POTIONS LIST

Found within this encyclopedia are potions strange and wonderful. Those whose titles appear in bright green are named in the books. The others are referred to but not named. Ingredients are listed where known, but even if Muggles would gather and brew the correct herbs, insects, and other matierials, they would not be able to create the potions listed here. The most important ingredient to any magic is the magical power of the wizard creating the effect.

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Aging Potion

Causes the person drinking it to grow older. The more Aging Potion one drinks, the more one ages.

Fred and George Weasley and Lee Jordan took a few drops of Aging Potion in an attempt to con the Age Line around the Goblet of Fire into thinking that they were a few months older. The Line wasn't fooled. They were thrown back out of the circle, then they sprouted full beards. (GF12)

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antidotes

ingredients vary, but often include mandrakes

There are antidotes for many poisons and for potions effects.

Antidote for Swelling Solution is the Deflating Draught (CS
Potions Class studies antidotes; Snape threatens to poison a member of the class to see if their antidote works
The Mandrake Restorative Draft is the antidote for Petrification
the bezoar will act as an antidote to most poisons (SS
Snape has an antidote handy to restore Trevor the toad when he is turned into a tadpole.

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boil cure potion

Dried nettles, crushed snake fangs, stewed horned slugs, porcupine quills (added after taking the cauldron off the fire)

Simple potion to cure boils.

taught to First Years in their first Potions classes with Snape. (SS8)
If you add the porcupine quill before you take the cauldron off the fire, the mixture produces clouds of acid green smoke and a loud hissing, melts the cauldron, and burns holes in people's shoes. This happened to Neville, who was splashed by it and sprouted angry red boils.
c.f. Furnunculus (spell)

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burn-healing paste

Medical magic: this is an orange paste is used to heal burns.

Used by Madam Pomfrey to tend to burns during the Triwizard Tournament. (GF

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cleaning solutions, magical

Cleaning and polishing is usually accomplished with magical means, including various potions

diluted Bundimun secretion (FB)
Mrs. Scower's Magical Mess Remover
one of the twelve uses of dragons' blood is rumored to be a cleaner (interviews with Steve Kloves about JKR's contributions to the script of SS/f)
when Ron had to polish awards in the trophy room, he came back into the dormitory smelling of metal polish because he was not allowed to use magic for it (CS
In preparation for the visit by the delegations from Durmstrang and Beauxbatons, the castle was spiffed up. Armor was polished and oiled so it didn't squeak when it moved. Some of the more dingy paintings had been scrubbed so that their subjects sat with their faces pink from the effects.

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Confusing Concoction

Effect apparently is to cause confusion.

(

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Deflating Draught

Antiote to swelling solution

Snape has some on hand while the second years are mixing up Swelling Solutions, which turns out to be a handy thing. (CS10)

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Draught of the Living Death

asphodel in an infusion of wormwood

Causes someone to fall into a deep sleep.

(SS8)

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Elixer of Life

ingredients unknown, but it is derived from the Philosopher's Stone

The Elixer of Life grants immortality for as long as it's imbibed. When a person stops drinking it, they will die.

Nicolas Flamel and his wife have lived over 650 years by drinking Elixer of Life (SS13)
Voldemort seeks immortality, and stealing the Philosopher's Stone was one way he hoped to attain it (SS

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Exploding Fluid

ingredients include Erumpent fluid

Effect unknown (well, it explodes of course, but besides that)

(FB)

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Forgetfulness Potion

Effect uncertain, probably makes a person forget things

(SS16)

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Hair-Raising Potion

ingredients include rat tails

Exact effect unknown

(CS13)

I-P

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Ingredients
Potion ingredients are available for student use from the Student Store cupboard. Students also buy their own ingredients as part of their school supplies, and purchase additional materials and refills every year. The Apothecary in Diagon Alley is where many Wizards buy their potion-making supplies. Snape maintains his own private stores which include ingredients not available in the Student Store Cupboard, including Boomslang Skin and Gillyweed.

