Hermione must be stopped/Snape's half truths in "Spinner's End"

[sistermagpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 149621


> houyhnhnm:

> I don't agree that Bellatrix is a minor villain.  She is a fanatic 
> who has been very close to LV in the past, whether or not she is 
> currently on the outs. Among a group of sychophantic followers of 
a 
> sociopath, the ins and outs can trade places on a daily basis. She 
> suspects him, rightly I believe, of being a traitor to Voldemort.  
> She may not have concrete proof at the time of her confrontation 
with 
> Snape at Spinner's End, but she won't stop digging until she finds 
> something she can take to the Dark Lord.  I think Snape is right 
to 
> be afraid of her.

Magpie:
Yes, she's got a bad reputation and she's violent and crazy, but 
within canon she's a minor villain so far--wait, let me change the 
word I'm using because I'm using "minor" the same way people often 
use it to describe characters who are not minor.  She's not a minor 
villian, she's a supporting villain.  Bellatrix's nemesis in canon 
is Neville Longbottom, imo.  She can certainly cause trouble, but I 
see no reason to make her the person who inspired Snape's biggest 
mistake ever.  Yes, she is going to dig until she can take back 
something to LV in this scene.  This makes her an inconvenience to 
Snape, but there's, imo, little drama to her bringing him down 
completely without any big relationship between them that we know of-
-even Sirius, whom she brought down with a lucky shot, was her 
cousin.  So I still feel that while Bellatrix is fine as the 
catalyst for the vow, the vow's got to be bigger than convincing 
Bellatrix of anything.  I can't see Snape risking his life over her.

> Magpie:
> 
> > If we'd seen Snape taking risk after risk like this 
> > and this is the one that finally brought him down, that 
> > would reflect on his character, but this is a first.
> 
> houyhnhnm:
> 
> But he must have been taking risk after risk, whether we've seen 
it 
> or not.  He's been back in his spy role for a little over a year 
by 
> the time of the meeting with Bellatrix and Narcissa.  He is in and 
> out of Grimmauld Place all the time, the summer of OotP. He almost 
> appears to be DD's (who only shows up three times all summer) 
second-
> in-command.  ([paraphrasing]"*He's* here.  We can start the 
> meeting".)  He has to teach Harry Occlumency knowing that LV has 
> access to Harry's mind.  Snape has been walking a tightrope for 
about 
> thirteen months.  

Magpie:
Us seeing it makes all the difference, though.  Snape's job, by 
definition, is a big risk, but that does not mean he takes lots of 
risks by double agent standards.  All the things you listed are just 
part of his job.  You used the phrase "walking a tightrope" and 
that's just how I'd describe it: the act itself is risky, but the 
tightrope walker is focused and balanced with his eyes straight 
ahead.  Lupin, too, is taking a big risk by spying on the 
werewolves, but I wouldn't say risk-taking is the center of his 
personality either.  Lupin has taken big risks in his life, but for 
reasons that are related to things more at the center of who Lupin 
is.  Sirius and James may feel the risk adds to the challenge, 
because that's more at the heart of who they are.  Lupin just wants 
friends.

I can only think of one big risk we've seen Snape take in canon 
onscreen, and that was the decision to return to the DEs. The words 
leading up to it are very, imo, significant (which is probably why 
some of them became the title of a major Snape fanfic epic): If you 
are ready.  If you are prepared...  I take those words to describe 
Snape's mindset as a double agent--and I think they describe most of 
his actions as such. He loses it when faced with Marauders or Harry 
Potter, but as a double agent he's prepared.  Telling me after the 
fact that oh, actually Snape takes huge risks like this all the time 
and this is the one that brought him down is telling me after the 
fact.  I have to know the risk-taker to see him taken down by his 
taking of risks.  

JKR's characters really do tend to be based around a single conflict 
and action that they do all the time--those choices that tell us who 
they are.  Neville is timid, but when he feels someone needs 
protecting or fighting for he throws himself bravely into the fray.  
Hermione is a stickler for order--but when she sees things not 
working the way she thinks they should she lays justice down 
herself, stepping outside the rules to do so.  Ron is down on 
himself and jealous but in a pinch you have to get through him to 
get to Harry.  If any of them are going to die, I think it's most 
dramatic if they die doing these things---that seems JKR's style.

Snape is not built around taking wild risks and seeing how the chips 
fall.  On the contrary, he seems really methodical, a planner.  He's 
got dramatic ties to other characters, but Bellatrix, pre-the-vow 
scene, is definitely not one of them.  It's not like Snape isn't a 
really important character.  I actually can't think of too many 
things he's done where we've had a motivation explained where it 
didn't go to the heart of the man, touching on the same few issues. 

So I can certainly accept that he would sometimes have to gamble on 
something (think of him bluffing Umbridge by claiming she'd used all 
the Veritaserum), but I think this important a scene is going to 
plug into greater issues of his. If he's DDM, for instance, then 
Dumbledore is on board with the vow and Snape knew it or knows he 
will be.  If he's something else the motivation for the vow has to 
satisfy some of this primal stuff.  Which means he's got to want to 
potentially die for some reason, imo.  I can believe him wanting to 
potentially die as DDM, and the vow could give him that option.  I 
could see him wanting to die for LV if he was a loyal DE too--but I 
can't see how the vow gives him that option.  

-m