Snape's greatest fear; Our Man Snape

[Flying Ford Anglia]

No: HPFGUIDX 1132

Blaise wrote, about Snape:

> 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.  

The fact that Dumbledore likes and trusts Snape may appear to be a 
contradiction, but only if we assume that Dumbledore is a complete 
force for good - I'm not convinced that he is so benign.  

We learned a lesson about Snape (and about JK Rowling) in '...the 
Philosopher's Stone'.  All the way through the story, Snape was being 
signalled as the baddie and at the eleventh hour it was revealed that 
he had been trying to stop the real villain of the piece. My 
conclusion (today, at least) is that Dumbledore is portrayed as being 
so good that he must be bad (or at least have an evil streak). 
Theoretically, he's the last person we'd expect to be the baddie, but 
his story arcs over all seven books, rather than just the one.  JKR 
might this very minute be soaking in her bath, thinking: 'HA! How 
about that for a surprise denouement?!'  

I won't repeat my previous theory about Snape in its entirety, but I 
said something akin to Snape being jealous of Harry because he had 
usurped him from his position as 'first officer' to Dumbledore.  
Harry is Dumbledore's protegé and Snape resents that, because he 
wanted to show his mettle in the fight against Voldemort (Brooks 
seems to concur on this point).  IMO, Snape's behaviour is borne 
mostly out of bitterness and envy, with a touch of residual 
resentment towards James Potter.        

Neil