Eileen Prince

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 156269

abergoat wrote:
>
> Dang, is anyone interested in Eileen? She's one of my favorite
topics because JKR says she loved the title of HBP and that originally
HBP was the working title for CoS. I do think this suggests that Eileen
> will tie into Hagrid's story. Book seven may mirror book 1 - with
> Hagrid returning as a central character.
><snip>
> 
> Why would a
> magical Eileen with the leadership skills to captain an
international team cower in front of a MUGGLE husband? Seems unlikely.
I bet JKR wanted us to question Harry's assumption that those people
were Snape's parents rather than some other relatives. 

Carol responds:
While I agree that Eileen wouldn't cower in front of a Muggle husband
and that we may be expected to question Harry's assumption that the
people in the memory are Severus's parents (wouldn't Harry have
noticed that the man was dressed as a Muggle if he were Tobias?), I've
always believed that the hook-nosed man in the memory is more likely
to be Eileen's father, Grandpa Prince, than Tobias. I can't see young
Severus coming to school knowing more hexes than most seventh years if
he had a forceful, even cruel, Muggle father dominating his mother and
preventing hier from teaching the child magic (or him from learning it
on his own). IMO, something happened early on to get Tobias out of the
picture and that Eileen perhaps moved in with her parents. It seems
that young Severus identified with that side of the family even if the
"pureblood Princes" rejected the precocious little half-blood. (Why
else give himself that name?)

I think Eileen has essentially served her purpose as a red herring
(Snape's talents in both Potions and DADA; his claiming both the
nickname and the invention of the spells; and the handwriting clues in
OoP and HBP all indicate to me that the book is indeed his, along with
the bezoar comment, the Potions hints, and the invented spells. If any
of the comments are someone else's, all the beautiful irony of Harry
unwittingly learning from and identifying with the young Severus Snape
is spoiled--along with the irony of his claiming credit for Sevvy's
work in Potions class). Maybe the mutual love of Eileen and her son
will prove important in Book 7, but I highly doubt that *she's*
responsible for any of the potions hints or spells, all of which are
in the same cramped handwriting as the notation "This book belongs to
the Half-Blood Prince," which in turn matches the description of
Teen!Snape's handwriting in the Pensieve memory in OoP (which
otherwise need not have been described).

But I have trouble understanding (even though I've read the interview
in which JKR made the comment) how the plot of HBP could have been
used for CoS. Was "Half-Blood Prince" originally a nickname for
Voldemort, which she later assigned to Snape? surely she would have
had twelve-year-old Harry finding out that much about Teen!Snape
(finding Sectumsempra in his second-year Potions book and using it on
Draco when both of them are twelve years old???) And obviously, Snape,
regardless of his loyalties, would not have killed Dumbledore in Book
2, which would have meant closing down the school in Harry's third
year and otherwise generally ruined the slowly unfolding main plot.
And the encounter with the HBP's book would have worked rather oddly
in connection with Ginny's interaction with the diary.

I'm completely thrown by this particular piece of information,
frankly. Does anyone have any ideas how the HBP plot could have been
interwoven with the Chamber of Secrets/diary/Basilisk plot?

Carol, wondering how many chapters of Book 2 JKR drafted before she
realized that the HBP elements didn't belong there