(Amor)tentia
The first day of teaching was always an anxious moment, no matter the fact that Severus went through his 17th start of a new school year. But this year was different. This year he finally got the position he wanted since he first started teaching; this year he’ll be marrying Ana; and this year he'll probably receive the news that he’s going to be a father. They celebrated together all these small accomplishments waiting for them, except the latter—Ana didn’t know Severus had started to daydream about having children with her just yet. So, putting aside his insecurities, he stepped into the classroom this year with even more power and confidence, but real confidence, not the fake one he excelled at displaying in moments of weakness.
Severus didn’t leave the classroom until lunch, so when he was suddenly hit in the corridors with the subtle smell of musk from her sweat that intoxicated him even after six years, he dismissed it. She most likely meddled with my clothes again, dressing in them while pleasuring herself, that devil of a woman.
But the scent didn’t fade away as it should after a long moment of exposure to it but remained rather constant during that day, more intense when he passed groups of children and more subtle when he was alone. It was already dark outside as Severus thought about the strangeness of this while scanning some parchment on his desk. A knock was heard from the door, and with a wave of his wand, he opened it.
"Severus?" It was Ana. He lifted his eyes from the parchment and noticed the small scrunch of her eyebrows and the concerned look in her gaze while she stepped inside his office after closing the door behind her. "Can you help me with something? And please, don’t get mad at me. "
"It depends. What happened? "
"Do you remember when my mother sent me 1000 galleons as a mock gift for our engagement and how I didn’t want to use the money, so I gave them to be put to better use?"
"I remember it very well. You were fuming and strode around our living room at Spinner's End like you were battling some invisible adversary." Severus said while the image of that summer afternoon flooded his memory: Anastasia gesturing violently and spitting words at such a high speed that most of the time he didn’t catch the meaning of them and their connection in that context.
"Good, so I might have mentioned that I gave the money away, but I don’t think I got the chance to tell you to whom."
"Ana, this isn’t my business; it was your family’s money. You can throw them in the Great Lake and I wouldn’t care less about them. " and he truly meant it. They had a growing sum of money that they had started to put away at Gringotts in a joint account after their second anniversary, so they would have managed on their own, with or without the galleons from his future mother-in-law.
"You might start caring because I gave them to the Weasley twins-"
"So the joke shop-"
"It was opened thanks to that sum of money, yes."
"Why is this supposed to upset me?"
She started fidgeting and fiddling with the sleeves of her costume. "They apparently designed a new version of amortentia. More gentler effects than the original potion-"
"It makes the person who smells it remember their loved one without the powerful infatuation that accompanies the common potion," he mumbled almost to himself. Now everything fell into place: why he smelled her in the hallways despite her absence and why the scent seemed to amplify amongst groups of students.
"How did you know?"Ana managed to ask as her voice started to falter.
Severus ignored her question, too deep in his thoughts to even acknowledge her in his office."And they most likely sell it in the form of perfume. Have you gone to Slughorn?" His eyes were fixing her waiting for an answer.
"No, I came to you as soon as I- "
"Go to our rooms or your office or wherever you are needed, just stay out of my way." he spat as he bolted towards the door.
"I want to help you."
"I think you helped me enough already.", and with that Anastasia was left alone in Severus’ office, confusion and hurt sprayed on her features.
Severus regretted having lost his mind at Ana’s confession. It wasn’t her fault after all, and he wasn’t mad at her. She was just there when he found out. He was mostly annoyed that some untested and unregistered potion was used inside the castle. Sure enough, it didn’t cause the subject to become obsessed with another person, but that doesn’t mean it was safe. Merlin knows what the effects were in the case of long exposure to the potion, especially since it was sold as a perfume.
Amor. Very inspired indeed. They could have at least put some effort into the name and made their search longer than 30 minutes. "Boiling Puss" would have delayed them at least 6 hours. Shortly after eleven, Severus put on Dumbledore’s desk the last bottle of Amor perfume that existed inside the school. Until further testing and approval, Filch was assigned the task of searching every package entering the school grounds and confiscating the bottles of perfume. Slughorn offered to test the perfume for side effects, and the other Heads of Houses were to give lectures to their students about using unregistered potions.
Severus entered his quarters at ten minutes past twelve, barely keeping his eyes open. He noticed Ana sleeping soundly under the duvet, and almost tip-toed as he changed into his nightshirt and made himself comfortable beside Ana. He sensed Ana shift, and she molded herself against him, her knees behind his, her breasts against his back. She pushed Severus’ hair out of the way with her nose and pressed her face against his neck. Then she folded her arm over his and arranged her fingers to be intertwined with his.
"Is everything alright?" she asked in her sleepy voice, almost as if she was testing the waters.
"It is. Thank you for letting me know about the perfume. Until we don’t know its side effects it’s dangerous to have it around the school grounds, especially in the grasp of a bunch of dunderheads." he said and he tightened his fingers around hers.
"I think I can help you with discovering those side effects. After all, I was exposed to that perfume myself, "she whispered seductively in his ear.
"And what did you smell?" Severus managed not to whimper in response to her proposition.
"You."
"Me?"
"Always you." and she started nipping gently at his neck. "What about you? What did you smell?"
"You." he whispered trancelike. "Are you still offering to discover those side effects with me?" Severus turned around, facing her, noses touching.
"I’m open to experimenting." Her fingers found his hair. "And if you don’t kiss me right now, I really am going to reschedule this." She started to pull him toward her, but Severus was already there, searching for her mouth with his.