#parchedvisions

Today, Molly Hooper was making eyes at a blond Ravenclaw boy two desks in front of them in Defense Against the Dark Arts.  After class, the blond bumped into her on the way out and caused her to drop the bundle of books and parchment papers in her arms.  She blushed madly as she knelt down to pick her things up.  The boy apologized profusely and she turned even redder when he smiled charmingly at her and bent over to help her.

"O-Oh!  Thank you, Travis!  Really, you don't have to.  You're so sweet!"  She squeaked rapidly, causing Travis' smile to grow into a grin.  Sherlock glared down at the other boy, peeved that someone else had so easily attracted Molly's attention and praise.

"Your Potions homework, Molly.  It would be quite a shame if you were to misplace it, wouldn't it?" He handed Molly her homework, but she didn't more than glance at him and offer a thankful nod.  He continued to give Travis his death stare and the blond Ravenclaw took notice.  He swallowed hard, eyes wide, and looked back at Molly.

"Yeah, no problem, Molls.  See you later."  Travis cleared off before Molly could reply, but she smiled after him.

"He's lovely."

"No, he's not.  He just tried to steal your Potions homework." Sherlock told his friend flatly.

"Travis would do no such thing!"

"He would.  I pulled your work out of his back pocket."  He was getting agitated now.  Why was Molly displaying such determination to believe in someone they both knew beforehand to be a weasel?  The answer came to him as they headed down to the Great Hall together and Molly nearly careened into a brazier due to absent-mindedness.

"Travis?" she asked him hopefully when she grabbed her by the shoulders to prevent her from injuring herself.

"No, Sherlock."

"Oh..."  The disappointment in her voice suddenly made his blood boil, for he now knew what had been done to his Molly.  "You're a Ravenclaw like Travis.  Do you think the Ravenclaws would mind if I sat with him?"

"You're not going to sit with him.  We're going to go down to the dungeons and get you sorted."  Sherlock didn't do much to hide the irritation in his voice.  Molly frowned up at him before he steered her towards the opposite end of the Entrance Hall from where they'd initially intended to go, and where Molly wanted to be.

"What?  Why?"

"Because you've been poisoned."

"Oh dear!"

They made their way to Professor Slughorn's office where the man was discussing an assignment with a Slytherin fourth year.  Both abruptly looked up when Sherlock burst in with Molly in tow.

"There's an emergency, professor," the Ravenclaw boy announced, sounding more disgusted than urgent.  Slughorn immediately told the fourth year to come back later.

"What's happened, Holmes?  Nothing too serious I hope."  At this, Sherlock stepped forward and whispered to the Potions Master, so as not to be overheard by Molly, who was gazing around the room with a starry eyed expression.

"Molly is suffering the effects of a love potion and she needs to be cured before she does something she'll regret later."

"Oh my.  Do you know who did it?  Not one of my Slytherins, I hope."

"Yes, a classmate of ours who was hoping that by ensnaring Molly, he would be able to steal her work without her minding.  And no, this one will be dealt his punishment at the hands of Professor Flitwick."

"My goodness, what a horrible thing, taking advantage of a girl like that, especially such a kind and talented one as Ms. Hooper."

"Yes, and she's in need of an antidote."  Sherlock had little patience for Slughorn's chattiness right now.

"I'd have thought with a mind like yours, Holmes, you'd be able to whip up a cure yourself."

"I lack knowledge in this area of potions and I don't have time to learn." Slughorn seemed to accept this logic and shuffled over to his cupboard of ingredients and elixirs.  He plucked from it a little bottle of blue liquid and unstoppered it before handing it to Sherlock.

"This should do it."  Without further delay, Sherlock approached Molly and thrust the bottle into her hands.

"Drink this."

"Why?"  The dark haired boy raised his eyebrows at this, impressed that she was still able to think critically in this state.

"You've been poisoned, remember?  This'll cure you."

"Oh right!"  She gulped down the blue liquid and made a face of deep disgust before suddenly freezing in place and blinking a couple of times.  "What am I doing here?"

"Travis slipped you a love potion.  You were extraordinarily resilient.  Most people would have been far more out of it than you were." Sherlock explained while Molly continued to make displeased faces at the taste in her mouth.

"Must be a reason for it.  It's not like this happens to me a lot.  Would you happen to know anything about it, professor?"

"Ah, yes, well, there has been research that suggests that particularly strong willed individuals who are already deeply in love with someone else are more difficult to affect with love potions.  I don't know if that applies to you, my dear, but that's a possible explanation."