A strange silver instrument

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 86435

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Berit Jakobsen" <belijako at o...>
wrote:
> 
> > Adi wrote:
> 
> > > Hi,
> > >   In Order of Phoenix, the Eye of the Snake chapter, when Harry 
> > > reveals his 'dream', Dumbledore uses a strange silver instrument. 
> > > What was that? And there is something about 'in essence divided'. 
> > > What was the thing whose essence was divided? 
> 
> Berit wrote: 
> 
> snip
> I won't speculate what this means, but from these clues I'm sure the 
> > silver instrument told Dumbledore more than we think it did. And I 
> > think it has something to do with Harry's connection to the 
> Slytherin 
> > house and its heir, Voldemort. And in what way exactly Voldemort 
> made 
> > him his EQUAL, making the prophecy state there can only be one of 
> > them... They're the same, but in essence divided... We'll know 
> > eventually :-)
> 
> 
> Berit replies:
> 
> Just an interesting little detail I forgot in my previous post on 
> Harry's link and connection to the heir of Slytherin and to the 
> Slytherin house:
> 
> In the duelling scene in CoS, Snape deliberately forces Harry to 
> reveal he is a parselmouth. Why would Snape be so interested in 
> knowing this? And more importantly; why did he suspect Harry was one? 
> There is no evidence to suggest Snape knew about the incident in the 
> Muggle Zoo where Harry talked to the Boa constrictor from Brazil... 
> Harry hadn't even told Hermione and Ron about it. So there must be 
> another reason Snape puts two and two together and wants to check if 
> his equation is turns out to be correct: To find out if Harry's a 
> parselmouth. Obviosusly Snape's guess was right: CoS p.146 UK 
> Edition: "Snape too, was looking at Harry in an unexpected way: it 
> was a shrewd and calculating look..." Veeeery interesting :-)
> 
> Berit

Maybe he knew that the Heir of Slytherin was a Parselmouth and wanted
to test Harry to see if he was that person. He may have already
deduced that some of Voldemort's powers had entered into Harry through
the failed Avada Kedavra and "put two and two together as only Snape can."

More likely he was only trying to scare Harry with the snake (having
every intention of causing it to vanish after the initial shock) and
it was only after he heard Harry speaking Parseltongue that he "put
two and two togehter." That would explain the "shrewd and calculating
look" (as opposed to a look of triumph) at that point. I think Snape
was as surprised as anyone by this discovery, but being Snape,
concealed his astonishment and drew some conclusions.

Either way, I can't see any truly evil motive beyond his usual desire
to make his students uncomfortable. I seriously doubt that he really
suspected Harry of petrifying his fellow students, but he may have
wanted it to be true out of sheer spite. But if you're trying to
somehow link Snape's ostensible desire to reveal Harry as a
Parselmouth to Snape's somehow being an agent of Voldemort, I just
don't see it.

Carol