Love Potions and Payback (OPEN)

ATTENTION::

Hunter was really getting tired of Phineas Button. The little git had caused him more trouble in the past week than he should have been able to get away with. He'd forced him into the most awkward situation with Aoife - though thanks to her naivety it wasn't so awkward - and caused him major problems with his girlfriend. And Hunter wasn't about to let that go. But with Phin put aside, Aoife and Seren weren't entirely innocent in the whole ordeal either. Aoife had actually told Seren that Hunter had cheated on her - which hadn't happened in the slightest. And Seren had taken the liberty of believing her. Hunter had finally gotten her to talk to him again a few days after the incident.

And now that things seemed to be back to normal between Hunter and both of the girls, he figured a bit of revenge was in order. Just for their contribution to his completely undeserved humiliation. So, he brewed up the perfect plan. Literally. It had only taken a few days - it was an easy potion, really. And though he'd never made one before, because he'd never had a reason to, he was positive that he'd done it right. It was going to work. He'd even made sure to choose a tasteless one, because if it could be easily detected it would ruin everything.

Breakfast wouldn't be busy enough, and everyone would probably be out at Hogsmeade by dinnertime, so lunch was the easiest time to strike. Everyone involved would be there, and executing it would be a piece of cake. Hunter only just managed to keep the grin off of his face as he stepped into the great hall. He spotted Seren at the Ravenclaw table, but didn't go her way. Instead, he went to sit with Aoife. "Hey!" he said brightly, straddling the bench behind her and flashing her a grin. He went to grab food first, because that was the most inconspicuous thing to do. Then, he reached into his bag to pull out a bottle of butterbeer. Once he'd popped his, he reached in again to grab a second bottle and pushed it over to Aoife. "Here. Don't say I never gave you anything," he joked.

And then, he watched on carefully. There was no way that she wouldn't take it - Aoife never turned down butterbeer. Too bad for her, she didn't know that he'd spiked it with a love potion - one that would make her fall in love with Seren. It was easy, because he only needed a bit of hair from the target person, and he was with Seren all the time. Now, he just had to sit back and watch the show.

Aoife's life had been pretty uneventful recently. Since the closet incident, as she thought of it as. She always felt like that after these dramatic confrontations when all she had to do was scoop ice-cream. She was definitely born to be either a superhero or evil villain, who were constantly having adventures and doing cool stuff! Probably superhero. Gryffindors were meant to be the good guys, obviously. Saying that, she did seem to be getting into trouble and fun stuff almost all the time. One day she would have to write her autobiography, filled with adventures, which everyone in the wizarding world would buy. And then everyone would hate Seren for being the real life bad guy. Awesome.

Once she'd finished at work, she headed straight back up to the castle. She couldn't wait until Phin could go to Hogsmeade with her next year. It would be so much more fun with him! They could find somewhere awesome to set up camp and spread awesomeness around the place. But at the minute, she didn't really do much there except work. It wasn't worth staying and being bored.

Because her shift had been a morning one, she was back in time for lunch. Aoife immediately indulged in a bacon sandwich and was too distracted to pay attention to Hunter sitting next to her. That was, until he shoved butterbeer in her face. And of course, she couldn't ignore that. "Since when do you share butterbeer with me now that I can buy my own?" she smirked, but took the bottle anyway. She immediately took a huge swig.

And then her head felt a little bit cloudy, but that feeling was gone in a second. Suddenly she felt the overwhelming desire for... to see Seren. Beautiful, wonderful Seren. She turned to Hunter. "WHERE IS SEREN?" But she didn't have time to hear the answer because she spotted a head of pretty curly hair over at the other table. Without hesitation, she stood up on the bench, way taller than all those boring people sitting down. Seren couldn't miss her now. "I LOVE YOU SEREN!" she yelled. "DON'T WASTE TIME WITH THAT GIT HUNTER. LOVE ME INSTEAD."

Phin sighed as he went to the Great Hall. Things where ok, but not as good as they could be. His evil plot had failed on getting Hunter and Aoife together, and splitting up Seren and Hunter. Curse them. Curse the whole world! He had talked to Chad again, and he had absolutely been NO HELP at all about the situation. Apparently, love was supposed to happen naturally and NOT by force. Well... Phin was impatient. And he wanted it to happen NOW!

