The Eggplant and Snape and I

[Cathy Drolet]

No: HPFGUIDX 138921

CathyD:
> he [Snape] got at least 25% of his
> 40 fifth-year students to achieve 
> an Outstanding OWL.  

Eggplant:
>>In previous years Snape must have been teaching an entire other
potions class that we have never seen for Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs,
and we don't know exactly how many students were in either class.
Also, it's a rather long chain of reasoning to go from Harry and Ron
were the only ones we see ask for a potions book to all the others
must have gotten Outstanding.

CathyD again:
We do know exactly how many fifth-year potions students there are: 40.  There are 40 students, according to JKR, in Harry's year.  We know there are 10 in Gryffindor: Harry, Ron, Neville, Dean, Seamus, Hermione, Lavender, Parvati and the two girls whose names JKR says she is going to post on her website.  We know there are 10 kids in Hufflepuff, since they take Herbology with the Gryffindors, and in the class with the baby Mandrakes Sprout had provided 20 sets of earmuffs.  We know there are 10 Slytherins as Gryffindor took flying lessons with Slytherins and there are 20 brooms on the ground, not to mention Potions, where there are 20 cauldrons.  That leaves 10 kids for Ravenclaw.  So 40 students sat the Potions OWL at the end of fifth year.

We know there are ten students in the Potions class who received Outstanding. That much is obvious to anyone who reads the book.  10 of 40 is 25%.  How many more of the 30 remaining students who received Outstanding in Potions but didn't carry on to take the NEWT level class is not known.  I can't imagine, for one moment, that only 4 Ravenclaws would have made Snape's cut line.  They are *Ravenclaws* after all.  However, Potions sounds to me like quite a challenge, so if one didn't need to take advanced level Potions, one wouldn't.  One would use the time to do the work for the classes they did need for their future careers.  

None of the students knew, before the beginning feast, of the change of Potions Master.  Anyone who had received Exceeds Expectations would not know, until the following morning when Heads of House were handing out timetables, that they could possibly take the class.  There was no way to know, prior to Monday morning, whether or not the cut line for Slughorn was the same as for Snape - Outstanding, even if some students had known there was a change in teacher (which certainly does not seem evident by the amount of commotion in the Great Hall "the whole Hall had errupted in a buzz of conversation at the news").  McGonagall informed Harry that Slughorn only required Exceeds Expectations and offered him the opportunity to take the class since she knows his career goal is to be an Auror.  Harry took the opportunity, as did Ron.  It is quite obvious, to me at least, that they are the only two EE students in the Potions class as no one else asked for, or was handed, a book, and there was no way for them to acquire a book prior to their first class (4th period Monday morning, right before lunch.  Whenever H&R ordered their new Potions book, it didn't arrive until Saturday of Harry's detention with Snape, the second Saturday of the term).  Looking at it logically, for me, the more EE kids in the class, the more kids without books, the less likely the chance that Harry will received the HBP copy, and the more unlikely the plot then becomes if he does receive it.  (i.e., if only two of the 12 students in NEWT potions had received Outstanding, the other 10, including Harry and Ron would have needed books, so logically, the odds go down of Harry receiving Snape's old copy.)

So, the question is, why weren't there more EE kids in the class?  I'm not surprised that there aren't any more Slytherins, Snape would believe, regardless of Slughorn, that only students who received Outstanding deserved to go on and wouldn't give those who received EE the opportunity.  Perhaps Sprout and Flitwick, like McGonagall, know their students' career hopes well, and know that there are none of their EE students who need to go on to NEWT.  Perhaps some were offered the opportunity but declined.  We don't know.  We don't know, IMO, because it's not important to the story as JKR is telling it. 

What I would really like to know is where Ron got the 9 Galleons to pay for his book and how many of the sixth-years failed the Potions OWL and are now suffering Snape's "displeasure."

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]