Deathy Hallows Chapter 33
Dec. 22nd, 2009 06:42 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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deathtocapslockSorry about getting this posted to late. It’s the holidays. Plus, I had to cut it down—I tended to go on and on in this chapter. I’m sure that surprises no one.
But you’d think this would be my favorite chapter. After all, we’re getting all of Snape’s backstory. Be careful what you ask for...
The Prince’s Tale
Just like the last chapter started with Fred being dead, this one starts with Snape lying lifeless on the floor as Harry stares at him.
Before Harry can actually form a thought, Voldemort’s voice comes echoing with a speech for the Hogwarts’ troops. He starts by praising their bravery—which seems generous, considering that he’s whupping them so badly. He offers mercy to those who stop resisting him and gives everyone an hour to bury their dead.
Then he speaks directly to Harry. Well, he’s still doing the loud voice thing, so everybody gets to eavesdrop, but he tells Harry to come andget killed talk things over. If Harry doesn’t show up, then Voldemort will come out and personally slaughter everyone. Harry has one hour to make up his mind.
As they go across the lawn, Harry notes that it’s about an hour until dawn and that it’s pitch black. Nevertheless, they can see small bundles lying on the grass and a clog the size of a small boat. Okay, you tell me how to reconcile a pitch-black darkness with being able to see small bundles and a giant shoe.
In the Great Hall, the Weasleys are grouped around Fred’s dead body. Harry notes that Ginny’s face is swollen and blotchy. Guess she does occasionally cry. When Harry isn’t around to admire her spunk.
Then Harry sees the bodies of Remus and Tonks “pale and still and peaceful-looking, apparently asleep beneath the dark, enchanted ceiling.” Now, that’s nice image. It makes me think of those stone effigy things you see in old churchs, with the sculpture of a knight. I think it’s dumb that they died, but I do like the image.
Harry reels back from the hall, overcome with guilt. If only I’d given myself up earlier, he thinks, then Fred might still be alive. Apparently, he doesn’t care about Remus or Tonks. But, of course, Harry didn’t even need to give himself up to prevent this carnage. He could have just stopped gaping at everyone like an idiot and found the Ravenclaw horcrux three hours ago. Or spent two minutes researching the alarm system in Hogsmeade so the Death Eaters didn’t immediately know when he arrived.
But note: Harry’s already thinking he ought to just go let Voldemort kill him in order to spare other people.
Harry gets into Dumbledore’s office by using the password Dumbledore, which is a big clue about Snape’s loyalties, and goes inside.
He notices that all the Headmaster portraits, including Dumbledore’s, have deserted the office in order to watch the fighting. Since the fighting is on hiatus, they’re probably watching Bewitched on Filch’s old black-and-while TV set.
What I notice is that there isn’t any portrait of Snape snoozing in the office. This is either a slap in the face to Snape fans or proof that he’s still alive.
Harry, in possibly the most contrived moment in the entire series, pours Snape’s memories into the Pensieve and decides to watch them in order to escape his guilty torment. Like Snape’s memories are going to be any comfort to Harry. As far as Harry knows, they’re probably just going to be filled with Harry failing potions exams or looking stupid.
Look, I know we have to do this. Even when I first read this, I knew the memories were going to contain key information. But does Harry’s reason for doing this have to be so stupid? Couldn’t he want to look at the memories on the hope that they just might contain something useful? Good or bad, this is Voldemort’s right-hand man, and he just got double-crossed. There’s a good chance he’s giving Harry a clue about defeating the Dark Lord. But nope. That would be too cunning or something. Harry needs a noble reason to watch the memories. And escapism is far more noble than trying to succeed.
So, Harry goes into the memories and finds himself in a park with a tall chimney in the background. We know, although Harry does not, that this must be Snape’s home town.
The Prince’s Tale is basically in three parts. This is the first part, which I will call The Prince and the Witch.
Two girls are swinging and little Snape is watching them from behind a clump of bushes. He’s described as wearing a man’s overcoat, too-short jeans, and a woman’s smock. So, Snape is an awkward, social outcast? Check.
Of course, anyone can guess at this point that the girls are Lily and Petunia. I have to say, though, that I was taken aback to see that they lived in this town. I got the feeling that they had grown up in more middle-class area. But maybe that’s why Petunia is so very status conscious as an adult.
Harry moves closer to little Snape and notes the “undisguised greed” as Snape watches Lily in particular. What a strange description that is. It really makes Snape seem like a creepy stalker here. Was that JKR’s intention? I’m not sure that it is, because she uses “greed” more than once when it comes to describing romantic attraction. She will even use “hungrily” when Lily looks at Harry later on. So, I’m not convinced that JKR intended the stalker vibe.
Or, it could be, as other readers have pointed out, that Harry interprets Snape’s look as “greedy” because he’s still in Snape hate mode. But I don’t think that Harry would have been looking at the memories at all in that case.
It’s kind of a shame that Ron and Hermione didn’t come along on this trip. Hermione could have told us all how to feel.
As Petunia shrieks her disapproval, Lily lets go of her swing at the highest point and flies up into the air, floating down far too lightly not to be using magic.
“Mummy said you weren’t allowed, Lily!” Petunia says, which brings up an interesting point. How is it that Mrs. Evans knows what Lily is doing—and knows that she shouldn’t be doing it publicly? If it were worth creating theories at this point in the series, I would have theorized that Mrs. Evans is actually a squib and thus knows enough about magic to realize what Lily’s up to and what it means.
But in that case, Lily wouldn’t need Snape to tell her about the magical world, so forget that.
Lily then picks up a flower and shows Petunia her ability to make it open and close at will. Petunia tells her to stop it, but asks with obvious envy how Lily does it.
This is Snape’s cue to come forward and tell Lily that she’s a witch. Lily takes this as an insult. Snape gets red in the face from embarrassment and Harry thinks the only reason Snape doesn’t take off his coat is to avoid revealing the smock underneath, which makes me wonder how it is that Harry saw the smock in the first place.
Lily runs to Petunia and Snape runs clumsily after her, trying to explain that he meant a real witch, who can do real magic. Petunia laughs at him, calling him that “Snape boy” and sneering that he lives down on Spinner’s End.
So, now we know that Spinner’s End is a street and not a town. Also that it’s worse than the other streets.
Petunia follows that up by accusing Snape of spying. He retorts that it’s not worth spying on a Muggle, and Petunia gets so mad she pulls Lily away towards their, presumably tonier, home.
At this point, the scene dissolves into another memory. It’s similar to when Dumbledore was storing all his old trial memories in the Pensieve back in GoF, but that seemed a lot more random. There is a definite structure to what Snape put into these memories. I choose to believe that he chose each one for a specific reason and hopefully left out the ones that showed his relationship with Lily in a better light.
Anyway, this memory is of Lily and Snape talking about what happens if you do magic outside of school. Lily wonders if Snape is just trying to impress her with a fantasy about this magical castle and all. Snape assures her that it’s not and that someone will come from Hogwarts to tell her and her parents all about it.
Lily asks if it will make a difference that she’s Muggleborn. Snape hesitates and then says that it won’t, then watches “greedily” as she stretches out on the ground to stare up at the leaves in the trees. Okay, maybe JKR is being deliberate about that stalker thing. Let’s see if he starts salivating.
Lily asks about Dementors and Petunia shows up and we finally learn that the “awful boy” was Snape. Hehe. I figured that one out years earlier.
Snape now accuses Petunia of spying and she retaliates by making fun of his smock. At this point, a branch on one of the trees breaks and strikes Petunia on the shoulder. Petunia runs off crying, Lily accuses Snape of hurting her with magic, and Snape denies it, but JKR is careful to point out that this is a lie—which is one of those key points of argument between Snape supporters and Snape detractors.
The supporters note that kids of that age can’t control their magic, and Snape might not really be lying about doing it. It was spontaneous, like Harry blowing up Aunt Marge. Detractors say this shows that Snape was a big fat liar, just like Voldemort and those invisible Slytherins.
Another dissolve and Snape is on the train platform, watching the Evans family say goodbye to Lily. Harry goes over to listen as Lily tells Petunia she’ll try to talk to Dumbledore and convince him to let Petunia come to the school, too. Petunia denies any desire to attend Hogwarts and calls the children “freaks.”
Lily tells Petunia that she knows about the letter Dumbledore sent her. Petunia is horrified that Lily read a private letter, and Lily sort of blames it on Snape by trying not to blame it on him. Brat.
I notice that in her explanation, Snape didn’t actually open the letter or anything. He just wondered how Petunia could have contacted Dumbledore without an owl and speculated about the postal service intercepting letters from Muggles addressed to wizards.
Heh. I just realized something. Harry spends this memory eavesdropping the Lily and Petuna—but Snape couldn’t possibly have heard them (he’s too far away). So, if Snape did choose this memory for a specific reason, we’ll never know what it is. Maybe he thought the story needed a background shot, the way that every movie about England starts with a shot of Big Ben.
Another dissolve: Snape is on the train and he finds Lily post-crying in a compartment filled with rowdy boys.
She’s mad at Snape because of her fight with Petunia—which she is now blaming completely on Snape. Snape doesn’t see why she’s bothered, since Petunia is only a… Muggle is what he’s most likely going to say, but he doesn’t. This is the second time he’s shown a) that he thinks Muggles are not worth much and b) that he knows this is distressing to Lily and he better not say it in front of her.
We’re also given clues that Snape’s parents fight—but his mother obviously isn’t hexing his Muggle dad, because… well, he’d probably be an orphan by now if she was. And we get the small detail of Snape having changed into his school robes already, as though eager to leave his half-Muggle poverty behind him.
Snape tries to cheer Lily up reminding her that they are off to the magic school! And he hopes that she’ll be in Slytherin, the “brainy” House. At this, little James Potter turns around. Harry notes that he is black-haired, just like Snape, but “with that undefinable air of having been well-cared-for, even adored, that Snape so conspicuously lacked.” In other words, James is a dark-haired Draco.
To emphasize this, JKR has James echo Draco’s sentiments about House sorting (but with Slytherin instead of Hufflepuff). He directs his statement to Sirius, who points out that his whole family is in Slytherin.
“Blimey,” James says, “and I thought you seemed all right!”
Is this supposed to be cute and funny? Or to demonstrate the other side of the coin in terms of discrimination? James is being as prejudicial than Snape—and he doesn’t even bother to hide it.
(To digress a little, it seems contradictory to me to portray racists as being the ones in power while simultaneously having the people in power object to racist language. Yes, racism still exists even while we would never use the N-word in polite society, but it doesn’t have near as much power as when white people could openly use the word without any fear of offending someone who might be able to do something about it.)
Sirius—who we had always assumed chose Gryffindor out of principle is basing his choice on following this cool kid he just met.
Anyway, James’s stated choice leads to a tiff between Snape and James and Sirius. Lily decides to move, taking Snape with her. James and Sirius then mock him as being obviously pussy-whipped and the nickname “Snivellus” is born.
I kind of foresaw this before DH came out. I figured that James was going to act more like Draco than Harry when he first encountered Snape. I didn’t think that James and Sirius were going to gang up on him from the very start. I thought it might start out a little more ambiguous. But then, this chapter wasn’t written for me. This chapter was written for people who hate Snape.
Now we see the sorting. Lily is sorted into Gryffindor and smiles sadly at Severus, knowing that they won’t be in the same House now. Even the first time I read this, I didn’t think she was all that upset about it. This is when I started to really dislike Lily as a character.
So, Harry watches the whole sorting in the memory, including his father, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew. Wow. That must have taken almost the whole hour Voldemort gave him right there. Especially when you consider that there were probably a lot more students in those days—as many of them didn’t survive to have kids.
Finally, Snape is sorted into Slytherin and goes over to the table where Prefect Lucius Malfoy welcomes him and other students cheer. Is this because they don’t know him yet? I mean, he’s not really one of them. He’s a half blood from the bad part of a Muggle town.
Or am I simply invested too much in the idea of an ostracized Snape? Draco told Harry to be careful of associating with the “wrong” type of wizard, yet Eileen Prince went and married a Muggle. That sort of thing gets you blasted off the tapestry in the Black House. Plus he’s poor and he’s funny-looking and he doesn’t have a lot of social skills. Are we to assume that none of that matters to the snobs in Slytherin?
Well, maybe not, considering that sixty-percent of them are carrying troll blood in their veins.
The scene changes. Lily and Snape are walking through the courtyard together. Harry sees that they are taller and reckons that a few years have passed since they were sorted. Try five years, Harry. They are both fifteen—probably sixteen--years old right now.
So, Snape is upset they’re supposed to be best friends. I wonder what Lily is doing (or not doing) that’s making him feel otherwise. Lily replies that they are, but she doesn’t like the people he hangs out with. She mentions Avery and says that Mulciber is creepy. “D’you know what he tried to do to Mary MacDonald the other day?
No. What? Tell us, damnit. Was it as bad and turning her upside-down and taking off her panties?
“That was nothing,” Snape replies. “It was a laugh, that’s all—“
Lily then says that it was Dark Magic. Okay… what spells do we know are Dark Magic? It’s not Sectumsempra, because that’s Snape’s spell and I doubt that even he would call cutting someone to bits “a laugh.”
Obviously, it wasn’t Avada Kadavra, or Crucio Cruciatus. Maybe it was Imperio? Maybe Mulciber made her cluck like a chicken in the courtyard? That would be both Dark Magic and in the neighborhood of funny.
Any other spell that might be described as “a laugh” that we know about has been done by the “good guys.” You know, stuff like making tentacles sprout on someone’s face, or turning them into giant slugs. Or making their heads swell up. Or having their toenails grow, or their tongues stick to the roof of them mouths. I honestly can’t figure out what Mulciber could have done to Mary MacDonald that would be so much worse than those things. That could inspire this indignant reaction in Lily.
Who we know will just smile when her best friend is petrified, made to choke on soap suds, and hung upside down in front of the whole school.
So, Snape tries to turn it around by bringing up “Potter and his gang.” (I guess he doesn’t know about the Marauder moniker.)
Lily asks what’s Potter got to do with anything. She’s got a good point, there. Especially since Snape brings up the lame fact that what Potter is doing is sneaking out at night. Why doesn’t he bring up the head-swelling and bullying stuff that we know happened? Or does Bertram Aubrey not count in Lily Evans’ list of victims?
Snape also mentions that Lupin is weird—which, again, doesn’t really help his argument. But it does let us know that Snape thinks Lupin is a werewolf (actually, Snape knows that Lupin is a werewolf), and that Lily’s heard this theory before. Either she doesn’t believe him, or she’s pretending not to.
Then she blushes under the intensity of Snape’s gaze. Because she knows he’s attracted to her and she’s turned on by it? Or because she’s embarrassed that such a creep likes her?
Lily scolds Snape for being “ungrateful” to James for saving his life from “whatever’s” down under the Whomping Willow. At which point, Snape goes ballistic and starts spluttering with rage about James and how he’s not a hero and he’s not going to let Lily—
“Let me? Let me?” Lily rages back.
This is so alarming to Snape that he starts backtracking immediately. We don’t know what Snape wasn’t going to let Lily do. The most obvious answer to me is that he isn’t going to let her date James. He would have no power to stop her in any case, but Lily’s indignation that he would even try and his fear of her anger shows me that Lily has all the power in this relationship.
Wow. This is sort of like that memory of Eileen cowering while Tobias yelled at her, isn’t it? Raised voices are Snape’s kryptonite. Hehe. My spellchecker knows the word “kryptonite”!
I get the strong feeling in this scene that Lily is fed up with Snape as a friend, and I don’t buy that her objection to his friends is based on principle. While his friends may very well be proto-Nazis, it comes across to me like an excuse to dump Snape.
(Another digression: I think this idea is supported by having Lily meet Snape before they start attending Hogwarts. Had they met later, it would be easier to buy the friendship as them having something in common (like a love of potions). But, in canon, what they have in common is being the only two magical children in their hometown. Once Lily gets to Hogwarts, she meets hundreds of magical children—so what draws her to Snape is no longer there.)
What really convinces me is when she tells Snape that he’s being ungrateful to James for saving his life without being at all concerned about whether Snape is okay after that experience. If she had heard about it from someone else—wouldn’t she be pumping Snape to tell her what happened?
Lily then performs a bit of emotional jujitsu by insulting James and turning Snape back into putty. They go off together and Snape is happy as can be to think Lily hasn’t fallen for James… yet.
The next memory is Snape’s Worst Memory. Harry, unlike many Snape-haters, believes that Snape inadvertently wandered too close to the Marauders (instead of deliberately choosing his spot to eavesdrop on them). That Harry prefers to stay away from the action is clue that he’s beginning to weaken on that Snape-hate he’s been carrying around for nearly seven years.
Then we have a scene outside the Gryffindor common room, where we learn that Snape has staged a sit-in until Lily comes out to receive his apology. And we learn that Lily refuses to accept that apology and calls Snape a future Death Eater.
As a point of interest, she says that Snape calls “everyone of my birth” a Mudblood (except Lily, until SWM). This implies that Snape is more of a bigot than he appears in his memories—which I don’t have trouble believing or reconciling with the Snape I like.
What I do have trouble accepting is that this feisty, spunky Lily who has all the power in their relationship never called him on it before—or that he wouldn’t have internalized it. The implications are that he did know that this was wrong, and that he tried very hard not to appear anti-Muggleborn in front of Lily. So, maybe she never heard him call “everyone” of her birth a Mudblood, but found out that he was doing it behind her back?
