The "face-value" theory of PoA -- now with shiny acronym! (LONG)

[Porphyria Ashenden]

No: HPFGUIDX 45404

Porphyria brings home her shiny new PRESSURE COOKER and puts it on 
the counter. She had been admiring a MAGIC DISHWASHER in the window 
and was amazed at all it's complicated features and intricate 
craftsmanship, but then she ultimately decided that a PRESSURE COOKER 
would be more durable in the long run. She scrutinizes the standard 
settings as recommended by MarinaManufacturing, and they look pretty 
good. She can't resist a few tweaks. She finds the "Dumbledore is 
cruel to Snape" knob and turns it up a little. Then she turns it down 
a little. Then she jiggles it. Finally she leaves it at medium -- not 
too hot, not too cold. The she finds the "Snape didn't feed Sirius to 
the Dementors..." control panel and keys in the "because he's just to 
darn decent" setting. Then she finds the "Snape could have figured 
out that Hermione had a TT" knob, and she cranks that puppy up to 11. 
Then she stands back and admires it. "It's perfect!"

-----

But the MAGIC DISHWASHER sales staff is very enthusiastic. 

Pip quotes Marina here:

> At this point, Snape is in a very precarious position. He's 
> facing two powerful evil wizards, one of whom is likely to turn 
> into a bloodthirsty monster at any moment. He's outnumbered, and 
> responsible for the safety of three ungrateful brats

And Pip replies:

-----
So he ties up *both* of the powerful evil wizards, conjures up two 
stretchers, and tells the kids to stop messing about, and help him 
get Lupin and Black back to Hogwarts.

No?
-----

So, the question is, why did Snape act the way he did? Well, for one 
thing, Sirius does not have a wand at this point. So no matter how 
many Muggles he was supposed to have blown up in his DE days, Snape 
apparently doesn't consider him a threat without a wand.

Furthermore, Snape has shown over and over that he likes making 
dramatic speeches, and this 'vengeance is very sweet' sort of 
posturing is right up his alley. I admit it does not make practical 
sense, but it goes along with his face-value personality as 
established in canon. 

As to the kids disarming him; it has been established in canon that 
when multiple wizards aim the same on a single target it gets 
proportionally stronger, so I have no particular problem that they 
knocked him out. I also have no particular problem with the fact that 
he spent time demanding that they acknowledge he was saving them 
without quite understanding that they were about to attack him. This 
too, does go along with his established habit of insisting on 
appreciation and respect, even to the point of being insulting about 
it.

Marina argues that Snape doesn't feed Black to the dementors for 
various prudent reasons and Pip replies:

-----
Ah, another problem with the face-value reading. Which you've dealt 
with very well – giving a plausible motivation for Snape which
does 
account for the embarrassing fact that his behaviour when he thinks 
Harry is unconscious and therefore *not* observing him is different 
from his behaviour when he thinks Harry *is or may be* observing him.

Yup, that's fine. He screams his head off in the Shack, and in the 
Hospital later, but in this particular moment he is perfectly calm, 
in control, and able to consider the consequences of his actions.
-----

You don't have to buy MAGIC DISHWASHER to notice and agree that Snape 
acts very differently when he thinks he has an audience versus when 
he thinks he's not being watched (at least not by students). The face-
value reading would suggest that not only does he love making threats 
that he never keeps, but also that he loves it for the reaction he 
gets out of people; he loves frightening them and he loves weirding 
them out. He's motivated by the emotional effect he has on others; 
that's part of what drives him to act up, especially with Harry. I'd 
say he doesn't need more of an ulterior motive than that. Some people 
are just *like that* and Snape is one of them. Feeding, or 
threatening to feed, Sirius to a Dementor when *everyone else is 
unconscious* is just no fun at all. And besides, I do like to think 
he's too decent to carry through on all his threats.

Pip remarks parenthetically:

-----
[I do have a problem with the way Snape, who has spent the last 
three books apparently trying to get Harry expelled, is so 
extraordinarily tentative when faced with someone [Fudge] who may 
well have the power to *insist* Harry be expelled. However, it is 
not yet canon that the MoM does have that power
, so we'll ignore 
that objection.]
-----

Well, maybe this is MD'ish of me -- no not really -- but I don't 
believe that Snape wants to get Harry expelled. Snape wants to 
frighten Harry into behaving. He does this by threatening to expel 
him. (When this doesn't work, by GoF, he tries threatening him with 
Veritaserum. But they are *always* empty threats. He never follows 
through.)

On to Richard's objection that Fudge tells Snape to be reasonable. 
Pip remarks:

-----
If you go through Fudge's dialogue in this Chapter, and in Chapter 
21, you will find that Fudge addresses Snape as `Snape', or in 
extreme exasperation, `man' or `fellow'. He never calls him 
*Severus*. Only *Dumbledore* in this scene calls Snape by his given 
name.
-----

And yet, as she points out, the text reads like so:

<PoA quote>
"He must have Disapparated, Severus. We should have left somebody
in the room with him. When this gets out --"

"HE DIDN'T DISAPPARATE!" Snape roared, now very close at
hand. "YOU CAN'T APPARATE OR DISAPPARATE INSIDE THIS CASTLE! THIS --
HAS -- SOMETHING -- TO -- DO -- WITH -- POTTER!"

"Severus -- be reasonable -- Harry has been locked up --"

<and then a few lines later>

"See here, Snape, be reasonable," said Fudge. "This door's been
locked, we just saw --"

</PoA quote>

Pip, I see what you mean that the first line is not attributed. And I 
acknowledge that Dumbledore does appear to be alone in calling Snape 
by his given name.

Still, I can't buy your interpretation. I refuse to believe that 
Dumbledore would suggest Disapparation to Snape with a straight face 
since Dumbledore is probably the one in charge of making sure you 
cannot Apparate into or out of Hogwarts. Furthermore, Fudge *does 
tell* Snape to be reasonable a few lines later, so that's certainly 
an expression he would use. So is "when this gets out"; that line is 
Mega-Fudgey.

So, my non-Metathinking interpretation would be that perhaps Fudge, 
who is obviously upset by Snape's ranting, is just trying to get his 
attention by calling him by his given name against his custom. He's 
*pleading* with Snape at this point and leaves off pleading a few 
lines later. Calling someone by a name they're not used to hearing 
you use can be a good way of snapping their attention to you. 

Also I refuse to believe that Dumbledore would lie outright. He tells 
Harry he will never lie to him (so unless he's lying when he says 
that...<g>). And his not-lie "unless you are suggesting..." is far 
more typical of his clever way of using the language. 

I think that's my big objection to MD. I like to think that 
Dumbledore is clever enough to never lie outright. And I don't like 
to think Snape lies either -- except to Voldemort. 

~Porphyria, hoping Marina doesn't mind her taking her part for her

p.s. And who also really loves the "Snape is Sirius' illegitimate 
half-brother" theory, even if it is a bit soap-opera-ish. It needs an 
acronym. :-)