Sirius and Snape parallels again - Sirius' death (LONG)

[lizzyben04]

No: HPFGUIDX 185056

lizzyben:
> > But he never really escaped the Order, bound by DD's past favors 
to
> > him. That was the emotional "hook" that snagged Lupin. And in the 
> end
> > the pattern played out the same: the child was imprisoned by DD &
> > later killed by a dark wizard. 
> 
> Leah: Whatever Dumbledore's conscious reasons, it does make you 
> wonder about Dumbledore's subconcious reaction to the Prank, both 
at 
> the time it occurs, when he apparently fails to punish Sirius, and 
> fails to give Severus any closure, and much later when he learns 
the 
> truth about the animagi and their escapades from Sirius at the end  
> of POA.   How dare Severus and Sirius, either intentionally or out 
> of recklessness, risk exposing this hidden shame to the world?  
<snip>

lizzyben:

Sirius was definitely a thorn in DD's side. Not only does he 
unwittingly expose the one hidden shame (Lupin), he also escapes 
Azkaban to possibly free another from DD's control (Harry), and 
exposes another hidden secret in OOTP (Sirius himself). DD has 
carefully hidden Sirius away out of sight, only to see Sirius escape 
& almost destroy his grand plans many times. Sirius just would not 
stay hidden. It was time to hide Sirius out of sight - permenantly. I 
definitely think Sirius was killed by DD & IMO there's a ton of 
clues, both logical & metaphorical, throughout the text that suggest 
this.

lizzyben:
> > In that same chapter, there's an unintentional similarity between 
> DD &
> > Slughorn. After Harry meets Slughorn, the text says that Harry 
> had "a
> > sudden vivid mental image of a great swollen spider, spinning a 
web
> > around it, twitching a thread here and there to bring its large 
and
> > juicy flies a little closer." Spiders also knit patterns that 
> extend
> > far around them, catching all passersby in their wake.  
> 
> Leah: So perhaps the chapter title 'Spinners End', usually taken to 
> refer to Snape, spinning Bellatrix a yarn and being spun by 
Narcissa 
> into sealing his own fate with the Unbreakable Vow, also refers to 
> the fact that the Vow seals Snape's promise to end the biggest 
> spinner of them all.

lizzyben:

That's a great point & I think you're absolutely right. That chapter 
comes right before "Horace Slughorn", & IMO JKR did intend the 
chapter title to have a triple meaning. One chapter later, Harry has 
his vivid vision of a swollen spider twitching invisible threads. 
Harry's not usually a visionary type of guy, so IMO that image is 
very important. I think it was Harry's subconsious desperately 
warning him that all is not what it seems with Dumbledore. 

I can't emphasize enough how much this chapter creeps me out, in 
retrospect. HBP opens the summer after OOTP, when Harry threw his 
tantrum at DD after Sirius' death. This is the first time Harry has 
seen DD since that time & he's resolved to be DD's Man once again. 
He's pleased to see DD & treats him w/respect, etc. And it seems like 
Harry no longer blames DD for Sirius' death. But still, the truth 
keeps seeping through around the edges. 

Harry watches DD bully the Durselys for mistreating him, pushing them 
around like puppets. But a part of him must've remembered that this 
is the same man who carefully addressed letters to him at "The 
Cupboard Beneath the Stairs". That's odd. And for Harry, there's also 
an association of living in a cupboard & having spiders around him. 
So IMO that's already in the back of Harry's mind. Then DD drags him 
along to Slughorn's w/o telling Harry any reason for this. Harry's 
being treated as a pawn, again. Apparantly part of some greater plan 
of DD's that DD keeps secret from him. On the way, DD has a rather 
odd (in retrospect) long digression about how he might just be a 
Death Eater disguised as Dumbledore. (Or, how he might just 
be a wicked man disguised as the epitome of goodness.) And he also 
goes on a tangent about Inferi, dead bodies bewitched to do a Dark 
Wizard's bidding. (Or, live people converted into dead pawns by a 
wicked wizard.) The text says that Harry can't get the image of 
Inferi out of his head. So that's also in Harry's mind.

It's then that Harry has this vivid vision of a spider spinning a web 
& pulling invisible threads to bring its dead flies closer - a vision 
that actually fits DD much better than Slughorn. Slughorn sends his 
proteges out into the world, after all - to be MOM, or Quidditch 
stars, etc. It's DD who keeps imprisioning & drawing his pawns back 
to the center (Hogwarts) & himself, where they usually meet their 
death. 

