Mandragora officinarum

I write about that in this book, in the witchcraft chapter, the magic medicine chapter about, you know, all those herbs, which we now know have active properties, but for which women were burned for having them in their pockets.

Mandrake is my favorite example of that.

Mandrake is the root.

If you would grind it up, it gives you the sensation of flying.

It was one of the very early forms of antiseptic, but you would, if you had it in your pocket, you would be branded a witch.

The chapter starts, mystery of the attacks on the Muggle-borns continues.

Hermione has been attacked! Ah, darn it! But the Mandrakes are ready! Hooray! We'll finally be able to wake up the people and then they can tell us who attacks them! The day is literally won and yet old hair Baron Ronald are a little bummed they didn't get to ask Myrtle how she died, but no worries, the answers are coming tomorrow.

So technically, Mystery not solved.

But then who shows up at the Gryffindor table ready to talk? It's Ginny! She has the answers! But then, aw man, Percy arrives at that exact moment! Ginny drew a deep breath, and at that precise moment, Percy Weasley appeared, looking tired and wan.

What's a mandrake? Am I being stupid?

Mandrakes are the plants that cure petrification.

No, no, no, that's

Harry Potter bullshit.

Oh, where mandrakes are like an actual, they're not just Harry Potter bullshit.

Oh, okay, okay.

Mandrakes, when you pull them from the ground, if you hear their scream, it'll kill you.

That's just lore.

Around that time, it is near sundown, I hear a booming noise.

I look out through the trees, and there is that motor yacht that belongs to Mr. Vachty that stopped to ask if I needed rescue on the day I was turning Mandrake Route to ash.

It is a quarter mile away, maybe less.

I see Mr. Vachty talking to one of his tough-looking crew, and I see the prof sitting in a deck chair with a sort of thick fog of gloom around him, and I see old Jody nervous, taking a drink from a steward and putting it hasty to his mouth.

What magical plants cry can be fatal?

Mandrake.

What creature lives in the Chamber of Secrets?

A basilisk.

That is true.

That's funny because you missed two on the Game of Thrones and I missed two on the Harry Potter.

I missed Azkaban and Mandrake.

And not because I didn't know where the...

Lobelia, Indian tobacco, the herb, the seed.

Mandrake, mayapple, the root.

Nettle, the herb.

Passion flower, the herb.