Potion Partners PV Haley Rose F

@Simon Kincaid

25 March, almost 40 days since her heart was broken. Almost 40 days since she recovered from that broken heart, an aching hand and many sleepless nights. Almost 40 days since she had barely see the boy she loved, the boy she wanted by her side for the last year and a half. Every encounter and every look hurt the centre of her body and so she was glad for every second she didn't meet Simon Ezra Kincaid, or worse Simon and AF. For almost 40 days this went well, only a few encounters and glances from afar, glances that could be quickly averted. Situations from which Haley could always quickly escape. Almost 40 days and now her life was playing tricks on her.

Potions, one of the class the Badgers and Lions had together. It had never bothered her before, but since the breakup she hated it. Every time, she knew she was in a room with the very person she least wanted to be with. Each time she sat down so that her gaze could not be on him and hoped that he would contribute as little as possible to the lesson. But each time at the same time she didn't let on, she was Haley Rose and she would get through this, she wouldn't let Simon see her weakness and most of all she wouldn't let on her broken heart.

Successfully she had made it through another lesson, head held high, gait proud, her mind on her lessons, little jokes with her friends. Things were progressing for her after almost 40 days, her heart was healing and it was getting easier with each passing. Despite all this, she was not ready for the game that her destiny had devised for her. Normally, class would end, she would have swarmed out into the corridors laughing and chatting with the other Gryffindors and successfully ignored Simon for the day. But not today, because today it was group work. While Haley was tidying up her stuff on the table in preparation for the partner work, the first couples were already coming together and more and more murmurs arose in the classroom, chairs moved across the floor, test tubes clinked together.

"WHOEVER IS LOOKING FOR NUMBER 12 OVER HERE! BEST WORKSTATION AND I'M SURE WE'LL BE THE BEST OF PARTNERS!"

Haley rolled her eyes as she realised it was Simon's voice echoing around the room. She looked up briefly in his direction but turned her attention back to her bag before dropping a quick glance at her piece of parchment. 7. Wait, 7. That meant she was the one looking for the number 12. Damn. That was the moment she realised the problem with this partner work. With all the incredibly many possibilities, fate decided to pair Haley with the one she least wanted it with. Simon.

"You've got to be kidding me." She said annoyed and looked from number 7 towards Simon. Her eyes wandered to the professor, but she knew she wouldn't ask for a swap. Firstly, she wouldn't want to explain why, secondly, she didn't want to draw attention to the subject and thirdly, she was Haley Rose and Haley Rose wouldn't let something like that get her down. She took a deep breath and exhaled, picked up her bag and went to the workstation where Simon was already waiting. She dropped her bag on the floor, naturally annoyed. She slapped her number 7 on the wood, her posture straight, her face expressionless. "Best workstation but never best of partners." She said dryly to Simon.

@Simon Kincaid

Haley heard the shattering glass of the vial that had just fallen from Simon's hand, but her gaze did not turn to the floor where the broken glass lay, but was still on him. It felt like an eternity since the two of them had been so close. Ever since she could look into his dark eyes, notice the individual features of his face, the dark hair and his smell in such detail. It was like a flashback, back to the times when the two of them were so close almost every day. But those times were gone and Haley shook herself awake from the trance because she couldn't dream in the past. She had to keep reminding herself how much he had hurt her.

"Yup. Damn." She replied to his words, louder than him. A point they probably agreed on. One of a few. "Shouldn't call it lucky." Haley said, slightly annoyed, without changing her expression. Simon would be able to see exactly how annoyed she was with this partner work. Of course she was, after all she was being forced to work with the boy who had broken her heart over another girl. The boy she had loved and probably still loved. But the only feeling she would allow was reluctance. She couldn't bring herself to forgive him or pretend that nothing had ever happened.

