Pomona Sprout[1] was the Herbology teacher and Head of Hufflepuff house, her talented student Neville Longbottom succeded her as the Herbology professor, but it is unknknown if she shares the Herbology lessons with Longbottom or retired. Her most notable accomplishment is having prepared a draught of mandrake to revive those who had been petrified during the incident in which the chamber of secrets was opened for the second time.
Sprout is introduced in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, but she plays no active role until Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, in which she teaches her second year students to work with Mandrake plants. She is responsible for raising the Mandrakes to full maturity, at which point their juice is used to revive the Petrified victims of the basilisk. Sprout subsequently appears in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, in which she shows her third year class how to collect bubotuber pus for use as a cure for persistent acne. Later on in the school year she comforts Amos Diggory and his wife after the death of their son, Hufflepuff student Cedric Diggory, whom she knew well.
In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Sprout is a nonvocal supporter of Harry Potter's story about Lord Voldemort's resurrection. Like many teachers at Hogwarts, she detests Dolores Umbridge's presence and does her best to disobey her. On one such occasion, she awards twenty house points to Gryffindor because Harry passes her a watering can.
After the battle at Hogwarts in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Sprout meets with fellow staff Minerva McGonagall, Filius Flitwick, Horace Slughorn and Rubeus Hagrid to discuss the future of Hogwarts. Sprout is a staunch advocate of keeping Hogwarts open after headmaster Albus Dumbledore's death, stating that Dumbledore would have wanted it so. She also supports the suggestion that Dumbledore should be laid to rest at Hogwarts though no headmaster has ever received a burial there before. Sprout attends Dumbledore's funeral, where she appears cleaner than her students have ever seen her before.
Professor Sprout's first name is not revealed in canon until Professor Slughorn uses it in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Presumably as a reference to the subject she teaches, Sprout shares her first name with Pomona, the goddess of fruit trees and horticulture in Roman mythology. Her last name is equally appropriate; "sprout" is an English verb meaning "to grow (as shoots or buds)". It is also a noun referring to the germinated upper section of a plant.
Until after the climactic events in The Half-Blood Prince, Sprout is the only current Head of House whose first and last names are not alliterative, as are the names of Filius Flitwick of Ravenclaw, Minerva McGonagall of Gryffindor, and Severus Snape of Slytherin. (The non-alliterative Horace Slughorn takes over as Head of Slytherin after Snape's departure.)
|- style="text-align: center;"
| width="30%" |Preceded by:
Unknown
| width="40%" |Herbology Professor at Hogwarts
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| width="30%" |Succeeded by:
Neville Longbottom
Sources
- ↑ Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, page 448
