Hey everyone,
Welcome to another installment of Harry Potter Theory. In today’s video, we’re going
to be discussing the Deathly Hallows, the Battle of Hogwarts, Potion-making, Horace
Slughorn and a little potion by the name of Felix Felicis- Liquid Luck. More specifically-
I’m going to be addressing the question: Why wasn’t Liquid Luck used more? Why wasn’t
it utilized during the Battle of Hogwarts? If you’ve always wondered this as well,
then sit back, relax and enjoy.
We first see Liquid Luck in the Half-Blood Prince, after Dumbledore has convinced Professor
Horace Slughorn to return to Hogwarts and teach potions. In this same school year, Harry
paid extra close attention in his class- hoping to be ‘selected’ by Slughorn in order
to obtain information about Tom Riddle and horcruxes. Part of this ‘selection’, however,
involved Harry’s use of a certain potions textbook- one belonging to a ‘Half-Blood
Prince’. The textbook allowed Harry to breeze through Slughorn’s potions lessons with
ease- providing him with all sorts of shortcuts to a perfect brew.
In one such lesson, Felix Felicis- or Liquid Luck, is introduced to us- a potion, that,
in essence, enables the consumer to become successful in all of their endeavours. Felix
Felicis, is in my opinion the most powerful potion of all, because it’s possibilities
are seemingly limitless. Whatever you try to use it for, you will be successful at,
which means that with it you should be able to achieve almost..well, anything. The potion
was first created in the 16th century by a potioneer by the name of Zygmunt Bridge, who
dubbed it the ‘crowning achievement of his career’.
"Mine own invention, my masterpiece; the crowning achievement of my career. Bottled good fortune.
Brewed correctly the drinker of this potion will be lucky in all their endeavours, but
be warned ... excessive consumption is highly toxic and can cause extreme recklessness.
Fans of Quidditch were quick to protest that a potion which gives the drinker good luck
was hardly fair and use of my potion was banned, quite rightly, from all competitive events
... except potion-making tournaments."
And here Harry was, in Slughorn’s class, with a vial of this potion right in front
of him. A vial that looked like ‘molten gold’ with ‘large drops leaping like goldfish
from its surface, never spilling’. The only thing that Harry needed to do to obtain this
vial of Liquid Luck, was be the first to successfully brew a Draught of Living Death- which of course,
Harry did, thanks to Snape’s textbook.
Later in the same book/film, we see Harry finally use the vial that he won, a vial that
would have given him about 12 hours of luck.
"Harry did not answer for a moment. Then, slowly but surely, an exhilarating sense of
infinite opportunity stole through him; he felt as though he could have done anything,
anything at all... and getting the memory from Slughorn seemed suddenly not only possible,
but positively easy... He got to his feet, smiling, brimming with confidence."
Harry ended up taking a small dose- enough for 2 or 3 hours, but in this short time-frame
he was able to achieve A LOT. Including but not limited to:
-Obtaining the uncorrupted memory from Horace Slughorn about Horcruxes.
-Attending Aragog’s funeral- keeping his word to Hagrid
-Convincing Slughorn to accompany him to Hagrid’s -Successfully casting a non-verbal refilling
charm on Slughorn’s drink- even though he had not mastered non-verbal spells
-Bumping in to Ginny- leading to a compound of events that led to Ginny breaking up with
Dean Thomas -Inciting the break-up of Lavender Brown and
Ron Weasley -And sneaking back in to the castle undetected-
evading even Peeves
In short, Harry achieved a lot- and this was just in 2 or 3 hours. Can you imagine what
an army of witches and wizards would achieve utilizing Liquid Luck for an extended period?
The other side would stand no chance, right? So- why wasn’t it USED?
We know that Liquid Luck is hard to make, this is emphasized in the book and film, but
we do know that it’s POSSIBLE to make, Slughorn made it himself. So, why wasn’t Slughorn
tasked with creating Liquid Luck for the battle? Surely it would have helped with, well, everything
contributing to the defeat of Lord Voldemort. It seems to be praised as a rare and powerful
potion, but again, Slughorn can make it- and it can’t be THAT priceless if he was willing
to give it away to one of his students. Surely someone would have asked Slughorn to make
it, right? Why not?
First of all- money can’t have been the issue, because both sides (good and evil)
have wealthy wizards that could have easily contributed towards the production of the
potion IF it came down to a question of money.
Second of all, it’s not as if Felix Felicis is this ‘secret’ potion that Slughorn
doesn’t want getting out in to the world- it’s well known in the wizarding community.
It’s even a banned substance in sports like Quidditch.