He made his way to the Great Hall for lunch after his little talk with Chad, and walked in on the most disturbing thing EVER. Aoife was practically yelling a crossed the room proclaiming her love for SEREN. of all people. SEREN. Phin knew how she felt about her, so this had to be done by force. He looked over to where she was sitting, and spotted the git. Hunter. He was obviously behind this somehow. Some sort of potion, or spell he didn't know which.

But he looked at the aloof look on Aoife's face as she proclaimed her love, and couldn't help but laugh. This was hilarious.

Seren had managed to give Hunter the silent treatment for several days before finally allowing him to explain his side of the story concerning the closet situation. And Seren was quite proud of herself for that, because Hunter was very difficult to ignore. Especially whenever he spend the whole time in which he was being ignored with OTHER GIRLS. Like Ariel, who was admittedly the most beautiful girl in the school. Which WASN'T FAIR. But she was nice, so Seren couldn't say anything. BUT SHE COULD STILL THINK IT.

Regardless, Seren and Hunter were back on their usual terms. Which was why it was a bit strange that he entered the great hall and didn't sit with Seren. Still, she hardly paid him any mind, as she was in a particularly good part in a good book. He was smart to avoid bothering her now. Of course, he went to sit with HER. But before long, Seren was completely engrossed in her novel once more.

Until she was RUDELY INTERRUPTED. Her head snapped up in surprise when Seren heard her name being shouted across the great hall. Of course, it was Sheep Freak. Seren was about to retort for her to keep her mouth shut, but was too shocked to respond when what Aoife was shouting registered. Seren looked around the great hall to find most everyone staring at her. And why shouldn't they? Aoife O'Donnel was standing up on a table in the midst of lunch PROFESSING HER LOVE for Seren!

"EXCUSE ME?!" Seren replied from where she sat, gaping at Aoife like she'd grown two heads. This had to be some sort of joke, and Seren felt a surge of irritation. Snapping her book closed, she crossed the short distance between the tables. Better to not have to shout and draw even MORE attention to herself. "Get DOWN from there!" she snapped irritably as she approached, giving Hunter a confused look. "Hunter, WHAT IS GOING ON?" Then, to Aoife, Seren said, "If this is your little way of trying to humiliate me, it ISN'T GOING TO WORK!" There. Joke over.

Why was it that - despite knowing Aoife as well as he did and for as long as he did - Hunter was never really fully prepared for the extreme nature of her reactions. In truth, he wasn't even prepared for how fast the potion kicked in. He was actually able to hold in his laughter slightly when she asked desperately where Seren was, but when she stood up on the bench beside him, he completely lost it. He exploded into laughter, unable to control himself. He glanced over at the Ravenclaw table to see Seren's reaction, and was happy to see the disgusted shock on her face.

When Seren came over to them, in what seemed like an effort to stop Aoife from making a scene, and asked him what was going on, he tried to pull himself together. "I don't - I don't know what - " he managed to say through short breaths, but it was useless. Because as Seren told Aoife to come down off the bench, he succumbed to the laughter again, and laying his head down between his arms on the table he was completely unable to stop. He wasn't sure he'd ever laughed so hard in his life, actually. He would never get the image out of his mind - Aoife standing up on the bench and shouting out her love for Seren across the crowded great hall, and meaning it. It was just too much.

Seren apparently seemed to think that it was a joke. Which it was, but not in the way she thought. It wasn't a joke of Aoife's, at least. "I don't think - " he started, trying incredibly hard to get the whole sentence out between heaves. "I don't think she's - don't think she's joking," he choked out, his head still on the table. Taking a deep breath that did no good at all, he angled his head so that he was looking at the girls rather than at the boring wood of the table. He was thoroughly convinced at this point that he was a genius. Maybe he always had been and he'd just never known his full potential before. He was vaguely aware of others laughing around him, and was pretty sure he distinctly heard Phin, but he ignored it. This moment was too good for Phin to ruin.

What sort of reaction was that? Excuse me? It must have taken Seren by shock when her one true love proclaimed her love to her. Or maybe she just hadn’t heard properly. Then she told her to get down. Aoife was pleased. It meant that Seren couldn’t bear to be apart from her any longer and was desperate that they be together, but didn’t want to climb on the bench herself. She beamed and jumped off the bench. She was the slightest bit disheartened when Seren talked to Thor again, but brushed it off because the only one Seren loved was her. Definitely. And vice versa. And then she was talking to the bluehead, like she should.

