Snape's potions book (was Re: Who needs Harry?)

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 182403

Carol earlier:
>  
> > OTOH, judging by his old Potions book, he was not averse to
writing in his books, and his marginalia would be very interesting. 

Potioncat:
> Perhaps because we spent so little time at Hogwarts during DH, I was
thinking of Snape's office that he used as Potion Master and DADA
instructor. I'd forgotten that his office has been the Headmaster's
office. Although I imagine his old one was not turned over to Carrow.
So there's likely two offices of material.
> 
> As you pointed out, his DADA term ended abruptly, as did his year as
Headmaster. So I'm sure he was very careful at what he left there. 
Taking some time to clear out anything questionable. But your idea of
notes on new spells is a good one.
> 
> I left the one sentence above because I couldn't really pinpoint a 
section to resond to, and I fell in love with the word marginalia. Oh
what a perfect word. Just to be sure, I looked it up to see if you
made it up, but no. It's been around for a while. Are you familiar
with it because you taught or because you edit? Can't wait to use it
and make my kids roll their eyes.

Carol responds:

Right. He used the Potions office even when he was DADA instructor. It
was still full of jars with creatures suspended in solution, and he
even gave Harry a Potions-related detention (sorting rotten
Flobberworms from good ones) in HBP despite being DADA teacher. Either
he was still interested in the subject and still brewing potions of
his own or he was, er, helping Slughorn out. (Somebody had to sort
those worms, right? <g>)

I don't think he would give the office that had also been his living
quarters to Carrow. Probably he gave it to Slughorn, who, after all,
was Potions master now, and gave the office that had been used by the
previous DADA teachers (and possibly by Slughorn the precious year) to
Carrow. If so, he would have transferred all his books and potions and
so forth to the headmaster's office. Or did he just leave it vacant,
still full of his potions and "stores" (potion ingredients)? Maybe he
still slept there, in his old private quarters, not feeling at home in
the office that had been Dumbledore's since before he was born. As for
his books, I don't suppose he had much time for reading after he
became headmaster. 

At any rate, if a hypothetical biographer (not Rita Skeeter, please!)
were to examine snape's books, he or she would need to look in three
places, the headmaster's office (where they might find only
Dumbledore's books), Snape's old office, and the house at Spinner's
End, where he may have kept a large number of books that he didn't
have time to read during the school year. and every one of them would
need to be examined carefully for Snape's marginal notes in the hope
of finding some snarky comment along the lines of "Just shove a Bezoar
down their throat." 

I encountered the term "marginalia" frequently when I was a graduate
student. Literary biographers and literary critics frequently study
the marginalia of dead authors because it reveals their thought
processes at least as well or better than their letters and journals.
Whole books have been published containing, for example, Coleridge's
marginalia, which throw light on how he interpreted those books and
how they affected his own writing and thinking. (Sorry, but I have
Coleridge on the brain because of "the willing suspension of
disbelief," which is his phrase.) 

Carol, who also writes in her books (only her own books!) or used to,
and found it quite useful in both studying and teaching (and
occasionally cathartic in responding to an idiotic author)