Slytherin Gang, Snape, and the Malfoys (was:Re: CHAPDISC: HBP 2, Spinner's End)

[horridporrid03]

No: HPFGUIDX 142442

> >>Potioncat:
> <snip>
> Sirius said (GoF?) that Snape belonged to a gang of Slytherins,    
> which included the LeStranges,  who almost all became DEs. I've    
> always taken that to mean the gang were friends, but it doesn't   
> have to be the case. Zacharias Smith is part of a gang (DA) that   
> includes Harry, but they aren't friends. Friends or not, if       
> Spinner's End was Snape's childhood home, it would be             
> understandable that he wouldn't invite his Slytherin classmates   
> there.
> But, Snape is a DE and so is Bella. 
> <snip>
> What I'm wondering is,  how long has she distrusted him? Did she   
> come out of Azkaban with blanket distrust of the ones who walked   
> free? Is his ability to slither out of "work" giving her pause?   
> Has it just been since the DoM disaster?

Betsy Hp:
This subject fascinates me.  Probably because we've so little to go 
on.  (An example for Nora's and Neri's "filling in the blanks" 
theory, perhaps? <g>)  But the relationship between the various 
Death Eaters seems wonderfully complex.  Or at the very least, 
realistically three-dimensional.

Most of what little canon we have comes from GoF.  (Where we first 
hear about "Death Eaters" IIRC.)  And it's fairly safe to say that 
there are fractions within that group.  Barty Crouch, at least, 
seems to draw a very strong line between "real" Death Eaters and the 
fakers who gave up on Voldemort as soon as a bit of trouble came 
along.  Lucius and Snape are quite strongly on one side of the line, 
per Barty. Himself, Bella, and her boys, are very much on the 
other.  (Karkaroff didn't come under quite as much an attack from 
Fake!Moody, IIRC.  Though of course, by not showing up in the 
graveyard he seemed to prove himself less than loyal.)

The fanaticism Bella displayed in OotP is a direct echo, I think, of 
Barty Crouch's in GoF.  And it's interesting that she and Lucius 
seem to be vying for control of the group of Death Eaters in the DoM 
battle.  At the very least they didn't seem to enjoy working with 
each other.  

I'd also wager that Lucius was less than thrilled with the attack on 
the Longbottoms.  He'd put a lot of effort into downplaying his 
involvement with the Death Eaters, and was probably hoping for the 
whole Death Eater movement to quietly slip from everyone's minds.  
The horror of such a vicious attack on such a well liked couple (I 
believe that's canon, yes?) would have awakened the desire for 
justice against all Death Eaters, I'm sure.  Something Lucius could 
most likely have done without.  (It also caused a power-shift at the 
MoM, so Lucius may have had to pay off a whole new set of government 
folk.)

Snape, whether ESE or DDM (or even OFH, actually) would have also 
prefered a non-rocking boat, I would think.  So I imagine he and 
Lucius had similar thoughts after Voldemort's fall.  The fact that 
Bella refered to Snape as "slithering" out of action in HBP, and 
that Voldemort called Lucius his "slippery friend" in GoF suggests 
that both men were less than eager to take action in Voldemort's 
service if they could avoid it.  Neither men were up to Bella's or 
Barty's level of commitment, IOW.

[Which leads me to wonder about a possible connection between Snape, 
Lucius, and Regulus (if he's RAB).  Not that Lucius was ready to 
turn on the Death Eater ideal, but that maybe he disagreed with some 
of their actions.  More anti-Muggle laws passed, less vulgar blood-
shedding, for example.] 

So what was the "Slytherin Gang" (as Sirius dubbed it) like in 
school?  For one thing, we know that they weren't all bosom 
buddies.  Not like the Marauders, at any rate.  Snape defined 
himself as set on by four versus one.  In all of the flashes of his 
youth he's seen as very much alone.  There's also the possibility of 
an age difference, and the possibility of a class difference
(especially when it comes to the Malfoys and the Blacks).  We know 
there was a blood difference.

I liked the comparison to the DA club, Potioncat.  Because, yes, 
those kids could have been seen as a group.  And yet, the group did 
not march in lockstep.  There were factions within the DA, and 
Harry's core set (Ron, Hermione, Neville, Luna, and Ginny) felt 
themselves seperate from the rest.  (As exampled by Ginny attacking 
Zack on the train to Hogwarts in HBP.)

Sirius also called Snape, Lucius's lapdog.  So perhaps Snape was 
brought into the group by Lucius (both may have been Slugclub 
members).  And perhaps Bella wasn't too thrilled with Snape's 
inclusion.  And perhaps there'd been tension between Lucius and 
Bella anyway.  And so perhaps, as Lucius's find, Snape was never 
fully trusted or liked by Bella.  And vice versa.  (Lot's of 
perhaps's in there, but that's the fun part, right? <g>)

> >>Potioncat:
> But, for whatever reason, both Narcissa and Wormtail know where   
> Snape works but Bella doesn't. She doesn't even seem to know that 
> his home/workplace is located in a dodgy Muggle neighborhood. 
> I don't know...something doesn't seem right.

Betsy Hp:
And Narcissa really knew the neighborhood, didn't she?  I mean, it's 
a narrow, badly lit, maze-like, neighborhood and Narcissa not only 
walks directly to Snape's house, she actually takes some alley-ways 
(read short-cuts) to get there.

Wormtail is easily explained as placed there by Voldemort to watch 
and be watched in turn.  But Narcissa's knowledge of the place is 
something different.  It suggests a personal attachment between her 
and Snape.  Narcissa describes Snape as an old friend of Lucius's.  
Use of the word "old" suggests it goes further back than a mere few 
years.

But we have Draco, in CoS, offering to put a good word in with his 
father on Snape's behalf.  Why would Draco feel the need to do that 
for his professor if Snape is his father's old friend?  Perhaps 
(there's that word again!) the two men were close during Voldemort's 
reign.  Perhaps the two of them worked on various projects together 
(the kind where their hands didn't get too dirty) and used Snape's 
wonderfully out-of-the-way home to do so.  And perhaps, when 
Voldmort fell, the two decided to push their friendship a bit more 
underground so as to avoid any unwanted connotations.  (Auror's may 
have asked more questions if two suspected Death Eaters hung out 
with each other a lot.)

By OotP we have Lucius putting in a good word for Snape with 
Umbridge, so at that point the two men are more openly friends.  But 
Voldemort is back again.  It wouldn't be good for Lucius or Snape to 
show a certain reluctance to getting back into the game by ignoring 
old ties.  And perhaps Snape and Lucius (and Narcissa?) were back to 
meeting at Snape's quiet, little, home to make more of their 
slippery, slithering, plans.

Betsy Hp (perhaps, perhaps, perrrr--haps <g>)