CHAPDISC: HBP8, Snape Victorious

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 146594

CHAPTER DISCUSSIONS: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Chapter
8, Snape Victorious

Carol:
Great summary, Sherry! You accomplished your goal of objectivity
admirably.
<big snip>
> She {Tonks] also tells him that Proudfoot, Savage and Dawlish are
also posted there, and Harry remembers that Dawlish is the auror
Dumbledore attacked, when Fudge tried to have him arrested the
previous year. <big snip>

Carol:
This bit of information jumped out at me when I read the chapter the
first time. I don't remember hearing of Savage (who sounds like a
Death Eater with that name) or Proudfoot (a descendant a thousand
generations later from Old Odo Proudfoot, may he hair on his feet
never fall out? Oops, wrong book). But Dawlish was with fudge, as
Harry remembers, and we find out at that point that he got twelve OWLS
(as did Barty Jr.). Dawlish follows DD at one point and is hexed for
doing so. I can't recall whether Dawlish is one of the Aurors who stun
McGonagall, but I think JKR has gone to some trouble to call him to
our attention. Maybe he was deliberately planted at Hogsmeade, by
Scrimgeour, the former head of the Auror Office? I don't trust him; I
think we'll hear more about him.
>
Sherry:
> She [Tonks] tells him [Harry] that Dumbledore bewitched the gates
himself. She also tells him that there are anti-intruder jinxes on the
walls, so he could not climb one, and that security has been tightened.

Carol:
Here's another detail that jumped out at me, suggesting that Snape has
indeed told Dumbledore about the UV and that Draco has been assigned
by LV to kill him. No such protections have been placed on Hogwarts
before (aside from the Dementors) even when Harry's life was thought
to be in danger. Snape mentions the extra protections again, IIRC, in
"The Unbreakable Vow." I'm not sure, but I think that what Dumbledore
takes for granted in the argument with Snape in the forest is that
these protections will be sufficient. I think I thought the
protections were for Harry's benefit when I read the chapter the first
time, but that's not my impression now.

Sherry:
> Hermione comments that the hand looks as if it is dead.  She says
that there are some old curses and poisons that can't be undone.  

Carol:
Could Hermione be more correct than she realizes here? Snape could
stop the curse from killing Dumbledore, but even he couldn't cure the
hand. And maybe Hermione's words foreshadow the poisoned memory potion
in the cave, which has no antidote? Almost certainly this passage is a
hint that Dumbledore is going to die. Does it also suggest (though
Hermione can't know it) that DD's death is inevitable, either from the
curse or the potion or the two in combination?

Since I'm responding to the summary rather than the questions in this
post, I'd like to add another little hint that I found the other day
in GoF. Harry has just told DD about the connecting wands in the
graveyard, which DD recognizes as the Priori Incantatem effect. "His
eyes gazed into Harry's and it was almost as though an invisible beam
of understanding shot between them" (Am. ed. 697). Could this passage
provide further support for silent communication between two
Legilimens, not a detailed message involving words and images but "an
invisible beam of understanding" shooting between Snape and DD on the
tower?

Sorry to sneak that into a CHAPDISC post, but I didn't want to use up
a whole post on it when we're only allowed three a day.

Thanks gain for a fine summary, Sherry, and I'll answer the questions
in another post.

Carol, who'll be facing the double challenge of objectivity and
conciseness when she posts her summary and questions for "The
Unbreakable Vow" in April