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I have this post on Sirius and Regulus and East of Eden I keep thinking about putting up. I think the trouble with it is that I can't stop babbling in it, just wandering off and wondering how things could be, given that we have zero to no canon about them.
Today, though, I was thinking about
In an interview about Six Feet Under Alan Ball, rather wonderfully, referred to the character of Rico Diaz as the tragically underappreciated adopted son or something to that affect. I loved that because I thought that was absolutely true--Rico was brought into the business by Nathaniel Fisher, Sr. He was the most interested in Fisher & Sons, the business, and he was the most talented (he was an artist at reconstruction). Yet he could never quite be part of the family, and so part of the business. In a very real way he was one of the the "Sons" of Fisher & Sons, but was never really seen that way. Mostly the way he was treated as a son, imo, was to be resented by the real sons when they felt inadequate.
That made me think about how I always felt Krycek was a lot like that in The X-files. Mulder and Spender were both the legitimate sons of Bill Mulder and CSM (or both of CSM, damn you, Chris Carter), and Krycek was the outsider fighting his way into the Conspiracy. Although Krycek was more determined and willing, it was Mulder and Spender who were the desirable ones because they were blood.
So what does that have to do with Snape? Well, nothing. Or not much, exactly. It's just that I was thinking about Snape and Sirius. The two characters have a pretty intense relationship in canon. We are first told by DD in PS/SS that Snape hates Harry because he and Harry's father hated each other. Certainly Snape hates Harry because he reminds him of James, and both Sirius and Snape are accused of mistaking Harry for his father. So while James and Sirius were best friends, and Snape and James hated each other, James also provides a sort of focal point around which Sirius and Snape hate each other.
However, since I'm somebody who really likes family sagas, and in HP I think all the family sagas are the tragedies on the Dark Side of the book (the Weasleys have their drama and their dysfunction, but it's mostly rooted in the present...it's just not the operatic drama of the Blacks), I can't help but think about Snape as a Black. Sirius leaves his family and is blasted off the family tree. He goes to a family on the "good" side, the Potters, and they become his family. In the present time Sirius is considered a member of that family, I would say.
But what about Snape? The post-HBP interest in Regulus begs the question of what, if any, relationship Snape and Regulus had. Regulus was the son who stayed on the family tree. Even after rejecting the DEs, he was still a loyal Black as far as we know. They were both DEs together. HBP makes a point of bringing Regulus into the fold, even if you don't think he is R.A.B. (which I think he is). Slughorn first brings him up as a Slytherin, "I got [Sirius'] brother Regulus when he came along." (He sees the Black boys as "a matched set.") I can't find the other quote, but I know there's somewhere where someone says that Regulus only lived a few days after leaving the DEs. Iow, although we never heard of the lad before OotP, everyone is on a first name basis with him. Well, that's part of the fun of a coming-of-age mystery. All the adults know more than you do, because they were all alive then. How was Harry to know he should worry about Regulus when he didn't know he existed, and then when he did know Sirius acted like he wasn't important?
It becomes very tempting to imagine Snape, who is the same age as Sirius, replacing him in a way in the family's eyes. We have no evidence that Regulus looked at Snape the way he had at Sirius, but there's just something interesting about Snape being at Grimmauld Place given that he was (or is) more in line with what the house represents. (It adds some nice possibilities for the fact he won't stay for dinner.)
The main reason for thinking of it is that in HBP Snape *is* there helping the Blacks. Narcissa (Black) Malfoy comes to him for help protecting her son (also a Black). Snape and Bellatrix (Black) LeStrange seem to know each other very well. Narcissa references Snape's friendship with Lucius (Sirius had earlier called Snape Lucius' lapdog), but while we know he and Lucius have a relationship it's the Blacks with whom Snape seems the most bound up: Draco, Narcissa, Bellatrix and Sirius. Snape may not be "family" in their Pureblood eyes, but their ties seem almost as close. Had Sirius not been a "blood traitor" he might have been the one his cousin, Narcissa, went to for protection for her son as head of the family. He might have been the one sniping with Bellatrix. (I can see him making a UV as well, if not necessarily this one.) Harry tells us Snape seems to like Draco the very first day of class. Has he met him before? Is it just that Draco was Lucius' son, or is Snape close with Draco's family? And by Draco's family, I mostly mean the Blacks, since those are the relatives we usually see in canon? This storyline is a family drama, with Voldemort being simply the outside influence. In fact, Voldemort seems to spend the whole year picking on Draco.
It makes me wonder, thinking back on OotP, if Snape ever spent time in the house at Grimmauld Place the way Sirius stayed with the Potters. He wasn't best buddies with Regulus as far as we know, but he may have gotten involved with the whole family during Voldemort's first rise. Fanon has often named Snape Draco's godfather and while this might not be literally true he is rather acting as one in HBP.
