CHAPDISC: HBP 18, Birthday Surprises

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 153575

CHAPTER DISCUSSIONS: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Chapter
18, Birthday Surprises

<snip Debbie's admirably concise summary>
> QUESTIONS
> 
> 1.  What do you think of Golpalott's Third Law?  <snip>

Carol:
I think it's a parody of the ancient formula, "a whole is more than
the sum of its parts." It's also intended to illustrate the
theoretical aspect of potions to show that NEWT Potions is harder than
the classes we've seen, which are essentially labs, with theory
confined to essay assignments. It's important that Hermione and the
HBP instinctively understand the theory and Harry doesn't, but that's
about it. "Golpalott" is just another play on words like "Grimmauld
Place" and the names of the textbook authors (e.g. Arsenius Jigger),
which always relate in some way to their subjects. I don't think that
we'll see Golpalott's Law again.


> 2.  Harry and Ron appear incapable of anything in Potions class
without Hermione's assistance.  They can't even manage to consult
Advanced Potion Making to figure out what to do (although Harry does
look in the margins for advice from the Prince).  How did they do so
well on their Potions OWLs? And is this joke getting old now that the
Trio are 16?

Carol:
The problem here is that they're supposed to apply a theory rather
than following instuctions on the board. The book doesn't tell them
what to do; it only gives them the theory (and Teen!Severus's cheeky
little bezoar comment doesn't help them to apply the concept. Neither
does Slughorn.

As for their Potions OWLs, they clearly did learn what Snape taught,
(which was primaruly how to follow instructions exactly without
skipping a step or putting in a wrong ingredient) and whatever he
assigned in their essays (the uses of moonstone in potion making, for
example). They would also know the uses of the particular potions and
possibly the antidotes to certain poisons. IOW, despite having help
with their homework and despite not paying attention in class some of
the time, they learned what they were supposed to learn. And we know
that Snape's classes were more advanced than the Ministry expected
them to be, which must have helped, as did having a teacher who
followed a gradually more complex curriculum for each level (as did
Flitwick, McGonagall, and sprout), as opposed to a succession of DADA
teachers (half of them inept) with no foundation to build on from one
year to the next.

As for Hermione's help, it isn't really help. It's more like feeding
their dependency. (In OoP, regarding History of Magic, Ron says
something like, "Are you going to stop nagging Harry, or do I have to
take notes myself?" Well, duh, Ron. You should have been doing that
all along.) I don't approve of Hermione's letting the boys copy her
homework or correcting their essays. Fortunately, she can't cast their
spells for them or make their potions for them. Somehow they learned
enough to do well in most of their classes, including Snape's, but the
credit must go to the teachers, not to Hermione.

> 
> 3.  How do you think Lily acquired her reputation as having an
"intuitive grasp of potion-making"?

Carol:
I wouldn't say that Lily had a *reputation* as an intuitive potion
maker. It's only Slughorn who credits her with that gift. I think she
was a good Potions student but not a brilliant one like Severus Snape.
She could have gotten into NEWT Potions with only an E, whereas he
would certainly have earned an O (he's smarter than the textbook
author). I think that Slughorn simply liked her because of her cheek,
but he's also magnifying her potion-making abilities either through
guilt (the Horcrux memory and his failure to recognize the evil nature
of Tom Riddle) or a desire to butter up Harry. (I don't think it's
intentional; he simply remembers her as more brilliant than she was,
just as Lupin remembers James as more brilliant than he really was. If
James was the best in the class in every subject, why doesn't Slughorn
talk about him? IMO, Severus Snape was better than either of them not
only in Potions but in DADA, given his detailed OWL answers and
invented spells, but his brilliance went unrecognized because he was
surly and unpopular.) 

> 
> 4.  Why is it so important to Hermione to outshine Harry in Potions?
 <snip> And why do you think she put her own hair into her potion?

Carol:
I think it's because she really *is* better than he is at Potions. She
understands and applies Golpalott's Law and works hard to apply it (52
ingredients!) and yet he gets credit for doing no work and using
someone else's idea. I don't blame her for being angry. Harry doesn't
deserve his mark and her hard work goes unrecognized. But IMO, it's
partly her own fault since to some extent, she's been doing Harry's
work for him all along.

As for her hair, maybe it was the catalyst, the ingredient that was
more than the combined antidotes. Either that or it was an ingredient
in one of the antidotes.

> 5.  JKR frequently makes a point of describing the weather when she
shifts to a new scene or section of narrative; for example, February
brought "cold dreary wetness."  Do you think JKR is using the weather
to set a mood here or is it just transition?

Carol:
I think it's just the setting. February *is* cold, wet, and dreary, at
least in the UK.
> 
> 6.  Wilkie Twycross tells the students that the restrictions on
Apparition have been lifted in the Great Hall for the duration of the
lesson.  If it's that simple, couldn't anyone undo the restriction? 
<snip>

Carol:
Are we told that *Twycross* lifts the restriction or does DD do it? I
doubt it's that simple. I think it's one of the ancient protections on
the castle and grounds that Snape mentions in the first Occlumency
lesson in OoP. And since it's mentioned in "Hogwarts: A History," I'm
pretty sure that it predates DD's appointment as headmaster. So either
DD, as headmaster, is the only person with the power and authority to
partially and temporarily lift the restriction, or he temporarily
granted that power to Twycross. But if anyone could do it, Voldemort
would have invaded Hogwarts long before.
> 
> 7.  Is the watch Ron received for his coming of age birthday
significant in any way?

