Daphne Greengrass

NEWT Potions

19 OCTOBER 1997

Coming from a purely theoretical perspective, there are not a lot of wizards who have the opportunity to experience both the creation and utilisation of the Polyjuice Potion in their lifetime. This is given to the fact that it is extremely difficult to make, and almost impossible to make correctly for any inexperienced wizard. Though the Polyjuice Potion is not the most difficult potion, (that designation is, of course, reserved for Sahand-restorative peace-healing-draught-ten, which no one has ever been able to successfully create. Indeed, no one is sure if it even exists or does what it is supposed to do.) it is one of the few of its calibre that can be potentially successfully brewed by a wizard who has come of age and has the understanding for such concepts. Even then, it often takes several attempts. In the end on average, there is an approximate success rate of seven out of ten. This information is taken from Adelei Abrams' A Descriptor of the Definition of the Moste Potente Potions, and refers to a total of fifteen attempts by each student involved.

Of the one hundred students sampled, only two were able to get in on the first try, and another success was not made until the fifth attempt, where three more students were able to correctly brew the potion. After that, the number increased in a pattern until the fifteenth attempt, where the two students who had not yet made a successful sample were able to complete it. One can imagine how long this must have taken, as, on average, one cauldronful of Polyjuice Potion takes approximately one month to brew. By this reasoning, if the students in our class were able to see their potions through to their completion, taking account that we would have had help, one student may have been able to successfully complete their potion. Had we had the ability or time to continue its creation, we would not have had another success until March or April. A year from that point, everyone in the class statistically should be able to make a successful Polyjuice Potion.

The Polyjuice Potion is unique among other potions for its very specific traits while it's being brewed. One can tell this potion from another quite easily, due to a very distinctive set of properties.

First of all, one must take into consideration the colour. Unlike most potions of the same category, it is not clear or even translucent... It is an opaque, mud-grey colour, which only changes upon the addition of a 'part' of the person whom you intend to become. (See ingredients below for more details). The reason for this is very obvious. It is a thick solution because it holds an incredibly concentrated amount of magic. In order to turn one person into another, one would normally either have to be a Metamorphmagus or come under the influence of a very, very powerful curse. As it is, the thickness and colour of the solution holds only enough magic to transform a person for one single hour.

The colour must also be perfectly exact. With so many shades of grey, it is hard to tell if the potion is being made properly by sight, thus, it is important that an attempt be absolutely perfect. The slightest alteration in colour at the start can spell disaster at the end. One student at Walcathworth School of Arts and Magics in British Columbia, Canada, wasn't paying attention when his potion exploded and turned all the desks in the room into large green pigs.

There are several ways to tell if the colour is correct or not, though none of them can be completely accurate. The first and least credible of these is that the potion should be roughly the same colour as the pewter cauldron that you're using. Unfortunately, cauldrons vary in colour almost as much as people do, thus, it is impossible to tell by that means. A second way involves observing the pattern of bubbles ascending from the potion's bottom, though this depends on the altitude of the potion being brewed. Compensating for plus-or-minus sea level would be a factor, and even then, every single metre would have to be observed, and that is impossible. In the end, the only way to be sure that the colour is correct is to brew the potion correctly.

Unlike the colour, there is no specific smell associated with the Polyjuice Potion, except for the fact that it should smell, and smell fairly rotten. This is due mainly to certain ingredients reacting to both the warmth and the wand used to stir the mixture. The smell is simply an unwelcome side effect, and should not be taken into consideration while the potion is brewing. Unless, of course, there is no smell at all. Then there is something decidedly wrong.

As I am including all of the properties here, I will include a small section about the taste. There is nothing as foul as the Polyjuice Potion. It tastes ten times worse than it smells, and that's saying a lot. It is gritty and lumpy, and extremely difficult to keep down. As soon as it hit my stomach, there was the definite feeling that it was going to return, though this, according to the notes, is the intended effect. It is the first stage of the transformation.

This leads to the consistency and texture of the potion. It is made up of several ingredients that tend to clump together in loose clusters. These clusters give off magical residue, or waste, that gives the potion a very sandy, paste-like make-up. These grains are only by-product, and do not positively or adversely affect the final potion. It is being debated that these by-products may, however, actually soothe the stomach of the person taking it, so they don't vomit it before the magic has a chance to take hold. The original notes, however, are long gone. We only have evidence and writings from the 1600's onward to go by.

