[the_old_crowd] Re: Notions of potions

[silmariel]

Carolyn:
> So, clear enough where Tom got his schoolbooks and how he paid for
> them. This is a 6th year textbook, published roughly 50 years
> previously. Tom could have bought it himself, either splashing out
> and getting it new, or picking it up when it was only a year or two
> old (Jo's notoriously poor maths allow for a margin of error here).
> Also the interesting possibility that if the book was second hand,
> the annotations could have been by the book's first owner, before Tom
> even - Grindewald or Sluggy perhaps?

Silmariel:
Also, TR's Diary wrote back, shouldn't Harry see the handwritings as from the 
same person? 

I can see a motive for Tom to invest time in potions (even stopper death, it's 
clear) but I should expect his margin notes to be more encripted, he was 
brilliant enough to mark concepts and instructions with only half words, 
anagrams and the like, the HBP potions books is too easy to use (if Harry 
doesn't need to beg Hermione's help, it's easy), and that's anti-Voldie the 
paranoid imo. 

Carolyn:
> Additional evidence that it might have been Tom's book, however, is
> Harry's curiously possessive attitude towards it. He treats it like
> the Diary, feels strangely drawn towards it, goes to elaborate
> protective measures to keep it. Somehow, it's hard to believe he'd
> react so strongly towards something of Snapes.

Silmariel:
Sure he is possessive, I don't agree with Harry's self excuses for cheating 
but it's true that I didn't expect him to cheat, in the first place. It's 
fine for me that he wants medals of all sorts (even academic, in this case), 
but not unfair medals at the expense of real work of others, this is not what 
my usual pure of heart hero does, it's way past the line. If he only had self 
excused with the motive he needs everything that can be an advange in his 
saving thing (and sharing with the class equals sharing with Draco, so no 
thanks), it would be fine, but he really acts... weird.

> Carolyn:
> Would Snape want to draw attention to himself by publishing a
> textbook? Perhaps - he was ready enough to take a medal from Fudge
> for capturing Sirius after all. I agree it's in character for him to
> want the recognition, but if so, the real stumbling block here is
> that such a precious book was languishing in the bottom of the
> cupboard in his own potions dungeon. Clearly he's made no effort
> towards publication if it was his.

Silmariel:
I think the Order of Merlin is desirable because it gives you some status as a 
'cleared' or VIP member of the society and publishing a school potions book 
won't give you more than academic reward in most cases.

> Kneasy:
> 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.

> Carolyn:
> Yes. Sluggy's the prime culprit - although the book could still be
> Snape's (or Tom's). It is just very unlikely that it should have
> turned up when it did and that it should have been given to Harry. I
> think Sluggy has kept it for years as a memento of a star pupil.
> [Reluctantly I concede that could also include Lily].
>
> But I attribute a more benign motive to him in giving Harry the
> textbook. I think he hoped it might help Harry protect himself. Maybe
> he was encouraged to do so by Dumbledore. Which indicates that the
> pair of them thought there might be potions-type threats in the
> future. Oh no, back to the poisoned birdbath again.

Silmariel:
I fail to see how Lily could have been the author. We have in an interview Jo 
saying, iirc, that Petunia was exagerating a little when she talked about 
Lily doing magic at home. Being muggleborn I don't know when she could have 
time to develop that intuition in potions, and I should ask why Hermione 
(whose education is important enough to have access to a time turner) has 
been deprived of that posibility. 

Let's suposse for a moment that Slughorn gave him the book with all the 
intention. Then he knew Harry had 'borrowed' the real useful book. Should 
Horace try to cover even a little his grey moral, then? Why? He knows what 
Harry also crosses certain lines.

Back to the poisoned birdbath, the veritaserum, the love potions, and all the 
lot - potions rulez - as we were warned by Snape from the start. <g>

Silmariel