Spinner's End

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 156714

Maybe we're barking up the wrong tree with Spinner's End, meaning the
place rather than the chapter. (Technically, Spinner's End is a
street, but I'm using the name to refer to the house since we don't
know the exact address.)

Most people seem to assume that because Snape's father was a Muggle
and the house is in a Muggle neighborhood that it must be his
childhood home. I don't think there's a necessary connection, not to
mention that I've never considered it likely that a little wizard and
his witch mother dressed like Muggles and he somehow learned all those
in a Muggle neighborhood. More hexes than most seventh years and he
learned them in a Muggle neighborhood without detection--not to
mention the hullaballoo that would have occurred if he'd practiced
them on his Muggle neighbors. It seems likely to me that both Tobias
and his Muggle home were out of the picture when Sevvie learned those
hexes. More likely he was living with his Prince relatives, who might
have lent him a wand and even taught him some of the hexes, perhaps
encouraging their precocious grandson (unless the man in the memory is
Grandpa Prince, in which case the picture is a bit different, but it
still seems more likely that he learned the hexes (not counting any he
invented) from the Princes than that his mother taught him in a Muggle
neighborhood or he somehow invented them all in a Muggle neighborhood.

Nope. To me it seems unlikely that Spinner's End is Snape's childhood
home or that it reflects on his background at all. Instead, I think
it's a home he somehow acquired as an adult (maybe through a Squib
real estate agent?) and uses as a summer home. It's fixed up with
candelabras and magical hidden doorways, probably Snape's own doing,
and its walls are lined with books. Some of them could be inherited
from Eileen (she seems to have kept her Potions book and may have kept
others), but he could easily have acquired a sizeable collection of
his own over fifteen years of teaching. What else does he have to
spend money on? A few black robes for school, some (green?) dress
robes for special Quidditch games, and food and candles for the summer
and a stock of elf-made wine and maybe some other drinks for guests.
("The elf-made wine will do" suggests that it's not the only drink
available.) If he own the house, that would be the sum total of his
expenses--no utilities or upkeep. Just Evanesco the cobwebs once a
year. He wouldn't even need to make lesson plans as he seems to have
memorized the entire curriculum from first year through NEWT level, as
well as the instructions themselves, which he so effortlessly writes
on the board with a flick of his wand.

I think that the books are his own (what else would he have to do in
summer when he's not spying except read, and he seems to have
memorized a number of books, including those of the other teachers
("Almost word for word from 'The Standard Book of Spells, Grade Six,'"
he tells Hermione). Well, okay. He probably makes his stock of potions
for the year, at least up till the time he was appointed DADA teacher,
 experiments with potions improvements, and maybe invents a spell or
two, but I'll bet he spends the majority of his non-spying, non-Order
time reading. And Spinner's End, hidden from the view of other
wizards, would be a perfect place for a spy to hide out. Since he
doesn't seem to socialize with the Order members, except possibly
Dumbledore, and Bellatrix has no idea where he lives (either she never
visited him when they were both DEs or he lived somewhere else at that
time), I'm guessing that his chief guests were the Malfoys, and even
they didn't come often as Narcissa isn't quite sure of the way. It's
unclear how long he's lived there. Perhaps it's only since Voldemort's
return necessitated a role as double agent.

Just a few thoughts. I don't want to assume anything, but I suspect
that both the books (or most of them) and the house are his own,
acquired to meet the limited needs of a bachelor teacher who loves
both his books and his privacy. (Clearly, it's his house rather than
Wormtail's. There's no question who's in charge, even if Wormtail is
spying on him as seems likely from the listening at doorways.)

Carol, who thinks that we can't necessarily deduce a working class
background or much of anything else about Snape's childhood from the
house he lives in as of HBP