DH reread CH 31

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 187483

Alla wrote:
> 
> Oh dear, call me very slow, but I may have had another revelation. I am sure we discussed what is the point of this tragic love story, but I am also pretty sure that I did not participate or did not remember.
> 
> So forgive me for DUH moment, but is the point that Snape could have been Bloody Baron but for Dumbledore? Just as Baron he (of course he did not do it himself like Baron, but still works for me) helped kill woman he loved, just as Baron he was overcomed with guilt and remorse, but Dumbledore forced him to direct his remorse in more positive way?
> 
> I mean Snape is described as suicidal that night. Or is there totally different point?

Carol responds:
I'm not sure that we're supposed to apply the Baron's story directly to Snape as if he would have shared the bloody Baron's fate if he'd committed suicide (I can't see Snape choosing to become a ghost and haunting Hogwarts or Godric's Hollow), but it's certainly a variation on the motif of unrequited or obsessive love (as is Bellatrix's weird obsession with Voldemort). I think the Bloody Baron is a foil to Snape, illustrating a less productive form of remorse (eternal self-punishment with no chance for atonement) without necessarily illustrating what might have happened to Snape himself. And, of course, it's part of Rowena Ravenclaw's story that JKR has withheld until DH for plot reasons.

Alla:
> 
> Ok, I forgot how cool this deadly fire is - flaming Beasts, NICE, would love to see it, but not to be near by lol.
> 
> And I wonder, does the second sentence that I typed up symbolises sort of cleansing of Hogwarts from all the secrets, as in together with Dumbledore leaving Hogwarts will become more open, etc?

Carol:
Interesting idea. I'd thought of it more as an irreparable loss, especially the HBP's Potions book. I like cleansing better. But I wonder what will happen when someone wants a place to hide an object now. Will they be shown the ruins of the old storage place or will the process start all over with one object? There's no point in hiding an object in plain sight unless other junk is already there.

> 
> "IF WE DIE FOR THEM, I'll KILL YOU HARRY!" roared Ron's voice...
> 
> Alla:
> 
> Too funny, that's my Ron :)
> 
> And I still do not know what the point of this scene was for Malfoy, seriously, I don't.
> 
> That he does not leave his friends, we sort of knew that by now.
>
Carol:
I agree with you about Ron, but, as others have said, I don't think we knew that Draco was loyal to his friends, staying with and comforting the unconscious Goyle (rather pointless to comfort him, but still) and mourning Crabbe, who has rejected his authority (and nearly killed them all). Who knew that Draco could be that loyal (in marked contrast to Crabbe)? His reasons for being in the RoR are ambiguous, but he does try to stop Crabbe from killing or torturing anybody. I think the point is that Draco is not as cowardly or evil as Harry once thought him, but he's not heroic, either. Maybe he'd have made a better showing later with the DE if he hadn't lost his mother's wand to the Fiendfyre. And the whole incident sets up his later half-neutral, half-civil attitude toward Harry in the epilogue.

Carol, just speculating