Wiggenweld Potion

• Type: Healing Potion
• Users: Hogwarts students; Harry Potter (video game)
• Maker: The potion's inventor is not explicitly named in the novels. Supplementary materials suggest its origins lie in a wizarding fairy tale about a prince. (Pottermore)

The Wiggenweld Potion is a powerful healing concoction. While its appearance is not described in the original novels, it is consistently depicted in video games as being a vivid green in color. (video game) As the potion is a subject of study in sixth-year, N.E.W.T.-level Potions classes, it is understood to be a complex brew requiring a fair degree of magical skill to create correctly.

The primary function of the Wiggenweld Potion is to heal injuries and act as a restorative, replenishing the drinker's strength and energy. Its effects are potent but are generally used for minor to moderate levels of injury. For more severe magical wounds, other remedies like Essence of Dittany might be preferred. A significant, and perhaps its most famous, property is its ability to act as an awakening agent against powerful sleeping draughts. It is the only known antidote to the Draught of Living Death. (Pottermore) This makes it one of the most important restorative potions known in the wizarding world. The potion is consumed orally to take effect.

The potion's origins are detailed in the wizarding fairy tale, The Fountain of Fair Fortune, as told by Beedle the Bard, although the potion itself is more directly referenced in supplementary materials. According to legend, a wizard prince sought to win the hand of a princess who had been placed into an eternal sleep by a Hag named Leticia Somnolens using the Draught of Living Death. The prince, having been protected from the Hag by a magical Wiggen Tree, used a potion he created—the Wiggenweld Potion—to successfully awaken the princess. (Pottermore) In modern times, the Wiggenweld Potion is a standard part of the advanced Potions curriculum at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Professor Snape quizzed Harry Potter on its principal ingredients during his first N.E.W.T. Potions lesson, indicating its importance in a wizard's education.

The Wiggenweld Potion's role in the novels is brief but serves a distinct purpose. It appears in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince when Severus Snape takes over as the Potions master. During the first lesson with his N.E.W.T. class, Snape asks Harry about the potion to expose his lack of preparation and to establish the high standards and advanced nature of the course. This moment underscores the increased academic difficulty Harry faces in his sixth year and reinforces Snape's demanding and antagonistic teaching style towards him.

• Video Games: The Wiggenweld Potion features far more prominently in the Harry Potter video games than in the novels. In titles such as Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, it is the primary healing item used by the player to restore health. It is also one of the first potions players learn to brew in the mobile game Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery. (video game)
• Ingredients: While the novels do not list the ingredients, supplementary materials and video games provide a recipe. Known ingredients include: (Pottermore)
  • Horklump juice
  • Flobberworm Mucus
  • Chizpurfle fangs
  • Billywig stings
  • A sprig of mint
  • Boom Berry juice
  • Stewed Mandrake
  • Bark of the Wiggen Tree
• Etymology: The name “Wiggenweld” is likely a compound of “Wiggen” and “weld.” “Wiggen” refers to the Wiggen Tree, the magical tree from which a key ingredient is sourced according to legend. “Weld” is an archaic verb meaning “to command” or “to wield power,” thus “Wiggenweld” can be interpreted as “Power of the Wiggen Tree.”