Blech: NaNo Day 9
Day Nine: 274 words
Well, downtick again, but it was one of those RL days that doesn't allow you to have much virtual or writing life in between. Yes, I know, not an excuse. But at least I haven't given up.
More Dame Sans Merci
Since he'd returned, Severus had treated me with almost sympathy, but the look he turned on me now made me feel about eleven years old again, and about as many centimetres tall.
"For Merlin's sake, Hermione. One would think by now you'd know better than to defend everything with 'they mean well'. The Death Eaters meant well by their lights. Everyone does. The truth is despite all the stories that circulated about Crucio if you gave him a wrong look, I never feared what Voldemort might do to me half as much as what Aurors like Scrigemour and Moody might do. And with good reason. I have more scars from my stay with the forces of law and order than from anything at the Death Eater's hands. I'm not about to throw that boy into their maw to appease them."
He stalked away stiff with anger and disappeared around the corner before I could think to call him back. I could return to the Potions lab and continue with the tests, but I was bone-weary, and I know that if I met any students in the corridors I would likely flay them all alive - with my tongue, not a Hex. I felt overwhelmed, as if each day was getting shorter as our task only grew longer and more impossible.
I know just how Hermione feels... Projection much?
Oh, and I found this essay by azmeredith about McGonagall linked to on atlantel’s LJ and just found it too thought-provoking not to share. It makes a rather persuasive argument that Voldemort’s “most faithful servant” referred to in GOF is not Snape or Crouch but McGonagall. I said it’s a persuasive argument, not necessarily one that persuaded me-but interesting nevertheless.
I think the point I found most tantalizing was this one:
Snape has been a red herring in nearly every single book. We expect it, have begun to look for it, and Half-Blood Prince is different only because Snape was indeed the bad guy this time. We are beyond being shocked at the prospect of Snape being the bad guy. However, think about how you felt when you learned that Peter Pettigrew had killed the Potters. The difference between Pettigrew being a traitor and Snape being a traitor is monumental. It is far more shocking to learn that someone we trusted or expected to be able to trust is a traitor, than to learn that someone we never trusted at all is a traitor.
Go read: “Voldemort’s Most Faithful Servant”
Hmmm . . . just hmmm. I have to admit, if in the next book JKR both exonerates Snape, as I expect, and implicates McGonagall, there would be something delicious and fitting in so turning the Gryffindor/Slytherin stereotypes JKR herself created upside down. Just imagine if Slytherin’s Head of House turns out a hero after all and Gryffindor’s Head of House (and now Headmistress!) a villain. I like the essayist's comment that you can’t sort good and evil with the Hat.
And you know, if it turned out that way, in a strange way I could see that could allow for Snape being allowed to survive. I’ve always felt that Dumbledore was truly dead (which JKR confirmed) and that the only way in that case for Snape to be forgiven by the reader and for JKR to demonstrate unequivocably how wrong Harry (and the reader) have been in their assumptions and fully redeem him would be for him to die, heroically, probably protecting a Harry who distrusted him to the end. However, if McGonagall were to turn out to be a traitor, I think that would change the dynamic in many ways.
Otoh, I like McGonagall, and some of the behavior the essayist ascribes to her as flattering Dumbledore could as easily be explained by a wee crush-I tend to be a AD/MM shipper in that way. I think their other evidence is similarly ambiguous, and can easily be interpreted other ways. I know people say that’s true of those defending Snape, but I don’t agree. I didn’t like Snape before Book 6 and wound up at the end both sure he was a white hat and feeling real sympathy for him for the first time. If Snape isn’t good, it’s not a matter of interpreting wrongly-it would mean JKR left gaping holes.
Atlantel points out Minerva and Tom would be of an age-as does the essayist in making the case that such a peer would be much more likely to be close to Voldemort than Snape or a contemporary of his. It is true that I’ve always felt AD didn’t have complete faith in Minerva, that he may have invested more faith actually in Snape, but I never saw it as a matter of trust. I actually did imply that Minerva might have at least a crush on Voldemort once upon a time in my ficlet “Silver Age” but I never thought that attachment could have continued. I’ve seen plenty of Evil!Ginny/Voldemort. Any Minerva/Tom out there?
Hmmm . . . could make for some fascinating fanfic at least . . .