Hermione's Potions ability and "How long has Snape been reading Harry's mind"

[Nanagose at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 134826

>>Irene:
>>  She is in fact a mediocre Potions student, not
>> curious, afraid to experiment, only good in following
>> the instructions to a 't'.
>> That was very surprising, at least for me.
> 

Christina:
I completely disagree.  Potions is like chemistry, or for an even 
easier-to-see analogy, cooking.  You can give a chocolate cake recipe to 10 different 
people, and you will get 10 different chocolate cakes (some disasters, some 
wonderful).  Skill at cooking isn't just about following directions, either.  It 
also involves patience, confidence, a "good eye," and many other attributes.  
Some people are just naturally better at cooking than others (in much the same 
way that my chemistry lab experiments turn out wrong every week, despite my lab 
assistant's insistence that it's "just following directions").  :)

Hermione's potions only stop coming out correctly when she is given poor 
directions to begin with.  And as Shagufta pointed out, she brews the Polyjuice 
Potion, which is years ahead of her training.  I always equated that 
accomplishment to Harry's ability to cast the "Expecto Patronum" charm.  They have both 
shown that, in their own areas of talent, they can handle coursework well 
beyond their years.

>>Laura:
>>I wouldn't call her mediocre for not experimenting - just
>>cautious.  It is probable that the first that students are
>>allowed or expected to experiment is when they are working
>>at the NEWT level. 

I agree.  I've never seen Hermione as particularly creative or risk-taking, 
but that doesn't mean she isn't a good Potions student.  She's not the prodigy 
that Snape obviously was, but she's still good at the subject.

>>Oiboyz
>>That could've been a lucky guess on Snape's part, but later in HBP 
>>Snape definitely reads Harry's mind when he asks him where he learned 
>>the Sectumsepra spell.  In the Occlumency lessons in Book 5, Snape 
>>seemed to need a wand and the incantation "Legilimens!" for that sort 
>>of thing, but in HBP he calls up the Potions textbook in Harry's mind 
>>without any spoken incantation or wand use at all (that I'm aware of).  
>>Harry can feel the effects-- "the bathroom seemed to shimmer before his 
>>eyes"-- but what if you don't notice having your mind read unless 
>>you're expecting it?

Christina:
Could Snape be casting the "Legilimens" spell silently during this scene?  I 
suppose so, but I really don't think that's what happened.  Snape recognized 
the spell that Harry used on Malfoy.  He's suspicious of his knowledge of the 
spell right from the start--

(HBP, US, 524)
"Apparently I underestimated you, Potter," he said quietly.  "Who would have 
thought you knew such Dark Magic?  Who taught you that spell?"
......."It was- a library book," Harry invented wildly.  "I can't remember 
what it was call-"
"Liar," said Snape.

Also, what follows doesn't look like Legilimency:

"The bathroom seemed to shimmer before his eyes; he struggled to block out 
all thought, but try as he might, the Half-Blood Prince's copy of Advanced 
Potion-Making swam hazily to the forefront of his mind."

The first time Harry experiences Legilimency is on page 534 of the US OotP:

"Snape had struck before Harry was ready, before Harry had even begun to 
summon any force of resistance: the office swam in front of his eyes and vanished, 
image after image was racing through his mind like a flickering film so vivid 
it blinded him to his surroundings..."

Harry's future Legilimency experiences are marked with an immediate onslaught 
of vivid or rapid-fire images.  The scene in the bathroom just doesn't match 
up with this.   I think it's more likely that Harry experienced the same 
effect most of us experience when we're trying really hard *not* to think about 
something...the object we want to ignore is all we can think about.

I don't see the reason for having Snape verbally say the Legilimency spell 
during his training sessions with Harry unless he really can't do legilimency 
well himself.  Think about it--there's no spell for occlumency (is there?), and 
Harry doesn't know enough about Legilimency for Snape to feel the need to hide 
any latent talent he may have for it.  For all Harry knew, anyone can learn 
Legilimency, and nothing would have seemed odd to him if Snape said the spell 
silently (or knew Legilimency well enought to not need a spell at all).

>>colebiancardi
>>well, when JKR spoke with Alan Rickman about the role of Snape, she 
>>mentioned some things to him about Snape's personality & whatnot.  I 
>>re-watched both SS/PS and CoS and I can tell you, when Rickman looks 
>>at Harry, I can "see" him trying to get into Harry's mind and 
>>dragging stuff out of it.  He always has a penetrating look in his 
>>eyes when he looks at Harry.

Christina:
Funny you should mention that, because I just re-watched CoS last night as 
well, and I agree with the fact that Rickman's Snape often has a very 
penetrating look in his eyes when he looks at Harry.  However, I don't think it's 
something specific to Harry.  Rickman's Snape has a penetrating look on his face a 
lot of the time (ie, when the teachers see the message on the wall regarding 
Ginny), and I think this holds true for the books as well.  I've always thought 
of Snape as being a character that would have a very "penetrating" stare, the 
kind of person that you always feel can kind of read your mind, even if he 
can't.  Snape has an extremely intense personality, and penetrating eyes just 
seem to go along with that.


Christina


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