Laughing Potion

A potion that creates uncontrollable laughter.

Ingredients

• Alihotsy
• Billywig wings
• Knarl quills
• Puffskein hair
• horseradish powder

Preparation

From Book of Potions:

1. Add clear spring water into your cauldron.
2. Chop your alihotsy leaves and add them to the water.
3. Stir slowly. If you stir too fast you damage the leaves' mirthful properties.
4. Snigger at the potion.
5. Grind up your Billywig wings and add them to the cauldron. Stir slowly.
6. Add three Knarl quills (no more, no less).
7. Heat the mixture, then stir vigorously.
8. Giggle at the potion.
9. Heat the mixture once again.
10. Shave your Puffskein and scatter hair over the surface of your potion.
11. Stir quickly and apply a high heat.
12. Laugh loudly and uncontrolably.
13. Add a sprinkle of horseradish powder.
14. Stir the potion and heat for the last time.
15. Finally, wave your wand over the cauldron to finish the potion.

History and Notes

In the 1500s, Zygmunt Budge received an old family Laughing Potion recipe given to him by his "giggly" great-grandmother. On the lonely island of Hermetray in the Hebrides, he edited the potion and  tried it out on his sheep, first making one of them levitate (he was trying for "levity"), then making one more colorful, finally getting one of them to laugh incontrollably. When a Muggle neighbor arrived from the island of Harris and interrupted Zygmunt's potion-making by calling him a "madman and a loon," he taught him a lesson by giving him Laughing Potion. The Muggle laughed himself senseless for a week, after which he retired to a silent monastery vowing never to listen to anything funny again (BoP).

References from the canon

• The Laughing Potion wears down enemies by making them fall down laughing, rather like a Tickling Spell. It can also be used against a horrible creature like the Banshee to render them incapable of doing you harm, but first you must find something to plug up your ears so you can't hear the screams before you pour it down her throat (BoP)