Half-Blood Prince

Spider Snape

Proving the Theory Correct
By Snapesforte
http://www.half-bloodprince.org

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I already stated, in an essay titled Half-Blood Prince (http://www.half-bloodprince.org/sshbp.html), which I wrote last year shortly after the release of HBP, that I think Severus Snape is an unregistered spider animagus. In that essay I theorised that Snape living in a street called Spinner's End, when taken into context with all the spider references throughout the books, was a dead giveaway. Since writing that essay, I have found much more proof to support this theory, and will attempt to prove it below (as well a throwing in a few book 7 theories for good measure), using quotes from the books, as well as quotes from the FAQ section of JKR’s site, and a 2004 interview with the author.

The Half-Blood Prince and the Chamber of Secrets

In what way is 'Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince' related to 'Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets'?

I have been engulfed by an avalanche of questions on the subject of 'Prince' having once been a title of 'Chamber'. I am therefore attempting to answer most of them under this heading, which I think just about covers all the answerable variations (the unanswerable ones include questions such as 'who's the Half-Blood Prince?' 'what happens in the Half-Blood Prince?' and 'what does Half-Blood Prince mean?')

The plot of 'Prince' bears no resemblance whatsoever to the plot of 'Chamber', nor is it an off-cut of 'Chamber'. The story of 'Prince' takes off where 'Phoenix' ended and does not hark back to four years previously. True, mention is made to events that happened in 'Chamber,' but of course, mention is also made of events that happened in 'Stone', 'Azkaban', 'Goblet' and 'Phoenix'.

'The Half-Blood Prince' might be described as a strand of the overall plot. That strand could be used in a whole variety of ways and back in 1997 I considered weaving it into the story of 'Chamber'. It really didn't fit there, though; it was not part of the story of the basilisk and Riddle's diary, and before long I accepted that it would be better to do it justice in book six. I clung to the title for a while, even though all trace of the 'Prince' storyline had disappeared, because I liked it so much (yes, I really like this title!). I re-christened book two 'Chamber of Secrets' when I started the second draft.

The link I mentioned between books two and six does not, in fact, relate to the 'Half-Blood Prince' (because there is no trace left of the HBP storyline in 'Chamber'.) Rather, it relates to a discovery Harry made in 'Chamber' that foreshadows something that he finds out in 'Prince'.

- FAQ @ jkrowling.com

JKR states that she tried weaving the Prince's story into Chamber of Secrets, but that it did not fit. I bet that it was rather difficult for her to remove all of those strands in the end, when she decided to remove that sub-plot, which she would employ successfully four books down the track. Pieces of the Prince puzzle are still present in COS, woven through here and there like silky strands of a long ago broken web.

'So you never - never attacked anyone?'

'Never,' croaked the old spider. 'It would have been my instinct, but out of respect for Hagrid, I never harmed a human. The body of the girl who was killed was discovered in the bathroom. I never saw any part of the castle but the cupboard in which I grew up. Our kind like the dark and quiet...'

- Harry Potter and Aragog, COS.

It is interesting that Aragog says it would have been his "instinct" to "attack", as we see Snape doing this quite often in the books, but what is more interesting in the above quote is Aragog's reference to his kind liking dark and quiet places, as this is very much the case with what I like to call Severus Snape's Interior Design. This becomes obvious in HBP, when through Harry's eyes, we are shown how Snape has remodelled the DADA classroom to suit his own tastes:

'Snape had imposed his personality on the room already, it was gloomier than usual, as the curtains had been drawn over the windows, and was lit by candlelight.'

Also from COS:

Two solitary spiders were hurrying away from the wandlight into the shade of the trees

... scuttled away from the glare of the headlights.

When Harry arrives at Snape's dungeon office for his first Occlumency lesson in OOTP, he is startled by Snape's voice speaking to him from out of the shadows (the only light in the room being a candle, and the pensieve).

Severus Snape's Interior Design aside, I believe that the biggest strand left behind by the Prince in COS is the form that Snape's boggart would take...

