Spinner's End

[houyhnhnm102]

No: HPFGUIDX 156749

Carol responds:

> Impact or not, I can't reconcile Severus's growing up 
> in a Muggle neighborhood with knowing all those hexes,

houyhnhnm:

What hexes do we *know* that Snape knew before he came 
to school?  There is only Sirius'statement that "Snape 
knew more curses when he arrived at school than half the 
kids in seventh year", which is clearly hyperbole (and 
Sirius is given to it).  I'm not ready to take Sirius' 
word for it without some other kind of corroboration in 
canon.  Not just because he biased, but because 
exaggeration is his style.

I don't doubt that Snape knew a lot more *about* magic 
than the average first year when he arrived at Hogwarts. 
Maybe he even knew more spells. So did Hermione and she 
was raised not only in a Muggle neighborhood, but by Muggle parents.

Carol:

> All we learn about his background in HBP is that his 
> witch mother married a Muggle (which Hermione must have 
> deduced, as someone said, from Tobias's occupation and 
> address as listed in the wedding announcement).

houyhnhnm:

"Tobias Snape was a Muggle from what it said in the _Prophet_."  
I took that to mean that the _Prophet_ stated Tobias was a 
Muggle, but now I see it could also be interpreted merely 
as Hermione's deduction.  In that case, Tobias Snape 
may not have been a Muggle at all.  That would be a hoot!  
(Maybe he was a Squib ;-)

Snape could still be a half-blood, since Rowling has divided 
the WW into purebloods, half-bloods, and Muggle-born (25%, 
50%, 25%, respectively, at least at Hogwarts).  Apparently 
there is no such thing as a three-quarters wizard, or a 
one-eighth witch. Anyone with some Muggle ancestry, but 
at least one magical parent is considered a half-blood.  
It follows that we can't really say anything about Eileen's 
ancestry either.  She could have had a Muggle parent herself 
and married a Muggle and her son would still be called 
"half-blood" by the WW.

Or *maybe* Severus Snape is not the Half Blood Prince after 
all.  I've been feeling all along that the push to conclude 
Snape is the HBP was very strong and the hard evidence very 
weak and very circular.