Another unique aspect of the potion is that it must be kept constantly warm with fluctuating temperatures in order to remain viable. At the beginning, it must simply be kept at a low heat to maintain room temperature. After that, the fire should be raised or lowered depending on what the spell (and ingredients) call for. A medium-low heat tends to be best when adding components, then it should be raised to medium-high to stir. Under no circumstances should the Polyjuice Potion become scalding, or too hot to touch. This will kill the magic-forming clusters, and the potion will have to be scrapped and started over. As the potion is quite expensive to make in the first place, any mistakes are extremely costly. It is almost impossible to recover from an error when brewing this potion, with the exception being errors in stirring. Adding too much or too little of a specific ingredient will, of course, destroy any progress that has been made.

Of special note, the Polyjuice Potion is for human transformations only. Due to the specific binding properties of the potion itself, it is meant to transform a human to a human for approximately one hour. During that hour, the magic of the potion naturally breaks down and returns a person to their original form. This trait should not be artificially lengthened or shortened, as the time limit itself is actually a component of the potion, relative to the average human lifespan. Altering this in any way could make the transformation permanent. In the case of adding an animal item into the potion, you are altering the time component because the average lifespan of an animal is much shorter than that of a human. The two key time ingredients don't add up, and the magic does not break down.

This plight was first discovered in the 1400s when a 21-year-old man purposely added a wolf hair to his mixture. Hereafter, the potion was often used to curse enemies, as it became literally impossible for these people to show their faces in public again. In 1604, Winhilda Watchley developed a 'cure' for this condition, after ten long years of research. Using several of the Polyjuice Potion's own ingredients, she found a way to break down the original magic that transformed these people. Those who were cursed into furred animals took approximately a month to two months to recover, depending on the creature. Birds took longer, and the most popular curse - amphibian (namely frog) Could take up to a year or more. Restoration seems proportional to the Muggle Darwin's classification of evolution: The closer the animal was to human, the easier it was to restore the human's natural form.

As previously described, the invention of the potion did not happen overnight, nor did it happen in a century. Its development took approximately two-hundred years, and was started by Lucan Remitel - notably a Slytherin alumnus. The work was continued by his son, Lucan Remitel II, and later by his grandson, Reshak Remitel. Reshak is therefore credited with the potion's final success.

The potion's development was not an easy one. Lucan Remitel is said to have started its development on a dare, and got so involved in the work, that even after the person that dared him was eaten by a Swedish short-snout, he continued. There were errors, of course. It's said that Remitel initially used flaxweed instead of fluxweed, and ended up with a second set of arms (with which he was cremated.) Ironically, judging from his notes, he had the potion nearly right within his lifetime, except for the fact that he didn't harvest the fluxweed at the full moon, but at the new moon.

Remitel II continues his father's work, and is credited with adding lacewing flies as a stabiliser. Most of his life was actually spent figuring out a way to stabilise the potion, as he recalled several explosions in his father's lab due to a missed number of rotations of the stirring apparatus, or an unwelcome bump of the cauldron. He eventually discovered that the lacewing flies, added approximately seven days into the potion's brewing, would make it nearly impossible to blow up. A side benefit was that they didn't seem to add any extra effects to the potion, but also acted as a catalyst. The potion's preparation time was cut down from three months to one.

At the time of Remitel II's death, son Reshak, another Slytherin alumnus, took over his work. There was not much left to be done, though Reshak also had his share of failures before he got it right at the age of twenty-seven. The potion was registered with the ministry of magic at that time, and was just as soon regulated as dangerous. Not only were some of the ingredients potentially harmful, but the potion itself could be used for horrible things. The only place one can find this potion in detail now is in the book, Moste Potente Potions, and very few books besides that one even mention it.

It might seem odd to go over both the history of the potion and its properties for an essay about the experience of making the potion, but one important thing to remember when creating something of this degree is that people have learned in the past from their own mistakes. Thus, understanding the properties and dangers inherent in the potion itself is important in the process of making it. Having a healthy fear and respect of what the potion can do means not ruining it or harming yourself when creating it.