Oh hell, maybe I’m just overthinking it.
Anyway, they split up and Lily went and cast obliviate on all her friends so that everyone forgot that she ever liked the weirdo kid from Slytherin and that explains why no one ever mentioned their relationship to Harry. Not even Hagrid, who spilled the beans about everything else under the sun.
Thus ends the first part of the Prince’s Tale. The second part is called The Prince and the Manipulative Bastard.
The next we see of Snape, he’s standing the middle of a storm on a hill, waiting for Dumbledore. A bit melodramatic, aren’t we, Snape? Couldn’t just meet him at a coffee shop? Or a gay bar?
Dumbledore can’t resist making a grand entrance, arriving like a lightning bolt. Snape drops to his knees and cries out, “Don’t kill me!”
So… was Dumbledore that badass in the first war? It’s a pretty far cry from the twinkly guy with the candy dish.
Dumbledore asks what message Snape is bringing from Lord Voldemort. Which implies to me that Snape’s main function as a Death Eater was probably to carry messages between Dumbledore and Voldemort. Which implies a bizarre political dynamic. Was Dumbledore the most powerful opposition to Voldemort? If Snape was carrying messages, then wouldn’t Dumbledore know he was a Death Eater back at the Hog’s Head? Eesh.
So, Snape stammers that he has a request and mentions Trelawney, and Dumbledore asks how much of the prophecy Snape told to Voldemort. Snape replies that he told as much of it as he heard. Dumbledore seems to be jumping awfully quick to conclusions to be surprised here. Either Dumbledore is reading Snape’s mind (in which case he doesn’t need to ask at all), or he’s so incredibly smart that he figures out in a micro-second what happened (in which case, why would he have been so dumb back when Snape heard the prophecy), or Snape telling Voldemort the Prophecy was something Dumbledore was well aware of.
Snape tells Dumbledore that Voldemort thinks the Prophecy refers to Lily Evans and Dumbledore replies that didn’t. It referred to a boy born at the end of July. If Dumbledore didn’t know what Snape told Voldemort, that’s a stupid thing to let slip.
But no harm, Snape explains that Voldemort is targeting a baby boy. He just doesn’t care about that. He’s worried that Voldemort will kill the whole family, which includes Lily.
So, why don’t you just ask Lord Voldemort to spare her? Dumbledore taunts. And when Snape explains that he already did, Dumbledore says, “You disgust me.”
Wow. This is not how I imagined this scene would go. But then again, I always imagined that Snape would be telling Dumbledore something he didn’t know already.
Dumbledore goes on explain that he’s disgusted because Snape cares only about Lily’s life and not about her husband or son. Snape says nothing, but only looks at Dumbledore.
I can’t help thinking that Snape’s wondering how the hell he was supposed to beg Lord Voldemort to spare the very person Voldemort was bent on killing. Especially since Voldemort was worried that person might grow up to kill him.
But Snape merely begs Dumbledore to keep Lily—and the others if he must—safe.
And Dumbledore demands payment. At least, he demands to know what Snape will give him in return for protecting the Potters.
Snape looks as thought he’s about to protest—as well he should. I mean, it’s like Draco going to Harry and begging him to protect Hedwig and Harry replying, “What’ll you give me?”
But Snape doesn’t protest. He simply says, “Anything.”
The next thing we see is Snape in the grips of suicidal depression after Lily’s death.
“I thought… you were going… to keep her… safe,” he moans.
“She and James put their faith in the wrong person,” Dumbledore says, getting in a dig at Sirius Black. Then he twists the knife in Snape: “Rather like you, Severus. Weren’t you hoping that Lord Voldemort would spare her?”
Um. No, Dumbledore. He was pretty sure that Voldemort wouldn’t spare her. That’s why he came to talk to you. Oh wait, was the person Snape put misguided faith into… was that you? Because then it all makes sense.
Dumbledore then tells Snape that Harry survives and that he’s got his mother’s eyes, and if Snape really loved Lily, he’d dedicate his life to protecting her son. Too bad he never says anything about dedicating his life to treating that son decently, but I guess we can’t have everything.
Snape agrees, after Dumbledore declares that Voldemort isn’t really dead, but he asks in return that Dumbledore never tell Harry why he’s protecting him. Dumbledore thinks this is a mistake, but he agrees. Then Dumbledore spends the next ten years trying to figure out which lie will piss Snape off the most when he tells it to Harry instead of the truth.
New scene: Snape complains about what an arrogant toerag Harry is, but Dumbledore disagrees in a bored tone, while reading a magazine and orders Snape to keep an eye on Quirrell. This scene is to show us that Snape really did hate Harry and wasn’t just pretending to impress Draco. It also shows us that Dumbledore is an annoying jerk.
Dumbledore and Snape discuss Karkaoff on the night of the Yule Ball. Dumbledore asks Snape if he plans on fleeing with Karkaroff and Snape replies that he’s not such a coward. Dumbledore agrees that Snape is braver than Karkaroff and says, “I sometimes think we Sort too soon…”
At which, Snape looks stricken. Many readers interpret this to Snape thinking that if he’d been sorted into Gryffindor, he would have never lost Lily. I take it as Snape reacting to the incredibly insulting swipe at Slytherin—the House that he heads!
How I wish that scene had ended with Snape kicking Dumbledore in the ass.
Dumbledore’s office. Snape is trying to heal Dumbledore. He asks why Dumbledore put on an obviously cursed ring. Dumbledore says that he was sorely tempted, but won’t say what tempted him.
They discuss the curse, and Dumbledore “casually” asks how much time he has left. Because Dumbledore isn’t even scared of death, that’s how much of a badass he is. Snape hesitates, then gives Dumbledore a year at the most.
Snape keeps asking curiously about the ring—why Dumbledore put it on, why he broke it with the sword, but Dumbledore brushes aside the questions and starts hatching a plan to thwart Voldemort’s scheme for using Draco to kill Dumbledore by having Snape do it instead.
As an aside, he asks if he has Snape’s word to protect the students once Voldemort takes over the school. Snape nods. Obviously, the word “protect” does not mean the same thing to Dumbledore and to Snape as it means to me.
So, Dumbledore tells Snape to find out what Draco plans to do—since a frightened teenager is often a danger to others as well as to himself. Right, Dumbledore. This is why you don’t allow Draco to order cursed necklaces and poisoned wine from school.
Incidentally, it’s probably why you shouldn’t entrust a teenage boy to hunt down a bunch of Horcruxes on his own, either.
Bwahahaha! Dumbledore is telling Snape to offer Draco help and guidance. The very things he’ll specifically keep people from giving Harry a year later! Adult help and guidance only hinder the young.
Dumbledore then asks Snape to kill him, to avoid damaging Draco’s pure young soul. When Snape sensibly asks what that means about his own soul, Dumbledore brushes him off by saying he’ll just be helping an old man avoid pain and suffering. Then he brings up the image of Fenrir Greyback eating him and Bellatrix Lestrange performing horrible and perverted acts upon him.
These are the choices? It’s either Snape… or Fenrir and Bellatrix? There’s a bunch of other Death Eaters, you know. Or, how about this one? How about Dumbledore just dies a natural (cursed) death?
Well, it wouldn’t be Dumbledore if he weren’t coming up with some stupidly complicated twist.
So, Dumbledore asks again for Snape to kill him, and his eyes pierce Snape as they had frequently pierced Harry, as though the soul they discussed was visible to him. So, while asking Snape to tear his soul for him, Dumbledore is examining that soul for blemishes. Great. Now he’s Petunia and Snape is the neighbor’s garden.
Snape and Dumbledore strolling through the Forbidden Forest. Snape asks “abruptly” why Dumbledore is spending so many evenings with Dumbledore. First—it’s not that many evenings. Second, Snape sounds like he’s been reading the first draft of Rita Skeeter’s biography of Dumbledore, and just got through the chapter about their “sinister” relationship.
Dumbledore makes a joke about how much Snape has been putting Harry in detention—which is a continuity error. Snape didn’t put Harry into a huge number of detentions until long after this conversation took place. (Hagrid mentions overhearing this conversation while coming to see Ron in the Hospital Wing. It was after that that Harry cut open Draco, and that was what caused Snape to assign Harry to multiple detentions.)
Anyway, they continue to argue and, after Snape threatens not to kill Dumbledore, Dumbledore tells him to meet him in the office that night for his final assignment.
Dumbledore’s office. Dumbledore tells Snape that Harry contains a piece of Voldemort’s soul. Snape needs to be on the lookout for a time when Voldemort starts protecting Nagini. At that time, and not before, Snape must tell Harry the truth about being a Horcrux and that he must allow Voldemort—and no one else—to kill Harry.
Snape is taken aback by this, since he’s been dedicating his life for the last sixteen years to protecting Lily’s son. Dumbledore goes on to say that it was necessary to protect Harry until he was strong enough to kill himself. With his eyes shut, Dumbledore says that by the time Harry goes to meet his death, he will have “arranged things” so that it will mean the end of Voldemort.
I mention this, because it had occurred to me that a simple way to avoid Legilimency would be to keep your eyes shut when telling a lie. So, I think Dumbledore is trying to keep Snape from suspecting that Harry can survive the encounter with Voldemort.
Snape is now shocked that Dumbledore would raise Harry only to sacrifice him at the proper age. Dumbledore is shocked that Snape is shocked, asking, “How many men and women have you watched die?”
That’s kind of a personal question, isn’t it?
Snape’s reply is, “Lately, only those I whom could not save.” Oh, what a pathetic line! Complete with the unnecessary “whom” that makes Snape sound like he’s in Lupin’s Melodrama Club. We Snape-lovers can console ourselves that he’s no longer solely focused on protecting Lily’s son—but JKR makes it clear that this is only lately. It wasn’t until last Tuesday that it started to bother Snape when non-Lily’s-son people were dying.
And then Snape goes into asshole mode and complains that Dumbledore has been using him. He has spied for Dumbledore and lied for Dumbledore and put himself in mortal danger! Damn Dumbledore for making him do good things! And the whole thing was supposed to be about saving one kid! And now it turns out that the kid was being raised as Christmas dinner!
See… it’s that Slytherin thing, isn’t it? Lately, Snape has been caring about everyone in danger, but essentially, he only cared about one person: Lily. Harry was just the next best thing to Lily. Maybe the hat Sorted too soon. Maybe it didn’t.
Snape proves his undying attachment to Lily by casting his doe Patronus, which touches Dumbledore to tears. (If I weren’t so bitterly anti-Dumbledore at this point—and if I didn’t find the whole Ariana thing dull—I might even think that Dumbledore realizes how similar he and Snape are at this point. They both would give anything to have a woman they loved back again.)
Now, mind you, I can see this Snape love for Lily as a very knightly, romantic thing. But JKR really seems to be doing her best to make it clear that loving Lily is the only decent impulse Snape has ever had in his life. So, it’s not the enobling emotion we’ve come to think of as love. Or maybe Snape was such piece of crap to begin with that even love for the Sainted Lily only raised him to the level of pitbull.
Now we get into the Third Part of the Tale: The Prince’s and the Portrait (Who Is Still a Manipulative Bastard).
Harry now sees a series of memories dealing with Snape’s role after killing Dumbledore. First, we see him in the Headmaster’s office with the Portrait of Dumbledore. It is not explained how Snape is in the office when he should have been wanted by the aurors for murder—and persona non grata at Hogwarts. But Dumbledore is telling Snape to mess up the Move Harry to Another House scheme. It’s also not explained how Dumbledore would know about this scheme at all. Maybe there’s a big portrait of him in Moody’s bedroom.
Then we see Snape confounding Mundungus to change the plan to include the Seven Potters.
Next we see Snape flying on a broom. I guess he hadn’t learned that solo-flying thing yet. A Death Eater points his wand at Lupin’s back (so is George not riding behind Lupin? Is he riding in front? Or on another broomstick?) and Snape tries to cut the man’s hand off, but misses and cuts off George’s ear instead.
Snape must have really felt bad about that to include this memory. Maybe he does have a soft spot for the twins. (Although, as far as he would probably know, that was Harry up ahead. He’d realize later on that it was George, when George turned up the shop without an ear. He might also be able to distinguish Harry from other people by broom-riding styles.)
I’m sure that Snape haters are astonished that Snape would try to save Lupin’s life. I just say it’s a shout-out to Snupin fans.
Next we see Snape in Sirius’s bedroom. He’s in tears. Perhaps because he just realized that Sirius is straight. According to JKR, Snape came to the Black House before Moody set up the wards, so this scene is out of sequence.
The weeping Snape pockets half a letter that Lily wrote (the half that says, “Love, Lily”), and tears up a photograph with James, Lily, and Harry, so that James is left out. So, we know that Snape is totally focused on Lily and still respects nothing about Harry, including his belongings.
As a Snape fan, it annoys me no end that he’s being such a jerk in this scene—but I have to give JKR props. She’s not going to compromise and make him nice. And she’ll make him both tragic and ridiculous by having his tears drip off the end of his hooked nose.
Next, Snape is in the headmaster’s office and Phineas Nigellus comes in to report that Harry and Hermione are in the Forest of Dean. Nigellus calls Hermione a Mudblood and Snape yells at him for it.
This is another key moment that gets debated ad nauseam. Does this mean that Snape has repented his racist ways, or is it just that he doesn’t like that word because it lost him Lily? I think that if it’s there, you have to acknowledge its importance. But then, you have to acknowledge all the negative moments, too. I’ve done my share of trying to explain away Snape’s nastiness. But in the end, he is what he is. Good and bad. Ecce homo.
Dumbledore gets all excited about passing the sword to Harry. Interestingly, Dumbledore is worried that Voldemort might find out Snape is helping, not from Snape, but from reading Harry’s mind.
To me, this implies that a) Dumbledore probably didn’t mind the Snape/Harry feud and wanted to help it along, and b) when he told Harry that Voldemort had conveniently closed the mind connection, he knew that wouldn’t last, and c) when Dumbledore told Snape that he was worried about Snape spilling stuff to Voldemort, that probably wasn’t completely true, either.
And d) Dumbledore was manipulative as hell.
Anyway, Dumbledore tries to micromanage Snape, telling him that he must not be seen, and then that the Trio probably won’t take kindly to him after the George thing. Like they wouldn’t already be upset by the killing Dumbledore thing.
So, first Dumbledore tells Snape that he mustn’t be seen, or Voldemort will find out that he’s helping Harry, and then he warns Snape that the Trio will be mad at him for cutting George’s ear off. So, is he thinking Snape’s going to interact with the Trio or not? Let’s be charitable and say Dumbledore is flustered.
Snape tells Dumbledore that he has a plan and goes out the door. It isn’t exactly kicking him in the ass, but it’ll do.
And then Harry wakes up on the carpet of the office, having totally gotten over hating Snape.
Fan Service:
Snape was Dumbledore’s man.
Dumbledore treated Snape like crap.
Lily treated Snape like crap.
Fan Slappage:
James was an even worse jerk than we thought. And SWM took place after the Prank, which makes the whole thing worse than the most pro-Snape fanfic ever written.
Lily? Kind of a bitch.
We may have suspected that Dumbledore was a manipulative bastard, but he descends into even lower levels of assholism.
DVD Extras:
TITLE CARD:
The following events take place between the hours of 3:00 and 4:00 a.m.
INT: Headmaster’s Office.
Harry pours a flask of memories into the Pensieve, takes a deep breath and plunges his face into the silvery liquid.
Cut to:
THE GREAT HALL
Hermione pulls away from hugging Ginny. She moves to Ron, who is standing a little ways away from the family.
HERMIONE
I’m so sorry, Ron.
RON
Did you see where Harry went to? He’s gone missing again.
HERMIONE
No… maybe he’s up in the dorms?
They hurry out and up the stairs.
Neville draws in a few students, including Ernie, Luna, Seamus, and Oliver.
NEVILLE
We have an hour. Red sparks for wounded. Blue for dead. Let’s go.
They all spin off towards the grounds. Ginny, drawing away from her family, wanders after them.
GINNY
Neville? Luna?
She passes by a Madam Pomfrey, who is bandaging Lavender Brown.
LAVENDER
(loudly) What do you mean, I might be a werewolf?!
EXT: HOGWARTS COURTYARD
Ginny wanders down into the dark grounds.
GINNY
What’s going on? Luna?
A dark shape steps behind her. She whirls around.
GINNY
Neville?
Fenrir Greyback, his face covered with blood, steps into the light from a castle window.
FENRIR
Not exactly.
Ginny gasps and turns to run, but he grabs her, clapping one hand on her mouth.
FENRIR
Now, now. Let’s not make a fuss, pretty girl. Come with me over where we won’t be bothered by no one.
He drags her off towards a distant grove of trees.
Cut to:
EXT: HOGSMEADE
Lucius hurries out of the Shrieking Shack to join Narcissa, who is pacing worriedly.
NARCISSA
Where have you been? He was asking about you.
LUCIUS
It’s fine. Everything’s fine.
NARCISSA
Our son is still missing.
LUCIUS
Draco may have gone back to the castle.
NARCISSA
How do you—oh. Let’s go, then.
LUCIUS
Right—
Bellatrix appears.
BELLATRIX
Lucius! Narcissa! Come! We’re heading into the woods.
