Chapter 29, Career Advice - Broken Potion

[potioncat]

No: HPFGUIDX 117295


 
> 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.
> 


Potioncat:
I know I should have snipped, but I couldn't determine where. I 
think you've hit on something here.  This scene seems unimportant, 
but is it?  You know, it was also obvious that Crookshanks ate 
Scabbers, but he didn't.  

You give the explosion as an example, that's a good one because it 
spans several books.  While I doubt the broken flask will show up 
again, it could be part of Harry's continuing misjudgement of Snape.

Of course if Snape wasn't such a jerk all the time, Harry wouldn't 
misjudge him so often.