[HPforGrownups] Potions Master Question

[Kathryn Cawte]

No: HPFGUIDX 93851

Viridis


> A question ? my search didn?t yield any results, so please send me to the
relevant thread if it was previously discussed.
>
> [Dumbledore] is famous for defeating the dark wizard Grindelwald in 1945,
for discovering the twelve uses of dragon's blood, and for his work on
alchemy with his friend Nicolas Flamel. (HP Lexicon quoting Chocolate Frog
Card)
>
> Ergo ? Dumble himself must be of the top Potions Masters of WW.  I find it
hard to believe he was just a clerk for Flamel. We don?t know what he was
doing for better part of his life, so he could easily enjoy *beauty of the
softly simmering cauldron with its shimmering fumes, the delicate power of
liquids that creep through human veins, bewitching the mind, ensnaring the
senses*.
>
> So why he was teaching transfiguration? He is powerful enough to be
equally good in both fields. But still...
>
K

There have been a lot of interesting answers to all of this - none of which
addressed what I thought was the flaw in your logic - Potions making and
alchemy aren't necessarily really the same thing. If the twelve uses of
dragon's blood are alchemical in nature rather than as potions ingredients
then there is no reason why Dumbledore should have any knowledge of potions
at all. He may know something about their uses e.g. it may be that if you
buy Potion X (sine this is hypothetical there's no reason for me to come up
with a sensible name) and drop a lump of lead in it under the light of the
fifth full moon (or whatever) you can change the lead to gold - none of this
would necessitate being able to make the potions themselves. And surely if
he was such an expert he would be making Remus' Wolfsbane potion rather than
delegating the task.

However one of the main aims of alchemists throughout the centuries is to
change base metals into gold - which could well mean that someone skilled at
transfiguration is as likely to become a good alchemist as a 'Potions
Master'. We don't know enough about JKR's version of alchemy to say for
certain - but Flamel is always called an alchemist, not a Potions Master.

I notice Alchemy isn't taught at Hogwarts - not even as an optional subject.

K