Lucius and Narcissa share a look, then follow her into the trees.
Cut to:
INT: GRYFFINDOR DORMS
Ron and Hermione push the door open. The five beds stand empty, the curtains blowing in the breeze of an open window.
RON
Not here.
He turns to go, but Hermione is blocking the door.
HERMIONE
Ron…
RON
What is it?
HERMIONE
What do you think will happen? What if Voldemort does attack again?
RON
We’ll fight.
HERMIONE
I don’t want to die—
RON
That’s not—
HERMIONE
I don’t want to die without… letting you know how much I love you.
Ron’s eyes can’t help but be drawn to the empty beds.
RON
Are you saying what I think—
She kisses him on the mouth. There’s a brief moment when he almost draws back—as if to rationalize things. Then he gives up and kisses her back. They tumble onto a bed.
The camera moves discretely to the window, picking out a pair of dark figures: One hulkingly large, the other small and struggling desperately, but being pulled toward a grove of dark trees.
Cut to:
FENRIR AND GINNY
She struggles desperately as he half-carries her to the darkness under the trees. As they move, he feels in her pockets, finally pulling out her wand.
FENRIR
Don’t need that now, do we?
He throws it off into the distance.
GINNY
Please. Let me go.
FENRIR
Now, now. It’ll be over soon. Such soft skin…
He throws her on the ground. As she lands, she rolls over to kick him—but he suddenly freezes with a strangled cry. He falls down, nearly landed on Ginny, who throws herself out of the way and looks up to see a WOMAN in a dark mask, holding a wand. The woman pulls off her mask, revealing a line of pustules, spelling out the word SNEAK across her face.
GINNY
Marietta Edgecombe? What are you doing here?
Marietta blinks uncertainly.
MARIETTA
I’m not sure. I was hoping you could tell me.
Cut to:
ANOTHER PART OF THE GROUNDS.
Neville kneels by Colin Creevey, who is covered with blood and delirious.
COLIN
I read about him in the papers, you see. They said he had been studying at Hogwarts. He was the first hero I ever knew.
Colin struggles a little to get up.
NEVILLE
Lie still. Help is coming.
Oliver Wood arrives, his eyes questioning Neville. Neville shakes his head slightly.
COLIN
I was in love with him.
NEVILLE
Still are, I imagine.
COLIN
Not for long.
He leans his head back and the light goes out of his eyes. Neville nods to Oliver, who bends down. Together, they lift the body.
Cut to:
A PATH IN THE FOREST
Lupin trudges down it, his shoulders hunched. Tonks runs after him.
TONKS
Remus! Wait for me!
LUPIN
Dora? I told you to stay with Teddy.
Tonks stops, her wand drooping.
TONKS
I came to be with you.
LUPIN
(shaking his head)
That’s over. It never should have been in the first place.
TONKS
Never should have been? Are you saying you never loved me?
LUPIN
Not the way you wanted me to.
TONKS
And Teddy? Was that a mistake, too? Was our son a mistake?
LUPIN
(running one hand through his hair)
I don’t know. It’s not fair, I know that. I told you to stay with him.
TONKS
But I couldn’t bear to live without you.
LUPIN
Now you’ll be dead without me. Can you bear that?
He turns and walks down the path.
Cut to:
HOGWARTS GROUNDS
Ginny and Marietta search through the grass.
GINNY
Found it.
She holds up her wand.
MARIETTA
I’m sorry I don’t remember you. I left school before my N.E.W.T.s. Everyone hated me and I could never tell why.
GINNY
I’m sure they—it probably wasn’t—it doesn’t matter now.
MARIETTA
It mattered to me. Mother wanted me to go into the Ministry, but you can’t without N.E.W.T.s. And, if you have a face like mine, you can’t even work in a shop.
GINNY
So, why did you come back?
MARIETTA
I felt something burning in my pocket.
She pulls a galleon out of her robes and lights the end of her wand. They both lean over the coin.
MARIETTA (cont’d)
See? There’s writing on it. It says, “Get to Hogwarts as soon as you can.”
GINNY
Oh. (quietly) I’m glad you did.
A bellow pierces the night. They both turn, Marietta’s wand illuminating their terrified faces.
Fenrir runs towards them. It’s hard to tell if he’s a man or a wolf, but he seems to be running on all fours.
Ginny screams and Marietta pushes her to the side as Fenrir leaps at them. He lands on Marietta, a knife flashing in his hand.
Ginny lands and rolls back on her feet. She points her wand at Fenrir.
GINNY
REDUCTO!
He flies into the air from the force of the spell, impaling himself on the sharpened stump of a tree branch. He struggles for a moment to free himself, but finally slumps down, dead.
Ginny, still holding her wand up defensively, sidles over to where Marietta is lying on the ground. She kneels down.
Marietta, holding her side, is bleeding from a deep wound.
GINNY
No, no. Marietta…
MARIETTA
Mother… Mother wanted me to go into the Ministry. She’s going to be angry.
GINNY
It’s all right. It’s okay. We’re going to get you inside…
MARIETTA
But I want to go home. I don’t want to fight anymore!
GINNY
I know. (her voice breaking) It’s going to be all right.
A rustle in the grass makes her turn her head. Her eyes search the darkness.
GINNY (cont’d)
Is anyone there? Please. Please help us.
The footsteps of an invisible person move away from her and towards the blackness of the forest.
GINNY (cont’d)
I can’t move her by myself. Please….
FADE TO BLACK
But you’d think this would be my favorite chapter. After all, we’re getting all of Snape’s backstory. Be careful what you ask for...
The Prince’s Tale
Just like the last chapter started with Fred being dead, this one starts with Snape lying lifeless on the floor as Harry stares at him.
Before Harry can actually form a thought, Voldemort’s voice comes echoing with a speech for the Hogwarts’ troops. He starts by praising their bravery—which seems generous, considering that he’s whupping them so badly. He offers mercy to those who stop resisting him and gives everyone an hour to bury their dead.
Then he speaks directly to Harry. Well, he’s still doing the loud voice thing, so everybody gets to eavesdrop, but he tells Harry to come and
As they go across the lawn, Harry notes that it’s about an hour until dawn and that it’s pitch black. Nevertheless, they can see small bundles lying on the grass and a clog the size of a small boat. Okay, you tell me how to reconcile a pitch-black darkness with being able to see small bundles and a giant shoe.
In the Great Hall, the Weasleys are grouped around Fred’s dead body. Harry notes that Ginny’s face is swollen and blotchy. Guess she does occasionally cry. When Harry isn’t around to admire her spunk.
Then Harry sees the bodies of Remus and Tonks “pale and still and peaceful-looking, apparently asleep beneath the dark, enchanted ceiling.” Now, that’s nice image. It makes me think of those stone effigy things you see in old churchs, with the sculpture of a knight. I think it’s dumb that they died, but I do like the image.
Harry reels back from the hall, overcome with guilt. If only I’d given myself up earlier, he thinks, then Fred might still be alive. Apparently, he doesn’t care about Remus or Tonks. But, of course, Harry didn’t even need to give himself up to prevent this carnage. He could have just stopped gaping at everyone like an idiot and found the Ravenclaw horcrux three hours ago. Or spent two minutes researching the alarm system in Hogsmeade so the Death Eaters didn’t immediately know when he arrived.
But note: Harry’s already thinking he ought to just go let Voldemort kill him in order to spare other people.
Harry gets into Dumbledore’s office by using the password Dumbledore, which is a big clue about Snape’s loyalties, and goes inside.
He notices that all the Headmaster portraits, including Dumbledore’s, have deserted the office in order to watch the fighting. Since the fighting is on hiatus, they’re probably watching Bewitched on Filch’s old black-and-while TV set.
What I notice is that there isn’t any portrait of Snape snoozing in the office. This is either a slap in the face to Snape fans or proof that he’s still alive.
Harry, in possibly the most contrived moment in the entire series, pours Snape’s memories into the Pensieve and decides to watch them in order to escape his guilty torment. Like Snape’s memories are going to be any comfort to Harry. As far as Harry knows, they’re probably just going to be filled with Harry failing potions exams or looking stupid.
Look, I know we have to do this. Even when I first read this, I knew the memories were going to contain key information. But does Harry’s reason for doing this have to be so stupid? Couldn’t he want to look at the memories on the hope that they just might contain something useful? Good or bad, this is Voldemort’s right-hand man, and he just got double-crossed. There’s a good chance he’s giving Harry a clue about defeating the Dark Lord. But nope. That would be too cunning or something. Harry needs a noble reason to watch the memories. And escapism is far more noble than trying to succeed.
So, Harry goes into the memories and finds himself in a park with a tall chimney in the background. We know, although Harry does not, that this must be Snape’s home town.
The Prince’s Tale is basically in three parts. This is the first part, which I will call The Prince and the Witch.
Two girls are swinging and little Snape is watching them from behind a clump of bushes. He’s described as wearing a man’s overcoat, too-short jeans, and a woman’s smock. So, Snape is an awkward, social outcast? Check.
Of course, anyone can guess at this point that the girls are Lily and Petunia. I have to say, though, that I was taken aback to see that they lived in this town. I got the feeling that they had grown up in more middle-class area. But maybe that’s why Petunia is so very status conscious as an adult.
Harry moves closer to little Snape and notes the “undisguised greed” as Snape watches Lily in particular. What a strange description that is. It really makes Snape seem like a creepy stalker here. Was that JKR’s intention? I’m not sure that it is, because she uses “greed” more than once when it comes to describing romantic attraction. She will even use “hungrily” when Lily looks at Harry later on. So, I’m not convinced that JKR intended the stalker vibe.
Or, it could be, as other readers have pointed out, that Harry interprets Snape’s look as “greedy” because he’s still in Snape hate mode. But I don’t think that Harry would have been looking at the memories at all in that case.
It’s kind of a shame that Ron and Hermione didn’t come along on this trip. Hermione could have told us all how to feel.
As Petunia shrieks her disapproval, Lily lets go of her swing at the highest point and flies up into the air, floating down far too lightly not to be using magic.
“Mummy said you weren’t allowed, Lily!” Petunia says, which brings up an interesting point. How is it that Mrs. Evans knows what Lily is doing—and knows that she shouldn’t be doing it publicly? If it were worth creating theories at this point in the series, I would have theorized that Mrs. Evans is actually a squib and thus knows enough about magic to realize what Lily’s up to and what it means.
But in that case, Lily wouldn’t need Snape to tell her about the magical world, so forget that.
Lily then picks up a flower and shows Petunia her ability to make it open and close at will. Petunia tells her to stop it, but asks with obvious envy how Lily does it.
This is Snape’s cue to come forward and tell Lily that she’s a witch. Lily takes this as an insult. Snape gets red in the face from embarrassment and Harry thinks the only reason Snape doesn’t take off his coat is to avoid revealing the smock underneath, which makes me wonder how it is that Harry saw the smock in the first place.
Lily runs to Petunia and Snape runs clumsily after her, trying to explain that he meant a real witch, who can do real magic. Petunia laughs at him, calling him that “Snape boy” and sneering that he lives down on Spinner’s End.
So, now we know that Spinner’s End is a street and not a town. Also that it’s worse than the other streets.
Petunia follows that up by accusing Snape of spying. He retorts that it’s not worth spying on a Muggle, and Petunia gets so mad she pulls Lily away towards their, presumably tonier, home.
At this point, the scene dissolves into another memory. It’s similar to when Dumbledore was storing all his old trial memories in the Pensieve back in GoF, but that seemed a lot more random. There is a definite structure to what Snape put into these memories. I choose to believe that he chose each one for a specific reason and hopefully left out the ones that showed his relationship with Lily in a better light.
Anyway, this memory is of Lily and Snape talking about what happens if you do magic outside of school. Lily wonders if Snape is just trying to impress her with a fantasy about this magical castle and all. Snape assures her that it’s not and that someone will come from Hogwarts to tell her and her parents all about it.
Lily asks if it will make a difference that she’s Muggleborn. Snape hesitates and then says that it won’t, then watches “greedily” as she stretches out on the ground to stare up at the leaves in the trees. Okay, maybe JKR is being deliberate about that stalker thing. Let’s see if he starts salivating.
Lily asks about Dementors and Petunia shows up and we finally learn that the “awful boy” was Snape. Hehe. I figured that one out years earlier.
Snape now accuses Petunia of spying and she retaliates by making fun of his smock. At this point, a branch on one of the trees breaks and strikes Petunia on the shoulder. Petunia runs off crying, Lily accuses Snape of hurting her with magic, and Snape denies it, but JKR is careful to point out that this is a lie—which is one of those key points of argument between Snape supporters and Snape detractors.
The supporters note that kids of that age can’t control their magic, and Snape might not really be lying about doing it. It was spontaneous, like Harry blowing up Aunt Marge. Detractors say this shows that Snape was a big fat liar, just like Voldemort and those invisible Slytherins.
Another dissolve and Snape is on the train platform, watching the Evans family say goodbye to Lily. Harry goes over to listen as Lily tells Petunia she’ll try to talk to Dumbledore and convince him to let Petunia come to the school, too. Petunia denies any desire to attend Hogwarts and calls the children “freaks.”
Lily tells Petunia that she knows about the letter Dumbledore sent her. Petunia is horrified that Lily read a private letter, and Lily sort of blames it on Snape by trying not to blame it on him. Brat.
I notice that in her explanation, Snape didn’t actually open the letter or anything. He just wondered how Petunia could have contacted Dumbledore without an owl and speculated about the postal service intercepting letters from Muggles addressed to wizards.
Heh. I just realized something. Harry spends this memory eavesdropping the Lily and Petuna—but Snape couldn’t possibly have heard them (he’s too far away). So, if Snape did choose this memory for a specific reason, we’ll never know what it is. Maybe he thought the story needed a background shot, the way that every movie about England starts with a shot of Big Ben.
Another dissolve: Snape is on the train and he finds Lily post-crying in a compartment filled with rowdy boys.
She’s mad at Snape because of her fight with Petunia—which she is now blaming completely on Snape. Snape doesn’t see why she’s bothered, since Petunia is only a… Muggle is what he’s most likely going to say, but he doesn’t. This is the second time he’s shown a) that he thinks Muggles are not worth much and b) that he knows this is distressing to Lily and he better not say it in front of her.
We’re also given clues that Snape’s parents fight—but his mother obviously isn’t hexing his Muggle dad, because… well, he’d probably be an orphan by now if she was. And we get the small detail of Snape having changed into his school robes already, as though eager to leave his half-Muggle poverty behind him.
Snape tries to cheer Lily up reminding her that they are off to the magic school! And he hopes that she’ll be in Slytherin, the “brainy” House. At this, little James Potter turns around. Harry notes that he is black-haired, just like Snape, but “with that undefinable air of having been well-cared-for, even adored, that Snape so conspicuously lacked.” In other words, James is a dark-haired Draco.
To emphasize this, JKR has James echo Draco’s sentiments about House sorting (but with Slytherin instead of Hufflepuff). He directs his statement to Sirius, who points out that his whole family is in Slytherin.
“Blimey,” James says, “and I thought you seemed all right!”
Is this supposed to be cute and funny? Or to demonstrate the other side of the coin in terms of discrimination? James is being as prejudicial than Snape—and he doesn’t even bother to hide it.
(To digress a little, it seems contradictory to me to portray racists as being the ones in power while simultaneously having the people in power object to racist language. Yes, racism still exists even while we would never use the N-word in polite society, but it doesn’t have near as much power as when white people could openly use the word without any fear of offending someone who might be able to do something about it.)
Sirius—who we had always assumed chose Gryffindor out of principle is basing his choice on following this cool kid he just met.
Anyway, James’s stated choice leads to a tiff between Snape and James and Sirius. Lily decides to move, taking Snape with her. James and Sirius then mock him as being obviously pussy-whipped and the nickname “Snivellus” is born.
I kind of foresaw this before DH came out. I figured that James was going to act more like Draco than Harry when he first encountered Snape. I didn’t think that James and Sirius were going to gang up on him from the very start. I thought it might start out a little more ambiguous. But then, this chapter wasn’t written for me. This chapter was written for people who hate Snape.
Now we see the sorting. Lily is sorted into Gryffindor and smiles sadly at Severus, knowing that they won’t be in the same House now. Even the first time I read this, I didn’t think she was all that upset about it. This is when I started to really dislike Lily as a character.
So, Harry watches the whole sorting in the memory, including his father, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew. Wow. That must have taken almost the whole hour Voldemort gave him right there. Especially when you consider that there were probably a lot more students in those days—as many of them didn’t survive to have kids.
Finally, Snape is sorted into Slytherin and goes over to the table where Prefect Lucius Malfoy welcomes him and other students cheer. Is this because they don’t know him yet? I mean, he’s not really one of them. He’s a half blood from the bad part of a Muggle town.
Or am I simply invested too much in the idea of an ostracized Snape? Draco told Harry to be careful of associating with the “wrong” type of wizard, yet Eileen Prince went and married a Muggle. That sort of thing gets you blasted off the tapestry in the Black House. Plus he’s poor and he’s funny-looking and he doesn’t have a lot of social skills. Are we to assume that none of that matters to the snobs in Slytherin?
Well, maybe not, considering that sixty-percent of them are carrying troll blood in their veins.
