Snape's greatest fear; Our Man Snape

[Blaise]

No: HPFGUIDX 1125

Peg wrote: 

<<P.S. Extra points for anyone who wants to tackle these questions 
for any other characters, too.  What does Snape fear the most v. want 
the most? Ron?  Hermione?  Voldemort?  Etc.>>

As I'm making my feeble attempt to understand Snape through writing 
fanfiction, I think I'll try for extra points here.  Harry, Ron and 
Hermione are all mysteries to me, but I do have some idea about 
Snape.  At least, I'll try for his greatest fear.        

I think Snape's greatest fear is one a lot of people have - the fear 
of failing.  The fear of being wrong.  The fear of being mocked.  A 
great many of Snape's actions are specifically to eliminate the 
possibility of any of these things happening.  

So he always has to get in first with the insult, before anyone can 
insult him.  He mocks other people who fail, like Neville, to make 
sure people know he is better than Neville.  He puts down Hermione 
whenever he can, because she is a real rival.  He cannot ever seem to 
get the better of her in a battle of wits (as we see in the very 
first Potions lesson), so he uses his other weapons to hurt her, like 
his comment about her teeth.  He is exerting all his power to prevent 
anyone from appearing better, in his mind, than he is. 

He's hyper-critical.  Every flaw, every failing, he points out.  I 
cannot imagine that Snape is not equally critical of himself, and 
this is one of the causes of his fear of failing.  It is a vicious 
circle.  

I'm not Snape's apologist, and I don't believe that any of this 
exonerates him.  I'm just trying to pick out what I think are the 
reasons behind his behaviour.  

But he's working for Dumbledore.  Dumbledore does not seem to 
interfere with the way Snape runs his lessons (though we do hear of 
him stepping in to prevent Snape from failing Harry in Potions), he 
does not show any signs of disliking Snape, and he TRUSTS Snape.  

Therefore, there must be things about Snape which we don't yet know, 
things that make Dumbledore trust him.  

One thing I'd like to pick up is Snape's sense of duty and 
responsibility.  Why would anyone lacking in a very powerful sense of 
duty try to protect Harry for the reasons Dumbledore explained?  
Somewhere, in some twisted way, Snape has a sense of honour and 
duty.  In other words, he knows what the right thing to do is, and 
he's going to do it.  What he does to people along the way is not 
part of his duty.  He does not live by Dumbledore's moral codes, but 
he supports them against Voldemort.  

I think that we will find that Snape feels it is his duty to support 
Dumbledore, and Dumbledore understands this.  The action that 
precipitated this feeling, I don't know.  Dumbledore treats it as a 
private matter in GoF ('That, Harry, is a matter between Professor 
Snape and myself.')  Incidentally, this is what I'm trying to guess 
in my fanfic.  

A side question, and one thing that makes me feel some doubt towards 
Snape, is why he is so fond of Draco Malfoy, and why he reacted when 
Harry mentioned that Lucius Malfoy was a Death Eater.  There seems to 
be some tie between Snape and the Malfoys.  Possibly this is another 
duty Snape owes, perhaps to Lucius Malfoy.  Any theories on this?

And a second question.  Does Snape share the prejudices which seem 
common to Slytherins?  Is he prejudiced against Muggle-borns, 
werewolves and giants?  I haven't ever noticed him being prejudiced 
against Muggle-born students, or against Hagrid and the giants.  His 
hatred of werewolves is understandable, having been attacked by one.  

That's probably enough of my ramblings.  I'd love to know what other 
explanations people have for Snape's behaviour and Dumbledore's trust 
in him.  

~Blaise.