CHAPTER DISCUSSION: ch. 32 "Out of the Fire"

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 118385


quigonginger wrote:
<snip>
> 4)  At the time Harry talked to Kreacher, Sirius is tending
Buckbeak, whom Kreacher has injured.  Kreacher tells Harry that Sirius
has gone out.  After Harry specifically asks about the D of M,
Kreacher gleefully tells him that Sirius will not return.  What do you
think Kreacher's role is in the set-up, and how did he know what he
would be required to do? <snip>

Carol responds:
I find this scene to be one of the most confusing in OoP (which is
saying quite a bit). It's unclear to me how Kreacher knew it was time
to injure Buckbeak, or for that matter, how LV knew it was time to
tell him so. The planted vision occurs the next day. How did LV know
it would succeed? How did he communicate with Kreacher? Clearly he
didn't do so directly; it must have been via Narcissa, who then told
Lucius, who in turn communicated to LV, but surely Kreacher wasn't
routinely using the kitchen fireplace for conversations with his dead
mistress's niece. And how did Kreacher know that Sirius wouldn't come
back from the DoM? He wasn't even really there at the time. Was this
Kreacher's own little contribution to Harry's psychological torment,
or had Kreacher been told to say it?

To answer your last question directly, I think Kreacher is a
more-than-willing accomplice or tool and that he's delighted to be of
service to Narcissa and her "master" (LV)--Lucius would be a mere
go-between in his view--but I have no clear idea how he knew what to
do or when to do it. (I still think that he may have ironed his hands
in advance for betraying "Master," but everyone else seems to think
that Buckbeak injured him. If so, why his hands and not his face or
naked chest?)

A sidenote on Narcissa: We're informed by Dobby as early as CoS that
the family who owns him are "bad Dark wizards." IOW, he puts Narcissa,
and perhaps even twelve-year-old Draco, in the same category as
Lucius. A true scion of the Black family, that Narcissa.


> 6)  What do you think of Snape's actions?  He managed to warn Harry 
> that she had used veritaserum on him once, which should have put 
> Harry on his guard.  He played up to Umbridge without being any help 
> whatsoever. (And got in some delightfully snarky comments as well.)  
> He saved Neville from choking with another snarky comment to Crabbe.  
> Do you think he could have given Harry a clue that he understood 
> him?  Or would that have been too risky as Umbrigde had just seen 
> through him enough to put him on probation?  

Carol:
This is one of my favorite Snape scenes in the entire series, made
even better by DD's remark in a later chapter that the veritaserum
Snape supplied to Umbridge was fake. For me, besides the inimitable
snarkiness that makes Snape such a delightful character (when he's not
in a towering rage or doing something grossly unfair), there's the
obvious opposition to Umbridge and the fact that he manages to do a
good deed for Neville under cover of advice to Crabbe.

I think you're right that he understood Harry's message despite never
having heard Sirius referred to as Padfoot and that the Babbling
Beverage comment was a clever, in-character way of feigning
incomprehension. But as you say, he was already on probation, and a
nod or other signal would have been foolish under the circumstances. I
agree with most other posters that he did the best he could under the
circumstances--better than could have been expected, really. And I
agree with Vivamus that Harry may have put Snape's life at risk by
speaking to him directly about Padfoot--not that I expect Umbridge to
come back into the story, but Draco and the other Slytherins might get
ideas, especially since Draco seems to know about Sirius Black being
an animagus and an Order member. It won't matter that Black is now
dead, only that Snape and Harry were communicating about him.

Altogether, I expect Snape to have his hands full next book.
Fortunately for us Snapefans, we know he'll survive to Book 7!

Carol