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

[condwiramurs.livejournal.com]

I'm not. I doubt JKR sees herself as having the less savory aspects of the bourgeoisie (or on the other hand, doesn't acknowledge them as faults/prejudices). So she can happily project all of her worst impulses onto Petunia, and mock them, without having to interrogate her own attitudes. (I doubt this is a very conscious process, though.) It's a natural human tendency to do exactly this.

[charlottehywd.livejournal.com]

While it may be a natural human tendency, I admit that I find it to be more than a little creepy.

[charlottehywd.livejournal.com]

On the other hand, I actually find Petunia to be somewhat sympathetic, what with her supposedly perfect, adored by all sister. I can definitely see why she would be less than kind to her nephew, even though I don't condone her behavior.

Am I the only one who feels sympathy for Petunia?

[oryx_leucoryx]

I think Terri writes a sympathetic Petunia in her Unlikely Allies series as well as related fics.

[condwiramurs.livejournal.com]

I feel for her too. She obviously knows at least enough to know that *someone* dangerous, and magical, is out to harm Harry - which means all of her family is in the line of fire. She's clearly terrified, and even the so-called good guy wizards treat her like dogshit, starting with Dumbledore's letter and assumption that *of course* she'll just put her family in danger for the sake of the sister who abandoned her, no need to actually knock on the door and talk to her like she was human first. She's in a terrible place, with basically no real support and no way of defending herself and her family. That will warp you, certainly. Doesn't mean what she does is ok, but I fully empathize with her. (Also, you should check out raisin-gal's Ode to Petunia Dursley for a bit of meta on this subject.)

[charlottehywd.livejournal.com]

Pretty much this. Really, she had no real reason to keep Harry rather than giving him up for foster care other than because she was (presumably) threatened. Again, I'm not condoning what she does, but no wonder she seems to hate Harry. The whole situation is just all kinds of messed up.