potion list

[admin shayla]

POTIONS

Aging potion

this causes the drinker to become older. Whether this is in body only, or in body and mind, isn't clear. The effects of this potion are most likely to be temporary.

The most famous use of the ageing potion occurred when fred weasley, george weasley and lee jordan attempted to use it to enter the triwizard tournament when they were still underage. Dumbledore had placed an age line around the goblet of fire to prevent anyone under the age of 17 from approaching it. Fred, george and lee thought that ageing potion would be enough to fool the age line magic, but they were wrong. Fred and george were ejected forcefully back over the line and both sprouted long white beards for their trouble. Lee, much to his relief, never attempted to cross the line and so escaped such humiliation [gof16].

On this occasion, george reported that they had taken only a single drop of potion each, as they only needed to increase their age by a few months. This indicates that the more of the potion is drunk, the larger the degree of aging that occurs. It is also clear, however, that other magic can see through the effects of this potion, as dumbledore's age line proved [gof16].

Amortentia

the most powerful love potion in the world, this causes a strong infatuation or obsession in the drinker. It has a distinctive mother-of-pearl sheen, and steam rises from it in characteristic spirals. It also has a different aroma to everyone who smells it, reminding each person of the things that they find attractive. Horace slughorn brewed up some amortentia to demonstrate to harry's class in their first potions lesson of their 6th year, although nobody drank any of it. To hermione it smelt of freshly mown grass, new parchment and ron's hair [hbp9/bloomsbury chat]. To harry it smelt of treacle tart, broomstick handles and ginny [hbp9].

Whilst love potions are mentioned a number of times in the books, there are no confirmed cases of anyone taking amortentia. It may, however, have been the potion used by merope gaunt in order to entice tom riddle snr to run away with her [hbp10].

Anti-poison potions

ingredients: bezoar

an antidote for any poison can be mixed if the potion-maker knows how to do it. Importantly, they have to follow golpalott's third law, which states that the antidote for a blended poison will be equal to more than the sum of the antidotes for each of the separate components. Blended poison antidotes are taught in the 6th year at hogwarts [hbp18].

Snape also taught poison antidotes to his potions class in their 4th year, and he even went as far as to suggest he might poison one of the students to see if their antidote worked. As these lessons occurred two years before they learned about blended poisons, it is reasonable to assume that snape was dealing with simple unblended poisons at this stage [gof15].

As an aside, a bezoar can be used to combat most poisons, but not all of them [hbp18].

Antidotes

different antidotes exist for a wide variety of different potions and/or effects.

Molly weasley kept a bottle of doxy bite antidote ready during the cleaning of 12 grimmauld place [ootp6]. Mandrake restorative draught is the antidote to petrification [cos13], whilst an antidote to veritaserum is also known to exist, as dumbledore suspected that slughorn would be carrying one around at all times to make sure he didn't give away the real contents of his secret memory [hbp17]. Slughorn himself also whipped up a quick love potion remedy for ron when he accidentally ate romilda vane's chocolate cauldrons [hbp18].

And of course, magical poisons also have antidotes - see "anti-poison potions" above.

Babbling beverage

effect unknown, but from the context in which this potion was mentioned, it is reasonable to assume that it causes the drinker to babble nonsense. When harry, ron and hermione had been caught in umbridge's office, harry tried to communicate in code with snape, telling him that "he's got padfoot in the place that it's hidden". Snape responded that if he wanted nonsense shouted at him he'd administer some babbling beverage [ootp32].

Baruffio's brain elixir

this is a potion that supposedly increases brain power. Eddie carmichael tried to sell a bottle of it to ron and harry for 12 galleons when they were revising for their owls, claiming that it was entirely responsible for him getting 9 "outstanding" grades the previous year. Hermione confiscated the bottle and poured it down the toilet. Given that other supposed revision aids such as powdered dragon claw were fake (what harold dingle was offering as dragon claw was actually dried doxy droppings) it is unclear whether baruffio's brain elixir actually exists or whether eddie just made it up [ootp31].

Beautifying potion

this was invented by sacharissa tugwood, and makes the drinker more physically attractive. Whether this effect is temporary or permanent is unknown. As her epitaph says, "thanks to sacharissa tugwood, the world is a more beautiful place" [famous wizards cards].

Befuddlement draught

ingredients: scurvy-grass, lovage, sneezewort

causes the drinker to become fuddled, or confused. This may be the same potion as "confusing concoction" under a different name. Harry was reading up on "confusing and befuddlement draughts" in his potions book one time during his fifth year when he fell asleep and had one of his dreams about the department of mysteries [ootp18].

