Polyjuice potion (was Re: Spinner's End)

[Ken Hutchinson]

No: HPFGUIDX 156790

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "houyhnhnm102" <celizwh at ...> wrote:
>
> colebiancardi:
> 
> > Snape tells Harry he invented Levicorpus and Sectumsempra 
> > (because Harry tried to use them on Snape during that 
> > fight) ... Snape's words are "You dare use my spells 
> > against me, Potter? It was I who invented them - I, 
> > the Half Blood Prince"
> 
> houyhnhnm:
> 
> If the Snape on the tower and the lawn is really Snape, 
> then of course he is the Half Blood Prince.  But is there 
> anything we can point to that conclusively proves that it 
> really is Snape?  I can't find anything.  Seeing him on 
> the Marauders' Map would have done so, but, conveniently, 
> Hermione doesn't have the Map when she is waiting outside 
> Snape's office.  The narrator points that out. "We didn't 
> know what was going on upstairs, Ron had taken the map ..."
> 
> There is also nothing that conclusively proves Snape is 
> the HBP, *except* the statement of the character on the 
> law.  It is all assumption.
> 

Ken:

Well there is that famous cramped handwriting that Carol is certain to
bring up, or rather has brought up. Something doesn't seem right about
that handwriting though. We know that Snape's writing is cramped
because of the pensieve scene. Is that the only reason? We "saw" his
handwriting there but of course it is Harry who really saw it there.
Harry, Ron, and Hermione have had Snape as a teacher for 6 years by
the end HBP. Is it possible that *none* of them have become familiar
enough with Snape's writing in all that time to recongnize it in the
potions book? Does he *never* hand back an assignment with his
"helpful" comments scribbled in the margins? And Harry for certain saw
it in Snape's memory. What do you think, Carol if you are reading
this, is the handwriting a certain ID of Snape with the HBP or could
it be a red herring? Why is it that none of the trio instantly
recognizes the HBP's handwriting as Snape's?

I don't know where this polyjuice theory goes. It does sound plausible
enough to me to warrant consideration. I suppose that Snape could have
been captured at some point and replaced with an impostor. Maybe the
author's plan was originally to kill Snape after the conclusion of HBP
but she let him escape in book 7 instead and it *is* Snape who got the
reprieve. One of the reasons that I was favoring the DD is not dead
theory is that *every* potion mentioned in Slughorn's first class has
either been used prominently in previous books or in HBP. The only
apparent exception is the Draught of Living Death. I was suspicious
that DD had been given it at the end of HBP. Maybe it is actually
Snape who is imprisoned somewhere by means of it. Or have I forgotten
a previous use of the DoLD?

I guess the key is that is there *anything* that *certainly* ID's 
Snape as the HBP? Or are there just several things that point that way
but are inconclusive when examined in detail? Hermione never actually
said that Eileen gave birth to a son named Severus though we are
intended to believe that she was about to. Even if Snape is her son
that doesn't mean he was the only half blood Prince floating around.
And right to the very end Hermione insists it is a girl's handwriting.
Don't appeal to the "wonderful irony" either, JKR insists that writers
are cruel. DD's killer would not spare Irony.

Ken