So I’ve been thinking about this post for a, frankly, criminal amount of time, and I just needed to put all my love for ‘antidote’ all in one place, so forgive me.
As a writer, I know how crazy particular I am about verbiage — like, it’s an obsession — so when you use such a specific word like antidote repeatedly (in love songs, no less) it pings something in my brain.
antidote (noun)
a medicine taken or given to counter a particular poison.
Two things to focus on:
1. poison - antidotes are particular to poisonous substances, where medicines are for particular diseases/ailments
2. particular - antidotes connote a perfect match, one-is-to-one, a guarantee
When Harry uses the word antidote to describe a person (and/or says a person has the antidote), he’s saying you are the perfect, specific, guaranteed, one and only cure for the venom/poison/toxic and noxious (deadly, possibly) thing/s in my life.
It’s different to using a word like ‘medicine’, for example, because medicines do not connote any kind of specificity or guarantee. Many different medicines can cure many different ailments. At the same time, there’s always a margin of error with medicines - they may or may not work.
When he says antidote, he’s saying you (and only you) save me. You’re the reason I’m okay, you’re the reason I’m alive.
Sound familiar?
Maybe, possibly, almost like…
‘For every question why, you were my because.’