[HPforGrownups] TBAY: Assassin!Snape Meets Saboteur!Snape (WAS Saboteur!S...

[eloiseherisson at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 46863

George's Bar was busier than it had been in ages, although it was strangely 
quiet as everyone listened to Cindy holding forth on her latest theory to 
Charis Julia,

> "So let's consider the next variant -– Snape doesn't kill Karkaroff 
> himself.  I mean, where's the fun in that?  No, instead there's 
> the 'Bring Him In Alive' variant.  Snape apprehends Karkaroff and 
> brings him to Voldemort alive -- furs and all.  Snape is able to 
> prove his loyalty to Voldemort without getting any, er, blood on his 
> hands, so to speak.  Now, if Karkaroff had his choice, he would 
> probably prefer that Snape go with 'Karkaroff's Head On A Stake,' 
> frankly.  'Cause you *know* what Karkaroff's fate is under 'Bring 
> Him In Alive.'  Let's just say that there will be a great lot of 
> screaming, begging, weeping and sniveling and leave it at that.  
> It's Bangy -- if you, uh, like that sort of thing.  

"If you don't mind my interrupting," said the blonde Englishwoman with rather 
too much jewellery, who was washing up the glasses behind the bar, "It's not 
that I don't like that kind of thing..."

"Diana? Behind a bar? Enjoying Banging?"

" Yes, well the castle refurbishment is taking rather longer than I expected. 
Mess everywhere and nothing getting done. I left Porphyria in charge, but 
she's been a bit preoccupied finishing some magnus opus recently and that 
Eloise is so underworked at the OFH that she's taken another job in some 
office and gets home each night covered in dust and cobwebs and rabbiting 
incoherently about archival messages. She's no fun at all. So brother George 
has taken me in.......only he expects me to work for the privilege," she 
said, looking with distaste at her long rubber gloves and frilly apron.

"So you think that Snape *could* be going to betray Karkaroff? I thought you 
disapproved of Banging and this version's virtually *Bent*"

Diana gave Cindy a penetrating look.
"I have no intrisic objection to Banging," she said, "It all depends on the 
circumstances. I merely state that Snape's joining and leaving the DEs has 
nothing to do with Banging, but that it is to do with a change in his 
philosophical outlook; that he now recognises the morality, the distinction 
between good and evil that Voldemort and his followers deny. But, as you 
imply, the 'Bring Him In Alive' scenario is actually worse than killing him 
outright. If Snape *is* as ethical as some of us would like to believe, I 
can't see him kidding himself that there's any moral superiority in letting 
Voldemort do his own dirty work instead of doing it, more mercifully, for 
him. The end result is the same: he's killed him, just as Sirius said he'd 
killed Lily and James."
> 
> "And then there is the safest Assassin!Snape variant for those with 
> weak stomachs –- the traditional 'The Devil Made Me Do It' variant.  
> Snape goes to Voldemort, who sends him after Karkaroff *or else,* so 
> Snape –- deeply conflicted and racked with guilt -– does what he 
> must do.  


"You know, Cindy, I haven't been able to help overhearing some of your 
conversations recently and I think you're actually beginning to understand 
Severus just a little bit. "

"You do?"

"Yes, and you're almost beginning to sound sympathetic..."

Cindy made a sudden movement designed perhaps to communicate complete 
dissent, perhaps that Diana had hit her mark, or perhaps merely to cause 
confusion to the reader, but before she could say anything, Diana continued,

"But you're wrong. Snape is principled. Vengeful, grudge-bearing, but 
principled. I do not believe for one minute that even if Voldemort ordered 
him to kill Karkaroff, 'or else' he would simply do it in cold blood. Sure it 
would save his own neck - but this is the man who's already changed sides 'at 
great personal risk'. Sure he should have a grudge against Karkaroff for his 
attempt at betrayal, but if Karkaroff has no connection with Voldemort 
anymore, he is not an enemy of Dumbledore and he has no current justifiable 
reason to kill him."

"But what about Sirius?"

"He thought that Sirius really had betrayed Lily and James and that he really 
had murdered all those Muggles and that he really was after Harry. We have no 
evidence that Snape would willingly betray a man on the grounds of personal 
grudge alone."

"So, as I say, deeply conflicted and racked with guilt."

"No, I still don't buy it. He'd be worse than conflicted; he'd have betrayed 
the very principles that I believe led him away from the DEs in the first 
place by killing a man in cold blood, to save his own skin. Even if it did 
further the cause by securing his position within Voldemort's organisation."

Undaunted, Cindy continued,

"This one is probably the most canonical, I think, because > 
> the set-up in 'GoF:  The Beginning' is so very strong:  
> 
> *********
> 
> "What was it that Snape had done on Dumbledore's orders, the night 
> that Voldemort had returned?  And why . . . *why* . . . was 
> Dumbledore so convinced that Snape was truly on their side?  . . . 
> Snape had turned spy against Voldemort, "at great personal risk."  
> Was that the job he taken up again?  Had he made contact with the 
> Death Eaters, perhaps?  Pretended that he had never really gone over 
> to Dumbledore, that he had been, like Voldemort, biding his time?"
> 
> ***********
> 
> "I mean," Cindy said, "would you *look* at that set-up?  How can JKR 
> waltz up to us in OoP and say, 'Oh, no, Snape didn't have anything 
> to do with Voldemort at the end of GoF.'  Nah, she's stuck.  She 
> just needs a convincing way to explain why Voldemort would take 
> Snape back."


"Oh, I agree, if Snape *isn't* going back to Voldemort, that's a gigantic 
piece of misdirection. Now maybe she could pull that off, maybe not. I 
personally tend to take it at face value. And yes, she will have to explain 
to us why Voldemort would take him back. Unless Voldemort just gleams at us."

"Gleams?"

"Yes. You know,

' "But how do you know you can trust him, Master?"
Voldemort fixed Wormtail with his gleaming red eyes. 
"That, Wormtail, is between Severus Snape and myself." ' "


Eloise

Getting into a fix with her inverted commas.


Hypothetic Alley:
http://www.i2k.com/~svderark/lexicon/faq/hypotheticalley.html

Inish Alley:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/database?
method=reportRows&tbl=13




[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]