Spinner's End as home (wasRe: CHAPDISC: HBP 2, Spinner's End

[potioncat]

No: HPFGUIDX 142089


 
> Carol:
>snip>
>I'm betting he was homeschooled and didn't associate
> with any Muggle children, much less go to school with them. And if 
he
> grew up in a Muggle neighborhood, how in the world did he teach
> himself so many hexes before he even went to Hogwarts? He must have
> had some contact with other wizards, including his Prince 
grandfather.

Potioncat:
I agree. Someone had to teach him, or he had to be like Hermione, 
learning the curses from books. But, what I find odd or at least 
curious, is how JKR pictures WW homelife.

The Weasleys live down the road from a town. Arthur and Molly are 
fairly clueless about Muggles, yet the twins spend enough time in the 
town to impress a girl with their magic tricks.

On JKR's website there is (or was) an ad for something that would 
keep your Muggle neighbors away so that they wouldn't see the magic 
being performed in your home.

The Gaunts lived so close to a street that conversations of passers-
by could be heard in the house.

12 GP is in the middle of other two other houses (I picture 
townhouses, but I'm not sure if that is correct.)

So, how does any Wizarding family keep itself secret? I'm not sure if 
this house belonged to Tobias who worked in the mill, or if it was a 
converted wizarding house that Muggles couldn't see.

Carol:
> His mother, best known as the president of the Gobstones Club, 
doesn't
> seem like the type to teach him, or to line her Muggle husband's 
house
> with leather-bound books.

Potioncat:
Oh, dear. First Snape, then Molly now Eileen. Boy, am I going to get 
a bad name for defending these people.

I think Eileen gets "No respect" for being President of the Gobstones 
Club. Gobstones is an incredibly popular game and there is even a 
department for Gobstones at the MoM. (There is canon for that, I just 
don't have it with me.) It seems to me that if anything, we see her 
in a leadership role on a recreational team that is competitive 
enough to play against other schools.

OK, it isn't chess. It isn't dueling. It isn't even Quidditch. 
(Sorry, I was channeling Hermione.) But there is nothing to indicate 
that it's a third string activity. I wouldn't think an  interest in 
Gobstones would automatically mean she wasn't good at other 
activities or other magic. 

I think she must like books, otherwize she would have sold her 
textbooks as soon as she could. The fact that Snape used them tells 
me she cared enough about them to keep them. She wasn't young when 
Snape was born either. So it's not like she knew she would need them 
for his schooling. (I'm basing her age on being at Hogwarts "50 years 
ago".)


Carol:
> If Spinner's End was indeed Tobias's
> house, young Snape would have inherited it when his father died. (I
> know I'm speculating, but I can't reconcile the Snape we've seen 
with
> a child!Severus who lived in this neighborhood.

Potioncat:
I can't either. I just can't come up with much else.