11 Year Old Dark Wizards (was; OOP: Perseus Evans?)

[darrin_burnett]

No: HPFGUIDX 68847

Les: 

> 
> Like Dave I wonder if Snape's very early knowledge of jinxes and 
> curses came from an effort to counteract bullying.  Probably not 
> James and Sirius's specifically, because they probably didn't know 
> each other before Hogwarts.  But I really wonder about the 
> motivations of a 9, 10, 11 year old to invest real time and effort 
> into studying how to cast these spells (while avoiding being nailed 
> by the MoM for underage magic usage).  It's possible LittleKid!Snape 
> just thought this Dark Arts stuff was "way cool" and so immersed 
> himself in it the way kids do with a subject they find fascinating.  
> But he might have done so in response to being picked on.  He could 
> have been tormented by neighborhood kids; unattractive or awkward 
> children frequently are.  If he lived in a wizarding neighborhood 
> (Diagon or Knocturn Alley?), with other wizarding children, maybe he 
> picked up these offensive-type spells the same way some American 
> youth carry knives and/or guns, to protect themselves and intimidate 
> others.


So very much has been made about one of  the three memories Harry 
stumbled into when he turned the Legimens spell against Snape - the 
cowering in the corner while some man screamed at some woman.

He also was lousy on a broom, but the memory I haven't seen discussed at all 
is him sitting in a room by himself, killing flies.

It is very likely he was using Avara Kedvara. We don't know exactly how old 
he was, but it's safe to say he was a Hogwarts student, and a student who can 
do that, even to a fly, is on the road to Dark Arts.

I've never doubted that Snape did evil things as a DE. He might even have 
killed as a DE. 

I believe he could be doing some kind of penance to Dumbledore, or else, 
with his "love" of children, he'd have been on the first boat heading to a 
tropical island after V-Mort fell the first time.

Now I wonder what those sins are.

Darrin
-- Snape is a fascinating, mysterious, interesting character and I'd sooner drag 
myself through a sewage plant with my lips than spend 10 minutes WITH that 
character in real life.