Why I Love HBP Snape (and Salman Rushdie Does too!)
I was just discussing with gioiamia, who like me recs on KIA, why I love Snape. She's involved with a LJ Community that speculates about Book 7, called hpbook7thoughts. That group isn't particularly SS/HG oriented, and Gioia actually considers Harry/Ginny her OTP. She says that everyone she knows in her corner of the fandom, Snape fan or not, believes Snape is still one
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I don't know about other SS/HG writers, but HBP was a welcome inspiration. I've already written four SS/HG stories in the time since it came out, which is freakishly high output for me. I LOVE HBP Snape, I savored every interaction we got to see (like with Bellatrix and Narcissa in Spinner's End).
Exchange piece? I'm about 1,800 words in. I have a vague outline but it's going to be hard to write, especially if I continue not getting enough sleep and/or losing my sense of humor. Best of luck with muses and carrots!
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Well, in terms of RL law. Who knows what standards the Wizengamot goes by?
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Nor do we have pardons for people. Unless they are dead.
But there are ways of getting him off the charges. Proper, lawyery ways that are sneaky and devious and dirty.
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They're not valid defenses in the US either. We don't have laws allowing assisted suicide, and I can't imagine a military court that would allow for Snape killing Dumbledore because he was dying anyway and that would give him an in with Voldie. Basically, you can't get off because the victim asked you to or arranged with you to kill them.
But is wizarding law really the same as the UK's? I didn't see much resemblance in what we've heard of how they handled Sirius for instance. Or Harry when he was brought up before the Wizengamot. I'm not even sure they *have* lawyers.
But there are ways of getting him off the charges. Proper, lawyery ways that are sneaky and devious and dirty.
Oh, I'm all for that!
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Frankly, I think it's just written by a non-lawyer who knows nothing.
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Undoubtedly. But to conclude that is cheating. We must assume HP is real and that it all fits, figure out what the legal system is like, and then get Snape off under those rules--or rules we can plausibly make up.
I don't think US or UK law will help in that regard though.
If we must--depends what kind of AU we have to create for ourselves after the last book. I may be pleading to not ignore HBP, but that doesn't mean I won't happily ditch Deadly Hallows as canon if it kills Snape.
Or *shudders* pairs Hermione with Ron in a happily ever after epilogue.
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And if I see one more fic with attorneys I am going to have a hissy fit. And I don't want to see barristers either, not unless they're being deployed properly.
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That's basically the crux of it--why you can't have "legal" defenses for what Snape did. Moral maybe, legal under existing systems no. Which is why if you're going to exonerate him you'd have to postulate that the wizarding world goes by very different rules--which there is some canon fodder for.
And if I see one more fic with attorneys I am going to have a hissy fit. And I don't want to see barristers either, not unless they're being deployed properly.
Most such stories are rather boring anyway, so I'm not calling for a story per see where Snape is successfully defended. But if you're going to have a post-HBP story where, instead of fleeing for his life a la "The Whole to Own" Snape winds up free and teaching at Hogwarts again, it would (for me) be more satisfying if there was *something* to explain how that happened.
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Dumbledore was already dead. The poison killed him. People don't act the way Harry witnessed when hit by AK. Snape either was using another spell (with non-verbal spell possible what is said is not what you're necessarily casting) or he AK'd someone already dead. Basically, a defense that looks at causation since murder must "'legally cause' the death of a living-human-being victim." (Under US law anyway)
Snape was under Imperio perhaps? Thus he wasn't the perpetrator but the instrument? Otherwise hard to see this as a matter of "Coercion or Necessity" (Snape had to kill AD or would be killed himself along with Draco) which usually mitigates anyway, not exonerates.
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Fortunately, in the civilised United States of America, we have Presidential pardons for the deserving likes of Richard Nixon, Scooter Libby, and Presidential cousins. :b
Basically, a defense that looks at causation since murder must "'legally cause' the death of a living-human-being victim."
Ooooh, can you imagine WW autopsies? ::firmly squishes X-Files/HP plot bunny::
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And those who slept in the Lincoln bedroom...
I thought pardons were part of monarchies and we got them from the mother isle?
Ooooh, can you imagine WW autopsies? ::firmly squishes X-Files/HP plot bunny::
*Here 'Dung bunny--have a carrot*
( ... )
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::giggles like mad at the bunny, offers yours one in return::
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That's in the magna carta actually.
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