Snape commits murder or Merely Unstoppers Death? (long)

[Mari]

No: HPFGUIDX 135307

Julie wrote:

> I've been thinking about Snape's first speech to his new 
Potions  class
> in PS/SS. Snape told the students he could teach them to 
"stopper
> death." We've debated on what that means and how it might 
come
> to be used in the series, mostly in terms of perhaps keeping 
Harry
> alive at some point. 

This is very interesting, in spite of the fact that I read Snape's 
speech differently:

 	 "You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of 
potionmaking," he began. He spoke in barely more than a 
whisper, but they caught every word.  Like Professor McGonagall, 
Snape had the gift of keeping a class silent without effort.  "As 
there is little foolish wand-waving here, many of you will hardly 
believe this is magic. I don't expect you will really understand the 
beauty of the softly simmering cauldron with its shimmering 
fumes, the delicate power of liquids that creep through human 
veins, bewitching the mind and ensnaring the senses ... I can 
teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, even stopper death -- if 
you aren't as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to 
teach."
. 

What Snape is doing here is really a rhetorical flourish.  I didn't 
take it as meaning that they would learn to drain death from a 
body and contain it in a bottle, or make a potion that will stop 
death in its tracks. Snape is saying if you know how to make 
these potions correctly, having that particular potion in a bottle 
will be the same as having fame, glory *or death* in a bottle; i.e 
there is a potion in existence that will mean certain death to the 
drinker.

 Isn't that how everyone thinks of the potion Harry wins as a prize 
in HBP? It's the equivalent of having good luck in a bottle.

If Snape's meaning was a potion that would stop death from 
spreading to the rest of the body, I just have a feeling that he 
would have expressed it differently. He is intending to frighten the 
students here; the idea of a potion that is the equivalent of death 
is a bottle is far more frightening than a potion that is intended to 
stop death in its tracks or prevent it from spreading. 

Still thinking about this one.


Mari.