“Humiliate you?” She was confused. Why would she try and humiliate the love of her life? “But I love you! I wouldn’t do that! I thought you would be happy! We can be together! Forever! Isn’t that what you’ve always wanted?” It must have been. After all, they were both so beautiful and clever and amazing and perfect, so they were a perfect match! Why on earth would Seren choose anyone else over her? Or be under the terrible impression that this was a joke?

Maybe she would have gone on more about how totally serious she was about this relationship, but Seren just smelled too nice. “Seren, you smell like freshly cut grass,” she said drowsily. “Or maybe there’s sheep on the grass. Grass? What? I’m so silly!” Aoife giggled and fell forward on to Seren into a floppy, clingy hug. Suddenly she felt drowsy and sleepy. It must just be Seren’s beauty overwhelming her.

Seren was fairly certain that she'd never been so confused before in her life. Aoife was professing her love for her, which was surely a cruel joke of some sort and Thor seemed to be laughing so badly that he was completely unable to speak. Seren looked back and forth between the two of them a few times as Thor attempted to answer her. "Thor THIS ISN'T FUNNY STOP LAUGHING!" Finally, her IDIOT boyfriend managed to utter a complete sentence. "What are you talking about? Of COURSE she's not serious, she's only trying to..."

What? Why wasn't Aoife dropping it? And why did she seem so incredibly serious about the whole thing? She seemed utterly surprised that Seren had dared to accuse her of this being some sort of trick. And then she was saying she loved Seren again. "STOP SAYING THAT! It's really starting to freak me out," she snapped, her eyes wide with confusion."NO THAT IS NOT WHAT I WANT!" she retorted as Aoife pointed out that they could be together forever.

Seren's confusion was slowly turning into panic. She was quite plainly the butt of some kind of joke, but it was also quite plainly not what she had originally thought. "Grass? What are you... HEY!" As Aoife practically collapsed on top of Seren in what Seren could only explain as some sort of hug, Seren finally decided that there was something wrong with the other girl. Aoife O'Donnel was not THIS GOOD of an actress. Seren struggled to dislodge herself from the girl's grasp, but Aoife was practically clinging to her. "Let GO OF ME!" she exclaimed deperately.

There had to be some kind of explanation for this. If Aoife wasn't the one responsible for this, then who was? Seren made to give Thor another confused stare when it hit her. Thor was still laughing, and he didn't seem the slightest bit surprised by the situation. And Thor had gone to sit with Aoife instead of Seren, which was slightly unusual. Somehow, Thor was responsible for this. Still attempting to throw the bluehead off of her, Seren's eyes flashed angrily to her boyfriend. "Thor WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO?!"

Hunterr had thought he couldn't laugh any harder, but he was wrong. When Aoife started talking about Seren smelling like freshly cut grass and sheep and then gave her a huge hug, he was pretty sure that he was crying from laughing so hard. The look on Seren's face was priceless - the sight of Aoife clinging to Seren like her life depended on it was even more priceless. Why hadn't he learned how to take wizard-style pictures?! This was definitely a moment that he wanted to remember. He spent the next few moments trying to ingrain the image in his mind so that he wouldn't forget.

But then, Seren looked over at him again, and he could see the anger in her gaze - shit, she'd figured it out. Not that he was making much of an effort to remain anonymous. Even if he wanted to make an effort, it would have been hopeless. It was just too funny. And when Seren asked what he did, it took him a full minute longer to control his laughter long enough to even attempt to answer her.

"I don't know what you're talking about," he replied, a mock-innocent sound to his voice that Seren would probably read instantly. But he didn't want to come right out and admit what he'd done, mostly because he wasn't sure what happened when you told a person under the influence of a love potion that you'd actually slipped them a love potion - especially when that person was Aoife. "It isn't my fault that Aoife's randomly fallen in love with you - but if I had to make a really good educated guess, knowing absolutely nothing at all, I'd say it might take up to five hours for her to get over it."

In reality, Hunter was pretty sure that the potion was quite that potent. It was likely that it would only last another twenty minutes - thirty tops - but telling Seren that wouldn't make for a very interesting situation, would it? "Oh, and you might want to be a little nicer - wouldn't want to hurt her feelings, would you?"

Blake entered the Great Hall running a hand through his hair, which was slick with sweat after his own quidditch practice that morning. He had lost track of time which resulted in him being a bit late.

