling slightly. "You and I both know I fly rings around you on the pitch."

"Only cause that's what you're supposed to do-"

"And? I'm so much better-"

And even though they were arguing, even though they were doing what they'd always done, Cassia felt herself fall more and more in love with him.

And also fall more and more in hate with herself.