Wednesday, January 1st, 1975
"Lily- Severus, stay behind for a moment, won't you? I have a proposition." The rest of the mid-morning potions class was shuffling past his desk, each depositing their own small glass vial of a bright green good luck potion that had been the day's assignment. Lily and Severus stood off to the side of the rest of the students, still holding their vials of the day's potion. They gave one another a curious look.
"Ah, very good." Slughorn said when the rest of the class had gone. He hurried to shut the door and then sank back into his seat, smiling at them. "Have either of you, in your readings, come across a potion called Amorestmorta?"
Severus was so surprised that he raised his eyebrows involuntarily. Lily laughed sincerely. "Of course, Sir, everyone's heard of it. It's the mythical love potion that kills you if your love isn't true."
Severus looked at her.
"Not so mythical, my dear!" Slughorn said good-naturedly. "Let's go into my office, shall we?"
He led them into the expensively decorated office with it's comfortable wingbacked chairs, foot-stools and sparkling decanters of good things to drink. With a flick of his wand he set a merry fire crackling in the little fireplace, and conjured three delicate crystal glasses from the cabinet across the room.
"Sit, Sit!" He said genially, waving a hand at them while he poured a bit of something red for each of them from a glass decanter that sat by the others on the tea service table he had placed by his chair. Lily and Severus sat side by side on the red velvet setee opposite his chair. Severus was sure Slughorn must want something from them. Slughorn casually acknowledged that he and Lily were his most talented pupils, but Severus had only been in his office once before, when Slughorn needed Severus' assistance organizing all the entries for 'Most Innovative Potion,' in Severus' third year.
"Amorestmorta is a real potion." Slughorn said, and paused for dramatic effect as he handed them their glasses. Severus smelled the stuff in his glass suspiciously while Lily took a small sip. "Mm! That's delicious!" She exclaimed.
"Aged cherry wine." Slughorn said to Lily, inclining his glass to her.
Severus drank a bit of his, seemed to contemplate it for a moment, and then drank the rest. "Of course it's real," Severus said. "Amorestmorta was popular with wizarding knights and their ladies in the middle ages, and with," there was only the slightest hesitation in his speech, and his eyes glanced in Lily's direction, who was looking at him interestedly, "..lovers in the seventeenth and eighteenth century. There's a famous story about it."
"Very good." Slughorn said appreciatively. "I want you to brew it for me."
"That's impossible." Severus blurted out. "No one has brewed that potion in hundreds of years. The instructions are lost." Lily gave Severus a curious look.
"I have it." Slughorn said, and smiled as though he were about to enjoy explaining how he'd managed to come by something so remarkable, so rare.
"I have an acquaintance who recently inherited a rather large estate. My acquaintance comes from a long line of distinguished potioneers and I have acquired all of the writings and materials left by his ancestor, who was a noted magi-anthropologist and potion brewer. Perhaps you've heard of Desmond Maplethwite?"
They both nodded. Desmond Maplethwite's 'Advanced Potion Theory and Chemical Process,' was standard reading for all fifth year potion students.
"Desmond Maplethwite knew more about Amorestmorta than any other wizard of his day. He spent his final years trying to brew it based on accounts, writing and fragmented records-"
"And died after he brewed it incorrectly and poisoned himself." Severus finished for him sardonically. "Professor, I have no doubt that we would be capable, but- " Slughorn raised a finger and opened his mouth to counter this statement when Lily cut across both of them.
"What do you need it for?" She asked.
"I know a few, ah, interested parties.. fine, quality wizards who would be delighted to obtain some for their personal stores, as a mere historical curiosity, you must understand. And Severus, Desmond did not poison himself, he died of a broken heart." Severus looked at him, unimpressed with this revelation.
"You see, Desmond was in fact successful at brewing Amorestmorta shortly before he died. He drank it to prove his love to his newest wife, and perished when she did not return his truest affections. I knew him myself as a young man, before he passed, may he rest."
"So you're suggesting Desmond Maplethwite obtained real instructions for brewing Amorestmorta and died, not of poisoning, but because his wife didn't love him?" Severus asked.
"Precisely, my boy." Slughorn said, sitting forward in his chair.
"That's terrible!" Lily said, shocked. "Why on earth would anyone want to drink it?"
Slughorn smiled. "In the days of courtly love, ladies and their knights would drink it to prove their undying love to one another." He explained.
Severus looked up from his hands, playing idly with his empty crystal glass, and gave Lily a long look as he spoke. "The knights would rather die than live knowing their paramore didn't love them in return. They would drink it to seal their eternal devotion. Lots of wizards and witches died." Because they were fools, he added silently in his head.
Lily shifted in her place on the setee uncomfortably and looked away from him, back to Slughorn.
"Very true," agreed Slughorn. "It was seen as the ultimate romantic gesture. Amorestmorta is not like other love potions, it does not cause one to feel as though they are in love, it simply takes the love that exists between two people and forms a bond that not even death can break. Of course, if that love is not there, it becomes deadly."
"What happened to Desmond's wife?" Lily asked.
"Why, she died, my dear," Slughorn said sadly.
Lily took another drink of her aged cherry wine somberly and set the little empty glass on a small rounded table beside the setee.
"What do we get in return for brewing it?" Severus asked frankly.
Slughorn laughed. "My dear boy, so pragmatic!" He clasped his hands. "The two of you will be excused from any essay I might assign for the rest of the year, and I will award each of your houses 75 points. I will also provide sparkling letters of recommendation upon your graduations, naturally."
Lily and Severus looked at one another.
