PoA Chapter Eighteen
May. 28th, 2010 10:20 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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deathtocapslockI've been packing all day and totally forgot to post this like I planned until now!
Based on the title of this chapter, more interesting things to follow!
Sirius leaps on Ron’s broken leg. Sucks to be Ron. He doesn't even suffer in a woobie, sexy way.
Sirius says they can explain what's going on afterward he kills Peter. Apparently he hasn’t learned anything from Azkaban. Try explaining first just once, Sirius. You might like it.
Ron’s now been bitten a lot by Scabbers btw. Ron’s pretty tough to be able to still hold on to him. Rat bites are nasty.
It is kind of ironic that it’s Lupin telling Sirius to explain everything from the beginning. Almost as if he’s trying to stretch this out until the moon rises!
LOL! Ron actually tries to say “I’m off” and hobble out on his broken leg. Possibly the funniest thing Ron’s ever done. Yeah, we’ll meet you back at school, Ron.
Ron and Harry’s eyes meet. They both believe Sirius and Lupin are out of their minds because the story makes no sense. Um, yes it does make sense. You just saw that Sirius was the black dog here, you guys. Hermione really is the thinking brain dog, isn’t she?
There’s only been seven animagi in the entire century. It’s kind of cute that at this age it doesn’t occur to Hermione that that’s because nobody actually registers.
That door opening? Totally Snape entering the room. Severus Snape: Super Spy.
Despite the fact that Wizards grow up in a world where all sorts of magical things happen, they never seem any more prepared than a Muggle would be to deal with this stuff if somebody doesn’t walk them through it beforehand: But Scabbers can’t be a man, he’s a rat! Or: Oh, the door opened by itself as if someone was walking in? Couldn’t possibly be someone walking in. We didn’t see them!
Lupin says that “in those days” (when he was bitten) there was no cure. There’s no cure now either, Lupin, as far as we know. The Potion isn’t a cure.
Harry can see where this story is going. Well done, Harry! (Though I don't think Harry ever tells us where he thinks it's going. Knowing Harry maybe this is all leading up to Julie Christie, and not Petunia Dursley, being Harry's aunt.)
Lupin’s friends couldn’t help but notice he disappeared once a month. Too bad you didn’t have Harry for a friend, Remus. He could have easily not noticed. Or at least not deduce anything from it if he did. How are you and Ron doing on that “Hermione’s regularly three places at once” mystery you’ve been solving since September, Harry?
Lupin reminisces about how his friends let a werewolf wander around loose in a town, trusting that they’d be able to keep him in control. Next you can all share stories about those carefree nights drunk driving on the highway and the laughs you had when you’d almost hit someone. Hermione agrees with me, at least.
Lupin feels a little guilty about betraying Dumbledore’s trust. Don’t worry, Lupin. Once Dumbledore finds out he’ll make you pay for it. You didn’t really think all that spying on the werewolves was for nothing, did you? Or that Sirius really needed to live in the one house he hated more than anything?
Lupin explains he didn’t tell Dumbledore Sirius was an animagus because he was too cowardly. Though really he could have told him without his disapproval. He could tell him Sirius had become an animagus without telling him why. I just can’t help but cheer anyone on for keeping a secret from Dumbledore for any reason.
Lupin cleverly says that Snape’s been right about him all along in the exact company that will assure him that Snape is never right about anything.
Lupin makes the first reference to the trick Sirius pulled on Snape, which Sirius still says served Snape right. I miss this version of the Prank.
Wow. Speaking of versions of stories, Lupin throws in without having to that Snape didn’t like James because he was, I don’t know, jealous of how good he was at Quidditch. Does he just automatically cut Snape down and cover for James and Sirius here without thinking about it even though it’s not necessary for the story? Because there’s just no way Lupin could actually believe that.
Lupin continues to impress me with how smoothly he polishes up the story dishonestly on the fly. (Seriously, I love Lupin.) Not only did he take time to suggest Snape hated James over Quidditch but he adds that James pulled Snape back from the tunnel at “great risk to his own life.” Except James is an animagus, as we’ve already learned, and werewolves are only dangerous to people. James regularly went down the tunnel to see Lupin for fun. The only danger James was in was being outed as an animagus by Snape. But he sure sounds more heroic in this version of the story.
