Half-Blood Prince: Chapter Fourteen: Felix Felicis

[handhfan]

I don’t know where Chapter 13 is, but here’s Chapter 14….

Chapter Fourteen: Felix Felicis

Since the Half-Blood Prince’s potions book, Hermione has been extremely annoyed. She continues to snap back at Harry and Ron, especially when something regarding the Half-Blood Prince is brought up.

The Slug Club is having another party, a Christmas one, and

Comments

Fun with Alchemy, for H/Hr shippers:

[house_elf_44]

If you believe Jo is using alchemic imagery, which is becoming harder to doubt with the comments she's been making, there is yet another reason to have hope for H/Hr ending up together.

One of the symbols for the Completed Work of alchemy, or gold, is a circle with a dot in it. That's what I see when I picture a bowl with a grapefruit-like pod in it. Harry hands it over to Hermione after Ron says "Gotcha!", and then Hermione brings forth a bowl full of tubers from it, which goes with the Alchemist (circle with a dot in the center) multiplying after completing The Work.

Also, Ron and Hermione have certainly been a bickering couple, but the Alchemist has to be a part of the bickering couple which then Coagulate for the last step of alchemy. Harry and Hermione are bickering over the Potions textbook. I'll bet that early in book 7 they reconcile, with Harry telling Hermione she was right to caution him about the book, and Hermione apologizing for not believing him about Malfoy.

And I can add that alchemy is all about reconciling opposites. Harry is the King, and his Zodiac sign is Leo, whose planet is the Sun, whose metal is gold, and whose element is fire. He marries the Queen in the Chemical Wedding, and her planet is the Moon, whose metal is silver, and whose element is water.

I can't say with certainty who fits the role of the Queen, but I can tell you that Ginny, also being a Leo, isn't it. Oddly, at least for this cycle through the steps, it seems like it was Dumbledore with his half-moon glasses, silver beard, and their water adventure. And they certainly had bickered and reconciled.

Hermione is a Virgo, whose planet is Mercury, whose metal is mercury or quicksilver, and whose element is earth. The King and Queen have many names, one being Sulphur and Mercury. Luna's name means Moon, but not having her birthday, we don't know her alchemical symbols.

I didn't read about the zodiac before learning about alchemy, but from alchemy sources, Jo has made Hermione's personality fit the description for Virgo perfectly. Luna seems to be Aquarius, one of the air signs.

Re: Fun with Alchemy, for H/Hr shippers:

[rainfletcher]

Aquarius, eh? For reasons I can't entirely put my finger on, I find myself thinking of Luna as a Scorpio - mysterious, drawn to the occult, emotional beneath a placid surface (fixed water). But I'm sure there are just as many Scorpisms that don't fit her. Ah, fun with astrology.

(And Leo-Scorpio is a heck of a lot more compatible than Leo-Leo, at least from my own limited readings.)

Re: Fun with Alchemy, for H/Hr shippers:

[house_elf_44]

**Just briefly coming out of lurke-dom**

I always thought Luna was a Piscis! She's got the big eyes and dreamy expression of the fish people in the Zodiac, and the intuition too. Whatever... :D

Re: Fun with Alchemy, for H/Hr shippers:

[house_elf_44]

Well, that's too funny, because I thought it was you who first said Luna seemed like Aquarius!

No, you didn't miss anything on the grapefruit in a bowl. I've been watching clever variations of symbols as a thread through 6 books now, and I'd like to think I'm developing my ability to see things, well, short of becoming Luna. It'll be hysterical if I'm wrong about all of it. Jo's dropping more hints that she's using alchemy, so I think I'm safe.

I had recently read about the symbol of a circle with a dot in the center of it being a symbol for the completed work or gold. I made the leap to link it to the pod in a bowl only because, for some reason I stopped to picture it, and have acquired a habit of asking "why did she choose that object?"

I have to add that watching this thread gave me a way to enjoy OOTP for a change. It's an example from GOF, but there is satisfaction in realizing that multicolored bubbles in the bath are a different way to work in what is usually a rainbow or peacock, because you can only include rainbows and peacocks so many times. Or that the portrait digging in his ear in the prime minister's office makes you think of ear wax and that's the "amber flowing thing" or gold. It's a little "oho!" moment. (But what I don't get is why she had the symbol thread continue through a chapter that didn't include Harry. Did she get carried away, or is it the universalness of alchemy?)