Maybe the other reason I wonder about this comes down to house elves. Besides being hilarious when he waxed rhapsodic over Draco's bone structure in HBP, Kreacher was also very serious in considering him a Black. Dobby betrayed the Malfoys to serve Harry Potter; Kreacher betrayed Sirius and would love to serve the last of the Blacks. I think maybe it's the fact that I think of Kreacher as part of the Black family that made me start thinking about Snape this way.
Snape may be a Prince, but he's a half-blood. He's not married--Pureblood ideology makes it impossible for him to marry himself into the kind of family he supported as a DE. But that doesn't mean he didn't fashion himself some place in that family. It's interesting for me to think that that might drive some of his confrontations with Sirius as well. Sirius may have left his family behind and said good riddance, but would he really like the idea of Snape getting a spot in it? I don't think it's too wild an idea to think that Snape would have coveted a spot in that family. He was a DE, he supported the ideology (I don't think you can surgically remove Pureblood Mania from the DE ideology so that Snape's not a bigot), he used Mudblood as an insult at least once. Sirius compares him to a Pureblood's lapdog. The name Half-blood Prince could mean he's a Prince among half-bloods, or it can also be Snape claiming a place for himself in the wizarding side of his family. He's a half-blood, but he's still a Prince. He did perhaps want a wizard family. (Can't blame the man there--look at Harry and Hermione!)
I have no idea what really went on. It just seems like there's some good potential for something in the fact that Snape plays such a huge part in the Black family drama of HBP, taking over as the patriarch in some ways, when Sirius was so defined by being an Outsider. Not that Snape's role goes completely smoothly. Bellatrix is obviously suspicious of him, but more on Voldemort's behalf. Draco is potentially even more interesting on that score, since just as Snape steps into a father's role Draco becomes rebellious and suspicious. One wonders if there's a "you're not my father!" lurking there somewhere, with Draco projecting some of his anger about his father onto Snape. I've always liked the fact that when Snape and Draco argue the thing that makes Draco lose it and stomp off in a huff is when Snape responds to his claim that Snape is trying to steal his glory by saying he knows Draco is upset about his father. Seems like Snape doesn't buy that glory stuff either.
Anyway, I guess I haven't actually said anything. It's just an interesting aspect to Snape and Sirius' relationship. In the fight between the two in OotP, Sirius, in one of his Black-est (and Draco-ish) moments, leans back in his chair lazily and, speaking to the ceiling, says, "You know, I think I'd prefer it if you didn't give orders here, Snape. It's my house, you see." This creates an "ugly flush" in Snape's pallid face. He then becomes quietly waspish, and hits Sirius with the charge of being useless. Harry later remembers this and claims Snape goaded Sirius into leaving the house, implying he was a coward. It's certainly true that this is Sirius' sore spot. Could Snape have pulled it out because Sirius had hit his own sore spot by claiming the Black House as his own and speaking to Snape like an unworthy guest in it? Not even a poor relation? That ugly flush seems a bit much for the remark Sirius made otherwise, at least to me. Perhaps Sirius was really was pulling out the Pureblood Black card, without Harry realizing it. If Snape longed to be a real Black, I could certainly see Sirius mocking him about it.
Today, though, I was thinking about
In an interview about Six Feet Under Alan Ball, rather wonderfully, referred to the character of Rico Diaz as the tragically underappreciated adopted son or something to that affect. I loved that because I thought that was absolutely true--Rico was brought into the business by Nathaniel Fisher, Sr. He was the most interested in Fisher & Sons, the business, and he was the most talented (he was an artist at reconstruction). Yet he could never quite be part of the family, and so part of the business. In a very real way he was one of the the "Sons" of Fisher & Sons, but was never really seen that way. Mostly the way he was treated as a son, imo, was to be resented by the real sons when they felt inadequate.
That made me think about how I always felt Krycek was a lot like that in The X-files. Mulder and Spender were both the legitimate sons of Bill Mulder and CSM (or both of CSM, damn you, Chris Carter), and Krycek was the outsider fighting his way into the Conspiracy. Although Krycek was more determined and willing, it was Mulder and Spender who were the desirable ones because they were blood.
So what does that have to do with Snape? Well, nothing. Or not much, exactly. It's just that I was thinking about Snape and Sirius. The two characters have a pretty intense relationship in canon. We are first told by DD in PS/SS that Snape hates Harry because he and Harry's father hated each other. Certainly Snape hates Harry because he reminds him of James, and both Sirius and Snape are accused of mistaking Harry for his father. So while James and Sirius were best friends, and Snape and James hated each other, James also provides a sort of focal point around which Sirius and Snape hate each other.
