The Continuing Tragedy of Severus Snape: Reflections on Books 1-5

[wynnleaf]

No: HPFGUIDX 164562

 
> Cassy:
> But as I read it, Snape *is* effectively saying, "Harry did it as 
well
> as Lily did!" (Albeit, Harry is even more of a prodigy because he
> apparently did it the first time!) Harry's talent 
is "instinctive ...
> like his mother"; Slughorn has "only ever taught a few with this 
kind
> of [natural] ability"; "not even Severus..." etc. could do as well 
as
> Harry and (by implication) Lily. Only Lily's not around any more...
> unlike Snape. 

wynnleaf
Regardless of your arguments, I cannot recall ever hearing someone 
use the "this person is *even* better than ______" without intending 
that the second person had been the best, and now the new person 
is.  Therefore, in spite of your analysis of Slughorn (which I will 
in part disagree with below), I find it hard to believe that JKR 
would use that phrase *twice* and not mean that the person compared 
to used to be the best, but now Harry is.

Now as regards Slughorns opinion -- whatever they are... Slughorn is 
teaching 6th year potions and having the students use the 
instructions straight out of the book.  Snape had typically written 
instructions on the board.  Clearly, the revisions in the HBP 
potions books are *better* than the textbook instructions.  In fact, 
not even Hermione can produce a perfect result using the textbook 
instructions.  

However, in earlier years, Hermione regularly produced perfect 
results using Snape's instructions on the board.

It seems that Slughorn does not realize that the instructions are 
inferior and produce inferior results.  He doesn't give added 
instructions to students that would enable a top student like 
Hermione (who does excellently with Snape's instructions), to 
produce perfect potions.

So right off, it looks like Snape knows his potions better than 
Slughorn, and gives better instructions to his class.  Hermione, 
after all, could be considered the "test case," since she's a superb 
student and only began achieving less-than-perfect results when she 
followed the textbook instructions that to which Slughorn ascribed.  
On the other hand, Harry, using notes written in Snape's (the self-
proclaimed HBP) notebook, achieves excellent results.  

Sounds to me like it's the instructions that Snape wrote on the 
board that has made it possible for Hermione to achieve perfect 
results in the past.  Under Slughorn, the extra material from Snape 
isn't there, so she does worse.  Harry, who pays far more attention 
to the notes in the HBP potions book than he did Snape's classroom 
instructions in previous years, also achieves perfect results -- 
just like Hermione in year's past.

Snape's instructions in class led to perfect results for Hermione.  
Without those notes, she did worse. Snape's notes in the HBP book 
led to perfect results for Harry.  Likely conclusion:  Snape either 
wrote the notes in the HBP potions book or all of his instructions 
in each year of classes he taught were Lily's creations.  No, I 
don't think so, he couldn't be using Lily's revisions for all of his 
teaching -- that just stretches believability too far.

Besides, we also see Snape's creativity in making new spells written 
in the book.  So he was uncreative in potions, but creative in 
spells?  I doubt it, since we *know* he's an excellent potions maker 
and creativity tends to be a characteristic that carries across all 
of a person's talent areas.  

Last, I agree with Magpie that a big part of HBP is Harry's finding 
that he likes and sort of bonds with the writer of the notes -- the 
Half Blood Prince.  And the title of the book is HP and the Half 
Blood Prince.  To discover that the HBP that Harry comes to know and 
like in the book was really mostly Lily, completely breaks down 
what's going on in the book -- not the plot, but those wonderful 
literary parallels and pictures.

What, exactly, would be the literary point in Lily creating those 
potions revisions??  Harry needs to learn what?  That Snape took 
credit for his mom's creations?  Where would that get us?  More 
reasons to hate Snape, which Harry's got quite enough of -- JKR 
doesn't need to add some more.  Or is this supposed to show what 
great friends they were?  So Snape credited himself with her work 
because he liked her?  No -- doesn't work for me.

I just don't see a point to Lily being the author of the notes.  

In my opinion, the evidence is actually pointing to two people who 
were both highly talented in potions and probably had some sort of 
connection, possibly friendship, but not that Snape got those 
revisions from Lily.  

wynnleaf