Is Snape really THAT good in Potions?(was: Snape and the Kappa)

[LadyOfThePensieve]

No: HPFGUIDX 119384


Hello,

I honestly think he is simply the BEST in Potions. And Dumbledore
knows it! Remember he brewed the potion of the mandrakes which helped
the petrified persons to come back into "life".
With his potion the evil curse of the Basilisk became powerless.
I could mention much more examples. He isn´t just a teacher in potions
(a schoolmaster), no he is indeed a Master of the skill itself.

Greetings.



-- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "nkafkafi" <nkafkafi at y...> wrote:
> 
> After Nora found a textbook example that Snape might not be such an
> expert in DADA as he is cracked up to be, I had a REALLY strange
> thought: Why do we all assume that Snape is such a wiz in Potions?
> I've raked my brains, and as far as I can remember the only canon
> source for that is Lupin, who tells Harry in PoA that the Wolfbane
> Potion is very complex and very few potion masters are up to it. Can
> someone corroborate Snape's expertise from a different source?
> 
> After all, the fact that a teacher calls his students "idiots" doesn't
> automatically means that he is an expert. And the fact DD hired him is
> also not much of a proof, considering DD also hired Trelawney and some
> not-terribly-competent DADA teachers.
> 
> Ha, I know - he prepared Veritaserum and it did make Crouch Jr
> confess. The proof is in the pudding! But did Snape really prepare
> that Veritaserum? Somehow we all assume he did, but I couldn't find it
> in canon. DD asks him to bring "the strongest Truth Potion you
> possess" (GoF, Ch. 35). "Possess" and not "prepared". Snape himself
> only claims to prepare the Veritaserum in OotP, which turned out to be
> fake.
> 
> And assuming for a moment he did brew the Veritaserum in GoF, are we
> told that only the best experts can brew Veritaserum? Snape says that
> it is controlled by very strict Ministry guidelines, and apparently it
> takes a lot of time (and work?) to produce a very small amount, but is
> it written anywhere that it takes a REAL expert? If so, I couldn't
> find it.
> 
> Hmm. Would someone talk me out of this? 
> 
> I'll find it strange if Snape's reputation as a genius potion master
> would depend solely on Lupin's word. And, since we (well, most of us)
> know how kind and generous Lupin usually is, are we so sure that he
> wasn't just a bit overgenerous to Snape here? It does look like he was
> trying to make amends with Snape for most of the PoA year, calling him
> pleasantly "Severus" and mostly overlooking Snape sneering at him. And
> just when praising Snape he was also pointedly ignoring Harry trying
> to suggest that Snape is not to be trusted.
> 
> And of course, if Lupin is ESE we definitely should not take his word
> if it cannot be corroborated anywhere in canon. He might have some
> ulterior motives.
> 
> And BTW, how do we know that Snape is such a superb Occlumens? Oops,
> Lupin again. Do I detect a pattern here?
> 
> Neri