PoA Chapter Eighteen

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

I'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

Comments

[oryx_leucoryx]

What makes you think it was Lily's attraction to James that sent Severus to Tom's circle? How about Dumbledore's betrayal when he basically told Severus his life wasn't worth preserving? (Or are you following Rowling's extra-canon about him trying to impress Lily?)

[madderbrad.livejournal.com]

I don't recall Rowling's interview factoid at all; and I don't regard Rowling's post-publication propaganda as formal canon in any case.

All I know is that Snape became a Death Eater after Lily rejected him (and I'm fuzzy even on that; did Snape become a DE while still at school? Or only fall in with the Slytherins bad guys?). While I think we can assume that the fair Lily would have kept Snape on the straight and narrow path - and so her absence made it easier for him to turn to the dark side - you're right, Snape was learning dark magic and fraternising with the bad guys even before Lily became history.

[oryx_leucoryx]

What we know is as following: Severus was friends with Mulciber and Avery by the time of the Shack. Around that time Mulciber played some Dark Magic prank on Mary Macdonald outside of Severus' view. Severus thought it was funny, Lily thought it was evil. Sirius played a Dark prank on Severus. Sirius thought it was funny, Remus may have been somewhat troubled after the fact but not by much.

Severus invented Levicorpus, which everyone thought was hilarious as long as they weren't on the receiving end (and didn't know who the source was). Severus invented or found Sectumsempra. At the time of SWM James claims to Lily Severus' 'crime' was existing, not 'being into evil stuff' so I don't think Severus used Sectumsempra or anything stronger than what most students did until that day. Later that day Lily accuses Severus of wanting to join Voldemort.

We do not know when Severus or any of his friends actually joined in.

[condwiramurs.livejournal.com]

Or what precisely they actually thought they were joining. (Not that it could be seen as a GOOD thing objectively, but what did they actually expect would happen and what was the context?) Sirius' family, an influential socially-acceptable family, apparently thought Voldie 'had the right ideas.' Regulus Black (whom one would expect to be more knowledgeable about such things than a poor half-blood living in a Muggle town) thought that at most they would be ruling the Muggles, not slaughtering people en mass.

RE Muggleborns, given how little we see them participating meaningfully in wizarding society during the books and the fact that major families could openly be prejudiced without losing status: it's doubtful that the pro-equality view is the social default.

And every single person in the WW that we see thinks it's perfectly ok to treat Muggles as lesser life-forms. It's merely a question of degree: it ranges from 'don't torture them unnecessarily, but it is fine to mind-wipe them for our convenience,' to classifying them as animals that can be hunted. Ruling over them openly is perhaps a bit towards the latter end of the spectrum there, but not that extreme compared to the social default in the WW. And it's never claimed that Voldie was considered particularly dangerous by the Ministry for his views on blood, merely his views on who ought to be running things and his methods for achieving that (terrorism).

[the-bitter-word.livejournal.com]

Severus invented Levicorpus, which everyone thought was hilarious as long as they weren't on the receiving end (and didn't know who the source was). Severus invented or found Sectumsempra. At the time of SWM James claims to Lily Severus' 'crime' was existing, not 'being into evil stuff' so I don't think Severus used Sectumsempra or anything stronger than what most students did until that day. Later that day Lily accuses Severus of wanting to join Voldemort.

Pure speculation:
* He might have invented Levicorpus as either a trial flying spell, or to catch-up people following him with some means he couldn't fathom (like a spelled map).
* I wonder if he invented Sectumsempra to injure werewolves in particular, but the timing is probably off, too soon after The Prank.
* I think Lily accusing Severus of wanting to join Voldemort might have been guilt by association, i.e., his being in Slytherin with Slytherin friends. He doesn't deny it, but he really doesn't have a chance to say much and he's rather inarticulate as an adolescent. In any case, it's probably pure conjecture on Lily's part, since I doubt he brags about wanting to join Voldemort to her.

[montavilla.livejournal.com]

Heh. Sorry to bring in the extra-canonical interview stuff, but I feel compelled because it's so WTF.

According to an interview, Voldemort actually tried to recruit both James and Lily. Which is just absurd, because if your whole political plank is let's oppress the Muggleborn, who "stole" their magic from real wizards, why the hell would you want to recruit them? If that was a stated goal, why the hell would they join you?

But if Voldemort did try to recruit Lily, then it's easier to imagine that Snape might have been idiotic enough to think that a) a poor halfblood like himself could gain power through the Death Eaters and b) it might impress a girl if he did. Of course, it's made pretty obvious right there in canon that there was no way in hell it was going to gain him Lily's approval--unless Snape was employing Peter Pettigrew logic. You know, that the best and most impressive thing you can do is to join the biggest bullies on the block.