And this is where Snape reveals himself, and given what he’s just heard man he must be pissed.
Seriously, I know he won’t listen to reason here but he really did just hear Lupin give a completely self-serving speech about him and his buddies. Imagine Harry listening to a conversation where Draco talked about his time at school with Harry this way. He'd be even more angry than Snape for less reason.
Things that happen twice:
Peter’s an animagus, just like Black and McGonagall. Perhaps after a THIRD example Ron and Harry will catch on that sometimes animals turn out to actually be people.
Speaking of unregistered animagi: Rita Skeeter.
‘Member how Harry went to the Shrieking Shack in his invisibility cloak? Now Snape’s come to the Shack in Harry's invisibility cloak.
In fact, three books from now it’ll be Harry slipping in a door in his invisibility cloak, only Draco will actually notice. Draco, the only character besides Hermione known to ever deduce things or make a cunning plan—even if it’s usually with disastrous results.
I was half-joking when writing about Lupin’s life among the werewolves in HBP as Dumbledore’s punishment for betraying his trust but it actually makes total sense and is in fitting with Dumbledore’s character. Plus it’s a nicely eerie parallel for Voldemort amusing himself by giving Draco an assignment to make him suffer and fail in HBP!
Lupin didn’t tell Dumbledore Sirius was an animagus because he’s a coward. Because he’s a coward. Because he’s a coward. That'll come up a lot.
Lupin’s “Snape’s been right about me all along” is about as disingenuous as his later “Snape’s right to have me fired” will be shortly.
Lupin’s behavior really does make him seem like exactly the guy Snape thinks he is here, just as it did in the Marauders Map chapter.
It’s a gun. No it isn’t! It’s Chekov! No it isn’t!
The Prank
Well, this one’s obvious, isn’t it? The series can’t end until we get the real story…
Status: Um...fired, but it turns out it was not so much a real gun as an empty water pistol that Snape shot at his own pants to make an embarrassing stain.
Exploitation Filmmakers’ Credo
Animagus. It’s not that difficult a concept. Even when you heard the guy had died.
Foley Work
Come on, you know the door had to creak really loudly when Snape walked in, even if his footsteps were somehow muffled.
Informed Attributes
Lupin’s just spitting these out right and left without Harry questioning any of them.
James Bond Exposition Rule
That’s it, Remus, keep talking. Just a little longer before the moon’s up. Don’t leave out the part about Quidditch. Quidditch is really important to the story.
Misdirected Answering
The chapter’s over and we still haven’t gotten anywhere near how Peter’s alive and Sirius didn’t kill him or why Sirius suddenly isn’t a bad guy anymore.
The Stealth Monster Rule
See Work, Foley. Snape must be using some version of Muffliato as he comes up those stairs!
Jabootu Score: 6
Based on the title of this chapter, more interesting things to follow!
Sirius leaps on Ron’s broken leg. Sucks to be Ron. He doesn't even suffer in a woobie, sexy way.
Sirius says they can explain what's going on afterward he kills Peter. Apparently he hasn’t learned anything from Azkaban. Try explaining first just once, Sirius. You might like it.
Ron’s now been bitten a lot by Scabbers btw. Ron’s pretty tough to be able to still hold on to him. Rat bites are nasty.
It is kind of ironic that it’s Lupin telling Sirius to explain everything from the beginning. Almost as if he’s trying to stretch this out until the moon rises!
LOL! Ron actually tries to say “I’m off” and hobble out on his broken leg. Possibly the funniest thing Ron’s ever done. Yeah, we’ll meet you back at school, Ron.
Ron and Harry’s eyes meet. They both believe Sirius and Lupin are out of their minds because the story makes no sense. Um, yes it does make sense. You just saw that Sirius was the black dog here, you guys. Hermione really is the thinking brain dog, isn’t she?
