As requested, more Harry Potter goodness
Actually, not so much Harry Potterness as more Snapeness. Beware of the spoilers.
So in chapter 2, "Spinner's End", Bellatrix Lestrange interrogates Snape about whose side he really is on. Pfft, as if he would tell her. But he humours her, because he has to find out what's bothering Narcissa (more about that next...teehee). Bellatrix asks him where he was when Voldemort fell, and he replied that he was obeying orders and spying on Dumbledore whilst working at Hogwarts. She gets all "I loved Voldy-baby the most! I suffered the most for him!" (loosely speaking) and Snape says: "[Dumbledore] wouldn't give me the Defence Against the Dark Arts job, you know. Seemed to think it might, ah, bring about a relapse ... tempt me into my old ways." (p.32 Australian edition) Now, there is another possible explanation for why Snape had to be Potions master rather than DADA. Later on in the book we find out that ever since Dumbledore refused the job to Voldemort, no teacher has been able to keep the Defence Against the Dark Arts job for longer than a year. In fact, as shown throughout the series, a lot of the teachers end up suffering a great deal, even death. It is possible that Dumbledore did not want anything bad to happen to Snape, he wanted Snape to stay in Hogwarts as a teacher, under his protection and also so he can appear to be a spy for Voldemort. Snape had been working at Hogwarts for sixteen years by the time Voldemort had been reborn, and as he says, "...the Dark Lord is pleased that I never deserted my post: I had sixteen years of information on Dumbledore to give him when he returned, a rather more useful welcome-back present than endless reminiscences of how unpleasant Azkaban is..." (p.32). But if he became the DADA master, he would have somehow ended up turfed out of Hogwarts by the end, and that wouldn't have been valuable to Dumbledore, who needed that Death Eater spy.
I haven't decided whose side I believe Snape is on, but these two editorials by Maline Fredén on Mugglenet.com make some really interesting points to think about.
Before I make my second Snape-related point, I have to admit something. I think I've mentioned on here that I've been reading a few books by the author Georgette Heyer, as recommended to me by my Mum. Actually, Mum has been on my back about them for years, trying to get me into them. I was never really interested, because from what I could tell (from the backcovers) they were formulaic romance period-set novels, and I was not interested in that kind of crap. But then I read all those Jane Austen novels, and I loved them. One night I couldn't get to sleep and I wanted something to read, but I didn't have anything that I hadn't read before or was interested in. I remembered Georgette Heyer, and I thought that they could never be as good as Jane Austen, because they were written around the 1950s about the late 18th-early 19th centuries, and must therefore be ripoffs, but they would be better than nothing. So I read one and really enjoyed it, because it was easy to read, funny, and the characters were likeable but definately not perfect (something that's great about Jane Austen's). Soo I read another. And another. And another. And I have to admit that I have probably read more than ten of those trashy novels now. And really, they probably could be considered trash, because they are sooo formulaic. A lot of the heros and heroines, though named differently in each story, have extremely similar characteristics. The girl is always spirited (although sometimes her spirit has become downtrodden) and the guy she ends up falling in love with is often unpleasant at first (sometimes even a complete rake) but ends up actually having a rather noble and good soul. His goodness becomes apparent by the dramatic effect of being in love with the girl. Sometime near the end the heroine comes to get in the habit of relying on him, and he rescues her (or her family) from some problem. And of course, there is always the problems of class and manners that suit the time period.
The point of all this is that I read all these books after I had read Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince for the first time. So when I started rereading it on the weekend, that was when I noticed some quite amusing (for me) similarities between the behaviour of Severus Snape and Narcissa Malfoy and the way the heroes and heroiones interact together in novels such as Frederica, Faro's Daughter, The Grand Sophy, and Venetia. Snape, the mysterious man, brings the beautiful Narcissa (and her crazy sister) into a sitting room (known as a drawing room in the Regency period) and gets the servant (Wormtail) to bring them wine. Narcissa has come to Snape for advice and help. I particularly like this bit, read a certain way:
"When Snape said nothing, Narcissa seemed to lose what little self-restraint she still possessed. Standing up, she staggered to Snape and seized the front of his robes. Her face close to his, her tears falling on to his chest, she gasped, 'You could do it. You could do it instead of Draco, Severus. You would succeed, of course you would, and he would reward you beyond all of us - '
Snape caught hold of her wrists and removed her clutching hands. Looking down into her tear-stained face..." ...he kissed her passionately, without regard to the astonished Bellatrix, only concerned with his dear Narcissa and making her pain go away.
*ahem* Well, that's how Georgette Heyer might continue it. She might also have liked the part where "Snape stooped, seized her by the arms, lifted her up and steered her back on to the sofa. He then poured her more wine and forced the glass into her hand." In Heyer's books, whenever someone was hysterical or upset, a little bit of wine always helped. Plus, Snape rescues Narcissa's son, which is quite similar to how in Frederica the Marquis of Alverstoke (I know, what a name) saves Frederica's brother's life and in Arabella how Mr. Beaumaris rescues Arabella's brother from the evil Jewish moneylender's grasp (always the Jews, isn't it!).
So, yeah. I found that scene familiar and funny in some sick twisted way. I'd love it if Lucius Malfoy died and then Narcissa and Snape hooked up and lived in her mansion. It would just be really amusing and strange.
The moral of this post is, as my Dad is always telling me - I need to find some new books to read, which aren't by Georgette Heyer or J. K. Rowling.
But then I might just have a new obsession.