Title: Call of the Siren
Summary: After a potion accident Hermione finds herself at the receiving end of a lot of male attention. But true love can never be found on the bottom of a cauldron.

Category: Romance
Rating: M
Disclaimer: I don't own these characters, and no copyright infringement is intended; not making any money, but they are fun to play with.

Warnings:

-I'm no native speaker...so please be kind...

-Limes Nothing too explicit but so you're warned. Don't like don't read.

-I'm ignoring the epilogue of book seven. Fred is alive.

A/N: I'm not sure why but every time I'm studying for my exams I get astonishing creative. Maybe my brain trys to escape the whole studying torture...anyway this is the result. It's just sugar sweet fluff with a bit of heartache but nothing too dramatic. So don't expect too much depth when it comes to the characters.

The story is complete and I will update once a week I think, that is if there's someone interested in it^^

Enjoy! And let me hear what you think.

For my lovely beta: Metalmuffin^^

CALL OF THE SIREN

Prologue: Accidents happen

It wasn't for the first time that Hermione Granger could understand Professor Snape's thin line of patience when it came to his students. Although she still loved her job, after six years of teaching potions at Hogwarts, even she could not deny that there were some lost cases.

Today seemed worse though. As every Thursday morning she was teaching the six year students -Gryffindor and Slytherin no less -about love potions. To say it was nerve-wracking to get a bunch of hormonal teenagers to pay attention would be an understatement. Especially the girls seemed more interested in dreaming about what they could do with the potion as in listening to her warnings. The boys on the other hand all glanced nervously between the girls and the cauldron beside her, as if they feared they would get drugged if they were not careful.

"Okay," she sighed and decided to get a little more practical maybe that would animate them to pay more attention to her lecture. "Now everybody line up please. No need to push, each of you will get the chance to scent the potion," she told her class and eyed the over-eager girls carefully.

"Who can tell me how Amortentia is supposed to smell?" None to surprisingly the arms of all girls were in the air. "Mr. Adams," she finally picked a Slytherin boy.

"The potion has no specific smell. It smells differently to different people according to what attracts them."

"Very good Mr. Adams. Five points to Slytherin!"

"Can anybody tell me an antidote for love potions?" This time she picked a Gryffindor and was glad that she could give her own house points, too.

Student by student the class stepped forward to take a sniff of the potion and more than once she was forced to drag someone away from the alluring scent. Hermione had no doubts that a few of them would have nicked a phial or two hadn't she stood next to them and watched carefully.

Had they been that bad too? She remembered Lavender and Parvarti and how the two of them wouldn't stop discussing what they could do with a love potion and the answer was possible yes.

"Okay, I think that is enough for now," she decided finally, as every one had had his chance and the dreamy looks on their faces started to worry her. Most of the class, even some of the boys now groaned unhappily but knew her better than to protest.

"There are a couple of other items which are described as aphrodisiacs or which could be used as such, depending on how they are applied. Who can give me an example for an aphrodisiac? One point for every correct answer."

"Miss Winter?"

"Amaryllis aureus. Though it is poisonous when used as a potion ingredient, its scent is supposed to be an aphrodisiac," the black haired girl told her.

"Very good Miss Winter," she nodded approvingly. "Mr. Davis?"

"The eggshells of some magical snake can be used in love potions."

"That's right. Can anybody tell me the name of the snake?"

"Ashwinder!" The Slytherin she called up answered correctly.

"I've prepared some for today among other things. Mr. Tenner would you please fetch the tray from the storeroom?"

"Yes, Professor!" The Gryffindor boy nodded and stood up to do as he was told, while Hermione questioned the class further. It was amazing how elaborate the knowledge of her students was on this field and it was a good thing, that the key indirgents for love and lust potions were stored separately and heavily warded.

"Mr. Warrington, can you-" That was as far as she got with her question before a startled yelp made her turn around only to see the Gryffindor she send to fetch the tray stumble. As if in slow motion she watched the ingredients fly through the air as if they had a life on their own. Horrified she noticed one of them falling into the cauldron with amortentia. Her battle trained reflexes made her jump infront of the caulderon and raise her wand to produce a shilding charm just in time to protect her class before the cauldron exploded with a loud bang. The last thing she noticed before she blacked out was that the air suddenly smelled of leather, ink and a warm summer breeze and she had the oddest taste in her mouth. Sweet and musky.

That couldn't be good.

Her head hurt like hell but Hermione took that as a good sign. What ever happened had not killed her at least. Groaning she tried to open her eyes. While she was still trying to adjust her eyesight she heard Madame Pompfrey somewhere beside her.

"Ah, Miss Granger welcome back! Now lay still so I can make a few tests."

Turning her head to the side she was confronted with the worried face of Minerva McGonagall and was slightly confused till Poppy's frame appeared next to her.