The Spinner's Boggart

JKR World Book Day Chat 2004:

Ernie: I wonder if you can let us know what form will Professor Snape's Boggart and Patronus take? I am very curious.
JK Rowling replies -> Well, I'm not going to tell you Ernie, but that's because it would give so much away. I wonder whether Ernie is your real name? (It was my grandfather's).

I have changed my mind about Snape's boggart (in my previous essay, Half-Blood Prince, I stated that I thought it was Azkaban). I am still certain that Snape is very much afraid of ending up in Azkaban, but after re-reading COS I had a sudden epiphany: Snape's boggart is a basilisk (rather ironic for the ex-Head of Slytherin House, and therefore very JKR). The following three quotes from COS explain why:

'The thing lives in the castle,' said Aragog, 'it is an ancient creature we spiders fear above all others. Well do I remember how I pleaded with Hagrid to let me go, when I sensed the beast moving about the school.'

Harry and Ron (thanks to Hermione's help) then go on to find out that the 'thing' is a basilisk, king of serpents:

Spiders flee before the Basilisk, for it is their mortal enemy, and the Basilisk flees only from the crowing of the rooster, which is fatal to it.

There is a moment in COS where Harry and Ron are in the teachers' staffroom, and overhear that the basilisk has taken a girl into the Chamber. I have always found Snape's reaction a little unusual (Snape, who leans over knocked-out trolls when other teachers keep well away, barely yelps when set on fire, tries to get past three-headed dogs, and receives a Stinging Hex to the arm without so much as batting an eyelash):

Snape gripped the back of the chair very hard and said, 'How can you be sure?'

If Aragog "sensed" the beast moving round the school, is it possible for Snape to have done the same? I think so. It was not difficult for Hermione Granger to work out that the "monster" was a basilisk, and I doubt that the Half-Blood Prince would have had a problem putting two and two together to reach the same conclusion, though he probably had a bit of help from his spider senses.

Therefore, Snape's boggart is a basilisk, and JKR did not give this information away in her 2004 chat because it is still important, which means that we will learn something about it - something significant to the plot - in book 7.

Severus and Tobias

Callobiius Severus is a real spider (thanks to not_a_disgrace for pointing this out):

http://www.ivory.org/spiders/callobius.severus.html

'...a native spider found only in the Pacific NW. It is not dangerous, but if it should happen to bite a person (unlikely) it is painful, about like a yellowjacket sting. The bite responds to over the counter sting remedies, and has no ill effects other than the 'ouch.' ... this is a forest spider which takes over the house-spider niche when the brown European house spiders aren't present.'

And so is Tobias (thanks to cmwinters for pointing this out):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tobias

Tobias is also a spider genus (Thomisidae):

Crab spiders make up the Arachnidae family Thomisidae. They are also commonly called "flower spiders" because they are most often found on flowers, lying in ambush for prey. Crab spiders do not build webs to trap prey, but are active hunters...

They are called crab spiders because of their first two pairs of legs, which are held out to the side giving them (with their flattened, angular bodies) a crab-like appearance. Also, like crabs, these spiders move sideways and backwards more easily than forwards.

So, Severus inherited more than his lovely hooked nose from his Muggle father, it seems. And while I am on that note...

Physical Appearances Are Not Always Deceiving

Apart from Severus Snape living in a street called Spinner's End, which is surrounded by a web of other similar-looking streets, and apart from him liking dark and quiet places, and spinning tales of remorse for trusting headmasters, he also looks and behaves like a spider. Read on in amazement, as I reveal the mystery behind Snape's greasy hair.

Round-shouldered, yet angular, he walked in a twitchy manner that recalled a spider, and his oily hair was jumping about his face.
- OOTP

Apart from the obvious comparison to a spider in the above quote, think about how many times Harry has described Snape's hair and skin as being 'greasy' and 'oily'. That is because all spiders produce a natural coating of body oil to stop them from sticking to their own webs.