Yeah, that's the way to get girls!

[oryx_leucoryx]

Well, she did go for the biggest bully at school, didn't she? Though why would Severus want her if he believed that to ahve been her reason to choose James?

[the-bitter-word.livejournal.com]

Ugh, interview canon. Unlike others, I don't dismiss it out of hand, but I wish I could because so much of it derives from flippancy and misdirection.

This recruiting statement came out of a question about "defied three times," didn't it? And their refusing to join was "defiance." You're right that it makes no sense to try to recruit a Pureblood who famously *hates* Dark Magic and spirits a noble scion away from a high-profile Dark family, or a Muggleborn whose existence negates your whole public platform, no matter how talented and special she is, no matter much how your genius Half-Blood wants her, no matter that you suddenly fancy collecting Gryffindors since Pettigrew was such a gem, or whatever. We don't even know when this recruitment was supposed to have taken place or who carried it out (fun to speculate, though), just as we don't know when Severus finally decided Death Eating was just the thing for him. In summary... I agree that recruiting James and Lily made no sense.

But if Voldemort did try to recruit Lily, then it's easier to imagine that Snape might have been idiotic enough to think that a) a poor halfblood like himself could gain power through the Death Eaters and b) it might impress a girl if he did.

What the avowed attempt to recruit James and Lily shows me is the Voldemort was idiotic, to use the JKR term. But, if Voldemort did offer Lily and James a place in his organization, I suppose he might have seemed like a reasonable person to Severus no matter what he said when recruiting new members or how those members behaved towards Muggleborns. I know at Hogwarts Voldemort told students that those with magical powers had nothing to fear from him (paraphrasing), yet his agents long before instituted a pogrom against Muggleborns. Did anyone believe Voldemort in DH? Why would Snape believe such a contradiction at an earlier time? Why would he even want Lily to be a part of the Death Eaters, where JKR said he "saw things" I'm sure he wouldn't want her to see -- or have James join, someone who would never slither out of action but rather outshine him in committing atrocities? Again, it doesn't make a lot of sense.

I think Severus was probably many things, isolated, poor, unappreciated, frustrated in ambition, let-down by the official magical world, and idiotic about people, even the girl he'd known for years. So, yeah, he could have thought that a) he could get ahead with the Death Eaters (which turned out to be true), and b) being powerful and on the winning side was going to impress Lily some day, especially if it saved her life (and had Voldemort kept his word, she would have lived, but probably wouldn't have been impressed). It sounds so stupid, so childish, but the desperate or naive often clutch at straws and believe the ridiculous. And once in, it's hard to get out, it's easy to tell yourself lies (I recommend Killing Rage for a real-life story about this). To his credit, Severus didn't seem to be fooled by Voldemort's lies for long.

[oryx_leucoryx]

The pro-Rowlings explained to me that recruiting James and Lily was supposed to be an act of propaganda, to show that he had broken the best and the brightest of the resistance, or perhaps to show he wasn't really against all Muggleborns, only the 'bad' ones. Shrug.

[oryx_leucoryx]

* I wonder if he invented Sectumsempra to injure werewolves in particular, but the timing is probably off, too soon after The Prank.

There was also the speculation, based on whitehound's essay that Severus invented or adopted Sectumsempra because it left injuries similar to those caused by a knife and could therefore be used (whether aggressively or defensively) against Muggles without raising suspicion that strange things (ie magic) were involved.

[the-bitter-word.livejournal.com]

That's an interesting essay. I loved the description of Severus as a boy who carried a knife. I had a roommate who was an honor student and a working homeowner in high school, at the same time she nearly got expelled because she carried a knife. Not everyone comes from a great neighborhood.

My question about the development of Sectumsempra as a weapon against Muggles: why would Wizard Supremacists want to hide the fact that they can use magic against those they consider inferior, mere trifles for wizards to brush aside? I can see where Severus wouldn't want to attract the attention of Muggles as it would violate the laws of secrecy. But, if the spell was developed by Severus, why would he specifically designate Muggles as "enemies?"

Naturally, it goes without saying that the Muggle Threat is an idea that JKR totally failed to develop, even suggesting it never existed.

[oryx_leucoryx]

why would Wizard Supremacists want to hide the fact that they can use magic against those they consider inferior, mere trifles for wizards to brush aside? I can see where Severus wouldn't want to attract the attention of Muggles as it would violate the laws of secrecy. But, if the spell was developed by Severus, why would he specifically designate Muggles as "enemies?"

Think of the neighborhood he lived in. The enemies may have been knife-wielding gang members.