Friday, August 17, 2007

The half blood prince and his supreme sacrifice

/*
"My lord.. let me go to the boy.. my lord"

The elder wand accidentally fell on the ground. Snape by now realized that he has no reprieve. Voldemort looked intently at the wand and it rose high towards his outspread fingers. At the exact same moment, Harry noticed Snape reach for his wand and point it towards the death stick. The last words that Harry, Ron and Hermione heard were from Snape's mouth - "zeus dionysus" and then they went unconscious.

There was a loud blast and the entire shrieking shack burst open. Two wizards, with their wands pointing at each other rose up in the air completely undisturbed by the huge wreck that was caused by Snape's spell. The two wizards were now dueling in mid air half way in the sky. The sky suddenly glowed and everyone from within the Hogwarts castle and the death eaters are now able to clearly see the dual, the sorts, they have never seen before.

One of the wizard was dueling with his right hand while he was removing shiny strands of silvery material using his other hand. Red, blue, green jets of spells were being cast, blocked and fended by both the wizards. Snape knew too well that he can defend himself for however long he wants but he also knew that he does not possess the skill to slay the dark lord.

Snape gathered his memory in a hurry on a potions bottle that he summoned from nowhere while his wand was fending a series of red jets that were fired his way. The death eaters were too afraid to get anywhere near this spectacle of a fight. Atlast, the black eye of Snape met the red eye of the dark lord. Snape then realized that he had to do what he had promised to do. Voldemort and Snape raised their wands at the exact same moment. Voldemort shouted "avada kedavra" while Snape said "expecto patronum". It looked like Snape was little too late this time. His body was stunned for a minute, hung in the air for a while and then slowly began to fall down. The dark lord announced "I am now the master of the death stick". Severus Snape lay dead on the ground.

It looked like they were asleep for eternity while Harry gained consciousness. They were thrown by the blast to somewhere that looked like the forbidden forest. From the corner of his eye, he saw something moving. He forced himself to get up. He then realized it was the same silver doe that led him to the gryffindor's sword. He slowly followed it until he almost reached the Hogwarts castle where the silver doe stopped near a tree and then disappeared. Harry knew he is being helped by someone, only this time he doesn't know what is waiting for him. Right near the root of that tree lay a potions bottle filled with silvery white substance. He realized the substance instantly and headed towards the head masters room for the pensive...... */

... and then I woke up from my dream...


I was hoping to see a fighting death from the half blood prince. A death that was for a cause but in the end it was a timid death caused by Nagini. The complete coincidence with which Harry stumbles upon Severus's memory is conduct unbecoming J.K. Rowling. I felt bad that Snape was not given a proper end, but when many of my relatives/friends who loved Snape shared the same feeling, only 100 times stronger, I wish my dream had come true.




10 comments:

Sujatha Raj said...

For a moment I thought "Did I read the book well.. I don't remember reading this stuff... but it seems like JK's style..." and then when the story went on for another few para's I realized it was your work :) Great!!! True... I did feel that for all Snape had done and sacrifices, inspite of all that rudeness cast over Harry throughout, he deserved a better exit.

Kalakkitta po!

Anonymous said...

Kalakitta annachi.
Yup this is better than JKR.
Maybe, we can tell you our other grievances too and you can give us better alternatives.
Dumbledore's death - can he be alive?
Lupin and Tonks - Can they come back too?
:)
And the Patronous at the end. Nice touch :)

Ramya

Pavithra said...

Should agree... the language is JKR style...

Did you really have this dream to the same detail? If it is so I'll give you benefit of the doubt...

Otherwise, I have questions

Is it possible for a wizard to remove his memories without using his wand? I always thought the silvery liquid comes out of the wand... and dueling at the same time??

Patronus carries the potions bottle to the forbidden forest?

Can a patronus exist after the person who conjures it is dead? Isnt that why the silver doe was ruled out to be dumbledore's when harry suggests that to hermione?

It dint bother me that Snape dint die a fighting death his whole life was a fighting life for love, loyalty and identity. As harsh as he was, he hardly got anything he truly wished for including the defense against the dark arts teacher post...

As much as I craved for more of snape than a lone chapter... and as you mentioned it probably would have lifted my spirits if he fought his death, but right now it weighs him no less in valor.

But i do agree that there were many portions of the book I considered highly inept.

A satisfying book that could have been better

Pavithra said...

Now about the deaths... sorry about being so opinionated...

Had to die people

Lupin & Tonks - only way for Harry to assume the role of "Godfather"
Dumbledore - had to die so that harry handles the horcrux hunting business and also to let Snape play protector of Hogwarts
Hedwig - Harry had to lose his communication to the wizard world.
colin creevey - sympathy
dobby - super sympathy
pettigrew - dont care
bellatrix - dont care
crabbe - dont care
Snape - had to... cant let snape and harry konjify in the end
Voldemort - ofcourse

People killed unnecessarily
Fred - should have killed Percy instead, you just cant separate a cheerful twin.
Mad-eye - probably could have been spared.... but helped get to a good start

Barath said...

