CHAPDISC: HBP 2, Spinner's End

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 142039

Potioncat wrote: 
>  This appears to be the same day as chapter one, but in a very
different location. <snip>

Carol responds:
You determined this from the image of the breeding Dementors at the
beginning of the chapter, right? If so, I agree. I think they take
place simultaneously.

But what about chapter 3, to anticipate a little? I know that Ceridwen
thinks that Slughorn's acceptance of the Potions position coincides
with this chapter timewise, so that Snape becomes DADA professor
(without knowing it) just in time for the DADA curse to bind Snape in
the form of the UV (specifically provision three) at the end of the
chapter. I'm also wondering what others think about the timing of the
chapters, as I'm absolutely convinced that the UV as it controls the
action on the tower is the manifestation of the DADA curse, whether or
not Snape is officially the DADA instructor when he takes it. But if
he *is* the DADA instructor at the time of "Spinner's End," the curse
could already be operating, trapping and dooming him before he even
returns to Hogwarts. 

Potioncat: 
> <snip> Wormtail is also at the house and is called upon to serve
elf-made wine. <snip> Snape sends him to his bedroom, and later blasts
him with a spell to make certain he is not listening to the
conversation. The relationship appears to be one of master and
unwilling servant.

Carol responds:
At a guess, the spell is Impervius, the same one that Molly Weasley
used in OoP to keep the kids from listening at the kitchen door, with
an extra little blast thrown in to scare Wormtail, who has "lately
taken to listening at doors."  Snape says that he "[doesn't] know what
[Wormtail] means by it" (HBP Am. ed. 25), but I think he knows quite
well that LV's real reason for giving him Wormtail as an "assistant"
is to have Wormtail spy on him. Claerly, someone other than the
sisters has visited Snape recently at Spinner's End. Would DD or the
Order members come there? It seems needlessly dangerous, given
Wormtail's presence. Surely, DD would talk with him at Hogwarts or
Hogsmeade and the others at Order HQ? Or maybe they don't trust the
security of 12 GP with Sirius Black dead? (BTW, if Lupin or the real
Moody knows about Spinner's End, Snape [and Wormtail] will probably
have to move someplace else for Book 7.)

Moreover, Snape refers to Wormtail as "vermin" in his own presence,
indicating a degree of open contempt that he seldom shows with anyone
else. Evidently Bellatrix shares this view, as she knows that his
betrayal of the Potters led indirectly to her master's downfall at
Godric's Hollow, but Snape's reasons for this view may be more
complex. It reminds me of Crouch!Moody, disguising his hatred of DEs
who walked free by pretending that it's an Auror's hatred of criminals
who escaped prison when in fact it's a loyal DE's hatred of his
"disloyal" comrades. ESE!Snape would hold Wormtail in contempt for the
same reasons Bella does, but DDM!Snape would look down his nose at him
for betraying his friends, when he, Snape, tried to prevent their
deaths even though he hated James Potter. And it seems significant,
too, that Snape also dislikes Bella, whom he treats with amused
disdain (and occasional impatience). BTW, I think that Wormtail is
somewhat intimidated by Snape, but he's much more afraid of Voldemort,
which is why he chooses not to ask for a more dangerous assignment.
(Maybe they'll become reluctant allies now that they're both wanted
criminals, assuming that they both hate LV?)
> 
Potioncat:
> At Snape's request, Bella brings up many reasons for distrusting
him. He counters with explanations for his absences at certain Death
Eater events. Others must doubt his loyalty as well because he tells 
her, "You can carry my words back to the others who whisper behind my
back, and carry false tales of my treachery to the Dark Lord!" <snip>

Carol responds:
I think that the whole first half of the chapter (not counting the
section which shows us the sisters alone and establishes their motives
and respective views of Snape) tells us exactly what Snape has told
the Dark Lord (with a few embellishments). It explains how he managed
to stay alive after returning to LV two hours after the graveyard
scene: Snape as superlative actor and Occlumens, fooling the wizard
that Bella believes to be the world's greatest Legilimens (a point
that Snape raises rhetorically and that she doesn't dare to challenge
despite her doubts regarding Snape's loyalty). 

