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Essays
Amortentia vs. Amour
By Bellamuse
If anyone has read the latest in the Harry Potter series, The Half-Blood Prince, then they would have noticed that, where book five is focused primarily on Defense Against the Dark Arts knowledge, the sixth turns it’s due attentions towards Potions. Firstly, the Half-Blood Prince himself (whose identity is revealed at the end of the book) is skilled in the art of potion making, thus greatly improving Harry’s skill in the class. Potions has become a class which is no longer dreaded, but looked forward to with curiosity and excitement by the protagonist and his readers as well. We learn from the newest teacher at Hogwarts, Professor Slughorn, that Harry’s own mother excelled at it, and new and greatly intriguing formulas are added to the world of magic as we know it- the Felix Felicis, said to make the day of its drinker exceptionally lucky; and the Amortentia, a powerful love potion. In The Half-Blood Prince, the predictions of all those who support the relationship between Harry and Ginny come to a head, and the two characters began a relationship, dashed only by the pressure of evil weighing down on Harry’s world. But those who do not believe that Ginny is to be leading lady in Harry Potter’s life brought forth the argument that his affections were not his own, and that it was, in fact, due to a love potion- the Amortentia, perhaps, or the more prolific brand made by Fred and George Weasley, used by many of Harry’s other admirers. This is a valid assumption made by people who have picked up on a few of J. K. Rowling’s clues. Before you get all hyped up about this and exit without reading the rest of what I have to say, let me lay this out front. Though I have said that this is a reasonable argument against the Harry/Ginny validity, I, in fact, disagree with it, and intend to give the reasons as to why I have come to that decision, supported only by the text, and leaving my own personal bias aside. What is Amortentia? “…Excellent, excellent! Now this one here… yes my dear?” said Slughorn, now looking slightly bemused, as Hermione’s hand punched the air again. “It’s Amortentia!” “It is indeed. It seems almost foolish to ask,” said Slughorn, who was looking mightily impressed, “But I assume you know what is does?” “It is the most powerful love potion in the world!” said Hermione. “Quite right! You recognized it, I suppose, by its distinctive mother-of-pearl sheen?” “And the steam rising in characteristic spirals,” said Hermione enthusiastically, “and it’s supposed to smell differently to each of us, according to what attracts us, and I can smell freshly mown grass and new parchment and-” But she turned slightly pink and did not complete the sentence. [skipping to:] “Amortentia doesn’t really create love, of course. It is impossible to manufacture or imitate love. No, this will simply cause a powerful infatuation or obsession. It is probably the most dangerous and powerful potion in this room- oh yes,” he said, nodding gravely to Malfoy and Nott, both of whom were smirking skeptically. “When you have seen as much of life as I have, you will not underestimate the power of love.” From this, we have learned some very valuable information. The Amortentia, which is considered to be the most powerful love potion in the world, comes nowhere near the real symptoms of love. It can only create intense feelings of obsession and infatuation, which, if anyone has ever truly been in love, are a far cry from the real thing. Infatuation is described in the dictionary as being inspired with an extremely foolish passion. In the book, there is someone who experiences just this, and that being Ron Weasley. We know for a fact that he is acting under the influence of one of Fred and George’s Wonder Witch love potions. The sensation came over him moments after eating the Chocolate Cauldrons in which the potion was concealed, he looses his appetite, and becomes extremely passionate about protecting Romilda’s reputation, up to the point of punching Harry at the merest degradation of her. He can’t stop thinking about her, and proclaims after about five minutes that he loves her. Physical side effects he experiences include glazed eyes and a pallid expression. Harry experiences none of this. Granted, this is an extreme case, being that the potion is at least four months old and, as Professor Slughorn explains, its potency is only increased by time. So it is possible that a fresh and immediate dosage could produce less obvious and more subtle changes in the person taking it, but it’s effect is only part of the evidence needed to prove that Harry is, in fact, ‘bewitched’. Availability Because Amortentia is the strongest love potion in the world, I think that it