The Prank

March had passed, and now with April upon them, Hermione was actually starting to have an effect on Ron and Harry. Her study schedules were pasted into each of their text books and they didn't complain nearly as often as usual when she dragged them to the library. They needed to do well this year to write their NEWTs. April the first dawned with Harry and Ron grumbling, wishing for Quidditch practice instead of a study session that evening.

For not being a morning person, Ron was fairly chipper, Harry noticed. Dean Thomas and Seamus Finnigan joined them and Hermione in the common room. Neville hurried to follow them as they left through the portrait. They all seemed rather anxious and preoccupied, and Harry felt like he was missing something.

'Do we…have a test today?' he asked Ron. The red-head seemed lost in thought, a faint smile on his face. He turned finally.

'Test? Not that I know of. Hermione?! Do we have a test?' he asked their friend, now sounding slightly panicked.

Hermione shook her head, refusing, it seemed, to look at Harry.

'Not until next week, in Transfiguration.'

Harry relaxed, but he knew something was going on. He just couldn't quite place it. Even Neville seemed more nervous than usual, and Dean and Seamus were talking quietly together with huge grins plastered on their faces. As they approached the Great Hall, Hermione finally huffed loudly and tossed her hair over her shoulder, walking past them to Gryffindor table.

'Wonder what's with her,' Ron said, scowling. Harry shrugged as they moved towards the table. Hermione saw them approach and glowered, moving further down the table. Neville turned rather pink and Seamus and Dean's grins grew. Ron looked mildly pleased. Harry sighed. He was now sure there was some sort of tension between Ron and Hermione that was causing them to act this way. Perhaps Dean, Seamus and Neville had witnessed it while he was meeting with Dumbledore one evening. Yes, that would explain it.

Students and staff were now trickling into the hall as food appeared on the table. Ron, Hermione and Harry's first class was double Potions. It made Harry feel rather ill. Slughorn had been captured by Death Eaters in late August and Snape had moved back to his previous post as Potions professor, with Dumbledore filling in until a Defence Against the Dark Arts professor could be secured. Even with April dawning, the post had yet to be filled.

Loading up on scrambled eggs and toast, Harry poured himself a generous goblet of pumpkin juice. He would need all the strength he could get for his first class. Snape had been merciless in his teaching and Harry had reluctantly retrieved his sixth year text book from the Room of Requirement. He copied down all the suggestions he could, to apply to other potions and even went so far as to check out books on potions basics from the library. He maintained an adequate mark in Potions, but that was as long as he paid strict attention and never let his attention waver. And with recent nightmares and visions and more and more news pouring in about Death Eater activity, Harry had more than enough to distract himself during class. It took all his willpower to make it through a Potions class.

Ron leaned over the table with a smirk.

'Guess what?'

Harry tipped his head, his mouth full of scrambled eggs, to show his interest.

'Remember this from Slughorn's class last year?'

He brought out a small phial of a shimmering liquid.

'Amortentia,' Harry blurted, blowing a few bits of egg back onto his plate. Ron's smirk grew as he nodded.

'You aren't going to use that?' Harry asked, alarmed. Wasn't that the most powerful love potion in the world?

'Why not?' Ron asked, his expression clouding with dismay. 'Seamus, Dean and I worked hard on it. It's ours to use!'

Harry rolled his eyes at his impetuous friend.

'You really want someone to fall in love with you because of a potion?'

'No,' Ron said dreamily, turning the phial over and over, watching the potion glob down to the opposite end, over and over. 'It affects you based on the first person you see after you take it. It's real dangerous, Harry.'

Harry lowered his fork, feeling suddenly very uneasy. Was this the Ron he knew?

'Then why did you make it? Why don't they have any?' he asked, gesturing over to Seamus and Dean who were sniggering loudly a few seats further down the table. Neville was pushing his eggs around his plate with his fork, staring at them, his face rather red.

Ron shrugged.

'They both have girlfriends. They didn't want any.'

Harry shook his head in puzzlement, digging back into his meal with fervour; they only had a few minutes left before class. He saw Ron reach for him across the table in his peripheral vision, and looked up. Ron flushed slightly pink, but looked rather smug.

'What?' Harry asked, now feeling incredibly confused. He looked down the table at Hermione. She was staring at them and looked rather upset. She slammed her hands down on the table and stood, marching angrily out of the Great Hall.

