Chapter Text
September of 1977 had just started, bringing with it Lily Evans' last year at Hogwarts.
Things were going smoothly, oddly enough, even if Lily had been partnered with James Potter as Head Boy and Girl. Though to be honest, she still could not understand what had been going through Dumbledore's mind when he named Potter for the position, he had not even been a Prefect before! Still, he was doing a decent job and they were getting along as well, which was also a miracle on its own.
But to be fair, their relationship had been changing since the end of their 6th year: she no longer felt repulsed by him, and she noticed he no longer hexed every other student, with the exception of Snape and his friends, and even Lily couldn't entirely blame the shaggy-haired lad (though of course she would never tell him that). Also, because Sirius Black and Marlene McKinnon, their friends, had gone out for a while during that year, they all had started to hang out together, as one big group.
So yes, Lily and James were handling their duties together quite well. At least during those first two weeks.
On that particular morning, Professor Slughorn had been testing their skills by asking them to prepare (or attempt to) a batch of Amortentia. The students were paired up, and unsurprisingly Slughorn had Lily working with James. Since the paunchy professor noticed that the teen boy fancied his favorite redheaded student, it felt like he was trying very hard to bring them together.
They bickered during the entire preparation of the potion, each arguing that their way to dice or stir or whatever else was the best and most efficient method. Eventually, the potion appeared ready, all that was left to do was to make sure its scent was… correct, appealing.
What both forgot was that Amortentia had a different aroma to each person, giving off the scents of the things that person finds most attractive.
"Potter, I'm telling you, I did stir it correctly!" Lily sighed, frustrated. How could he think that she would mess up a potion , for Merlin's sake! She was the top student in their year! The nerve of that prat!
"There's obviously something wrong with it!" he almost growled, running his fingers through his hair.
"Well, maybe if you didn't use so much shampoo, conditioner or whatever it is that you use on that hair of yours, we might have been able to smell something and then we would know!" she snapped.
"Oh, look who's talking, Miss Jasmine Perfume! That thing reeks so strongly that I don't know if I'm going to have an asthma attack or if I'm going to gag!" James even made a gagging motion to add extra effect.
"First, how do you know I wear a Jasmine based perfume, you creep? And second, my last bottle finished last week and I haven't had the time to get a new one yet! So nice try." Lily replied, rolling her eyes at James incredulous expression.
"Well, it's also not me! Sirius was hogging the bathroom all morning in our dorm room, and I didn't have time to run and use the one in our office!" James said, throwing his arms in the air, in a mix of frustration and defeat.
At that, something like recognition flashed through Lily's eyes, making her blush. She quickly grabbed her potions book and read the entrance about Amortentia. The more she read, the brighter the flush on her face became. James, noticing that, took the book from her hands with a low " Let me see that " and almost instantly understood what had Lily blushing so much. Bloody hell , James himself was feeling his face staring to heat!
They forgot about the potion's unique scent. And accidentally blurred out what each was smelling, what each was attracted to: Lily to the smell of James' hair, the scent she associated with him , and James to Lily's perfume, the scent he associated with her .
"So… I guess it's good and ready, huh", James said, looking anywhere but Lily's, his hand scratching the back of his neck.
"Yep", the redhead answered, checking the cauldron absentmindedly.
For the rest of the class they didn't speak much, too embarrassed by what they had admitted. Professor Slughorn stopped by each table at the end of the class, inspecting to see who had performed best, and unsurprisingly Lily and James's potion was the best executed of them all. That granted Gryffindor 15 points.