Grab your drink but remember to only have a little sip: Join Ev, Irvin, Taavi and our guest Margarete as they get giddy, reckless, and dangerously overconfident while discussing the most curious little potion called Felix Felicis.
In this episode:
- Potions affect yourself, as opposed to all other magic that can affect others
- Somehow, it’s all Percy’s fault
- Can a potion be omniscient?
- Do we trust men named Zugmunt?
- Do Slughorn’s memories have an Autorecover feature?
- Felix Felicis makes drinkers act OOC
- Everybody hates moral philosophers
- How did Slughorn get the Felix Felicis?
- Was Snape swigging some Felix?
- How much coffee is a reasonable amount of coffee?
Resources:
- Felix Felicis from the HP Lexicon
- Felix Felicis: Understanding Snape’s Innocence by Brianna Leigh Woell
- Snape’s Lucky Escape: Did the Felix Felicis Potion Really Fail? by Christy Morley
- Fantastic Potions and How They Helped Albus Dumbledore in HBP by Felicitys_mind
- Felix Felicis series at MuggleNet by Irvin Khaytman:
- Part 1: Felix’s Helping Hand
- Part 2: Free Will and Felix
- Part 3: How Felix Works
- Part 4: Conversing with Slughorn
- Part 5: Fight with the Fat Lady
- Part 6: The Felix-Struck Tower
Pub’s Jukebox:
“Felix Felicis” by Hawhtorn & Holly
“Felix Felicis” by Harry and the Potters
Great episode, as always! I love the idea of FF as an “reasonably omniscient force.” This may provide an answer to the question of why we don’t see more use of the potion, since it seems so helpful. Even Slughorn, as mercenary as he is, has limited himself to two uses in his entire life. Yes, it’s a hard potion to make and potentially disastrous to get wrong, but there is enough around to offer as a class prize, so it can’t be too difficult. Why would Dumbledore, for instance, not devote his brilliance to producing mass quantities, so he could give every Order member a hip flask full to use as needed? With the exception of Mundungus, all of them are responsible enough to use it for the good of the mission rather than personal gain. For that matter, people in humanitarian careers, like Healers at St. Mungos, could use it to arrive at the correct cures for their patients much faster.
The answer may lie in the sentience of the potion itself. Remember Mr. Weasley’s advice never to trust anything that can think for itself if you can’t see where it keeps its brain. There must be something inherently dangerous in the potion with repeated use. I think of it as a potent drug that just might be the answer to your ailment, but whose side effects might also be deadly. You would take it only under rare and desperate conditions.
Speaking of brains, I thought I would throw in a little neuroscience. There was a question of whether the memories lost to Slughorn’s alcohol blackout could later be recovered with a Pensieve. The effects of alcohol on the brain are complex, but one important thing it does is to block the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor, a very important receptor that is necessary for the formation and storage of long-term memory. So, I would say that it is likely that that Sluggy’s memories of Aragog’s wake were never formed and therefore would not be in the silver thread form that could be removed and viewed.
I hope you will someday do a show on the Fidelius Charm and what that can actually be used for.
What a fantastic connection between the Mr. Weasley quote and Felix Felicis! I definitely think that makes sense – wizards could be loathe to trust a potion that influences their minds. I believe Slughorn actually says that Felix is dangerous when taken in large quantities – so you couldn’t have Order members chugging from that hip flask every time they battle Death Eaters.
Very good point about Slughorn’s memories! As someone who doesn’t drink, I know even less than the layperson about how it all works, but what you say makes a lot of sense.
I’ll make a note for us to do a Fidelius episode, that’s a great idea! Lord knows how the hosts will reconcile all the conflicting information about it, given it’s among Jo’s sloppiest work, but we can try.
Glad I’m not the only one who thinks so!