Handwriting - Spoilers (WAS: Re: thoughts on Snape and those horseducks)

[Phyllis]

IT'S TOO LATE FOR ME TO BE CREATIVE IT'S TOO LATE FOR ME TO BE 
CREATIVE IT'S TOO LATE FOR ME TO BE CREATIVE IT'S TOO LATE FOR ME TO 
BE CREATIVE  IT'S TOO LATE FOR ME TO BE CREATIVE 

Eloise:

<<BTW, where's the reference to Snape's cramped handwriting? I'm 
blowed if I can remember.>> 

OotP, Ch. 28 (when Harry views "Snape's Worst Memory" in the 
pensieve): "His [Snape's] hand was flying across the parchment; he 
had written at least a foot more than his closest neighbors, and yet 
his writing was minuscule and cramped."

I picked up the reference to "cramped" at once; between that and the 
fact that it was a *potions* book, I concluded Snape was the HBP from 
the very first description of the book.  Lupin's suggestion that 
Harry check the date of publication was an attempt at misdirection, I 
think - since it was 50 years ago, and Riddle's diary in CoS was 50 
years old, presumably this was an attempt to get us to think the HBP 
was Voldemort.  But since JKR had already come out and said that the 
HBP wasn't Voldemort, it was rather easy to spot the misdirection :)

Interestingly, Snape never used a textbook in class - he always wrote 
the recipes on the blackboard.  This makes me wonder whether or not 
he wrote his "improved" version of the potionmaking method.  It seems 
as if Harry is perfectly able to make a good potion when given the 
correct methodology (as well as losing the emotional overhead).

~Phyllis