"What happened?" Hermione asked and winced at the throbbing pain in her head as she tried to sit up. "I mean I can remember the exploding cauldron but that was it. Are my students okay?" She asked worried while she allowed Poppy to examine her further.

"Thankfully you were able to raise a shield charm so the class was safe. Mr. Tenner was the only one who came into contact with the potion but because he fell forward, it only landed on his robes," the headmistress explained. "Thank Merlin for that!"

"You're sure everything is okay with him?"

"Given that the potion was of a bright purple pasty texture we would have noticed otherwise," Poppy told her briskly. "And now tell me, Miss Granger, have you any idea what interfered with the original potion?"

"The class told us you were discussing love potions and aphrodisiacs?" Minerva asked.

"Yes," Hermione nodded and tried again to sit up only to be pushed back. She greeted the nurse with an irritated glance which was ignored as usual.

"It was Amortentia." Both witches nodded so they obviously knew that much already. "I sent David Tenner to fetch the tray with aphrodisiacs from the storeroom. I didn't want to leave a class of sixteen year olds with a cauldron full of love potion." The hush of a smile which appeared on McGonagalls face made her feel slightly better. "He stumbled and some of the aphrodisiacs landed in the cauldron. It started to foam over and than it exploded."

"Do you know which aphrodisiacs where on the tray, Hermione?"

Her nod got an eased sigh out of the headmistress but she wasn't so optimistic yet and it did not get better when the older witch told her which ingredients they had found. If they hadn't missed something that meant two ingredients had reacted with the Amortentia and not only one as assumed before.

Cupitas purpurea, a plant which was usually used in fertility potions and...Siren hair. Something that was not usually used in potions but there were a lot of myths she had found interesting and thus she wanted to discus it with her class.

"Hermione?"

"Cupitas purpurea and Siren hair."

"What?"

"That are the two things you didn't list, but they were on the tray."

"Have you any idea what a mix of those ingredients and Amortentia could cause?"

"Unfortunately no! Cupitas is used in fertility potions and probably explains the purple color." Those two probably would not interfere with each other. She guessed the Amortentia would only help to assure the intercourse would happen. The Sirens hair though was a problem.

"According to old myths Sirens hair will make the wizard you want, fall in love with you if you put it under his pillow. But there are also a couple of other theories."

"Poppy?" The headmistress asked.

The nurse regarded her with a last striking glance before she sighed and shook her head while she put her wand away.

"I can't find anything unusual. How are you feeling Miss Granger?"

"Fine apart from a nasty headache."

"Well you bumped your head pretty hard on your desk but you should be fine with a simple pain potion." She grasped a little bottle from the low desk beside her and handed it over to her. "Here take that. I will keep you here for a few days till we know more. If you feel anything unusual tell me immediately."

Hermione wanted to protest but she knew that the nurse was probably right and nobody in their right mind wanted to pick up a fight with Poppy. Regardless of their age.

She was just about to agree when the door to the infirmary opened and a slightly distressed Oliver Wood walked in with a first year from Ravenclaw. The fact that the student was a girl and was crying big crocodile tears obviously got him railed up and he tried to sooth the girl as good as he could.

"No need to cry, lass," the former Puddlemore player told her nearly pleadingly. "Poppy will heal your wrist in no time!" Hermione wanted to laugh at the desperate look in his eyes but remained silent for the girls sake.

"What happened?" The school matron demanded and headed towards her new target.

"She fell from her broom and landed on her wrist. I think it's broken."

"Dry your tears, dear. Come over here and let me take a look." Poppy's usually sharp voice was softer now that she realized the distres the first year was in.

Oliver looked so relieved to be freed of the crying girl that Hermione couldn't help but laugh.

"And another man brought to his knees by a crying girl," she teased him and thought of Harry who turned into a wrack every time little Lily started to cry. The man faced Voldemort and probably would prefer to do so again before he had to deal with his crying baby girl.

Hermione was so engrossed in her thoughts that she did not notice the way Oliver was suddenly straightening his back nor did she register the glassy look in his eyes as he looked at her. It was not before he headed straight towards her that she wondered if anything was wrong.

"Oli?" Hermione asked him unsure but that only seemed to quicken his steps. Before she could even open her mouth to ask him what was going on his lips where on hers. The kiss was hot, passionate and demanding.

It was nothing like she thought Oliver Wood's kisses would be. Not that she ever thought about it, well at least not in a very long time.

Fact was, that she always took him for the gentle and soft type. Obviously she had been wrong and she couldn't say that she minded one bit. She even caught herself giving in to the kiss and as his tongue demanded entry, she willingly opened her mouth. A second later she found herself in a toe-curling kiss that send a pleasurable shudder down her spine.

Merlin, the man certainly knew how to kiss.

It wasn't until she heard Minerva's shrill voice that she was reminded where she was and why she was here.

Suddenly the kiss felt only half as good as it did before.

Of course why would he kiss her, if not because of some stupid potion accident?

TBC