Polyjuice: A Dark Art? Plus Killing Unicorns and Boggarts

[elfundeb at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 39633

Is Polyjuice Potion a Dark Art?  I uncovered the following in ch. 12 of PS/SS 
(p. 198 U.S.) 

"Harry wandered over to the Restricted Section. . . .These were the books 
containing powerful Dark Magic never taught at Hogwarts, and only read by 
older students studying advanced Defense Against the Dark Arts."

The phrase "these were the books" suggests to me that all the books in the 
Restricted Section were Dark Arts books, not just that all of the Dark Arts 
books were there.  The discussion in CoS could be interpreted as suggesting 
Moste Potente Potions was a Dark Arts book, but it's far from clear.  Ch. 10 
(p. 164 U.S.) says "It was clear at a glance why [the book] belonged in the 
Restricted Section.  Some of the potions had effects almost too gruesome to 
think about."  

The Lexicon does not include Polyjuice in the Dark Arts section, but if you 
think about it, the only purpose of the potion is to deceive, which 
definitely seems Dark Arts-like.  And the only other person who has been seen 
to use it is Crouch Jr., which adds to the potion's Dark Arts aura.  But 
wouldn't it be just like Snape to be dropping mentions of Dark Arts potions 
in his classes?  Come to think of it, some of those potions Snape mentions in 
his first class sound like they belong in the Restricted Section too, like 
that Draught of Living Death.

If Polyjuice is under the Dark Arts umbrella, it ratchets up a notch what 
Hermione is willing to do if she feels threatened.

Also, a couple more LOONs from old posts.

Zoe said:


> I have no canon to back me, but I would be VERY surprised if Ollivander were
> out there killing unicorns to obtain a unicorn hair. Talk about a wand for a
> evil wizard ... containing the hair of a unicorn that was killed for a
> strand of unicorn hair.
> 
> More likely, I would propose, is that Ollivander visits magical forests
> during the time of year when unicorns shed a bit and picks up these stray
> 

In "The Weighing of the Wands" Ollivander specifically states that the 
unicorn that provided Cedric's wand's core "nearly gored me with his horn 
after I plucked his tail."  So there is no killing of the unicorns.

On the other hand, I can't see how to obtain a dragon's heartstring without 
killing it.

Pippin, on Evil! Lupin:

He does have one rather frightening hobby: he makes pets out of 
Dark Creatures and then kills them.  We know what happened to 
the Boggart in the wardrobe. 

And Katzefan said:

> And wasn't it the *class* who blew up the Boggart, by yelling 
> Riddikulus at it repeatedly? Admittedly at Lupin's instigation, but 
> as the DADA teacher, isn't that what he's supposed to be 
> teaching them?
> 
I checked this one because dead boggarts just didn't seem right to me.  Lupin 
says in his first class that the boggart doesn't have a form until it meets 
its victim.  He also says that the Riddikulus charm "repels" the Boggart.  It 
doesn't say the Boggart is killed (though he says laughter "finishes off" the 
boggart).  So that spectacular explosion Neville causes was only the 
dissolution of the boggart's form.  It's banished and formless, but not dead, 
IMO.  Later, in ch. 12, when Lupin is teaching Harry the Patronus, he uses 
Riddikulus to dissolve the boggart-dementor, but then it reappears as the 
moon as Lupin forces it into his packing case.

Debbie, who doesn't even want to contemplate Evil! Lupin

<@ 
/___'





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