Snape is an honest nasty DISLOYAL person (who will betray Dumbledore)

[cindysphynx]

No: HPFGUIDX 39295

Jenny wrote:

>I would find it hard to believe and even harder to accept if Snape 
>turns out to be a bad guy after all.  JKR has made him deliberately 
>vague and confusing, and quite unlikeable, which is exactly what 
>makes him such a brilliant character. 

I hate to go on yet another of my anti-Snape tirades . . . 

OK, well, that's not true.  I *love* going on anti-Snape tirades. ;^)

But I don't see why people are so darn confident that Snape won't 
turn against Dumbledore.  I mean, isn't it pretty much a given that 
*someone* will betray Dumbledore?  Dumbledore certainly has to get 
out of the way so that Harry can save the wizarding world, right?  

That means that *someone* has to betray Dumbledore, and that someone 
must have Dumbledore's trust (so that they can get the drop on him) 
and must be capable of killing him.  I don't see Dumbledore losing a 
duel with Voldemort or being ambushed.  Dumbledore is too smart and 
powerful for that.  The only person who can bring down Dumbledore is 
someone who has his trust and uses that trust to stab him in the 
back.

So who does Dumbledore trust enough to let his guard down?  It's a 
fairly short list, I think:

1.  Snape.  Boy, that would be a shocker!  The ultimate betrayal!  
Someone to whom Dumbledore gave a second chance, someone "cunning" 
enough to be in Slytherin, someone who knows a lot of dark curses, 
someone who knows how DEs operate.  I think Snape is the best bet 
for a betrayal.  And a Big one, too!

2.  Real Moody.  Maybe, as he surely has Dumbledore's trust and is 
very powerful.  This one has real possibilities, if we can get 
around the problem that Real Moody has to be Good because the whole 
plot in GoF depends on it.

3.  McGonagall.  Uh, no.  She couldn't even ward off Crouch Jr.'s 
dementor.  

4.  Lucius.  Interesting, but he has received so little development 
that this one is hard to swallow.

5.  Hagrid.  I don't know how JKR would sell this one.  JKR has 
never had Hagrid even *hint* that he might suddenly become disloyal 
to Dumbledore.  

6.  Lupin/Sirius.  No.  No, no, no.  

7.  Harry/Ron/Hermione/Neville/Draco.  They just aren't strong 
enough to pull this off, and they won't be for a good long while.

8.  Minor teachers (Trelawney, Flitwick, Sprout).  Really, why 
bother?

No, the disloyal one *has* to be Snape.  He is the only major 
character who has ever been deliberately disloyal.  In fact, 
disloyalty might be one of Snape's defining characteristics -- he 
has been disloyal to some extent to Dumbledore, to the Forces of 
Good (by becoming a DE) and to the DEs (by turning spy).  And JKR 
has certainly planted the seeds to suggest that Snape is quite 
willing to cross Dumbledore and disobey his instructions (outing 
Lupin against Dumbledore's express wishes).  

Yeah, Albus might think about borrowing Moody's Dark Detectors.

Cindy (who will pretend to be *astounded* when Severus finally makes 
his power play against Dumbledore)