Snape and the Edinburgh Festival

[laura]

No: HPFGUIDX 111017

Potioncat wrote:
> And she's answered fairly closely a question that came up a while 
> ago, "How involved was he with the Death Eater activities?" 
> Of course it could be argued that she says, "he'll have seen
> things that
"

How I wish she'd finished that sentence! Someone ask her that if 
they get the chance...exactly what has Snape *seen* as a DE? I had a 
feeling Snape could see Thestrals, and from the interview I think we 
can assume it was because of what he's seen as a DE. If so, the death
(s) Snape has witnessed must have been murder, no accident or natural 
death. So whose murder has he seen? Muggles'? Relatives of magical 
characters we know? The Prewetts for example, or Regulus Black, or 
even the Potters? What do you think?

Potioncat again: 
> But what I found interesting was the clue about his being a pure 
> blood.  I took her answer to mean that he isn't Muggle-born, but 
> that one of his parents might be. (I'd vote for his mother.) Did 
> anyone else read it that way?  It could just as easily mean that 
> yes, he is pure blood.  But why not just say that?


I always imagined Snape to be from a long line of pure-blood wizards, 
mainly because 1) He's head of Slytherin, 2) He was a DE, and 3) He 
always dresses in traditional wizards' robes. But when it was 
revealed that Voldemort himself was a half-blood, it made me wonder 
about the other DE's and their 'purity' of blood. It wasn't until 
OotP though, when we see the Black family tapestry that I began to 
doubt my first assumption of Snape's ancestry. If Snape was a 'pure-
blood', then surely his name would have leapt out at Harry from the 
tapestry, along with the Malfoys and the Lestranges. 

I find it *very* interesting that JK didn't answer fully about 
Snape's ancestry. To be honest, I expected her to say "yes, he's a 
pure-blood" and that would be the end of it. Instead we're told his 
ancestry 'is hinted at', and that he's 'clearly no muggle-born'. It 
could be just me looking too much into this, but I normally take a 
non- or half-answer from JK to mean that it's important to the plot, 
and will be revealed later on. At the moment I'm convinced Snape's a 
half-blood, that is, one magical and one non-magical parent. But why 
this could be important I haven't figured out yet...something to do 
with why he joined or left the DE's perhaps? 

Also interesting was the bit about muggle-borns allowed to be DE's 
only in exceptional circumstances....I'll bet anything Peter 
Pettigrew is muggle-born, the exceptional circumstance being that he 
could hand LV the Potters.

> BTW, didn't someone from this group attend this interview (Laura?)  
> Do I recall correctly that she asked the second question I've 
> quoted?  

Yep...it was me ;) I had great difficulty choosing those questions. I 
knew I was going to ask something about Snape, but then I knew it was 
pointless asking something really juicy like "Where exactly did Snape 
go in GoF when DD said 'you know what I must ask you to do....'" 
or "Precisely how does Snape find out what LV is saying to his 
DE's?". I really thought I'd get straight answers to the questions I 
finally chose, they didn't seem that important to the plot and I was 
just curious. Now they've got me thinking hard.....

> Potioncat who thinks JKR lost a lot of credibility when she answered "You 
> always see a lot of Snape
"   ;-)

Hear hear!

Laura*