Love Potion

Amortentia is a type of potion which causes the drinker to become infatuated or obsessed with the one who gave them of the potion.

Ingredients
Ashwinder eggs are a common ingredient in many varieties of love potion.

Effects
Love Potions ostensibly cause the drinker to fall in love with the person who gave them the potion. However, true love cannot be produced through artificial means, and thus the feelings that Love Potions create are more like obsession than affection.

The effect that a Love Potion has will wear off over time. In order to maintain the potion's effect, the giver must continually administer doses, or else the recipient may fall out of "love" with them. A single dose typically lasts up to 24 hours, but the precise duration is dependent on the weight of the drinker, as well as the attractiveness of the giver.

Love Potion will work regardless of whether the giver is present when the recipient consumes the potion. The longer the recipient keeps the potion (or potion-spiked item), the more potent its effect will become, as Love Potion matures over time.

There is an antidote to counteract the effect of Love Potions, but, even after it has been given, one will still retain all the embarrassing memories of how they acted under the influence of the Love Potion.

Varieties
Laverne de Montmorency invented a number of different of Love Potions in the 1800s. Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes sold a whole "range" of Love Potions in 1996, further suggesting that there is more than one kind, each of which might have a unique effect.

Amortentia is the strongest Love Potion in the world. It is recognizable by its mother-of-pearl sheen and and by the spiraling steam that rises from it. The smell of the potion varies from person to person and is dependent upon what each individual finds appealing.

At Hogwarts
Love Potions are banned at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, but this hasn't stopped students from making them, or from trying to win hearts by their use. Even Molly Weasley admitted to having brewed a Love Potion when she was a girl.

On Valentine's Day, 1992, Gilderoy Lockhart implored his co-workers to join him in celebrating the occasion, suggesting that students should ask Professor Snape how to brew a Love Potion. Snape did not approve.

In her fourth year, Pansy Parkinson told Rita Skeeter that she believed Hermione Granger was capable of brewing a Love Potion, and that this was the method she thought Hermione had used to win the interest of Viktor Krum and, allegedly, Harry Potter. Skeeter published these false claims in Witch Weekly and urged Albus Dumbledore to investigate them further.

The Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes store began carrying a range of Love Potions as part of its WonderWitch line in 1996. When Argus Filch banned all Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes products from Hogwarts, Fred and George Weasley began shipping Love Potions disguised as perfumes and cough potions, allowing Hogwarts students to order Love Potions despite mandatory searches on owls. Romilda Vane tried to give one of the Weasleys' Love Potions to Harry Potter by spiking Gillywater and a box of Chocolate Cauldrons. Having been warned by Hermione Granger, who had overheard Romilda plotting how best to slip the potion to Harry with some other girls, Harry refused the Gillywater when Romilda offered it to him, but was forced to accept her chocolates. Harry kept the unopened box in his room until March of the next year, when Ron Weasley found it, and, mistaking it for a birthday gift, ate half the chocolates. Ron instantly became obsessively smitten with Romilda and had to be taken to Horace Slughorn to be given an antidote.

Other Uses
Albus Dumbledore also believed that Merope Gaunt used a love potion to obtain the affections of Tom Riddle Sr, a wealthy Muggle who lived in her village and whom she was infatuated with. Merope discontinued dosing Riddle with the potion after they were married and she was pregnant, but her hopes of having achieved his true love or of him staying with her for the sake of their unborn child were in vain. Riddle abandoned his wife, horrified, and she died soon after giving birth to a son, Tom Marvolo Riddle, on December 31, 1926.

Behind the scenes

 * J.K. Rowling has said that it is of important symbolic significance that Voldemort, incapable of love himself, was conceived in an act of coercion, rather than love.

Appearances

 * Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
 * Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
 * Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
 * Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
 * Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
 * The Tales of Beedle the Bard
 * Famous Wizard Card