'And what's with her!' Harry cried, his frustration with his friends today growing. He sighed and took a deep drink from his pumpkin juice, feeling like he should perhaps do the same and leave before he exploded something. Or someone.

As he drank, he noticed a gentle tingle go down his throat and settle in his stomach. A surging warmth spread to all his limbs and a pins and needles sensation started in his hands and feet. He finished draining his goblet, but held it to his face, staring into the cup.

'Ron,' he said in a cold and deadly voice, 'did you put that stuff in my juice?'

He heard his friend shift uncomfortably across the table.

'RON!' he bellowed, launching to his feet, his eyes slammed shut. He threw the goblet across the table as hard as he could.

'Oi!' his friend cried, as he dove for cover. Seamus and Dean burst into roaring laughter. Harry growled, his eyes still shut hard. Now what was he going to do? The tingling continued in his limbs, even when he tried to shake it off. Obviously from the damn potion.

'Here, mate, I'll take you to Potions,' Ron muttered, having come up beside him.

'Oh? And why should I trust you after what you just did!' Harry yelled. He could feel eyes all over the Great Hall turning on him.

'They told me it'd be funny,' he said as he took Harry's arm and steered him towards the exit. They obviously meant Dean and Seamus. Harry sighed exasperatedly and let Ron lead him. He knew they were almost out when he heard Draco Malfoy's cackling laughter.

'The stupid leading the blind!' he cried with glee. 'I wouldn't trust Weasel like that, if I were you, Potter.'

The journey down to the dungeons was challenging, due to the great amount of stairs. When they reached their destination and entered the classroom, he heard Hermione gasp.

'Oh, Ron, you didn't.'

'What, you knew he was going to do that?' Harry exploded. 'And you didn't stop him?!'

He heard Hermione's sigh.

'Harry, he made me promise.'

Ron led Harry to a seat beside her and let him flop into his chair.

'So who's going to ask Snape for an antidote?' he wondered aloud. 'Because it isn't going to be me. I didn't get myself into this mess, you did,' he told them accusingly. This wasn't what he was supposed to be dealing with right now. Not with the impending NEWTs, and Voldemort, and Death Eaters, and everything else going on.

He heard his friends whispering as more students entered the classroom.

'So?' he said loudly. His eyes hurt from being clenched shut for so long. But he couldn't risk opening them. He heard Hermione grumble, but she didn't say anything to him.

'It'll be alright, mate,' Ron told him from the other side of Hermione. 'It wears off in a little under an hour.'

'How,' Harry ground out, 'am I supposed to do my Potions assignment with my eyes shut?'

His question was met with silence from his friends. The rustle of students finding desks was interrupted by the snapping sound of someone's robes.

Great, Snape's here, Harry thought sarcastically. To him, it seemed like suicide to ask the surly Potions master for an antidote to a love potion, but he had no other choice. He was determined to do well in Potions and having to keep his eyes clenched shut for the next hour wasn't going to help him.

He struggled to get out of his desk to go ask before class started, but he tripped on his robes and sprawled to the dungeon floor. His face turned to the floor, he opened his eyes for a moment, taking a deep breath. He heard snickers across the classroom and his cheeks burned.

'Mr Potter, I will ask you only once today to stay in your desk properly,' he heard Snape's silky voice from above him. He closed his eyes again and pushed himself to his feet.

'Sorry, sir,' he mumbled, putting his hands out to find his desk. His face with flushed with embarrassment. Now, he knew he couldn't ask. It would be too mortifying.

He felt hands on his shoulders as Snape spun him around. Harry's eyes flew open in surprise.

'Mr Potter, why in the name of Merlin are you bumbling about like a fool?'

Snape was speaking, but Harry didn't hear him. His face went from flushed to a bright red. Snape stopped speaking and saw the look of utter terror in Harry's eyes and released him. The classroom was silent, so he easily heard Hermione's whispered 'oh my God'. Snape was overcome with a feeling of dread, like he had just made a very wrong move. Every student's eyes were locked on Harry and himself.

'Sit down, Mr Potter,' he said quietly. Harry gaped like a fish and moved away from him, but not to sit down as he had requested. The boy had collapsed in a dead faint.