Draco and Snape Re: CHAPDISC HBP 15, The Unbreakable Vow

[potioncat]

No: HPFGUIDX 152262


>Carol wrote: 
> 8) Why does Draco claim to be "gate-crashing" when he was actually
> upstairs? Why does he look angry when Slughorn allows him to stay? 
The
> narrator, voicing Harry's perspective, asks: "Why was Snape looking 
at
> Malfoy as though both angry and . . . was it possible? . . . a 
little
> afraid?" How would you answer the narrator's (or Harry's) questions?

Potioncat:
Draco was found upstairs, out of bounds. He gave a resonable 
explantaion, "I was going to the party." It seems those students who 
were not at the party should have been back in their common rooms by 
this time. I think he was hoping Filch would fall for it and let him 
be. (Odd isn't it, the two of them were pretty happy to support 
Umbridge. You'd expect Filch to look the other way.) He didn't want 
to be taken to the party and he didn't want to stay there.

Snape knows Draco was up to something. Draco's actions are putting 
several lives at risk, to Snape's way of thinking.


> 
> 9)  How do you account for the change in his attitude
> toward his Head of House and former favorite professor? What
> parallels, if any, do you see between this relationship and Harry's
> with Dumbledore?

Potioncat:
I think it's a combination of being a teenager, not wanting to need 
an adult's help and having this incredible task ahead of him. I'm not 
sure if Draco has been threatened yet. He was full of himself at the 
beginning of the fall term. Now he doesn't seem so confident. I 
suspect  he hasn't yet been on the carpet yet...but will over the 
Holidays. I think it will either be Christmas or Easter holiday that 
LV will actually say, if you don't succeed, your family dies.

10) Clearly, Crabbe and Goyle are not taking NEWT DADA with Harry and
> Draco. Might they be repeating fifth-year DADA (rather than taking 
no
> DADA class at all), and could they, theoretically, repeat their DADA
> OWLs as Snape implies? What, if anything, does this detail tell us
> about Snape's attitude toward DADA? Is he really concerned about
> Crabbe's and Goyle's DADA OWLs? What is he trying to accomplish by
> putting them in detention?

Potioncat:
Remember how we used to wonder what classes Fred and George were 
taking? I'm wondering if there are some classes you have to repeat if 
you don't pass the OWL? Would that fit at all with the English 
system? Or would you possibly continue taking the next year's class 
if you didn't pass the OWL? 

I think he was trying to limit the amount of time C&G could help 
Draco.
> 
> 11) What do you make of Draco's contempt for DADA, his attempt at
> Occlumency, his reaction to Snape's Unbreakable Vow, and his
> accusation that Snape is trying to steal his glory? How successful 
are
> his attempts to evade Snape's questions? What, if anything, does 
Snape
> learn from Draco's answers?

Potioncat:
I wondered if all Slytherins felt that way? If so, why the enthusiasm 
for Snape becoming DADA Professor? 

Draco may believe that Snape is out for the glory. Particularly if he 
is at all close to Aunt Bellatrix. 

Snape may have understood, as I did not, that Draco was getting help 
from the DE ranks.
> 
I was surprised that Snape brought up the UV. If we are correct, 
Snape has just said, "I've promised my life for you." Draco doesn't 
seem too grateful. Now I'm taken by the image of Snape offering to be 
a sacrifice for Draco, but DD actually taking that place.
> 
> 13) Snape's expression is twice referred to as "unfathomable" or
> "inscrutable." What does this description suggest to you? Why does
> Snape return to the party rather than following Draco?

Potioncat:
Draco's party crashing cannot seem like more than that. It apears to 
Slughorn that Snape intended to discipline Draco for his behavior. 
Snape would be expected to return.

Upthread someone mentioned Snape's line, "What thoughts are you 
trying to conceal from your master, Draco?" This comes just after 
Draco accuses Snape of Legilimency. I've always taken the question to 
mean, "What are you hiding from me?" Master in this case being 
teacher. Draco thinks, or twists it to mean, that Snape means LV. But 
what if Snape is suggesting that Draco is learning Occlumency to hide 
his thoughts from LV? Does anyone think Bellatrix is using Occlumency 
around the Dark Lord?
> 
> 14) How did this chapter affect your views on where Snape's 
loyalties
> lie? Why do you think the chapter is titled "The Unbreakable Vow" 
when
> the vow is barely mentioned?

Potioncat:
It's the first Harry learns of it. Once again, I have to say I really 
noticed the chapter titles before and while I was reading. I expected 
an outcome to the vow at that point.

But what really jumped out at me was the image of Harry listening at 
keyholes...just like Snape had done.

Oh one more thought. Harry gathers Hermione's things from 
Transfiguration class, including a pencil box. Pencil boxes came up 
once before and lead to the theory that another Gryffindor girl was 
Muggle-born. Why would a witch need a pencil? So do you think 
Hermione is Muggle-born.....no, wait. That won't do.

The students write with quills. Would the pencil box be for artist 
pencils (drafting pencils, whatever you call them) for illustrations?

Potioncat, who still thinks the "to the hospital wing in a matchbox" 
was a dead give-a-way that Snape had a Muggle background. (Yeah, like 
I knew it all the time.)

Very nice discussion, Carol. I'm glad I made through before the next 
one came out.