Thoughts and questions

[rane_ab]

No: HPFGUIDX 56037

I'm new here, so hiya everybody! *waves enthusiastically*

I just have some thoughts and ideas I'd like to write down. I'm sure 
most of these (if not all) have already been discussed at some point, 
so I'm sorry if I'm falling into repetition here. *ducks her head and 
shouts: please don't shoot me!*
But... I've merely tried to get through all the msgs from *April* and 
I still had to give up because there were simply too many! So if any 
of you might by change remember corresponding threads, I would be 
grateful.

So, for my thoughts and Qs:

I'm very sure this has been suggested more than once (though I've 
never actually seen a *discussion* as such on it, just the question): 
Snape being a vampire. Now, everything in me shouts: no! It doesn't 
make any sense whatsoever. Despite the fact that he is sallow and the 
mock-suggestion that Snape turned into a bat in GoF that some take as 
an indication - it simply *doesn't make sense*. First of all, he 
would not be able to teach during the day (aren't vampires supposed 
to be asleep during the day?). Second, I cannot imagine Dumbledore 
letting a vampire into the school; well, at least not as a teacher. I 
know he let Lupin in, but *he* merely turns into a werewolf once (or 
three times, people seem to disagree on that) a month. Snape would be 
a vampire *all the time*. Near children. In the classroom.
Unless of course there's a potion to counteract vampirism, too.
But the thing that convinces me most, is actually the least logical 
one: it would simply be too much for Snape. He's a nasty git, a 
former Death Eater, ugly *and* a vampire? 
If he turns out to be a vampire anyway, I swear I'm going to roll 
over *laughing*, because it just won't be credible anymore. There's 
only so many bad things one person can be.


So. For my question. (Yes, there is actually a question. :-)) What I 
don't understand is the scene in PoA when Snape catches Harry coming 
back from Hogsmeade and gets his hands on the Marauder's Map. Just 
before sweeping Harry and Ron out of the room, Lupin says: "I'd like 
to have a word about my vampire essay." Or sth like that; don't have 
the book with me at the moment. 
If my memory serves me right, this particular scene takes place not 
long after Snape assigned the werewolf essay to the students while 
replacing Lupin. Werewolves. Which were right at the end of the DADA 
book the students use. If werewolves are at the end, then surely so 
are vampires. So it makes little sense for Lupin to be teaching this. 
Also, in GoF, when Moody recapitulates what they have learnt the 
previous year, he doesn't mention vampires (despite mentioning 
werewolves - and that considering that Hermione was in the end the 
only one to have written the essay). 

It also strikes me that Lupin *did* get the kids out of the room with 
that simple remark. Snape had just caught Harry out doing sth he 
shouldn't have. Of course he couldn't prove it irrefutably, but there 
were so many things pointing to Harry having been in Hogsmeade (the 
candy, the dirt, but, most of all, Malfoy's having seen him), that 
not even DD could have ignored sth was going on. And somehow, I do 
think McGonagall would have believed that Harry went to Hogsmeade, 
and punished him for it. And then he had the map (though not knowing 
it *was* exactly that), which carries Lupin's name (Mr. Moony). It 
took a while to convince myself, but yes, now I do believe Snape 
actually knew MWPP's nicknames. His suggestion that Harry had got it 
from the manufacturers, Sirius' insistence that "the three" call 
him "Snuffles" when they speak of him (and not Padfoot - I assume 
that name was too well-known), and the fact that Snape followed the 
foursome around all the time when they were at school.

So there Snape had the two people at Hogwarts he no doubt hated most 
involved in sth illegal (or at least no permitted). And he let them 
walk out. 
I'm not saying he could actually have proven they were both up to no 
good (though obviously, Lupin was avoiding the question about "the 
manufactures"), but there were so many things pointing to it - I just 
can't believe Snape gave up that easily. That's just so OOC for him.

So then, my logical conclusion would be that Lupin said that thing 
about the vampire essay to get back at Snape for the werewolf one, 
and to shock him enough to manage to get the heel out of his office 
(note that Harry doesn't dare to look at Snape when he leaves - 
convenient, isn't it?)

But then, that *wouldn't* be logical after all. Why would Snape risk 
setting a werewolf essay *and* (much worse) actually revealing Lupin 
was a werewolf if Lupin had sth similar on him? 
You could argue that Snape knew DD wouldn't allow Lupin to reveal 
such a thing about Snape, and that Lupin is much too good a person to 
say such a thing. But whether this is correct or not, fact of the 
matter is: Snape doesn't trust Lupin. Not one little bit. So he 
*would* expect Lupin to reciprocate the revelation, wouldn't he?

