A puzzle for Hermione

I just spent the past hour trying to solve the riddle of the potions from “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.”

Hermione in her natural state – reading

In the book, Harry, Hermione and Ron are all first year students facing a series of challenges. They come to a puzzle created by Professor Snape and Hermione solves it pretty much right away.

Back when I read the books, I started trying to work it out in my head and quickly gave up and just continued on with the story. But I wanted to go back and see if I could solve it, now that well enough time has passed for me to forget the solution.

One mildly frustrating thing is that the riddle can’t be solved with the information that Rowling gives in the book. (At least not with the information she gives prior to having Hermione solve it.)

Here’s the riddle:

Danger lies before you, while safety lies behind,
Two of us will help you, whichever you would find,
One among us seven will let you move ahead,
Another will transport the drinker back instead,
Two among our number hold only nettle wine,
Three of us are killers, waiting hidden in line.
Choose, unless you wish to stay here forevermore,
To help you in your choice, we give you these clues four:
First, however slyly the poison tries to hide
You will always find some on nettle wine's left side;
Second, different are those who stand at either end,
But if you would move onward, neither is your friend;
Third, as you see clearly, all are different size,
Neither dwarf nor giant holds death in their insides;
Fourth, the second left and the second on the right
Are twins once you taste them, though different at first sight.

And, if you’d like to take a shot at it, here’s a picture that provides the necessary information to solve the puzzle, but I advise trying to solve it for a little while without the picture, as readers of the book had to do.

and, if you want to see the solution to the puzzle spelled out, click here.

 

And now, I hope I’ve distracted you as much as I was distracted myself.

 

P.S. The banner image is from a tweet by @alwaysdragxns