Blood-replenishing potion

tops up the blood levels of the drinker after injury. Arthur weasley had to take this once an hour when he was in hospital after having been bitten by nagini, as her fangs contained an unusual type of poison that kept the wounds open and prevented them from healing [ootp22].

Boil-cure potion

ingredients: dried nettles, crushed snake fangs, stewed horned slugs, porcupine quills

cures boils. This is a very simple potion that harry's class were taught in their first ever potions lesson. Neville had an accident with his, accidentally adding the porcupine quills before taking his cauldron off the fire. The spoiled potion melted the cauldron and drenched him, with the interesting result that his skin erupted in boils, the opposite of the intended effect of the potion [ps/ss8].

Bruise removal paste

this is a thick yellow paste, guaranteed to remove any bruise within an hour. It was invented by fred and george weasley, who found that as they had to test most of their joke shop products on themselves, a decent bruise remover was a necessity. Hermione used it to good effect when she'd been attacked by one of their punching telescopes [hbp6].

Burn-healing paste

not exactly a potion, but a thick orange paste used to heal burns. Madam pomfrey used it on cedric diggory after the first task of the triwizard tournament. The extent of the burns he got from his dragon meant that the whole of one side of his face was covered in the stuff, although he seemed to suffer no long-term effects [gof20].

Calming draft

a potion that relieves stress and induces calm in the drinker. Hannah abbot was given a calming draught by madam pomfrey after becoming so upset about her impending owl exams that she burst into tears in herbology, and said that she was too stupid to take exams and that she wanted to leave the school [ootp27].

Confusing concoction / confusing draught

ingredients: scurvy-grass, lovage, sneezewort

causes the drinker to become confused. This may be the same potion as "befuddlement draft" under a different name. Harry was reading up on "confusing and befuddlement draughts" in his potions book one time during his fifth year when he fell asleep and had one of his dreams about the department of mysteries [ootp18].

Harry had to make confusing concoction for his third year potions exam and he couldn't get it to thicken. He was sure he saw snape scribble a zero in his notes before striding off [poa16].

Deflating draught

causes anything swollen by magical means to shrink back to normal size. This is the opposite of a swelling solution, and acts as an antidote to it. When harry, ron and hermione were trying to get hold of the ingredients for polyjuice potion from snape's private stores, harry caused a diversion during a potions class by flinging a filibuster firework into goyle's cauldron of swelling solution. Most of the class were splashed in the subsequent explosion and various parts of their bodies swelled up to mammoth size. Snape used deflating draught to return them to normal before threatening to expel whoever had thrown the firework [cos11].

Doxycide

this a black solution used to spray doxies. It renders them unconscious for a time. Molly weasley handed out bottles of doxycide to everyone who was helping her cure the doxy infestation in 12 grimmauld place. The idea was to spray the doxies and drop them into a bucket whilst they were unconscious. Fred and george wanted to experiment with doxy venom for their skiving snackboxes, however, and so pocketed as many doxies as they could instead [ootp6].

Dr. Ubbly's oblivious unction

a medicinal potion given to ron by madam pomfrey after he had been attacked by brains in the department of mysteries. It proved effective in healing the injuries caused by the brains' tentacles and thoughts. According to madam pomfrey, thoughts leave deeper scarring than almost anything else, although the oblivious unction did seem to do the trick against them [ootp38].

Draught of living death

ingredients: asphodel, sopophorus bean, valerian roots, wormwood

this is an extremely powerful sleeping potion. Snape thought harry should have read up on it in magical drafts and potions before arriving for his first year at hogwarts, and quizzed him about it in his first potions lesson [ps/ss8].

This appears rather unfair, as this is a complex potion, and they didn't actually have to make it until they'd started their newts in the 6th year. Even then, slughorn didn't expect anyone to get it spot on at their first attempt.

It was when they were making this potion that harry first came across the half-blood prince's copy of advanced potion-making. The prince's instructions on crushing the sopophorous bean with a silver dagger rather than chopping it up, and adding a clockwise stir in with the anti-clockwise ones, ensured that harry's potion came out perfectly, and as clear as water. Slughorn was delighted, and hermione was very annoyed.

When making this potion, it goes through a number of colour stages as ingredients are added. At the halfway point it is meant to be blackcurrant-coloured, and after the sopophorous bean is added, it's meant to be lilac. Finally, after being stirred, the final product should be clear [hbp9].

