Snape. Woo-HOO! With All Due Apologies to Captain Cindy.

[derannimer]

No: HPFGUIDX 56401

Just an attempt to explain why I, personally, like Snape.

First, though. 

Darrin observed that Snape's comment to Hermione about her teeth was 
really inexcusable, and the main reason he hates Snape. To which I 
can only say. . . well, yeah. 

However.

Look, as I read Snape, the man is a sadist. I think he probably 
*enjoyed* being a DE--I think he'd probably enjoy, say, the odd 
Unforgivable Curse *now* if he let himself do such a thing. I think 
he certainly enjoyed the odd Unforgivable Curse back in the day. I 
doubt he considers the occassional hideous appearance-related comment 
as anything to even *notice.* After what he's done, do you honestly 
think he would consider that cruelty? Real cruelty--I mean, I doubt 
it even registers on his Cruelty-o-Meter. 

The other thing to consider is that the WW is a considerably more 
brutal world than our own--no doubt, Snape would be sacked if he 
acted like that in an American Muggle high school, but Hogwarts isn't 
an American Muggle high school. I don't doubt that Dumbledore knows 
*exactly* how Snape treats his students--and he not only keeps the 
man on as a teacher, and trusts him with some pretty important 
fighting Evil jobs, but seems to have a great deal of personal 
sympathy, or affection, for him as well. 

All of which is to say that the comment may well be inexcusable to us-
-but I'm almost sure Snape wouldn't see it that way, and I bet most 
of the WW wouldn't either. 

Now, on to reasons to like Snape!

--------------

WARNING: THEORIES BELOW

--------------

1. He switched sides. Somebody said that he may have done that simply 
because he "wanted to be on the winning side" but at the time of 
Voldemort's disappearance, the Good Guys *weren't* the winning side. 
Voldemort was in the ascendent, and to argue otherwise would seem to 
negate the whole point of The Boy Who Lived. The reason Harry is a 
hero is that he stopped Voldemort when *nothing* else could. I've 
always assumed that Voldemort was gaining power until the minute he 
tried to AK Harry. So Snape *left* the side that was apparently 
winning, turned himself in to the Good Guys' side when he can't 
possibly have known what they were going to do to him, turned spy for 
Dumbledore "at great personal risk"--and did all this probably 
against his own instincts. So Snape *is* brave. (Another interesting 
thing to note: it seems likely that JKR likes redemption stories, if 
for no other reason than that her favorite books when she was a child 
were the Chronicles of Narnia, and her favorite character within 
those books was *Eustace.* Anyone who can love Eustace shouldn't have 
any problem with Snape.)

2. He is talented. This one has been argued before: for examples, 
feel free to ask me or one of my Snape-loving colleagues.

3. He is intelligent enough to not get caught either by Voldemort--
who didn't know he was a spy--or by Crouch's boys--it seems that 
Crouch didn't know Snape's identity as a spy until after the end of 
the war.

4. Related to 1 & 3: Come off it. He's a *spy.*

5. He is more morally complex than just about any other character in 
the books that I can think of. And mysterious. And, to this point, 
continually fooling us all. On a purely literary level, he's a 
tremendous character.

6. He's got guilt and angst and inner conflict. Plus, as I said 
before, he's a sadist. So you get Hurt-Comfort and Comfort-Hurt all 
in one! Woo-Hoo! <Derannimer breaks into helpless and rather 
embarrassing giggles, until she notices that an awful lot of people 
seem to be staring at her, at which point she stops the giggles.> 
Ahem. Yes. Well. This would be the DeadSexy part of the argument, I 
suppose. 

7. He's got an excellent reason for hating James and Harry Potter; he 
was in love with Lily and she most likely would not have died had she 
not married said James. She more especially would not have died had 
she not had said Harry. (SEE: Lollipops AND Harry as the Heir of 
Gryffindor.) And he's got an excellent reason to hate Sirius in POA, 
given that he's spent the past twelve years believing him to have 
betrayed said Lily. And wondering why he himself hadn't twigged to 
that one earlier, being a spy and all. (And there was that whole 
Werewolf Incident, you know.)

--------------

Bent Snapefans: Any additions? ; )




Derannimer, who doesn't think that Alan Rickman is all that sexy, but 
who must agree that he's got a great voice.