[HPforGrownups] More on Snape & a couple of questions

[Becky Walkden]

No: HPFGUIDX 56455

Kathryn wrote:
First the questions because they're short. I was looking through the books
for some stuff to back up what I was about to argue and found a couple of
things that struck me as odd.
Neville - when the new Gryffindors are discussing their origins Neville sayd
"Well, my gran brought me up and she's a witch but the family thought I was
all Muggle for ages" But a non-magical person born into a wizarding family
isn't a muggle, they're a squib - like Filch. So why does he say muggle? We
know his parents were tortured by Death Eaters and are in St Mungos so it's
not like his mother was a squib who married a muggle. I'm confused.

Me:  I don't have a problem with that since a squib is a person without magical abilities and a muggle is a "non-magical" person then it is reasonable to define a Squib as being a muggle born to a magical family. You simply call them squibs instead of muggles.  Not exactly accurate of course but the terms are very closely related and since the purpose of language is to convey meaning, using the term muggle for squib certainly gets the point across.  Everybody understood exactly what he meant.  Squib would of course been the more technically correct term but it shouldn't be a shock for somebody to use "muggle" in that context.


Kathryn:  Hogwarts Express - In CoS when Snape is reading out the sightings of Ron and
Harry in the Flying Fod Anglia he reads one out from Norfolk, which strikes
me as an odd place for the car to be flying over since it's following the
train. Lincolnshire I could understand but Norfol is a little too far east
for a train which is going north from London.

Me:  HAHA.  I'm from Canada but I looked that up on the map and sure enough that is an odd route.  I guess all one can say is, you never know with those crazy magical trains!


Kathryn:  What do you guys think? Severus and Minerva - good friends or not.

Me:  That's a very good question.  I've seen some tenson between Snape and Dumbledore and I believe McDougall over Potter but overall nothing to directly indicate that they are under anything but friendly terms with each other.  Heck, in the first book even Hagrid took pains to defend Snape from the kid's accusations. 

But on the other hand, he is such a cold and distant person that it is hard to imagine him being good friends with Minerva or anybody.  And in the first book which I wish I had in front of me, in his final confrontation didn't our "evil professor of the week" respond to Harry's surprise that the bad guy wasn't Snape by mentioning how Snape did seem the sort and does manage to make himself unpopular?  (wish I had the exact quote in front of me)  He didn't elaborate if 'unpopular' pertained to the students, other staff or both.  But there is some indirect evidence Snape's relations are not overall totally buddy-buddy at least.   Huggs Becky




---------------------------------
Do you Yahoo!?
The New Yahoo! Search - Faster. Easier. Bingo.

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]