Great and Subtle Moments in Deathly Hallows

[Diana]

No: HPFGUIDX 172553

SPOILERS 
SPOILERS 
SPOILERS 
SPOILERS 
SPOILERS 
SPOILERS (You've been warned!) 
Okay, I've already read the book through twice and picked up some 
rather subtle stuff the second time through.... 

1. When Harry was viewing Snape's memory where Dumbledore told Snape 
that Harry had to be killed by Voldemort in order for the bit of 
Voldemort's soul inside of him to die (i.e. for Harry-as-Horcrux to 
be destroyed) to cause Voldemort's downfall, Dumbledore CLOSED HIS 
EYES! Why? Because Snape is an excellent Occulemens and it's possible 
that Snape would have seen Dumbledore's lie in his eyes if he hadn't 
closed them! The truth was that Dumbledore did use Snape to pass on 
the idea to Harry that Harry had to die in order to finish Voldemort, 
but without ever telling Snape that this was just a necessary step in 
order for the Horcrux'd soul inside Harry to be destroyed and that 
Harry wouldn't die unless he really wanted to. If Snape had been able 
to gleen the truth from Dumbledore and relay that to Harry in his 
memories then Harry's sacrifice of his own life probably would not 
have resulted in that special protection for all the people he was 
trying to die for. 

2. Snape might have loved Lily Evans, but he was still a horrible 
git. Why do I write that? Because Snape didn't care one whit about 
Harry or James at all, regardless of the fact that those two people 
were the most important people to Lily in her entire life. Snape's 
love for Lily was strong, but it was a very selfish love. Dumbledore 
had to point out to Snape that helping Lily's son survive would be an 
appropriate way to show his love for Lily. Over the many years he 
knew him, Snape refused to see the truth - that Harry was very much 
like his mother, and much less like his father when it came to how he 
treated other people. When Snape seemed taken aback in the memory by 
Dumbledore's instructions that Harry had to die, Dumbledore seemed 
surprised by the very idea that Snape might actually care even the 
smallest amount for Harry. Snape might have felt he owed a debt to 
Lily for betraying her (and he clearly always wanted her for himself, 
IMO, even if just as his best friend, but probably as his wife more), 
but he never saw Harry as more than a means to an end to assauge his 
guilt and grief over and to atone for her death. 
Dumbledore called Snape disgusting because he truly was a despicable 
person. He may have ultimately been on the side of the good, but that 
does not make him a good human being. Yes, he was brave spying on 
Voldemort for the order, however he would never put aside his 
jealously, pettiness, anger and bitterness towards James (and by 
extension, Harry) to reveal the truth about his feelings for Lily to 
anyone other than Dumbledore until the very moment he was actually 
bleeding to death. 

3. I find it incredibly ironic that Voldemort and Harry ended up 
being each other's Horcruxes! I use the term loosely in Harry's case 
because none of Harry's soul was in Voldemort, however the end result 
was the same. Harry could never die while Volemort lived with Harry's 
blood (protected by his mother's sacrifice) running through his 
veins. Voldemort could never die while Harry lived with that 
parasitic piece of Voldy's soul clinging to his own soul. The fact 
that Voldemort created a Horcrux without knowing it while anchoring 
Harry to life just delights me. Talk about your own vices biting you 
in the arse! 

4. At the end, Voldemort was shown up by Harry as the amazingly 
stupid, short-sighted, selfish nitwit he always had been. I loved it 
when Harry called him Tom at the end. Harry was feeling exactly like 
I was; how could all those Death Eaters think this guy was 
brilliant?  Sure, he was cruel and heartless and very good at magic, 
but he discounted powerful magic (house elves, goblins, love, 
sacrifice, etc.) just because he didn't understand it or thought it 
was beneath him. His shortcomings resulted in him not knowing about 
the Deathly Hallows, not knowing about sacrifice-as-a-powerful-
protection-spell (twice!) nor about how the Elder Wand truly gives 
its allegiance. He honestly thought that no other students at 
Hogwarts would ever find the Room of Requirement, specifically the 
room that held everything that needed to be Hidden? Yep, Tom Riddle 
was a total moron. It's shocking that so many died at the hands of 
such a dolt.... 

5.  When Snape asked Harry to take the memories pouring out of him as 
he lay dying, he said "Look...at...me.".  To me, this was Snape 
finally wanting to expose what he felt was the best of himself to 
Harry.  Snape's love for Lily and his grief at being partly 
responsible for her death was his biggest secret, a secret he refused 
to reveal until just seconds before his death. As Dumbledore told 
him, "...I shall never reveal the best of you." With his last words, 
Snape asked Harry to see the person he truly was, or thought he was, 
a man who opposed Voldemort, stood by Dumbledore, was on the side of 
the Order, was exceptionally brave and still hopelessly in love with 
a woman who had died sixteen years earlier.  I'm sure that if Snape 
could have spoken to Harry alone, earlier when he wasn't dying, that 
Snape would have only relayed Dumbledore's message that Harry must 
die in order to rid Voldemort of the Horcrux inside him.  It is 
interesting that at his moment of death that Snape chose to tell 
Harry everything about his true motivations and inner character.  It 
makes me wonder if Snape finally did see the truth at last - that 
Harry was like Lily and that Snape should have befriended him instead 
of hating him because of Snape's own past mistakes.  

Diana L.