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I've just been re-reading the Harry Potter books for the hundredth time, and I'm finishing up The Chamber of Secrets, but I've found something weird.

Everyone who is petrified (and remember that they are petrified for months), just needs mandrake juice to cure them. Conveniently for the Hogwarts staff, Professor Sprout is growing some mandrakes with the 2nd years in old greenhouse 3.

Sure, it helps the narrative to have a long awaited mandrake juice so that they can't just ask Hermione, but it seems like they should have just gone to Diagon Alley and bought some mandrakes/mandrake juice. Otherwise, they could just send the students to St. Mungo's Hospital.

Is there ANY possible in-universe explanation for why they didn't just buy some? I mean, maybe they are rare, but Sprout bought enough babies for a full class, so they can't be that rare.

It seems like just a plot hole, but maybe Rowling mentioned it in some interview?

Note: I recognize there is one very similar question on the site already, but it was 5 years ago and not satisfactorily asked, or answered.

EvSunWoodard
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    Just because you don't like the existing answers isn't good reason to (knowingly) create a duplicate. If you want more information, feel free to make comments, post a bounty or research your own answer. – Valorum Aug 25 '17 at 17:41
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    @Valorum - That is simply bad policy. There is a wealth of new information, and I'm sure you know as well as I do how much traction old questions get. The original question is five years old. – EvSunWoodard Aug 25 '17 at 17:50
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    @Valorum - Besides, it isn't the same question, they are just similar. That question asks why St. Mungo's didn't have any. I'm asking why the teachers at Hogwarts couldn't buy fully grown mandrakes or mandrake juice at such a critical time. – EvSunWoodard Aug 25 '17 at 17:54
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    The (extremely well established) dupe policy exists precisely to stop people posting largely identical question to draw attention or because they didn't like the old answers. If you think it's not had enough attention, a bounty will work wonders. – Valorum Aug 25 '17 at 18:19
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    @Valorum - I didn't mean to insinuate that the dupes policy as a whole was bad. It is a great policy, I meant more that there might also need be a system where we clean out low quality questions and answers and re-ask. Since the question was originally asked, there have been many more interviews/etc. and there is a new group of users on SE. Since both the question and answer of the original post was low quality, it is not really worth offering a bounty for, because the question won't promote the right answer anyway. – EvSunWoodard Sep 12 '17 at 16:30

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