Snape: the Riddle... (LONG)

[mt3t3l1]

No: HPFGUIDX 138165

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "severelysigune" 
<severelysigune at y...> wrote:
<snip>
> However, the most compelling pressure issues not from Bella, but 
from 
> her sister, whose tears flow freely, who clutches at Snape's
> robes, 
> holds his hands and throws herself at his feet. She strokes his 
> ego: "you could do it," she says, "you are the Dark
> Lord's 
> favourite", "you are Draco's favourite teacher",
> "/you/ would 
> succeed". All pretty transparent to this sceptical observer –
> but 
> Narcissa has touched a nerve. Consider who she is, where she is and 
> with whom she is pleading. Narcissa Black Malfoy, an elegant, 
> beautiful and upper-class pure-blood has alighted on a "Muggle 
> dunghill" to humbly beg the help of the ugly, frustrated and 
> unpopular son of a spinner – a half-blood wizard who craves 
> recognition, whose only pathetic claim to nobility lies in the 
sound 
> of his mother's name, who has painstakingly eradicated any sign
> of 
> his origins in his diction and dress but somehow never found the 
> acceptance and admiration he considers his due. If Narcissa is used 
> to calling him Severus, it is probably because she has never needed 
> to accord him the privilege of being addressed as /Mr Snape/. No 
> doubt a portion of his brain tells him that he finds himself in a 
> danger zone (mark his unease at the sight of her tears); but his 
> vanity and pride send signals that are too strong for so weak a man 
> to resist. Snape is deeply enjoying his power over Pretty Cissy. He 
> says yes, not out of the goodness of his heart, but because it is 
his 
> moment of triumph over all he has wanted to be but has not been 
able 
> to reach. He has finally come to the point where he can bow down to 
> pick up a pure-blooded aristocratic beauty from where she is 
> grovelling in the dust. 
> Stupid, stupid, stupid. The trap closes, and Narcissa has him where 
> she wants him: on his knees and firmly bound by a powerful spell. 
> When she slips in her third clause it is too late for Snape to do 
> anything else than twitch and endure. He is forced to condemn 
himself 
> three times.  <snip>


Yes. There is more to Narcissa than meets the eye. In GOF she appears 
in the Top Box "wearing a look that suggested there was a nasty smell 
under her nose." That attitude is completely diguised at Spinner's 
End.

When Bella and Narcissa apparate near Spinner's End, Cissy appears 
with a very faint pop, and Bella materializes with a louder pop. This 
suggests that Cissy is the more able witch. We know from the battle 
in the Ministry of Magic that Bellatrix is extremely skilled. If 
Cissy is even better, that is quite impressive.

In GOF, when the reborn LV summons the Death Eaters to his side, 
Lucius Malfoy has a place in the circle but Narcissa does not. (In 
the circle, Wormtail is on Lucius's left and on his right is a gap 
for Bellatrix Lestrange and her husband, who are still in Azkaban.) 
How does she manage to avoid becoming a Death Eater when her husband, 
her brother in law and her own sister are all members of the group? 
Does she have some sort of special position with Lord Voldemort?

At HPFGU Snape is often compared to a spider. Perhaps that 
description fits Narcissa even better, and she is able to camouflage 
her true character behind long blonde hair, pale skin and tears. In 
any case, you have given us an excellent description of how one 
spider has caught another, unsuspecting, in her web.

Merrylinks