If, oh say Lockheart, gets asked for some his fingernail clippings for the sixth time, suspicion might arise.
Actually, the Crouch switcheroo was discussed in Book Four. Book Six also has cross-gender use implied/deduced.
I don’t think the evidance merits drugs being grouped with violent crimes
And think about the market for fake celebrity pornography. No longer will unscrupulous people photoshop the head of their favorite starlet onto the body of their favorite… er… starlet, I guess, and distribute the pictures over the internet.
Oh no, two quick rummages through the dustbin and before you can say “can’t stop the signal” Scarlet Johansson and Kiera Knightly are on the internets doing unspeakable things to each other.
Snape, sure. Professor Binns, maybe not. Since he’s a ghost, it would probably be difficult to get ahold of his hair clippings or toenails unless he thoughtfully stockpiled a supply while he was alive. (I wonder – if you collect clippings from a corpse, does Polyjuice Potion turn you into a LIVE or DEAD version of the subject person?)
I can only figure it alters Wizard porn fierce, too. Instead of shooting videos they just market off hair samples and such and let people get the real thing in their living room.
Then it’s only a matter of time before some wizarding Madonna-type hits the idea that there’s truly big business in making it happen.
Then quality control comes in where some hapless bastard gets some 90-year-old hairdressers hair instead of Madonna’s and sues.
The mind reels.
I’ll be in my bunk.
what?
Which makes things even more complicated, since Ron wasn’t the intended target of those doped chocolates. If A intends to slip a love potion to B, but instead accidentally and unknowingly gives it to C, and C then pursues and has sex with A, who’s guilty of what?
Sounds like a Three’s Company episode.
Yeah, undoubtedly that girl would have told Ron, “No way!” She wouldn’t necessarily even have known that Ron’s obsession was her own doing.
Ron drinks the love potion meant for Harry, and goes after her — so she jinxes him. Is that self-defense? She’s the one who caused him to chase her in the first place!
What if, heaven forbid, Ron gets her pregnant? What if Ron attempts to rape her and she uses an Unforgiveable Curse on him? Ron’s fault? Her fault? Harry’s fault?
A far more obvious use for polyjuice potion: An ugly geek might transform himself into a handsome stud before hitting the singles’ bars. (Do wizards have singles’ bars?)
I switched to A, B, and C because I think that Ron is sufficiently strong-willed and good enough to not commit rape, even under the influence of a love potion. But that case is, I think, straightforward: The Unforgivable Curses are not justified even in cases of self-defense. The question about lesser hexes still stands, though.
Again, straightforward. It’s no crime to be so desirable that girls will want to slip you love potions, which is really all Harry is guilty of. The question is just between Romilda and Ron, I think.
If Muggles had lawyers surely they would argue that it was irresponsible of Harry to have given away something with Love Potion in it. Sure, the lawyer might argue, he claims he didn’t know, but he was indeed warned about the possibility of Love Potion, was he not?
Muggles, unfortunately, do have lawyers. I think you meant to say “wizards”, there. But in this specific instance, Harry didn’t “give away” love potion. The doped chocolates ended up on the floor when Harry was rummaging through his things, and were mistaken by Ron for one of his birthday presents. Harry expressed dismay immediately upon discovering that Ron had eaten one of the chocolates.
And in case the situation wasn’t crazy enough already, what would happen if such an unintended recipient of a love potion then decided, in es counter-wooing, to use another love potion on the original wooer? Both would end up in love (or at least, infatuation) with each other, which is enough to satisfy Shakespeare of a happy ending, but they would be in that state only through their mutual impairment of judgement.
It seems to me that young, rich wizards would have to be very careful drinking in public. An enterprising witch could slip him a love potion, take a fertility potion herself and then set herself up for life.
<snipped>
Just want to point out that technically, people are animals.
I’m also thinking this would alter the “Free Pass List” concept. “We have an agreement to always be faithful except, if either of us gets the chance, he gets to do Katie Couric and I get to do Brad Pitt.”
Technically, according to Ministry of Magic definition, people are Beings and not Beasts. 
But yes, you’re right.
Lordy. My only point was to joke about some characters that one wouldn’t normally think of as subjects of sexual fantasies… I refuse to contemplate a world where erotically fantaszing about ghosts LIKE PROFESSOR BINNS is “normal”… 
The whole love potion thing is fraught with ethical and legal dilemmas. With the Riddles/Gaunts to go by, there is no long term happiness to be had by deceiving the object of your desire.
Perhaps Rowlings should have mentioned an Ethics class for upper class wizards? (say 4th years and up?).
Would the Wizangamot be concerned with such things or would it fall under the Healers? Hmmm…
Except that there is, in fact, a lot of sexual fantasizing about Professor Snape. I suspect that Alan Rickman has a lot to do with this.
And I don’t think that the fact that Prof. Binns is a ghost is the most relevant aspect. Nearly Headless Nick is probably a better object for fantasies now, than Binns ever was.
There’s also the question of Transfiguration. It’s certain that people can do animal transfiguration, and don’t I remember something in book 6 about limited human transfiguration? Something about Ron and yellow eyebrows? I would guess that unless you were very talented, though, you’d end up looking like Odo.
I think we may be overdue (or have we even ever had one?) for a Let’s Nitpick Internal Harry Potter Inconsistencies thread. They’re a lot of fun, usually.