ACID POPS vs LOLLIPOPS (was:Re: Whom does Snape REALLY love?)

[Merry Kinsella]

No: HPFGUIDX 139146

 

merylanna at yahoo.com says:  :)

I'm responding to horridporrid's et al's discussion on Narcissa/Snape/Lily, but not one particular comment.  Just putting my own out there because I don't see my POV here yet.

I don't subscribe to Snape/Lily and feel the penseive scene showed why Snape, while probably James' victim as a student (Sirius doesn't tell Harry anything to dispel that, and Harry's desperate to hear some mitigating information), is hard to love.  A girl comes along and says leave him alone, Snape bites "filthy mudblood."  I think that's just Snape.

Bad enough to be beset, he doesn't need James' little girl friend taking up for him, all heroine-esque. I think he disdains all of them.  My OWN suspicion is in that scene he no more appreciated Lily than Heathcliff appreciated Isabelle.  I think he's sick of that whole shining, popular, careless, talented little band, and the last thing that interests him is being reduced to a distraction for a bored Sirius and James or a way for Lily to prove her moral superiority to James.  James/Lily in that scene to me was JKR Flirt 101 - Lily no more hated James there than Ron hated Hermoine when she went to the Yule ball with Krum.  When James has Snape upside down JKR says Lily's mouth twitches, like she's trying not to smile.

Narcissa - my read is 1,000 different than I've read here.  I don't think he's personally moved by either woman, and Narcissa' theatrics are a bit of a chore.  He is always stiff-arming Narcissa - even hoists her along to the sofa by the arms.  She's doing the swooning maiden, he's doing touch-me-not.  Narcissa's histrionics are manipulated by Snape to help him checkmate Bellatrix.   I think Snape is playing Bellatrix like a violin in Chapter 2, SHE is the one he is managing;  Narcissa is a pawn.  Bellatrix shrieks on and on about her suspicions of Snape, she madly worships LV, she's jealous of Snape's status with him, and you know nothing's going to shut her up.

Of course, I don't think Snape was agreeing to anything, in the UV, that he hadn't already agreed to for Dumbledore - the Spinner's End UV wasn't a dramatic event for Snape, but Bellatrix doesn't know this, and that works for him.  He could have refused or backed off at any time since he was promising to disobey what Voldemort wanted (Voldemort wanted Draco to try, to punish Lucius).  I think he wouldn't have bothered with the charade if Bellatrix wasn't there.  He had a built in excuse not to take the Dumbledore part (I cannot.  The Dark Lord, I am afraid, wishes Draco to do it) -  but he lost nothing in taking it, because he'd already promised Dumbledore that if the time came, he'd do the deed.  I don't think the twitch had anything to do with the immediate moment . I think Snape had been suffering under his promise to kill Dumbledore if it came to that ever since he made the promise - to Dumbledore, around the time Dumbledore came to him to get his hand treated.  I think
 Snape/Dumbledore had the whole mind Draco/dead Dumbledore/re-join LV/help-Harry-like-this conversation then.  Narcissa and Bellatrix just presented an idea that cost Snape nothing and shut down Bellatrix.  He was basically revowing.

There are many references in HBP of Narcissa's devotion to Draco.  When the trio?? sneaks off to follow Draco, they think something must be big for him to have given mommy the slip.  In GoF, it's mentioned Draco had been interested in Durmstrang, but mommy didn't want him to go that far away.

I also felt a sharp, violent loyalty from Narcissa re Lucius when Bellatrix seemed to diss him.  Narcissa/Draco/Lucius are kind of incestuous looking twins - they all sort of look alike, in my mind.  Pale, very blond, good looking in an angular way (can't decide on Narcissa's looks.  In GoF it's mentioned she'd be nice looking if she weren't so evil, but in HPB Harry notes how much she looks like Bellatrix despite the difference in coloring, and Bellatrix isn't described as a beauty queen).  Snape has been described, by Sirius, as "Lucius's lapdog".  I'm sure he's been to whatever the heck passes for social events at the Malfoys, and as Draco's fave teacher, he is on civil terms with the parents.

But I think Spinner's End was ALL about Bellatrix for Snape.  She's one loose cannon.  She was the reason he enacted (re-enacted, I strongly suspect) the UV.

Which of course, means I believe that on the tower, Snape killed dumbledore because he'd promised Dumbledore he'd do it whenever DD asked - way before (at least dating to Dumbledore's burnt hand) the two women visited Spinner's End.  The Spinner's End result did play nicely into Snape's cover story though - although only he could finesse a betrayal of LV (the implied vow to kill DD if Draco failed) into a demonstration of loyalty to LV.   

		
Merylanna.