Then again, there is the possibility that Lupin just said the first 
thing to come to mind. But that's pretty weird - not to mention 
pretty stupid. Why not say he wanted a word on an essay about sth 
they *were* actually studying (even if the essay was non-existant). 
Surely Snape must have known they weren't likely to be studying 
vampires - the students had told him themselves the were still 
studying "minor" creatures. Which makes it weird once again that 
Snape let Lupin get away with it.

*sigh* This is all very confusing. I'm sure the subject (of Lupin's 
odd remark) has been raised before - and I'm very curious to what 
answer it was given, if any at all.


I wanted to mention that LV obviously *knows* that Snape was a spy 
(referring to LV's speach in Harry's presence about the people 
missing. He couldn't have been speaking about anybody else than Snape 
when he says sth like: and one, I believe, who has left me forever - 
or some such). But sb beat me to it, though I don't recall who it 
was, so I'm wondering why everybody keeps wondering if Snape's trial 
was public. 

Also, LV knows that Snape tried to stop Quirrel from getting the 
Philosopher's stone. If Snape was so faithful to LV, then why didn't 
Quirrel simply tell Snape what he was after, and they'd have gone 
looking for the damned thing together. After all, LV did "possess" 
Quirrel, and would have recognised Snape. So LV must at least have 
suspected him - or have found out Snape wasn't trustworthy (from LV's 
POV) when he didn't help in the search for the stone.

As for Lucius Malfoy's attitude towards Snape and vice versa - well, 
it seems everybody assumes Snape knew LM was a DE. 
When Harry says LM's name at the end of GoF, enumerating all the DE 
that were at the gathering he (unwillingly) attended, Snape makes 
a "sudden movement". When I first read it, I assumed he was shocked 
that LM had been revealed as a DE to the others. Or perhaps just 
shocked that LM had returned to the Dark Lord after all (perhaps 
Snape thought he had cut all bonds?). But later, I started wondering 
if maybe Snape simply didn't *know* Malfoy was a DE. After all, it is 
insisted earlier in the book that LV was the only one who knew all 
the DEs, and the DEs themselves didn't know who many of the others 
were. 
Continuing on that line of thought, why didn't Snape say Malfoy was a 
DE at the time that LV was first defeated? Karkaroff was only too 
willing to bring forth names. Of course, Karkaroff needed to reveal 
names of others to keep himself out of Azkaban; Snape didn't, DD 
vouched for him. But assuming Snape *is* one of the good guys, well, 
it would make sense for him to testify against Malfoy. 
Perhaps he was afraid of getting killed by resenting DEs, but, well, 
he should be scared of that just plain being a spy, shouldn't he? 
It's not like testifying against LM would have got him in any more 
danger. 
This argument of course only goes if Snape's being a spy was indeed 
public knowledge. But like some others, I cannot imagine the 200 
spectators at Karkaroff's (and perhaps Snape's) trial to keep that to 
themselves. And probably there were journalists all over the place - 
everybody was so happy LV was defeated, and feeling so resentful for 
what he and his DE's had done, they'd probably want to know all about 
the DEs being punished.
Which would also mean Malfoy knew Snape was a spy. But, unlike Crouch 
Jr., he's not so veru faitful to the Dark Lord, is he? He himself 
claims never having been a DE. I think LM doesn't much care about LV -
 he just wants ot be on the winning side of the battle, and if he has 
a chance, enjoy some of Voldemort's power. I think he's a selfish 
bastard - and well, little did he know the Dark Lord would rise again 
(though he did try to accomplish that himself, but only after 
*eleven* years). 
I don't think he particularly cared that Snape turned out to be a 
spy - it wasn't his problem, Snape didn't tell on him, perhaps didn't 
know anything about him.
For as far as he's concerned LV's dead (though he did try to 
rescucitate him through the diary), life goes on, and he uses people 
for his own purposes. Wouldn't do to anger his son's Head of House, 
would it? And he could throw Snape aside anytime the Dark Lord 
decided to come back.
We don't know much about the relationship between Snape and Malfoy. I 
don't think they see much of each other - after all, Malfoy's hardly 
ever at the school (especially since he was thrown off the board). It 
might very well be that their relationship is no more than the of a 
father and his son's head of house. 


