Byrone

oldstonefacevimes ha respondido a tu publicación: for your mini-essay prompts: Snape + Grimmauld…

Hi, sorry, It’s late and I’m not very articulate lol. Taking out of the way the sirius/gp vs severus/se parallels thing, how about severus’ relationship with spinner’s end? as a space, a state of mind, a prison, an externalization of snapiness, idk.

Oh!  Okay, now those I can do.

I think we can tackle both “Snape and Grimmauld Place v. Snape and Spinner’s End” and “Sirius Black and Grimmauld Place v. Snape and Spinner’s End” with the same line of thought.

As previously written about in these tags and in this post, Snape’s own psyche traps him in Spinner’s End.  He was trapped there as a child by the obvious circumstances of childhood, but when Hogwarts fails to be his saving grace he remains trapped there, and he chooses to keep his childhood home and to live there during school holidays not only as part of his utilitarian lack of self-care and as a sub-conscious form of self-punishment but as an indication of how trapped he feels in the patterns of his childhood.  With Grimmauld Place, though he is not physically trapped there, his roles as Order member and later as Order Secret-Keeper for the house (an unwanted role, one in which Moody forces him to relive the trauma of killing Dumbledore in order to enter the house and do his job) continue this cycle of entrapment, as they are part and parcel of Dumbledore’s role for him, a role he will never (in life) escape.

Sirius Black, like Snape, was trapped as a child in an unpleasant (and potentially abusive) home situation.  However, unlike Snape, Black finds salvation at Hogwarts in the form of friends and popularity, and he escapes the cycle of childhood trauma manifested by Grimmauld Place.  Unfortunately for Black, this escape is but temporary, and by the time both he and Snape end up in Grimmauld Place again they are both trapped by their lives and their roles in fighting Voldemort in the same childhood homes they had hoped to leave behind.  Snape, of course, taunts Black unceasingly for his “cowardice” in remaining safe in Grimmauld Place while the rest of the Order does their dangerous work, mostly because Snape is admittedly an asshole, but in this he almost has a point–Black’s decision to remain in Grimmauld Place is one which keeps him safe.  Snape’s decision to remain in Spinner’s End and in Grimmauld Place is one which places him in constant and immediate emotional and physical danger.

I seem to be in the minority opinion on this, but I don't think Snape kept Spinner's End as a residence, or that he used it as such before the summer at the start of Half-Blood Prince. I have a few reasons for this perspective, partly because I don't think it suits Snape's character and interests, and partly for practical reasons which are best summed up by this post from user deathdaydungeon (who I'm not @-ing because they seem to have deleted all their HP posts so I'm not sure they want to be dragged into this, but it's such a good and relevant post I have to reference it):

Snape’s house in Spinner’s End is a traditional two up, two down through terraced house, mired deep in a maze of identical cobbled streets, overlooked by a looming mill chimney, and seemingly – by the 90s – entirely abandoned. ...

...these houses, in this state, no longer exist.  A large percentage of two up, two down terraces were demolished as part of slum clearance, which should tell you all that you need to know about the state of the houses.  

... These were workers houses, often funded by the owners of the mill, and therefore tied – meaning that rent was deducted from your wage before you received it.  There were benefits to being in tied accommodation, including being close to work and having a guaranteed landlord – but that was as much benefit to the mill owner as the worker.  Seeing great competition, some mill owners invested in their properties to entice workers – but Spinner’s End is not an example of this; Spinner’s End would’ve been regarded as little better than a slum even when fully occupied. The narrow streets are indicative of when these houses were built, presumably in the late 1800s – cars were not a concern, and the attitude was to build as many houses on as small a piece of land as possible. By the time the 90s roll around, and we see Narcissa and Bellatrix descend upon the street, Spinner’s End appears to be mostly deserted.  With the closure of traditional manual industries, families would be keen to relocate to where work could be found.  Estates which hadn’t already been cleared by the 60s would find themselves left to rack and ruin, their former occupants long gone – whether seeking a new life elsewhere, or having died.

