PS8: The Potions Master

"*As there is little foolish wand-waving here, many of you will hardly believe this is magic. I don't expect you will really understand the beauty of the softly simmering cauldron with its shimmering fumes, the delicate power of liquids that creep through human veins, bewitching the mind, ensnaring the senses... I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, even stopper death - if you aren't as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to teach.*"
— Severus Snape

(EXPLANATION NEEDED IN INTERESTING FACTS AND NOTES)

Harry is pointed out and stared at by everyone in the school as he starts his first day of classes and meets his teachers, visits Hagrid, and learns about the Gringotts break-in.

## Calendar and Dates

This chapter begins on 2nd September, which is the first day of classes, and ends on Friday of the same week.

## Interesting Facts and Notes

The main events of this chapter - apart from an overview of Harry's first week of classes - are Harry's first Potions lesson (and as part of that, his first real introduction to Snape) and tea with Hagrid, when Harry introduces his first three friends to each other.

**Whispers followed Harry from the moment he left his dormitory the next day.**

Since the Hogwarts Express ran on 1st of September, this is 2nd of September.

**There were a hundred and forty-two staircases at Hogwarts...**

We don't seem to have encountered more than a fraction of these as of HBP. Among those we know about are:

* the marble staircase leading up from the Entrance Hall
* the two staircases (boys' and girls') in Gryffindor Tower
* (presumably) two staircases in Ravenclaw Tower
* (presumably) two staircases in the Slytherin dormitories
* (presumably) two staircases in the Hufflepuff dormitories
* the Headmaster's staircase
* the spiral staircase leading up to Trelawney's classroom at the top of North Tower

**wide, sweeping ones; narrow, rickety ones; some that led somewhere different on a Friday; some with a vanishing step halfway up that you had to remember to jump.**

Until book six there were no moving staircases mentioned in the books; they were a film invention. In book six, a swivelling staircase is mentioned, but from the reference it's clear that there is only one of them. The staircase with the vanishing step is likely the one that Neville stepped on and became stuck in on his way up to Gryffindor Tower in GF12, the same one that trapped Harry when he was out of his dormitory with the golden egg (GF25).

**Then there were doors that wouldn't open unless you asked politely, or tickled them in exactly the right place,**

The door to the kitchens is one such door. You have to tickle the pear in the painting on the wall to get the door to open. There must be more such doors, of course, since Harry can't have been down to the kitchens at this point. His first visit to the kitchens is described in GF21.

**... and doors that weren't really doors at all, but solid walls just pretending.**

In HBP19, Harry uses one of these types of doors:

> "*Anyway - sorry, got to go - there's McLaggen coming for a talk about Quidditch," said Harry hurriedly, and he dashed sideways through a door pretending to be solid wall...*"
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**Filch found them trying to force their way through a door which unluckily turned out to be the entrance to the out-of-bounds corridor on the third floor.**

Since first-years are bound to get lost a lot at the beginning of term, at first glance it seems awfully lax of the teachers to have left this door unprotected from the outside - not because of any danger to the Stone, but because of the danger that a youngster might get in there innocently, as Harry, Ron and Flick tried to. As we will see later, however, nobody can get through the door unless he or she can open it magically, which more or less ensures that a beginning first year can't get in.

**... they were rescued by Professor Quirrell, who was passing.**

On first reading, this seems innocent enough. Only later does the significance of Quirrell having been in the vicinity of the forbidden corridor become apparent.

**By the time Professor Quirrell had reached them [Flick]] had already earned herself a detention on Friday night for calling him something Aunt Petunia would be shocked to hear.**

[EXPLANATION - about how it would be the first of many, and the first instance of Flick acting before thinking]

**it was the dearest ambition of many to give Mrs. Norris a good kick.**

On their way to the Underground Chambers at the end of the school year, Ron gens Harry to let him kick Mrs. Norris "just this once" when they're travelling around under the invisibility cloak (PS16). Hagrid, as we'll see later in this chapter, would like to "introduce her to Fang sometime" because Mrs. Norris follows him around when he comes into the castle.

**By the end of the lesson, only Hermione Granger had made any difference to her match; Professor McGonagall showed the class how it had gone all silver and pointy.**

Hermione is successful because she internalizes the logic of magic. For a Muggle-born student - indoctrinated with Muggle logic for eleven years - to catch on so quickly is certainly unusual, which indicates just how intelligent she really is. Harry has more trouble with this new logic, although as we have seen, he did manage to suspend his Muggle sensibilities enough to make it through the barrier onto Platform Nine and Three-Quarters.

