James:
The week leading up to the ball is completely mad. Bands are booked, last arrangements of food and decorations are made...crazy!
Our classes are really beginning to get Christmassy now, and I LOVE it! In Charms we literally got to learn how to light a Christmas tree! Like...what?! You can't make this shit up! Most professors are going nice and easy on us now, just because it's the last week. Even Minnie G has let us off homework two nights in a row!
The only class that we don't get a reprieve in is Potions, which is weird considering how festive Sluggy gets and how lazy he is! This bloody Amortentia is a lot of hard work!
So far the only pair to be finished is Lils and Snivelly (I think Lily deliberately hurried so that she didn't have to work with Batman for another week!) so now she's trying her best to help the lot of us out, which is a very hard task given that Marly and I...well, we aren't exactly Potions prodigies!
Pads and Ali aren't getting on much better, and I don't think Moony is enjoying being paired with Melania Greengrass (who's eye makeup just keeps getting worse and worse!). Frank and Daisy Parkinson are the pair with the biggest laughs though...
They hate each other so much that at least once a lesson we hear a cry of "What the hell is wrong with you!" or "Are you blind you dingbat!" or "Asshole!". I mean, it's very comical for all of us in the class watching, but for them...it's hell on Earth. They've also already been given a Troll by Slughorn, given that they are only on step two of twenty with half a week to finish.
Marly and I just have to brew the last of ours (with Lily whispering instructions in our ears!) and then that's us! Everyone is all buzz about what we will smell though!
Mine is a complete given. I already know it is. I'll smell Lily.
Hold your horses! I know, I know! It's a big shock! I mean, I don't even like this girl! (Hehe, do you like my awful humour? Wink wink!).
Anyways, it's now Friday, the day before the Ball, and I wake up in a panic.
I don't have a suit. Crap.
I suppose that I could just wear my black dress robes, but I was thinking of going Muggle because I feel like it would give Lily a bit of a laugh.
Ah well!
I did intend to go and buy a suit last Saturday in Hogsmeade, but the boys and I spent a little bit of time in Zonkos and somehow when we got out it was dark. Huh!
We all have a good enough day, given that it isn't the weekend, and all our classes go nice and quickly, but we are all on edge.
It's Amortentia day. Officially.
Lily and Snape haven't been allowed to smell theirs yet even though they finished their potion last week because Slughorn collected it up when it still had two days to just brew.
Today is when they all are due to finish and will be marked, and most importantly we get to smell them!
Much to the dislike of everyone in the class, Slughorn spends about half an hour just rambling first about the Amortentia and then about his Christmas party, which happens tonight.
Yay.
I'll wear my dress robes tonight, and then Pads and I can sneak out to Hogsmeade sometime tomorrow because I know that there is no bloody well that he has his.
Pads has been wanting to wear a suit for donkeys years, and tomorrow night is finally the chance for him to do so!
After my temporary zone out, just daydreaming, I begin to hear Slughorn's dreary voice again. "And now we shall begin the marking of these options!" he announces, and everyone in the room sits up straight and pays attention to him.
"Right everyone! I shall levitate each of the options over to the pair who made them, and when I tell you to you shall, one at a time, take off the lid and take a smell. I shall then come around and smell it and give you a mark out of ten." Slughorn says, "Now, Mr Lupin and Miss Greengrass, we'll begin with you two. Wingardium Leviosa!".
With this Slughorn levitates their potion over to in front of them, and the rest of us watch with rapt attention as Moony lifts the lid off of the potion. He and Melania Greengrass take a whiff of the potion, and both grin.
"Let's see then!" Slughorn says, walking over to them and taking a smell for himself. "Hmmm...very good! It could be a little stronger, but otherwise a strong attempt! Nine out of ten!".
We all applaud as Slughorn moves on, and after looking at Zabini and Bellatrix's potion he reaches Frank and Daisy Parkinson.
"Mr Longbottom and Miss Parkinson, let's see what yours is like! Hopefully, Mr Longbottom, it shall be slightly better than your Draught of Living Death!" Slughorn says, bounding along towards them while levitating the potion over.
Frank just glares stonily at Slughorn while a couple of Slytherins snigger.
"This might have actually turned out well, had you completed it. As it is, you have not and so you get zero out of ten." Slughorn says, instantly wiping the smirk off of Parkinson's face. Slughorn then moves on to Pads and Alice, each of them smelling their potions and grinning, Alice turning bright red and avoiding Frank's eyes.
