Movies & TV
24th Aug 2016
JOE
The latest fan theory doing the rounds has lived on internet forums for a while now, but it’s easily one of the most ingenious you’ll read.
Cast your mind right back to Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, where the generation-conquering series began, and you’ll discover that the very first thing that Severus Snape said to Harry may also have given away his big secret. That is, if you were inquisitive enough to do a little digging.
The sinister professor, played by the late Alan Rickman in the films, said to a baby-faced Harry in his introductory Potions class: “Tell me, what would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?”
It’s a bloody hard question for a wizard who barely knows which way round to hold his wand, and poor old Potter was left looking a bit silly in front of a class that featured soon-to-be nemesis Malfoy.
But as Tumblr user tomhiddles points out, it looks like Snape was sending a cryptic message to the child he vowed to protect from the get-go.
“According to Victorian Flower Language, asphodel is a type of lily meaning ‘My regrets follow you to the grave’ and wormwood means ‘absence’ and also typically symbolised bitter sorrow. “If you combined that, it meant ‘I bitterly regret Lily’s death’.”
That’s one hell of a cleverly concealed spoiler that JK Rowling may or may not have dropped in there.
And there’s more.
Asphodel was once looked upon as a remedy for poisonous snake bites. As almost everyone born in the ’90s will know, Lily Potter died protecting her son from an incomprehensibly evil wizard who was something of a fan of snakes, and Snape vowed to watch over the orphan for the rest of his days.
How’s that for a fan theory?
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By Charlie Herbert
