Take one last sip of your wit-sharpening potion and open your copy of Advanced Potion-Making: Join as Ev, Irvin, Karoline, and our guest Gilad wrap up the discussion after half a year of potions.
In this episode:
- We’re saving lives and teaching punctuation
- Lucy Pevensie has a bottle of dittany
- Madam Pomfrey is using magical essential oils
- Snape is counting on a disastrous potion to cure boils
- The many uses of hair-raising potions
- Per our guest, Draco is absolutely correct
- What is everlasting with an everlasting elixir?
- Some deeply unimpressed muggle-borns
- We figure out what a Scintillating Solution does
- The Skele-Gro Scandal of 1978
Resources:
- Episodes 82-89 in our Potions series
- Episode 90 Part 1 of Major Potions (The Classical Period of Magic)
- Episode 92 Part 2 of Major Potions (Skele-Gro is the Next Fad Diet)
- Potions by Pottermore
Pub’s Jukebox:
- Amortentia by Split Seven Ways
I had to run to the comments to give my thoughts. I binged the 3 parts over two days. I have two thoughts on this episode.
I believe the reason we see amphibians and insects used a lot in potions is because they each can be capable of a kind of metamorphosis unlike any other animal, which can be seen as its own kind of magic.
I also subscribe to the category of potions being a lot like baking / cooking. However, Mixology aka cocktail mixing and distilling are also categories I would consider.
Oh, that’s such a good point about amphibians and insects! Didn’t think of it, but that makes so much sense!
Also can’t believe you binged this series, pretty sure you’re ready for your Potions O.W.L. exam now!
On the topic of naming, I’ll add that (aside from Skele-gro with its “marketing” vibe), the other three potions without a “potion/elixir/solution/draught/etc” in the name are all latin-based, so have potentially been known about for a loooong time. Even then, the “serum” part of veritaserum means fluid/liquid, so a more modern name-that-never-caught-on might be something like “anti-lying liquid”.
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I have to imagine that some potions are more sensitive to the brewer’s mindset/emotions than others (probably one of the reasons Felix is so difficult to make), otherwise Lupin would have gotten poisoned in book three. As professionally competant as Snape is, you wouldn’t say he was on an even keel that year.