What is the use of Ch2 "Spinners End"?

[delwynmarch]

No: HPFGUIDX 133817

Greetings all!

Whenever I think of the second chapter of HBP, "Spinners End", I get
the nagging feeling that JKR is playing with us. Mainly, my main
concern is: what is the POINT of that chapter??

What do we learn in this chapter?

1. Snape lives in a Muggle place during the holidays. But does that
matter? We learn that Snape is half-Muggle by the end of the book anyway.

2. Wormtail has been sent by LV to assist Snape. So what?

3. Bellatrix doesn't trust Snape. Interesting one, that one, but still...

4. LV ordered Draco to do something for him. Harry guessed that one
without reading that chapter...

5. The Unbreakable Vow: humph, I'm *sure* JKR could have found another
way to bring that one in without having to go through the huge part
that's number 6:

6. Snape "really" works for LV. OK, THAT one is the one that bothers
me most. Why oh WHY would JKR tell us *that* in *Chapter 2*??? Telling
us that so early in the book is simply NOT LOGICAL (IMO, of course).
It takes away SO MUCH from the shock of Snape killing DD. Right from
Chapter 2, we know that Draco is going to be working on something big
for LV, and that if he fails, Snape will have to do it. This just
doesn't make sense to me.

So let me summarise my questions:

* Why would JKR turn people against Snape *so soon* in the book? If
she had truly wanted to shock everyone with Snape killing DD, she
should on the contrary have worked on making us trust Snape *more*,
not less.

* Why tell us *so early* in the book that Snape is up to no good??

* And why *ever* did she reveal that to US, the readers, but not to
Harry?? I'm not saying that this is completely inconsistent with JKR's
style, since she did use it before at the beginning of GoF, but it
just doesn't feel the same to me.

And finally my biggest concern: we did NOT NEED to learn what was in
that chapter!! Why do we need to know ANY of the things we learn in
that chapter? Why do we need to know about the tense relationship
between Bella and Snape, why do we need to know about the whereabouts
of Wormtail, and why do we need to know about the Unbreakable Vow?

THE STORY WOULD HAVE WORKED JUST AS WELL WITHOUT CHAPTER 2.

And that bothers me greatly, and it's why I do definitely think that
JKR is playing with us.

Del