Well, this month is certainly something that everyone needs considering the current situation. I hope you are all staying safe in your homes! I never thought I would ever see Diagon Alley as empty as it is... Well, unless you count the flurry of owls that have descended the streets as the need to use owlpost services dramatically increased.
There is a reason that I am talking about Diagon Alley, though. One of the shops there is brightly coloured and stands out from all the other shops. I am, of course, talking about Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes. Set up by Fred and George Weasley, it is a joke shop and is easily the most popular shop in the alley. There are many products within it; some are pranks while others can simply be used to get you out of class. These are some of the most popular products in the shop; and I know a few have been used at Hogwarts. Let us take a look into the different parts that make up the Skiving Snackboxes! I should point out that the Daily Prophet does not approve of missing classes, meetings, etc. This is purely a review of a popular product from the store.
The first sweet, Fainting Fancies, is a sweet that makes the consumer, well... faint. Perfect if you want to get out of a test you have not studied for, but there is one flaw in the plan: you really should not use it alone. You see, it is impossible for an unconscious person to place half of the sweet that will wake them up in their own mouth. They would remain unconscious for the foreseeable future, or at least until someone found them and they were taken to the hospital wing.
Fever Fudge is another creation that lives in the Skiving Snackbox. This one makes you break out with a fever. A quick solution that will get you sent to the hospital wing, but again, popping the other half of the sweet in your mouth will make the fever go away. There is, as always, a downside. You break out in, and I quote the creators themselves, "pus-filled boils, which appear at places that we [the twins] don't 'generally display to the public'." The boils also "make sitting on a broom a right pain in the -" you know where. However, a simple dose of Murtlap Essence can defeat the boils. That does not take away from there being such side effects, though.
The Nosebleed Nougat is the next sweet in the Skiving Snackbox. This sweet is possibly one of the more obvious pranks and, dare I say it, one of the messier sweets. The idea is that you consume the orange part of the nougat first, and within seconds your nose will bleed heavily. When you eat the purple half of the nougat, the nosebleed will stop. However, there is a catch to this sweet, too. You could drop the purple half of the sweet or lose it somewhere before you get the chance to eat it. Then you will be stuck with a nosebleed until Madam Pomfrey, or some other Mediwitch or Mediwizard, can halt the bleeding.
Lastly, the Puking Pastilles are the final part of the Skiving Snackbox that I am going to talk about. This is a two-ended sweet. The orange end is consumed and then the person begins to vomit. As soon as the (and I quote the Weasley creators) "moment you've been rushed out of the lesson for the hospital wing, you swallow the purple half which restores you to full fitness, enabling you to pursue the leisure activity of your own choice during an hour that would otherwise have been devoted to unprofitable boredom." Of course, the catch is virtually the same as the previous products - you could drop the sweet and it gets lost or you cannot stop the vomiting and have to seek medical help.
Overall these are some of the less... serious products, but they can also have a great impact on situations if people want to get out of things they really should not. I will give these products a three out of five cauldron rating on creativity, but I must stress that these are products that should be used carefully and for fun! Not just to escape things because you do not want to do them.