Fandom Discussion and Poll: Snape and His Accursed Bloodline

[themostepotente]

sinick and I had a discussion not too long ago on Snape's bloodline and whether or not his bloodline was truly a secret.

I can buy that Dumbledore and McGonagall were privy to his familial bloodline, but anyone else? I think Snape being as unpopular as he was would have done just about anything to make certain his background was kept as secret as possible. It's been suggested that a lot of the kids sorted into Slytherin were actually half-bloods masquerading as pure-bloods to escape scrutiny or worse. This makes a lot of sense to me.

I guess the crux of our debate was whether or not Lucius knew Severus was a half-blood. I maintain that Lucius did not. I can't imagine Lucius would have had much to do with him otherwise, but then Lucius doesn't seem to mind that Voldemort isn't of pure blood.

sinick maintains that because pure-bloods are fewer in numbers than half-bloods and Muggle-borns, Lucius would be familiar with family names in conjunction with bloodlines. Goddess forbid, he would rub cocks noses with anyone of inferior status.

I must also stress that because Snape is an accomplished Occlumens, wouldn't he be able to keep his skeletons closeted? Well, maybe not from Voldemort. He, of course, is a skilled Legilimens.

Fuck, I'm confused :P

And while I'm on the subject of Snape's bloodline, there are ticky boxes to check regarding your thoughts...

[Poll #557878]

Lastly (I'm making this an essay style question :P), who might have been aware of Snape's bloodline? How did they come to find out?

--P

Comments

[mortifyd.livejournal.com]

I think the whole issue of being a half-blood is much less of a big deal than it's made out to be - remember our POV is Harry's. He's not only a bit self absorbed and thick, but he makes a lot of assumptions about what other people think and believe that aren't necessarily correct.

We don't really know anything about how they felt about bloodlines in the 70's when Snape was at school other than Snape calling Lily a "mudblood" - there is no mention of picking on "half-bloods" and Lily's Muggle heritage didn't seem to signifigantly bother many other people from what we know.

I think it was more a handy insult than any cultural bias against Muggleborns - look at Slughorn as an example. He adored Lily as a student - despite her being both Muggleborn and a Gryffindor - so the biases we see in Draco, Lucius and even Snape are not necessarily universal.

Voldemort's loathing of his mixed heritage is part of his psychosis - I'm not so sure it's an accurate view of the cultural POV either. Hagrid said that most "pureblood" families weren't actually pure in CoS anyway - and while he's not an absolute source either, I think it's not as big a deal as fandom assumes it is. It wasn't common knowledge or an issue that he was half giant, even after he left school - and he was part of Voldemort's generation at school - so students being hyperaware of bloodlines doesn't seem to be realistic.

[themostepotente.livejournal.com]

I think it was more a handy insult than any cultural bias against Muggleborns - look at Slughorn as an example. He adored Lily as a student - despite her being both Muggleborn and a Gryffindor - so the biases we see in Draco, Lucius and even Snape are not necessarily universal.

Point taken, but I think given Lucius's attitude towards Muggle-borns, that in his case, it is cultural bias.

[mortifyd.livejournal.com]

Now see, I think Lucius' attitude is more familial bias than cultural in it's strength because it doesn't seem to be universal. But that's just me. :P