Ophelia walked into Potions and grimaced. She knew the day they brewed Amortentia would come eventually she just hadn't expected it to come so soon. She sat in her normal seat and sighed.
Primrose was running late. So she had left her to deal with her hair alone. Because once you are enthralled in Primrose's hair there is no escape.
Slughorn entered the room and smiled at one of his favourite students, there bright and early.
"Miss Marigold, how lovely to see you and you've beaten Tom here. not an easy task, my dear." Said Slughorn.
"It is rather odd." She agreed, "he is perpetually early for everything."
Slughorn liked the idea of those two together. And it seemed they were growing closer by the day.
"Well everything happens for a reason, you can be the first to smell the Amortentia, so you know what to smell when you brew it." He explained.
"Sure, professor." She said, walking over to the cauldron inhaling deeply. Her eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "Can you smell a place?"
"Absolutely, if it has a distinctive smell of course." Said the professor. "What do you smell?"
"The castle at night." Allowing another waft to hit her, "something sweet," the final blow was the final smell that hit her, "that and Cologne." She muttered.
"Ah, Tom M'boy, lovely for you to join us." Said Slughorn, as Tom set his bag down on his chair at the front of the room.
"Good morning, Professor." He said, having heard only a series of words that didn't make sense come from Ophelia's mouth. The final being cologne.
"Come, come, Miss Marigold was just being the first to smell this batch of Amortentia. You can be the second." The old man ushered Tom over. Tom walked over and eyed a very pink in the face Ophelia.
"Alright, professor." He said, as he bent slightly over the cauldron. All he was met with was endless waves of Honey. Honey and the castle at night. He also smelt blood. Not unusual, but it was blocked out by the honey.
"Honey." He said plainly, "I smell honey."
Ophelia had returned to her desk but he noticed how straight her posture had gotten.
"Is that so?" Asked Slughorn rather joyously. "Take a seat Tom."
Tom took his seat, a desk in front of Ophelia. He could hear her foot tapping on the floor. She was nervous. He could hear the aimless flipping of pages of her book as the class began to fill with their peers.
"OH! phelia, are we doing Amortentia today?" Asked Primrose, her hair in perfect ringlets.
"Yes, and I love your hair." Said Ophelia reaching up to touch the curls but her hand was swatted away.
"What do they tell you at museums? do not touch the art." She said, swaying her curls from side to side.
"How did you know we were doing Amortentia?" Asked Ophelia, as Primrose.
"Well, Alastor is not in this class but as soon as I walked into this class I felt like he was here." Said Primrose as she left for her seat.
"That is the sweetest thing I've ever heard you say." Said Ophelia, as Ricky took a seat beside her.
"Primrose? Being sweet? No swearing?"
"Not in class. She's a classy broad." Said Ophelia smiling as she continued to shift in her seat. "How are you, and more importantly what do you smell?"
"Smells like a Quidditch pitch to be perfectly honest." Said Ricky.
"Ugh you are such a jock. If this were America you'd lend me your letterman jacket right?" She asked.
"Of course." Said Ricky, trying to pin point why he smelt a Quidditch pitch. He drummed the pads of his fingers on the table as he thought. Who was it?
"Can't figure out who it is?" Asked Ophelia, smiling at his confused face.
"It's driving me crazy." Said Ricky, shaking his head.
"It's driving me crazy too." She muttered, her gaze landing on the back of Tom Riddle's head before looking away quickly.
"There are twenty eight people in this school who smell like a Quidditch pitch." He muttered.
Slughorn didn't let them brew the potion that day, instead he assigned a paper on the dangers of Amortentia. She nodded in agreement as he explained. The paper is also why Ophelia found herself in the library looking for books on Amortentia.
Ophelia scanned for the book of love potions. That was its title. It was written by a woman who was a self proclaimed love witch. She picked up the conveniently pink book, then the other on obsession caused through potion.
She rounded a corner to check out a book but something in her peripheral vision caught her attention. Tom Riddle sitting between two close shelves. His back leaning on one and his feet up in the other.
His jaw was set in concentration on the book he was currently holding. He was next to a rather large stack of books, he was so focused that he didn't even notice her. He was so handsome.
The Hufflepuff tore her gaze away from the very rare look into Tom Riddles life. Him being a human, with an interest in literature that surpasses any she had ever seen. She always knew he read but she had never actually seen him do anything other than homework.
Primrose walked passed and spotted her. "You know, Lili, you're meant to check out the books not the boys."
Ophelia walked to her friend and looked at the ground, "shut up, and don't tell my brother."
Tom Riddle smirked from where he sat. Hearing everything the two girls had just said.