[HPforGrownups] Snape, Sirius and the End of the Series(Long)

[Wendy St John]

No: HPFGUIDX 69751

linlou wrote a really interesting post, which I have snipped ruthlessly
below to save space (I'd recommend going back and reading the whole thing
if you missed it):


" No matter what your opinion of Snape it is becoming clear as we 
reach the latter portion of the series that his character is going 
to be all but impossible to resolve within the confines of the world 
he currently lives by the end of book seven. 
<major snippage>
 
(Regarding the death of Sirius):  Once I got past the initial reaction of
"poor Harry" in 
realtion to the loss of his godfather, I realized that JKR did the 
only thing she could do. Bluntly put, from a storytelling 
standpoint, Sirius was in the way. I don't mean he was in the way of 
Harry's developement as a character. I mean he was in the way of JKR 
being able to tell Harry's story in any kind of succint manner and 
still give closure to his (Sirius's) character.  <snip>. Snape will be
around until book seven. He is too central 
to the inner workings of the main storyline to go any earlier, but I 
think he will die. How and what affect it will have on Harry I don't 
know but I bet it will give another weapon to the big bang."

Now me (Wendy):

I really enjoyed this post - I think you make a very good point about
Snape's story requiring too much page-time to resolve to our satisfaction.
I suppose it's possible that JKR could put enough clues in a short space
(as she did with the memories Harry saw in OoP) for us to connect the dots
for ourselves about his backstory, but I fear you're right that there's no
way Snape will be able to find peace with himself and others in the time
we've got left in this series. And I have recently come to the same
conclusion as you - that he'll die in Book 7. Which will absolutely crush
me, as he's by far my favourite character (one of my favourite characters
EVER). I've been crushing on him even before seeing Rickman play him in the
movie <g> and I really, really don't want to see him die, but I'm not sure
I can see any way around it, especially after what happened to Sirius. I
had pretty much the same reaction you described - I didn't cry when he died
(nor at any time during the remainder of the book). I did geniunely like
Sirius and will miss him, but the main effect of Sirius' death to me is
what it says to me about Rowling as an author: She is ruthless and will not
pull her punches when it comes to the resolution of this story. Actually,
this doesn't necessarily add to my feeling that Snape would die - his death
seemed likely even before the demise of Sirius - I think Snape will die
because that's the way his character seems to be set up, as much as I hate
to admit it. If he turns out to be ESE, then he's toast for sure. And if he
really is one of the good guys (which I personally believe he is), his
death gives him redemption and resolution (not to mention a lot of
potential BANG, depending on how it happens). If he survives, as you point
out, there will be a lot left unresolved unless the title of Book 7 turns
out to be "Severus Snape and the Fill-in-the-Blank." (I can hope, can't I
<G>).

However, regarding the end of the series in general, Sirius' death really
puts the future "safety" of a number of other characters into question for
me: I think we'll *definitely* lose at least one Weasley, and a number of
other characters, as well. Last night, my husband and I were discussing the
World War parallels within the story, and I mentioned how someone on the
list had made the point that the Wizarding World is currently on the brink
of the equivalent of World War II, with memories of the terrors of  World
War I still fresh (explaining Molly's Boggart and her fears about losing
family members). Well, I'm no history buff, but my husband *is* and he
pointed out that (in Britain), the devastation and death caused by WWII was
far worse than what happened in WWI - particularly in regards to
"civilians" (most of the deaths in the first World War were soldiers
fighting outside of Britain, but in WWII great parts of Britain were bombed
ruthlessly). If we choose to see a parallel here, that would indicate that
there will indeed be more deaths - a great many more deaths - before this
story of "Voldemort War II" is resolved, and that some of those deaths will
be "innocent people" (ie, not members of the Order - people not active
involved in the war) people like Hogwarts students, perhaps? 

Putting this together with what I now think of Rowling's "ruthlessness" (as
shown by Sirius' death), I'm not entirely certain any more that even Harry
will survive the series. I still *think* he will, but only if that's the
way she wants to tell the story. I certainly now see her as an author who
is *capable* of killing him, if that's what she decided she needs to do to
tell her story. In other words, all arguments about "she won't do that -
she loves him" or "these are books for children" or whatever - none of
those arguments have much validity to me now. She's going to tell her story
the way she wants to tell it, regardless of public opinion (or even her own
sentimental feelings). And if Harry does manage to survive, I'll bet that
either Ron or Hermione won't make it to the end. Sirius' death gave me some
additional respect for her as an author, but it also makes me very nervous
about where these books are going. I found OoP to be really dark and scary,
and I don't expect the final two to be much lighter. Add that to the fact
that part of Rowling's genius is the way she writes characters who seem so
very real to me - I love many of them (and enjoy reading even the ones I
don't love), and I care what happens to them. I feel grief for Sirius both
for the tragedy of his death (and his life), and I also feel for Harry in
his loss of this person who was so important to him. I was terrified by the
implications of Umbridge's Inquisition. I don't often feel this strongly
about fictional characters - I spent a good two days in a serious funk
after reading OoP - and I am actually afraid that in the final two books,
JKR is going to do things that are really going to make me feel awful.
She's going to hurt and kill characters that I love, and the characters
that survive are going to feel grief with which I'll empathise, as well. I
think we'll have an ending which is, ultimately, "happy" - but now I'm also
sure it will be "bittersweet" as well, and that the resolution will come at
the cost of some of our favourite characters. (Of course, that's already
happened for the SiriusFans, hasn't it?). I think we'd ALL better be
prepared to lose loved ones in the upcoming battle. At least we have a few
years (while she writes the darned things <g>) to get used to the idea - or
remain in denial, which is what I prefer to do for now. <G> 

Cheers!

Wendy St John
hebrideanblack at earthlink.net