There’s only been seven animagi in the entire century. It’s kind of cute that at this age it doesn’t occur to Hermione that that’s because nobody actually registers.
That door opening? Totally Snape entering the room. Severus Snape: Super Spy.
Despite the fact that Wizards grow up in a world where all sorts of magical things happen, they never seem any more prepared than a Muggle would be to deal with this stuff if somebody doesn’t walk them through it beforehand: But Scabbers can’t be a man, he’s a rat! Or: Oh, the door opened by itself as if someone was walking in? Couldn’t possibly be someone walking in. We didn’t see them!
Lupin says that “in those days” (when he was bitten) there was no cure. There’s no cure now either, Lupin, as far as we know. The Potion isn’t a cure.
Harry can see where this story is going. Well done, Harry! (Though I don't think Harry ever tells us where he thinks it's going. Knowing Harry maybe this is all leading up to Julie Christie, and not Petunia Dursley, being Harry's aunt.)
Lupin’s friends couldn’t help but notice he disappeared once a month. Too bad you didn’t have Harry for a friend, Remus. He could have easily not noticed. Or at least not deduce anything from it if he did. How are you and Ron doing on that “Hermione’s regularly three places at once” mystery you’ve been solving since September, Harry?
Lupin reminisces about how his friends let a werewolf wander around loose in a town, trusting that they’d be able to keep him in control. Next you can all share stories about those carefree nights drunk driving on the highway and the laughs you had when you’d almost hit someone. Hermione agrees with me, at least.
Lupin feels a little guilty about betraying Dumbledore’s trust. Don’t worry, Lupin. Once Dumbledore finds out he’ll make you pay for it. You didn’t really think all that spying on the werewolves was for nothing, did you? Or that Sirius really needed to live in the one house he hated more than anything?
Lupin explains he didn’t tell Dumbledore Sirius was an animagus because he was too cowardly. Though really he could have told him without his disapproval. He could tell him Sirius had become an animagus without telling him why. I just can’t help but cheer anyone on for keeping a secret from Dumbledore for any reason.
Lupin cleverly says that Snape’s been right about him all along in the exact company that will assure him that Snape is never right about anything.
Lupin makes the first reference to the trick Sirius pulled on Snape, which Sirius still says served Snape right. I miss this version of the Prank.
Wow. Speaking of versions of stories, Lupin throws in without having to that Snape didn’t like James because he was, I don’t know, jealous of how good he was at Quidditch. Does he just automatically cut Snape down and cover for James and Sirius here without thinking about it even though it’s not necessary for the story? Because there’s just no way Lupin could actually believe that.
Lupin continues to impress me with how smoothly he polishes up the story dishonestly on the fly. (Seriously, I love Lupin.) Not only did he take time to suggest Snape hated James over Quidditch but he adds that James pulled Snape back from the tunnel at “great risk to his own life.” Except James is an animagus, as we’ve already learned, and werewolves are only dangerous to people. James regularly went down the tunnel to see Lupin for fun. The only danger James was in was being outed as an animagus by Snape. But he sure sounds more heroic in this version of the story.
And this is where Snape reveals himself, and given what he’s just heard man he must be pissed.
Seriously, I know he won’t listen to reason here but he really did just hear Lupin give a completely self-serving speech about him and his buddies. Imagine Harry listening to a conversation where Draco talked about his time at school with Harry this way. He'd be even more angry than Snape for less reason.
Things that happen twice:
Peter’s an animagus, just like Black and McGonagall. Perhaps after a THIRD example Ron and Harry will catch on that sometimes animals turn out to actually be people.
Speaking of unregistered animagi: Rita Skeeter.
‘Member how Harry went to the Shrieking Shack in his invisibility cloak? Now Snape’s come to the Shack in Harry's invisibility cloak.
In fact, three books from now it’ll be Harry slipping in a door in his invisibility cloak, only Draco will actually notice. Draco, the only character besides Hermione known to ever deduce things or make a cunning plan—even if it’s usually with disastrous results.
