Delurking and short essay/speculation
I've been reading along here for a while and thought now I might post something that I hope has not been done before.
A friend of mine is currently re-reading all of the HP books, which sparked some speculation among us about certain events and what book 7 will bring us.
Among all of our half-baked speculation, there is one theory I came up with that might hold some actual merit. It's certainly not earth-shattering, but here it is:
Let's retrace some of the steps that led to Harry being handed to book by Slughorn in the first place:
Dumbledore enlists Harry's help in luring Slughorn back to teaching at Hogwarts, all the time keeping Harry in the dark about which subject Slughorn is supposed to teach.
The obvious answer why Dumbledore does this is simple: By helping to get Slughorn accept the potions position, Harry indirectly helps Snape become DADA teacher, something Harry wouldn't do for anyone, not even Dumbledore. And had Dumbledore revealed to Harry Slughorn's intended subject, the question of who would be teaching DADA would have certainly come up. So Dumbledore leaves Harry in the dark about that.
But after they leave Slughorn Harry and Dumbledore still spend some time together, including the conversation in the Weasley's broom shed. Among all the advice Dumbledore passes on to Harry, would a hint like "And you might want to bring your potions supplies and books." seem so out of place? I think not, and at that point Dumbledore knew Harry would be able to attend potions, and also knew Harry was not yet aware of that fact.
So let's skip forward a bit. The revelation of who will teach what has been made, Harry sits in Slughorn's first potions class and gets the HBP's copy of "Advanced Potions" out of the school supply. As we know by the end of HP:HBP, the book actually belongs to Snape, it was originally his mother's, and he wrote all the comments.
So let's take a step back and look at the bigger picture.
What do we know about Snape: He is extremely keen on order and precision, strict with himself and others, a hard worker, and he didn't stay alive as a double agent as long as he did (no matter which side you think he is really on, but we'll come to that later) by being sloppy and inattentive.
So am I really to believe that he left something like this book behind in the dungeons for anybody to find after he left them? What I think is that Snape went over the dungeons with a fine toothed comb, removing everything valuable and important before handing them over to Slughorn. Furthermore, the book is something of a family heirloom, and most likely Snape's first "work diary", again, not something he is (or ever was) like to be neglectful with. Nevertheless the book was just lying around in the cupboard, free for Slughorn to find and hand to Harry. Strange, or is it?
Let's skip ahead again. During the course of HP:HBP Harry becomes the golden child of the potion's class, something Snape is surely aware of, if only for Slughorn's disposition for bragging. But yet, we don't see Snape seriously question this development and certainly not in front of any "outsiders".
Still a bit further down the line we have the whole Sectumsempra-debacle with Harry and Draco. Even there Snape exhibits some unusual behaviour:
First of all there is his rage when he discovers what has happened. On one level this has certainly to do with the unbreakable vow, and the imminent danger to Draco and himself in the situation. But we've rarely seen Snape loose it in any situation. Even if he is a) in acute danger b) seething with rage or c) both, he usually still outwardly keeps his cool. He does not here, and I think for more reasons than just the unbreakable vow.
Shortly after, we have the next strange occurrence. Snape wants to see Harry's copy of "Advanced Potions", but instead of going with him to fetch it, he sends Harry to bring it to him. Harry takes a long time with that, first going to find Ron to take his book, then hiding the HBP's copy in the room of requirement before finally arriving back and presenting Snape with Ron's copy of the book. Although Snape is suspicious of the situation, he doesn't question Harry nearly as much as one might expect. Someone of Snape's intelligence certainly didn't buy the stupid "nickname" excuse of why there was a different name inscribed in the book, and I don't think he even mentions that fact that Harry took such a long time to come back to him.
My conclusions from all this (in reverse order):
When Harry shows Ron's book as his own to Snape, the latter knows for certain it is not the book Harry has been using. Unlike Levicorpus, Sectumsempra is not a spell a lot of people know about. In fact it seems like Snape -as the inventor- might be the only one who knows about it (see Madame Pomfrey not being able to help Draco). So there is really only one source Harry could have got the spell from: Snape's old potions book. But although Snape knows this, he makes only a superficial attempt at getting the book back. From this I can only draw one conclusion: Snape wanted Harry to have the book and keep it for the time being. But why?
At this point I can only give a rather generalised answer: If you look at all six books, and at which of the school subjects have always stood out above the others in importance and frequency of mention, it's DADA and potions. We know by the beginning of HP:HBP that Harry is extremely talented and well versed at DADA, not only for someone his age, but even on general terms. So most of the preparation that schooling can give him in that regard has already been achieved.
