scars || sirius black

40 - amortentia

The past few weeks had been miserable for everyone. Not only were Emmy and Sirius not talking to each other, but Marlene and Fabian had also broken up, and Dorcas and Florent too. There had been innumerable disappearances over the past couple of days alone; people's family members and friends had disappeared without a trace.

Emmy had been helping Professor Dumbledore in some of his first and second year classes, relishing the extra work to take her mind off it all. It was only in the moment when she gave herself over to the spell, she was able to forget Sirius for a second. The look on his face and the agony she'd felt was not something she would ever be able to put behind her.

She was so adamant about staying away from Sirius, she'd managed to get special permission to apparate to Waterfleet on full moons, not willing to put herself into a position where she'd have to rely on him.

She and Remus had a massive fight about it and he only blamed her maddening stubbornness and pride when she returned missing half a finger the next morning, having spliced it when she tried to apparate out of a snowstorm only minutes after her transformation. There was no way to go back to reattach it so she'd just had to let Madam Pomfrey stitch it up.

She was picking at the bandage on it a couple of days later as they waited for the fourth years to file out of the potions classroom for the last period of the day.

It had been a long Thursday and they were all ready to slump in the common room by the fire, so they were praying for an easy class of textbook-reading and note-copying when Slughorn burst the door open and ushered them in excitedly.

"Come in, class. I've got a real treat for you all today!"

Emmy exchanged a bemused glance with Marlene as they went in, squeezing into the semicircle next to Alice and Lily. She could smell something delicious, something dreamy. For all the world, she could have sworn it smelt like Christmas trees, birthday candles that had just been blown out and that gorgeously sweet smell of a summer's night that reminded her fondly of their trip down south that summer, all at the same time.

She looked around to see everyone sniffing oddly. What was smelling so good? She nudged Marlene smiling, "I could live on the smell of Christmas trees, couldn't you?"

"Christmas trees? All I can smell is those cinnamon rolls my mum makes... and an odd mix of hairspray and the wildflower meadow behind our house..."

Emmy could tell Sirius was staring at her from across the classroom, but she refused to look in his direction instead nodding along as Marlene talked.

Sirius groaned quietly, "She won't look at me."

"Come on, mate," sighed James, "She was perfectly clear, she doesn't want to be with you now. That doesn't mean she won't when the war's over. We've been through this a hundred times. Just give her time."

"I know," muttered Sirius.

"By the way, is anyone else smelling the quidditch pitch or am I going mad?"

Remus dumped his bag on the desk as he arrived, "Nah, but I can smell chocolate... and something like old books... and the sea. Must be amortentia Sluggy's got brewing."

"Amor-what-tia?" asked a puzzled Peter, sniffing around furiously.

"It's a love potion supposedly, that's why it smells so good."

Sirius ran his hands through his hair and leant back against the wall of the dungeon. The scent of the early morning mountain air, breakfast at the Potters' and what was unmistakably Emmy, specifically the edelweiss soap she used, filled his nose.

He missed her more than he ever thought he would, he missed her laugh and the feeling of her arms around him, but most of all he missed just being near her. It seemed like the two people he loved most in the world had deserted him.