Snape and Magic Dishwasher. Was: Re: DD and the rat:

[bluesqueak]

No: HPFGUIDX 115965


Pip!Squeak: 
> > But Sirius doesn't get killed, attacked, tied up safely, 
> > *anything*! Just a threat from Snape which is actually a -
> > warning 'Give me a reason to do it and I swear I will'. 
> 
Nora:
> I think it's a little stronger than that--Snape doesn't relent 
> even begged, but *then* pulls out the threat about the dementors.  
> At the least, he's really being something of a sadist there.  MD 
> has it that he's doing that to make sure he provokes Harry into 
> attacking him, right?
> 
> <snip>

Not exactly. Snape *is* trying to provoke Harry - he's probably 
doing that in a way that also pays Sirius and Lupin back. Very 
precisely, in fact. There's likely to be an element of sadist in 
Snape's natural make-up, but Sirius is not completely undeserving of 
Snape's nastiness in this case. One of the things Snape hears just 
before pulling off the cloak is Sirius announcing that Snape 
deserved to be Wolfie Chunks.  That Sirius is, in fact, not in any 
way repentant of a stupid trick that could have ended up killing 
Snape, getting his friend expelled, and possibly killing James 
Potter as well.

So yes, Snape threatens Sirius into thinking he's going to die a 
horrible death, in much the same way that Sirius made him think he 
was going to die a horrible death years before. And then Snape 
doesn't carry that threat out. Snape had two chances to kill Sirius -
 firstly in the Shack itself, secondly by calling the Dementors back 
when he recovers consciousness. Instead, he takes him to Dumbledore. 

There are two Snapes in the books. One is the verbal picture. That's 
the picture we get from the words Snape speaks, and Harry's 
interpretation of Snape. Leaving aside MD itself for a bit, my main 
contention with this character-view of Snape is that this verbal 
picture, this face value reading is wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong, and 
JKR is playing absolutely fair with us, because she's consistently, 
in each novel, giving us clues that what we 'see' isn't the whole 
picture.

The second Snape, is the picture we get from his *actions*. Not his 
words. That's picture's not of a nice guy, btw. But it is someone 
who (some random examples) will put someone he deeply dislikes on a 
stretcher and take him to Dumbledore (when he could have called the 
dementors back). It is someone who (in CoS) is backed up by the 
other staff when he faces Lockhart down. It's someone who will 
charge into a room containing a troll, or a werewolf at full moon, 
or an unknown imposter, to protect the pupils. It's someone who will 
try to teach Harry occlumency, when he doesn't want to. Someone 
respected; who deserves respect ('Professor Snape, Harry').

And we are given clues, that the Harry view of Snape is maybe not 
quite the right view. The qualifying 
phrases 'seemed', 'appeared'. 'Harry had a shrewd suspicion' (this 
at the end of a book about suspecting the wrong person). As I say - 
JKR is playing fair. Just as in Book One, we see that a spell to 
change Scabbers appearance *doesn't work*, and are told that First 
Years can't bring rats. There's something odd about Scabbers. We're 
given the clues from the start. And those same types of clues are 
being planted about Snape. 

<snip>
Nora:
>  I need to work through the PoA timeline again to place one 
> comment, but that's going to take more thought than I have to 
spare at the moment...you all understand... :)
> 

I know that feeling. Well do I know that feeling, especially in the 
last few months {grin}.

Pip!Squeak