Chapter 29, Career Advice - Broken Potion

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 117293


--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Nora Renka" 
<nrenka at y...> wrote:

> 
> Breaking the potion doesn't seem to fit any nice plot-driven 
situation where any alternate reading would actually be deeply 
meaningful.  It is rather serving a purpose of characterization, 
showing us what Snape does when he's angry.  It could perhaps 
be read  as having a slight plot implication; it's Yet Another Thing 
that  helps ensure that none of the kids have enough trust or 
mind to  remember to go for Snape.  But it's really not a good 
analogy to the  earlier instance, because of the 
plot/characterization divide.
> 
> -Nora smacks herself for posting on a weeks-old thread

Pippin:
If it's so unimportant, why do we keep talking about it? <g> I think 
it niggles because  as a characterization note, it's out of place, 
just like "I made an entire cauldronful, if you need more."  We 
don't need more confirmation of Snape's malice, just like we 
don't need more confirmation that he loves potion-making. And if 
we did, you would put it at the beginning of the scene not the 
middle or the end. There's gotta be something else going on.

The street blows up and Sirius laughs, ergo Sirius did it. The 
potion bottle smashes on the floor and Snape gloats, therefore 
Harry thinks Snape is responsible. It's not that he is wrong, but 
that he could be. It foreshadows the faulty (IMO) reasoning by 
which Harry is going to conclude that Snape is responsible for 
Sirius's death, as well as, possibly, telling us we still need to be 
suspicious about those other explosions -- the one in Godric's 
Hollow and the one that caused the Muggle deaths.

Pippin