Mugglenet.com's Harry Potter Should Have Died - Emerson Spartz [31]
It’s also doubly wrong for a love potion to be available at a school such as Hogwarts, with all the teenage hormones floating around. The temptation for abuse is too great. Look what happens in HBP when Romilda Vane aims for Harry with her spiked Chocolate Cauldrons, but doses Ron accidentally. He becomes head over heels in love while under the influence of a girl he doesn’t even like [HBP, p. 392]. Fred and George Weasley may have done good business selling obsessive love in a bottle, but it is never going to replace the real thing. True, it has a pleasant smell, but infatuation is too addictive. J.K.R. said during an interview that there is a Love Room at the Department of Mysteries filled with a vat of the potion, but it is kept behind a locked door for safety. That’s fine if wizards are using it for controlled research about love, but in the wrong hands, Amortentia confuses people and can lead to broken hearts and tragic Vegas-shotgun weddings.
No!
There’s no need to ban Amortentia. Only Dark Magic is illegal in the wizarding world, and Amortentia is not Dark. If it was so bad, why would the Ministry keep a vat of it around, and why would Horace Slughorn be allowed to teach the potion in his class? Why would it have the pleasant scent that is different for each person, such as the honeysuckle that reminds Harry of Ginny? Most of the time, Amortentia is just a harmless potion that wears off in less than a day. It’s all part of adolescent mischief in the wizarding world. Molly Weasley laughingly tells Ginny and Hermione in PoA about the time she made a love potion while growing up, and yet she finds true love with Arthur later on. Her experience doesn’t influence Ginny and Hermione to trick Ron and Harry that way. Ron is not mortally damaged by the bad experience with Romilda Vane, either. He actually hurts Hermione’s feelings more with Lavender Brown, who didn’t use a love potion to get his attention [HBP, p. 302].
Merope Riddle is an extreme case, and there are obvious reasons why she abuses Amortentia. It’s similar to a troubled teenager using drugs in the Muggle world. Merope is never loved by her horrible family who keep her isolated out in the woods. She has no friends and no Hogwarts education—her father calls her a Squib and shouts at her. Then there is her appearance, which would turn off any possible boyfriends—eyes turned in opposite directions and a ragged appearance, not to mention a Parseltongue voice that hisses like a snake. Wouldn’t any girl want love from the only decent boy she knew, even if he was a Muggle and she was a witch? That doesn’t make it right that she uses a love potion, but who is to say she didn’t deserve what little happiness she had on earth through using Amortentia?
Most potions are legal in the wizarding world, even if they are restricted in certain situations. If they ban Amortentia, they might as well ban Polyjuice or Felix Felicis, too. Each witch or wizard has to grow up and learn to use them responsibly, and the Ministry should stay out of it.
Verdict
As singer Celestina Warbeck croons over the wizarding wireless in HBP, there’s nothing like a “cauldron full of hot strong love.” Should Amortentia stay legal so that unattractive witches like Merope Riddle can catch a husband? Or should it be banned to protect teenagers from becoming more lovesick and confused than usual? Verdict: Love is always the answer in the Potterverse, but the potion Amortentia is much too potent and should be illegal.
What is the most useful potion?
Felix Felicis
If someone has luck on their side, they’ve got it all, so the most useful potion is Felix Felicis, the golden liquid that Harry wins as a prize in HBP. Nothing else helps