hogwarts!au
Zer0 makes a distasteful sound but, after a stern glare from Gaige, doesn't stop the counter-clockwise motion of his finger, absently moving the stirring rod along. He doesn't care for their current assignment and doesn't bother to hide his nonchalance at all, though Gaige ribs him about getting good marks. If anything she's the only reason he bothered showing up once he realized what the coursework was going to be for that day, knowing she'd never let him hear the end of it if he skipped out.
At his side Gaige grumbles under her breath as she slices ashwinder eggs. The heat they give off means she has to constantly refreeze them with a charm, and finding a balance between cutting and casting has been a pain. Regardless she nudges him with her hip and he obligingly moves aside so she can drop the eggs within the mixture, alternating the rotation as per instructed by the book.
"Ugh. This potion is a paiiiin. D'you think we got it?" Gaige asks, and Zer0 opens his mouth to answer, only to be hit full-force by the scent right as the liquid takes on its distinct pearly sheen.
He can make out the tatami and ozone easily, which isn't much of a surprise. But it's the third, and strongest, scent that takes a bit of mulling over. It's sweet, almost fruity, and almost nauseatingly pleasant. But Zer0 can't for the life of him make out where he's smelled it before and by the time he thinks he's almost got it Gaige has bottled the potion and the smell dissipates from memory.
It isn't until much later that he smells it again, when he's on the train back and Gaige has just changed out of her robes back into muggle-clothes. That sweetly fruity scent wafts off of her vest and he almost chokes from surprise.
Antifreeze. The amortentia had smelled of antifreeze. Just like Gaige.