Lastly, everyone knows that Slughorn can make it- he told his class and he’s probably
been telling his classes for decades.
To top ALL of this off, it doesn’t seem like there’s any reason WHY people wouldn’t
be able to take the potion on the day of the Battle. I say this because, when Slughorn
was questioned on this by Terry Boot- he had this to say:
“Why don’t people drink it all the time, sir?” said Terry Boot eagerly.
“Because if taken in excess, it causes giddiness, recklessness, and dangerous overconfidence,”
said Slughorn. “Too much of a good thing, you know … highly toxic in large quantities.
But taken sparingly, and very occasionally …”
I can certainly think of a time when it could have been ‘sparingly’ taken by a lot of
people on only one occasion. So again, what’s the deal?!
First of all, there’s a pretty strong chance that the bad guys used Felix Felicis at some
point or another as well. We know Harry uses it, and everyone seems to know that it exists.
Slughorn even taught a lot of the Death Eaters, and even Tom Riddle himself. For them to not
utilize such a potion would make absolutely no sense, so I’m willing to bet that, though
it wasn’t included in the books/films, the potion was used at some point or another in
order to achieve something. What exactly? Well, that could be a separate video.
What I think it probably really comes down to is the brewing process- how feasible it
is to make a lot, and how consistently you could make a successful, reliable batch. Sure,
Felix Felicis isn’t impossible to brew and, presumably, most VERY gifted potioneers (at
least Slughorn, and probably Snape) are able to make it. But that doesn’t mean that it’s
quick or that it’s 100% dependable. In Snape’s copy of his textbook for Advanced Potion-Making,
the one that Harry uses, he actually has notes about Felix Felicis. He takes note that the
ingredients Felix Felicis is comprised of are particularly complex, and adds that it
takes ‘six months to brew’. These two factors alone are great reasons for why it
isn’t used or produced in mass quantities, or produced often. War doesn’t wait for
potions to be brewed, and I would imagine that it would be a difficult and dangerous
potion to stockpile in large quantities. Imagine if it came in to the wrong hands. The ingredients
required for a successful batch of Felix Felicis are:
Ashwinder Eggs that come from a magical serpent named ‘Ashwinder’ which are purportedly
very valuable when frozen/stored Squill Bulbs which come from the ‘Squill’
flower Murtlap Tentacles that grow on the back of
a ‘Murtlap’- a magical marine Beast. These tentacles are said to be very rare.
A Tincture of thyme - a common muggle herb An Occamy eggshell which comes from the egg
of an Occamy- a winged serpentine magical beast
And finally, Powdered Common rue- an evergreen shrub native to the Mediterranean
Most of these are NOT easy ingredients to come by. But- suppose you DO get a hold of
all of them, you’re in the clear, right? WRONG. In the Half-Blood Prince Slughorn emphasizes
the precarious and difficult nature of brewing such a potion:
“Desperately tricky to make and disastrous to get wrong. However, if brewed correctly,
as this has been, you will find that all your endeavors tend to succeed... at least until
the effects wear off.”
What he doesn’t mention here, however, is HOW a witch or wizard would be able to tell
if a batch has been brewed correctly or not. I think that the implication here is that
being ‘experienced’ isn’t enough- it can still go awry. I think that it might be
one of the situations where a witch or wizard wouldn’t actually KNOW until the potion
has actually been taken, which would make using it a SIGNIFICANT risk if it were to
be dolled out to the witches and wizards who fought valiantly in the Battle of Hogwarts.
Slughorn himself once expressed that he has only taken the potion TWICE in his life:
"Have you ever taken it, sir?" "Twice in my life. Once when I was twenty-four,
once when I was fifty-seven. Two tablespoonfuls taken with breakfast. Two perfect days."
Other reasons for why the potion might not have been used include:
-It might simply NOT be appropriate for a battle setting. The potion is cited to give
the consumer what they ‘need’ and not necessarily what they ‘want’. In a duel
with a death eater, you might WANT to kill them, but in reality all you really NEED is
to survive, so the potion might only help with that.
-The fact that it only works from Dawn to Dusk. Wouldn’t it be disastrous if it all
wore off before the battle ended? -People could easily develop an addiction/obsession
with the potion. This is a potion that allows you to, for hours, achieve things that would
have perhaps never been possible. I think that something like this could be PARTICULARLY
addictive- and the kind of thing that people would do bad things just to acquire.
What do you guys think? Did you ever wonder why this POWERFUL potion was simply NEVER
used in the Battle against Voldemort and the Death Eaters? Do you have a THEORY of your
own? Comment down below.
Until next time
Remember
These are mad times we live in! Mad!