So, why did Snape turn on Voldermort?

[joeblackish]

No: HPFGUIDX 39948

In the spirit of guessing why Snape may have turned on 
Voldemort, I wonder if we might consider something other than 
his genuine goodness or an attack of conscience, etc.

What if Snape never gave a hoot about James or Lily dying? 
What if Snape thought it was as fun as can be to go around 
Imperio-ing, and Crucio-ing, and AK-ing? What if Snape didn't 
care who he hurt?

What if it was Snape's inner-Slytherin gnawing him to leave 
Voldemort?

Wait, don't send Fluffy at me just yet, hear me out first.

Snape is clearly NOT a nice person. Snape doesn't seem to 
care about hurting others at all. Yes, I realize that Crucio is a little 
more extreme than yelling at your students, but I think its 
important that we realize that this is someone who feels its 
appropriate to publicly mock a thirteen-year old nerdy girl about 
her large teeth in front of her enemies. (And I think any former 
thirteen-year old, girl or boy, can attest to the scars that sort of 
treatment can leave).

While I will not dispute that Snape is clearly devoted to the side 
of good (in fact, that's key to what I'm about to say), I don't think 
Snape has any sort of conscience at all. His actions attest to the 
fact that he doesn't care about hurting others.

So there we go. Point number one, Snape is not a nice person 
who doesn't feel a stitch of regret about his behavior as a Death 
Eater.

On to point number two. Voldemort, while he may reward his 
followers handsomely for their work, will also turn on them the 
minute they are no longer useful to him. 

Yeah, so maybe Wormtail did get that silver hand. Do you really 
think that Voldemort would hesitate for a second if he decided 
there was something to be gained by AK-ing the rat? Or even if 
he was bored wanted some fun?

We've heard claims that certain people thought they would 
become Voldemort's second in command when he took over. 
But anyone who stopped to think would realize that second-in-
command means nothing when you're dealing with a guy like 
Voldemort. He's totally power hungry, and there's not an ounce 
of Hufflepuff in that man. One servant is as good as the next.

Third, Snape is one smart cookie. I don't think anyone would 
dispute that. 

Put it all together, and I think that Snape switched his allegiance 
for entirely selfish motives. 

That ambitious drive in Snape's belly told him that he would 
never get the power and recognition he wanted as long as he 
was with Voldemort. In fact, working for an evil nutcase like that 
is downright dangerous – the guy's in a bad mood one day and 
all those evil deeds were for nothing. 

No, much better to work for someone like Dumbledore, who 
keeps his promises and passes out credit where credit is do. 
Also, unlike Da V-miester, Dumbledore will actually die someday 
and leave the top spot open.

Yes, that's right. Severus betrayed his master for no other 
reason than he was looking out for number one. He switched 
sides solely for personal gain. He's ambitious to the core, and 
knew he would never get the glory he deserves from that crazy 
monster.

Also, I think Snape probably has more faith in Dumbledore than 
Voldemort (brilliant and evil as the man might be, he's totally 
unstable and you really don't want to put your money on a ticking 
time bomb like that). He's determined that Dumbledore will 
eventually triumph, and he really wants to be on the winning side 
when this messy war is all over.



Joe, who's just throwing something out there to give the anti-
Snape people something to gnaw on other than that tired he's-
totally-evil-and-still-a-hardcore-death-eater schitck. Oh, and who 
actually doesn't believe a word of this, and thinks Snape is a 
genuinely good guy who also happens to be mean. Oops! I 
shouldn't have said that.