[HPforGrownups] Veritaseum

[Amanda Lewanski]

No: HPFGUIDX 31349

Chelsea2162 at aol.com wrote:

>  I was thinking about the trial or Barty Crouch Jr., and Sirius' lack
> of one, when i came upon a huge question. If the wizarding world has
> Veritaseum (i hope I'm spelling this correctly) then why don't they
> just use it to find out
> if someone's guilty of committing a crime or not?

I've been meaning to chime in on the various Veritaserum threads. I
don't think it's quite that simple. I'll go down various factors which I
think are relevant, and tie a few together:

1. Dumbledore requests of Snape "the strongest Veritaserum you possess"
or something like that. This clearly implies that there are lower-grade
Veritaserums (Veritasera?) around, which would probably yield
lower-grade results (i.e., the subject able to resist, less under the
control of questioner, etc.).

2. Snape is a master of potions. Not a job title. He's legitimately a
consummate potions maker, as evidenced by Lupin's comment that he's
lucky Snape will make his potion for him, because not many wizards are
up to it.

Ergo, the strongest Veritaserum that a true master of the art can
produce is probably way, way potent and damn near infallible. BUT, given
that the wizarding world is not into mass-production and other niceties
of our age, I don't think there's just buckets of this stuff, of an
adequate "evidentiary" caliber, readily available. Nor do I think you
can tell the stuff that is strong enough, from the stuff that isn't,
just by looking at it (just like the old lab rule: hot glass looks
exactly the same as cold glass).

Add to the above, we've no idea how long the stuff takes to make, or how
rare the ingredients are. It could require stewing for fifteen months
and distillation every week, resulting in a tablespoonful of Veritaserum
from the large cauldron of ingredients you started with.

And lastly, there's a bit of a hint in the books that potions is not "up
there" with other forms of magic, as what the wizard-in-the-street is
apt to think of first and consider reliable. Look to Snape's first
speech: as there is little foolish wand-waving here, many of you will
not consider this magic.

So you could have a rare potion, hard to make, and of eccentric and
varying quality depending on its maker. Results from its use would
likewise vary, and anyway, wizard thought might tend to trust non-potion
sources of obtaining evidence first, anyway.

--Amanda, hoping all that made sense, I've been eating too much icing
(making a shower cake for a lady at work)


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