Ch2 "Spinners End"-what a chapter!!

[zgirnius]

No: HPFGUIDX 134430

delwynmarch wrote:
> 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? 

Eggplant responded:
> For 6 books we've seen
> Snape do extremely nasty things and for 6 books we've heard the hero
> of the books tell us over and over that Snape is Evil, and in 
chapter
> 2 we even see Snape making unbreakable vows and conspiring with 
Death
> Eaters, and yet JKR manipulates her readers so skillfully that it's 
> still a huge shock when we discover in the end that Harry was
> absolutely correct and the reason he always acted so unpleasantly is
> because Snape is indeed evil. Talk about hiding in plain sight!
> Brilliant! 

zgirnius:
Actually, she's even more brilliant that even you credit her with, 
Eggplant. Have you not been reading any of the zillions of "Snape is 
Good" posts which have been flooding this list? She's done all you 
say and there are still people running around giving (in my opinion) 
cogent, well-reasoned arguments that Snape must still be on the good 
side...I think for many people the "cliffhanger" at the end of this 
book is as much "what will Snape do, whose side is he on?" as it 
is "how will Harry destroy the Horcruxes and defeat LV?"

It is not my wish in this post to defend an opinion one way or 
another regarding Snape's ethics or allegiance, but to discuss more 
why I think "Spinner's End" was an absolutely wonderful chapter. I 
really don't get why people dislike it so. I lovced it the first time 
through, and rereading it a few times has only made it grow on me. I 
do agree the whole "Snape justifying his past history to Bella" bit 
is long and adds little to our understanding, but the chapter also 
adds *loads* of potentially useful information. Or red herrings, but 
we just can't say at this point. Cool things we see:

1) We have been told in GoF and OotP, but not *shown*, that Snape is 
a double agent until this chapter. This is actually the only time we 
see him dealing with DEs so far in any of the books, the first time 
we see him "in action" as a spy. Or traitor, take your pick!

2) Cissy. We see a different, and surprisingly attractive, side to 
her. If Draco turns out not-so-bad by the end of Book 7, (by the end 
of Book 6 this seems entirely possible) in this chapter JKR shows us 
a possible reason for this. Nothing we have seen of Lucius suggests 
his son would turn out better...but Cissy seems truly to love her son.

3) Snape and Cissy. This is the one scene ever where Snape appears to 
be treating someone kindly. (Who'd a thunk it? Though there could be 
reasons related to being a spy or traitor, again, take your pick.)
Also, no matter whose side the man is on, taking the UV is a 
dangerous, even unnecesary move. It does reassure Cissy, though. (To 
spell it out: if he's Voldie's man, why make a UV to Cissy? He can 
just step in and off DD any time he sees an opportunity. The vow in 
no way helps him achieve this goal at the end. If he's a "good guy", 
well, maybe he feels he needs to do it to get Bella's trust. But 
then, keeping in mind what happens to people who break UVs, he's 
taking an *awfully* big chance...again, why?)

4) The UV itself. Maybe JKR needs to us to see the UV...could there 
be others in play we do not yet know about? Notice the small detail 
that Snape *gives Bella instructions* on how to do it. Sure, he's s 
smart guy, maybe he just read it in a book somewhere, but then 
again...

5) Wormtail: What's with *him*? How is he "helping" Snape? How do we 
think he feels about this? We know he has a life-debt to Harry. Now 
we see he may also have reason to be disgruntled with his treatment 
by the "bad guys". What might this lead to in Book 7?

So, there it is, why I think this chapter has to be there. Some of 
the above sets up the actions of Book 6, and in particular sets the 
stage for DDs death at the end. But JKR has also indicated that Books 
6 and 7 are more like two parts of one really long book...so we may 
be seeing some of the people and facts presented here again some 
time...