Potions in Harry Potter
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"Veritaserum" redirects here. For the Harry Potter website, see Veritaserum (website)
A variety of potions are discussed in the fictional Harry Potter series of novels by J.K. Rowling.
Potions are brewed in a cauldron from magical ingredients. This results in liquids that can be made to have any kind of effect on the drinker from strength enhancement to immunity to flames. According to former Potions Professor Severus Snape, with potions one can "bewitch the mind, ensnare the senses and even put a stopper on death". Potion-making skills are not dependent on the maker's overall magic skills, as the potions result from the properties and right proportions of the ingredients. However the creator's magic still forms an integral part of the potion's magical effect.
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[edit] Amortentia
Amortentia (pronounced Ah-more-ten-see-ah) is the strongest love potion in the world. In the first Potions class of Harry Potter's sixth year at Hogwarts, Professor Slughorn has a cauldron full of this potion, which is correctly identified by Hermione Granger.
Amortentia can be recognized by its distinctive mother-of-pearl sheen, its steam rising in characteristic spirals and how it smells differently to everybody according to what attracts them. We are told that Harry can smell treacle tart, the woody scent of a broomstick handle, and "something flowery he might have smelled at The Burrow", which the reader can infer by the end of the chapter to be connected to the Weasley family in general, and by the end of the book, with Ginny Weasley in particular (possibly a flower-scented perfume). To Hermione it smells like freshly mown grass, new parchment, and something else that she seemed to have been too embarrassed to reveal in front of the entire Potions class (possibly connected with Ron Weasley).
[edit] Draught of Living Death
The Draught of Living Death is made by mixing a root of asphodel and an infusion of wormwood. It brings upon its drinker a very powerful sleep that can last indefinitely, hence its name. The potion is mentioned by Snape in Harry's very first Potions class in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. It again plays an important role as the first potion to be brewed in Professor Slughorn's N.E.W.T. Potions class during the sixth year, at which time it also noted that the potion contains sopophorous bean juice and chopped valerian root. While attempting to make the potion, Harry finds the instructions that lead to his discovery of the Half-Blood Prince.
[edit] Felix Felicis
Felix Felicis is a potion that makes the user incredibly lucky. It is described as looking like molten gold and bubbling. The potion also helps the person know what to do and where to go. Extremely difficult to brew, if the potion is used too often, it will affect the user's ability to tell what is humanly possible and what is not. Felix Felicis is banned in organized activities such as sporting events and examinations.
In Half-Blood Prince, Professor Slughorn offers a small bottle of Felix Felicis as a prize in a potion-brewing contest. Harry wins it with the hints written in the mysterious Half-blood Prince's textbook. The potion is eventually used in anti-Voldemort activities, but not before Harry tricks Ron into believing that he's given the potion to him right before a Quidditch match, eliminating the self-doubt problem that had crippled Ron's playing skills.
[edit] Love Potion
Love Potions create extreme romantic obsession rather than true love, the latter being impossible to recreate artificially. Love Potions can be added to food or drink and can strengthen the longer they're kept. There is a wide range of them. Fred and George Weasley send them disguised as perfumes and cough potions as part of their Owl order service. The strongest Love Potion in the world is Amortentia, which is first seen in the Half-Blood Prince and has a mother-of-pearl sheen and smells of that which is the most attractive to whoever inhales it. The effectiveness of the potion (or at least Weasley potions) depends on the attractiveness of the potion giver (how much work the potion has to do before the desired effect is reached), and the body weight of the victim (how long it take for the potion to pass through his or her system).
(Note: Due to the many references to love potions throughout the 6th book, it's possibly a clue that Harry Potter himself is affected by a love potion or spell in connection with Ginny Weasley since his attraction to her is started suddenly and she is associated with 'that flowery smell'. Book 7 will perhaps offer more information about this theory.)
[edit] Mandrake Restorative Draft
Mandrake Restorative Draft removes the effects of curses or petrification from the user. It requires the leaves from the Mandrake plant and form the base of many antidotes. Its concoction is one of Professor Lockhart's many claimed skills. Professor Sprout concocts this potion to unpetrify the victims of the Basilisk in Chamber of Secrets.
[edit] Polyjuice Potion
Polyjuice Potion is found in a book called "Moste Potente Potions". In the film version of Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets, Hermione Granger turns to the correct page while talking about the potion in the library at Hogwarts with Harry and Ron Weasley. The page reads:
XVI THE POLYJUICE POTION
Properly brewed, the Polyjuice Potion allows
the drinker to transform himself temporarily
into the physical form of an {sic.} another.
Fill a fortified leaded cauldron with the following
INGREDIENTS:
12 Lacewing Flies
1 oz. of crude Antimony
4 Leeches (unsucculated)
16 Scruples of Fluxweed
3 drachms of pulverised
Sal Ammoniac
Knotgrass blades, pulverised
1 pinch of horn of Bicorn (lunar extracted)
Filings & rasplings of Salpeter, Mercury, Mars
Shredded skin of a Boomslang (desiccated)
Extract of The-Transfigured-Being-to-Be.
Polyjuice Potion is used to transform a person into the physical form of another person for one hour. The final ingredient in this potion is a piece (hairs are the most convenient) of the person that the potion-taker will transform into. The potion must not be used to transform into a non-human animal - that ability can only be learned through hard study of transfigurations and contamination of the Polyjuice Potion causes horrendous partial animal transformations which cannot be easily reversed.
The name is a portmanteau of polymorph (indicating shape-change) and juice (indicating that it is indeed a liquid).
The potion has played a part on three occasions:
- Harry, Ron, and Hermione brew this potion in Chamber of Secrets in order to assume the appearances of three Slytherins so they can sneak into the Slytherin Common Room and find out whether Draco Malfoy is the heir of Slytherin.
