Spinner's End
From Harry Potter Wiki
| Spinner's End | |
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Spinner's End is a street, on which sits a house that is the summer home of Severus Snape. It is stated to be one of several streets of identical brick, presumably terraced, houses. It is near a dirty river, the bank of which is strewn with litter. A mill (presumably a woollen or cotton mill) with a tall chimney is close by. This rather bleak background suggests it is located within a run-down industrial area, possibly in northern England. In this context, the Spinner referred to in the name of the street would derive from the trade of cotton-spinner or wool-spinner. It might also allude to the spider-like facets of Severus Snape's character. The dilapidated setting foreshadows what is later revealed about Snape's parentage. It is revealed to be near Lily Potter's childhood home.
Snape's home opens directly into a sitting room which has the feeling of a dark, padded cell, with walls covered in books, threadbare furniture, and a dim candle-filled lamp that hangs from the ceiling. A hidden door is set in the wall of books, which leads to a narrow staircase. The place has an air of neglect, as Snape spends most of his year at Hogwarts.
The two sisters Narcissa Malfoy and Bellatrix Lestrange arrive at the house in 1996, and find that Wormtail (aka, Peter Pettigrew) is living there also, much to Snape's apparent disgust. Wormtail was sent to stay there by Lord Voldemort's orders to assist Snape. Wormtail is irritated at Snape because Snape makes him fix drinks for him and his guests and also makes Wormtail clean his house, but Wormtail seems too frightened of Snape to push the argument. It is here that Snape then makes the Unbreakable Vow to come to the aid of Draco Malfoy in his mission to kill Albus Dumbledore.
It should be noted that in the same chapter, Snape uses the phrase "I spun Dumbledore a tale...", possibly conveying that he is done spinning tales. Later in the book, Aragog, an acromantula, dies, which truly is a "Spinner's End".