Why doesn't a spider stick to his own web?

The spider holds to the silk thread with claw-like bristles on its legs. Its body oil keeps it from sticking to the web. A moth is protected from the sticky strand by scales on its body. Most garden spiders hide during the day then recline in their web at night.

- http://www.meadowtreasures.com/spiderfacts.htm

Black Widow Spiders use silk to make tangled-looking webs, usually near the ground in dark places. The tips of the spider's legs are oily; this oil keeps them from getting trapped in their own webs.

- http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/arachnids/spider/Blackwidowprintout.shtml

Snape also has spider-eyes (black, glittering, gleaming, glistening), a pincer-like grip (OOTP), and enjoys shooting down flies (OOTP):

Feet away, towering above him, was a solid wall of spiders, clicking, their many eyes gleaming in their ugly black heads...
- COS

Harry usually thinks of Snape as having an ugly head, and JKR uses the words glittering, gleaming and glistening when describing Snape's black eyes.

In OOTP, after Snape pulls Harry back out of the pensive, Harry describes Snape's grip on his arm as being 'pincer-like'. Also in OOTP, Harry sees a memory of a younger Snape sitting in a darkened bedroom (there's that love of dark places again) shooting down flies. I need not elaborate on the fact that spiders find flies rather tasty.

He spits out venomous insults - he spits literally sometimes - and usually wears only black. But why is JKR so eager to hide Snape's secret spider identity from us?

Snape the Spyder

‘Will you walk into my parlour?’ said the spider to the fly…

I touched on one of my theories concerning Snape's usefulness of being an unregistered spider animagus in my previous essay, and I shall quote myself below, and move on to newer discoveries:

... it is also possible that the spider on Dumbledore's hat, in the Weasleys' old out-house broom cupboard, may have in fact been Snape. I leave you to read that scene again, and discover just what the little spider overheard Dumbledore 'privately' discussing with Harry... you may find it prophetic.

We have known for quite a few books now that Snape is a double agent, a spy, and once again, in typical JKR-fashion, we were given a hint about Snape's spidery identity in the very book that gave him away as a spy, Goblet of Fire:

'Spy.. er...spy... er...' said Harry, pacing up and down himself. 'A creature I wouldn't want to kiss... a spider!'

I must admit, someone beat me to the punch where the above information - and Snape's spider animagus form is concerned - way back in 2004, after reading my Uncovering Snape essay; and her excellent essay may be read at Mugglenet: http://www.mugglenet.com/editorials/editorials/edit-fecher01.shtml

Whilst re-reading GOF, I noticed a similarity between the spider in the maze, and the scene in Snape's Worst Memory in OOTP, when the Sirius Prat and Friends attack Severus. In the maze, a giant spider attacks Cedric and then Harry, who attempts to beat it with a Disarming spell, but is only able to conquer it after ganging up on it with Cedric:

It worked - the Disarming spell made the spider drop him [the spell Snape taught Harry in COS].

The two spells combined did what one alone had not - the spider keeled over sideways...

The spider “keeled over sideways” - just like Severus Snape keeled over sideways after being simultaneously attacked by James Potter and Sirius Black, in Snape's Worst Memory (OOTP).

But I digress... Severus Snape is a spy, and my guess is that Snape knows exactly whom to go to, apart from Trelawney, to hear the rest of the prophecy. How this will play out is anybody's guess; however, since writing my Half-Blood Prince essay, I have also mined all the books for further spider hints and clues, and have uncovered (with the help of fellow fans) some other interesting spider facts in regard to Snape, most of which are listed below, book by book.

Philosopher's Stone

Harry got slowly out of bed and started looking for socks. He found a pair under his bed, and after pulling a spider off one of them, put them on. Harry was used to spiders, because the cupboard under the stairs was full of them, and that was where he slept.

Harry has been used to spiders since the age of eleven, and after the events of Half-Blood Prince, is certainly no longer afraid of Snape.

