Snape the Iconoclast

[Melody]

No: HPFGUIDX 78627

Pip wrote:
> Tom Riddle, on the other hand, is *not* pure blood. Oh, he doesn't 
> tell people like Bellatrix that. But he can see people's memories – 
> he would know that this was Snape's weakness. The pure-bloods stick 
> together. But you don't have to fear that from Lord Voldemort, 
> Severus, because I too am not pure blooded. I truly understand that 
> you can despise your filthy muggle ancestors.

I can see Snape and Riddle finding a common interest.  They both are
brilliant in dark arts, and both hate their fathers.  At least, I
assume Snape does given the circumstances of his childhood.  I wonder
if Voldemort convinced or ordered Snape to kill his father as well as
a token of his loyalty.  I wonder if Snape did it.


Abigail wrote:
> > I think Snape's life was the same (in fact, I'm waiting to find 
> > out that the shouting man we see in Snape's memory is not his     
> > father but his uncle). 

Pip wrote: 	
> I think the shouting man may well have been his father, simply 
> because it is much, much more difficult to dissociate yourself from 
> parents, even when they treat you badly.

I kind of agree with Pip here, but really no matter the relation, a
man is shouting at Snape's mother, and there is nothing Snape could do
to stop him.  I would expect this little boy to find what means he
could to defend his mom.  Might be why he knew so many curses coming
into school.  Might also be why Snape wants to teach DADA.  He wants
other abused children to have a fighting chance.  It takes strength of
heart and discipline to get over that kind of childhood.  I see Snape
as having both.  

(I really think I am starting to go soft on the guy...though Barty Jr.
is still sexier to me.  ::big grin::)


Pip:
> There is a second possibility, and that is that Severus Snape's 
> father was completely pure-blooded. But then he had a dalliance with 
> a witch who was not a pure blood (half-blood, maybe?). She was quite 
> suitable for that kind of thing, but then he got her pregnant 
.
> 
> Well, we are talking about the 1950's or very early sixties. Even in 
> the muggle world, shotgun marriages still took place. And the 
> Wizarding World seems more old-fashioned than the muggle world –
> `marry the girl, or find a new job' could well have been the 
> response.
> 
> And then little Severus would have been truly a screwed up kid. Like 
> Harry, despised because of his blood (only it's his father doing the 
> despising). Like Harry, his parents suffered because he was born.

I really wonder how and why Snape shifted between.  I agree with
Abigail's and Pip's ideas, that the prank caused a rift between Snape
and his ideals.  Snape seems to respect life, at least now, so I
wonder if Voldemort pushed him too far.  I wonder if saying he needs
to kill his dad was the last straw, and Snape, as much as he did hate
him, could not do it.  Or I wonder if Voldemort pushed him to do it,
and he did, then felt so bad that he fled.  He knew finally he had
gone too far and that this was wrong.  This was the line.  Things like
that change everything.  


Pip:
> You can get very angry in that sort of situation. Angry enough to 
> want to change the world that did this to you.

Or angry enough to kill your father.  And have that be the goal all
your childhood, but when the wand is in your hand and pointing at the
thing you hate the most.  He balked.  

He balked like Harry did.


Melody