Wizarding Schools Potions Championship

The Wizarding Schools Potions Championship is the name commonly associated with an impromptu, high-level Potions competition held by Professor Horace Slughorn for his sixth-year N.E.W.T. class upon his return to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in 1996. The contest served as an incentive for his new students, with the winner receiving a single vial of Felix Felicis, a rare and powerful potion that grants the drinker good luck. The competition was famously won by Harry Potter, who succeeded by following unorthodox instructions written in a borrowed textbook that belonged to the Half-Blood Prince.

On the first day of the 1996-1997 school year, Professor Slughorn introduced his new N.E.W.T. students to the challenge during their first lesson in the dungeons.

• The Task: Students were given one hour to brew a perfect Draught of Living Death, an extremely complicated and powerful sleeping potion. The instructions for the potion were located in their textbook, Advanced Potion-Making by Libatius Borage. Slughorn noted that he did not expect a perfect brew, but would award the prize to the student who came closest.
• Participants: The challenge was undertaken by all students present in the class, which included Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, Draco Malfoy, Ernie Macmillan, and Blaise Zabini. Most students, including the highly capable Hermione Granger, struggled significantly with the potion's difficult steps.
• Outcome: Harry Potter was declared the winner after producing a flawless Draught of Living Death. His success was not due to innate talent, but to his decision to follow the handwritten annotations made by the previous owner of his textbook, the Half-Blood Prince. These notes provided crucial improvements to the official instructions, such as crushing the Sopophorous bean with the flat side of a silver dagger to release its juice more effectively, rather than cutting it. Another key instruction was to add a counter-clockwise stir after every seventh clockwise stir.
• The Prize: For his victory, Slughorn awarded Harry a small glass bottle containing twelve hours' worth of Felix Felicis, also known as “Liquid Luck.” Slughorn explained that the potion makes the drinker lucky for a period of time, but warned that it is a banned substance in organized competitions and that excessive consumption can lead to dangerous overconfidence and recklessness.

This classroom competition was a pivotal event in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince for several reasons:

• Establishing a Relationship: Harry's surprising success immediately ingratiated him with Professor Slughorn, who was impressed by what he perceived as Harry's natural talent, reminiscent of his mother, Lily Evans. This was the first major step in Harry fulfilling Albus Dumbledore's order to get close to Slughorn.
• The Half-Blood Prince's Textbook: The victory convinced Harry of the genius of the Half-Blood Prince. He began to trust the Prince's annotations implicitly, using them to excel in Potions for the rest of the year and also experimenting with other spells, such as Sectumsempra, found in the book.
• Acquisition of Felix Felicis: The prize, Felix Felicis, became a crucial plot device. Harry later used the potion to orchestrate the circumstances needed to retrieve a critical, unaltered memory from Slughorn regarding his conversations with a young Tom Riddle about Horcruxes. This memory was the key to understanding and ultimately defeating Lord Voldemort.
• Interpersonal Conflict: The event created academic and personal friction between Harry and Hermione Granger. Hermione, who prided herself on her academic skill and following rules, was frustrated by Harry's sudden success, which she correctly viewed as a result of “cheating” by using someone else's notes.

• The name Wizarding Schools Potions Championship is not explicitly used in the original novels. In the book, Slughorn refers to the event simply as “one of my little contests.”
• The more formal title, “Wizarding Schools Potions Championship,” gained prominence from its use in the video game adaptation of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. In the game, the concept was expanded from a single classroom event into a larger, formal tournament between potion-making clubs. (video game)