Draught of peace

ingredients: powdered moonstone, syrup of hellebore

calms anxiety and soothes agitation. This is a fiddly potion to make, and one that often comes up in owl exams. The ingredients have to be added in the correct sequence, the number and direction of stirs has to be very precise, and the level of heat applied to the cauldron has to be spot on. Particular care needs to be taken when preparing this potion, as in incorrect mix of ingredients will put the drinker into an over-heavy and sometimes irreversible sleep.

Harry's class had to make draught of peace in their first potions class of the 5th year. Harry forgot to add his syrup of hellebore, with the result that his cauldron gave off dark grey steam rather than a light silver vapour, and the contents were worthless. Snape was not impressed [ootp12].

Dreamless sleep potion

a medicinal potion, used to induce dreamless sleep in the drinker and aid recuperation. Madam pomfrey gave some of this to harry after his ordeal in the graveyard at little hangleton to help him recover [gof36].

Elixir of life

this is produced by the philosopher's stone, and grants the drinker eternal life for as long as they keep on drinking it. Nicolas and perenelle flamel are the most famous users of elixir of life. They lived at 665 and 658 years of age respectively by drinking it [ps/ss13].

They were the possessors of the only known philosopher's stone in existence, which was later destroyed, meaning that elixir of life could no longer be made. The stone was destroyed as it had become clear that voldemort was trying to get hold of it, and getting rid of it was the only sure way to make sure that he didn't get his own grubby hands on the elixir [ps/ss17].

Elixir to induce euphoria

a sunshine-yellow potion that creates a feeling of euphoria in the drinker. Side-effects of excessive singing and nose-tweaking can occur on occasions, although adding a sprig of peppermint should help to counterbalance these.

Harry made this in a 6th-year potions lesson, when most of the class were off having their apparition test. Only harry, ernie and draco were too young and so remained behind in lessons. As there were so few of them, professor slughorn asked them to brew up something amusing. Harry, as usual, concocted his with a little help from the half-blood prince [hbp22].

Emerald green potion

a mystery potion that lord voldemort used to protect his locket horcrux. It induces fear and delirium in the drinker, and is almost certainly highly poisonous. It has a highly debilitating effect on the drinker and will cause death if left untreated. Only two people are known to have imbibed this potion - regulus black and albus dumbledore - and both expired shortly afterwards. A vivid description of its effects was given in the case of albus, who saw horrific visions, experienced intense pain, and became unable even to raise the drink to his own mouth as he seemed to become only semi-conscious. Eventually he screamed and collapsed before regaining consciousness a short time later. He was severely weakened by the experience, and never recovered his full strength before he was killed later that evening [hbp26, 27; dh11].

Essence of dittany

ingredients: dittany

this is a medicinal potion that stops bleeding, even from serious wounds, in an instant. Hermione treated ron with this when he splinched himself whilst apparating from the ministry of magic to grimmauld place and then to the quidditch world cup forest during the search for horcruxes [dh14]. Three drops of the potion were sufficient to heal a sizeable wound, which hermione dripped onto the injured area. When it came into contact with the wound, a large quantity of greenish smoke was released. The main ingredient of this potion can be assumed to be dittany, which is a magical plant with known healing properties. Madam pomfrey also used dittany to help treat draco malfoy's wounds after harry had attacked him with sectumsempra during his sixth year [hbp24].

Essence of insanity

this is a potion that ron thought harry might have taken instead of felix felicis. Harry had taken the felix with the intention of seeing professor slughorn to get the horcrux memory from him, but then suddenly announced he was off to aragog's funeral instead. Ron was bemused, but of course felix knew what he was doing [hbp22].

Essence of murtlap

ingredients: pickled murtlap tentacles

hermione gave this to harry to help his hand heal after his series of detentions with umbridge and her revolting punishment quill. At this point she described it as "a solution of strained and pickled murtlap tentacles". When harry put his bleeding hand in a bowl of it he got an immediate feeling of relief from the pain [ootp15].

When lee jordan was given a similar detention later in the year for questioning one of the many educational decrees, harry recommended it to him as well. Harry described it as "essence of murtlap", which is the reason for giving it this name in the potions list [ootp25].

Essence of rue

ingredients: rue

a potion that ron was prescribed by madam pomfrey to aid his recovery after he had been poisoned by malfoy's mead [hbp19]. Rue is a real herb, which in the real world has been known to be used to treat eye problems. In the magical world it is clearly far more potent.

Everlasting elixirs

unknown, but presumably the effect is everlasting. These are studied in 6th-year potions lessons and formed part of harry's homework close to christmas. He got his information about them from advanced potion-making, with of course a little help from the half-blood prince [hbp15].

