Snape's "inscrutable" expression (Was: CHAPDISC HBP 15, The Unbreakable Vow)

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 152153

Carol earlier: 
> > 13) Snape's expression is twice referred to as "unfathomable" or
"inscrutable." What does this description suggest to you? 
> 
SSSusan:
> That, as usual, there's too much there in Snape that we readers 
> aren't yet supposed to know.  Also, perhaps, that Harry just is no 
> damn good at reading Snape. ;-)

Carol responds:
Well, yes, JKR must keep up Snape's mystique so that he's unfathomable
to the reader as well as to Harry or we'd know where Snape's loyalties
lie, and what would be the fun in that? But I don't think the
"inscrutable" or "unfathomable" expression(s) relate to Harry's POV,
especially as Snape is similarly described from an objective POV in
"Spinner's End." (His expression is "blank, unreadable" as Narcissa
asks him to make the Unbreakable Vow, HBP Am. ed., 35. Clearly he
doesn't want either of the women to know what he's thinking or feeling
at that point.)

"Smoothly inscrutable *again*" (321, my emphasis) suggests that he was
wearing the same unreadable expression before Draco entered the room
and/or that it's his usual expression (when he's not sneering). Harry
is surprised to note a tinge of fear along with the anger. (While he's
seen Snape angry, both coldly disapproving and hotly raging, he's
seldom or never seen him show fear--unless we count the slight
paleness before Snape goes out to "return" to Voldemort in GoF, where
Harry has no idea what's going on.) Also, other people are present the
first time Snape adjusts his expression in this chapter (Draco does
the same thing, getting hold of himself and thanking Slughorn for
allowing him to stay), but the second time, Snape is unaware of
Harry's presence, and yet he's wearing an "unfathomable" expression
when he has every reason to be at least as angry and afraid as he was
before the interview with Draco. I think he assumes that expression
before he leaves the room, so that no one who sees him will suspect
that something is terribly wrong (i,e., he's failed to thwart Draco's
plan to kill Dumbledore or even find out what that plan consists of; I
won't go into the separate question of what, if anything, the
interview accomplished though I'd like to hear other people's views on
the subject).

IOW, I think the "inscrutable" or "unfathomable" or "unreadable"
expression that Snape assumes here and elsewhere (wish I had a
concordance to discover exactly how often those adjectives are used
with regard to Snape) relates to Snape's ability to act (also
mentioned in this chapter and the next), and just possibly to
Occlumency, which he may use as a defense against being "read" in an
ordinary way by people who aren't Legilimens (or "Legilimentes," if
the word is declined in the same way as "mens, mentis," the Latin term
for "mind"). IMO, Snape habitually wears an unreadable expression as a
form of self-defense, probably acquiring or developing this habit
around the time he became a spy for Dumbledore "at great personal
risk." Almost certainly his inscrutability has contributed to his
success as a double agent, and quite possibility it, along with
Occlumency, has enabled him to survive for the last twenty years.

I certainly agree that Harry "is no damn good at reading Snape," but I
think he's not alone in finding Snape inscrutable. IMO, Snape doesn't
want to be read, not by Harry or Draco or Bellatrix or Narcissa or
anyone else, with the possible exception of Dumbledore--and certainly
not by *Draco's* master (note that he says "your master," not "our
master"), the Dark Lord.
 
Carol earlier:
> > Why does Snape return to the party rather than following Draco?
> 
> SSSusan:
> Because there's no way Draco is going to let him follow him? 
Because he wants to get back to keeping his eye on Potter?

Carol again:
I agree that it would be futile at best to follow Draco, but I think
he also returns because he doesn't want anyone to suspect that Draco
is plotting to kill Dumbledore. (This wish is shared by Dumbledore,
who is trying to protect both Draco and Snape.) You could be right
that he also wants to keep an eye on Harry, in which case his
suspicions will be aroused by Harry's absence.

Do we have any indication that Snape is watching either Draco or Harry
between this time and the argument with DD in the forest? Certainly
he's watching one or the other at the time of the Sectumsempra
incident. It can't be coincidence that Snape and only Snape shows up
just in time to save Draco (as no one else could have done AFWK).

Carol, looking forward to SSS's discussion of chapter 16