Being naughty (spoilers)

[Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)]

--- In the_old_crowd at yahoogroups.com, "Barry Arrowsmith"
<arrowsmithbt at ...> wrote:

 SPOILER.........................................
 SPACE.............................................
 THE...................................................
 BOUNDARY....................................
 BETWEEN.......................................
 INNOCENCE..................................
 AND..................................................
 DISILLUSIONMENT......................
 
The other list opens tomorrow evening, right?
Been a long time since I've read more than the occasional post 
over there, but I think I may break that habit tomorrow.
> 
> It's my sadist tendencies getting the better of me, you see.  I'm 
> expecting a bit of anguish from a vocal faction of the membership
> as they have to get to grips with the fact that -
> 
> DD requested Sevvy to kill him
> Nasty!Snape was actually Snape!DM, helping to protect Harry

As I said, not necessarily. The straightest surface reading is that
your theory of Revenge!Snape, A Very Good Hater!Snape, is correct,
except the detail that it was someone other than Florence & Sprog he
was revenging. Revenge!Snape protected Harry for the sake of his
revenge, not out of loyalty to DD, and probably was pleased when he
learned that killing HP was part of the plan. 

However, granted that Pensieve memories are an objective report, there
is nothing in Snape's Pensieve memories that PROVES he wasn't lying to
DD in all those conversations about almost everything except his
attachment to Lily. Snape is savvy enough that he could have used his
feeling for Lily, a real desire and a fake intention to save her life,
to get in good with DD for the sake of spying on DD to serve LV. And
when LV dissolved, he kept using it to stay out of Azkaban. And when
LV returned, he sincerely returned to LV's service. Convenient for him
that the first place that LV's commands and DD's commands to him
differed is DD's last command, to push HP to die to kill LV. 

And he never intended to obey DD's last command, but he never expected
LV to kill him while he was still useful and a loyal servant. In that
surprised moment, he instantly needed to avenge *himself* on LV, and
thought of how to do it -- by telling HP how to destroy LV. Pretty
quick thinking, especially for a dying man.

> the goodies fling Unforgivables hither and yon 

That bothered *me*.

> DD flirted with Dark Magic practitioners 

But I was disappointed that he had barely touched the surface, never
even used Dark Arts himself. I was expecting a bigger crime. I mean,
his behavior as a good guy (in the name of the Greater Good!) gave him
plenty of better reasons to feel guilty.

> the universal manumission of House-Elves didn't happen
> Slytherin House isn't abolished

Yes, whatever happened to House Unity?

> Puppetmaster!DD

As I said, not necessarily. There's no new evidence that he planned
even one little thing in this plot before he heard the Prophecy, and
very few new hints that he planned it before James & Lily died. No new
canon that he arranged for James & Lily to die. MAGIC DISHWASHER, yes.
(Pip, I apologize for disbelieving it all these years.) Puppetmaster, no.

> Sirius really was a plonker

While I was surprised that Regulus drank the poison himself, I saw no
new evidence that Sirius was a plonker. I still love him (and Remus,
and DDM!Snape), and I was surprised and deeply touched that his love
of Muggle motorcycles was sincere, not just one flying motorcycle to
impress people with.