Half-Blood Prince

[Jen Reese]

No: HPFGUIDX 183778

> Mystified!Potioncat:
> We don't know that Severus chose the nickname. Maybe it was 
> Lucius's name for him. Certainly it wasn't widely used, because 
> Lupin didn't recognise it. Remus might have been pretending, but I 
> don't see that was any reason in this case.

Jen: Ooh, yet another possibility to consider!  My main hesitation 
about Lucius inventing the name is whether Snape would still proudly 
proclaim it at the end of HBP?  He's completely given himself over to 
Dumbledore's cause by then.  Although there is Hermione's comment: "I 
don't think he wanted to associate himself with that book," said 
Hermione.  "I don't think Dumbledore would have liked it very much if 
he'd known." (Chap. 30, HBP)  I believe that's meant to be taken as 
true, meaning there was some aspect of the Half-Blood Prince Snape 
didn't feel pride about.

Potioncat:
> The thing is, I can't see Severus enjoying the name or its
> meanings. For example I could imagine Sirius calling himself 
> the "Black sheep of the family" and making that word play. I really 
> can't see Severus doing it. (Sirius never did that in canon, I'm 
> just making an example)

> Zara:
> I can. <snip> I think Severus did it in earnest, and shared it with
> no one. We know very little about his background, but we do know 
> that for some reason, he wanted Slytherin House. The House of 
> Purebloods, which he darn well knew he was not. To me, this 
> suggests a conviction/desire to prove, that he is *as good as* a 
> pureblood. Good enough to get into Slytherin, even with a Muggle
> father. Good enough to be a Death Eater, again despote his birth. 
> That however a certain segment of wizard society (his family? his 
> housemates?) might regard him owing to his parentage, he was still 
> as good as any of them. In spite of his father.

Jen: The only thing is Snape didn't talk about Slytherin house as the 
house of purebloods on the train in the Prince's Tale; he mentions 
brains.  Are you thinking he was covering up some of his beliefs for 
Lily?  It's possible since he holds back earlier when she asks about 
her Muggle-born status.

I like your explanation, that even if Snape didn't think of Slytherin 
as the house of purebloods when he was 11, he knew how important 
divisions by blood were a few years later when Voldemort started 
gaining power.  Snape's already a proud boy with a chip on his 
shoulder by the time he starts Hogwarts.  It fits he would feel equal 
to any pureblood because of his incredible intelligence.  It's what 
he had to offer Voldemort in lieu of pure ancestry when the time came 
to join up.

The problem with Snape not sharing his nickname with anyone is it 
would invalidate Harry's comment at the end of HBP: "Yeah, that 
fits," said Harry. "He'd play up the pure-blood side so he could get 
in good with Lucius Malfoy and the rest of them...He's just like 
Voldemort.  Pure-blood mother, Muggle father...ashamed of his 
parentage, trying to make himself feared using the Dark Arts, gave 
himself an impressive new name - *Lord* voldemort - the Half-Blood 
*Prince* - how could Dumbledore have missed -? (HBP, chap 30)

Given that the HBP story was initially part of COS, I think Harry was 
wrong in his conclusions about Snape's similarity to Voldemort but 
right to think Snape had to work harder than a pureblood to gain 
respect in Slytherin and with LV.  


bboyminn:
> In a way, he was mocking his father for what young Snape considered 
> a crime. And even if his Slytherin friends knew, they too would 
> view it as a crime against Severus over which he had no control.

Jen: Do you mean the crime of intermarriage between a pureblood and a 
Muggle?  That his father was abusive?  I'm not sure what you mean.

Leah:
> Of course, like Severus, it's nicely double-edged and ambiguous. Is 
> it saying, "My dad may be a Muggle, but I'm still half a pureblood",
> or is it putting up two fingers at his mother's pureblood 
> family, "You've got a half-blood in the family whether you like it 
> or not"; certainly, if the Princes were still around, they don't
> seem to have been any help to Severus or to Eileen. It might very
> well be both things at once, of course.

> I think also there's an element of pride in it, certainly in its
> use in 'Advanced Potions'. It's saying "I,Severus, part Muggle, part
> Prince, invented these spells. What I can do is more important than
> what I am".

Jen: I like this version too, heh.  In-Your-Face Snape. 
Interestingly, if his motives were to stick it to his family, parade 
around who he was & what he could do, he became a man who hid his 
greatest feat of all - fooling the Dark Lord completely & becoming 
instrumental in his downfall.  

Jen, reading the series in reverse order and currently in the middle 
of HBP.