"But unless you watch your step, you might just find that my hand slips ...right over your evening pumpkin juice. And then Potter ... then we'll find out whether you've been in my office or not."
-- Snape threatening to spike the pumpkin juice with Veritaserum (GF27)
"Tea? Coffee? Pumpkin juice?"
-- Dolores Umbridge, trying to trick Harry into taking Veritaserum (OP28)
Pumpkins are a squash, a vegetable used for food, drink, and ornamental purposes.
Cultivation
Hagrid maintains a pumpkin patch outside his hut, which produces the pumpkins used to decorate the Great Hall for the Hallowe’en feast.
Although the plants aren’t inherently magical, Hagrid gives them some “help” so that the pumpkins swell to the size of garden sheds by the time the feast rolls around (CS7, CS8). He is quick to rescue them when Ron vomits some slugs nearby (CS7), but was unable to stop the blast-ended skrewts, who “rampaged” in the patch and withered the vines (GF21).
Representing pumpkin-growers, Dagbert Pips, the owner of the Pumpkins R Us, protested against planned Ministry of Magic restrictions on Hallowe’en celebrations. Sales of his specialty “luminous pumpkins, flying pumpkins, singing pumpkins and exploding pumpkins” would be hit hard by the new regulations (DP4).
Decoration
Pumpkins as candle holders were among the Hallowe’en decorations at Hogwarts (PS10, PA8).
For the Hallowe’en feast in fourth year, “hundreds of carved pumpkins leered from every corner” (GF16).
Food
The smell of baked pumpkin permeates the castle before the Hallowe’en feast (PS10).
The Hogwarts Express trolley sells pumpkin pasties – a kind of pie (PS6, PS7, OP10, CC1). It could be either savoury or sweet.
A pumpkin tart is served for the Sorting Feast in third year (PA5).
Drink
Pumpkin juice is a staple drink around the Hogwarts table (CS5, PA6, GF12, OP11) and students drink it outdoors on sunny days (PA16). Fred and George Weasley also obtain pumpkin juice and fizz directly from the kitchens for impromptu parties (CS10, PA13).
Pumpkin juice is sold “ice-cold” from the trolley on the Hogwarts Express (CS5).
Pumpkin juice was served at Bill and Fleur Weasley’s wedding (DH8), and their home Shell Cottage was also stocked with plenty of it (DH25, DH27).
Appearances
Professor McGonagall summoned sandwiches and pumpkin juice to Professor Snape’s office, where Harry and Ron had to wait after crashing the Ford Anglia into the Whomping Willow (CS5).
Hermione and Harry rescued Buckbeak the hippogriff from Hagrid’s pumpkin patch, saving his neck (PA21).
Snape threatened once to put a drop of Veritaserum in Harry’s pumpkin juice to force the truth out of him (GF27). Dolores Umbridge actually tried to do the same when she attempted to find out from Harry where Albus Dumbledore was (OP28).
Sirius Black in dog Animagus form waited in Hagrid’s pumpkin patch after the Triwizard Tournament (GF35).
Harry pretended to put a drop of Felix Felicis in Ron’s pumpkin juice to boost his courage for a Quidditch match against Slytherin (HBP14).
Hagrid buried Aragog the Acromantula “just beyond the pumpkin patch” (HBP22).
The trolley witch on the Hogwarts Express transforms her pumpkin pasties into exploding hand grenade pasties to try and prevent Albus Potter and Scorpius Malfoy leaving the train (CC1).
Other
The Beauxbatons carriage in the snow reminded Harry of a “frosted pumpkin” (GF23).
When Albus Dumbledore overwhelmed Dolores Umbridge, two Aurors, and Cornelius Fudge, a rumour went around that Fudge ended up with “a pumpkin for a head” (OP28).
On his way to kill the Potters in Godric’s Hollow, Lord Voldemort saw two children dressed as pumpkins for Hallowe’en. He scared one of them, but chose not to kill him (DH17).
Potions Connection
Pumpkin juice does not seem to be connected with potions.
Commentary
Etymology
From the Greek pepon (πέπων) “large melon"
Notes
On Halloween in the United States, pumpkins are traditionally carved into "jack-o-lanterns" with a face lit up by a candle. But in England and Ireland the traditional vegetable used on All Hallow's Eve was the turnip or the related swede (rutabaga). In literature, Washington Irving told the story of the Headless Horseman who chased Ichabod Crane away from Sleepy Hollow by throwing a carved pumpkin at him. In L. Frank Baum's Wizard of Oz books, there is a character named "Jack Pumpkinhead, and in Tim Burton's film "The Nightmare Before Christmas," the "Pumpkin King" is named Jack Skellington. And of course the most famous of all is Charles Schultz's holiday creation "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" with Linus Van Pelt and Lucy Brown missing tricks or treats, spending Halloween in the "most sincere" pumpkin patch (Wikipedia).
Pumpkins are really a fruit rather than a vegetable (Wikipedia).
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Tags: decorations food garden orange plants vegetables