Spinner's End

[Ceridwen]

No: HPFGUIDX 156765

houyhnhnm:
> We don't even know that for sure, only that a woman named 
Eileen Prince married a man named Snape and they had a child.  
If the name of the child had been mentioned or even the date 
of the birth announcement had been given I would feel more 
secure that I was not being led down the garden path.

Ceridwen:
Hermione is about to give it when Harry breaks into her statement by 
saying Eileen Prince Snape gave birth to a murderer.  Hermione, who 
is looking at the item at the time, does not disagree.  She says 
something like, 'Well, yes...'  Though it is not exactly a bald-faced 
revelation, it's a soft-glove relation to it, in my opinion.

houyhnhnm:
> I'm not sure that the "Snape" was a polyjuiced impostor.  I can't 
begin to imagine who it would be, if not Snape.  I'm only saying that 
there is no evidence in the entire book of Snape being the HBP except 
the statement in "Flight of the Prince" and there is no proof that it 
really is Snape on the lawn and that makes me suspicious.

Ceridwen:
I share your suspicions that Crabbe and Goyle are not the only 
Polyjuiced people in the book.  I keep returning to that Magnum you 
mentioned, cocked, loaded, and left lying on the table, and keep 
looking for the main Polyjuiced character.  I've thought of Tonks in 
the past, and am still not certain that it wasn't someone else who 
approached Harry outside the RoR.  I've considered Snape on the 
tower.  But the Snape who ran off with the DEs just presents like the 
real Snape to me, so when did he and the impostor switch?  Harry was 
on his heels at almost every moment.  Convenient if he wasn't there 
when and where the switch would be made.

As for who, in every instance where I suspected Polyjuice, my mind 
went directly to Narcissa.  She had a lot at stake: her son.  We see 
her in Spinner's End begging Snape to do something to save him from 
his enforced fate.  Why would she just go home after this and start 
browsing catalogs?

One other slim possibility would be Bellatrix.  She does seem to have 
some feelings for family, though those feelings are buried pretty 
deep.  I could easily imagine her with a look of 'hatred and 
revusion', too.  But then, why claim the HBP title?  Why stop someone 
from Crucio'ing Harry?

You see my problem with this.  JKR has nixed the idea that Dumbledore 
and Snape changed places in saying that DD is really dead, and the 
two characters don't seem to be interchangeable at the end.  Though, 
through parts of HBP, I could see the DD we imagine to be stressed 
because he is going to die by the end of the book, actually being 
someone else.  But, I prefer the straight reading: he knew he didn't 
have the luxury of time and was actually peeved with Harry in some 
scenes.

houyhnhnm: 
> Somebody, show me one piece of evidence that doesn't involve 
conjecture, insinuation, sleight of hand, or leaping to a conclusion.

Ceridwen:
If that was easy, it would ruin this 'first half of a two-parter'.
I wish I could point you to the heavy-weight Polyjuiced individual!  
It would ease my own mind to know.  But since this is supposed to be 
the first part of a single story, the revelations didn't happen.  
We're in the dark.

Ceridwen.