stopper death

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 114760


> Annemehr wrote:
> I completely agree with Beatnik24601 that the sense of the words
> certainly seem to imply brewing up a flask of something lethal.
> 
> The trouble with that, though, is that it's boring! Isn't it? 
> Ordinary Muggles are perfectly capable of mixing up poisons, after
> all. Not to mention how surprised we'd be to find Snape teaching
> Hogwarts students to brew death potions.  Perhaps these are two of
the myriad of issues that Beatnik was thinking of.
> 
> I wonder if, by 'stopper death' he could have meant 'control death?' 
> He couldn't have meant 'control death' in an absolute sense, but
> perhaps in an incomplete way.  In which case, Finwitch and Beatnik
are both right.  See how accomodating I can be? <g>

Carol responds:
If we take Snape literally about being able to "brew Fame" and "bottle
Glory," we need to take him literally about being able to "stopper
Death," too. All three would need to be brewed, bottled, and
stoppered, even though he lists only one verb per commodity or
substance. In other words, yes, he's brewing Death and enclosing it in
a stoppered bottle, just as he's doing with Fame and Glory, but the
bottle contains Death itself, or the *essence* of Death, not some
mundane poison or other lethal substance (which, I agree, would be
boring!).

Exactly what the implications of being able to brew, bottle, and
stopper Death would be I have no idea. *If* Snape can really do so, I
imagine that ability will play a crucial role in Book 6 or 7. OTOH
(though as a Snape fan, I hate to say this), it's possible that the
whole speech is poetic hyperbole, intended to impress on his students
not only that Potions is a field to be respected but that he himself,
as Potions Master, should be regarded with something like awe. (If he
could really brew Fame and bottle Glory, wouldn't he already have done
so rather than lowering himself to teach unappreciative "dunderheads"?
And if he can do the same with Death, the Department of Mysteries
should hire him as an Unspeakable!) Still, I'd rather believe that
he's speaking the truth here, and that being a Potions Master is a lot
more impressive than Harry and his fellow students realize.

Carol, who originally thought that "stopper Death" meant prevent death
(some sort of immortality potion), but admits reluctantly that the
wording doesn't lend itself to that interpretation