Notions of potions

[Barry Arrowsmith]

"As there is little foolish wand-waving here, many of you will hardly  
believe this is magic."

True.
Looks more like cookery to me.
A pound of this, a spoonful of that, a pinch of the other, stir well,  
and regulo 5 for 30 minutes. Voila!  Transform your best friend into  
a gibbering idiot.

And just like cookery, one might try various combinations of  
ingredients and techniques before deciding which is best. Which  
creates a bit of a problem for those enamoured of Lily being the or  
co-author of the super-duper recipes in the HBP Potions book.

Throughout the series the students get to make each potion once and  
once only - or at least there's no indication that lessons/practicals  
are repeated. And like good little scholars they attempt to reproduce  
whatever instructions are scrawled on the blackboard. Naturally  
enough, they want decent marks, and there is at least the assurance  
that what they are presented with actually works if they follow the  
directions to the letter.

Who is going to have the time or opportunity to fiddle around in an  
attempt to improve on the standard recipe?  Or the inclination, come  
to that. Unless you see your career path as potions, potions, all the  
way, why bother?

Now it's possible (the serendipitous version of Sod's Law) for  
someone to make a glorious mistake, to accidentally improve on  
Potions formulations by sheer chance.  Bound to happen sooner or  
later - an infinite number of students stirring an infinite number of  
cauldrons - yep; I can see that.  Except that the improver couldn't  
be certain that the 'mistakes' they'd made were the reason for the  
superior product. Wouldn't they assume that the result was achieved  
despite their unorthodoxy, not because of it? Probably yes - unless  
they repeated their actions a few times and kept getting the same  
superior results. How much more unlikely is a string of such  
improvements? In a school Potions class? Um. You think so? Excuse me  
while I admire the porcine aviators  looping loops above my keyboard.

No. I don't think so.
Those recipes were the result of many and varied attempts, someone  
ringing the changes, altering this, trying that, before finally  
succeeding. A potions wonk, a cauldron nerd, an unguent anorak.  Or  
just possibly someone who was checking things out, searching for  
something very different and these enhancements were unintended by- 
products, but useful nonetheless.

Logically it's very unlikely that the 'all new improved' recipes were  
arrived at by messing around in a Potions class. Same goes for the  
spells. How does one invent a new spell anyway? Is there a standard  
protocol - think up a bit of cod latin, wave a stick and hope like  
hell that whatever happens it can be reversed? Mm. Worth thinking  
about. I know what happens in RW research and those not involved in  
science would be surprised at how boring it can get - the same  
procedure is repeated time and again, the results checked and then do  
it again with just one factor or step altered, and so on ad  
infinitum, or so it can seem. Then publish so that everybody else  
gets to have a go -  and if they  can't get it to work you've got  
some explaining to do.  It's doubtful that Jo has bothered over-much  
about such mundane details, though Gilbert Wimple works in  
Experimental Charms, so maybe she has.

One can imagine a bunch of spell-checkers beavering away somewhere  
deep in the Ministry, encased in protective dragon-hide, nervously  
taking turns at being on the receiving end of the latest break- 
through in transfiguration technology. Brings a whole new dimension  
to the phrase 'being a guinea pig'. Same goes for potions - who do  
they try them on? Could end up with Giblets of Fire if they're not  
careful. Hmm. Could be a ficcy-type post or two in spilling the beans  
on what the back-room boys are up to. Radio TBAY, perhaps? Yes... one  
or two horrible puns have formed already.

Back to my druthers, the potions book.
It was published 'about fifty years' ago. Not a chance observation  
IMO, though that may just be my paranoia - Grindelwald, Tom, the  
Diary, and now a potions book; can you blame me for being suspicious?  
Though as others have pointed out just because the book is 50 years  
old it doesn't mean the hand-written entries are. True. Equally, it  
doesn't prove they aren't. Tom was an orphan -  so who paid for his  
robes, his cauldron, his wand - and his textbooks? A bursary?  
Charity? Or were his books loaned to him by the school and handed  
back when he finished his courses - complete with marginal notes?  
Perhaps Sevvy also qualified for a helping hand from Hogwarts and had  
the use of the same book? Pure speculation, but who would be more  
likely to experiment - a brilliant student like Tom or a grinder like  
Snape?

Alternatively the notes could be the result of a Potions Master  
researching his subject - and here there are two possibilities -  
Snape or Slughorn. One stumbling block is if a teacher improved on  
potions recipes you'd expect him to demonstrate the improvements in  
his classes, and that applies even if Student!Snape was the one with  
the remarkable insights, he'd incorporate them into his classes when  
he became Potions Prof. Could even publish them - become the new  
standard text - if Lockhart can do it, why not Sevvy? Only one reason  
I can think of - they weren't his spells, and claiming them as his  
own might cause their true begetter to get a little annoyed with him.

Yes, he did tell  Harry it was his book and his spells, but IMO it's  
not advisable to regard everything that Harry is told as gospel. And  
there's someone else around who for some reason or another has been  
largely ignored in the discussion of the potions book - Slughorn. He  
was teaching potions fifty years ago, taught Tom and later Snapey and  
Lily - and he's the one that gives the book to Harry. A collector of  
celebrities, a flatterer who'd like to incorporate young Potter into  
his little club. Would turning Harry into a potions superstar also  
turn his head and help Sluggy in his aim of luring Harry into his  
circle? Depends how much you trust Horace. Not very far, would be my  
response.

It'd be nice to be sure, wouldn't it?

Kneasy