Amortentia - A Jily Oneshot
Summary - No, James does not get Sirius to say something stupid so they’d have a switch of positions because obviously Slughorn would put either one of them with Lily. Any one of them would do, really.
Well I loved writing this as I was writing it and now that it’s all done with I can’t bare to even read it once again or edit it so here it is. James and Lily brewing Amortentia together in 7th Year potions class.
Lily Evans, 7th Year student of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and Head Girl was pleased to say that she was perfectly normal thank you very much. Except, at the moment she was sure her skin was a darker shade of red than her hair and her heart was beating frantically inside her ribcage threatening to fall out. It reminded her of one of those fishes that she’d watched as a little girl when her father fished them out of the waters right onto the mud where they would beat their fins on the floor thudding loudly until, they stopped.
“Yes, of course Miss Evans,” said Professor Slughorn beaming widely at her. “Would you please tell us all how you identified the potion?”
“Yes, Sir,” she said trying to keep a straight face. “It was by its distinctive mother-of-pearl sheen and the steam rising in characteristic spirals. And not to forget, its smell.”
“Very well, very well,” said Professor Slughorn beaming widely at her. “10 points to Gryffindor. Now, before we begin brewing this incredibly powerful and dangerous potion, I might add, I need you all to understand very clearly that-”
And he went on about how ‘when you have seen as much of life as I have, you will not underestimate the power of obsessive love’ and the ill effects of Amortentia. Now again, Lily Evans 7th Year student of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and Head Girl was still very pleased to say that she was perfectly normal, thank you very much. For as if it were any other girl of her own age, in her position in all meaning of that word, they wouldn’t have been able to think straight. But here she was in a very normal state of mind, a very abnormal normal beating of her heart, a very abnormal normal flushing of her skin and a very normal feeling all over.
It didn’t take her long to recognise the scent that overtook her when she entered the dungeons this fine afternoon, the odd smells and its vapours that she was so fond of, the smell of parchment, and him. But that didn’t stop her from raising her hand when Professor Slughorn had asked the students to identify the potion whose smell was wafting across the dungeons much to the chagrin of the content and grinning N.E.W.T level students. That didn’t stop her from answering, without a stutter or stammer mind you, when Professor Slughorn asked her how she identified the potion correctly.
“Evans,” nudged an all too familiar voice from beside her. “Didn’t you hear him?”
“No,” she said. Because no, she wasn’t perfectly normal as she claimed to be. She was a witch for starters, and a completely mad one at that.
“Sorry, what?” said James looking a little confused. “You can tell him if you want to, you know. I would myself but he’d think I’m saying it just because I want to go back to Sirius.”
“Sorry, what?” she mimicked with all honesty. “I’m sorry, I wasn’t listening.”
“Day-dreaming are we, Evans?” said James with a smirk. “Slughorn teamed up you and me because Sirius gave away his masterplan of what he was going to do with the Amortentia we brew a little too loudly. Now he’s teamed with Peter instead.”
“How is that going to stop him from doing whatever he wants to do?” she asked back knowing the answer very well, at least now she felt herself regaining her composure.
“By all means,” began James and gave a dry chuckle whilst running his hand through his hair. “I think it would be very fitting if he’d join you instead. I mean, it only makes sense. Head Girl Evans and Sirius Black. Nothing could possibly go wrong.”
“You happen to be Head Boy, James.” she said and she now lost count of how many times she had to remind this boy that he was in fact Head Boy and that they weren’t very different from each other. He took his duties seriously of course, but sometimes, many times, he needed slight reminding.
“Will remember, -” he began but was abruptly cut off by Professor Slughorn who came and stood by them.
“Is there a problem Lily? James?” he asked eyeing the two head students and looking down at the empty cauldron in front of them. “Everyone’s already beginning.”
“Sir,” began James when realisation hit Lily. “We were just talking about how Sirius should be-”
“How WE should be beginning soon,” cut in Lily. “We were just talking about how we were to be going on about our potion.”
“Very well, very well,” said Professor Slughorn clearly satisfied. “It is of course of utmost importance to plan your potion before you begin concocting it.”
And with that, he was off to the front of the classroom proud and beaming at the struggling students.
“I thought you just said no,” said James drily.
“For something completely different,” she clarified. “Come on now, we’ll have to begin soon if we don’t want to be left behind.”
And so, they began. Lily dropped in the Ashwinder egg carefully as James carefully took out the rose thorns and dropped them in too. In went the peppermint oil and the moonstone and here they were completely oblivious to how much time had passed by as Lily carefully stirred the potion and James joked about the recent prank of the Marauders. They of course weren’t involved in anything to do with fishes and paints and colours and the ceilings of one particular classroom. Just when he was recalling how they had retrieved paint from a Something from Somewhere, Lily smelt it before she saw it.
