Snape didn't make the Unbreakable Vow

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 161664

Potioncat wrote:
> > Now, this is the first new thing I've send about Snape since HBP 
> came out. Can you give us some Book/chapter quotes for this?
> 
> Sure, but there's a ton of them, so I'll only mention the references 
> in Sorceror's Stone here. (hardcover American edition)
> 
Donna supplied this quotation:
> P. 140
> "Cheer up," said Ron. "Snape's always taking points off Fred and 
> George. Can I come and meet Hagrid with you?"
> The next paragraph starts, "At five to three they left the castle."

Carol responds:
This reference, and others like it, simply refer to people leaving.
IMO, it's coincidence that the past tense form of "leave" is a homonym
of "left" indicating a direction or side of the body. I'm quite sure
that "left" in this sense appears in scenes unrelated to Snape, just
as "exit stage right" or "exit stage left" appears in plays when a
character has to leave the scene, with no relationship to the
handedness or a particular character.
> 
Donna:
> P. 174
> "They crept along the next corridor after Snape's fading footsteps."
> In the next sentence, Ron points "at the end of a passage to the 
> left."
> (Throughout ALL the books, nobody ever does anything to Snape's 
> right. It's always the left.) <snip references to leaving>

> P. 207
> "Snape replied, "The Restricted Section?"
> Upon which Harry notices that "a door stood ajar to his left" <snip>

> P. 283
> "Do you want to stop Snape or not?"
> In the next paragraph-"Harry moved three spaces to the left."

Carol responds:
Okay, here we do have references to "left" as a direction, which might
or might not be significant. More like these three from other books
(in which Snape is not the suspected villain), please?

Donna: 
> P. 217
> "Snape's sudden, sinister desire to be a Quidditch referee."
> (sinister means left) <snip more references to leaving>

Carol responds:
Yes, I know. See upthread. However, "sinister" also means "singularly
evil or productive of evil," "presaging ill fortune or trouble," and
"accompanied by or leading to disaster." In this instance, the
intended meaning is clearly the first, which reflects Harry's (and
therefore the narrator's) not necessarily accurate perception of
Snape, though the other two definitions could be implied if we think
ahead to HBP. I don't think we need to go so far back as to consider
the etymology of "sinister" here, however applicable etymology may be
for spells and other terms that JKR has invented for the WW. (Note the
alliteration here, however--all those s's add to the sinister effect
of Snape's name, not because he's the villain but because, in SS/PS,
we're supposed to think he is.) 

Donna: 
> There's a really interesting sentence about Karkaroff on page 278,
in GoF, during the scene where Karkaroff and Madame Maxime argue with 
> Dumbledore about Harry becoming the fourth Triwizard champion.(And 
> Snape happens to be present) "His hands gave him away, they had 
> balled themselves into fists." <snip>

Carol:
Rather like Snape's twitch in HBP and the other one related to Lucius
Malfoy in GoF? But these scenes have to do with revealed emotions, not
handedness. And any references to the left arms of these two
characters relate to the Dark Mark (as do the references to Draco's
left arm in HBP).

Donna:
> I'm positive that Snape's hands gave him away during the Unbreakable 
> Vow. :)

Carol:
I'm positive that the twitch gave away his fear that the UV would take
a direction he didn't want it to take. Nothing to do with handedness.
And why would he twitch if the vow were invalid?

Donna: 
> I don't have PoA handy right now, so I can't cite a page number.
When Harry runs away from Privet Drive, he stops the Knight Bus by 
> sticking out his wand hand and this is referenced twice by Stan 
> Shunpike. The implication he makes is that sticking out the other 
> hand would not have made the bus stop, only the wand hand would do
it. If only the wand hand would cause the bus to stop, I'm certain
only the wand hand would count for something as important as the Vow.
> 
> "Wand hand" is referenced multiple times in HBP as well....

Carol:
Okay, now we're getting somewhere. But still, we have the custom of
vows involving the right hand (the "nonsinister," "correct" hand) and
no references that I know of to Snape's wand hand hand. Harry,
however, is right-handed.

Carol, who is being paged and can't continue