Snape's job and death

[Scott]

No: HPFGUIDX 14076

Rita previously wrote:
"I think, unless Snape had a LOT of time to think about what he was
doing, he would not be thinking of that silly debt to Harry's father,
but rather of his duty to serve the Light, fight the Dark, and make
Dumbledore proud of him, and he would not be thinking of making Harry
feel guilty, but rather that death would release him from his own
burden of guilt. And horrible memories. And hated job.

"And that got more replies than, I think, anything else I've ever 
posted."

--Are you saying we don't listen to you? Excuse me did anyone hear 
something? Um, no I didn't think so :-)

Rita also wrote:
"Margaret Dean questioned my mention of Snape's hated job. (I did put 
it as his afterthought to an afterthought.) I am one who believes that
Snape LOVES Potions and doesn't want the DADA job, but I think he 
hates teaching. To me, he may be proud of what a good teacher he is 
(!) and may believe that it is his DUTY to teach the next generation, 
but he still HATES dealing with students who are less clever and less
interested in Potions than he was at their age."

--I don't think that Snape hates his job , because he doesn't hate 
the subject. How can you effectively teach something if you hate it? 
You can't. (Does that make sense?) I think that Snape hates his 
students. Not even all of them, but enough to make the job 
miserable.  If he really loves what he's doing then he maybe he 
should seek a job at Merlin College Oxford where he can teach 
graduate students like Ebony who only SAY they're going to study 
literature...

(Do Slytherins just do better at Potions than others. After all you 
can be VERY sneaky with a potion- i.e. Polyjuice, but not nearly as 
much with a charm.)

Rita also also wrote:
"It occurred to me while I was typing this multi-topic post that 
Snape's heroic death would be more angsty if something had just 
happened to ease his pain and give him a reason to live and THEN he 
had to die. (Then the conflict wouldn't be simply between the 
biological instinct to go on living on one side and everything else 
on the other side.) The usual something is falling in requited love
<snip>
(where one must FIRST be healed in order to THEN be loved), but it 
FEELS like it works in real life: falling in love is a wonderful drug 
like hashish or something which FEELS like the pain was wiped out and
replaced by happiness. OTOH, it is SUCH a cliche that many readers 
would cuss at the cliche rather than cry in shared pain."


--But you have to admit that it's quite a nice cliche, and one that 
we somehow enjoy no matter how many times it's repeated. Yes I think 
JKR could handle it to the point of which it is still interesting 
despite being cliched.

I think the idea of Snape falling in love is quite sweet, if not a 
bit mushy. However if you go with the whole "Snape loved Lily" thing 
then it would only work so well. 

Unless of course if Petunia discovers she's a witch, comes to 
Hogwarts, falls in love with Snape, and leaves Vernon for him. Snape 
falling in love with her because he knew that Lily always WANTED to 
forgive her sister but was never able to tell her so, and so he is 
not only finding true love but in a way honouring his first love... 
:-)

Scott