Snape/Snape/Ghosts/SHIP/Hermi/Condescen/Cormac/SpideryBroomshed/Ghosts/Levic

[Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)]

No: HPFGUIDX 149113

Pippin wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/148822 :

<<Nora [wrote]: << What connects it thematically for me is that Snape
certainly does like to sit on some things, and pull them out at times
which he thinks they're going to do some damage.  That's how I read
the whole "See what a bastard your father and friends were" scene
which he gives as punishment for the bathroom.  It certainly does
nothing to help Harry realize 'what he's done wrong', but does smack
of attempted gloating after the fact.>>

But how can it?  It won't be a painful experience for Harry unless
he's ashamed of what James and Sirius were up to -- one imagines that
Fred and George would be delighted to discover that their old Dad had
been in one scrape after another. What it bespeaks is that Snape no
longer assumes Harry would think his father was an "amusing man." In
fact, Snape's attitude towards Harry must have changed significantly
since OOP. >>

*If* Snape chose that punishment with a eye toward gloating about
detention cards of James and Sirius hurting Harry's feelings, his
intention may have been that Harry would see the beloved names and
'remember' that Snape killed them and hate Snape all the more for it.

I like some clever listie's suggestion that Snape's whole plan for
those detentions was to Legilimens Harry in order to figure him out,
in which case gloating had nothing to do with it, and hurting Harry's
feelings was a mere side-effect of leading him to think about James,
Sirius, hexes, rules, whatever Snape was trying to Legilimens him
about. And (your own words from later in the thread): "Of course it's
snide, this is Snape we're talking about. :)"

Luckdragon wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/148932 :

<< let's tally up what we believe Snape is before we actually know,
and see which way the majority of us are thinking. A brief paragraph
is sufficient. >>

Since the end of PS/SS, where Snape is revealed to be on Dumbledore's
side, I never doubted that Snape was on DD's side, until he killed DD.
My immediate response was: "Wow! JKR is *good*! Now no one can tell
which side Snape is on!"

I don't like the pattern running from DD tells Draco that killing is
not as easy as the innocent believe through Draco is too weak to force
himself to kill DD despite opportunity and encouragement to Snape
kills DD without dithering much about it. Even tho' I believe Snape
has personally killed before, I don't believe he has personally killed
someone he loves before. So for him not to have any difficulty doing
it, contrasting with Draco right there failing under the difficulty,
comes off as a display of super strength. I don't think JKR meant to
depict killing as proof of strength. 

Luckdragon wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/148945 :

<< I wonder if the Ghosts are able to leave the castle and ,if so,
could a certain Slytherin ghost communicate with The Dark Lord about
the happenings at Hogwarts? >>

I don't actually *know* that the ghosts can leave the Castle, but I
think they can, because ghosts from elsewhere can come to the Castle,
like the guests at NHN's deathday party in CoS. Moaning Myrtle was out
and about harassing Olive Hornby until Olive got a restraining order
against her. Some have interpreted Myrtle's statement: "so I had to
come back here and live in my toilet." as meaning that the restraining
order forbade her to leave Hogwarts (or forbade her to leave her place
of death, same thing), but I think it means there was nowhere else she
wanted to go.

Anyway, it never occured to be that the Bloody Baron could be against
Dumbledore's side.

Ginger summarized Chapter 11 in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/148964 :

<< Hermione explains that it is Harry, not the sport, that is popular.
(snip)  Ron notes that his scars from the brains are still visible. 
Hermione ignores him and tells Harry that he has grown quite a bit
over the summer.  Ron says that he is tall too, but to no avail. >>

This bit never made sense to me. On first read, it sounded like
Hermione fancied Harry. So, Ron, who fancies Hermione, tried clumsily
to call her favorable attention to him, but Hermione ignored these
blatant efforts. But it turned out that Hermione never fancied Harry
and fancied Ron all along. So why'nhell didn't she respond to him? She
has too much dignity to swoon into his arms saying: "Oh, Ron, you're
making an effort to make a good impression on me! I'm so pleased that
you care whether my opinion of you is high!" But IIRC she had no
reason to be particularly angry at him at that moment, so it would
have been a natural ploy for her to pretend his stupid remarks were an
attempt at flirtation and respond flirtatiously. One non-commital
flirtatious reply would be, in uber-patient tone of voice: "Ron, you
don't *tell* people you have scars, you wait for them to notice on
their own." I mean, she knows how he feels, so if she really wants him
to be her sweetie, she ought to be able to lead the conversation to
the point where he says: "I care what you think of me, not what other
people think." Then we could skip the Ron/Lavender subplot.

