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DIMENTI
A Discussion on Its Uses and Advantages
Dimenti is an advanced-practitioner potion used as an agonist to a subject's natural ability to organize his thoughts and memories into subconscious compartments within the brain. The potion often achieves its purpose through simple defragmentation of the mind's contents. This potion is unique in that it allows a potioneer to modify its effects by adjusting the amount of or simply interchanging specific ingredients used in making the potion. Potion-brewing in itself takes less than four hours. However, the meticulous preparation needed to create a potent and appropriate Dimenti requires months – even years – of ample practice and ingredient gathering/cultivation.
The Dimenti is most often used to improve intellectual performance. The enhanced compartmentalization allows for faster retrieval of memories, hence allowing the subject to project a false façade of unusual intelligence. This effect can last up to three days and must be reinforced with another dose if the improved performance needs to be maintained. It is illegal to use a Dementi in this capacity in all scholastic and professional activities unless otherwise sanctioned by the Ministry of Magic.
A more dangerous use of the Dementi involves the addition of bottled Azure Sylph Flame to the recipe. This ingredient, when added in the right portion and method, leads to semi-permanent alterations in a subject's mind. Due to the potion's ability to improve the compartmentalization, careful tweaks to the Dementi's recipe can focus its properties into concealing memories within the brain from the subject's own conscious mind. The effect of this recipe, often called Dementi Memorie, or simply, D. Memorie, is more subtle than the Obliviate charm, and far more permanent than the ordinary Dementi. Its effects can last a whole lifetime if the membrane does not disintegrate or is not forcibly removed with an antidote.
H.E.F. Slughorn, Professor and Potions Master at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardy, describes the Dementi Memorie in greater detail below:
"Instead of sucking the memories right out of a subject or sealing it in an intracranial box, D. Memorie places a chemical filter membrane within the subject's neural pathways; therefore, only specifically tagged memories are actually "lost". It is important to note that, unlike memory charms, D. Memorie does not have the capacity to alter memories. It can only prevent the chemically tagged memories from entering the forefront of the subject's mind."
The use of Dementi Memorie has been prohibited by the Ministry of Magic, sans the written, expressed, and properly documented approval of both the Minister of Magic and the Head of the Auror Office.