Potions in Harry Potter have a variety of colours, smells, tastes, and effects. While most of them can be brewed by Hogwarts students during their Potions class, some of them may be of the more dangerous kind. In this blog we will dive into the Amortentia Potion, a love potion that has a bigger importance in the Harry Potter series than meets the eye.
Love potions in Harry Potter are potions that cause the drinker to feel a very strong obsession with the person who gave it to them, and are considered extremely dangerous and powerful. The most powerful of them all was Amortentia, a pink liquid with a mother-of-pearl sheen, and steam rising in spirals. Amortentia would emit a smell individual to what the person would find appealing or attractive, even if they were still unaware of what they liked.
"Amortentia is the most powerful love potion in the world. It is distinctive for its mother-of-pearl sheen, and steam rises from the potion in spirals. Amortentia smells different to each person, according to what attracts them."
Since the nature of its effects were still unknown, it was kept in the Love Room in the Department of Mysteries, where Unspeakables would study the potion.
| Person | Smells |
|---|---|
| Hermione Granger | Freshly mown grass, new parchment, spearmint toothpaste, and Ron Weasley's hair |
| Harry Potter | Wooden broomsticks, smells from the burrow, and Ginny Weasley’s perfume |
| Ron Weasley | His mother's cooking, bacon, and Hermione Granger's perfume |
"Powerful infatuations can be induced by the skilful potioneer, but never yet has anyone managed to create the truly unbreakable, eternal, unconditional attachment that alone can be called Love."
— The essence of a love potion in Harry Potter
While Amortentia is known and widely described as a love potion, it does not actually create love in the user. Instead, it lets them feel anm intense infatuation or obsession, strong enough to let them overcome any obstacle to be with the one they desire. Because of its strength and ability to alter one’s behaviour and mannerisms, it is considered an incredibly dangerous and powerful potion, leading to its ban in Hogwarts.
This very strong love potion is assumed to be used two times in the Harry Potter series, aside from its demonstration during Professor Slughorn’s first lesson in the sixth year. Whether it was actually Amortentia that was used is yet unknown, but strongly considered.
Any Potterhead that followed the series knows that Tom Riddle’s mother, Merope Gaunt, a British pure-blood witch, had an unhealthy obsession over Tom Riddle, a wealthy muggle boy. Whether it was her family’s poverty that drove her interest in him, or simply his looks is unknown, however, her feelings were so strong and her mind so twisted, that she would do anything in her power to get what she wanted. Therefore, she hexed Tom Riddle with a love potion. They got married, despite the public’s disapproval, and Merope became pregnant with their son, Tom Marvolos Riddle.
In hopes and belief that after all these years, and bonded by their unborn child, her husband would reciprocate her feelings, Merope lifted the enchantment. However, her hopes would be crushed very soon, as her husband who has now finally free of his enslavement left her immediately. He would never reach out to her again, never ask about his son, and would never talk to anyone about these events out of fear of being thought insane.
"She likes looking at that Muggle. Always in the garden when he passes, peering through the hedge at him, isn't she? And last night — hanging out of the window waiting for him to ride home, wasn't she?... I got him as he went by and he didn't look so pretty with hives all over him, did he, Merope?"
— Merope's obsessive infatuation with Tom Riddle
Romilda attended Hogwarts at the same time as Harry Potter and the rest of the trio. She would soon be known by Potterheads - and also classmates - as the obsessed girl that asked if Harry had a Hippogriff tattooed across his chest. Despite her attraction to Harry, the boy never felt the same towards her and more likely disliked her due to her insulting his friends Luna and Neville, and not taking her Quidditch tryouts serious.
Before Slughorn’s Christmas party, she plotted with her friends to slip him some love potion she bought from Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes so that he would invite her to go with him. She gave him the spiked Chocolate Cauldrons, clearly not expecting that he would put them aside, only for Ron to eat all of them a few months later.
While both of these cases describe people who are desperately in love, their behaviour is also obsessive and dangerous. Both of them were not able to deal with rejection, it drove them to illegal and very questionable, unethical acts. However, Amortentia does not make the user feel actual love, but forced obsession as well. No potion or charm of the Harry Potter series is known to create actual feelings in a person, and that is for a reason.
What would your Amortentia smell like?