I can't remember at all if I was surprised Snape was a DE. I think not--not because I suspected him to be, but just because I usually don't try to figure things like that out. So I must not have figured it out ahead of time and just thought, "Ah! Cool!"
This chapter really is hilarious. I highly recommend mike_smith's recaps of HBP, specifically the chapter where the kids get their OWL results and Hermione tells Harry that as Quidditch captain he's on the same level as Prefects and so can use their bathroom. Mike is hilariously excited about this special bathroom--I keep wondering if he's going to realize he never gets to see it in HBP.
You know I love Myrtle here--really, some of the best weirdos come out in this chapter. We've got Snape at his worst in his grey underthings (honestly, doesn't he just do his clothes in the same laundry as everyone else at Hogwarts? Does he ask the house-elves to make his stuff grey?), Crouch showing up on the map and doing some of his best telling-too-much-truth, Filch just wanting to get Peeves and Myrtle being a big perv.
One of the things I think works so well about the DEs--something to counteract their complete ineptness when it comes to doing actual evil or planning anything--is the hints of all this backstory between them. Barty does know Snape--they were both very young first time round. onlyinfatuated recently did a post about Lucius as a father that touched on this. She talked about how yeah, maybe when he was 25 he was all gung-ho for Voldemort, but he's 40 now and Tom Riddle expects him to drop his cushy life and get back into this nonsense. Barty is really a ghost from Snape's past. None of them can really move on because of the mistakes they made back then. Even when Snape thinks he's talking to Moody he's regressing, "Nyuh-uh! Dumbledore trusts me! No way he would let you search my office!"
Personally, I think Snape's reaction here, much like his "I am not a coward!" HBP, suggests that he's not Evil. He doesn't sound afraid that Dumbledore doesn't really trust him so much as proud of Dumbledore's trust and insecure about it on a personal level.
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Date: 2005-10-25 03:13 pm (UTC)This chapter really is hilarious. I highly recommend
You know I love Myrtle here--really, some of the best weirdos come out in this chapter. We've got Snape at his worst in his grey underthings (honestly, doesn't he just do his clothes in the same laundry as everyone else at Hogwarts? Does he ask the house-elves to make his stuff grey?), Crouch showing up on the map and doing some of his best telling-too-much-truth, Filch just wanting to get Peeves and Myrtle being a big perv.
One of the things I think works so well about the DEs--something to counteract their complete ineptness when it comes to doing actual evil or planning anything--is the hints of all this backstory between them. Barty does know Snape--they were both very young first time round.
Personally, I think Snape's reaction here, much like his "I am not a coward!" HBP, suggests that he's not Evil. He doesn't sound afraid that Dumbledore doesn't really trust him so much as proud of Dumbledore's trust and insecure about it on a personal level.