Snake! (was: Handicapping the Next Big Battle)

[ftah3]

No: HPFGUIDX 31750

Pippin wrote:
> The boa constrictor in Book One: last seen heading for Brazil, but 
> bound to turn up again, IMO.

LOL, do you know, I've actually wished (on a speculative level) that 
would happen.  Being able to speak to snakes (Parseltongue) is 
considered by the wizarding world to apparently be a mark of evil (a 
la how freaked out everybody was when Harry talked to the snake in 
CoS).  Voldemort has a snake buddy, Nagini, who suckles him (eeeee! 
anybody else go "ew" on that one? Ew!), who tattles on old Frank, and 
who has a jones to eat Harry, apparently (or rather, LV seems to have 
promised this, and has to tell Nagini to chill out and wait while he 
torments Harry in the graveyard).

And of course, the whole business where snakes are symbols of evil in 
a great deal of modern, and most of Western, mythology...it *seems* 
as if snakes = evil in the HP series.

On the other hand, Harry is (thanks to Voldemort, we're given to 
believe) a Parseltongue.  And he had such a nice, unscary 
conversation with that friendly boa at the zoo in PS/SS.  

I've wondered if snakes aren't evil, per se, in HP.  Rather, maybe, 
the people who befriend/utilize them are evil, but snakes are 
just...well, snakes.  Animals.  Like, a person can train a Doberman 
to either attack and kill, or to heel, sit, roll over and not sit on 
the furniture when it needs a cuddle.  (I haven't read, if it exists, 
the entry in the Magical Beasts book about snakes, in case there is 
one that pertains.)

So I've wished that boa would come back, so that I could find out.  
Would it be evil and follow instructions from LV to wreak evil havoc 
because of a basic evil nature, or would it say, "suck an egg, Voldy, 
I'm helping my buddy Harry who busted me out of the zoo!"

And why would this matter at all, in the grand scheme of the HP 
series story/mythology/morality?  I dunno.  But the red herrings and 
not-as-it-seems details interest me.  Is a snake only as bad as the 
people it hangs out with?  Or for a potentially interesting parallel, 
would a snake turn out to have more of a say in it's destiny and be 
able to choose the side of good, while, say (pulling this from the 
clear blue sky) a house elf turns out to be less blindly devoted to 
a 'master' and more specifically, by choice, devoted to furthering 
evil in the world?  (All right, the house elf thing is weak, but 
hopefully I've gotten the point across.  :-P )

Ramblin'....

Mahoney
Parens addict