Snape: motives, relationships with Harry/ Dumbledore/Voldemort. DADA

[heathernmoore]

No: HPFGUIDX 31266

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., Edblanning at a... wrote:



<snip seven sound Snape speculations>


> 
> 8) I can't see any "official" guardian role for him with Harry. IMO he 
> genuinely wants to get him expelled. He argues for it with D after the flying 
> car incident. He saves Harry form Quirrell, merely as D says, so that he can 
> get on hating James's memory in peace.
> 

 Snape wanting Harry expelled isn't evidence against the guardian theory. Dumbledore has stated that Harry cannot be harmed while he is with his relatives. 

At school, Harry is constantly getting into mischief, making himself a target of LV, stealing (uptight Severus would snort at "borrowing") cars (!!), farting around where he isn't supposed to, and being a general pain in the ass. At the Dursleys, Harry is protected and (ah, bliss!) not making a nuisance and a spectacle of himself. 

At least until the end of GoF, Snape would not trouble himself to see beyond the edges of this equation. He dislikes Harry. He would want to honor his agreement in the least taxing manner possible. He needs a serious attitude adjustment, and just about everyone seems to agree that he gets one at the end of the Fourth Year. 

(Hrm... could Snape feel culpable in the death of Cedric Diggory, having allowed his blind resentment to cause him to miss clues and fatally endanger a student with whom Severus really had no problems?) 


 
> 10) Ironically, I think D is rather fond of him. He understands him 
> perfectly, and accepts him warts and all, regarding him as a rather difficult 
> child  (D's reaction to Fudge thinking he's unbalanced at end of GoF), but 
> Severus can't understand this, his vision is too distorted by envy, hatred 

 Actually, Dumbledore's quiet trust in Snape is precisely *why* I think there's something going on under the surface which we haven't been made privy to yet. For Severus to behave in the way he does (down to disgracing himself in front of the Minister of Magic with his uncontrolled tantrums) *entirely on the basis of childhood grudges* *would* mark him out as unstable and unsuited to teaching. Dumbledore would seem to recognize that there's something else behind it. At the moment, I believe we can reasonably deduce that "something else" as intense frustration. 

The Ministry has no outstanding charges or warrants out against him from the old Death Eater days. Before he gave Fudge cause to suspect his stability, the Minister himself spoke quite candidly with Snape about the MOM's embarrassment and frustration (instead of feeding him a PR line) in the matter of Sirius Black. There must be lucrative and respected positions for a superbly-qualified potions and curses expert in the Ministry or St. Mungos, where Snape wouldn't have to "dumb down" his discourse or shepherd students. A research position, in fact, wouldn't require him to be all that personable. 

Three to five years of keeping his nose clean in a field like education would surely have been enough to establish his employability elsewhere. It's not as though he couldn't get patronage -- through Dumbledore, through Malfoy, possibly through Fudge. And yet he remains at Hogwarts. There has to be a compelling reason for this.  


> A Question.... Where was Severus whilst the trio were rescuing the PS? He 
> must have known that with D gone, Quirrel would make a move. Was it just that 
> he knew he couldn't get past Fluffy? Seems a bit weak.

 I've forgotten; do the kids actually observe Snape in the castle while they are on their way to the 3rd Floor? Do we have any textual evidence that Snape a) is inside the castle and/or b) knows that Dumbledore has left on an errand? 
I'm assuming that Snape was at the school but I can't recall if there was direct confirmation. This being the last day of exams, it wouldn't be a bad evening for some professors to take a work break before settling down the next day to grading essays and final projects. If Snape *is* at school, would Dumbledore or McGonagall have made a point to tell all of the teachers he was going off-campus on a Ministry errand?


> 
> Eloise (who has never had acne and who would like to think there's a warm, 
> cuddly Snape in there somewhere, but doubts it and who fears he will shortly 
> meet a heroic but gruesome end whilst remaining as unpleasant as ever....but 
> wouldn't he be a cool ghost?)


 I can't yet imagine Snape dying at least until the end of Book Seven; there are too many "problems" about him which JKR needs to resolve.