Felix Felicis

[anthony]

i may have found a possible mistake regaurding the ammount of potion that harry had recived for slughorn.

pleas veiw these 2 quotes


"and that" said slughorn, appearntly coming back to earth"is what i shallbe offering as a prize in this lesson."
there was silence in which every buble and gurgle of the surounding potions seemed magnafied ten fold
"one tiny bottel of Felix felicis," said Slughorn, taking a miniscule glass bottel with a cork in it out of his pocket and showing it to all of them "enough for twelve hours' luck. From dawn till dusk you will be lucky in everything you attempt."

chapter 9 pg 188"


"so harry -- you going to use the Felix Felicis or what?" Ron demanded
"yeah i s'pose I'd better," said harry. "I don't reckon i'll needall of it, not twenty-four hours' worth, it can't take all night. . . . I'll just take a mouthfull. two or three hours should do it."

chapter 22 pg 476

what do you think was harry just a bit mistaken??

[Snuffles]

the twenty-four-hour and the twelve-hour difference? ;)

[Snuffles]

the twelve-hour and the twenty-four-hour usage difference? ;)

[Tonks]

LOL - well you know I'm blonde. Because I sure didn't notice that until Snuffles said it - :o Yeah i need things spelled right out for me - ;)

Anyway, I think that Slughorn would definitely be the one to call the shots here, and as such am betting that he knows more about the amount of potion he gave Harry, so he is probably right. As such, Harry probably forgot and just tucked that tidbit away in his memory as "a day's worth", so that later he himself incorrectly interpreted that as 24 hours..

Still, if the bottle was so tiny, you'd think a mouthful would be the whole thing. Obviously not, but I find it kind of interesting that there was still enough for Ron, Hermione, Ginny, and Neville to all have some later as well.. humm..

[Boing]

Yeah, I was wondering about the amount that was left for all the other students, too, but hey, couldn't that be attributed to Felix Felicis itself? ;) Just their luck that they all had enough to drink, right? :D

I noticed the time difference as well, but I think Tonks is right - perhaps it could be because Harry just remembered that he could have a lucky day and interpreted that as 24 hours.

[Alz]

I suppose for discussions sake you could say as soon as the first drop hit the tongue that it would have been enough to judge exactly how much was needed - or just be lucky enough that you didnt need the full bottle - as in you use the artifical luck to give you the extra you needed if you didnt have enough potion ... I hope that made sense :rolleyes: :D

[Sirius Potter Fan]

- or just be lucky enough that you didnt need the full bottle - as in you use the artifical luck to give you the extra you needed if you didnt have enough potion ... I hope that made sense :rolleyes: :D

Kind of like finding a genie and wishing for more wishes? Yeah, that may just work. When the luck you need right now, is enought luck to last the night. . . maybe. . . or. . . herresy coming. . . maybe JKR just slipped up :eek:

[gumshoe]

I think there's much more to it.

First, the set-up (quotes American ed):

"It's a great feeling when you take it," said Ron reminiscently. "Like you can't do anything wrong."
"What are you talking about?" said Hermione, laughing. "You've never taken any!"
"Yeah, but I thought I had, didn't I?" said Ron, as though explaining the obvious. "Same difference, really..." (476)


Okay, now the bottle.

Harry says, "I don't reckon I'll need all of it, not twenty-four hours' worth, it can't take all night...I'll just take a mouthful. Two or three hours should do it."
When he takes it: "...he raised the little bottle and took a carefully measured gulp." (476-7)

Harry carefully measured enough for what he thought would cover 2-3 hours. If there was half as much in the bottle as he thought, then it follows that the Felix only covered him for 60-90 minutes. This only seems to get him as far as refilling the bottles nonverbally. We can confirm this a number of ways. It was twilight when Harry took the Felix, an hour passes between the refilling and Harry convincing Slughorn to give up the memory, and it's past midnight when Harry returns to the castle. I also tried estimating the minutes between taking it and the refilling, and it seems to fit.

This I think has enormous implications. He thinks it's the Felix, but it's all him. Shamelessly dangling Lily's death before Slughorn, feeling sure that Slughorn would remember nothing the next morning...all Harry.

gumshoe

[Alz]

You know it is possible that Felix is a placebo - people think that because they took it they will be lucky - the mind relaxes and in fact they make their own luck based on confidence.
Like in PoA when Harry creates his full patronus - he knew he could do it because he saw himself do it ... :p
We saw that with Ron.