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

[dungrollin]

No: HPFGUIDX 169386

houyhnhnm (169257):
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.

Dungrollin :
I was away for a while, and missed the FavouriteSnapeBits thread, and 
have been trying to catch up and oh oh oh I want to play!

It's interesting that there's such variety in everyone's favourite 
Snape scenes, but I have to agree with Houyhnhnm (169257) on both 
points. The questioning about the HBP potions book is my favourite 
moment of that book, but my all-time favourite scene in all the books 
is after the mud-throwing incident in Hogsmeade. It's delicious, from 
beginning to end, from that first "So," and the look of suppressed 
triumph right through five pages to the "directly from the 
manufacturers" line.

What I particularly like is that on re-reading you can have a good 
guess at exactly what Snape's thinking, while Harry hasn't got a 
clue. It's not only my favourite Snape scene, but also, imo, one of 
the finest examples of JKR hiding characters' motivations amongst 
beautiful dialogue, and leaving Harry none the wiser (similar to the 
Snape/Crouch!Moody scene in GoF). I may be mistaken, but I think it's 
one of Snape's longest scenes in any of the books. I'm also 
particularly fond of the way Stephen Fry reads it on the audio cds.

I'm gonna dissect the way I read it, just for fun! To me it's the 
*classic* Snape/Harry confrontation, and Harry escapes through sheer 
luck, and the help of his friends.

First Snape says little, but marches Harry to his office, suspecting, 
quite correctly, that Harry has managed to get past the dementors to 
Hogsmeade, and had fun tormenting Malfoy from under the invisibility 
cloak. Does he recognise a little too much of James in Harry here? 
It's not too much of a stretch to imagine that James had used the 
invisibility cloak in a similar way to torment Snape, on occasion.

Snape starts telling Malfoy's version of events while carefully 
watching Harry's reactions in an effort to get him to admit the 
truth, Harry says nothing. "Snape's eyes were boring into Harry's. It 
was exactly like trying to stare out a Hippogriff." So he gets going 
with the legilimency almost from the start, though rather 
than "reading" Harry's mind as he does when he forces the image of 
the HBP's text book, he seems to be using legilimency's lie-detector 
function.

************************
"What would your head have been doing in Hogsmeade, Potter?" said 
Snape softly. "Your head is not allowed in Hogsmeade, no part of your 
body has permission to be in Hogsmeade."
"I know that," said Harry, striving to keep his face free of guilt or 
fear. "It sounds like Malfoy's having hallucin-"
"Malfoy is not having hallucinations," snarled Snape. 
************************

Then Harry makes the mistake of lying (shame, he was doing so well!), 
Snape detects the lie immediately, when Harry says that he's been up 
in Gryffindor tower. This is where Snape knows that Harry's caught, 
and his mouth curls into a horrible smile.

Then he gets going with the rhetoric about everyone from the Minister 
for Magic down trying to keep famous Harry Potter safe, trying to 
provoke Harry into giving away more information, but Harry remains 
silent, so Snape changes tack and disparages his father. A low blow, 
to be sure, but so *Snape*. Perhaps Snape didn't expect it to work 
quite so well, he certainly didn't expect Harry to have been given 
such a skewed (from Snape's pov) version of the prank from 
Dumbledore. 

************************
"I told you to shut up about my dad!" Harry yelled. "I know the 
truth, all right? He saved your life! Dumbledore told me! You 
wouldn't even be here if it weren't for my dad!"
Snape's sallow skin had gone the colour of sour milk.
"And did the Headmaster tell you the circumstances in which your 
father saved my life?" he whispered. "Or did he consider the details 
too unpleasant for precious Potter's delicate ears?"
************************