The post also talks about how none of these slums exist anymore - those that weren't torn down and rebuilt were modified and modernized. In HBP however, the slum in Cokeworth is still in an abandoned, but not yet revialized or rebuilt state. The only sign of life we see when Narcissa and Bellatrix visit Snape in Spinner's end (aside from the fox Bellatrix kills) is in Snape's house. The slum appears abandoned:

An immense chimney, relic of a disused mill, reared up, shadowy and ominous. There was no sound apart from the whisper of the black water and no sign of life apart from a scrawny fox that had slunk down the bank to nose hopefully at some old fish-and-chip wrappings in the tall grass. ... Side by side they stood looking across the road at the rows and rows of dilapidated brick houses, their windows dull and blind in the darkness. ... Some of the streetlamps were broken; the two women were running between patches of light and deep darkness. ... ...they moved deeper into the deserted labyrinth of brick houses. At last Narcissa hurried up a street called Spinner’s End, over which the towering mill chimney seemed to hover like a giant admonitory finger. Her footsteps echoed on the cobbles as she passed boarded and broken windows, until she reached the very last house, where a dim light glimmered through the curtains in a downstairs room.

-Half-Blood Prince, Ch. 2

No one is living in this neighborhood. The author uses the word "deserted" and makes clear that every house is dark and dilapitated, that there's no sign of life anywhere. The broken street lamps indicate that it's more likely the local council forgot to turn the rest off, than that they forgot to fix the broken ones. The fact that the neighborhood is abandoned is important, when you consider that it's unlikely any of the people who once lived there owned their home.

Like the other residents who left, neither Snape nor his family kept the house in Spinner's End, because it was never theirs to keep. In HBP Snape is squatting in his childhood home because he knows there's no one to notice him doing so, though presumably he would use protective spells to ensure no muggles noticed the house was inhabited. The house is described as being in poor shape as well, and as Snape is a pragmatic man, this begs the question: Why is he squatting there in HBP?

My main assumption is that it's the perfect place for him to use to have privacy away from Hogwarts, which he requires for his work as a spy. I see no reason why teachers wouldn't be able to remain at Hogwarts during the summer holidays, and if they can, I also see no reason why Snape would choose to be at Spinner's End for an extended period of time. At Hogwarts he has access to his personal potions stores, facilities, has three square meals provided, and a vast library at his disposal. Given the intellectual curiosity shown by the Prince in his Advanced Potion Making book, these resources would be highly valuable to Snape, especially during the 2 months of the year when he doesn't have educational responsibilities taking up his time or interruptions to worry about.

I can see him being nostalgic or indulging his guilt and occasionally visiting Spinner's End or the surrounding parts of Cokeworth that hold sentimental value to him, though my own reading of his character leans more towards him shutting his emotional self off completely and not allowing himself to indulge in sentimentality that might render him one of the fools who wear their hearts on their sleeves, as per his admonition to Harry during Occlumency lessons. It's a long walk to the Hogwarts gates before you can apparate, and as he's written, I see his self-discipline win out before he makes it there if ever his sentimental side tries to speak up.

If he doesn't spend summers in Spinner's End usually, then what changes by HBP? Mainly that Voldemort has not only returned (which he did a year earlier), but that he was exposed at the Ministry and the wizarding world is now aware of his reappearance. In the process, his most trusted allies have been arrested, including Lucius Malfoy, a key link to giving him backdoor access to Ministry officials and channels of power. The social map of the Death Eaters has drastically changed overnight, and Snape is now at the top of the pack because he has not only proven his loyalty to Voldemort over the past year, but also his usefulness in being close to Dumbledore and having access to Harry Potter. This means Snape needs to cement his position and use it to his advantage, which includes making the best of the short period of time between school years when he's not obligated to remain at Hogwarts.

