Why I Love HBP Snape (and Salman Rushdie Does too!)

[harmony_bites]

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

Comments

[e_danae]

You know how much I love Thirty Pieces (which itself is post-HBP) and part of what I love is that it's not the five hundredth apprentice or 1,001st seventh year fic or the 2,002nd MLC.

Wow, that's encouraging! One of the reason might be that wade_scott made a vow we will kick the ass of every single cliche which will dare to enter the story. Still trying :)

I know the Red Hen essay of "Dumbledore Lives" and I think this scenario isn't entirely impossible. Unfortunately, Dumbledore alive steals a lot of tension and strength from the HBP spirit. That's why I don't see it as a very good base for a post-HBP fic. But a good story might convince me...
Dumbledore already dying at the Astronomic Tower, probably even poisoned by Harry, is my favorite scenario. Could work for Wizengamot and save him for happier years :)

Uh oh. Does this mean every time I try to get you to write more Thirty Pieces you're going to mention Book of Shadows to me?Try me

[harmony_bites]

I know the Red Hen essay of "Dumbledore Lives" and I think this scenario isn't entirely impossible.

I'm afraid it is because JKR has said so. She said at a question and answer session to a question of Salman Rushdie that Dumbledore is definately dead. So it's not really possible it'll work that way, but there's nothing in the actual canon--ie what is already written--that would make it impossible.

I agree it's something of a cop out though. One that robs us of the questions Snape's act in killing Dumbledore brings up. Issues of whether such a killing can ever be morally, even if not legally justifiable and if you can commit such an act and yet be a good person, even heroic. And can it be forgiven? By Harry or anyone else.

Thanks for the kind words about BOS--though I always intended to take it from HOW to WHAT and continue beyond HBP, though I'm not sure how I'd feel about that once the next book comes out.

I'm afraid I won't be able to resist asking for more Thirty Pieces. I think that story has tremendous potential. If you guys

[e_danae]

To be absolutely honest, the main reason why I'm a bit careful in enforcing more chapters of BOS might be my hufflepuffness. I simply need to know first if this approach would bother you or encourage you. Hufflepuffs care more of what people feel then what they do ;)

If there is a slightest possibility of a new chapter being posted, I would do my best to convince you that you really should do it. Because as far as I can know, this is an extraordinary story and each new chapter of it would write a new chapter in the HG/SS shipping.
On the other hand, you might be simply somewhere else now, and BOS is a closed book now. In that case, I'm thankful for what you've done; for the effort and spirit you put into it. Because these qualities are the reasons why it works so well even unfinished.

I don't see a reason to bother you or play a guilty game or make you feel bad because this is over.

[wade_scott]

I've been needling her to finish BOS, too. And I haven't read it.

I think I just needle to get even with Harmony for needling me. Unlike Danae, I am not a Hufflepuff. ;)

[e_danae]

I say, far less fanfictions would be written and world would me much more boring place if it contained just the loyal and caring Hufflepuffs ;)
Thanks God for the brave, the witty and the cunning House!

[harmony_bites]

Ha! You really have to read some Minisinoo you know if you're a Hufflepuff. She makes them cool!

[harmony_bites]

[wade_scott]

Betcha I'm not. Betcha I'm a Ravenclaw that would make most Slytherins jealous. Neener, neener, neener.

[harmony_bites]

You're not pretentious, pompous, or pedantic (or weird enough a la Luna) to be a Ravenclaw I think. Otoh, I can see those Gryffindor qualities in spades in your evaluation of Snape and moral outrage and championing of the little guy (and anyone that likes Lupin so much...).

And you seem pretty brave and out there with your opinions, w/o caring about what others think.

So I'd still guess Gryffindor--in a good sense.

Maybe a Gryffinpuff?

I tend to sort into Slytherclaw myself

[wade_scott]

Remember Hermione's bookbag in PoA? Yeah, that was mine in high school. Full to unzippable and I was still carrying books home.

And the only really pompous character I remember from canon is a Hufflepuff. Anyway, that's why I don't hold so much to House mentality--people don't fit so nicely into little pre-made packages. Anyway, I've also noticed only Slytherins care.

I think you just want me to be a Gryffindor so you can take the piss out of me. XD

[harmony_bites]

Anyway, I've also noticed only Slytherins care.

In fandom or canon? Because Merlin knows, Harry cares. He told Neville to be proud to be in Gryffindor rather than "skinking Sltyerin" and he was the one muttering "not in Slytherin" under his breathe. Dumbledore seems to make a lot of it too.

Maybe the more accurate statement is that Gryffindors and Slytherins care. I'd be willing to concede that canon doesn't show the House identification to be so high in Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff (except the 'puffs did seem miffed when Harry stole Cedric's glory).

I guess its just that since Ravenclaw is associated so closely with book learning, I think of the kind of person who in one validation threw the O.E.D. at me...

And note, you make a comparison to Hermione--and she's a Gryffindor, not a Ravenclaw.

I think you just want me to be a Gryffindor so you can take the piss out of me. XD

You say that as if it's a bad thing...

[wade_scott]

I know Hermione is in Gryffindor--but everybody asks her why she wasn't in Ravenclaw. That was my point.

And the 'Puffs...well, I think they were miffed about the Cedric thing because everybody always makes fun of them being the chaff of Hogwarts. It must have been nice to be the best of the best...even for a few moments.

But yeah, I've noticed in fandom that it's mostly Slytherins who give a damn, and it's usually to label anybody "else" as "Oh, you must be a Gryffindor" (Insert smug, condescending look here.) Trust me, I'm not as brave or as morally black-and-white to be sorted to the red and gold.

[harmony_bites]

*snicker* Hey! I resemble resent that remark!

I actually think though I'm not devious (or bitter/malicious) enough to be in the green or silver, so I suspect I'd be sorted right with Luna and you.

So, nothing wrong with blue and black--as long as they're not the bruising you take in fandom.

[wade_scott]

Lol! I'm sure every house has members they'd rather not claim. *coughcoughlavenderbrowncoughcough*

But what about Slughorn? He doesn't seem to be bitter/malicious. Devious...maybe. More self-serving if anything. I think he's the best example of a true Slytherin we've got in canon.

[harmony_bites]

Well, I guess it depends on what you see is at the heart of being a Slytherin, and the best clue we have really is the Sorting Hat songs. I have those handy because I had to write my own for BOS. These are the canon characteristics:

Those cunning folk use any means
To achieve their ends.

AND

Shrewd Slytherin, from fen.

AND

And power-hungry Slytherin
Loved those of great ambition.

AND

For instance, Slytherin
Took only pure-blood wizards
Of great cunning, just like him
Cunning, shrewd, ambitious, power-hungry, caring for "breeding" and willing to do whatever it takes

[harmony_bites]

I'm not sure--if there is a possibility. I do fear the story is dead. I've found it so frustrating to write lately--increasingly so--and it represents such an early part of my writing and thinking in the ship I look back and feel its riddled with cliches that make me wince--so I'm not sure it's *worth* continuing despite your kind words.

At the same time, I hate, hate, leaving something unfinished that I put out there (I'll never post a WIP again I promise you) and BOS is both my first HP and first novel. And the same things that give me grief and bad associations are the same things that make me angry and not want to let the bastards win;-)

So I don't know really--about my own intentions or reactions to gentle prodding.

Except no way I'm giving up jogging your elbow for more of Thirty Pieces ;-)