ASTR-201 Lessons

2.6: Potions and the Moon

Welcome back to class, everyone!  Today, we will discuss a few other ways that the magic of the Moon affects us in the wizarding world.  In particular, we will be discussing how astronomy intersects with potion brewing and usage with the help of a few example potions to help you visualise the theories. Fortunately, the theories are not overly difficult to wrap your minds around. There are two main ways that the Moon influences potion making: through its ingredients and through the timing of the brewing process. Also, as a fair warning, at the end of this class, I will be giving out the second (and last) of the Year Two required essays.

The Moon and Collecting Potion Ingredients

As we alluded to already in the second lesson of this year, the phases of the Moon play a large role in all aspects of magic, including potion brewing. In that same lesson, we discussed when you might want to harvest certain ingredients. Today, we finally get to give you a concrete example to work with! As it’s often difficult to stay awake during a class held so late at night, I’ve made sure to choose a rather interesting potion, to boot. Yes, today we’ll be briefly discussing one of the main contents of the Polyjuice Potion and how the Moon affects it (and therefore the potion’s efficacy). Worth staying awake for, no? But before we get to that, let me provide a little bit of background about the potion, for those who have, understandably, never heard of it or its main ingredient. 

While the full Moon may have rather scary effects, its magic can also be seen in more gentle applications, such as the production of the magical oils necessary for Polyjuice Potion.  Fluxweed - or, as Muggles call it, flixweed - is a plant that is a key ingredient in Polyjuice Potion.  When a magical person drinks the potion (to which a bit of another living person, such as a hair from their head, is added), she or he takes on the form of that person for a period of time. The effects can last anywhere from ten minutes to twelve hours depending on how well it is brewed and how often it is consumed.  

Fluxweed
Source: here

For this potion to be as effective as possible, you must collect quality ingredients. In particular, as one of the primary ingredients that give the potion its transfigurative power, fluxweed must be harvested during the full Moon. The magic of the full Moon stimulates the plant to produce the magical oils necessary for the successful completion of the potion. During other phases of the Moon, the plant absorbs and breaks down the oils and uses the magic present in them to grow; therefore, if one picks the plant during a different lunar phase, there will not be enough magical oils on the leaves to power the potion  An important thing to note that you might be able to deduce by now - since the full Moon’s magic is reduced during a lunar eclipse, fluxweed harvested at this time is ineffective.  You can imagine how frustrated you would be if you took the trouble to collect all the ingredients, waited a whole month for the potion to brew, and drank the disgusting concoction only to find that it didn’t work, and you had to start the whole process all over again!

You will learn more about the Polyjuice Potion in future Potions lessons, but feel free to reach out to the Potions professor with any questions in the meantime!

The Moon and the Maturation of Potions

Veritaserum
Source: here

Next, we come to the second of the two main ways the Moon interacts with potions. To sum it up in basic terms, the magic of the Moon can be used to “mature” certain potions so that their magical effects are available for use. The example potion we’ll be using for this category is no less exciting than before -- though Merlin knows Polyjuice Potion is a hard act to follow. We’ll be discussing one of the most frequently threatened potions by parents of unruly children: Veritaserum. For those of you whose parents never warned you to tell the truth or face having Veritaserum poured into your morning Cheeri Owls, Veritaserum is another potent potion that is often used in the wizarding world with the intention of making people tell the truth.  The name, as so frequently happens, gives a hint to its use. “Veritaserum” comes from the Latin word “veritas,” which means truth and, of course, the word “serum.”  Those who drink Veritaserum are magically induced to say what they believe is the truth. Of course, the individual might not know the truth or may genuinely be mistaken as to the truth, so not everything the individual says may be actually true. 

Nevertheless, Veritaserum works properly if the person knows the truth that you want them to tell you... if you can somehow get your hands on it.  You see, Veritaserum is one of the most difficult potions to brew. It takes one month to complete a brewing and one of the key steps in the process is being able to use the gentle yet powerful magic of the full Moon to properly activate and blend all the ingredients in the potion.  Of course, if all that was needed was the magic of the full Moon, the potion could simply be brewed during the two- or three-day period when the Moon is full.  The potion takes a full month to brew because it has to be exposed to all the phases of the Moon to make it work properly.

Once the potion is brewed, however, it is easy to see the effects of Veritaserum’s lunar influence. The potion is odourless and colourless, and it has the transparency and viscosity of water. In addition, the dosage needed for an appropriate effect is very small - just three drops. Thus, Veritaserum can be placed into an unsuspecting person’s drink without the target realising what has happened. In this way, Veritaserum reflects the gentle yet powerful nature of the Moon’s magic.