Since Cokeworth is abandoned, his parents no longer live there either. Presumably when the mill closed, its workers were evicted and forced to move on, whether by the need to work, or the mill's owner who no longer had workers to collect rent from and therefore abandoned their duties as landlord. We don't know if Snape's parents are still alive, but presumably he would have received word from at least one of them that they'd moved and the slums he grew up in were left uninhabited. Because this happened all over the country over several decades, and would have posed a fear for workers reliant on factories for both work and housing, Snape would have known what the factory closing and his parents moving meant, and that the whole neighborhood would be abandoned.

And so when Voldemort is caught at the Ministry, several of his key followers imprisoned, and privacy is more vital than ever, Snape is able to put himself in a position where he can provide just that. We don't know if Voldemort ever visited him there, or how Narcissa knew where to find him. It's possible she had been there many years earlier when Snape was much younger and the neighborhood wasn't abandoned yet, or that he gave her clear directions, should she ever need them, because Snape - or perhaps Dumbledore - anticipated Voldemort's moves and presumed he would punish Lucius through Draco and that inevitably Narcissa would be desperate to protect her son and ask for help. What we do know is that Snape spends some time during that summer at Spinner's End, that Wormtail is assigned to him likely for the purpose of reporting any suspicious behavior to Voldemort, and that this serves as the perfect setting for Snape to prove his loyalty and reliability.

They had stepped directly into a tiny sitting room, which had the feeling of a dark padded cell. The walls were completely covered in books, most of them bound in old black or brown leather; a threadbare sofa, an old armchair and a rickety table stood grouped together in a pool of dim light cast by a candle-filled lamp hung from the ceiling. The place had an air of neglect, as though it were not usually inhabited.

Half-Blood Prince, Ch. 2

"The place had an air of neglect, as though it were not usually inhabited."

Moments later, Snape points his wand at a wall of books to reveal a hidden staircase - not a feature found in 2 up 2 down terraced houses in factory slums. This indicates that Snape has modified the home and begs the question, what else has he modified? Were the books always there (perhaps Tobias was an intellectual who fell on hard times), or did Snape conjur them to make the place look inhabited? Most of the books are bound in black or brown leather - he could have taken a few existing ones and multiplied them with a simple charm, and perhaps if Narcissa or Bellatrix had bothered to look through they would have found they're the same few volumes over and over again. The sofa is threadbare, the table is rickety, there doesn't seem to be electricity in the house if the candle-filled lamp is any indication - these may have been items left behind, so if it weren't for the books, the place would look abandoned.

With a few simple spells, Snape could have made the place seem inhabited, even if it wasn't. Voldemort doesn't concern himself with muggle affairs, and neither do his followers, so it's doubtful anyone would be aware that Snape didn't own the house. It would have been a convenient place not only for the privacy necessary for his role as a spy, but as both a connection to Voldemort through their shared childhood poverty, and a way of convincing Voldemort (who, for all intents and purposes, operates like a cult leader) that Snape has exploitable vulnerabilities.

It's supposition from metas, but nevertheless likely given Snape's socioeconomic background, isolation at school, and Voldemort's cult-leader approach to controlling his followers, that Snape was drawn into being a Death Eater by his vulnerabilities being exploited. A reminder of his poverty through Spinner's End is a reminder of these vulnerabilities, and gives the impression that outside Hogwarts Snape has next to nothing and is reliant on Voldemort to have options outside of Dumbledore's employ. It's both a brilliant tool to cement Voldemort's trust, and also a great flex - because for Snape to stand in his abandoned hovel of a home and hold enough power for Narcissa Malfoy to beg him for help on her knees is truly impressive. Just as he does when he says to Bellatrix, “You think he is mistaken? Or that I have somehow hoodwinked him? Fooled the Dark Lord, the greatest wizard, the most accomplished Legilimens the world has ever seen?” He's saying one thing, but its meaning is entirely different and known only to himsef. So too, he's saying one thing by presenting Spinner's End as his home outside of Hogwarts, while its meaning becomes different when Narcissa prostrates herself to him and shows that he's the one with power and influence, the working class half-blood from the slums, not her, the upperclass pureblood.

