Snape / House Elves / Harry's Relatives / Viktor / Karkaroff

[catlady_de_los_angeles]

No: HPFGUIDX 39329

Marina Rusalka wrote about the Shrieking Shack scene:

> This is Snape at his absolute worst, the closest he comes in the 
> books to being an out-and-out villain.

To me, the most unforgiveable thing we have been shown Snape doing is 
in GoF, where he thwarts Harry's attempt to see Dumbledore to tell 
him about Crouch Sr loony in the Forest. By GoF, Snape has no excuse 
not to know that Harry only seeks to access Dumbledore's office when 
he has very good reason, something that Dumbledore would like to be 
informed of. In that instance, his desire to thwart Harry causes him 
to be acting against what Dumbledore would want. Some people will say 
that Dumbledore magically knows whoever is trying to get to his 
office and comes out if he wants to see them and that Snape was 
merely passing the time that Harry would have been waiting for 
Dumbledore to arrive anyway. I say, if Snape had helped Harry get to 
the office faster, perhaps they would have caught Crouch Sr before 
Crouch Jr got around to killing him.

ladjables Ama wrote:

> Freedom requires the absence of dependency upon the will of 
> another, and the absence of vulnerability to interference,

No one who has to work for a living instead of being independently 
wealthy is free?

> Suppose house-elves were actually a burden to these masters as 
> incompetent servants, do you think anyone would be even remotely
> interested in preservin current elf status?

The Weasleys don't try to evict the ghoul in their attic, even tho' 
it is nothing but a nuisance; there is something in FB indicating 
that many wizarding households put up with ghouls that came with the 
house. Gnomes in the garden are another matter. I hesitate to guess 
whether hypothetical incompetent house elves would be treated like 
ghouls or like gnomes.

Ronale wrote:

> At no time does the passage tell us which side of his family they
> come from. (Though I presume the green-eyed people are from 
> mother's side.) 

I also presume that the green-eyed people are on his mother's side,
so I am very annoyed at the book having this sentence: "The Potters 
smiled and waved at Harry and he stared hungrily back at them, his 
hands pressed flat against the glass as though he was hoping" etc

That comes right after the sentence that you referred to (paragraph 
break in-between) about the green eyes and knobby knees.

Altho' I have an opinion that apparently no one else in this list 
shares: the people Harry sees in the Mirror of Erised are not 
portraits of selected real dead relatives, they are portraits of what 
Harry imagines his relatives to look like (his parents look right 
because he has actually seen THEM, altho' not recently). Because the 
Mirror of Erised reads minds, not necromancy.

Pippin wrote:

> I feel bad for Viktor. There's a real potential for Hermione to 
> hurt him.

Yes, except that when JKR made him nice, I became certain that she is 
going to kill him, quite possibly in Book 5.

Cindy Sphynx wrote:

> Why is it that no one crushes on Quiddich Star Victor Krum?

I don't crush on him, but I believe he would be a better ship for 
Hermione than Harry or Ron or Ginny or Cho or Snape or Lupin or Black. 

> So why don't the women folk around here fall all over each other 
> for the chance to pluck the twigs and leaves from Karkaroff's 
> silver hair? 

Karkaroff is a slimy, sleazy, coward! I hate him more than I hate the 
Dursleys or Lockhart -- maybe even more than I hate Lucius Malfoy! 
Not that I don't pity him how *slowly* Voldemort will kill him.