HBP Chapter Two: "Spinner's End"

[for-diddled.livejournal.com]

* So it turns out Snape lives in a dilapidated northern ex-industrial town. Hmm. Somehow I just can’t get my head around GrittyWorkingClass!Snape. Still, at least I can amuse myself by imagining him saying all his lines in a Yorkshire accent.

* So Bellatrix AKs the fox and kills it. I thought you had to really feel the hatred in order to cast an Unforgiveable properly? Maybe fear is a good enough motivator as well. Or she thought it was an Auror, and her hatred for them meant she could do the curse. Although “I thought perhaps it was an Auror” makes it sound like she wasn’t really sure. Maybe Bella just hates everything.

* “We must be the first of our kind ever to set foot—” Interesting. So apparently Bellatrix doesn’t consider half-bloods like Snape to be “real” wizards, and apparently Eileen didn’t count either – anybody know what her blood status was? I’d thought that she was a Pureblood, though I’m not sure where I got this from – if she was, then maybe Bella considers her to have forfeited her magical status by running off with a Muggle.

* “The place had an air of neglect, as though it were not usually inhabited.” So, is this because Snape only lives here during the school holidays, or does he normally spend the holidays in Hogwarts, and the house seems neglected because he doesn’t live here at all? I suppose it would make sense for Snape to live in Hogwarts – his room there is probably nicer than Spinner’s End – but I’m not sure why he’d have suddenly started living out.

* Snape lives with Wormtail, apparently without killing or seriously harming him, even though Wormtail betrayed Lilly to her death. So, either Snape doesn’t know who betrayed the Potters, or he’s got a really impressive amount of self-control, or the whole Lilly thing was just an explanation to give to Harry.

* Wormtail’s storyline in the later books makes no sense. For one thing, why did he go back to Voldemort? JK Rowling wants us to believe that only Voldemort could keep him safe, but why not just find a Muggle family to live with? Or a family of foreign wizards? I doubt that, say, the Japanese would know the story of Peter Pettigrew, so he’d probably be safe there.

* And the way everybody treats him with total contempt is unrealistic too. Finding and resurrecting Voldemort was quite an achievement. He ought to be given (at least grudging) fear and respect, not scornful rejection.

* And the cowardice charge seems a bit off after GOF. Cutting off his own hand as part of a magical ceremony? Eek. I know I couldn’t do that.

* Also, WTF is up with everybody calling him “Wormtail”? Why use his childhood nickname, instead of his actual name?

* I don’t know why, but the elf-made wine just seems really jarring to me. Maybe because all the other mentions of elves make them out to be low-status menial servants, not high-quality vintners. It sort of reads like JKR has just ripped something out of another fantasy world and put it here without thinking about whether it was really consistent with what she’d written elsewhere – or, to put it another way, like mediocre fan fiction.

* Most of Bellatrix’s reasons for distrusting Snape actually have a really obvious answer. He was spying on Dumbledore, so he couldn’t do anything too suspicious else he’d blow his cover. Duh.

* “And – forgive me – speaking of dangers… you were facing six teenagers, were you not?” Ooh, burn. Although as fun as it is to see Snape verbally bitchslapping people like this, I can’t help but think it would be better if rather than having characters mock the villains for their incompetence, JK Rowling had just written less incompetent villains.

* The same applies with Snape’s screed against Harry’s ineptness and extraordinary good luck. Whilst it’s nice to have a character acknowledge this for once, it would be even nicer to have a more intelligent protagonist.

* So… apparently the half-blood Snape is “Draco’s favourite teacher”, “Lucius’ old friend”, “the Dark Lord’s favourite, his most trusted advisor” – even allowing for a bit of exaggeration here, can you imagine a Jew being told something like this in fascist Germany? No, neither can I. Surprisingly tolerant bad guys 1, pasted-on Nazi analogies 0.

* Sooo, with the Unbreakable Vows… who gets to decide whether Snape is really helping Draco “to the best of his ability”? Or whether it seems that Draco will fail at his task? Is that the Bonder’s job?

Comments

[maidofkent.livejournal.com]

Snape as working-class Northerner definitely works for me, though I'd put his accent on the other side of the Pennines.

Re Bellatrix's comment and her view of Eileen, it's clear that Bella's never been to Spinners End before, so she might not realise this was Snape's childhood home, as opposed to a place that he moved to in later years. However, as you suggest, 'our kind' may simply mean 'pure-blood witches who haven't demeaned themselves by marrying Muggles'.

I'd always assumed that Severus would have known that Pettigrew was the Potters' betrayer from the end of Harry's third year onwards, that Dumbledore would eventually have explained things to him, though perhaps that was expecting too much. However, it would be difficult for Severus not to put to and two together when he saw Pettigrew with Voldemort. As to Severus's attitude to Pettigrew, I think that one reason why he had been placed with him at Spinners End was precisely so that Voldemort could see how Severus behaved towards Lily's betrayer, and Severus' self-control was one of the reasons for Voldemort accepting that Severus had 'desired her, that was all'. After all, Pettigrew had probably given Voldemort a run-down on how Severus was beside himself when confronted with Lily's supposed betrayer, Sirius, in the Shrieking Shack, and Severus would have had to pass that off as anger at his boyhood enemy. And that history probably does explain one reason why Severus is able to exercise self-control - Sirius was his attacker, the one who almost got him killed by a werewolf, whereas Pettigrew was simply a creepy hanger-on.

[hwyla.livejournal.com]

I agree that at least a part of Snape's 'lack of control' in the Shrieking Shack over Sirius is not 'just' about Lily's death. The attempted murder (as Snape sees it) of the Werewolf Incident certainly helps fuel it, however I think that a great deal of it is brought on by Snape's belief that Sirius is out to kill Harry, whom Snape has promised to protect.

One would think that would help Snape keep his cool, but I think this is one of the clues of just how much Snape had come to care for Harry - whether he would admit it to himself or not. Part of all that anger I think is that of enraged protective 'parent' seeing their 'child' in what they believe is utmost danger.

And even then, Snape manages to stay pretty composed. At least IN the Shack. It isn't until later (after the probable concussion and multiple head knocks) that Snape loses it up at Hogwarts.

[nx74defiant.livejournal.com]

When Narcissa starts to tell Severus why she came, he stops her and opens a door with a bang and Wormtail scurries away.

Then Snape says "My apologies, He has lately taken to listening at doors, I don't know what he means by it...You were saying Narcissa?"

I'd say Snape knows exactly what Peter is up to and knows a slip in front of Peter would be disastrous.

[hwyla.livejournal.com]

Yes - he's warning Narcissa (& Bella) that Peter's listening in.