The scene changes. Lily and Snape are walking through the courtyard together. Harry sees that they are taller and reckons that a few years have passed since they were sorted. Try five years, Harry. They are both fifteen—probably sixteen--years old right now.
So, Snape is upset they’re supposed to be best friends. I wonder what Lily is doing (or not doing) that’s making him feel otherwise. Lily replies that they are, but she doesn’t like the people he hangs out with. She mentions Avery and says that Mulciber is creepy. “D’you know what he tried to do to Mary MacDonald the other day?
No. What? Tell us, damnit. Was it as bad and turning her upside-down and taking off her panties?
“That was nothing,” Snape replies. “It was a laugh, that’s all—“
Lily then says that it was Dark Magic. Okay… what spells do we know are Dark Magic? It’s not Sectumsempra, because that’s Snape’s spell and I doubt that even he would call cutting someone to bits “a laugh.”
Obviously, it wasn’t Avada Kadavra, or Crucio Cruciatus. Maybe it was Imperio? Maybe Mulciber made her cluck like a chicken in the courtyard? That would be both Dark Magic and in the neighborhood of funny.
Any other spell that might be described as “a laugh” that we know about has been done by the “good guys.” You know, stuff like making tentacles sprout on someone’s face, or turning them into giant slugs. Or making their heads swell up. Or having their toenails grow, or their tongues stick to the roof of them mouths. I honestly can’t figure out what Mulciber could have done to Mary MacDonald that would be so much worse than those things. That could inspire this indignant reaction in Lily.
Who we know will just smile when her best friend is petrified, made to choke on soap suds, and hung upside down in front of the whole school.
So, Snape tries to turn it around by bringing up “Potter and his gang.” (I guess he doesn’t know about the Marauder moniker.)
Lily asks what’s Potter got to do with anything. She’s got a good point, there. Especially since Snape brings up the lame fact that what Potter is doing is sneaking out at night. Why doesn’t he bring up the head-swelling and bullying stuff that we know happened? Or does Bertram Aubrey not count in Lily Evans’ list of victims?
Snape also mentions that Lupin is weird—which, again, doesn’t really help his argument. But it does let us know that Snape thinks Lupin is a werewolf (actually, Snape knows that Lupin is a werewolf), and that Lily’s heard this theory before. Either she doesn’t believe him, or she’s pretending not to.
Then she blushes under the intensity of Snape’s gaze. Because she knows he’s attracted to her and she’s turned on by it? Or because she’s embarrassed that such a creep likes her?
Lily scolds Snape for being “ungrateful” to James for saving his life from “whatever’s” down under the Whomping Willow. At which point, Snape goes ballistic and starts spluttering with rage about James and how he’s not a hero and he’s not going to let Lily—
“Let me? Let me?” Lily rages back.
This is so alarming to Snape that he starts backtracking immediately. We don’t know what Snape wasn’t going to let Lily do. The most obvious answer to me is that he isn’t going to let her date James. He would have no power to stop her in any case, but Lily’s indignation that he would even try and his fear of her anger shows me that Lily has all the power in this relationship.
Wow. This is sort of like that memory of Eileen cowering while Tobias yelled at her, isn’t it? Raised voices are Snape’s kryptonite. Hehe. My spellchecker knows the word “kryptonite”!
I get the strong feeling in this scene that Lily is fed up with Snape as a friend, and I don’t buy that her objection to his friends is based on principle. While his friends may very well be proto-Nazis, it comes across to me like an excuse to dump Snape.
(Another digression: I think this idea is supported by having Lily meet Snape before they start attending Hogwarts. Had they met later, it would be easier to buy the friendship as them having something in common (like a love of potions). But, in canon, what they have in common is being the only two magical children in their hometown. Once Lily gets to Hogwarts, she meets hundreds of magical children—so what draws her to Snape is no longer there.)
What really convinces me is when she tells Snape that he’s being ungrateful to James for saving his life without being at all concerned about whether Snape is okay after that experience. If she had heard about it from someone else—wouldn’t she be pumping Snape to tell her what happened?
Lily then performs a bit of emotional jujitsu by insulting James and turning Snape back into putty. They go off together and Snape is happy as can be to think Lily hasn’t fallen for James… yet.
The next memory is Snape’s Worst Memory. Harry, unlike many Snape-haters, believes that Snape inadvertently wandered too close to the Marauders (instead of deliberately choosing his spot to eavesdrop on them). That Harry prefers to stay away from the action is clue that he’s beginning to weaken on that Snape-hate he’s been carrying around for nearly seven years.
Then we have a scene outside the Gryffindor common room, where we learn that Snape has staged a sit-in until Lily comes out to receive his apology. And we learn that Lily refuses to accept that apology and calls Snape a future Death Eater.
As a point of interest, she says that Snape calls “everyone of my birth” a Mudblood (except Lily, until SWM). This implies that Snape is more of a bigot than he appears in his memories—which I don’t have trouble believing or reconciling with the Snape I like.
What I do have trouble accepting is that this feisty, spunky Lily who has all the power in their relationship never called him on it before—or that he wouldn’t have internalized it. The implications are that he did know that this was wrong, and that he tried very hard not to appear anti-Muggleborn in front of Lily. So, maybe she never heard him call “everyone” of her birth a Mudblood, but found out that he was doing it behind her back?
Oh hell, maybe I’m just overthinking it.
Anyway, they split up and Lily went and cast obliviate on all her friends so that everyone forgot that she ever liked the weirdo kid from Slytherin and that explains why no one ever mentioned their relationship to Harry. Not even Hagrid, who spilled the beans about everything else under the sun.
Thus ends the first part of the Prince’s Tale. The second part is called The Prince and the Manipulative Bastard.
The next we see of Snape, he’s standing the middle of a storm on a hill, waiting for Dumbledore. A bit melodramatic, aren’t we, Snape? Couldn’t just meet him at a coffee shop? Or a gay bar?
Dumbledore can’t resist making a grand entrance, arriving like a lightning bolt. Snape drops to his knees and cries out, “Don’t kill me!”
So… was Dumbledore that badass in the first war? It’s a pretty far cry from the twinkly guy with the candy dish.
Dumbledore asks what message Snape is bringing from Lord Voldemort. Which implies to me that Snape’s main function as a Death Eater was probably to carry messages between Dumbledore and Voldemort. Which implies a bizarre political dynamic. Was Dumbledore the most powerful opposition to Voldemort? If Snape was carrying messages, then wouldn’t Dumbledore know he was a Death Eater back at the Hog’s Head? Eesh.
So, Snape stammers that he has a request and mentions Trelawney, and Dumbledore asks how much of the prophecy Snape told to Voldemort. Snape replies that he told as much of it as he heard. Dumbledore seems to be jumping awfully quick to conclusions to be surprised here. Either Dumbledore is reading Snape’s mind (in which case he doesn’t need to ask at all), or he’s so incredibly smart that he figures out in a micro-second what happened (in which case, why would he have been so dumb back when Snape heard the prophecy), or Snape telling Voldemort the Prophecy was something Dumbledore was well aware of.
Snape tells Dumbledore that Voldemort thinks the Prophecy refers to Lily Evans and Dumbledore replies that didn’t. It referred to a boy born at the end of July. If Dumbledore didn’t know what Snape told Voldemort, that’s a stupid thing to let slip.
But no harm, Snape explains that Voldemort is targeting a baby boy. He just doesn’t care about that. He’s worried that Voldemort will kill the whole family, which includes Lily.
So, why don’t you just ask Lord Voldemort to spare her? Dumbledore taunts. And when Snape explains that he already did, Dumbledore says, “You disgust me.”
Wow. This is not how I imagined this scene would go. But then again, I always imagined that Snape would be telling Dumbledore something he didn’t know already.
Dumbledore goes on explain that he’s disgusted because Snape cares only about Lily’s life and not about her husband or son. Snape says nothing, but only looks at Dumbledore.
I can’t help thinking that Snape’s wondering how the hell he was supposed to beg Lord Voldemort to spare the very person Voldemort was bent on killing. Especially since Voldemort was worried that person might grow up to kill him.
But Snape merely begs Dumbledore to keep Lily—and the others if he must—safe.
And Dumbledore demands payment. At least, he demands to know what Snape will give him in return for protecting the Potters.
Snape looks as thought he’s about to protest—as well he should. I mean, it’s like Draco going to Harry and begging him to protect Hedwig and Harry replying, “What’ll you give me?”
But Snape doesn’t protest. He simply says, “Anything.”
The next thing we see is Snape in the grips of suicidal depression after Lily’s death.
“I thought… you were going… to keep her… safe,” he moans.
“She and James put their faith in the wrong person,” Dumbledore says, getting in a dig at Sirius Black. Then he twists the knife in Snape: “Rather like you, Severus. Weren’t you hoping that Lord Voldemort would spare her?”
Um. No, Dumbledore. He was pretty sure that Voldemort wouldn’t spare her. That’s why he came to talk to you. Oh wait, was the person Snape put misguided faith into… was that you? Because then it all makes sense.
Dumbledore then tells Snape that Harry survives and that he’s got his mother’s eyes, and if Snape really loved Lily, he’d dedicate his life to protecting her son. Too bad he never says anything about dedicating his life to treating that son decently, but I guess we can’t have everything.
Snape agrees, after Dumbledore declares that Voldemort isn’t really dead, but he asks in return that Dumbledore never tell Harry why he’s protecting him. Dumbledore thinks this is a mistake, but he agrees. Then Dumbledore spends the next ten years trying to figure out which lie will piss Snape off the most when he tells it to Harry instead of the truth.
New scene: Snape complains about what an arrogant toerag Harry is, but Dumbledore disagrees in a bored tone, while reading a magazine and orders Snape to keep an eye on Quirrell. This scene is to show us that Snape really did hate Harry and wasn’t just pretending to impress Draco. It also shows us that Dumbledore is an annoying jerk.
Dumbledore and Snape discuss Karkaoff on the night of the Yule Ball. Dumbledore asks Snape if he plans on fleeing with Karkaroff and Snape replies that he’s not such a coward. Dumbledore agrees that Snape is braver than Karkaroff and says, “I sometimes think we Sort too soon…”
At which, Snape looks stricken. Many readers interpret this to Snape thinking that if he’d been sorted into Gryffindor, he would have never lost Lily. I take it as Snape reacting to the incredibly insulting swipe at Slytherin—the House that he heads!
How I wish that scene had ended with Snape kicking Dumbledore in the ass.
Dumbledore’s office. Snape is trying to heal Dumbledore. He asks why Dumbledore put on an obviously cursed ring. Dumbledore says that he was sorely tempted, but won’t say what tempted him.
They discuss the curse, and Dumbledore “casually” asks how much time he has left. Because Dumbledore isn’t even scared of death, that’s how much of a badass he is. Snape hesitates, then gives Dumbledore a year at the most.
Snape keeps asking curiously about the ring—why Dumbledore put it on, why he broke it with the sword, but Dumbledore brushes aside the questions and starts hatching a plan to thwart Voldemort’s scheme for using Draco to kill Dumbledore by having Snape do it instead.
As an aside, he asks if he has Snape’s word to protect the students once Voldemort takes over the school. Snape nods. Obviously, the word “protect” does not mean the same thing to Dumbledore and to Snape as it means to me.
So, Dumbledore tells Snape to find out what Draco plans to do—since a frightened teenager is often a danger to others as well as to himself. Right, Dumbledore. This is why you don’t allow Draco to order cursed necklaces and poisoned wine from school.
Incidentally, it’s probably why you shouldn’t entrust a teenage boy to hunt down a bunch of Horcruxes on his own, either.
Bwahahaha! Dumbledore is telling Snape to offer Draco help and guidance. The very things he’ll specifically keep people from giving Harry a year later! Adult help and guidance only hinder the young.
Dumbledore then asks Snape to kill him, to avoid damaging Draco’s pure young soul. When Snape sensibly asks what that means about his own soul, Dumbledore brushes him off by saying he’ll just be helping an old man avoid pain and suffering. Then he brings up the image of Fenrir Greyback eating him and Bellatrix Lestrange performing horrible and perverted acts upon him.
These are the choices? It’s either Snape… or Fenrir and Bellatrix? There’s a bunch of other Death Eaters, you know. Or, how about this one? How about Dumbledore just dies a natural (cursed) death?
Well, it wouldn’t be Dumbledore if he weren’t coming up with some stupidly complicated twist.
So, Dumbledore asks again for Snape to kill him, and his eyes pierce Snape as they had frequently pierced Harry, as though the soul they discussed was visible to him. So, while asking Snape to tear his soul for him, Dumbledore is examining that soul for blemishes. Great. Now he’s Petunia and Snape is the neighbor’s garden.
Snape and Dumbledore strolling through the Forbidden Forest. Snape asks “abruptly” why Dumbledore is spending so many evenings with Dumbledore. First—it’s not that many evenings. Second, Snape sounds like he’s been reading the first draft of Rita Skeeter’s biography of Dumbledore, and just got through the chapter about their “sinister” relationship.
Dumbledore makes a joke about how much Snape has been putting Harry in detention—which is a continuity error. Snape didn’t put Harry into a huge number of detentions until long after this conversation took place. (Hagrid mentions overhearing this conversation while coming to see Ron in the Hospital Wing. It was after that that Harry cut open Draco, and that was what caused Snape to assign Harry to multiple detentions.)
Anyway, they continue to argue and, after Snape threatens not to kill Dumbledore, Dumbledore tells him to meet him in the office that night for his final assignment.
Dumbledore’s office. Dumbledore tells Snape that Harry contains a piece of Voldemort’s soul. Snape needs to be on the lookout for a time when Voldemort starts protecting Nagini. At that time, and not before, Snape must tell Harry the truth about being a Horcrux and that he must allow Voldemort—and no one else—to kill Harry.
Snape is taken aback by this, since he’s been dedicating his life for the last sixteen years to protecting Lily’s son. Dumbledore goes on to say that it was necessary to protect Harry until he was strong enough to kill himself. With his eyes shut, Dumbledore says that by the time Harry goes to meet his death, he will have “arranged things” so that it will mean the end of Voldemort.
I mention this, because it had occurred to me that a simple way to avoid Legilimency would be to keep your eyes shut when telling a lie. So, I think Dumbledore is trying to keep Snape from suspecting that Harry can survive the encounter with Voldemort.
Snape is now shocked that Dumbledore would raise Harry only to sacrifice him at the proper age. Dumbledore is shocked that Snape is shocked, asking, “How many men and women have you watched die?”
That’s kind of a personal question, isn’t it?
Snape’s reply is, “Lately, only those I whom could not save.” Oh, what a pathetic line! Complete with the unnecessary “whom” that makes Snape sound like he’s in Lupin’s Melodrama Club. We Snape-lovers can console ourselves that he’s no longer solely focused on protecting Lily’s son—but JKR makes it clear that this is only lately. It wasn’t until last Tuesday that it started to bother Snape when non-Lily’s-son people were dying.
And then Snape goes into asshole mode and complains that Dumbledore has been using him. He has spied for Dumbledore and lied for Dumbledore and put himself in mortal danger! Damn Dumbledore for making him do good things! And the whole thing was supposed to be about saving one kid! And now it turns out that the kid was being raised as Christmas dinner!
See… it’s that Slytherin thing, isn’t it? Lately, Snape has been caring about everyone in danger, but essentially, he only cared about one person: Lily. Harry was just the next best thing to Lily. Maybe the hat Sorted too soon. Maybe it didn’t.
Snape proves his undying attachment to Lily by casting his doe Patronus, which touches Dumbledore to tears. (If I weren’t so bitterly anti-Dumbledore at this point—and if I didn’t find the whole Ariana thing dull—I might even think that Dumbledore realizes how similar he and Snape are at this point. They both would give anything to have a woman they loved back again.)
Now, mind you, I can see this Snape love for Lily as a very knightly, romantic thing. But JKR really seems to be doing her best to make it clear that loving Lily is the only decent impulse Snape has ever had in his life. So, it’s not the enobling emotion we’ve come to think of as love. Or maybe Snape was such piece of crap to begin with that even love for the Sainted Lily only raised him to the level of pitbull.
Now we get into the Third Part of the Tale: The Prince’s and the Portrait (Who Is Still a Manipulative Bastard).
Harry now sees a series of memories dealing with Snape’s role after killing Dumbledore. First, we see him in the Headmaster’s office with the Portrait of Dumbledore. It is not explained how Snape is in the office when he should have been wanted by the aurors for murder—and persona non grata at Hogwarts. But Dumbledore is telling Snape to mess up the Move Harry to Another House scheme. It’s also not explained how Dumbledore would know about this scheme at all. Maybe there’s a big portrait of him in Moody’s bedroom.
Then we see Snape confounding Mundungus to change the plan to include the Seven Potters.
Next we see Snape flying on a broom. I guess he hadn’t learned that solo-flying thing yet. A Death Eater points his wand at Lupin’s back (so is George not riding behind Lupin? Is he riding in front? Or on another broomstick?) and Snape tries to cut the man’s hand off, but misses and cuts off George’s ear instead.
Snape must have really felt bad about that to include this memory. Maybe he does have a soft spot for the twins. (Although, as far as he would probably know, that was Harry up ahead. He’d realize later on that it was George, when George turned up the shop without an ear. He might also be able to distinguish Harry from other people by broom-riding styles.)
I’m sure that Snape haters are astonished that Snape would try to save Lupin’s life. I just say it’s a shout-out to Snupin fans.