However, since I'm somebody who really likes family sagas, and in HP I think all the family sagas are the tragedies on the Dark Side of the book (the Weasleys have their drama and their dysfunction, but it's mostly rooted in the present...it's just not the operatic drama of the Blacks), I can't help but think about Snape as a Black. Sirius leaves his family and is blasted off the family tree. He goes to a family on the "good" side, the Potters, and they become his family. In the present time Sirius is considered a member of that family, I would say.
But what about Snape? The post-HBP interest in Regulus begs the question of what, if any, relationship Snape and Regulus had. Regulus was the son who stayed on the family tree. Even after rejecting the DEs, he was still a loyal Black as far as we know. They were both DEs together. HBP makes a point of bringing Regulus into the fold, even if you don't think he is R.A.B. (which I think he is). Slughorn first brings him up as a Slytherin, "I got [Sirius'] brother Regulus when he came along." (He sees the Black boys as "a matched set.") I can't find the other quote, but I know there's somewhere where someone says that Regulus only lived a few days after leaving the DEs. Iow, although we never heard of the lad before OotP, everyone is on a first name basis with him. Well, that's part of the fun of a coming-of-age mystery. All the adults know more than you do, because they were all alive then. How was Harry to know he should worry about Regulus when he didn't know he existed, and then when he did know Sirius acted like he wasn't important?
It becomes very tempting to imagine Snape, who is the same age as Sirius, replacing him in a way in the family's eyes. We have no evidence that Regulus looked at Snape the way he had at Sirius, but there's just something interesting about Snape being at Grimmauld Place given that he was (or is) more in line with what the house represents. (It adds some nice possibilities for the fact he won't stay for dinner.)
The main reason for thinking of it is that in HBP Snape *is* there helping the Blacks. Narcissa (Black) Malfoy comes to him for help protecting her son (also a Black). Snape and Bellatrix (Black) LeStrange seem to know each other very well. Narcissa references Snape's friendship with Lucius (Sirius had earlier called Snape Lucius' lapdog), but while we know he and Lucius have a relationship it's the Blacks with whom Snape seems the most bound up: Draco, Narcissa, Bellatrix and Sirius. Snape may not be "family" in their Pureblood eyes, but their ties seem almost as close. Had Sirius not been a "blood traitor" he might have been the one his cousin, Narcissa, went to for protection for her son as head of the family. He might have been the one sniping with Bellatrix. (I can see him making a UV as well, if not necessarily this one.) Harry tells us Snape seems to like Draco the very first day of class. Has he met him before? Is it just that Draco was Lucius' son, or is Snape close with Draco's family? And by Draco's family, I mostly mean the Blacks, since those are the relatives we usually see in canon? This storyline is a family drama, with Voldemort being simply the outside influence. In fact, Voldemort seems to spend the whole year picking on Draco.
It makes me wonder, thinking back on OotP, if Snape ever spent time in the house at Grimmauld Place the way Sirius stayed with the Potters. He wasn't best buddies with Regulus as far as we know, but he may have gotten involved with the whole family during Voldemort's first rise. Fanon has often named Snape Draco's godfather and while this might not be literally true he is rather acting as one in HBP.
Maybe the other reason I wonder about this comes down to house elves. Besides being hilarious when he waxed rhapsodic over Draco's bone structure in HBP, Kreacher was also very serious in considering him a Black. Dobby betrayed the Malfoys to serve Harry Potter; Kreacher betrayed Sirius and would love to serve the last of the Blacks. I think maybe it's the fact that I think of Kreacher as part of the Black family that made me start thinking about Snape this way.
Snape may be a Prince, but he's a half-blood. He's not married--Pureblood ideology makes it impossible for him to marry himself into the kind of family he supported as a DE. But that doesn't mean he didn't fashion himself some place in that family. It's interesting for me to think that that might drive some of his confrontations with Sirius as well. Sirius may have left his family behind and said good riddance, but would he really like the idea of Snape getting a spot in it? I don't think it's too wild an idea to think that Snape would have coveted a spot in that family. He was a DE, he supported the ideology (I don't think you can surgically remove Pureblood Mania from the DE ideology so that Snape's not a bigot), he used Mudblood as an insult at least once. Sirius compares him to a Pureblood's lapdog. The name Half-blood Prince could mean he's a Prince among half-bloods, or it can also be Snape claiming a place for himself in the wizarding side of his family. He's a half-blood, but he's still a Prince. He did perhaps want a wizard family. (Can't blame the man there--look at Harry and Hermione!)
I have no idea what really went on. It just seems like there's some good potential for something in the fact that Snape plays such a huge part in the Black family drama of HBP, taking over as the patriarch in some ways, when Sirius was so defined by being an Outsider. Not that Snape's role goes completely smoothly. Bellatrix is obviously suspicious of him, but more on Voldemort's behalf. Draco is potentially even more interesting on that score, since just as Snape steps into a father's role Draco becomes rebellious and suspicious. One wonders if there's a "you're not my father!" lurking there somewhere, with Draco projecting some of his anger about his father onto Snape. I've always liked the fact that when Snape and Draco argue the thing that makes Draco lose it and stomp off in a huff is when Snape responds to his claim that Snape is trying to steal his glory by saying he knows Draco is upset about his father. Seems like Snape doesn't buy that glory stuff either.