<< Leaving the Great Hall, they see Parvati and Lavender in deep
discussion.  Lavender gives Ron a wide smile, and Ron, fresh from
being rebuffed by Hermione, takes note, and leaves the scene
"strutting". >>

I felt there should have been a sentence somewhere explaining how
Lavender went from despising Ron last term to being infatuated this
term. Maybe someone overhearing someone say that Lavender was so
totally boring this sumer, all she would talk about was Ron's heroic
save that won the Quidditch Cup for Gryffindor. (I am deeply familiar
with a teen-age girl being infatuated (ie obsessively in love) with a
boy who doesn't like her and is only using her for sex, and it could
be any boy, but to me there is always a reason: "he's so handsome",
"he's so smart", "he said something nice to me", "he plays the guitar")

<< What do you think of Hermione's casting the Confundus? >>

More of her Slytherin tendencies, like the whole CoS Polyjuice Potion
scenario: fraudulent access to the Restricted Section, stealing potion
ingredients, drugging Crabbe and Goyle... from someone who's such a
goody two-shoes or Miss Priss about other people following the rules.
Hyprocrisy is the easy word, but sometimes I wonder if she suffers
from a touch of Multiple Personality Disorder, the rulebreaker
personality and the rule follower personality.

Pippin wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/148965 :

<< Doing it your way would condescend by expecting the hypothetical
youngster to be satisfied with an incomplete explanation which
moreover misrepresented one's priorities. Like  Dumbledore with
Minerva when she demanded to know why Harry was being left at Privet
Drive.  *That* was condescending, no? >>

No, that was protecting classified information, It was not viewing
McGonagall as incapable of understanding, but as unworthy of being
trusted. Quite different.

Zgirnius wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/149001 :

<< I suppose McLaggen probably would have made the team, unless
Angelina really hated his personality. >>

Angelina's a pretty girl, so he's probably tried to feel her up
sometime. Angelina's a tough cookie, so she probably kicked him in the
crotch when he didn't take No for an answer.

steve bboyminn wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/149005 :

<< Well, if you read the full quote, who the two people are is
obvious. "Yes," said Harry again. "And now everyone knows that I'm the
one —" "No, they do not," interrupted Dumbledore. "There are only two
people in the whole world who know the full contents of the prophecy
made about you and Lord Voldemort, and they are both standing in this
smelly, spidery broom shed. ..." Seems pretty clear to me. >>

Yes, pretty clear that Harry doesn't know the full prophecy yet, but
will learn it from DD's ally the spider Animagus.

Caius Marcius wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/149053 :

<< I think it's highly unlikely. NHN goes on to say that his decision
was motivated by cowardice ("I was afraid of death") and one of
Dumbledore's perennial themes is that "death is the next great
adventure," not something to be feared. >>

I don't think DD will become a ghost, either, but I do think there are
other reasons for becoming a ghost than fear of death. I.E. it seems
obvious to me that Myrtle became a ghost out of spite (against Olive
Hornby). 

Personally, I think it possible that a witch/wizard could become a
ghost out of protectiveness, sticking around to protect a person or
place. The counter-argument, of course, would be that James, Lily, and
Sirius, who all died to protect Harry, would have chosen to stay as
ghosts to protect him if they had the option.

Amanita Muscaria wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/149055 :

<< I can't imagine one of Snape's Slyth compatriots letting the Gryffs
have something like that [Levicorpus]. >>

I suppose a Slythie girl told her 'Claw boyfriend, who told his best
friend / dorm mate, who told many other 'Claws, one of whom told his
'Puff study partner from Advanced Potions, who told all the other
'Puffs, and one of the 'Puff prefects told the Head Boy or Girl, who
happened to be a Gryffie and told all the other Gryffies.