There were spirals wafting slowly from the cauldron and James seemed to have noticed to for as he stopped talking and looked appreciatively at the cauldron. Lily stirred the potion once more and took in the feeling of the scent as it slowly wafted into her nostrils, right up her nose as it intoxicated her brain and spread into her blood and veins. Smiling slightly to herself, she looked up at James and stepped aside motioning for him to take a smell. She watched him as he grinned at her and said ‘Our potion Evans, I can’t believe it’s this easy!’ and took a long intake of the potion. She watched him as the smell overtook him, his body changing ever so slightly seeming to become divine as he took in the feeling of whatever, and maybe whomever he loved.
“If not for Lily Evans and James Potter,” came the loud voice of Professor Slughorn from the far-left end of the dungeons. “It is of course, Amortentia! Perfectly brewed, both of you. Thirty points to Gryffindor for your commendable work.”
“Thank you, Professor,” said James grinning widely at Professor Slughorn looking quite pleased with himself.
Lily gave Professor Slughorn a wide smile.
“Now, now,” he began as the entire class turned silent after their clapping and cheering and Lily was sure she heard some hooting and wolf-whistling, some that were directed at them somehow from where Sirius stood, something he’d be getting a nice telling off from her later on. “Can the two of you tell us what you smelled? You need not, of course if it’s personal. Miss Evans?”
“Sir,” she began stalling some time. Now you see, this was one of those moments when you are suddenly confronted with the truth and you’re not sure if you can trust your mouth to see if it will co-operate with the ill, pathetic and lying excuse of a brain you have. “I smell parchment, vapours of our classroom and,”
James. She used this time to clear her throat.
“Ah, lovely Miss Evans,” said Professor Slughorn beaming proudly. “Don’t we all love the smell of fresh coffee! Mister Potter?”
“Sir,” began James grinning broadly. Lily took this time to glance at Emmeline Vance’s cauldron that looked extremely interesting today, ah, the fine material and the fine black colour whilst of course, paying stern attention to what James was saying.
“Leather, the smell of soil after rain and,” here he paused for effect looking around at the anxious eyes and excited faces of everyone who were watching him. “Coffee.”
“Brilliant, Mr. Potter,” said Professor Slughorn. “I smell Coffee when I look into my Amortentia too. Now students, if you brew your potion correctly, you will be able to smell those things you obviously love and no Mr. Curran, I’m not going to lift the lid of my potion and nor will Miss Evans and Mister Potter.”
Lily took a seat back and hoped she wasn’t flushing bright red or anything of that sort. Her heart was now again, doing all sorts of spectacles inside her ribcage and she wouldn’t mind having it beat one last time like the fin of the particularly greyish fish she’d watched her father catch last summer and then stop.
“Coffee, eh?” said James making her jump out of her mid-day trance. “I reckon half of this class will end up smelling coffee in their Amortentia. Quite the smell, innit?”
“Yes,” she said putting her potions book into her bag slowly as ever. “Yes.”
“Now, Lily-flower,” began James and of all these seven years she’s known James Fleamont Potter, every time he began some sentence with the word ‘Lily-flower’, the end results weren’t all that nice for both of them. That is, a nice hex James’ way and a sleepless, complaining night for Lily and her roommates. “Wasn’t it only yesterday that you so politely were disinclined to acquiesce to Moony’s request to try drink some coffee?”
“I suppose,” he continued again and though Lily fiddled with the insides of her bag, she could feel him smirking. “You had also mentioned how its smell was ‘sickening’ and makes you ‘want to pluck your nose out’?”
“I mean,” James continued as though her silence was cue for ‘Go on’. “Coffee. It’s a euphemism isn’t it? For ‘the utterly handsome and good-looking man standing right next to me who also happens to be my fellow Head.”
This now again, was one of those moments when your brain wants to do something but your hands, your legs or like in the case of Lily Evans, the neck wasn’t very well under the control of it. Much to her disappointment, she felt her neck tear away from the bag to look straight at James Potter.
“Right of course,” he said smiling as he put his scales and books back into his bag. “Where handsome becomes beautiful and man becomes woman for me.”
Before she could come up with a retort or something cleverer to say, she was standing stupidly staring at the head of James Potter who was making his way out of the dungeons amidst the other students, hopping and whistling to himself. When exactly the bell rang, Lily wasn’t sure. But she knew one thing and she’d stay by it all long. Lily Evans, 7th Year student of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and Head Girl was perfectly normal and slightly in love. (And denial).
