Severus Snape's textbook added to our collection!

Today we have some very exciting news for our small library.

A brand new textbook has been added to our collection, and is available for wizarding and Dementor guards. We have been gifted a copy, even before Flourish & Blotts is allowed to start selling it! This librarian is humbled by the generosity of the author, and particularly with a terse personal note included in the front of the text for this librarian.

Potions Master Severus Snape (formerly Potions Professor and Headmaster of Hogwarts) has newly published his newest scholarly work, the great tome entitled Innocuous Potions Ingredients, and their Catastrophic Effects when Combined with Dark Intentions. Potions Master Snape is most well-known for his spectacular resurrection after his presumed death at the Battle of Hogwarts in 1998, and his role as a spy prior to that. It was through clever long-term use of anti-venom, and various health-restoring potions that his life was saved, and  this allowed him to continue with his scholarly efforts in the years since the end of the Wizarding War.

This new textbook discusses various potions ingredients, and provides an overview of the reactions of each ingredient in various potions, when varied 'dark 'or 'light' purposes are used. Simple things like dittany, ginger or lavender are dissected and studied in various potions and with varying intentions of the brewer, and reactions are recorded and analysed. Some new potions are included as a part of this text, which makes it unique as no new potions have been recorded in nearly fifty years. Ars Potianica has declared this textbook "a much needed innovation in the Potions sector," and there has been great anticipation of its publication in the Potions community. However, it has been declared too esoteric for the general population, with great potential danger if found in untrained hands, and select qualifications (verified of course) will be needed in order to purchase a copy. Luckily this librarian has completed a Potions mastery, and is qualified to control access to this text.

Image from Propnomicon (http://propnomicon.blogspot.co.nz/2011/05/black-book.html)

This new book is of particular interest to our Dementor guards, as several of the potions ingredients discussed in the book directly relate to them. Lost and forgotten potions are discussed, all of which utilise Demetor breath, Dementor fingernails, or snippets of Dementor robes. Professor Snape has discussed these ingredients, as well as their spectacularly inhumane collection methods in the textbook.

This book will be held at the librarian's desk, and will be for library only use. As it is classified as a 'dangerous artifact' (even prior to general publication and release), it will require supervision by this librarian to be accessed. The Minister of Magic has opposed the publication of this text - both because of the subject matter, and the author's personal history - for ten years now, and it is a historic event in education that we have received our own copy. Only 50 copies have been printed in total, so we are especially honoured to have received a copy from Professor Snape personally.

Looking forward to an influx of visitors to view this rare text. You may just learn something interesting down here in our dingy little library!