Brew Glory? Stopper Death?

[errolowl]

No: HPFGUIDX 56258





Snape's opening speech keeps haunting me, primarily for 
its sheer poetry. And then the last few lines really hit home:

SS 137:
"I don't expect you will really understand the beauty of a
softly simmering cauldron with its shimmering fumes, the delicate 
power of liquids that creep through human veins, bewitching the mind, 
ensnaring the senses...I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew
glory, even stopper death-"

Can Wizards really brew glory? Is glory available to everyone who can 
brew a complicated portion, or who knows someone else whose
uncles' friends' mother-in-law's sister can? Why did
Lockhart have to go to such difficult lengths to get his moments of 
fame and glory then? He needn't have tracked down all those
witches and wizards and painstakingly interviewed them to compile his 
books. It ought to have been easier to track down one amenable 
portion brewer with the requisite skills. And all those of ambitious 
Slytherins...they have instant glory available right? I can see them 
brewing it in the common rooms...or have a shop selling Glory Brew in 
Hogsmead. There doesn't seem to be anything illegal about it
either. There probably are restrictions we don't know about yet,
but then the making of such portions can apparently be taught at 
Hogwarts. 

More interesting is the effect unrestricted access to such potions 
would have on wizarding society. Everybody can have their moment of 
glory, everyone is equally famous – which kind of undermines the 
concept of fame a bit, I must say. <grin>. Besides, what would they 
be famous *for*? So, no, perhaps its not that easy. Maybe its very 
very complicated and only a uniquely gifted few can really master it. 
But that still leaves a handful who can be famous as easy as that. 
And to those who want fame really badly, Ministry guidelines or 
restrictions aren't going to be a deterrent. Umm,...maybe
that's where it crosses the line to being a dark art – and
that line is pretty blurry.

Ah, a side note for the Snapeologists - - Yep, Snape's 
rant at the end of PoA was just that – a master show of acting. 
Enraged at Black's escape maybe, but he didn't really want the 
prestigious order of Merlin of course. Nah, his ambitions are not 
fixed on trifles like fame and glory –he can get those anytime he
so pleases. 

What intrigues me even more is – what did Snape mean by
"stopper death"? Is that still along the lines of `bottle
fame', meaning death-captured-in-a-vial? Just pure distilled
essence of death? What's so impressive about that? Would serve
the same function as a vial of deadly poison right? No, that
doesn't
quite fit in as the impressive climatic end to that sentence. It 
sounds more dramatic than a poison, more dramatic than the power to 
cause death. 

Then is it putting a stopper on death as in power *over* death? A key 
to immortality? Keep the forces of death at bay? Is that why Snape 
gained admittance into Voldmort's inner circle at such a young
age? And the reason that he just might be accepted back?


Errol
Just thinking out loud.