This is my fic for the Love Potion Challenge. My smell was peppermint...
Disclaimer: You must have been hiding under a rock if you didn't know J. K. Rowling owns Harry Potter... not me
Seamus woke up early that morning. He though he might go down to get a bite to eat. He looked over his sleeping housemates, before deciding he would find his own way to the kitchens. He hadn't been there before but he thought he knew the way.
It turned out he was wrong.
He ended up wandering around the dungeons on the opposite side to the kitchens, nearer his old potions classroom.
Seamus suddenly stopped. He turned as full circle, breathing deeply through his nose. What was that amazing smell?
At first he'd been sure it was the warm, cosy smell of his Labrador back home. Then it seemed he was wrong, it was defiantly the hot chocolate his mother made. After another deep sniff he realised it was both, combined without being fully mixed, and there was something else. Something he identified as... peppermint?
It was a weird mix, but he loved it. He wanted nothing more then to find where that smell came from. He followed it all the way to the door of the potions classroom. Then he saw the cauldron, filled with a simmering liquid that was letting off whirls of steam.
His stomach let out a grumble. Seamus started looking for a goblet. He couldn't help it... that drink had the most enticing smell he'd ever smelt. He had to drink some... now!
Before he could get very far in his search there was a chuckle from the doorway.
"I wouldn't drink that if I were you." Said the new professor. Seamus dropped the hurried search and occupied himself by looking at his feet.
"Good morning sir." The last thing he wanted to do was meet the professor's gaze. He'd burst out laughing if he did. Dean had drawn the conclusion with him very early on that Slughorn looked like a walrus.
"It's the most powerful love potion in the world." The old man informed him. Seamus turned scarlet.
"Oh," He looked as horrified. He'd been about to drink love potion. "Ooops,"
Slughorn laughed. Then he looked into the cauldron.
"It give off the smell of what attracts us most. Everyone would smell it differently." Seamus was still avoiding looking at him. Slughorn studied him for a while, looking for some bright spark of intellect. Finally he sighed.
"You'd better be off then boy." He finally said, obviously annoyed at the lack of response.
Seamus bolted.
He walked back up to the common room. That was weird. He couldn't believe he'd almost taken love potion. Seamus shuddered. One glance around the common room told him no one else was up yet. Or at least, no one he knew. He decided to head up to his dormitory.
Still in a daze Seamus was shocked as the stairs changed to a slide beneath his feet. As he fell he heard a girly squeal from the top of the stairs, and before he knew what was happening he had crashed to the floor, a very bemused Lavender Brown on top of him.
"Seamus, you can't get up to the girls dorms." She sounded exasperated, attempting to pull herself into a sitting position.
"Sorry," He squeaked. What a day!
Seamus gently pulled lavender to her feet as he stood. He was suddenly aware that they were very close. A familiar scent seemed to fill the little space. In the middle of taking a deep breath Seamus choked.
He doubled over. Lavender's concerned voice reached his ears, her hand on his shoulder.
"Seamus, are you okay?" She asked. Seamus stared at her.
"Is – is that peppermint chewing gum?" he finally managed to say.
"Yeah, I chew it all the time. Hermione introduced me to it - muggle stuff." Seamus blinked, opened his mouth and closed it again.
"You chew it all the time?" He asked.
"Yeah, why? It's just gum Seamus. Did you want some or-" She trailed off. Seamus was backing away from her, eyes wide with fear.
No way, no way. Lavender, attractive? Well, yeah, of course she was, but that attractive. The fact her gum could be the most enticing scent...
He bolted for the second time that day.
Please reveiw, I always found Lavender difficult to write...