[HPforGrownups] Re: Snape & the DEs, Reprise

[Porphyria]

No: HPFGUIDX 35019

Porphyria wrote:
>
> "It just seems to me that his loyalty to Dumbledore probably
> outweighs his loyalty to his house, and this is significant when
> the two are at odds. Granted, Dumbledore probably hopes for
> the best from the average Slytherin student, but all the
> muggle-hating Slyth families *loathe* muggle-loving
> Dumbledore, so Snape's allegiance to him is suspect from a
> Slyth viewpoint, it already speaks of a certain betrayal of old
> Salazar's pureblood standards."

And Rita replied:

> I disagree.  The way I see it, Slytherin is part of Hogwarts and
> falls under general Hogwarts philosophy, which the parents
> must accept (or pretend to accept) when they choose to send
> their children there.  Loyalty to Slytherin (or any) house must
> therefore come second to loyalty to Hogwarts, which is headed
> by Dumbledore.  It is pretty well accepted from Hogwarts past,
> that it is not going to go the way of Durmstrang and teach dark
> arts and become a dark school, and the even the Malfoys,
> Crabbes and Goyles would be foolish to think so.  I think they
> benefit from the liberal philosophy of Hogwarts in that they are
> able to hide their dark alliance and hold prestigious jobs.

I'm not convinced that humbly accepting Dumbledore's philosophy or 
sending your kid to Durmstrang are the only two options available to 
anti-muggle minded parents. After all, in CoS the tensions come out from 
under the surface pretty fast. Lucius schemes to get Dumbledore 
suspended and probably would have tried to get him sacked if he didn't 
think that the Basilisk would kill all the muggle-born students in the 
meantime. Lucius tells Draco that he thinks Dumbledore's the worst 
Headmaster the school's ever had. This implies that maybe Hogwarts 
wasn't always quite as liberal as now; perhaps there were some past 
Slytherin Headmaster's who held more pro-pureblood sentiments.

Draco is all in favor of Snape replacing Dumbledore. Surely Draco must 
think that Snape shares the Malfoys' anti-muggle feelings or he wouldn't 
be recommending Snape to Dad; the issue dearest to Lucius' heart is 
crystal clear. But Snape's reaction to Draco is pretty cagey, at least 
that's how I read it. I mean, I find it impossible to believe that Snape 
is really as much of a bigot as the Malfoys assume; if he were, would he 
risk his life for the anti-LV cause? Would Dumbledore trust Snape as 
much as he does? But if he fails to share the Malfoy family prejudice, 
he also fails to let Draco know this. He doesn't say, 'you know Draco, 
your father's bigotry is morally wrong and I don't share his views.' 
Instead he acts quite flattered by Draco's praise, and just lets Draco 
go on thinking what he'd been thinking all along. This really makes me 
wonder who's zooming who in this scene, and that Snape might be 
concealing his real feelings for some tactical purpose.

> Even Salazar had to succumb to the pressure of his peers by
> allowing his purebred Slytherins to attend school with the
> mudbloods in the other houses, if it were that big of a deal to
> him, why did he not take his house and leave? 

I agree that's a pretty good question, but I sort of thought that the 
whole purpose of the house system was to limit the students' interaction 
with the other houses. They eat with their house, sleep in dorms with 
their house, make friends within their house. I wonder if they only take 
classes with other houses due to scheduling constraints or the lack of 
professors; perhaps it wasn't like this 1000 years before. Maybe the 
house system as orignally conceived was enough to convince Salazar that 
the Slytherin would be buffered from the riffraff.

I also agree that by and large everyone at least pays lip service to 
Dumbledore and most people really love him. But Dumbledore's pro-muggle 
stance is probably on the liberal end of the overall wizarding political 
spectrum. Dumbledore remarks that he's rare in that he reads muggle 
press; this seems analogous to Arthur's fondness for muggles which is 
considered quirky by everyone and evidently holds him back at work. 
Presumably the typical wizard is a little neutral or quietly suspicious 
of muggles. Therefore Dumbledore's popularity must rest on other 
factors, and there's some room for anti-muggle sentiment to flare up 
even in a population that's usually happy with his leadership. You're 
right that by and large Hogwart's current liberal stance benefits people 
wanting to seems respectable in polite society, but when there exists 
some hint that Voldemort could return to power at least some wizards are 
willing to throw respectability out the window.

~~Porphyria



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