[HPforGrownups] Snape favouring Slytherin (was: Snape & the DEs)

[Edblanning at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 35403

Elkins writes:
> 
> The original question here, though, I seem to remember was one of 
> primary motive -- "why does Snape favor the Slytherins?" -- and 
> really, that's an impossible question to answer.  I think that he 
> does so for multiple reasons, and that the question of which is 
> the "primary" and which the "secondary" motive is probably not only 
> completely context-dependent, but also ultimately unanswerable.  I 
> doubt that Snape himself knows how he prioritizes such considerations.
> 

Never one to be put off by the impossible...

Poor old Severus. He's just got so complicated, hasn't he? Doesn't know 
whether he's a good guy or a bad guy, sadist or saviour. His intellect tells 
him one thing, his instincts tell him something else (and variations of that 
theme). Then there are all the complications of his love life, trying to 
remember exactly who he was kissing (or not kissing) where and when. Poor 
chap doesn't know whether he's coming or going.

But the one thing he *does* know is that he's a Slytherin. Like it or loathe 
it, that's what he is and that's something he can't change any more than  the 
kids in his charge can.
Now, of course, we're into the whole sorting business again, and we've had 
debates already about how much one can decide to be in a house (as in Harry's 
determination not to be in Slytherin) or how much it is one's essential 
essence that decides it. But it does seem that once one is in a house, there 
is no going back, no turning round because you've realised what nasty little 
creeps those Slytherins are (no stereotyping there, of course :-)!). The 
Sorting Hat has said that is where he belongs; it is one of those facts that 
just has to be lived with. He can draw a line under his past activities, but 
he can't change his house any more than he can change the colour of his eyes. 
Denying it means denying what he is, and he won't do that. Work with it, yes, 
but not deny it. In fact denying it, not being loyal to his house would be in 
a way a betrayal of himself. So of course Snape is loyal to his house. He has 
no option, but it is yet another of those complicating factors of his life. 

Now of course, the Heads of Houses are expected to root for their houses (I 
really like it when Snape turns out for the Quidditch cup final in green, not 
his customary black, although I dread to think how it will go with his skin 
tone). One of the points of having houses in school is to promote healthy 
competition. I think Snape *is* a competitive person. McGonnagal's 
competitive too, in her own way, though obviously fairer. 

 I think Snape's also a person who feels starved of recognition and in 
promoting his house, he benefits from his students' reflected glory. I'm sure 
he got a real buzz (matched only by the satisfaction of creating a really 
difficult potion) from seeing those Slytherin banners in the Great Hall and 
he was really gutted when they changed to Gryffindor. That was *personal*. 
Yes, three quarters of the school would hate him for it, but it was a 
recognised achievement for *his* students and therefore for him. 

And they are *his* students. He's been given them to oversee and 'care' for 
and that's what he'll do - in his own way - which happens to be terribly 
unfair. But then, maybe nobody ever cared enough about him to get someone 
else to slice up his potions ingredients if he broke his arm falling off his 
broomstick ( I'm sure from the canonical hints that he *did* play Quidditch, 
before someone objects). I still think that Draco is to an extent our model 
of child Severus and that Snape's favouritism is a way of making up for the 
perceived injustices of his own childhood. He identifies with his students 
and perhaps particularly with Draco, giving him a blind spot, which he does 
not have where Harry and the Gryffindors are concerned. In fact, the fact 
that he perceives that other people *do* have this Harry Potter blindspot is 
even more of an incentive for him to 'even the score' in his own house's 
favour.

Then of course, there may be the pragmatic element of keeping in with the 
Slytherin/DE parents, but I think this is a secondary motive.

Eloise



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