Exploding potion

ingredients: erumpent fluid

the erumpent produces a remarkable fluid in its horn which causes anything it is injected into to explode. This is used in potion-making to produce an exploding potion [fb]. The fluid is very difficult to get hold of, due to the fact that erumpents often explode each other during the mating season. It can therefore be assumed that exploding potion is rather rare [fb].

Felix felicis

this gold-coloured potion is lady luck in liquid form. Felix felicis makes the drinker lucky for a period of time, dependent on how much is drunk, during which time everything they attempt will succeed. It must be used sparingly, however, because if taken in excess it causes giddiness, recklessness and dangerous overconfidence. It is highly toxic in large quantities, and is also a banned substance in all organised competitions. According to horace slughorn, it's incredibly difficult to make and disastrous to get wrong, which may explain why people don't go round trying to make it and drink it all the time [hbp9].

Slughorn offered a small bottle of felix felicis as a prize in harry's first potions lesson of the 6th year, awarding it to the person who made the best draught of living death. Harry won it due to the fact that his copy of advanced potion-making had been heavily modified with handy hints by its previous owner, severus snape [hbp9].

Despite being tempted to give some of the potion to ron to make him play quidditch better [hbp14] or to take it himself to get ginny to go out with him [hbp22], harry ended up taking some of it to get the horcrux memory from slughorn at aragog's funeral [hbp22]. He gave the rest to ron to share between him, ginny and hermione in case there was trouble when harry was away at the horcrux cave with dumbledore [hbp25].

Forgetfulness potion

the exact nature of this potion is never described, but it is reasonably to assume that it causes the drinker to become forgetful. This must be a simple potion, as it is taught in the first year at hogwarts. In harry's first year exams, snape made him nervous by breathing down his neck whilst he was trying to remember how to make a forgetfulness potion [ps/ss16].

Gregory's unctuous unction

invented by gregory the smarmy, this potion makes a person drinking it think that whoever gave it to them is their best friend. There is a statue of gregory the smarmy at hogwarts, behind which is a secret passage [fw, ps/ss9].

Hair-raising potion

ingredients: rat tails

effect unknown, but we can assume it has something to do with hair. This is a fairly easy potion, taught in the second year at hogwarts. Ron and harry had some homework about it just after christmas in their second year, when hermione was in the hospital wing recovering from polyjuicing herself into a cat. Ron regretted not asking her for information about it when they were visiting her [cos13].

Hiccoughing solution

causes the drinker to hiccough. Malfoy made this in the 6th-year potions class where he, harry and ernie were the only ones present, as everyone else was old enough to be off taking their apparition test. Slughorn asked them to make something amusing: malfoy plumped for hiccoughing solution, which at the end of the lesson slughorn described as "passable". Malfoy, for one, was not amused [hbp22].

Invigoration draught

effect unknown, but presumably it invigorates the drinker and increases energy levels. Harry had to make this in a 5th year potions lesson. Snape had taken to ignoring him rather than bullying him at the time and so harry's effort was rather more successful than usual. Snape still managed to give him zero marks, however, by dropping harry's flask of potion on the floor when harry wasn't looking, so he couldn't test it. Malfoy, for one, was extremely amused [ootp29].

Love potion

ingredients: ashwinder eggs

this potion causes the drinker to fall in love with the person of the potion maker's choosing. During his valentine's day event in 1993, gilderoy lockhart suggested that the students ask professor snape to knock up a quick love potion for them. Professor snape did not approve [cos13].

Weasleys' wizard wheezes sell their own range of love potions, which fred proudly proclaimed were the best in the world. These particular potions work for up to 24 hours, depending on the weight of the drinker and the attractiveness of the person they are meant to be falling in love with [hbp6]. All love potions wear off over time in this way. Dumbledore was of the opinion that merope gaunt attracted the attentions of tom riddle snr by the use of a love potion, and had to keep dosing him up every day to maintain the effect. When she stopped, in the hope that he really did love her by now, she didn't see his heels for dust [hbp10].

Weasleys' wizard wheezes love potions are banned at hogwarts, along with every other product they make, but that doesn't stop them getting in. As part of their owl order serves, the weasleys disguise them as perfumes and cough potions, and they slip through the net [hbp15]. This is presumably how romilda vane procured the potion she used to spike some chocolate cauldrons she gave to harry before christmas in 1996. Wisely, harry didn't eat them [hbp15]. Unfortunately, 3 months later ron did, and the evidence shows that they really do work. According to horace slughorn, love potions can get stronger as they age, and this would account for the immense vigour with which ron fell in love with romilda, before slughorn managed to mix him up an antidote [hbp18].

