Potions are badly underused in fanfic, and a lot of the potions we see in canon are pretty obscure in terms of use. How often in life do you need to put someone in a sleep so powerful they resemble a dead person?

So, I thought we could brainstorm other, more useful, potions that they might teach at Hogwarts. The kind of stuff that would be useful to make in day to day life.

I can see several groups they might fit into, presented here with some examples:

Cosmetic
Salve to remove acne
Hair-growth potion
Teeth-whitening potion

Situational
Potion to keep you warm
Potion to purify water
Potion to breathe underwater

Medical
Pepper-Up potion (cures the common cold)
Sleeping potion
Wakefulness potion
Sobering potion
Contraceptive potion
Period-suspension potion

Mental
Recall potion
Calming potion

Sensory
Farsight potion
Auditory supersenory draught

Recreation
Zero-gravity potion
Hallucination potion

Transformation
Polyjuice
Aging potion
Growth potion

Poisons and antidotes



What other potions can you think of that might be useful that aren't in this list? Maybe there are other categories too that you can think of.

 

Potions to regulate body weight, perhaps. If not directly, then maybe a "Calorie blocking potion" for dieting.

One for weight loss would seem the most obvious, I would think, but there could be potential for muscle gain potions (Fuck yeah, magic protein). Gotta get them magic gainz.

I've always wondered a bit whether or not Wizards give a fuck about weight or anything, with all the appearance changing capabilities they seem to have.

 

Some of these I'm not to sure about, simply because they already have a spell, for instance, the warming potion or underwater breathing one both already have a simple spell for each (by simple I mean, one incantation, no long brewing times or instructions).

I always thought potions were more for complex magic that needs multiple factors, such as the Pepper-up which not only warms you, but perks you up and rids you of some of the effects of exhaustion and the common cold. I also think of potions as a more time-obscured art in that, a lot of what can be accomplished with potions was done so only because a spell hadn't been invented yet.

If there's a charm or spell, what need of potions are there at this point? It's similar to comparing old surgery methods to new ones. Sure we could have lobotomized the guy, but instead we used more modern methods to fix him with less time involved and less chance of it going wrong.

All that said, it would be pretty cool to see a bad ass Alchemist Harry who just throws glass vials of potion everywhere instead of using a wand.

 

Transformation

Potions which change you into an animal



Recreation

Basically drugs

 

Isn't the 'Aguamenti' a permanent conjuration? In light of that, the potion would be pretty useless.

Medical:
Digestive Potions
Muscle Strengthener (could be abused by athletes, i.e. beaters)
Mana Potion - just kidding

I think there are a lot more to be thought of, but that's all from me right now.

Also, Poisons is obviously a really big category we hear very little of in the HPverse. Many ways to be creative there.

Edit:

The Witcher style. That would be pretty awesome.

Another PC game, the Gothic series, also a nice idea.

 

It seems to me that potions often have advantages over spells.

The polyjuice potion, for example. You could achieve the same thing with human transfiguration, but that leaves you vulnerable to untransfiguration. Polyjuice potion is less vulnerable. Human transfiguration at that level is also extremely advanced.

Another example is the warming potion. I assume that a warming charm is a reasonable spell to say exists, though it isn't canon. But even so, you can imagine that the potion could be useful... for example, maybe you make a warming potion at the beginning of winter, take a sip every morning and you're warm all winter. This keeps you from having to constantly reapply the warming charm when it presumably wears off. And maybe the warming potion only warms you up when you would otherwise be cold, compared to the charm which would constantly supply heat (thus necessitating its removal when you go inside).

So in general, advantages of potions could be:

Duration of effect
Difficulty of reversal
Ease of use (for easy potions)
Unique effects
Ability to buy them and store them for use on demand

Disadvantages would be:

Brewing time
Ingredients needed
Difficulty of use (for difficult potions)
Lack of flexibility

Unless, of course, you don't have your wand or you didn't take NEWT charms. Or maybe you want to purify a large body of water for a whole community, not just conjure water for yourself every time you want a drink.

Edit:

Going to edit recreation, transformation and poisons into the OP.

 

I doubt there would be long sight potions and weight loss. Otherwise we wouldn't see people who are fat and wear glasses. Unless the potions are crazy expensive, which seems a bit of a cop out.

 

Well, if the potion wore off quickly it might be too much hassle to keep taking.

 

Also, many potions like water purification will help your non-magical minions when they don't have you around to coddle them. That's the real benefit of potions - the effects linger even after you're gone, or dead.

