Deathly Hallows, chapter 20

[anehan]

Xenophilius Lovegood

* Ron is elated, because someone is on their side! Someone is helping them! Oh, how I would love to see his face when he realized it was Snape all along.

* One Horcrux down! says Ron. If I were him, I wouldn't be quite so cheerful about it. It's past Christmas already, and they haven't made any progress beyond destroying that one Horcrux.

* The Trio gets back to discussing the possible locations of the Horcruxes, despite the fact that they have already discussed that subject to death. Only now it's somehow different, because they've got someone helping them! Rejoice!

* Oh yeah, the Taboo. One more thing in which Dumbledore did Harry a disservice was to encourage him to use Voldemort's name. He should have known it was possible to track someone by what they say. Names apparently have power.

* But if names do have power, why haven't we ever heard of magic done using names before? Or have we and I'm just not remembering it? I'm reminded of the Wizard of Earthsea that handles the power of naming things very well.

* I think Ron's hope that it was Dumbledore who was helping them with the doe and the sword is not at all consistent with Dumbledore's character. It's true that Dumbledore liked to be mysterious and not give straight answers, but he also liked to get credit for what he did. Anonymity wouldn't be Dumbledore's choice at all. No, anonymity spells Severus Snape so clearly that I'm surprised Hermione at least doesn't figure it out. It's not that Snape doesn't want recognition but that he's used to going without it.

* BTW, does anyone know whether Snape got an Order of Merlin posthumously? Has Rowling said anything about it? Or is the only tribute to him the name of Harry Potter's second son, a name he has to share with that old bastard, Dumbledore? *gags*

* Of course Hermione would recognize what Harry's new wand was made of. What wouldn't our know-it-all know. Probably she was a joiner or carpenter in her former life.

* Harry has forgotten Ron's fear of spiders. I think that's quite a feat, considering their adventure is CoS. Just goes to show how much attention Harry pays to his best friend.

* I think Harry is unfair in comparing a visit to Xenophilius Lovegood with their visit to Godric's Hollow. Hermione has a perfectly valid reason to see Mr Lovegood, whereas Harry just wanted to visit his parents' grave in Godric's Hollow. As if he couldn't have done it after the war was over. Or before it started. But no, he had to get a burning desire to do it in the middle of a war. Really, sometimes I feel the poor boy's brain has been permanently damaged by the connection to Voldemort.

* Harry asks if the symbol was important, wouldn't Dumbledore have told him about it before he died. Really, the boy is addle-brained. Has he already forgotten how many important things Dumbledore did not tell him? Like the location of the Horcruxes or how to destroy them?

* Mr Lovegood doesn't want them to come in. Warning bells ring! Except in the minds of the Trio.

* Of course the know-it-all has to make an issue of the Erumpent horn, as if she could afford to alienate Mr Lovegood.

* Oh no, Harry is getting sentimental over Ginny. And I thought we had been spared this when he passed the Burrow without getting maudlin.

* Ah, let's bludgeon us with the fact that Xenophilius Lovegood is eccentric. Wrackspurts, Gurdyroots. Plimpsies. What else? It's really getting very tiresome.

* Really, if Mr Lovegood's reluctance in helping them hadn't given them a warning, then the fact that Luna didn't immediately come to meet them should have given them a clue that not everything was as it should have been.

* Another chapter in which nothing happened. I don't really know why I bother to do these recaps when you can't even get anything juicy out of the chapters because they are so boring.

Comments

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

In Ron's defense, maybe he doesn't know they only have until June to do all this. For all he knows they've got years. Though I guess that's even more reason for him to be scared at how long it's taking.

I wouldn't be surprised, if Snape got any Orders of Merlin, it was because Harry got it for him. Thus Snape's accolades become symbols of Harry's being a great guy. The minute he found out Snape loved his mother Snape became like Neville to him.

[tdotm.livejournal.com]

Did JKR not mention that Snape wasn't automatically granted a Headmaster's portrait because he abandoned the job, however GoldenPolyJuiceBoy *insisted* that he got one?

Also, Neville was 100 x the hero that Harry was. Not least because he followed a character arc where he started a shambling wreck and ended a courageous hero. Harry? Um.....

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

I think she did say that. Which completely goes against what we've seen previously--nobody had to argue for Dumbledore to get a portrait, it just appeared magically. If the office could magically understand that Umbridge didn't deserve to be headmaster you'd think it would be able to tell about Snape too. It seems a bit overkill to have to put it all on Harry, especially since it's not like he didn't announce Snape's heroism to the whole WW in his expository speech.

[seductivedark.livejournal.com]

...especially since it's not like he didn't announce Snape's heroism to the whole WW in his expository speech.

And in the heart of the castle itself. The string of post-DHs questions and answers about Snape just seem to dodge, dodge, dodge until she guages her audience correctly, and then she still had to make it Harry's doing.

[eri1980b.livejournal.com]

I totally agree with you. Its almost as if she doesn't want anyone to like him, therefore always brings it back to Harry. Snape was an undercover agent haunted by past mistakes. Harry was just a tool.

[seductivedark.livejournal.com]

Its almost as if she doesn't want anyone to like him...

Almost?

...therefore always brings it back to Harry.

...the only one in the WW who can get things done through the Power of Total Inaction.