The Moon and the Effect of Potions

You have all learned that Wolfsbane Potion, while not preventing werewolves from transforming into wolflike form, enables them to maintain their human intelligence.  How does it work, exactly?  Here to tell you about it is our expert on potions, Professor Vaylen Draekon.

Thank you very much for having me, Professor Plumb. Those of you that have advanced to the Second Year have clearly been in my dungeons before, and as such I will skip the unnecessary introductions and platitudes.

Professor Plumb has already discussed two very important potions throughout this class - although you certainly will be expected to delve into more intricate details upon studying this content in my own course - and I would like to add a third example to the discussion. More specifically, I would like to discuss the Wolfsbane Potion at the present time.

As far as I am aware, you have all previously studied why werewolves transform under the full Moon, but I believe that a refresher might be necessary. As you should know, the Moon reflects the energy produced by the Sun onto the Earth, with different lunar phases reflecting more or less light depending on the placement of the natural satellite in the sky. Additionally, the frequency of the reflected waves will also vary depending on the corresponding phase of the Moon - and it is for that reason that the energy of the Sun, by itself, cannot trigger a werewolf transformation. This discussion about frequencies might be beyond the scope of an introductory Astronomy course and perhaps something that will be studied in future years instead, but do keep this information in mind for a brief while.

All in all, the above effects trigger a magical change in the lycanthrope’s body. In the interest of keeping the explanation simple for now, I will limit myself to saying that certain chemicals are produced in the lycanthrope’s body and circulated through their bloodstream with the aid of the atmospheric magic provided by the full Moon. It was based on this fact that Damocles Belby had a genius insight: if the magic of the full Moon is responsible for the changes in the lycanthrope’s behaviour, is it possible to undo those effects through the administration of a potion?

As you may surmise, the answer is yes. I might be rushing into things a bit too early - and if that is the case, I do urge Professor Plumb to stop my rambling - but we must discuss reflection and deflection of solar energy in order to understand how the full Moon and the new Moon are opposite to one another.

Simply put, our Moon mostly reflects the energy projected by the Sun back in the direction that the light comes from. This means that, during the full Moon, our Earth is actually in between the Moon and the Sun, and, as such, it receives this reflected beam of light, which illuminates the night sky. However, not all energy coming from the Sun is reflected by the Moon: since the Moon has mass (and, consequently, some gravity), it can also bend some light around it, in a phenomenon called deflection.  Magic, too, is affected by gravity, so it too gets deflected towards Earth.

The deflection of the Moon is miniscule.  To put it into actual numbers, the deflection angle generated by the Moon’s gravity is equivalent to 2.592 * 10-5 (i.e., slightly larger than 0.00002) arcseconds, but some of the waves emitted by the Sun get deflected behind it nevertheless. These frequencies, in turn, are the ones that can reach the Earth during the new Moon phase, as Earth is located behind the Moon during this period.

As you might expect, these frequencies and those from the full Moon can counter one another, as they present polar and opposite natures. Some of you might decide to take Alchemy in the future or might have even already started the course. When you get to its Fourth Year content, you will learn that nature frequently comes up in opposite pairs, in accordance with the Principle of Polarity. It is for that reason that Wolfsbane has to be brewed during the period of the new Moon, as doing so allows its atmospheric magic to impact the brew and imbue it with the calming properties that can counteract the onset of lycanthropy.

If any of you are familiar with antigen-antidote pairs or venom-antidote reactions, the parallels here are abundant; however, I would like to err on the side of caution and make sure to give a detailed explanation. As previously mentioned, a lycanthrope will create many chemicals in their body during the period of the full Moon - a phenomenon that most scientific books would call a “μ-hormone storm,” also written as “mu-hormone storm.” On the other hand, the elements present in Wolfsbane Potion can interact with these μ-hormones, degrading them into harmless substances and nullifying the effects linked to these hormones, such as aggression and impulsive behaviour.

One last note that I would be remiss not to mention is that Wolfsbane Potion does not prevent the physical transformation from happening, as the transformation is merely an expression of involuntary magic rather than a fact mediated by the hormones described above. It is currently unknown what part of the lycanthropy virus creates the transfigurative effect on humans, although research on the topic is quite abundant in the contemporary era.

I believe that I have exposed you to enough new content by this point. As always, the doors to my dungeon are always open for further clarification or discussions on the topic. I will leave you all in the competent hands of Professor Plumb once more.

Thank you again for your time, Professor Draekon.  There will be the usual ten-question quiz plus the second of two mandatory essays for the year.  In the next two lessons, we will be discussing the moons of other planets in the solar system. I will see you again next Wednesday. Have a good night!

Original lesson written by Professor Turing.

A bit of the lesson was written by Professor Plumb.

Guest lecture written by Professor Draekon.