[HPforGrownups] Veritaserum

[Amanda Lewanski]

No: HPFGUIDX 25475

quite_serious at hotmail.com wrote:

> OK, here is another question/comment from a new member. I agree that
> veritaserum would have made all those post-Voldemort trials far
> easier. This is one of the three things that really irritate me
> (together with the portkey and the, urgh, I can't even talk about it.)
> Is it possible, do you think, that the serum is something new, perhaps
> even invented as a reaction to the trials? After all, the
> anti-werewolf potion is new, isn't it?

I had postulated before that the strength of the serum, and thus the
accuracy of the info one obtains from it, depends strongly upon the
skill of the wizard brewing it. Snape is a master, we've been let to
know, with an acknowledged skill in his field. His serum is probably
quite "accurate."

But we also don't know much about how it's produced; it may take years,
it may require multiple distillations and be vanishingly expensive,
producing one ounce from several pounds of raw materials, it may be
impossible to detect "inaccurate" serum from "accurate" after
completion, etc. There are loads of variables out there.

--Amanda


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