I was half-joking when writing about Lupin’s life among the werewolves in HBP as Dumbledore’s punishment for betraying his trust but it actually makes total sense and is in fitting with Dumbledore’s character. Plus it’s a nicely eerie parallel for Voldemort amusing himself by giving Draco an assignment to make him suffer and fail in HBP!
Lupin didn’t tell Dumbledore Sirius was an animagus because he’s a coward. Because he’s a coward. Because he’s a coward. That'll come up a lot.
Lupin’s “Snape’s been right about me all along” is about as disingenuous as his later “Snape’s right to have me fired” will be shortly.
Lupin’s behavior really does make him seem like exactly the guy Snape thinks he is here, just as it did in the Marauders Map chapter.
It’s a gun. No it isn’t! It’s Chekov! No it isn’t!
The Prank
Well, this one’s obvious, isn’t it? The series can’t end until we get the real story…
Status: Um...fired, but it turns out it was not so much a real gun as an empty water pistol that Snape shot at his own pants to make an embarrassing stain.
Exploitation Filmmakers’ Credo
Animagus. It’s not that difficult a concept. Even when you heard the guy had died.
Foley Work
Come on, you know the door had to creak really loudly when Snape walked in, even if his footsteps were somehow muffled.
Informed Attributes
Lupin’s just spitting these out right and left without Harry questioning any of them.
James Bond Exposition Rule
That’s it, Remus, keep talking. Just a little longer before the moon’s up. Don’t leave out the part about Quidditch. Quidditch is really important to the story.
Misdirected Answering
The chapter’s over and we still haven’t gotten anywhere near how Peter’s alive and Sirius didn’t kill him or why Sirius suddenly isn’t a bad guy anymore.
The Stealth Monster Rule
See Work, Foley. Snape must be using some version of Muffliato as he comes up those stairs!
Jabootu Score: 6
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no subject
Date: 2010-05-29 11:28 pm (UTC)Brad: He can?
Yes. Specifically, he is allowed by the headmaster to brag about saving Snape while Snape is not allowed to tell what he was saved from or that it was James's good friend Remus who is the monster in the tunnel. James has golden coat-tails. James & Co. don't get into trouble for The Prank, either, leaving Snape to think it was just fine with the headmaster that Sirius tried to kill him (see Sirius's remark in this chapter that he had it coming to him - he still has no remorse) and that James's heroics were more to save his friends' skins than to save Snape.
no subject
Date: 2010-05-29 11:57 pm (UTC)Can you point me at the place in the series where this is told/shown? That James is 'allowed to brag'?
see Sirius's remark in this chapter that he had it coming to him - he still has no remorse
Ugh.
leaving Snape to think ... that James's heroics were more to save his friends' skins than to save Snape.
Snape, being prejudiced against James, might think that James was motivated purely to save his friends, but that's not really the case, is it? Is there anywhere in the canon where Jame's reaction to Sirius's 'prank' is revealed? I'm getting confused with lines from various fanfics where a moralistic James rails against Sirius for the attempted homicide.
I never paid the older generation much attention in my single pass through the books - I just automatically took Harry's part that Professor Snape was an evil git - so I'm finding the slant on Snape in this blog (*looks at montavilla*) quite interesting.
no subject
Date: 2010-05-30 12:57 am (UTC)Lily heard that James saved Severus from something-or-other in the tunnel. The source could only have been a Marauder or Dumbledore.
Snape, being prejudiced against James, might think that James was motivated purely to save his friends, but that's not really the case, is it? Is there anywhere in the canon where Jame's reaction to Sirius's 'prank' is revealed? I'm getting confused with lines from various fanfics where a moralistic James rails against Sirius for the attempted homicide.
Wasn't it? Especially now that we know he didn't change his own ways - still hexed people for fun, bullied Severus to get Lily's attention (SWM). The moralistic James was only believable as long as we thought the prank was after SWM. Anyway, according to Sirius Remus was the moralistic one, and we know how strongly he acted in his convictions...
I never paid the older generation much attention in my single pass through the books - I just automatically took Harry's part that Professor Snape was an evil git - so I'm finding the slant on Snape in this blog (*looks at montavilla*) quite interesting.