Haley tried to keep the conversation to a minimum and followed him across the room to the equipment without comment. The two of them started to gather the ingredients they needed until they suddenly reached for the same ingredient. His hand touched hers and while she tried to keep the contact as low as possible, the touch caused a shockwave to go through her body. It was as if time slowed down, everything moved in slow motion and they both froze for a moment. It was a familiar feeling, she immediately felt the coldness he radiated, but it had never been an unpleasant cold. Once again she was carried away by a wave that carried her into the past. To the past when everything was still good between them. Her eyes found his and for a moment she had forgotten everything that had happened, she saw Simon as she had known him half a year ago. It felt like half a year ago, for a small millisecond.

All this happened in a few seconds and quickly she pulled her arm back, averted her gaze and turned around her right shoulder. Without comment, the redhead went back to their workstation and placed all the things she had taken from the shelves. She waited for Simon to do the same, her gaze fixed stubbornly on the table in front of her. Tensely, she forced herself not to raise her eyes and so she looked through the book in front of her and went through the potion that the two of them had to brew.

@Simon Kincaid

As if the situation couldn't get any more difficult, it was now Simon who not only stepped incredibly close to her, which she also tried desperately to ignore, no, at the same time he grabbed her hair to brush it out of the way. What a familiar feeling, it was crazy how they hadn't spoken for almost 40 days now, had hardly seen each other, let alone had physical contact. And yet it seemed as if her body remembered immediately, as if it had been only yesterday. Still shocked and startled, she winced slightly, not reacting further to his actions or to his stammering.

She just tried to concentrate on the book in front of her, on that stupid book and that stupid potion and that stupid partner work. But all that flashed through her mind was the handsome boy standing next to her. His smell in her nose, his touch, which had happened several times now in this short time, and his beautiful brown eyes as he searched for her green ones. STOP IT HALEY ROSE! She would have liked to bang her head against the table, she was so annoyed by her thoughts. She shouldn't have thoughts like that, she should feel anger, he broke her heart. That's right, heartbroken. Those were the words she just had to repeat over and over in her head.
Heart broken. Heart broken. Heart yearned for hi- NO! Heart broken. While Haley was frantically dealing with her thoughts, trying to ignore Simon as best she could, she slipped in the line of the book and skipped one of the steps. She took the ingredient, prepared it and threw it into the wrong Cauldron. Neither of them noticed the mistakes they had made, which might not have been the first or the last.

Simon's stammering brought her back to the classroom for a brief moment. She looked up from the table and gave him a confused and somewhat annoyed look. Her look said: Spit it out, what do you want? But her mouth didn't move, she waited to see if he would say something or just stammer on.

With all the things Simon could say, and Haley knew him well, she knew he was trying his best. She knew he was trying to create some kind of basis between them and Haley also knew she wouldn't let him. But with all that going on, he decided to try Quidditch. Normally not a bad try, it was one of her passions and under other circumstances he would have really made it with it but not today. Haley scowled at him for a second, she didn't know if he was doing it on purpose or just didn't know. "We lost the last game." She replied emotionlessly and averted her eyes again.

Again she glanced at the book, again her mind wandered, but this time she managed to throw the right ingredient into the Cauldron, but instead of stirring three times right, she stirred three times left. There it was, the next mistake.

@Simon Kincaid

There was no situation Haley could think of that could be more akward than this. Why did she have to do this partner work with Simon, of all people? She didn't want to talk to him, but she didn't want to be silent with him either. She just wanted to be free of him, not be affected with his presence, after all, she wanted closure with all of this. She didn't want to think about him anymore, about what was once them. About the couple that everyone knew. About Simon and Haley. Because now it was Simon. It was Haley. But there was no and anymore. And while she was incredibly hurt, supposed to hate him, she missed that and. But she needed closure and this partnering only made everything harder.