Carol:
Possibly. But I thought that DD's pocketwatch and the Weasleys' clock
would play more prominent roles. (What good is a clock that tells you
you're in mortal peril when you're eating dinner? Bill really *was* in
mortal peril, but there was no difference between his clock hand and
anyone else's.)
> 
> 8.  JKR uses Ron to portray the effects of Love Potions in a very
humorous way (I thought Ron's deadpan comments about Romilda Vane were
the most laugh-out-loud funny in the entire book).  Does this scene
help to envision the effect of Merope's love potion on Tom Riddle Sr.?
 How do you think Riddle's family and friends reacted to lovelorn Tom?
 Is JKR lampooning the effect of crushes on us Muggles?

Carol:
Although the line between tragedy and comedy is a fine one and JKR
knows it, I don't think she takes love potions as seriously as some
people on this list do. Being absurdly and abjectly infatuated with an
unsuitable partner can be played for laughs (think Titania and Bottom
with his ass's ears in "Midsummer Night's Dream") and I think that's
what JKR is doing with Ron. I don't find it particularly funny, but I
also don't find the hexing scenes on the Hogwarts Express funny,
either. I think that Romilda (who was trying for Harry's attention,
not Ron's) might have learned an embarrassing lesson if Ron had made a
fool of himself in front of her, but the memory of the incident would
have been too painful for Ron, so she didn't do it. But on another
level, it shows the superficial level of teenage crushes, as do the
snogging scenes with Lavender. At any rate, we're not talking about
adult lust here. Romilda merely wanted a date with "famous Harry
Potter," and poor Merope wanted to *be loved* and was under the
delusion that a love potion would magically create that emotion, with
tragic consequences. 'Nough said.


> 9.  Why is Ron horrified when Slughorn administers the antidote? Is
he feeling the disappointment of the crush wearing off, or is he just
> embarrassed at having acted the way he did?  And why does JKR always
select Ron as a victim of forms of magic with sophomorically humorous
effects?

Carol:
I think he's mortified by his own behavior, just as he is when he
realizes why the Longbottoms are hospitalized in OoP. Why choose Ron
for "sophomorically humorous effects"? Because he's sophomoric! Okay,
he's in his sixth year, not his fifth (which is equivalent to the
sophomore year in a U.S. high school), but he's at that "wise fool"
stage in life, thinking that he knows more than he does and unable to
recognize or come to grips with his own feelings. We see Harry
struggling with similar feelings, but not so comically and not quite
so cluelessly. But of course, we see Ron from the outside and Harry
from the inside, so it's easier to use Ron for the comic scenes. (I
think that Ron is growing up, and we may see fewer scenes of this type
in Book 7. I just hope that JKR still gives him funny lines!)
> 
> 10.  There is so much Slughorn in this chapter it could have been
named for him.  <snip> How do these actions affect our prior
perception of his character?  Is Slughorn a sympathetic character
despite his faults?  What do you think of his ethics?  His
potion-making skills?

Carol:
I think that Slughorn is an excellent potion-maker, but not a creative
genius like Snape. He's lazy, using the same textbook, and presumably
the same lesson plans, that he used fifty years before (in Eileen
Prince's day), and he does almost nothing to help his students learn,
unless bribing them with Felix Felicis counts. His blatant favoritism,
which usually involves treating Ron as if he doesn't exist, shows up
again here when he gets Ron's name wrong (twice), five months into the
school year. He cares more about his own creature comforts than about
his friends (keeping the bottle of mead intended for Dumbledore), and
he's completely inept and at a loss in a real emergency. I didn't care
for Slughorn before this chapter, and I felt the same way after
reading it. Ethics? What ethics? I much prefer snarky, brilliant,
highly competent Snape.

> Bonus Question.  Despite the fact that ch. 18 is infused with
potions, former potions master Snape is barely mentioned.  If Snape
had still been potions master, how do you think he would he have
handled Ron's predicament?

Carol:
And yet Snape's presence is felt. If it weren't for his first lesson
on bezoars and his marginal comment on bezoars in the HBP's Potions
book, Ron would be dead.

If Snape had still been Potions master, Harry probably would not have
gone to him for help. He'd have gone to Madam Pomfrey instead. But on
the off chance that he did do so, Snape would have made a snarky
comment about "Weasley" and love potions, perhaps have asked for
background information and circumstances to determine the culprit
(detention for Romilda and stronger measures to detect Weasleys'
Wizard Wheezes products in future?) and then promptly summoned a
previously made love potion antidote that he kept in stock for
emergencies. Ron would not have been poisoned because there would have
been no bottle of poisoned mead and because, whatever Snape's faults,
he is never careless. Had Snape been present in Slughorn's office when
the poisoning occurred, he would have taken immediate action, either
taking a bezoar out of his pocket or summoning one and stuffing it
down Ron's throat.

Carol, wishing that Snape could have remained the Potions master and
that Slughorn, not Snape, had been the victim of the DADA curse