Next we see Snape in Sirius’s bedroom. He’s in tears. Perhaps because he just realized that Sirius is straight. According to JKR, Snape came to the Black House before Moody set up the wards, so this scene is out of sequence.
The weeping Snape pockets half a letter that Lily wrote (the half that says, “Love, Lily”), and tears up a photograph with James, Lily, and Harry, so that James is left out. So, we know that Snape is totally focused on Lily and still respects nothing about Harry, including his belongings.
As a Snape fan, it annoys me no end that he’s being such a jerk in this scene—but I have to give JKR props. She’s not going to compromise and make him nice. And she’ll make him both tragic and ridiculous by having his tears drip off the end of his hooked nose.
Next, Snape is in the headmaster’s office and Phineas Nigellus comes in to report that Harry and Hermione are in the Forest of Dean. Nigellus calls Hermione a Mudblood and Snape yells at him for it.
This is another key moment that gets debated ad nauseam. Does this mean that Snape has repented his racist ways, or is it just that he doesn’t like that word because it lost him Lily? I think that if it’s there, you have to acknowledge its importance. But then, you have to acknowledge all the negative moments, too. I’ve done my share of trying to explain away Snape’s nastiness. But in the end, he is what he is. Good and bad. Ecce homo.
Dumbledore gets all excited about passing the sword to Harry. Interestingly, Dumbledore is worried that Voldemort might find out Snape is helping, not from Snape, but from reading Harry’s mind.
To me, this implies that a) Dumbledore probably didn’t mind the Snape/Harry feud and wanted to help it along, and b) when he told Harry that Voldemort had conveniently closed the mind connection, he knew that wouldn’t last, and c) when Dumbledore told Snape that he was worried about Snape spilling stuff to Voldemort, that probably wasn’t completely true, either.
And d) Dumbledore was manipulative as hell.
Anyway, Dumbledore tries to micromanage Snape, telling him that he must not be seen, and then that the Trio probably won’t take kindly to him after the George thing. Like they wouldn’t already be upset by the killing Dumbledore thing.
So, first Dumbledore tells Snape that he mustn’t be seen, or Voldemort will find out that he’s helping Harry, and then he warns Snape that the Trio will be mad at him for cutting George’s ear off. So, is he thinking Snape’s going to interact with the Trio or not? Let’s be charitable and say Dumbledore is flustered.
Snape tells Dumbledore that he has a plan and goes out the door. It isn’t exactly kicking him in the ass, but it’ll do.
And then Harry wakes up on the carpet of the office, having totally gotten over hating Snape.
Fan Service:
Snape was Dumbledore’s man.
Dumbledore treated Snape like crap.
Lily treated Snape like crap.
Fan Slappage:
James was an even worse jerk than we thought. And SWM took place after the Prank, which makes the whole thing worse than the most pro-Snape fanfic ever written.
Lily? Kind of a bitch.
We may have suspected that Dumbledore was a manipulative bastard, but he descends into even lower levels of assholism.
DVD Extras:
TITLE CARD:
The following events take place between the hours of 3:00 and 4:00 a.m.
INT: Headmaster’s Office.
Harry pours a flask of memories into the Pensieve, takes a deep breath and plunges his face into the silvery liquid.
Cut to:
THE GREAT HALL
Hermione pulls away from hugging Ginny. She moves to Ron, who is standing a little ways away from the family.
HERMIONE
I’m so sorry, Ron.
RON
Did you see where Harry went to? He’s gone missing again.
HERMIONE
No… maybe he’s up in the dorms?
They hurry out and up the stairs.
Neville draws in a few students, including Ernie, Luna, Seamus, and Oliver.
NEVILLE
We have an hour. Red sparks for wounded. Blue for dead. Let’s go.
They all spin off towards the grounds. Ginny, drawing away from her family, wanders after them.
GINNY
Neville? Luna?
She passes by a Madam Pomfrey, who is bandaging Lavender Brown.
LAVENDER
(loudly) What do you mean, I might be a werewolf?!
EXT: HOGWARTS COURTYARD
Ginny wanders down into the dark grounds.
GINNY
What’s going on? Luna?
A dark shape steps behind her. She whirls around.
GINNY
Neville?
Fenrir Greyback, his face covered with blood, steps into the light from a castle window.
FENRIR
Not exactly.
Ginny gasps and turns to run, but he grabs her, clapping one hand on her mouth.
FENRIR
Now, now. Let’s not make a fuss, pretty girl. Come with me over where we won’t be bothered by no one.
He drags her off towards a distant grove of trees.
Cut to:
EXT: HOGSMEADE
Lucius hurries out of the Shrieking Shack to join Narcissa, who is pacing worriedly.
NARCISSA
Where have you been? He was asking about you.
LUCIUS
It’s fine. Everything’s fine.
NARCISSA
Our son is still missing.
LUCIUS
Draco may have gone back to the castle.
NARCISSA
How do you—oh. Let’s go, then.
LUCIUS
Right—
Bellatrix appears.
BELLATRIX
Lucius! Narcissa! Come! We’re heading into the woods.
Lucius and Narcissa share a look, then follow her into the trees.
Cut to:
INT: GRYFFINDOR DORMS
Ron and Hermione push the door open. The five beds stand empty, the curtains blowing in the breeze of an open window.
RON
Not here.
He turns to go, but Hermione is blocking the door.
HERMIONE
Ron…
RON
What is it?
HERMIONE
What do you think will happen? What if Voldemort does attack again?
RON
We’ll fight.
HERMIONE
I don’t want to die—
RON
That’s not—
HERMIONE
I don’t want to die without… letting you know how much I love you.
Ron’s eyes can’t help but be drawn to the empty beds.
RON
Are you saying what I think—
She kisses him on the mouth. There’s a brief moment when he almost draws back—as if to rationalize things. Then he gives up and kisses her back. They tumble onto a bed.
The camera moves discretely to the window, picking out a pair of dark figures: One hulkingly large, the other small and struggling desperately, but being pulled toward a grove of dark trees.
Cut to:
FENRIR AND GINNY
She struggles desperately as he half-carries her to the darkness under the trees. As they move, he feels in her pockets, finally pulling out her wand.
FENRIR
Don’t need that now, do we?
He throws it off into the distance.
GINNY
Please. Let me go.
FENRIR
Now, now. It’ll be over soon. Such soft skin…
He throws her on the ground. As she lands, she rolls over to kick him—but he suddenly freezes with a strangled cry. He falls down, nearly landed on Ginny, who throws herself out of the way and looks up to see a WOMAN in a dark mask, holding a wand. The woman pulls off her mask, revealing a line of pustules, spelling out the word SNEAK across her face.
GINNY
Marietta Edgecombe? What are you doing here?
Marietta blinks uncertainly.
MARIETTA
I’m not sure. I was hoping you could tell me.
Cut to:
ANOTHER PART OF THE GROUNDS.
Neville kneels by Colin Creevey, who is covered with blood and delirious.
COLIN
I read about him in the papers, you see. They said he had been studying at Hogwarts. He was the first hero I ever knew.
Colin struggles a little to get up.
NEVILLE
Lie still. Help is coming.
Oliver Wood arrives, his eyes questioning Neville. Neville shakes his head slightly.
COLIN
I was in love with him.
NEVILLE
Still are, I imagine.
COLIN
Not for long.
He leans his head back and the light goes out of his eyes. Neville nods to Oliver, who bends down. Together, they lift the body.
Cut to:
A PATH IN THE FOREST
Lupin trudges down it, his shoulders hunched. Tonks runs after him.
TONKS
Remus! Wait for me!
LUPIN
Dora? I told you to stay with Teddy.
Tonks stops, her wand drooping.
TONKS
I came to be with you.
LUPIN
(shaking his head)
That’s over. It never should have been in the first place.
TONKS
Never should have been? Are you saying you never loved me?
LUPIN
Not the way you wanted me to.
TONKS
And Teddy? Was that a mistake, too? Was our son a mistake?
LUPIN
(running one hand through his hair)
I don’t know. It’s not fair, I know that. I told you to stay with him.
TONKS
But I couldn’t bear to live without you.
LUPIN
Now you’ll be dead without me. Can you bear that?
He turns and walks down the path.
Cut to:
HOGWARTS GROUNDS
Ginny and Marietta search through the grass.
GINNY
Found it.
She holds up her wand.
MARIETTA
I’m sorry I don’t remember you. I left school before my N.E.W.T.s. Everyone hated me and I could never tell why.
GINNY
I’m sure they—it probably wasn’t—it doesn’t matter now.
MARIETTA
It mattered to me. Mother wanted me to go into the Ministry, but you can’t without N.E.W.T.s. And, if you have a face like mine, you can’t even work in a shop.
GINNY
So, why did you come back?
MARIETTA
I felt something burning in my pocket.
She pulls a galleon out of her robes and lights the end of her wand. They both lean over the coin.
MARIETTA (cont’d)
See? There’s writing on it. It says, “Get to Hogwarts as soon as you can.”
GINNY
Oh. (quietly) I’m glad you did.
A bellow pierces the night. They both turn, Marietta’s wand illuminating their terrified faces.
Fenrir runs towards them. It’s hard to tell if he’s a man or a wolf, but he seems to be running on all fours.
Ginny screams and Marietta pushes her to the side as Fenrir leaps at them. He lands on Marietta, a knife flashing in his hand.
Ginny lands and rolls back on her feet. She points her wand at Fenrir.
GINNY
REDUCTO!
He flies into the air from the force of the spell, impaling himself on the sharpened stump of a tree branch. He struggles for a moment to free himself, but finally slumps down, dead.
Ginny, still holding her wand up defensively, sidles over to where Marietta is lying on the ground. She kneels down.
Marietta, holding her side, is bleeding from a deep wound.
GINNY
No, no. Marietta…
MARIETTA
Mother… Mother wanted me to go into the Ministry. She’s going to be angry.
GINNY
It’s all right. It’s okay. We’re going to get you inside…
MARIETTA
But I want to go home. I don’t want to fight anymore!
GINNY
I know. (her voice breaking) It’s going to be all right.
A rustle in the grass makes her turn her head. Her eyes search the darkness.
GINNY (cont’d)
Is anyone there? Please. Please help us.
The footsteps of an invisible person move away from her and towards the blackness of the forest.
GINNY (cont’d)
I can’t move her by myself. Please….
FADE TO BLACK
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Date: 2009-12-23 03:39 am (UTC)It's a very specific level of pitch-dark.
The first time I read this I think I missed that Remus and Tonks were dead. Like, I thought they were asleep. Which is stupid for me, but it's still such a non-event who really cares?
Also, I hate that Harry of course has to make it all about him. For God's sake, Harry, Voldemort wants to take over THEIR world, ya know. Your giving yourself up would just be letting them down. (That said, if he'd turned himself in earlier maybe it would have occurred to them all that they could get off their arses and do something themselves. Nah.)
LOL. Wouldn't it have been great if the memories were Harry screwing up his Potions?
I don't think Harry's in Snape hate mode here--as I said, he hasn't been for the whole book. I think the greed is a greed for a friend. And also maybe one of JKR's word choices that are sometimes not quite right. James wouldn't look greedy, because he wasn't desperate. It doesn't hurt that it's a little selfish-sounding given Snape's character.
I would think Lily's parents told her not to do that because they assume it's dangerous.
Despite all the Albus Severus fics, I still don't think you can choose your house. Sirius doesn't choose Gryffindor except the way he's already chosen it in his heart--iow, it just looks like a choice because it shows what he is.
Honestly, Slytherin seems to have more than their share of repulsive kids that would be ostracized. Not because they're the house of put-upon nerds canonically, but just because they're so unattractive but deserve it because it matches their inner character.
That black magic line really is kind of telling. I don't think it's meant to be a question. I could be wrong, but I feel like JKR feels like we obviously know what she means because clearly none of the crap Harry, Hermione or the twins have ever pulled was ever really *bad*, but practically everything young Snape, Draco or their friends do is dark.
I assume Lily blushes either because she knows Snape likes her (and we're supposed to believe she could have loved him back!) or because she likes James. He's saved Snape at this point, which may be a turning point of sorts.
I tend to think she wants to be rid of Snape too, and I can't really hold it against her. As you said, their friendship is mostly geographical. If Lily was a Pureblood she probably would have had a friendly relationship with him and been kind to him without having that dependence on him.
I assume that when Lily says Snape calls everyone like her a Mudblood she means not in her presence.
The thing about DD's line is we know the hat never makes a mistake. So Sorting too soon doesn't--or certainly shouldn't--mean that Snape would have been Sorted differently. It just means nobody would have known he was one of the Damned that early.
So Dumbledore never even knew about the Sectumsempra in the bathroom?
I think Snape's love for Lily was absolutely his one saving grace. As is the Malfoy's love of their family, Slughorn's love for Lily and Regulus' love for Kreacher. Hell, proabably also Andromeda's love for Ted, Tonks and Teddy.
Go Marietta!
Btw, as we near the end of this book, I've been cautiously thinking of tackling PoA but my book isn't here. Does anybody happen to have a word doc of it or something? I swear I used to have one, but I don't seem to have it anymore!
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Date: 2009-12-23 06:45 am (UTC)There are a few half-hearted stabs at Snape hate in the beginning of the book. And every time he's mentioned the Trio says something like, "Can you believe that Snape? What a nasty guy!"
But it's definitely not at the level we were led to expect. Which was what happened in HBP, too. When I read The Enemy Within, the development of the relationship between Snape and Harry seemed so right, I thought, "JKR has to do something like this in the next book." Well, she did, but it was sublimated through the Potions book--so that Harry got closer to Snape without actually having to deal with him as a living being. And, here we go again. Harry comes to understand Snape, but only has to deal directly with the man for about a minute.
The first time I read this I think I missed that Remus and Tonks were dead. Like, I thought they were asleep. Which is stupid for me, but it's still such a non-event who really cares?
You know, I think I had the same reaction the first time. I don't think I realized they were dead until I started reading outraged reactions on the forums.
I would think Lily's parents told her not to do that because they assume it's dangerous.
I guess. It just struck me as Petunia being afraid that someone will see Lily flying.
Honestly, Slytherin seems to have more than their share of repulsive kids that would be ostracized.
I guess Malfoy and Zabini throw off the averages! Although, Malfoy's never described as being good-looking. We're just attracted to him because he's bad. :0
I feel like JKR feels like we obviously know what she means because clearly none of the crap Harry, Hermione or the twins have ever pulled was ever really *bad*, but practically everything young Snape, Draco or their friends do is dark.
She may think we get it, but I don't. Maybe if she'd have had just one character say, "You know, like in Star Wars!" that would have been enoiugh.
I tend to think she wants to be rid of Snape too, and I can't really hold it against her.
I don't blame her, either. If you don't fancy someone, you don't fancy them. And I certainly don't think she should have been dating neo-Nazi! But I still think she had all the power in their relationship and, if she had really wanted him to change, he would have made every effort. So, all I can conclude is that the racism was less of an issue than her just not being attracted to him.
So Sorting too soon doesn't--or certainly shouldn't--mean that Snape would have been Sorted differently. It just means nobody would have known he was one of the Damned that early.
But... why would it have made any difference to Sort him later? He still would have been picked on for even wanting to be in Slytherin. Unless the Hat didn't sort him until he was forty, I can't see that it would have made any difference to sort him later, unless Dumbledore thought that Snape would have chosen a different House had he been a bit more mature.
Oh hell, why am I even trying to make sense of Dumbledore's line. He's just talking out his behind as usual.
So Dumbledore never even knew about the Sectumsempra in the bathroom?
Hmm. I always assumed that Dumbledore did, because Snape made such a big to-do out of it (for which McGonagall scolds Harry for fifteen minutes). If the forest scene is supposed to come after the duel, then Dumbledore being all twinkly about Snape having put Harry in detention so much is another cynical Dumbledore moment. But if it's before... then Snape knows in the bathroom that Harry is a Horcrux. Perhaps he's trying to figure out if the soul bit is turning Harry evil? I always wondered if the detentions weren't some twisted attempt to bond with Harry....
Argh. Trying to find a half-way human motivation for Dumbledore or Snape is an exercise in frustration!
Go Marietta!
Yeah, I thought it might be cool to have Marietta show up again.
Please do PoA! Please, please, please, please!
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Date: 2009-12-23 05:13 am (UTC)Once again Jo has pulled an interview comment out of her -- well, you know. For one thing every other episode in that memory is in sequence. One would think if her interview comment was true, she'd have insisted that the publishers correct it, at least by the time of the paperback releases. It wasn't changed. It all boils down to her not wanting it to appear that the ebol Snape was able to get past Moody's trap. Ha!
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Date: 2009-12-23 06:48 am (UTC)But it doesn't make as much sense as the scene taking place on the night of Dumbledore's murder. For one thing, I can't imagine Snape going to the Black House very long after Dumbledore's death. He would have to know that the Order was looking for him.
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Date: 2009-12-23 08:38 am (UTC)Also, no matter what Severus said, that friendship wouldn't have lasted once Lily got her Apparition license and spent the summer after 6th year with friends elsewhere. The only difference would have been his guilt over Lily would have started only after the prophecy business.
So… was Dumbledore that badass in the first war? It’s a pretty far cry from the twinkly guy with the candy dish.
