[HPforGrownups] Can Ghosts Drink?

[Amanda Geist]

No: HPFGUIDX 47505

Jazmyn said, in regard to how the potion was administered to the basilisk's
victims:

> No, if they are petrified, there's no way they can swallow
> anything, even if their mouths are open..

Nobody ever said they have to swallow it, that I can recall...

> There ARE other ways of
> administering the potion, such as an enema or injecting into the
> stomach, but I seriously doubt that Rowling would want to bore us with
> the details if they DID use enemas.

Especially since they would have had to use a drill for either option, given
that the victims were, as you note, petrified.

> (note the large intestine absorbs
> drugs and such faster then even the stomach, which makes it a good way
> to get a drug (or potion) into someone's system fast.)

Unless the large intestine, like the rest of the person, is stone. Or a
reasonable facsimile thereof. Point is, not absorbing. System not working.
General system failure. Nothing circulating or moving.

>  This wouldn't
> work on ghosts very well, but there is likely some way to do it that the
> books may never explain..

Don't assume all potions are to be ingested. Folklore is rife with magic
potions that are applied topically. And even if it is poured into the mouth,
it's *magic* and if that's the way it's given, physiology has little to do
with it. Snow White's apple never made it into her system, it wasn't that
she ingested the poison--it was just within the confines of her mouth
(caught in her throat, I believe it was). Just like the poison comb in her
hair, which apparently did not really "poison" her in our sense of the word,
since she awoke the moment it was removed. [if this sounds strange, I'm
talking an older, non-Disney version.] Point is, it was *magic.*

As for Nick, I sort of assumed that they misted him. He did not go solid, he
had to be wafted up to the hospital wing, so a mist would have a good
penetration and chance of working.

~Amanda