is safe to assume that it is difficult to get a hold of- especially for a young witch two years underage and still in school. Thus, it is much more likely that Fred and George’s product is what is used among crushing adolescent girls. Near the window was an array of violently pink products around which a cluster of excited girls was giggling enthusiastically. Hermione and Ginny both hung back, looking wary. “There you go,” said Fred proudly. “Best range of love potions you’ll find anywhere.” Ginny raised and eyebrow skeptically. “Do they work?” she asked. “Certainly they work, for up to twenty-four hours at a time depending on the weight of the boy in question-” “-and the attractiveness of the girl,” said George, reappearing suddenly at their side. “But we’re not selling them to our sister,” he added, becoming suddenly stern. “Not when she’s already got about five boys on the go from what we’ve-” In reading the Harry Potter books, we must keep in mind that it is a fictional world controlled by and author in which all things pertaining to it must contained within the text. This means that if some specific action takes place, there must be an explanation for how it came about somewhere in the story line. It can be made less obvious by various means, but the fact remains- in accordance with J. K. Rowling’s writing style, nothing is pulled randomly out of the blue. This being said, this passage shows the situation provide in which Ginny could have possible obtained the love potion. I’m not saying that because it isn’t written out “Ginny then took up a bottle of Wonder Witch Love Potion and purchased it” means it didn’t happen, quite the opposite. It very well could have happened, and Rowling hid it from the text for obvious reasons. But if that were the case, she would have left clues for the subtle reader to find, such as “Ginny looked furtively at the bottles of love potions,” or “Ginny left the shop with an unmarked package under her arm,” or “Fred and George nudged Ginny towards the love potions whispering conspiratorially.” She, being a better writer than I, would have come up with far more fitting ways of expressing this, but it comes down to the same thing. There has to be something there to guide us, however subtly, to that assumption- even if it’s only spotted after the revelation has been made. However, she does nothing of the kind, and instead, goes out of her way to describe the exact opposite from Ginny. Firstly, she states the Ginny is wary and skeptical of the products. Then, she shows that Ginny spends very little time examining the potions, and instead moves on to other things, such as the ten-second pimple vanisher and the Pygmy Puffs (where she stays throughout the remainder of the chapter). She then puts even more obstacles in the way by giving Fred and George a rather comically over-protective rant to Ginny during which they refuse to sell any of the potion to her. Ginny is unfazed by this remark, and all the remarks to follow about her love life- Rowling places her in control, thus setting her apart from the giggling girls overcome with interest in the love potions. Also in this passage, we hear from Fred and George exactly what goes into making the love potion work: it has to be administered every 24 hours, which means that Ginny, with her new boyfriend, busy social life and separate schedule would have to spike something of Harry’s every single day. That is a feat, and from my reading of the text, there is no instance in which Ginny could have possibly done this, either discretely or not. Amortentia = Ginny Above are stated all the practical reasons why it is highly unlikely that Harry and Ginny’s relationship was based on something that their own genuine feelings for one another. Now we get to the interesting part. They chose the one nearest a gold colored cauldron that was emitting one of the most seductive scents Harry had ever inhaled: somehow it reminded him simultaneously of treacle tart, the woody smell of a broomstick handle, and something flowery he thought he might have smelled at the Burrow. He found that he was breathing very slowly and deeply and that the potion’s fumes seemed to be filling him up like a drink. A great contentment stole over him; he grinned across at Ron, who grinned back lazily. Here we have an example of how Harry reacts to the Amortentia’s potency. It says that, among the smell of treacle tart and a broomstick handle, he is reminded of something flowery that he thought he might have smelled at the Burrow. This here is a very prominent clue, and what first alerted me to the possibility that Ginny might have been ‘poisoning’ Harry without his knowledge (something along the lines of Ginny = Amortentia). If Ginny had somehow slipped a love potion to Harry, he would be feeling