Sympathy for the bad guys (Was: Harry and Charlie)

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 183205

Carol earlier:
> > So, yes. Kudos to JKR for granting her bad guys (and the seeming
bad guy, Snape) some humanity in HBP. 
> 
> Zara:
> Surely Snape, anyway, already had that in OotP?

Carol responds:
Good point. I think that SWM humanized him, at least for most readers
(and I already liked him and could see DDM!Snape where Harry
couldn't), by showing him being attacked two-on-one for no discernible
cause. 

But my point was that "Spinner's End" is our first indication of
humanity (mother love and desperation) in the likes of Narcissa
Malfoy, previously glimpsed only as a haughty Pure-blood supremacist,
Voldemort supporter, and abuser of House-Elves who indulged her only
son in a manner that seemed to connect her with Petunia Dursley
(sending him sweets by owl post and fearing to have him as far away as
Durmstrang). And, as I said, even Bellatrix is revealed as having some
fondness for her sister (even if she does think that she would
sacrifice her imaginary sons for the cause--wonder if she'd still hold
that view if she actually had children). BTW, I don't mean that
Narcissa is at all *humane*, only that she's revealed to have *human*
needs and emotions. She becomes, for the first time, a somewhat
sympathetic character akin to other mothers (besides Petunia)--Lily,
Molly, Mrs. Crouch--each a variation on the theme of motherhood in the
HP books.

For me, "Spinner's End" provided a welcome glimpse of the DEs as they
behave among themselves. Snape as gracious host and--what shall we
call him? knight errant willing to rescue a damsel in distress by
protecting her son at great risk to himself?--was a happy surprise in
terms of characterization (not happy, of course, in terms of the vow
itself and its potential consequences)--different from SWM, which
revealed his vulnerability and showed that his view of James was not
so far off the mark as readers--and Harry--had thought. (Fortunately
for the consistency of Snape's characterization, he was as snarky as
ever in dealing with Bellatrix and Wormtail.)

But until that point, the ever-ambiguous Snape aside, the closest JKR
had come to depicting a DE sympathetically was a few remarks about
Barty Crouch Jr. not being loved or appreciated by his father, which,
considering the source and Barty Sr.'s memory of his pride in his son
when he received twelve OWLs, seems suspect.

"Spinner's End", IMO, humanizes Narcissa and, to some extent,
Bellatrix, who is always depicted as a sadist and fanatic elsewhere,
and it contributes to the humanization of Snape, already begun, as you
seem to be pointing out, with SWM.

Carol, who thinks that JKR's villains (not including Snape, who is at
most a quasi-villain) are too often stereotyped and cartoonish, and
such glimpses of their humanity (or humanness?) are all too rare