Argus Filch as Tobias Snape? (Was: Pince/Filch)

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 152549

Carol earlier:
> > > That surprised me, too. Isn't there some reference, somewhere,
to Filch as "a failed wizard"? 
> 
Potioncat responded:
> In HBP chapter 15, Hermione says: "...so it would be down to Filch
to realize it wasn't a cough potion and he's not a very good wizard."

Carol again:
I know. That's the passage that surprised me. I, um, just did the
chapter summary for chapter 15. :-) But I meant a different reference
in some other book that specifically uses the phrase "failed wizard."
I'm sure I've read that exact phrase somewhere in the books in
reference to Filch, but I can't recall where. I thought it was
interesting that a self-confessed Squib would be referred to in those
terms, not just by Hermione but in that other reference, assuming that
it exists. (Harry wonders when he sees the Kwikspell course if it
means that Filch "isn't a proper wizard," CoS Am. ed. 128, but I don't
think that's the reference I'm looking for.)
> 
Potioncat:
> Now, didn't Ron guess that Filch must be a Squib in CoS? Has that
been confirmed, or is Hermione right?

Carol:
This information is provided by Squib himself--sorry! Filch himself
after Mrs. Norris is found Petrified: ". . . He [Harry] knows I'm
a--I'm a--He knows I'm a Squib!" Harry retorts that he doesn't even
know what a Squib is and Filch answers, "Rubbish! He saw my Kwikspell
letter!" (142).

And it's confirmed on JKR's website in her discussion of Squibs on the
Extra Stuff page, which I won't quote here, though the notable thing
to me is the pathos of Filch's and Mrs. Figg's situation (however we
may feel about Filch himself)--born to wizarding parents, familiar
with the wizarding world, yet unable to do magic. Still, though, they
can use magical artifacts and communicate with cats, so they're rather
different from wizards. 

As for Hermione being right about Filch not being a very good wizard,
maybe a Squib has a very low level of magic rather than no magic at
all like a Muggle. (Ron at age eleven may be wrong that "a Squib
hasn't got *any* magic powers," CoS 145.) Squibs' powers may not be
wholly absent but, rather, extremely weak and normally limited ways to
such things as the ability to see magical places and communicate with
magical animals. Mrs. Figg says that she "stationed [her cat] Mr.
Tibbles under a car . . . and Mr. Tibbles came and warned [her]," OoP
Am. ed. 20, just as Mrs. Norris reports to Filch, acting as his
"deputy" (CoS, page ref. lost). Both Filch and Figgy are in tune with
the magical world even if they can't use a wand, in marked contrast
to, say, Petunia, who knows about the WW but can never be part of it
(and perhaps hates and fears it partly for that reason).
> 
Potioncat:
> Filch was caretaker when the Marauders were students. So he didn't
come to Hogwarts for protection (as Snape's father). In PoA ch14 Lupin
says to Harry, "I happen to know this map was confiscated by Mr. Filch
many years ago." IMO, that means that Filch took it away from the
Marauders. There wouldn't be any reason for Snape's father to be at
Hogwarts under an assumed name while Snape was a student.

Carol:
Yes. I made the same point to houyhnhnm offlist, though I was thinking
of Filch's detention records in HBP rather than the Marauder's Map.
Either way, though, it's clear that Filch's job, and his name, with
all its mythological implications, predate Severus's decision to join
the Death Eaters and therefore any need for his parents to be
protected from Voldemort.

BTW, houyhnhnm, I ran across a description of Filch's nose, which is
not hooked like Snape's but "bulbous" (CoS 126). Not that the lack of
physical resemblance proves anything in itself, but unless he's been
permanently transfigured, Filch is clearly not the hook-nosed man in
the memory from Snape's childhood (whom Harry, perhaps mistakenly,
identifies as little Severus's father).

I do think that, like many of the employees at Hogwarts, including
Trelawney, Slughorn, Hagrid, and Snape himself, Filch is under
Dumbledore's protection, but this protection has nothing to do with
his being Severus's father since, IMO, the chronology and the comments
on JKR's site together pretty much rule out any such relationship.

The case for Madam Pince as Snape's mother is IMO a bit more solid but
seems to depend solely on the coincidence of a name, a hooked nose,
and a cantankerous disposition. (If she's Snape's mother, she
certainly failed to teach him not to write in books!) If there's any
additional canon evidence for the Pince/Prince connection, I'd be
interested in reading it. However, I would personally prefer that
Dumbledore's faith in Snape be based on something that Snape himself
has done which proves his loyalty to Dumbledore beyond doubt and
relates more directly to Harry.

Carol, irrelevantly noting that Ginny's distraught reaction to Colin
Creevey's petrification is "explained" by the fact that Colin sat next
to her in Charms (CoS 185) and on the alert for other misleading
explanations throughout the books