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

[lyraofjordan]

No: HPFGUIDX 142167

Carol: 
> > I can't see either young Severus or his mother Eileen "hiding in 
> > plain sight," actually, even with Muggle-repelling charms on the 
> > house. Wouldn't people notice, at the very least, the absence of 
> > a TV antenna and a car in a 1960s house, even if they couldn't 
> > tell that the house was lit by candles rather than electricity? 
> > Wouldn't they notice a woman or a boy wearing what looked like a 
> > priest's cassock or a graduation gown? 

 
Potioncat responded:
> Well, I would think that a marriage between a Muggle and witch 
> would have some Muggle things and some WW items. So, likely there 
> was a telly and a Floo. I'm sure there was electricity, although 
> Eileen may have used a lot of candles. Severus may have played with 
> a toy wand and a chemistry set. ;-) Eileen must have been 
> comfortable in the Muggle world, or how would she have met Tobias? 
> I would bet young Severus wore Muggle clothes at least part of the 
> time.
> 
> It seems to me, Snape has completely rejected his Muggle heritage. 
 

Lyra now:
Well, Potioncat, you've touched on a topic that really fascinates 
me, one that I've never seen anyone write about: How does a 
wizard/muggle marriage or family life work? And I tend to agree with 
you, that there must be some sort of compromise-mixture of the two 
ways of doing things. In the first place, I think all us muggles on 
this list would agree that giving up electricity, TV and the 
other "magic" we depend on is too much to ask. And it seems to me 
it'd be much easier for a wizard to adjust to flipping on a light 
switch (Arthur Weasley aside) and using an electric oven than 
depriving a muggle of basic necessities because he/she can't use a 
wand. So I think that Eileen and Tobias must have had a household 
that combined some of each one's way of doing things (assuming they 
did, in fact, remain married).

I can also envision Severus growing up in a muggle neighborhood, 
being the local weird kid, with all the teasing that that entails. I 
would expect he hoped all that would stop when he got to Hogwarts, 
(and then he found out rich, pureblood kids could be just as nasty 
as poor muggle kids). In fact, I can see him learning/inventing his 
curses as a way to get back at his young tormenters vicariously, 
even if he couldn't actually use the curses on them because of the 
Secrecy Act (which Carol points out upthread). 

Where'd he practice these curses to begin with? Well, possibly while 
visiting the Prince relatives, but I'm not convinced a witch can't 
keep doing magic in her own home, even if it's in a muggle 
neighborhood, as long as she is discreet about it. Since the MoM 
apparently keeps records of where all wizards are living (don't we  
get that idea in OOTP, at the hearing, when they say they don't have 
a record of any wizards in Little Whinging and Mrs. Figg says they 
wouldn't have a record of her because she's a squib?) they would 
have a record of Eileen Prince Snape wherever she lived. If Sevvie 
was practicing curses at night after Mom had gone to bed, the MoM 
wouldn't realize it was underage magic (based on the Weasley twins 
experience, anyway) as long as he didn't do it out in the street 
where muggles could see. 

Eventually, as Potioncat notes, Snape totally rejects the muggle 
part of his heritage, not because he never was exposed to muggle 
ways of doing things, but because wizarding appealed to him more, 
for reasons that could range from the powerful feeling he got from 
doing magic to the fact that he found acceptance among the 
Slytherins, who probably found him just as strange and nerdy as 
everyone else, but who also appreciated his ability to create curses.

Eek, I hope I haven't just written a very long "I agree" without 
adding anything. 

Lyra