Mandrake restorative draught

ingredients: mandrake

mandrake is a powerful restorative, used to return people who have been either cursed or transfigured back to their original state. It also has the power to revive people who have been petrified. Mandrake is administered via mandrake restorative draught, which is made from the plants once they have been harvested, cut up, and stewed [cos13].

The mandrake itself is a tufty purplish-green plant - the young mandrake is, at least. No description of the full-grown plant has been given. The above-ground parts of the mandrake look entirely normal, but the roots are anything but. Instead of normal roots, the young mandrake plant instead has a small, muddy and extremely ugly baby with mottled green skin, with the leaves of the plant growing directly out of its head [cos6]. Professor sprout makes several references to mandrakes growing up as the months pass during harry's second year, and so it is reasonable to assume that as the plant matures, so does the underground baby.

Mandrakes must be mature before they are harvested for making the draught [cos9]. This means waiting until they have gone through their moody and secretive phase and allowing their acne to clear up. Once this stage has been reached, the mandrakes are ready for cutting, and the draught can be made.

Mandrake restorative draught came in particularly useful in 1993, when the basilisk was released from the chamber of secrets and petrified a number of students (and mrs norris). The madrakes were grown by professor sprout, the draught was made by professor snape, and the cure was administered by madam pomfrey. All of the students, and, regrettably, mrs norris, made a full recovery [cos18].

Memory potion

ingredients: jobberknoll feathers

the effect of this is not known, but it is likely that the potion is used to give the drinker improved access to their memories. The jobberknoll, whose feathers are used to make memory potion, is a bird that remains silent until the moment of its death, when it emits a lengthy cry consisting of every sound it has ever heard, delivered backwards [fb].

Mrs scower's all-purpose magical mess remover

this is a cleaning solution used throughout the wizarding world. It can fairly safely be assumed that it's good stuff, although it's only been seen in action once, and on that occasion it was ineffective. This shouldn't be too much of a surprise, however, as this was when voldemort had made ginny weasley write "the chamber of secrets has been opened. Enemies of the heir, beware" in blood on the school wall. Filch scrubbed it over and over again, but it wouldn't shift [cos9].

Large stocks of the potion are known to be kept at the school, however. When rita skeeter interviewed harry in a broom cupboard after he'd just become a triwizard champion, an entire crate of magical mess remover was in there [gof18]. It was also advertised at the quidditch world cup with the slogan "no pain, no stain!" [gof8].

Pepperup potion

this is a potion used by madam pomfrey to treat colds, although it is unclear whether it simply addresses the symptoms or actually provides a cure. As october came on during harry's second year, a spate of colds swept through hogwarts, and madam pomfrey treated the sufferers with pepperup potion [cos8].

It feels very hot when drunk, and although it provides immediate relief, it does cause large amounts of steam to come from the drinker's ears for some time afterwards [cos8, gof26]. When ginny weasley was bullied into taking some by percy, the steam coming out from under her bright red hair made it look like her head was on fire [cos8].

Madam pomfrey also administered the potion to people who had been in the water for a long period of time during the second task of the triwizard tournament, which indicates that it is also useful for treating exposure. Both ron and harry were given some to perk them up after their ordeal in the lake [gof26].

Photograph developing fluid

even though colin creevey had an ordinary muggle camera, he was told by a boy in his year that he could still produce wizard-style moving photographs by developing them in the correct fluid. Whether this is true or not was never made clear, but we'll give colin's friend the benefit of the doubt and so the magical photograph developing fluid is included here [cos6].

Polyjuice potion

ingredients: fluxweed, horn of bicorn (powdered), knotgrass, lacewing flies, leeches, skin of boomslang (shredded), plus a bit of whoever you want to assume the appearance of

this potion allows the drinker to assume the appearance of another person. The effect lasts for exactly one hour after the potion has been drunk, but as bartemius crouch jnr showed when impersonating alastor moody, repeat doses can be taken indefinitely. This does, of course, require a large supply of polyjuice potion [cos9,10, 12; gof35].

Perhaps the hardest ingredient to obtain for this potion is a part of the person you want to look like. There are other complications, however. The fluxweed has to be picked at full moon, and the lacewing flies stewed for 21 days before the potion is made. All the details of how to make it are included in moste potente potions, a book that can be found in the restricted section of the hogwarts library [cos10].