Throughout the books Snape is presented as enigmatic because he's constantly hiding the truth - about himself and about his intentions. What could be more of a mask than claiming Spinner's End as his home? For British readers, it would have been more inherently understood that he could not have owned that home, nor was there anyone left to pay rent on it to. Why would this man, full of ambition, with a home in a prestigious institution, who suppresses his feelings* and eschews sentimentality, spend his 2 months of summer holidays squatting in his childhood home?

It makes more sense to me that when his role as spy required him to spend time away from Hogwarts to enable Voldemort to assess his loyalty and allow for moments like Narcissa visiting him, he thought of the first place he knew that suited - the abandoned factory slum where no one would notice a light on at the end of a dark street, where short-sighted power-hungry wizards would see only vulnerability, and where he could manipulate perceptions of himself on his home turf.

We talk about Potter as a timeless series, as quills and parchment will never date, but there are a few key elements which are of their time, and I sometimes suspect that eventually, their original meaning may be lost.

Snape’s house in Spinner’s End is one of these.  If you visit Surrey, a house akin to Number 4 on Privet Drive can be found on hundreds of identical estates.  Indeed, the three-bedroom house with a garage, and both front and back gardens, situated on a private housing estate in leafy surburbia is one that most British people will have strolled through at some point.

But Snape’s house in Spinner’s End is the opposite of the Dursleys’ aspirational abode, and is somewhere that few modern readers will have seen in its original form with their own eyes.  Snape’s house in Spinner’s End is a traditional two up, two down through terraced house, mired deep in a maze of identical cobbled streets, overlooked by a looming mill chimney, and seemingly – by the 90s – entirely abandoned.

The difficulty that some may have in accurately picturing this scene is because these houses, in this state, no longer exist.  A large percentage of two up, two down terraces were demolished as part of slum clearance, which should tell you all that you need to know about the state of the houses.  

Those which remained have been extensively modified – usually knocking down the privy (outside toilet), and then building a two storey extension across the bulk of the yard to create a third room downstairs, and a bathroom upstairs.  Some houses only have a single extension; it is rather common in some areas of the Midlands to have a bathroom that leads off the kitchen downstairs – because the bathroom was the missing room, and it was cheaper to build one storey than two.

Pottermore had an article earlier in the year which explained how the filmmakers originally wanted to film on location, but could not, because the houses simply did not exist in their traditional state.

The houses were typically constructed with two rooms downstairs and two rooms upstairs with a tiny backyard entry leading to the outhouse. Craig actually considered shooting on location, but even though the buildings were intact, they had been brought into the modern era, with up-to-date kitchens and plastic extensions, so the set was built at the studio.

Throughout the 20th century, cobbled streets were routinely replaced by various other road surfaces, namely tarmac and asphalt – and, of course, the scarcity of cobblestones now means that such streets are aesthetically desirable.  However, the cobblestones in Spinner’s End are not an indication of affluence, but an indication of an area left behind. This is further illustrated by the rusted railings, the broken streetlights, and the boarded up windows.

These were workers houses, often funded by the owners of the mill, and therefore tied – meaning that rent was deducted from your wage before you received it.  There were benefits to being in tied accommodation, including being close to work and having a guaranteed landlord – but that was as much benefit to the mill owner as the worker.  Seeing great competition, some mill owners invested in their properties to entice workers – but Spinner’s End is not an example of this; Spinner’s End would’ve been regarded as little better than a slum even when fully occupied.

The narrow streets are indicative of when these houses were built, presumably in the late 1800s – cars were not a concern, and the attitude was to build as many houses on as small a piece of land as possible.

By the time the 90s roll around, and we see Narcissa and Bellatrix descend upon the street, Spinner’s End appears to be mostly deserted.  With the closure of traditional manual industries, families would be keen to relocate to where work could be found.  Estates which hadn’t already been cleared by the 60s would find themselves left to rack and ruin, their former occupants long gone – whether seeking a new life elsewhere, or having died.

