Trial of Time: A Hogwarts Legacy Story

(P1) Chapter 7 - Amortentia

I almost fly out of the bed the next morning and get ready quickly. I'm eager to tell Professor Fig about the memory and about the book I found. Unfortunately, it will have to wait until after classes are over for the day.

How am I supposed to think about school when I'm so overwhelmed by all of the information I just learned?

And to top it all off, I have to end the long day with Potions class. Potions is probably my least favorite subject, although I'm doing pretty well in it.

I get to class early, briefly scanning through some of the reading that I wasn't able to do last night due to my adventure in the Restricted Section. Slowly the other students scatter into class, and Professor Sharp follows behind them. I smile at Cressida Blume, who enters and takes the seat across from me. "You don't mind, do you?" she asks.

I shake my head, "Please, go ahead."

I see Sebastian walk into the room, accompanied by a blond Slytherin boy I'd seen him with before. His eyes meet mine as he and the other boy sit down at my table.

"Morning," he greets me. I look from him to the other boy, "Good morning."

"Oh! I forgot I hadn't introduced you properly. Cirilla, this is my best friend, Ominis Gaunt. Ominis, this is Cirilla."

Ominis nods, "Pleasure to finally meet you, Cirilla. Everyone seems to be talking about the new fifth year."

Ominis strikes me as one of those people who have taken everything incredibly seriously since the day they were born. It's kind of hard to imagine how he could get on well with someone mischievous like Sebastian.

"Oh, er... you can call me Ciri. I don't really understand why Sebastian insists on using my full name."

Sebastian smirks, saying nothing else.

Professor Sharp clears his throat and begins his lecture. Since it is the first Potions lesson of the term, he wants to introduce us to some of the draughts that we'll be learning about this year. Small cauldrons containing different potions are passed around the room, and Sharp asks us to guess the names of each potion.

All of us at the table are able to correctly guess the Wiggenweld potion. Cressida is able to guess the Maxima and Thunderbrew potions. Sebastian, unsurprisingly, was able to immediately guess the Invisibility potion. Finally, another cauldron is passed around. None of us seem to recognize it. It has a subtle, yet beautiful pearly sheen. The scent is strong and almost intoxicating.

"It smells like lilac and fresh rain," Ominis states definitively. Cressida shakes her head, "What are you talking about? I definitely smell gooseberries and the pages of old books."

I shake my head, "It doesn't smell like either of those to me. I smell something minty and also... slightly... musky? Like a nice cologne, maybe?"

"What do you smell, Sebastian?" Cressida asks, passing him the cauldron.

He sniffs, "Er. I guess I smell cherries, and fresh pine. And... treacle fudge..." he trails off. His eyes widen as they meet mine, before quickly looking away.

"It looks like none of you have been able to correctly guess this potion," Professor Sharp says, walking back to the front of the class.

"What you're looking at, and smelling, is Amortentia. Widely known as one of the most powerful 'love potions' of all time, it is made to induce obsessive infatuation in its drinker. Amortentia's primary defining feature is that it smells differently to each person, and smells like what is most attractive to you."

"Hold on a moment..." says Ominis. He leans towards me and sniffs.

"What are you doing?" I lean back from him, perplexed.

Ominis sits back in his chair and turns toward Sebastian with a giant smirk on his face. "Oh, nothing. Nothing at all," he says flippantly.

Sebastian looks away from him and doesn't say anything during the rest of the class. His face is redder than the Maxima potion that we passed around earlier.

Sharp dismisses us and Sebastian practically runs out of the classroom. I wonder what's gotten into him but I don't have much time to dwell on it. I have to go see Professor Fig.

****author's note: (yeah yeah yeah i get it, the amortentia thing is used A LOT in these HL fics but it's just so cute i can't not :) )