- "I'm Gethsemane Prickle, Herbologist and Potioneer. Pay attention and you'll do fine."
- — Gethsemane Prickle[src]
Gethsemane Prickle (fl. 2003 - 2020) was a British witch and specialist in Herbology and Potions who, in the course of her work for the British Ministry of Magic, became Head of the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures.[2] Gethsemane Prickle lived to be at least 61 years old.[3]
Biography[]
Born into a family of unknown wizarding descent, Gethsemane Prickle was born somewhere in the British Isles and presumably attended Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry during her formative years, as is the case with nearly all magical children born in the wizarding community of Great Britain.[4] In adulthood, Madam Prickle became an accomplished Herbologist and potioneer and eventually found employment at the British Ministry of Magic, where she was hired by the Ministry's research wing and was assigned to the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. She was not invited to join the Order of the Phoenix during the two uprisings of Lord Voldemort, but she would later point out that even so; "there were other - and some might say better - ways to combat the Dark Lord," showing that she did indeed participate in the anti-Voldemort movement.[5]
By 2003, Gethsemane had won the Ministry Exstimulo Potion Brewing Contest, a competition which she would continue to win for the next seventeen years.[1] Later in her career, she would eventually find herself called in for consultation by the Beast Division more than once, and assist among others Mathilda Grimblehawk and her partner in solving investigations tied to creature-related incidents.[3][6]
At some point prior to 2006, she learned that a woman by the name of Penelope Padgett had joined the Department of Magical Law Enforcement and sent a memo to the Head of the Auror Office, Harry Potter, and tried unsuccessfully to warn him about her, suspecting that she had ill-intentions, as her parents had been strong and outspoken supporters of Lord Voldemort during the Second Wizarding War.[7][8] Having carried out her duties to the satisfaction of her superiors for a number of years, she was eventually promoted to Head of Department by 2019.[9][10]
After the Ministry of Magic became the Calamity World Centre in the wizarding world, she went on to help prepare members of the newly-created Statute of Secrecy Task Force who sought a career as a Magizoologist prepare for the threat they would be facing. Apparently occupying a role of leadership, she was in a position to demand that such individuals had to build an immunity to the stings from a Billywig in order to "earn their stripes" and join the task force.[11] She would later task one of them with sorting out an infestation of Doxies from the drapes somewhere at the Calamity World Centre, which would improve their spell-casting to the point of making it easier to hit evasive foes.[11] At some point, she would also advise at least one of the members of the aforementioned task force to live among centaurs. While this went horribly wrong, it did help said individual acquire many important survival skills.[11] She also ran a hands-on intensive workshop about the handling of Acromantulas for Magizoologist task force members.[11]
Gethsemane was later asked by a Calamity Investigator working for the task force to give a thorough evaluation of their casting technique for their Trace Charm, as they felt that they had been overexerting themself. Although her feedback on the investigator's "lazy footwork" was brutal, her corrections did enable them to cast the charm more frequently in quick succession. She also ran into the same Calamity Investigator in a hallway and forced them into a conversation about commitment, asserting that her "gnarled, distorted husk of a hand" was the result of "proper use of a potion ladle." Gethsemane spent weeks teaching the investigator her debilitating brewing method, which did manage to increase the effectiveness of their Strong Exstimulo Potion.[11]
The same Calamity Investigator later discovered a memo written by Gethsemane in the Ministry archive which claimed that the effectiveness of certain potions depended on their temperature when bottled. Inspired, the Calamity Investigator experimented with temperature and bottling variants, increasing the effect time of their Baruffio's Brain Elixir. Gethsemane later gave the same Calamity Investigator a magically-revised edition of Moste Potente Potions by Phineas Bourne containing instructions on manipulating specific ingredients. Although these manipulations were over-complicated and difficult to master, the investigator was able to improve the effectiveness of their Dawdle Draught.[11]
Gethsemane later "visited" the same Calamity Investigator and was so offended that their cauldron failed to meet Ministry cleanliness guidelines that she spent the next forty-two minutes forcing them to practise the Scouring Charm while relentlessly lecturing them. To the investigator's chagrin, these cleaning methods reduced the brewing time for all of their potions. She also claimed to the same Calamity Investigator that the secret to her potion-brewing success was that she memorised potion recipes to save time on brewing them. The investigator followed her advice and memorised several potion recipes, helping reduce their potion brewing time and sharpening their mental acuity. Gethsemane also forced the same Calamity Investigator to try a "Calamity Potion" that she had brewed, which tasted awful and didn't work as intended.[11]
The same Calamity Investigator later finally broke Gethsemane's Ministry Exstimulo Potion Brewing Contest win-streak by winning the competition themselves, stunning both contestants and onlookers. After the judges unanimously declared that the investigator had won the contest, Gethsemane accused the judges of bias and destroyed the trophy, but the investigator's potion brewing abilities still benefited from the contest. She also offered the same Calamity Investigator unsolicited advice on their mortar and pestle technique through an hour-long diatribe, during which she "ground" the methodology into their mind while they ground their week's supply of scurvy grass. Much to the annoyance of the investigator, her methodology did reduce the brewing time for their Strong Invigoration Draught.[11]
Gethsemane later asked the same Calamity Investigator to help relocate a Chimaera threatening a remote village in Zagoria, Greece. Although the investigator nearly lost their arm in the process, they learned how to better strategically assess and target an enemy's weakness in combat. She later become disappointed in the ability of members of the Statute of Secrecy Task Force to brew potions and tasked the same Calamity Investigator to help solve this problem. The investigator spent seven weeks compiling a comprehensive series of strict guidelines for potion-making and presented the resulting 15,000-page guide entitled "The Prickle Notes" to the task force and Gethsemane, leading to members of the task force being better able to brew more effective Potent Exstimulo Potions.[11]
Physical appearance[]
Gethsemane had medium length grey hair, white skin and green eyes with thin brown-rimmed glasses. She often wore a bright red beaded necklace with many brightly coloured bangles and rings on her arms and hands.
