Snape the Half-blood?

[marinafrants]

No: HPFGUIDX 44830

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "Olivia" <olivia at s...> wrote:
> Marina said:
> "Huh?  I'm feeling slow witted tonight -- am I missing a joke here?
> Snape reads the writing on the Marauder's Map in PoA, reads one of
> Rita Skeeter's articles aloud in class in GoF, writes on the
> blackboard during class, etc."
> 
> No, you're not missing anything. :) I'm quite sure Snape can read. 
I was
> just pointing out that in the post I replied to (by Melody) she 
didn't
> mention that Snape very well could have picked up the curses he 
knew simply
> by reading.

Just checking. :-)  With all the wacky theories floating around the 
list these days, I'm sure an Illiterate!Snape theory is only a 
matter of time...

> 
> "As for Snape spending his childhood with his face in a book, I
> suspect he did, but they would have to be magic books in order for
> him to pick up all those Dark Curses.  This suggests to me that he
> wasn't raised by Muggles.  Hermione didn't start reading up on 
magic
> until after she got her Hogwarts letter, and while she did seem to
> know more spells than most first-years by the time she arrived, I
> don't think she could've competed with the seventh-years."
> 
> Exactly what I was trying to say. Of course, Sirius could have been
> exagerrating as well.

While it wouldn't be out of character for Sirius to exaggerate about 
Snape, I think in this case he was speaking the truth, just because 
I can think of no in-story reason for JKR to have made it false.  As 
a true statement, it provides an interesting insight into Snape's 
character.  As a random exaggeration tossed out by Sirius, it would 
have to end up on the GARBAGESCOW.

Of course, I suppose that in theory it would be possible for a half-
blood Snape to have been raised by his Muggle relatives, but with 
regular custody visits to the Wizard side of the family, and 
subsequent opportunities to borrow books.  I'm not sure if that 
really qualifies as "being raised by Muggles," though...

Marina
rusalka at ix.netcom.com