Snape, bias, etc.

[krista7]

No: HPFGUIDX 141056

I wrote: 
> > I want to know why it is that Snape fetches Harry, vs. Hagrid, 
> > from Tonks at the Hogwarts gate. (Chapter 8 of the 
> > US standard hardback; p. 155 the chapter begins.) Yes, there's a

...and DoddieMoeMoe said:
> If we read further into the text, we discover that Hagrid was not
so  late...

We discover that, according to Hermione, Hagrid was not 
very late. He was, however, still late, and would've been even later 
had he gone down to fetch Harry personally. He also tells the kids
that he had gotten wrapped up in seeing his brother and didn't have
 an eye on the time, so Snape's suggestion that he was coming to
 get Harry because Hagrid couldn't is grounded in fact. 
He could have another agenda as well, of course, but his reason,
Hagrid running late, is established. 

> I figure that Snape went to the gates because he heard 
> or "overheard" malfoy bragging...saw a flash outside the window and 
> went down to investigate and ended up escorting Harry from the 
> gates...

The reference to the patronus--new and old--makes me think that 
Snape actually received the message; he didn't just accidentally see
something from afar. (Tonks, frowning, actually says she meant for
 Hagrid to *receive* the message.)  Also, had he spotted the 
patronus by accident, not being its 
intended recipient, wouldn't the patronus signal have gone out to
"find" Hagrid still?


> I always thought that it was not Tonks Harry met...but rather a 
> Polyjuiced Snape....(makes so much more sense than any other of the 
> explanations I've heard).

Why?? The Tonks in this scene is consistent with the Tonks we see 
throughout the book, and JKR does give her a reason for being 
mopey (even if I'm unimpressed with Love Unrequited doing this 
to Tonks' character).  I'm surprised. I see no reason for Tonks not
to be Tonks here.

Carol writes:  

> To get back to Harry--I think what we're seeing here is his
unresolved
> anger at himself for his role in Sirius Black's death. In OoP we
have
> the narrator stating (from Harry's POV): "He would never forgive
> Snape. Never." That statement stood out to me the moment I read it
as
>  an example of the unreliable narrator making an assertion that
would
> eventually be contradicted...

V. much agreed here. I believe the end of the series, coinciding with
the end of Harry's maturation process, will come back to these 
questions of  responsibility and forgiveness, including 
foregiveness of oneself. 

> Carol, wondering what to make of the chapter title ("Snape
Victorious")

--especially since this chapter begins with Tonks fetching Harry!
 It doesn't start with the Great Hall Feast and the bombshell 
about the new DADA professor, as it could have, were the title
just a reference to Snape getting the job.

I think it is a double-layered comment on JKR's part: Snape,
receiving his long-desired job (his "victory" in the eyes of the
 students); and if you consider Snape a walking symbol of guilt 
and self-hatred, the triumph of these emotions within *Harry*. 

Krista