Snape, Draco, Slytherins, and choosing sides

[marinafrants]

No: HPFGUIDX 33829

Okay, I'm new here, so please bear with me.  I've been reading the 
current threads about Snape, and how evil he was or wasn't in his DE 
days, and I thought I'd share my own thoughts about what might've 
happened (and what might still happen).

First of all, given the timeline, it's pretty clear that Snape and 
his friends had to be very young when they sided with Voldemort -- 
in their early twenties at most, but more likely still teenagers.  
At the time, the wizarding world was dividing into two sides: 
the "Light Side," represented by Dumbledore and his crowd; and 
the "Dark Side," represented by Voldemort and his crew.  
Dumbledore's side would've been vocally and enthusiastically 
supported by James, Sirius and most other Gryffindors -- in other 
words, by all the people Snape and the Slytherins hated.  So it 
would've seemed perfectly reasonable for the Slytherins to join up 
on the other sides.  Most of them probably had no idea what real 
evil was, or what it's like to kill or torture somebody.  To young 
people, evil often seems glamorous until they actually try it.

Snape probably thought that because he was intelligent and ruthless 
and knew a lot of hexes, he had what it takes to be a DE.  But it 
takes real evil to be a DE, and he doesn't have that in him.

Now some of the Slytherins -- Like Lucius and the Lestranges -- 
turned out to be genuinely evil; some were probably brainwashed;  
and some regretted their choice but were too terrified to do 
anything about it.  The thing that makes Snape such a strong 
characer to me is that he apparently regretted his choice and then 
had the guts to actually do something about it.

What worries me about my past scenario is that I think it's about to 
repeat itself with Draco and the current crop of Slytherins.  We 
don't know yet if there's any real evil in Draco, or if he's just 
parroting what Daddy taught him, but I'm willing to bet that if he 
had to choose sides right now, he'd choose whatever side Harry 
Potter wasn't on.  The house culture at Hogwarts is practically 
designed to guarantee that most of the Slytherins will end up on the 
Dark Side, especially with the added push of their parents' 
encouragement, and nobody seems particularly interesting in changing 
that.

Marina
rusalka at ix.netcom.com