Outsider!Snape (NOT!) (Re: Bully!Sirius, Snape's Grudge)

[porphyria_ash]

No: HPFGUIDX 43396

Irene said, of Snape and Dumbledore at the end of PoA:

<<
The most heart-breaking part of all this plot line,
for me, is Dumbledore's behaviour. He plays with Snape's
sanity with as much cruelty as the twins play with Percy, but on a
bigger scale.
>>

And Pippin and Marcus expressed some objections, which I'll get to. I 
myself agree with Irene that Dumbledore is cruel here, but I don't 
see this as any indication that Snape is either an outsider to 
Dumbledore's plans or likely to betray him. 

Specifically, I interpret Dumbledore's relationship with Snape to 
resemble that of father/son, with all the concomitant 
misunderstandings, jealousies, resentments and unconditional love, 
just like the real thing. I can't help but interpret Snape's 
antipathy towards Harry, James, Lupin and Sirius as a version of 
sibling rivalry: he relies on Dumbledore's support so much for his 
own sense of stability (as evidenced in E&E in GoF) that any other 
potential rival for Dumbledore's fatherly affections instills Snape 
with jealous, irrational terror and loathing. And yet, they remain 
loyal to each other on some sort of fundamental level, despite 
arguments and downright ugly incidents. 

For instance, I interpret this line

"Unless you are suggesting that Harry and Hermione are able to be in 
two places at once, I'm afraid I don't see any point in troubling 
them further" 

as telling Snape, "They used the time turner to help Sirius escape, 
they had my approval," as Pippin says, but not so much as a warning 
to keep this quiet as open mockery: "They used the time turner to 
help Sirius escape, they had my approval, and there isn't a single 
thing you can do about it. So there!" I don't think there is any 
question of whether Snape's accusation of Harry being involved is 
illogical: I think Snape can probably think of a dozen magical 
reasons for how Harry and Hermione could be, or appear to be, in two 
places at once and Dumbledore knows this. 

Snape can't help but feel betrayed by Dumdledore who is, from his 
perspective, openly supporting both Sirius and Harry against his own 
attempt at bringing someone he thinks is a criminal to justice. 
Dumbledore is acting amused with all this, which strikes me as coldly 
unempathetic to Snape's obvious distress. Similarly, I see 
Dumbledore's remark "My memory is as good as it ever was, Severus," 
when Snape is very quietly begging for support and reassurance, to 
constitute a rather cruel rubbing of his nose in his past. I know 
there is more than one way to interpret this line, but seeing as how 
it really shuts Snape up, he is so affected that he can't even manage 
a reply but to turn around and leave, I can't help but think he's 
devastated by it. 

I interpret Dumbledore's vulture-hat Christmas-cracker joke as mildly 
sadistic as well. I know that Dumbledore might have meant that in 
fun, but seeing as he deliberately chose to do it in front of Harry 
and Ron who openly despise Snape, and with Harry in particular being 
an object of Snape's jealousy, I can't help but suspect that trying 
to poke fun at Snape at this point might have been a tactical error 
at best and cruelty at worst. Snape underreacts, so it's hard to tell 
what effect it has on him. But putting the joke in the context of 
what Irene describes of that year:

<<
Think of a hellish year Snape (and the rest of the teachers) had in 
PoA all those night patrols, all the false and not so false alarms.
You spoke about the map being the painful reminder, but Lupin himself
is much more painful reminder.
>>

I would think that Snape is already a little too sensitized to what 
he feels as Dumbledore's dismissiveness towards him to be able to 
interpret mockery as good humor. BTW Irene, I totally agree with your 
interpretation of the Boggart incident as an unhappy regression 
for "Professor" Snape. 

And another thing! Dumbledore's words to Harry at the end of PS/SS 
bug me as well. 

<<
"...And then, your father did something Snape could never forgive."
"What?"
"He saved his life."
"What?"
"Yes..." said Dumbledore dreamily. "Funny, the way people's minds 
work, isn't it? Professor Snape couldn't bear being in your father's 
debt...."
>>

Obviously the context of this conversation was "make Harry feel OK 
about everything and tell him not to worry about Snape." 
Nevertheless, from what we later see of Real Wizarding Culture, where 
everyone is so obsessed with toughness and pride and honor and saving-
face (Sirius and Lupin in the Shack, Crouch Sr., Gran Longbottom, 
Fudge, Lucius, etc.), Dumbledore's words sound rather deceitful in 
retrospect. How on earth could Snape, member of the proudest and most 
old-school House and himself saddled with a heavy sense of pride and 
gravitas, how could he *not* find the prank incident humiliating? Not 
only did he need to have his life saved, but it was saved by someone 
he already hated. And Dumbledore makes fun of him for it here --
"Funny, the way people's minds work." It's not Snape's mind that 
works funny here but the collective mind of the whole Wizarding 
Culture which Snape is a part of. Now, Dumbledore does not go along 
entirely with WW attitudes -- he champions the cause of Muggles in 
the face of indifference and hostility from his fellow wizards, and 
he praises Harry for sparing Pettigrew against Sirius and Lupin's 
inclinations. But you would think that he would at least *understand* 
why Snape would feel resentment over this incident, and yet he makes 
no attempt to defend Snape in front of Harry, or to even say 
something like "you'll understand him better when you're older."

And yet, in spite of all this we are left with both Dumbledore and 
Snape in GoF expressing unquestioning loyalty towards each other. 
Marcus is right:

<<
Snape trust Dumbledore and Dumbledore trusts Snape. He trusts him 
enough to include him in the secret of Sirius's dog form. Even 
McGonagall can't claim that one!
>>

This is something I too wanted to argue in a previous conversation 
with Darrin, but I didn't get around to it. Not only does Dumbledore 
let Snape see that Sirius is a big black dog Animagus (something he 
would have wanted kept from the enemy if Snape's loyalty were in 
question), but he also lets Snape know what Sirius's task is (round 
up the old gang) the minute he assigns it. Snape's task, on the other 
hand, is kept secret from everyone. And it's obvious that Snape and 
Dumbledore had plotted it out in secret beforehand. 

How to resolve it? Well, I like to imagine that Snape and Dumbledore 
did have a big, air-clearing bruhaha at some point between the end of 
PoA and midway through GoF, but we can't exactly prove this. What 
makes even more sense to me is that they just plain have a 
complicated relationship where they fight and fight and misunderstand 
and occasionally lash out at each other and come back to an 
understanding in the end when it really matters. In other words, like 
family. Marcus is right, IMO, to say that Snape will never louse up 
his relationship with Dumbledore because he is, finally, an insider, 
a family member, and he values this too much to lose it. In fact I 
see their relationship as a bit of a microcosm of Dumbledore's speech 
at the end of GoF: 

<<
"I say to you all, once again - in the light of Lord Voldemort's 
return, we are only as strong as we are united, as weak as we are 
divided. Lord Voldemort's gift for spreading discord and enmity is 
very great. We can fight it only by showing an equally strong bond of 
friendship and trust. Differences of habit and language are nothing 
at all if our aims are identical and our hearts are open."
>>

This is what Snape and Dumbledore exemplify, only on a much smaller 
and more intimate scale. They know they often disagree, to some 
extent they appear to come from different cultures, but they also 
know they are on the same side in the end and act accordingly. So 
while I think that neither of them behaves perfectly well towards 
each other, I also find their loyalty completely convincing and not 
too hard to reconcile with their moments of hostility. 

~Porphyria