Snape's Very First Words to Harry Potter Have a Hidden Heartbreaking Meaning
It just adds up too well for it to be a big stretch.
The Wizarding World is full of hidden messages and Easter eggs — at least that's what fans think up to this day as they decipher the little hints that J.K.Rowling apparently left for them in every part of Harry Potter 's story.
In the very first chapter, Philosopher's Stone, young Harry attends his first-ever potion-making class, and also meets Professor Snape — perhaps the gloomiest teacher in all of Hogwarts. The two do not really get along well, with Snape seemingly taking issue with Harry from the first moment they met, and Harry reciprocating the hate later.
But in his first potions lesson, Snape asks Harry a question that might actually have a deeper interpretation than we all thought initially. When the professor notices that Harry is writing something down instead of listening to him, Snape asks him what will happen if he adds powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood.
Harry is not able to answer, even though he later gets to know that this combination would result in Draught of Living Death — a sleeping potion so powerful it might actually kill you. But another interpretation of Snape's question would require some knowledge of Victorian flower language.
With asphodel being a type of lily that means "my regrets follow you to the grave" in this ancient flower language, wormwood means "absence" and "bitter sorrow", as confirmed by Wizarding World Instagram account that shared the theory.
So, when combined, these two flowers could have actually been Snape's very quirky way of telling Harry that he was very sorry for Lily's death — even though the 11-year-old boy had little chance of actually deciphering the message.
Still, that doesn't make Snape's signal any less heartbreaking. Besides, the official Instagram account of the Wizarding World sharing the theory has led to many fans believing that it now means that it is confirmed — even though the account itself did not directly indicate it.