Dark Magic and Snape

[Sydney]

No: HPFGUIDX 161437


Betsy:

>(Where's Sydney when I need her? <g>)

*sydney leaps in in her trademark spangled jumpsuit*   Did someone call?

Wow, some really interesting discussion swirling around here... I
think I sublimilally sensed a bunch of posts with "Snape" in the
subject line and it drew me over..

Betsy:

>So just as
>the Slytherins tend to be the sin-eaters of Potterverse, I wonder if
>by taking the journey Snape has, the journey fraught with
>temptation, he's saved Harry having to make a similar trip.

Sydney:

Hmmm.. my powers are formidable of course.. *strains back on
metaphor*.  Ouch!  Kidding.. actually, I see where you're coming from,
in the sense that in a novel as in a dream you can think of all the
characters as representing different elements of the psyche.  I've
seen people express this in the idea that Ron is the heart, Hermione
the mind, and Harry the spirit for instance.  It's not Harry's job to
get tainted and the be purified;  the whole point of the character is
that his purity is essential to his nature.  I'm really drawn to the
idea that the Horcrux-hunt will involve Harry absorbing more bits of
Voldemort's soul (I've always assumed Harry already has one, per
Dumbledore himself in CoS).  Like Frodo is the only one pure enough to
bear the burden of the Ring, only Harry, the 'spirit' character, can
absorb and destroy all the bits corruption that Voldemort represents. 

Snape's role is different, I see him as the doorway character (as so
well laid out in the "Anubis archetype" essay here: 
http://the-leaky-cauldron.org/#scribbulus:essay:192).  He has to be
the guy whose been to the bottom and back.  People talk about 'grey'
Snape but I see him as more 'black and white'-- holding both the black
and white and separating and incorporating them.  Zebra!Snape! 
Speaking of which:

Carol:

>I agree that the DEs have varying motivations, but I'm not sure we
>have any clear evidence that Voldemort actively recruits followers.

Sydney:

I think we do have something to go with on Snape:

"Then you will find yourself easy prey for the Dark Lord!' said Snape
savagely. 'Fools who wear their hearts proudly on their sleeves, who
cannot control their emotions, who wallow in sad memories and allow
themselves to be provoked so easily - weak people, in other words -
they stand no chance against his powers! He will penetrate your mind
with absurd ease, Potter!"


IMO we're being told here that Snape's seduction by Voldemort was
through his emotions, not his intellect-- and they seem to have been
rather specific emotions-- "sad memories".  I wouldn't say Snape's
pursuit of arcane knowledge is something that he's since shied away
from, in fact, going by his DADA introductory speech he sees knowledge
of the Dark as important in combating it.  Snape's efforts to block
himself off the Dark Side, if you will, seem to be centered around
repression and cutting himself off from emotional weakness.  I think
that's where we should be looking to find the fatal slip.  At some
point Snape wallowed in sad memories and allowed himself to be
provoked and as he sees it that's what got him.

I don't quite know where JKR is going with Snape and the pure-blood
thing.  I think Harry was right the first time in thinking a Death
Eater  would hardly be bragging about being a Half-Blood, so there's
something quite weird with the whole HBP moniker.  If I had to come up
with a theory I'd say it has something to do with Lily and the Prank
and possibly with the Princes and who they were... I dunno, I don't
think it's guessable what happened.  Personally I'm just as happy to
wait for Book VII! 

> Betsy Hp:
>> IIRC there's a healer whose portrait
>> is hanging in St. Mungo's who invented a disembowelment curse.
>> Why wasn't the invention of that curse a bad sign?

> Jen: (I thought the disembowlment curse was a misguided attempt to cure
> some ill in the same way people thought blood letting or drilling
> holes in the skull would cure a disease, i.e, pretty rudimentary
> <g>).

Sydney:

I really don't think this is where JKR is going with this, especially
because the guy in question is credited with inventing the
Entrail-Expelling CURSE, if I'm not mistaken, and furthermore, the
portraits of the famous healers on the walls are described as
'brutal-looking'.  Could someone check the OoP for me?  I don't have
my books with me... isn't there some other mention of the healers as
credited with inventing curses?  Anyways, I don't think it's a
coincidence that the idea of Snape as a healer is introduced in the
same book as he is as a curse-inventor.  Presumably this ties in with
the "Snake lore" that JKR is going to be using in Book VII (per an
old, unearthed interview at the Leaky Cauldron).  Snakes in most
mythologies are associated with the doorway between life and death
going both ways; I'm sure we're all familiar with the snakes coiled
around the caduceus or Staff of Asclepius, the symbol of the medical
profession.

Sydney



"The general prejudice against Mr. Darcy is so violent, that it would
be the death of half the good people in Meryton to attempt to place
him in an amiable light."