Hokey/Eileen/StatOfSecrecy/HalfbloodSlyths/HBP Book/Wands/Quidditch/HandOfGl

[julie]

No: HPFGUIDX 183872


> 
> Carol wrote in
> <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/183789>:
> 
> << the cramped marginal notes (which Ron for some reason couldn't 
read) >>

Catlady wrote:
> I still think young Snape put a spell on his book so it would repel
> all 'prying' eyes except Lily's (which may have been an unconscious
> exception or a conscious one; if the latter, he may have tried to 
> make it *attract* Lily's eyes). The spell worked on our kids: it
> repelled Ron by seeming illegible and repelled Hermione by pumping
> up her prissery, but it attracted Harry, the one always stated to
> have Lily's eyes.
> 
> And I speculate that Snape didn't leave his book in the Potions
> classroom when he left seventh year. Maybe he hid it someplace,
> emotionally a way to keep a part of himself at the only home 
> [As Carol sain in her post previously cited: "identify not only 
> with Snape but with Voldemort as "the abandoned boys" who found 
> a home at Hogwarts"] where he'd been happy even for a while.  
> (Another little act echoing one of Tom Riddle's big magics.) 
> Maybe he kept it with him, and stored it in his Potions office 
> when he returned as a professor.
> 
> I formerly suggested that the book had moved itself to the Potions
> classroom, perhaps by influencing House Elves and other people to 
move
> it from where they encountered it to somewhere closer to that book
> cabinet, in order to grab Harry, but it did seem a bit far-fetched
> (look! accidental pun!), even to me, that the book knew that Harry 
was
> going to take Advanced Potions and not have a textbook. 
> 

Julie:
I pretty much agree with you, Catlady, including the part about
it being too far-fetched for the book to have known that Harry
was going to need an Advanced Potions textbook and then basically
present itself to him for the taking! Before DH came out, I 
suspected the book was put there intentionally by Dumbledore (or
even Snape, though he'd be less likely), as a way to teach Harry
critical Potions knowledge that he wasn't learning from the 
antagonistic adult Snape--and that Slughorn wouldn't be teaching
in the current (and inferior) 6th year Potions curriculum. I
even thought it might be another deliberate effort by Dumbledore
to build some sort of bond of understanding between Harry and
Snape. 

Alas, no such revelation appeared in DH. So the most reasonable
explanation does seem to be that Snape kept the book and stored
it in his Potions classroom. What seems odd is that he left it
behind when he switched positions to become the DADA professor,
though perhaps he'd simply forgotten its existence by that 
time, or had so many other matters on his mind--Dumbledore's
cursed hand, the Unbreakable Vow, etc--that the book slipped
his mind.

Stranger to me is that Snape didn't force Harry to give the
book back to him when he confronted Harry in HBP. Harry wasn't
willingly going to give it up of course, but I'm sure Snape
could have gotten it back on his own or with Dumbledore's help,
if he'd been determined to have it.

Or maybe he did get it back. It would be like Snape to have
some sort of tracking spell on a possession of his, so maybe
he retrieved it from the Room of Requirement later. Certainly
Harry never went back for it or even thought of it again, and
since I hate to think all that knowledge turned to ashes in the
Fiendyfire (sp?), I like the idea that Snape did retrieve it
at some point.

Julie, personally wishing we'd seen or heard about that 
Potions book again in DH.