Magical Drafts
and Potions
by Arsenius Jigger
Foreword by Severus Snape
I do not expect many students to understand the subtle
science and exact art that is potion making. However, for
those of you who possess the predisposition…
you may yet comprehend the delicate power of a softly
simmering cauldron with its shimmering fumes, or the force
of liquids that creep through human veins, bewitching the
mind, ensnaring the senses, or seizing the body.
Magical Drafts and Potions by Arsenius Jigger is an
excellent directory of ingredients and potions. At my request
he has added a Dark Arts section with the intent of showing
students the power and danger to expect from dark witches
and wizards.
I expect students to take Potions study very seriously as
I only except students with exceptional OWLS into my
NEWTS classes. A potions NEWT is required for a career as
a Magical Healer, or an Auror.
Bottle fame, brew glory, stopper death,
Professor Severus Snape
Potion equipment
mortar and pestle
potion-making kit
knife
Cauldrons
Every Witch and Wizard owns at least one cauldron. This versatile item can be
used to brew potions, to carry supplies, and, in a pinch, to clobber an
attacker.
Types of cauldrons:




collapsible
self stirring
Solid gold
Fire- crab shells, which resemble tortoise shells encrusted with jewels,
are prized by unscrupulous Wizards as magical cauldrons
List of Potion 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.
Many witches and wizards buy their potion-making supplies at the
Apothecary in Diagon Alley. Professor Snape maintains his own
private stores which include ingredients not available in the Student
Store Cupboard, including boomslang skin and gillyweed.
Abyssinian shrivelfig
must be peeled
aconite
(also called monkshood and wolfsbane)
Scott Cunningham's "Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs" informs us that
a folk name for the highly poisonous Wolf's Bane is "Dumbledore's
Delight"
Antipodean Opaleye dragon eggshells
armadillo bile
used in Wit-Sharpening Potion
Ashwinder eggs
frozen
asphodel, root of
powdered
belladonna, essence of
[Note that belladonna is poisonous
bezoar
comes from the stomach of a goat, protects from most poisons
bicorn horn
powdered
Billywig stings
Black beetle eyes
boomslang skin
shredded
bubotuber pus
good against stubborn acne; yellowish, smells of petrol
The pimple-curing properties of Bubotuber pus were discovered by
Sacharissa Tugwood
Bundimun secretion
caterpillars
sliced
cockroach, dead
Snape keeps a jar of these in his office
daisy roots
chopped
Doxy eggs
black in color, they are used for researching trick sweets by Fred
and George
dragon
hide, blood, heart, liver, horn
Erumpent
horns, tails, and Exploding Fluid
fluxweed
picked at full moon
frog brains
gillyweed
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.
The effects of gillyweed were first dicovered by Elladora
Ketteridge. About a century later, gillyweed was rediscovered by Beaumont Marjoribanks.
ginger
roots cut
Graphorn
horn powdered
hellebore
There are several kinds of hellebore. The name comes from the
Greek words 'elein' (to injure) and 'bora' (food), indicating that
hellebore is poisonous. In some belief systems, it's been believed to
be a purgative, sometimes of bad things generally, used for things
like protecting livestock from evil spells, and (in powdered form)
for invisibility.
The only thing it's known definitely to be used for in Potions is for
the Draught of Peace, despite its poisonous properties
horned toad
Neville had to disembowel a barrel of these for Snape
horned slugs
Jobberknoll feathers
for Memory Potions and Truth Serums
knotgrass
lacewing flies
stewed 21 days
leeches
leech juice
lionfish, spine of
part of students' standard potion-making kit
mandrake
An important plant which is used as an ingredient in the Restorative
Draught
monkshood
(see aconite)
moonstone
Used in various potions (including the Draught of Peace), sometimes
in powdered form; Harry had to write an essay (12 inches of
parchment) for Snape about the uses of moonstone in potion
making. Moonstone is found in a variety of colors. Its supposed
magical effects include helping a person gain emotional balance.
Since Harry spent much of book five emotionally unbalanced, it is
perhaps fitting that he was forced to write an essay on the stone's
use in Potions-making.
nettles
dried
gathered in Queerditch Marsh for nettle tea
porcupine quills
puffer-fish eyes
rat tails and spleen- used in hair-raising potion
Romanian Longhorn dragon horn
powdered
scarab beetles
crushed
shrivelfig
Abyssinian, skinned
snake fangs
crushed
spiders
tubeworms
Harry had to stay behind in Potions and scrape tubeworms off a
desk
unicorn horn
unicorn tail hair -used for wands
wolfsbane
(see aconite)
wormwood
Potions
Note from Professor Snape: Some of the
potions are copyrighted by cosmetics
companies or medical administrations. If
the ingredients are left out there is good
reason, so don’t ask!
Aging Potion
effect: causes drinker to age according to amount of potion drunk
Anti-poison potion
Ingredients: crushed Bezoar- stone from the belly of a Goat
effect: cures most poisons
Boil cure potion
ingredients: dried nettles, crushed snake fangs, stewed horned slugs, porcupine
quills (added after taking the cauldron off the fire)
Simple potion to cure boils.
Deflating Draught
Effect: reverses swelling solutions and engorgement charms
Draught of Peace
ingredients: essence of hellebore, moonstone
Effect: gives a person a sense of peace
Forgetfulness Potion
Effect: causes memory loss
Hair-Raising Potion
Effect: causes fear
Love Potion
Effect: causes drinker to feel amorous towards giver
Mandrake Restorative Draft
ingredients: Mandrake, of course
This powerful antidote will revive people who have been Petrified.
Pepperup Potion
A potion to cure colds. It leaves the drinker smoking at the ears for several
hours.
Polyjuice Potion
ingredients: lacewing flies stewed 21 days, leeches, powdered bicorn horn,
knotgrass, fluxweed picked at full moon, boomslang skin, a bit of who one
wants to turn into.
Effect: Transforms a person to look exactly like someone else. One dose
lasts for one hour, but doses can be renewed, apparently indefinitely
Skele-Gro
A potion to re-grow bones.
Sleekeazy's Hair Potion
Effect: Causes frizzy, curly hair to straighten, smooth, and shine
Shrinking Solution
ingredients: Caterpillar, Daisy Roots, Leech Juice, Rat Spleen, Abyssinian
Shrivelfig
Effect: reverses swelling solution and causes living tissue to shrink
Swelling Solution
Effect: cause a body part to swell like a balloon on contact
Wit-sharpening potion
ingredients: Scarab Beetles, Ginger Roots, Armadillo Bile
effect: cause an increase in intellect, cleverness, and humor
Wolfsbane Potion
Effect: used to help werewolves keep their sanity during transformation
Veritaserum
A Truth Potion so powerful that three drops would make you spill your
innermost secrets.
Dark Arts Potions
Confusing Concoction
ingredients: powdered lovage plant, scurvy grass, sneezewart.
Effect: confuses, confounds, baffles, bewilders, bamboozles, puzzles,
perplexes, muddles, mystifies
Draught of the Living Death
ingredients: asphodel in an infusion of wormwood
Effect: Causes someone to fall into a deep sleep simulating death.
Flesh, Blood, and Bone -Potion of Revival
Ingredients: Bone of the Father, Flesh of the servant, blood of the enemy.
This potion also requires an incantation:
Bone of the father, unknowingly given, you will
renew your son.
Flesh of the servant, willingly given, you will
revive your master.
Blood of the enemy, forcibly taken, you will
resurrect your foe.