Not so with potions. Up until year six this was his least favourite subject, mainly because of his and Snape's instant animosity. Nevertheless it is/might turn out to be very important. Let's not forget that Voldemort was apparently very good, if not excellent at potions, and the horcrux Dubledore and Harry go after is protected by one.
So Dumbledore faces a problem: How to get Harry into potions (and pass him some other useful info beyond that)? I think just putting him in Slughorns class wouldn't have done the trick. Without the book's help Harry would have been mediocre at best, never winning Slughorn's interest and probably never gaining an interest in the subject in return.
Even with the help of the book Harry does not necessarily grasp many of the underlying concepts of potions. But he is at least more open minded and interested and even manages (in a thight situation) to recall one of Snape's early lessons "Just shove a bezoar at them", which might not have happened in his former "Potions sucks" frame of mind. So while the plan might not have been a full success, it is still improvement over the previous situation.
So what I think happened is this: Dumbledore and Snape engineered it in such a way that the book would end up in Harry's hands, such giving him a chance of taking remedial potions with Snape, without... well, having to take remedial potions with Snape. Therein lies the reason for Dumbledore not giving Harry any hints about bringing his things, and also the reason for Snape's "odd" behaviour.
But along with the potion's knowledge, Harry also gains some more: He learns a spell and counterspell that we have seen being used by the death eaters before (Levicorpus), a spell (and couterspell) which will prove very useful in the trio's future expeditions and need for secrecy (Muffliato) and one incredibly dangerous and powerful spell (and so far no counterspell) that by the looks of it only very few people know about (Sectumsempra), which therefore might prove an extremely cruel, but effective weapon.
And here is by the way the other reason why I think that Snape was so furious when he found Harry and Draco after the duel:
He realised instantly what had happened, knowing that he himself had (inadvertently) brought this about by
a) not keeping better watch over Draco
b) not including the counterspell in the book, like he had done with the others
c) perhaps not anticipating that Harry would actually use it one anybody.
So I think in this situation, Snape was more furious with himself than any of the other two.
If this bit of speculation is correct, then we can also draw one other conclusion on a grander scale: Snape has to be one of the good guys. And if that's not good news, what is? *g*
A friend of mine is currently re-reading all of the HP books, which sparked some speculation among us about certain events and what book 7 will bring us.
Among all of our half-baked speculation, there is one theory I came up with that might hold some actual merit. It's certainly not earth-shattering, but here it is:
Let's retrace some of the steps that led to Harry being handed to book by Slughorn in the first place:
Dumbledore enlists Harry's help in luring Slughorn back to teaching at Hogwarts, all the time keeping Harry in the dark about which subject Slughorn is supposed to teach.
The obvious answer why Dumbledore does this is simple: By helping to get Slughorn accept the potions position, Harry indirectly helps Snape become DADA teacher, something Harry wouldn't do for anyone, not even Dumbledore. And had Dumbledore revealed to Harry Slughorn's intended subject, the question of who would be teaching DADA would have certainly come up. So Dumbledore leaves Harry in the dark about that.
But after they leave Slughorn Harry and Dumbledore still spend some time together, including the conversation in the Weasley's broom shed. Among all the advice Dumbledore passes on to Harry, would a hint like "And you might want to bring your potions supplies and books." seem so out of place? I think not, and at that point Dumbledore knew Harry would be able to attend potions, and also knew Harry was not yet aware of that fact.
So let's skip forward a bit. The revelation of who will teach what has been made, Harry sits in Slughorn's first potions class and gets the HBP's copy of "Advanced Potions" out of the school supply. As we know by the end of HP:HBP, the book actually belongs to Snape, it was originally his mother's, and he wrote all the comments.
So let's take a step back and look at the bigger picture.
What do we know about Snape: He is extremely keen on order and precision, strict with himself and others, a hard worker, and he didn't stay alive as a double agent as long as he did (no matter which side you think he is really on, but we'll come to that later) by being sloppy and inattentive.
So am I really to believe that he left something like this book behind in the dungeons for anybody to find after he left them? What I think is that Snape went over the dungeons with a fine toothed comb, removing everything valuable and important before handing them over to Slughorn. Furthermore, the book is something of a family heirloom, and most likely Snape's first "work diary", again, not something he is (or ever was) like to be neglectful with. Nevertheless the book was just lying around in the cupboard, free for Slughorn to find and hand to Harry. Strange, or is it?
