Consider this my entry to abbilovegood 's 'The Beetles Awards. I might be too late, but still, writing is always fun! If it doesn't count, at least I had fun writing it! Btw, this is prompt 4.

(Third Person POV, 6th year)

"Just ten minutes left, better hurry!" Slughorn exclaimed as he wiped his ever glistening forehead with a velvet handkerchief.

"You know, a velvet handkerchief can't be that effective, can it..." James noted absently. "I don't know Potter, just get back to work. I am not getting a bad grade in potions just because of you." Lily answered, frustration evident in her voice.

"Lover's quarrel?" Sirius teased Lily in a sing-song voice he knew annoyed her. "For Godric's sake, no, Potter and I are not lovers, and we never will be!" She answered, her seemingly infinite patient always running short with Sirius and James.

James proceeded to pretend to faint, and then stood back up explaining "No, what we have is far too passionate to be labeled only as lovers, Evans. Surely you know." 'Evans' promptly glared at him, and then turned her attention back to the potion.

"Good one Prongs," Sirius snorted. "I don't know what Slughorn was thinking, putting you at tables near each other," Lily muttered under her breath. Sirius only waved his hand dismissively. "Bleedin' hell, don't be such a prude, Evans."

Lily finally shrugged and turned around once more to focus back on her potion. "I don't even understand why Slughorn thinks it's a good idea to teach a bunch of desperate teenagers Amortentia," James mumbled, running a hand through his consistently messy hair.

Lily shrugged, and answered, "Your guess is as good as mine."

By then, Slughorn had begun to make his rounds around the room. "Oho, what do we have here?" He asked in his booming voice as he peered over James and Lily's cauldron. "What a perfect example if I've ever seen one! Excellent work, the both of you, simply marvelous! And, Mr. Potter, I trust you won't have quidditch on Christmas, and you'll be able to attend my quaint little, er, get together?"

James nodded his assent, and Slughorn waddled up to the front of the classroom and asked "Now, take a sniff. What do you smell?" He asked.

Sirius took a big, dramatic sniff. "I smell... grease and a severe lack of shampoo! Snivellus, dear, you're my one true love!!!" He declared, and pretended to fling himself across the room at Snape.

James could've sworn he saw the corners of Lily's mouth twitch. Aha. He thought. Small victories.

Then, it was time for his theatrics, so he took a big sniff, and Lily's shoulders stiffened, after all, she was probably expecting some big declaration of love. And she was right. She just got the person the declaration was for wrong.

"I smell parchment, dust, chocolate, and old jumpers. Clearly, my true love is Remus John Lupin!" Lily looked at him, her expression a mixture of surprise and relief. James tried to throw himself at Remus, but Sirius caught him.

"Stay away from my Moony, Prongs," Sirius told him, poking the much taller boy in the chest playfully. James just turned around and winked at Lily, and took his seat again. "Ah, overprotective boyfriends, am I right?" He told the entire class, flashing his perfectly crooked grin at Lily.

Remus blushed slightly and slipped his hand through Sirius's. "Oooooooo!!!" Chorused the entire class, minus the Slytherin's. Some looked like they wanted to, but others were looking at the intertwined hands with clear disdain.

"Now, Mr. Potter, please actually smell your potion. It was made perfectly, so you should be able to smell it straight away!"

James's face hardened with a rare moment of seriousness. Haha. Sirius-ness. I'm not funny. I'll go away now. He leaned into the potion slightly, focusing on the enticing fumes emitting from the potion. He took a deep breath and smelled... nothing. It was the same smell he had been smelling the entire class.

He frowned. "Huh. That's odd. I don't smell anything. The potion must be defective." Lily shook her head "No, we definitely made this potion perfectly, here, let me smell." He moved out of her way obligingly, and she leaned in and took a deep breath as well. Alas, she could not smell anything either. It was the same air she had been breathing the entire class.

"Hm. It must be a dud." Lily finally admitted. Slughorn frowned. "Nonsense. I haven't seen such a perfectly executed Amortentia in ages. Well, perhaps Severus's comes quite close." He waddled back over to them and took a deep breath of the fumes emanating from the cauldron.

"Ahhhh..." he sighed happily. "I smell candied pineapple... velvet... and that wonderful roast that the house elves make!

James and Lily shared a confused glance. "Then why can't we smell anything?" They asked simultaneously. Lily batted James lightly on the shoulder as if it were his fault. Slughorn looked knowingly at them.

"Oh, I have absolutely no idea... no, none at all!" He chuckled. The rest of the class looked around in confusion at each other. What was happening with Slughorn?

One Severus Snape's eyes narrowed bitterly as he realized what Slughorn had meant. He chose not to share his knowledge with the rest of the class, and hopefully have Lily think that it just meant that she just wasn't around the right person recently, and then realize she was madly in love with him, Severus Snape.

But, alas, Remus's eyes widened as he realized what Slughorn meant. His eyes flitted back from James, to Lily, and back again. His mouth flopped open helplessly, apparently too shocked to share his findings. He hastily pointed at Lily, then James, and sputtered "But that means that you... and, uh, you! Oh my Godric! But-but, this is unreal, Merlin's saggy left pant leg!"

Slughorn's giant mustache twitched in amusement. "Precisely, Mr. Lupin, precisely."

Remus blushed at the sudden attention and fiddled with the ends of his jumper sleeves beneath his robes.

A collective array of gasps sounded around the dimly lit dungeon as they realized what it meant. Still, both Lily and James were thoroughly confused, both a bit too thick when it came to each other that they didn't realize the reality of the situation.

"Bloody hell, all of the lads have gone mad," James muttered. Lily nodded in agreement. "I know! What are they even gasping at? It's not the bloody circus!"