For once, Bellatrix is not being anti-Muggle when she sneers at the Muggle dunghill; she is unnervingly accurate. It is a slum by her standards, but most importantly, it was a slum by everyone else’s standards as well.  By the time Severus was born, work should’ve been well under way to clear the area, or to renovate it.  This evidently did not occur – which itself explains how undesirable the area is; nobody wanted to spruce it up - they wanted to leave.  There were no jobs, no amenities, no services – and eventually, no people.

Americans especially don’t have a native understanding of this – for Americans, these kinds of industrial slums were largely already a thing of the past by the 1950s, when America was experiencing a post-WWII economic boom.  This is not to say that no American in the 1950s was trapped in poverty, but overall American society was made richer by the war.  British society, on the other hand, was still recovering from wartime scarcity, rationing, and destruction, and industrial slums were still very much a part of its makeup.

Indeed, you don’t have to go as far as public school for this to be true; Snape is of the grammar school era.  Snape is the kid who comes from the sink estate who passes his 11+ entrance exam against all odds.  When he reaches the school, where he’s fairly earned his place on intellectual merit (or in Hogwarts’ case, magical ability), he sticks out like a sore thumb.  He has the aptitude, but not the social background.

It’s why the depiction of James is equally important.  He’s similar to Snape in his magical ability - but he’s got the background that Snape hasn’t.  He’s wealthy, pampered, entitled.  James meets Snape and simply can’t comprehend why such a boy is also at the same school - remember, he meets Sirius at the same time, who also states that he’s from a Slytherin background and James’ reaction isn’t quite the same as it is with Snape.  “Blimey, and I thought you were all right.”  (or similar)  James had already made that value judgement; he’d already recognised that Sirius is from a similar sort of background.

When their journeys start, both boys are brimming with confidence (remember how Harry saw Snape by the river as cutting an impressive figure), but it doesn’t take long for James to be the boy who is regarded as popular, sporty, talented etc whilst Snape visibly wilts.  He’s twitchy, anxious, an oddball…as the text says, it’s as if he’s a plant kept in the dark.

Indeed, it’s no mistake that James - and in the modern era, Draco - is talented on a broom.  It’s no mistake that Harry, as a toddler, is given a broom.  It’s no mistake that the Weasley family are all talented with broom in hand, their prowess at Quidditch undeniable.  It’s no mistake then, that Snape picks up a broom and fails - some will claim it’s talent, but we see him mastering flight as an adult…it feels to me that this is a very clear indication that Snape wasn’t given the same opportunities.  He got to the school, but he didn’t have the extra-curricular assistance that others had the benefit of.  

There is a very important parallel that James and Sirius don’t accept Severus because Severus’ background makes him other - just as the Death Eaters and their ilk don’t accept Lily because Lily’s bloodline makes her other.

“All the world will be your enemy, Prince with a Thousand Enemies, and whenever they catch you, they will kill you.

But first they must catch you—"

This is such a Snape-like way to operate in. He complains, he is pissed that no one had listened to him before, he is being mildly insulting, but when the matters are serious – he defends the kids. He clearly states that they weren't responsible for physical assault, for trying to prevent him from getting to – as he wholeheartedly believes – a dangerous terrorist murderer, and he makes sure serious charges won't be pressed against them. What he accuses the Golden Trio – mainly Harry – of is compromising their safety: "And any other student would be suspended – at the very least – for leading his friends into such danger. Consider, Minister: against all school rules – after all the precautions put in place for his protection – out of bounds, at night, consorting with a werewolf and a murderer – and I have reason to believe he has been visiting Hogsmeade illegally, too –". His concern is that because of what they were allowed to do by the administration, they *put themselves in danger*, which is totally true and factually correct btw, objectively and especially so from Severus' subjective perspective. Despite those teens (only in this instance, not even counting the previous ones) knocking him down and giving him a head trauma, calling him pathetic, victimblaming him and overall just being there antagonistically while he relives his near death expierince and CPTSD, he insists they can't be held responsible for anything more serious then violating school rules, and places blame even for that on other adults who let Harry get away with things (like Albus) rather than on Harry himself.

