Snape, Snape, Snape--favorite moments (Re: Snape's involvement in the...)

[Jen Reese]

No: HPFGUIDX 169284

Celia:
> 2. Similarly, the Snape/Fake!Moody/egg/Filch/Harry-under-the cloak
> stairs scene in GoF has the startling vision of "non-teacher" Snape 
> in his gray nightshirt. Another glimpse of Vulnerable!Snape maybe, 
> Jen? Confused, and not in control, and outmatched by Fake!Moody, 
> seizing his pained Dark Mark arm, and tuning a "nasty brick color,
> the vein in his temple pusing more rapidly." (471) I love love love 
> Snape in cool control, as discussed up thread, but this scene gives
> the opposite view, a Snape that doesn't know what is going on and 
> can't maneuver properly to find out. I think it is a very important
> scene for making him a multi-dimensional character.

Jen:  That scene was so disconcerting to me and you know what it was? 
When Snape said, "Dumbledore happens to trust me," said Snape through 
clenched teeth.  "I refuse to believe that he gave you orders to 
search my office!"  I felt a pang for him there, in a metaphorical 
way Dumbledore's trust is all he has left, it's what's standing 
between him and the dark abyss of his former life.  And to me it 
seemed like Snape was questioning for a teeny moment whether 
Dumbledore's trust was still intact.  

houyhnhnm:
> The coolest Snape scene has got to be when he rescues Draco in the
> bathroom, but one of my favorite minor Snape moments was when Snape
> caught Harry returning from Hogsmeade.  "What was your head doing 
> in Hogsmeade? Your head does not have permission to be in 
> Hogsmeade; no part of your body has permission to be in Hogsmeade."
> (or something like that.  I don't have the books with me.) I just 
> thought it was funny.

Jen: I laughed at that one too, thought it was clever.  I'd be 
curious to see Snape laugh, a happy laugh I mean.  What would it look 
like?  Belly laugh?  Chuckle?  That kind where you sort of snort 
through your nose?!?  I can't imagine.  

Betsy Hp:
> Ooh, you've made two mistakes here, IMO. Mistake number 1: Snape is
> not a bad boy. Lucius, Voldemort (back in his Tom Riddle days,
> before his nose fell off), *those* are the real Potterverse bad
> boys. Sirius is a kind of "safe" bad boy, in that he leaves home
> early, rides a motorbike, is too cool for school, etc. But Snape is
> not a "bad boy". That's not the attraction.

Jen:  I don't think he's a bad boy either, not at *all*.  That 
implies there are girls flocking around and that's just not happening 
with Snape.  Now Draco in the train compartment had the bad boy 
working a little bit, seeming like he was going to ditch Pansy for 
bigger and better things after another year at Hogwarts.

Betsy Hp
> This is like, my favoritest thread EVER! I love you, Jen. :-D

Jen:  HEE, you know what this means don't you?  You have to start 
a 'what I like about the Sirius character' thread.  MWAHAHAHAHA. BTW, 
I had to look up chiaroscuro. Not sure yet, catch you after DH. 

Carol:  
> Thanks, Jen, for turning this thread in a new direction. You really
> are a good sport. :-)

Jen:  Thanks Carol, that means a lot. :)

Carol:
> Yes, yes, yes. Add his image in the Foe Glass and Dumbledore's 
> anxious silence as Snape leaves, and you have a scene that left me
> in no doubt whatever that Snape was Dumbledore's man through and 
> through (before the phrase itself had yet been coined).

Jen:  Not sure if you're saying you doubted Snape's loyalty prior to 
that or was it more that you thought he was loyal and the scene of 
Snape leaving the hospital wing just solidified where his story was 
headed?  

I read up through OOTP all by my lonesome with *no* outside input 
whatsoever, just my own thoughts, and read Snape as loyal all along.  
I thought the times with Harry asking if he could be trusted and Ron 
doubting him were just a red herring.  I guess the combination of 
internet info and HBP were the things to make me question the 
character a little more.  

Carol:
> And also Sectumsempta and its countercurse are almost like the two
> sides of the Snape coin in one symbol.

Jen: Nice imagery.  I see him as still holding both those sides but I 
think you're saying one side was his past and one his present?  
That's the part I need reconciled in DH--is that part of him still 
completely in his past?  How did it happen if it is?  And if not, how 
much of his darker side is left?

Jen