Pavithra

Boy!! aren't you a die hard fan!! :)Good points. These details are for JKR to think through though :). I thought about few of your claims while typing, but this blog is just a pointer. We need a 20 page chapter to fit all this info without any loose end :).

Did you like the way Snape died?
I don't know, I somehow feel Sachin being caught at the boundary line is a better way to get out than watching the stumps blow away :)

Thanks for the comments.

Unknown said...

Vow! I have to hand it to you man on your imagination and yearn to do justice for Snape. After I read that chapter I was also left with a feeling that it was sudden and he was not well treated…

But thinking more of the depiction of Snape through the 7 books that he was close minded and he had only confided himself to Albus Dumbledore and to no one else. So Snape’s characterization is not about heroism and it never was to erupt under any circumstance and that is his bidding with Dumbledore.

I was forced to believe that it is that bidding and it that act of welcoming death made Harry wanting to know what Snape had to tell him through his memory. I think that’s what made Harry also accept Snape’s love for his mother. Yes Snape’s death was simple and has been undermined in articulation, but I feel if it had been otherwise it would have been conventional, formula driven and cinematic.

I am pretty sure JKR would have contemplated this for a long time in concocting an exit for Snape. But I think Snape was honored in the end by dedicating the chapter to explain his love for Lily and Harry’s acceptance to bring clarity to his mind to talk to Riddle.

But your aspirations are well justified!

regards
Prasanna

Unknown said...

I am also very curious about "zeus dionysus". As far as I can remember it isn't a spell / curse / charm or a jinx. so I did some research before I ask you how you came up.
zeus is a greek god. Father of many gods.
Dionysus is god of wine, drama and fertility...
Or it could be Snape's derivation just like Sectum Sempra...
It would be nice to know what your thinking was to carve that spell

regards
Prasanna

Barath said...

Hi Prasanna

Cool! That’s a very good line of discussion. I agree that Snape was never heroic and portraying him as one in the end will look contrived.
There are two parts I wanted to discuss on the blog:
I. The manner in which Snape died.
II. The coincidence with which Harry stumbles upon the most important piece of information he needs to destroy Voldy (That Harry is also a Horcrux)

Snape was a silent warrior always:
1. He ceased to be a death eater the moment Voldy killed Lily.
2. He used occlamancy (a weapon only he can use effectively) to deceive he-who-must-not-be-named.
3. He was part of the order of phoenix and worked against the dark lord.
4. He promised Dumbledore that he will take care of the Hogwarts students and (almost) did it.
5. It has been mentioned more than once in the 7 books that Snape knew unique magic that even the dark lord did not know i.e. Occlumancy, Sectum Sempra, Zeus Dionysys ;)

For all these reasons and more, Snape cannot die a death as humiliating as Wormtail's. Hence it is definitely not justifiable for Snape to accept death this way.

Now, the second and most important hole in the story – Dumbledore believed and entrusted Snape the duty of telling Harry about Nagini and about the final Horcrux in Harry. Snape should have done something more than just leaving it to fate / coincidence to pass the information to Harry.

To address these two issues, I thought it would be nice if there comes a time when Snape must choose between defending his own life and passing on the information to Harry. At this juncture he should opt to sacrifice his life to delay the extinction of Lily’s blood. :)

In my enthusiasm to suggest an alternate end to Snape I may have given the impression that JKR disappointed me with book -7. I enjoyed the book very much and kudos to JKR for her imagination and creativity. Like you say Prasanna, JKR may be justified in not making a heroic clash between Voldy and Snape, but if Dumbledore trusted Snape with the elder wand, there is nothing wrong in showing Snape worthy of it.

I will write about Zeus Dionysus soon. Thanks for taking the time to discuss this. I hope others read the book soon too.

Anonymous said...

Good work B! I too felt a bit disappointed about the manner of Snape's death after going into the pensieve along with Harry!:-) Anyway, we shared this same feeling after reading about Dumbledore's death in Book 6. Is it not? Not heroic etc. etc. But I feel JKR did this purposely to evoke our curiousity towards Snape!

BTW, I enjoyed reading Pavithra's comments! :-)

I too share the same feeling that Fred could be spared !

Felt very sentimental like Harry about Dobby's death!

The book is very captivating and kudos to JKR's imagination!

BTW, am also curious about "zeus dionysus". Awaiting your explanation! :-)

Anandhi

Sujatha Raj said...

Just read all the comments.. U still haven't explainedwhat "Zeus dionysus" means.. or wha kind of a spell it is.. can u now?