Oh no! Good Luck Potion? It's more contrived than the Time Turner!

[Sandra Collins]

No: HPFGUIDX 134579

Hi everyone,
You might recall I had a bit of an issue with the time turner in 
book 3 - don't panic, I'm not raising it again! My main gripe (of 
many) was that JKR hadn't thought it  through, and suddenly 
nothing was final - anyone with a time turner and the simple 
ability to turn it could go and alter history to whatever extent they 
wanted. Well, assuming all the time turners were broken 
(hah!)....  we now have something much worse in terms of 
credibility for the story lines - the Good Luck potion.

I couldn't believe JKR introduced something so riddled with 
potential loop holes and plot problems, bearing in mind how 
many arose from the existence of the last plot device of 
convenience, the time turner. From now on, any time any 
characters (whether good guys or bad guys) need to do anything 
slighty risky or daring, they can just take a swig of ol' Felix and 
then get lucky beyond belief. Harry demonstrates that when he 
ventures out of Hogwarts to visit Hagrid, and when I read that 
part I almost gave up and put the book in with the ones for my 
local church fete! 

So unless I missed something, there now exists the formula in 
the WW for a drink which can affect the outcome of events 
around you and where you go, as long as it's not to an extreme. 
Unless JKR can come up with a brilliant way of regulating this - 
beyond saying it's tricky to make - she's created another 
implausible plot device on a par (at the very least) with the time 
turner mess.

And why does it exist? Because one character needed 
information from another, and of all the ways to get that info, a 
"good uck potion" was the best way? I think not.

Sandra, (I might read it again because there must be a few 
points I missed along the way - if I can't find them I'll post them).