Why did Snape take the UV? / Role of the Malfoys

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 157416

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Eddie" <harryp at ...> wrote:
>
> > Neri:
> > [... lots of excellent logical reasoning snipped ...]
> > I'd say it's pretty obvious that D has something against both N and 
> > S. Something that must have occurred lately. 
> 
> Eddie:
> Unless Voldemort -- er, person V, aka V-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named, aka
> VHSNBN -- ordered Draco to keep it to himself, otherwise V would kill D.
> 
> Eddie
>
Carol responds:
LOL, Eddie! But also, lest we forget, Draco (I mean, person D) is
sixteen, and that last thing a sixteen-year-old boy wants is help from
his mother, especially on an important mission that he thinks marks
him as a man. He doesn't want his father-figure Head of House
interfering, either, IMO, for more complex reasons that I've indicated
in another post. "It's my job. He gave it to *me,*" Draco tells Snape
in "the Unbreakable Vow." 

He rejects "interference" both from his mother and from his former
favorite teacher *before* person V starts putting the pressure on and
threatening him with death if he fails. And by that time, it's too
late to ask for help. "No one can help me," he tells Moaning Myrtle
when he's crying in the bathroom some four or five months after Snape
tries to talk to him. 

What Snape would or could have have done if Draco had asked him for
help, we can only guess. But it's quite possible that by the time
Snape saves Draco's life, LV has made it clear that Snape must not
know what  Draco is trying to do with the Vanishing Cabinets. Either
that or Bellatrix has succeeded in convincing Draco that Snape is not
to be trusted. Otherwise, surely, Draco would have gone to the teacher
he has always trusted, the man who saved him from bleeding to death,
even at the (supposed) cost of having his "glory" stolen--a delusion
Draco clings to even on the tower.

None of this has anything to do with Snape and Narcissa having an
illicit romantic attachment, or surely Draco would have confronted
Snape with an accusation. (He doesn't hesitate to interrupt or
contradict him, in marked contrast to his behavior in earlier books.)
The change does not reflect anything that Snape has done (other than
try to get Draco to talk to him) though IMO the switch from Potions
master to DADA teacher does nothing to increase Draco's respect for
Snape and may diminish it. The change is in Draco himself. At first,
he's proud of his assignment, not realizing its danger and difficulty.
School and anything to do with it, including school-associated
authority figures like his Head of House, have lost their importance.
The Dark Lord has given him an important job, a man's job, and he
doesn't need busybody adults helping (or hindering) him. Let old Snape
die from breaking his Unbreakable Vow to protect Draco. What does
Draco care? Then, when Draco seems certain to fail, losing sleep,
looking ill, and so desperate that he's crying in a girls' bathroom,
he either can't bring himself to ask Snape for help or has been
ordered not to on pain of death.

Carol, who forgot to mention in her astronomy post how sad she feels
that poor Pluto has been demoted to the status of little oddball