1. Name the two known Potions professors at Hogwarts during the books. Include which book(s) each of them were professors during.
Professors Severus Snape (Books 1-5) and Horace Slughorn (Books 6 & 7)
2. Name the five pieces of equipment that a student of Potions is expected to have. (1)
Potion making kit, cauldron (pewter, standard size 2), 1 set of phials (glass or crystal), 1 set of scales (brass), & Magical Drafts and Potions by Arsenius Jigger and/or Advanced Potion Making by Libatius Borage
3. Give me the name and the person who invented the potion that is used as a remedy for the common cold. (1)
Pepper Up Potion by Glover Hipworth
4. What does the Polyjuice potion do? Name at least four of the ingredients. Tell me at least two of the characters who used this potion in the books and tell me what it did to them. (2)
The Polyjuice potion is designed to give the potion taker the features of another person, for a limited amount of time (about 1 hr.). It is only to be used for human transformations. Ingredients include, but are not limited to: lacewing flies, knotgrass, powdered horn of bicorn, and boomslang skin. Barty Crouch, Jr., took polyjuice potion to maintain his disguise as Mad-Eye Moody (Professor of Defense Against the Dark Arts, Harry Potter's fourth year at Hogwarts). The year after Harry and his friends left Hogwarts, Hermione used polyjuice potion to disguise herself as Bellatrix LeStrange to get into the LeStrange's vault at Gringotts' Bank.
5. What is a bezoar and what is it used for? (1)
A bezoar is a stone from the stomach of a goat. It is kidney shaped and used as the antidote to most poisons.
6. Tell me what the Amorentia potion is. What would yours smell like? (1)
The Amortentia potion is the strongest love potion in the world (to date). It smells like things you love; consequently, the smell varies from person to person. To me, Amortentia would smell like oranges and cracked pepper, freshly cut grass and sunkissed skin.
7. Name three Potions ingredients that can be found in the Muggle world. What are each of these items used for in each situation? How to Muggles and Wizards use these things differently? (2)
1) Lacewing flies -- Wizards use them in Polyjuice potion & other potions, Muggles watch them flit around.
2) Potassium aluminum silicate (moonstone) -- Wizards use them in the Draught of Peace & other potions (wizards get them from the moon), muggles wear them as jewelry (muggles get them from parts of the U.S.A., Africa, South America, & the European Alps).
3) Mandrake roots -- Wizards use them in a restorative draught, muggles use them to enhance fertility in barren women.
8. What is your favorite Potion and why? (1)
Essence of murtlap -- I'm extremely accident prone (papercuts like you wouldn't believe!) and I have two cats.
9. There are at least two Potions which are mentioned as being illegal to the students at Hogwarts, but they get used in the series. Which two are these and what do they do? (2)
1) Polyjuice potion - Used by Harry, Ron & Hermione in their first year at Hogwarts. Harry & Ron transformed into Crabbe & Goyle, Hermoine accidently used cat fur instead of human hair and her transfiguration went awry.
2) Amortentia - Used by Romilda Vane in effort to capture Harry's affections. The "spiked" chocolate cauldrons were eaten by Ron, who immediately fell in love with Romilda.
10. Name the three ingredients in the Draught of the Living Death. In what year do the Hogwarts students brew this potion? (2)
Ingredients include, but are not limited to, asphodel, wormwood, and valerian roots. Hogwarts students attempt this draught in their sixth year.
11. We all know that Remus Lupin is a werewolf. During his time teaching at Hogwarts, Snape makes him the wolfsbane potion to counteract some of these nasty effects. There is one ingredient which Lupin says will render the effects useless. What is this ingredient and why is it important? (1)
Unfortunately, sugar will make the wolfsbane potion useless. It is unfortunate, because the potion has a disgusting taste.
Extra Credit
There are many mentions of Potions in various Muggle books. Name at least one reference to any well-known Muggle book (either one that does not have anything to do with magic or one that has a very archaic view of it, so DO NOT give me a fantasy novel). What is this Potion used for? By whom? How do Muggle views of Potions differ from our own? Is there an ingredients list to this particular Potion? If so, what items are necessary to make it? Are there any Potions that exist in the wizarding world that have similar effects? If so, which one(s)? I want at least five decent sentences. (5)
In A Midsummer's Night Dream, by William Shakespeare, Faerie king Oberon wishes to punish his wife and has his servant, Puck, put drops of "love-in-idleness" into her eyes as she slept. Love-in-Idleness was a potion that would cause her to fall in love with the next man she saw. This story, written by a muggle, does not go into detail about potion ingredients or method of creation. The closest potion in the wizarding world would be Amortentia. Amortentia differs, however, because the object to be desired is designated, whereas, in Mr. Shakespeare's story the object of affection is left to chance.
