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

[jana_ch]

Amycus is Greek, not Latin. According to Robert Graves it means “loudly bellowing.” He was a barbarian king who liked to challenge strangers to a boxing match in which he killed them. When he encountered the Argonauts he boxed with Polydeuces (aka Pollux), who served him as he had served others. Alecto means “unnameable”-She-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. She was the third of the Erinyes or Furies, whose job was to punish evil-doers. Naming a brutal Death Eater Amycus makes sense, but Alecto the Fury, though frightening and implacable, was always just.

[mary_j_59]

Thanks for the info! I was thinking of "Amicitia", too. And - it's kind of fascinating that Alecto was supposed to punish evil-doers! One could argue that Gryffindors are evil-doers, I suppose, but somehow I doubt Rowling meant that!

[oryx_leucoryx]

McGonagall says there are “hundreds of students” to evacuate. How is that possible? Only purebloods are at school, and even when it’s full, Hogwarts only has a few hundred students. Oh dear, math, again.

Actually Rowling/Minerva are right here: Only Muggle-borns were not allowed to attend this year, purebloods and half-bloods (and anyone in-between) were required to attend, even if previously they were homeschooled or attended school abroad. Dean said previously that if he had proof that his bio-dad had been a wizard he could have been at school. Seamus was at school.

Now I'm dying to see the POV of a student who had spent a few years at some other school, wondering how much of the Hogwarts craziness was due to the current regime and how much was routine crazy. Or a student who had been at Durmstrang complaining that the Carrows are teaching the Dark Arts wrong.

[vermouth1991]

Didn't "terri_testing" write an alternate DH series which basically took the PoV of anyone but the trio?

[oryx_leucoryx]

Yes she did. It is named 'Headmaster Snape'. She adds chapters occasionally. So those are some extra ideas, if she wants them.

[jana_ch]

The title of the chapter is wonderfully alliterative, but the Deputy Headmistress cannot “sack” the Headmaster just because she decides she wants to. Only the Board of Governors can hire or fire a headmaster. Minerva just thinks she can fire him because she’s a Gryffindor and Gryffindors think can do anything they want to Slytherins.

And Severus did not “abandon” the school. He made a tactical retreat in order to avoid harming anyone, just like Dumbledore did in Book Five when he was about to be arrested for forming his own private army (which is something he actually did, though it was called the Order of the Phoenix, not Dumbledore’s Army. Dumbledore’s Army was the youth auxiliary, sort of like the Hitler Jugend.) Snape is still Headmaster until he resigns or is officially terminated by the Board of Governors. Or until they find a body, which hasn’t happened yet.

I read one fanfic in which Dumbledore fired Minerva in absentia and appointed Severus Deputy Head shortly before he went on the Horcrux-hunt with Harry. So when Dumbles

[vermouth1991]

Re: tactical retreat

Imagine if he did not glide away out of the school bounderies, and Voldemort arrives and demands him to open the gates.

[terri_testing]

Minerva and lying

[oneandthetruth]

I didn't say she'd been a fanboy, though. I said she whitewashed their violent crimes as "troublemaking." You don't have to be a "fan" of somebody to minimize their bad behavior. It's entirely possible she's whitewashing to salve her own conscience. That is, she was complicit in allowing their atrocious behavior and now feels guilty about it. Maybe at the time she didn't care because she figured that greasy-haired Slytherin kid deserved what he got, but having worked with Snape for over a decade, she came to have some affection and/or respect for him and (before he became head of Hogwarts) felt bad for looking the other way. Not that that had any effect on her caring about other Slytherins, as you point out

[terri_testing]

Heh, yes, I just this morning directed Madderbrad to read Dolores Crane's "In Loco Parentis," which at one point has Hestia listing the Mud- and half-blood victims of bullying at Hogwarts who'd killed themselves

[oneandthetruth]

I can't believe the entire school didn't know every detail of the Snape-stripping incident. Even if they didn't "go all the way," that's the kind of thing that would set off a firestorm of gossip. And unlike the werewolf attack, the stripping was done in public, in broad daylight, in front of dozens of witnesses. It would have been extremely difficult, if not impossible, to shut all those people up--assuming the school admin cared to, which it probably didn't. The more hateful Gryffindors are the original experts at "winning through intimidation