[HPforGrownups] Spinner's End...and Spiders

[Barb Roberts]

No: HPFGUIDX 135812


  Cindy wrote:
>  Snape also gave Bellatrix "spin" after "spin" of justification for his
>  behavior since Voldemort's fall while making her feel disloyal and
>  inept. I think this chapter is named Spinner's End because that's
>  exactly what Snape did. Like a spider surrounding his victims with
>  web, Master Spinner Snape convinced his DE critics (including
>  Voldemort)with his words and deeds in this chapter. Now, the question
>  is, where does his spinning end?    

Snape isn't the only one who is spinning in the HBP--a few others are 
spinning as well.

Throughout most of the HBP, we find spiders.  When Harry meets Slughorn 
for the first time Harry "had a sudden and vivid mental image of a 
great swollen spider spinning a web around it...  Just a little later, 
as Harry and Dumbledore were having a chat in the Weasley's broom shed, 
  Dumbledore tells Harry that " I take my hat off to you--or I would, if 
I were not afraid of showering you in spiders."  Later we have Aragog's 
funeral with Hagrid and Slughorn.  So that's  at least three  "spider" 
people--Slughorn, DD and Hagrid.  Interestingly, It's at the funeral of 
the giant spider that Harry acquires from Slughorn the critical 
information about the number of horcruxes.  Necessary information if LV 
is to be destroyed.

Harry too is associated with spiders in previous books.   Harry's first 
bedroom is located in the cupboard under the stairs and is so full of 
spiders that Harry now has no fear now of them. Spiders, spinning and 
webs are mentioned too many times to not mean something, including a 
couple of chapter titles in the HBP.  To me, the issue is larger than 
just Snape who is only one of several spinners in the HBP. I have the 
following theory, not completely fleshed out, but I'll throw it out to 
just see what someone else thinks.

A spider is predator who remains concealed until his victims are 
trapped in the spider's web.  Much the plot in the HBP is about 
concealment and deception, and it's obvious that in the HBP it's the 
good guys who are practicing "deception" too. It may ultimately be the 
means of how LV is destroyed. An example of using concealment for a 
good cause is when DD tells Malfoy that "he (LV) cannot kill you if you 
are already dead.  Come over to the right side, Draco, and we can hide 
you come completely than you can possibly imagine."   I'm not sure how 
DD was going to accomplish this, but he said it could be done.

In Harry's case, his Invisibility Cloak is his method of concealment. 
This cloak is mentioned a few times too and becomes very important in 
the plot.  In the beginning of the book it is one of the last things 
that Harry packs in his trunk.  Later, Dumbledore tells Harry  that 
"Firstly, I wish you keep your Invisibility Cloak with you at all times 
from this moment onwards. Even within Hogwarts itself."   Arriving to 
Hogwarts, Harry gets stuck hidden beneath it until he is rescued by 
Tonks.  And of course, during Dumbledore's death scene, Harry is again 
trapped under it.  Deception may become an issue for important because 
it critical that LV not become aware that others know his secret and 
are seeking to destroy him.

Barbara Roberts (Ivogun) who feels a lttile "spun" out her

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