- Barty Crouch Jr uses Polyjuice Potion in very large quantities in Goblet of Fire in order to pose as Alastor Moody. He was also smuggled out of Azkaban (by trading identities with his dying mother) by utilising the potion several years before.
- Draco has his cronies, Crabbe and Goyle, use the potion so they can act as his undercover sentries in Half-Blood Prince. Very much to their chagrin, the most effective disguise for two hulking adolescent male students is that of two small girls.
[edit] Veritaserum
Veritaserum has properties similar to a truth drug. Three drops can force the drinker to spill his innermost secrets. It can be resisted through various methods, including Occlumency, rendering it inadmissible as legal evidence, and by drinking an antidote which an experienced potion maker can do, although one must know well in advance that one will be given this potion, in order to brew the correct antidote.
The name comes from the Latin veritas ("truth") plus serum. Characters in the series who use it include Dolores Umbridge (who tries to get Harry to tell her where Sirius Black is, although he refuses to drink the tea into which she pours it; this made no difference in the end, as Snape had given her false Veritaserum), and Albus Dumbledore (who uses it to interrogate Barty Crouch Jr, who was at the time disguised as Alastor Moody). Severus Snape threatens Harry with a crystal bottle of Veritaserum after the Snape's office had been robbed of polyjuice potion ingredients in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.
[edit] Wolfsbane Potion
Wolfsbane Potion is a recently (around 1990) invented potion that, if taken periodically during the week leading up to the full moon, allows a werewolf to retain his or her mindset and sanity, when he/she transforms into a werewolf during the full moon. It is described as a foul-tasting potion - sugar makes it useless - and is so difficult to make that Severus Snape is the only member of the Hogwarts staff capable of preparing the potion for Remus Lupin, who requires regular doses to control himself when he transforms into a werewolf. The potion was invented by Marcus Belby's Uncle Damocles. Damocles was taught Potions in Hogwarts by Horace Slughorn. It is not known whether the Wolfsbane Potion is made from any part of the plant called wolfsbane.
[edit] Minor potions
- A potion is used by Harry to get past the black flames in Philosopher's Stone to get to the Stone.
- A potion is used by Hermione to get past the purple flames in Philosopher's Stone so she can send an owl to Dumbledore and warn him of the pending danger.
- A potion with an unknown name that cures boils. It is the very first potion Snape assigns to Harry's class in year one.
- A potion used to defend a Horcrux in Half-Blood Prince appears to create an invisible barrier around it and also causes Dumbledore extreme pain.
- Ageing Potion: Causes the drinker to age; whether the potion only provides the signs of ageing or actually ages the drinker is not clear. A few drops ages the drinker a couple of months. The potion does not work against magical age detectors when these are properly established, e.g. Dumbledore's age line in the Goblet of Fire.
- Babbling Beverage: Causes the drinker to talk nonsense. Mentioned by Snape during year five.
- Confusing Concoction: A potion of unknown effect, possibly disorients the user and make him or her vulnerable to deceptions. Snape apparently fails Harry when he is unable to correctly make it in Prisoner of Azkaban.
- Deflating Draft: Reverses the effects of the Swelling Solution. This is given out by Snape when Harry lobs a Filibuster firework into Goyle's cauldron during the second year, causing an uproar that enables Hermione to steal essential ingredients for the Polyjuice Potion from Snape's private stores.
- Draught of Peace: Gives the drinker a feeling of peace and well-being, but if overdone it can put the drinker into a deep or even irreversible sleep. It is a very difficult potion to make. Often used in the lead-up to the O.W.L. and N.E.W.T. exams to help over-distressed students.
- An Elixir to Induce Euphoria: This sunshine-yellow potion makes the drinker very happy. This potion was first seen in Half-Blood Prince. Harry earns approval from Slughorn when he uses peppermint to reduce side effects.
- Forgetfulness Potion: A potion of unknown effect, but judging from the name either interferes with or strengthens memory. This is assigned by Snape as the end of term test in year one.
- Hair Raising Potion: Includes a number of rat tails. Mentioned by Ron during the second year.
- Hiccoughing Solution: Cures hiccups. First seen in the Half-Blood Prince.
- Invigoration Draught: Apparently fortifies and increases the user's constitution. Assigned by Snape during the fifth year.
- Pepper-Up Potion: Cures the common cold. Percy makes his sister Ginny drink it in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Leaves drinker smoking at the ears for several hours.
- Shrinking Solution: Causes the drinker to reverse age. First seen in Prisoner of Azkaban; Professor Snape tests Neville's solution on Trevor; Trevor becomes a tadpole.
- Skele-gro: A potion with a burning taste that re-grows bones. Madam Pomfrey gives it to Harry in Chamber of Secrets after Lockhart removes his bones following a Quidditch match. When the drinker has all of their bones, it can increase their size. Draco Malfoy references this in the Goblet of Fire, when he says that he'd always assumed Hagrid's unusual size was due to swallowing a bottle of Skele-gro.
- Sleeping Draught: Used in Chamber of Secrets to subdue Crabbe and Goyle, so that Harry and Ron can steal their hair and shoes.
- Strengthening Solution: Physically strengthens the drinker. First seen in Order of the Phoenix.
- Swelling Solution: Causes body parts it comes in contact with to swell up. This is assigned by Snape during the second year when Hermione steals ingredients from his stores. Harry and Ron blow it up with a Filibuster firework, causing various members of the class to get swellings in different places and keeping Snape occupied.
- Wit-Sharpening Potion: Apparently sharpens the user's mind. Consists of beetles, ginger root, and bile, among other ingredients. Assigned by Snape in Goblet of Fire.
