PTNS-401 Lessons

Upon arriving at the classroom, you notice that an empty mug is placed on your desk. You look around, confusedly, and notice that all of the other desks are topped by an empty mug as well. Many of your classmates seem to share your confusion, and try inspecting the mug more closely.

With a flick of the wand, Professor Draekon fills all mugs with hot chocolate. You can feel a faint smell of raspberries coming from the liquid, indicating the syrup that has been mixed into the drink.

“I know I have twisted your expectations last Midterm, so consider this your just rewards”, Professor Draekon stated nonchalantly. "Since today we will not brew any potions, I decided to give you all a reprieve of my usual rules, and let you drink something in my class. Just this once", the man states forcefully, clearly giving you the idea that breaking this rule in the future would result in swift punishment.

"I hope this doesn’t intimidate anyone, but we’ll be getting a lot more heavily into theory and practical knowledge beyond a bunch of random ingredients and basic body functions as we move into future years. We’ve touched on a good deal of simpler traditional theory in past lessons, but especially as you get into Years Six and Seven, we’ll be discussing contemporary experimental potions, their attributes, and their creation."

Wonderful, I’m glad you survived the midterm. We’ll begin where I promised, taking a slightly deeper look at a few of the magical ingredients used in the last lesson, as I think you may not have had previous experience with them.

Firstly, an ingredient I think you know fairly well, fairy wings. You may have noticed that fairy wings are used in a number of beautifying potions. If you are a student of Care of Magical Creatures, you discussed this briefly last year: fairy wings are often listed as a secondary ingredient in beauty and physical potions because, while they do not have impacts on a person’s physique, they do impact the chemicals that a person emits to influence the people around them. Fairy wings increase the impact of basic pheromones of an individual on a grand scale. Pheromones are chemicals that encourage or bring about social response from members of the same species. Depending on the hormones involved, this can bring about aggressive or violent responses, fear or attraction depending on the pheromone.

Fairy wings impact what is known as the sex pheromone (also with some small properties influencing a calming pheromone). These chemicals are not, of course, strong enough to make someone hallucinate their ideal person physically, but when other humans inhale these pheromones, studies indicate that it does tend to make people feel “warmer” and generally more positive towards those they see. Fairy wings are sometimes used in affability and charisma potions as well.

Sex pheromones also have other effects. For example, androstenol, the pheromone secreted by women, can impact the monthly biological cycles of other women around them - I’m sure many of you have noticed this with your classmates or other people with whom you spend time regularly.

Mind you, manipulation of pheromones is not a strictly magical phenomenon. While studies show inconclusive evidence as to the actual effectiveness of these methods (most indicate they are mostly useless, in fact), there are many Muggle perfumes that utilize pheromones and claim to make the person irresistible to their desired romantic target. Pheromone level can also be naturally raised through simple means, such as regular exercise and proper sleep.

A secondary characteristic of fairy wings when exposed to magical catalysts is that they cause hallucinations for those who consume them, albeit mild in the form of beautification potions. Indeed, in Russian magical tradition there is a beverage known as feya-pivo that is concentrated fairy wings brewed alone in water. Sugar is then added, and it’s allowed to mature for two weeks. This beverage is considered similar to the Muggle alcoholic beverage absinthe. In beautifying potions, however, the effect is much less pronounced, and instead tends to boost the consumer’s impression of him or herself. This increased confidence also increases how attractive they seem to others, since general self-comfort can often be perceived as attractive.

The first entirely unfamiliar ingredient from the last lesson was the inclusion of the gum Gomas barbadensis (or “Barbados Gum”). This substance is a mixture of the saps of the following magical trees:

• Adansonia femmarina (commonly the Mermaid’s Tree)
• Ficus cantafolia (commonly the Broadleaf fig)

These trees are natives to Barbados, and in fact blend in perfectly in appearance to their non-magical counterparts, the baobab tree and the wild Banyan respectively. Although the individual saps have been used in potions dating back before the 16th century, when only Amerindian populations inhabited the islands, it was not until 1732 that a Dutch Brazilian wizard named Cauã Matheus Segher, a rather vain wizard who was rigorous in his skin and hair treatments, thought to combine the two saps when he made the impulsive decision to go brunette and did not have previous (typically less permanent) potions at hand. While it gained some popularity in the Americas following Segher’s experimentation with the mixture, Gomas barbadensis did not become a common ingredient in Europe until the 20th century.