I love that bit. It's so typically Harry, and so typically Snape. Try 
saying Snape's lines out loud, those hissed sibilants! Snape's 
shocked that DD would reveal such a sensitive piece of his history to 
Harry, but he recovers fast, and is soon smoothly back in control. He 
corrects Harry's misconception (in his eyes), though I get the 
feeling that he revealed the information somewhat unwillingly, or 
possibly regretted revealing so much afterwards, because once he's 
finished he switches tack again:

************************
"Turn out your pockets, Potter!" he spat suddenly.
Harry didn't move. There was a pounding in his ears.
"Turn out your pockets, or we go straight to the Headmaster!"
************************

Snape again sees that Harry's lying when he tries to claim that the 
Marauders' Map is just a "Spare bit of parchment," so he threatens to 
put it on the fire.

************************
"No!" Harry said quickly.
"So!" said Snape, his long nostrils quivering. "Is this another 
treasured gift from Mr Weasley? Or is it – something else? A letter, 
perhaps, written in invisible ink? Or – instructions to get into 
Hogsmeade without passing the Dementors?"
Harry blinked. Snape's eyes gleamed.
************************

And then we get to those glorious insults from the map, which enrage 
Snape (see how his voice goes soft) and terrify Harry.

************************
Snape froze. Harry stared, dumbstruck, at the message.
[...]
It would have been very funny if the situation hadn't been so serious.
And there was more ...
"Mr padfoot would like to register his astonishment that an idiot 
like that ever became a Professor."
Harry closed his eyes in horror. When he'd opened them, the map had 
had its last word.
[...]
Harry waited for the blow to fall.
"So ..." said Snape softly. "We'll see about this ..."
************************

I only left Padfoot's comment in, because that's the one which makes 
clear the parchment's authors knew Snape from before Voldemort's 
fall. And that's where Snape makes his mistake, by calling Lupin, 
because he underestimates Lupin's ability to calmly lie his head off. 
>From the odd, closed expression on Lupin's face the second he sees 
the map, Snape suspects that Lupin knows what it is.

************************
"Well?" said Snape.
Lupin continued to stare at the map. Harry had the impression that 
Lupin was doing some very quick thinking.
"*Well?*" said Snape again. "This parchment is plainly full of Dark 
magic. This is supposed to be your area of expertise, Lupin. Where do 
you imagine Potter got such a thing?"
************************

So Snape immediately assumes that the map came from Lupin and that he 
gave it to Harry to lure him into Hogsmeade and into Black's 
clutches. Lupin stays calm (occlumensing like mad, one assumes – but 
can Snape tell?), and dismisses the map as a childish joke shop 
trick. Snape is enraged, his jaw rigid with anger. He *knows* Potter 
was in Hogsmeade, breaking rules which were there to ensure his 
safety, he *knows* that it was this bit of parchment which got Harry 
there without crossing the dementors, and he's pretty sure that 
the "Mr Moony" who has just insulted him is Lupin. But Lupin is not 
giving anything away, not even a flicker that he has ever before 
heard of Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot or Prongs.

Bringing Lupin in has backfired on Snape, because he can't give out 
too much information in front of Harry, and Lupin plays this to his 
advantage, relying on the fact that Snape will not disobey DD's 
orders in front of Lupin by revealing that they both knew Sirius 
Black and James Potter at school, nor that it was Sirius who betrayed 
Harry's parents. 

What I love about it most is that Snape's right. He's wrong about the 
motivations, about Harry being too caught up in his own fame and 
glory to consider the real danger, and about Lupin hiding information 
from Dumbledore because he's secretly in league with Sirius, but he 
*is* right about Harry being in Hogsmeade, and Lupin lying about the 
map. He's right, but he's left fuming with disappointment. It reminds 
me of how Harry feels after he tries to get Dumbledore to listen to 
him about Malfoy and Snape in HBP, because Harry's certain that he's 
right, too, but he doesn't understand the motivations of the 
characters concerned, and is left furious at his own impotence.

Dungrollin
Dribbling in anticipation that all Snape scenes will be able to be re-
read like this after DH...