In the Year Chapter 25, If Man Survives, If Woman Survives...

[mike_smith]

OK, Law & Order's gonna be on in about fifteen minutes, so I'm gonna go ahead and post this before I get some wacky idea to photomanipulate Dumbledore's head on a Gundam pilot or something, or write a long treatise about how Hogwarts is a metaphor for the Eurpoean Union. Keepin' this one short and sweet, folks.

Comments

[jim_smith]

Anyway, D-Dore tries to smooth this over, saying that Snape had no idea who's parents would end up being killed over this, and how Snape now deeply regrets that it was the Potters who ended up getting killed because of what he told Voldemort.

Am I the only one who thinks Snape should have lost his job for leaking sensitive information to Voldemort at all, regardless of whether it got anyone killed?

I gather Dumbledore has some secret reason for not canning Snape's ass, which is fine. But you'd think he'd need also need to have something he can tell people, because I assume he answers to somebody who doesn't think "I really really trust Snape" is good enough.

[merenwen_81]

But you'd think he'd need also need to have something he can tell people, because I assume he answers to somebody who doesn't think "I really really trust Snape" is good enough.Sadly, it seems that is the only thing he does tell his people and these otherwise sensible people like McGonagall and Lupin just settle for that. I think it might be because he's much older than them and taught them all they know. Dumbledore also has a knack for gathering folks that no one else wants around him (Snape, Lupin, Hagrid, Mundingus, Firenze, Sirius to a lesser extent) and they're forever thankful to him. Even Snape seems to respect him

[merenwen_81]

Oh, and when Snape leaked that information to Voldemort he was still a Death Eater sent to spy on Dumbledore. His story is that at some point he decided he really wanted to become one of the good guys and probably gave the Order some information about the Death Eaters and the double-triple-whatever-agent Snape was born. Say what you want about Snape, but so far he has played is cards pretty damn well. Both D-Dore and Lord Thingy believe he's telling them the truth and lying to the other guy and every time someone in either side tries to raise doubts about Snape's loyalty, they're shut up with "Our leader trusts him so you have no right to doubt him".

[seductivedark]

Snape didn't start teaching at Hogwarts until almost two years later. Trelawney was apparently hired at midterm. It was only after the prophecy was leaked to Voldemort that Snape had a change of heart and defected.

[tekalynn]

When I read HBP, I felt there was a very good novella or shorter novel struggling to get out under an awful lot of padding. It seemed like there were two books, one that was excruciatingly boring (Ginny/Harry/Hermione/Ron/Lavender/Dean/oh my God PLEASE shoot the adolescent little twerps and put me out of my misery) and one that was pretty interesting (Voldemort backstory, Horcruxes).

[squirrelarmy]

Ugh. Amen. Throughout the entire thing, I kept flashing back to the few high school romance/drama novels I had read when I was 12. Except, you know, with magic. ...whee.

[marciamarcia]

The real problem with 6th year is that, compared to all Harry's other years at Hogwarts, this one is relatively normal. For the first time since he was 11, there's no active plot to kill him, no mysterious new teacher who's past/secrets need uncovering (sure, there's Sluggy, but he's all surface. *ahem*), there's not even any major tests he needs to pass.

So basically you come down to 3/4 of the story being the fascinating tale of an average junior year of high school. And I think we all know that "fascinating" is sarcastic when applied to the average junior year of high school.

On the one hand, I'm sort of happy that these characters I already cared about have one year of school where they get to be regular kids for the most part...on the other hand, it makes for a VERY slow-paced novel.

[seductivedark]

It's nice they had a normal year, I agree. But, 652 pages worth of normal year? 'Fascinating' is rightfully used as a sarcasm when attatched to *any* year of high school, esp. to the ships.

(sure, there's Sluggy, but he's all surface. *ahem*)

LOL! So true! And in so many ways!

[anonymous]

Trelawney gave a prophecy in the third book and after coming out of her trance, she couldn't remember a thing about what she'd said. She'd actually thought she had dozed off, and she seemed to have no recall of anything that had happened around her at the time. When Harry mentioned this to Dumbledore, he recognized her behavior, obviously because he'd seen it before. For Trelawney to recall Snape interrupting and being thrown out is lazy continuity on JKR's part. Not a surprising thing, considering that she doesn't re-read her books.

[mike_smith]

Well, she was clearly inebriated when she made that revelation, so I'd give Rowling a pass on that one. Besides, the only one who can truly define the rules of Trelawny's psychic powers and recall is Rowling, so if she wants to make her less forgetful when she's drunk, that'll work for me.

Of course, this seems like a lot of trouble to go to for such a weak revelation. Snape had already played a role in the Potters' murder, because he was working for the man who killed them. That he had a more direct effect on that crime is of little importance, because Harry already hated Snape in the first place, and Snape didn't even know who it was he was condemning to death with his report. Besides, as the end of the book shows, Harry has much fresher and much more personal grievances with Snape than anything Trelawny might conjure up.

[merenwen_81]

It was a shock to many of those who had chosen to believe Snape was good (I don't think he's supposed to be good or evil). I had thought maybe Snape was the spy that warned the Order that the Potters were in danger and that's why Dumbledore believed he was really on the Order's side. Which he might have been, but they wouldn't have been in danger in the first place without him.

The way I explain Trelawney remembering Snape to myself is that she had time to see him getting thrown out of the pub, but doesn't reamember him actually eavesdropping the prophesy. Or maybe she was told about it afterwards and she thinks she remembers it all. Yeah, I'm just making excuses.