Canon for OFH!Lucius

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 161009

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "justcarol67" <justcarol67 at ...> wrote:

> What I'm wondering is whether you're defining "slippery" in the same
> way as other readers. For myself, I'd say that it's a Slytherin
> quality, common to Lucius Malfoy ("my slippery friend") and Snape
> ("slithering out of action) and to Tom Riddle, keeping his evil nature
> secret through charms and wiles, and probably to Phineas Nigellus and
> Salazar Slytherin himself. Even the Slytherin symbol (note the
> resemblance of Slytherin to "Slither"), a snakes, suggests
> slipperiness.

Pippin:
Hmmm. But snakes aren't really slippery, though they appear so.
They have to have traction or they don't go anywhere. I'm not sure
the true nature of Slytherin is to be slippery, though they have that
reputation.

Carol:
 ("Slimy," no. snakes aren't slimy. Snails and eels are.
> and I'm surprised that a DDM!Snaper would call him slimy, with all the
> disgusting qualities attached to that adjective.)

<snip'>

> Vile? Offensive? Repulsive? Odious? Resembling mucous?
> 

Pippin:

An unattractive substance with protective, even healing properties?

Works for me <g>

There's plenty of canon for it, of course.
"slimeball", "slimy, oily, greasy-haired", and of course "Snivellus".

If Snape has deep down integrity and that is why Dumbledore knows
he can be trusted, then he also has an insulating layer of phoniness
concealing it. I think that's what registers on Harry and Sirius as
slime, but not being analytical types, they never give much thought
as to why it would be there. They just don't trust it because it's
the antithesis of the way they relate to the world.

Of course DDM!Snape isn't really slithering out of action either -- he's
acting in concealed ways. There's so much concealment and deception
around Snape in any case that I don't see how he could function without 
some sort of protective barrier between the 'real' Snape, whoever that is, 
and all the roles he has to play. 

Slime also discourages closeness, and we can see that with
very few exceptions, even his colleagues don't feel that they really
knew Snape. They certainly couldn't if Snape was keeping secret from 
them a thing that was so soul-shaking it changed his entire life.

OTOH, I don't think Lucius has any integrity left. Maybe he cares about
his family on that animal level JKR likes to talk about, but given
the opportunity to choose, I think he'd sell them out as readily
as Bella would. He's slippery in that he's always going to be
found on the path of least resistance.

Does that make sense?

Pippin