The curious incident of the Felix Felicis in the nighttime

[nkafkafi]

Pip Squeaked:
 
> > In which case Dumbledore's death-by-Snape is not something Ron, 
> > Hermione or Ginny should prevent. Somehow,the Felix potion seems to 
> > be trying to stop them doing actions which would prevent it. Not 
> > just once, either.


Nora replied:

> I still can't make the jump here.  There's a massive difference 
> between the Felix causing actions that are lucky for 
> Ron/Hermione/Ginny, and these actions *ultimately* resulting in 
> something good/positive/lucky/whatever.  To argue the latter 
> stretches the continuity into something like a single line of dominos 
> being toppled by one being tipped over, as opposed to something with 
> multiple lines of influence feeding in.


Neri adds:

There's another important piece of canon regarding the properties of
Felix. It comes from Hermione, who is usually the one in charge of
supplying us with the textbook answers. This is when Harry fails to
enter the Room of Requirement in the form that Draco is using, and he
wants to use Felix for that:

*******************************************************
HBP, Ch. 24:

"I think I'm going to take another swig of Felix," said Harry, "and
have a go at the Room of Requirement again." 
"That would be a complete waste of potion," said Hermione flatly,
putting down the copy of Spellmans Syllabary she had just taken out of
her bag. "Luck can only get you so far, Harry. The situation with
Slughorn was different; you always had the ability to persuade him,
you just needed to tweak the circumstances a bit. Luck isn't enough to
get you through a powerful enchantment, though. Don't go wasting the
rest of that potion!"
*******************************************************

This also fits with JKR saying that "she doesn't believe in luck", and
generally that magical devices in the Potterverse (veritaserum,
disapparating, time-turners, the Philosopher's Stone, etc.) aren't
"magic solutions" that can solve any problem and make the wizard some
kind of a super being. Therefore I think it would be dangerous to
conclude that Hermione, Ron and Ginny "could do no wrong" only because
they took a swig of Felix.


Neri