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Potions (class)

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"Point me!"

This article is about the Hogwarts subject. You may be looking for information on potions in general.
Potions
Class information
Professor

Severus Snape
Horace Slughorn

Required textbooks

Magical Draughts and Potions by Arsenius Jigger
Advanced Potion Making by Libatius Borage

Required equipment
First appearance

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

"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 and even put a stopper in death."
—Professor Snape during Harry Potter's first Potions class[src]

Potions is a subject taught at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. In this class, students learn how to brew potions, following specific recipes and using various magical ingredients to create their potions, starting with simple ones and moving to more advanced ones as they progress in knowledge. A standard potions kit includes plant ingredients such as Belladonna and supplies such as glass phials and weighing scales. Potions lessons take place in the Hogwarts dungeons.

Contents

[edit] Class Information

Severus Snape, the Potions Master.

Potions is a required subject for first year students. Around 1981, Severus Snape became the professor of Potions at the school, and was still teaching at the school through 1996, when he was replaced by Horace Slughorn.

Potion recipes can be found in many books, including the books the students at Hogwarts use in their classes, but the intricacies of timing, ageing, stirring techniques, and bottling which are much more difficult to learn without the mentoring of the experienced masters.

When Severus Snape was the professor, students had to achieve an "Outstanding" in their O.W.L. in order to take his advanced class. As Head of House, Professor Snape tended to favour students from Slytherin House more than other students, Slytherins tended to do better than others at the subject.

On the other hand, Horace Slughorn was much more lenient; Harry and Ron were both allowed to continue the N.E.W.T. class with an "Exceeds Expectations" O.W.L.

Students in potions class

[edit] Required Textbooks

[edit] Known O.W.L.s

[edit] Behind the scenes

Padma Patil, Dean Thomas, Hermione Granger, Neville Longbottom, Ron Weasley, Lavender Brown, Leanne and Seamus Finnigan in Potions class in their sixth year.

In the film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, many more students are shown to be in Harry's N.E.W.T. level Potions class than are mentioned in the book. The book specifically names Harry, Ron, and Hermione to be the only Gryffindors to have moved on to N.E.W.T. level, but the film shows Neville Longbottom, Dean Thomas, Seamus Finnegan, and Lavender Brown to be in the class as well. Katie Bell is also in the class in the film, although she is actually a seventh-year student.

[edit] Appearances

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