pauraque_bk | HP Survivor

I am hopelessly addicted to

hp_survivor. Even if you haven't been following the game,

killing_curse's hilarious parting speech is not to be missed.

Lesson: Ordering your tribemates around never, ever works. Even if you *are* the Dark Lord. Tsk.

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On the canon side of things, the discussion of Chapter 7 has hit 50 comments! *analysis happiness* Check out exchanges on anti-werewolf bias, whether Snape was right to expose Remus, and the mysteries of the Snape-Neville interaction.

And the debate on how much Snape and Lupin each contribute to the animosity is still going strong in Chapter 8. Unsurprisingly, I have quite a lot of Snapeists on my flist, but

fernwithy has been admirably representing the Lupin-lovers' side, for which I thank her. *g*

Also from Chapter 8:

"Anybody who says JKR isn't capable of subtlety or complex characterizations should be smacked upside the head with a copy of PoA."
-

marinarusalka

Word.

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PoA 9: Grim Defeat

Augh, the puns! Mercy, JKR, mercy!

'It's very lucky he picked tonight, you know,' said Hermione [...]. 'The one night we weren't in the tower.' (123)

I'm blanking on why Sirius *was* there that particular night. Anyone? Bueller?

'[...]I'll have Mr Filch restore [the Fat Lady].' (124)

atdelphi recently pointed out, Squib or no, Filch is assigned to restore a magical painting, and apparently does quite a good job.

'It seems -- almost impossible -- that Black could have entered the school without inside help. I did express my concerns when you appointed--'
'I do not believe a single person inside this castle would have helped Black enter it,' said Dumbledore, and his tone made it so clear that the subject was closed that Snape didn't reply. (124-125)

Snape is in the right, though not for the reasons he thinks. Remus isn't actively helping Sirius, but he's lying to Dumbledore by omission -- not revealing that Sirius is an Animagus, which apparently means he can get past the Dementors. I feel bad for Snape here, the way Dumbledore shuts him down.

'I must go down to the Dementors,' said Dumbledore. 'I said I would inform them when our search was complete.' (125)

Apparently, one can talk to Dementors. Or at least, Dumbledore can.

'But I'm afraid no Dementor will cross the threshold of this castle while I am Headmaster.' (125)

Because they're Voldemort's "natural allies" (GoF), no doubt.

But it wasn't Professor Lupin who looked up at him from the teacher's desk; it was Snape. (127)

Whatever the reason Dumbledore refuses to let Snape teach DADA, it doesn't apply to letting him sub for a day or two. I wonder if this was arranged previously, or if it's designed to placate Snape after Halloween night.

'You are easily satisfied. Lupin is hardly over-taxing you -- I would expect first-years to be able to deal with Red Caps and Grindylows. Today we shall discuss--'
Harry watched him flick through the textbook, to the very back chapter, which he must know they hadn't covered.
'--werewolves,' said Snape. (128)

Ah, back to his usual theatrics. Snape must know the real reason they're behind, which has nothing to do with Remus. Of course, that in itself is nothing compared to the fact that he's brazenly attempting to lead the class to the conclusion that Remus is a werewolf. This is quite a dramatic escalation of the animosity, far worse than anything Remus has done to him (though not, of course, worse than anything Snape *thinks* Remus has done to him).

It's also good to remember that Snape thinks Remus is collaborating with Sirius, and that Dumbledore refuses to entertain the possibility. In addition to taking obvious pleasure in belittling and endangering Remus, Snape may think he's doing the right thing for the school: This is the only way he can think of to get Remus fired, for everyone's good.

'the werewolf differs from the true wolf in several small ways. The snout of the werewolf--' (129)

At least a hundred Dementors, their hidden faces pointing up at him, were standing below. (134)

Emphasis added. Things to keep in mind when judging the movie's canonicity.

[...]the silhouette of an enormous, shaggy black dog, clearly imprinted against the sky, motionless in the topmost, empty row of seats. (133)

So... Sirius climbed up to the top of the stands, unnoticed? Seems a little unlikely.

[Voldemort:] 'Stand aside, you silly girl ... stand aside, now...' (134)

He seems to gives Lily a chance to save herself. Hm.

'Still in the showers,' said Fred. (135)

Mm, magical plumbing.

Past re-read posts are here.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

The "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" Comic Relief book has an interesting bit of information that ties in with this chapter. In the entry on Kappas, is says they are Japanese water-demons, not Mongolian despite what Snape says in this chapter. J.K. brings the reader's attention to this in the CR book by having "Harry" (or possibly Ron) write "Looks like Snape hasn't read this" (not an exact quote) in the margin, which would be strange if she had merely made a mistake in PoA.
Perhaps this means that Snape isn't as good at DADA as we've been led to believe?

