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Felix Felicis is introduced as a potion capable of turning any ordinary day into an extraodinary day.

"However if brewed correctly, as this has been, you will find that all your endeavours tend to succeed"

In Half Blood Prince, where Harry uses the potion to attempt to retrieve the Horcrux memory from Professor Slughorn, there is a scene where it indicates the potion is providing a mental nudge.

"The Felix Felicis gave Harry a little nudge at this point."

So my question is, does this potion provide inevitable luck or does it only invoke lucky instincts which no one has yet ignored?

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As your second quote shows, it is definitely inclusive of the latter (if there are possible actions to take which will increase your luck, you will be pushed/prompted to take them to take advantage of the circumstances). Another example was Ginny splitting up with Dean - after all, they were already on the rocks, and Harry merely rushed things along by providing the last straw.

Yet, it's likely that the former (influencing the circumstances) would also happen - for example, the survival of the DA members during battle of Astronomy Tower. In the chaos of battle, it's unlikely that mere choices would keep someone alive when spells are flying and rebounding randomly.

So I would argue that Felix does BOTH - it allows one to use available unlikely opportunities, but also creates them when none are available.

Also, don't forget the psychosomatic and general psychological win. Ron performed better merely because Harry tricked him into thinking he drank Felix.

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  • I would not agree on the inevitable luck thing - it says tend to succeed , i.e. there may be situations where your luck simply has run out. Hence, to me invoke lucky instincts seems more correct.
    – flq
    Jan 14, 2013 at 13:38
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    @flq perhaps "tend to succeed" was simply to indicate that on some thing success is not possible. Perhaps the drinker of the potion wants something impossible - Luck won't create success, it simply makes it more likely in circumstances where success is possible in the first place. For example, if Snape had used it before propositioning Lily in school, it may not have worked, because she was meant to fall in love with and be with James.
    – balanced mama
    Jan 16, 2013 at 0:50

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