Motivations, Pt 1.

[brooksindy]

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No: HPFGUIDX C6537
From: brooksindy
Subject: Motivations, Pt 1.
Date: 8/10/00 5:44 pm  (ET)

Since we have a couple of new members who noted they haven't read GoF yet,
and this is clearly spoiler for them - I'm going to continue spoiler
space. Those who are as yet not caught up, be advised there are deep
GoF spoilers below, so you may want to skip this message.
S
P
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L
E
R
S
..
B
E
L
O
W
!
Going back and re-reading after finishing later books is interesting
in this series, just as with any other, because if the series was
constructed with a coherent plan, you can find foreshadowings - and
unrecognized implications - in the earlier books that you did not
recognize on first reading. (Or of course, the plan may not be that
coherent, and we are discovering things where JKR looked at some of
the earlier throwaway events and wrote the new books in ways to *make*
those events into foreshadowings.)

Case in point: Snape. Remember how anxious he was to catch Sirius at
the end of Book III?
The revelation in GoF that Snape was a Death Eater who came back to the
good side puts a whole new motivation there. By catching Sirius, whom
everybody thought had been V's spy in the good camp, Snape would have
not just gotten
recognition for catching a criminal - Order of Merlin Second Class or
whatever - it would have been a *major* point in his favor in his
legal rehabilitation and acceptance by the general wizarding
public! Because, apparently, it was known, like most of the others who
were tried in
Wizards' Council, that he had been a DE. This might be why he works at
Hogwarts, BTW - lingering suspicion, and his own grating personality,
may mean it is only Dumbledore who is willing to give him a chance. Also,
although we have seen notes here on the list that suggest it is only
students who say that Snape wants the DADA position, I noted in GoF last
night that JKR in her narrator's voice says "It was common knowledge
that Snape wanted....". Thus it is not just student hearsay, although
that might be general JKR deft misleading.

More to follow.