Bangers, Life Debts (WASBangers and their bangs )

[moongirlk]

No: HPFGUIDX 35610

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "cindysphynx" <cindysphynx at h...> wrote:
> Jake Storm wrote:
> 
> > What if, just a conjecture here, it wasn't just up to Dumbledore 
> when Snape 
> > came back to the Light? What if Dumbledore was ready to give the 
> man another 
> > chance, remembering the bright young man that he'd help to teach 
> years 
> > before, but somebody else, say Moody or that straight-shooting 
> Frank 
> > Longbottom, declared that they'd not beleive that Snape wasn't a 
> double 
> > until he'd given them something wildly juicy?
> > 
> > That gives us Dumbledore as good-hearted believer in the light 
side 
> of human 
> > nature, plus all the family fun of a bloody ambush!
> 
> Ah, this is just perfect!  Jake has dreamed up a fabulous ambush 
> compromise that makes perfect sense and, as an added bonus, is 
> actually based in canon.  

Now this might just work for me.  In fact, I've long been a little 
uneasy with the general assumption (as I percieve it) that Dumbledore 
is *the* head of the good guys.  Surely the ministry would have been 
involved when it was an out-and-out war, and while not everyone would 
have known about Snape (ruins the whole spy thing), *someone* in the 
ministry would be involved in big questions like defecting death 
eaters and such.  So this kills two birds for me.  But...

Cindy goes a little further:
> Maybe Dumbledore might believe Snape for no good reason, but Moody 
> would have none of it.  

I gotta defend my position here - I'm not saying Dumbledore had "no 
good reason" to believe Snape, just that I don't think the ambush 
thingy would constitute a good reason in Dumbledore's book.  It might 
work fine for the Aurors and such, and Dumbledore probably had some 
sort of reason that meant something to him.  I don't propose any 
theories of my own, I just can't quite swallow either that Dumbledore 
would consider an ambush a good reason or that he reads minds.  

In fact, we see in GoF that Moody doesn't 
> trust Snape at all, in the Pensieve or 13 years later.  So that 
gives 
> us a really great Big Bang scene in which Snape is weeping, 
crawling 
> on the floor, apologizing, begging to join Dumbledore. 

Wow.  I have a very different image in my mind of this scene.  It's 
far more decorous.  I guess at heart I'm just not a Banger.  Or I 
just can't *can't* imagine Snape crawling and begging (even if I have 
imagined him in a leotard and legwarmers).

Dumbledore is, 
> uh, twinkling. But Moody is there, his two normal eyes swiveling 
> wildly around in his head, his itchy trigger finger stroking his 
> wand, restraining himself from turning Snape into a hedgehog and 
> bouncing him around the office.  It is Moody who *demands* DE 
corpses 
> as the price of admission.  Dumbledore is a Tough strong wizard, 
but 
> he goes along with Moody, not wishing to be turned into a hedgehog 
> himself.  Nobody, but nobody, is willing to tangle with Alastor 
Moody.

I don't know that the gang's all there in my mind.  I can accept an 
ambush, but I think I have to separate it from the "conversion".  
Maybe he set up an ambush at some point after he was converted, 
working with Moody or someone.  

But if it was a part of the same incident as his joining up with the 
good guys, wouldn't it be cool if it happened like this?:

-Good guys are assembled somewhere doing whatever it is good guys do 
when they assemble.

-Enter Snape, swooping battily.  Moody and several others go for 
their wands, Snape disarms them in an instant.

-Collecting their wands, he grabs a chair from the table, swings it 
around and, straddling it (his cloak billowing still more battily), 
says (note the following is a rather loose paraphrase written in my 
words, not his): "Listen, I've had just about enough of this Death 
Eater @#$%.  They whinge at the Dark Lord's feet and then run around 
torturing Muggles.  Like there's any sport in that!  They don't even 
*believe* all the @#%#$ they're spouting, and half of them are such 
dunderheads they can't even brew a basic potion.  They get off on 
picking on people weaker than they are, I can dig that, but 
*honestly*, they're always pushing things too far.  The baby-torture 
stuff (he winks at Marina off-stage) is just disgusting and I'm 
pretty sure some of them missed the point entirely and are actually 
*eating* people.  And don't even get me started on the "Dork Lord".  
What a tool! Obviously I've made a mistake associating myself with 
such morons, and I can't in good conscience allow them to figure out 
immortality.  Nobody should be subjected to such raging bores 
eternally.  So here's what I propose..."

Now, if *that* were Snapes conversion scene, I could buy the ambush 
as being a part of it.

Cindy explained for me how Dumbledore spun the sparing of Pettigrew 
for Harry's benefit:

> I think Dumbledore praises Harry because he doesn't have any other 
> choice.  His other option is to scream, "Geez, Harry, thanks a 
whole 
> freakin' lot!  You let a murder get away scot free, you doomed your 
> godfather to live life on the run, and you did it *knowing* that 
the 
> murderer was going to help Voldemort return.  Everything that 
happens 
> from this point forward is blood on *your* hands; I hope you're 
> happy!"  Mmmm, that sounds a little out of character.  

Point taken, and enjoyed!

> 
> But then again, if there really is something to this Life Debt 
> business, then I think a lot of people are living on credit.  Snape 
> owes James (PoA).  Pettigrew owes Harry (PoA).  Harry owes 
Dumbledore 
> (PoA in Quiddich).  Hermione owes Harry and Ron (PS/SS Troll).  
> Sirius owes Hermione and Harry (PoA Rescue).  Voldemort owes 
> Pettigrew (GoF Re-Birthing).  Ginny owes Harry (CoS Chamber).  
Harry 
> owes the graveyard shadows (GoF).  Real Moody owes Dumbledore (GoF 
> Trunk).  Harry owes Dobby (GoF Second Task).  
> 
> Did I miss any?  

I'm sure there's more!  Let's see... well, Buckbeak owes Harry and 
Hermione and Dumbledore, Penelope owes Hermione for telling her to 
use a mirror to look around corners, Harry owes Snape for saving him 
from Quirrel's broom-hex, and theoretically Harry owes Voldemort for 
untying him and giving him back his wand.

kimberly
who owes a lot of you an entertainment-debt, if not a life-debt!