Hmm. Very early on I realized I didn't particularly care about that Harry person. The cool aspect of reading HP is to figure out what anyone else was thinking and what the adult characters' backstories were. Someone somewhere said the most important artifact in HP is the Pensieve because the real story takes place a generation previously.
no subject
Date: 2010-05-31 01:13 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-31 09:16 am (UTC)I suppose the favoritism in my mind comes down to what we learn in DH - that SWM came after The Prank and that Dumbledore didn't brook disruption of his plans that easily. He meant to parade his do-gooder badge by proving that a werewolf student could be accommodated but the Marauders messed that up. One might think that, after saving Snape, James would have been held to a higher standard and not rewarded for his subsequent continuing harassment of that same student.
It's part of the creepier aspect of Rowling's world and I can't help but associate it with her insistence that Dumbledore was gay - Slughorn wasn't the only character who liked pretty or flashy boys. She even feeds us that sort of line with Rita Skeeter's biography where she questions the appropriateness of DD's friendship with Harry and in the way Slughorn's fascination with Tom Riddle and his crew is portrayed.
no subject
Date: 2010-05-30 02:19 am (UTC)As oryx leucoryx said, Lily knew what James had done but Snape couldn't say a word about what had happened or why. This is found in DH in The Prince's Tale. This is also where we see that SWM takes place after The Prank.
So either James was allowed to tell what he had done or he told anyway. For someone who feels dumped on, as Snape would have by then since it's pretty clear in the text that Sirius got little to no punishment for having lured Snape to the tunnel where he might have been killed or turned into a werewolf (he certainly wasn't expelled), it's easy enough to imagine that James was allowed to speak while Snape was hobbled.
no subject
Date: 2010-05-30 06:23 pm (UTC)I lost the "Snape is an evil git" slant way back when I first read PS/SS, because Voice of Authority Dumbledore stated that although Snape had hated James, he had been protecting Harry all year. That told me that a) Snape was not evil, and b) that Snape was a conflicted character.
As I read through the rest of the series, there was never anything in canon that lead me to revise that interpretation. Did he seem evil in HBP? Yes, but we already knew he was a spy and that was to be expected. I was surprised when he killed Dumbledore, because I thought the good guys would pull another Hail Mary, like they'd done in every prior book, but even as Harry was running after him, I knew that Snape had to have been acting under Dumbledore's orders.
So, having rejected the premise that Snape was "evil," everything else we are told about Snape becomes suspect. As a reader, you just have to question stories told by such obviously biased people as Sirius. Lupin's detachment fooled me, though. I tended to take his stories as objective--or, as we here in the US love to say, "fair and balanced."
Snape's Worst Memory, in OotP, is meant, I think, to turn everything we think about Snape and the Marauders upsidedown. Even Harry realizes at that point that Snape couldn't possibly have deserved being ambushed like that by TWO bullies. It's odder to me that people still kept thinking of Snape as a bad person after that point, when JKR seemed to be demanding we start looking at Snape/Marauders as a parallel to Harry/Dudley's gang.
On a personal/fan level, I spent two years arguing--like someone's life depended on it!--that despite having murdered Dumbledore, Snape was definitely on the good guys' side. That made me tremendously sympathetic to Snape in all things. Once you start down that road... it's like realizing that Dumbledore left Harry with the abusive Dursleys for ten years. You can't help but picking everything apart.
So... James. We don't know that James was "allowed to brag." We don't know that he did or didn't. We only know that someone told Lily about Snape nearly getting killed by... something... under the Willow tree. And that James saved him. This is because Lily uses that information to beat Snape with when he complains about James being as bad as Snape's Future Death Eater friends.
We have no record of what James's reaction was to the prank, except for the fact that he saved Snape. All we know is that some time after the Prank occurred, he felt no qualms in attacking Snape (in order to entertain Sirius) in a very public setting. (So, he had no fear that any teachers would come and get him in trouble.)
