Skip to main content

harry potter - What potions actually grant fame or glory, or put a stopper in death? Are there any?



‘You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of potionmaking,’ [Snape] began. He spoke in barely more than a whisper, but they caught every word – like Professor McGonagall, Snape had the gift of keeping a class silent without effort. ‘As there is little foolish wand-waving here, many of you will hardly believe this is magic. I don’t expect you will really understand the beauty of the softly simmering cauldron with its shimmering fumes, the delicate power of liquids that creep through human veins, bewitching the mind, ensnaring the senses ... I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, even stopper death – if you aren’t as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to teach.’¹

Philosopher's Stone - page 102 - Bloomsbury - chapter 8, The Potions Master



Are there any canon potions that actually grant fame or glory, or stopper death? I'm looking for specific canon-based answers from sources such as the Harry Potter books, interviews with J.K. Rowling, or information from Pottermore. Maybe because it's early I'm overlooking the obvious, but offhand I can't think of any canon potions that fit this criteria exactly.


¹I edited in the entire paragraph that I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, even stopper death comes from for clarity. Hopefully this will be helpful and provide a better context for the comment in question.




Answer





  • Stopper death: since the pattern of the expression is "to ", it means that "stopper" is a verb.


    Dictionary.com has only one verb usage:



    verb (used with object) 6. to close, secure, or fit with a stopper.



    This very clearly means that he was referring to collect - and close - a bottle of deadly poison, NOT potion that will stop death.


    While we don't know the names (sorry, the "draught of living death" is not actually fatal), there ARE known fatal poisons in Harry Potter - some of those in Philosopher's Stone used for a riddle were deadly:




    Three of us are killers, waiting bidden in line.


    ...


    Neither dwarf nor giant holds death in their insides; (implying, others do)





  • fame and glory:





    1. First, there's a bunch of potions which could, potentially, have the effect of achieving fame and glory for the drinker (all text from http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_potions but I verified that they are all referenced):




      • Above mentioned Felix Felicis (grants luck)




      • Baruffio's Brain Elixir (increases the taker's brain power)




      • Beautification Potion (makes the taker very beautiful)







    2. Second, some potions could make the maker famous or glorified, just for making them; such as elixir from Philosopher's stone; or inventing Felix Felicis, or inventing wolfesbane potion.






Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Why didn't The Doctor or Clara recognize Missy right away?

So after it was established that Missy is actually both the Master, and the "woman in the shop" who gave Clara the TARDIS number... ...why didn't The Doctor or Clara recognize her right away? I remember the Tenth Doctor in The Sound of Drums stating that Timelords had a way of recognizing other Timelords no matter if they had regenerated. And Clara should have recognized her as well... I'm hoping for a better explanation than "Moffat screwed up", and that I actually missed something after two watchthroughs of the episode. Answer There seems to be a lot of in-canon uncertainty as to the extent to which Time Lords can recognise one another which far pre-dates Moffat's tenure. From the Time Lords page on Wikipedia : Whether or not Time Lords can recognise each other across regenerations is not made entirely clear: In The War Games, the War Chief recognises the Second Doctor despite his regeneration and it is implied that the Doctor knows him when they fir

the lord of the rings - Why is Gimli allowed to travel to Valinor?

Gimli was allowed to go to Valinor despite not being a ring bearer. Is this explained in detail or just with the one line "for his love for Galadriel"? Answer There's not much detail about this aside from what's said in Appendix A to Return of the King: We have heard tell that Legolas took Gimli Glóin's son with him because of their great friendship, greater than any that has been between Elf and Dwarf. If this is true, then it is strange indeed: that a Dwarf should be willing to leave Middle-earth for any love, or that the Eldar should receive him, or that the Lords of the West should permit it. But it is said that Gimli went also out of desire to see again the beauty of Galadriel; and it may be that she, being mighty among the Eldar, obtained this grace for him. More cannot be said of this matter. And Appendix B: Then Legolas built a grey ship in Ithilien, and sailed down Anduin and so over Sea; and with him, it is said, went Gimli the Dwarf . And when that sh

Did the gatekeeper and the keymaster get intimate in Ghostbusters?

According to TVTropes ( usual warning, don't follow the link or you'll waste half your life in a twisty maze of content ): In Ghostbusters, it's strongly implied that Dana Barret, while possessed by Zuul the Gatekeeper, had sex with Louis Tully, who was possessed by Vinz Clortho the Keymaster (key, gate, get it?), in order to free Big Bad Gozer. In fact, a deleted scene from the movie has Venkman explicitly asking Dana if she and Louis "did it". I turned the quote into a spoiler since it contains really poor-taste joke, but the gist of it is that it's implied that as part of freeing Gozer , the two characters possessed by the Keymaster and the Gatekeeper had sex. Is there any canon confirmation or denial of this theory (canon meaning something from creators' interviews, DVD commentary, script, delete scenes etc...)? Answer The Richard Mueller novelisation and both versions of the script strongly suggest that they didn't have sex (or at the very l

What is the etymology of Doctor Who?

I recently decided to watch Doctor Who, and started viewing the 2005 version. I have the first two episodes from the first season, and I can't help but wonder what is the etymology of the name "Doctor Who"? And why does the protagonist call himself "the Doctor" (or is it "the doctor")? Answer In the very first episode of Doctor Who (way back in 1963), the Doctor has a granddaughter going by the name "Susan Foreman", and the junkyard where the TARDIS is has the sign "I.M. Foreman". Barbara, who becomes one of the Doctor's companions, calls him "Doctor Foreman" (probably assuming that is his name given his relationship to Susan), and Ian (another early companion) does the same in the second episode, to which the Doctor says: Eh? Doctor who? What's he talking about? "Foreman" is most likely selected as a convenient surname for Susan to use because it happened to be on display near where the TARDIS landed.