Let's skip ahead again. During the course of HP:HBP Harry becomes the golden child of the potion's class, something Snape is surely aware of, if only for Slughorn's disposition for bragging. But yet, we don't see Snape seriously question this development and certainly not in front of any "outsiders".
Still a bit further down the line we have the whole Sectumsempra-debacle with Harry and Draco. Even there Snape exhibits some unusual behaviour:
First of all there is his rage when he discovers what has happened. On one level this has certainly to do with the unbreakable vow, and the imminent danger to Draco and himself in the situation. But we've rarely seen Snape loose it in any situation. Even if he is a) in acute danger b) seething with rage or c) both, he usually still outwardly keeps his cool. He does not here, and I think for more reasons than just the unbreakable vow.
Shortly after, we have the next strange occurrence. Snape wants to see Harry's copy of "Advanced Potions", but instead of going with him to fetch it, he sends Harry to bring it to him. Harry takes a long time with that, first going to find Ron to take his book, then hiding the HBP's copy in the room of requirement before finally arriving back and presenting Snape with Ron's copy of the book. Although Snape is suspicious of the situation, he doesn't question Harry nearly as much as one might expect. Someone of Snape's intelligence certainly didn't buy the stupid "nickname" excuse of why there was a different name inscribed in the book, and I don't think he even mentions that fact that Harry took such a long time to come back to him.
My conclusions from all this (in reverse order):
When Harry shows Ron's book as his own to Snape, the latter knows for certain it is not the book Harry has been using. Unlike Levicorpus, Sectumsempra is not a spell a lot of people know about. In fact it seems like Snape -as the inventor- might be the only one who knows about it (see Madame Pomfrey not being able to help Draco). So there is really only one source Harry could have got the spell from: Snape's old potions book. But although Snape knows this, he makes only a superficial attempt at getting the book back. From this I can only draw one conclusion: Snape wanted Harry to have the book and keep it for the time being. But why?
At this point I can only give a rather generalised answer: If you look at all six books, and at which of the school subjects have always stood out above the others in importance and frequency of mention, it's DADA and potions. We know by the beginning of HP:HBP that Harry is extremely talented and well versed at DADA, not only for someone his age, but even on general terms. So most of the preparation that schooling can give him in that regard has already been achieved.
Not so with potions. Up until year six this was his least favourite subject, mainly because of his and Snape's instant animosity. Nevertheless it is/might turn out to be very important. Let's not forget that Voldemort was apparently very good, if not excellent at potions, and the horcrux Dubledore and Harry go after is protected by one.
So Dumbledore faces a problem: How to get Harry into potions (and pass him some other useful info beyond that)? I think just putting him in Slughorns class wouldn't have done the trick. Without the book's help Harry would have been mediocre at best, never winning Slughorn's interest and probably never gaining an interest in the subject in return.
Even with the help of the book Harry does not necessarily grasp many of the underlying concepts of potions. But he is at least more open minded and interested and even manages (in a thight situation) to recall one of Snape's early lessons "Just shove a bezoar at them", which might not have happened in his former "Potions sucks" frame of mind. So while the plan might not have been a full success, it is still improvement over the previous situation.
So what I think happened is this: Dumbledore and Snape engineered it in such a way that the book would end up in Harry's hands, such giving him a chance of taking remedial potions with Snape, without... well, having to take remedial potions with Snape. Therein lies the reason for Dumbledore not giving Harry any hints about bringing his things, and also the reason for Snape's "odd" behaviour.
But along with the potion's knowledge, Harry also gains some more: He learns a spell and counterspell that we have seen being used by the death eaters before (Levicorpus), a spell (and couterspell) which will prove very useful in the trio's future expeditions and need for secrecy (Muffliato) and one incredibly dangerous and powerful spell (and so far no counterspell) that by the looks of it only very few people know about (Sectumsempra), which therefore might prove an extremely cruel, but effective weapon.
And here is by the way the other reason why I think that Snape was so furious when he found Harry and Draco after the duel:
He realised instantly what had happened, knowing that he himself had (inadvertently) brought this about by
a) not keeping better watch over Draco
b) not including the counterspell in the book, like he had done with the others
c) perhaps not anticipating that Harry would actually use it one anybody.
So I think in this situation, Snape was more furious with himself than any of the other two.
If this bit of speculation is correct, then we can also draw one other conclusion on a grander scale: Snape has to be one of the good guys. And if that's not good news, what is? *g*