Cure for Boils

Cure for Boils
Potion information
Effect	Removes boils
Side-effects	Caused nasty boils to erupt on skin if brewed badly
Characteristics	Blue in colour Emits pink smoke when completed
Difficulty level	Beginner
Known ingredients	6 snake fangs 4 horned slugs 2 porcupine quills Book of Potions recipe: Dried nettles Pungous Onions Flobberworm Mucus Ginger root Shrake spines

"Being an effective remedy against pustules, hives, boils and many other scrofulous conditions. This is a robust potion of powerful character. Care should be taken when brewing. Prepared incorrectly this potion has been known to cause boils, rather than cure them..."

— Zygmunt Budge, Book of Potions

The Cure for Boils (also known as simply Boil Cure) was a potion which removed boils, such as those produced by the Pimple Jinx. It was an elementary potion and the recipe could be found in Magical Drafts and Potions and Book of Potions.

If the potion was made successfully, there would be pink smoke raising from the cauldron.

History

As this was a simple potion, it was one of the first ones learned at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Students in their first year brewed this potion in Potions class.

1985-1986 school year

Cure for Boils

During the 1984–1985 school year, Professor Severus Snape taught his first-year Potions students how to concoct this particular brew. Jacob's sibling managed to successfully brew the potion, with their friend Rowan Khanna praising their prowess and claiming that hardly anyone brewed this concoction correctly on their first try. Unbeknownst to the pair of them, however, the spiteful Slytherin Merula Snyde had egregiously sabotaged Jacob's sibling's Cure for Boils by coating their cauldron with Bulbadox powder, which resulted in their concoction abruptly exploding. Seething with rage at their supposed incompetence, Snape confronted Jacob's sibling and cruelly deducted ten house points from them.

1991-1992 school year

"Idiot boy! I suppose you added the porcupine quills before taking the cauldron off the fire?"

— Severus Snape lecturing Neville Longbottom for having failed to brew this potion correctly

At the start of the 1991–1992 school year on 1 September 1991, first-year Gryffindor and Slytherin students were tasked with the brewing of this potion in their very first Potions lesson with Potions Master Professor Severus Snape. During this lesson, he criticised almost everyone aside from Draco Malfoy, and Neville Longbottom managed to melt Seamus Finnigan's cauldron, as he added the porcupine quills before taking the potion off the fire, which caused the classroom to be filled with acrid green smoke and the failed potion to seep over the floor, burning holes in people's shoes. Snape ordered Seamus to take Neville to the Hospital Wing, whose face was covered in nasty boils from his failed potion, vanished the spilt potion with a wave of his wand and spitefully deducted one house point from Harry Potter for supposedly not having warned Neville beforehand.

Brewing instructions

The Cure for Boils being brewed in a cauldron

According to Magical Drafts and Potions

Part 1

1. Add 6 snake fangs to the mortar.
2. Crush into a fine powder using the pestle.
3. Add 4 measures of the crushed fangs to your cauldron.
4. Heat the mixture to 250 for 10 seconds.
5. Wave your wand.
6. Leave to brew and return in 33-45 minutes.

Part 2

1. Add 4 horned slugs to your cauldron.
2. Take the cauldron off the fire before adding the next ingredient.
3. Add 2 porcupine quills to your cauldron.
4. Stir 5 times, clockwise.
5. Wave your wand to complete the potion.

According to Book of Potions

1. Add crushed snake fangs to your cauldron and stir.
2. Slice your Pungous Onions finely and place in cauldron, then heat the mixture.
3. Add dried nettles.
4. Add a dash of Flobberworm Mucus and stir vigorously.
5. Add a sprinkle of powdered ginger root and stir vigorously again.
6. Add pickled Shrake spines.
7. Stir gently, so as not to overexcite the Shrake spines.
8. Add a glug of stewed horned slugs.
9. Add porcupine quills.
10. Finally, wave your wand over the cauldron to finish the potion.

Dangers

When brewing the potion, the cauldron had to be taken off the fire before adding the porcupine quills, or, as Neville Longbottom found out, the cauldron would melt and create a horrid odour, and if it came into contact with the skin, would cause the skin to erupt in vicious boils.

Before brewing a Cure for Boils, coating a cauldron with Bulbadox powder would make the cauldron explode.

Behind the scenes

• In the video game adaptation of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the game features a different means of preparation from the canonical one, as featured in detail in Pottermore. The non-canonical potion recipe is thus:

1. Heat the cauldron until the potion turns red.
2. Heat it again until turns green.
3. Pour Flobberworm Mucus until the potion turns pink.
4. Heat again until it turns orange.
5. Mix the dried nettles until it turns green.
6. Heat again until it turns blue.
7. Mix crushed snake fangs until the potion turns pink.
8. Mix Porcupine quills until the potion turns orange.
9. Pour stewed horned slugs until it turns turquoise.
10. And last, heat the potion until it turns red. (continuing to heat until it turns pink turns the brew more effective)

• Harry Potter for Kinect features another alternative recipe, which is rather similar to a simplified version of the one from the Half-Blood Prince game above:

1. Stir the starting potion clockwise until the mixture turns from blue to red.

1. Add flobberworm mucus until the potion turns pink.
2. Sprinkle in dried nettles into the potion turns green.
3. Crush snake fangs in mortar and pestle, then add to cauldron until pothe tion turns yellow.
4. Add horned slugs until the potion turns blue.
5. Stir clockwise until the potion returns to red.

• The instructions to make this potion, as featured in Pottermore, overlook the fact that the cauldron must be taken off the fire before adding the porcupine quills, as revealed in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. They also omit the addition of dried nettles to the brew.

Appearances

• Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (First appearance)
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (video game)
• Harry Potter Trading Card Game
• The Road to Hogwarts Sweepstakes
• Pottermore
• Wizarding World (Mentioned only)
• Harry Potter for Kinect
• Wonderbook: Book of Potions
• Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery
• Hogwarts Legacy (Mentioned only)