Snape's textbook and Narcissa's tears

[jjjjjuliep]

No: HPFGUIDX 133935

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Ersatz Harry" 
<ersatzharry at y...> wrote:

> (1) I found it perplexing that Snape's old Potions text would make
> it in the bin of old ones available for class use.  Perhaps Snape
> liked to keep it close at hand when he was the Potions professor,
> but something about its getting into Harry's hands feels a bit 
> contrived. I can't imagine that Snape would inadvertently leave it 
> lying around.

Why not?  There's no reason for him to hide it. It's in a jumble of 
stuff in the classroom he'd had for so long. 

> At the same time, I'm having trouble seeing how this little feat
> could realistically have been engineered.  Was this the real 
> reason that Slughorn was brought back?  Let's see, says DD, Harry
> won't take Potions any more if he got too low an OWL, therefore he
> won't have bought the text, therefore my putting Slughorn in will 
> get Harry to take the class without a text and will create an 
> excuse to put Snape's old text in his hands.  Feels like a bit 
> much.  Any thoughts?

I think you have the cart before the horse.  :-)  The key is that 
Snape gets the DADA job.  This is crucial to the plan to bring down 
Voldemort.  This allows Voldemort to believe that he has completely 
duped DD, for there is no way DD would give an ally of Voldemort's 
such a sensitive job at this time with Voldemort clearly on the rise.

Also, removing Snape from the Potions classroom but giving Harry 
Voldemort's book allows us to see that Harry can indeed learn what 
Snape has to teach--once the setting is changed.  It's like Snape is 
a terrible teacher, but an excellent tutor. 

I wonder if that is a metaphor/parallel we will see again in #7 as 
Harry and Snape both turn to avenge themselves on Voldemort.  As they 
(Harry and Snape) were in battle at the end of #6, Snape deflected 
and belitted Harry's attempts just as he did in the classroom.  
However, they both know that Harry did learn a lot from the HBP.  I 
will be interesting to see how this teaching transformation takes 
place in #7.

jujube