Travelers tricks:

• Internal warmth- keeps your body at optimal temp for 8 hours at a time. Can be used as a fever reducer, but you're working against your body then
• Rehydration
• Anti-Bends (dissipates Nitrogen from sudden pressure changes) or even a wholesale Acclimation elixir
• Skin hardener, for crawling in briars and the countering softener to take away the evidence of having worked in your lifetime
• Translation tablets - makes what you say in your native tongue come out in a specific spoken language. Doesn't mean you understand what you're saying or what's said in reply...
• Flibberton's fingertips; a fingerbone you stick in your ear that translates a specific language heard into your specific native tongue. Knock-off versions are about as accurate and timely as the closed-captioning on CNN.
• Spider-grip solution - so you can climb like some kind of spider-man. Better versions includes a strength boost so that your rubbery core muscles aren't shredded in the process of wall crawling
• Voluminous Varnish- covers whatever is applied with an Impervious-strength varnish. Often sold in explosive bottles for use in mass-manufacturing and pranking
• Limb-lengthening potion - Mrs. Weasley mentioned this one; the short term version makes you ten feet tall, and you walk like a giraffe. Long-term version (alchemical) is for aspiring basketball players, orchard workers and circus performers

 

Viagra in a bottle. How else are these 100+ year old wizards keeping it up?

 

Pottermore mentions a potion that helps you stay awake. That one might be my favorite potion of all time, books or otherwise.

EDIT: lol nevermind, in the OP.

 

Superior bodies because magic.

 

Isn't there also Sleakeazy hair straightener (or something like that) which Hermione uses for the Yule Ball, or wouldn't that count as a potion?

 

Yeah, there seems to be a wide range of brand name cosmetic potions which use their own secret recipes.

 

A few used in fanfiction:

Incubation Bath - speeds up the maturing process of a young creature, though the final size may be stunted. A variant of this is used to meld species, as when Hagrid put a Firecrab's egg in with Manticore seed to create Blast-ended skrewts.

Lethe's Discord creme - a topical cream that changes the perception of the affected to fit what others suggest, e.g.: "you're blindfolded" or "these aren't the droids you're looking for" or "Vote for Fudge - he's the sweet solution." Since the cream is bright blue, it's more effective to apply it where the victim won't notice it without a mirror- shoulder, lips, forehead.

Vampiric venom - used by the goblins on oath-breakers with other assets (or rich friends); causes sudden coma followed by accelerating bloodloss. It's actually a blood-consuming virus that can't be killed by any poison or potion-curative that wouldn't kill a human. Blood-replenishing potions only accelerate the victim's death, phoenix tears slow the process. One would assume that the goblins have an antidote. The only question is how much they'll charge you for it.

 

Won't someone else notice if there's something bright blue on your lips or forehead? Also, I manage to look at my own shoulders just fine...

 

As a pranking item and party favor, others will be more interested in how the affected person adjusts to their suggestions. As for the shoulder, I meant if you were to apply it on the victim's shoulder-blade, as when applying sunscreen for a friend. I should have been more specific.

 

Ah, didn't notice it was supposed to be a pranking item. I thought that with a name like that it was to be used seriously, like an Imperius curse in potion form.

 

I think I was applying the Weasley standard for prank items:

Will it wear off? Yes.
Can it be countered/neutralised? Yes.
Could it kill someone? No.

We should sell that!

 

These ideas are fun but I think they are likely to be minor potions by HP standards. Because it seems like the ultimate end of potions is that they let you accomplish a lot of very abstract goals.

I mean Snape introduces the subjects as:

So if abstract and meta qualities are high-level potioneering, how might the subject as a whole work?

Schema:

Low-Level

• Potions that let you directly effect physical properties
  
  Potions to make stuff grow or shrink, to cure boils, ect.
  ​

Mid-Level

• Potions that indirectly effect physical properties
  
  Potions that make you stronger, or faster (or older)
  ​
• Potions that effect mental properties
  
  Potions that make you concentrate on or forget something
  ​

High-Level

• Potions that effect abstract concepts
  
  Potions that make you brave, lucky, scared, obsessed, famous, ect.
  ​

The boundaries between these things are a bit fuzzy, but the idea is that the potion acts magically upon the concept (rash, weight, beauty) as it relates to the consumer rather then physically on the consumer.

You would need to do more the break out the different types of potions, some that are permanent and some that aren't. There also seems to be ripe opportunity for potions of increasing complexity, generality, and potency (like with spells I think). To the point that someone like Slughorn can accomplish whatever they want to with regards to the first two categories and are restrained by recipes only with regards to the third.

I don't really know the books that well, but are there things in the books that can be accomplished with spells but can't by potion? Summoning and conjuring seem to jump out at me, though those seems like defects in the nature of potions (that is potions require access to the object/s they interact with) not in the potion-making itself.