Personality and traits[]
While rather stern compared to associates such as Myra Curio and Sage Bragnam, being often brief and to-the-point and impersonally addressing those around her by their surnames, Gethsemane nevertheless maintained a fairly courteous and very professional demeanour around her co-workers, and was even known to have exchanged the occasional quip with those she got well along well with, such as Mathilda Grimblehawk,[12][13] A straight-laced, conventional woman, she was known to have a strong dislike of aberrant developments during the course of her duties, such as when he passive-aggressively voiced her discontent to Grimblehawk and her partner with being sent a "bag of bones" to examine, only letting it slide without rebuking them because the former Magizoologist complimented her intellect.[12] Secure in her own judgement and never shy about letting her voice be heard, she did not allow Harry Potter's celebrity status to colour her opinion, as seen by how openly critical she was of his decision to vouch for Penelope Padgett's promotion to the Auror Office, given her parents' status as Death Eaters.[9]
Magical abilities and skills[]
- Herbology: An authority on the subject of Herbology and a professional Herbologist, Madam Prickle was a certified expert on the topic of magical plants and fungi, and are as such highly familiar with their characteristics, classification, properties and their usages. She was also knowledgeable when it came to their roles as ingredients to various potions.
- Potions: Madam Prickle was extremely proficient in the subtle art and science of potion-making, being able to brew a wide variety of such concoctions for the colleagues when called upon to do so, without fail. She was also was able to identify different potions and their effects by examining their appearance and smell, even when she had only residue to work with. She also possessed an encyclopedic knowledge on potion ingredients and which ones were used in which potions, being even able to recognise if a given combination of ingredients could produce a viable potion known to Wizardkind or not.
- Magizoology: As a consultant to the Beast Division, and later as the Head of the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, Madam Prickle had a very high level of knowledge regarding magical creatures, knowing how to classify them and the various laws regulating the ownership of such creatures.
Possessions[]
- Wand: Gethsemane owned a wand, which was of an unknown length, wand wood and wand core.
- Augurey: Gethsemane owned an Augurey that was always perched on her shoulder.
Etymology[]
- Gethsemane is a location in ancient Jerusalem, a garden at the foot of Mount Olivet, most famous as the place where, according to the biblical narrative, Jesus prayed and his disciples slept the night before His crucifixion.
Appearances[]
- Fantastic Beasts: Cases from the Wizarding World (First appearance)
- Harry Potter: Wizards Unite
Notes and references[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 By 13 July 2020, (the date when the Calamity Essentials was released, which, as the game took place in real-time, was when they have been accessible in-universe), Gethsemane was the 17-time consecutive winner of the Ministry Exstimulo Potion Brewing Contest, meaning that she had worked at the Ministry since at least 2003, by which time she would have had to be 17 or older.
- ↑ Harry Potter: Wizards Unite (see this)
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Fantastic Beasts: Cases from the Wizarding World, Case 9: Cloke and Dagger, Act 1
- ↑ "Attendance is now compulsory for every young witch and wizard," [Lupin] replied. "That was announced yesterday. It's a change, because it was never obligatory before. Of course, nearly every witch and wizard in Britain has been educated at Hogwarts, but their parents had the right to teach them at home or send them abroad if they preferred." - Remus Lupin, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
- ↑ Harry Potter: Wizards Unite “Brilliant Event: Stronger United”
- ↑ Youtube - FANTASTIC BEASTS Cases From The Wizarding World iOS / Android Gameplay HD
- ↑ https://wizardsunite.gamepress.gg/foundable/gethsemanes-warning
- ↑ https://wizardsunite.gamepress.gg/foundable/penelopes-promotion
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 https://wizardsunite.gamepress.gg/foundable/gethsemanes-warning
- ↑ https://wizardsunite.gamepress.gg/foundable/penelopes-promotion
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 11.4 11.5 11.6 11.7 11.8 Harry Potter: Wizards Unite (see video)
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 Fantastic Beasts: Cases from the Wizarding World, Case 2: The Smell of Fear
- ↑ Fantastic Beasts: Cases from the Wizarding World, Case 3: Out of the Woods
Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures employees | |||
---|---|---|---|
Heads of Department | |||
Gethsemane Prickle | |||
Personnel | |||
Barnaby Lee · Belinda Brown · Bob · Cecil Lee · Cuthbert Mockridge · Dirk Cresswell · Hermione Granger · Amos Diggory · Mathilda Grimblehawk · Mathilda Grimblehawk's partner · Newton Scamander · Walden Macnair · Royden Poke · Liz Tuttle · Elderly Committee member · Bushily whiskered wizard |