Abyssinian shrivelfig
needs to be peeled (CS15)
aconite
(also called monkshood and wolfbane) (SS8)

Antipodean Opaleye dragon eggshells
(FB)

armadillo bile
used in Wit-Sharpening Potion (GF27)

Ashwinder eggs
(FB) frozen

asphodel, root of
(SS8)
powdered

belladonna, essense of
(GF10)

bezoar (SS8, GF)
comes from the stomach of a goat, protects from most poisons

bicorn horn
powdered (CS10)

Billywig stings
(FB) dried

black beetle eyes
(SS

boomslang skin
shredded (CS10)

bubotubor pus (GF)
good against stubborn acne; yellowish, smells of petrol

Bundimun secretion
(FB)

caterpillars
(PA7) sliced

daisy roots
(PA7) chopped

dragon
hide, blood, heart, liver, horn (FB,

Erumpent
horns, tails, and Exploding Fluid (FB)

fluxweed
(CS10) picked at full moon

frog brains
(CS
gillyweed (GF
eating a wad of this grows gills and webbed fingers and toes so that a person can swim and breathe underwater. Native to the Mediterranean Sea.

ginger
roots (GF27) cut

Graphorn
horn (FB) powdered

horned toads
Neville had to disembowel a barrel of these for Snape

horned slugs
(SS8)

Jobberknoll feathers
for Memory Potions and Truth Serums (FB)

knotgrass
(CS10, 11)

lacewing flies
(CS10) stewed 21 days

leeches (CS10,11)
leech juice (PA7)

lionfish,
spine of (GF10)

mandrake
An important plant which is used as an ingedient in the Restorative Draught (CS

monkshood
(see aconite)

nettles
dried (SS8)
gathered in Queerditch Marsh for nettle tea (QA)

porcupine quills
(SS8)

puffer-fish eyes
(CS11)

rat tails, spleen
rat spleen (PA7)
tails - used in hair-raising potion (CS

Romanian Longhorn dragon horn
(FB) powdered

scarab beetles
(GF27) crushed

shrivelfig
Abyssinian (PA7) skinned

snake fangs
crushed (SS8)

spiders
(CS

tubeworms
(CS9)
Harry had to stay behind in Potions and scrape tubeworms off a desk

unicorn horns, tail hair
horn (PA
tail hair used for wands (SS

wolfsbane
(see aconite)
Scott Cunningham's "Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs" informs us that a folk name for the highly poisonous Wolf's Bane is "Dumbledore's Delight"

wormwood
(SS8)

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Love Potion

ingredients include frozen Ashwinder eggs (FB

Causes the person who drinks it to fall in love with someone.

Lockhart suggested that (CS13)
Love potions are against Hogwarts school rules
(PA5, GF27, FB)

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Mandrake Restorative Draft

ingredients include Mandrake, of course

This powerful antidote will revive people who have been Petrified.

Mature Mandrakes are needed for this potion, which Snape brews in May, 1993, to restore the people who were Petrified by the Basilisk from the Chamber of Secrets (CS9)
There has been some discussion as to how Petrified people would be able to drink a potion. Clearly this particular concoction is not always ingested. Perhaps Madam Pomfrey applied the potion to the skin of the victims.

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Memory Potions

ingredients: include Jobberknoll feathers

Effect unknown

(FB)

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Mrs. Scower's Magical Mess Remover

Magical cleaning product.

used by Filch for variuous cleaning jobs. It wouldn't remove the foot-high painted letters on the corridor wall near where Mrs. Norris was Petrified, however (CS
advertised at the Quidditch World Cup (GF
stored by the case in various broom closets around the castle (GF

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Pepperup Potion

Relieves symptoms of the cold or flu.

Madam Pomfrey dispensed quite a lot of this as flu season hit the castle. It leaves the person's hair smoking (CS8)
it would seem that this potion doesn't actually cure the common cold. If it did, Filch wouldn't have had to suffer with his case of the flu in October, 1992 (CS
(GF26, 35)

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photograph potions

If you develop normal Muggle photographs in certain potions, the resulting images will move.

Colin Creevey discovered this in his first year at Hogwarts. He was pretty excited about it. (CS6)

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plants, magical
The ingredients for many potions come from plants with magical qualities.

complete list
Polyjuice Potion
ingredients: lacewing flies stewed 21 days, leeches, powdered bicorn horn, knotgrass, fluxweed picked at full moon, boomslang skin, a bit of who you want to turn into

"poly"Gr. many + juice

Transforms a person to look exactly like someone else.

