Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
***
As May came to an end and the softness of June awakened, I had noticed the Hogwarts students becoming very slowly more restless each day for both the third task on the 24th of the new month and the start of the summer holiday a few days after. Fred was the most noticeable student to be wanting to finish the year already. After his classes, he would stalk me down and go on about the unnecessary uses of turning a flobberworm into a fritter and the memorization of a newt's spleen origins in a wit-sharpening potion.
Even Angelina was getting more eager by the day. She was getting slightly behind in her classes from her new focus on mastering Appparation. The twins and Lee had decided to wait until next year to worry about Apparation, but since Oliver Wood, the Gryffindor quidditch team captain, was leaving this year, he had asked Angelina to be the new captain. She had obviously agreed. So next year, along with throughout the summer, she would have a life of quidditch.
The only people not to change were George and Lee. Lee had always despised learning, and his attitude never changed the entire year. In contrast, George was still trying his best to focus on getting his assignments off his plate. He was just as annoyed and restless as the rest of our friends but kept his mouth shut on the matter.
"Today will hopefully be an interactive potions class. If you and your partner finish your Amortentia, then you each will journal what you both smelt. A three-page essay on what the scents may have said about you will be my evidence that you completed this assignment. Everyone grab your partner and continue your potions," Headmistress Maxime announced before ducking her head under the door to leave the potions classroom.
Fleur dragged me over to her potions table and uncovered our partially completed potion. Fleur was most excited to continue the potion and see what scents she was supposedly "attracted to". If I was honest, I was yearning to finish as well.
Half an hour later, I put the last sprinkle of pearl dust into our cauldron, and our potion turned from a rich yellow to a foggy white. Definite swirls were spinning around at the top of the potion, and the edges illuminated dully in the light.
Fleur's eyes glittered in joy, and she pushed her potions book aside, leaning over the table to peer into the cauldron. A thick fog made its way from the pale liquid and erupted into Fleur's senses. She inhaled heavily, and it was long before she exhaled, and when she did, her pupils grew, and a small smile fell across her face. She sighed wistfully before sitting back down in her seat.
My eyebrows raised, and I stared at my sister, who was now in a dream-like state. "What did you smell, sister?" I asked, and she looked over to me, letting another long sigh fall from her lips.
"The inside of a coffee press, cardamom, and a bezant," she answered; my eyes switched from slightly worried to confused in an instant. I could understand the first two but a bezant? Fleur had always loved the coffee made by our mother. She used a coffee press, and we would love the permanent smell of fresh coffee beans it gained after years of using it. And cardamom was an enjoyable scent that explained itself. But a coin? In what world did the smell of metal attract someone? Especially someone like Fleur.
"What do you smell, Nadeleine?" Fleur asked me, and I broke from my thoughts. I sat up from my chair as she wrote down what she smelt on a piece of parchment. I leaned forward, now more hesitant than ever, and took a tiny breath of the potion's fog.
When it finally hit my nervous system, my first reaction was to take another large inhale of the delightful scent, but I restrained myself and sat back down. Fleur looked at me expectantly, but I merely stared back, still in a hallucinated trance. "Well? What was it?" she pushed and waved her hand in front of my face.
"Gunpowder, marshmallows on the verge of burning, and cedarwood with a touch of lavender," I said after many moments of observing the jars of potions ingredients lined across the wall. Despite Fleur trying to get my attention for the rest of the class, I walked out when the hour was over and remained silent for the remainder of the afternoon.
***
"So, did you finish your love potion today?" Lee teased me at dinner, and I looked up from my small dinner to see him and Fred chuckling from across me, and I caught George stealing a few laughs as well from beside me.
"Yes," I replied shortly, piercing a bit of chicken with my fork.
"Well, what'd you smell?" Angelina chimed in, nudging my side.
I glanced up again and shrugged. "Just erm — men's cologne and leather," I lied.
"That's it?" Fred asked, slightly disappointed, and I nodded. "Well, that's kinda boring," he muttered under his breath, and George hit his arm from across the table.
"It's fine, Fred. I was expecting something different for my results, too," I said, drawing George's hand back from Fred's arm.
For the rest of dinner, I ate my small meal in silence. I couldn't bare to speak about potions or the Amortentia anymore. I knew it was going to bother me for the rest of the week. And I also knew that being around George would be hard considering his robes smelled like gunpowder; every inch of his skin was the scent of his addictive shower gel that was supposed to resemble the thick woods of the Western Himalayas. Finally, both his hands and his mouth gave off the pungent aroma of the homemade sweets he and Fred would test regularly. And for a long time, they had to learn how to make the original sweets first before infusing them with weird substances or bombarding them with charms. And one of the first delicious treats I remember them making were the marshmallows for Fever Fudge. George had tried melting one down but almost burnt it in the process. The smell of nearly scorched marshmallows was accompanying his original scent for over a week. It was intoxicating.
His scent is my Amortentia. His scent is my own personal drug.