The idea of James coming down on Sirius for playing the Prank is pure fanfic (or fanwank, in the case of essays). It's logical to assume that he would do that, so it's not delusional.
So, why did James save Snape? We really don't know. We're free to assume the best or the worst of James at that moment in his life. The only thing we can't assume is that James was changed into a better person because he realized the Marauder's recklessness nearly killed somebody. Unless that change happened long after the fact, which is possible, but makes little dramatic sense.
Does that help?
no subject
Date: 2010-05-31 12:27 am (UTC)Does that help?
Yes it does, thank you.
I never had much interest in Snape when I read the books - I reserved my 'passion' for Hermione :-) - all I knew was that he was something of a b*st*rd, a nasty bloke. Picking on schoolchildren, hating Harry for superficially looking like James and so forth.
And there's no disputing that Snape was a bad guy back in the first war - dark magic, that Death Eater thing.
Still, I always assumed that Snape was on the good guys' side the second time around, although Rowling's writing and plots got too thin for me to really be engaged by the time it got to the last two books. Snape led a tortured existence, suffered under the returned Riddle as a double spy for years, all due to his memories of a girl who'd not only spurned his 'love' 20 years earlier but also married his worst enemy and borne him a son? Snape never weakened once, was never attracted to another woman, never had a moment where he caved? This was the sole reason why Dumbledore trusted Snape with the lives of everyone in the Order? Yeah, right. Rowling didn't write the Snape side of all that with anything like enough depth for me to believe it.
Her setting up the other 'side' was equally vaporous. Everyone in the Order trusted Snape because "Dumbledore says so". Snape kills Dumbledore. OMG HE'S A BAD GUY! Ugh. I just couldn't get 'into' the series by that point; the idea of Dumbledore running the show single-handedly, trusting no-one with any information, was just asinine. Rowling had some good ideas at the start but she just wasn't up to finishing what she started with any sort of competence.
Unlike others I never had much doubt as to Snape's true allegiance at the end of HBP; I was pretty sure he was a good guy. A nasty, bitter bloke but still toeing Dumbledore's line. Although, as I said, the reason for his motivation through all this, when finally unveiled in DH, rang quite flat.
I never picked up on the details of Snape's early days with the Marauders much when I read the books, and that's where the discussions here and your post just now have been quite useful, thank you. But while James turned out to be a bully - and I guess there's room to argue that he never 'changed into a better person', then, if it's only biased folk like Lupin who tells us this, is that the idea? - Snape still was the one who decided to go bad back then, you know, despite Lily urging him not to. Still, it's clear that he *had* turned into a better person by the end of the series, which is something I didn't really realise or care about until recently.
no subject
Date: 2010-05-31 03:05 pm (UTC)You have fallen for Dumbledore's propaganda! Dark magic is a tool like any other. Like a knife, fire or a gun - can be used for legitimate or illegitimate uses, but should always be handled with caution. The entire student body of Durmstrang learns Dark magic as a part of their regular schooling yet they don't seem to have had a Dark Lord since 1945, and even those who fought against Grindelwald, like Krum's grandfather, were students of the Dark Arts.
Most Dark spells have legitimate uses. I bet many readers of this discussion would have loved it had Draco Imperioed Buckbeak into not attacking him. Which does not mean such spells can be thrown around thoughtlessly. But the same is true for non-Dark spells.
However sometime in the history of Wizarding Britain the Dark Arts came to be demonized by a fraction of the population. I don't know when this happened but it definitely was before Tom Riddle's school days. I'm guessing around the time the headmastership passed from Phineas Black to Dippet. Then the first war, especially as it intensified, caused much of the public to associate Dark Arts with Voldemort's terrorism, so that Rita Skeeter can use accusations of Dark Wizardry to delegitimize Harry and later Dumbledore.
Tell me something: James learns the popular spell Levicorpus. How does he know if it is a Dark spell or not if he never studied the Dark Arts? It doesn't look worse than other spells he already uses so he decides it can't be Dark?
no subject
Date: 2010-05-31 11:59 pm (UTC)and Slytherins.Was Levicorpus classified as a dark spell? 'Cause if not I don't see the relevance of the question.
