[the_old_crowd] Re: HBP:First Impressions

[ewe2]

On Sun, Jul 17, 2005 at 01:36:42PM -0000, pippin_999 wrote:
> Spoiler Space
> YOU
> COULD
> ALL
> GET
> YOUR
> WANDS
> OUT
> RIGHT
> NOW
> AND
> POINT
> THEM
> AT
> ME
> AND
> SAY
> THE
> WORDS,
> AND
> I DOUBT
> I'D
> GET
> SO
> MUCH 
> AS 
> A NOSEBLEED
> end Spoiler space

ewe2 raises his IceWand of Penguin TauntingTM and taunts Pip one more time!
Sure, sounds tough, but its the eek or the meek in here.

Pippin:
> I'm honored to be asked, though I may be a bit jet-lagged.
> However, you've got a better witness than me, luv. 
> "Harry reached out,straightened the half-moon spectacles upon
> the crooked nose, and wiped a trickle of blood from the mouth 
> with his own sleeve."
> 
> That trickle of blood is either the biggest Flint this side of
> Everest, or our man Snape is outed. The curse didn't work. AK 
> doesn't leave any sign. If it had stopped Dumbledore's heart then 
> he wouldn't have bled. QED
 
Well spotted. I'm no Snapelover but the evidence is interesting; Harry is not
thinking very clearly as usual.

> Snape promised to carry out the deed Draco was expected to
> do  "But he is determined that Draco should try first." So yeah,
> he tried. And failed. 

Yes, Snape is a bit of a lawyer is he not? And a quick thinker...

I've had another hard look at the DD-Snape argument pp379-380 Bloomsbury
edition. On the face of it, it looks good for Snape but there are a few weensy
problems with it:

1. It's reported by Hagrid. Not the best of witnesses. He has no idea of the
context of the "discussion", and we've seen how he tends to report his
assumptions rather than the straight facts.

2. My suspicious mind wonders what DD and Snape happened to be doing by the
Forest. Not staging an argument for Hagrid to hear and tell Harry, surely.

3. Assuming 2 is wrong, and 1. doesn't totally destroy Hagrid's credibility,
we still can't be sure exactly what Snape agreed to do. The bit about
investigating Slytherin is odd. Surely DD told Snape he suspected Draco. What
would Snape have to investigate? And why does the tone sound wrong? I'd have
imagined a rather more stormy scene than a "heated argument" over whether one
wanted to go ahead with killing the other.

Non-verbal spells are a real spanner in the works. I would reevaluate canon in
light of it. Snape is not merely a master of these, he's some kind of prodigy
if James was using his own inventions on him. His potionbook falling into Harry's
hands is an odd turn of fortune, no? Again and again we are shown the power of
an accomplished Legilimens and Occlumens. Was DD's power greater than Snapes?
Were either or both equally accomplished in reading and hiding thoughts?

The other problem non-verbal spells raise is why a whole bunch of Death-Eaters
didn't use them in the Ministry of Magic, for just one example. Why Voldemort
didn't see the value in them in the graveyard in GoF. Then there's the
Shrieking Shack scene in PoA. You get the idea. MAGIC DISHWASHER, where art
thou?

ewe2, practicing levitation of fish with his beak shut.

-- 
sed awk grep cat dd ..Im a luser baby ,so why don't you killall -kill me.