When used in potions, Gomas barbadensis has been found to subtly alter the chemical composition of the hair particles in order to encourage a change in eumelanin and pheomelanin (which is, as we studied before, the substance that provides hair with its distinctive red tint). With regards to eumelanin, Gomas barbadensis can affect both the amount of brown eumelanin (to make hair darker or lighter), as well as black eumelanin (small amounts without other pigments cause grey hair). It is also used in some skin tinting potions and magical self-tanners.

The final brand new ingredient, Indigofera peculia, is a magical plant also derived from tropical regions, including Barbados. The genus Indigofera consists of several species of plant that can be used to create indigo dye. Indigo is a color most closely associated with a tone halfway between blue and violet, and is also said to be representative of the third eye chakra. However, as an ingredient in potions, Indigofera peculia provides a permanent darkening feature, in which it increases the melanin or other dark pigment on the body or even in inanimate objects.

One notable quality of this plant is the fact that it can only be observed by the light of the full moon. While the plant is still a corporeal entity during daylight and other stages of the moon, the means by which it reflects and refracts light causes it to be essentially undetectable using the basic five senses. However, the particular quality of moonlight present during the full moon causes a specific refraction on the leaves of the Indigofera peculia, allowing it to be seen to the naked eye. There are many theories as to why this plant behaves in this way, but most explanations are simply hypothetical now. It is interesting to note that some detecting spells currently in the research process have had some luck in finding the plant without the presence of the full moon. However, many researchers feel that the energetic vibrations of the plant impact visual perception - and possibly other senses as well as magic - in some way not yet understood.

More broadly speaking, when used in a Tinting Tincture, one can expect Indigofera peculia to directly impact the color exhibited on a light to dark scale. Not enough research has yet been put into examining the plant as found “naturally” (visually) in contrast to its detection by other means to assert the difference in potency. However, the most basic research has indicated that it has much stronger effects if gathered during the time when it can be viewed by the naked magical eye.

Polyjuice Potion: A History

Given the nature of its use over the last few decades, Polyjuice Potion has become an oft-admired brew for young witches and wizards as they arrive at Hogwarts with dreams of the famous Boy Who Lived. While of course we will not be going over Moste Potente Potions this year, we will be learning a little more about the history and process of the Polyjuice Potion.

Phineas Bourne was a British potioneer of the early to mid-19th century. We will cover his life and works in depth in Year Six, when we cover “offensive” and “defensive” potioneering. However, for Year Four, suffice to say that he was very interested in potions that could unwit, deceive and disarm potential opponents. While Bourne did not research and uncover his own unique potions, instead he studied, collected and perfected potions of previous magical generations in order to create a compendium of the most dangerous potions of his era.

The Polyjuice Potion, for example, while named by Bourne, was a potion created in the later 18th century by a witch named Abigail Crayne. Crayne came from a British magical family who moved to the New World and settled in upstate New York prior to the Revolutionary War. Raised in the colonies, Abigail only feigned allegiance to the Crown when war broke out. Her parents’ true fidelity helped her cover, but she soon joined the Culper Spy Ring, never alerting them to her true magical inclinations. Born with a knack for transfiguration - though not a metamorphmagus - Crayne found herself wishing she could more easily complete physical transformations to gain access to important conversations between British soldiers and even officials. Stealing some of her father’s early notes, he being himself an experimental potioneer working on helping the English army, Crayne used her own knowledge of properties of transfiguration to modify some early stage recipes he was constructing, eventually coming up with the Polyjuice Potion.

Once she perfected its use, albeit within a limited timeframe, Crayne utilized the potion in order to more effectively gather intelligence for her brethren in the spy ring. Using her access to mid-level British officers, she could easily collect hair, fingernails, and other genetic material to use in the potion. While her work caused a good deal of confusion among the British ranks, neither the soldiers nor her family guessed the brand new potion she had concocted in order to more efficiently get information.

While no one in the Culper gang ever learned of Crayne’s identity, she did share the recipe with her only son, Francis Irving, who passed it down over generations until it eventually found its way into Phineas Bourne’s book with slight improvements and modifications to the original recipe.