[HPforGrownups] Lily (was Complimenting a character WAS: Re: HBP CHAPTERS 7-9 POST DH LOOK

[Lynda Cordova]

No: HPFGUIDX 184424

Montavilla47:
Really? Show me one other muggle-born witch or wizard that Snape
insults by calling them a "mudblood," because I don't remember a
single one.

Lynda:

>From Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows p. 676, American edition: (Snape)
"No ---- listen, I didn't mean --"
(Lily)"-- to call me Mudblood? But you call everyone of my birth Mudblood,
Severus. Why should I be any different?"

Here's the thing. Nothing in the way that Snape treats any witch or wizard
of muggle birth is what I would call pleasant. He isn't even pleasant to any
of the students at Hogwarts, nor to most of the others we see him associate
with, but from the way he is spoken of by characters throughout the text of
seven books, he did save his greatest contempt for those wizards and witches
who were muggle born or showed what he considered to be a lack of magical
ability. That's direct enough textual evidence for my point.

It's like in another series I read--for several books in the series a
character makes a fairly arrogant-sounding claim whenever he has a little
too much to drink, with no follow-up to indicate any veracity to it. No one
he knows mentions that this character has any skill at this sport. There are
no medals or awards in his office, etc.--so in the latest book, it turns out
that his "drunken boast" is anything but that. He really does have the skill
he boasts about whenever he gets drunk. Its simply not one that is used in
everyday life. But it is possible, through the series to find specific
places where he mentions it. Just like when reading HP it is possible to see
the manner in which Snape treats wizards and witches of muggle birth--which
matches up to what Lily claims before she turns her back on him and
eventually starts dating James.

Lynda


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