Chapter Discussions: Chapter 4, Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place

[abigailnus]

No: HPFGUIDX 83713

Eloise:
> > 12)  Why does JKR make the point that Snape never eats at the 
> house?
> 
> Laura:
> 
> This question raised in my head the extremely unlikely image of 
our 
> dear Sevvie joining his beloved friends in the Order at the family 
> table.  Yeah, right.  Can you see Snape consenting to take a meal 
> with the likes of Mundungus and Tonks?  That is, assuming he could 
> get past the idea of sharing quality time with Remus and Sirius. 

I think the fact that Snape refuses to break bread with the people 
with whom he's fighting is an extremely sad commentary on the state 
of the OOP.  The order seems to spend as much time dealing with 
infighting and bruised feelings as with the business of saving the 
world.  There's other evidence of strife within the order - Arabella 
and Molly's dislike and exasperation with Mundungus, Molly and 
Sirius' quarrels, and Harry and Sirius' growing dissatisfaction with 
Dumbledore.  The order is not operating as a cohesive unit, and I 
think Dumbledore is to blame.

I've mentioned before that I think very little of Dumbledore the 
leader, and I think he fails particularly in his leadership of the 
OOP.  Admittedly, we don't see Dumbledore leading the order because 
Harry is hardly exposed to him during OOP, but we see what happens 
behind the screen, when Dumbledore isn't looking, and what we see is 
a lot of grumbling.  Dumbledore seems to believe that he can demand 
that his soldiers be better people then they are, and they will 
automatically snap to attenion - he forgets, for example, that 
Sirius and Snape's feud won't be put to rest because of his say-so.  
If he's not careful, Dumbledore may lead his army into battle only 
to discover that no one has followed him.

I think that learning to work as a team is an important theme in 
OOP.  Harry learns that he won't survive by always going it alone, 
and in fact it might be argued that his insistence to bear his 
crosses alone helps to bring about Sirius' death - he refuses to 
study Occlumency and to use the mirror Sirius gives him.  I'm not 
sure that the adult members of the order have learned this lesson 
(indeed, I'm not sure that Harry has either).  Instead of pooling 
their information and working as a team, which might have helped to 
keep Harry out of danger, discover the traitor, and save Sirius' 
life, Snape and Sirius continue to bicker, and leave Dumbledore to 
clean up their mess.

Getting back to Snape, while I doubt much good would have been done 
had Dumbledore ordered him to take meals with the order, it might 
have been helpful for him to point out to Severus that he is 
currenly spending more quality time with people he purports to hate 
then with his supposed allies.

Abigail