TOUCHE'

[ssk7882]

No: HPFGUIDX 39367

TOUCHE! ("Tired Of Ugly and Hard-to-swallow Expositions")

Scabbers isn't a spy or a shape-changer or anything significant or 
exciting like that.  He's just a rat.  A kid's pet rat.  

Snape was never a follower of Voldemort.  He is one mean and nasty 
guy all right, but he is also a man of honor and integrity, and no 
one with a sense of honor or integrity would *ever* have followed 
Voldemort, because Voldemort is Evil.

Neville is *not* Sneaky!Neville.  He is a timid, insecure, 
disorganized little kid with weak magical powers who is always open 
and straightforward and honest about himself.  He is incapable of 
deceit, and the very notion that he might be hiding anything about 
himself from his fellow students is therefore fundamentally absurd. 

-----

Oh.  Did I mention that this was TOUCHE circa August, 1999?


I heard all three of these statements made in retort to certain fan 
speculations before the release of _PoA._  (For that matter, even 
though we now all know that Neville *does* keep secrets, my own 
reading of him as Sneaky!Neville is still not at all a popular 
interpretation of his character.)


All that said, though, I do happen to agree overall with Prefect 
Marcus' interpretations, with the possible exception of Snape's 
"mission."  I certainly agree that it wouldn't make very much *sense* 
for Snape to be sent back to Voldemort as a spy, but I can't say that 
it would surprise me very much if he were.  Sometimes JKR just 
doesn't think these things through quite as carefully as we do, you 
know. ;-)

Also, while I don't think that Draco "loves" Hermione, I do think 
that he's got a secret crush on her.  And while I'll find it a bit 
disappointing, it won't surprise me in the least if Snape turns out 
to have loved Lily.


-- Elkins, who agrees that Snape is a "mean ugly shnook," but who 
would also like to point out that he is *our* mean ugly shnook.