Why Does Snape Trust Dumbledore?

[Porphyria Ashenden <porphyria@mindspring.com>]

No: HPFGUIDX 48416

Wendy 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*?

Well, I'd like to second Marina's remark about how Snape's options 
were extremely limited once he decided he'd had enough. He couldn't 
have just walked up to Voldemort and said, "I don't want to be a DE 
anymore" -- he'd probably be AK'ed on the spot. And I doubt he 
trusted the Ministry one iota; given Crouch Sr.'s 'get tough on Death 
Eaters' stance, Snape might have held them in nearly as much contempt 
as LV's forces; and they'd never trust him. If he didn't find a 
powerful protector then his only other option would have been to flee 
the country, and he's too honorable for that. 

In fact, if he decided he wanted to leave the Death Eaters for 
philosophical or ethical reasons, if he decided their agenda was just 
plain wrong, then Dumbledore was the obvious person to go to even if 
Snape had some personal reservations. After all, Dumbledore isn't 
just his ex-headmaster, Dumbledore is widely known as the figurehead 
of the resistance to Voldemort, possibly the most powerful living 
wizard and the only one Voldemort personally fears. If Snape really 
wished to combat LV and all he stood for, as I certainly believe he 
did, then he would have used a little rationality to figure that, 
even if Dumbledore had been unfair to him in the past, he was still 
the wisest choice of a benefactor for a recanted DE. 

Here's a slight twist on a common theory. This list has often 
suspected that Snape was probably set up as a double agent before 
Voldemort's fall -- in other words, Voldemort probably thought that 
Snape was spying on Dumbledore for him when Snape was really leaking 
information to Dumbledore's advantage. So perhaps this was 
Voldemort's idea in the first place. Perhaps Voldemort sent Snape to 
infiltrate Dumbledore's operation (maybe by getting a job at 
Hogwarts) and only after Snape got to know Dumbledore better and 
worked with him up close (and more as a colleague than as a student) 
did he realize that Dumbledore really was, at the end of the day, a 
guy to be trusted. Maybe he recanted after that. I'm not sure if this 
is my favorite version of the theory, but it would have made a nice 
irony if LV had planned a clever infiltration scheme only to have it 
backfire on him. 

In any case, if Snape *was* sitting on some useful information about 
LV at the time he recanted to Dumbledore, he might have figured that 
his close position in LV's inner circle would have been too valuable 
for Dumbledore to ruin by turning him over to the MoM. A well-placed 
spy is a priceless thing. So even if Snape initially went out on a 
limb by placing his fate in Dumbledore's hands, his trust for him 
might have grown over time as the plotted together. 

I've gone on and on in the past about how I think Snape and 
Dumbledore have a father/son relationship and that this accounts for 
a great deal of their surface tension and hostility coupled with 
their underlying trust and mutual respect. I won't repeat it all 
here, except to stress the way the series emphasizes father/son 
relationships between many characters, and I feel this is yet another 
example of that motif. I agree that Dumbledore can be a jerk to Snape 
sometimes, but pace Melpomene, I can't bring myself to believe that 
Dumbledore is really manipulating Snape to obey him under threat. I 
think Snape has a strong sense of honor and he must appreciate 
Dumbledore's sense of honor as well. I doubt Snape would serve anyone 
out of fear -- at least not for long. Rather, I think they have more 
of a symbiotic relationship than that -- I think Snape relies on 
Dumbledore for a sense of stability and respect and Dumbledore needs 
Snape's ex-DE insight and willingness to do some of the dirty work 
for the good guys. 

I know you've all considered the fact that Dumbledore vouched for 
Snape in the Pensieve scene, but I'd like to stress that we not 
underestimate the importance that. I got the impression that Snape 
would have gone to Azkaban for life if not for Dumbledore, since no 
one else in the Ministry seems to trust him a bit -- not Crouch Sr., 
head of the DMLE at the time, nor the real Moody, everyone's favorite 
Auror. So whatever Snape and Dumbledore went through right after 
Snape recanted, I believe the fact that Dumbledore saved him from the 
MoM cemented Snape's trust in him, and keeps it steady even when 
various werewolves, escaped convicts and bothersome children get in 
the way. 

Melpomene, I'd really like to believe that Dumbledore *did* take 
Snape aside for a cognac and an explanation at some point after the 
end of PoA -- after letting him calm down for a while. :-) But I'm 
afraid we'll never find out...

~Porphyria