A spider doesn't kill its prey directly, instead it catches them in 
their web where they can be imprisoned & controlled & pulled by 
threads. The spider doesn't kill; the web does. In the same 
way, it's DD's web, rather than DD himself, that kills James & Lily, 
& Ariana & Sirius & many others. DD "hooks" Slughorn into the web by 
dangling Harry as bait, & then makes his joke about how he 
enjoys "knitting patterns". Just as with the Inferi, live people are 
turned into bait, pawns & puppets to do the dark wizard's bidding.

At the end of the chapter, DD leads Harry into a cupboard (!) - the 
Weasley's outhouse, which is described as "a little smaller than the 
average cupboard." Inside, Harry notices spiders covering DD & I 
think it's very significant when he notices this. There's no mention 
of spiders until DD brings up Sirius' death, & how tragic it was that 
this ended what could have been a long & happy relationship. Harry 
doesn't react, but only *resolutely* watches a spider climbing DD's 
hat. I think this is a clue - that Sirius' death is a place where the 
web has been twitched & a thread has been pulled. Then, of course, 
when Harry mentions killing & being killed by LV, DD says that his 
hat would "shower him in spiders." Because that's the heart of the 
web, the Plan, that DD has been spinning all along.

OK, so I flipped back to OOTP, to the chapter that describes Sirius' 
death. And IMO the language there is striking & quite damning. 
They're fighting in the MOM when DD suddenly appears. 

The text says: "One of the Death Eaters ran for it, scrabbling like a 
monkey up the stone steps opposite. Dumbledore's spell pulled him 
back as easily and effortlessly as though he had hooked him with an 
invisible line -"

So JKR has established that DD is hooking, immobilizing & pulling 
people backwards with invisible threads. Continuing...

"Only one pair was still battling, apparently unaware of the new 
arrival. Harry saw Sirius duck Bellatrix's jet of red light: he was 
laughing at her.
"Come on, you can do better than that!"; he yelled, his voice echoing 
around the cavernous room.
The second jet of light hit him squarely on the chest. ...

It seemed to take Sirius an age to fall: his body curved in a 
graceful arc as he sank backwards through the ragged veil hanging 
from the arch."

Sirius was easily ducking Bellatrix's shots until DD's arrival. But 
after DD begins imprisioning people w/invisible threads, Sirius is 
suddenly immobilized, apparantly unable to do anything to defend or 
duck the second jet of light. Then, just like the Death Eater, he is 
pulled backwards. The description of Sirius' fall sounds odd for 
someone falling naturally, but exactly like what would happen if 
someone was being slowly *pulled* backward by an invisible line.

And this fits in another way - it fits DD's MO. DD didn't *kill* 
Sirius, not directly. He just imprisioned him in a place where he 
could be killed by a dark wizard. In life, Sirius refused to stay 
hidden & kept escaping DD's prisons. And so now DD imprisions & then 
hides Sirius away, permenently, behind the veil. Sirius had become an 
obstacle to DD's plan, and so DD arranged for his death. IMO Sirius's 
death has DD's sticky fingerprints all over it.

As if to drive home the point, JKR then adds: 

"Dumbledore had most of the remaining Death Eaters grouped in the 
middle of the room, seemingly immobilised by invisible ropes." The 
pattern is repeated three times - first a DE is imprisoned & pulled 
back, then Sirius is immoblized & pulled back, then the remaining DE 
are immobilized & pulled into the center of the room - all with 
invisible threads, all by Dumbledore. Like a spider spinning & 
pulling threads to bring its flies closer, or a dark wizard 
transforming independent people into Inferi puppets that will do his 
bidding.

Harry was a first-hand witness to this. I think a part of Harry knew 
full well that DD was responsible for Sirius' death, which is why he 
raged at DD at the end of OOTP, & why he is so disturbed by DD's 
descriptions of Inferi in HBP. And that's why he has the sudden vivid 
vision of DD as a spider, hooking, immobilizing & pulling his prey 
closer with invisible threads. In the case of Sirius' death, it was a 
physical thread, but DD also used emotional & mental hooks to reel 
people into his web. The vision is really one of a monster, which IMO 
Dumbledore really was beneath the mask. Voldemort may have been more 
evil, but DD was much more *insidious* than Voldemort could ever hope 
to be.



lizzyben