The Possibilities of Grey Snape (was Re: What would a successful AK mean?)

[Jen Reese]

No: HPFGUIDX 143009

Sydney:
> As the central relationship, it's bound to undergo a reversal in
> the finale, just as it was bound to reach it's lowest point at the
> end of the 2nd act.  <snipped revenge possibility> However, in my 
> opinion, the 'power' aspect has been played as far secondary to the
> trust and misunderstanding aspect, which is where the primary
> tensions have been left open.  It's also where the 'key' has been
> established before, by having Harry misunderstood Snape's actions 
> waaay back in Book 1, and has misunderstood them in every 
subsequent book. 

Jen: You are saying the through-line of the relationship is trust 
and misunderstanding on Harry's part. In all the other books, Harry 
misintepreted Snape's actions and Harry finds out at the end he was 
wrong, but still doesn't trust Snape. That's is the ongoing 'tension 
to be resolved'.

So HBP broke with tradition. Harry should have learned about part of 
the UV as he did, misintepreted it, and Snape should have been 
proven right once again by the end of the book. "Of course he didn't 
take a UV, it just looked like it! He did take the UV but only to 
help Draco!" But nooooooo, JKR wanted to torture us by putting a 
chapter in that we the readers are aware of and the characters in 
the room, but not establishing whether anyone else is aware of the 
events. 

We get to see Snape doing something outside Harry's POV and the 
action appears to be untrustworthy. In my mind, the through-line of 
the relationship got messed with a bit. Snape should not be seen 
actually *doing* something untrustworthy to maintain the simple 
trust storyline throughout. 

JKR appears to be holding out on both Harry and the reader if the 
story will continue on in a straight trajectory to the logical 
conclusion. Supposedly we are now halfway through one long book, so 
there could be more to come to resolve this. But we've got to have 
something more, perhaps finding out the DADA curse was in effect and 
is a horrible thing that takes away a person's free will, or 
Dumbledore ordered Snape to take the UV, or something....anything!! 

I *wanted* my simple story and don't like this cognitive dissonance 
one bit. :(

Jen