What the chapter does *not* give is the absolute truth about his
actions and motives (a point I hope to explore in more detail at a
later date). But in talking with Bella, Snape accomplishes two
objectives: silencing (or pacifying) her and getting her to share what
she hears with the other DEs. Evidently she does exactly that (having
been further convinced of his loyalty to *her* master by the UV),
given the way the DEs on the tower defer to Snape, clearly accepting
him as LV's new favorite and an authority figure whose orders are to
be obeyed. Deep cover for DDM's man or a coup for OFH!ESE!Snape? It
could work either way (though I'm convinced that it's the first).

Potioncat:
> <snip> Narcissa asks for Snape's help. <snip>

Yes, and note how Narcissa herslef defines "help" after Snape
hesitantly states that it "might be possible . . . . for me to help
Draco" (HBP Am. ed., 35, ellipsis in original): 

"Severus--oh, Severus--you would help him? Would you look after him,
see he comes to no harm?" (35). *This* is exactly what Snape is
expecting to swear to do, along with protecting Draco (mentioned by
Narcissa in her next sentence), when he agrees, after a moment of
silence and one of his famous inscrutable expressions, to take the
Unbreakable Vow--exactly what he would do, anyway, as friend of the
family, Hogwarts teacher, Draco's Head of House--and Dumbledore's Man,
as we know from DD's own orders later in the book. Snape knows that
the UV entails the risk of death, but he takes such risks every day as
double agent, and taking the UV has the advantage of quenching
Bellatrix's remaining doubts, perhaps prompting her to share what he's
told her with the other doubting DEs as he requested. (The UV itself
she's likely to keep secret.) Still in control, as shown by his
stating that she'll need her wand and telling her to step closer, he
takes a calculated risk, expecting to be able to "help" Draco by
"seeing that he comes to no harm" as opposed to helping him accomplish
his objective, whether he knows what it is or not. But we all know
from the hand twitch that he wasn't expecting that third provision.
Although the vow itself is ominous, with its twisting wires of fire,
it's only at that moment that the spinner is caught in his own
web--and knows it. Why he says "I will" at that point remains open to
debate, but one reason was surely that to back out at that point would
undo everything he had accomplished with Bellatrix in the first half
of the encounter. And of course, the DADA curse, if it was already in
effect, may have distorted his judgment, or even prompted Narcissa, in
her eagerness to protect her son, to unwittingly trap her own friend
and protector, whose loyalty to LV she does not question.

BTW, while Snape tells Bella and Cissy that he "spun a tale of deepest
remorse," it's equally likely that the tale he "spun" is the one he
carefully worked out in advance of encountering Voldemort near the end
of GoF. One or the other (or both) is fabricated of half truths or
lies, and it's clear that Snape is suppressing some information in his
tale to Bella--among other things, his spying for Dumbledore "at great
personal risk" before accepting the Potions position in lieu of DADA
and his saving DD's life after DD sustained his recent injury. Notice
that Snape doesn't describe the injury, which he attributes to "slowed
reflexes," knowing full well that it was the result of an encounter
with a cursed object (he must have identified the specific curse since
he performed the countercurse). I'm guessing that the absolute trust
DD shows for Snape in HBP would lead him to tell Snape that the cursed
object was a Horcrux. And if he saw the cracked ring, as he surely
must have, he would have known it was an heirloom of Slytherin and
must have belonged to Voldemort. Even if he doesn't know it's a
Horcrux, he is clearly concealing information that would reveal him as
DDM. "Spun a tale of deepest remorse" indeed--but not to Dumbledore, IMHO.

Carol, thanking Potioncat for the excellent discussion questions,
which she'll return to in a separate post