Snakes and scars and stuff

[eloise_herisson]

No: HPFGUIDX 123814


> Dungrollin:
 
> > There's one reference to snakes that has always puzzled me, and
> > that's after the hearing in OotP, Lucius Malfoy says "Quite
> > astonishing, the way you continue to wriggle out of very tight
> > holes ... *snakelike*, in fact." (The Woes of Mrs. Weasley.)
> > 
> > One assumes that he's referring to Harry's escape from the
> > graveyard; but why call Harry *snakelike*?  <snip>

Patrick:
> I always thought of this line as more of an insult. Malfoy insulting
> the 'high Gryffindor' by comparing him to the arch-enemy house 
mascot,
> and a mythically low creature, the snake.  I suppose it could be a
> veiled threat, but I doubt Malfoy knows of the connection before
> Voldemort does.


Eloise:
Well, the whole school knows that Harry is a Parselmouth after the 
Duelling Club episode; I should imagine he has snake-like 
associations for almost everyone now. I imagine that Malfoy, like 
others, is aware of Harry's Slytherin traits, aware that here is a 
wizard who could (perhaps from his POV) *should* have been a 
Slytherin and is pointing this out. 

I am quite certain that a Slytherin wouldn't view the snake as a low 
creature. Outside of Christianity, I suspect that the snake has more 
good mythological press than bad, being associated with healing and 
eternal life. I think it was not so much as insult as a barbed 
comment: "You're much more like us than you want to admit." And of 
course he knows exactly where to hit home as Harry has not come to 
terms with that fact. It's the equivalent of the Sorting's Hat's "You 
would have done well in Slytherin," an unsettling remark, reminding 
both Harry and the reader that there is a side of his personality 
that he has to learn to deal with.

~Eloise