The part of who you want to look like is the last ingredient to be added, and is only put in just before the potion is drunk. The remainder of the potion takes the full 21 days to prepare, due to the need to stew the lacewing flies for this length of time. Before the last ingredient is added, the polyjuice potion is as thick as treacle and looks like dark mud. When the last ingredient is added, it hisses and froths, before changing colour. The colour it takes on depends on the person whose bit of body you have put in [cos12]. Goyle's looked like bogies, whilst harry's turned gold [cos12, dh4].

Polyjuice potion has been used on numerous occasions over the years. The first came when harry, ron and hermione wanted to sneak into the slytherin common room to question malfoy to see if he was the heir of slytherin. Luckily for them, hermione had been listening during potions classes when snape had mentioned polyjuice, whilst harry and ron hadn't heard of it. Harry and ron successfully turned into crabbe and goyle, and gained entrance to the common room, although they had to make a sharp exit when the potion started to wear off. Hermione failed to transform into millicent bulstode, however, having accidentally got a hair from millicent's cat rather than herself [cos12].

This proved disastrous for hermione, as polyjuice potion cannot handle animal transformations. The effect was partial and semi-permanent, and hermione required over a month of treatment in the hospital wing under the careful supervision of madam pomfrey before she recovered [cos13].

Bartemius crouch jnr successfully used polyjuice potion for almost an entire school year when posing as alastor moody and teaching at hogwarts. For this he required large quantities of the necessary ingredients, which he stole from snape's personal stores (and for which harry got the blame). He maintained moody's appearance by constantly swigging the potion from a hip flask [gof12, 27].

In both the cases of crouch's transformation into moody, and harry and ron turning into crabbe and goyle, the potion changed their voices as well as their appearance. Anything external to the body does not change, however, and so different clothes are required if the person whose form is taken is a different size to the drinker. Crouch also had to take the real moody's magic eye and wooden leg to fix to his own transformed body [cos12; gof35]. In addition, during the seven potters operation, all of the harry impersonators required glasses [dh4].

When draco malfoy was using the room of requirement to try to fix the vanishing cabinet in his 6th year, he used crabbe and goyle, disguised as various younger female students, as lookouts, although they didn't seem too happy about the transformations they were asked to make. On this occasion, rather than making the potion, malfoy simply stole it during slughorn's first potions lesson [hbp9, 21].

The seven potters operation, designed to get harry safely from the dursleys' house to the burrow before his horcrux quest, required six people to use polyjuice potion to look like harry. The six were: ron, hermione, fred, george, fleur and mundungus. Moody brought the potion and handed it out in eggcup-sized glasses [dh4]. Shortly afterwards, harry attended bill and fleur's wedding polyjuiced to look like a muggle boy from the village, and introduced as "cousin barney" [dh8].

Harry, ron and hermione used polyjuice potion to impersonate mafalda hopkirk, reg cattermole and albert runcorn when they broke into the ministry of magic to retrieve slytherin's locket [dh12].

Finally, hermione also used the potion to disguise herself as bellatrix lestrange when she, harry, ron and griphook broke into gringotts to steal hufflepuff's cup. She used a hair that had become attached to her sweater during the malfoy manor escapade [dh26].

Protective potions (fake)

ingredients: bubotuber pus, gravy

following the return of voldemort, a vast market appeared for protective potions, most of which were fake and did nothing. Small-time crooks like mundungus fletcher sold them to the frightened hordes, who apparently didn't notice that they were often made out of gravy [hbp5].

Scintillation solution

effect unknown. However, madam z nettles of topsham, a satisfied customer of the kwikspell course, happily wrote to tell them that her recipe for this potion was now in great demand [cos8].

Shrinking solution

ingredients: caterpillar, daisy roots, leech juice, rat spleen, shrivelfig

this is an acid green potion which is on the 3rd year syllabus at hogwarts. Harry's class made it in the first potions lesson they had after malfoy had been injured by buckbeak during care of magical creatures. Malfoy was milking his injury and snape made harry and ron do most of his work for him. Snape also used the lesson to bully neville particularly badly. Neville was making a mess of his potion, and snape told him that he was going to feed the final product to trevor, his toad. If neville had made it correctly, trevor would turn into a tadpole. If he hadn't, trevor would be poisoned. In the event, hermione managed to secretly help out neville, and the potion worked perfectly. Snape twigged and took five points from gryffindor [poa7].

Trevor's transformation into a tadpole suggests that the effect of this potion is to made things younger rather than smaller. As such, it has the opposite effect to aging potion.

In addition to making the potion in class, snape set an essay on the subject for summer homework between the second and theird years. Harry referred to the potion as shrinking potion rather than shrinking solution at the time, but it is likely to be the same thing [poa1].

