Did Snape betray his friends? Round 2

[cindysphynx]

No: HPFGUIDX 34758

Marina wrote (about the Prince of Lies theory):

> My problem with this theory is that it doesn't properly account for
> Snape's mission at the end of GoF.  If Snape defected from the DE
> cause they treated him badly, and cut a deal with Dumbledore to save
> his neck and get revenge -- well, he accomplished both those things
> fifteen years ago.  Why stick his precious neck out again now, when
> the safest thing for him to do is to lie low at Hogwarts or to run?
> Karakoff, who we *know* cut a deal to save his neck, is slinking off
> with his tail between his neck, but Snape is sticking around and,
> apparently, going right back into the viper pit.  Not the behavior 
of
> a man who's only out for himself.

Yes, this is a problem, isn't it?  ::looks down at keyboard, shifts 
uncomfortably in chair::

Oddly, this is a problem under all of the theories.  Under Prince of 
Lies, Snape continues to risk his neck past the point at which he 
obtained revenge.  (Although I can see why Snape would rather go on 
offense and start spying again rather than live the rest of his life 
jumping at small noises as he hides from Voldemort.)

It's also a problem under the Snape loves Lily theory, because Snape 
continues to risk his neck after GoF when Lily is dead, dead, dead.  
That must have been some torrid love affair for Snape to be willing 
to return to spying to avenge the memory of someone who has been dead 
for 14 years, who never loved him anyway, who married his nemesis, 
blah, blah, blah.  I'd have to question Snape's mental stability if 
love of Lily's corpse keeps him spying after GoF.

Under George . . . who knows?  In don't understand George yet, 
although I'll bet he is really adorable.  :-)

So what did Snape not know or understand when he left Hogwarts that 
he understood better when he returned to Dumbledore, and that still 
persists as a motivation for his continued spying?

Uh, maybe there has to be an additional theory, which, for lack of a 
better name, I will call "Mercy".  Maybe Dumbledore had Snape on the 
ropes in the war and was in a position to blast Snape to little slimy 
pieces.  Dumbledore (inexplicably?) decides to spare Snape's life 
(perhaps requiring the ambush as proof that Snape's conversion was 
true).

So that makes Snape's motivation to continue spying after GoF his 
plain, boring, uninspiring loyalty to Dumbledore, much the same way 
that Snape feels he owes a debt to James for saving Snape's life.  
Dumbledore does spell this out for us quite clearly in PoA:  "When 
one wizard saves another wizard's life, it creates a certain bond 
between them."  If Dumbledore saved or spared Snape's life, then 
Snape is serving Dumbledore because of that magical bond.

Cindy (noting that the Mercy theory is ever-so-dull, hoping that this 
isn't all there is to Snape's backstory, and hoping that there's a 
nasty, violent ambush in there somewhere)




> 
> > 
> > Although I agree that empathy with victims can cause someone to 
> > change sides, I also think having one really nasty experience 
(like 
> > being disrespected and tortured and demeaned) can take all of the
> fun 
> > out of being a Death Eater also.  Having Snape's conversion rest 
on 
> > one of those fuzzy, heart-warming flashbacks to stolen moments 
with 
> > Lily in the cold dungeon will make me want to hurl.
> 
> I'll join you in opposition to anything warm and fuzzy when it comes
> to Snape.  Save the warm fuzzies for a more suitable character, like
> Hagrid or Harry.  As a proud adherent of S.P.A.C.E.M.A.N., I love my
> Snape just the way he is, prickly and slimy.  Yet brave and
> principled.
> 
> Marina (going off to cuddle George)
> rusalka at i...