How HBP could have interwoven into CoS (Was: Re: Eileen Prince)

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 156397

Dungrollin wrote:
> Snape never taught from the text book, he only ever wrote 
> instructions on the board; I've lent out my copy of PS so I can't 
> check to see whether he did the same there. I do remember the text 
> book they had in first year was One Thousand Magical Herbs and 
> Fungi, which suggests it was a book of the properties of potions 
> ingredients, not that it was a book of potions recipes, which would 
> make having extra tips difficult. Not impossible though, I'll grant 
> you that. I think many people (after HBP) think that Snape was 
> putting his own improved recipes on the board, as do I, so having 
> his old potions book wouldn't have helped in his class; which is 
> why I think it was a DADA book originally. <snip>
> 
> Dungrollin
>
Carol responds:
You've hit on an inconsistency that has always bugged me. While JKR
refers on several occasions to "One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi"
in connection with Potions, it can't be the actual Potions text, or at
least not the only Potions text, because 1) It fits better with
Herbology, which has no other textbook (see the lists in the various
books), and 2) Harry's first-year booklist includes "Magical Drafts
and Potions" by Arsenius Jigger, which can only be a Potions text (SS
Am. ed. 66). Also, many potions ingredients come from animals rather
than plants--Bezoars, unicorn horns, lacewing flies, and leeches, to
list the ones that immediately come to mind--and a few, such as
moonstone, are minerals, so it makes no sense to have a book on plants
be the sole or even the primary textbook in Potions, especially when a
book on drafts and potions is also on Harry's list.

It seems to me that Harry's reaction to the Bezoar question in Snape's
first lesson ("Did Snape expect him to remember everything in 'One
Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi'?") is an indication that Harry
really doesn't know anything about Potions or magic in general since a
bezoar, which comes from the stomach of a goat, would not be discussed
in a book on herbs and fungi. 

But somehow either JKR or her editors seems to have gotten the idea
that the main Potions text was the one on plants rather than the one
on potions, which IIRC is not mentioned again. Maybe the inconsistency
in textbook titles doesn't matter because, as you say, Snape always
puts his (improved?) Potions directions on the board rather than
teaching from the text, but it bothers me. If I were JKR's copyeditor,
I'd have queried it.

Carol, not taking a stand on whether the HBP's book if used in CoS
would have been Potions or DADA because there's not enough info, IMO,
to make an educated guess