Wolfsbane Dosing (was: Neville/Wolfsbane/Fluffy/Filk/Snape/Time Travel)

[jmwcfo]

No: HPFGUIDX 169471

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Neri" <nkafkafi at ...> wrote:
>
>  
> > JW:
> > I've always wondered why Snape made a cauldronful (however much 
that 
> > is) when it is best used when fresh.  Either there is an awful 
lot of 
> > wasted potion, or perhaps Hogwarts has several werewolves.
> >
> 
> Neri:
> The Goblet of potion Snape brings Lupin is still smoking, and Snape
> says that Lupin should drink it right away, yet he has made an 
entire
> cauldronful if Lupin needs more. Presumably this means that as long 
as
> the potion is kept boiling in its cauldron over the fire it is still
> good, but once it was taken from the cauldron it loses it potency
> relatively quickly and therefore should be drunk right away.
> 
> As to why an entire cauldron is needed - no available data. I find 
it
> quite possible that Snape's cauldron is of the small kind and 
doesn't
> contain much more than seven goblets. We can also hypothesize
> additional werewolves at Hogwarts although in such a case I doubt
> Lupin's addition would be that controversial. 
> 
> Pharmacologists would know that sometimes you prepare more than you
> really need because of precision considerations. For example, if the
> recipe says you must not use more than 0.001 ounces of aconite 
powder
> per goblet, but the minimum weight your scale can precisely measure 
is
> 0.1 ounce, then you'd better prepare a total amount for 100 goblets
> even if you don't need all of them, or you'd embarrass yourself by
> killing your patient. But I kind of doubt JKR would be aware of 
that,
> and IIRC she wrote PoA before she married a doctor.
> 
> 
> Neri, who swore off Potterverse Lycanthropy some time ago
>

JW:
Continuously boiling the potion might keep it fresh, but the 
resultant evaporation of volatile ingredients (as evidenced by the 
smoke) would quickly change the proportion of the mixture, presumably 
rendering it ineffective, or even dangerous.

Hence, you have convinced me that there is NO way that the potion 
would be efficacious the following day.  These raises deeper 
questions - so why would Snape produce a cauldronful?  Why would he 
produce a potion that he knew would be ineffective the next day, 
either because it was not fresh (not simmered until the next day) or 
not mixed in correct proportions (because it WOULD be simmered until 
the next day)?

One possible answer is that Snape was purposefully not helping Lupin, 
either by physically harming Lupin or by forcing Lupin to resign 
through uncontrolled lycanthropy.  Perhaps that is why Lupin was in 
such terrible shape after drinking the potion each month, despite it 
supposedly controlling his condition.