Epilogue - Part 2

The end.

Thank you for everything.

Read Heartstopper Online

More info/buy the books: https://aliceoseman.com/

The Heartstopper webcomic has now concluded.

Epilogue letter in text form:

Epilogue - Part 1

Time to say goodbye.

Read Heartstopper Online

More info/buy the books: https://aliceoseman.com/

READ PART 2

Due to upload limitations, the final Heartstopper update (the epilogue) will drop in two parts! Tomorrow!!

like almost the entire school teamed up to bully harry due to his entrance into the tournament..( making whole ass badges is insanely petty and over the top)

he basically ends up with the whole school targeting him, even his best friend

so he goes into his shell and starts trying to find ways to avoid being around his classmates as much as possible, to the point of purposely getting detention with snape sense he’d likely to be found there + they’re unfathomly long bc snape can b a bit of an ass

snape by chance witnesses harry getting bullied by gryffindoors of all people and pulls him aside after they run off

obviously harry’s reluctant to talk to snape about what’s going on and snapes going through the whole “but he’s a POTTER” —> “he’s his own person and he clearly needs support that no one in his circle has been able to provide for him and so i will do so…begrudgingly.” mindset change..

snape begins assigning him even more detentions but instead of setting him to cauldron cleaning and the likes he ends up teaching him brewing and slowly getting harry to come out of his shell

they end up building a werid alliance

snape finds him getting bullied again and is able to intervene, everyone hates him even more, severitus angst argument (“i’m trying to help you” “you’re making it worse!”)

obvious reconcile they get really close and harry eventually (and accidentally) lets it slip he’s been at the dursleys. he starts off with talking about how he was made fun of or isolated by the other kids and when he off handedly mentions the appearance difference between himself and dudley everything goes crazy

snape, who was already worried about harry turns full maternal mode, goes down the usual severitus adoption plot line where he gives up his position as spy.

he also strikes back at the bullies with extreme force via point taking (i’m talking a lot) Id say detentions too but they’re clearly reserved already aren’t they…

i really like the idea of snape making it public he’s begun to enjoy harry’s presence (a trope really well written by a fanfic someone reccomended to me…yk who you are…) He does this because harry obviously needed at least one person on his side and it ended up stunting most of the bullying

everyone goes mental obviously

horrible tormenting attempt from either the gryffs or slitherins idk pick ur poison and cut to major severitus angst with snape having a fucking conniption

Chapter 8 - 51 (end of chapter 8)

Now I can see it.

Read Heartstopper Online

More info/buy the books: https://aliceoseman.com/

Heartstopper updates three times a month, on the 1st, 11th, and 21st at 11am UK time.

When she fell on her knees for the first time, he sat her back on the couch, poured her wine to calm down. When she did that again, he kneeled besides her on the floor. He's very, very clearly uncomfortable – averting his gaze, removing her hands from clutching him –, yet not only does he promise to help without asking for anything in return (cough, Albus, cough), but he tries to comfort her physically as much as he can, not reveling in her need for his help, not bringing her down on purpose.

Even tho Narcissa brought her sister who makes sure Severus knows he is mistrusted. Even tho Narcissa asks for a lot (with Severus already knowing he might have to kill Albus, he also promises to watch over Draco and protect him from harm with his own life. no strict limitations on that, no arguing with Narcissa over wording, no trying to agree to the bare minimum only). Even tho I don't trust Malfoys were such great friends to Severus, and there's no Lucius' fault in Severus getting into the DEs the way he did. Severus still shows Narcissa compassion, treats her with respect and dignity.

Chapter 8 - 50

Would you kiss me?

Read Heartstopper Online

More info/buy the books: https://aliceoseman.com/

Chapter 8 - 49

Hi

Read Heartstopper Online

More info/buy the books: https://aliceoseman.com/