Speculation on Liquid Luck
Jan. 30th, 2013 03:18 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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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 04:39 am (UTC)However, because my brain likes to amuse itself by leasing bulldozers to fill up the craters JK left in her story, let me propose this.
I always presume that the illogical elements have an underlying rationale. For example, in my view of the Potterverse ( and hopefully it should be very clear that this is only MY view; if you feel that I'm posting it as some kind of authoritarian assertion then I can't really help ya =*) ), which may have been informed by Caeria's wonderful Pet Project, the elves can't use their powers to stop the war because they are bound in some way by some kind of old, ancient covenant. Covenants require sacrifices in order to be active and in force. So perhaps felix felicis really does require some kind of sacrifice as well. One would think so since doesn't use of it always result in some kind of negative rebound? Perhaps the DEs don't brew it or use it because of that negative rebound.
Oh as for Sluggy brewing it - I have another theory that Sluggy was sought after by the DEs because he has some kind of immunity to some of that negative rebound and other naturally occuring dark elements. It would make him immensely valuable to either side and perhaps a natural for Slytherin House...
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Date: 2013-01-31 07:38 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-01-31 08:43 am (UTC)Covenants and potions and negative rebound.... I'm not sure that canon establishes a rebound. Harry fFELT unlucky when his dose started to wear off, but it's not clear he really was--I mean his annoying run-ins with Peeves and the Fat Lady served to get him to DD's office that night. Doesn't seem wildly unlucky to me. Sluggy said it was very dangerous in excess (either one-time overdose or over-protracted use), but not otherwise.
And the thing about potions is... a lot of magic is, I do A, it has effect .B. Almost all of the magic Harry learns is like that. There's an Emma Bull quote I used as epigraph for "Red Maned Lion" that's really apropos:
“Hoodoo is all the energy and attention you bring to what you do. Everything you do. The work of your hands, done with all your attention, becomes a container full of energy that you can transfer to someone else. Baking bread is a hoodoo work. So’s putting in a garden. Or fixing an amplifier, or teaching someone else to. If you do it right, with your whole head, and an awareness of where it came from, and where it’s going when it leaves you. The process it’s part of. And you have to be concentrating on energy, not money….
Potions is the only class we see Harry take where the result is "a container full of energy [magic] that you can transfer to someone else." That's its natural result. That's its purpose. If you need an immediate cheer-me-up, you don't start the hour-long process of brewing Euphoria Elixir; you cast a Cheering Charm on yourself. You brew the Euphoria Elixir if you think you might have need of it later. Or want to be able to give it/sell it to someone else.
Which makes if fascinating that Potions is Professor Snape's field. The branch of magic where the result is naturally that MY effort produces YOUR desired effect.
Now, we know that this does happen in other branches of magic--someone is making brooms, containers of energy for pthers to ride. Mr. Ollivander is making wands. Hermione charms those coins, and the DA can use them. But Harry doesn't learn any of that, and the only class where it's intrinsic is potions.
So, on to rebound. And DE's using/brewing Liquid Luck. I think that the risk is assumed by the brewer, and that generally, anyone can use it. That's the nature of a Potion. To be a gift.
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Date: 2013-02-01 04:24 am (UTC)Interesting implications there, aren't there?!
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Date: 2013-02-01 05:42 am (UTC)What happens when a brewer sells a potion for profit? Does this interfere with the effectiveness?