65 lines
4.3 KiB
Plaintext
65 lines
4.3 KiB
Plaintext
Love and Severus Snape
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<p>OK, I’ve read “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” and enjoyed it<br />
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I have a theory about what will happen in Book 7. Potential spoilers<br />
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about Book 6 follow!.</p>
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<p><span id="more-195"></span></p>
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<p>I think it’s going to turn out that Severus Snape is still, despite<br />
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all appearances, working to destroy Lord Voldemort. And, moreover, I<br />
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think I know why. I’m expecting that revelation to be the emotional<br />
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climax of the last book.</p>
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<p>Here is what I believe to be the central secret of Snape’s character.<br />
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It explains his general bitterness, his hostility to Harry, and his outright<br />
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hatred of Harry’s father. It also explains why Dumbledore, if he knew the<br />
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secret, trusted Snape absolutely but never explained why.</p>
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<p>I believe that Snape was desperately, hopelessly in love with<br />
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Lilly Potter, and still worships her memory. That he hated<br />
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Harry’s father for winning her and wants to hate Harry for being<br />
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the image of his father. But he turned against Voldemort when<br />
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Voldemort killed Lilly. He snipes at Harry, but is unable to<br />
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muster the will to actually kill the boy in their last<br />
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confrontation, because when he looks at Harry’s face he sees<br />
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James’s face but Lilly’s eyes.</p>
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<p>This would fit a continuing theme in the books, which is that<br />
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only love is powerful enough to stand against Voldemort’s will.<br />
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It sets up some dramatic final scene in which Harry and Severus,<br />
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in spite of their history, decide that they must trust each other<br />
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and act together — both in the memory of Lilly.</p>
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<p>This culmination would also supply a motif that has been<br />
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conspicuous by its absence from the books. Amidst all of<br />
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Rowling’s exploration of morality, good, and evil, there has so<br />
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far been nothing of redemption. No instance of anyone having<br />
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walked down the path of evil and rejected it for the good.</p>
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<p>“But…but…” I hear you say, “he killed Dumbledore!”. True<br />
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— and, I believe, a truly masterful piece of misdirection<br />
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on Rowling’s part. I think both Dumbledore and Snape knew that,<br />
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with four Death Eaters pounding up the stairs behind Snape and<br />
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Dumbledore so desperately weak, his chances of survival were nil.<br />
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So Dumbledore paralyzed Harry; and his one-word plea to Snape<br />
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was not to spare his life but to act so that his death would<br />
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maintain Snape’s cover and not be wasted.</p>
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<p>I think the truly pivotal confrontation was the later one<br />
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between Harry and Snape on the front lawn. Killing Dumbledore<br />
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did not require Severus Snape to choose between light and darkness,<br />
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because it was done (in effect) on Dumbledore’s plea but could<br />
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always be spun as an act of loyalty to Voldemort.</p>
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<p>But confronting Harry was different. Snape knew the prophecy that<br />
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only one of them could live; it was his report of that prophecy to<br />
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Voldemort that had moved the Dark Lord to kill Snape’s beloved<br />
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Lilly. Snape’s contempt for Harry’s attempts at throwing curses makes<br />
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clear that Snape could have killed Harry at that point. Instead, he<br />
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talks. Rehearses his reasons for hating Harry and Harry’s father,<br />
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looks into Harry’s eyes — and <em>does not kill</em>.</p>
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<p>I think that is the moment at which Snape makes his redemptive<br />
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choice. It’s the exact dual of Voldemort’s attempt to kill Harry.<br />
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Lilly’s love saved Harry from Voldemort; Snape’s love for Lilly saves<br />
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Harry from Snape — and, ultimately, Snape from evil.</p>
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<p>Further prediction: Draco Malfoy is Snape’s dual. In book six he<br />
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hesitates, never taking the step into irredeemable evil. In the<br />
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climactic confrontation of book 7 he will take that step. What will<br />
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propel him into evil is fear of weakness and the need to prove his<br />
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will is strong — strong enough to deny the bonds of love as we<br />
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saw him begin to do when he rejected Dumbledore’s offer. He will fall<br />
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as Snape rises.</p>
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<p>Of course I could be wrong — but can anyone plausibly deny that<br />
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this is the kind of plotting Rowling <em>likes</em> to do?</p>
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