Why Won't Snape Eat At OotP HQ? (WAS: Snape at Grimmauld Place)

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 157039

Robert wrote:
> For the comment to have an impact on the story from here on out, you
> have to consider the current situation. If anything was intended by
> JKR with this comment made by Ron, it was just to call Snape's
> character into question. This is something she has done throughout
> the books. What result can we gather if this was a direct clue to
> something? That Snape is bad. Well we're supposed to believe he is,
> aren't we? So the result is one of two things. 1) He is really a DE
> and that is why he didn't want to eat there or 2) He isn't a DE and
> he is just a jerk and doesn't like Sirius and Lupin and a lot of the
> people hanging out there so he'd rather eat somewhere else. In case
> you haven't noticed, Snape isn't much for conversation and fellowship.

Carol responds:
Yes, I made the point that Snape doesn't like Sirius Black and that
the feeling is mutual, and the point that he isn't much for
conversation and fellowship, in the post that CH3ed was agreeing with.
But, surely, if Snape were evil, he would pretend to overcome that
dislike and remain with the Order at mealtimes to spy on them. (It's
possible to "smile and smile and be a villain," as Hamlet puts it.) As
it is, Snape stays only to perform his duty (e.g., make his report or
tell Harry about Occlumency lessons) and then leaves. If he socializes
with anyone, it's Lucius Malfoy--the better to find out what Lucius
and the other DEs are up to without actually facing Voldemort (unless
that's unavoidable, as in his staged return to LV at the end of GoF).
Note that Malfoy tells Snape that he saw Sirius Black in Animagus form
on Platform 9 3/4 and that Snape provides that information to Black,
in typical Snarky!Snape fashion, in response to Black's "lapdog" sneer.

BTW, not liking Sirius Black, who in Snape's view tried to murder him
when they were both sixteen, is entirely understandable. And it's
difficult to forgive someone who still addresses you with schoolboy
insults ("Snivellus") at 35 or 36. As far as snape is concerned,
Sirius Black is still the arrogant little bully who helped James
Potter waylay and attack him in the Pensieve scene. Why would he
*want* to stay for dinner there, unless some purpose could be served?

Carol, who thinks that Snape's not eating with the Order is both in
character for Snape and perfectly appropriate in terms of loyalty to
Dumbledore