Hmmm... Interesting. Perhaps he's more into the things that fascinate him rather than boring old creatures? I'm guessing he'd want to have a curriculum all about curses. Like faux!Moody only probably a bit boring. Faux!Moody was a terrific teacher.

I kind of took that as an "Oops, I goofed in PoA... we'll say it was Snape who goofed. Yeah."

However, because that's what she chose as her excuse, it does lead to the notion that Snape isn't as good at Dark Creatures as he thinks he is, which, who knows? Maybe she'll play with it.

I kind of took that as an "Oops, I goofed in PoA... we'll say it was Snape who goofed. Yeah."

I'm not sure I'm following this. How did she goof in PoA? "Fantastic Beasts" came out after PoA did, so if JKR wanted Snape to be right, all she'd have to do would be to make Kappas Mongolian in FB.

Meaning that she wrote "Mongolian" in PoA, someone wrote and corrected her, so in FB, she wrote "Mongolian" and had Harry comment that Snape was wrong.

I think that's a bit far-fetched. It's JKR's world, after all. If she wanted to make Kappas Mongolian, or Estonian for that matter, there's nothing stopping her. Just because a bunch of ignorant Muggles think they're Japanese, doesn't make it true, after all. :-) No, I think she intended Snape to be wrong, as a little in-joke at Snape's expense for trivia-minded readers to catch. Then, in FB, she turned it into a mujch more obvious joke so that the non-trivia-minded readers could get the joke, too.

_{this is really lengthy and kind of irrelevant. um, sorry.}

I don't, actually, think Snape is as good at DADA as we're led to believe - sure he knew a lot of curses in 1st year (or so says Sirius, known enemy) but who's to say that he could use them competently, that he knew his defence, and that he continued to gain knowledge in this subject as he attended school? In his OWLS he seemed pretty stressed about writing as much as possible.

I applied for Snape in an RPG the other day, and one of the mods (during a lengthy discussion) made a good point - I don't know her LJ, but this is her thesis:

We don't actually know that Snape wants the DADA job from any other source than Percy Weasley's offhand comment to the Trio in one of the early books - PS/SS, I believe. The Trio take this theme and run with it, however I think it parallells the "Snape's really Evil. And he's going to be the bad guy in this book. No really. I promise." thing that JKR does.

So, the Trio think Snape hates Quirrell because he wants his position. However, by the end of the book we know it's because he suspects something fishy, and then we find out Quirrell's Voldemort.

In the second book, Snape really doesn't like Lockhart - but then, neither does Harry, Ron, McGonagall, or quite a few other people. They don't actually want his job - Lockhart's just a prat. Also, she didn't give books so I don't know if it's here, but it's mentioned that Lockhart was the ONLY applicant for the position, and that's why such a buffoon was hired (Dumbledore isn't that incompetent.) This obviously gives the impression that Snape didn't want the job - since Quirrell's been teaching for a fair bit, you'd think he'd jump at the first chance he'd get!

In the third book, we think Snape hates Lupin 'cause he's after his job - and Harry tries to stop Snape poisoning him. Of course, as Eodrakken's already been over, Snape doesn't like Remus for other reasons; namely their school days together.

In he fourth book, the only incidence we see of Snape and Moody tgoether is Moody treating him with no respect. If Moody was Moody, this is appropriate because he's an Auror and Snape's an ex-Death Eater. As Barty Jr, it's appropriate because he sees Snape as a traitor to their Lord, as he explains to Harry (in more general terms) at the end. So we can imagine that Snape really didn't like Moody, either.

And finally, Umbridge. But really, once again, a fairly unlikeable person.

So while it mightn't have been mentioned in this amount of detail, a point was made that Snape seems perfectly happy and competent in his position as Potions Master.

Apart from his 'longing' for the DADA job, his substitution, and an offhand remark about his knowledge of curses (and a few circumstatial pieces of proof in the pensieve scene in book 5) there isn't actually that much evidence towards Snape being a super DADA expert; or even believing he is (arrogance in substitution had more to do with the class members thanthe subject, I feel.)

I agree with much of what you say here but in OoTP (p.323 UK edition) when Umbridge sits in on Snape's lesson she quizzes him about the DADA job:
"you applied first for the DADA post, I believe?! Prof. Unbridge asked Snape.
"Yes," said Snape quietly.
"But you were unsuccessful?"
Snape's lip curled "Obviously."
"And you have applied regularly for the DADA post since you first joined the school, I believe?"
"Yes, " said Snape, barely moving his lips. He looked very angry

I was of your opinion that he wasn't that bothered about the post but it was a story put about for other reasons (no idea what)so either this is true here or, Snape is playing the gane abd pretending that he does indeed want the job. I was quite surprised when I read this passage in the book.

HP Survivor :: PoA 9

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