Snape was an undercover agent haunted by past mistakes.

A much more nuanced take than simply pining over a dead woman for a decade or two.

Harry was just a tool.

Swinging from Dumbledore's belt.

[seductivedark.livejournal.com]

:D

As was said downthread, some characters get away from authorial constraints and this is one who did.

[seductivedark.livejournal.com]

I thought it might have been you but I was too lazy to check. It's still true. I've written, never published anything but a poem (and some fanfic), but even poems have a way of getting away from you and taking on independent life.

Regret makes much more sense. People get over unrequited crushes. IMO, he knew the possibility was nullified when he and Lily talked outside of Gryffindor after he called her a Mudblood. He should have known - but who ever wants to recognize something like this - that she had already walked away from him when she had to hide a snicker when James & Co. upended him. He just needed something to kick-start his brain, I guess. His own action would be a good catalyst.

We don't always get over regret. Especially over something as horrific as getting someone killed. Especially an old friend. Even if that friend is no longer cordial. Things I could have done differently can make my stomach churn almost as good as ipecac and, as far as I know, my actions have never led to a death.

[seductivedark.livejournal.com]

(My remark about inducing vomiting, by the way, was a snarky aside regarding the romanticizing of the "unrequited love" motif in literature, not an observation about the power of either unrequited love or regret to make us physically ill.)

Yeah, I know, but I thought I'd run with it anyway. :)

Thoughts?

Yes, absolutely on the love or crush turning to hatred. It happens all the time. But we get over it, see other people, and finally assess things as they really were, not as we wished them to be, and realize that maybe this wasn't the best pairing. Joining a group would help the separation process. Not that the DEs are the best group but, refocusing on advancement and, as you say, what one can get out of the experience, one can stop obsessing on the lost relationship and move on to other things. That's why parents redirect and keep kids occupied.

A loner would more than likely make up a "social story" to go along with the separation and the (transitory) hate. I think Severus was a loner. See Petunia's reaction to him - he's weird, he's that Snape kid from Spinner's End. Probably got that from almost all the kids in town.

In the end, Lily shared a part of his life that no one else shared. You really can't go back "home," that is, to childhood again. The mores of society change, the music changes, the shared culture changes, the people age, move on, die. The possibilities of childhood are endless and unhindered, not narrowed, by subsequent choices. The person who shared all of that has a special place in one's life. That person cannot be replaced. When Lily of all people was targeted, all of those irrational emotional strings were pulled at once. It's deeper than just a friend who didn't share a special time getting targeted and killed - this is the friend of innocent childhood, absolutely. She is irreplaceable. Even if she no longer exists in the form Severus once knew, she carries all of that with the mention of her. The later stuff - the rejection, the growing apart, the hooking up with the enemy, all of that, can't stand against those early and primal memories.

And, Merlin, she died. Because of something he did. As Claudius says in Hamlet: O heavy burthen!

[condwiramurs.livejournal.com]

(jumping in REALLY late ;-) )

I totally agree with both of you. I also think that, in addition to the connection with his childhood, Severus also probably strongly associated Lily with magic itself - something he seems to care about very much in the books. Magic offered him (it seemed) a way out of the dullness and misery of the Muggle milltown and his Muggle father, it was something he was *good* at and could take pride in. We saw how he devoted himself to studying it. I would bet that Lily on some level also symbolized to him his innocent hopes for magic and his connection to that side of himself he could justifiably feel good about.

I also figure his repressed anger at Lily goes quite a ways towards explaining his treatment of Harry (beyond the similarities in *behavior* between Harry and James, usually behavior which would piss him off coming from anyone).

[seductivedark.livejournal.com]

Harry started out as a child who reacts, sometimes too quickly, and ends up being a mushroom. Neville took action, rallied the troops, fought a resistance without the support Harry had through the Order and that joke of a resistance broadcast, and killed the snake. Neville rules.

[anehan]

I wouldn't be surprised, if Snape got any Orders of Merlin, it was because Harry got it for him. Thus Snape's accolades become symbols of Harry's being a great guy.

More than likely. After all, Harry is the only one who knows about Snape's true loyalties, and it would be just like Rowling to make it really All About Harry. I would infinitely prefer Snape going without recognition rather than have Harry be all Noble about getting him it.

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

It's really hilarious when you think about it from that angle. Because remember the first "explanation" we get about Snape is in PS/SS where Dumbledore explains how he hated James so much because he saved his life. And JKR really knows about that kind of hatred--it's related to the way Dumbledore tells us to view Percy, not forgiving his father for being "right." (As usual glossing over any of the ways he was wrong.)

So with Snape for many books he's this guy who hates James for saving his life because it killed him to owe a debt, especially a life debt, to a guy he hated. Then in the end part of the happy ending is practically all of Snape's reputation resting on Harry's goodwill. Harry, naturally, feels so such hatred at the idea that Snape saved his bacon--DH carefully has Harry pretty much forget his hatred in time for him to be magnanimous about it without even needing a transition. But Snape not only owes his life to James and spends his life having to look after his brat, he spends the rest of his afterlife being graciously forgiven for it by James' son.

[anehan]

That is a rather comforting view of Snape. I would love it to be true. He certainly deserves some peace.