Speculation on Liquid Luck
Jan. 30th, 2013 03:18 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
terri-testing.livejournal.com posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
deathtocapslockThis idea came up in an exchange with, if I recall, madderbrad, but for those who missed it there, here’s my theory on Felix Felicis.
Horace told his class it was “Desperately tricky to make, and disastrous to get wrong.” (HBP 9)
Old Sluggy is glossing over things a bit here because Dumbledore is so hot against any Dark Arts theory being taught at Hogwarts.
It’s potentially disastrous to brew Felix Felicis right. There’s at least one step that has, say, a fifty-fifty chance of blowing up in the brewer’s face. Fatally. And every attempt ever made to make that step less dangerous, shield against the possible explosion, or rework the formula, has resulted in a mess with no luck-conferring properties at all.
Because the brewer is purchasing the luck s/he’s infusing in the potion by taking that risk, in essence offering hir life for the chance of luck. Thus, while there will always be the occasional brewer who’s desperate enough for money or glory to try a batch, it basically isn’t available on the open market.
We can infer that it is not generally available, not for any money, for if it had been, Draco’s mother would surely have purchased some for him.
(Now that I think about it, this might have been the original reason for Tom’s recruitment of one S. Snape. Someone disposable, but good at brewing, to try a batch. If so, how bitter Severus must have been when he realized, and how motivated to prove his long-term value so the Dark Lord would take him off that project.)
Three guesses where Slughorn’s sample came from; he’s certainly never brewed any himself. Indeed, he never claimed to have.
Horace told his class it was “Desperately tricky to make, and disastrous to get wrong.” (HBP 9)
Old Sluggy is glossing over things a bit here because Dumbledore is so hot against any Dark Arts theory being taught at Hogwarts.
It’s potentially disastrous to brew Felix Felicis right. There’s at least one step that has, say, a fifty-fifty chance of blowing up in the brewer’s face. Fatally. And every attempt ever made to make that step less dangerous, shield against the possible explosion, or rework the formula, has resulted in a mess with no luck-conferring properties at all.
Because the brewer is purchasing the luck s/he’s infusing in the potion by taking that risk, in essence offering hir life for the chance of luck. Thus, while there will always be the occasional brewer who’s desperate enough for money or glory to try a batch, it basically isn’t available on the open market.
We can infer that it is not generally available, not for any money, for if it had been, Draco’s mother would surely have purchased some for him.
(Now that I think about it, this might have been the original reason for Tom’s recruitment of one S. Snape. Someone disposable, but good at brewing, to try a batch. If so, how bitter Severus must have been when he realized, and how motivated to prove his long-term value so the Dark Lord would take him off that project.)
Three guesses where Slughorn’s sample came from; he’s certainly never brewed any himself. Indeed, he never claimed to have.
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Date: 2013-01-31 04:10 am (UTC)Terri is positing that, Watsonianly, the reason for the low success rate and lack of eager brewers is that it is inherently, and necessarily, risky to brew even when done correctly because it requires that risk to "purchase" the luck it imbues. You have to be willing to literally sacrifice your life in order to brew it correctly, because there's a 50% chance you will die in the attempt. That willingness (not the death, just the willingness/acceptance of risk) is what gives the potion its power. That neatly answers the question of how such a potion would function magically to provide such incredible, at times life-saving, luck and the question of why the potion is so rarely used.
A fairly elegant theory, IMHO, terri.
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Date: 2013-01-31 07:54 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-01-31 08:07 am (UTC)It cannot be brewed under Imperius.
The Imperius can force a brewer to take a certain risk. It can't make the brewer willingly accept it.
Moreover, most of Tom's (or anyone's) attempts to force people to brew it by other means have, equally, miserably failed. And Tom can't figure out why.
"Brew this or I'll kill you!"
Um. If I fail I have 100% chance of dying; if I succeed, a 50% chance.
Doing it right wouldn't be risking death, then. So I try my hardest, doing everything right, and "Avada Kedavra!"
The only way successfully to force someone to brew it, would be to threaten someone else. "Brew it or I'll kill your son!"
I really hope Tom and the WW haven't worked that one out.
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Date: 2013-01-31 01:59 pm (UTC)Wow, can you see the plot bunny sticking his long ears over there?
I love your theory. It helps me with thinking about dark magic in my own world. Thx!
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Date: 2013-01-31 10:08 pm (UTC)And yet there's a cauldron of the stuff bubbling away in the Potions classroom, just a short distance from the Slytherin chambers. But we don't see Narcissa or anyone else trying to purloin the potion. Or even any significant "MUST GET IT!" reaction from the pureblood students.
One would expect those 'people with money, motive, and a willingness to use any method necessary to get it' to actually try and ... get it ... from Slughorn, yes?
But no. Because Rowling couldn't handle her characters behaving in character. They had to stick to her simplistic plot, eyes ahead, do NOT think for yourselves!