024. Smell

                                    

                                          
Ron and Harry joined the rest of their classmates at Slughorn's table, where four cauldrons sat, billowing with smoke. Hermione, unsurprisingly, was able to describe the effects of each, and Slughorn released them to start on their potions only after showering her with praises.

                          
He waddled around the room with a small flask, allowing everyone to smell it as he checked their work on their Draughts of Living Death. When he reached Hermione, Harry, Ron, and Ernie's table, he peered into all of their cauldrons approvingly—although he did scrunch up his nose slightly when he reached Ron's. Slughorn handed his flask to Hermione with a wide smile.
                          
"Amortentia!" She identified for the second time that day. She passed the flask off to Ernie, who handed it to Harry, who gave it to Ron.
                          
As the scent wafted to his nose, Ron smelled the familiar fragrances of the broom cupboard back at the Burrow, warm Butterbeer, the first feast of the year at Hogwarts, and, finally, a scent that he couldn't quite place, smelling faintly of lavender and lemons.
                          
As he set back to work at his potion, Harry and Hermione started bickering about the correct way to make the draught. For the first time in either of their potions careers, Harry was doing a better job than Hermione.
                          
As she leaned over her book to try to prove Harry wrong, Ron caught another hint of that smell from the Amortentia. Lemons and lavender. He whipped his head around, expecting to see Slughorn behind him again, but found no one. Confused but unconcerned, he set back to work on his potion. Maybe the fumes were making him imagine things.
                          
Only after class did he realize what he had been smelling. He was walking across the courtyard with Harry and Hermione when he stopped in his tracks, having caught the scent again when a gentle breeze floated past them.
                          
He looked cautiously at Hermione and his ears flushed pink when he caught her eyes. She gazed so intently at Ron that, just for a second, he thought she could somehow look into his mind and see what he was thinking. See that he had just realized what he had smelled in the Amortentia was her. See that he had finally understood why he felt heat creep up in his neck every time she looked at him. See that he'd felt this way about her for years, even though he'd been too thick to notice until now. He was worried that Hermione knew as well as him that, from this moment on, he could never look at her the same.