"What a pity I'm late," he muttered sarcastically to himself. It seemed like he might have missed an eventful start to lunch. Blake made his way over to the Gryffindor table where it seemed like Aoife was making an uproar again. What was new there? But he thought it was a bit odd that Hunter was beside her. As far as Blake knew he had made up with Seren, Blake did find it hard to keep up with his best friend's relationship though. Blake slyly glanced over his shoulder to see if Seren was present and indeed she was reading a book and didn't seem one bit bothered that her boyfriend was with Aoife. Blake sighed, he never had a hope of understanding girls.

As Blake got closer he made out what Aoife was shouting. Something about loving Seren. Blake just rolled his eyes and sat next to Hunter. What was the girl up to now? "Where's my butterbeer?" Blake complained to Hunter as he noticed Aoife had a bottle and was about to reach out and steal it as it seemed Aoife was busy with other matters and wouldn't miss it. But then, Aoife coodies Blake thought and retracted his hand.  

Blake was so hungry he just wanted to eat, but it was kind of hard to ignore the exchange between the two girls and the utter nonsense that Aoife was spouting. "What is wrong with her?" Blake finally couldn't ignore the fact that Aoife had seemed to have lost the plot altogether. He halfheartedly attempted to get Aoife to sit down, but he was too hungry to really bother. The girl was only embarrassing herself.

Blake's mouth dropped when he looked up from his plate of food and Aoife had now gone one step further and was hugging the girl. Blake forgot how to chew momentarily as he watched on. Seren finally got Aoife off of her and was now making her way over to their table. He did not want to be Hunter right now. Oddly enough Hunter was laughing away and seemed to find the whole encounter amusing. Blake really didn't have a clue what Hunter had done now, but he was sure he was about to find out.

Blake went back to eating his own food deciding it was best to let the love birds deal with whatever they had to deal with now. But when Hunter basically told Seren what he had done he started laughing and then immediately choking on his food which resulted in him coughing. When Blake finally got over his coughing fit he gave Hunter a sneaky grin. Okay maybe he shouldn't have made Aoife act all creepy and weird with Seren in principal but it was an EPIC idea and one that needed to be congratulated.Was he glad he hadn't taken any! Blake was pretty sure an awkward conversation was about to ensue after Hunter had told Seren to be nicer. Blake never had a girlfriend before, but he was pretty sure that wasn't how you talked to them. Especially when your girlfriend was Seren!

Phin laughed a little bit more, and wanted to know what was going on. He struggled a little bit to keep a straight face when going to confront the person he knew was in charge of making his best friend proclaim her love to the one person she hated.

He didn't think he would be confronting his worst enemy about what was going on. So, he just went on like they where old friends and said, " hey dude! What's going on? Why is she acting like that?"

He tried to keep a straight face. Did he seriously call the VanDerberg kid dude!? What was wrong with him? Then again, everything about this whole situation was out or character.

If Aoife was confessing her love for Seren, then he and the git Hunter could pretend like they where old friends. And then, he just bursted out laughing. He couldn't pretend this wasn't funny. It was brilliant. Better than the most brilliant prank, even better than ice cream!

Well, ice cream was pretty great, so it wasn't better than ice cream, but pretty brilliant. He said, "this was so awesome!"

It pained him to pay the kid a compliment, but this was pretty funny.

Aoife felt confused. She glanced at Thor to see if he understood Seren’s mood, but he was just laughing. Stupid. He probably found it hilarious that Seren wasn’t quite as enthusiastic about their true love as she was. But she refused to be annoyed or stressed about it! Her one true love was probably just not having a very good day. Sometimes those happened, and it was sad. If so, it was understandable that she wasn’t leaping into the bluehead’s arms.

“WHY DOES IT FREAK YOU OUT?” she asked, alarmed. “YOU LOVE ME! I LOVE YOU!” One day, they were going to get married and own a huge farm, mainly specialising in looking after disadvantaged sheep, and be in love. Forever. It would be awesome. “YES YOU DO!” That was exactly what Seren wanted! Then Aoife realised. “SEREN, MY LOVE. You must be under a spell! A spell to make you not love me! AND I KNOW WHO DID IT!” Her head snapped sideways to look accusingly at Thor, who had to be behind all this. Why on earth would he try to break up their relationship?!

Aw, Seren wasn’t a very good hugger. Or maybe it was just Hunter’s evil spell. But she found herself being thrown off onto her feet, stumbling a bit and clutching the table so that she didn’t fall over. Fortunately she managed to work it off by casually leaning on the table and giving Seren a nonchalant smile.