She just stayed still in her seat, pretending to cut some ingredients, read something in the book. She did everything not to speak, look at him or get too close to him. She had to keep him at a distance, but it was more than difficult for her, because the Simon she knew and loved still existed inside her. It was as if the good Simon was fighting the bad one. One wanted to punch him in the nose again, the other just wanted to be embraced by him. The two were fighting so loudly that it was hardly possible to concentrate on anything else and so she stood there, trying not to give him a remark but her attention was too much on him in the corner of her eye.
She didn't know if he noticed, but she saw it very slightly in the corner of her eye. She saw his gaze as he lay on her and she wondered what he was thinking. What was going on in his head? How did he feel? Was he missing her? Was he thinking about AngelFyre? Was he already laughing inside about how much the two of them would laugh at Haley later? Did he love her? It was pure emotional chaos inside her and she forced herself to turn away a little so she wouldn't be able to see him even in the corner of her eye. She couldn't risk getting emotional here and now.

More minutes passed in silence, neither of them speaking until Simon called Haley over. "What?" she asked, a little frustrated, standing beside him again and looking tensely into the Caudron. Her eyebrows drew together; something wasn't right here. She glanced around the classroom briefly, most of them were finished and all of them looked different from the two of them. No, no, no. They couldn't afford to give away a wrong potion now.

While Simon tried to save the whole thing by stirring it, Haley frantically jumped over to the book and went through it all again, "Here!" she exclaimed excitedly, tapping on a line in the book that Simon couldn't have seen from his position. "We forgot the last step." She said and pushed the book towards Simon with a jerk and immediately set about preparing the last ingredient. She took a knife, flattened it, placed it in her hand and quickly went back to Simon. She stumbled the last few steps and of course she had to fall against him. Surprised, she held onto his shoulder with her free hand and this time her complete attention was on him as her green eyes met his brown ones. It was as if time stood still for a moment and she just looked at him, unable to take her eyes off him. The evil Simon in her screamed, "GET AWAY FROM HIM NOW." But she didn't, she paused in that spot and looked deep into his eyes.

Suddenly it started bubbling wilder beside them and she remembered what her actual target was. She cleared her throat, turned to the cauldron and threw the ingredient in her fist into the pot and she cocked her head over it to see if it was still in time. It changed colour, continued to boil wildly and worriedly Haley looked at the dark brew.

@Simon Kincaid

Haley couldn't save her relationship, then she had to at least save this potion. But just like her relationship, it failed. Too much had happened, the potion was tainted and there was no going back, no matter what she or Simon tried, the ship had sailed. Gone. Over. End. But she didn't want to admit that, somehow she had to be able to save the whole thing, didn't she? Were we still talking about the potion or about their relationship?

It was crazy, without even realising it, she still felt safe around him. Actually, she should hate it, seek the distance, but since she was standing close to him again, the panic inside her had calmed down. They were getting through this together, like before. Before, the past. Haley had to get that into her head, but too often she fell back into the past.

Both heads now hovered over the Cauldron, almost touching, their gazes on the potion, they were silent, just the two of them breathing in the same rhythm. In and out, in and out. Meanwhile, they were watching very closely to see if anything changed and how. It seemed like things were calming down, the wild boiling ended, it became quiet and hope rose in Haley. "That...That's a good sign?" she asked more than it was a statement and looked uncertainly at Simon, her head still above the cauldron.

But she was wrong, for what the two of them had done could not be saved. After the calm came the storm and so the potion also bubbled up wildly again and there was a loud explosion. The liquid exploded upwards with a loud bang, Haley and Simon both affected. Pain set in immediately, the liquid burned like fire on her face and she squealed her eyes shut. She stumbled back, unable to hear anything but her own pain-filled screams. All the shouts from the students and the professor did not reach her.

Haley fell backwards onto the floor, trying to smear the burning liquid from her face, but all attempts were in vain and now her hands were burning too. It felt like an eternity, in reality it was only a few minutes before she fell silent and lay still, all sound around her fading and it went black. "Simon?" was the last thing she could say before falling into a sleep.