Obsession

[Jen Reese]

No: HPFGUIDX 138749

After thinking about HBP as a whole, how it fits into the series, I 
realized one of the major themes is obsession. Most notably we find 
out Lord Voldemort was born as a result of obsessive love, both the 
psychological obsession Merope feels for Tom Riddle Sr. and the use 
of a love potion. 

Slughorn tells us, significantly, a love potion "doesn't really 
create *love* of course. It is impossible to manufacture or imitate 
love. No, this will simply cause a powerful infatuation or 
obsession. It is probably the most dangerous and powerful potion in 
this room--oh yes...When you have seen as much of life as I have, 
you will not underestimate the power of obsessive love...." (chap. 
9, p. 186, US)

Merope's obsessive love killed her in the end, when she either 
refused to 'lift her wand' to save herself or became totally unable 
to do so from debilitating depression. Her death left Tom Riddle 
alone to sort out his family history and learn about his magical 
heritage without guidance. One thing he came to believe fairly young 
was that magical abilty equals almost infinite power, including the 
power to defeat death. Thus his life-long obsession was born.

OK, so I don't have to go through every event, and there are many of 
them, but the most significant ones are:

***Harry's obsession with Draco, as well as his somewhat minor 
obsession with the Half-Blood Prince. Both of these things distract 
him from his important work with Dumbledore, and in the case of the 
Prince teachings, Harry increases his ability to be deceptive and 
feels drawn to use dark magic spells. At the same time, as he learns 
more about Voldemort's history and the enormous task ahead, his 
doubt about his own abilities increases and he fails to see how his 
power to love will be the key to defeating Voldemort.

***Dumbledore's obsession with finding the Horcruxes. Digging around 
in the obsession theme, I had to start wondering about Dumbledore 
leaving the school for long periods of time to hunt Horcruxes alone, 
coming in contact with all sorts of dark magic and then depending on 
the reactive strategy of Snape 'saving' him before major damage was 
done. It's completely noble, just like Harry going to save Sirius in 
the DOM was completely noble, but....well, you wonder if he thought 
that one through completely. Did he became so intent on finding and 
destroying Horcruxes he lost his focus in other areas?

The night of the cave, when Harry comes to him with information 
about Draco and Snape, Dumbledore dismisses it. Now my personal take 
on this scene was:

1) Harry mentioned Snape in conjunction with what Draco was doing in 
the Room of Requirement, and since Dumbledore felt certain Snape was 
actually watching *over* Draco and not participating with him, he 
waved away the entire accusation as nothing important.

2) Dumbledore was completely fixated on getting to the cave. I 
really believe his tunnel vision about the cave contributed to him 
deciding against telling Harry, finally, why he trusted Severus 
Snape. The time was right, Harry knew the truth of Snape being the 
eavesdropper, he *deserved* an explanation since he lost both his 
parents partially due to Snape's information. But Dumbledore 
hesitated, probably deciding the Horcruxes were more important (an 
old man's mistake again?) and the moment was gone.

Unfortunately, both miscalculations led to the DE's entering 
Hogwarts & forcing the issue of the Unbreakable Vow, probably 
earlier than Dumbledore and Snape expected to deal with it. Harry 
was left out in the cold as to Snape's motives (I think) and saw the 
only thing he *could* see, an evil Snape finally choosing to side 
with Voldemort.

***Snape. You knew I had to get to him eventually. Reading Carol's 
excellent analysis of Spinner's End made me wonder: What exactly was 
Snape's obsession that led to his downfall? I like the idea of 
obsessive love, Snape's for Narcissa, but don't know if that will 
play out. Carol has suggested his intense need for recognition & the 
DADA curse might be behind taking the Unbreakable, and others have 
mentioned Snape is eyeing Voldemort's day job when he took that 
final vow.

Me? Not sure. That's why I'm writing this post ;). I feel certain 
obsession brought Snape down, but I wonder where it was rooted. In 
his family dynamics and early life, like Riddle? His life at 
Hogwarts as a half-blood sorted into Slytherin? His interest in Dark 
magic & choice to be a DE? By taking the Unbreakable, and whether he 
knew what he was agreeing to or not he still knew it wasn't a Good 
Thing, his action said he was willing to risk everything to take 
that vow: His relationship with Dumbledore, the DADA job he craved, 
his ability to continue as a spy, his own life if he failed.

I just wonder if we have the whole story. You know, I just realized 
something--we didn't get our Dumbledore explanation at the end of 
HBP. Wah. He was supposed to explain the origin of the HBP and 
whether Eileen Prince and Tobias Snape are important and what 
failing led Snape to take the Unbreakable Vow. Could this mean 
someone else will come along in Book 7 to help us understand all 
these pieces? It would complete the circle I think, to finally get a 
glimpse into his life from someone who knew him well. 

Jen, laughing out loud at Neri's latest post on the S/N ship 
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/138742