While *some* spells might be borderline ambiguous I'd say that there would be definite magic which is inarguably DARK/bad, no discussion, full stop. So the probability was that Snape was playing around with that.
no subject
Date: 2010-06-01 12:14 am (UTC)Krum learned Dark magic. Was he a bad person? Krum's grandfather learned Dark Magic. He fought Grindelwald. Neither Arthur nor Amos Diggory laugh Crouch Sr in the face when he speaks of his hatred of the Dark Arts and those who engage in them - such as his Aurors who performed Unforgivables under his own orders? And Xeno tells the kids the Hallows are not Dark in the crude sense. This implies they are Dark in some non-crude sense - the one that doesn't equate darkness with badness. Which also means that Dumbledore gave 11 year old Harry a Dark artifact (and another one when Harry was 17, but that one was intended to be used at his death).
I don't know if Levicrpus is dark or not. Neither do I know if unaided flying is dark or not. Or a whole lot of other things. I'm convinced that if Dumbledore really did put a spell on 4PD that derived from Lily's sacrificial death then that spell was Dark.
no subject
Date: 2010-06-01 02:02 am (UTC)But then, I've been defining Dark magic as chaotic, and dangerous to try to control since the 3-year summer. As a definition, it works better than Rowling's "whatever I want to pretend I disapprove of in this scene".
no subject
Date: 2010-06-01 02:11 am (UTC)That's a good way of putting it.
no subject
Date: 2010-06-01 04:17 am (UTC)That is obviously what we are supposed to think, but, as so often with Rowling, it doesn't jibe with what we are shown. What are we shown?
1. That every wizard in the WW, without exception, is prejudiced against Muggles. Muggleborns are - well, Muggleborn. To be prejudiced against them is, unfortunately, a logical extrapolation of Wizarding attitudes. And we see that Severus and Tom Riddle are, unlike most Wizards, capable of logic.
2. Young Sev is, it seems, quite bitterly prejudiced against Muggles - probably as a result of his own experience. He is not, as a child, prejudiced against Muggleborns. So why would the Slytherin/Death Eater agenda ever have appealed to him?
3. Maybe for the reason it appealed to young Regulus. If Wizards are better than Muggles, why should they hide from them? Reg thought Voldemort wanted to rule over Muggles (and Muggleborns, one supposes). Not nice - I don't approve - but it has nothing to do with murder. Also=
4. As Cardigrl has pointed out, Lily was apparently attracted to a rich, bullying, pureblood. Sev - an impoverished halfblood - might just have joined the Death Eaters because he was ambitious and thought they could help him get ahead. If he were wealthy and powerful, he might be able to protect Lily, and maybe even win her back.
5. But number 4 is speculation, of course. It makes a certain amount of sense, but we don't even have to go there. We know for a fact that the so-called "good guys" quite literally threw young Sev to the wolves. It was abundantly clear to him that Dumbledore didn't care whether he lived or died. Wouldn't that outrage you, when you were 16? Wouldn't you be strongly inclined to work against a man who treated you so coldly? Who wasn't even concerned for your life, much less your soul?
Just something to consider. I really loathe Dumbledore, after DH. I really do.
I have more to say on exactly why Wizards might fear Muggleborns, but it's quite speculative. Might get a short essay up on Snapedom in a month or so, depending on whether I have time for it.
no subject
Date: 2010-05-31 05:08 pm (UTC)I must say that Dumbledore doesn't help James' case when later in POA he compares Harry's saving Peter to James saving Severus when he tells Harry that James too wouldn't have wanted his friends to become murderers. Because here, even as Dumbledore knows how Severus turned out he tells Harry that 16 year old Severus didn't deserve to live more than 33 year old Peter, who had betrayed his friends and was already on his way to bring Voldemort back, that all that mattered was that Sirius and Remus not become tainted with murder. Essentially confirming Sirius' 'served him right'. So whether this was James' motivation or not, Dumbledore believes it was and stands by it.