Chapter Seventeen: The Stolen Potion

Evelyn

...

   That night, tired I was, my mind could no longer think when my body met my precious bed. But the next morning, the thoughts of why did I even end up that way crashed into my head.

   I ended up asking him about his loving relationship with his father. Which was not supposed to happen. I was trying hard not to analyze it too much, but anytime I thought about it further, the more I could not understand the final result. For all the worthy things I found out were the things I already knew, other than that Draco's attempts were not being successful.

   Five pathetic hours I spent in that alcoholic room, ended up for nothing.

   The thought I was avoiding to pay attention to, was that I got carried away __ by emotional means. I mean, the lack of love in Voldemort's family would not help at all, would it? And neither would the way I understood Mattheo.

   Enemies or not, I found Mattheo's life similar to my own pathetic one. A father who did not love him, and a father who was using him as his puppet. Sirius, and Dumbledore.

   We were both puppets, I thought, each from the other sides of the war.

   We were the same, if you looked at it that way. But we were so much different at the same time.

   On the morning, two days before Christmas, Professor McGonagall was checking the names of the students who wanted to stay at the castle for the holidays.

   We all signed our names down, only except Blaise.

   I did because I did not quite miss my father, and nothing about Christmas in Grimmauld Place, probably with the Weasleys, would be pleasing for me. And plus that, I was on this mission, and anyway, I was supposed to stay at Mattheo's side.

   Theo, Mattheo, Pansy, Lorenzo, and Draco; all stayed for different reasons. Pansy because she wanted to stay with Theo, and the rest because they had Death Eater things to do ___ I think it was because their parents had abandoned them for Christmas, though. And definitely, the bunch of family issues they had were effective, too.

   Christmas itself had not had much interest for me, but Hogwarts' Christmas was my favorite part of the year. The corridors would become empty, the common room would not be too crowded, the library would not be full; the beautiful silence and peace would take all over the castle.

   It was all pleasant that way, until I would get reminded of my child-self, running around the empty corridors, until Professor McGonagall would carry me to her office, letting me sleep there because she thought Dumbledore was too busy to look after me properly.

   Every time I remembered the feeling, my throat would weigh sickly.

   So I decided not to remember it anymore.

   With Pansy already gone with the rest of the gang, I took a satisfied breath in my aloneness in our room, preparing myself for the first night of Christmas.

   Seeing I had no present for Pansy and nor anyone else, I decided to give them something rather amusing than useful, because I knew they all would prefer it that way. There I knelt down in front of my drawer, my hands reaching under it to pull out the invisible trunk, on which I had cast the Disillusionment charm and had been re-doing the spell every day to prevent its effects from wearing off.

   Blindly, I unlocked the narrow, rectangular trunk and left its door open; I carefully pulled the single handle up, and a big shelf of a dozen potions appeared in the middle of the room. I ran my fingers over the different potion bottles, from poisons to antidotes, looking for the one I had in mind.

   And then I froze in place, my hand stopping halfway over the potions.

   One of my potions was gone. A poisonous one.

   Whoever had stolen it was wise enough to shift the potion bottles so that the empty space would be filled, but definitely was not wise enough for thinking I would not notice.

   The potion bottle gone was a poison I came up with as practice, which was my own discovery and you could find it nowhere else, but I think the hand-written title on it saying "Poisonous" had given it away to the dumb thief.

   But who would our thief be, I had no clue of. The only thing I was sure of, was that it happened to be someone close to me, and a Slytherin, because no one else knew about the invisible trunk under my drawer.

   Pansy, Theo, Mattheo, Draco, Enzo and Blaise.

   They were the only people who knew about my shelf of potions.

   With Pansy already out, because she was no Death Eater and she had nothing to do with a poison, and Theo being not likely, I thought. But between the others, I had no idea which could be.

   And neither was I going to find it out only by pondering. So, with that, attempted to push the worthless thoughts away.

   But then I remembered Draco was missing from Theo's birthday. And since the evening that day, when I picked the Sleeping Draught for Theo, I had not checked the trunk any more.

