CHAPDISC: DH33, The Prince's Tale

[littleleahstill]

No: HPFGUIDX 184823

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "cubfanbudwoman" 
<susiequsie23 at ...> wrote:
>
>> Carol: 
> > > 8. Severus tells Lily that only wizards who "do really bad 
stuff"
> > > are sent to Azkaban. What does this remark reveal about his 
sense 
> > > of good and evil and age nine or ten?
> 
> Pippin:
> > It shows he has one, at any rate. He has moral fear, unlike 
> > Voldemort.
> 
> SSSusan:
> True, that.  But it also raises the question, then, of when he 
*lost* 
> it.  How/When/Why did he change from this 9-or-10-year-old, 
> recognizing "really bad stuff," to the 5th year being chastized by 
> Lily for tolerating Avery & Mulciber and to a young man who'd 
> actually join the Death Eaters?  Did he lose that sense of good & 
> evil, or did he just set it aside in an effort to fit in?

Leah: We don't know what little Severus recognised as 'really bad 
stuff'.  I assume that like most small children, he would think 
killing people is wrong, stealing is wrong, perhaps telling lies is 
wrong (that little hesitation when Lily asks if being a Muggleborn 
will make a difference).  All we can say from this passage is that 
unlike Voldemort Snape is not criminally insane, he appreciates that 
there should be a moral code, but we can't say what his moral code 
was or is when he joins the Death Eaters, though we see it more 
clearly towards the 
end of his life.  As for Avery and Mulciber, perhaps he genuinely 
did not see any difference between whatever they were intending to 
do to Mary, and 'what Potter and his mates get up to', hexing 
Aubrey's head for example.  I imagine he thought trying to get him 
killed or turned by werewolf was 'really bad stuff', which doesn't 
seem to get severely punished by the resident 'good' authority.   We 
don't really know why Snape joined 
the Death Eaters. We do know Regulus didn't know quite what was 
involved until after he joined up.  I think joining the Death Eaters 
or joining the Order or the Aurors was akin to joining an army.  If 
you think the aims of protecting the wizarding world from Muggles is 
a good thing, or defeating dark wizards is a good thing, you may be 
prepared to do things that you would otherwise find immoral, such as 
killing, using Unforgiveables etc.  


> Carol:
> > 13. Why doesn't JKR identify the boy who calls out, "See ya,
> > Snivellus"? Which boy do you think it was, and why do you think 
> > so?
> 
> SSSusan:
> I think I have always imagined that it was Sirius, but I've no 
idea 
> why I think so. ;)

Leah: Just a further thought on that.  "See ya", is a slang 
expression, quite yobbish really, so I wonder if Sirius, from an 
upper class pureblood family, and talking to upper class pureblood 
James, would use that expression.  So I think it's more likely to be 
one of the other 'rowdy boys' picking up on what's going on.


Leah