Summarising the ingredients also gives a good look into the process of the potion's creation. As stated, the lacewing flies serve as both a stabiliser and a catalyst, cutting down the time it is required to make the potion as well as reducing potential for explosion. The leeches give the potion both its colour and consistency, the latter of which is important for holding the magic within the cauldron. The bicorn horn, which is one of the hardest to get and most dangerous ingredients, is the component that actually creates the magic; the other ingredients act as channels. The bicorn horn needs to be finely crushed into powder, and where it is possible to purchase already powdered bicorn horn, it is recommended that the person brewing the potion does the powdering themselves. The horn is able to hold more if its original magic before it is crushed, after which it slowly breaks down. Waiting to crush it will ensure that the full hour's effect is reached.

Knotgrass is thought to both bind the magic to a person once the potion is ingested, and slowly break down the magic in the span of an hour. It is one of the most important ingredients in the potion. Thankfully, without it, the potion will not work at all, which means that a person cannot be trapped as another person forever.

Boomslang skin absorbs the essences and details of its surroundings, as the boomslang is very adept at natural camouflage. This ensures that the transformation includes the minute details of the person being turned into, including hair length, scars, eye colour, and even voice. It is the fluxweed that actually initiates the transformation itself, borrowing magic from the bicorn horn to do so. The fluxweed easily bonds with the knotgrass within the cauldron, and when the knotgrass breaks apart, it fades the effect of the spell, returning a person to normal.

In addition to the physical ingredients, stirring must also be taken into consideration. It is important to follow the instructions exactly, and make sure that a strict count is being kept. Even stirring wrong once can bring disastrous results, especially near the end of the potion's creation. Though the lacewing flies make it so that there cannot be explosions, (if they are, indeed, added at the proper time) the cauldron has also been known to 'boil over,' affecting both people and objects nearby.

As with all potions, the key to making the Polyjuice Potion correctly is in its preparation. Unlike most, however, this particular mixture spends most of its time stewing. On the average, it takes approximately thirty to forty days to finish. In the case of ours, it would have taken thirty-two days from start to finish, given the day of the full moon. (16 OCTOBER.)

Step one, of course, is filling a standard pewter cauldron halfway with water, and setting it on a very low flame - just enough to bring the water to room temperature. The oddest thing about this potion is that the water must be stirred with the wand prior to adding any ingredients. Though any wand will do, since the reason behind this gesture is to remove any impurities, it is best to use a wand with the core of a unicorn hair (or, better yet, the shaving from a unicorn's horn, but those wands are quite rare.) Stirring is done in a constant clockwise motion for fifty-six turns, then counter-clockwise for five. The water should then sit at room temperature for approximately twenty to twenty eight hours before the leeches are added. It is best if the leeches are dead but not dried when they are measured out for the most accurate results. At this point, the potion is again stirred with the wand, which causes the leeches to melt into the mixture and disburse. This is the base of the potion itself.

Stirring at this point may be switched to a wooden spoon or a ladle.

The leeches should be left to stew for a few days, stirring occasionally (thirty counter-clockwise, then break for at least five minutes. Repeat until the consistency is favourable.) In this stage of the potion, it is hardest to ruin, because the stirring isn't as precise as it will get in later stages. Stirring of the leeches should continue until the boomslang skin is added, approximately a week later.

The boomslang skin, shredded, should be added next. There is no specific method for this, but it must be finely shredded and added over the course of a few days. Adding too much at once will render the potion unusable; it will likely become a faded greenish-grey colour if this is the case. Recommended volume is a third of a litre a day for three days, though the days do not necessarily have to be in succession. Each third should be added slowly throughout a set amount of time - usually one hour is good. Stirring must be done before and after adding the boomslang skin, which is another oddity about the Polyjuice Potion. Twenty turns clockwise, ten counter-clockwise, and then the boomslang skin is added. It is natural for the potion to become deep red for a moment, but it then must settle down to its original colour. Afterward, the potion should be stirred fifty times clockwise. This must be done every time a new measure of boomslang skin is added.

