While musing on the theme for this issue, I thought of how scents are often described as sweet. This got me wondering about the use of scent in the Harry Potter books. Part of the series enduring power is the immersive quality of the world and how it appeals to all our senses, after all. Smell has to feature somewhere.
One of the examples I thought of first was how smells play a part in magic. We don’t often hear of spells creating a scent (unless they’ve gone wrong) which is interesting in itself; is it possible to create a perfume charm? However, potions are an exception. Amortentia smells differently to everyone who encounters it. For Harry, the smells are all quite sweet: treacle tart, the handle of a broomstick and the floral scent from the burrow that we later find out reminds him of Ginny. Here smells are not only used to make something seem more magical but also as a deeper kind of foreshadowing. Then you have the occasion where smell is used in a much more straightforward way, simply to enhance the magic for a reader. Look no further than the prefects’ bathroom where glorious scents mingle with fantastical coloured bubbles, creating an experience that would make even the most steadfast rule breaker dream of getting their hands on a prefect badge.
There are far less pleasant smells of course. Bathilda Bagshot’s house smells as dark as the forces that have taken it over, the trolls we encounter in book 1 have a reek all of their own and when Ron’s wand breaks, it produces acrid smoke that smells like eggs. Who can forget the putrid haggis and rotting fish at Sir Nick’s birthday party? Though slightly less destructive, the heavy perfume in Trelawney’s room is no less unpleasant as it can easily lull students to sleep. Sweet smells can be just as off-putting as a hint of something rotten.
Maybe the most powerful use of smell is far more ordinary. I remember Halloween being heralded by the delicious scent of baking pumpkin, the toffee scented warmth of Honeydukes, and the sizzling sausages Hagrid cooks in the hut on the rock without even having to open my copies of the books. Perhaps most poignantly, it’s the smell of grass on the cool night breeze that reminds Harry just how much he wishes he could keep on living as he walks towards (what he believes to be) his last encounter with Voldemort.
Smell might not be the first thing you think of when you consider why Hogwarts, The Burrow and other Harry Potter locations are so alive in our minds. Yet, it is in there: terrible, lovely and ordinary by turns. It’s another powerful tool to make the wizarding world seem like much more than words on a page.