Ron, however, has always been afraid of spiders - alive ones - that is:

Chamber of Secrets

'I - don't - like - spiders,' said Ron tensely.

'I never knew that,' said Hermione, looking at Ron in surprise. 'You've used spiders in potions loads of times...'

'I don't mind them dead,' said Ron, who was carefully looking anywhere but at the window, 'I just don't like the way they move...'

Ron's fear of spiders is a repetitive theme in the books, and is revisited again with great detail in POA when we discover that his boggart is a spider. Is it possible that Ron Weasley and Severus Snape will also face-off in a duel to the death, and if so, will the theory Die, Ron, die! finally be proven correct, or will Ron, with the help of some friends and his old pet rat Scabbers, conquer his boggart?

Hagrid tells Harry and Ron that:

'If anyone wanted ter find out some stuff, all they'd have ter do would be ter follow the spiders. That'd lead 'em right! That's all I'm sayin'.'

After the final events of HBP, this information is even more handy, but perhaps the dream team will need to follow the rat to get to the spider; and perhaps this will lead to the Spinner's end (more on that below).

Prisoner of Azkaban

There are no new spider hints or clues here, but old hints are reinforced, particularly Ron's fear of spiders, and the fact that Hagrid has been known to befriend them, which will be important in HBP and book 7 (since we have yet to find out why Aragog's death was given so much book space).

Goblet of Fire

'... if only he knew how to do the Cruciatus Curse, he'd have Snape flat on his back like that spider, jerking and twitching...'

To me, this speaks volumes (and gives me chills just thinking about it). I believe that, at some point in book 7, Harry will get his wish. Just look at how far Harry has come where the Cruciatus Curse is concerned, as of having this pleasant thought in book 4:

In book 5, he cast the Cruciatus Curse on Bellatrix Lestrange.

In book 6 he attempted to cast it on Snape, who parried the curse, and then went on to provide useful information that Harry needed to learn to do the thing properly. Brilliant.

Order of the Phoenix

The spider clues and hints from this book have already been disclosed and analysed above.

'You've got a good feeling about burying a giant spider?' asked Ron, looking stunned.

'Yeah,' said Harry, pulling his Invisibility Cloak out of his bag. 'I feel like it's the place to be tonight, you know what I mean?'

Another hint about the Half-Blood Prince's fate? It is looking rather dim, isn’t it?

Spinner's End

Harry will need Wormtail (who owes Harry a life-debt, is the Secret Keeper for Godric's Hollow, and has been living with Snape since OOTP) to get to Severus Snape, and much like the Shrieking Shack scene in POA, or the Snape's Worst Memory scene in OOTP, the Marauders (because Harry, Ron and Hermione symbolically take the places of/represent the dead Marauders) will once again gang up on Severus, and defeat him.

However, this does not mean that Peter Pettigrew will escape a third time.

After reading some information about Saints Severus, Peter and Leucius (the Confessors, whose Saint/Feast Day is the 11th of January), I have reached the conclusion that Lucius Malfoy, Severus Snape, and Peter Pettigrew will all meet the same dead end by the end of book seven.

Saints Severus, Peter and Leucius are known as the Confessors because they were publicly executed for proclaiming the faith; Peter Pettigrew (publicly) did this in POA when he ran off to rejoin the Dark Lord, Lucius Malfoy did this in OOTP when he was caught at the Ministry of Magic, and Severus Snape did this in HBP when he snuffed Dumbledore, and left the building.

Therefore, all that is left is the inevitable execution, which I shall never get over, so pardon me while I go and sulk somewhere dark and quiet. I leave you with these quotes to inspire you to sulk too.

...he saw a rather horrible sight of the enormous dead spider, lying on its back outside, its legs curled and tangled.

'Magnificent,' said Slughorn, approaching the spider's head, where eight milky eyes stared blankly at the sky and two huge, curved pincers shone, motionless, in the moonlight. Harry thought he heard the tinkle of bottles as Slughorn bent over the pincers, apparently examining the enormous hairy head.
- HBP.

Finite