Stopper in Death

[potioncat]

No: HPFGUIDX 92406

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, cora_dee <cora_dee at w...> wrote:
 >snip<
> You all know Snape's Speech about the art of potion making. And 
you remember that line about "putting a stopper in death". 
> 
> Well ... let's play! If that's the special ability potion making 
offers to a master - whose death is Snape going to stopper? 
> 
> Harry? Dumbledore? Voldemort? Sirius? Anyone else's? 


Potioncat:
Welcome! I've read the other replies to this post, but came back to 
this one to reply myself.  Lots of good ideas out there!

I am working without my copy of SS and fighting movie contaminaion, 
but there are a few thoughts I have.

One of the goals of this beautiful speech was to make the point that 
potion making is magic.  There is a line something like, "no foolish 
wand waving, no silly incantations...many of you won't think this is 
magic..." When he goes on to say "I can teach you how to...bottle 
glory, brew fame...stopper death..."  So this line is to demonstate 
what a powerful, subtle magic potion making is. (Not that he finds 
wand waving foolish because we see him do that, or incantations 
silly, because we see him do that too.)

As for stoppering death...an antidote does that and that may be what 
he means.  In GoF he says he will make Harry test his antidote.  
Perhaps that was going to have a purpose beyond intimidating Harry. 
Harry is taken from class for some other reason (photos or wand 
testing) And I'd love to know if another student had to test his/her 
antidote. 

Also, this speech is the reason I still don't think Snape wants the 
DADA job.  It sounds like he loves potion making.  Just because he 
told Umbridge he'd applied for it, doesn't make it true. (Maybe I'm 
just being stubborn.)  

And, to me, this speech makes potion making sound like dark arts. 
(In a different thread, I found we don't all agree on what dark arts 
really is.) I wonder if Snape had something to do with that "potion" 
that restored LV in OoP? That is, years ago he experimented with it. 

The surprising thing, is given the amount of potions class time we 
see, we haven't really seen potions used very much. Maybe he'll 
teach Harry a concoction that will undo LV.

Potioncat (Who hopes if he does stopper death, it will be for 
someone in the Order.)