Cooking Sherry

• Type: Food and Drink
• Owners: Primarily used by Sybill Trelawney; also a common household cooking ingredient in both the Muggle and wizarding communities.
• Maker: Unknown; it is a generic, mass-produced product.

Cooking sherry is a type of fortified wine intended for use in cooking. In the Harry Potter series, it is primarily known for its strong, distinctive scent which heavily perfumes Professor Trelawney's Divination classroom in the North Tower of Hogwarts. The beverage is contained in glass bottles, which are seen on several occasions either half-empty or being hidden once empty.

While intended for cooking, cooking sherry's primary role in the novels is as an alcoholic beverage secretly (and later, openly) consumed by Sybill Trelawney. It serves as a coping mechanism for her to deal with stress, professional insecurity, and the fear induced by Dolores Umbridge's tyrannical reign at Hogwarts. The object has no inherent magical properties. Its significance comes from its association with Professor Trelawney, where it functions as a key character prop. The constant smell of sherry in her classroom contributes to the stuffy, overpowering atmosphere that Harry Potter finds unpleasant. For Trelawney, it is a crutch used to steady her nerves, particularly when her claims of possessing the Inner Eye are challenged or dismissed.

The presence of cooking sherry serves to develop Sybill Trelawney's character and illustrate the pressures faced by the Hogwarts staff during the Second Wizarding War.

• In Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, it is first introduced by its scent, which, along with the heat and incense, creates the unique and suffocating atmosphere of the Divination classroom.
• In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Trelawney's reliance on sherry becomes explicit. After a humiliating class inspection by Dolores Umbridge, she is seen in the Entrance Hall clutching a half-empty bottle. Later, Harry discovers her secret stash of numerous empty sherry bottles hidden inside a large cupboard in the Room of Requirement. This discovery creates a moment of empathy, as Harry realizes he has been using the same room to hide his own empty Butterbeer bottles, humanizing the often-dramatic professor by revealing her vulnerability.

• The film adaptations of the Harry Potter series visually capture Sybill Trelawney's eccentric and slightly unkempt nature, which is consistent with the books' portrayal of her as a frequent imbiber of cooking sherry (film).