A new thought! A new thought! Several!

[Amanda Geist]

No: HPFGUIDX 41341

Jan has again done the impossible, thought of something I have not seen
discussed on the list. I'm impressed.

He thinks that part of the closeness between Snape and Dumbledore is that
Dumbledore himself is skilled with potions. I asked him where he got that.
He referred me back to the description on the wizard card:

"Dumbledore is particularly famous for his defeat of the dark wizard
Grindelwald in 1945, for the discovery of the twelve uses of dragon's blood
and his work on alchemy with his partner, Nicolas Flamel." (p. 77, PS)

Jan points out that those last two, researching the uses of dragon's blood
and alchemy, both would seem to have a very strong potions element. He says
that any Potions master under Dumbledore would have to be very good, indeed,
because two of the things Dumbledore is famous for are potions-related. I
think he has, as usual, made a great observation.

So, thoughts? Alchemy does involve great amounts of intricate mixing and
blending and simmering, and not a lot of foolish wand-waving (to our
knowledge). I'm betting that analysis of dragon's blood did, too. Do we
think Dumbledore is no slouch when it comes to potions, and they share a
professional interest? And has this interesting thought sparked any other
random connections in anyone?

Jan also mentions that the card obliquely introduces another angle:
professors do another thing besides teach. They do research. He thinks Snape
may be a research professor, perhaps working on something with Dumbledore.
This ties a bit into his "love as a spell component" theory I put out
earlier. Snape's teaching style is not the best, we pretty much all agree on
that--but what if teaching is not the primary reason he is at Hogwarts at
all? What if he's working on some project?

And my related thought--what if Lily's sacrifice, as a component of Harry's
protection, was a product of such research by Snape? Jan's thought was that
Harry's protection, the reason he survived, was not simply that Lily died
for him, but that her willing sacrifice was the final element of a spell
that created the strong protection. What if Snape, having access to the
wizard likely to throw that spell, and access to Dumbledore, was
instrumental in crafting that spell?

The other willing death we have seen, or that was strongly intimated, is
Flamel's himself. And what if a willing sacrifice *can* be incorporated into
a strong protective spell, and what if Dumbledore and Snape *are* working on
that.....? And what if Snape's task is to seem to betray Dumbledore, whose
own willing death will be a component in Voldemort's defeat? This is fun.

--Amanda, out there, but intrigued