the effects of it when she is around. But, if we were to look again at the case of Ron’s experience with love potion, he felt reminded of her even when she was no where in the vicinity. It is a sort of poison that is constantly present and in action, not a perfume that is recognized only when the person wearing it is in the room. Go back to what Hermione says about how the potion reacts to people, that “it’s supposed to smell differently to each of us according to what attracts us”. Therefore, it is instead a case of Amortentia = Ginny. Harry smells something flowery along with treacle tart and broomstick handles- these are the three things that Harry is attracted to. Harry realizes that the flowery smell is Ginny, and so, Harry is attracted to Ginny. I have to admit that beneath my cynical exterior, I really am a shameless romantic at heart. Throughout all six of the books there are numerous hints to a future involving romantic sentiments between Harry and Ginny, and there are a dime a dozen essays out there that can list them and make their point much clearer than I possibly could. In this essay, I am dealing entirely with book six and the evidence that supports genuine feeling between the couple. At the Burrow when Harry first sees Ginny in HBP, he once again describes her favorably. He laughs at her jokes about ‘Phlegm’ and notices subtle looks directed, not at him, but at Hermione or Mrs. Weasley, hints that he is spending a fair amount of time watching her closely. He feel inexplicable irritation when Ginny gaily abandons him on the train to be with Dean and becomes so entranced with her hair as she walks away that a group of wide-eyed adoring girls have surrounded him unnoticed until he literally shakes himself out of his reverie. (I have to add in here because the opportunity is too good to miss, that this is a moment of real awakening in Harry’s mind, and a drastic change from the Ginny we me years ago at this very same station. Once upon a time, Ginny was one of these wide-eyed hero-worshipers, and it was Harry, Ron and Hermione who left her on her own to find a compartment. Now, it is a beautiful and independent Ginny who is doing the leaving, and in terms of literary devices, physically moving away from that type of girl that she once had been mistaken for.) Harry feels comfortable and natural and very much himself and in his element around her (at least, before his feelings for her are recognized), which he most definitely didn’t around Cho. And here I have to say that Cho really is a very nice girl in her own right and has been nagged on by far too may fanatical H/G shippers. Take a leaf out of Hermione’s book, and have so sympathy for the poor girl who is desperately trying to move on with her life after having lost Cedric, who I believe to have been the love of her life. He develops a ‘monster in his chest’ upon his discovery that little Ginny is in fact the girl of his dreams, and upon at last ‘getting the girl’, he floats away on a bubble of happiness and contentedness that was very much lacking in his relationship with Cho, and one that not even detentions with Snape or homework can fully burst. When faced with “that flighty temptress, adventure” (a phrase I can’t get enough of because it reminds me so much of Ginny’s character) he instructs his friends to say goodbye to her for him, but still regrets that he could not have said so himself when faced with the grimness of the Inferi-polluted lake. In the midst of battle and in pursuit of a man who now in his mind ranks nearly as high as Voldemort on his sworn-enemy list, he still takes the time to perceive Ginny’s beauty and describe her favorably, and when all else has failed- Snape has escaped, and Dumbledore lies dead on the ground- it is Ginny’s soft and warm touch that revives him from his grief, and no one else’s. He refers to her as his best form of comfort, a compliment that raises her above even Ron and Hermione in his eyes and affection, and he approaches the knowledge of what must be done to protect with the utmost dread. It is this that I believe to be the most telling of all. A man obsessed and infatuated would not be so self-sacrificing as to give up his obsession if it we a danger to it or to himself. Nor would a deviant and plotting woman who has spent the better part of three terms poisoning someone give him up as gracefully as she did. I believe that their love was true. I believe that it goes against the very nature that Rowling set up for Ginny to win someone’s affections through something as base as a love potion. There is more to be had of Harry and Ginny’s relationship. Too much has been set up over the past six books to merely let it drop after the few weeks they were together. |
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