Why Does Snape Trust Dumbledore?

[marinafrants <rusalka@ix.netcom.com>]

No: HPFGUIDX 48413

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, wynnde1 at a... wrote:
>> Well, I started thinking  . . . maybe we're asking the wrong 
question. Of 
> course wondering why Dumbledore trusts Snape is a valid question, 
but what if 
> we look at it from the other way around: Just why is it that 
*Snape* trusts 
> *Dumbledore*?

<snip discussion of Snape's problematic relationship with Dumbledore>

That's an excellent question, actually, one I haven't really 
considered before.  Thinking about it now, I suspect that by the 
time Snape decided to leave the Death Eaters, he was at the end of 
his rope and pretty much out of options.  Who *could* he go to?  Not 
to a friend -- all his friends were on Voldemort's side.  Not to the 
Ministry -- given the climate of paranoia and persecution at the 
time, any DE who came in and confessed would probably be drop-kicked 
straight into Azkaban, if not Dementor-kissed on the spot.  
Dumbledore was a major player in the fight against Voldemort, but at 
the same time he wasn't part of the official law-enforcement 
structure, and he may have already gone on record with his dislike 
of Dementors.  Snape probably saw him as the least horrible of all 
available alternatives.

Once Snape did come to him, it would've been up to Dumbledore to 
convince him that he could be trusted.  How he did that, I don't 
know, but it seems he succeeded.

Marina
rusalka at ix.netcom.com