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Today was the class that everyone looked forward to despite the fact that a significant number of students left heartbroken, finding out that their partners were not in fact their soulmates. It was the day that their amortentia potions were finally ready.
But no one was more excited than James Potter. He’d practically dragged Lily to class early, telling her the entire way that he couldn’t wait to smell her lavender soap. They snuck kisses in the empty hallway outside the potions classroom, and he felt high on life.
The class filed in, all a bit early today which pleased Slughorn.
“Obviously today we have our finished amortentia potions. In years past some students’ potions haven’t come out correctly and they smell off or have no smell at all, so before you dive into a panic about not having a soulmate, we’ll start by smelling mine and then you’ll smell yours. And if you feel so inclined, you can tell the class what you smell.”
Peter was the first of their friend group to be called to the front. “I smell pine and aftershave. Iron or-” he made an odd face before pulling back from the potion. He leaned back in and made the same odd face. He didn’t say anything else that he smelled and James would certainly check in with him later. He walked back to his desk looking confused.
Remus was next, walking up to Slughorn’s desk, leaning in, and immediately backing up to cough. “Merlin, that’s a whole carton of fags.” The smell from the amortentia alone was enough to send him into a coughing fit. “Cigs and leather and wet dog,” he laughed, eyebrows raised as he looked to Sirius who wolf-whistled at that.
He could hear Remus telling Sirius that he needed to cut down on the smokes.
James was shaking with excitement and anticipation as Lily was called to the front of the class. She smiled and immediately caught James’ eyes. “Eucalyptus and broom polish. Mahogany.” She inhaled the overwhelming scent excitedly, shaking her head slightly. “And something else I can’t quite place.” The eucalyptus and broom polish were overpowering smells.
“I told you,” James said quietly when she returned to their station. He took her hand, lacing their fingers together. James couldn’t wait to write his dad after classes.
It was no surprise that Remus had described Sirius but it took any level of questioning out when Sirius went to the front of the classroom. It was no shock that he was greeted with the smell of chocolate and parchment.
James was relieved that Lily had smelled him in the potion, taking any nerves away from him. Because he had been a bit nervous, nervous that he had been wrong.
“Mr. Potter.”
James untangled his hand from Lily’s and walked up to the front with a big smile, leaning over the cauldron and closing his eyes. He immediately breathed in the smell of Lily’s lavender shampoo. And his own broom polish? And he understood what Lily was talking about, about the smell he couldn’t quite place. “I smell Lily,” he said with a smile before quietly returning to the potions table.
Class couldn’t get out fast enough. James felt so incredibly antsy and he darted to the owlery. He wasn’t sure what had happened because the potion definitely made him think of Lily but that wasn’t the whole picture and he wasn’t sure why.
He skipped transfiguration, writing a letter to his dad, unsure of what else to do. He tied the letter around his owl’s leg and sent her on her way as he waited anxiously with just owls to talk to. James didn’t realize he’d been up there for an entire class period until Sirius came up with the map in hand.
“You okay, Potter?” Sirius asked, carefully.
“I just had to write to my dad,” he said, looking out for his owl desperate for her to return with an explanation.
Sirius nodded slowly. “I think you kind of freaked out Lils. You shut down and then you ditched McGonagall’s class. Did you not…?”
James’ eyes widened with panic. “No! Merlin, I did but it… it wasn’t just Lily. And I don’t know what that means.”
Sirius leaned against the window beside James. He didn’t say anything because he wasn’t sure what that meant either. Could he have two soulmates? Could you even have two soulmates? Or was it a crazy coincidence that his soulmate uses the same soap as Lily and Lily’s smells exactly like him? Sirius didn’t know so he just stayed with James as they waited for Monty to write back. He lit a fag and leaned more out the window.
“I thought you might kill Moony with those,” James said with a small laugh.
Sirius’ shoulders relaxed. “Yeah. He really should have expected it though, braced himself.”
There were long quiet pauses between them where James focused on the soft hoots of the owls.
“What the fuck do you think Pete smelled?” Sirius asked as the cigarette came to its end.
“I have no idea.”
Sirius pulled out another fag but before he could light it, James’ owl flew back to them.
James quickly untied the letter from the owl’s leg and Sirius gave her a few treats as James quickly read over it.
“What did dad say?” Sirius asked.
“Apparently you can have two soulmates. But I have no idea who it could be.”
“Well, the good news is that if anyone I know could love two people endlessly, it’s you.”
James sighed. “I need to talk to Evans.”
