It just occurred to me, how does Amortentia work on aromantic people? Asexual people? (I don’t know if it’s based on romantic or sexual attraction; I assume at least romantic attraction, but possibly both). I’m specifically wondering about Amortentia because of the smell.
What would Tom Riddle have smelled in Slughorn’s classroom, a cauldron of hot strong love bubbling away at the head of the class? Would he smell anything? Or would he smell a few favorite smells, but no special final thing that would remind him of someone?
For that matter, how does it work? Does it work on something physical, hormones or something, and thus might work on anyone barring some sort of chemical difference? Or does it work on a different level, and can only draw on something that is there in the first place – i.e. existence of sexual/romantic attraction, current conscious or subconscious experiences of which it recalls to the mind with its smell?
Could aromantic or asexual people be immune to its effects? Could a person’s sexuality affect whether they become infatuated with the person who administers the potion? How much can magic really create here?
Just things I’m suddenly wondering.
When the potion was worked on Ron it seemed to cause major obsession rather than lust so I have no doubt it would work on someone with an incompatible sexuality to that of the administer of the potion or someone who is Aromantic/Asexual spectrum.
It’s definitely got a mental aspect to it at the least. Perhaps it works by changing the way you think, perhaps changing the way you associate things to people and creating positive associations with the administer of the potion. Or perhaps it takes existing positive associations/feeling towards another person that already exist and re-routes them towards the administer of the potion instead.
Another way it could work would be through the combination of three neurochemicals: phenylethylamine, norepinephrine and dopamine which are found in the hormonal system when people first fall in attraction with later stages of long relationships being guided by oxytoxin and serotonin.
Possibly also it could have an aspect which hijacks the human body’s ability to sniff out certain parts of our potential partners’ DNA that make up their immune system, called major histocompatibility genes (MHC), to determine whom we’re compatible with. It would explain why a potion which would make people fall in infatuation with others would have a scent aspect which makes the potion smell good to them.
At the very least it has been shown to affect mental autonomy and has been shown to adversely affect decision making ability. I find the potion extremely disturbing and it honestly seems to be a magical variation of a roofie.
Crack theory: Voldemort deliberately got rid of his nose in order to make it harder for Amortentia to work on him so no one could control him.
Cheloneuniverse 