"We'll do it," Lily said, thinking of all the free time she would have over the remainder of the year if she didn't have to complete another one of his laborious essays.
"Now, this is a very serious undertaking. You will need to go through all of Desmond Maplethwite's papers and writings, along with his collection of grimoires, to locate the precise instructions for the potion. You will have total access to my stores of ingredients and equipment, but I'll expect you to brew it in your free time, here in the lab after class hours.. Wouldn't want the other students to get wind of what you're working on. And you must be absolutely discreet. Tell no one."
"The four grimoires I'd like you to start your search with are most invaluable, and are currently housed in the restricted section of the library. I'll provide you a note and you can go and begin looking."
He produced a small notepad of paper and an ever-inked-quill from the lower layer of his tea caddy, and wrote them a flowery and formal permission slip addressed to Mrs. Pince, the new librarian.
Before they knew it, they had been ushered out of the office and were on their way to the library. Climbing the stairs out of the Slytherin dungeons, their conversation was animated.
"How do you know so much about Amorestmorta?" Lily asked him, shifting her bag from one shoulder to the other. "I've only come across it two or three times, and all of the references were written as though it were hypothetical, not real."
"My Mum has some old book about it," He told her. "I read it last year. I'll write her and have her send it to me so you can read it, too." He told her, and Lily smiled.
"So you think we can brew it?" She asked.
"Of course." He told her, feigning a confidence he wasn't sure he felt. The irony of the situation had struck him as they were sitting in Slughorn's office: Here he was being asked to brew one of Wizarding history's most infamous love potions with the one girl he dreamed of making an impression on. If only there were some way that they two could drink some of the potion. Irrationally, he assured himself that they would survive- afterall, he knew his love for Lily was true. Would it really be such a stretch to assume that she loved him, too?
"What do you really think he's going to do with it?"
"Probably sell it, like he said. I don't think he'd be fool enough to drink it with someone." Severus said. "He'd invariably die."
"We should have asked for a cut of the money," Lily lamented, as they entered the library, hushed and filled with the last light of day, the sound of whispers and the rustle of turning pages filling the quiet.
Mrs. Pince was tight-lipped as she stamped their permission slip, and admonished them to retrieve ONLY the books that were on the permission slip itself. When Mrs. Pince's back was turned, Lily rolled her eyes in an exaggerated fashion. Severus smiled.
The first of the four grimoires was so heavy that neither of them could lift it. Severus went to check that their corner was unoccupied, while Lily floated the great book off of it's shelf and on to the table opposite her. It landed with a heavy thump that echoed unfortunately, and she winced slightly at the sound. She didn't want to bring Mrs. Pince down on them, who, though having only been there a year, was proving to be quiet formidable in her position as head librarian. Severus came back and confirmed that the group of third years that had been in 'their' corner were leaving. Luckily, the other grimoires were not so heavy, and Severus was able to stuff two of them in his bag, while Lily carried the other. As they made their way to the corner with the good chairs, the obscenely large book floated behind them, bobbing along at the motion of Severus' wand.
They checked the large book first, which took two hours and contained many interesting spells and potions, none of which were Amorestmorta. Severus hurriedly scribbled some of the more promising potion instructions on a piece of crumpled parchment, to look at later.
The three smaller grimoires were easier to go through, and they had searched through one of them and were starting on the other before it was dinner time. Deciding to skip dinner, Lily conjured clandestine bacon and tomato sandwiches from the Great Hall, which they ate as they worked, and charmed to look like a stack of books when anyone seemed like they might pass by their spot. Eating in the library was a serious infraction and would warrant at least a detention, and surely an almost unendurable telling off by Mrs. Pince.
They each read from the last two quietly for awhile, scanning with their eyes for anything that looked like it might be a love potion.
"Lily."
She was sitting in her chair with her feet up on the lowest rung of Severus' chair, a thick tome resting on her knees. With one hand she twirled a bit of her red hair, eyes scanning the slanted writing while her other hand carefully turned the thick vellum pages. In her mouth was one of the sugar quills she have given Severus for Christmas, and she sucked it thoughtfully as she read.
"Yah," she said absently, around the candy.
"I found it."
She dropped her hair and closed the book on her lap, taking the sugar quill from her mouth. Severus hefted the heavy book off of the table and onto his knees, shifting it around so it faced her. "Look, it's there." He pointed with his first finger at the miniscule text.
Leaning closer to look, she read aloud, "This most ancient potion is known as Amor est Mortum, Amorestmorta.. Sev! You found it!"
Lily dug in her bag for a roll of blank parchment and began to copy the text down carefully. "Did you read all this?" She asked, pausing to push a bit of hair out of her face.
Severus nodded. "We're going to have to send away for the rattlesnake venom." He said.
"And the tears of a faithful lover." She said, somewhat dismayed. Lily continued her careful copying of the potion and finished just as Mrs. Pince was making her closing announcement. Severus used a replication charm on Lily's copied instructions and wadded the parchment into his bag.
"Tonight I'll write away for the rattlesnake venom and the tears," Severus told her. "I might be able to get them through credit on Slughorn's name, so I don't have to pay for them myself." He said. The rattlesnake venom would be an expensive order, as it had to come from either North or South America.
"We should ask him if he already has some," Lily said. "It's not likely, but it's worth a shot."
They parted ways at the staircase that led to the Slytherin dungeons, and Severus was keenly aware that Lily hadn't needed to walk with him, it was even a bit out of her way.
"Well, I'll see you tomorrow. Write your Mum and get that book for me, don't forget." Lily said, and smiled. She turned and waved a bit as she made her way back the way she'd come, towards the center of the castle and its shifting staircases.