Chapter Text
Clink, clink, clink. Professor Slughorn tapped the side of his glass, “May I please have everyone’s attention?” The chatter throughout the room died down and the music was reduced to a whisper as everyone turned towards the potions master.
“Thank you, ladies and gentlemen for kindly attending this year’s Valentine’s celebration. In honor of the season and tonight’s event, I now have something I would like to present to you,” he flicked his wand and behind him a curtain opened to reveal a stone fountain. It was delicately carved but the majority of the students had come from wealthy backgrounds and were unimpressed. They remained curious as to not upset their potions master.
“Now this fountain is ordinary but in the spirit of the upcoming holiday,” he paused to point his wand at the fountain once more. A glossy pearly substance erupted from the fountain’s top and flowed in a stream to the lower layers. Lily recognized it instantly from the reading she had done on the Wizarding World’s holiday culture: Amortentia.
Professor Slughorn typically waited until his student’s seventh year to teach it due to how difficult it was to brew and how powerful it could be if made correctly. “This is Amortentia, the most powerful love potion known to wizardkind. I ask that none of you take any of the potion for your personal use as it can be quite bothersome to brew antidotes for. Feel free to come over and see what scents you can detect from it though, and have a wonderful rest of your evening.”
There was a moment’s silence before the room burst into noise. Some students inched closer to the fountain but its smell was already wafting through the room. It hit Lily pretty quickly.
The first thing she smelled was home. Funny, she had never noticed that her house smelled like anything until she came home for the winter holidays in her first year. Now, she could recognize the scent anywhere. She was overcome by a wave of nostalgia from the familiar scent. It smelled like her dad’s cooking, her mum’s perfume. The flowers that she and Petunia had worked so hard to plant in the garden.
Lily held onto it as tightly as she could but the smell shifted. Now, instead of the smell that she had to grow used to again every summer, it was something more fragile. Something that she held onto gently and close to her heart. It smelled like the pages of a new book, something she was scared of messing up. It smelled like rain in the winter, something that she longed to drown herself in. It smelled like the castle at night, something precious and beautiful. Pressed flowers, she always tried to be gentle with them. These smells swirled together in her mind until they came together and she realized what it was.
“Regulus,” she whispered.
Lily looked for him instinctively. She hadn’t seen him yet tonight but he always came to these parties. He didn’t particularly like his head of house but he loved potions and tried his best to stay on good terms with the subject’s professor.
After scanning the room and failing to spot him she was beginning to think that he hadn’t come tonight but no. There he was, across the room from her, talking to Evan Rosier. The sight of him made her let out the breath she had been holding. Her shoulders relaxed and she felt a dull pain in her heart. She wanted nothing more than to go to him but she knew that she couldn’t, that he wouldn’t want that.
If he smelled anything from the potion, he showed no signs of it. He wore a bored expression as he talked idly with Rosier and sipped the bubbling drink from his glass. Lily stared at him longer than she should have.
Eventually she turned away long enough to grab a drink from the platter of a passing server. She didn’t bother asking what it was, she downed it in one go and cringed at the taste. Whatever it was, it was strong, and definitely not muggle.
After chugging the drink she glanced back over to where Regulus had been standing but he wasn’t there anymore. Feeling a spark of panic she looked around for him and caught sight of his curly dark hair just as he was walking out of the door.
Lily couldn’t explain why she did it but her legs started moving after him, and she followed him out of the room.