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

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 152270

Potioncat wrote:
> <huge snip> 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?

Carol responds:
I didn't see it that way at all. I don't think that Snape would refer
to himself as anyone's master. If he had meant himself, he would have
said "me." I regarded "your master" (Draco's master, Lord Voldemort)
as a slip on Snape's part that Draco didn't catch. If Snape were
really LV's man, surely he would have said "our master." But it was
odd that he would ask the question in that way. Maybe he's trying to
see whether Draco really does regard the Dark Lord as his master,
though it seems obvious that he does.

In any case, Draco's attempt at Occlumency is clumsy and easily
detectable, unlike the more sophisticated Occlumency that Snape has
apparently been using all these years, which enables him to lie to the
Dark Lord undetected (though not unsuspected, IMO). If Draco made any
such clumsy attempt at Occlumency to block Voldemort, he'd be Crucio'd
on the spot. I think that Draco is telling the truth--he's learned
rudimentary Occlumency from Aunt Bellatrix specifically to block
Snape, whom Bellatrix still doesn't trust. (Maybe she's given his
reasons for taking the UV some thought and arrived at the conclusion
that he would only have risked his life for Draco if he's Dumbledore's
man.)

I don't think Bella would use Occlumency (which I doubt she's very
good at anyway, considering how open she is with her emotions) against
her dear master. She would view it as an act of disloyalty even if she
thought she could get away with it, which of course she doesn't, given
LV's skill at Legilimency. And I think her suspicion, which she
doesn't dare voice, that Snape has indeed "somehow hoodwinked . . .
the most accomplished Legilimens the world has ever seen," as Snape
puts it in "Spinner's End" (HBP Am. ed. 26), is one of many reasons
that she doesn't trust Snape and wants Draco to conceal what he's up
to from him. I doubt that she has allowed Draco to suspect that she
still sees Snape as Dumbledore's man; he certainly seems to think that
Snape is a loyal DE, if a bit too eager for his own glory. Maybe she's
the one who planted the "stealing my glory" idea in Draco's mind.

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

Carol:
Yes. That jumped out at me, too. One more parallel between them, and
one more irony.

Potioncat:
> Very nice discussion, Carol. I'm glad I made through before the next 
> one came out.
>
Thanks, Potioncat. I know that SSS is working on the next one, but I'm
not sure when it will be posted. 

Carol, again thanking Penapart Elf for reviving the discussions and
wondering if she needs volunteers for the unassigned chapters