Am I the only one...

[M.Clifford]

No: HPFGUIDX 135758


>  zgirnius replies:
> >>And we don't 
> know when the HBP wrote those notes. I mean, was he so brilliant that 
> he walked into 6th year NEWT potions every day, did whatever potion 
> assigned that day in a new, creative, and better way, and then in the 
> spare time left in the class, wrote down notations of his improvements? 
> I doubt it!!
> 
> CathyD now:
> Well, we know Levicorpus was invented and well known by Snape's 5th
year.  We see James, at OWL time, using it on Snape.  Lupin says,
"There were a few months in my *fifth* year when you couldn't move for
being hoisted into the air by your ankle."  Obviously, while our 6th
years are using Advanced Potion Making for their NEWT classes,
Slughorn was using it throughout the time he taught the Marauders and
Snape.  Or, Snape is taking credit for a spell his mother created.
> 


Valky:
Yeah, it's either what Duffy said, and Snape's mother created them,
though I am not entirely sure that would be totally accurate, or it's
canon long the lines of "Snape knew more dark arts curses than Seventh
Years before he came to Hogwarts" Paraphrase Lupin in OOTP.

If the Potions book was Snape's mother's and Snape's childhood was not
one filled with Wizard Fair's trips to Zonko's and practising
Quidditch in his backyard with friends and siblings, then what he
might have been doing was discovering his natural love of the Arts
through his mothers old textbooks. In which case he invented, or
perfected quite a number of spells before he turned eleven.

One could even go as far as to say that his poor trodden down
embattled mother didn't have a whole lot to give her little son, so
what she did give meant something very special to him. Perhaps even
the name "The Half Blood Prince". (I named my son a prince when he was
very young). A Regal name bearing the marks of deep affection would be
a very special gift from a Mother, and I don't doubt for a minte that
JKR could have in store for us *another* Mother and Son relationship 
to liken to Lily-Harry, Merope-Tom. This all might be farfetched
though, since Snape did manage to lose the book at some stage or he
left it in the dungeon which might indicate that it didn't mean much
to him at all. 

On another note, it is still a wonder how the Levicorpus spell made
its way into the common halls at Hogwarts, if Snape did actually
invent it. Clearly he didn't do so in his sixth year, as James used it
in Fifth Year, so lets suppose he managed this particular one before
first year began. Perhaps James or Sirius stole the book from him in
the early years of school and read through it, learning the Levicorpus
spell and then managed to make it popular, themselves. Then again it's
even as likely that Snape taught it to some older students and word
managed to get around through them. But it sems more poignant, more
deliberate that James would use the Levicorpus against Snape because
he knew it was *Snape's* spell so I might go with the chance that
Sirius and James read the book too, even *if* Snape taught it to his
older counterparts such as Lucius Malfoy. This brings up the chance
that James and Sirius, like Harry, discovered the dark and gruesome
Sectumsempra spell which might explain why they believed Snape to be a
very vicious dark wizard and hated him. 

Onto another matter, I recall a thread earlier that discussed Harry
having no ability to match Snape. I'd like to take this opportunity to
differ greatly on that. During the DADA lesson that was focussed upon
the use of non-verbal defense, Snape made to attack Harry in a very
fast move and without warning. Harry beat him to the mark, verbal or
non-verbal Snape was no match for Harry's gut reflex. Remembering that
Hermione quoted the book on nonverbal magic saying that the point was
to give the caster a "split-second" advantage notice how JKR points
out Harry's ability to make the split second advantage moot, he's just
that fast in defense. OTOH in Flight of the Prince, Harry's attacking
of Snape seems to put him right off his game, which seems to say a lot
about what Harry's talents will limit for him, but it definitely
doesn't take away the brilliance he showed in the DADA clasroom or his
outshooting of Draco in the bathroom, albeit with disastrous
consequences.