Weston-supra-Mare/Percy/Prior Incantato/Snape was with Voldemort/Map of Devo

[Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)]

No: HPFGUIDX 145413

Sandy Straubhaar wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/144960 :

<< P. G. Wodehouse (as in Jeeves & Wooster) used lots of bizarre
English town names in his stories, but ... I _think_ ... they are all
real,like Weston-super-Mare >>

This list used to have an active poster, IIRC named Mary Ann
MacCloudt, who lived in Weston-supra-Mare. IIRC she said it was a
boring place.

kchuplis wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/145086 :

<< [Percy] absolutely alienates himself from the entire family.
Willingly. With knowing hurt. That's really low. >>

Young Sirius absolutely alienated himself from the entire Black 
family (well, maybe except for cousin Andromeda, who had probably
already been disowned by then). Not only willingly, but eagerly. 
With what appears to me to be vindictive hope of hurt. Does that make
young Sirius really low? 

There are several similar pairs in canon. 1) Dobby disobeyed his
owners in order to help Harry defeat his owners. Kreachur disobeyed
his owner (Sirius) in order to help his owner's enemy (Narcissa, 
Death Eaters, LV) defeat Sirius's team (and kill Sirius). 2) Peter
spied for LV and betrayed his friends, the Potters, to LV, resulting
in their deaths. Severus spied for Dumbledore and apparently informed
on his friends, Evans, Rosier, Avery, and the Lestranges, which seems
to be the cause of Evans and Rosier being killed by Aurors (while
resisting arrest) and the rest captured. 3) Sirius and Percy both
turned against their birth families. 

I believe that JKR intentionally put in so many parallels, in order 
to complicate the ethical debate: one can't decide good/evil by a
simple rule like "He betrayed his friends" or "He disobeyed his
master" but instead must consider the motives and the circumstances.
So Sirius ditching his birth family was an act of goodness, because 
he was ditching their bigotry, Dark Magic, and other wrongdoing; he
was ditching their approval of the Dark Lord's and the Death Eaters'
plan to overthrow the Muggle-lovers and blood-traitors in command of
the Ministry of Magic.  

So it sure looks like Percy ditched his birth family simply for 
career advancement, because we see him kissing up to Fudge and
laughing excessively at Fudge's bad jokes, and saying things about
Harry being a mentally unstable liar that he damn well should have
known were not true, and saying that Harry was a criminal who got off
on a technicality -- as if saving his own life and Dudley's from the
Dementors was a technicality! -- and embracing lies and harming
innocent people for the sake of career advancement is an act of evil.

HOWEVER, suppose for the sake of argument that Percy really did
believe what the government told him (I'm not sure what a European
would say rather than 'the government', because I don't mean just the
temporarily ruling party). That Harry was mentally unbalanced --
passing out, seeing visions, and temper tantrums would seem like
evidence. That there was no evidence that Lord Voldemort had returned
from the dead, and spreading such rumors would cause panic. That it
was all Dumbledore's scheme to stir up panic in order to make a coup
against Fudge. Then could it be that Percy was trying to assist Law
and Order against a coup by a would-be dictator, rather than trying to
advance his career? 

Pippin wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/145120 :

<< There's a simple spell, by the way, which could clear Snape of the
AK or convict him *and* allow Dumbledore to explain what he meant by
his last word. Priori incantatem. If there's no shade of Dumbledore,
then Dumbledore was not AK'd by Snape's wand. If there is, then
Dumbledore's shade can either accuse Snape or explain why Snape should
not be blamed for killing him. >>

I thought the Prior Incantato! *spell* would show only the latest
spell that a wand had cast, and Snape's wand had cast curses after
Dumbledore fell off the tower. The Priori Incantatem *effect* would
force Snape's wand to disgorge all the spells it had cast until the
link was broken, but making the link would require using Snape's
wand's brother wand. We don't know that Snape's wand even HAS a brother.

KathyO wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/145203 :

<< If these are facts, doesn't it make sense that Snape could have
been with Voldemort when he went to the Potters that night? >>

Remember Harry's dream right after he was Sorted in PS/SS? "Perhaps
Harry had eaten a bit too much, because he had a very strange dream.
He was wearing Professor Quirrell's turban, which kept talking to him,
telling him he must transfer to Slytherin at once, because it was his
destiny. Harry told the turban he didn't want to be in Slytherin; it
got heavier and heavier; he tried to pull it off but it tightened
painfully -- and there was Malfoy, laughing at him as he struggled
with it -then Malfoy turned into the hook-nosed teacher, Snape, whose
laugh became high and cold -- there was a burst of green light and
Harry woke, sweating and shaking." I have long thought it was Harry's
early childhood memory of the night his parents died, and supposed to
be a clue that Severus Snape (seen in dream) and Lucius Malfoy (seen
in dream, but mistaken for Draco) accompanied LV (high, cold laughter)
to the Godric's Hollow event (a burst of green light). 

Christina wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/145250 :

<< DD has no right to go blabbing Snape's private life to a kid
(particularly one he has no close relationship with) >>

Nitpick: Snape caused the murder of Harry's parents and attempted
murder of Harry. Isn't that a very close relationship?

Dreamofwriting wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/145278 :

<< I just uploaded a map picture; I didn't get the title on it
properly, it just says gif...it's on the last page of the photos. I
got the pic from a map of England on the internet. It shows in Devon:
Ottery St. Mary's, and there is a Burrow Hill Farm and a place labeled
Pottery, this is just so coincidental? Well, I thought it was
interesting and maybe if I do get to England I will take myself a
little drive to Ottery St. Mary's and have a look around, just for
kicks! >>

And it is near Exeter University where JKR was a student. From
previous discussion, I seem to recall that there is also a Stokes 
Hill or Stokeshead Hill in the area (cf Stoatshead Hill). Adding
stoats and weasels to otters makes it sound very mustelid. Oh, and a
town named Chudleigh, presumably the namesake of Ron's Chudley Cannons.