[HPforGrownups] Re: Let's hear it for good old Snapey!

[Amanda Geist]

No: HPFGUIDX 87916

Alla:
> Are you saying that the real, hidden purpose of the Oclumency
lessons was to open Harry's mind to Voldy ?

Talisman:
That would be correct, as the canonical evidence cited in my earlier
post and references demonstrate.  This is exactly the effect the
lessons had.

Rowling not only allows us to see this for ourselves, but
underscores the point by having Harry, Hagrid, Ron and Hermione
acknowledge it in turn, and then finally validates it when DD
explains why he chose not to give Harry the lessons, himself.

Amanda:

I'd have to say that this is *precisely* the reason I don't trust this
interpretation. Because the pathway has been cleared, the paving stones
laid, and little signs put up pointing the way. Rowling is a *master* at
making the reasonable or logical conclusion not the correct one. Or not
completely correct.

Witness what she did with Voldemort and his ability to detect lies. Debates
were held many times pre-OoP, as to whether this is a true ability (and thus
Snape could not be a spy, because you *can't* lie to Voldemort) or whether
this is simply something Voldemort, egotist, believes about himself, since
he is the source of the information.

And lo and behold--*both* sides were correct. It is not an innate ability.
It is a spell. But it also *is* possible to lie to him.

I submit that some dual interpretation is very, very likely in the effects
of the Occlumency lessons, as well. Snape is a frustrating character--and
fertile ground for discussions like this--because there is not one single
thing he has done in any book to date which can be ascribed, with anything
like certainty, to one clear motive. The reason Snape discussions can get
heated is just this; because both the negative and the positive motivations
can be supported, but neither are conclusive.

Snape discussions that move to Snape arguments invetiably end as agreements
to disagree, because of this ambiguity. An ambiguity which has been, I
believe, carefully preserved by JKR and which makes it impossible at this
stage to state, with certainty, The Answer.

~Amanda