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: 2013-02-03 08:43 pm (UTC)Which was basically only there to provide a few clues about what the Horcruxes were and to show that Tom was as evil a child as he was as an adult. So, don’t worry, Harry, it’s not like you’ll ever turn out to be like him! Your parents loved each other and they were in Gryffindor! So, you have nothing to worry about.
/the carefully crafted comparison between Harry, Tom, and Severus that went absolutely NOWHERE!/
Probably because the expected message, “See, Harry, you’re not so different than Tom or Severus, so make sure that you don’t end up like them,” never came. The lesson wasn’t that Harry needed to learn from Tom and Snape’s backgrounds so that he could avoid becoming like them and become a better person. It was just that Harry was fortunate enough to not be like them.
Yes, Harry, like Tom, you’re very popular at school, most of the teachers like you, and most people turn a blind eye to how you interact with the students that you don’t like. But that’s okay, your mother wasn’t inbred and cross-eyed, so you don’t have worry about becoming another Tom. Yes, Harry, like you, Snape also came from a troubled home and ran into trouble with a group of students from another House. But that’s okay; it’s all Snape’s fault for being an unpleasant geek, so you don’t have to worry about empathizing with him.
/And, you know, we still don't know what a Horcrux really is or how they are created./
Or why creating them is so terrible, compared to all of the other awful curses and hexes that exist. I’ve read fanfics where the ritual to make a Horcrux is life-threatening to the caster, which is why Tom is the only one who’s made Horcruxes in canon (as far as we know). But that’s just fan speculation. Are Horcruxes like unicorn blood in the sense that they curse the wizard’s life? What exactly does the caster need to do to make a Horcrux, aside from killing someone? Molly Weasley killed Bellatrix, but that murder didn’t create a Horcrux. How exactly is a soul cut into pieces and how exactly does one relocate it to an object? What spell or ritual is needed to do that? We never learn.
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Date: 2013-02-03 10:12 pm (UTC)JKR did say that the Horcrux spell was something that the editoress did not allow and that it made the poor woman look ill. Perhaps JKR had something really outlandish in mind?
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Date: 2013-02-04 01:52 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-02-04 03:30 am (UTC)I contend that Rowling hasn't a clue as to how a horcrux is made and refuses to be pinned down on the subject.