Motivations, Pt 2.

[brooksindy]

Original Yahoo! HPFG Header:
No: HPFGUIDX C6539
From: brooksindy
Subject: Re: Motivations, Pt 2.
Reply To: [Yahoo! #6537] Motivations, Pt 1.
Date: 8/10/00 6:08 pm  (ET)

This followup also contains GoF spoilers, so the new members not yet
caught up on reading may want to skip this.
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Snape
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My thought on Snape's desire to catch Sirius not just being personal
animosity, but also part of a desire to rehabilitate his reputation
after being a DE, made me think of a possible different motivation for
Snape's attitude toward Harry as well.

 - What would Snape have done if Harry had been put in Slytherin? Would
 he have accepted Harry more? I wonder if some of Snape's attitude may
 just be favoritism toward his own house. What must he think of Malfoy,
 Crabb & Goyle, too, knowing of their parents? (Plus, what must those
 parents think of their kids being under Snape, if they know he was the
 spy in *their* midst?) There is a clear potential for a conflict going
 on in Slytherin that we don't know about.

Now maybe I am too nice a guy, but in my reading of literature I do not
see too much of male characters resenting a child of their unrequited,
deceased love, just because the rival they lost to, was the father. This
sometimes happens, but more often, the adult male winds up having
affection for the child, because child is all that is left of the dead
mother. Now JKR does have a talent for turning things on their heads,
but.... consider this scenario. What if Snape was not just the spy in Lord
V's camp, but was in fact considering moving against him - maybe working
on a potion that would confer (even temporary) immunity to the A.K. curse,
just to toss out an idea - and was lining up plans for the challenge to
Lord V., - but before Snape was ready to do so, Lord V. went after Harry &
the Potters, and was defeated, so Snape never had his chance. After all,
what a hero he would have been if he had defeated V from within the ranks,
turned over the other DE's, said - "I believed him at first but I came to
see that he was wrong, there is not just power, there really is good and
evil and Lord V. was evil". But Harry, albeit innocently, by surviving
and making V. discorporate, foiled Snape's plan for his spectacular
rehabilitation and heroism. Boy, that would be frustrating! That could
explain a lot of Snape's attitude and comments.

Alternately & contradictorily. Maybe the general speculation is right,
and Snape did have a thing for Lily, but lost out. Everything in the
books so far does seem to indicate that for whatever reason (& V says
this himself) V. was after *Harry* when he attacked, rather than to kill
prominent enemies James & Lily. That means that Lily died *because of
Harry*. Under that circumstance Snape might indeed resent Harry even
though he was the child of someone Snape cared for, sort of like an
opposite of my earlier case, the occasional fathers who grow to resent
their children who survived when their mothers died in childbirth.

What think ye all?

I already ran this by Vicki offline, and she has a few comments/critiques
of this to add later. She pointed out that certainly Snape seems to
have more in for Harry than *just* house rivalry, and his treatment of
Hermione in GoF was abominable & inexcusable. With which I agree. We may
be thinking, based on GoF, that Snape has a hidden good side, but he may
just be a thoroughly unpleasant guy who just happens to be opposed to the
same great evil we are - as Churchill said when Hitler attacked Russian
and Churchill was criticized for saying that they must now be allies,
"If Hitler were to invade Hell I would at least have a kind word to
say about Satan in the House of Commons". I suspect that in the end the
best we can say for Snape is that "The enemy of my enemy is my friend
(for now, any way)".