Spinner's End Clues

[zgirnius]

No: HPFGUIDX 153790

anigrrrl:
> Now, it has come to my attention that JK rarely mentions anything
> for no reason. As way of example: Way back in SS, there was a
> mention of Arabella Figg, a passing comment that barely registered
> on my monitor screen, but there she was in OOTP, playing a pretty
> significant part. So, I feel like the repeated, but subtle, mention
> of the drinks could potentially mean something.
> 
> Here's my guess: I think that there was something in the drinks that
> would render the Unbreakable Vow useless...or some kind of potion
> that would otherwise change what would normally be a totally binding
> magical promise. Snape was the potions master, the Half-Blood
> Prince, the whiz kid of potions...the presence of drinks seems
> significant. It would be so easy for Snape to whip up an
> undetectable potion and slip it into everyone's drinks....

zgirnius:
In order for Snape to have done this, he would have had to know in 
advance that the women were coming, and planned to ask him to make an 
Unbreakable Vow. It seem unlikely, to me.

But it is still interesting. What do the drinks add to the scene?
-They show Snape and Pettigrew's relationship. It gives Rowling an 
excuse for Snape to be shown ordering Pettigrew around.
-It's a sociable gesture, it shows us a different side of Snape we 
don't see around Harry.
-It may support Narcissa's claiom that he's an old friend of her 
husband's, again because of the hospitable nature of the act of 
offfering drinks.
-It is a sly thing for Snape the spy to do. He drains the one glass, 
and I believe that's it. He encourages the distraught (and smaller, 
and female, and so presumably less alcohol-tolerant) Narcissa to have 
more drinks. To make sure she does in fact go through with her 
resolve to discuss important matters with him?
-And then there are the bouncing glasses of mead Dumbledore offers 
the Dursleys in Chapter 3, and the Prime Minister's own whisky that 
Fudge offers him in his own office, in Chapter 1. Are we supposed to 
get something from all this alcohol consumption? I think some neat 
points were made about this in our chapter diuscussions... I just no 
longer recall them :(

> anigrrrl:
> Maybe this is old news...but I think it's interesting, especially
> since the jury is still out on Snape...and I desperately want to
> believe that he's on Harry's side! What do you all think?

zgirnius:
Well, I think he's on Harry's side. <bg>

>