GoF CH 27-29 Post DH look/ Snape and Harry and Gargoyles

[littleleahstill]

No: HPFGUIDX 182165

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "potioncat" <willsonkmom at ...> 
wrote:
>
> 
> > Alla:
> > Do we really want to talk about Snape's reign as Headmaster?
> 
> Potioncat:
> Well, I don't. ;-(  But I don't want to talk about Charity either.
> 
> I'd like to see a short story by JKR set at Hogwarts during that 
> time. I'd like to see her vision of how it transpired.


Leah: Well, there's not that much to talk about in terms of what
actually went on during Snape's reign, because we don't know much 
and more importantly because, I believe, JKR dug herself into a deep 
hole on the whole Hogwarts issue in DH. 

Because she wanted Snape's loyalty as a big reveal at the near end 
of the book, Snape had to remain ESE or at least ambiguous 
throughout DH. There was therefore nothing that Snape could do to 
save Charity as any action on his part (if actually possible) woould 
have revealed him as a white-hat in the first chapter.  I actually 
think that would have been quite exciting with Snape on the run and 
HRH discovering his loyalty half way through, but that was not to 
be.  So we are left watching Snape watching Charity.   I 
don't see that as 'bad Snape'. DD sent him to be a spy and that is 
the sort of thing spies have to do to maintain cover, like it or 
not, it was his job. He is expressly told by DD to maintain cover so 
he can look after the school and help Harry.  Personally I felt very 
sorry for both Charity and Snape during that scene.  

I think the real problems come with Hogwarts.  JKR needs to 
demonstrate enough ambiguity in Snape to make her later 'reveal' 
plausible.  So we have the detention of Ginny etc with Hagrid, and 
of course the doe patronus if we guess that's Snape.  But we can't 
see Snape heroically subverting both Voldemort's rule and the  
Carrows at every turn, because:

(i) it would be a dead give-away as to Snape's loyalty, spoiling 
JKR's plan to have the big end of book 'reveal'.

(ii) Voldemort's rule has to be shown as evil, so we have to hear 
about the Carrows doing Very Bad Things.

(iii) We have to see Ginny, Luna and Neville as the inside 
resistance movement, (and good for them),which means there has to be 
something for them to bravely resist.

 The problem with all of this is, that the Snape we see in HBP is 
perfectly capable of keeping the Carrows in check, as we see when he 
removes the Death Eaters from the Astronomy Tower and gets them out 
of the school and the grounds asap, saving Harry from Cruciatus on  
the way.  We also see from Snape's interactions with Mundungus 
Fletcher in DH, and can glean from the fact that Snape continually 
deceives Voldemort, and has been doing so since Snape was a boy of 
20, that he could doubtless Confund or otherwise bamboozle the 
Carrows into thinking he was on their side while preventing real 
harm to the students. 

IMO the need for ConstrainedHeadmaster Snape and bad things going on 
at Hogwarts just doesn't gel with the Snape we have seen 
previously.  No doubt we can say that things would have even worse 
if one of the Carrows or the old-style Lucius Malfoy had been 
Headmaster, but we are left with the gut feeling that Snape ought to 
be able to do more.  The fact that he doesn't is not, I think, a 
character fault, but a fault in the planning and structure of the 
book.


Leah