Love Potion/Spell — Tag Meaning
Introduces artificial affection by magic — slipped potions, miscast charms, cupid mishaps — and the genre's defining dilemma: enchanted feelings can't be trusted, even when they look exactly like the real ones somebody was already hiding. The strongest entries weaponize the cure scene, where dispelling the magic reveals what it was never responsible for.
What to Expect From "Love Potion/Spell" Fics
Magically induced devotion treated as a problem to solve; the 'it wore off and nothing changed' reveal is the classic ending.
How to find Love Potion/Spell fics on AO3
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Browse "Love Potion/Spell" works on AO3Popular Fics Tagged "Love Potion/Spell"
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Related Tags
Curses
Afflicts a character with hostile magic and its rules: speak and someone dies, touch and they turn to stone, love and the curse completes. Fanfic curses are precision instruments — authors design each one to attack the victim's exact emotional weak point — and breaking them traditionally costs honesty, sacrifice, or a kiss administered with narratively perfect timing.
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Aphrodisiacs
Introduces a desire-amplifying substance — potion, drug, enchanted dessert — administered accidentally, maliciously, or experimentally. Gentler than sex pollen's compulsion in many tellings, the trope often functions as inhibition removal rather than override, with the affected character's underlying feelings doing the steering.
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Magical Accidents
The whoops of the arcane world: potions splashed, wands misfired, rituals interrupted at the worst syllable. As a plot generator it's unmatched — accidents produce body swaps, de-agings, truth compulsions, and accidental soul-bonds on demand — and the tag promises the tone stays closer to chaos than catastrophe.
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Truth Serum
Doses a character with compelled honesty — veritaserum, sodium pentothal, an alien flower, a witch with opinions — and aims them at everyone they've been lying to, especially themselves. The trope is a confession-extraction machine: feelings, secrets, and unflattering opinions all come out, and the comedy or tragedy depends on who's in the room when they do.
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