No, he sat in his office baby-sitting the Elder Wand, making sure he wasn't corrupted with the hubris it inspires (and failed).
Dumbledore asks what message Snape is bringing from Lord Voldemort. Which implies to me that Snape’s main function as a Death Eater was probably to carry messages between Dumbledore and Voldemort.
Never thought of it this way. On Snapedom Lynn suggested that at this point Dumbledore was only guessing Severus was a DE at all, and the entire exchange was a manipulation intended to have Severus admit he had ties to Voldemort (to be used against him as needed).
BTW notice that Severus says he passed on everything he had heard, yet Dumbledore is confident Voldemort only got the first part. Dumbledore doesn't doubt Voldemort's sanity in planning to attack the Potters (which means he doesn't think the second part was delivered), though he interferes when Severus seems to be saying Voldemort thought it was about Lily. So I think Dumbledore already knew Severus didn't hear (or didn't remember hearing) the second part.
So, why don’t you just ask Lord Voldemort to spare her? Dumbledore taunts. And when Snape explains that he already did, Dumbledore says, “You disgust me.”
The only one who disgusts me is Dumbledore, who is deliberately attributing to Severus the nonsensical asking for Lily *in exchange* for Harry, as if that was even possible. It's not like Voldemort was going to kill Lily and Severus suggested he kill Harry instead. And Severus' "You know what I mean" makes it obvious that he was speaking of the entire family, not just Lily.
Too bad he never says anything about dedicating his life to treating that son decently, but I guess we can’t have everything.
Well, that's the guy who left Harry with the Dursleys and who always had the power to change their treatment of him but didn't.
I take it as Snape reacting to the incredibly insulting swipe at Slytherin—the House that he heads!
Most definitely!
Dumbledore says that he was sorely tempted, but won’t say what tempted him.
See The Suicide Stone
Obviously, the word “protect” does not mean the same thing to Dumbledore and to Snape as it means to me.
It means don't let DEs kill or abduct students from Hogwarts, the grounds or Hogsmeade, nor cause any other form of permanent harm. Pretty good in wizarding standards. (Dumbledore brought or enabled the bringing of Fluffy, Lockhart, Remus; was OK with 'Moody's' demonstration of Unforgivables etc.)
Or, how about this one? How about Dumbledore just dies a natural (cursed) death?
That would make Voldemort master of the Elder Wand. (But Severus isn't allowed to know why he is risking his soul and incidentally becoming a target to Voldemort. ARGH!)
So, I think Dumbledore is trying to keep Snape from suspecting that Harry can survive the encounter with Voldemort.
Definitely.
Re: Part 1
Date: 2009-12-23 04:42 pm (UTC)JKR had a difficult story to tell and not enough page-space to tell it in is what I think. She wants Lily and Severus to break up due to his blood prejudice--but the only way to demonstrate his prejudice is through scenes with Lily--which doesn't work with the spunky speak-up-for-the-victims-of-the-world Lily. So she ends up having to make him racist enough for us to notice, but not enough for Lily to do so. And it's further complicated by not having any other Muggleborns around until Mary MacDonald. Snape has to show us his prejudice against Muggles, which every wizard has.
So, his truly objectionable behavior comes down to beings friends with someone who did something to Mary MacDonald. (I can't help but be reminded of the Grandmother in Cold Comfort Farm who saw something nasty in the woodshed!) And to the "Mudblood" name calling. And Severus's behavior in front of Lily shows me that he was at least struggling with the views he was (evidently) raised with. Someone who is struggling with racism is already something different than a fully committed racist.
On Snapedom Lynn suggested that at this point Dumbledore was only guessing Severus was a DE at all, and the entire exchange was a manipulation intended to have Severus admit he had ties to Voldemort (to be used against him as needed).
Hmm. Dumbledore starts out by asking what message Lord Voldemort has for him. Snape doesn't show any surprise--which I would think he'd do if his identity as a Death Eater had been hidden. I suppose it's possible that Snape arranged the meeting by telling Dumbledore that he had a message from Lord Voldemort--and that was when Dumbledore learned that Snape was a Death Eater.
But Dumbledore definitely thinks that there's a message coming from LV. And that Snape is the one delivering it.
See The Suicide Stone
Nice theory! I like.
That would make Voldemort master of the Elder Wand
Unless Dumbledore destroys the stupid stick.
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Date: 2009-12-23 08:39 am (UTC)BS. When was the last Voldemort-related death that Severus *saw* taking place, could have realistically prevented but did not do so? Anyway, aside from seeing Cedric's death in Harry's memories Severus didn't see any Voldemort-related deaths from 1981 till the summer of 1996.
BTW the choice of *watched* by Dumbledore is sufficient evidence to me that Dumbledore was the only person Severus ever killed directly. (Supported by the opinions of Karkaroff and Bellatrix).
Now, mind you, I can see this Snape love for Lily as a very knightly, romantic thing. But JKR really seems to be doing her best to make it clear that loving Lily is the only decent impulse Snape has ever had in his life. So, it’s not the enobling emotion we’ve come to think of as love. Or maybe Snape was such piece of crap to begin with that even love for the Sainted Lily only raised him to the level of pitbull.
I don't care for Rowling's opinions. That Lily is Severus' Patronus does not mean he doesn't care about anyone else. Her death is the proof that choices that don't look all that bad at the time have far-reaching consequences. That was the lesson Severus had been trying to teach Harry all along, and which Dumbledore had been undermining all along because he wanted Harry as an unthinking suicide bomber.
It is not explained how Snape is in the office when he should have been wanted by the aurors for murder—and persona non grata at Hogwarts.
He flew in through the window, the same one through which Hermione summoned the books.
But Dumbledore is telling Snape to mess up the Move Harry to Another House scheme. It’s also not explained how Dumbledore would know about this scheme at all.
I thought Dumbledore invented it and used Severus to plant it in the Order via Dung?
Next we see Snape flying on a broom. I guess he hadn’t learned that solo-flying thing yet.
Nah, it was Severus who taught Voldemort to fly, but he was keeping it secret so as not to steal the show.
According to JKR, Snape came to the Black House before Moody set up the wards, so this scene is out of sequence.
Nah, he was simply unimpressed with Moody's wards. And I totally don't mind his tearing of the photograph.
a) Dumbledore probably didn’t mind the Snape/Harry feud and wanted to help it along
Obviously. He does not want the chess pieces forming alliances that do not include him.
Great job with Marietta in the DVD extras!!
Re: Part 2
Date: 2009-12-23 05:08 pm (UTC)D'oh! You're right. Although, probably Bones and Vance were dead by this point. (Unless Snape saved them and smuggled them to America!)
BTW the choice of *watched* by Dumbledore is sufficient evidence to me that Dumbledore was the only person Severus ever killed directly. (Supported by the opinions of Karkaroff and Bellatrix).
Yes. And I think JKR uses that word very deliberately.
...and which Dumbledore had been undermining all along because he wanted Harry as an unthinking suicide bomber.
I can't help wondering if JKR ever realized that she was telling the story of a (fantasy) suicide bomber. For me, the events of the last ten years connect very creepily with the HP saga. What struck me, particularly, was the satiric take on the Ministry's actions in HBP--which seem like a criticism of the War on Terrorism. It was weirdest when you consider that there was a terrorist attack in London a week before HBP was released.
Not that the War on Terrorism doesn't deserve to be twitted for being useless and mostly propaganda... but when we have Dumbledore raising Harry to be commit suicide and approving the idea of "taking as many Death Eaters" with him as possible... the twinkly-eyed bearded guy begins to sound like another famous bearded guy known for recruiting suicide bombers.
I thought Dumbledore invented it and used Severus to plant it in the Order via Dung?
I don't think so. What Dumbledore did was to have Snape inform Voldemort of the date of the plan, so that it would be a fiasco. Then Snape was to use Dung to change the plan to include all the polyjuiced Potters--to give Harry a slim chance of survival.
So, the idea was to make Snape look good to Voldemort by bringing in important information (that Snape really shouldn't have been able to get), and then change the plan enough to keep Harry alive. And if the other six Potters died? Ah well, too bad. That's war.
Great job with Marietta in the DVD extras!!
Thanks!
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Date: 2009-12-23 10:27 am (UTC)If it were worth creating theories at this point in the series, I would have theorized that Mrs. Evans is actually a squib and thus knows enough about magic to realize what Lily’s up to and what it means.
That may be closer to the truth than you think. Interview-canon states that all Muggle-borns have some magical ancestry in their blood. In other words, there really is no such thing as a Muggle-born in the literal sense of the word: just magic skipping generations like an albino gene.
But then, this chapter wasn’t written for me. This chapter was written for people who hate Snape.
Perhaps if you turn it around, you might get closer to the truth. This chapter was written for people who will always love James.
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Date: 2009-12-23 05:11 pm (UTC)Unfortunately, we can't have everything!
This chapter was written for people who will always love James.
I can't imagine anyone still loving James after DH.
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Date: 2009-12-23 12:58 pm (UTC)(donning Magenta costume): WIth our fingers.
Sirius—who we had always assumed chose Gryffindor out of principle is basing his choice on following this cool kid he just met.
And as Harry shows and then mentions later, all Sirius had to do was put the hat on his head and repeat, "Not Slytherin! Not Slytherin!" and he would get choices.
Even the first time I read this, I didn’t think she was all that upset about it. This is when I started to really dislike Lily as a character.
I was disliking her even before DHs. The show-off scene with the magic (the only other kid who did magic consciously before Hogwarts was Voldemort) made me think she was nothing but flash, the train station scene where she blames Snape for reading Petunia's letter made me thorougly disgusted with her. I was surprised she left Msrs. I'm-All-That Potter and HotSirius on the train.
While his friends may very well be proto-Nazis, it comes across to me like an excuse to dump Snape.
She's probably been looking for a somewhat reasonable excuse since the first train ride.
(...But, in canon, what they have in common is being the only two magical children in their hometown. Once Lily gets to Hogwarts, she meets hundreds of magical children—so what draws her to Snape is no longer there.)
Ha! Yes! She used him then dumped him.
What really convinces me is when she tells Snape that he’s being ungrateful to James for saving his life without being at all concerned about whether Snape is okay after that experience.
What concerned me was that James was apparently bragging all over Gryffindor that he saved Snape's life but Snape couldn't tell anyone what he was saved from. That skewed everything, another privilege the Gryffindor gets at the expense of the Slytherin.
I can’t help thinking that Snape’s wondering how the hell he was supposed to beg Lord Voldemort to spare the very person Voldemort was bent on killing.
This is the way True Believers in a cause will think, though. Like Sirius saying he would have died to protect James and Lily, not thinking that maybe Voldy might have used Legilimency, and blaming Peter Pettigrew for the very human failure of fear. People who believe this strongly in causes discount human emotions and logic.
How I wish that scene had ended with Snape kicking Dumbledore in the ass.
I think even Snape haters wished that by this point.
Now he’s Petunia and Snape is the neighbor’s garden.
Perfect.
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Date: 2009-12-23 05:19 pm (UTC)It certainly seems that way--although why it took her five years, I'll never know. Unless she was using him to help her potions grade.
What concerned me was that James was apparently bragging all over Gryffindor that he saved Snape's life but Snape couldn't tell anyone what he was saved from.
And how realistic is it that no one even cared what the horrible monster was?
This is the way True Believers in a cause will think, though.
I guess. I think JKR is trying to make the point that caring about only one person--and being indifferent to strangers and enemies is heartless. But I think she could have made that point better--unless she also wanted Dumbledore to look like an asshole.
But I think she doesn't realize how he comes off. To her, this is just Justice in the form of a white-bearded guy. Like when he lectures the Dursleys.
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Date: 2009-12-23 03:06 pm (UTC)***British class system? The Snapes being lower-working class anr the Evanses being middle-working class? Thus they could live close by, but still separated.
Was that JKR’s intention? I’m not sure that it is, because she uses “greed” more than once when it comes to describing romantic attraction.
***I hope our Jo's views on romance is different in RL than in the books, is all I am sying...
“Mummy said you weren’t allowed, Lily!” Petunia says, which brings up an interesting point. How is it that Mrs. Evans knows what Lily is doing—and knows that she shouldn’t be doing it publicly?
***I'm with other posters here - Lily's parents were scared she'd get hurt,that she'd hurt someone else, and that the neighbours would talk.
Anyway, James’s stated choice leads to a tiff between Snape and James and Sirius. Lily decides to move, taking Snape with her. James and Sirius then mock him as being obviously pussy-whipped and the nickname “Snivellus” is born.
***Well, they're eleven, or perhaps twelve. Still believing in girl cooties. I have no problems with them, or Sev, or Lily, being immature. Problem is JKR doesn't show much of them growing up...
Finally, Snape is sorted into Slytherin and goes over to the table where Prefect Lucius Malfoy welcomes him and other students cheer. Is this because they don’t know him yet? I mean, he’s not really one of them. He’s a half blood from the bad part of a Muggle town.
***Perhaps Lucius did that to every new Slyth, just that Harry didn't notice?
I know, it's just JKR showing that Snape totally belongs in Slytherin. :-(
Or am I simply invested too much in the idea of an ostracized Snape?
***The SWM scene seemed to show he didn't have friends in his own year, as no-one came to help him against the Gryff jocks. I had a theory young Sev, being intelligent and socially inept, preferred to sociallise with the older students, finding his peers beneath him. Or that all the other students were sick to death of the Snape/Potter fighting and simply didn't care anymore.
Now I'm leaning towards JKR not thinking about it, The Plot just needed a Lily/James/Severus scene...
“D’you know what he tried to do to Mary MacDonald the other day?
No. What? Tell us, damnit. Was it as bad and turning her upside-down and taking off her panties? /---/
Any other spell that might be described as “a laugh” that we know about has been done by the “good guys.”/---/Or does Bertram Aubrey not count in Lily Evans’ list of victims?
***That's a problem. Lots of things readers find repulsive is considered fun by the Wizworld in general. Students hexing each other in the corridors is a common thing. Wizard humour is rustic, to say the least.
So yes, what did they do that a witch or wizard found horrible?? Another question: was young Sev a VoldieJugend or just friends with some?
Anyway, they split up and Lily went and cast obliviate on all her friends so that everyone forgot that she ever liked the weirdo kid from Slytherin and that explains why no one ever mentioned their relationship to Harry. Not even Hagrid, who spilled the beans about everything else under the sun.
***All her friends must have died in the war. Or emigrated. Or something. Have it ever accured to you to wonder why no student ever came up to Harry, telling him that her or his parents had been to school with J&L?
Still, no-one seemed to remember Professor Lupin or the infamous criminal Sirius Black was old friends to James Potter...
Time's flying, but I must mention one other thing:
“I sometimes think we Sort too soon…”
Just WTF *headdesk*
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Date: 2009-12-23 05:06 pm (UTC)But someone gave Hagrid those photographs for the album he prepared for Harry in PS. I suppose they never had kids?
Come on, Dedalus Diggle, Order member, looked Harry up in Little Whinging, shook his hand in the Leaky Cauldron, picked him up from 4PD - and never said anything about Harry's parents. I have a feeling most Order members were sticking with 'if you don't have anything nice to say don't say a thing' and the only ones who had anything nice to say were Remus, Sirius and Hagrid. Heck, the only think Minerva ever said to Harry's face about either of his parents was that James was an excellent Quidditch player.
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Date: 2009-12-23 04:54 pm (UTC)Contradicted so many times by her own canon: His reaction to a student being taken to the Chamber of Secrets, the responsible way in which he reacts to mayhem in his class, the gentleness in which he treats unconscious Sirius, his reaction to hearing tortured screams in the middle of the night (The Egg and the Eye).
Especially when comparing him to the total irresponsibility of Minerva in some cases (forest detention when a unicorn killer is around to teach kids not to stay out of hours in 'dangerous times'? going berzerk over Neville's passwords landing in Sirius' hands while ignoring the fact that Neville left the passwords *beyond* the portrait, meaning only someone who already had the means to enter the common room had access to them - ergo Sirius had inside help), Remus all year (hiding crucial information because it would paint him negatively, delaying taking the potion to the very last minute) and Hagrid (need I give details), Severus has always been the most reliable, trustworthy, safe teacher to have around who was most mindful of his students.
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Date: 2009-12-23 06:30 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2009-12-23 05:48 pm (UTC)I know the parallels were presented early on, but I always assumed that JKR had some kind of reasoning behind why James became so fantastic, if only the lame 'He saved Snape's life!'
But in the end, it really did seem to come down to the only difference being that Draco went into Slytherin and James into Gryffindor.
Plus he’s poor and he’s funny-looking and he doesn’t have a lot of social skills. Are we to assume that none of that matters to the snobs in Slytherin?
Because JKR makes a big deal about how useless 90% of the Slytherins are, it sort of has the reverse effect she's aiming for, and makes you think 'Wow, clearly the Malfoys etc. aren't as snobbish as they're cracked up to be, since they're hanging out with these half-bloods and ugly/fat people, while Harry can't even go to a dance with a girl who isn't the most beautiful ever, and Neville is barely tolerated through most of his time in Gryffindor.'
“Let me? Let me?” Lily rages back.
OMG, JKR, u r so feminist!1!! Well done, Lily. Now get married, give birth and die.
Why doesn’t he bring up the head-swelling and bullying stuff that we know happened?
