A little George, a little Lollipops, a whole lotta Snape

[lucky_kari]

No: HPFGUIDX 34863

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "pippin_999" <foxmoth at q...> wrote:
> I think, judging from the way Snape's manner of speech changes 
> when he talks to Filch, that Snape grew up in a great wizarding 
> household  but as the offspring of servants. 

I don't have the books handy, but how does Snape change his  manner of 
speech? 

>Perhaps his parents 
> were Squibs, or, more romantically, he's the offspring of a secret 
> liason between the master of the House and a Squib parent.

Well, it depends what your idea of romantic is, I suppose. I've heard 
people wildly speculating that Snape is Lucius Malfoy's illegitimate 
son, thus explaining his apprent friendliness towards Draco: his 
half-brother. 

>I 
> think Snape taught himself those curses, and no one paid much 
> attention to what he was doing since they didn't think he was 
> magical. 

I do like the idea of lonely Snape as a child in the library. 

>It would help if Snape has some vampire talent for 
> getting through locked doors, into libraries perhaps.

Where does he get the vampire ability in this scenario?

> I doubt that anyone ever showed him much regard as a child, or 
> offered him any affection that didn't come with strings attached.  
> 
> Then he gets his Hogwarts letter and is grudgingly invited into 
> that gang of Slytherins, who value him first for his knowledge of 
> curses and later for his aptitude for potions. It is this last which 
> draws Voldemort's interest. We know that Voldemort is *very* 
> interested in the Elixir of Life. I'm sure he would like to find a 
way 
> to duplicate it. 

Good point. I hadn't picked up on this. Voldemort's special field of 
interest is connected with potions. 

By the way, I discovered about a week ago that some of the Nazis were 
trying to reproduce a philosopher's stone. Like all Nazi occult 
stories, it must be taken with a grain of salt, but my Dad was doing 
some serious research into a modern hoax, and he uncovered all these 
interesting things. 

> 
> There has to be something to the Death Eater name. Voldemort 
> subsists on Nagini's venom during GoF,

/me feels stupid. She had thought Nagini was giving the snake 
equivalent of cow's milk. :-(

>and it seems that 
> Nagini has to be fed a wizard now and then.

Does it say that in the books?

>We also know that 
> Voldemort's earlier reign was marked by disappearances.

I don't remember disappearances, but people coming home and finding 
their families, friends dead. Is there a source for this? The 
accompanying theory is pretty good except....

 I think 
> Voldemort had a use for those bodies. I think that Voldemort 
> promised his followers that they would share eternal life with 
> him, neccessary if the wizards are not to die out after they've 
> eliminated the Muggles. He offers those who are worthy his 
> version of the elixir of life. Then Snape discovers that Voldemort's 
> substitute elixir only works because it contains the venom of a 
> snake fed on (shudder) wizards.  Snape realizes that Voldemort 
> and his Inner Circle are the enemies of wizards as well as 
> Muggles, and switches sides.   

One thing I couldn't take was if Snape switched sides on a racist 
basis. There. 


> The one thing that convinces me above all else that Snape now 
> has something besides selfish motivations for what he does is 
> Hagrid's behavior. Hagrid is willing to tolerate Snape's treatment 
> of Harry, for reasons that he's not yet willing to explain. There 
has 
> to be more to it than following Dumbledore's lead. I have hopes 
> that perhaps Hagrid will reveal more of Snape's back story to 
> Harry at some time. 

Very true. 

> What Snape/Lily explains best is why Voldemort offered to spare 
> Lily in the first place. Suppose Snape asked Voldie to spare her, 
> not simply because he was still nursing a crush on her, but 
> because she herself arranged it! After Lily knows that the  Potters 
> are targets, she works out that Snape is a DE and secretly goes 
> to him. Can he do anything to save Harry and James? No, but he 
> might be able to do something for her...for the usual price. Lily 
> agrees...Snape can have whatever is in her power to give if 
> Voldemort spares her life. Though he half suspects what she 
> means to do, Snape does ask Voldemort for this boon and 
> Voldemort, superior and amused,  agrees. 

Half suspects? Here's a theory that will make Snape a little less 
slimy in the situation.

It's near the end. They are about to cast the Fidelius charm, but Lily 
is still worried. So, she comes up with a back-up plan. She proposes 
it to Severus, who is on Dumbledore's side at that point. He isn't 
enthusiastic about it, but she begs him to do it, and says that the 
Fidelius charm is sure to work, but if it fails..... 

So, then he goes to Voldemort with his horrible proposal. "Kill the 
Potters if you like, but spare Lily for me." Voldemort is not just 
amused but as he needs Snape for the research agrees. 

> Voldemort offers Lily her life (stand aside you stupid girl), 
> and *this* is what makes the magic Lily does for Harry potent 
> enough to resist the AK curse. 

Very good. If it's true, though, Voldemort would bear Snape a huge 
grudge for the whole fiasco. On the other hand, he'd still need Snape 
for the research, even now. 

>Snape, no sentimentalist, bitterly  
> resolves to put the whole business out of his mind and does, 
> until Harry shows up at Hogwarts. Every time Snape confronts 
> Harry, he sees not only his hated rival and his lost love, but the 
> scar which reminds him of how Lily died. 

Very emotional. 

> It's interesting that Neville's boggart Snape goes for its wand. 
> Apparently Neville's great fear is that Snape will curse him, even 
> though Snape has never threatened anything of the kind, and 
> never uses his wand in class at all. Some have speculated that 
> Snape was somehow involved in the attack on Neville's parents. 

Impossible. Unless Snape was torturing people after he came back to 
Dumbledore, and then Ron's deepest suspicions would be realized. 

> What if this is so, but Snape came on the scene as a rescuer? 
> One or two year old Neville wouldn't neccessarily understand 
> that the wizard who burst into his house, wand blazing, had 
> come to help. Neville may keep some unconscious memory of 
> this which causes him to fear Snape.

I like this, though I still enjoy the "Lucius Malfoy accidentally 
saved Neville's life through his own self-promoting schemes," theory. 
Perhaps they could be combined.

Eileen