The Trio and Polyjuice Potion

[Eric Oppen]

No: HPFGUIDX 47868

One thing I've wondered about the whole Polyjuice Potion thing is why Harry
or Ron or especially rule-abiding Hermione didn't think of owling to Diagon
Alley for the supplies they needed.  If Professor Snape had caught Hermione
swiping supplies from _his personal stores,_ she'd have been in a ton of
trouble---I don't think Professor D'dore would _expel_ her, particularly
since she's normally so well-behaved, but at the least, she'd have had a
great deal of explaining to do---and I _don't_ think that a twelve-year-old
girl could get out of that without implicating Ron and Harry, who were
_already_ in deep kimchee over the Flying Ford Anglia.  Twelve-year-old
girls are not known, at least by me, for their extreme fortitude under
serious adult cross-examination.

Just because some supplies are kept under lock and key at Hogwarts doesn't
mean that they aren't perfectly legal for students to have ("controlled
substances" as somebody above suggested)---it might well be because the
stuff is expensive and they don't want students just swiping it or being
careless with it.  If Polyjuice Potion depends on something that's
expensive---well, Harry _has_ money at Gringott's, and AFWK nobody in
particular to oversee how he spends it; he contemplates buying a fancy new
broom at the beginning of CoS, but decides against it on his own.  He
doesn't think "well, I'd love to buy it, but my guardians would pitch a
fit/refuse to allow it."

The Wizard World seems to have a very nineteenth-century attitude toward a
lot of things that would have us cautious (I would say over-cautious)
moderns throwing fits...eleven-year-olds with magic wands and flying brooms,
the whole Quidditch game (if I tried to introduce anything one-tenth as
dangerous here, I'd be sued raggedy) and a very laissez-faire attitude
toward a lot of dangerous stuff, unless it's an unmistakably Dark artifact
with no "good" uses. (And, even then, they're openly on sale in Knockturn
Alley, a place I'd personally love to explore.)  I don't think that mere
possession of potion components, even by underage Hogwarts students, is
illegal _eo nomine._

You know...if I were their Potions professor, and had found out about the
Polyjuice Incident after the fact, I'd take lots of points off Gryffindor
for stealing the ingredients, as well as a detention apiece featuring much
ripping of strips off them for taking such a stupid chance...but, at the
same time, I'd be very proud of Hermione for managing such an advanced
potion.  And when I went to a Potions Conference, I'd brag her up a little.
"You think _your_ students are good?  One of _my_ students, at only twelve
years old and her second year, successfully brewed Polyjuice Potion!  Beat
that!  NYAAAH!"