Half-Blood Prince

[littleleahstill]

No: HPFGUIDX 183783

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Carol" <justcarol67 at ...> 
wrote:
>
> Zara:
> > Yes, whereas Snape's was known. Bella doubts whether 'her kind' 
ever
> graced Spinner's End prior to that chapter in HBP - the logical 
> implication of which, is that she doe snto consider Snape to 
be "her 
> kind". As you suggest in the snipped part, doubtless because she 
knew
>  quite well there were no Wizarding Snapes.
> 
> Carol:
> And yet she must have known that Snape's mother was a witch.
> Obviously, he's not a Muggle-born or he wouldn't have been in
> Slytherin (or LV's supposed right-hand man). Also, as I've 
indicated
> earlier, the Princes must have been Pure-bloods because "*the*
> Half-Blood Prince" makes no sense unless there are or were "Pure-
blood
> Princes." 
> 
> So either Bella, who is at least six and possibly nine years older
> than Severus (if we count the Black family tree as canon) didn't 
know
> who Snape's mother was or she didn't know that Spinner's End (where
> she had never been before) had been his childhood home--if indeed 
it
> was. (He might have bought it as an adult--it really doesn't seem 
like
> a home that a Muggle like Tobias Snape would have lived in in the
> 1070s unless he was completely dominated by his witch wife, which 
does
> not appear to be the case.)
> 
> At any rate, obviously "our kind" can't relate to Witches and 
Wizards
> since Snape lives there, so it must, as you say, mean "Pure-Blood."
> But if Spinner's End was Snape's childhood home and if Eileen was a
> Pure-blood, as I think she must have been, Bella is wrong in her
> assumption, and they're not the "first of their kind" ever to set 
foot
> there.
> 
> I realize, of course, that the point is Bella's snobbery, but she
> apparently knows very little about Snape's personal history. Maybe,
> setting aside some unacknowledged jealousy of the favor he's 
enjoying
> from Voldemort, she considers him beneath her notice (in contrast 
to
> the Malfoys).
> 
> Which reminds me, do we ever actually see Lucius Malfoy and Snape
> together? I imagine that Lucius would be conscious of his superior
> social standing but only mildly condescending toward the talented
> younger man who had been his protege and who must still work for 
his
> living.
> 
> Carol, who knows that Spinner's End is really a street but is 
using it
> here metonymically to refer to the house

Leah:  Spinners End was Snape's childhood home, because in his first 
encounter with Lily, Petunia scoffs at him as 'that Snape boy...they 
live in Spinners End down by the river' or words to that effect 
(don't have the book in front of me).  Petunia is almost as 
disparaging about the neighbourhood as Bellatrix :).  It sounds like 
a rough neighbourhood. Possibly Tobias inherited the house from his 
parents, though it would have beem unusual for mill workers (and 
that's what they probably were) to own a house rather than rent; 
often workers' houses were owned by the mill or factory.  Perhaps 
the house was sold off if and when the mill closed down.  The 
textile industry in the English North-West became very depressed 
during the 60s and Tobias may have been on the dole and stuck nn 
Spinners End.   

As to Bellatrix's comment, she is presumably refering to purebloods, 
but Snape's nickname makes no sense unless Eileen was a pureblood.  
I wonder if Bellatrix means 'purebloods who behave in a proper 
pureblood way'.  Had Eileen been a Black rather than a Prince, 
Bellatrix's Aunt Walburga would certainly have blasted her off the 
tapestry as a blood-traitor when she married Tobias.  

Leah (who can't recall a Lucius/Snape moment other than the greeting 
after Severus was Sorted.