   We sat in the common room at ten o'clock after the Christmas feast. Me, Pansy, Theo, and Mattheo, at a close distance, sitting next to me on the couch.

   The only reason I accepted to come was that all four of them promised me there would be no alcohol. And I wanted to question them about the missing potion.

   Pansy was tangled up with Theo on the couch, both ridiculously wearing matching Santa hats, while Mattheo was lounging on the couch next to me, looking normally odd.

   "Time for the presents," Theo spoke up. "This is for you." He handed me a wrapped-up package with a grin.

   I gazed down at the emerald-green packaging in my hand. "Before I open it," I went on. "How do you sneak in and out of Hogwarts so easily?"

   Theo smirked, and Mattheo did the same.

   "We Apparate," Theo said proudly.

   "Before that." I narrowed my eyes, knowing no one could Apparate inside of Hogwarts' grounds.

   "We go into the Forbidden Forest. We can Apparate from there," Mattheo jumped in.

   That was what I had guessed.

   "Underage students Apparating is a question itself," I pointed out darkly, my eyebrows raised.

   "If you had a noseless creature as a father, you'd need to Apparate, too," Mattheo said sarcastically, a bitter chuckle coming after.

   Theo's mouth curved into a muffled smirk. But Pansy's expression remained as blank as mine.

   Mattheo gave me a soft glance, which only I received. "He's training us like his pets." He rolled his eyes at the wall in front of him. "What should I say?"

   "So he taught you how to Apparate?" I asked, insensitively.

   "Got a Death Eater to teach us." Mattheo nodded. "Open your present now."

   I looked down at the packaging on my lap when he pointed at it, beginning to unwrap it patiently. Under the wrapping was a dark, leather-covered, ancient book inside, with the title "Confidential Secrets of Potion-making" engraved upon it.

   I had never even heard of such a thing, as someone who had read all the books related to potions in the Wizarding world. So, I assumed, it must have been a forbidden book. "Where did you get this from?" I asked Theo.

   "Borgin and Burkes," he said. "Knockturn alley."

   I nodded, my eyebrows twisting.

   It was a very interesting present for me, honestly.

   "I've got chocolates for you," Pansy told me. "Which is probably gonna be eaten by myself." Chuckling, she handed a Christmas-themed chocolate box over to me.

   "My turn," Mattheo stated, reaching into his pocket. He pulled a tiny, jewelry package out of his pocket, holding it in front of me. I took it and opened the box curiously.

   It was a silver necklace inside, which I lifted into the air. A heart-shaped locket was hanging from the thin chain with twisted patterns beautifully scribbled on it. It was fascinating, which I did not want to admit.

   "May I?" Mattheo had stretched his hand out to take the necklace. Inspecting the still-odd look of adoration on his face, I let the chain fall onto his palm.

   He unlocked the necklace, gently wrapping it around my neck. I was stunned before the cold chain hit my skin; I pulled my puffy hair out of the way so he could set the necklace hanging around my neck.

   Mattheo grinned. "Looks so damn pretty on you."

   I swallowed, feeling the heart-shaped locket over my chest with my fingers. My eyes locked with his then, and again I felt the weird desire to discover more of him. But the deepness of his glance was too heavy on me; so I looked away. "I do not have any presents for you," I spoke to all of them, changing the awkward air. "However, I have something I thought might be interesting to you."

   I pulled a small potion bottle out of my bag, filled with a bright pink liquid, and held it up on display.

  "What is it?" Pansy asked with a skeptical look.

   "Amortentia," I confirmed.

   Her eyes widened in enthusiasm, jumping out of Theo's arms to grab the small bottle from my hand.

   "But I have weakened it," I said.

   Pansy's expression dropped into a frown, the bottle in her hand lowering. "Why?"

   "For more safety."

   Theo chuckled, and Mattheo grinned.

   Pansy pulled the stopper off and sniffed the potion, a grin spreading over her face.

   "What do you smell, Bella?" Theo asked playfully, a naughty smirk on his face.

   "You, idiot." Pansy giggled. "This perfect cologne of yours __" she inhaled deeper, "__ smoke... and how your hair smells like soap when you get out of the shower."