As for Snape actually *being* on the good side, I agree with the 
majority who think he is. And I think we assume that out of instinct. 
Besides the fact that he tried to stop Quirrel and saved Harry's 
life - it's simply the way JK uses him. Harry suspects time after 
time after time that he's the bad guy in some way. Most notoriously 
in the first and the fourth book. And in the third book, he actually 
prooves being a vicious and vindictive person when he wants to hand 
over not only Black whom he assumes to be criminal, but also Lupin to 
the dementors, without even listening - knowing very well both Lupin 
and Black would turn out worse than dead. 
And at the end of the fourth book, Harry obviously still doesn't 
trust him. He's being played out as potential evil person so often, 
it would be weird if he turned out to be exactly that in the end. Of 
course JK could be double-crossing us - making us think that since 
he's being painted as a bad guy so often, he couldn't possibly really 
be (knowing JK's knack for letting people turn out quite differently 
from what we might expect); and then letting him be after all. But I 
just can't imagine that. Just feels wrong. 

Especially as JK herself admits she loves to write about him because 
he's just so evil. (well, I've read that somewhere, anyway) Not the 
kind of remark to make about sb you want to really turn evil, if you 
want to surprise your public. 
I do think Snape's evil, though. Well, *mean*, not evil as in LV-
evil. It's not just that he did want to hand Black and Lupin to the 
dementors (hell, I can understand him to some level - after all, he 
believes they tried to kill *him*), or the remark he makes about 
Hermione's teeth (he might have gotten laughed at himself when he was 
a kid, and well, putting other people down does make oneself feel 
better, doesn't it?). It's not even that he threatened to feed Harry 
the Veritaserum. What bothers me most about him is that, when Harry 
had found Crouch in the Forbidden Forest in GoF and was running to 
Dumbledore, Snape wouldn't let Harry into DD's office. Of course, he 
didn't know what was going on, but he could see Harry was panicking. 
Now, I don't know about you guys, but even if I would hate sb, even 
really badly - if I saw them panicking, I would still listen. Panic 
is just such a *vulnerable* state - I would still think sth bad must 
be going on for the other person to look like that. And it's not like 
you can *fake* panic, is it?  
I thought his dismissal of Harry at that moment was, in a way, the 
cruellest thing he did.  Well, that's just my opinion.
But it's also exactly why I can't believe Snape is still a DE.

But then, that leads to the question: what *did* DD ask Snape to do?

Also, I read sb's comment that if sth would happen to McGonagall 
*and* DD, Snape would be in charge. I have no idea where that came 
from. There's no reason Snape should be more in charge than Sprout or 
Flitwick. If anything, leaving a Slytherin in charge of the school 
(or at least Snape in particular) would be a disaster. His blatant 
favouring of his own House would make such a task impossible. 
Though I must admit to being intrigued by the fact Snape *does* 
always seem to show up when sth important happens. Why DD would show 
up is obvious, as he's the headmaster, and MG is deputy headmistress. 
But what's with Snape, indeed? I wonder if it's just because he's an 
important character (which may very well be) or if it's sth else. 
Might also be that, next to McGonagall, he's the Head of House that 
keeps his head the "coolest" in front of danger. Or maybe there is 
another reason.

I also wonder how you become a Head of House. Stupid question, maybe, 
but I do wonder why Snape is. (HoH, that is.) I also wonder whether 
he was teaching at Hogwarts before LV got vanquished the first time. 
Or if he only became a teacher afterwards. Well, that might lead to a 
number of speculations (as to his position as potential double-spy in 
the past + was he a real DE while teaching? + if he only became a 
teacher after becoming a spy, that would look a bit suspicious, 
wouldn't it? Though I suppose that too would be arguable).


Speaking of spies, why did Sirius think Remus was the spy when LV was 
threatening James' life? Well, I'm supposing this has been discussed 
extensively already. Just wondering.

I would also like to react to the question as to why Sirius was the 
(presumed) Potters' secret-keeper rather than DD. Perhaps the answer 
is as simple as: friendship. Even if James respected DD a lot, it 
still makes more sense to chose your closest friend, doesn't it? 


Well, that was all I wanted to say for now. *All*. Ahum. Yes, this 
turned out a bit longer than I intended.
I wonder if there's still anybody with me? ;-)
*pokes the person in front of the screen to wake him/her up*

Right, sorry for the long read...

Cheerful greetings,
Rane.