Skele-gro

this causes lost bones to re-grow, which is a slow and painful process. Harry had to undergo this treatment after the quidditch match against slytherin in his second year, when dobby enchanted one of the bludgers to attack him. The bludger merely broke his arm, but it was lockhart's attempts to mend it (against harry's will of course) that led to the entire removal of all 33 bones in his arm. Lockhart gave up at this point and left the real healing to madam pomfrey, although unfortunately growing bones back is far harder than just mending them [cos10].

Skele-gro does the job, but it takes all night to work, and it isn't any fun taking it. The potion burns as it is drunk, which made harry cough and splutter as he took it. The process of re-growing the bones also makes it feel as if the limb in question is full of large splinters [cos10].

Five years later, fleur weasley treated griphook using skele-gro when he had his legs broken by a falling chandelier at the malfoy manor [dh23, 24].

After rita skeeter had revealed hagrid's half-giant heritage in a nasty article in the daily prophet, malfoy remarked that he'd had no idea and had just assumed that hagrid was a human who had swallowed a bottle of skele-gro when he was little [gof24].

Sleekeazy's hair potion

this is used to calm down problem hair so it can be styled. Hermione used liberal amounts of it when she went to the yule ball with viktor krum, with fantastic results. She said it was far too much trouble to do every day, however, so she chose to leave her hair in its usual bushy state the rest of the time [gof24].

Sleeping draught/potion

causes the drinker to fall asleep. A standard sleeping draught differs from the draught of living death, which is a much more powerful version.

Hermione spiked two plump chocolate cakes with sleeping draught when harry and ron needed to get hair from crabbe and goyle for their polyjuice potion. Harry and ron left the cakes on a banister, and sure enough, crabbe and goyle stuffed them into their mouths without a second thought. Seconds later they keeled over backwards, unconscious. The swift and strong effect of just this ordinary sleeping draught is enough to raise questions about how strong a draught of living death really is - presumably, it is extremely strong [cos12].

Another example of how potent even the standard sleeping draught can be comes from the first task of the triwizard tournament. When hagrid, olympe and harry snuck off to get a preview of the dragons, charlie weasley informed them that a sleeping draught was used to knock them unconscious for the trip over to scotland, but now they were awake they were snapping, snarling and being generally extremely vicious [gof19].

Strengthening solution

ingredients: pomegranate juice, salamander blood

effect unknown, but presumably this potion makes the drinker stronger. It could, however, be designed for inanimate objects if the potion was intended to be applied to them. Harry made this potion (very badly) in a 5th year class whilst snape was being assessed by umbridge. Umbridge disapproved of teaching this particular potion to the students, and snape took very little notice of her he did, however, make harry write an essay on where his potion went wrong, as it had ended up a congealed mess that smelt of burnt rubber [ootp17].

Strengthening solution has to be made over a number of days. The class began theirs before the weekend, leaving their mixture to mature before finishing it off in the following lesson [ootp17].

Swelling solution

this potion causes whatever it touches to swell up in size. It is on the 2nd year syllabus at hogwarts.

Harry's class were making this in the potions lesson when harry created a diversion so that hermione could sneak out and steal some ingredients they needed for their polyjuice potion from snape's personal stores. Harry did this by throwing a filibuster firework into goyle's cauldron, which then exploded, showering the class with swelling solution. Wherever someone got hit, the body part in question swelled up to enormous size and had to be treated with deflating draught. Snape was very angry indeed, and harry was convinced he knew it was him [cos11].

Ten-second pimple vanisher

this comes in a small pink pot and is excellent on anything from boils to blackheads. It is sold at weasleys' wizard wheezes, as part of their wonderwitch range of products [hbp6].

Truth potion/truth serum

ingredients: jobberknoll feathers

when snape first shows harry a bottle of veritaserum and threatens him with it, he calls it "a truth potion", which suggests that other truth potions (presumably less powerful) must also exist. Fantastic beasts and where to find them also states that jobberknoll feathers are used in truth serums [gof27, fb].

Veritaserum

harry first came across veritaserum when snape believed he had been pilfering from his private stores, and threatened to spike harry's pumpkin juice with it so he'd have to reveal the truth. At the time, snape described it as "a truth potion so powerful that three drops would have you spilling your innermost secrets for the entire class to hear" [gof27].

The potion itself is colourless, odourless, and almost impossible to detect. In theory its use is strictly controlled by the ministry in magic, according to snape. In practice, as with many things that the ministry wish to control, people tend to ignore them and use it as and when they wish [gof27, hbp9].

