As a side note, even though Hermione correctly identifies the three cauldron's contents in Slughorn's class, winning her high praise and House points, it is hardly surprising that she recognizes the Polyjuice Potion, having brewed it herself during her second year (in ''Chamber of Secrets''). Unfortunately, for Hermione at least, the results were less than successful when she accidently added cat hair rather than human to her portion, landing her in the infirmary for weeks.
This chapter drops another hint that Harry has growing feelings for Ginny. In the first Potions class, when Harry whiffssniffs the love potion, he inhalesdetects "''treacle tart, the woody smell of a broomstick handle, and something flowery he thought he might have smelled at the Burrow''". And later, when the Trio meet Ginny, Harry, "''caught a sudden waft of that flowery smell he had picked up in Slughorn's dungeon''". Hermione mentions that a love potion contains the scent of what it is that attracts usa person to someone, and it is different for each personindividual; she runs off the scents she detected, but stops short before mentioning the third, possibly afraid that it would identify someone she cares about. By this stage in the series, we should certainly know Harry's feelings about broomsticks and treacle tart, and weit areis unsurprisedhardly bysurprising that Hermione characteristically identifyingidentifies one of the scentsodor as fresh parchment. Harry's noticing Ginny's scent in the potion, even though he does not yet recognize it, is a sign that he is attracted to her while being oblivious to that fact.