Because it would lend his argument validity. No-one ever uses anything against the heroes when they actually have the opportunity too, they have to make up reasons or be Just Jellus so we know they're wrong morally, even if they're right in a more cold, intellectual, um...factual way.
We learn that Lily refuses to accept that apology and calls Snape a future Death Eater.
LOL, Lily, the precursor to the twins and Harry - everyone she's nasty to ends up being evil/flawed (nice burning of Petunia. Also love the mention of how Harry breaks some vase Petunia sent, but it's tacky, so yay! Apparently Petunia wasn't such a bitch she didn't keep reaching out even after Lily upgraded to the wizarding life.) so it's retroactively okay that she was nasty.
Snape drops to his knees and cries out, “Don’t kill me!”
So… was Dumbledore that badass in the first war?
I think it's just that Snape is that cowardly, like all Slytherins. If you think someone might kill you, you should stoicly welcome it if you really want to be good.
Dumbledore goes on explain that he’s disgusted because Snape cares only about Lily’s life and not about her husband or son.
Wasn't this basically Dumbledore's attitude in OotP, except about the Longbottoms instead of Harry? I could have sworn there's some conversation where they basically take the tack of 'Snape didn't know YOU'd be involved! It could have been someone unimportant, like Neville and his family.'
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Date: 2009-12-23 06:34 pm (UTC)And that James successfully bullied people, while Draco's efforts were always ineffectual and easily thwarted by Harry.
OMG, JKR, u r so feminist!1!! Well done, Lily. Now get married, give birth and die.
LOL! Isn't that the truth?
'Snape didn't know YOU'd be involved! It could have been someone unimportant, like Neville and his family.'
Which family Dumbledore evidently did nothing to protect, preferring I guess to see which kid Voldemort chose to attack.
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Date: 2009-12-23 07:55 pm (UTC)Which makes you wonder: what would Dumbledore do if Snape had taken the opposite route and was like "F you old man, they're on your side anyway!". I'd really like to believe there's no chance in hell Dumbledore wouldn't try to protect the Potters as a sick way to punish Snape. But I still have this nagging doubt.
"Snape is trying to heal Dumbledore"- why not Fawks with his tears?
"How about Dumbledore just dies a natural (cursed) death?"
Yes, he was going to die soon anyway because of the ring curse, so why did he even need to plan his suicide?
"At that time and not before, Snape must tell Harry the truth about being a horcrux and that he must allow Voldemort-and no one else- to kill Harry"
I'm really curious to see how the film will handle this. Will WB be worried that Dumbledore raising Harry like a pig to slaughter might be too controversial? Is there a chance they'll change it so that Dumbledore was somehow unaware to the fact that Harry was a horcrux? I hope they do, I also hope they'll cut the "sort too soon" line.
"Snape proves his undying attachment to Lily by casting his doe patronus"
And this is news to Dumbledore why? what in all the years that he worked in Hogwarts not even once has he sent his doe patronus to Dumbledore?
"Does this mean that Snape has repented his racist ways?" has he ever in the previous books used the term 'mudblood'? (besides the SWM chapter).
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Date: 2009-12-24 01:18 am (UTC)Nah, there have to be other scenes even more artificial than this. Hmm. How about Ron lucking out with the Deluminator, just 'feeling' that it would direct his aimless Disapparation and guide him back to his friends?
But yes, I hate the reason given for Harry viewing the memories. It's like everything else; Rowling was going to write the story her way anyway, so, just like every other plot movement, she paid scant attention to justifying it or making the characters' choices credible. She just never sat down to think about their options, or what other actions they might choose to undertake (were they to remain in character).
Or, how about this one? How about Dumbledore just dies a natural (cursed) death?
But would that mean the one who placed the curse on the Ring - i.e. Riddle - would become master of the deus ex machina wand?
Dumbledore goes on to say that it was necessary to protect Harry until he was strong enough to kill himself.
This is total bull. Can someone tell me why Harry had to live at all? When did Dumbledore suspect that Harry was a horcrux?
Snape is now shocked that Dumbledore would raise Harry only to sacrifice him at the proper age.
Because it didn't make sense!!!!
I have long detested those statements of Dumbledore's that Rowling inserted so as to try and have the whole basis of the series make sense. When I point out that Harry could have been killed at any time - or that anyone could have done it - various fans scream NO, IT HAD TO COME DOWN TO HARRY VERSUS VOLDEMORT!!! Why? I ask. BECAUSE THAT'S HOW IT HAD TO BE!! HARRY IS THE HERO AND VOLDEMORT IS THE VILLAIN!
Now, Rowling didn't write *that* - in just those words - in her story, but I think the entire series rests on just these couple of statements of Dumbledore's:
"We have protected him because it has been essential to teach him, to raise him, to let him try his strength,"
We readers are supposed to read that and say "oh, okay, I'll dismiss my wondering why we've read about seven years of Harry at Hogwarts when Dumbledore knew he was a horcrux and should be destroyed ASAP". But is there any actual *sense* behind what Dumbledore says here? If Snape asked "But, Albus, WHY is it 'essential' that he 'try his strength', if you always intended that he die?" ... what would be the answer? Can someone tell me if there's a good canon reason ... or does this one sentence of Dumbledore's/Rowling's attempt to justify the entire series along the lines of "just because the author/Dumbledore says so, now please move along"?
Second horrible sentence:
"So the boy…the boy must die?" asked Snape quite calmly.
"And Voldemort himself must do it, Severus. That is essential."
Okay, it's 'essential' that Voldemort must do the deed, because this is a hero versus villain story and Rowling needs things to work out this way ... but, if you dismiss the empty "because Dumbledore says so" factor, can anyone tell me if there's an actual in-story reason for Dumbledore to state this? Dumbledore knew of the 'shared blood' thing at this stage, but that hook to the world of the living would have worked for Harry no matter who did the deed. Viz Neville slaying Nagini; anyone could have killed Harry to destroy the horcrux. And, if Voldemort was alive, the 'shared blood' would have brought Harry back ... regardless of who tried to kill him.
Given the big reveal in this chapter that Harry is a horcrux and was destined to die even Rowling realised that some fans might ask "then why wasn't he killed a long time ago?". So she used her principal proxy, Dumbledore, to bluff us that it "had to happen" that way - it was 'essential' that he live, only to die; and also 'essential' that Voldemort be the one to do it.
But I see these two statements of Dumbledore's as only the last-minute exhortation of an author desperate to stop her readers questioning why they've read seven books about Harry at Hogwarts when, as it turns out, his only role/utility is to die ... and his death could/should have been at any time.
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Date: 2009-12-24 03:13 am (UTC)I agree, I've always felt that once the events of Chamber took place, Harry could have been eliminated, preferably before Voldemort go a chance to get another body.
Still, if JKR wanted her seven books, she could have made more of an effort to justify it. Why couldn't she link it to the vague reasoning Dumbles gave at the end of Phoenix? Not the loving Harry too much, I find that rather hard to believe, I mean the 'wanting him to be happy' part. Dumbles could say he wanted him to enjoy a happy childhood, because he knew he'd have to die young through no fault of his own. It could tie in with his tears at the end of that book - they seem like crocodile tears now. Instead they'd be genuine because the situation was so much worse than he was admitting to. He knew that Harry had even more reason to make the most of his youth than he was saying. Plus there's the fact that there were other horcruxes - there was no urgency in killing Harry while the others were still at large (though Cedric might disagree). That's presuming he had no knowledge of the spell that gave Voldemort a new body. Harry was one of several soul parts, so he decided to destroy him last of all - to give him as much time as possible. Maybe the wrong decision, but one that made Dumbles seem human and compassionate - unlike every other thing we saw him do in the later books.
If he'd thought he had two years to live instead of one, he could even say that he planned to explain to Harry exactly what the situation was once he was 17 - he could hardly tell him the truth at 13 - then help him die painlessly. As opposed to sneakily arranging for him to go to his death totally alone, with no support. Telling him about the Horcrux hunt, so that he could accept the seriousness of the situation over a year, might help him accept his fate more easily. If he refused, he could just sneak an Avadra Kedrava in while he wasn't looking.... After Harry's death, his plan would have been to tell the Order about the Horcruxes and Lupin, a brilliant DADA expert, currently unemployed, could find and destroy them in a month. They could then bring the fight to Voldemort rather than let him attack the bloody school.
Feeble, I know, but better than that nonsense about Harry having just reached the required level of strength and maturity when fighting the basilisk was the high point of his heroic career!
I understand why JKR didn't off Harry half way through the series, but wish she'd made it obvious why Dumbledore made the decisions he did.
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Date: 2009-12-24 01:21 am (UTC)One last thing ... I'm convinced that Snape never truly loved Lily. Attracted to her, in lust with her, sure. But when someone is truly in *love* with another, he wants the best for her, he puts her needs and desires ahead of his own. And Snape doesn't:
"If she means so much to you," said Dumbledore, "surely Lord Voldemort will spare her? Could you not ask for mercy for the mother, in exchange for the son?"
"I have – I have asked him – "
"You disgust me," said Dumbledore, and Harry had never heard so much contempt in his voice. Snape seemed to shrink a little, "You do not care, then, about the deaths of her husband and child? They can die, as long as you have what you want?"
Snape said nothing, but merely looked up at Dumbledore.
"Hide them all, then," he croaked. "Keep her – them – safe. Please."
Dumbledore had it right with this one; Snape only wanted to save LILY, even though she would be devestated by the loss of her husband and child. Had he truly cared for her happiness he would have wanted them saved as well, rather than being prompted to include them as a mere afterthought.
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Date: 2009-12-24 01:57 am (UTC)Well, at least she got to kill him. :)
No, Marietta wasn't in any of the earlier ones. But it wasn't until I thought about her being the girl (in the next chapter), that the DVD extra started getting good for me.
I'm convinced that Snape never truly loved Lily.
I see it differently. I do think that Snape loved her--and that he loved her more than he lusted for her. The tragedy was that he didn't know how to love someone, never having any positive models. Eventually he might have understood better what love meant--but he didn't even understand Lily enough to know what her needs and desires were.
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From:Part One
Date: 2009-12-24 01:49 am (UTC)Oh please – Tonks was so Book 5 and in JKR’s hands, the Marauders stopped being relevant after Book 3.
--- “Harry, in possibly the most contrived moment in the entire series, pours Snape’s memories into the Pensieve and decides to watch them in order to escape his guilty torment.”
Oh Lord. These recaps are so bad for my blood pressure. The bliss of skim reading is that you miss lots of this nonsense – but you’re shoving it in my face! I initially read this as Harry being anxious to find out what vital info Snape had given him – I certainly was. Apart from Harry and possibly JKR, who wouldn’t be?
---“I would have theorized that Mrs. Evans is actually a squib and thus knows enough about magic to realize what Lily’s up to and what it means.”
Except we all knew by this stage that JKR didn’t give half the thought to her world that her readers did. Maybe you’re right and Mrs Evans had magical links (great theory!) in a sub-plot that JKR had to drop. Instead of Mrs Evans being a squib, maybe James’ father cheated and she had ‘known’ him? Maybe James and Lily were half-siblings?! That would explain why Mrs Evans (the cheap hussy) didn’t tell Lily about magic. It’d also explain a LOT about Harry.
More importantly, why does Lily have such control over wandless magic? Open and close a flower – surely she should just be instinctively demonstrating anger, or fear? Potter men really do like their Mary Sues, don’t they? I agree that Snape breaking the branch could be akin to Harry/Aunt Marge, but this?
---“Sirius—who we had always assumed chose Gryffindor out of principle is basing his choice on following this cool kid he just met.”
I’m not too cross about this, because he was only 11. It’s more likely that he just hated his family and wanted to rebel, rather than had any fully formed, independent opinions on blood purity. James, on the other hand, is an obnoxious little git. He’s no different to Draco, but we’re supposed to like him? In the early books, I presumed that the message was that the average Gryffindor happened to be nicer than the average Slytherin, because of their behaviour and beliefs. Now it seems as if it really is as simple as Gryffindor is good, Slytherin is bad, regardless of how they behave. Instead of the good people happening to end up in Gryffindor, people are good simply *because* they end up there - total nonsense.
James was depicted as a tiresome bully throughout the series, then suddenly got ‘noble’ (if stupid) at Godric’s Hollow. We’ve no idea how he got there, so why should we believe the change? I don’t, James Potter was a bully. The End.
Re: Part One
Date: 2009-12-24 06:45 am (UTC)I could argue the same about the twins. :)
The bliss of skim reading is that you miss lots of this nonsense – but you’re shoving it in my face!
How do you think I feel! But, in all fairness, I've read this chapter a number of times and there's a dozen points in it where I have to either roll my eyes or stab at them with sharpened needles.
It’d also explain a LOT about Harry.
Hehe.
James Potter was a bully. The End.
Yes. But I think JKR was deliberately trying to make the parallel between James and Draco--and I don't think it's so that we can think they were a lot alike--but completely different. :)
I'd like to think she meant it the other way around--that if James grew up all noble and good, then probably Draco did as well. It just took a bit more effort on his part, what with having the family obligation to murder headmasters and so forth.
Part Two
Date: 2009-12-24 01:54 am (UTC)Why, where had you been before? Heh. JKR really should have cut the ‘hungry’ looks from Snape (at 11?!) and clearly based his relationship with Lily 100% on mutual platonic friendship - like Harry and Hermione. Lily should have cared for her dependable, witty old friend, (who wasn’t a spoilt bully, like certain Gryffindors), who was struggling with the racist attitudes of his House and his lack of popularity elsewhere. Once he’d called her Mudblood in public, she’d realise that she was fooling herself and that he wasn’t being honest about his beliefs - that would be the point of no-return. If Snape *then* realised that he loved her, *after* SWM, he wouldn’t seem so foolish two decades later; he could genuinely think he might have had a chance and regretted it forever. There could even be a memory of him telling her how he felt and her saying that it could have happened before, but not now – I would have been upset for him then. It would also make Lily look less of a cow by making the balance of power more equal, as in real friendships (ask James/Peter). Instead we got this chapter that just irritated me on his behalf. The Mighty Snape ruined along with so many others.
Also, can you fast-forward a memory? Don’t bother to answer that. Even if it’s possible, Harry certainly wouldn’t know how to do it.
---“Any other spell that might be described as “a laugh” that we know about has been done by the “good guys.”
Like scarring a girl for life? Fortunately, it only disfigured her face, which no young girl would really care about – you have to laugh!
---“The Prince and the Manipulative Bastard.”
This was all badly conceived, didn’t stand up to scrutiny and revealed JKR’s inability to write consistently. What else can I say? You really took one for the team this time round - have an egg-nog on me. She was hindered by the fact that Dumbledore is perhaps the most ridiculous of all the characters in this series. Harry, Hermione, Hagrid etc just became unbearable. However JKR’s Machiavellian meddler didn’t make *any* sense. So much of his manipulation seemed designed to hinder his cause. Pah.
---“A bit melodramatic, aren’t we, Snape? Couldn’t just meet him at ...a gay bar?”
No, Dumbles liked to keep his work life and private life separate.
---“Snape is now shocked that Dumbledore would raise Harry only to sacrifice him at the proper age. Dumbledore is shocked that Snape is shocked, asking, “How many men and women have you watched die?”
How’s this the same? Snape was a bloody Death Eater – he probably killed people, never mind watching them die, it’s in the job description. Dumbles – a ‘good’ guy remember – actively groomed Harry to be his sacrificial lamb. He should have just hexed him at some point in Goblet – the Horcrux hunt would have been a lot smoother, he’d have saved Harry a lot of unhappiness, been no more of a complete b*stard than he is now and prevented Voldemort from coming back. I forget what a hypocrite he is sometimes, because I’m so blinded with fury at his other faults. Arranging other people’s deaths is as bad as killing them yourself – but it saves your soul from being split I suppose.
---“The Prince’s and the Portrait (Who Is Still a Manipulative Bastard).”
Sigh.
---“As a Snape fan, it annoys me no end that he’s being such a jerk in this scene—but I have to give JKR props.”
No you don’t! She made her most interesting character into a pathetic creep. Lily had been dead for 16 years and she didn’t even love him when she was alive, or even when they were close. What a rubbish life he led – for a rubbish reason and a rubbish ‘hero’.
DVD Extras – I LOVED them, even more than usual. I have one small quibble. Ginny should have died with Marietta. No, I *never* give up.
Re: Part Two
Date: 2009-12-24 06:56 am (UTC)Of course I agree. That would have been a lot more believable--and heartbreaking.
Arranging other people’s deaths is as bad as killing them yourself – but it saves your soul from being split I suppose.
Only if you're Dumbledore. Voldemort seems to get full soul-splitting credit for telling a snake to kill Myrtle.
I have one small quibble. Ginny should have died with Marietta. No, I *never* give up.
You'll never know how tempted I was to let Fenrir have his wicked way with Ginny.
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From:Part 1
Date: 2009-12-24 05:38 am (UTC)Thank you! I’ve seen this used by Snape-dectrators to show what horrible person he is because he didn’t ask Voldemort to spare Harry. WTF how was he supposed to do this pray tell? It wasn’t like this was an exchange where Voldemort was going to kill Lily and Severus said “oh no, master, kill her baby boy instead!” I bet even asking for Lily, probably under the pretext of slaking his lust as Voldie seems to think it is when he talks to Harry in the final showdown, got him a crucio or two for daring to be weak enough to fall pray to petty human weaknesses such as physical desire. As for apparently not wanting James spared well I can’t say that I blame him. James was the man who made his life a living hell for seven years finding out that he may die Severus’ only thought was probably “good riddance.” It’s not an admirable attitude to have but it is perfectly human.
