Speculation on Liquid Luck

[terri-testing.livejournal.com]

This 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.

Comments

[madderbrad.livejournal.com]

Like condwiramurs and others have said, this *is* a neat little theory you've come up with, even if you're wildly extrapolating from half a sentence of the canon. It's like you have an elephant balancing on a pea, if you know what I mean. But, like you said - it's still FUN. :-)

It would have been nice if Rowling had worked out the mechanics of her potions - magic out equals magic in - and so gave us more reason to suspect that a sacrifice - of magic, of 'luck', of 'life' - was required as input for successfully brewing the abomination known as Felix Felicis.

Have you ever read Diane Duane's "Door into" series of four books? She's best known for her 'Young Wizards" series - must be ten-plus books by now - *immensely* superior to Rowling's work - I know I've mentioned her name here before - but in her 'door into' series she makes it clear that casting spells takes years off one's life. Unless one manages to use a different, higher level of magic.

So I think Duane would endorse your theory. :-)

[mary-j-59.livejournal.com]

Well, magic takes years off your life in the "Young Wizards", too! Terri and I are both huge fans; she wanted me to write a comparison between Snape and Ed the shark. I'm not up for it, I'm afraid. But Duane treats Ed a lot better than Rowling does Snape.

BTW, I love your image of an Elephant balancing on a pea! In retrospect, I'm afraid my theories about the books were like that too - though I still stand by my "grand unified theory", which is that Rowling threw in anything and everything from the 19th century English novels she knew and loved, without considering the implications of what she was writing.

[madderbrad.livejournal.com]

Well, magic takes years off your life in the "Young Wizards", too!

Yes, of course it does! I'd quite forgotten.

Although I'm not totally clear on that. I know spells take *energy*, but can it be replenished? Or is it actually 'life force', shortening the wizards' lives? I do recall hints (or maybe stronger than hints) about the latter.

I really have to go and read the latest couple of books of the series, I'm not up to date.

By the way, just in case you don't know, if you go to Duane's LJ blog - user dduane - you'll see that (a) she's half-way through a series of drabbles setting up Kit and Nita as her 'OTP' and (b) she's releasing new editions of the books, updated for the modern age. I have to go and read those drabbles, my time in HP has activated my 'romantic gene', I'd love to see Kit and Nita as a couple.

(She seems to have stopped mid-way through her set. :-()

she wanted me to write a comparison between Snape and Ed the shark.

Snape and Ed! Hee. Yes, I can see similarities there. Interesting.

though I still stand by my "grand unified theory", which is that Rowling threw in anything and everything from the 19th century English novels she knew and loved, without considering the implications of what she was writing.

Well, yeah. Of course!

Seriously, it seems pretty darn obvious to me that that's exactly what happened. The lady proved, with the last two books, that (a) she didn't have a darn thing planned, was just making it up as she went along; and (b) she didn't have the brains to come up with something good. It's *easy* to grab bits and pieces from popular myth and throw them in to the pot if you're not going to be held accountable for making sense of it all at the end. Sadly, Rowling wasn't so held accountable. :-(