Structure and choices: (evil?)Snape, horcruxes, what's to come...

[anxin1324fanfic]

No: HPFGUIDX 134017

I find it hard to believe Snape can be evil. Structurally, it doesn't
make sense. JKR has repeatedly talked about the importance of choices:
Harry is a Gryffindor instead of Slytherin because he made a choice,
Dumbledore has talked about the importance of choices shaping who we
are, JKR has talked about the importance of choices in numerous
interviews...

Character choices are what make fiction interesting. And stories have
to be structured so those choices can be brought out, and character
can be revealed--at the right time. So, given that HBP is the
next-to-last book, and that everything is building towards the climax
of Book 7, we have to think about what story elements have been set
up, and what choices are left. 

1) House unity
The Sorting Hat has been going on and on about the importance of
interhouse unity, but we haven't yet seen this. Harry and his friends
(with some exceptions in Hermione's case) still have yet to see beyond
their negative gut reactions to the Slytherins.  We already know that
Salazar Slytherin's leaving was a splintering of sorts for Hogwarts. I
believe this series will be in part about a healing of that rift. It's
love Harry will need to prevail--and I think it will be love for the
difficult characters: Snape and Draco, and probably Riddle/Voldemort
too. (How hard is it for him to love his friends? That's not a big
enough challenge on which to base the culmination of a seven-book,
thousands-of-pages long series!) 

If Harry's going to have to find common ground with some Slytherins,
structurally it's going to have to be Snape and Draco. (Blaise Zabini?
Crabbe and Goyle? Come on!) He will have to learn to move beyond his
first emotional reactions to them, see their humanity, and accept them
as allies--in whatever small or unexpected ways they manifest
that--before he can truly defeat Voldemort.

I think interspecies unity (centaurs overcoming their hatred of
humans, humans overcoming their disdain for house elves and their
fear/hatred of giants, werewolves, etc.) will also play a role in the
final battle.

2) Harry, Snape, and Draco
Everyone has to make choices. And for the story to work dramatically,
they have to be interesting choices.

Ron, Hermione, the rest of the DADA crew, and the members of the OOTP
do not have seriously interesting choices left. Does anyone doubt that
any of these people would sacrifice themselves for Harry if need be?
These characters' actions are a matter of WHO will have to and HOW it
will happen. Somewhat interesting, but not the base for the climax of
a seven-book series.

And it's unlikely that Bellatrix or the minor death eaters will do
anything other than the predictable. I think that leaves the
interesting choices to Snape, Draco, and Harry (with Snape and Draco
being the most interesting... because who relly believes Harry is
going to choose evil in the end?)

So Snape can't be purely evil. If Snape and Draco are purely evil,
that doesn't leave any
interesting choices to lead into the climax and finale. (Peter
Pettigrew, will make a choice, I believe, but that's not big enough a
foundation of choice for the final book of the series.) JKR has
already dropped some hints: Draco was unable to kill Dumbledore,
demonstrating that he may be mean and nasty, but he isn't purely evil.
Snape's killing of Dumbledore was lacking in that final "I'm the bad
guy and this is why I did what I did" speech that has come at the
ending of every book (the "bad guy" scenario was more ambiguous,
initially, with Sirius and Peter Pettigrew in PoA, but we still got
the summation speeches). I think the lack of summation speech on
Snape's part--and the fact that Dumbledore is not a man who is afraid
of death or who pleads for mercy--may be telling.

Snape and Draco (particularly Snape)--and Harry, in his choices about
how he reacts to them--will be given the interesting Book 7 choices.
That, I believe, is going to be at the heart of Book 7.

3) Other choices on which storylines (both large and small) may turn
* Peter Pettigrew
He owes some kind of wizard-debt to Harry for saving his life. He is a
Gryffindor who has yet to show any bravery. Book 7 is the time. I
suspect he'll take some small stand against Voldemort (even if out of
self-preserving defiance rather than love for others) that will tip
the balance of events.

* Percy's leaving his family
I find it hard to imagine that this storyline will be left dangling.
Percy and the Weasleys are important enough that JKR will probably
want to resolve this plot thread in some way. Also, he is a
Gryffindor, but we have yet to see any true bravery on his part (yes,
he stood up to his father, but I think structurally we will need to
see more). Percy will make some kind of choice in Book 7--taking some
action that requires courage (standing against the Ministry and for
some member of his family--saving Ron in some way?--is my guess).

* GRAWP and Hagrid
Definitely being set up for some future action in the big events to
come.

3) Horcruxes and Hogwarts
I think we're going back to Hogwarts for Year 7. Harry may not want to
or plan to, but I believe much of book 7 will take place there. First
of all, EVERYTHING has been at Hogwarts, and I think structural unity
will take us there again. Second (and more importantly), I think all
or most of the horcruxes are there. JKR has implied this by saying
that some of the horcruxes are the founders' objects... I think that
structurally, JKR will have four of the horcruxes be an object from
each of the Founders. Hogwarts is a foundational place in the British
wizarding world--what better way for Voldemort to cement his power
than to imbue something from each founder with a part of his soul? The
current postulation about the horcruxes (locket, something from
Ravenclaw or Gryffindor, Nagini) seems horribly unbalanced to me and
smacks of red herrings. 


Anxin