Lacewing flies are used next. These should not be added until you are certain which day will mark the end of your potion brewing, as they can only be effective over the fire for twenty-one days. Thankfully, off the fire and cool, they act as a preservative, meaning that a cauldron of Polyjuice Potion can last quite a while before it needs to be disposed of. The average shelf life of the potion is approximately four months until the magic starts breaking down.

The potion at this point should still retain its leech-grey colour. If it takes on a green tint, more lacewing flies must be added as quickly as possible to bring the colour back to neutral grey. If it turns red, too many lacewings have been added, and it will become ineffectual. The potion must be properly destroyed, and another attempt must be made.

The knotgrass and bicorn horn should be added together, given that one is a magical bind, and the other provides the magic itself. Only a tenth of a litre of the powdered bicorn horn is necessary, as it is quite powerful. This is thankful, given the fact that it is also somewhat of a rare object to obtain. Prior to adding these ingredients, the fire should be turned up until the mixture begins to bubble. The horn is to be added a pinch at a time until it is gone; after each pinch, the potion should be stirred five times counter-clockwise. After every fifth pinch, a strip from a blade of knotgrass should be added into the cauldron, and the potion should be stirred an additional five turns counter-clockwise. As more is added, the grey colour will start to take on more and more of a silver sheen until it is practically glowing. After the bicorn horn and knotgrass are gone, it is necessary to stir the potion in any direction until the colour returns to normal. This takes approximately an hour.

Next is the fluxweed, which must be picked during the night of a full moon. This ingredient takes the most concentration and is the most difficult to add; it is necessary to pick a full plant, gathering all parts of it - leaves, flowers, and roots. It should not be prepared in any way, though it may be fresh or dried at the time of its addition. The whole plant must be dangled upside-down above the cauldron, then slowly added centimetres at a time while stirring clockwise. It is also necessary to keep the potion warm, though not too warm, as the plant must never be dropped. The most important part of the fluxweed's addition is that it is integrated slowly... Too fast, and the knotgrass will have little to no effect, which will ruin the whole thing. It is quite easy to tell if the plant is being added to quickly, as the potion will suddenly flare bright blue, before fading to black. As the potion is over three weeks old at this point, adding the fluxweed too fast is very much a fatal error, mostly for the frustration that it will have to be started over.

The last ingredient should be added near the time the potion will be used - it is a small amount of the person being turned into - a hair tends to do just fine. Only at this time will the Polyjuice Potion change colour. It will froth and turn to a colour representing the person being changed into.

Unfortunately, due to an accident in the dungeon, the NEWT-level class was unable to complete their potions. The following are my notes from class, dealing with the process itself.

26 SEPTEMBER 1997 - The potion was started today. This, of course, was the easiest step, as it was just pouring water into a cauldron and stirring it.

27 SEPTEMBER 1997 - Leeches added. Potion developed a distinct smell at this point, possibly due to the fact that the base of the potion was once a living creature. It takes some time for the leeches to melt themselves into the water. When finished, they look like dark grey slugs.

30 SEPTEMBER 1997 - I am starting to get used to the smell in the room. It seems to be quite distinctive for the potion, and definitely smells like rot. It also seems to burn my nose and throat just to breathe in the room. Matthews happened to be in the room with me at the time, and she seemed to be suffering from the same effects. Though I did stay long enough to stir the leeches, it eventually got to be too much and I had to leave.

1 OCTOBER 1997 - Returned to stir, and noted that the sludge was congealing in the centers of the potion as it was supposed to. A touch of the ladle broke it apart, but it just as quickly fused back together. I can see the process happening again as I sit here writing. It would be more tolerable if it didn't smell so horribly. After I stir the potion again, I will definitely be hurrying back to the dormitory.

4 OCTOBER 1997 - I started to add the boomslang skin, only to note with disappointment that the smell I was starting to get used to was changing again. The potion remained the correct colour throughout. I was slightly distracted, thus I had to return later in the afternoon to add the rest, just to be sure it was done right, and stirred correctly.

5 OCTOBER 1997 - More boomslang skin added. I thought for a moment that the potion was remaining the deep red colour for too long, but it soon faded back to the neutral grey. I suspect that the more skin is added, the longer the potion will remain a red colour. I'll be taking note of this tomorrow.