How I wish that scene had ended with Snape kicking Dumbledore in the ass.
LOL You and me both. I mean really this is the best Dumbledore can do? Giving Severus a back-handed compliment “we sort too soon.” Well considering twinkly eyed Albus has turned out to be a manipulative bastard of the highest order keeping secrets so he can be the one everyone relies on to make things right and sending people to their deaths with not a thought to any alternatives, and according to this chapter deliberately lets Quirrell with Voldie riding around the back of his head work in his school for a year, endangering everyone in Hogwarts, so Harry can test his strength I can think of someone else who was apparently sorted too soon, and this is the man JKR totes around as the epitome of good?
So, Dumbledore tells Snape to find out what Draco plans to do—since a frightened teenager is often a danger to others as well as to himself. Right, Dumbledore. This is why you don’t allow Draco to order cursed necklaces and poisoned wine from school.
Yes this is why instead you get Draco and his family into hiding as soon as you can to prevent people like Katie Bell being in the hospital for months all because she was in the wrong place at the wrong time Dumbledore’s stupid game of chess. Oh, wait then Dumbledore wouldn’t get his heroic death trying to ‘save’ Draco when it’s far too late never mind then.
Re: Part 1
Date: 2009-12-24 07:11 am (UTC)Seriously. It does seem like Dumbledore really just wanted to be killed in the most dramatic possible way. The ring curse wasn't "thrilling" enough. I used to theorize that Dumbledore was making a play to alienate the Malfoys from Voldemort by saving them--I had it very cleverly worked out, too.
But then they turn out to be almost irrelevant to the story in DH.
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From:Part 2
Date: 2009-12-24 05:43 am (UTC)Oh how I hate this moment let me count the ways. First off why does Dumbledore seem surprised that his patronus is a doe didn’t the previous memory mention that Snape sent Dumbledore a patronus message just a week ago? Secondly maybe it’s because I was skimming at this point and totally uninterested in the story, but when was the idea that Lily’s patronus is a doe and so Severus’ matches hers because he will forever be in love with the beautiful pure one who got away, and treated him like crap. We never see her patronus! How does everybody, including Harry who has been established through out DH as dumber than a post make the connection between the doe and Lily? In my personal canon the doe has nothing to do with Lily, and Severus just never bothers to correct anybody, letting people think they have your motivations all figured so they won’t question your actions is cunningly Slytherin after all. I like to think of Severus as a closet Disney fan so going right back to the DVD extra in the first recap he didn’t do it for Bambi’s mother his doe is Bambi’s mother! Representing his desire for the happy idyllic endings portrayed in most Disney movies that he would wish for his own life, a happy ending with a woman his loves and a family that actually cares for one another. Then of course the whole flying unaided thing comes from a film carrying the motto of “faith, trust, and pixie dust.” Hey, happy thoughts/memories are used to make patroni why not see if you can use them in other ways?
Re: Part 2
Date: 2009-12-24 07:02 am (UTC)But about Snape sending Dumbledore a Patronus.... I don't think the memories mentioned anything like that, but he would have done it at the end of OotP, no? No, wait.. Dumbledore was supposed to arrive at the Black House and Sirius was supposed to tell him what was going on.
But why wouldn't Snape send a Patronus to Dumbledore? And Dumbledore implied that Snape send one to the Black House. So... wouldn't they be twitting him about his Lily Doe?
But, yeah, it doesn't even make sense that he would have the same Patronus that Lily did. It doesn't make sense in about a dozen different ways.
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Date: 2009-12-24 05:43 am (UTC)I was actually shocked at how judgmental, unsympathetic, and unwilling to communicate Lily Potter was (just like all Gryffindors, and most other wizards). She was angry and accusing of Snape from the start. Other people's opinions always seemed important to her, given the fact that she referenced them so often (from Petunia to her friends); she seemed to prefer listening to anyone but her "friend." And could whatever Mulciber tried to do to Mary McDonald (unsuccessfully, of course -- hello -- Slytherin!) really be worse than luring Snape to a transformed werewolf or instigating the fun of SWM? Harry Potter and the Double Standard of Blatancy. I've seen efforts to retrofit Lily's character based on these being Snape's "selected" memories, but to me it's just adding roses and candy to make an impoverished gruel more palatable.
Snape, meanwhile, barely survived the author's assassination attempt. How did this soppy Ultimate Doormat ever manage to spy, let alone teach Potions? He seemed to have been born with "Kick Me" tattooed on his back. Rowling tried to diminish his previously-seen intelligent perception and ability to act independently. At least he had his stubborn pride as a kid, and was surly as an adult, after Dumbledore trapped him. I suppose those are the only things that kept him from being totally feminized. His prickly character is certainly one of the reasons I liked him, along with the sense of humor and the general honesty the author gave him, for some unfathomable reason.
Dumbledore came off as the micromanaging, information-hoarding, emotionally-abusive, hypocritical, worst boss ever.
You're in the home stretch now! I will miss the DVD extras.
Best wishes for the holidays, everyone.
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Date: 2009-12-24 03:06 pm (UTC)Exactly. I've been unable to write any fanfic since "The Prince's Tale". I have rarely felt so sad after reading a book as I did after DH - not because it moved me, but because it ruined every single interesting thing that had gone before. *sigh* It's not easy being a canon junkie.
Dumbledore came off as the micromanaging, information-hoarding, emotionally-abusive, hypocritical, worst boss ever.
And that wouldn't have been so bad in terms of writing (let's forget about the interviews' "epitome of goodness" bull argument's sake), provided that his scheming had actually made sense somehow. DH's "explanations" are only acceptable if you are willing to suspend disbelief enough to accept that even the most cunning wizards haven't got an ounce of logic, as Hermione put it in PS. Personally I'm not.
There is only one way to explain the complete disaster of the series' plot, and that is that Rowling indeed designed her story in an "A must lead to B" sort of way without bothering with a good motivation why A should lead to B in the first place. As far as I am concerned, that is indeed one of the most difficult parts of the plotting business, but, you know, if that's not your strong point then don't dismiss your editors, okay?
*rolls eyes*
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From:Part 3
Date: 2009-12-24 05:48 am (UTC)Also from a personal perspective I hate the character of Lily I really do. To me she comes across as nothing more than a magical version of Petunia. In fact Lily in some ways is worse than Petunia because, thanks to Terri_testing’s essays on her, Petunia is a least marginal sympathetic, she is put into the position of raising a magical child apparently given no choice in the matter upon her sister’s death and is told all of this in a letter. We don’t even know is she was told when the funeral would be or even if she was allowed to attend (proving that once again Dumbledore has his ass-hat firmly in place). Lily and Severus seem to have a childhood friendship based on convenience. They are close enough to one another that they can meet and Severus can tell Lily all about this world she will be entering. Once they enter that world though Severus is no longer the only magical child with which Lily can interact and thus has outlived his usefulness. In fact he seems to become the geeky hanger on that Lily seems ashamed to be associated with considering we never see them interact in public outside of the first train ride to Hogwarts. What clinches this for me is that we never see any memories where they are just happy and content enjoying each others company. In every other scene Lily seems to be mad at him and/or looking at him with dislike. Why is she looking at a friend like that? Because of his views on muggles which as we’ve all noted the entire wizarding world has! But this shows up early if she really couldn’t deal with his attitude why stay friends with him for so long? (I think it may have something to do with her potions grade Slughorn says Harry is just like his mother in this area and what is Harry doing for sixth year? Cheating by using Severus’ notes who is to say Lily wasn’t doing something similar). She may have grown to have problems with his distain for muggleborns but canon isn’t clear if he truly believes that or if he is just going with the flow to fit in with his house (or when this begins to happen). They know where he eats, sleeps, and showers after all and can make his life even more miserable if they want to. We don’t even know what kind of organization Severus thinks he and his school mates might be getting themselves into. Regulus, a pureblood and a Black, who you would think would have the most intimate connections to Voldemort’s movement doesn’t even know it involves killing muggles until, I think, 1979. Lily just looks like she is trying to find any excuse to drop a friendship she has long since grown out of, while coming out of still smelling like a rose, and when Severus hands her one with his monumentally stupid moment of calling her a mudblood she takes it. I mean Severus is supposed to be her best friend and yet none of her other friends know why she even talks to him? Her best friend’s life was at risk with whatever happened under the Whomping Willow and she doesn’t even find him to make sure he is okay? She gives him the silent treatment over something Mulciber was doing that he wasn’t there for and may not have even heard about? And apparently seeing your supposed best friend choking on soap and having his underwear shown off for the whole school, and possibly his genitals too, is something to try not to smile about, and is nothing like what creepy Mulciber tried to do to Mary because no dark magic is involved? And what the hell is dark magic anyway?!
In closing: [linkara-mode] This! Chapter! SUCKS!![/linkara-mode]
Re: Part 3
Date: 2009-12-24 08:06 am (UTC)I'm guessing because during school breaks they are back in their hometown again, two magical children among the Muggles. Until the summer after 6th year, when they would have had Apparition licenses and would have been able to visit any magical friends. So I doubt the friendship would have lasted more than a year than it did anyway.
Re: Part 3
From:Re: Part 3
From:no subject
Date: 2009-12-25 02:39 pm (UTC)Lily's flower opening and shutting like "some bizarre, many-lipped oyster" is a startlingly ugly image. For a moment magic becomes a perverse violation of nature ("The sore trees cast their leaves too early./Each twig pinching shut like a jabbed clam" - Margaret Atwood, "Frogless").
The chapter made me sympathize with Petunia a lot. Far from merely being jealous of her sister's speshulness in all its forms, she's deeply conflicted about magic itself. She hates, yet craves something she can never have. It's a painful bind that inevitably drove a wedge between the sisters. Who'da thought Lily and Petunia were once affectionate siblings, not very different in character?
Finally, Snape is sorted into Slytherin and goes over to the table where Prefect Lucius Malfoy welcomes him and other students cheer. Is this because they don’t know him yet? I mean, he’s not really one of them.
Lucius must know 'Snape' isn't a pureblood name. I do think the scene implies a degree of acceptance by his House. Slytherin cares about lineage but also that you have Slytherin values, of which your Sorting there is a strong indication. This moment is unexpectedly egalitarian to boot. A grubby little firstie nobody gets to sit next to a godlike seventh year prefect, who pats him on the back in welcome. Maybe only because he was within reach, but I suspect that was how Lucius won him. It's the only gesture of spontaneous friendliness that Snape receives from anyone in canon, Lily and Dumbledore very much included.
So, why don’t you just ask Lord Voldemort to spare her? Dumbledore taunts. And when Snape explains that he already did, Dumbledore says, “You disgust me.”
I never could make heads or tails of this. Why does Dumbledore talk as if Snape had the power to set terms to Voldemort? "Could you not ask for mercy for the mother, in exchange for the son?" Sailorlum on Snapedom proposed that he means Snape could have suggested the deal with Lily that Voldemort eventually tried to make ("Stand aside, girl!"). Iow, this could be a piece of exposition: a major plot point might have originated with Snape, or at least, Dumbledore thinks it might have. Except that Snape would be an idiot to tack on such a condition. "Please spare Lily, IF she agrees to so-and-so" would lower the probability of her being spared. There was no need to exposit Lily's bargain as anything but Voldemort's own whimsical contribution to the plot. Only an unfeeling psycho like him would seriously think Lily might hand over her baby to be killed.
If Dumbledore's just trying to establish for our benefit that young!Snape is deplorably morally stunted ("They can die, then" etc.), he's got a counterproductive way of going about it. He asks leading questions, puts words in Snape's mouth and generally acts like a crooked attorney trying to incriminate the witness. Above all, he's steering the conversation towards the moment when Snape has to ask him to "hide them all, then" -- something you'd assume Dumbledore would do anyway without being prompted. Is he insisting that Snape display a minimum of moral decency before he'll listen to him? Hardly. I think his aim throughout was to force Snape to ask him for a favor. He wants a DE under obligation to him. His showy moral disgust is only to up the pressure.
Copypasta from one of my posts on Snapedom: "The only logical conclusion is that Dumbledore has an ulterior motive, as ever. No doubt taking the moral high ground to dizzying heights is a nice egoboo, but his real aim isn't to establish Snape's depravity, it's to give his victim one body blow after another. He'd accuse Snape of killing JFK if he thought it'd serve his purpose. It's all leading up to that crucial moment when he asks, "And what will you give me in return, Severus?" To get his hooks into Voldemort's lieutenant is the prize he's been angling for all along."
no subject
Date: 2009-12-25 05:41 pm (UTC)In Betrayals Severus initially asks Voldemort for Lily under the guise of revenge on James (warning: Severus' thoughts are quite disgusting and include assorted immoral means for 'winning' Lily over) and much later convinces Voldemort to ask Lily to stand aside, supposedly as a form of emotional torture but really because he figured the potential for protective magic for Harry, which is what Lily would want.
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From:cont'd
Date: 2009-12-25 02:52 pm (UTC)I think the idea's something like this: Snape's love for a noble Gryffindor was his road to salvation. The Lily-love anvils fifteen years after her death are meant to reassure us that a) it really was Twu Wuv, and isn't it romantic? b) he won't stray from the path of virtue.
My reading is more or less the reverse. Snape's feelings for Lily were an unhealthy obsession that's been slowly fading as he grows morally and begins to heal emotionally. In his mid-30s he's capable of genuine concern for others besides Lily, which he wasn't as an unloved and deeply damaged twenty-year-old. But he thinks it's still all about Lily because he fails at introspection.
Re: cont'd
Date: 2009-12-25 06:47 pm (UTC)And then, it seemed at the end that Snape had been doing it with Dumbledore's knowledge and blessing--which made it seem like Dumbledore was willing to risk his biggest asset (Snape) just to help a kid who got in over his head.
Sadly, we find out that this wasn't the case at all. Dumbledore just didn't want the guilt of Draco tearing his soul to kill an already dying man. Had Draco killed Katie Bell, that would have been a different story, but Dumbledore wouldn't have had to feel guilty about it. After all, he told Snape to keep an eye on the kid. So, if anyone died, that was Snape's fault.
no subject
Date: 2009-12-27 11:15 pm (UTC)Cue the ominous music. ;) Seriously, this is the chapter that made me cry. And not in a good way. Previously Snape had been a damaged but strong man, doing the best he could to right a wrong and help good prevail. With this he became an ugly victim. Still one of the better characters, but now a totally broken one.
It's funny (definitely not in a "haha" sort of way), but I'd written a post in HPfGUs stating that Snape was such an interesting character, such a lovely counter-image to Harry, that JKR must love him. Love writing him, etc. But this chapter? This chapter shows so much hate. Snape is still the most interesting character in the series, but I think JKR must have deeply resented him. Otherwise, why destroy him (or try to, anyway) so completely?
(She does the same to Draco, but in a more minor way in that she just never lets Draco move in any sort of real way. Snape was moving all over the place, and then JKR retroactively pushed him back into the... OH! That ugly image of the opening and closing flower that
On a completely different note: Love the DVD extra. I adore that you made me pity Ginny (by making her feel remorse - a neat trick that JKR maybe should have used a time or two). And with just a few lines of dialogue too! Also, Marietta broke my heart. :(
no subject
Date: 2009-12-28 01:22 am (UTC)Now, that's getting pretty darned metaphorical. Lily shows us from the beginning (okay, from the backstory) that she takes things she must like - all girls are supposed to like flowers, you know how we are - and controls them. They have no thoughts or feelings of their own, she orchestrates their movements. She's precocious. She can do wandless magic even before she knows she's a witch. Like Tom Riddle. And like Tom she plays on other people's emotions, feeds off of them. Only she thinks she has them, too, beyond greed in collecting the neatest, most enviable people. When Severus was the only one who could tell her about her destiny she chose him. When she found others, she dumped him to win their favor. She uses the clam-like flower to annoy Petunia, she used Severus to teach her, she used James (though he probably used her too, he was most likely her perfect match in this) for WW acceptance and status and Gryffindor brownie points.
I don't like Lily. Rowling could have made her different without sacrificing her perfections. I've known people you would love to hate because of their wonderfulness, only they really are so wonderful that you wouldn't begrudge them. One thing none of them did was demand and take without giving. They were each interested in and concerned with other people. I don't think Lily ever was. I think she just wanted to one-up the people she thought were her inferiors.
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Date: 2009-12-28 07:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-03 02:00 am (UTC)While we would never use the n-word in polite society? People still use the n-word in polite society in red states of the US (like Texas). There are still plenty of places in the world where people can openly use racist slurs without fear or offending anyone. My suburb in Australia, for instance. The upper class parts in New South Wales (my state) as well. Racist slurs are used in polite society where I live (including my workplace). And racial violence still exists (in first world countries, in urban areas of first world countries. You can look in my lj blog under the tag racism for more information), if you like.
I know I may sound harsh, but I feel strongly about this. I deal with racism everyday.
no subject
Date: 2010-04-03 02:02 am (UTC)sorry, I meant to say: And racial violence still exists (in first world countries, in urban areas of first world countries.
You can look in my lj blog under the tag racism for more information, if you like)