Unlikely Allies, Chapter Six: The Secret Riddle

[terri_testing]

Q: What do a deceased Pureblood supremacist, a magic-hating Muggle, and the Half-blood Head of Slytherin have in common?
A: No, no, you had the correct answer: nothing at all. Don’t be silly!

Chapter Summary: Muggles help to investigate the Riddle mystery.

“The enemy of my enemy is my friend.” Muggle saying.

“Only two things make us

Comments

Re: I'll try

[terri_testing]

Right, but the real question was why would he START talking to Betty at all, as though she were a human being? Why did he start by trying to coax her into talking, even revealing (a part of, but a true part of) his own interest in the matter? Why not just force veritaserum down her throat, or cast Legilimens to fish around in her mind without her consent?

That would be the wizardly way to handle the interrogation of a single Muggle, and Severus has been trying to be a wizardly wizard since he first learned he wasn't one of the Muggles he lived among.

Once he was talking to her, yes, he would respond and identify with what she said. I didn't even think about the Marjorie/Lily comparison, but it's extremely apt. (I even thought of Marjorie as being beautiful and charming, and being bold because other people often let her get her way due to that, so it's REALLY apt). And of course Severus himself has some experience of feeling hounded for years on end, though even the Marauders weren't that bad in comparison. (Probably did him some good to put that grudge into perspective, she sniffs. I mean after all, Severus only once had seriously to fear for his life.)

Winding you up

[terri_testing]

Sorry, part of this was deliberately winding you up.

Last first. I was being flippant. I was sexually abused when I was 12; the trauma flared up again a couple years ago when the perpetrator flaunted her lack of remorse. So yes.

Severus was legitimately traumatized; no one else has a right to pass judgment on his rate of healing, especially when canon never showed that he was ever offered an apology, reparstions, security against a repetition of the crime, or indeed support of any kind. On the other hand, recognizing that other people have been hurt as well as oneself, the same or maybe worse, and focusing on their pain and on trying to help them, can help get one's head out of one's ass. In my experience. And indeed, the idea that reaching out to others who've suffered similar traumas can help oneself is the basis of self-help (such as twelve-step) groups.

And Severus... one could argue that he gave himself to Tom in part to protect himself from the Marauders. (Not a complete description of what was going on, but not an inaccurate one.) In which case he clearly sold himself to the worse devil, in this individual case.

Not that, at 17, he could have been expected to see that. But, at 31, he CAN see it, and it appalls him.

I just posted a comparison I wrote some time ago, of Harry's/Sev's reasons for joining the side each did.

I largely agree with you.

However; canon Severus joined a group whose public rhetoric espoused overturning the Statute of Secrecy to set up Purebloods to rule over Muggles and Muggleborns. Even if he didn't think their intent as murderous as it turned in DH, even if he discounted it because he (a known-half-blood) was eagerly recruited, he AT LEAST was willing to tolerate the rhetoric. And, as I pointed out in "Death Eaters in the Seventies," the only public activity sponsored by DE's in the 90's in Voldemort's absence was "a spot of Muggle baiting." NOT Muggle killing, but certainly mistreatment.

And as a number of us have argued, most on "the good side" have showed a pronounced willingness to accord Muggles less respect and consideration than wizards: Albus, Arthur, Molly, the Weasley children, Hagrid, and Hermione. If all of them show that they consider Muggles beneath them, even if Severus doesn't show MORE WW supremacism than they do, why would he show less?

Canon doesn't strongly suggest that Severus considered Muggles his brothers and equals. In fact, the suggestions (not proof) are on the side of greater, rather than lesser, prejudice.

Finally, I write Severus mostly as a whole: my Severus here is the adult who resulted from my story "Father of the Man." (Which as a fanfic writer is legitimate enough, though as I move from direct canon to quoting earlier stories of my own I can catch the unwary in conundrums--a meta writer once called me on quoting my Petunia story, "The Girl and the Boy", as though it were canon. In a lot of ways, though, I as a writer am developing ideas within a specific subset of the Potterverse.) But in "Father of the Man," Severus developed anti-Muggle prejudice as a protection against pain. The WW told Severus he wasn't allowed to use his magic to protect a Muggle playmate, and the Muggle world bullied him while his witch mother assured him that he was superior to the bullies because he was a wizard (at that same age, I assured myself that I was smarter than they, an intellectual, and when I was among my own I'd be appreciated...)

I mentioned I broke the logjam to start writing chapter seven, and this issue (of wizards preferring to regard themselves as separate from/above Muggles became a flashpoint between Severus and Phineas: Phineas (thinking Sev's evident upset over Tom's antics at the orphanage a bit unseemly) tries to change the subject by noting that he had never actually conversed with actual Muggles. So, he asked Severus, what are Muggle really like?

Severus stood suddenly. “In fact, exactly like us, Phineas. Exactly. Why do you think I mostly despised them?”

But Severus can't move to there if that's where he starts....

Only 2 things make us human, sorrow and love

[terri_testing]

I hear what you're saying.

Regarding Ox-baiting, rat-baiting, and other Victorian blood sports--I always subconsciously assumed that Walburga's cousin Araminta was quite a bit older and a bit of a holdover from the Victorian era--just sort of made sense.

Muggle-baiting, of course, is Arthur's term for using magic to torment or tease us.

And you're right, the people under our noses (whatever our prejudices or lack thereof) are more real to us, and therefore more human, than the faceless.

So, yes, Muggle-borns and Muggle-raised Halfbloods like Severus and Harry, even as they absorb the anti-Muggle prejudice of their adopted culture, will still tend to see Muggles as more real, more human, than even a sympathetic pureblood such as Arthur.

But the WW is so absolutely disrespectful of Muggle memory... I just borrowed Fantastic Beasts and read about the rogue Welsh green and the brave person who got the Order of Merlin for saving everyone and averting disaster.... and what it's mentioned he/she actually did was mass Obliviates. And reread Fudge's account of the arrest of Sirius....

It just seems that the WW has such a well-developed Standard Operating Procedure for dealing with witnesses to magical crimes or accidents, and that the procedure totally denies the mental integrity of the victim (Obliviation is not optional, and we know Obliviation can cause mental damage) that for Severus to come in intending not to interrogate Betty as a wizard normally would is exceptional and calls for explanation.

Re: Only 2 things make us human, sorrow and love

[terri_testing]

Exactly.

Re: I'll try

[oryx_leucoryx]

(Probably did him some good to put that grudge into perspective, she sniffs. I mean after all, Severus only once had seriously to fear for his life.)

You know this isn't true. Oh, it is possible the Marauders only actually tried to kill Severus that once, but especially once he saw how they got away with it, he feared a repetition of some kind for a long while - at least until James started dating Lily somewhere in 7th year, if not until they all left Hogwarts. Look how fast he is with his wand after the DADA OWL.