Anyway, I guess I haven't actually said anything. It's just an interesting aspect to Snape and Sirius' relationship. In the fight between the two in OotP, Sirius, in one of his Black-est (and Draco-ish) moments, leans back in his chair lazily and, speaking to the ceiling, says, "You know, I think I'd prefer it if you didn't give orders here, Snape. It's my house, you see." This creates an "ugly flush" in Snape's pallid face. He then becomes quietly waspish, and hits Sirius with the charge of being useless. Harry later remembers this and claims Snape goaded Sirius into leaving the house, implying he was a coward. It's certainly true that this is Sirius' sore spot. Could Snape have pulled it out because Sirius had hit his own sore spot by claiming the Black House as his own and speaking to Snape like an unworthy guest in it? Not even a poor relation? That ugly flush seems a bit much for the remark Sirius made otherwise, at least to me. Perhaps Sirius was really was pulling out the Pureblood Black card, without Harry realizing it. If Snape longed to be a real Black, I could certainly see Sirius mocking him about it.
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The political issue is likely a huge factor, as well as the potential influence of the progressive purebloods. I agree with this. But I personally don't think that this is the key issue at the core of the hatred/anger generated by the Blacks; because they don't use the word "traitor" when referring to either Potter that we've seen. Granted, there isn't much of a case that can be made with James Potter, because we've never seen him in confrontation with another pureblooded wizard (and Snape wouldn't be in a position to call him a traitor), but as far as we know, this insult has never been levelled in his direction. As far as I know (because I don't have OotP with me right now), it has never been levelled in Harry's direction either, not by Bellatrix, Mrs. Black, Draco, Lucius, or Kreacher. Furthermore, there may be reasons to feel that the Blacks despise either James or Harry Potter (I mean, it's hardly illogical to assume that Regulus despised James for stealing Sirius away, to name one example), but I can't remember being given any indication that they actually do.
This is why I feel that the main issue here, aside from fear of spreading influence, is the label "traitor" at its most basic definition. The Weasleys do have significant political power from what we've seen, and they are putting it to use in ways that would cramp the old pureblood traditions, and I can easily see this frightening the old pureblood families, causing them to identify the Weasleys as a threat. But I think the deeper sting must come from the fact that at one point in time, the Weasleys were actually on the opposite side of this debate, on the Black side. At one point, they did not reject these family customs, they were expected to embrace them and they did. If there is fear of their influence, it is only another reason to hate them, not the main reason. The Blacks may have feared Sirius's influence in school, but I don't think that was the main reason he was blasted off the tapestry and labelled a traitor.
From:
Part 2
This sort of goes back to my earlier argument about the Potters being a sect of modernist purebloods who were never a part of the old school purebloods. They have their own side, and as far as we know always have (when Hogwarts was being founded, Salazar was the only Founder who refused to take Muggleborns, indicating that even back then there were modernists who outnumbered the old tradtional purebloods). James's reasons for snubbing the old pureblood traditions are debatable, but I don't see them being much of an issue -- I'm mostly against the word "subversive". What did James subvert? His parents might not have made their own views as flamboyantly obvious despite their prestige, but they must have held these views: all of James's actions, however wilfully indifferent he was to their implications (for instance, it's implied that he was friends with Remus before finding out that he was a werewolf) weren't discouraged in the least; if anything, they were actively encouraged.
His parents indulged his whims, the professors indulged his whims (well, depending on whether a case can be made for the Slytherin-baiting), as you said, he was quite literally a Dumbledore protege (embodying many of the views Dumbledore prized); his parents, friends, and House embraced his "renegade", he was made Head Boy despite countless strikes against his record, and we have yet to hear of any resistance to his marriage to Lily.
If ever an issue was made over his political views, or his displays of these views, it was clear that, until Voldemort (a halfblood) came for him, he was the one in control; and certainly resistance about his views never came from his friends. Maybe not even from his enemies (successfully, anyway; his Pensieve confrontation with Snape certainly didn't make it seem as though his views were being met with successful resistance).
Which comes back to my earlier point, that the core issue isn't solely about power and influence and irritating views, but about rebellion. While James may have been wilfully indifferent to pureblood tradition, he did not reject anything he or any of his family had once believed in, where both Sirius and the Weasleys did this. This is why I think it's significant that we don't really see any specific epithets levelled towards either of the Potters, or even much significant hatred.
I know we may never agree on this subject, though, because there's just too much that we don't know.