Little Hints

[Mistress Siana]

What I've noticed about HBP is that there are quite a few little sentences that are seemingly meaningless but in fact hint at the way the plot develops. Typical JKR of course, but in HBP more than ever.

For example, in second chapter, Bellatrix says to Narcissa: "He lives here? In this Muggle dunghill? We must be the first of our kind to ever set foot on.." So what did she mean with "our kind"? It can't mean wizards since Snape obviously is one, and I doubt she meant "women". So I guess she must have referred to Pure-bloods. The first hint to who the HBP was.

Then there's the fact that the look on Harry's face when he force-feeds DD that potion on his (DD's) orders and, only one chapter later, the look on Snape's face when he kills DD are described with the same words: Hatred and revulsion. In Harry's case, it's explained that it's hatred at himself and revulsion at what he was doing. Could that be a hint that underlines the popular theory that Snape also acted on DD's order?

Then there's another line in the second chapter that bothered me. When I first read it I had the feeling it meant something but dismissed that thought as highly unlikely, but when Bellatrix's little comment proved significant, I gave it a second thought. When Snape explains his behaviour to Bellatrix, he says:

"He (DD) has since substained a serious injury because his reactions are slower than they once were. But throughout all those years, he has never stopped trusting Severus Snape, and therein lies my great value to the Dark Lord."

Doesn't anybody find it strange that Snape suddenly talks about himself in second person? Personally, I find it highly uncharacteristic. I know it's somewhat far fetched, but I can't help wondering if it possibly wasn't Snape himself that made the Vow. Why? The possibility that Death Eaters impose other people via polyjuice was emphasized at the beginning but never became a subject. And obviously, the DEs themselves are not using passwords to make sure one is really who he says he is. So wouldn't it be an intelligent (and logical) strategy for the order to employ that idea themselves? Apart from that, I found the words I quoted sound a lot like Dumbledore...he uses the same explanation for his condition later when he talks to Greyback...and the "I trust Severus Snape" part is quite like a mantra DD has to repeat over and over. I don't know...I just had a very strange feeling when I read it because it's so very unlike Snape to talk about himself in second person, and considering the fact that my strange feelings tend to prove right, I thought I'd share.

[Froggs]

I, for one, am going to hope that you are right. It would be a very sneaky way to get DD into Vody's camp...but would that mean that Snape is dead or was it all a bit of tricky magic? Good food for thought

[crystallised_pineapple]

it seems farfetched, but then again it is harry potter and i know what you mean it sounds wrong for snape to talk that way, although we have never seen him with DE's before.

the more i think about it the more likely it is seeming lol, i really hope so or at least something to explain all the strangness surrounding snape in HBP.

[Petal]

What GREAT thoughts!!!! After thinking them over they really made things start to fall into place. Here's hoping your strange feelings prove
correct. Thanks for a new way of thinking things through!!

[Froggs]

And it would make the potion drinking thing more plausable, the things DD sees seem to fit more with what memories you'd imagine Snape having.

[menotyoo]

If it is all right and this thread is meant to show any little hints people picked up, then I have some.

Not so much a hint, but irony when throughout the book Harry and Ron talk about how they learned more from HBP than they ever could from Snape.

The line at Slughorn's party - when Harry notices Snape is afraid of Draco, or afraid of what he might be up to...I think this can be explained by either theory, that Snape is good or bad, but it is a hint either way, I think.

Oh, and the Ginny/Harry deal was hinted at from the start. The love potion was the most blatently obvious, because it smelled like Ginny to Harry. But also, when Ginny ditches Harry on the train, it says he sulks or something, but doesn't say why, then when she ditches him in Hogsmeade, he glowers or snarls or something, that you pass over unless you know what is coming.

[DumbledoreistheMaster]

Whoa ya the things DD sees when he drinks the potion really do seem to be the kind of things Snape would see. But the only thing is DD is so kind to Harry throughout the whole thing and I'm not entirely sure Snape would've been able to manage that. I mean he kind of proved during the occlumency lessons that he can't get past his hatred of James.

[Mistress Siana]

Personally, I don't think DD was impersonating Snape or vice versa throughout the whole story, I'd say it was just in the second chapter. That's at least what I meant, I never considered the change to have been made for longer than that. I guess I have to think about that...

Something else: When Hermione speculated about DD's injury after his welcome speech, she said there were magical injuries that could not be cured and poisons without antidotes. The burned hand clearly seemed to be am injury of said kind, so was the potion DD drank a poison without antidote?

[Augusta Longbottom]

The burned hand clearly seemed to be am injury of said kind, so was the potion DD drank a poison without antidote?

I believe it is. That's what makes me think he needed Snape to do what he did.

[Pattenrond]

I was thinking about something else: before Snape actually kills DD in the tower, there's that strange reaction of DD, as Harry notes it himself: he is pleading Snape. I just wondered: if DD really trusted Snape, which he repeated throughout the whole book, then why should he beg him for help? He would rather expect Snape to save him without having to ask for it... It seems more logical that he's asking him to do what they had agreed, i.e. to kill him.
And then there is that strange conversation that Hagrid overheard between Snape and Dumbledore, remember, DD says that Snape "had agreed to to do it and that was all there was to it". Do you have any other explanation for that conversation?

[Froggs]

Maybe DD made another unbreakable vow with Snape (Snape kills DD on DD's orders theory)

[Pattenrond]

Some days ago I read another book, there was a theory in it that said Jesus had actually chosen Judas to betray him so that the "prophecy" about him could become true... Could that theory apply also to DD and Snape?

Talking about prophecy... We agree that, as far as we know, only ONE person knows (or knew) about the whole prophecy: Dumbledore. Trelawney doesn't seem to remember anything about it, and Snape only heard a part of it (or that's what DD says). So... actually... could it be that there was something more in that prophecy? Something that DD doesn't tell Harry? Something that had to do with DD himself? Isn't it strange that the prophecy is made to DD whose name doesn't even appear in it?.......

[redhead_723]

And then there is that strange conversation that Hagrid overheard between Snape and Dumbledore, remember, DD says that Snape "had agreed to to do it and that was all there was to it". Do you have any other explanation for that conversation?

I think that the olny explanation that anyone has come up with so far is Snape did not want to go through with what DD was asking him to do (kill him if the time came). It seems to be the only theory that works and I personally hope that it is correct becuase I dont like Snape being a bad guy.

[Scarlet Lioness]

Really awesome ideas...I think I need to read the book again to spot other things again and get the story in my head a little bit more...

[xXxFawkesSong]

Some days ago I read another book, there was a theory in it that said Jesus had actually chosen Judas to betray him so that the "prophecy" about him could become true... Could that theory apply also to DD and Snape?

Talking about prophecy... We agree that, as far as we know, only ONE person knows (or knew) about the whole prophecy: Dumbledore. Trelawney doesn't seem to remember anything about it, and Snape only heard a part of it (or that's what DD says). So... actually... could it be that there was something more in that prophecy? Something that DD doesn't tell Harry? Something that had to do with DD himself? Isn't it strange that the prophecy is made to DD whose name doesn't even appear in it?.......

Ooo, nice comparison, I would have never thought of that. Wow, I never thought that DD might be in the prophecy, either =o Such good ideas...