I’m puzzled by Harry’s sunlight potion. Did it not require a magical ingredient?
Since we are told that there are no magical ingredients in the lesser woods where the battles are fought, and that all the potions in the books that Harry looks through unlock and redistribute magical energy (rather than ostensibly non-magical energy like sunlight), does this mean that Harry discovered a way to brew potions without magical ingredients? I recall no hint that this is possible, and yet no one watching the battle seems to find the potion notable. To be fair, the fundamental potion-making law doesn’t explicitly rule out an all-mundane potion (“A potion spends that which is invested in the creation of its ingredients”).
I also find it unlikely that Harry invented the potion himself (I believe general potions-theory and the system for deducing the proper arbitrary stirring patterns would have been given a more complete coverage, if that were the case), so it appears that Harry found a suitable potion using Flitwick’s recommended resources. But I still don’t know whether the “magical ingredient requirement” is absolute (and Harry bypassed it just by, e.g., putting something of his own magic into the potion as a trigger but not as the main ingredient), whether it’s a mere conceptual limit that wizards never thought to test, or whether potions with non-magical ingredients exist and are well-known, but are relatively so rare that Harry just didn’t happen to run across any in his initial search.
Remember how the professors made a big deal about Harry not discussing his discovery about potions?
Perhaps school manuals are picked to contain only potions with magic ingredients, as a misdirection for people not wise enough (students) to try to figure out the “well-known secret”, the same way Harry was at first.
But Harry’s potion didn’t release a lot of magic, it only released light (note that in the coin example, it was the non-magical coin that furnished the “heat”), so probably Harry used a bit of magic (like in Potions class) to “rearrange” the light without need of magical ingredients.
(Also, why wouldn’t “wizard hair” count as a magical ingredient?)
I think that if this were truly an original discovery it would have been a bigger deal. There are probably quite a few potions using only ingredients muggles know of, but I bet Harry will be able to invent quite a few more of them.
My theory is that potions which don’t involve magical ingredients are obscure because they’re usually less powerful and because they require a greater investment of energy from the creator to do the reshaping (explaining why Harry doesn’t do very much in that battle). Given that Flitwick and McGonagal had suggestions of books to make at all after hearing what Harry wanted, it seems very likely that such potions do exist, just not in the standard textbooks. It seems very likely that Harry got his potion out of a book, because potions research is dangerous and presumably very time consuming, and because Harry with the ability to invent potions would be powerful enough to wreck the story.
Harry with the ability to invent potions would be powerful enough to wreck the story.
Harry with time travel would be enough to wreak the story. Harry with an invisibility cloak would be enough to wreak the story, Hell, harry with rationality would be enough to wreak the story.
That is, unless the other obstacles were ramped up to deal with it. Give Harry a time turner and enemies clever enough to know how to check on him. Give harry an invisibility cloak but add spells that can detect the presence of a deathly hallow. Give Harry mastery of potions but make creating them slow or just plain difficult.
If potion invention is slow, Harry must have gotten the light potion from a book, since I don’t think there’s enough time between battles to do serious potion research safely between classes and homework, even for Harry’s 30 hours a day. If he can invent potions that fast, he potentially has a huge number of instant win conditions available (that’s what I really meant, that rapid potion invention would be a huge pain in the ass to write around). I think at this point it’s clear that Harry probably does know enough to invent potions, but not without probably months or years of experimentation per new recipe. If he didn’t know enough to be dangerous he wouldn’t have freaked out Flitwick.
I’m puzzled by Harry’s sunlight potion. Did it not require a magical ingredient?
Since we are told that there are no magical ingredients in the lesser woods where the battles are fought, and that all the potions in the books that Harry looks through unlock and redistribute magical energy (rather than ostensibly non-magical energy like sunlight), does this mean that Harry discovered a way to brew potions without magical ingredients? I recall no hint that this is possible, and yet no one watching the battle seems to find the potion notable. To be fair, the fundamental potion-making law doesn’t explicitly rule out an all-mundane potion (“A potion spends that which is invested in the creation of its ingredients”).
I also find it unlikely that Harry invented the potion himself (I believe general potions-theory and the system for deducing the proper arbitrary stirring patterns would have been given a more complete coverage, if that were the case), so it appears that Harry found a suitable potion using Flitwick’s recommended resources. But I still don’t know whether the “magical ingredient requirement” is absolute (and Harry bypassed it just by, e.g., putting something of his own magic into the potion as a trigger but not as the main ingredient), whether it’s a mere conceptual limit that wizards never thought to test, or whether potions with non-magical ingredients exist and are well-known, but are relatively so rare that Harry just didn’t happen to run across any in his initial search.
What am I missing?
Remember how the professors made a big deal about Harry not discussing his discovery about potions?
Perhaps school manuals are picked to contain only potions with magic ingredients, as a misdirection for people not wise enough (students) to try to figure out the “well-known secret”, the same way Harry was at first.
But Harry’s potion didn’t release a lot of magic, it only released light (note that in the coin example, it was the non-magical coin that furnished the “heat”), so probably Harry used a bit of magic (like in Potions class) to “rearrange” the light without need of magical ingredients.
(Also, why wouldn’t “wizard hair” count as a magical ingredient?)
I think that if this were truly an original discovery it would have been a bigger deal. There are probably quite a few potions using only ingredients muggles know of, but I bet Harry will be able to invent quite a few more of them.
My theory is that potions which don’t involve magical ingredients are obscure because they’re usually less powerful and because they require a greater investment of energy from the creator to do the reshaping (explaining why Harry doesn’t do very much in that battle). Given that Flitwick and McGonagal had suggestions of books to make at all after hearing what Harry wanted, it seems very likely that such potions do exist, just not in the standard textbooks. It seems very likely that Harry got his potion out of a book, because potions research is dangerous and presumably very time consuming, and because Harry with the ability to invent potions would be powerful enough to wreck the story.
Harry with time travel would be enough to wreak the story. Harry with an invisibility cloak would be enough to wreak the story, Hell, harry with rationality would be enough to wreak the story.
That is, unless the other obstacles were ramped up to deal with it. Give Harry a time turner and enemies clever enough to know how to check on him. Give harry an invisibility cloak but add spells that can detect the presence of a deathly hallow. Give Harry mastery of potions but make creating them slow or just plain difficult.
If potion invention is slow, Harry must have gotten the light potion from a book, since I don’t think there’s enough time between battles to do serious potion research safely between classes and homework, even for Harry’s 30 hours a day. If he can invent potions that fast, he potentially has a huge number of instant win conditions available (that’s what I really meant, that rapid potion invention would be a huge pain in the ass to write around). I think at this point it’s clear that Harry probably does know enough to invent potions, but not without probably months or years of experimentation per new recipe. If he didn’t know enough to be dangerous he wouldn’t have freaked out Flitwick.