Snape never did carry out his threat to spike harry's drink, although dolores umbridge did exactly that when she interrogated harry about the whereabous of sirius and dumbledore after the da had been betrayed [ootp28]. Unfortunately for her, snape had supplied her with fake veritaserum [ootp37] and harry only feigned drinking it anyway, as he suspected it had been spiked.

Umbridge called for further supplies of the potion when she'd caught harry using the floo network via the fire in her office. On this occasion, snape told her that she'd used his entire supply and, as the potion takes a full moon cycle to mature, he couldn't have any more ready for a month. Snape's actions were designed to prevent her getting her hands on any potion, but it would have been extremely risky to have been lying at this point, and so it is likely that veritaserum really does take this long to mature [ootp32].

Genuine veritaserum was used by dumbledore to question barty crouch jnr, when he had been unmasked as the fake moody following the third task of the triwizard tournament. He gave crouch the regulation dose of 3 drops, and sure enough he answered every question put to him with the whole truth. It was one of his last conscious acts, as he received the dementor's kiss (against dumbledore's will) shortly afterwards [gof35, 36].

Whilst veritaserum may appear to be an all-conquering truth potion, it does have its weaknesses. In particular, antidotes exist, and any skilled wizard who is expecting an attack will be about to avoid it by having a bottle of antidote at the ready. It was for this reason that dumbledore did not attempt to use veritaserum to force slughorn to reveal the truth of his horcrux memory [hbp17].

Voldemort's potion

ingredients: bone of the father (unknowingly given), flesh of the servant (willingly given), blood of the enemy (forcibly taken)

this is a potion of voldemort's own invention, which he used to regenerate himself and give himself a new humanesque body. Before the addition of the known ingredients, the potion had been prepared in a massive cauldron and looked like water. When it was heated it sent fiery sparks into the air and gave out large quantities of steam. Voldemort, in his baby form, was placed into it the cauldron. As each new ingredient was added, the potion changed colour (to blue, then red, then white), after which the new, adult-sized voldemort emerged from a huge cloud of white steam [gof32].

Wiggenweld potion

leticia somnolens was a spiteful hag who was jealous of the king's daughter and caused her to prick her finger on a spindle tainted with a draught of the living death. A young wizard smeared his lips with wiggenweld potion, kissed the princess, and brought her out of her trance [famous wizards cards].

Wit-sharpening potion

ingredients: scarab beetles, ginger roots, armadillo bile

the effect of this is not known, although it is likely to involve sharpening the wit of the drinker (in other words, making them able to think better).

Harry's class were making wit-sharpening potion shortly after the second task of the triwizard tournament. Rita skeeter had just published an article in witch weekly about a supposed love triangle with harry, hermione and viktor krum, and harry, ron and hermione were discussing it in their potions class. Snape responded by splitting them up and reading the article aloud to the entire class. Harry was moved to the front, where snape threatened him in a quiet voice because he believed harry had been stealing from his office.

Shortly afterwards, karkaroff also interrupted the lesson, and harry deliberately knocked over his bottle of armadillo bile so that he could sneakily listen to what karkaroff wanted to talk about [gof27].

Wolfsbane potion

a new and complex potion, this relieves the symptoms of lycanthropy (although it does not cure it). If the affected person drinks the potion at full moon, they transform only into a normal wolf (and retain control over their actions) rather than a bloodthirsty out-of-control werewolf [poa18].

It was invented by marcus belby's uncle damocles, who received an order of merlin for his efforts. Marcus doesn't see much of his uncle due to a family disagreement, however, and as such, horace slughorn didn't think marcus worthy of a place in his slug club [hbp7].

When ready to drink, the wolfsbane potion smokes faintly and tastes revolting. Unfortunately, the addition of sugar makes it useless, and so there's nothing the drinker can do but brace himself and get it down his neck [poa8].

The potion must be taken for the week preceding the full moon, and lupin for one believed it best to take it daily for this period [poa8]. Forgetting to take even a single dose results in the entire effect being negated, and the drinker will still turn into a fully-fledged werewolf at full moon, as lupin found out when he forgot to take his [poa18].

Severus snape made this potion every month for lupin while he taught at hogwarts, demonstrating snape's considerable skills in the area [poa8].

Wound-cleaning potion

this is a smoking purple liquid that cleans open wounds in preparation for magical healing. Madam pomfrey used it on harry when he was injured during the first task of the triwizard tournament. It stung when it was applied, but she then healed the wound instantaneously with her wand and harry appeared to suffer no unpleasant side-effects [gof20].
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ADMIN NOTE: all the above information can be found at the harry potter encyclopaedia

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