Snogging and Love Potions wasRe: CHAPDISC HBP 15, The Unbreakable Vow

[potioncat]

No: HPFGUIDX 152163

Carol wrote an excellent post and I'm having to reply in bits and 
pieces while seeing all sorts of other wonderful replies by the score!
> Discussion Questions:

> 
> 1) What do you think of Ron's public "snogging" sessions with 
Lavender
> and Hermione's reaction? 

Potioncat:
I have my own Ron and Ginny. To me all the kissing and twining around 
one
another has been the scariest part of the series!
> 
> 2) Hermione says that love potions are not Dark or dangerous, but
> Harry, the intended recipient, disagrees. How "dark" is Romilda's 
plot
> to get Harry to take her to Slughorn's party by, erm, potioning him?
> And how responsible are the Twins, who made and sold the love 
potions,
> for the uses to which the potions are put?

Potioncat:
In an earlier book there's a sentence, in the middle of something
else happening, that says Hermione and Ginny are giggling with Molly 
about a love potion she'd made in her Hogwarts days. There was also a
line somewhere about love potions being against the rules at Hogwarts,
although I'm not sure if it was in the same book. Now we have the 
twins 
making love potions. Slughorn had a cauldron of the most powerful 
love 
potion in class. Not a vial, mind you, but a steaming cauldron, right 
in the
middle of the students. What was the purpose of that?

Love potions have been a part of fairy tales folklore for ages. There 
are many
stories of young people going the "local witch" to get love potions 
or amulets.
Just like divination, something always goes wrong. If Harry had taken 
the 
love potion, at the point that Ron did, would Romilda have been 
pleased 
with the result? He would be a moon-eyed puppy, bouncing around and 
annoying the daylights out of her. 

JKR has shown us the danger of love potions with Merope and Tom Sr. 
She's shown us the silly effects of the potions (later in HBP). But I 
don't think she intends the potions to be dark. They can certainly be 
misused! 

She's also shown us many different ways to respond to love and to 
express love. Look at the difference between Ginny and Tonks. Look at 
how similar Harry and Remus.