   Theodore's smirk only deepened in amusement. "Give it to me." Pansy handed the potion to Theo, and he brought the bottle under his nose to inhale.

   Mattheo was watching them like a baby child looking at his parents, while I was thinking about how ridiculously pathetic this was getting.

   "Beautiful girl," Theo said with another satisfied inhale of the potion. "Your perfume, smoke, and ___ Wait. Is it clothes?" He chuckled. "Yeah, it is."

   Pansy giggled insufferably. "Enough," she said with a smirk, taking the potion from Theo, and, unexpectedly, holding it in front of me. "What do you smell?"

   I was not expecting to be wanted to smell Amortentia, nor did I ever even think about the idea of doing it. That was probably the reason I was startled, as if she had asked me to drink the potion. But when I stared up at her, I wondered if she was doubting that I would actually smell Mattheo, my boyfriend, in the potion. Because I knew I would not.

   "Eve! No big deal! Why are you scared?" She raised her eyebrows sternly.

   My eyelids drooping, I grabbed the bottle and brought it to my nose, inhaling the smell cautiously. In an instant, the smell of books and boiling potions filled my nostrils, with fresh rain at the end. Not that I expected anything different.

   I opened my mouth to voice what I smelled, but then my eyes lay on Mattheo, who was watching me.

   For Merlin's sake.

   I was being expected to smell Mattheo, for I was dating him, and they thought I liked him. What they did not know, was that they were letting a spy under their roof.

   "Well? What do you smell?" Pansy asked impatiently.

   "I smell Mattheo," I lied. "Do I have to tell you specifically?"

   "Yes, you have. What does he smell like?" She put her hands on her hips sternly.

   "Cigarettes. Alcohol, and a musky cologne." I snorted, withdrawing the potion bottle from my nose. I stoppered the bottle, handing It back to Pansy. "Merry Christmas."

   Pansy grabbed the bottle from my hand, dropping herself back on the couch next to Theo grumpily.

   "Speaking of potions," I went on. "One of my potions is stolen."

   I scanned them all in a glimpse. Mattheo frowned, his expression pulling together; Theodore's    eyebrows increased with the corner of his mouth twisting; and Pansy's confused frown turned into a smirk.

   None seemed to know anything.

   Pansy snorted a chuckle. "Are you sure you're not being delusional? I mean, why would someone__"

   I narrowed my eyes at her darkly, which made her trail off. "I didn't steal your potion!" she exclaimed.

   "I never said you did. But one of you definitely has." My eyebrows went up.

   "Why the hell would you think we would steal your potion?" Theo spat out.

   I held my chin up. "I am going to have an eye out for everyone who ever knew about my potions. And you are considered."

   "We would be absolutely unwise to touch your stuff, Princess." Mattheo smirked.

   I squinted my eyes at him. "What about Draco?"

   My confrontation brought a few seconds of sheer silence to the room, in which Mattheo's sullen side boiled to the surface. And then Theo answered, an unreadable expression on his face. "Could be. He's up to something new, and he's being hella secretive about it." Theo and Pansy exchanged sympathetic glances. "We don't even know what he's doing anymore."

   I think Dumbledore's noble plan got wrong in that part. Maybe he should have asked me to flirt with Draco instead of Mattheo.

   My focus got drawn to Mattheo, whose expression was tensed, and was distracting himself to the wall in front of him, certainly disturbed. But then Theo spoke again, "What potion was it, anyway?"

   "It was a poison I made for practice."

   His eyebrows jumped up.

   Pansy, next to him, her entire expression widened, then tensed, then she burst out into laughing. "Well, whoever stole it is going to be screwed."

   I shook my head wearily. "I hope for it to be before they screw someone."

   Her humorous expression fell.

   "How poisonous was it?" Mattheo asked intently, his eyes on me now.

   I frowned. "I have only tested it on herbs. Meaning, there is no way to find out what it could do with a living soul. But I do not think it is powerful enough to kill." My eyes scanned them all for the last time, gazing at them between my lashes.

   I did not know Legilimency, but I could tell none of them were guilty of this. However, my suspicion was not going to fade away until I had found the actual thief.