This spell is found in the book Moste Potente Potions, which is in the Restricted Section of the library at Hogwarts (CS
Crouch Jr. uses Polyjuice Potion to impersonate Moody (GF

Q-Z

Quodpot solution

In the pots used as goals in the game of Quodpot, this solution keeps the Quod from exploding

(FB)

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Scintillating Solution

Effect unknown

One of the students who found the Kwikspell course helpful wrote that people were now begging for her recipe for Scintillating Solution. (CS8)

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Shrinking Solution

ingredients: chopped daisy roots, skinned shrivelfig, sliced caterpillar, one rat spleen, dash of leech juice

Makes things shrink in size

(PA7)

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"Skele-Gro"

"skeleton" + "grow" (sounds like a brand name)

Medical magic: Potion which regrows bones. The effect takes about eight hours and can be quite painful.

When Lockhart removed all the bones from Harry's arm, Madam Pomfrey gave him Skele-Gro to grow them back. It took all night.
Skele-Gro comes in a large bottle and is dispensed by the steaming beaker-full. It burns the mouth as it goes down. Regrowing bones is a painful process, and Harry felt stabbing pains in his arm, as if it were full of large splinters. (CS10)
Ron thought maybe Hagrid had drunk too much of this as a child, making him larger than everyone else (GF
In CS/f, the bottle has this on the label:
1100 Drops
Bone Regenerator

SKELE-GRO

Bone-Fide Results Everytime

Sold Only by Rubens Winikus and Company Inc.

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Sleekeasy's Hair Potion

Used to style hair.

Hermione used this to style her hair for the Yule Ball (GF
c.f. Lockhart dreamed of one day selling his own line of hair care products (CS

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Sleeping Draft/Draught/Potion

Potion which causes a person to fall into a deep sleep

Hermione filled two chocolate cakes with Sleeping Draught, and Harry and Ron used them to knock out Crabbe and Goyle (CS12)
a Sleeping Potion is a purple potion which Harry drank after his ordeal with Voldemort in the Third Task. He didn't drink it all, so he was still awake when Dumbledore was arguing with Fudge (GF36)
The dragons for the First Task were given Sleeping Drafts to knock them our for transport to Hogwarts. (GF19)
SEE Draught of the Living Death

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Swelling Solution

Causes something to get bigger.

The second year students were making this when Harry threw a firecracker into Goyle's cauldron to create a diversion. Where the solution splashed, people's arms, noses, eyes, etc. were enlarged grotesquely. The antidote was a Deflating Draft (CS10)

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Truth Potion/Serum

ingredients: can include Jobberknoll feathers (FB)

Force a person to tell the truth.

Truth Potion (GF27) (Truth Serum - FB)
Veritaserum

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Veritaserum

"veritas" L. truth

The most powerful Truth Serum available.

A Truth Potion so powerful that three drops would have you spilling your innermost secrets
Use of this potion is controlled by very strict Ministry guidelines (GF27)
Dumbledore had Snape use it on Barty Crouch Jr. (GF35)

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Voldemort's potions

ingredients

In his unnatural quest to achieve immortality, Voldemort used three different potions:

unicorn blood: Voldemort induced Quirrell to kill unicorns and drink their blood to allow the Dark Lord to survive. Unicorn blood will give only a cursed life because you have killed something defenseless and pure to save yourself. Voldemort didn't care, of course, because he was only trying to stay alive until he could drink the Elixer of Life from the Philosopher's Stone. (SS
potion which kept Voldemort alive from the time Wormtail returned to him until he could be reborn; it consisted of unicorn blood and snake venom milked from Nagini (GF1, 33)
potion to restore Voldemort to his body - June 24, 1995: bone of his father, blood of his enemy, flesh of his servant (GF32)

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Wit-Sharpening Potion

ingredients: ground scarab beetle, cut up ginger root, armadillo bile

Effect is presumably to make a person think more clearly.

The fourth year Potions class was making this potion shortly after the second task. (GF27)

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Wolfsbane Potion

While this potion can't cure a person from being a werewolf, if does prevent the extremely dangerous dementia which accompanies the transformation.

A fairly recent invention, very difficult to make. Snape makes it for Lupin. (PA18)

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wound-cleaning potion

Medical potion used on cuts and other open wounds.

Used to clean out Harry's wounds from his bout with the dragon in the First Task (purple, smokes and stings) (GF20)