Dr Filibuster's Fabulous Wet-Start, No-Heat Fireworks

• Type: Magical Joke Product
• Owners: Fred Weasley, George Weasley, Harry Potter (temporary user)
• Maker: Dr Filibuster (brand name)

Dr Filibuster's Fireworks are magical joke items designed to create a loud and flashy diversion. A known example appeared as a long, thin, black object. When activated, it erupts into a large, smoking, purple Catherine Wheel. This firework shoots upwards, embedding itself in the ceiling and showering the area below with purple sparks.

The primary appeal of these fireworks lies in their unique magical properties, which make them particularly suitable for pranks within Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

• Wet-Start: This enchanted quality allows the fireworks to be ignited even in damp or wet conditions, such as the stone corridors of a castle.
• No-Heat: This property suggests the fireworks are magically cooled and do not produce dangerous levels of heat, making them considerably safer than Muggle fireworks and less likely to cause permanent damage.

Their main purpose is to create a significant and distracting commotion. The noise, smoke, and sparks are highly effective at drawing the attention of authority figures like Argus Filch or Severus Snape, allowing the user to slip away unnoticed or carry out another task while the chaos is being dealt with.

During the 1992-1993 school year, Fred Weasley and George Weasley were in possession of Dr Filibuster's Fireworks. They offered one to Harry Potter as a means to create a diversion for Argus Filch, which would allow Harry, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger to sneak into Moaning Myrtle's Bathroom to brew their Polyjuice Potion. While the trio initially planned to use it on Filch, Harry Potter instead deployed the firework during a chaotic Duelling Club meeting. Under the guise of retrieving a dropped wand, Harry discreetly lit the firework. It shot across the Great Hall, hitting the ceiling and showering Professor Severus Snape with sparks. The resulting pandemonium provided the perfect cover for the trio to make their escape without being noticed.

The firework plays a small but crucial role in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Its successful deployment is the key to allowing Harry, Ron, and Hermione to leave the Duelling Club undetected and proceed with their plan to brew the Polyjuice Potion, a central element of the book's mystery. The item also serves as an early showcase of the Weasley twins' affinity for high-quality magical joke products and their talent for creating diversions. This foreshadows their future career as the successful proprietors of Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes, which would later invent and sell its own line of even more advanced magical fireworks, such as the Basic Blaze-box and Wildfire Whiz-bangs.

• In the film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, the scene involving Dr Filibuster's Fireworks is omitted. The Duelling Club ends immediately after Harry speaks Parseltongue, and the trio does not require a diversion to leave. (film)
• The brand name, Dr Filibuster, is a clever play on words. A “filibuster” is a real-world political tactic involving prolonged speech or other actions to obstruct or delay a vote or decision. This perfectly mirrors the function of the fireworks, which is to obstruct and delay authority figures.