**His turban, he told them, had been given to him by an African prince as a thank-you for getting rid of a troublesome zombie, but they weren't sure they believed this story. For one thing, when Seamus Finnegan asked eagerly to hear how Quirrell had fought off the zombie, Quirrell went pink and started talking about the weather...**

This is the first indication that zombies exist in the wizarding world, although as of HBP we don't know if they're just another name for Inferi or if they are something else. The kids' doubt of Quirrell's story is clearly due to their evaluation of his character, not to any question of whether zombies exist. Seamus, as we learned in the previous chapter, has a witch mother and has been brought up in the wizarding world, so his acceptance of the existence of zombies is good supporting evidence.

**...for another, they had noticed that a funny smell hung around the turban...**

It's possible that Quirrell's ostentatious use of garlic in his classroom is as much to help cover up this smell as to support his image as "p-p-poor, st-stuttering P-Professor Quirrell" (PS17).

**...and the Weasley twins insisted that it was stuffed full of garlic too, so that Quirrell was protected wherever he went.**

Well, he's certainly accompanied by *something* wherever he goes...

**Harry was very relieved to find out that he wasn't miles behind everyone else. Lots of people had come from Muggle families and, like him, hadn't had any idea that they were witches and wizards. There was so much to learn that even people like Ron didn't have much of a head start.**

We see here how important magical education is. Even little Kevin could use his dad's wand to inflate a slug (GF7), but that kind of magic is purely instinctive. To be able to manage and control those natural abilities, wizarding children need careful training. TQ has stated that all children with magical ability are welcome to come to Hogwarts. This is very likely for the protection of the community at large as much as for the benefit of the child. Imagine an entire culture made up of untrained witches and wizards. However, it is a bit difficult to imagine someone like Stan Shunpike passing one of McGonagall's Transfiguration classes.

**"Ah, yes," he said softly, "Harry Potter. Our new - *celebrity*."**

This remark tells us more about Snape - and his opinion of Harry's father, James - than it does about Harry's own attitude toward fame.

**A bezoar is a stone taken from the stomach of a goat and it will save you from most poisons.**

Bezoars are mentioned again briefly in Harry's fourth year (GF22) and figure prominently in book six. In one of Slughorn's Potions classes, when asked to brew an antidote to an unmarked phial of potion, he consulted the Half-Blood Prince's book. There, in a list of antidotes, was the Half-Blood Prince's advice to "just shove a bezoar down their throats," which Harry produced at the end of class when Slughorn inspected the students' work. Later, Harry remembered the little shrivelled "stone" and dug it out of Slughorn's kit when Ron had been poisoned in the professor's office, thereby saving his best friend's life. (HBP18).

**clearing the spilled potion away with one wave of his wand**

Judging by similar clean-up magic during Potions class in subsequent years, this is likely *Evanesco*.

**an enormous black boarhound**

A boarhound is a Great Dane. The films, on the other hand, have so far used a Neopolitan mastiff, quite a different breed.

**rock cakes**

Rock cakes are a Scottish baked good. They are hard, fruity buns made with sultanas (similar to raisins). Of course, Hagrid's version of rock cakes live up to their name and nearly break Harry's teeth when he bites into them.

**"How's yer brother Charlie?" Hagrid asked Ron. "I liked him a lot - great with animals."**

If we accept the timetable given, Charlie had left Hogwarts only two months before this conversation. This statement of Hagrid's isn't inaccurate exactly, but it does give the impression that Hagrid is reminiscing about someone he hasn't seen for quite some time. Very likely, the author hadn't worked out the exact ages of the various Weasley siblings when she wrote this book. We'll see other problematic passages in later chapters.

## Exceptional Character Moments

* Binns, who evidently reads from his notes without interacting with his students (as will be demonstrated more clearly during Harry's second year).
* Flick's impulsiveness, which gets her into trouble.
* Hermione's desperation to demonstrate her intelligence in Potions class, once challenged by Snape's opening speech.
* McGonagall and Snape, who are both noted for being able to keep order without effort.
* Snape, who appears to have a genuine passion for Potions, and who is definitely an expert. (Only a true expert could so easily diagnose exactly where a student must have gone wrong to get a given result, as Snape did with Neville's first attempt at a potion).

## Memorable Lines

> "*You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of potion-making," he began. He spoke in barely more than a whisper, but they caught every word - like Professor McGonagall, Snape had the gift of keeping a class silent without effort. "As there is little foolish wand-waving here, many of you will hardly believe this is magic. I don't expect you will really understand the beauty of the softly simmering cauldron with its shimmering fumes, the delicate power of liquids that creep through human veins, bewitching the mind, ensnaring the senses... I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, even stopper death...*"
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