OOtp Spoilers Ahoy: Snape

[darrin_burnett]

No: HPFGUIDX 67053

Jean: 

> --Or maybe Snape thought he _could_ do it, only to have the pensieve
> incident strain his (limited) patience past its limits, which 
argues that he didn't expect Harry to snoop the way he did. Maybe 
there's a _lot_ more to  the underpants incident than we saw, too, 
making it even more traumatic than what we were allowed to observe.

D-Dore is laying it on the line for Harry at the end, being harsh 
about Sirius' treatment of Kreacher, being harsh about his own 
culpability and not letting Harry recklessly blame Snape.

Yet D-Dore blames Snape's weakness, and his own failure to recognize 
it, as the reason Occlumency failed.

Why didn't D-Dore say, "Yes, well, Snape was furious with you after 
you barged into his Penseive and it hampered his ability to teach 
you"? 

That tells me D-Dore believes Snape should have kept at it, but his 
hatred of a man dead 16 years got in the way. 


> Four on one is nasty, even if the one is _Snape_, and even if one 
of the four is the Glorious James. And James was angry by this time 
by Lily telling him off, and probably exerted his imagination even 
further once Lily was gone--after all, it was Snape's fault for being 
there, right?
> 

It was two-on-one. Granted, Snape might have felt four-on-one, but 
James and Sirius were the ones attacking him. And they weren't 
ganging-up on him so much as tag-teaming. Never do James and Sirius 
attack both at once.

Small comfort to Snape, I grant, but Lupin and Wormtail weren't part 
of the attack except not to stop it. And if you indict them, you have 
to indict everyone there who stood by and let it happen, which is 
everyone but Lily.


> And I suspect that one of the reasons that DD cuts Snape a lot of 
slack is because he's aware how badly he screwed up by letting the 
Golden Gryffs off the hook for so long, even after the Prank. (He 
probably learned a lot more than he wanted to when teaching Snape 
Occlumency--I think that's an excellent hypothesis.)

I tend to think my hypotheses are excellent too, but I generally 
don't say so. :)

The fact is, we still don't know for sure how isolated or common the 
Penseive incident was. There are clues that it happened more, but 
there are also clues that Snape, at other times, gave as good as he 
got. 

D-Dore himself compares the relationship between James and Snape to 
Harry and Draco, which (early on, at least) was more equal footing.


> Of course Snape should grow up and deal with it. But at this time 
he's spying on Voldemort (though his insistence on using the 
phrase "Dark Lord"  was likely carefully taught to him, likely under 
Crucio, when he was a DE earlier), 

Snape needed Crucio to remember to call V-Mort the Dark Lord? Once 
again, I must ask how stupid this guy is. I refer once again to how 
the Sirius-Snape conversation about the Shrieking Shack could have 
went.

Sirius: Hey, Snivellus, you really want to get us in trouble?
Snape: Yes, you betcha I do. Oh boy oh boy oh boy.
Sirius: Just follow Lupin into that Whomping Willow.
Snape: Hey, you wouldn't be trying to put me in any danger, 
considering we've been enemies since forever and you and Potter 
humiliated me in front of everyone, now would you?
Sirius: Nope.
Snape: All-righty, then. You guys are in trouble now!


>and given his childhood, the situation is likely straining his
> emotional resources to the limit already. We don't know what he's 
going through as a spy, though it would be nice if JKR would tell us.

We don't know who he's spying for either. JKR hasn't told us yet.

>Don't forget, he's still carrying a full class load on top of his 
other duties--he gets more dumped on him than any of the other 
Hogwarts staff except DD.

Hagrid and McGonagall are both members of the Order as well and D-
Dore sent Hagrid on a dangerous mission to get the giants. But hey, 
maybe that's why Snape quit on Occlumency. He needed a break.

"Ok, Severus, even though the very safety of the Order might depend 
on Harry's mind being protected, why don't you put your feet up?"

> Think of what courage it must have taken in PoA, for instance, to 
>go out and get the students (and he remembers to get stretchers for 
>them, too, instead of that Mobilicorpus routine, which I suspect is 
>contraindicated for head wounds, like anyone actually cares about 
>anything that happens to Snape)

Think of what bull-headedness it took to refuse to listen to the 
slightest possibility that Sirius might be innocent, especially since 
he more than anyone knew how tight Sirius and James were. How 
different it all would have turned out if Snape -- instead of 
dreaming about medals (apologies to Grey Wolf and his multitasking 
Snape, a theory which makes my head hurt) -- had listened to Harry, 
who after all, DID rescue the Stone and figure out where the Chamber 
of Secrets was.

> _despite_ the fact he knows there's a werewolf out there 
who 'forgot' to  take his potion (not to mention dementors, which he 
probably knows lots more about than he likes). 

Yup, good thing Sirius was there to save him from the werewolf and 
Harry was there to save him from the dementors. Wonder if Snape 
thanked them?

 Then DD waves that Order of Merlin under his nose (at
> last! Some recognition!) only to have it taken it away.
> 
> But of course, we can't give Snape any credit. That would be wrong.
> 

No credit here until I know for sure what he's all about. 

Darrin
-- I love the 80s moment: "Huey Lewis said it took him five minutes 
to write 'I Want a New Drug' and I remember thinking, 'Yeah, that 
sounds about right.'"