6 OCTOBER 1997 - Last of the boomslang skin added, and my suspicions were confirmed. The potion remained red for ten whole seconds before fading back to its proper grey colour. It seems the addition of the boomslang skin was a complete success. As the lacewing flies cannot be added until the 13th of this month, I will now proceed to let the potion stew for one week.

10 OCTOBER 1997 - The potion was completely ruined, most likely due to a disgruntled student. I was actually starting to get used to the smell again, but I haven't ever smelled anything as rotten as this. Even as I pen this down on the 11th, I can still feel it in my nose and throat, and it still burns a little. I hope the cleaners don't bother to return my robe, because I fear there isn't any way to remove the smell. Thankfully, the mixed potions were not yet mature enough to explode or cause any transfigurations. The only problem was a bit of a congealed slime creature, which was too slow to do any damage. It was properly destroyed.

The transfiguration itself, while not pleasant, was certainly an experience. As this potion is made to last an hour with a standard dose (though no more than an hour) the class seemed, in my own opinion, somewhat nervous over the fact that they were about to become someone else in the class. Professor Snape metred out quarter doses, however, and, while it still looked vile, it didn't look as intimidating as it could have. Cooled, it has exactly the consistency one would think - it looked like dark grey, lumpy, gritty glue.

Preparing a potion that has already been, for the most part, prepared, was quite easy. It's too bad we didn't get a chance to complete the more advanced staged of the potion, as it would have been more of a learning experience than what we actually received. The only thing we had to do was take a bit of the person we were going to turn into - a hair, because it's easiest - and add it to the solution. Of course, the mixture becomes a colour which reflects the person you're about to become, and mine turned blue... Which I believe does match Terry Boot quite well.

I really tried not to taste the Polyjuice Potion, because, after all, there was no way it could have tasted good at all given the fact that its base ingredient was made up of leeches. Added to that were a bunch of other vile-tasting things, which are best not thought about when you're actually trying to consume it. The first reflex, is, of course, to vomit, though this is only natural, given the fact that something unwelcome will have made its way quickly into the stomach. Fortunately, the magic actually started working before I had a chance. I don't really think I would have been the only one to do so, but even so, I'm quite glad it was avoided.

The feeling of the change itself was extremely uncomfortable. I'll describe it here as warm and cold at the same time. It wasn't painful, which I feared it would be, but it may as well have been. Polyjuice Potion literally makes your skin crawl as it literally transfigures each and every single piece of yourself into someone else... It's amazing to think that the single hair I added to the mixture was enough to instigate the change! Somehow the potion is able to react to it, however, which, in the end, does make sense, considering the ingredients described above.

Within the minute, I had become an exact copy of Terry Boot. As I have already experienced a human-to-human transfiguration, it was not as disconcerting as it might have been, but it was still odd. There is a definite feeling of vertigo right after, almost as if you're subconsciously aware that you are no longer yourself. This is perhaps due to the fact that every part of your body undergoes a change, including the brain. There could have been some residual thoughts left over, or, at least, that is what I theorise. Thankfully, all thoughts I can recollect at the moment of writing this were my own.

Stranger still than the fact that I was an entirely different person is the fact that I looked up to see myself sitting there next to me. It felt almost as if I was looking into a mirror, except the copy of myself did not mimic every single move I made. To observe another student, I will have to say that Terry seemed slightly disoriented, and complained about being off balance. This would have been normal, given the complete shift of his centre of gravity. In the end, we sat down to discuss the transfiguration and both decided that it is more reasonable to remain in one's own body... What one is comfortable with.

According to the time, it was exactly fifteen minutes later when we began to change back, though this is wholly unsurprising. Given the fact that we were each given a quarter dose of the average full dose, the time could have been predicted to exactly the second. Unlike the transfiguration, which involves spreading magical components through your system very quickly, the breakdown of the magic was very slow, and neither Terry nor I felt any illness as a side effect at all.

To offer a personal opinion, this was an excellent opportunity to actually study what the Polyjuice potion was capable of. Even more interesting is the fact that we, in the NEWT Potions class, now know how it functions, and what processes are involved in making it correctly.