BOOK DISCUSSION: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

[cmere]

“Why are you worrying about YOU-KNOW-WHO, when you should be worrying about YOU-NO-POO? The constipation sensation that's gripping the nation!”Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince was published in 2005. Clocking in at slightly shorter than its predecessor, the book nevertheless contained a wealth of new information for fans. Book Six included new

Comments

Amortentia

[kate34books]

Now I don't meant this to be a shipping debacle in any way.

I'm not asking to put into question the validity of the ships, or wether or not it was convoluted or forced.

I'm just trying to understand what exactly are we meant to take out from Amortentia as an in-universe potion and what exactly was Rowling meaning for it?

I get that she used it as 'ship forshadowing' but it seemed contradictory considering what the text says the potion does.

It's not a 'true love potion' Slughorn describes it as '"Amortentia doesn't create actual love, of course. That's impossible. But it does cause a powerful infatuation or obsession.'

and the potion smells depends on what attracts a person

the two explicit mentions of its smells are linked to two couples that are attracted to one another.

that of course falls under the 'attraction' part.

But Slughorn still mentioned the effect of the potion are not 'actual love' that it's instead 'infatuation or obsession' neither which is genuine.

So it seemed to me that Rowling put two contradictory ideas on the same potion, so what was she trying to say, really?

Again, I just want thoughts on the potion on a meta level, not ship bashing.