[HPforGrownups] Re: Snape=Judas?/House characteristics

[Magpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 150697

kkersey_austin


> Oh yes, the story about the Gospel of Judas has been repeating on NPR
> news the last day or so, and I keep managing to tune in while it's on.
> I can't help but think of JCM!Judas versus ESE!Judas, all you have to
> do is substitute in Snape and Dumbledore's names to get a standard
> HPfGU post, I swear. E.g. here's what one of the researchers says:
>
> "...The context clearly implies that Judas only did what Jesus earlier
> had instructed him to do. His actions are not a betrayal at all"
>
> Of course there are differing opinions on whether or not this Gospel
> of Judas is canon or fanfic. ;-)

Magpie:
It should come as no surprise that Judas has always been my favorite 
Biblical character.:-)  I didn't see him expressly following Jesus' orders, 
but it always seemed like mythologically, he was a necessary part of the 
process.  Like in stories where one God kills and chops up another god which 
is then reborn as another entity.

This didn't go over well with my CCD teacher either.  I'll bet she wouldn't 
have been a Snape fan...

a_svirn:
We are also told that the fighting ceased
when Slytherin left, but the resulting peace was never as satisfying
as the one before the Schism. It is tempting to conclude that in
order to re-establish the proper harmony Slytherin must be re-
admitted somehow into the happy Hogwarts family. I don't see how it
can be done, considering that the founders are dead, and Slytherin's
heir is a totally unacceptable figure.

Magpie:
This definitely seems like the key to me, somehow.  Because the way the 
school is now replicates that split.  Slytherin has "left" in that the 
Slytherin kids seem loyal only to their house and not the school, and that 
keeps things in an uneasy holding pattern that's still unsatisfying and 
weakens the school.  The DA sounded like a great idea, but there were those 
Slytherins working against it (though it was Marietta who was the weak 
link).  In HBP Hogwarts had all these defenses but was opened from the 
inside by a Slytherin who's never made any secret of not having loyalty to 
Dumbledore.  The hat warned everyone that they needed all four houses 
together and the immediate reaction was: no way.  Hermione tried to cheat 
around it with the DA idea, but no dice.  Psychologically, that seems to 
totally fit for the shadow idea.  You always do anything you can to avoid 
your shadow.

The Heir of Slytherin is obviously unacceptable, but then isn't the point 
rather that heirs don't matter?  (Voldemort is even the exiled heir, since 
Slytherin left the school and Voldemort the orphan raised away from his 
roots returns.) The word "house" in the books usually refers to the people 
of a house more than the structure--that's why I never like the idea of "one 
good Slytherin," especially when that OGS used to always be assumed to be 
someone we didn't really know.  Because it's not the house the structure 
that needs to be brought back, so that as long as you've got one kid in a 
green tie who hates Voldemort you're okay. You have to change the house as 
in the kids in it, the attitude.  And with that the attitude of the other 
houses towards it.

I don't know how it's going to be done, but it did seem like HBP was laying 
the groundwork that way.  The book just drips (literally) with Slytherin, 
with Harry having to "immerse" himself in the house in a way.  He's not 
attacking Slytherin, he's mostly observing passively.  He doesn't have a 
whole new view of the house by the end, but he's not quite where he was at 
the start of the book either.  So given that beginning I don't think it's 
impossible that JKR could continue a story where Harry learns to work with 
Slytherin and Slytherin learns to work with the other houses, and also 
learns for real this time that Voldemort's policies lead only to their own 
destruction. Of course I fully admit that I would like to see this also 
shown personally with Draco, who already has discovered being a DE is not 
what he thought it would be just as Regulus did, coming to see he was wrong 
to a certain extent.  I mean, that's the real battle, to have someone who's 
clung to and believed this stuff let it go.

I could be wrong and JKR is planning to keep Slytherin just the way it was, 
but that just feels so wrong to me.  It seems like exactly the way the book 
started with Voldemort defeated but in a half-arsed way, just reprieve. 
Like taking only half your anti-biotics.  From the first book it's seemed 
like it's moving towards Slytherin as the shadow house.

-m