Clues to Snape's Loyalties

[vmonte]

No: HPFGUIDX 170871

>zgirnius wrote:
Actually, the majority of bat species are not bloodsuckers, they eat
fruits and insects (like mosquitos, thus making bats beneficial to
humans in many cases).

>I wrote:
> and arachnids spin webs to entrap their prey, once caught they are
> sucked dry of their innards until only a husk remains.

>zgirnius wrote:
As a meat-eater myself, I don't find I can object to this activity of
spiders. At least they don't then wear the remaining husk. <g>

The thing about bat and spider imagery is that, while they do have
the association you name with darkness and evil, they are also rather
classic examples of misunderstood creatures (the claim that bats are
blooksuckers, for example). Which makes them a brilliant choice for
Snape - we see the images, but we cannot be sure which way we should
take them. Does Rowling use them because Snape is evil, or because
Snape's forbidding exterior makes people around him think he is,
while he actually serves a beneficial function? The answer (for the
next three weeks or so) is in the eye of the beholder.

vmonte:

Here is the problem I have with the idea that Snape is not a person
that's full of malice. If JKR had described Snape as being a big
teddy bear I would assume that JKR meant that he was cute and
snuggly.

When a writer (correct me if I'm wrong) writes that a person is
spider-like and bat-like, the images I should get are of someone that
has similar characteristics.

Why would JKR use descriptors that aren't meant to describe?