Sirius handed him the map and he could see his girlfriend pacing back and forth in her dorm room. James made quick work of weaving through the castle and up to the Gryffindor girls’ dorms. He knocked and she opened the door. He could see that she’d been crying with wet eyes and a red face.
He started before she could start talking. “Lily Evans, you are my soulmate and I’m sorry if my running off made you think you weren’t. Even if the potion hadn’t been you, which it was, it was an overwhelming dive into lavender, but even if it wasn’t I would still love you until the day I die. But it was. It was you. It is you,” he said, pulling her into his arms. “But I don’t think it’s just you. I think we have another soulmate.”
“Another soulmate?”
James nodded. “I smelled lavender and broom polish and that something else. I wrote dad and it’s possible. Some people have multiple soulmates but it’s rare.”
“How do we find them?”
He shrugged. “I’m not sure there’s anything we can do other than just look out for the smell.”
A few months had passed since the amortentia lesson. James had psyched himself out with many phantom whiffs of their other soulmate. He had gone down many rabbit holes and was constantly distracted despite Lily’s instance that they would find them.
They had booked the pitch for 6 and it was now 6:13 and Slytherin was finishing up practice.
“Get off the damn pitch!” Sirius had yelled at them frustratedly. “If you keep going over, we’ll set Hooch on you.”
“Merlin, Black. Your brother is going to run to Hooch to go and tell on us. I’m so scared,” said Barty with a laugh.
Regulus rolled his eyes and the Slytherin captain pulled everyone down.
“I mean we scheduled the pitch. It’s not our fault that they can’t understand time,” Sirius complained to Gryffindor captain, Michael Wood.
“Alright, everybody. Start with a couple laps on the ground and then we’ll move to brooms,” Wood told them.
They ran a couple laps of the pitch and James kept dragging behind.
“C’mon Potter, where’s your head at?” Wood yelled at him.
James picked up the pace to match with the others. Then they moved to flying warm-ups before getting to the actual practice.
“Potter, where are your gloves?” Wood asked, exhausted by James’ scattered brain.
“Fuck, sorry. They’re in my bag.” James quickly landed and went to the changing rooms to find his bag.
James entered the changing rooms and he stopped dead in his tracks, instantly recognizing the smell coming from the showers. He’d carried around amortentia in his bag for months, smelling it and trying to place the scent but it was obvious when isolated like this. Mint.
James couldn’t help himself. He peered over the shower like a creep. He wasn’t trying to see whoever it was naked, just see their face, see who it was. But the steam from the running shower was making that difficult.
“Are you looking for an invitation, Potter?”
James blanched and darted from the changing rooms. He ignored practice and ran up to the dorms.
Lily laughed awkwardly in disbelief. “Love, I think you’re mistaken.”
“I’m telling you, Lils. It was the same exact smell. It’s mint. Smell the amortentia again,” he said, pulling it from his bag.
She smelled it and agreed that it was indeed mint. “Multiple people can have the same soap. I really don’t think that Barty is our soulmate.”
“But the mint and the broom polish! He’s on the quidditch team!”
“But Barty Crouch Jr.?” She asked with a laugh. She sighed when he was still adamant. “Why don’t we have him smell the amortentia and see what he says?” Lily suggested.
James agreed and they went off to the Great Hall where they found Barty at the Slytherin table, legs draped across the lap of Evan Rosier.
“Barty, could you come here for a minute?” James asked.
“If it isn’t the shower stalker,” Barty laughed but got up to talk to them. “You come for another look?”
James was bright red. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean - I mean I wasn’t trying to-”
Lily uncorked the small vial of amortentia. “Barty, what do you smell?”
Barty took the vial, smelling it and smiling. “Amortentia? You think we’re…?” He laughed again. “Hate to break it to you both but I smell Evan’s aftershave. And then cedar and cheese, that’s the part Ev couldn’t work out either. But he did at least know that the pine and the blood belonged to me, how romantic.”
“But the soap, it smelled exactly like…” James deflated even though he was relieved that Barty wasn’t his soulmate.
“The soap? That’s why you had to get a peek at me in the shower? I forgot mine and had to borrow it.”
“From who?”
Barty was still holding the amortentia and brought it back over to the Slytherin table. “Regulus, what does this smell like?”
“Why?” he asked skeptically.
“Just do it.”
He took the vial from Barty. “Smells like eucalyptus and lavender. And quidditch.”
“Congrats on the soulmates,” he said, gesturing to James and Lily who were staring at Regulus with wide eyes and open mouths that turned up in the corners.
“Sirius is going to kill us,” James said.
“Yeah, but Pete will thank us. I can’t believe his amortentia smells like blood and he didn’t say anything to anyone.”