No prizes for guessing who she smelled!
The process is repeated multiple times, with Pads giving me a wink after smelling his and a couple of blushes from Slytherins and Ravenclaws as they smell their potions.
Then, it's Lily and Snivelly's turn. Slughorn rubs his hands together in anticipation as he waddles over to examine the potion of his favourite pair.
Lily lifts the lid off of their potion, small swirls of light pink smoke rising from the bubbling cauldron, and takes a small sniff.
Confusion quickly flows through her face, and her eyebrows rise ever so slightly. Snape barely even bothers to smell it, just looking down.
Slughorn gave a long drawling speech about he wonders of Snape and Lily's potion, bit even they were not listening.
When he finally shut up, he moved on to us after giving Lily and Snape full marks.
Marly and I were sat in anticipation, finally getting our chance to get a smell of Amortentia.
Marly removes the lid with a flourish, and we both lean in and take a smell. It's glorious, simply glorious.
I never want to stop breathing in this delicious scent. I feel like I'm in a dream, just...wow.
I try to figure out what this gorgeous scent is, breathing it in multiple times in a search for it.
I smell a light lilac smell, almost like a perfume, the cold smell of...well, Quidditch! You may not think that that is a smell, but it is. The rush when you are flying high up in the nippy Scottish air, the wind blowing in your face, through your hair, that's what I smell. That moment of pure exhilaration.
I also smell treacle tart, my mother's specifically. My mum makes the best treacle tart in history, even better than the house elves!
Lastly, I can smell Christmas. Merlin, I live Christmas. The smell of the roaring fire while you sit in your heated living room, knowing fine rightly that it is freezing cold and snowing outside, with a Christmas tree up in the corner and presents scattered around it.
I close my eyes and picture the scene, and now is my moment. Do you have that moment where it suddenly hits you that Christmas is coming soon? Because I know that I do!
In my mind, I can see the sweetie box, generally Quality Street, in the centre of the room, relaxing with my friends and family while presents get passed around. 'Last Christmas' by Wham! is playing in the corner, and there are just pure, happy laughs among everyone.
As the song goes, 'Oh! I wish it could be Christmas everyday!'.
When I almost re-awaken from my sort of dream like state, Slughorn has finished marking all of the potions, and is now standing at the front of the room.
Having not even hard the mark that we got, I lean in to Marly and whisper, "What did we get?".
"Eight!" she whispers back, and I grin. Flip, that's high! In fact, that's the highest I've ever gotten in Potions!
The lesson quickly concludes, and even when Slughorn says that we are free to pack up it takes a hot minute for any one to even comprehend what he is saying, and even longer for anyone to hop into action.
Once we have all dreamily dandered out of the classroom, I join my friends and we all instantly begin talking about what we smelled in the Amortentia.
"Chocolate!" Moons says proudly upon being asked, and we all burst out laughing. "What else would we expect from you Moony!" I say, and Moony rolls his eyes.
"I think we all know who I smelled." Pads says proudly, and Lily stops, Marly along with her. "What?" Padfoot asks, confused at the odd behaviour of his girlfriend.
Marly is in shock.
"Flip, for the first time in your whole entire bloody life Marly you are speechless! Wait, wait! Let me savour this moment!" I say, and Marly quickly falls out of shock and hits me at the back of the head.
"Ow!" I say, wincing and rubbing the back of my head and Marls just sticks her tongue out at me.
Lily starts smirking, and Pads, now very frustrated, asks angrily, "What?". "Well, Sirius! I never knew that you were in love!" she says, and Moony bursts out laughing.
"I don't know how you didn't see that one coming mate!" he says, clapping Pads on the back.
Pads turns magenta, lowering his head in embarrassment. Finally catching on, I clap him on the back on delight as he shyly glances at Marly.
"Oh baby!" she says, not even allowing him any time to respond before smashing her lips to his.
We allow them their privacy.
Lily:
Awww, Marly and Sirius are so cute! Normally I'd be all for chatting about their relationship goals with Mar and Ali, but today I just...I'm out of it.
My day didn't start off like this - initially I was feeling quite fabulous today! But now...I feel sick.
That Amortentia...it...I can't describe it. As I leaned over my desk and inhaled, expecting to smell the likes of my mum's baking or Hogwarts, I inhaled deeply and was...shocked!
Why did I smell the woods? That is so bizarre!