Deathly Hallows, Chapter 30: The Sacking of Severus Snape

[oneandthetruth]

This is another of Rowling’s “let’s trash Snape and his fans” phrases. To sack somebody means to fire them, but Snape isn’t fired; he quits. Besides, the only one with the power to fire him is Voldemort, and he doesn’t fire Snape. Take that, Rowling!

Luna Stuns Alecto, and Alecto falls so hard she rattles the glass in the bookcases. (Funny; I don’t

Comments

[nx74defiant]

I like your analysis of Minerva's reaction. She does seem really thrown by what Harry did. I'd like to think she really didn't believe Harry's actions were Gallant.

[oryx_leucoryx]

Except then she throws a Crucio herself, and destroys any credit left to her.

[oryx_leucoryx]

Oops, it was an Imperius, not a Crucio. Still Unforgivable.

[terri_testing]

I've been thinking and thinking, and I've finally pinned down something about Minerva's reactions to that Cruciatus

[hwyla]

One of the surprising things I remember thinking (among all the others) was WHY is Luna at Hogwarts? She was rescued from Malfoy Manor and delivered to Shell Cottage by Dobby along with everyone else. WHY does she LEAVE Shell Cottage? Do we really think Bill and Fleur kicked her out immediately after the trio left for Gringott's?

Or did she decide that rather than sitting around the cottage for a month (making very little plans for the Gringott's break-in like the trio) that she would be more useful breaking back into Hogwarts and hiding in the RoR - presumably with forays out into the castle to disrupt the authority of the Carrows. Want to talk bravery? Or foolishness? Luna belongs right up there with any Gryffindor.

Does anyone recall a mention of her actually leaving the safety of Shell Cottage, and why wasn't it mentioned that the Trio were worried about her and what might happen if she was recaptured? As she has said before - it was ALMOST like having friends.

[oryx_leucoryx]

We know Luna was still at Shell Cottage when Remus came to announce Teddy's birth. Luna and Dean came from Shell Cottage to the castle when Neville summoned the DA with the coins - presumably because they expected a battle imminently. They arrived just the previous chapter.

[hwyla]

Thanks - I suppose I went through that bit too fast and missed it.

[vermouth1991]

The DE's took away Luna's wand when they captured her, but not her "extra cash"?

-- David W. from thehpn

[lynn_waterfall]

> McGonagall says something interesting in reply: “Only the difference between truth and lies, courage and cowardice.” That’s a lovely sentiment, but how true is it?

I find that line to be an utterly cringeworthy moment of let's-inject-grand-moral-principles-here. The Death Eater is proposing to let a couple of kids die for his mistake, and the first thing that comes to McGonagall's mind is... you're so dishonest, you liar! Seriously?

(I mean, I don't even remember Gryffindors claiming to have honesty as one of their virtues, or pretending that it is. Feel free to correct me if you can find a single example, but this isn't even a virtue that Gryffindors have a mental block about, like bravery.)

The courage/cowardice part is, at least, relevant. Although, of course, considering that the whole issue here is that Amycus has been unsuccessful in turning another kid over to the Dark Lord to be killed, McGonagall is clearly wasting her breath. I wish she'd stop being a grandstanding Gryffindor and do something that might actually

[oryx_leucoryx]

Did Severus really quit, from the POV of magic and the castle? He may have had to, in order to keep access to headmaster privileges from Voldemort. And following the situation with Umbridge, it is possible Voldemort might not know how to appoint a new school head that the castle would accept.

But even if he did quit, that should not cause the castle to not give him a portrait upon his death. I'm sure some of the school heads in the past managed to retire in peace and still got portraits. So - no body, no portrait - Severus lives.

[oneandthetruth]

At the end of chapter 32, I come up with a way Severus could have finagled his survival. It's very Slytherin, yet not anything I think has been proposed before. In chapter 33, part 2, I back up my hypothesis by pointing out supporting evidence in the text.

Snape is arguably both the smartest and most magically adept character in these books. More important, he's not so full of himself, like Tom and Albus, that he isn't willing to consider the possibility of failure and take precautions to avert it. As the Bible says, "Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall." Rowling seems not to realize she wrote that into her books, either.

[sharaz_jek]

This is true, but could it be there's a way for the staff to force out a head who they believed to be unworthy? Two of the Founders are alleged to have been clever, after all, and may have foreseen such a situation...

(I don't know why I'm trying to justify this; I think being a Doctor Who fan has made this sort of thing reflexive.)

[oryx_leucoryx]

Did Salazar leave on his own terms or was he fired? Gryffindor's hat, who was present and may have been a witness, claims he left of his own accord.

[aikaterini]

/To sack somebody means to fire them, but Snape isn’t fired; he quits

[vermouth1991]

*checks his copy of DH*

Actually, the wording is that

As Amycus spun around, Harry shouted, “Crucio!”

The Death Eater was lifted off his feet. He writhed through the air like a drowning man, thrashing and howling in pain, and then,
with a crunch and a shattering of glass, he smashed into the front of a bookcase and crumpled, insensible, to the floor.

There's an example from an episode of Buffy which I never saw but was burned into my brain: when the demon was proved unable to be exorcised from Ben's body, Giles suffocated him to death. He knew that somebody must do it, and Buffy and Xander would never do that themselves.

So yeah, Harry hates Dudley the worst--no, he hates Draco the worst--no he hates Snape the worst, but never tries to fling anything halfway harmful towards Voldemort, who is supposedly Hitler and Satan rolled into one.

The power of love, ladies and gentlemen.

-- David W. from thehpn

[aikaterini]

Oops, sorry, you're right. Haven't read the book in a while, so I forgot. But as Oneandthetruth pointed out in the scene with Xeno Lovegood, Amycus's torture isn't prolonged like Hermione's in this book and Harry's in GoF. I think that the crash not only tries to make the moment more dramatic, but cuts off any budding pity we might have felt for Amycus. Oh, he’s in so much pain, it’s really bad, but then - bam! He’s out cold. He's not suffering anymore, so let's just forget about it.

/never tries to fling anything halfway harmful towards Voldemort, who is supposedly Hitler and Satan rolled into one./

Which is really weird.

[oneandthetruth]

So yeah, Harry hates Dudley the worst--no, he hates Draco the worst--no he hates Snape the worst, but never tries to fling anything halfway harmful towards Voldemort, who is supposedly Hitler and Satan rolled into one.

And who killed his parents, thus making Harry an orphan who had to be raised by his abusive relatives. This is really messed up.